mokele

Baruto is easy to root for, as he is usually cheerful and friendly, never sulking or angry. His style is also to my liking, based on power, balance, stability and technical skill. He rarely slaps, thrusts or uses the nodo-wa, and as a result his sumo has a very pure yotsu-zumo appearance. Of course he lacks speed and his sluggish tachi-ai will be a recurring problem, but if he stays free from injury and practices effectively his power should increase to the point where he will be a serious threat to everyone including the yokozuna. He is capable of outright overpowering even the ozeki already such as he did to Kotooshu. It's great to see him use tsuri techniques, totally appropriate for someone of such immense size. In many ways he is similar in style to former ozeki Takanonami, although he tries to move forward more often and doesn't always seek an outside grip.

Well, the basho is over and Yamamotoyama went 9-6, an acceptable score for his 1st basho in Juryo but very disappointing after his great start. I picked him to win the Juryo yusho when he was 6-0. I haven't seen many of his bouts but I'm guessing that he suffered a minor injury around day 8 or 9, not enough to prevent him from competing but bad enough to hamper him competitively. His weight is going to be a big problem throughout his career, both in terms of hampering his mobility and stamina and making him prone to injuries. Human beings just aren't designed to carry around that much weight. Anyway, like most sumo fans I'm still rooting him on and hope to see him in Makunouchi some time in the next 2 or 3 bashos.

Tamakasuga was not your typical tsuki-oshi rikishi, often waiting for a mistake rather than aggressively barging forward like Chiyotaikai, Hokutoriki, Toyohibiki or other comtemporary aggressive thrusters. He could thrust and/or use the nodo-wa well but preferred to wait for just the right moment to do so, and often used oshi, inashi, tsukiotoshi and hatakikomi depending on the circumstances. He was not a hopeless case on the belt either although he preferred to avoid yotsu-zumo battles. In terms of style he was a bit like Takatoriki, although not quite as skilled. His presence on the dohyo was dignified and circumspect. He will be missed.

Thanks, I'm downloading the quicktime alternative software. Now if I can get quicktime off of my system, I'm in business.

I remember reading a few years ago Chiyonofuji's comment about Asashoryu that his sumo was "fast, skilled and splendid!" I more or less agreed for the last 4 or 5 years without seriously considering that he could have taken steroids to augment his power and increase his muscle mass and weight. However, Asashoryu has always given the extra shove, has sometimes gloated a bit when he wins, and has in general been boorish to opponents that had the audacity to challenge his supremacy. That type of egotism, irritability and aggressiveness is sometimes associated with steroid abuse. Although he's intelligent, his personality on the dohyo has always been that of a bully, someone who wants not only to win but also to dominate others. High level sumo does not need to be that way. Takanohana II was not like that at all, and from all that I've read, neither was Taiho. Chiyonofuji was just a great athlete and didn't need to hype himself up with aggressiveness in order to win. Asashoryu will go down in history as a great yokozuna but one who was flawed, and he may be abandoned and ignored rather than revered as his career comes to a close.

I like talented guys who barge through the lower divisions and quickly establish themselves in Makunouchi, but I also admire the less gifted rikishi who plod along, losing almost as many as they're winning, and who gradually make their way to Juryo and maybe to Makunouchi like Bushuyama. Even if their sumo lacks the speed and/or power of the higher ranked rikishi, they often gradually become superior technicians because that is the only way to compensate for the absence of natural athletic ability. Conversely, I've never been a fan of rikishi who have a lot of physical ability (size, speed or strength) but who don't seem to learn to do better sumo as they get older. Having a long career in sumo is very difficult, and often requires making style adjustments along the way. For those who go back that far, I remember Terao gradually improving at yotsu-zumo to augment his tsuppari and hatakikomi attacks. Chiyotaikai will need to do pretty much the same thing if he's to last much longer as an active rikishi.

I guess that it will never happen because of the entrenched traditions in Japanese professional sumo but I think that the trouble with all the matta and henka in sumo is easily solved by simply having the rikishi put both hands down, and then wait for an official gesture from the gyoji to start the bout, sort of like the lights in drag racing. Once the gyoji says something like "go" or "fight" or "charge" then the bout is officially started, and matta would never happen. If a rikishi jumped the gun and charged before the gyoji said "go", he would be disqualified. It sounds simple and it is. Why the heck hasn't anyone with some political clout in sumo suggested something like this?

