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Kintamayama

Sagatsukasa intai

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Ex-Makuuchi rikishi Sagatsukasa has retired. Almost got the Sandanme yusho last basho. H was one of those guys that had to undergo a secondary entrance exam (remember those with the balls?) being very 1.67 meters.

Edited by Kintamayama
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I think he marginally misses the requirements. 22 juryo basho and 6 makuuchi, short of the combined 30 limit IIRC.

What's the secondary entrance exam entail?

Edited by Seiyashi

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1 hour ago, Seiyashi said:

I think he marginally misses the requirements. 22 juryo basho and 6 makuuchi, short of the combined 30 limit IIRC.

Oh yes I remember now. There was discussion recently about whether he was hanging hoping to qualify under the "Hochiyama" rule and have guarantors to allow him to stay.

Edit: He appears to be returning home to Shizuoka, so no kabu. 

 

Edited by ryafuji

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3 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

I think he marginally misses the requirements. 22 juryo basho and 6 makuuchi, short of the combined 30 limit IIRC.

What's the secondary entrance exam entail?

28 basho as sekitori can be enough. 

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Just now, Kenneth Minami said:

28 basho as sekitori can be enough. 

Yeah, that's the Hochiyama rule at work if you have people to vouch for you. Moot in this case, though.

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6 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

What's the secondary entrance exam entail?

 

On 01/02/2007 at 00:29, madorosumaru said:

Here are the regulations as posted by a heya for recruiting:

Primary Shindeshi Test held several days prior to each basho:

Height: 173 cm Weight: 75 kg

Those passing will undergo full medical check-up the same day, including EKG and echocardiogram.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Secondary Shindeshi Test for those not meeting the physical standards of primary test. Held thrice a year prior to each Tokyo Basho.

Height: 167 cm Weight: 67 kg

The aspiring deshi must also pass test for athletic ability:

1. Back Strength

2. Handball Throw

3. Hand Grip Strength

4. Sit Ups

5. Verticle Leap.

6. Repeated Side Jumps

7. 50-Meter Run.

8. 20-Meter Shuttle Run

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Other requirements:

1. Must have completed (or will complete prior to start) compulsory education--middle school.

2. Must be under the age of 23. (Makushita tsukedashi excepted)

Existed after 2001 as the Kyokai's first step towards more relaxed height/weight standards. In 2012 they made 167 / 67 the general standard and scrapped these physical ability tests.

Edited by Asashosakari
Added some extra spacing to the quote to make clear what's what.
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In any case, I kind of suspected that would happen. The longer he was hanging around the less likely it seemed that something was in the works kabu-wise. I do wonder now if that was ever the reason behind his sticking around and things just fell through at some point, or if it was more the hope of a career revival that ended up not coming. Perhaps a bit of a curse that it took so long for him to cease being competitive in upper makushita.

Edited by Asashosakari

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One of the guys that I kept wanting to return, but knew deep down that it wouldn't happen.  :-|

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I'll miss the little guy, but not his tongue twister of a name. 

Edited by Kaninoyama

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Pulled off the best ippon that I ever saw. Will be missed

Edited by Morty

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I would give a Fighting Spririt prize to Irumagawa-beya's tokoyama, who battled against near insurmountable odds to keep Sagatsukasa's topknot alive until his retirement.

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The db tells a tragic yet heroic (but maybe typical) story: after his last Juryo appearance, he spent 36 basho in Makushita, 29 in the upper half, and reached as high as Ms3w in Nov 2018.  He never got those 2 basho in Juryo, but not for lack of effort.

Side note: over his last eight basho he went 1-6, 1-6, 4-3, 3-4, 3-4, 3-4, 3-4, 6-1, intai.  Was that last basho a heroic effort, or shenanigans?  I'm leaning toward heroic, because he won 4 matches against rikishi who went 5-2, 5-2, 6-1 and 6-1 (his only loss was to 7-0 Hatooka in a Yusho-deciding match).

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1 hour ago, Seiyashi said:

If it was heroic, it means he made his decision before the basho.

