As many of you are probably aware, the All Japan Judo Federation will live stream the Kodokan Cup on their YouTube channel this year for the first time this weekend. The opening ceremony will start at 10am (JST) and the finals will start at 15.05 (JST). You can find live bracket updates here, but text is only available in Japanese.
I hate to cobble together such a quick and dirty article, but I imagine some reading this blog may not be familiar with some of the athletes who don’t regularly get international exposure, so I thought I would try to get something out quickly for those interested in this weekend’s tournament.
This category is wide open with the top 3 players of the last 5 years all not competing. My prediction is Genki Koga, but as we have written about before, you never know what kind of condition he will show up in, and the Covid pandemic makes predictions fairly futile.
Personally, I am interested in the young athletes that have just started to show up in the senior ranks. Hayato Kondo, Taisei Fukuda, Daiki Hamada and Keiji Tsujioka are all still in the junior ranks, but will be ones to watch in the future. I have been particularly impressed with Kondo, who I think will be a future winner at the Junior World Championships. This category will present some very interesting contrasts with some of the older veterans, like Dai Aoki, Yuma Oshima and Sho Tateyama.
I don’t see anyone in this field really making a strong challenge to Takato and Nagayama for the moment, but there is likely a future world champion or two among this group.
With Hifumi Abe still only 22 years of age, it is hard to see someone in this weight class being much of a threat to his dominance anytime soon, but then again, not many predicted that Joshiro Maruyama would be challenging Abe for the final spot on Japan’s Olympic roster. There are a number of young athletes that are exceptional in this category. Yuji Aida and Takeshi Takeoka are teammates at Kokugakuin University and have both have dominated the junior circuit. Teppei Saiganji, whose sister Riho is also a national champion will make his first appearance at this level. The Tsukuba University freshman is one of the best up and coming athletes at the moment.
This category should be really interesting. Masashi Ebinuma has decided to continue on despite missing the Olympic selection at -73kg. He starts his day with a very tough match against Ishigooka of Tsukuba, and then presumably another tough match against Nippon Sports Science University’s Ryo Tsukamoto. The division really seems like the class of this tournament in my opinion. If Ebinuma wins this one, it will be an incredible feat, but one that is highly likely. One of the national team coaches also predicted Ebinuma to come out the victor, extending his time on the national team to well over a decade.
In what is almost sure to be Takanori Nagase’s final Olympics next summer, this category is wide open for the next 4 years. There is no clear heir to Nagase’s dominance, but lots of good prospects. Unfortunately, Takeshi Sasaki has withdrawn, but this category should be very exciting. Yoshimichi Kamochi, whose father is a former great light-heavyweight and the current head coach of the JRA trade team that includes Mashu Baker is now 20 years of age. He has been one of the most lauded athletes of recent years, and he will be fighting to earn a spot on the senior national team roster.
The sentimental favorites are Goki Maruyama and Kenya Kohara for me. Maruyama is the older brother of Joshiro Maruyama (2019 World Champion) and has had a decorated domestic career but failed to have the same success internationally. Much the same, the former Tokai University captain, Kenya Kohara has not had the international results that accurately reflect just how good he is. Both of them are excellent in open-weight team tournaments, where the style of matchplay is much different from international competition.
Finally, my guess is that this is the last we will see of Keita Nagashima, now the second oldest member of the Japanese team. It’s always sad to see the great ones leave.
This category has some good athletes, but Sanshiro Murao is on another level right now. I predict he will be a multiple-time world champion in the future. With Kenta Nagasawa not competing, I think he should have a clear path to the final. I think only Kazuya Maeda or Maybe Goki Tajima will have a chance at beating him this time.
It is disappointing that Ryunosuke Haga had to withdraw from this tournament. I was hoping to see him back at his best. We get to see how the reigning Junior World Champion Kazunari Kamigaki will fair against some very good competition. This category is probably one of the most competitive of all. Kyohei Kakita, and Daiki Nishiyama and Yuki Ishiuchi are superb veterans, who all have a good shot at winning. Kentaro Iida, who for me has the most attractive judo of all the athletes at this particular tournament is the favorite, but there are plenty of contenders in this category.
Yusuke Kumashiro, the oldest member of the national team, Tokai University coach and defending champion has had to pull out due to a knee injury, but that doesn’t mean this won’t be a good tournament. 8 of the 16 (would have been 9 if Kumashiro was still in) athletes are from Tokai University or one of their affiliated high schools. That’s quite a feat, but also worrying from the standpoint of the overall health of Japanese judo nationally.
My prediction may be a bit far-fetched, but I think the Junior World Champion, Sosuke Matsumura will win. I’m hoping to see him and Daigo Kagawa (who has an excellent new YouTube channel) meet in the semi-finals if Matsumura can get past Kageura, which I think he will.
Unfortunately, without Tatsuru Saito here (no idea why he isn’t competing), this tournament won’t really settle who will be next in line to replace Harasawa as the top heavyweight. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be anyone here that can return the Japanese heavyweights to the top of the medal stand at a World or Olympic games. Perhaps one of the high school students, Mitsuki Sugawara or Yuta Nakamura will make their case here.
And there you have it. I am very sorry I couldn’t get to the women’s draw in time. I promise to make my next blog post focused on the women. Thanks for reading!