At 1st I was confused and couldn't make the videos play, but then I monkeyed with some things and now I can see the little videos, although not very well. They often end prematurely and you don't even see the winning technique. I use the KM-player (kmplayer.en.softonic.com/) , copy the URL for the video, and then load it onto the KM-player. If you use a Macintosh it's probably easier, since they are quick-time videos. I tried using Real Player and it didn't work, although Real Player usually will play videos with the " .mov " extension. Anyway, great thanks and appreciation goes to Ngozi Robinson. Even if we can't see the end of all the bouts, we can at least see the tachi-ai! Some of the bouts play well enough to see the whole thing, but I don't know why.

Similar to Konishiki, Yamamotoyama is obese, and even though he's far stronger than the average Juryo rikishi and probably will win the Aki Juryo yusho, I am not convinced that he will be successful in Makunouchi unless he takes some weight off. 252 kg. is too heavy for any rikishi unless they're over 7' tall and even then it's too heavy to be effective. He is in danger of suffering an injury every time he falls over. However, I am actually pleased that a native Japanese wrestler with so much promise has reached Juryo. It's about time! Almost all the most promising young rikishi lately have come from Mongolia, Russia or Europe. I wish Yamamotoyama well, although I will cringe every time he falls!

It's even more astonishing to hear the band Hi-Standard as background music. (Holiday feeling...) Surely nothing special apart from the doyho, but one of the greatest bouts of all time, IMO (If I remember correctly, that bout was a tsuna decider): And for those who haven't seen it yet, the Kyokudozan trademark finisher: I remember watching Kushimaumi get waylaid by the harite from Kyokudozan. It was a really rare incident for 2 reasons: (1) Kyokudozan was mainly a yotsu-zumo rikishi relying on great speed and agility and specializing in dashinage techniques, and he almost never used either harite or tsuppari. (2) Kushimaumi was a huge yotsu-zumo rikishi, around 400 lbs., who specialized in kotenage. Kushimaumi was rather slow though, and lacked agility and variety.

This is an interesting question. If there is a high percentage of older rikishi in Makunouchi it means one of two things: (1) There are not enough good young rikishi coming up through Juryo (2) The collection of veteran rikishi in Makunouchi is unusually strong, and young rikishi that make it to Makunouchi are often getting make-koshi and being sent back down to Juryo. Personally I get mildly alarmed when the average age of athletes in a sport continues to rise, because it may be an indication that the sport is declining in popularity. The future of sumo depends heavily on a steady supply of strong and athletic youths that join the ranks while in their mid to late teens. It's worrisome when all the best Japanese athletes become baseball players or join some other sport other than sumo. I have noticed that many (if not most) of the most promising young rikishi today are gaijin, particularly those from Mongolia (goes without saying) and from Europe or Russia (Kotooshu, Baruto, Roho, Tochinoshin, etc.). I am a true sumo fan, and would be deeply saddened if sumo deteriorates in terms of the quality of the athletes who participate.

I found a site :-) with stats on another fire hydrant, Akinoshima. Such a career would be perfect already for Toyonoshima. Akinoshima was 1 of my favorites for many years. He was the nemesis of Konishiki. It got so bad that Konishiki was once asked why he had so much trouble with Akinoshima, and he said something like "Well, I'm not the only one that has difficulty against him!" Akinoshima had fairly good success against Chiyonofuji and Onokuni as well if I recall. Akinoshima had a lot of trouble over the years with Kotonishiki, another shorter rikishi. Kotonishiki was lightning quick, faster than Akinoshima, and that made the difference in many of their bouts. Akebono and Musashimaru learned to beat Akinoshima on a regular basis by simply overpowering him. It was mostly a size and power issue, one that may crop up many times in the future in Toyonoshima's career. I just looked up Akinoshima on Chiyozakura's website: http://www.sumoinfo.de/Aktive_Ringer/Akino...akinoshima.html I forgot about how well he did against Asahifuji (10-8). He was 23-10 against Konishiki, and most of those bouts occurred before Konishiki was demoted from ozeki.

