Asashosakari

Only Bukhchuluun for sure so far. Any others will probably be announced before the Kyokai staff go on their Christmas / New Year's break.

As usual, a new ozeki or yokozuna means that none of the newspapers are getting around to putting the retirement list online, so our first source this time is the official listing by the Kyokai. Only five retirements in total in this cycle, including the one by former komusubi Endo that was already confirmed before the basho had commenced. The other four rikishi leaving are: Narutaki (Isenoumi) Taiyo (Onoe) Yamadaumi (Dewanoumi) Nishikimaru (Asahiyama) Despite being fairly small Narutaki was a promising rikishi early in his career, having first reached makushita by age 20 back in Hatsu 2019. However, he didn't make much further progress from there for the next three years which put a big damper on his chances of becoming sekitori. More recently he had finally established himself in the upper half of the division, but the big breakthrough was arguably a longshot with him now being 27 years old. Maybe we'll hear what specifically prompted him to call it quits at this time. Taiyo was even smaller, having barely qualified for ozumo eligibility at 167 cm of height, and although the 24-year-old did briefly reach makushita for a few tournaments, almost his entire career was spent in the sandanme division (27 out of 35 basho). I seem to recall him as a pretty fun, speedy pusher. A fairly short career of just three and a half years for Yamadaumi who had joined out of middle school, so he's still only 19 years old. He never really went past low jonidan with no kachikoshi records achieved above the Jd90's, so the writing was on the wall. And lastly, 220+ kg youngster Nishikimaru. Like Yamadaumi a middle school joiner, and also like him he needed nine ranked tournaments to obtain his first kachikoshi, at the time still quite a bit lighter than today (though by no means small). The increasing weight took its toll on the 22-year-old's knees and IIRC Asahiyama-oyakata had implored him to get to a more fit fighting weight about a year ago, but it doesn't look like that idea went anywhere.

A Nikkan article about Aonishiki's time training with the Kansai University sumo club mentions that Chisatoiwa was a second Kansai graduate to join ozumo (after sekiwake and yusho winner Yamanishiki). Confirmed by the club's own web presence (1959 entry). And it made me wonder if the (unconfirmed) Chisatoiwa reading of his shikona 千里岩 might be wrong. Kansai University has a campus called Senriyama 千里山, whose name appears to be taken from a Senriyama mountain - however, apparently that mountain's name used to be read Chisatoyama, which long ago gave its name to a (no longer independently existing) village named Chisatoyama, which is the area in which today's Senriyama campus is located. So, clear as mud, and on a quick search I haven't been able to turn up any concrete information about which reading the guy's shikona was using, Chisato or Senri. Maybe somebody else can find something.

New: Dewanoryu - Ms3w 5-2, Dewanoumi-beya, Mongolia, 24 years old Kazuma - Ms15w 7-0 Y, Kise-beya, Osaka, 24 years old Returning: Kyokukaiyu - Ms1w 5-2, Oshima-beya, Mongolia, 25 years old, 2nd promotion, back after 1 basho No shikona change by either of the two debutants. As expected, one very lucky juryo rikishi survives; either Hakuyozan or (less likely) Mita. https://x.com/sumokyokai/status/1993472293339906214

Some gremlins have got into the data here. Specifically: Ms2e Tamakaze 0-0-1 (3-3-2) yorikiri 0-1 (1-1) J23w Notonoyama 1-0 (9-6) The draw marker makes no sense for Tamakaze here, should be a regular loss. In addition, neither his hoshitori nor his total record appear to be correct: Day 1 yorikiri J23w Notonoyama 1-0 (9-6) 0-1 Day 13 kotenage J19e Tsugaruumi 1-12 (3-12) 1-0 That Day 1 bout doesn't appear on there in any way. Gans (site currently down, link goes to archive.org) shows Tamakaze's score as 4-4, with that additional Day 1 loss in the hoshitori as well as an additional win on Day 12 - prior to the second juryo visit which constituted his eighth and final appearance of the tournament. That makes sense as the "rounds" of makushita matches were on Days 12/13 and Days 14/15 in those days. The 4-4 overall score also agrees better with his subsequent banzuke movement: Result East Next Rank West Result Next 5-3 ↑ Tatsumusashi J22e Ms1 Matsuba 3-5 Ms4e 3-3-2 Tamakaze Ms1e Ms2 Itsutsugata 4-4 Ms1w

No, that's just messed up on the DB.

