Asashosakari

Nishikifuji had one correct pick for Nagoya 2023.

This rikishi's profile has his shikona as Ōhayama on the English/romaji side, but as Daihayama だいはやま on the Japanese: https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi.aspx?r=2088

I'm plumbing the depths of what can reasonably count as an improvement of the available data here, but anyway: The trivia section* of ja.wiki's banzuke article mentions that Kotani of Fujishima-beya and Kotani of Taiho-beya were brothers, so I think the shusshin of the younger brother can reasonably be expanded to include Kita-ku 北区 as well. * The trivia here is that when the younger brother made his ranked debut in 1994.05, the intended adoption of "Okotani" as his shikona had failed to be processed, so the printed banzuke erroneously listed both brothers under the same shikona Kotani. (He was officially Okotani for the tournament after a timely intervention, so that shouldn't be changed on the DB.)

https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/202504240001565.html Ex-Takakeisho appeared at a - this time live - event hosted by Toyonoshima again today, and confirmed that his danpatsu-shiki will take place on Saturday, October 4th. Tickets on sale from May 11th, shonichi of Natsu basho.

Flyers have been making the rounds that officially announce the date as Sunday, October 5th (although I'd seen that rumoured for quite a while already). The QR codes on the first version lead to https://www.myogiryu.com/ (nothing there yet) and https://w.pia.jp/t/myogiryu (currently forwards to https://t.pia.jp/sports/sumo/, event not listed yet).

As of a little over a year ago, cdn.discordapp.com URLs expire after 24 hours, so hotlinking a file like reonito did will inevitably break. For anyone that still saw the image later than that, it was from your local browser cache because you had accessed it within the 24 hours.

Putting Kinbozan as high as M7w isn't out of place when somebody has also been lenient with Tobizaru and Ura.

Asset posted their guess on Reddit. That M16w-M18e solution is certainly not the consensus, so that could make or break their #1 status.

Huh...I only noticed just now that, purely by coincidence, the four players who have provisionally moved up into the top 20 are coming from the exact ranks that the four displaced players have fallen to. Even more oddly, 22nd / 24th / 27th place have done this: 22 ChewieKen 4.163 (27 / 5.225) 16 24 Kishikaisei 4.120 (22 / 5.311) 18 27 Gurowake 4.113 (24 / 5.285) 18 Consequently, the composition of the top 27 is entirely unchanged between the current and provisional rankings.

BTW, the currently highest-ranked player with a zero score is Schwoosh in 102nd place; the zero is for their absence in Aki 2024. In fact, if they had played that edition and done decently well (at least 56 points), they would have become the #1 ranked player one basho later! Alternatively, 60 points in Nagoya would also have done it (with Aki then scored as kosho rather than zero).