Everything depends on Baruto's tachi-ai. If it's just average he will hold a sanyaku rank with 8 or 9 wins. If his tachi-ai is slow, he will do much worse. Many of the readers remember Kotonowaka I am sure. Baruto is similar in many ways to Kotonowaka, although Baruto is even bigger, and his bouts are not quite as long. He tends to allow opponents to get a morozashi too often, similar to ex-ozeki Takanonami, but with his size it doesn't hurt him as much as it would an average-sized rikishi. Baruto's future in sumo is very bright as long as he is careful to avoid injuries, especially to his knees. He seems like a very friendly, intelligent guy, easy to root for. :-) One more thing: I'll bet that a few veteran sumo fans remember another jumbo-sized rikishi who often had a slow tachi-ai and allowed opponents to get a morozashi a lot of the time: Mitoizumi. Good old Mitoizumi was Konishiki's stablemate, a yotsu-zumo rikishi who relied on winning by yorikiri and kimedashi a lot of the time. I started watching sumo when Mitoizumi was in his prime, just before he won his only yusho.

Thanks, many of us have to work hard searching around for hon-basho videos these days. :-)

Excellent choices! If someone would have told me that Toyonoshima would go 10-5 while defeating Asashoryu, Chiyotaikai, Kaio and Kotooshu I would have said "You must be joking. You cannot be serious! What've you been drinking!?" I mean, after all, Toyonoshima doesn't really have the power of an ozeki, and his squat, portly build means that he's not really very agile. He has good balance partially because he's built low to the ground, but all things considered, he's already accomplished an awful lot for a stubby "fire-hydrant" kind of guy. Toyohibiki is an oshi-nodo-wa wrestler, a somewhat rare hybrid. He doesn't use tsuppari, just the nodo-wa mixed with a strong pushing attack. He's powerful in any case, and should easily establish himself in the top half of the maegashira. Will he make sanyaku someday? Probably, but only briefly unless he suddenly improves his yotsu-zumo. Ama is the leading ozeki candidate today, although his loss on senshuraku means that short of a 13-2 score in the Aki basho he probably won't be promoted to ozeki for awhile. Ama's style is sort of a hybrid of fast, sharp tachi-ai, nodo-wa, a bit of harite, oshi-zumo and yotsu-zumo. He has nage skill as well, important for a lighter rikishi. It seems that most of the Mongolians are good technicians, which makes sense if they were wrestlers growing up in Mongolia.

Hmm, please show me the latest ozeki promotion with 9/11/10 wins. Good luck! Hint: Miyabiyama was denied ozeki promotion two years ago with 10/14/10 wins. Also, how can Ozumo be in need of a new ozeki when there are no less than four kachi-koshi ozeki right now? Granted, Kaio and Chiyotaikai might (might!) retire soon but even then there are two yokozuna and two ozeki, plenty enough. Oh, and Kaio could not be expected to hold the ozeki rank for how many years now? I lost the count somewhere... Well, I'm just being hopeful for Ama's sake. 30 wins in 3 consecutive basho is the bare minimum for ozeki promotion, but usually a rikishi needs 2 or 3 more wins to make it. I remember how long it took for Kaio to be promoted. Kaio won 60 bouts in 1996, all at Sekiwake, and ended up waiting until September of 2000 to finally be promoted. [see www.sumoinfo.de/Aktive_Ringer/Kaio/kaio.html] Thanks to Chiyozakura! Miyabiyama is really an odd case, a rikishi that became an ozeki in July 2000 after being a shin-nyumaku in March 1999. Maybe they failed to promote him to ozeki (for the 2nd time) after the 2006 Nagoya basho because they were embarrassed by how quickly he was demoted from ozeki after his 1st promotion. The rules for promotion have never been rigid, and depend on circumstances. With few genuine ozeki hopefuls on the horizon I would be happy to promote Ama with 11 wins in Nagoya and 11 wins in the Aki basho.

