Trivia bits

[Bunbukuchagama 688]

2 hours ago, Hankegami said:

Well, perhaps not right now anymore, since we had the Sekiwake as virtually the top guys for most of 2023. Now we can hopefully get two nice Ozeki. Only time will tell.

If Hakuoho won the yusho, it would have been seen more as a sign of magnitude of his talent rather than weakness of ozumo's top ranks; if Hokutofuji got it, it would be "absolute disaster, ozumo in disarray, cats and dogs living together". Hoshoryu winning is seen as "business as usual", the highest ranked healthy rikishi won and was promoted to Ozeki.

What a difference a couple of bouts can make.

[Shikona 139]

3 hours ago, Bunbukuchagama said:

What a difference a couple of bouts can make.

Sure, that's sports in general. Straighten out a couple of field goals and the Buffalo Bills are a super bowl dynasty.

Going forward, my expectation is as the I Ching would suggest. To paraphrase the opening of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"--the dohyo, having been dominated by the Ozeki, tends to a series of Maegashira yusho; the dohyo having seen the Maegashira rise, tends toward the resurgence of the Ozeki.

[Yarimotsu 522]

Found this while searching for GTB: 5 rikishi with double-digit wins at M13 or below is wholly unprecedented until last basho. Even allowing for the greatly expanded maegashira ranks of the 40s and 50s. https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query.aspx?show_form=0&group_by=basho&having=2&form1_rank=m13-m30&form1_wins=>9

[Wakawakawaka 136]

Maybe I'm getting a bit too philosophical here, but I wonder if the number of consecutive basho in which something unprecedented has happened, is in itself unprecedented? Or perhaps there are so many variables in sumo that it if nothing unprecedented took place, that in itself would be unprecedented!

Edited August 8, 2023 by Wakawakawaka

[Yarimotsu 522]

7 minutes ago, Wakawakawaka said:

Maybe I'm getting a bit too philosophical here, but I wonder if the number of consecutive basho in which something unprecedented has happened, is in itself unprecedented? Or perhaps there are so many variables in sumo that it if nothing unprecedented took place, that in itself would be unprecedented!

With just the sheer amount of statistical incidences we can track I'd be very surprised if a single basho had occurred with entirely precedented bouts, results and rankings. Nonetheless, I like to keep track of where we are leaving the comfort of repetition and familiarity.

[Chiyotasuke 257]

On 30/06/2023 at 00:05, Kamitsuumi said:

I don't think the yō-on (ゃゅょ) are usually counted as length (that is, mora length). In this case the longest shikona should go to former Daiechizen'ō (だいえちぜんおう), with 8: http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi.aspx?shikona=大越前王

Taking this into account, I compiled all the shikona with the length of 7. There are 52 as of today. Maybe they should take the cake for "the longest shikona":

Agazumazakura    Andōzakura       Arashitenyū      Asahibenten      Azumaōshū        Azumatenshō      Daionizakura     Daitominosato    Dōnannohana      Hattorizakura    Hidehikonoshima  Hokkainishiki/II Hokuyōzakura     Kakuryūasahi     Kongōzakura      Kōtetsunishiki   Kotohigashiyama  Kotokashiwadani  Kotokirigakubo   Kotoōnojō        Kototakenoue     Kyūshūnishiki    Matsuminenoyama  Migikataagari    Miyakomotoharu   Miyakotenzan     Nanyōnishiki     Nanyōzakura      Ōhayashiyama     Ōkawagatake      Ōkuniasahi       Ōsunaarashi      Ōtorigatake/II   Oyaguranishiki   Ōyamatoumi       Ōyanagihara      Ryūjinsakari     Senshūmisaki     Shinjōnishiki    Shinshūnishiki   Shiraishizakura  Shōnannoumi      Shōnanzakura     Takachihonomine  Tōshōnishiki     Tsuruokanishiki  Wakaōnehara      Wakatoōhashi     Watanabenishiki  Watanabezakura   Yamamotozakura   Yatsushironishiki

Hokkainishiki and Ōtorigatake each were used by 2 different rikishi, and the previous shikona of stablemates Agazumazakura and Shōnanzakura are also listed (Shiraishizakura and Hattorizakura). From the list above, 36 of them are the last/current shikona of rikishi, including 1 each of Hokkainishiki and Ōtorigatake.

Another thing. The matchup with the longest shikona length combined was Daiechizenō vs Matsuminenoyama, with the length of 15 in Japanese. On the other hand, in Rōmaji, the longest is 28, provided this post still holds up

On 21/01/2018 at 11:11, Asashosakari said:

On 21/01/2018 at 10:37, Yukiarashi said:

I don't know how these records would be kept, but Wakatomoharu-Takayoshitoshi had to break some kind of letters record in a bout.

12 vs 14? Nowhere near.  As far as bouts covered by the DB go, the maximum appears to be 28 in 13 vs 15 and 14 vs 14 matchups.

