ryafuji

Noting here for the record that Kotoyuki has retired and is borrowing the Kimigahama kabu from Okinoumi. Chiganoura turned 70 on April 10th - is that vacant now?

A bit more background from Lora Sharnoff's Grand Sumo: "In September 1988, three young men from the Philippines, the first sumotori ever from that country, joined Kataonami-Beya. It seems that a television documentary about sumo had inspired a good number of young Filipinos to write to the local office of the Japan Society to ask how to join the sport. Kataonami Oyakata flew to Manila expressly to interview and select the three he felt had the greatest potential, only to have them run out on him by the end of the year." No mention of visa scams.

I shudder to think of what Konishiki's dohyo-iri would have been like if his tsuna run had been successful. I sometimes wonder if that was in the back of the Kyokai's mind when they denied him.

Dewanojo 258 kilos? Wow. By my reckoning that makes him the 4th heaviest rikishi of all time, behind only Orora, Konishiki and Yamamotoyama.

They don't have a lot of choice, as the Kokugikan will be unavailable due to Olympic boxing.

That's correct, yes, he did offer to retire after that but they asked him to carry on. He sat out the next basho, but unfortunately he broke his ankle on the last day of his comeback tournament.

Those were two occasions when he did manage to get it together in the first week, yes, something which he usually failed at. I still think "criminally underrated" is a bit of an exaggeration, although maybe you weren't being completely serious. And I'm curious to know whether you watched his performances at the time, or if you're just going off the statistics. My perception of him may be biased by personal memory and it can be useful to get a fresh perspective, but IMO he was way too inconsistent even before the make-koshi disaster.

Ok, I'm not sure exactly when the list comes out, the "Retirees after" and "Promotions to juryo" threads her tend to be posted at the same time, usually the Wednesday after the basho. My point is that the database is usually updated in one go, I think.

There is an official intai list that is released along with the promotions to juryo - when that happens, Kakuryu will get the dreaded grey box.

Hmmm. Were you around when Onokuni was a Yokozuna? He was brilliant as an ozeki, but his Yokozuna career never got going. He did win one yusho in that first 18 months, but other than that was barely even in contention... only one jun-yusho. And that 8-7 in September 1988 was awful to watch. For the talent he had, it was very disappointing.

Died on the 11th, but only announced today. The family funeral has already been held. Was ozeki for 10 tournaments; an ankle injury contributed to him losing his rank.

Phew! Felt sure that Ichinojo's limp three-bout losing streak at the end there was going to cost me

Ozeki> Jonidan > Ozeki. That must rank pretty highly in all-time sporting comebacks, never mind just sumo.

Post 1958, yes. Of course there were older ones than that historically. Kimenzan Tanigoro was "promoted" at age 43.