Eikokurai

Well, we have Yokozuna and Dai-Yokozuna, so why not Dai-Zensho? :)

Same. I’m one of those heretics who likes it when rikishi show some emotion on the dohyo. And I’ve always rather liked Tokushōryū, if only because his waddle and squat are reminiscent of my toddler son. Haha. He has an adorably baby-like appearance, especially when he wore his baby-blue mawashi.

Haha! As did many people. The 90s just confirmed they were right to do so.

That’s fairly natural. You see it across sport in general. Everyone hates Man Utd because they ruined football by dominating in the 90s. People don’t want completely unpredictable championships (even if they think they do) but they do want at least a handful of contenders to be in with a shout. Hakuho has just been so good for so long that even when he’s off he’s more on than most of the other guys. I’ve grown weary of him winning too. His era has pretty much been exactly the time I’ve been following sumo. I’ve loved the last year or two when he has been out a few times and we’ve been able to see a few other people lift the cup. It’s been good for sumo.

It’s not explicitly against the rules.

Or microuchi.

Thank you. It is quite infrequent then. Just the third incidence of it in my time following sumo properly.

Sure. I’m really just wondering how to query how common it is and, more specifically, how common it is to reach day 15 in this situation. I’m not very good with the database!

From the little I’ve seen of Enho he does seem to be thinking on his feet more than Ishiura does. The latter seems to give up the moment his game plan gets figured out. He doesn’t improvise much anymore.

Sorry, my little asterisk postscript saying exactly that got deleted without me noticing. Fat fingers. I have edited it back in at the end. The meaning of “joi” is imprecise at best. Myogiryu didn’t fight Y/O, hence my qualifier, but he fought the junior sanyaku guys. Some people say the joi goes down to 20, so he’d sneak in. Either way, I don’t think it alters my query all that much, the crux of which is how often we go into day 15 with so many guys at top of hiramaku without a KK. :)

Much obliged. :)

Sure. Could you specify the bout so I may be able to look it up elsewhere?

Thanks, but I can’t view it if it’s YouTube (or most video sites outside of China, actually). I don’t have a VPN at home. :(

Only one maegashira in the joi* has a kachikoshi secured going into day 15 (Myogiryu at 8-6). Only Kaisei is in position to join him. This feels unusual to me but I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s just because five of them can’t even make 5 wins that it feels worse than normal. Is it possible to query how often we’ve gone into the final day like this? As an extension of that, we can go as far down as Hokutofuji at M9 before we find another rikishi with his KK settled before senshuraku. *If M5 is counted as joi.

Tochinoshin often does tsuridashi with his arms over the shoulders of his opponent or from a kimedashi-style outside armlock grip, rather than the morozashi grip under the arms, which presumably is the more effective method. See Tochinoshin’s Aki day 11 attempt on Kakuryu and his successful effort on Nagoya day 3 against Shohozan as two examples. I’m sure there are times Baruto did the same but it’s stretching my memory to go that far back! :) RE: Baruto’s tsuridashi on Yoshikaze. Another factor to consider in addition to his size is how little he resists. He knew the game was up immediately Baruto had the morozashi and let Baruto lift him. It’s impressive, but essentially lifting a dead weight. He didn’t struggle as Kakuryu and Shohozan both did against Tochinoshin. (Edit: Just in case we’ve seen different things, I can’t view the video you linked where I am but I found a Baruto-Yoshikaze bout with tsuridashi from 2012 on a Chinese site. I think it’s the same bout.)