Yangnomazuma

If one must google the name, can one even consider the person the GOAT of GOATs? I think not.

I was struck by the obvious grimace of pain when he got into the kneeling position. I'm quite familiar with that pain and it gives me even more appreciation for the strength of the man. To work through that pain - it doesn't really get much better unless you're really warmed up, something I'm thinking sumotori rarely achieve. Mine have the tendency to hurt for a while, go numb until the surrounding muscles get tired, then announce themselves with a hearty "here I am!!!". Without my braces, some of my activities are just not possible - bowling, racquetball, etc. At least I still have golf and darts without the braces.

In MMA and boxing, they remove their gloves and leave them in the middle of the ring. Hopefully we won't be seeing a mawashi left on the dohyo.

I often read the righteous indignation from the SF masses when certain things happen and giggle uncontrollably. I prime the fingers for a snarky retort then remember that it's a forum and opinions are meant to be shared. Aoiyama with a dame-oshi? Would you rather have Aoiyama fully engaged in the basho, trying his hardest, and putting in effort, or would you prefer slow, weak, IDGAF Aoiyama? At least he found his balls and decided to fight. Henka this and henka that? I think the Forum makes much ado about nothing on that topic. It's part of the game. This talk about Hakuho's bout on day 14 and people bemoaning his lack of hinkaku is pretty hilarious. I remember back in the day when Asashoryu was the GOAT and people were literally whining about hinkaku and how Hakuho was SOOO much better than him. It was said it will be nice when Asashoryu is gone so we can have a Yokozuna (Hakuho) who embodies all the good in life. Now, it appears he's the devil incarnate. Was it unconventional? Sure. Were those harite delivered with much gusto? Yes!!! Does "Ozeki" Shodai deserve a wake up call? Hell yes! I can only hope that at least part of the reasoning was just that; to smack some sense into an Ozeki that underperforms with the regularity Old Faithful. All told, thanks for the laughs.

Fair enough. To be more precise, however, I believe it's the YDC that has a problem with it, and they don't really count all that much. I may have missed the rumblings, but I don't recall the actual Kyokai saying much about it. As for me, I kind of like both films. You got Rocky running the stairs in Philly for Terunofuji and an old spaghetti Western - nothing terribly exciting, but familiar and soothing for Hakuho. Sumo is better off with Hakuho on the dohyo as long as he wants to be there.

Yes, but Terunofuji got the benefit of fighting his way back into shape against far inferior competition. Hakuho comes back and faces the best of the rest. Why people continue to complain about the yokozunae taking time off is beyond me. It's a perk that they earned and it's not going to change. You can let it bother you for the rest of your life or accept that you're not in position to change it and learn to deal with it.

This Covid thing has made me make updates to my databases. Somehow I was foolish enough to only allow Hatsu, Haru, Natsu, Nagoya, Aki, Kyushu instead of November, March, and July...

So, looking at the Juryo banzuka at Nakabi, it appears there's going to be some really bad banzuke luck for some Juryo KKs and/or some really bad banzuke luck for Makuuchi MKs. There's literally very few places to maneuver around in there.

I was unaware that the measuring stick on whether or not someone was excited by ozumo was the number of comments they make on Sumo Forum during the bouts. :)

I watched his Day 2 bout over again and noted that his aite seemed to push right a little to deny that left-hand thrust across that often puts people off balance for Takakeisho. Perhaps it was a bit of circumstance, perhaps on purpose. Who knows. Day 3 he had things working pretty well against a game opponent. Just couldn't finish. We'll see him move on and I've got him winning on Day 4.

Ozeki Takakeisho will have won two yusho and two jun-yusho by next January. He may well amass a 12-bout winning streak.

Off the top of my head I can think of Akinoshima. A quick wiki search shows "27 tournaments, 15 at komosubi and 12 at sekiwake"

Accidentally hit the Closed Captioning button while perusing the Kintamayama vid. "What the nuggets slam"!!! I'm dying over here...

Hmm, so your stance is solely on your mistaken belief that the move Terutsuyoshi performed was "cheap". I simply cannot buy into the mindset that someone who is outweighed by such an amount need throw himself into a strength contest against the larger opponent with the alternative being called "cheap". Methinks that's a rather narrow-minded view on what is "acceptable" in a sumo contest.

Wait, what? We have a daily allowance of likes? Who knew?

There are two different Korean Hanja to denote "large". 大 is the kanji used in dai yokozuna. It is very common. 太 is used for situations where the largeness is even more substantial or unimaginably large. I don't know the Japanese pronunciation for this, but the Korean difference is "dae" for the former and "tae" for the latter. Perhaps we should go with "tai-yokozuna" :)

Agreed that Asanoyama seems to be blossoming even more. He'll be a good Ozeki, I believe and quite possibly the next Yokozuna. Takakeisho is a favorite of mine as I like a good strong oshi guy (a la Chiyotaikai), but he really doesn't seem to be able to get that strong left hand push that got him to Ozeki right now. Hopefully it will come back and he'll be a long term Ozeki. If he can't find that power, I fear he may be another kadoban-prone Ozeki.

Asanoyama had won the previous three meetings against that aite, now four. He had no 'psychological disadvantage' to overcome...

Losing overall record to Daieisho, but in the vein of "what have you done for me lately", I'd say he turned that tide a while back. He has won the last three, after all...

And clearly I need to brush up on my reading comprehension. Ozeki run indeed...

Oh..I found it! http://www.anasuya.com/sfi/ Doesn't appear to have been updated since almost the beginning.

Hmmm...seeing Leonishiki's kesho mawashi, I'm reminded that someone used to make those things. Anyone remember who? Would love to see my Yang-Gnome picture on a kesho mawashi. Would be quite hilarious to me. Oh, and welcome back Kashunowaka!

Apparently, you can go banzuke-gai on Sumoforum and return with tsuna intact! :)

On closer inspection, it appears to be stamped in, not carved. The stamp would be metal and would be placed on the location and hit with a hammer. Either way, I believe it still to be the "signature", if you will, of the artist.

The writing on the bottom appears to be a name stamp of some sort. The Koreans call it "do-jang" (Hanja/kanji = 圖章, Japanese pronunciation unknown) These stamps were used in many ways - dipped in ink to stamp a parchment, dipped in wax to seal a document, or even made of metal and used to burn the impression in wood. This appears to be carved and would then not be "do-jang" but simply the artists signature or "nak-kwan" (Hanja/kanji = 落 款, Japanese pronunciation appears to be "rak kan"). Might be someone out there with more insight to confirm or deny my expectation of exactly what the carving on the base is.