2024 Kyushu spotlight: How Wakatakakage scooped the Technique Prize?

Let's check out this gino-sho earning performance.

2024 is coming to a close and in the New Year we’ll be treated to new sumo. But before we enjoy the hatsu basho, there’s still plenty we can learn from the Kyushu basho.

Before that tournament went down, you—the readers of Sumo Stomp!—voted for Wakatakakage to receive a special Spotlight article. And luckily for us, Wakatakakage went on to have a stellar performance. His exploits in November earned him a Technique Prize and almost certainly a promotion back to the san’yaku.

Below you’ll find breakdowns of each of Wakatakakage’s bouts from the Kyushu basho. By analyzing the entire body of his November work, I hope to pinpoint what exactly led to his success and fifth career gino-sho. Let’s get into it.

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Day 1: Wakatakakage def. Kirishima via yorikiri

Wakatakakage was given a tough assignment on Day 1 in Kyushu. Kirishima was coming off a runner-up performance in September that had him looking like the Kiribayama of old. We weren’t to know that, in this tournament, he would resume his career slump and hit a sad new low.

In the video above you can see Wakatakakage and Kirishima have a spirited bout which ends in a yorikiri win for Wakatakakage. FYI, there’s sound on this video. It wasn’t until Day 2 of the tournament that I decided that these videos should be muted.

Hand-fighting is the story of this bout. And Wakatakakage is great at that. Off the tachiai, Kirishima put both hands on Wakatakakage’s shoulders. I think he was hoping to push him back and then pull him down. However, Wakatakakage prevented that by quickly slapping away both hands.

From that point on, we have a hand-fight. Kirishima looked to get his hands onto Wakatakakage’s chest, so he could thrust. Wakatakakage focused on batting those hands away so he could close distance and get on Kirishima’s belt.

The key moment in this bout happened at the five second mark. That’s the moment when Wakatakakage was able to get a hand on Kirishima’s right elbow and push it up high enough that he had space to grab the belt.

Once he had a hold of the belt it was game over. In sumo, one hand on the belt usually beats no hand on the belt (and two hands usually beat one hand).

After clearing Kirishima’s left hand, Wakatakakage pushed it across his body and was actually able to pin it between their chests. That prevented Kirishima from reaching down and grabbing onto the belt himself.

Kirishima did well to hold on as long as he did on the boundary, but the Waka Bros. are famous for their brute strength. The replay below shows how Wakatakakage was able to channel power up through his legs to get Kirishima over the line.

This impressive win gave Wakatakakage a 1-0 start to the tournament. And that’s great. When you’re in the joi (and likely to face the best competition early) you have to get off to a good start to stand any chance of competing for a yusho.

Day 2: Wakatakakage def. Daieisho via oshidashi

On Day 2 Wakatakakage came up against Daieisho, another opponent who was looking to thrust. And, just like with Kirishima, Wakatakakage’s hand-fighting wins him the bout.

Wakatakakage came off the line with both hands sweeping upwards. That’s designed to hit Daieisho’s outstretched arms, at around the elbow, and redirect the power from opening thrust. If you go back and look at the Kirishima bout, Wakatakakage opened with this move there, but wasn’t able to block Kirishima’s arms — that’s why he switched directions and swatted them down.

In this bout, his upward swipe succeeded in taking power our of Daieisho’s attack. Wakatakakage was also able to turn Daieisho’s body, slightly, thanks to pushing especially hard on Daieisho’s left elbow.

After that Daieisho tried to get his licks in, with hard thrusts aimed at Wakatakakage’s face. However, that played right into Wakatakakage’s gameplan. Those high thrusts gave Wakatakakage ample opportunity to change levels and get to Daieisho’s body.

Once he got under the arms, and was able to put his head in the middle of Daieisho’s chest he could spear him out of bounds. He reached for the belt during this process, but wasn’t able to get it. A more evasive wrestler could have punished Wakatakakage for that. Lucky for him, Daieisho isn’t known for his lateral movement and escapes along the boundary.

