RabidJohn

He has the kabu and is now master of the stable, but from his advertisement at the end it I gather he's not using the myoseki until his danpatsu-shiki; i.e. he's Terunofuji-oyakata 'til then. Or has the AI translator led me completely astray?

Maybe it's time for GOTE - Greatest Of Their Era.

I really don't trust my memory these days, but wasn't Kisenosato's sudden adoption of prebout ringside face-pulling the result of him having had dealings with a sports psychologist?

Yeah, think how much the Nishonoseki and Nakamura boys could make livestreaming their drinking parties on Only Fans.

I wasn't going to say anything, but yeah, black tabi with white flip-flops geta is a bit yikes.

@Akinomaki This forum, YT comments and a few Discord servers is as close to social media as I get, so "SNS and the accompanying danger" seemed a bit sensationalist. However, "One post can ruin your whole life" is undeniably sensible advice. It's a bit of a lightbulb moment for me: this really is the NSK doing 21st century media training. Wonders never cease.

Er, didn't Hokuseiho happen on Ishiura's watch while Miyagino was swanning off to 'engagements'?

I reckon that's entirely in his hands. Don't be a diva, don't do something stupid while drunk, and don't be a boat-rocker. Musashigawa, Naruto and Otowayama are doing fine notwithstanding their foreign origin.

That was my impression since before he retired from the ring: specifically when they abolished ichidai toshiyori. What's really extraordinary about all of this is how long it took him to take the hint.

And you can call me Susan if it wasn't.

I love a bit of between-basho intrigue, but this is getting so convoluted it could be four or five separate threads. Was it Baldrick who said: "It twists and turns like a twisty, turny thing"?

Interesting to see the contrast between two proponents of unryu-gata. They hold their left hand completely different during the shuffle (whose name I can never remember). Got to give the style points to Hoshoryu, atm, but he's had way more practice.

He seemed to be doing okay for 20 years, though, culminating in three years on the board of directors. That's not sidelined. He definitely lost support in the wake of the match-fixing scandal in 2011, which is understandable and a long way removed from his status as a yokozuna.

I couldn't agree more. Seeing Nishonoseki coach his deshi through the dance is literally watching the handing down of a tradition. Shibatayama, who trained Kisenosato, also chipped in, and I'm sure I saw Takayasu offering advice on how to step back from the shikiri-sen.

I think that may be the first time I've seen Onosato looking anywhere near nervous. He needn't be. The tsuna suits him well and he didn't make any glaring mistakes that I noticed. I never expect the first dohyo-iri at the shrine to be anything but unpolished.