Koorifuu

Thankfully common sense still prevails at times.

Terunofuji's 36 wins in an ozeki run is just one short of the all-time record of 37 held by 4 people, most recently Tochinoshin. What a travesty it'd be to deny him. Source

A bunch of rikishi switched over to oyakata over the years and I'll show myself out now.

Inosuke made it his life mission to stop Shodai's tawara magic on senshuraku bouts.

The fact he stayed as an upper makushita in that situation was already mighty impressive.

Here's hoping that Bushozan gets to luck out with a 14e -> 14w demotion if he finishes with a 7-8. On performance alone, he deserves another chance to assert himself in juryo.

I dare say that the ozumo world Japanese culture world needs more people like him. There's way too many incompetent people who earned their position on something other than merit / merit from another occupation with a very different set of skills, who are unwilling to loosen their grip.

His uncle, ironically, burst into the higher ranks during a time of change - his tsuna basho coinciding with the very final days of the "TakaWaka vs Hawaiians" generation. So the "current competition" point also applied to an extent... EDIT On second thought, that makes me realise that all the hatsu yusho happening these days are due to the fact that we're missing someone like Asashoryu: someone head and shoulders above the competition, rising up and preying on the weary, old yokozuna / not-quite-there ozeki.

Where did this mad charger Ichinojo come from? I couldn't believe my eyes at first. Shedding some weight really goes a long way.

Akua's post-match bow was the biggest I've seen - and a well deserved one at that.

I remember Ichiyamamoto's earlier time at juryo... his good performances (pre-injury) earned him a much coveted butsukari geiko sesh with Hakuho.

I feel that many of Azumaryu's shiroboshi have come that way. He's unspectacularly hanging in there, and then out of nowhere, he subtly turns the opponent's forté against them and gets the victory in a split second. There's a reason why he's hanging in there for so long, despite being usually one of the least remarkable sekitori. ... I often forget he's there until it's time for him and my mind goes "Oh, right."

I'll have to apologise to the poor lad for having jinxed him... He was 2-1 at the time of posting, that loss coming to his fellow TD.

This seems more appropriate in terms of their expected performance levels, but @Yamanashi is probably right in that the NSK feels it's more motivating for those guys if they can mop the floor with inferior rikishi for a few months.

That actually makes complete sense. Maybe a bit too much, even.

I am aware of that, that's what I meant by "not reaching their accolades". My question is why the gap between tsukedashi placings is so steep for what shouldn't be a big gap in terms of skill. You win a tournament, makushita 15. You happen to lose on that tournament's final, sandanme 100. It feels really harsh & not an accurate depiction of the rikishi's quality as all previous examples have proven.

Follow-up with a "Where Are They Now" segment... Ishibashi Ozeki Oyanagi Quick climb all the way up to joijin, only for his performance to take a nosedive - suspiciously at around the same time he went kyujo midbasho in 2018 Wakatakakage Current joi Murata Quick climb to ms1, then a bad injury shunted him down to low jonokuchi - got forced to survive a Ryuden bout against Hattorizakura, and quickly climbed all the up to upper makushita again. Arguably juryo quality (at least) before his knee gave way Kizakiumi Quickly made all the way to juryo, only for a bump caused by the totally safe dohyo elevation to ruin his neck for good. Intai Shiraishi Steady climb to Juryo, not doing too well right now though Fukai Current mid makushita with a nice career record, currently 3-0 and seemingly still far away from his current real ranking

Takayasu's been flying under the radar thanks to Terunofuji, but his performance would otherwise be having all the spotlight. Those few basho after returning from injury were rough, but he managed just enough to stay where he could quickly return to his previous levels of performance. That sudden succession of 3 promotion-clinching basho is not likely to happen again, but this is about as good as he usually was as an active ozeki.

I had to go doublecheck he hadn't faced Tamawashi!

CHYMMT had me scratching my head for a while, couldn't remember any Kokonoe rikishi with such a long shikona...

That tachiai botch cost him the bout. It was over the moment he accidentally knuckled down beyond the line and had to reset mentally.

I'm betting on Mizunoyama.

That's what it actually was.

I'm sceptical about him, though. He seems to struggle to stay crouched for a few seconds on post-match rituals. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Yep, this! If rikishi on the same sanyaku rank finish with the same amount of wins, their banzuke order is kept for the following basho.