Asashosakari

Doubtful; there's space for it on either Day 11 or 12. (The corresponding slot is for Harumafuji-Takayasu.) The only intra-sanyaku match I can see getting scrapped this basho is Mitakeumi-Kotoshogiku.

First time since Nagoya 1999 that nobody in juryo has more than 6 wins after 9 days. Even the infamous 9-6 yusho tournament saw somebody starting 7-2.

Excellent bout between Dewahayate and Wakamotoharu today: And a couple of bouts later, somebody in this 3-1 matchup was really interested in getting his kachikoshi...

After a while I've now come across some more posts of mine that were corrupted in the forum database conversion last year, and for a different reason (apparently) than the non-breaking whitespace issue that killed a whole bunch of my old comments. In this thread, several formerly embedded Youtube videos have mysteriously gone missing. The videos themselves still exist in my Youtube account, so video deletion is not the cause.

Then the list is a bit longer: 1950.01 and 1989.09 in 15-day tournaments, plus several more modern era cases with less than 15 days.

By "in the midst", do you mean rikishi who returned for later days?

I don't normally highlight Orora matches because it's a bit of a shooting fish in a barrel situation, but this was unusual sumo even by the standards of his bouts:

What BBCodes are you trying to use? The codes that correspond to the various button options (bold, italics, underline, etc.) still work.

Presentation, again with thanks to One And Only: Shikona: Tokimaru = 斗城丸 (not the same kanji as in his given name) Still none for Minami. I guess they'll let the duplication slide since it was just maezumo, and either he or the other Minami will have a new shikona next time. And via Sanspo comes the news that I had the order of the additional finishers wrong; apparently it's Uminishiki in front of Kotokumazoe. (I've corrected it above.) Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but maybe the internal "numbering" of the 4 returnees was different from what I assumed - it's possible that Kotokumazoe was actually what I would call Mz3 or Mz4. Unfortunately that's impossible to tell with multiple same-heya returnees.

That's some mighty dose of armchair psychology. What makes you think you know what "the ideal moment to retire" is, and what makes you believe that a rikishi deviating from your idea somehow must be delusional about his career prospects?

Cough. (Of course, he lost that one, too...)

You don't actually believe that shisho force rikishi to fight on rather than intai, do you?

Sekiwake and below.

Don't know about Hakuho, but Amuru appears to prefer the South side. (Too good to just have it in the pics thread.)

As mentioned elsewhere, a little over 5% of all modern-era rikishi who got to face yokozuna in their careers were already ranked in sanyaku by the time it first happened. This is the list of these 26 rikishi, of whom only Wakashoyo managed to win his first-time yokozuna encounter: Rikishi First Y Rank Yokozuna Notes Miyagiyama 1927.01 Y2e Tsunenohana Okitsuumi 1933.01 S1e Tamanishiki 5th sanyaku basho; draw; loss in next basho also as S; no kinboshi opportunities Takanobori 1933.01 S1w Tamanishiki 3rd sanyaku basho Tomoegata 1935.05 K1w Tamanishiki Ayanobori 1936.01 K1e Tamanishiki Fudoiwa 1945.11 K1w Terukuni beat Y later in same basho Tokitsuyama 1952.01 K1w Azumafuji Kiyokuni 1964.03 S1w Tochinoumi Kitanofuji 1964.03 K1e Kashiwado Mienoumi 1970.07 K1w Kitanofuji beat 2 Y later in same basho Asahikuni 1972.11 S1w Kitanofuji Kitanoumi 1973.01 K1e Kitanofuji Chiyonofuji 1978.07 K1w Kitanoumi Oyutaka 1983.01 K1w Chiyonofuji Onokuni 1983.09 K1w Chiyonofuji Kotogaume 1985.11 K1w Chiyonofuji beat Y later in same basho Tochinowaka 1987.07 K1e Futahaguro Ryogoku 1987.07 K1w Chiyonofuji beat 2 Y later in same basho Maenoshin 1987.09 K1e Hokutoumi three Y matches in that basho, none afterwards Misugisato 1989.01 K1w Chiyonofuji Musashimaru 1993.03 S1e Akebono 6th sanyaku basho; no kinboshi opportunities Wakashoyo 1993.03 K1w Akebono won Naminohana 1995.03 K1e Akebono Hakuba 2010.07 K1e Hakuho only Y match in career Chiyootori 2014.05 K1w Hakuho beat Y later in same basho Jokoryu 2014.09 K1e Kakuryu Plenty of later top stars in there, and also several close calls where they ended up beating other yokozuna in the same tournament, which makes it so astounding that the success rate has been 1 in 26. The links go to each rikishi's list of yokozuna bouts, so you can check the details for yourself if you're so inclined. (Note: My definition of "modern era" in this case was that rikishi must have had their first yokozuna match in 1927 or after. They were allowed to have been active before 1927.)