Photo by Michihiro Taguchi — shot ringside.
In sumo, Takayasu is a former ozeki from Tagonoura stable and the oldest man in the top division. He held ozeki for fifteen tournaments between 2017 and 2019 and has been a maegashira ever since. He has never won a championship: three playoffs, all lost, and by 2025 nine career runner-up finishes, the most of any wrestler never to win one. He is 36, and he went 11–4 from maegashira 7 at the Nagoya 2026 tournament, so the question is still open.
Where he stands now — August 2026
Six years after the demotion he is still in the top division, still winning double figures when the draw is kind, and still without a title. Here is the current position, and then the numbers that explain it.
| Rank | West maegashira 7, Nagoya 2026 ranking sheet |
| Stable | Tagonoura |
| Age | 36 (born February 28, 1990, Tsuchiura, Ibaraki) |
| Size | 188 cm, 173 kg |
| Highest rank | Ozeki, July 2017 – November 2019 |
| Last three tournaments | March 2026, sekiwake, 7–8 · May 2026, komusubi, 2–2 and withdrew · July 2026, maegashira 7, 11–4 |
A career measured in near misses
In June 2026 Taguchi put Takayasu’s whole career on the page next to Tamawashi’s — the two super-veterans on the May 2026 top-division sheet, and by July Tamawashi had dropped to juryo. Read together, the two columns explain why one of them has a championship and the other does not.
| Takayasu | Tamawashi | |
|---|---|---|
| Age (June 2026) | 36 | 41 |
| Highest rank | Ozeki | Sekiwake |
| Tournaments at ozeki | 15 | — |
| At sekiwake | 10 | 8 |
| At komusubi | 14 | 6 |
| At maegashira | 50 | 86 |
| Championships | 0 (three playoffs, all lost) | 2 |
| Special prizes | 4 Outstanding, 6 Fighting Spirit, 3 Technique | 3 Outstanding, 1 Fighting Spirit, 1 Technique |
| Gold stars off yokozuna | 6 — Hakuho 1, Harumafuji 3, Terunofuji 1, Hoshoryu 1 | 8 — Terunofuji 4, and one each off Harumafuji, Kakuryu, Kisenosato, Onosato |
| Days missed | 151, forfeit losses included | 0 |
Four of Takayasu’s thirteen special prizes came after he lost the ozeki rank: one Outstanding, one Technique and two Fighting Spirit across the 36 tournaments to February 2026, on Taguchi’s count. That is the shape of the last six years: still good enough to be the best wrestler in a given tournament for a week, never good enough for fifteen days.
Taguchi’s tally of his life since the demotion, taken at the end of the January 2024 tournament, gets at why: 164 wins, 124 losses and 42 days missed, but 0–6 against yokozuna and 10–24 against ozeki. The nine runner-up finishes are the famous number. The 0–6 is the explanation for them.
July 2026: eleven wins, and no prize
At maegashira 7 in July 2026 he went 11–4 and was live for a Fighting Spirit Prize going into the final day. He did not get one, and Taguchi, who sits on the same question every tournament, explained why in his review of the basho: eleven wins is not a qualification in itself. He ranked the candidates by the difficulty of the opponents they had actually faced, put Sonofuji and Shishi at the top of that list, and wrote that if a prize had to be handed out it should have gone to Kotoeiho. Of Takayasu he said flatly that he is a former ozeki banking wins from the comfortable middle of the sheet at number 7.
That is the bind a former ozeki lives in. Win at maegashira 7 and it counts for less because of where you are standing; climb back to komusubi, as he did in May 2026, and the body gives out on day five. He has been doing both for six years.
A late, sudden rise to ozeki
Takayasu was not a wrestler marked from the start as a future ozeki. His leap forward came only recently. At the July 2016 basho, ranked at komusubi, he posted an 11–4 kachikoshi. He then held the sekiwake or komusubi ranks for six straight tournaments before earning promotion to ozeki. His best result in the upper ranks came at the March 2017 tournament, where he went 12–3.
His first basho as a new ozeki
For all the promise, Takayasu’s debut tournament as a new ozeki fell short of his own billing. He had spoken of going undefeated, yet finished 9–6 — a long way from a yusho. Heading into the September tournament, he was back at work, sweating through the black mawashi he wears in training and competition.
The record against yokozuna and ozeki
One way to measure Takayasu is to look at how he fared against the very top ranks. Across the seven tournaments from July 2016 through July 2017, his record against the yokozuna was 6 wins and 11 losses — a clear deficit. He went 3–2 against Kakuryu (one of those wins by default), 2–5 against Harumafuji, and 1–4 against Hakuho.
Against the ozeki, the picture flipped. Over the same span he dominated with 14 wins and just 3 losses. The takeaway is straightforward: Takayasu already has ozeki-level strength, but he has not yet reached the level of the yokozuna.
Where the losses come from
Against sekiwake and below, Takayasu went 51–20 over the seven tournaments, a winning rate of .718. The breakdown of those 20 losses is telling. He dropped four bouts each to Tamawashi and Yoshikaze, three to Aoiyama, and two each to Mitakeumi and Tochiozan. Tamawashi and Yoshikaze in particular have given him trouble. Until he settles those matchups, a championship will be hard to come by.
Which kind of ozeki will he be?
Some historical context helps frame his standing. Since the 15-day system took hold in the Chiyonoyama era, there have been 32 yokozuna, and 11 of them managed 9 wins or fewer in their first tournament as a new ozeki — though weak and short-lived yokozuna stand out among that group. Over the same kind of span dating to the Mineyama era, there have been 35 wrestlers whose highest rank was ozeki, and 19 of them won 9 or fewer as a new ozeki. The question is which of these two groups Takayasu will end up joining.
Takayasu is 27. There seems to be time, and yet there isn’t. Depending on which yokozuna sit out, the September tournament shapes up as a real chance at a yusho. Whether he seizes it will tell us a great deal about where his career is headed.
Frequently asked questions
Q. How did Takayasu reach ozeki?
After an 11–4 record at komusubi in July 2016, he held the sekiwake or komusubi ranks for six straight tournaments before being promoted to ozeki.
Q. How did Takayasu do in his first tournament as a new ozeki?
He had spoken of going undefeated but finished 9–6, well short of a yusho.
Q. How does Takayasu match up against the yokozuna and ozeki?
From July 2016 to July 2017 he went 6–11 against the yokozuna but 14–3 against the ozeki — ozeki-level strength, but not yet at yokozuna level.
Reporting note: this article draws on Michihiro Taguchi’s ringside reporting and original statistical work published in Dohyo no Mokugekisha — his comparison of Takayasu and Tamawashi (June 24, 2026), his tally of the former ozeki still wrestling (February 14, 2024) and his review of the Nagoya 2026 tournament (July 28, 2026). Rank, age, measurements and stable were rechecked against the Japan Sumo Association’s wrestler profiles on August 2, 2026, and per-tournament results against the Association’s published tournament sheets on August 5, 2026. Official bout-by-bout records are available from the January 2013 tournament onward.
Updated August 5, 2026.
Read next: the ozeki rank explained · sumo’s three special prizes · kinboshi: the gold star for beating a yokozuna · Mitakeumi
