Yusho - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Yūshō is a tournament championship in sumo

Sumo

is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

. It is awarded in each of the six annual honbasho
Honbasho
A is an official professional sumo tournament. There are six held each year, a system established in 1958. Only honbasho results matter in determining promotion and relegation for rikishi ....

or official tournaments, to the wrestler who wins the most number of bouts. Yūshō are awarded in all six professional sumo divisions

Professional sumo divisions

Professional sumo is divided into 6 ranked divisions. Wrestlers are promoted and demoted within and between these divisions based on the merit of their win/loss records in official tournaments. For more information see kachikoshi and makekoshi. Wrestlers are also ranked within each division...

. The prize money for a top makuuchi
Makuuchi
or is the top division of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers , ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments....

division championship is currently 10 million yen, while for the lowest jonokuchi division the prize is 100,000 yen.

Perhaps surprisingly, considering that most of the interest in tournaments today revolves around who will win the yūshō, the concept of a prize for a wrestler's individual performance is a relatively recent one. Legendary wrestlers such as Tanikaze

Tanikaze Kajinosuke

was a sumo wrestler in Japan in the Tokugawa era, and the first to be awarded the title of Yokozuna within his own lifetime. He achieved great fame and won 21 tournament championships. He was also the coach of Raiden Tameemon.- Early career :...

and Raiden are credited today with winning many championships, but they are all unofficial and are really nothing more than a "best tournament record."

The individual yūshō idea evolved gradually, from wrestlers simply picking up cash thrown into the ring by spectators after winning exciting matches (common in the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

), to wrestlers being given trophies and prizes from private sponsors for performances over an entire tournament (beginning in the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

). Trophies were at first given only for undefeated records, but since draws, no decisions and absences were all possible outcomes, several wrestlers could be eligible and it did not necessarily go to the man with the most wins.

In January 1900, the system recognised today began to take shape when the Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

Mainichi Shinbun newspaper announced it would give a prize of a keshō-mawashi decorative apron for either an undefeated record or for the fewest losses, and in the event of a tie, the wrestler who had defeated the most high ranking opponents would win the prize. Thus the principle of an individual champion was established. Takamiyama Torinosuke

Takamiyama Torinosuke

Takamiyama Torinosuke was a Japanese sumo wrestler.-Career:He joined Takasago stable, reaching the top makuuchi division in 1907. In the June 1909 tournament, he defeated ozeki Tachiyama and won the first official championship in the history of the professional sumo. He reached his highest rank of...

's victory in June 1909 was the first to be officially declared a yūshō, and the system was formally recognised by the Japan Sumo Association

Japan Sumo Association

The is the body that operates and controls professional sumo wrestling in Japan under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Rikishi , gyōji , tokoyama , and yobidashi , are all on the Association's payroll, but the organisation is run...

in 1926 when the Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

and Osaka

Osaka

organisations merged.

From June 1909 to October 1931 and from January 1940 to July 1947, there was also a group competition called . The wrestlers were divided into two teams, East and West, and it was the team with the better overall score that was awarded a prize.

In addition to their prize money, top division yūshō winners receive the , first donated by Hirohito

Hirohito

, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...

, an avid sumo fan, in 1925 as the . It was changed to current name upon Hirohito's accession to the emperor's throne in December 1926. There is also a banner with the names of past winners. Both are presented by the chairman of the Sumo Association. There are also a large number of prizes and trophies given by prefectural and foreign governments, as well as businesses. For several years the French President Jacques Chirac

Jacques Chirac

Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

, a noted sumo fan, donated a trophy. The wrestler is given replicas of all the trophies to keep. In July 2010, and again in May 2011, neither the Emperor's Cup nor any other prizes were handed out, because of controversies over illegal betting and match-fixing respectively. However, in both cases the yusho were still official and counted on the wrestlers' records.

An unbeaten 15-0 score is known as zensho-yusho and is fairly rare; most yūshō winning scores are either 14-1 or 13-2. The wrestler who has won the most top division yūshō is Taihō

Taiho Koki

Taihō Kōki is the 48th Yokozuna in the Japanese sport of sumo wrestling. He is generally regarded as the greatest sumo wrestler of the post-war period. He became a yokozuna in 1961 at the age of 21, the youngest ever at the time, and he won a record 32 tournaments between 1960 and 1971...

with 32, closely followed by Chiyonofuji

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu

, born June 1, 1955, as in Hokkaidō, Japan, is a former champion sumo wrestler and the 58th yokozuna of the sport. He is now the head coach of Kokonoe stable....

with 31. Futabayama

Futabayama Sadaji

Futabayama Sadaji , born as Akiyoshi Sadaji in Oita Prefecture, Japan, was the 35th Yokozuna in sumo wrestling, from 1937 until 1945. He won twelve top division championships and had a winning streak of 69 consecutive bouts, an all-time record. Despite his dominance he was extremely popular with...

won 12 yūshō in an era when only two tournaments were held each year.

Playoffs

Since 1947 a playoff system (kettei-sen) has been in place to determine the winner of the yūshō if two or more wrestlers finish with an identical score. Until then, the yūshō would go to whoever was the higher in rank, as it was presumed they had faced better quality opposition, but this caused controversy in 1928, when ōzeki Hitachiiwa

Hitachiiwa Eitaro

Hitachiiwa Eitarō was a Japanese sumo wrestler from Tokyo. His highest rank was Ōzeki.-Career:...

was chosen over Misugiiso despite the fact that one of his wins had come by default. There was similar criticism when new maegashira Chiyonoyama was denied a championship in November 1945, despite winning all his matches. Playoffs with more than two wrestlers involved are fairly common in lower divisions, but have only happened a handful of times in the top division. A three way playoff occurred three times in the 1990s, with a four way playoff in March 1997 and a unique five way playoff in November 1996. In such cases lots are drawn to decide who fights first, and the first wrestler to win two consecutive bouts takes the yūshō. A playoff is the only occasion in which wrestlers from the same stable or heya
Heya
In sumo wrestling, a heya , usually translated into English as stable, is an organization of sumo wrestlers where they train and live. All wrestlers in professional sumo must belong to one. There are currently 49 heya , all but four of which belong to one of five ichimon...

can meet in tournament competition. The wrestler who has taken part in the most top division playoffs is Takanohana

Takanohana Koji

is a former sumo wrestler from Suginami, Tokyo, Japan. He was the 65th man in history to reach sumo's highest rank of yokozuna, and he won 22 tournament championships between 1992 and 2001, the fifth highest total ever...

with ten (won five, lost five). Chiyonofuji

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu

, born June 1, 1955, as in Hokkaidō, Japan, is a former champion sumo wrestler and the 58th yokozuna of the sport. He is now the head coach of Kokonoe stable....

has the most victories, with six (he was never defeated in a playoff).

Playoffs

See also