Ōsunaarashi reached what was to be his highest rank of maegashira 1 at the November 2015 tournament, and earned his third kinboshi with another upset of Harumafuji on Day 2. However, was hospitalized after the tournament, and pulled out of the following tournament in January 2016. Ōsunaarashi was relegated to jūryō for the March tournament and dominated the division, taking the championship with a 13-2 record to secure an immediate return to makuuchi. After suffering a recurrence of a knee injury, he withdrew shortly before the start of the July 2016 tournament in Nagoya. He was again relegated to jūryō for the September tournament and withdrew with a groin injury on the sixth day, although he returned on Day 9 and completed the tournament finishing with six wins. In November he missed two bouts after suffering further injury problems but his nine wins were enough to see him promoted back to the top division. The January 2017 tournament saw Ōsunaarashi come back to the top division at Maegashira 16, things looked good starting out as he won the first three days, however Ōsunaarashi then lost the next eleven bouts. Though he was able to get a win on the final day, he finished with a 4-11 record which put him back down in jūryō. March 2017 saw Ōsunaarashi at jūryō 7 where he was able to go 10-5 causing him to be in a three way playoff for the jūryō championship, however he was defeated by Toyohibiki.