Asashosakari

Right, I should do that. Sorry, low on time last Sunday and low on motivation since... Day 15 (results, text-only results) 12-3 Se Terunofuji 11-4 M12w Aoiyama 10-5 O1w Asanoyama, O2e Takakeisho, K1e Takayasu, M2w Wakatakakage, M3e Meisei, M8w Tobizaru, M15w Hidenoumi The top 4 of the Day 14 yusho arasoi were paired up for senshuraku, and the basho concluded with a deserved winner and an unexpected runner-up. Ozeki Takakeisho did all he could, but it wasn't enough to avoid getting overpowered by Terunofuji who thus picked up his third makuuchi saiko yusho, the first rikishi in history to win that often below the rank of ozeki, and left no doubt about his (by now confirmed) return to ozeki. The sole jun-yusho spot went to maegashira Aoiyama who defeated Takayasu with both their respective 11th win and a kanto-sho special prize on the line. What a rough finish for the komusubi, losing four of his last five to go from runaway championship contender status to...nothing, really. Okay, a promotion to sekiwake. The 7-7 sanyaku quartet didn't manage the sweep after all. Just one loss, though, taken by the highest-profile rikishi Shodai, who was beaten by fellow ozeki Asanoyama and now has to enter the next tournament kadoban. The S/K trio of Takanosho, Mitakeumi and Daieisho prevailed over their opponents Tochinoshin, Ichinojo and Akiseyama (all hard-luck 7-8 in the end). All three will therefore retain their spots. That was particularly bad news for the other trio, down in the maegashira ranks. Hokutofuji, Wakatakakage (the latter beating the former on senshuraku) and Meisei all have eminently promotable records, but are likely to get stuck on the outside looking in for May. Meisei's victory over Tsurugisho at least resulted in a kanto-sho consolation prize for him, while a gino-sho went to Wakatakakage unconditionally. (For completeness, yusho winner Terunofuji received the basho's sole shukun-sho award.) Six records of 10-5 or better in the joi-jin in the end, something last seen two years ago. That includes a decent if unspectacular showing by ozeki duo Takakeisho and Asanoyama. Some fans might bemoan the absence of truly outstanding performances, but I'm kind of enjoying the current trend of a lot of different rikishi getting their time to shine in turn. Three lower maegashira completed the lineup of double-digit winners for Haru with (of course) Aoiyama, alongside brothers Tobizaru and Hidenoumi. The latter has posted his first ever top division kachikoshi at the seventh time of asking. (If anyone happens to be wondering, one doesn't need to go back to the Taka-Waka days to find joint double digits by a pair of brothers: Roho and Hakurozan did it once, in Kyushu 2005.) 2-1-12 Hakuho Y Kakuryu 0-0-10-i 7-8 Shodai O1 Asanoyama 10-5 10-5 Takakeisho O2 --- 12-3 Terunofuji S Takanosho 8-7 10-5 Takayasu K1 Mitakeumi 8-7 --- K2 Daieisho 8-7 M1 9-6 Hokutofuji M2 Wakatakakage 10-5 10-5 Meisei M3 ... M8 Tobizaru 10-5 8-5-2 Chiyonokuni M9 Hoshoryu 8-7 ... M12 Aoiyama 11-4 I'd be very pleasantly surprised if they keep sanyaku at 10 by promoting Wakatakakage, but the smart bet is of course that nobody's going up from the maegashira ranks. I doubt they'll deny Hokutofuji the mini-promotion to M1w, so it's presumably going to be Waka/Hoku/Meisei in the top three slots next time. As has already been written about aplenty in this here thread it's going to get very messy after that with wild overpromotions and severe underdemotions galore. __________________________________________________________________ The maegashira-juryo exchanges were all but definitive after Day 14 already, and Midorifuji's senshuraku win over Okinoumi cleared up the last piece of the puzzle. Juryo hopeful Enho did win as well, but he neither has a particularly strong claim for promotion with 9 wins at J4e nor is there any room to accommodate him now anyway. Kotoshoho lost to visiting already-makekoshi Tokushoryu and at 1-6-8 he should be dropping far enough that an immediate return to makuuchi after May won't be a foregone conclusion. The juryo race yusho... 