Sokkenaiyama

That's a mighty wall to hit. Nothing's wrong, he was quite dominant in that era, for sure. The thing is he only weighed about 100 kg to Onosato's 170-ish and only had to fight 20 bouts a year compared to 90 in the modern era - so much lower chances for injury, which I suspect will be what does Onosato in, even if there's never an actual 8-loss makekoshi (that seems as imminent as his Yokozuna promotion).

I thought the butler always did it.

Agreed, recency bias is strong, people are forgetting what beasts the Mongols were. Kotozakura would get thrown around like a ragdoll.

I don't think they'd promote him, even with any kind of yusho (snowball's chance in hell of that happening, anyway). Dude's been hardly stellar or even consistent in the joi, and there's no reason they'd think one fluke tournament would change that.

Not a fan of screams, for all the psychological release they offer, they will wreck your vocal chords. Maybe they were just gathering material for the blooper reel?

I sometimes get nostalgic about the time I was in the thick of it, but I don't really miss it. There's more to life than sumo gaming. That said, you were/are one of the really good ones. A shame, at that.

Good catch.

I first noticed it this year, but it's definitely been going on since at least mid-late 2023. Kobayashi had his first dominant season in 2018, so this may well be older, but I'm not entirely sure it has to do with him specifically, because I definitely remember seeing the gunbai at others' jumps.

English commentators didn't even bother mentioning it, at least not as long as I was listening to them. Most don't even know it has any special significance, I suppose.

I thought it was a nice touch. Them Japanese sure do care a lot about their identity, innit. The text on it (barely visible here) was appropriate, too: 神風必勝, which means, more or less, "divine wind, certain victory".

Not to be one-upped by Oscar, I searched for the pipe guy on my own. Apparently, bashing religion has been a thing for far longer than I had previously thought. In any case, good work as usual, YBF.

Wakakaraage? Yeah, I can see it.

It wasn't the most respectful, but it's the expected level of ignorance from the unwashed masses. And, to be fair, Wakatakakage is a mouthful, even when you actually know Japanese.

That's an interesting take, and it would be an actual good idea if they weren't all in on it (or at least condoning violence as a necessary evil for development).

There's only one problem - other foreigners HAVE acted this way in the past, and HAVE paid the price for it. And as for Hokuseiho being perceived as a foreigner or not, just ask any Japanese and you might be surprised to get a resounding yes (same goes for Hakuho, for whatever that's worth). That said, the violence we see exposed is probably just the tip of the iceberg.