If you mean before the Nagoya basho, I don't get it.  In fact, if he knew he was going to retire and wanted to make sure his last basho was memorable, any shenanigans would have to be worked out before and during the basho.  Please understand, I'm not assuming he shenaniganed (in fact I believe he gambarized®).

®"Gambarized is a registered trademark of Kintamayama Industries"

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14 minutes ago, Yamanashi said:

If you mean before the Nagoya basho, I don't get it.  In fact, if he knew he was going to retire and wanted to make sure his last basho was memorable, any shenanigans would have to be worked out before and during the basho.  Please understand, I'm not assuming he shenaniganed (in fact I believe he gambarized®).

®"Gambarized is a registered trademark of Kintamayama Industries"

No, I mean maybe after that string of long MK, he came to the conclusion he was done as a rikishi, and just wanted to go out on a high. Then after he won his first two matches or so things just psychologically snowballed and clicked from there.

There's also the zen koan about aiming for the prize and missing the bullseye - when you're aiming specifically for a KK and don't get it you're more liable to repeatedly screw up in anxiety, whereas if you've accepted that it's going to be over and you just want to wrestle your own sumo the results, as hackneyed as it sounds, will follow.

I think what I'm saying is that he came to terms with himself pre-Nagoya, and that psychological shift led to a sea change in his sumo in ways that a rikishi intending to stay active obviously cannot tap into. That he retired even after a 6-1 shows he made his decision sometime before, IMO, otherwise it would have been taken as a potential second/third/fourth career wind by a rikishi desperate to stay in ozumo.

Edited by Seiyashi
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1 minute ago, Seiyashi said:

No, I mean maybe after that string of long MK, he came to the conclusion he was done as a rikishi, and just wanted to go out on a high. Then after he won his first two matches or so things just psychologically snowballed and clicked from there.

There's also the zen koan about aiming for the prize and missing the bullseye - when you're aiming specifically for a KK and don't get it you're more liable to repeatedly screw up in anxiety, whereas if you've accepted that it's going to be over and you just want to wrestle your own sumo the results, as hackneyed as it sounds, will follow.

I think what I'm saying is that he came to terms with himself pre-Nagoya, and that psychological shift led to a sea change in his sumo in ways that a rikishi intending to stay active obviously cannot tap into.

I completely agree that he must have decided to retire before the basho.  If not, how would a "rational" person see a 6-1 D (effectively): "Hey, I'm back!"  He would definitely not say, "well, that was great, I guess the ol' guy still has it, but I'm now going to make the irrevocable decision to intai."

However, the heroic last basho is probably as rare as similar scenarios in other sports.  In fact, I remember some great last games because they were rare.

Incidentally, Hatooka, who he lost to, is a real tough-luck story on his own: 7 basho from Mz to Ms33, then injury and kyujo for 5 basho; 8 basho to go from Jk23 to Ms16, then injury and 4 basho out; then 4 basho from Jd57 to get back to Makushita.  A current record of 109-44-64 is unusual.

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I think that the explanation for the 6-1 is that the old boy had dropped to a position on the banzuke where his eroded abilities enabled him to beat most of the opposition (he was lucky against Tomokaze). And the retirement suggests that he knew that this was the case rather than a sudden return to form. One of the problems with fading rikishi is that any result can be taken as a reason to persevere: if they fare badly they might think "I'm not going out like this" and if they do well it's "Hey I'm back" (to quote Yamanashi).

I think that Sagatsukasa would have made a good candidate for one of the sewanin or wakaimonogashira roles but I suppose there were no vacancies.

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11 minutes ago, Tigerboy1966 said:

I think that the explanation for the 6-1 is that the old boy had dropped to a position on the banzuke where his eroded abilities enabled him to beat most of the opposition (he was lucky against Tomokaze).