11-4 J9w Hakuyozan 10-5 J7e Ura (10-4-1), J10e Takagenji, J13e Jokoryu, J14w Ichiyamamoto 9-6 J2e Ishiura, J3e Chiyomaru, J4e Enho, J7w Azumaryu ...concluded in the most straight-forward fashion with outright winner Hakuyozan. Ura had done his part to progress things towards a potential 10-5 playoff by knocking off co-leader Takagenji, but Chiyomaru wasn't able to follow suit against the eventual winner. Low-ranked erstwhile contenders Ichiyamamoto and Jokoryu proceeded to defeat their high-ranker opponents Ishiura and Akua anyway to finish in the joint runner-up spot. Not counting the messy post-yaocho May 2011 tournament, it's the first time in 13 years that nobody ranked J6 and better managed to reach 10+ wins. (o) 5-10 Midorifuji M10 M11 Kotoshoho 1-6-8 (x) ... (x)4-10-1 Yutakayama M15 M16 J1 Akua 8-7 (o) (o) 9-6 Ishiura J2 (o) 9-6 Chiyomaru J3 Chiyonoo 8-7 9-6 Enho J4 J5 J6 10-4-1 Ura J7 J8 J9 Hakuyozan 11-4 The next juryo banzuke looks pretty easy to compile down to J9, and then things are going off the rails with nobody having a record anywhere near good enough to deserve being placed at J10e and J10w, so a couple of rikishi will be getting very lucky there. __________________________________________________________________ Part of the reason for that is that basically everybody finished 7-8 at the bottom of the division, yielding a split of 12 KK against 16 MK for this basho. Six of the bottom eight rikishi having exactly seven wins is a runaway record for sure (query with 14 juryo ranks since 2004; with 13 ranks prior to that). All three juryo bubble rikishi ended up saving themselves as part of that outcome, with Chiyonoumi and Nishikifuji defeating makushita contenders Daishoho and Kotokuzan, as well as Nishikigi winning against Chiyootori (who finished joint-last in the division at 4-11). Yago's latest sekitori stint has ended on a marginally upbeat note as he ended his 11-day losing streak at the expense of deeply makekoshi makushitan Ryusei, shuffled up only due to maegashira Yutakayama's Day 14 kyujo. (And to my consternation they've actually left Ryusei's official final record as 1-6-1...) Both sekitori rookies Takakento and Bushozan are also among the glut of 7-8 finishers, the former with an unfortunate loss on senshuraku, the latter with a victory that has seemingly turned out crucial for him in the most unexpected fashion. Last basho's newcomer Tohakuryu rounded out the 7-8 sixpack with a win, his sixth in a row. J10 Yago 4-11 (x) J11 (o) 7-8 Chiyonoumi J12 Nishikifuji 7-8 (o) J13 Nishikigi 7-8 (o) (??) 7-8 Bushozan J14 Ms1 (o) 4-3 Oho Ms2 Daishoho 5-2 (o) (??) 4-3 Kotokuzan Ms3 4-3 Tochimaru Ms4 Ms5 4-3 Roga Ms6 Murata 4-3 Ms7 Kaisho 5-2 No, I still don't get it. Only Daishoho and Oho were announced as promotions to juryo this past Wednesday, which has to mean that Bushozan inexplicably survived as Kotokuzan has been snubbed. Here's hoping they didn't just create the most unlucky career-high Ms1 of the last several decades and he can still grab that promotion eventually, preferably right next time of course.