Some preview-type remarks... 316 altogether. 524 players are on the GTB ranking ahead of Natsu basho. By recent participation status: ranked playing kyujo Active last basho: 359 235 124 Kosho last basho: 23 4 19 Multiple absences: 142 12 130 The kyujo players include last basho's yusho winner Isokiho, one of 14 Natsu absences from the top 100. 65 unranked players have entered, including - as far as I can tell - 62 new players plus three returnees: boosiv, Ivar (unless it's a coincidentally identical name?), and Ulsimitsuki (albeit seemingly misspelled as Ulsimituski). In exchange for these incoming players, 20 are set to fall off the rankings by losing their last countable score. The provisional top 20 after removing the scores from a year ago that will be replaced by the Natsu results (actual pre-Natsu positions and scores in brackets, including all remaining top 20 players): 1 Asset 4.471 ( 1 / 5.686) 2 Asashosakari 4.445 ( 2 / 5.599) 2 3 Bunbukuchagama 4.363 ( 3 / 5.574) 6 4 CaptSmarta$$ 4.332 ( 5 / 5.481) 7 5 Kale 4.326 ( 4 / 5.509) 8 6 Goshobiyama 4.324 ( 6 / 5.479) 8 7 Cheesofuji 4.314 ( 7 / 5.462) 8 8 Duden 4.304 (14 / 5.370) 9 9 Hisui 4.304 (11 / 5.394) 9 10 Toshishugisha 4.278 (13 / 5.386) 10 11 Akakyoryu 4.255 (21 / 5.314) 11 12 Kaito 4.246 (16 / 5.353) 12 13 Kachikoshi 4.240 (10 / 5.414) 12 14 Tyerenex 4.236 (23 / 5.300) 12 15 Kobashi 4.208 ( 8 / 5.442) 14 16 Pepenohana 4.197 (25 / 5.268) 14 17 TochiYESshin 4.188 (19 / 5.326) 15 18 Sugakusha 4.187 ( 9 / 5.418) 15 19 Beeftank 4.185 (12 / 5.387) 15 20 Zelerny 4.171 (26 / 5.249) 15 ... 21 Reonito 4.166 (17 / 5.342) 16 23 Papayasu 4.135 (18 / 5.328) 17 25 Purichu Ruyaru 4.118 (15 / 5.361) 18 26 Chiyonosawa 4.115 (20 / 5.325) 18 Players with a better provisional than actual ranking are getting to drop a relatively weak result from their totals, players who are worse provisionally are defending a relatively strong score. The final column shows how many approximate game points each player has to make up on the current #1 in order to take over the top spot after Natsu. (Based on an assumed mean score of 50 points = 0.020 ranking points per game point, so these are just estimates.) 12 players who are currently carrying a single zero on their ranking tally are set to replace it with a countable score and will see their ranking position improve significantly (current rank > provisional rank): Kotokishi (106 > 43) Hashibamiyama (108 > 46) Barutonoumi (111 > 49) Wakatakasake (128 > 81) Hobbobgob (133 > 97) Ardonite (132 > 99) matrix (139 > 114) AoiyamaFan (146 > 118) asanosanpo (163 > 136) Modra (170 > 146) Kcramsib (176 > 157) kostuek (183 > 165) On the other hand, 3 players who currently have the full six countable scores are set to pick up a zero by missing both Haru and Natsu (current rank > approximate next rank...the provisional rank makes no sense for these players): Krakel (41 > 140) Miwabe (69 > 163) Kotononami (129 > 184)

Thanks for confirming; I was slightly confused before because... ...if I'm not mistaken that's just 4 points of difference to Gurowake's version.

My entry: Hoshoryu (Ye 5-5-5) Y --- Onosato (Oe 12-3 Y) O Kotozakura (Ow 8-7) Daieisho (Se 9-6) S Kirishima (Ke 8-7) Takayasu (M4e 12-3 D) K Wakatakakage (M1e 9-6) Wakamotoharu (M1w 9-6) M1 Oho (Sw 6-9) Abi (Kw 6-9) M2 Tamawashi (M7w 10-5) Gonoyama (M2e 7-8) M3 Hiradoumi (M6e 9-6) Takerufuji (M6w 9-6) M4 Chiyoshoma (M2w 6-9) Ichiyamamoto (M4w 7-8) M5 Oshoma (M8w 9-6) Hakuoho (M9e 9-6) M6 Tobizaru (M3e 6-9) Ura (M5e 7-8) M7 Churanoumi (M14w 11-4) Onokatsu (M12w 10-5) M8 Aonishiki (M15e 11-4) Midorifuji (M11e 9-6) M9 Meisei (M11w 9-6) Kinbozan (M5w 6-9) M10 Shodai (M7e 6-9) Shishi (M13w 9-6) M11 Endo (M9w 7-8) Atamifuji (M8e 6-9) M12 Takanosho (M3w 3-12) Tokihayate (M18e 10-5) M13 Sadanoumi (M15w 8-7) Kotoshoho (M16w 8-7) M14 Roga (J3e 11-4) Ryuden (M14e 6-9) M15 Shonannoumi (M10w 4-11) Kayo (J2e 9-6) M16 Tamashoho (J1e 8-7) Tochitaikai (J3w 9-6) M17 Asakoryu (M16e 6-9) Nishikigi (M10e 3-12) M18 --- My first draft had Ura/Tobizaru/Hakuoho, and I think I actually tried out all six permutations until I settled on the one above...

It's apparently some sort of official deal: https://swerve.tv/news_announcements/swerve-partners-with-japan-sumo-association-to-launch-grand-sumo-in-the-usa/

We're not done here yet but...hmm, I wonder if I should remove tsukitaoshi from my list of rarely seen kimarite that get noted every time for the next basho: Query