It looks like I spoke too soon about Ama not being ready to make the jump up to ozeki. If he wins against Baruto on senshuraku, his 11-4 score would put him in position to gain ozeki promotion if he had 10 or 11 wins in September. 9 wins in May, 11 wins in Nagoya and 10 wins in September just might do it. Sumo needs a new ozeki right about now also, as Chiyotaikai and Kaio cannot be expected to hold their rank much longer. Ama is not very big and physically he is built similar to ex-Sekiwake Terao. In particular his legs are rather thin compared to those of many other rikishi, but he has many skills and an excellent tachi-ai. He is far better on the belt than Terao ever was. He's gained a lot of weight in the last couple years too, and at 123 kg. he's heavier than Terao, and weighs about the same as Chiyonofuji did for most of his career. He would become an exciting and skilled ozeki. I just don't see any other serious ozeki candidates on the horizon. The closest ones would be Kisenosato, Kotoshogiku, Asasekiryu, Baruto and Toyonoshima, but I doubt that any of those rikishi will make it any time soon, maybe ever. Baruto has the greatest physical advantages with Kisenosato close behind. Kotoshogiku lacks variety in his attack, specializing in gappuri-yotsu. Toyonoshima is just too short to be an ozeki, although I'm rooting for the stumpy fellow.

I am surprised and pleased that short, stumpy Sagatsukasa is 9-4 and apparently more than holding his own in Juryo. The guy is less than 5'6" tall and looks way overmatched physically against most of his opponents. He's not a judo technician like Mainoumi was, and is not nearly as heavy and strong as Toyonoshima, so it's always tough for him. If he can make it to Makunouchi just once in his career it would be cause for celebration. Hakuho combines great stability and balance with strength and is still improving his sumo. We may be witnessing zensho yusho from him this basho. Chiyotaikai and Kaio both are in the same situation, veteran ozeki just hanging onto the title as long as they can. It looks like double digit records are unlikely for either one of them here in Nagoya or in the future. 3 or 4 years ago there was talk of Wakanosato possibly becoming an ozeki, but it's clear now that he's no longer close to that level. He's had a fine career for a sub-ozeki rikishi and can still get an occasional upset, but he's now unlikely to even make it back to sanyaku in the future. Kisenosato is plenty big and strong enough and is still young and improving overall but he's just not a great athlete. He's predictable and lacks agility. I don't see him becoming an ozeki in the future although he should be in and out of sanyaku many times over the next 5 or 6 years. I like Wakanoho's enthusiasm and intensity but he has a long way to go before he will be competitive against the joi-jin. He gets caught by superior technique way too often, a good example of which was his loss to Toyonoshima on day 12. Toyohibiki is having a great basho and with the right training could hold his own near the top of the maegashira. He has a strong nodo-wa and good oshi but needs to improve at yotsu-zumo. Tosanoumi's career may be just about over. Although I always liked him and his honest, straightforward oshi-zumo, he never learned to overcome his bad habit of putting his head down and losing by hatakikomi. He's not bad on the belt but has always preferred oshi-zumo, which makes it very hard for him to win as he gets older and slower. Kakizoe is very close to being demoted to Juryo. He's 1 of the best sportsmen I've ever seen in sumo, and has always come through with a win just when he needed it, but he's rather small and really lacks power. Maybe a few readers remember Kasugafuji, Asanowaka and Takamisugi, wrestlers with a similar style.