Demotable by the numbers but retained a spot in juryo (best available would-be replacement/s). Since 2004: 2004.03: J14e 7-8 (Ms5e 4-3) 2004.05: J13e 6-9, J14w 7-8 (Ms7e 4-3) 2005.03: J10w 5-10, J12e 6-9, J14e 7-8 (Ms5w 4-3, Ms7e 6-1) 2005.05: J12e 5-10 (Ms6w 5-2) 2005.11: J11w 5-10 (Ms5e 4-3, Ms7w 6-1) 2006.11: J8w 4-11 (Ms4e 4-3) 2007.05: J14e 7-8 (Ms4w 5-2) ! 2010.03: J8e 4-11 (Ms3e 4-3) ! 2010.09: J14e 7-8 (Ms4w 4-3) 2010.07: J10e 5-7-3 (Ms6w 4-3) 2011.01: J14e 7-8 (Ms5w 4-3) 2011.11: J8e 4-11 (Ms5e 4-3, Ms6e 5-2) 2012.03: J10w 5-10, J12e 6-9 (Ms5w 4-3, Ms6w 5-2) 2012.07: J12w 6-9 (Ms4w 4-3) 2012.11: J11w 5-10 (Ms6e 4-3) 2013.09: J12e 6-9 (Ms6w 5-2) 2013.11: J12e 6-9, J14e 7-8 (Ms6e 4-3) 2014.11: J12w 6-9 (Ms6e 4-3) 2015.09: J8e 4-11 (Ms4w 4-3) 2016.07: J8e 4-11, J12w 6-9 (Ms4e 4-3) 2018.05: J10w 5-10 (Ms5e 4-3, Ms6e 5-2, Ms7e 6-1) 2019.09: J13e 6-9 (Ms6e 5-2) 2020.01: J13e 6-9 (Ms6w 4-3) The only comparable cases among all those were 2007.05 and 2010.03. Meanwhile, the following borderline demotions took place from the first by-the-numbers spot: 2004.11: J14e 7-8 (Ms2w 4-3, Ms5e 6-1) 2007.05: J12e 6-9 (Ms2e 4-3) 2008.01: J12e 6-9, J14e 7-8 (Ms2e 4-3, Ms4e 5-2) 2008.03: J12e 6-9 (Ms3e 5-2) 2008.05: J10e 5-10 (Ms2w 5-2) 2008.09: J14e 7-8 (Ms4w 4-3) ! 2009.05: J14e 7-8 (Ms2e 4-3) 2010.03: J14e 7-8 (Ms1w 4-3) 2010.05: J14e 7-8 (Ms5e 5-2) ! 2010.11: J8e 4-11 (Ms5w 5-2) ! 2012.07: J6e 3-6-6 (Ms4e 4-3) ! 2013.07: J10e 5-10 (Ms3w 4-3) ! 2014.05: J12e 6-9 (Ms3e 4-3) ! 2015.01: J12e 6-9 (Ms4e 4-3) ! 2015.03: J10e 5-10 (Ms3e 5-2) 2015.11: J8e 4-11 (Ms4e 4-3) ! 2017.01: J10e 5-10 (Ms3e 5-2) 2018.09: J12e 6-9 (Ms4w 5-2) A much bigger list of guys placed the same or worse than Kotokuzan who got promoted anyway. Edit: From the second by-the-numbers spot (excluding J14w 7-8, and basho where somebody else also got demoted from a first spot, i.e. already represented in the previous list): 2004.09: J12w 6-9 (Ms3e 5-2) 2005.07: J6w 3-12, J10w 5-10 (Ms4w 4-3, Ms6w 5-2) !! 2005.09: J10w 5-10 (Ms5e 5-2) 2006.05: J12w 6-9 (Ms1w 4-3) 2008.07: J10w 5-10 (Ms3w 4-3) ! 2009.09: J10w 5-10, J12w 6-9 (Ms1e 4-3) 2010.09: J10w 5-10 (Ms3w 4-3) ! 2013.03: J10w 5-10 (Ms5w 5-2) ! 2014.07: J10w 5-10 (Ms3e 4-3) 2015.05: J12w 6-9 (Ms3e 6-1) 2019.03: J10w 5-10 (Ms3w 6-1) 2019.07: J10w 5-10 (Ms4w 4-3) ! 2020.09: J12w 6-9 (Ms5w 6-1)

