Ripe

Hakuho, who else?

Like I said, signing a sponsorship contract between NSK and Toyota requiring Hakuho to be present would be weird to say the least, but there are some weird contract clauses out there (Van Halen's brown M&M's is just one example) so who knows...

I guess it would depend on how sponsorship contract was worded... if for some reason it require Hakuho to be present (which would be weird) then without Hakuho there might not be a car available. Hell, depending on the wording NSK might actually be in breach of that contract and required to potentially pay some penalties!

A question: who owns the building where Miyagino stable was located before shutting down?

Miyagino

Nah, he'd still make it to Yokozuna... but it might took a bit longer and he possibly (probably?) wouldn't be 75th Yokozuna if they didn't introduce one foreigner limit. Kisenosato on the other hand might not get there. On that same note, Hakuho probably doesn't get to 45 Yusho, he still get the record for most Yusho but it's a bit lower number.

I think the last semi-successful attempt was American Basketball Association (ABA) and even that lasted only 8 seasons with half the teams folding before ABA was essentially bought by NBA in 1976. The last actually successful... that would probably be American Football League (AFL) which ended up merging with National Football League (NFL) into NFL we had today in 1970.

Hakuho starting a rival organization is not that realistic... but if he somehow manage to find wealthy backers with money to spend prepared to loose money over first few years, it would still have to be strictly Japanese organization and even then best he can hope to achieve is to become too much of a nuisance for NSK (mostly by taking over all the best prospects by essentially paying them at minimum sanyaku money at entry level!) for them to offer organizations to merge. And for that merge to happen there would most likely need to be some event where top guys from both organizations face each other and guys from Hakuho's winning most of the matches...

Not my point. Futabayama being an ACTUAL Oyakata with everything that comes with the title potentially gave him an advantage in dealings with other Oyakatas once he retired, something no Yokozuna (or any other rikishi for that matter) could do (at least not officially) now due to rule change.

Of course they were. The point is that he was Oyakata for four years before he retired which makes it for a whole different set of circumstances and potentially giving him an advantage none of the later Yokozuna had. Meaning he can't really be considered (either way) when judging how Yokozuna's did as Oyakata...

He was an Oyakata while active wrestler! He actually won four of his twelve yusho while being Oyakata to his own stable! That alone makes him an exception.

That is not my point... his 12-3 is perfectly respectable and fine. Problem is that it's also completely irrelevant if another rikishi wins basho by Day 13... Not exactly... we had almost a decade of injured yokozuna that couldn't complete basho. They could hardly be in competition if they're out by day 8 or so. But when they could complete it, they certainly competed and usually won.

Because his 12-3 JY is almost worthless... yes, the final result is what will be rememered, but that score is what in other sports would be called garbage time stats padding. This basho was basically decided on Day 12 and it became officially decided on Day 13. Yokozuna should always be in contention for Yusho and those two early losses took him out of contention. His win over Onosato on day 15 is good sign for the future, but as long as those wins matter only for "prestige" and not for winning the cup they'll be secondary. Will it bother Onosato... sure, but in the end winning the Yusho is what matters.

Especially if yusho goes to someone other then Hoshoryu or maybe Kirishima... anyone else winning it would probably made them not promoting him.

Why are some names painted in red and some in yellow? Also, am I correct in assuming that this stone only lists Yokozuna starting with Kashiwado who was 47th Yokozuna?