Komusubi Wakatakakage took another major step on the comeback trail from a severe knee injury suffered three years ago, winning the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament on May 24 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.

Wakatakakage, 31, quickly dispatched ozeki Kirishima in a playoff after both wrestlers ended the 15-day tournament with identical 12-3 records.

It marked Wakatakakage’s second Emperor’s Cup, following his triumph in the 2022 Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka, also won on the final day in a playoff with Takayasu, a  maegashira No. 7. 

That achievement came in Wakatakakage’s first stint as sekiwake. The last time a new sekiwake clinched a top-division title was the 1936 summer tournament, won by Futabayama, who later rose to sumo’s highest rank of yokozuna.

Hopes were high that Wakatakakage would also go on to gain promotion to ozeki and possibly yokozuna.

However, he suffered a major right knee injury in 2023 that required surgery and forced him to sit out three straight tournaments and dropped him to the third highest makushita division.

But Wakatakakage made the slow climb back up to the makuuchi division and became only the second wrester after Terunofuji, the former yokozuna, to win a tournament after falling to the makushita division or lower after winning a makuuchi division championship.

At a news conference on May 25, Wakatakakage said he would practice more with his sights set on gaining promotion to ozeki.

He said this championship and the mood surrounding it were totally different from his first Emperor’s Cup, which he won amid the COVID-19 health scare in Japan. 

Wakatakakage, who is from Fukushima, comes from a sumo family. His grandfather, Wakabayama, was a former komusubi. His two older brothers are also sumo wrestlers, with Wakatakamoto in the makushita division and Wakamotoharu in the makuuchi division.