All of which is completely irrelevant without looking at the actual context of each case. Not exchanging Bushozan and Kotokuzan here is extremely unusual.

The new ballot for Natsu 2021: 1. Terunofuji 12 Yoshii 10* 2. Murata 9 3. Ura 8 4. Tosamidori 8 Takakento 6 5. Takanosho 6 Ichinojo 5 6. Ichiyamamoto 6 7. Tochimaru 6 Anzai 5 8. Shinohara 6* Hayatefuji 5* Kirameki 5* 9. Takayasu 5 10. Meisei 5 Midorifuji 4 Tohakuryu 4 Bushozan 4 11. Kotokuzan 5 12. Ofukasawa 5* 13. Shishi 5* 14. Fujikawa 5 15. Kawabuchi 5 16. Hagiwara 5* --- 17. Chiyonokuni 4 Chiyonokuni joins us with a Covid-interrupted 4-KK streak as the only sekitori addition for May. Scores for banzuke purposes: ryafuji 15 (14+Top) chishafuwaku 15 (14+Top) Mmikasazuma 14 (13+TB) Asashosakari 12 Hakuryuho 12 Athenayama 11 WAKATAKE 11 Profomisakari 11 (10+TB) Rocks 9 (8+TB) Holleshoryu 8 Jejima 8 Total: 126 / 11 = 11.45 ---> -4 wins Pretty obvious KK/MK split this time. ryafuji was joint last in January, BTW. Nice turnaround! The new banzuke for Natsu 2021: Asashosakari (Ye 8-7) Y --- chishafuwaku (O1w 11-4 D) O1 Mmikasazuma (O1e 10-5) --- O2 Athenayama (O2w 7-8) ryafuji (M4e 11-4 Y) S Kashunowaka (Sw kosho) Hakuryuho (M2e 8-7) K WAKATAKE (Se 7-8) Ryoshishokunin (M1e kosho) M1 Sakura (M1w kosho) Profomisakari (Ke 7-8) M2 Holleshoryu (Kw 4-11) Rocks (M3w 5-10) M3 Jejima (M2w 4-11) Achiyama (M3e 0-0-15) M4 --- Mmikasazuma was on an extended tsuna run after yusho in November and kosho in January - while third place is an excellent result, considering the small number of players in this game I need to be firm and require something more for a promotion. The run will be carried over to the next tournament of course, with chishafuwaku now also being observed again after his doten performance. Athenayama will be entering May kadoban.

There is of course also the tabloids' long-standing contention that Onokuni was the only mid-80s high ranker who was completely gachinko, which one may or may not want to incorporate into assessing his results relative to his peers.

The most recent case was a whole bunch of 7-8 maegashira keeping their ranks after Hatsu 2020 with sanyaku dropping from 8 to 7. (That was in fact also the most recent basho that saw a sanyaku reduction altogether, so it's as current as it could possibly be.)

The "no" in "no way" stands for "next ozeki".

Hello Susanoo, while I am saddened to see this, I want to thank you for your honourable decision. You served Seki-Toto well as yokozuna for the last three years! I will move you to the bottom of the banzuke for the next basho as you requested. It's okay to keep the same shikona if you want.

Hey now, there's an off-hand comment I made back in 2014 about a potential bit of trivia for which I'm still waiting for the guy in question to finish his career so it becomes true.

