Haru Basho foreigners roundup-LONG!

[Kintamayama 47,194]

Hi interested!

This is the foreign rikishi round-up for Haru- Basho.

This was an extremely good basho for them, as you will see.

In Makuuchi, there are 6. 4 were KK, one was MK, and one was kyujo.Asashouryuu,in his Yokozuna debut, was 10-5, Musashimaru was Kyujo, Kyokushuuzan was 10-5 and Kyokutenhou was 9-6. Seems like the veteran Mongolians were motivated by their first Yokozuna- this is unprecedented..  Kasugaou went 8-7, barely..  and Asasekiryuu, in his Makuuchi debut, was a disappointing 6-9. There were 3 rikishi at their highest-ever rank- 2 got KK and Asasekiryuu was Mk.

In Juryo, there were no foreigners this basho.

In Makushita, of the 10 foreigners ,seven got KK

while the other three went MK.

Kokkai(Georgia, west 1, 5-2) will be in Juryo next Basho.

Of the 6 who held their highest-ever ranks in this division, 5 got their KKs.

No one will be demoted.

http://www.dichne.com/maku.htm

In Sandanme, of the 20 there, 14 got their KK.  5 did not. One was kyujo and will probably drop to Jonidan (Oorora, Russia, west 74).

Of the 6 who held their highest-ever ranks in this division, ALL of them

got their KKs.

Two promotions to Makushita - Hakurozan (Russia, west 9, 5-2),and Musashiryuu (Mongolia, east 25 , 6-1).

In Jonidan, there are 13 foreign rikishi.

11 went KK, only 1 (!!!) went MK, one was kyujo (Takaou, China).

Hoshikaze (Mongolia,west 55, 7-0) won the division title.

Of the 5 who were at their highest-ever ranks, ALL were KK.

7 of them, more than 50%, will be promoted to Sandanme: Minaminoshima (Tonga, east 1, 4-3,), Azumaou (Brazil, west 1, 6-1), Takanoyama (Czech

Republic, east 2, 5-2),Daitenshou (Mongolia, west 3, 5-2), Kakuryuu (Mongolia, east 4, 4-3), Kotooushuu (Bulgaria, west 25, 6-1), and of course the division champion Hoshikaze.

In Jonokuchi, there were 2 rikishi- Shironishiki (Mongolia,east 28) a newcomer, who had a great 6-1 record, and will be in Jonidan next time,

and the 16 year old Texan Kagamifuji,who was injured and likely will be off the Banzuke in May.

The foreigners were 225-142-1 overall, which is good.

Of the 21 foreign rikishi in all divisions who were at their

highest-ever rank this Basho, 19 (!!!) managed to get their KK. Only 2 did not.

To make a very long story short, of the 51 foreigners in all of Sumo,37 were KK and 10 MK (including one who got injured and left towards the end), three were  kyujo,  and one is off the Banzuke.

One (Hoshikaze,)won his divisional Yusho(Jonidan). Ironically, it was the only division last basho that was NOT won by a foreigner..

For more (career records, number of Bashos, age, shoe size,

etc..updated to include Haru):

http://www.dichne.com/tForeigners.htm

Thank you for walking my way.

[Yoavoshimaru 0]

It seems to me that overall, the presence and ranks of foreigners is increasing.  I haven't observed for long enough to know for sure.  What do you think?