Edit: There's a longer matchup with 29 letters, brought up thanks to Yubinhaad's notice:

Yatsushironishiki vs Kuriharayama

Edited August 28, 2023 by Chiyotasuke

[Gurowake 3,915]

Gonoyama is one day older than Shonannoumi, and despite entering Ozumo at very different times, they debuted in Makuuchi the same tournament with the same record.

[Chiyotasuke 257]

Although I'm not sure if others will find this interesting, I just wanted to share it.

I compiled* a list of 3 kanji shikona, each of which has a morae-length (on) of 1, 2, and 3 from first to last.
Examples: Satōzakura - sa to-u za-ku-ra, Karyūtsukasa - ka ryu-u tsu-ka-sa
I believe this "ascending" pattern is quite auspicious for rikishi, whether the shikona was chosen for that reason or not. Most of them include their hometown, surname or heya's conventional kanji.

There are many that end with -nishiki (錦):

Bizennishiki   Chikumanishiki Haguronishiki  Itōnishiki     Kaōnishiki     Katōnishiki    Kiryūnishiki   Koganenishiki  Komatsunishiki Masagonishiki  Mikasanishiki  Mirainishiki   Miyamanishiki  Mogaminishiki  Nayoronishiki  Otarunishiki   Seōnishiki     Shihōnishiki   Tanakanishiki  Teshionishiki  Tokachinishiki Toyamanishiki  Tsugarunishiki Yahatanishiki  Yashionishiki  Zaōnishiki

Ending with -z(s)akura:

Katōzakura  Mogamizakura  Musashisakura  Oyamazakura  Satōzakura

And all the others:

Buzenhikari    Goningakari    Karyūtsukasa   Kashimatsurugi Misugiyutaka   Musashitaira   Nihonyanagi    Nozukitaira    Satōasahi

The only one that appeared in makuuchi was Zaōnishiki. Mogamizakura, Nihonyanagi (his actual surname), Oyamazakura and Mogaminishiki are still active under those shikona.

* I did this very carefully and thoroughly, filtering hundreds of shikonas and looking up dictionary.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Chiyotasuke

[Yubinhaad 11,546]

On 12/08/2023 at 09:09, Chiyotasuke said:

Another thing. The matchup with the longest shikona length combined was Daiechizenō vs Matsuminenoyama, with the length of 15 in Japanese. On the other hand, in Rōmaji, the longest is 28, provided this post still holds up

On 21/01/2018 at 03:11, Asashosakari said:

On 21/01/2018 at 02:37, Yukiarashi said:

I don't know how these records would be kept, but Wakatomoharu-Takayoshitoshi had to break some kind of letters record in a bout.

12 vs 14? Nowhere near.  As far as bouts covered by the DB go, the maximum appears to be 28 in 13 vs 15 and 14 vs 14 matchups.

 

A longer one was found later:
 

On 28/11/2021 at 00:30, Asashosakari said:

On 27/11/2021 at 17:08, Yubinhaad said:

The longest romaji shikona I've seen in the database is a stonking 17 letters, Yatsushironishiki.

Eek, and there's a 29-letter bout involving him that I missed back last time, vs. Kuriharayama.

 

34 minutes ago, Chiyotasuke said:

Mogamizakura, Nihonyanagi (his actual surname) and Oyamazakura are still active under those shikona.

Mogaminishiki as well.

[Faustonowaka 112]

Satonofuji is back in Jonokuchi after 27 years/163 basho

[Akinomaki 39,770]

This basho is the first time that 3 (or more) new juryo are from the sumo club of the same university - Nittaidai. Each graduated in a  different year: Asakoryu 2021, Takahashi 2022, Onosato 2023 https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2023/09/08/kiji/20230908s00005000624000c.html

Edited September 8, 2023 by Akinomaki

[Yubinhaad 11,546]

On 29/08/2023 at 19:08, Faustonowaka said:

Satonofuji is back in Jonokuchi after 27 years/163 basho

And back on yumitori-shiki duty too - it's the first time that a Jonokuchi-ranked rikishi has done it.

[Asashosakari 18,786]

Minanogawa is the only yokozuna in history (well, since 1927) with a positive balance of fusensho to fusenpai while holding the rank: Query

[Akinomaki 39,770]

On 08/09/2023 at 16:50, Yubinhaad said:

And back on yumitori-shiki duty too - it's the first time that a Jonokuchi-ranked rikishi has done it.

Not for long, Satonofuji only did it on day 1 and 2, now Yuki is doing it again https://mainichi.jp/articles/20230912/k00/00m/050/182000c

Satonofuji suddenly got sick - he has a bout tomorrow, likely he won't appear

Edited September 12, 2023 by Akinomaki

[Benihana 1,901]

Chiyosakae and Azumaryu will meet tomorrow, the first time since maezumo 2009.01.

[Yubinhaad 11,546]

19 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

Not for long, Satonofuji only did it on day 1 and 2, now Yuki is doing it again https://mainichi.jp/articles/20230912/k00/00m/050/182000c

Satonofuji suddenly got sick - he has a bout tomorrow, likely he won't appear

Appeared and won, albeit with a henka which gained him the advantage.