Day 15 Three LKS sekitori entered the day with 7-7 records: Takakento, Ichinojo and Takanosho, with the first two still having points up for grabs and Takanosho relevant for the tie-breaker. And chishafuwaku required makekoshi for all three - Takakento and Ichinojo in order to close the points gap to ryafuji, Takanosho so that the TB would remain at his predicted value of 15. Alas, while the points both came in, Takanosho's MK did not. And so both contenders ended up missing the TB and the yusho decision went to a bracket playoff, which was won by ryafuji on slot #2, Yoshii's MK. Congrats on not quite pulling a Takayasu and actually bringing your once commanding lead home for the title. This is ryafuji's second LKS yusho after Hatsu 2015, while chishafuwaku finishes doten runner-up for the 5th time (that's now sole second place all-time behind Asashosakari's 6). Just four entrants predicted Takakento's MK and even just one had Ichinojo down for his, so senshuraku didn't bring in all that many additional points. A trio of players ended up benefitting from their TB entries, hitting the mark with their predictions of 16. The final standings for Haru 2021: Day 15: 19/19 Decisions, TB 16 Pos Player Pts TB 1 ryafuji 14 20 2 chishafuwaku 14 15 3 Mmikasazuma 13 16 4 Asashosakari 12 15 4 Hakuryuho 12 14 6 Athenayama 11 19 6 WAKATAKE 11 18 8 Profomisakari 10 16 9 Rocks 8 16 10 Holleshoryu 8 17 10 Jejima 8 21 I'll be rolling up the usual end-of-basho information tomorrow.

Day 14 Four of the remaining six decisions came in on the penultimate day, led by Terunoji achieving his 11th win to match our target record for him. A positive result was also booked by Murata who achieved his ninth straight KK, the last five of them all 4-3's. On the other hand we're saying goodbye to shin-sekitori Bushozan and makushita youngster Hayatefuji who both landed in makekoshi territory at 6-8 and 3-4 respectively. These were all small majority predictions (two 7:4, two 6:5), so a sizable amount of points was scored. No zeros, but all scores from 1 to 4 points occurred multiple times causing significant jumbling of the standings. Two final additions to the next ballot were also secured by sandanme pair Kawabuchi and Hagiwara. The latter was in fact forced to leave the basho after four rounds (with a score of 3-1) and only returned on Day 14 to clinch a 4-1-2 kachikoshi. --------------------------- Those two off-ballot sandanme results also eliminated Hakuryuho from our yusho race already as they pushed the TB score to a minimum of 14, equal to his prediction. One of the two results he still needed to go in his favour (and against leader ryafuji) was a KK prediction, so it was now impossible for Hakuryuho to tie for the top score and still hit the correct TB as required for his yusho hopes. The chronologically next two results - MK for Hayatefuji and KK for Murata - both went in the remaining pursuers' favour with Asashosakari and chishafuwaku picking up two points and ryafuji neither. Bushozan's MK was predicted by all three and made no difference, but Terunofuji's target clincher played a role again - Asashosakari was now eliminated from contention, having bet against the ozeki-to-be. The standings at the conclusion of Day 14: Day 14: 17/19 Decisions, TB 15-18 Pos Player Pts TB 1 ryafuji 14 20 2 Hakuryuho 12 14 3 Asashosakari 12 15 4 Mmikasazuma 12 16 5 chishafuwaku 12 15 6 Athenayama 11 19 7 Profomisakari 10 16 8 WAKATAKE 10 18 9 Holleshoryu 8 17 10 Jejima 8 21 11 Rocks 7 16

Specifically, that was after they had given up on the idea of using different banzuke for each city and had re-merged the rankings, but in turn each new banzuke was now used for two tournaments (one Tokyo, one elsewhere).

It's got nothing to do with Hanakaze (or Ichinoya) though; there's always a youngest and an oldest rikishi on the banzuke. The difficult part is for these two specific rikishi to be ranked sufficiently close to each other. Edit: Okay, "nothing to do" overstates the case. Of course it helps when the oldest guy is ranked way down the banzuke.

There have been a few cases of switches being made between toshiyori, wakaimonogashira and sewanin positions. I suspect somebody else already has a list of that (I don't), so I'll save myself the research time at the moment.

Y/D/J: two Y/J/D: one D/Y/J: eight D/J/Y: two J/Y/D: three J/D/Y: two (All those results include some irrelevant extra hits because it's impossible to query directly for jun-yusho that are not doten.) There are a few cases of overlapping streaks in there. J/Y/D/Y/J for Wajima starting Hatsu 1976, J/Y/D/J for Takanohana starting Haru 1993, and J/D/Y/J for Hakuho starting Hatsu 2006.