I'm just copying my reply to the day 10 results, since I had seen day 11 already: Day 11 results are in, and now it's clear that short of an extremely rare sequence of events, Hakuho (11-0) will win the yusho, and from all indications should be regarded as the dominant rikishi in sumo today. I watched his bout on you tube vs. Kotoshogiku, and Hakuho easily shrugged off the very strong gappuri-yotsu that Kotoshogiku can demonstrate, and just drove him straight back and out. Now that's power! Shades of former yokozuna Takanohana! Kotooshu has won several bouts in a row and at 8-3 seems to be on his way to 10 or 11 wins, respectable for an ozeki but disappointing for those who were hoping that he would be the next yokozuna. Quite simply, Kotooshu still has way too much trouble with several rikishi who should not be defeating him with such frequency. In particular, he loses too often to Wakanosato, Roho, Aminishiki and Toyonoshima. He's not close to yokozuna material until he exhibits a reliable approach to defeating those rikishi, along with a few others. I still believe that Kotooshu can make yokozuna, but it will take intensive training over the next 2 or 3 years or else ozeki will be the highest rank that he achieves. Maybe some of the sumo fans here remember Mainoumi and the incident with the silicone implanted into the top of his skull so that he would qualify for the height requirement to get into Japanese sumo. Mainoumi's success in Makunouchi was an important factor in the Kyokai removing that height requirement. Now we see how foolish that height requirement was in the 1st place, given that Toyonoshima has become a strong rikishi at only 5'6 1/2" (169 cm.) tall. At the moment he's 7-4 at Komusubi and has knocked off a yokozuna and 2 ozeki, and has shown reasonable power in all his bouts. When you do a physical comparison of Toyonoshima with some of the other Makunouchi regulars, he looks unimpressive, but his short stature sometimes works to his advantage, since he gets underneath many of the others, particularly Kotooshu. Being 14 inches shorter than Kotooshu doesn't seem to bother him! He's excellent technically, and seems to always have a plan to defeat the other rikishi. It's also clear that I was dead wrong about Kaio (7-4 so far), who has lasted over a year longer at the ozeki rank than I thought he would. He's still winning most of his bouts with simple power yotsu-zumo, and although he has a few more bad days than he did in his prime, he's still winning 8 houts or more each basho. He's no longer a threat to win the yusho, but what can we expect for a guy who will be 36 years old soon. Although he's not quite ready for the big breakthrough, it appears to me that Ama will be the next ozeki. He seems to have the quickness, technical skill and intelligence to adjust to whatever his opponents can do. I give him around an even chance to be an ozeki at this time next year. Once again Hokutoriki is setting new records as an "elevator rikishi". It seems that he simply gives up when facing the joi-jin. He makes a token effort at a thrusting attack with nodo-wa, and if it doesn't do much he's finished. He's 1 of the worst rikishi at yotsu-zumo I've ever seen, right up there with Toki and Aogiyama. Baruto seems to have stabilized his sumo, and his enormous size should help him to become a sanyaku regular in the near future. He still has a slow tachi-ai, is a bit underpowered for his size, and allows opponents to get a morozashi way too often, but really large rikishi often have that problem. Takanonami did "wrong sumo" like that for most of his career, and still was a good ozeki for several years. Will Baruto become an ozeki some day? I doubt it, but I like the guy and remain hopeful. Toyohibiki is doing well again, which should be expected given his strength and power. He needs to improve at yotsu-zumo though in order to be a regular near the top of the maegashira ranks. 1 of my favorite rikishi, Takamisakari, is struggling at maegashira 8, not good news. His de-ashi is often slow and lacks power. Once he gets a good belt grip he's formidable, but that has not been happening often enough.

Day 11 results are in, and now it's clear that short of an extremely rare sequence of events, Hakuho (11-0) will win the yusho, and from all indications should be regarded as the dominant rikishi in sumo today. I watched his bout on you tube vs. Kotoshogiku, and Hakuho easily shrugged off the very strong gappuri-yotsu that Kotoshogiku can demonstrate, and just drove him straight back and out. Now that's power! Shades of former yokozuna Takanohana! Kotooshu has won several bouts in a row and at 8-3 seems to be on his way to 10 or 11 wins, respectable for an ozeki but disappointing for those who were hoping that he would be the next yokozuna. Quite simply, Kotooshu still has way too much trouble with several rikishi who should not be defeating him with such frequency. In particular, he loses too often to Wakanosato, Roho, Aminishiki and Toyonoshima. He's not close to yokozuna material until he exhibits a reliable approach to defeating those rikishi, along with a few others. I still believe that Kotooshu can make yokozuna, but it will take intensive training over the next 2 or 3 years or else ozeki will be the highest rank that he achieves. Maybe some of the sumo fans here remember Mainoumi and the incident with the silicone implanted into the top of his skull so that he would qualify for the height requirement to get into Japanese sumo. Mainoumi's success in Makunouchi was an important factor in the Kyokai removing that height requirement. Now we see how foolish that height requirement was in the 1st place, given that Toyonoshima has become a strong rikishi at only 5'6 1/2" (169 cm.) tall. At the moment he's 7-4 at Komusubi and has knocked off a yokozuna and 2 ozeki, and has shown reasonable power in all his bouts. When you do a physical comparison of Toyonoshima with some of the other Makunouchi regulars, he looks unimpressive, but his short stature sometimes works to his advantage, since he gets underneath many of the others, particularly Kotooshu. Being 14 inches shorter than Kotooshu doesn't seem to bother him! He's excellent technically, and seems to always have a plan to defeat the other rikishi. It's also clear that I was dead wrong about Kaio (7-4 so far), who has lasted over a year longer at the ozeki rank than I thought he would. He's still winning most of his bouts with simple power yotsu-zumo, and although he has a few more bad days than he did in his prime, he's still winning 8 houts or more each basho. He's no longer a threat to win the yusho, but what can we expect for a guy who will be 36 years old soon. Although he's not quite ready for the big breakthrough, it appears to me that Ama will be the next ozeki. He seems to have the quickness, technical skill and intelligence to adjust to whatever his opponents can do. I give him around an even chance to be an ozeki at this time next year. Once again Hokutoriki is setting new records as an "elevator rikishi". It seems that he simply gives up when facing the joi-jin. He makes a token effort at a thrusting attack with nodo-wa, and if it doesn't do much he's finished. He's 1 of the worst rikishi at yotsu-zumo I'v ever seen, right up there with Toki and Aogiyama.

