serge_gva

Reasonably speaking, is tarnishing the name of a rikishi who has never won a single tournament and never reached the rank of Ozeki really something to be feared?

[Sorry to dig up this topic, I'm a few weeks behind in my bashos...] Good point, I hadn't thought of that reason. It seems to me that treating two rikishi with the same results unevenly is one of the things NSK avoids (well, not always). So, what do the old Banzuke experts think? Could this indeed be the reason why Chiyosakae became the first J14 6-9 in history to remain in Juryo?

A little update for Nattosumo's videos (with Jūryō and Makushita) Things continue to be a little tough, especially if you're following the basho several days/weeks late. Recently, his Odysee account was deleted. And days 11 to 15 of Aki's tournament were also deleted from Rumble and Bilibili. There's still the Telegram option (but you have to make an account), and the download platforms (or streaming/download hybrids, like Streamruby, which works well). For Kyushu, currently Rumble is back. All links can be found on his Discord (account needed, free), in the "basho-video-links" lounge. And for those who haven't read the messages above: for Makuuchi, the reference is back!

I agree this is not the strangest decision imaginable... But I find the current Makushita > Juryo promotion criteria a bit wonky at the moment. A 6-1 at Ms6e rank is almost never enough, while a 7-0 at Ms15w rank is always enough? I struggle to see the logic in this, especially since if the Ms6e lost his match early in the tournament, chances are he didn't face the Ms15w.

I had missed this info, it saddens me to see him out of the sumo world. Apart from Harumafuji for the reasons we know, in the last 10 years, he is the most "high profile" to have left the NSK, right? The difficulty he had in buying a kabu could retroactively explain why, after his ruptured achilles heel in the summer of 2016 at the age of 33, he tried to come back for almost 4 years doing the lift between Makushita and Juryo... 13 basho as sekitori + 5 Jun-Yusho for a rikishi under 170cm is very impressive! I don't think Enho will make it. For Midorifuji, it remains to be seen, but I doubt it. Do we find better or even comparable results in the history of Sumo for a wrestler under 1m70? The closest one is of course Takakeisho, but he is a good bit taller.

I support this proposal with all my energy. For those who hesitate to take the torrent step, try it, it's not that complicated. ------ If you missed the January tournament, like me, here is a (probably temporary) solution. No Makushita though. https://www.youtube.com/@renamas87/videos

I tried to go with 8 sanyaku (4S, 2K) but it is impossible: > Do not demote KK > OK > At least half-a-rank promotion for 9-6 >> OK > Overdemote S/K only if they stay in the jōi-jin >> NOT OK (for Tamawashii). One could possibly argue that in fact, Tamawashii (because of his bad start in the tournament) didn't really face the top of the division (he only faced 2 of the top 5-wrestlers, unlike Tobizaru and Daieisho who faced all of them), but even taking that into account, it seems impossible to me to get Tamawashii out of the jōi-jin. Right? So I'll make a version 2 with 9 Sanyaku. For Takarafuji vs Chiyomaru/Mitoryu's case: It seems to me that in general, when it's about promotion/demotion, the Banzuke committee tries not to make a difference between two wrestlers in a comparable situation (it is the case here with Chiyomaru and Mitoryu who both have the same potential of promotion by the numbers). So, which one of them will be sacrificed? Or are they finally going to demote Takarafuji? (which after all is possible by the numbers)

That might have been the very last "classic" Tochinoshin-Ichinojo bout, I thought as I watched it

Makuuchi jōi-jin will be very crowded next basho! Unlike Abi and Hoshoryu, Wakatakakage has faced the whole top of the division, which, it seems to me, the Banzuke committee values... So, I would try: S1e Wakatakakae, S1w Abi K1e Hōshōryū, K1w Takanoshō Then it get's complicated again... If I give all 8-7 rikishi a minimal +0,5 rank, we have: M1e Onoshō, M1w Ura M2e Ichinojō, M2w Tamawahsi M3e Daieishō, M3w Meisei <<<<=== And here we have a problem, because a 7-8 Komusubi has never been sent further than the 2nd row :/ So we have to underpromote Onoshō A LOT, or deny a 8-7 a gain in position. What do you think? (bold: highest rank ever - there are a lot!) Note: going directly to Sekiwake would be a nice revenge for Abi, because he was denied three times in a row a Sekiwake spot despite a KK from K1e back in 2019!

