sekitori

I'm a big Hakuho fan but I'm really not worried about his competing in November. He had a knee injury requiring endoscopic surgery and is taking his time to rehabilitate. He has absolutely nothing more to prove and It wouldn't surprise me at all if he goes kyujo in November. When you have 44 yushos, missing the chance to get one more soon really doesn't matter. One thing is certain. When he does return to competition, Hakuho will be as healthy as possible. And a physically fit Hakuho is bad news for every rikishi competing against him.

I was looking for an ice cream scoop on Amazon and of course, this is the one I chose. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YMIT5LQ?pf_rd_r=4GKTNPHMYYECATJZXP7B&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee&th=1

Money Heist on Netflix. It concerns a gang stealing money from the Spanish Royal Mint. I've seen seasons 1 and 2 consisting of ten episodes of about 40 minutes each. Seasons 3 and 4 are now available. It's done in Spanish with excellent English dubbing and is considered one of the most watched series on Netflix. Another favorite is a Netflix documentary series--Formula 1; Drive to Survive. It covers two seasons of Grand Prix racing and season 3 will be on the way. I was never much of an automobile racing fan, but this series is a must for anyone who enjoys competition at its highest degreee.

Ura--from Jonidan 106 back to Juryo in only five bashos. He did this despite the fact that he had two severe injuries to his knee, one of which alone could easily have been career ending for many rikishis. He and Terunofuji have pulled off comebacks that could best be described as virtually impossible. I am very happy for both of them.

If a rikishi refuses to get both hands down and is the cause of more than one matta, there could be a more drastic solution--disqualify him for that match. The idea of losing a bout for not following the rules can be a pretty good incentive to obey them. If there is disagreement among the shimpan with the gyoji's decision to disqualify, a mono-ii could be held to settle the situation.

Healing completely from an injury before resuming training makes complete sense. Unfortunately, that situation can only apply to a yokozuna. Far too many rikishis with injuries rush back into competition because of fear of dropping too far down the banzuke. It can take quite a while for a severe injury to heal and it takes an enormous amount of patience for both the rikishi and his oyakata to let those injuries heal completely. A couple of recent examples are Terunofuji and Ura.--but they're quite rare. As for Hakuho, I'm sure that missing a basho while he heals won't mean very much. I doubt very much if it will cause fear of anyone coming anywhere near his record of 44 yushos. His closest rival is Kakuryu who is 38 yushos behind him. In the military service, it's called "rank having its privilege" and it means being able to do things others of lower rank are unable to. The same can be said of the greatest yokozuna ever.

The same can be said for Ura as well. While not as amazing as Terunofuji's rise from jonidan #48 to makunouchi #1 (including a yusho) in eight bashos, his recent record is still extremely impressive--from jonidan #108 to makushita #5 in only four bashos. Two remarkable stories from what seemed like early retirement to success.

I don't believe that keeping the audience down to 2500, or even less, is a good idea. The NSK proved in March that a basho could be successful with no audience in attendance. I think it will be much safer to hold it once again behind closed doors.

The Australian Football League has once again started its schedule of games with no audience in attendance. The NHK may want to emulate the way it's being broadcast. Appropriate crowd background noise is heard and when a goal is scored, the volume of that noise increases and then recedes as play continues. Only when you see a totally empty stadium do you realize that the sound was artificial. If the Aussies can make non-attendance seem like a large crowd, I'm sure the people at NHK can do something similar with sumo--if they care to. On the other hand, the virtually silent sumo broadcasts in Osaka were kind of fascinating. It could be that they may decide to continue broadcasting without any imitation crowd noise at all.

This topic does not concern opinions as to who is the best yokozuna. It only asks for opinions as to who is one's favorite yokozuna. To me, the best yokozuna ever is Hakuho. No one is even close. But because his promotion to yokozuna started relatively late in his career, because he attained so much success after that promotion, and because he was a small rikishi with such great athleticism, my favorite is still Chiyonofuji.

A rikishi's physical peak is an individual matter. Age alone may not be a good inicator of it. Physical condition, lack of injury, and pure talent have much to do with it. Many rikishis are past their prime at age 30. But there are exceptions--some of them extreme. Kokutenho won his first and only yusho at age 37. Hakuho is considered to be past his prime at age 35, but he's still far better than anyone else. He won his 44th yusho in Osaka. I guess the best example of a rikishi becoming successful later in his career is Chiyonofuji. He won his first yusho at age 25--supposedly close to the prime suggested in the above post. He then happened to win 30 more in the next nine years. There are other rikishis such as Aminishiki who while not exactly being in their prime years, have still gone on to have very respectable careers well past so-called "retirement age".

Ishinriki, who reached Juryo 1 in 1989 and retired in 1991, was 175 cm (5 feet 9 inches) tall and weighed 85 kg (187 lb). He was three inches taller than Enho but weighed far less than Enho's 98/99 kg. Despite his very small size, he had a career record of approximately 20 more wins than losses. There may have been smaller rikishis but I doubt if any of them came close to reaching the rank of Juryo 1. This is a video of him putting up a very good performance against Takahanada who later became yokozuna Takanohana.

He didn't win his first yusho until well into his career and then went on to win thirty more. Considering that he was the most athletic rikishi I ever saw, I agree completely wth that statment.

I received my copy a couple of days ago and the Natsu basho was listed as beginning on Sunday 5/24, as currently scheduled. It probably wll be canceled, but the current TV Japan scheduling seems to be correct, at least as of this moment.

These are my thoughts reagrding the chances of upcoming bashos being held (either with or without audience participation). They are just personal observations and I'm sure there will be at least some disagreement with them. Natsu: Cancelled. I doubt if anyone believes that this will go on as scheduled.. Nagoya: Possible but still extremely doubtful. Aki: First chance at return to normal. If there are no Covid positives among rikishis, maybe another basho without an audience? Kyushu-: This is when I believe ozumo as we know it will be back.. However, depending on how much control of the pandemic there may be at that time, I may be overly optimistic.