To me this seems more like what happened when Shohoryu started as yumitori-shiki performer, in which someone got their wires crossed and Kasugaryu was put on the torikumi-hyo for the first two days, then Shohoryu took over. With Terunofuji kyujo from the start here, maybe Yuki was supposed to continue all along but someone got it wrong and put Satonofuji in, and it was too late to stop the printing by the time someone noticed.

Anyway, whatever the reason this was good news for Yuki as it means he won't share the record for fewest performances (post-1952), which was Unzenyama's six-day stint in the 1962 Hatsu basho.

[Reonito 1,335]

This is only the 17th time in the 6-basho era that there are no undefeated Makuuchi rikishi after 5 days. But it's the second time in the past year—previous instance was last November, when Abi won the yusho. There was a cluster of three in five basho in 1992, and another cluster of three in just over a year in 1997-98.

[Reonito 1,335]

Is this the first time we've had only twelve undefeated (3-0) rikishi in Makushita after 3 rounds of bouts, under something like the modern scheduling system?

[Chiyotasuke 257]

Like the pattern 5-7-5 of haikus, a shikona consisting of 3 kanji with stroke counts of 5-7-5 is what I focused on this time. I was able to find only one such shikona in the DB. It is 立村本 (Tatsumuramoto), which was just composed of his real name and heya's prefix. He did receive a proper shikona later on but was for only one basho.

For fun, I made up a few shikona with this pattern using 5 stroke and 7 stroke kanji. Keep in mind, my Japanese and kanji knowledge are quite poor:
玉秀仙 Tamashūzen (jewel/Kataonami prefix, excellent, sage)
北見石 Kitamiishi (Kitami city, stone)
巨男広 Ōnankō (gigantic, man, wide)
白花弘 Shirohanahiro (white, flower, vast) - Like a haiku about nature

[Asashosakari 18,786]

19 hours ago, Reonito said:

Is this the first time we've had only twelve undefeated (3-0) rikishi in Makushita after 3 rounds of bouts, under something like the modern scheduling system?

Yup, I can't find another case either.

Quite the amusing progression in this basho:

• One intai and 10 kyujo, so only 109 starters in makushita. One got knocked off in juryo, so just 54 rikishi at 1-0.
• Round 2 saw one guy lose in juryo and another against a sandanme opponent, so down from 54 to 26.
• And the same thing again in round 3, so down from 26 to 12.

Basically the perfect storm of rikishi personal situations, scheduling decisions and bout results.

[Yamanashi 3,724]

57 minutes ago, Asashosakari said:

Yup, I can't find another case either.

Quite the amusing progression in this basho:

• One intai and 10 kyujo, so only 109 starters in makushita. One got knocked off in juryo, so just 54 rikishi at 1-0.
• Round 2 saw one guy lose in juryo and another against a sandanme opponent, so down from 54 to 26.
• And the same thing again in round 3, so down from 26 to 12.

Basically the perfect storm of rikishi personal situations, scheduling decisions and bout results.

We've got one 4-0 already; at least one more needed to keep the string alive.  Ten others are at 3-0 entering day 8; all are paired up for that day, so 5 will survive.  That leaves 6 4-0 rikishi after Nakabi.

EDIT:  Now that I think of it, the "knockoff" format is supposed to hone down the ranks to get the top candidates, but not  doing this on day 8 might have led to all 10 losing, an embarrassing outcome.

Edited September 16, 2023 by Yamanashi
I can't count

[Faustonowaka 112]

If Chiyoshoma doesn’t start winning soon, Kokonoe’s streak of having a rikishi in Makuuchi wil come to an end

[Yamanashi 3,724]

2 minutes ago, Faustonowaka said:

If Chiyoshoma doesn’t start winning soon, Kokonoe’s streak of having a rikishi in Makuuchi wil come to an end

5 years ago this month, Kokonoe had 4 sekitori in Makuuchi and 2 in Juryo.

[Sakura 1,472]

2 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

And the same thing again in round 3, so down from 26 to 12.

I haven't looked at the heya affiliations of the rikishi involved, so I'm making some assumptions here.

6 undefeated rikishi after round 4 and 3 after round 5. In round 6 that would leave us one all-Makushita undefeated pairing and one undefeated Makushitan against either a Sandname opponent or a 1 loss Makushitan. Assuming that seond bout is a coin flip we still have a 50% chance of having the usual winner takes all bout in round 7. Personally, I'm hoping round 7 involves a 7-0 v 6-1 opponent with the 1 loss rikishi winning and we end up with a playoff like in Hatsu 2016.

1 hour ago, Yamanashi said:

EDIT:  Now that I think of it, the "knockoff" format is supposed to hone down the ranks to get the top candidates, but not  doing this on day 8 might have led to all 10 losing, an embarrassing outcome.

The pairing up of rikishi who have the same record is standard.

[Yamanashi 3,724]

13 minutes ago, Sakura said:

The pairing up of rikishi who have the same record is standard.

I'm not questioning that (in fact I know that).  I just hadn't realized that the process guarantees there will be a nonzero number of unbeaten rikishi near the end of the basho.  Everyone else probably did.  That's all.