Eikokurai

The Rugby World Cup has made sumo-themed adverts for the quarter-finals: I've also seen one for Wales v France, but oddly Japan v South Africa seems to be missing.

Horizontally challenged? Meaning not fat?

They also seem unfamiliar with the format of a basho (“... made it to the final match”) but the artwork is nice and pretty accurate.

And they've only gone and done it again against Scotland! Japan win 28-21 to progress to the quarter-finals of a Rugby World Cup for the first time. They even finish top of their pool after winning all four games and earn themselves a relatively easier tie against South Africa in the next round. A superb game of a rugby.

I’m aware of that. My point was that I hope they don’t favour traditional and non-scientific methods over actual medicine.

Tiger penis is Grrrreeeeaaat! Particularly for breakfast.

I hope the clear signs of pseudoscientific “cupping” on his stablemate’s back aren’t evidence of the heya’s medicinal standards.

I’d make that ‘exclude changes’ and make the default results about a rikishi’s whole career. I imagine people more often search for stats relating to a career as a whole rather than when they held a specific shikona.

Ah ... makes sense, and yet also doesn’t from the point of view of searching the database in the easiest way.

Why does this query show 431 yorikiri wins for him? http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query_bout.aspx?show_form=0&group_by=rikishi1&kimarite=66&shikona1=Kotoshogiku &onlyw1=on http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query_bout.aspx?show_form=0&kimarite=66&shikona1=Kotoshogiku &onlyw1=on

Yikes. That looks worse than the bruising Kisenosato had. His was quite localized. Takakeisho looks like a corpse with lividity setting in. It does not look promising.

Kotoshogiku surpassed 400 wins by yorikiri in Makuuchi this basho (401 by basho end). This makes him the first rikishi to reach that milestone. http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query_bout.aspx?show_form=0&group_by=rikishi1&m=on&kimarite=66&onlyw1=on

Rugby was invented in England. The USA has a team but it’s a long way from being a popular sport in the country, though it is growing. Many expect the USA to be ‘the next Japan’ in rugby terms.

If it somehow escaped your attention, Japan caused yet another massive upset by beating world number 2 side Ireland by 19 points to 12 at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Unlike their similar upset against South Africa in 2015, this time Japan led for the final 20 minutes and sealed the win when try-scorer Fukuoka intercepted an Irish pass a few minutes from the end. He was unable to take the ball over the line, but the resulting possession and series of scrums on the Ireland 5m-line ground down the clock. With the 80 minutes passed, Ireland cleared their lines, but the ball went out of bounds and the game was over. Incredible scenes. Commiserations to John Gunning, but I'm sure even he appreciates a great rugby performance when he sees one. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/28/japan-ireland-rugby-world-cup-match-report https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/49849736

Yes, that's more or less my thinking too. Reforms are fine, but the idea itself isn't the problem.