Sensonishiki

I went to look at the banzuke, where I expected him to be at or very near the bottom. Not at all, he is Jk16E! This provoked me to look at his record via the (excellent) sumo reference site, and now I am very confused! With an all-MK record, he has bounced up & down the banzuke, once getting into Jonidan! So it seems that even with a bad losing record, a rikishi can be promoted. I imagine the new entrants always appear lower on the banzuke than those already there, but I'm pretty sure that does not account for all the upward movement with a losing record. Anyone explain this further? (Sign of approval...)

Like many fans out there, I am hoping that Kaio breaks Takamiyama's makuuchi record. Since Takamiyama was not an Ozeki (with the attendant pressure to retire upon demotion due to two consecutuve MK), I wondered what rank Takamiyama was when he retired. It turns out he was demoted from makuuchi to juryo, and fought two bashos in the lower division. So if Kaio were to retire at a similar rank, in many respects he has already beaten Takamiyama's record. So long as he continues to fight even if he does get demoted, he will easily go beyond 97 bashos, and most likely at least 100. Of course, his Ozeki pride probably means he will retire if he is demoted - so we hope for a couple more KK to seal the deal. While Chiyotaikai owns a very undesirable record by going 2-13, the record of the most kadoban needs to be put in perspective. Because he has over 10 YEARS at Ozeki, he has had correspondingly more 'chances' to go kadoban. I would be interested in the RATIO of kadoban to bashos at the Ozeki rank - I suspect he may fare better on that scale (I wonder if anyone has figured out that statistic).

With all the hullabaloo around the promotion of Harumafuji, the return of Asashoryu, Hakuho's basho streak etc, I have not heard anyone mention the fact that this basho is Chiyotaikai's 60th as an Ozeki! For the arithmetically challenged, thats 10 years at sumo's second highest rank. Chiyotaikai deserves recognition and respect for this remarkable achievement! ;-)