This win gave him a nice 2-0 start to the tournament.

Day 3: Wakatakakage def. Churanoumi via oshidashi

On Day 3 Wakatakakage met Churanoumi. In September these two had one of my favourite bouts of the tournament. This bout didn’t last as long as long as that, but it was still exciting.

Wakatakakage did the same play against Churanoumi that we just saw against Daieisho. However, the more spry Churanoumi almost punished him for the final component of the move — the dive (something I generally don’t like to see a rikishi do unless they have to).

Unlike Daieisho, Churanoumi reached for Wakatakakage’s belt off the tachiai. It was a weak grab, though, and Wakatakakage was able to bat it away. Wakatakakage then got his head onto Churanoumi’s chest and started to peddle forwards. Churanoumi tried to slap Wakatakakage down and then straw-walk to stay in.

Wakatakakage is very good at defending against hatakikomi. In this instance, he’s able to resist Churanoumi’s attempt because his head was over his knee when Churanoumi was pushing down on his neck. If his head were past his knee, it would have been far easier to drive him down.

Churanoumi’s attempt to walk along the straw failed due to a bit of mid-air improvisation from Wakatakakage. As he was diving he threw his bicep at Churanoumi’s right knee to make sure he couldn’t land in bounds.

That’s a wonderful adjustment. But I don’t like that he had to resort to that. There’s too much that can go wrong for him when he extends like this. That being said, it didn’t cost him in this match and he was able to score a 3-0 record and take an early shared lead of the tournament.

Day 4: Kotozakura def. Wakatakakage via yorikiri

On Day 4 we got a match-up that I had been waiting a long time to see. This was the first time Wakatakakage and Kotozakura had faced each other since March 2023. That was the match where Wakatakakage injured his ACL and MCL, an injury that would result in surgery and eight months on the sidelines. That led to a demotion all the way down to makushita. He was sekiwake at the time of the injury. If not for the missed time, he could have been an ozeki by now.

This match in Kyushu was interesting, too, because this was Wakatakakage’s first bout against a fellow yotsu (belt grabbing) stylist.

Against oshi-zumo (pusher/thrusters) wrestlers Wakatakakage swiped away their hands off the tachiai. Each time those hands were aimed high (Churanoumi aimed one hand towards the belt, but the other was going to his chest).

Kotozakura, like many other grapple-first rikishi, likes to approach opponents with his hands low off the tachiai, immediately searching for a strong grip on the belt.

In this bout Kotozakua opened with his hands close to his side and aimed down. This made it hard for Wakatakakage to either deflect them up or to place his arms in between, to establish a sashite (underarm grip with a belt grab).

Kotozakura used an underhook on Wakatakakage’s left arm. He then moved his left hand towards Wakatakakage’s shoulder. I think he was attempting a katasukashi (under should swing down). Wakatakakage wouldn’t be pushed down, though. Again, look at his knees and how his head doesn’t clear them.

When Kotozakura went for that move, he opened up his left side and allowed Wakatakakage to establish a sashite there.

I know I said that one hand on the belt usually beats no hands on the belt. But this is one of those exceptions and it comes about due to how incredibly strong and heavy Kotozakura is. In addition to that bulk advantage, Kotozakura is also a genius grappler. He underhooked the arm that Wakatakakage was using for the sashite and wrenched it upwards, preventing Wakatakakage from exploiting that hold to pull or turn Kotozakura.

After this, Wakatakakage’s heels touched the straw and I’m sure his life flashed before his eyes. See in the replay below how Wakatakakage tensed, as if he was going to try and elevate and dump Kotozakura. He then gave up on it and stepped out.

This is the exact situation that played out in March. Only, in that instance, Wakatakakage powered through the move and was able to throw Kotozakura down. That’s the move that destroyed his knee. That bout was called a draw, though. Wakatakakage had to rematch Kotozakura, on a damaged leg. He won that bout, but then we didn’t see him for eight months.

