Asashosakari

My hopeless attempt: Hakuho (Ye 0-0-15) Y Kakuryu (Yw 0-0-15) Takakeisho (Ow 12-3) O1 Asanoyama (Oe 10-5) Shodai (S1e 13-2 Y) O2 --- Mitakeumi (S1w 8-7) S Takanosho (M1w 10-5) Terunofuji (M1e 8-5-2) K Takayasu (M6e 10-5) Kiribayama (M5e 9-4-2) M1 Wakatakakage (M8w 11-4) Daieisho (S2e 5-10) M2 Onosho (M9w 10-5) Kagayaki (M6w 8-7) M3 Hokutofuji (M2e 6-9) Okinoumi (Ke 4-11) M4 Myogiryu (M3e 6-9) Tobizaru (M14e 11-4) M5 Kotoshoho (M12e 10-5) Takarafuji (M5w 7-8) M6 Tamawashi (M2w 5-10) Endo (Kw 3-9-3) M7 Tochinoshin (M4w 6-9) Terutsuyoshi (M3w 5-10) M8 Aoiyama (M7w 7-8) Tokushoryu (M8e 7-8) M9 Kotoeko (M10w 8-7) Meisei (M13e 9-6) M10 Ryuden (M7e 6-9) Sadanoumi (M10e 7-8) M11 Enho (M9e 6-9) Yutakayama (M4e 2-6-7) M12 Kaisei (M12w 7-8) Hoshoryu (M16w 8-7) M13 Ichinojo (M17e 8-7) Chiyotairyu (M11e 5-8-2) M14 Kotonowaka (J2w 9-6) Chiyonokuni (J11w 14-1 Y) M15 Chiyoshoma (J4e 9-6) Kotoyuki (J2e 8-7) M16 Shimanoumi (M15e 6-9) Akua (J6w 10-5) M17 --- I'm feeling strangely confident on everything except M5e to M8e, but that whole section could well be zero points...my first draft still looked totally different (Tobizaru and Kotoshoho last instead of first) and was arguably equally justifiable.

Those comparisons don't become less apples-to-oranges by switching from USA/NFL to Germany/Bundesliga.

And compete for NFL spots with thousands of hopefuls who've been living and breathing football since childhood and usually gone through high-quality collegiate programs already? You can ask ex-Wakanoho how that worked out for him... Unless a rikishi is regularly winning the makuuchi yusho, the various opportunities to get non-salary money from the Kyokai really don't amount to all that much. Kensho are probably the biggest deal, but for those they're largely dependent on how they're regarded by third parties, so not much different from direct tanimachi support and the like. (Unless a rikishi has a knack for beating opponents who are themselves kensho magnets, of course.)

I'll say one thing, if you transplant Tosanoumi's 1995-1999 results into 2016-2020, I could just barely see ozeki talk as justified, because the current era is in such chaos. Tamawashi comes to mind as a similar case from the actual current period, albeit at an even old age, and of course Shodai himself was even less accomplished just a year ago. But in 1999, with 6 mostly well-performing Y/O already on the banzuke, the vastly superior Kaio and Musoyama having not (yet) managed to become ozeki, and two years younger Dejima in the process of putting up more consistent joi results than Tosanoumi ever did (and in fact becoming ozeki two months after the quoted column)... I'll freely admit that I was still only a casual fan at the time and not in tune with what was being discussed by fans back then, but I'd find it very hard to believe that the not especially young, defensively challenged, and at best 10th-best rikishi (maybe as low as 12th, depending on how one might have felt about aging Akinoshima and yet to be tested Miyabiyama) generated significant ozeki talk among informed fans. Maybe much earlier than 1999, after Tosanoumi had only just shown up in makuuchi, but that's even less worthwhile because even guys like the aforementioned Chiyotenzan would get that kind of talk, basically anyone who goes to the top division and holds his own there immediately (the aforementioned "ozeki prospect until proven otherwise" approach).

I mean, the very fact that a 27-year-old Tosanoumi's wins over big names were still described as "posting upsets" (and a win over Chiyotenzan being singled out as noteworthy!)...that reads more like the opinion of somebody with an "everyone's an ozeki prospect until proven otherwise" mindset. So granted, somebody was talking about Tosanoumi as a potential ozeki, but...

Akinoshima definitely, Tochinonada maybe, but I don't believe Tosanoumi was ever talked about as a "destined for higher things" rikishi. Just a tenacious but technically too limited guy that went about as high as his tools allowed him to - the niche that I suspect Yutakayama is also in (or would be, if he could stay healthy).

