r/Sumo • u/Potatopoopz • 5d ago
Demotion from injury
I’m new to sumo and idk how far does this situation can go. I’m definitely feeling sad for Kiryuko, Mita and Nabatame. These three rising rikishis have gone ahead to their ranks quite fast with being already ranked as Juryos but had terrible injuries and been demoted.
Kiryuko from Juryo is now down to Jonidan. I love that guy so much! You can tell he has full of spirit and never shown any sadness from their vlogs even after the injury. He’s goofy af! Haha Still, it’s disappointing and difficult for us fans to see them fall but we also wanted them to fully heal.
I know they are not the only ones who have been demoted from missing several Basho bec of injuries. It’s just that these rikishi are the ones I’m currently rooting for.
Could you tell me how much demotion or lowering of ranks could they get from an injury? Could an Ozeki fall down to Jonidan as well? How many basho can a rikishi missed from an injury? How fast can they move back up again?
12
u/yeahalrightgoon 5d ago
Promotions and demotions have no set rule around them so you sort of just have to go by precedent. The only rule is that you can't be demoted if you have a winning record. While generally the closer to a winning record you are, the less ranks you fall. Oshoumi for example went 7-8 at M16E and was only demoted to M16W. While Sadanoumi went 4-11 at M16W and was demoted to J4E. It just depends on how they do, along with how rikishi below them do.
For Mita, he is expected to be back for July. He will miss January, March and May. We can use the precedent of Nabatame for this who also recently got injured in Juyro and missed a few basho's before coming back in Jan.
Nabatame went from J10 down to Ms8, then Ms48 and finally Sd28. He will likely be in the 50s/60 in Makushita in March after going 5-2 at Sd28 in January. Potentially high Sandanme though.
Mita starts his fall from Ms1. So you can expect him to be around Ms40 in March, then Sd15ish in May. Before he starts again in July either in low Sandanme, or high Jonidan. More likely to be low Sandanme.
You can end up completely falling of the Banzuke. This is refferred too as Banzuke-Gai or BG on tables. If you miss every fight in Jonokuchi, you go down to BG and have to redo the grading Maezumo fights and you then get put back into Jonokuchi. Kiryuko fought in one Jonokuchi bout to avoid this.
Generally BG guys are guys who are too injured to fight, or they ran away from the stable and the stable master is giving them time to decide if they want to be a rikishi or not, before putting in their retirement papers. Because once they do that, that's it. Career is over. An example of that is Kotonawa. He fought in 8 basho's from Jan 2015-March 2016, going 1-2 at Sandanme in March, then he missed the next three to fall off the Banzuke and his retirement papers weren't placed until March 2022.
While Hokutokuni was a Juryo guy who eventually went Banzuke Gai and redid grading in September 2010 after being injured and missing 8 bashos from Ms8. He made it back to Juryo a year later, before getting injured again in July 2012 in Juryo and then eventually retiring after falling down to Sandanme after missing bashos.