How a Wrestler Gets Promoted
There is no published formula that turns a record into a rank. What there is instead is a decision, taken between tournaments, and announced with a small vocabulary that tells you exactly what happened to each man.
Every tournament produces a record. Between tournaments, the banzuke is rewritten from those records, and each wrestler appears at a new position.
The obvious question is how the first thing becomes the second. The honest answer is that it is not arithmetic.
The one rule that always holds
The rule you can rely on is the one in kachikoshi and makekoshi: more wins than losses and you generally move up; more losses than wins and you generally move down.
How far is where the judgement comes in. A strong winning record low on the sheet moves a man further than a narrow one high up, and the space available depends on what everybody else did in the same fortnight.
The trap for new viewers
Experienced followers predict the next banzuke and are often close, so the relationship is far from random. But it is not a sum you can run: the sheet is decided as a whole, all at once, rather than wrestler by wrestler — which is why predictions stay predictions until the day it is published.
The calendar it runs on
The Sumo Association publishes its calendar years ahead. For each of the six tournaments it lists a 番付発表 (banzuke happyo) date — the day the new ranking is released — and it falls roughly two weeks before the first day.
There is no gradual reveal and no leak of individual results. One day the sheet does not exist; the next day it does, complete.
The words to watch for
This is the practical part. When a banzuke is published, the Association notes what is new about it, and it uses a small, consistent vocabulary. Learn these five prefixes and you can read any promotion story.
Word | What it marks |
|---|---|
| In the top division for the first time |
| Back in the top division after dropping out of it |
| Reaching the second division for the first time — and so becoming sekitori |
| Reaching sanyaku for the first time |
| The prefix for "again". It attaches to any rank: 再小結, 再大関 |
The pattern is 新 for first time and 再 for again. Once you can see those two characters, a page of promotion notes becomes readable even if you know none of the names.
Sumo counts promotion speed in tournaments, not years. A note may record that a wrestler reached a rank in a certain number of tournaments since his first appearance — and compare it with everyone who has ever done it. Since there are six tournaments a year, that number is also roughly his age in the sport.
Where the ladder starts
Before any of this there is an entrance examination, and the Association publishes its requirements.
A candidate must have completed compulsory education and be male and in good health, and there are minimum figures for height and weight — as published, 167 cm and 67 kg. There are age limits, and an athletic test for those who fall short of the physical minimum.
An application is made through the stable a candidate wants to join. Nobody applies to the sport directly.
What to watch for
On the day a new banzuke is published, look for the wrestlers marked 新.
Each of those is somebody standing somewhere for the first time — and in the case of shin-juryo, somebody whose life changed on the day the sheet was printed rather than on the day he won.
Now that you know how it is made, here is how to read one.