I’m very happy that he didn’t test his luck, and surgically repaired knee, to try something like an utchari (backward pivot throw) here. In this situation, it was far better to take the loss and live to fight another day.

The loss dropped him to 3-1. Next up for him were the other two ozeki!

Day 5: Hoshoryu def. Wakatakakage via kotenage

On Day 5 Wakatakakage met Hoshoryu, who is a terrible match-up for him. Hoshoryu feasts on guys who go for his belt and can put them down with a varied arsenal of throwing techniques. Hoshoryu has been going to his throws less often lately (I think because he wants to save some strain on his body). However, smaller foes should be on alert. Hoshoryu seems more than willing to save his uwatenage and kotenage for those he outweighs (much to the dismay of the woman in green sitting in the front row).

In this bout, Wakatakakage really played into Hoshoryu’s hands. He opened wsith the upward swipe, again. However, with Hoshoryu leading with a nodowa (throat thrust) that meant his arm was pretty secure when Wakatakakage tried, and failed, to push it away.

Hoshoryu used the nodowa in a really interesting way this tournament. He was hitting with that off the tachiai and then feinting a second thrust before swimming under for a belt-grab, which he would then use for a yorikiri. He was likely looking to do that in this match, but Wakatakakage’s aggression meant he had to improvise (and Hoshoryu is one of the best improvisers in the sport).

Wakatakakage was able to push Hoshoryu backwards, despite his opening swipe not landing how he wanted. That surprised Hoshoryu, who shot out his left leg and put it to the boundary for leverage.

Wakatakakage then tried to do what he had done on the previous days, put his head in the middle of Hoshoryu’s chest. Hoshoryu didn’t let him do that, though. He angled his body so the best Wakatakakage could do was put his head on his shoulder.

At this moment, I think Wakatakakage panicked and thought Hoshoryu was going to slip to the side and push him down. To counter that he slapped his left hand onto Hoshoryu’s belt. It was a very deep grip, too.

That grip, which reached past the half-way point of the belt, meant Wakatakakage was very off balance, with most of his pressure focused on Hoshoryu’s right hip. Hoshoryu’s left side was completely open, so he had all kinds of room to move that way and execute one of his trademark throws.

I don’t think we can be too hard on Wakatakakage for this loss. Hoshoryu was on fire this tournament and he was deploying an unexpected tactic. Wakatakakage made a poor decision, in grabbing Hoshoryu’s belt, but only because Hoshoryu is so special and dangerous from that position.

That loss dropped Wakatakakage down to 3-2, with one ozeki left on his schedule.

Day 6: Wakatakakage def. Onosato via oshidashi

Day 6 gave us a rematch of the aki basho‘s bout of the tournament, with Wakatakakage and Onosato meeting for only the second time in their careers.

Here’s their first bout in all its glory.

In their first bout, Onosato drew first blood, landing hard thrusts off the tachiai and forcing Wakatakakage back. Wakatakakage was able to recover, though, by grabbing onto the belt and then pushing Onosato back. Wakatakakage usually looks for the belt when attacking. This time he needed it in defense to save himself from the quick loss.

Fast forward to Kyushu and it’s Wakatakakage who drew first blood. Onosato can occasionally be a little sluggish off the line and that’s what happened here. Wakatakakage was able to hit first, but he didn’t move the solid Onosato back. What he did succeed with though was pinning Onosato’s arms down and preventing those long and heavy thrusts that pushed him across the ring the last time they met. Wakatakakage is a master of this forearm blocking technique (known at ottsuke). By using his forearm to block and pinch his opponent’s arms and he can cut them off from belt grips or prevent them from pushing and pulling with their maximum power. That’s often what evens the field for him against much larger opponents.

Onosato knows he’s not equal to Wakatakakage in grappling, yet. He didn’t want any of this belt battle or the ottsuke. Onosato instead decided to scoot backwards to try and make distance and land a hatakikomi. As we’ve seen all through this tournament, Wakatakakage is very hard to slap down. He survived two attempts from Onosato before the ozeki ran out of room and stepped out.