It is debatable, and I think the answer to this question may depend a lot on the environment where it is asked. Maybe for a genuine sumo fan, indeed, this victory will not carry much weight. But for a sports fan in general, a comeback like this is the perfect recipe to make more history. It is like Roger Federer winning a Grand Slam again. No matter what means he uses - taking advantage of several opponents dropping out, playing on the injured side of his opponent in the final, throwing his racket at Mirka in a rage - it will be remembered by most, I think. [LATE EDIT - I admit that I started to answer before I got to the end of the topic ] Here I agree with you completely, and even more: we don't need a year, the next tournament like this will already be too much. This time, it will be nothing but a pointless #46, would it be a zensho. But considering what he managed to do after 1 year of injuries, or 4 months after an operation, I don't rule out that he could beat Terunofuji in a good old fashioned belt fight. And if he doesn't, I don't think it will tarnish his 15-0 record from July that much - to the contrary: the best way to put this win on the light side would be a style-perfect September tournament, even if it didn't end in a win. Unfortunately I'm leaning pretty much towards the intai theory as soon as the 900th win is reached

I think you are missing an important point here. This win was not simply #45, nor was it simply zensho #16. It's mostly the win that comes after a year of injury, a year in which he heard that he was more or less done, that there was little chance of him ever winning a tournament again. That he was dragging it out just to get to the Olympics... Hardly anyone would have bet on a zensho! On this forum alone, the messages were quite edifying (without being primary anti-Hakuho-ism), especially the days following his forfeits before or during the tournaments... And the icing on the cake, he was denied an Ichidai-toshiyori - which, in concrete terms for the rest of his career, may have had little impact on him, but was nonetheless, in my opinion, a very difficult blow to swallow. Moreover, to say that he would never have won without using infamous techniques, I think that remains to be seen. His first 13 bouts suggest that he had a good chance to beat Shodai in a more traditional way. With Terunofuji, it could have been more difficult, of course... But from there to give him for sure a loser on a regular bout is in my opinion a step too far. The fact that he fought like that shows that he wanted to win more than to fight honorably. On a "normal" tournament, it would have been a shame for him, considering his achievements so far. On THIS one, I don't necessarily approve, but I can understand what he showed. It was not the good ol' Hakuho coming again for victory #XX, this time deciding to do ugly sumo plus adopting a disrespectul behaviour. The guy came back from nowhere!

I'm not familiar with how the media works in Japan, but in Western countries, it's obvious that before publishing an article that says "Mr. X did this dishonest thing", the media is ethically obliged to ask for a reaction from the person implicated in the article. So the tabloid certainly contacted Asanoyama before, and then in the aftermath maybe the NSK and its heya? Of course, there is no obligation for them to detail the information they had. Asanoyama probably thought there was a slim chance that they had nothing solid and denied it...

143 kg for a 172 cm rikishi doesn't seem so bad, right? He is already much heavier than other small and fast wrestlers like Endo, Ishiura or Terutsuyoshi. He has already increased his weight by 27% from its 2015 debut. Obviously, a higher weight will help his sumo become less acrobatic and "risky", but after a certain limit, he will get into the category where his weight could start to have a negative impact on his joints, especially if it is a weight that he acquired relatively quickly and did not have at the time of his growth. Does he really need to get bigger? Can he keep his great speed and explosiveness by exceeding 150 kg? What do you think?

Some years ago it was the basis salary for a student job as cashier in a convini or waiter in a Sukiya. So nothing surprising in my opinion. What surprises me more is that a young person does this work. It seemed to me that it was rather reserved for people of a certain age (at the time, young people were more into handkerchief distribution, but we see less of them). Compared to the price level in Japan, I also find it low.

But he will be thrown directly to makushita if he scores 2-13, then 0-15 in january, no?