Chiyozakura

That is sad to hear. He seems to have been a man of great character. When he decided to join Ozumo he could basicaly choose the heya as he was expected to have a great career. He chose Isenoumi because the Oyakata guaranteed him a kabu. After he joined he was not nearly as successful as expected and only rose the ranks slowly. He even got the Oyakata's shikona of Fujinokawa. After being injured he realized he would never make Sanyaku and decided to leave sumo altogether despite having a kabu ready for him because he did not want to just be a rank and file Oyakata.

The number of Yusho in the table above is not connected to Yokozuna promotion but to age 25. If you take the number of Yusho after Yokozuna promotion some 100% guys turn into 25% (Asahifuji) or 20% (Kotozakura). For Takanohana and Akebono on the other hand the percentages will rise quite a bit as they made Yokozuna early. So I would not completely agree to your thesis as for some Yokozuna promotion is the crowning achievement of their career with not much to come later on while for others it is just a step towards dominance of the sport. I would put Onosato into the second category. Hoshoryu probably is somewhere in the middle like a Musashimaru or Kitanofuji, strong but not "the guy".

I would not call Futabayama an exception. Many dai-Yokozuna became Rijicho. Tochinishiki led the Kyokai for 16 years after winning 10 yusho, most before the 6 basho per year were established and at that time te second most in history. Kitanoumi was also a long-term Rijicho. As mentioned above Taiho had serious health issues but still became Riji. Chiyonofuji was a very tough man who seems to not have been popular with other rikishi while Takanohana simply was too much of a reformer and everything but diplomatic. Hakuho is the only one I do not understand why he has such a bad reputation within the NSK. I hope he stays. It is way more interesting when the Shisho are former major rikishi than having a bunch of Maegashira running the show.

Actually Aminishiki once got one for an 8-7 at low Maegashira aftet having been down in Juryo for a year in his late 30`s so that is not impossible. With Shishi I probably just don`t get the joke but he is young and won the Juryo Yusho just one basho earlier.

I assume it has to do with what is expected from you. This is only Sadanoumi's third ever double digit record and he never made Sanyaku so it is a special achievement. Tamawashi on the other hand is a former Sekiwake with two yusho to his credit so a 10-5 at mid-Maegashira is not that special for him.

Kotozakura seems to have developed the worst tachi-ai among the top rikishi. I all of his fights I have seen this basho he has been in a bad position after the start.

It depends on how you see it. Kokonoe Beya had their first Yokozuna after two years but Kitanofuji was already an Ozeki when Chiyonoyama branched out. In their first basho of existance Kokonoe Beya won both the Makuuchi and Juryo Yusho. It was a very special case, though, as Chiyonoyama was originally thought to take over Dewanoumi Beya, but then active Yokozuna Sadanoyama married the existing Shisho's daughter and became the hier apparent. Chiyonoyama was then granted independent status under the condition to leave the ichimon completely and Dewanoumi Beya's top rikishi Ozeki Kitanofuji threatened to retire if he were not allowed to follow. Two years later he was promoted to Yokozuna and played a huge role in making Kokonoe the heya with the most Makuuchi Yusho, which I think they hold until this day.

And it is by far not the worst thing a former Tokitsukaze has been arrested for. There are not many kabu you can say this about. Is his former shisho still in prison? Maybe they can share a cell?

It has been some time since my last post on this forum but this thread itches my fingers too much as there is so much wrong information in it. There are no clear rules as to what will happen in regards to promotions. The people in charge change all the time, public reception changes, business situation changes, etc. pp and thus something that has been done a year ago could be handled the opposite way now. On the positive side it makes it interesting but on the negative side your favourite rikishi can suffer under it. The suprisingly positive side of it is that they basically got Yokozuna promotions right. There are hardly any career Ozeki who have done way better than the worst Yokozuna. There is a guideline, not a rule, that an Ozeki with back to back yusho will be promoted but they can be promoted with less and also not be promoted with it. We have not had the case, yet, but in 1996 we had Musashimaru winning an Ozeki yusho at 11-4 and the NSK publicly declared he was not on a Tsuna run the next basho as 4 losses were not Yokozuna material. So it is not a given, but still might be done some day. Chiyonoyama was a completely different case. The NSK wanted to promote him but his Oyakata sad he was still too immature. The whole thing was based on then-Dewanoumi (Ex-Tsunenohana), not on the rest of the NSK or YDC. Konishiki's case is always brought up again but I can assure you it was more of an international affair than something that was a major topic in the sumo world when it happened. His middle tournament of 12-3 looks way better on paper than in real time. He got his third loss on day 7 and was out of the Yusho race. The headlines were on 19-year old Maegashira Takahanada who went 14-1 and got his first yusho and the the second topic was Akebono, a 21-year old Komusubi finishing 13-2. So it was not even close to a jun-yusho for Konishiki but an also-ran behind the future of sumo. When he went into the next basho there was a consenus that he was not on a Yokozuna run. There are no internet forums to check that up but Sumo World magazine is a nice contemporary witness. If you read the roundtable discussions with guys like Andy Adams, David Shapiro, Clyde Newton, Doreen Simmons and others you will find that they do not even discuss Konishiki's promotion but discuss how he was weak mentally by blowing it in the first week and overall not being Yokozuna material. There is no promotion talk after his last yusho, however they are surprised by the international uproar during the July issue. And Sumo World was known for highlighting the Hawaiian rikishi as Americans were probably their main readership. These days, however, Konishiki's results may warrant promotion as they have become more lenient again. By the way, the best example for someone not being promoted to Yokozuna despite outstanding results is Asahifuji in early 1989 with five straight basho of 12 plus jun-yushos, three straight tournaments with a maximum of two losses and two play-off appearances and already a Yusho to his credit from the year before. I am pretty sure Kotozakura would be promoted somewhere along the way if he were to put up the same numbers now. But given sumo's state of having no outstanding rikishi at the moment he might win five yusho with those results.

