Professional sumo runs to a fixed rhythm: six 15-day grand tournaments (honbasho), every odd-numbered month, always in the same four cities. Here is the whole 2026 calendar.
✦ The Nagoya tournament moves into the new, climate-controlled ~17,000-seat IG Arena, retiring the ~60-year-old Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. Full season detail →
Reading the banzuke is one thing; hearing the clay slap at 8 a.m. in a training stable is another. The two real ways in, whether or not a tournament is running.
A small-group visit to the grand tournament — reserved seats, with an English-speaking guide who explains the ceremonies and matchups as they happen. Six chances a year — January, March, May, July, September, November — and popular days sell out well ahead.
Asa-geiko — the dawn training session at a working stable — runs year-round and is the closest most visitors ever get to the sport: no ropes, no stage, just rikishi drilling a few metres away. Quiet observation, guided in English.
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How the makuuchi (top-division) finished. The Emperor's Cup winner is at the top of the table.
| Wrestler | Rank | Record | Standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aonishiki | Sekiwake | 12–3 | Champion — Emperor's Cup. |
| Kirishima | Ōzeki | 12–3 | Runner-up (lost playoff). |
| Atamifuji | Sekiwake | 12–3 | Runner-up (lost playoff). |
| Kotoeihō | Maegashira 7 | 11–4 | One win off the lead. |
| Takayasu | Maegashira 7 | 11–4 | One win off the lead. |
| Daieishō | Maegashira 4 | 10–5 | 2 wins off the lead. |
Final standings after the 15-day basho. Live data refreshes this table while a tournament is in progress.
Every wrestler fights once a day regardless of form, and an injured yokozuna or ōzeki simply withdraws — his scheduled opponents win by forfeit. When the top ranks are hurt, the whole championship race opens to the wrestlers below them.
A genuine championship challenge from a low maegashira is one of sumo's classic underdog stories. When yokozuna and ōzeki are absent, the door opens for surprises and big rank promotions.
Every basho moves the banzuke. Ōzeki need 8 wins or face kadoban; sekiwake with a strong run can push toward ōzeki; two consecutive yūshō at ōzeki begin a yokozuna conversation.
During a tournament, the latest top-of-card bout from the Japan Sumo Association's official channel. Between basho, the most recent English recap from SUMO PRIME TIME, the JSA's English operation.
These are the named ranks from the Nagoya 2026 basho banzuke (the most recent ranking sheet). The yokozuna rank cannot be demoted by record — only by retirement — so a yokozuna with an OUT flag still holds the rank, even if they did not compete this basho.
Below komusubi sit the rank-and-file maegashira (Maegashira 1 down to ~17), then the five lower divisions. How the ranking ladder works →
A season shaped by injuries at the very top — and by comebacks, a fall, a scandal and a new arena beneath them.
Both yokozuna — Hōshōryū and Ōnosato — sat out the May basho injured, leaving a whole tournament with no grand champion competing. Both returned in July, but neither looked like a yokozuna: Ōnosato finished 9–6, Hōshōryū an injury-marked 7–7. Four tournaments in, neither has lifted the Emperor's Cup in 2026 — the question now hangs over September and November.
Kirishima lost the ōzeki rank in 2024, rebuilt from the rank-and-file, and won the March 2026 tournament — reclaiming ōzeki as only the third wrestler since 1969 to regain the rank after falling that far. He has now posted 12–3 in three straight basho: the March title, then playoff defeats in both May and July. Nobody in sumo has been more consistent this year — or unluckier.
The 22-year-old Ukrainian won January's tournament in his ōzeki debut, then lost the rank to injury — a broken toe, a losing record, a basho missed — and was demoted to sekiwake for July. He answered by winning the Nagoya basho at 12–3 through a three-way playoff, clearing the 10-win bar for an immediate ōzeki return. Two Emperor's Cups in 2026 — more than anyone else.
The recently retired yokozuna Terunofuji — now a stablemaster — was disciplined by the Japan Sumo Association in April for striking one of his own wrestlers. He was demoted in elder rank and given a three-month pay cut, a test of the sport's post-2010s stance against violence.
In July, the Nagoya tournament debuted at the IG Arena — a climate-controlled, ~17,000-seat venue designed by architect Kengo Kuma — retiring the ~60-year-old hall that hosted it for six decades. The biggest venue change in modern sumo delivered a three-way playoff on its first senshūraku.
Enough to follow everything above. Want the deeper version? The Learn Sumo page explains divisions, ranks and tournament rules in plain language.
Two rikishi (wrestlers) face off in a clay ring, the dohyō. You lose if you step out, or if anything above your feet touches the ground. Bouts last seconds. "Hakkeyoi!" is the referee's shout urging stalled wrestlers on — it's where this site gets its name.
A basho is a grand tournament: 15 days, one bout per wrestler per day. Six are held a year. The wrestler with the most wins takes the championship — the yūshō — and lifts the Emperor's Cup.
From the top: yokozuna (grand champion), ōzeki, sekiwake, komusubi, then the numbered maegashira. Win and you rise; lose and you fall. A yokozuna can never be demoted — only retire.
15 days is odd, so you always finish above or below even. 8 wins = a winning record (kachi-koshi) and you move up. 8 losses = a losing record (make-koshi) and you slide down. Everyone is chasing eight.
An ōzeki who has a losing tournament isn't demoted straight away — he becomes kadoban, on probation, and must post a winning record next time or drop a rank. It is sumo's built-in second chance.
When a rank-and-file maegashira beats a yokozuna, he earns a kinboshi — a "gold star" — which even comes with a permanent pay rise. Giant-killing is rewarded for life.
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