Seiyashi

Well, at least that implies you can blame injury for some of Isegahama's poor performance.

Or it's complicated enough that the NSK can't handle it quickly. That would gel with what we heard; after all, alcoholism alone isn't a sackable offence.

After having fiddled with it myself I agree Takayasu is likely sekiwake and there's a possibility someone joins Kiribayama and Kotonowaka at komusubi. Has no one else noticed another clusterf**k developing in the M11-M13 area if we stick to an 8-man sanyaku, and this is already accounting for the fact that there's a lot of underpromotion going around in the joi?

What do you guys think about the potentially radical solution of keeping the 7-8 K2 pair as is?

I understand that. I think my point that I failed to make was a) large sanyaku is ok as long as it is Y/O heavy (i.e. 6 vs 4) and not the (3 vs 7) that we had. More of the problem, I think, comes from the higher rankers not doing their job, as the penalty for failing for them is to remain in the Sanyaku next time. b) With the top 8 stretching on the current banzuke (active in the absho) down to K2E, there is room (particluarly in a S/K heavy situation like this, where the talent gap is supposedly smaller) to spread a lot of wins around so that potentially no one in S/K would have a losing record and the folks at M1 would still have recods that would require promotion and that might be the sort of situation that they would want to avoid. Personally, I think 10 is the ideal sanyaku size, but I think it works better if it is weighted towards the Y/O Meta commentary on this thread, but it's nice to have the old masters back I may not be able to enter GTB this time round but it's nice seeing it cause a right kerfuffle.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U57Nuizid76fwz2fwwO4nlmeM0WQcA2rE7PbkH41IUA/edit?usp=sharing Customary GDocs-based helper alternative. @Chiyotasuke is there any way to clear a rikishi off the right side entry?

Likely that Ajigawa will inherit Isegahama's existing support network, retaining the family's Aomori support base, while Terunofuji gets the more prestigious kabu but must work to build his own heya from scratch.

That's.... talking an awfully big game.

To be clear, promoting Takayasu to sekiwake versus komusubi makes no difference with regards to the potential bottleneck. That happens in the maegashira ranks, and once a guy is in the sanyaku, he's no longer part of that issue (until a later basho). It does, because if Takayasu is sekiwake, he's not a komusubi, and the most reasonable komusubi candidate to join Kiribayama is the maegashira Kotonowaka, and that alleviates the joi logjam. I guess the question is whether second-order banzuke luck is a thing - i.e. whether someone (in this case Takayasu) has received banzuke luck because someone else (e.g. Kotonowaka, although the lower joi would be equally apt) would be really stiffed otherwise, or because it was a logical implication of someone else's banzuke placement. I wonder if Takayasu's record this year will sway them one way or another. Daieishō's results prior to his yūshō weren't great: 7-8, 8-7, 11-4 S, 5-10, 10-5, 13-2 YGS. In contrast, Takayasu has two basho out due to COVID, but he's been 6-9, 12-3 DK, 6-9, 11-4 JK (Kin), 12-3 DS. Much better from a yūshō arasoi and sanshō perspective, although the 6-9s undermine this somewhat. Basically, every time he hasn't been knackered, he's been a yūshō factor.

Are you kidding? I hope it's them.

OT, but Minoan?

Yep, that's hassōtobi.

Unfortunately no, it's quite a standard "stand up and go" tachiai of that era. In recent memory, only Enhō and Takanoyama have done hassōtobi, if my memory serves me right. Mainoumi also seems to have done a couple. EDIT: It was a pain to search youtube with kanji, but the one I can find is Enhō v Gagamaru, Aki 2018:

Use this thread for a start More importantly, we need to be able to crowdsource updates (movements/closures) and reviews from any of us that happen to be able to go to Japan. Having exhausted most of the touristy once-off visits this sounds like something interesting to do, but it's a big if as to when I get to go back to Japan in the near future.

I think the only exception to this is a hassōtobi henka (vertical jump over the opponent). Visually entertaining, and usually it's only smaller rikishi who can pull it off and who generally get a free pass on henka anyway.