Katsunorifuji

Injury seems to be the big wildcard. It’s like every rikishi has some tape on them somewhere and whether it’s minor or major its gotta be slowing them down. If we could eliminate injuries if seems late 20’s would be prime in my opinion, though there would definitely be some variation.

That looks pretty cool. But it’s also pretty far off from where most tourists would go so I doubt we’ll get many photos of it. Still something I’d like to see.

If I limit it to Yokozuna I’ve actually seen and who’ve been active while I followed sumo (since 2005) I’d say Kisenosato. I wasn’t a huge fan but I appreciate that he helped rebuild sumo’s popularity inside Japan. And I wish he could have hung around longer and challenged Hakuho’s dominance. Second choice is Asashoryu. A controversial guy which is probably why he wasn’t my number 1, but he was fun to watch.

Great question! I’m not very good at sports predictions (I’ll keep predicting Takakeisho for the yusho every basho until he wins again!) but I feel pretty comfortable predicting Hakuho retires with 47. I think he will win July and either September or November this year. But I think he only gets one more next year before the Asanoyamas and Mitakeumis of the next generation assert themselves. I’ll give myself a cushion of +/- 1 and say I could see him ending at 46 or 48 but he’s gotta win at least two more with as good as he still is.

Depending on your definition of dominance you could make the case that Hakuho never got back to “dominance” even after Harumafuji retired. He’s still the man to beat, but he isn’t winning as constantly as before. We still expect him to win but we aren’t as surprised when he doesn’t. And if he won the July, September, and November bashos this year I think we’d all be more surprised than if he only won one of them. Looking at the last few years Hakuho’s biggest issue has been injury as he either has a great basho or he exits early. He’s won 2 out of the last 3 but was out early in the other one. Age seems to be catching him faster than his competitors, but give credit it’s due, he’s still outpacing both. Do I think he gets to 50? Probably not, as he’d really need to have a resurgence reminiscent of the earlier 2010’s and there are a few rising stars who seem poised to stop that from happening. But one comment I will make, with Hakuho no longer the sure fire champion every basho I like him a lot more and appreciate his accomplishments better than in the past. When he was winning everything it took away some of the fun of sumo, much like the Yankees or Lakers dominating their sports did. But now I can appreciate and even cheer for him when in the past I usually wanted to see someone else the winner.

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Kaio has a career spanning three decades and was Ozeki for an entire decade! I knew he was good but this gives a whole new appreciation.

How much of this is due to the foreigner quota system for each heya? Mongolia seems to be the country of choice for those with an opening these days.

Wow a lot of diverse sports tastes here including some I had never heard of before. I’m pretty boring in this regard. I like American football and will generally watch it on Sunday and Monday evenings when the day is winding down or when my team is playing. Otherwise I’m not as into all sports as I used to be. I will still watch baseball and NHL if my favorite teams are on but not as much as before. But if I’m bored and in front of a TV I will watch just about anything. Seasonally speaking soccer during the World Cup and all sports during the Olympics especially get watched.

Welcome to the forum from a fellow newcomer and American. I hear you on the lack of sumo appreciation from others, America is like the sumo desert and it’s hard to find anyone to discuss it with. I appreciate the thought provoking posts you’ve made on the forum especially since we won’t have sumo discussion posts til July.

At this point I’d say I’m pretty confident we will see a July basho but without spectators. Japan has closed up but I can’t see the state of emergency lasting through the July basho dates especially if it has been pushed back two weeks. Another month and I think more and more Japanese people will be getting restless and wanting to open the economy back up again. Elected officials will feel pressure so that’s what we will move towards. So we’ll see the state of emergency extended once more through June 15 and then things gradually open back up again.

This makes sense to me too. Once they cancel they can’t go back. But unlike other sports where hotels and flights need to be booked well in advance the NSK could wait until the last moment to decide and not have much to worry about. Outside of ticket sales that is, and it’s fairly safe to say we’ll see either an empty arena or no basho at all at this point. Looking at everything and everyone involved there really isn’t any benefit for NSK to make a decision to cancel now even if everything looks like it points to that necessity.

I am betting on both Asanoyama and Takakeisho going KK next basho. I’m more confident on Asanoyama but feel like both will post good 10+ win records.

If the state of emergency gets extended it makes their lives a bit easier since they don’t have to make the hard decision of whether to move on or not with the basho. Safest bet is obviously to cancel it, but I wonder how long they can carry on without the income the basho (even with an empty arena) generate.

I could have sworn I did that multiple times over the past couple days and it didn’t work. But I did it again now and sure enough there are the results! But after seeing how I did maybe looking at the old March results wasn’t so bad.

I may be doing something wrong but when I go there I see the top 10 and the March results. Nothing for Hatsu.

Another beginners question, but how do I see my points and ranking for the Natsu results?

Beginners bad luck here. I picked Asanoyama as the East Ozeki. Not the best way to start your GTB career.

Lots of Koto’s in the bottom of makuuchi. M13 to M17 each with one a piece. Looks like the early matches of the day will be fun to watch for those of us who follow Sadogatake Beya.

If someone wants to stay on board they need to become a Japanese citizen first correct? How quickly does that process take and does it need to be done before one retires? In America I know naturalization can take a while just for all the forms and paper work but maybe that Japanese government is a bit quicker at processing than the US.

Awesome analysis! I don’t think I could anymore to this no matter how hard I tried. I’ll admit I didn’t realize how ascendant Hakuho was and how much Asa had leveled off. I recall that Asa won the yusho in his last basho and that probably skewed my image of him a bit.

Another interesting what if indeed. History has shown us that some of the best athletes turn out to be not the best coaches, and Asa is one of the people who comes off that way to me. A great competitor who I don’t think would have been able to share his talent and expertise. It’ll be interesting as well to see how Hakuho does after retirement and if he’s able to train someone who can even be half as talented as he is.

Interesting question. I have a hard time seeing him getting back to his old form or competing at a top level given how long he’s been away and his age. If he’s been competing elsewhere he might have a shot of hanging around the upper levels but if I recall he’s into business now and not competing or training in any sport. Given that it takes time to move up the ranks I feel he’d stall out before getting to makuuchi. Another interesting question might be if he’d never been forced to retire how many yusho would he have and would Hakuho still be regarded as the greatest? I feel like we lost out on a lot of great basho when Asashoryu retired.

I like Kotooshu/Naruto’s shirt, where can I get one of those?

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Every time I click the Entry Form it takes me to an error page (404). Am I clicking something wrong or is that part of the site down at the moment.