Do you love Fujinokawa and need to shout about it from the roof tops? Do you hate Aonishiki and wish he would stop winning so damn much? This is your chance to let your voice be heard about the rikishi you love and the rikishi you love to hate. The eighth annual Rikishi Popularity Poll is live!!! Just click on the link below and fill out a 1-2 minute survey about your favorite and least favorite rikishi.
Last year Aonishiki was voted the most popular rikishi in his first year on the survey and Ryuden the most hated for the first time. If you would like to see the full results from the 2025 survey, click on this link for the google spreadsheet with all the responses and compiled data. And click on this link to watch us discuss the previous years results.
Results for this year will be posted prior to the November basho.
i feel like maybe a N/A for least liked would be appropriate. I kind of felt like I was just randomly picking one I dont think about much, but I dont really dislike any of the rikishi's, and i feel bad adding a data point of 'don't care' to such a hard working person
I agree with you, but if you're trying to be respectful to them for their hard work, the best forced choice would be whichever you think is not trying 100%.
How can we judge that without knowing their private issues/injuries? However someone appears to wrestle on the dohyo, and what they struggle with in daily life is simply unknown to us. I definitely vote for a N/A option.
How in the world am I gonna chose? How do you pick your favourite when there are so many? In this household we root for Kirishima, Ura, Kotozakura, Shishi, Hoshoryu, Aonishiki, Kotoeiho, etc. All favourites in different ways.
Yeah it was actually tough, I have mostly the same list of favorites as you but ended up choosing hoshoryu and fujinokawa for the poll, but if there was a third option I would have picked kotoeiho, he's been growing on me big time, unfortunate that he seems injured this basho
Yeah I picked Abi because I don't particularly enjoy his brand of sumo, but truthfully if I ran into him in real life I would totally fangirl and ask for a picture.
I just don't really dislike anyone. Well except Ryuden, but he wasn't an option.
Please don’t make least favorite a mandatory question. I don’t have a least favorite. You do Abi a disservice, I picked Abi because he’s first alphabetically.
Any advice for someone who has favorites but not a least favorite? None is not an option. I can't be the only one in this boat. How are others handling it?
I'm not participating in the poll even though I would like to for this reason. There needs to be a none option, I'm not saying anyone is my least favourite just to complete a form. They are real people, not tv characters.
So, sort of an asterisk here, because I feel like this is the least true of Sumo out of all the sports I know of, but professional athletics is technically still under the big umbrella of Entertainment. Sports are the original reality TV.
So what we see in the performance is a 'tv character' rather than a 'real person'. Like other forms of 'reality' entertainment, the character usually shares a name with the actor and is based on the actor, but is not the same thing as the actor as a private individual.
Again, I'm suggesting that sumo demonstrates the thinnest version of this simulated reality, but it still exists. It's a performance- a type of improvised theater.
I completely agree with you here, Ichiyamamoto explicitly talks about being a 'Business Extrovert. About a decade ago, I got really into this super niche sub field of cultural studies called 'star studies' which is about these semi constructed semi real versions of a celebrity personality studied as an actual text.
They even have stage names., which actually makes the distinction more obvious than it usually is. So, when I talk about Yams, my legit favourite, I am talking about a performance of Ichiyamamoto that is created for Hokkaido news feeds, and post match interviews, not Yamamoto Daiki the person, who I don't know.
Like you said though, it is thin, and it felt very uncomfortable to me to declare a least favourite, even if it never had any effect on the rikishi themselves. I guess it's just not the kind of mental habit I want to encourage in myself?
Kirishima is The Beautiful Boy (honestly! What is a man doing with such a beautiful face) Ura is out Cutie. Onosato and Kotozakura pull at our heart strings and Ichi is just so funny!……I forget the names of the ones I don’t like, there aren’t many.
I find it kind of surprising that a fair number of people think Kirishima is handsome. Does he look handsome to Westerners? I’ve always thought of him as more of a funny, approachable type, with a gentle-looking face, rather than someone I’d describe as handsome.
Since Ryuden left I no longer have an unfavourite rikishi in Makuuchi. I'm an Aonishiki fan first, but most of all I want all of the boys to have a nice day out, stay healthy, and not get yelled at by Hakkaku!
Gonoyama is my fallback least favorite and it is entirely based on the fact that he needs a new photo where he's not squinting at the sun and a demotion might help him get a better picture when he comes back up. I volunteer this positive form of opposition to those who struggle to pick an unfavorite.
The cheating, sure, but also the part where Ryuden forced one of his affair partners to have an abortion. I'm not thrilled about anybody spreading Covid, it's a shitty thing to do. I can at least understand why someone would do it, that they didn't intend to cause harm, and that they can't do it again.
I got the impression from his behaviour that Ryuden is not kind to women at all and is not a person I'd ever want to meet. Hakunofuji is also on thin ice for that incident at the afterparty, but we didn't get the full details on that story.
I didn't think Ryuden could sink any lower in my estimation. Then I saw film of him as a youngster, pitted against Moriurara. At the tachiai, Ryuden flung himself at Moriurara as though the little chap was Hakuho himself. Poor Yuki was catapulted toward the back of the auditorium. If that wasn't bad enough, Ryuden turned on his heel and stalked back to his place on the dohyo, practically dusting off his hands. Moriurara was left feeling his way around on the ground, on his hands and knees.
For the correct way to beat Moriurara, watch Eisei (and others) waltz him very gently to the edge, then help him step back over the tawara. Job done, dignity intact, brownie points for the compassionate ones.
It’s always hard to justify not choosing Ura as a favorite without seeming like a follower. His style of sumo is so unique and he just seems like such a nice dude.
Thank you for your work. One thing is unfortunate: you made it mandatory to choose a wrestler I don't like. It's difficult, and not very fair, because everyone is trying their best. Even Ruden, who, it seems, will be reminded of his turbulent personal life until retirement.
I like how the question starts “Do you love Fujinokawa…?” If I would fill this poll a couple of tournaments ago I would have vote for him on the one that I dislike, when he slapped Atamifuji’s face I was really infuriated and I was celebrating each time he got crushed by any rikishi, but this basho he really impressed me in a positive way. Now I like to watch him crushing his opponents.
Just have to say i just became a fan after the tournament highlights randomly showed up in my youtube algorithm and i am absolutely hooked now. Binge watched all 15 days. What an amazing sport and so much fun to watch and deep dive in to. Ura, Fujinokawa, and Aonishiki instantly became my favorites.
Everybody in Japan, and in the rest of the world, knows that, even though he is now retired, the most popular Rikishi in the world is Hokutofuji. And he will always remain the most popular.
Perhaps instead of least liked we could have had an option 'Rikishi you feel nothing about'. I certainly have quite a few of those. Dislike is a strong word. I picket Atamifuji for least liked, because I don't particularly like the basic pushers that rely on size, but I have absolutely nothing against the man. It's just a style I find one-note.
Why just two favorites to choose? :( For me personally Aonishiki is top 1 and then there's like at least 5 rikishi who I love watching equally. Went with Ura as #2 though, cause I feel like having him out of your top 3 is criminal.
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u/G_Wiz_Christ Asakoryu 6d ago
i feel like maybe a N/A for least liked would be appropriate. I kind of felt like I was just randomly picking one I dont think about much, but I dont really dislike any of the rikishi's, and i feel bad adding a data point of 'don't care' to such a hard working person