It just occurred to me that we didn't mention a development that I personally found very strange. Back in mid-October, the heya Instagram account reported that Anatoli was going back to Estonia to get his visa sorted and would only be back in Japan in the new year. Now, we've not been privy to all the kenshu goings-on of the various foreign rikishi in the past, but among the ones we did get information on, I don't recall a single case of somebody having to interrupt their trainee period for as many as three months. Shouldn't the relevant visa have got sorted out before he came over in August? It's not like he had moved in immediately upon coming to Japan; his original heya-seeking took place in a separate visit back in early June. Anyway, I can't imagine the Kyokai will just count these three months anyway, so I would say that has pushed his shindeshi kensa eligibility to no earlier than July. Assuming no further complications, that is.

This is a general matter of the DB handling things differently than the Kyokai for all foreign rikishi who debuted since 2009, not something specific to Aonishiki.

Only half a rank out from Daishoho last year, though.

One thing I see going around elsewhere that's probably just wishful thinking but might actually make more sense than promoting Seihakuho is to save Mita instead of Hakuyozan.

When they didn't promote Kyokukaiyu a couple of tournaments ago, Miyanokaze calculated to Ms2e...

Juryo/makushita by the numbers: Day 15 Hidenoumi W J9e 5-10 safe Rank W-L calcs to queue Mita J3e 0-3-12 Ms4e 2nd Hakuyozan L J10e 4-11 Ms3e 4th Himukamaru W J13e 5-10 Ms4e 3rd Shiden J14e 5-7-3 Ms5e 1st Kyokukaiyu Ms1w 5-2 J12w 2nd Dewanoryu L Ms3w 5-2 J14w 3rd Seihakuho W Ms5w 4-3 Ms4w 4th Kazuma Ms15w 7-0 auto 1st Well, if nothing else we did get the closest possible outcome for that fourth slot, thanks to Seihakuho pulling out the kachikoshi while Hakuyozan dropped his last four bouts. I still don't expect it to make any difference, though. Dewanoryu was defeated by Tochimusashi, and he just might have cost himself as many as three spots on the next banzuke: He's obviously no longer going to move ahead of Kyokukaiyu, but I also wouldn't be totally surprised if he's now behind Kazuma and (boo, hiss) even behind Hakuyozan. As Hidenoumi saved himself altogether against hapless Hitoshi, it's a neat four-and-four in the next table putting the queues against each other: Down Queue Rk Diff W-L Diff Up Queue Shiden J14e 5-7-3 automatic promotion Kazuma Ms15w 7-0 Mita J3e 0-3-12 12.5 < 15+3 = 18 Kyokukaiyu Ms1w 5-2 Himukamaru J13e 5-10 4.5 < 5+3 = 8 Dewanoryu Ms3w 5-2 Hakuyozan J10e 4-11 9.5 > 7+1 = 8 Seihakuho Ms5w 4-3 What can I say, it's not even particularly close there in the last row.

He did have a 10-5 in between the two MK.

One final Exidrono non-appearance, the affected player was: Day 15: Asashosakari Oh my.

I was just scouring the DB for the youngest-debuting rikishi listed in it, and came across a guy that we briefly talked about a few years ago when the same topic came up (name bolding not in original posts): No idea about Kinunishiki, but I don't think Shionosato's birthdate is correct. Looking around last night I found this profile which gives his age as 19 (if the database has it right, then he retired at 17). I can't know for sure what information points 7 and 8 are, but perhaps reasonable to assume they are his results in 1958.09 (8-0) and 1958.11 (4-4)?   I have to say that even though a debut at age 11 was possible in that era, his results strain credulity. As the DB has it, he would have gone 8-0 in jonidan and progressed through most of sandanme as a 12-year-old. It's unfortunate that the profile Yubinhaad turned up back then doesn't have the full birthdate, but age 19 certainly looks a lot more believable. Maybe the original source material is still available that the alleged 1946 birthyear came from?