Your companion for the Nagoya Grand Tournament — Day 8 (nakabi), Sunday 19 July 2026, IG Arena. Keep it open ringside.
Day 8 — 中日 (nakabi)
Sunday 19 July 2026 · the tournament’s midpoint. Top-division bouts run ~15:40–18:00.
Banzuke — 番付
The official ranking sheet for Nagoya 2026. Tap any wrestler for their bio, stats & record.
A two-minute primer
The goal
Two rikishi (wrestlers) meet inside a dohyō — a raised clay ring about 4.55 m across, marked by a buried rope circle. You win the instant your opponent either steps/is forced out of the ring, or touches the clay with any part of the body above the soles of the feet (a hand, knee, even a topknot). Most bouts last only seconds.
One bout, beat by beat
- Shikiri — the staring, salt-throwing, crouching ritual. Salt purifies the ring; the glaring is psychological. They have a time limit (4 min in the top division).
- Tachiai — the explosive simultaneous charge from the crouch. Whole matches are won and lost here.
- The bout — grappling for the mawashi (belt), pushing, throwing. The gyōji (referee, in robes) points his gunbai (war-fan) to the winner.
- Kimarite — the named technique that won it is announced. There are 82 legal ones — see the Techniques tab.
One day at the arena
Wrestling runs from morning to evening, lowest ranks first. The unpaid lower divisions open to a near-empty hall ~8:30; the salaried jūryō enter mid-afternoon; the makuuchi (top division) ring-entering ceremony (dohyō-iri) in embroidered aprons is ~15:40, the yokozuna ceremony just after. The final, headline bout — the musubi-no-ichiban — is around 18:00.
One tournament (basho)
Six honbasho a year, each 15 days. A top-division wrestler fights once a day — 15 bouts. Finish with a winning record (8+ wins, kachikoshi) and you rise on the next banzuke; a losing record (makekoshi) and you fall. The wrestler with the best record wins the yūshō (championship); a 15–0 is a zenshō-yūshō. Day 8 — today — is nakabi, the symbolic midpoint.
Ranks & the banzuke
Every wrestler sits somewhere on a single pyramid. The top division (makuuchi, 42 men) holds the named ranks; below it everyone is just numbered. Each rank has an East (slightly senior) and West side.
The top division — makuuchi
- Yokozuna 横綱 — Grand Champion. Promoted for ~two straight championships at ōzeki; can never be demoted (a slumping yokozuna is expected to retire).
- Ōzeki 大関 — Champion. The second-highest rank; demotion only after two losing tournaments in a row.
- Sekiwake 関脇 — Junior champion.
- Komusubi 小結 — the lowest titled rank. Brutal — you face every top wrestler.
- ↑ These four titled ranks are the san’yaku (三役).
- Maegashira 前頭 — the rank & file, numbered M1 (top) down to ~M17. Most of the division.
Below the top division
- Jūryō 十両 — 2nd division (28 men). The cutoff for being salaried & called sekitori. Above this line: a respected pro. Below it: an apprentice.
- Makushita · Sandanme · Jonidan · Jonokuchi 幕下・三段目・二段目・序ノ口 — the four unsalaried lower divisions. They get an allowance, do chores, and fight only 7 days a basho.
Special honours
- Yūshō — the tournament championship (best record).
- Sanshō — three prizes for non-champions in the top division: Shukun-shō (outstanding performance, usually for beating a yokozuna), Kantō-shō (fighting spirit), Ginō-shō (technique).
- Kinboshi 金星 — a “gold star” a maegashira earns by beating a yokozuna. It pays a bonus for the rest of his career.
The 82 techniques — 決まり手
Every sumo bout is officially decided by a named kimarite. The Japan Sumo Association recognises 82, in families based on how you win, plus a handful of “non-techniques” for when an opponent beats himself. Cards marked 📷 show a real public-domain bout photo; the rest are FKTI diagrams that show the physics of the move.
Why the moves work — the physics
A wrestler stays upright only while his center of gravity sits over his base of support — the span between his feet. Every technique is a different way to make the opponent’s center leave his base: shove it out, spin it off, lift it, or take the base away. Each diagram is tagged with its mechanism (⚙) and explains the efficacy.
Ringside glossary
The words the announcers and your neighbours will use.
What to watch for on Day 8
- The salt throws — bigger, showier handfuls get the biggest cheers. Watch a yokozuna’s.
- The tachiai — don’t blink. Watch whose hands hit the clay first and who wins the chest-to-chest.
- Hand on the belt — once someone gets a deep mawashi grip, especially a left-hand-inside (hidari-yotsu) grip, they often control the bout.
- An upset — if a maegashira beats a yokozuna, the crowd throws seat cushions. That’s a kinboshi.
- Nakabi — Day 8. By now the championship race is taking shape; note who’s still unbeaten.