Koorifuu

The surface doesn't look too different from what Wimbledon's does after a week and a half of action.

Needless to say that'd have been considered insane in any western contact sport nowadays. Ozumo certainly is its own beast in many aspects.

Perhaps offtopic, but either Asatenmai or Asabenkei had a period in which he celebrated wins with heavy metal-like energetic headbanging and shrieking... which, obviously, was kiboshed after a couple of basho. Does anyone remember who it was?

Happy birthday!

So much green.

Unfair competition, the other two have been in Japan for a long time!

That's still in four months at best, there'd be no need to vacate the kabu right away.

Not unlikely at all - but, other than his recurrent kyujo and the fact it's obviously not going to extend into the long term future, it doesn't seem like there's any other hint this is imminent?

Sometimes I find myself wondering, why is it that Asahisho had to go while the Kiriyama seat on the roundtable has been gathering dust since he left for Furiwake? I wonder if we'll find out some day.

Speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if Anzaigate was affecting their recruitment pipelines.

My return to ozumo was on Myogiryu's juryo return after his injury on debut. Kaio's retirement basho. It feels like it's been an eternity since then - that's another name who's made the dohyo journey alongside my own as a follower. It feels like almost all of them are gone from the dohyo... Quality performer at his peak, smaller than those around him but still beat most of them via tenacity and exceptionally sharp technique. My perception is that he was never quite the same after Hakuho landed that brutal KO on him, but this is likely coincidental and not entirely correct. He'd had a brilliant sekitori career until that point, taking only eight basho from J12 to Sekiwake. Seven KK, including four double digits, and even the sole MK at M1 was a 7-8 on his joi debut. That match with Hakuho was on his second consecutive sekiwake basho at that point, so the fact he plateaued and would only make sanyaku sporadically from there probably has more to do with the big guys "figuring him out".

Oh, wow. Let me just put on my tinfoil hat and say that Tamajiro's sudden resignation makes a bit more sense now, somehow. He might've expected to be overtaken by the new Shonosuke and showed them the middle finger on the way out, or perhaps he was incentivised to leave so that the way was paved for the latter. Either way, happy for him. The guy's very charismatic. Did anyone ever spend so little time at Inosuke before being promoted to Shonosuke?

Aye. My recollections from Miyabiyama are misty and mostly from past his peak, but they're not too unlike Takayasu. Huge, powerful boulder who doesn't move much but is exceptionally good at 'tanking' whatever people try to do to him, and also at shoving them away. Onosato is much more forward-minded, even if notoriously careful on his attacks.

Could the poor okamisan look any more uncomfortable? Probably a good thing for everyone involved that she stays out of the public eye.

That would make it harder for us commoners to digest, but all the evidence points towards fusensho counting the exact same as other wins when it comes to their banzuke position the following basho. In either case, Kiryuko's position by the numbers is two full ranks below Oshomi (and one below Aoiyama, not that it matters now) so he's decidedly in a much worse position. If anything, the most worrying bit for Oshoumi was the perception that the bottom ranked rikishi on both makuuchi and juryo had to deal with stricter unwritten rules - and would therefore mean he was in a worse position than Kiryuko despite a much better projected ranking - but Nishikifuji's non-demotion for Aki blurred those lines.