dada78641

Man, the 1964 one is such a sharper, more dynamic photo. I don't know if they were trying to copy it or not, but the sumo one looks like such a cheap ripoff. Not that it isn't totally unfair to even compare them, of course. Kamekura Yusaku is a legendary graphic designer.

For anyone who's interested, this just finished airing: NHK Special - Yokozuna Hakuho, 14 Years of Loneliness I actually haven't seen it myself yet, but it looks to be an interesting post-retirement interview about his role in the sumo world during his 14 year reign as yokozuna. Let me know if you have any problems with playback, because I know some people had a problem with viewing the video on the page itself. It should at least work when you download the file though.

100% this. Which is not to say there is no xenophobia/nationalism in the NSK, because of course there is, but as with all social issues it's a lot more complicated than just "he's Mongolian so they hate him", and pretending it is just cheapens the issue and makes people not take it seriously.

What a shame that the video from the first post is gone now. Goes to show that Youtube is not an archive, one has to assume that anything posted there will eventually vanish.

Ah, I didn't know that number was for appearances. Actually, I see now that my 1016 was off—it didn't include fusensho, during which he does do a dohyo-iri, and with that included my script gets 1019 as well.

I was curious how many he's done. Of course, he has 899 wins and 129 losses as yokozuna, but that includes fusenpai which don't have dohyo-iri. Counting the number of wins/losses as Yokozuna without fusenpai nets a number of 1016 for Hakuho so I believe that's the amount of dohyo-iri he did in official tournaments, if I'm not mistaken. Obviously that doesn't count the numerous ones he's done in various other places.

Yeah, this is undoubtedly the case. Despite Hakuho doing weird things throughout his career that would obviously get him reprimanded, I certainly don't think he's clueless. He also knows that the slightest misstep, or anything that can even be perceived as the slightest misstep, will be turned from a molehill into Mt. Fuji. Conversely, the NSK now has something to think about with Hakuho's "contract" being criticized in the media, and they might want to refrain from intentionally antagonizing him further until he does something to warrant it. Then again, since watching Shibatayama ranting to the media when Hakuho went to watch the Olympics before the facts were even clear, I don't know if they really care. For an organization that's been repeatedly embarrassed by scandals, they don't seem to be particularly worried about being criticized for their actions when it comes to Hakuho.

I'm kind of glad that people have reacted to this to such an extent that there's articles about it. Personally, I'm so used to Hakuho being finger wagged by the NSK that I barely even thought about it. To me these things seem as natural as the sun rising now. On a side note, I tried to see if my IME will actually generate 間垣 when I type まがき - it doesn't, but one of the suggestions is 魔ガキ ("evil brat").

One a side note, one thing I absolutely will not miss is the fact that everybody always had an opinion on everything Hakuho related, no matter how trivial. He's gonna stay in sumo so I guess it's not gonna go away completely, but the amount that man's actions have been analyzed by absolutely everyone, whether in the Japanese media or by fans or in the foreign scene, is just tiresome to me. And I know obviously he's been the most important wrestler for the past 10+ years and he certainly had his fair share of flaws and missteps worth discussing, but there's also been plenty of times where I've just felt like, "OK, I get it, can we not bring him up every time and talk about something else sumo related now?" Hoping for a future where Hakuho's past missteps are forgiven and forgotten and he's now simply another sumo éminence grise who drops by the Kokugikan to do celebrity commentary.

I think at that point, even people who know absolutely nothing about sumo wrestling or even about sport will be calling bullshit on a man with his build being 250kg.

If we're talking about percentages, if Wikipedia is right, Hakuho ends with (of course) the highest ever win percentage: 84.6%. He's almost a full percentage point over Taiho (83.8%). Although one time I checked the numbers and found it was counting fusensho wins/losses, which I think is dubious and probably shouldn't be done.

Incredibly sad news. He was absolutely unmatched in every technical regard and gave us tons of unforgettable bouts. His clashes with Asashoryu especially will forever be etched in marble as some of the greatest ever in sumo history. I think it's safe to say that every serious article about his career will make reference to the fact he had more than one brush with controversy, but to me none of that ever mattered. He always did his job, even after his body got so wrecked it was a miracle he was able to mount the dohyo again in July, let alone win yet another zensho. He was the ultimate wall and in the end no one was able to come close to breaking him. It will take a very special wrestler for people to even begin to entertain the possibility of his skill and strength being surpassed. If only COVID-19 hadn't happened I would've been able to go see him wrestle live, but unfortunately I never got that chance. Instead I'll make every effort to go see his successor.

Really amazing that Meisei managed to win against Terunofuji by actually getting close to him. The yokozuna has looked absolutely invincible on the belt lately, and everybody's game plan against him has just been to keep enough distance for him to not get that grip. Daieisho won against him by getting in low and pushing up while Teru was too upright, but Meisei actually dared to go for a belt play against him. Congrats to him for pulling it off.

I don't think so. He was unable to push Takayasu out while being in a great position for most of the bout, and he had one great chance right before the end that Takayasu somehow miraculously managed to defend against, so I can't really blame him too much for being solely focused on making absolutely sure of the win at the end there.

However way you cut it, it is kinda funny that we have both of these topics at the top of the thread list: And they actually might both lead to the same ending, with someone being forced out of sumo.