The Hakuhō Cup (Japanese: 白鵬杯, Hepburn: Hakuhō-hai) is a sumo competition for elementary and middle school students held every year in Japan.

Around 1,300 boys attended the 2020 event, hailing from Asian countries, such as China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan but also from the Brazil, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and the USA.

Since the event has grown into a prestigious amateur competition, many participants have had successful careers in sumo, and include sekitori like makuuchi-ranked wrestlers Ōnoshō, Ura, Kotonowaka and Hakuōhō.

[1][11][12] Results only began to be published in 2016 In 2010, the first Hakuhō Cup took place in the Ohama Sumo Hall of Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.

[9] In the same tournament, Kamatani Masakatsu (son of Sadogatake stablemaster Kotonowaka Terumasa) came third in the junior high school division.

[4] For the first time, the event was produced by screenwriter Osamu Suzuki[7] who also designed a prize that was set to be awarded to the most memorable wrestler.

The prize, taking the shape of a championship belt, went to Kaishin Nakanishi (from Wakayama Sumo School), who finished second in the individual competition in the first-grade division.

[23] That year, the individual championship (junior high school) was won by Kawazoe Keita, who later joined Miyagino stable under the name Kihō, using the makushita tsukedashi system to reflects his other successes.

[25] The individual championship (junior high school) of that year was won by Nakamura Daiki who later joined Nishonoseki stable under the shikona Ōnosato in 2023.

Around 1,300 elementary and junior high school students from eight countries and regions, including Mongolia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, gathered for the event.

[5] That year, the individual championship (junior high school division) was won by Shingo Mukainakano [ja], who later joined Miyagino stable.

[30] That year, the individual championship (junior high school division) was won by Tetsuya Ochiai, who later joined Miyagino stable.

[33] The Chinese team, which was scheduled to participate, was unable to come to Japan due to the spread of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus.

[36] After taking a year off because of pandemic-related situations, the 12th Hakuhō Cup took place on April 3 in the Ōta-city General Gymnasium in Tokyo, a venue chosen at the last minute to comply with COVID-19 protocols.

[37] Because of coronavirus protocols, the number of people in the venue, divided into morning and afternoon sessions for each grade, was kept to a minimum and general public admission was cancelled.

In addition to first to third-graders from all over Japan, children from seven countries (Mongolia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, the US, Australia, and Ukraine) also gathered.

[42] During the competition, Uriah Ulima Kamahao Luamanu of Hawaii won a bronze medal in the elementary school fifth-grade division.

By doing so, he became the first-ever Hakuhō Cup medalist from the United States, and also the first wrestler from outside of Japan or Mongolia to reach the podium in any classification during the 13-year history of the event.

A total of 1,100 people took part in the competition, with athletes from nine different foreign countries (Thailand, Brazil, Taiwan, Ukraine, Mongolia, Georgia, Poland, the USA and South Korea).

[43] Former junior high school division winner Ōnosato also attended the event as a spectator, having come to cheer on Ibata Yūki (a wrestler also from Tsubata, Ishikawa).

[1] Encouraged by the children's clubs and friends, Miyagino and his tutor Isegahama (former yokozuna Asahifuji) announced in December 2024 that they would be organizing the fifteenth edition of the event.