Danjinoumi

Ack - just saw this ... I live 2 hours south of Tampa. Would have been fun to watch the sumo ... and eat the sushi!

There is a great YouTube clip of all of the Akebono - Takanohana matches. Whenever one would -taoshi the other off the dohyo, the winner would often reach out to be sure the other was OK. I doubt there were many rikishi that commanded that kind of respect from either of them.

Wouldn't it be the other way around to promote two Ozeki - Hoshoryu yushos and Daieisho jun-yushos?

In the better late than never department, how about this?

Can you remind us the Kotooshu episode? I don't know about this one See Sekihiryu's post here :-P

Hey, I didn't know there was a Mexican-born rikishi in ozumo! A horrible joke, I know, but I couldn't resist ... (Shaking head...) (Maybe I'd better add this link in case anyone misinterprets my post)

Tokushinho should just eke his way into the bottom of the paid ranks with a 4-3 record from Ms2W. Omedetou! (Sign of approval...)

What a difference a change in shikona can make! Following up his makushita yusho last basho, my adoptee Tokushinho (the former Shiratsuka) overcame a 1-2 start to get a huge kachikoshi win on senshuraku. As there are many kachikoshi and few makekoshi rikishi above him, I suspect he will only move up the banzuke slightly. Still, he is well positioned for the jump to the paid ranks with a strong performance in Nagoya. Go Shira ... er, Tokushinho!!

No, he would have been too low even with a 7-0, and the yusho doesn't provide any particular bonus, it's just a normal 6-1 record for banzuke purposes. At first glance I think he'll be somewhere between Ms3e and Ms4e which would be slightly lucky (Ms5-6 is the "normal" height). Thanks for the clarification. Looks like he'll be about where he was last basho, or maybe a slight bit higher. He didn't fare so well the first time around from that rank, but maybe he'll be able to parlay the confidence he gained from winning the yusho into a successful push to a Juryo promotion. EDIT: I should have read Doitsuyama's post about Juryo promotions a little more carefully also.

Well done, Tokushinho! (In jonokuchi...) After the worst basho in his young career (albeit at his highest rank), he comes back strong with a yusho performance. Must've been the shikona change that did it for him. By winning the Makushita yusho, will he automatically be promoted to Juryo, or at Ms17e, is he too low on the banzuke for that?

That's funny - I was usually eyeballed like a vampire looking at a potential snack when I used to walk by the facility at my local university. Very few foreigners in my neck of the woods, and O negative is the universal donor ... (darn, where's a nice vampire emoticon when you need one? :-P )

Looks like Shiratsuka is a "not (quite) ready for prime time player". At ms5w he stumbled directly to make-koshi before winning two in a row. I hoped he could minimize the damage and keep himself within striking distance of a return to makushita joi (and then on to sekitori-hood, of course) with a third win, but he lost his final match to end up at 2-5. He should fall to ~ms15-18 for the Haru Basho. Let's hope this basho was a wake-up call and he comes back over the next two or three basho full of ganbarization and ready to reach glorious new heights as a sekitori!

After heating the wall for the first time with a 3-4 record in Nagoya, Shiratsuka is back on the kachi-koshi bandwagon with a 5-2 Aki Basho performance and a 4-3 record from Ms8e (his highest rank to date) in Kyushu. His KK 4th victory came in his last bout, over the aforementioned Kazafuzan on Day 14. More than half of the Makushita rikishi ranked above him went make-koshi this basho, which hopefully bodes well for a place in the Makushita-joi and being within striking distance of a sekitori promotion with a strong showing in January. Gambare Shiratsuka!!!

As you can see from my new avatar, the mighty (ex-)Boltono comes through again! Many thanks, ST!

Nope, I had my Bench Sumo danpatsu-shiki a few years ago. Jejima has volunteered to get in touch with the aforementioned ex-Boltono on my behalf.