ODDS and EVENS | Asanoyama Faces a Critical Test at the New Year Basho

In professional sports, there's a finite period of time for athletes to achieve success. For instance, sumo wrestler Asanoyama, who turns 32 on March 1, 2026, is closer to retirement than the start of his career.

The Takasabo stable grappler returns to the spotlight of the makuuchi (top) division at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan. Commonly known as the New Year Basho, the 15-day event gets underway on Sunday, January 11.

Asanoyama earned promotion from the juryo (second-highest) division after posting double-digit win totals in the September and November 2025 tournaments. He went 12-3 as a 13th-ranked juryo wrestler, followed by a 12-3 mark at No 4 in the year's final tourney in Fukuoka.

The Toyama Prefecture native has returned to the top division for the first time since the Nagoya Basho in July 2024.

Looking ahead to the challenge that he faces, Asanoyama underscored how important it is for him to begin the year with a successful showing in Tokyo.

"It's going to be a make-or-break year," Asanoyama said, according to Kyodo News in the final week of 2025.

"I have my target set at reaching sanyaku (the top three ranks below yokozuna), and I'll make a fresh attempt to become ozeki."

On Day 1 of the New Year Basho, the 16th-ranked maegashira will begin his quest for a stellar overall performance. He'll face Oshoumi, another grappler with the same ranking.

Also on Sunday, Ukrainian Aonishiki, who captured his first Emperor's Cup last November, will make his ozeki debut against maegashira No 2 Ura. Other scheduled matches include yokozuna Onosato versus top maegashira Ichiyamamoto and fellow grand champion Hoshoryu against komusubi Wakamotoharu in the day's final match.

A Career Comeback After a Suspension

Asanoyama, who turned pro in 2016, achieved his best results to date as a sumo wrestler at the 2019 Summer Basho. As a No 8 maegashira, he finished the May tourney with a 12-3 record and won his first Emperor's Cup.

Also, in July 2020, in his first tourney as an ozeki (the sport's second-highest rank), he was the runner-up at the Nagoya Basho with a 12-3 record.

He was promoted to ozeki prior to the scheduled May 2020 tournament, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After competing in six tournaments at ozeki (with 10 or more wins in four of them), he began serving a six-tournament ban in July 2021. The reason? Asanoyama violated the Japan Sumo Association's pandemic-imposed rules. He made "repeated nocturnal visits to a drinking establishment despite an edict against doing so because of the novel coronavirus pandemic and [lied] to sumo elders about it," The Asahi Shimbun reported.

Because of his inactivity due to the suspension, Asanoyama was demoted to the sandanme division (the fourth rung of the sport's six-tier structure).

Asanoyama's comeback began in July 2022. He went 7-0 in his first tournament back, winning the sandanme division as a 22nd-ranked wrestler.

For the next tourney, he was moved up to the makushita (third-highest) division, and he closed out 2022 with back-to-back 6-1 efforts at the last two tournaments.

That earned him a promotion. And Asanoyama exhibited his talent by winning the second-division title (14-1 record) as a 12th-ranked juryo in the 2023 New Year Basho.

Ups and Downs for Asanoyama

Since then, Asanoyama's career has had its ups and downs. After a 13-2 win-loss record in the juryo ranks as a No 1 grappler in March 2023, he ascended to 14th-ranked maegashira for the next basho in May.

His first tournament back in the top division was solid: 12 wins and three losses as the 14th-ranked maegashira. And he competed as a maegashira in the five tournaments that followed, posting a 9-6 mark in March 2024. That secured another promotion: to komusubi, the rank above maegashira.

But that promotion was followed by major disappointment. Asanoyama was forced to skip the May 2024 tourney due to a right knee injury. His return for the next competition two months later was short-lived. In his fourth match of the tournament, Asanoyama tore his left anterior cruciate ligament. The knee injury forced him to miss the final 10 days of the July meet, as well as the next three tournaments.

For Asanoyama, another comeback was launched in March 2025. Once again, he started his sumo return in the sandanme ranks. Ranked 21st, he had an unbeaten seven-match record in the Spring Basho.

This sealed Asanoyama's return to the makushita ranks (May and July of 2025) and then a move up to the juryo division (September and November). In his juryo return, the 188-cm, 170-kg athlete went 12-3 in the September meet.

Asanoyama closed out 2025 with another winning record, going 12-3 as the No 3 juryo rikishi.

Now he's back in the top division and wants to remain there.

Moreover, he has lofty ambitions for the New Year Basho.

"I want to win the championship," he said, according to Sankei Sports on January 6, adding, "I can't forget that feeling."

Goals for 2026

On the same day, Asanoyama highlighted his goals for the new sumo season in the run-up to the New Year Basho.

"This year, I want to steadily climb the banzuke (rankings) one tournament at a time," Asanoyama was quoted as saying by Sankei Sports.

He added, "The real battle starts now."

Asanoyama, the first sumo wrestler to return to the top division after dropping to the fourth division twice, also wants to contend for the Emperor's Cup in January.

"I'll do my best to become a dark horse," he said, according to the sports publication. "If I go undefeated, I can face the top [wrestlers]. I really want to face Onosato."

Author: Ed Odeven

Follow Ed's [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and he can be found on X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.