ryafuji

Well to be fair, he does have a reason - he's never missed a bout in his career and he wants to keep that streak going. You may not agree with it but it's a reason nonetheless.

Chiganoura has also been quoted as saying, ""He said he wants to sit out the meet because he's feeling pain. It must really hurt because he rarely says he's hurt" so I'm not sure Takakeisho needed that much persuading.

Yutakayama is clearly way too good for juryo. But his makuuchi performances have largely been disappointing so far.

Unprecedented? Anyone know of a previous occastion that a makushita wore a silk mawashi for a juryo visit? And no I don't think I ever recall Kotonowaka wearing grey.

1. Tomokaze KK 2. Hoshoryu KK 3. Takakeisho 9-6 4. Enho KK 5. Goeido 10-5 6. Takayasu 11-4 7. Chiyosakae MK 8. Hokutoshu MK 9. Tanakayama KK 10. Meisei MK 11. Sokokurai MK  TB 14

No, it's happened before - July 2004 and January 2005 had Tochiazuma, Dejima and Miyabiyama for example.

Still no Banzuke Topics at sumo.or.jp/en? It's been a week now. How quickly do they do the Japanese version?

Well he still has his topknot - write his name back on the banzuke and get him out there!

It’s a lot better than it was though - by the late 70s and early 80s they were doing the tachi-ai from virtually a standing position. You never see that anymore. The mid 80s crackdown, which involved showing all the rikishi old film of Futabayama’s tachi-ai, definitely returned things much closer to the both fists on the ground rule.

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere already. Ex-sekiwake Kurohimeyama died of pneumonia on April 25 at the age of 70. He fought for Tatsunami beya and had a streak of 1065 consecutive makuuchi bouts. Two jun-yusho, eight sansho, six kinboshi. After retiring he coached at Tatsunami before branching out with his own Takekuma stable in 1999, although it folded after only five years in 2004. He reached 65 in 2013 and left the Kyokai (I guess that was just before the "come back for five years as a consultant" reforms.) https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/201904260000576.html

He may prefer to simply take over Miyagino as his shisho isn't that far off retirement age. (I guess he could re-name it Hakuho stable.)

Article in English https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/04/17/sumo/yokozuna-hakuho-takes-step-toward-japanese-citizenship/#.XLcmiOSWymQ (Wonder who the "sumo source" is?)

That translation offers a great insight into his way of thinking. Clearly he regards winning two bouts and continuing his uninterrupted streak of appearances since his debut as worth all the pain. This guy is "gaman" taken to the max.

Reports at the time (Tatsunami Oyakata's version, essentially) said he lost his temper and began kicking the 92-year-old head of his koenkai. When the okamisan tried to intervene, he pushed her through a sliding door, injuring her hand. He then went into hiding and his oyakata handed in his retirement papers in his absence. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-01-11-8803210309-story.html

Yeah, seems he may well stay at 17E as Toyonoshima and Ikioi both did too badly to stay ahead of him, and Takagenji didn’t do enough.