I think that these numbers would need to be adjusted based on the number of active yokozuna. In the case of four yokozuna, there will be six losses occurring in yokozuna vs yokozuna matchups. So a 9-6 record with three losses to fellow yokozuna could be considered stronger than a 9-6 record for a sole yokozuna. Yes I agree. With only 1 or 2 yokozuna like it's been lately, those numbers are ok. In the old (and rare!) days with 4 yokozuna (1 of those eras had Mienoumi, Wakanohana 2, Kitanoumi and Wajima, and another era featured Takonahana, Wakanohana, Akebono and Musashimaru) an 11-4 score would have been quite satisfactory. My numbers could be knocked down one in such an era.

I can't contribute to the poll now, but my choice would have been Kokkai. He's improved his yotsu-zumo a bit lately, but that's from just plain awful to fair. The joi-jin ended up pounding the heck out of him. I thought that Baruto would do a lot better, but 5-10 just isn't good enough for such a giant guy with decent belt skills. He's slow, especially at the tachi-ai, and that's his downfall at this level.

Honestly I don't know, but I voted for promotion to Sekiwake. Of course that will give us 3 Sekiwake for the Nagoya basho, but that's happened many times before. 10-5 at Komusubi is plenty good enough in any case. For me, the more interesting question is which one of Aminishiki or Toyonoshima will be promoted to Komusubi? Wakanoho should be bumped up to maegashira 1 with his 8-7 record, but it isn't clear whether Aminishiki with 10-5 at Maegashira 4, or Toyonoshima with 11-4 at maegashira 5, should get the big promotion. Hokutoriki will just miss out too, and end up as maegashira 1 (or 2).

yep, Ama and Aminishiki are smart fellows, and so is Toyonoshima. Baruto has a bright, amused look on his face quite often. Asasekiryu seems smart too but he's rather inscrutable. (I am not worthy...) The same could be said for Kakuryu. Takamisakari looks dumbfounded much of the time, but that's just his style. He's probably about average upstairs.

That's well said. Here's my personal reaction to records that a yokozuna might have: 14-1 or 15-0 : brilliant, awesome 13-2 : excellent, strong result 12-3 : good but nothing special for a yokozuna 11-4 : acceptable but ordinary at best for a yokozuna 10-5 : below par but not alarming unless it becomes typical 9-6 : weak and worrisome if it happens very often 8-7 : unacceptable, mediocre and indicative of an injury or imminent retirement 7-8 or worse : indicative of an injury, or if not, cause for retirement Let's not forget that all-time great rikishi can have off-days and poor tournaments occasionally. Chiyonofuji had a few 10-5 and 11-4 results here and there, and that was before his great winning streak in 1988. We should accept the simple fact that a yokozuna is still learning about sumo, that they are not a finished product just because they have reached the highest rank in sumo. Musashimaru learned how to win on the belt quite late in his career, and if he had kept his weight under control he could have dominated the sport for 2 or 3 more years. Akebono was basically a tsuki\oshi rikishi with a powerful tsuppari attack but little belt skill while he was rising through the ranks, but became a skilled yotsu-zumo rikishi once he became a yokozuna.