Sorry but that is nonsense. Konishiki had borderline numbers at best and that only two years after Asahifuji had consistently put up numbers of 12+ basho without being promoted. The whole Konishiki discrimination story came up after one of Konishiki's tsukebito answered the phone to a tabloid and made some crude remarks which then were blown up. Just checking Asahifuji's career or the course of the bashos where Konishiki came statistically close shows that it was wrong.

He looks very short and not like 176cm. Takadagawa is only 176cm himself (at best) and looks a lot taller then the kid.

Miyabiyama was completely different from Onosato. He was very raw and made Ozeki mainly by power and a little bit of luck. Musashigawa Beya was hot at the time and he did not have to face Yokozuna Musashimaru and the Ozeki Dejima and Musoyama (who made Ozeki at about the same time) and Miyabiyama was never considered to be a serious Yusho contender. I remember my worst sumo predicition ever: My take was that Miyabiyama would surely become a Yokozuna. Why? Because he made Ozeki with such bad sumo that he should be nearly unbeatable once he learns to do good sumo. Good example should be his loss to Takatoriki in Takatoriki's sole yusho where Miyabiyama had easily dominated the match but somehow let Takatoriki escape to the side at the edge. Onosato on the other hand looks like the best rikishi around already and his wins look solid.

If I remember correctly Asahifuji joined the sumo club at Kinki university and quickly left because he did not like the way he was treated as a newcomer. He quit university completely and became a fisherman until ex-Asahikuni persuaded him to join his stable. The condition was that Asahifuji would be tsukebito only to the stablemaster. As he never competed in university sumo he is not considered to have a college sumo background.

And it's posts like these the keep reminding me why I am not posting anymore...

I rarely write in the forum anymore but as my avatar here is a Chiyonoyama Tegata this might be a good reason to add a bit to the Chiyonofuji/Kokonoe discussion. Chiyonofuji was Chiyonoyama's pick as his successor. They came from the same area in Japan, both were very slim rikishi, Chiyonoyama like Chiyonofuji's determination and saw great things for him. Kitanofuji would not have been a good successor because age-wise he was too close to Chiyonoyama. So after his retirement he founded his own Izutsu Beya. Then Chiyonoyama died at only 51. Chiyonofuji was still at the start of his career and was only 21 years old. So Kitanofuji took over but only as a stop-gap until Chiyonofuji could take over. When Chiyonofuji finally retired both fullfilled their original mentor's wish in making Chiyonofuji Kokonoe Oyakata. That is why Chiyonofuji did not take the ichidai toshiyori. When former Yokozuna Hokutoumi founded his own heya Kitanofuji and the rest of the personell went with him. My take on this is because Hokutoumi was Kitanofuji's deshi while Chiyonofuji was Chiyonoyama's. Kitanofuji could concentrate on his career in the NSK which did not work out, but that is another story. I do not think Kitanofuji or anyone else was ousted from Kokonoe Beya, though. I do not recall reading many negative stories from Chiyonofuji's active time. There was the hazing of Hokutenyu's brother but overall I think he was widely respected but not liked very much by his rivals. He was also very vocal in criticizing others. The story of Akebono visiting a restaurant while kyujo or his comments on Onokuni's training come to my mind. I doubt you will find any reliable sources that will tell the whole truth on Chiyonofuji's failed Oyakata career, though.