Tatakiage Recruits in Sumo

I watched all the matches in the first three grand sumo tournaments of 2026. Because I am following sumo this year, I looked for a couple of sumo blogs to add to my feed collection. One is Tachiai. On June 27, 2026, author Hochiyama covered the lower divisions (which I have not watched in 2026, I only saw the top division matches). In going through some up-and-coming prospects to watch, Hociyama shared a new term he learned: “tatakiage / 叩き上げ”. A tatakiage is a sumo recruit is is picked up out of middle school with no prior sumo experience and is developed by a sumo stable from scratch. In the case of Sachinofuji, we learn that he did attend high school as a correspondence student while dedicating himself to sumo. He is quite small (by sumo standards), but he sounds like someone to watch in the months and years ahead.

Aside: For readers who are not familiar with school in Japan, middle school (aka junior high school) runs through 9th grade there instead of 8th grade as in the United States. I discussed this in the context of translating Japanese media into English in Localizing Japanese High School Classes.

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