For the convenience of everyone else participating: Sagatsukasa's last basho record - http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi_basho.aspx?r=6034&b=202107

That might have been the case against Yuriki and Sakai (who have been firmly lower division journeymen for their career) to start with. But it's not so clear cut against the rest of his opposition:

  • Kyoda: never MK in his 4 ranked basho to date, ended 5-2
  • Wakanofuji: high sandanme-low makushita denizen for most of his career till a recent slump in form, ended 6-1
  • Tomokaze: ex makuuchi, making a return from injury, and ended 6-1 (only loss to Sagatsukasa)
  • Daishoki: high sandanme for most of his career as well, but arguably the most surprising opponent of the lot to be a 6th matchup for Sagatsukasa

The mixed explanation is probably he dropped far enough to thrash the first two opponents with ease, then the knowledge of his retirement and the confidence gained from his first two wins put him in the zone for the rest of the basho, which was just enough to overcome even ex kinboshi winners.

Edited by Seiyashi

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9 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

Daishoki: high sandanme for most of his career as well, but arguably the most surprising opponent of the lot to be a 6th matchup for Sagatsukasa

I thought this was a predictable match-up. There were five wrestlers with 5-0 after day 10.  With Mitozakura taking on the top jonidan guy the other four were matched according to rank so it had to be Hatooka (16) vs Obara (38) and Daishoki (66) vs Sagatsukasa (77).  The way that the lower division match-ups work is the reason why title deciders can be a bit lop-sided in terms of rank.

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7 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

For the convenience of everyone else participating: Sagatsukasa's last basho record - http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi_basho.aspx?r=6034&b=202107

That might have been the case against Yuriki and Sakai (who have been firmly lower division journeymen for their career) to start with. But it's not so clear cut against the rest of his opposition:

  • Kyoda: never MK in his 4 ranked basho to date, ended 5-2
  • Wakanofuji: high sandanme-low makushita denizen for most of his career till a recent slump in form, ended 6-1
  • Tomokaze: ex makuuchi, making a return from injury, and ended 6-1 (only loss to Sagatsukasa)
  • Daishoki: high sandanme for most of his career as well, but arguably the most surprising opponent of the lot to be a 6th matchup for Sagatsukasa

The mixed explanation is probably he dropped far enough to thrash the first two opponents with ease, then the knowledge of his retirement and the confidence gained from his first two wins put him in the zone for the rest of the basho, which was just enough to overcome even ex kinboshi winners.

Well, as you say, happily the last four bouts are on video:

Wakanofuji: pushing toward the bales but S does a sidestep and down he goes.

Tomokaze: grabs S by the neck like a rag doll, getting ready to throw him out, but slips and falls just before S steps out.

Daishoko: has S going back, but decides to pull for some reason and S pushes him out.  The most "shenanigan-like" of the bouts, if you are looking for some.

Hatooka: well, Yusho is on the line, so Hatooka gets an arm under Sagatsukasa's armpit and marches him out in about 3 seconds.

The significant amount of infrastructure on Hatooka's left knee may point to the reason he's had to rise from the bottom three times in his career.

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13 minutes ago, Tigerboy1966 said:

I thought this was a predictable match-up. There were five wrestlers with 5-0 after day 10.  With Mitozakura taking on the top jonidan guy the other four were matched according to rank so it had to be Hatooka (16) vs Obara (38) and Daishoki (66) vs Sagatsukasa (77).  The way that the lower division match-ups work is the reason why title deciders can be a bit lop-sided in terms of rank.

It was definitely predictable in terms of the arasoi, although I meant that based solely on the rikishi's past records and ranks you would not expect Daishoki (as opposed to, say, Tomokaze) to be 5-0 on day 10.

The wins against Wakanofuji and Tomokaze certainly look like superior experience and ring sense coming into play. I can't explain the Daishoki bout, but better rikishi than both of them have inexplicably decided to pull in a similar position, so...

13 minutes ago, Yamanashi said:

The significant amount of infrastructure on Hatooka's left knee may point to the reason he's had to rise from the bottom three times in his career.

Just the left knee? I thought he was wearing leggings!

Edited by Seiyashi
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1 hour ago, Seiyashi said:

It was definitely predictable in terms of the arasoi, although I meant that based solely on the rikishi's past records and ranks you would not expect Daishoki (as opposed to, say, Tomokaze) to be 5-0 on day 10.

I thought it was a bit uncharacteristic. How could I have doubted you!

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