As Akinomaki already said, "endorse" might not quite cover it, but there was this:

I don't think that's all that unusual historically, anyway. If you leave out the megastars who come on the scene and just never stop moving up until they're yokozuna, a lot of rikishi at all levels (even down below juryo) show those start-stop patterns where a series of plateaued performances gets interrupted by relatively short bursts of improvement that take them from one plateau to the next higher one. Though admittedly, it may have become less pronounced in recent times because so many careers get interrupted by major injuries nowadays. Sometimes it's due to the rikishi figuring out some technical quirk that previously held them back (Shodai's tachiai issues may fall into that category), but in a lot of cases it just seems like such a step up requires attaining a certain level of overall physical and mental readiness, and that's something the non-Hakuhos of the sumo world simply need a few years to work on every time. Anyway, it's the Wakanosatos and (hopefully not) Mitakeumis who are the historical outliers, guys who show a lot of promise at a young enough age that everyone expects them to have enough time left to take more steps up in their career, but they just don't end up taking them.

It's interesting how, going back to their amateur days, his career has gone almost exactly the opposite direction of Mitakeumi's. Shodai was the big-shot high school star who did the rare thing and immediately competed for (and won) tournament championships on the collegiate circuit in his first two years there as well, before fading away from the title scene for years three and four, and his professional career also quickly looked like he wasn't going to recapture his teenage magic and would just become a talented but generic rank and file maegashira veteran (Kintamayama's prediction notwithstanding). Mitakeumi, conversely, while he was also decently accomplished in middle and high school, was far from "future star" territory in those days, and took a while to get going at the collegiate level. He really only came to the forefront in his last two years there, but then proceeded to take the professional ranks by storm, too, becoming a sanyaku mainstay in barely two years, and looking like a definite future ozeki (certainly once he'd won his first yusho). And now it's suddenly Shodai on top again with them both at "prime" rikishi age in their late 20s, and Mitakeumi continues to seek his groove.

As somebody who's been following him since back when he was still Toyononami, I wholeheartedly disagree. But I'm all in favour of guys overachieving with a cup of coffee appearance anyway, whether it's makuuchi or juryo.

If I'm not mistaken the second messenger is always one of the ichimon's members of the judging department. The riji doesn't always appear to be an ichimon representative, from what I can tell, e.g. it was Dewanoumi for both Takakeisho and Asanoyama. I suppose it couldn't have been rijicho Hakkaku for Asanoyama anyway, but Nishonoseki-ichimon surely would have had options available among their directors.

13-2 + yusho ought to do it as well, I reckon, which would leave him with the same as Shodai's record, just with the first two results inverted. Mitakeumi's longer track record would probably make up for Shodai's superior recent history beyond the three-basho run.

Well, I would prefer both to be available; I've done quite a few queries that utilized the current version. This effort required locating former sekitori in the lower ranks; that's just impossible to do with the career highs. And at least those can also be extracted relatively easily from the DB in other ways, which is not the case for highest rank to date. Speaking of lower ranks, Chiyonokuni is now the sole all-time leader with 7 yusho won in juryo and below: Link

I think it's a rolling window, i.e. X reactions within the last 24 hours at any point in time.

Scores for banzuke purposes: Jejima 11 (10+top) Profomisakari 11 (10+top) Achiyama 9 Asashosakari 9 Tsuchinoninjin 9 Mmikasazuma 8 Ryoshishokunin 8 Athenayama 7 chishafuwaku 7 Holleshoryu 7 Sakura 7 WAKATAKE 7 Hakuryuho 6 Total: 106 / 13 = 8.15 ---> no adjustment Minus 1 win was narrowly indicated by the average score, but as usual when it's close I also looked at the potential KK/MK splits, and the non-adjustment led to a better split of 7/6 than the reduced score would have with 5/8. The new banzuke for Kyushu 2020: Asashosakari (Ye 9-6) Y --- Mmikasazuma (O2w 8-7) O1 chishafuwaku (O1e 7-8) --- O2 Athenayama (O1w 7-8) Jejima (M3e 11-4 Y) S Tsuchinoninjin (M1e 9-6) Profomisakari (M6e 11-4 D) K Achiyama (M4e 9-6) Holleshoryu (Se 7-8) M1 Pandaazuma (Kw kosho) wolfgangho (M2e kosho) M2 WAKATAKE (M1w 7-8) Ryoshishokunin (M6w 8-7) M3 Sakura (M3w 7-8) Hakuryuho (M5w 6-9) M4 Tenshinhan (Sw 0-0-15) Rocks (Ke 0-0-15) M5 ryafuji (M2w 0-0-15) Katsunorifuji (M4w 0-0-15) M6 Pitinosato (M5e 0-0-15) Mmikasazuma narrowly escaped from kadoban status, while chishafuwaku (ending his tsunatori) and Athenayama find themselves in that predicament for Kyushu.