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Konishiki and Akebono were treated unfairly by Japanese public opinion because it was assumed that they were winning simply because they were bigger than their Japanese opponents. In fact both of them worked hard and intelligently and deserved their success. The Japanese sumotori themselves had always assumed that putting on more weight was the key to success, because it had always worked for them before. But there is a limit to this, and that limit had been reached. The influx of Pacific islanders posed a challenge however, and the rijicho of the time, Sadanoyama oyakata, announced a policy of "restraint" (enryou) -- which actually meant to any Japanese speaker "Don't bring in any more!" -- but I recall escorting a visiting journalist to interview Kitanofuji, who at that time was in charge of media relations. The visitor asked about the "ban" on recruiting foreigners, and Kitanofuji replied. quite truthfully, "There is no ban" -- and my Japanese colleague and I couldn't possibly interrupt to tell him the correct term! But what was really needed, to rescue sumo, was a return to "agile man's sumo" and that is what the Mongolians brought with them. Coming from a poor country where even the children had work to do for the family, and with the "hungry spirit" that the Japanese boys had mostly grown out of, they gave it all they had -- and it worked! When the first of them started taking some winnings back to Mongolia, their yen were worth ten times as much. And even now, when anybody complains about Hakuho winning too much, I say, "But every time he steps into the ring, he is available to be beaten. All the Japanese rikishi have to do is beat him. It's as simple as that! -- and if they can't beat him, stop complaining!" Orion

Program #9 (2016.7.31): Road to Wanpaku - Chiba Qualifiers With Yasuda Hikaru （安田 光）, Munakata Seiren (棟方 聖連) and club captain Kimura Kiri (木村 喜人) all out of the running, Kinboshi Sumo Club's hopes for this year's Wanpaku National Championships rests solely on the shoulders of their ace member, Kanazawa Sorato （金澤 空大）. However, to actually reach the Kokugikan, Sorato would need to win the Kashiwa City qualifiers, and then help Team Kashiwa finish in the top 3 at the Chiba prefectural qualifiers. Luckily for him, one of his team-mates from Kashiwa just happens to be the 3-time Hakuho Cup winner and number one in his year group, Nishijima Yurai (西島 悠来). Thus, winning the tournament in Kashiwa is actually the harder part. In order to prepare him for the Wanpaku qualifiers, coach Hanada Masaru points out that Sorato's weakness in sumo is his habit of facing sideways in bouts, always wanting to attempt a throw rather than keep pushing forwards (presumably because of his wrestling background), which wouldn't always work against opponents who are experienced in sumo. And so, like his club-mates, Sorato also undergoes 100-bouts keiko; but unlike his club-mates (with Sorato being the 5-time national champion that he is), Sorato isn't satisfied with doing merely 100 bouts, and so decides to change it to ∞ -bouts keiko. Needless to say, he didn't actually reach that amount (307 bouts to be exact, or 0%), but it does show that Sorato always wants to improve, and is also willing to worker harder than everyone else in order to achieve his goals. And so, Sorato storms through the field to win the Kashiwa City qualifiers, as did his brother Kanazawa Towa （金澤 永和）, though Towa had a real scare in the final against an opponent who also does wrestling. Sorato did equally well at the Chiba prefectural qualifiers (which is only for Grades 4-6), only losing one of his 7 bouts (to Aino Shogo 相野 祥吾, a quarter-finalist the previous year), hence helping Team Kashiwa to finish first in the tournament, earning all 3 team members a spot at the Wanpaku Tournament. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4mlw4b

The Great Rhyen Query, part 1. Original question: 16. In chronological order of the yokozuna promotions of the first trainee, these are: 1. Shiranui I (trained Shiranui II) 2. Hidenoyama (trained Jinmaku) 3. Umegatani I (trained Umegatani II) 4. Hitachiyama (trained Tachiyama, Onishiki I, Tochigiyama and Miyagiyama) 5. Nishinoumi II (trained Nishinoumi III) 6. Tochigiyama (trained Tamanishiki, Tochinishiki and Tochinoumi) 7. Tsunenohana (trained Akinoumi and Sadanoyama) 8. Futabayama (trained Kagamisato) 9. Maedayama (trained Asashio) 10. Tochinishiki (trained Tochinoumi) 11. Chiyonoyama (trained Kitanofuji and Chiyonofuji, must have been a good oyakata) 12. Wakanohana I (trained Wakanohana II, Takanosato, Takanohana the son and Wakanohana III) 13. Sadanoyama (trained Mienoumi) 14. Kitanofuji (trained Chiyonofuji and Hokutoumi) 15. Mienoumi (trained Musashimaru) 16. Asahifuji (trains Harumafuji) Bonus trivia bit 1: How many yokozuna have been trained by yokozuna? 25. Bonus trivia bit 2. Which ex-yokozuna oyakata have trained the most future yokozuna? Hitachiyama and Wakanohana I, with 4 each. Bonus trivia bit 3. Which yokozuna have been trained by multiple ex-yokozuna oyakata? Tochinoumi, by Tochigiyama and Tochinishiki; and Chiyonofuji, by Chiyonoyama and Kitanofuji. (this explains why Tochinoumi and Chiyonofuji show up twice as pupils in the original answer) Hey McBugger, show me the unadulterated data, mate, will ya? Yes, but do understand that the data was hand-picked off Wikipedia and the SumoDB, and the format I used to track the whole thing requires you to decode my ugly handwriting to read. Since the Internet doesn't seem to cooperate with me on this photo of a piece of paper, PM me so I can email you the image.

NHK World's Sports Japan has resumed to do the basho digest regularly, the Nagoya basho this Friday/Saturday: Only half of the program is sumo though - but Ura is on! http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sportsjapan/201608220600/

Episode 12 of the language learning program Japan-easy on NHK World is with amateur rikishi and sumo inspired. The lesson and videos are already on the site: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/japaneasy/season1/11.html https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/6210061/ also a yokozuna yusho interview Aired/On the net stream 3 times: NHK WORLD TV TV Schedule - adapts to your time-zone All lessons so far are on the program page: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/japaneasy/ My saying - Japanese is the easiest language in the world - at least to (learn to) speak

With that kind of banzuke I recommend you be worried, drunk, lightly concussed, or, preferably, all three.

Well there's not much more I can do with words. Against one guy who had played football in high school, twice I got single-legged by him, he told me I was leaving the foot out with too little weight on it. I'm sure I can give much more pertinent details when I get a little better at wrestling..

Fixed and it looks as if he's put up a little string of adventures with his new toy in Sapporo https://twitter.com/3122Koto

Mongolians have been coming to Japan and have been spending a year or two in the school system and amazumo before entering Ozumo. The oyakata are evaluating acclimatized Mongolians against fresh off the boat westerners. Guess who gets the nod.

edit: To stay on topic, I hope Toyonoshima recovers and comes back but I am not optimistic, just as I am not optimistic about Aminishiki. That said, I would still be a fan of both even if they dropped to Makushita or lower.