本場所
A basho
Fifteen days, six times a year. Pairings, eight wins, the cup, and what a broadcast looks like.
A honbasho is a 15-day grand tournament. There are six a year, always in odd months, Sunday to Sunday. Every salaried wrestler fights once a day. Everyone below juryo fights seven times across the same fortnight.
The six
- Hatsu 初場所January · Tokyo
- Haru 春場所March · Osaka
- Natsu 夏場所May · Tokyo
- Nagoya 名古屋場所July · Nagoya
- Aki 秋場所September · Tokyo
- Kyushu 九州場所November · Fukuoka
Tokyo hosts three of them at Ryogoku Kokugikan — January, May, and September. Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka take one each. The year page covers the six weeks in between.
What a broadcast looks like
Lower divisions start in the morning. Juryo is the afternoon. Makuuchi is late afternoon into the evening — the part most English broadcasts show. NHK World carries the top of that card in English on most days. Japanese television starts earlier. Times shift with your timezone; Tachiai prints an estimate on each bout.
You will watch more ceremony than fighting. That is normal. Before the salaried bouts, the men enter in kesho-mawashi — heavy embroidered aprons — and each yokozuna performs a longer dohyo-iri of his own. Each bout then spends minutes on salt and staring, and seconds on the clay. The last bout is the musubi, usually yokozuna or ozeki. After it, yumitori-shiki: a bow dance, then the day is over.
Who fights whom
Pairings are posted the afternoon before. The Kyokai matches similar records as the basho goes on — 8–4 men see other 8–4 men. Early days mix the sheet more, and titled ranks draw a harder card.
Same-heya wrestlers are not paired in regular bouts. They share a kitchen; they do not share a dohyo until a playoff forces it. Blood brothers are usually kept apart as well. Men from the same ichimon do fight each other. That is why houses are not teams.
Eight wins
Kachi-koshi is a winning record. For sekitori that means 8–7 or better. For the 7-bout divisions it means 4–3. Make-koshi is the losing side. Eight wins is the first thing a salaried man is playing for; the yusho is the second.
A withdrawal is kyujo. Missed days are absences on the record (W–L–A), not extra losses — they still cost rank. If he pulls out after the pairings are up, his opponent gets a fusen — a win without mounting.
A maegashira who beats a yokozuna earns a kinboshi — a gold star. It is not one of the three special prizes, but the crowd treats it like one.
The cup and the three prizes
Each division has a yusho. In makuuchi it is the Emperor’s Cup. If two or more men finish tied after day 15 — senshuraku — they fight a playoff that afternoon.
Makuuchi also awards sansho, three special prizes: outstanding performance (shukun-sho), fighting spirit (kanto-sho), and technique (gino-sho). A kachi-koshi is required. Yokozuna and ozeki are not eligible. Tachiai marks them S, K, and G.