This win got Wakatakakage to 4-2 on the tournament (and 2-0 against the much feared Onosato).

Day 7: Oshoma def. Wakatakakage via okuridashi

On Day 7 Wakatakakage took his worst loss of the tournament. He ran into one of Oshoma’s signature moves, something he should have been aware of and prepared for.

Oshoma, who had a very poor tournament overall, likes to catch opponents off the tachiai with a shoulder roll and then quickly shove them out from a side-on angle. He’s very good at this and has made a number of top division guys look a little silly with it.

This move worked on Wakatakakage because Wakatakakage was coming at him looking for hands to deflect and a chest to hit. When Oshoma stepped off to the side, Wakatakakage had nothing to crash into, so he over stepped and showed his back to Oshoma.

That loss dropped him to 4-3.

Day 8: Wakatakakage def. Hiradoumi via katasukashi

On Day 8 Wakatakakage met the struggling Hiradoumi. And he approached this bout with a tactic we hadn’t seen before in this tournament. Here Wakatakakage came forwards with hands low, looking for the belt (a lot like what Kotozakura did against him).

Wakatakakage actually missed the belt and, instead, grabbed a fistful of love handle (ouch). Hiradoumi was easily able to break that grip. Hiradoumi then responded with an attempted belt grab of his own, using his left hand. Wakatakakage was able to keep his hips far enough away that Hiradoumi couldn’t reach.

After defending from that grip, Wakatakakage walked Hiradoumi back a step. He then relaxed a little, allowing Hiradoumi to step forwards. As Hiradoumi moved against him that’s when Wakatakakage triggered the katasukashi.

This is only the seventh time Wakatakakage has won a bout by katasukashi. The element of surprise certainly helped him here. Hiradoumi’s poor form also helped, with the recently demoted komusubi appearing pretty anxious on the dohyo and easy to lured into traps.

That bounce back win took Wakatakakage to 5-3.

Day 9: Wakatakakage def. Shodai via yorikiri

On Day 9 Wakatakakage met another struggler. Against Shodai he used a more familiar tactic; coming into the tachiai looking to deflect thrusts upwards and carve a path towards the chest/belt. That all happened quickly, and without a hitch, against Shodai.

Sometimes it feels like if Shodai doesn’t get off to a good start he just gives up. After Wakatakakage cleared his hands and got his head on his chest, it didn’t seem like Shodai put up much of a fight, sadly.

Day 10: Wakatakakage def. Oho via okuridashi

Day 10 brought Oho for Wakatakakage. That’s a difficult match-up for him on paper (despite this win giving him a 2-0 record against him). Oho is strong and he has very long arms. Wakatakakage’s whole game is about getting close to his opponents, so long arms (and strong thrusts) can make things difficult for him (as we’ll see against Abi later).

Wakatakakage’s tachiai approach differed from his norm in this bout. Instead of targeting Oho’s arms he went straight for the belt (as he did against Hiradoumi).

His opening attack featured a reach towards the front knot of Oho’s mawashi. I’m not sure what his gameplan was here. Grabbing that knot served to keep him close to Oho and prevent him being immediately pushed back across the ring. The grip didn’t lock down any of Oho’s arms, though. So Oho was able to put a hand on Wakatakakage’s throat and then put a second hand on his face. This then resulted in Wakatakakage being pushed across the ring.

From that point on, Wakatakakage had to rely on his speed and intuition, both of which are excellent.

As Oho tried to steamroll Wakatakakage out of the ring, Wakatakakage was able to brace against the straw and then use that hand-fighting prowess to move Oho’s thrusting arms to the side and step around him for the okuridashi (rear push out).

Surviving this bout pushed Wakatakakage’s record up to 7-3.

Here comes the paywall! Past this point you can find me breaking down Wakatakakage’s bouts with Takarafuji, Abi, Onokatsu, Ura and Takanosho. After that I wrap up what we’ve learned.