Early ozeki puzzle?

[Chijanofuji 113]

After Tochiazuma was promoted to the rank of Ozeki I had a closer look at the historic Ozeki by means of the Makuuchi banzuke list at

http://www.banzuke.com/banzuke/BanzukeIndex.html

and the Makuuchi list at Yubiquitoyama's site: http://w1.858.telia.com/~u85811046/

What puzzled me most was that quite a high number of the early Ozeki (18th and early 19th century) only held the rank for one basho and (stranger still) that the majority of those were only ranked in Makuuchi for that one basho!

Can anyone explain this?

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

I believe these were the kanban ozeki.

I have this entry about them in my glossary (Note! 460 KB page!).

kanban, physically somehow exceptional rikishi who historically were taken into tournaments to lure audience; usually they were of little athletic ability with few exceptions like Dategaseki who developed into yokozuna Tanikaze

I guess they were some local giants who were only superficially named ozeki and after the basho their "career" ended as soon as it had started. But I could be wrong. ;-)

(Edited grammatical mistakes.)

[Yubiquitoyama 4]

I believe these were the kanban ozeki.

kanban, physically somehow exceptional rikishi who historically were taken into tournaments to lure audience; usually they were of little athletic ability with few exceptions like Dategaseki who developed into yokozuna Tanikaze

I guess they were some local giants who were only superficially named ozeki and after the basho their "career" ended as soon as it had started. But I could be wrong. ;-)

(Edited grammatical mistakes.)

I am not familiar with the term kanban, but I have at least some input (possibly slightly incorrect, but the way I have understood it).

First, there were some rikishi who were there SIMPLY because of their height or weight, and who often only did dohyo-iri. This includes big children, such as Daidozan Bungoro (who are often depicted on Woodblocks), doing dohyo-iri of some kind. I guess it could almost be called a freak-show, and was mostly as extra attractions to draw crowd (as far as I understand).

Then, there was this tendency to take young big men into sumo as Ozeki or Sekiwake who often quit directly. As I have understood it, they were put there as attractions, and stayed if they became popular or could wrestle well, but they weren't there (solely at least) to be freak show attractions. Rather a kind of way to find new crowd-pleasers and new greats in a fast way. Raiden, the great Ozeki were first ranked as Sekiwake (if I remember correctly), but as he proved himself (by getting the best record of everyone in his first basho), he stayed.

I'm not sure if one or both of these phenomena were called kanban, but you might be right that it's the second, if it's actually called kanban Ozeki.

Ah well...

[Chijanofuji 113]

OK, thanks to both of you!

I had a feeling it would be something like this.

As you can probably imaginee I feel a sudden urge to compose lists of both the "Kanban Ozeki" and "True Ozeki". In fact I've already started to do so, and you can expect me to present the results here soon! ;-)

[Guest Kaikitsune]

As you can probably imaginee I feel a sudden urge to compose lists of both the "Kanban Ozeki" and "True Ozeki". In fact I've already started to do so, and you can expect me to present the results here soon!

Just took a peak at Yubi`s massive database and sorting the data by "Entry level"-column made it easy to see how the kanban ozeki did on the dohyo. As mentioned, many didn`t have any bouts and most had only few bouts. Then there were few with good or even very good records ( I assume EVERY rikishi who started at Ozeki rank are considered kanban-ozekis and who were given the rank on the basis of their physical appearance so if I am wrong about this then my interpretation is biased) Tanikaze as the prime example.

Nowadays an intriguing scenario resembling the introduction of kanban-ozekis of late 18th and early 19th century would be if during abroad tour rikishis would do sumo against local champions of some other grappling/strength sport. :-/