rhino

When I first read the post, I was afraid Hakuho had actually lost this one... It does look extremely bizarre to me- I can only imagine that Kyokushuzan's tawara legwaving somehow threw Hakuho off balance and swung him around. But for a rikishi as strong as Hakuho to be "unable to finish off" a one-legged old man at the edge, legswinging or not, seems mightily weird. On an unrelated topic- thanks for the movies! I would probably have given up on following sumo if it weren't for your site!

It strikes me that the obvious matchup is Shimoda-Daishodai, as a sort of playoff for juryo promotion. Supposing they can't find 4 rikishi to demote to makushita, is it set in stone that 7-0 at Ms15 MUST result in promotion to juryo? Or can the NSK use some kind of discretion in awkward situations? If they did match Shimoda with Ryuo and Shimoda won, it still seems far more unfair to leave Ryuo in makushita than Shimoda.

Considering that Kyokushuzan seems to be trying to break the record for henka in this basho, and that Iwakiyama clearly hasn't realised that his dead-honest head down tachi-ai makes him a sitting duck, this one looks in the bag to me. (Henka!!!) I love Iwakiyama though- it would rule if Shoes-on tried a henka and got caught out by him, of all people. (Eating...)

:-D This reminds me... someone should tell the NSK that their spelling of "outstandeng performance" is wrong on these pages :-D

I think this rule would be a good idea (although I would say 3 yusho as ozeki is good enough). Interestingly, Kaiou is the only rikishi (since 1945) to have won 4 yusho as ozeki without being promoted to yokozuna. Only 3 rikishi in this period have even managed 3 yusho as ozeki without winning their tsuna- that's Tochiazuma and Konishiki as well as Kaiou. I think Kaiou was very unlucky not to be promoted at the end of 2004. Before the Futagahuro 'incident', it seems to me that 13-2Y followed by 12-3J would most likely have won him the tsuna, particularly with 5 yusho to his name. Kashiwado was promoted with 11-4 then 12-3D (!)

Today Hakuho again went with a tsuppari attack, eventually winning by hikiotoshi (although this time he managed to avoid backing up Chiyotaikai-style). I'm as surprised as Aminishiki- I thought Hakuho was a yotsu fighter by preference. Maybe he's trying to broaden his range of attacks as a yokozuna hopeful? What do other people think is behind this sudden change of style?

By which I mean hello! I'm a student from London, England, and I've only fairly recently discovered the awesomeness that is sumo wrestling. I pretty much wouldn't know anything about the sport or the rikishi if it wasn't for this site, so thanks to all of you who post here- this site is the best english language sumo resource on the net by miles! Anyway, I originally discovered sumo wrestling aged 6, when my parents went to the 1991 london koen. I didn't actually go (doh...!) but I watched some videos of it several times and was pretty much hooked. I mainly remember being mesmerised by the sheer hugeness of konishiki, and vaguely confused about what the gyoji were doing dressed up and getting in the way of these giants fighting each other. Well there's not much sumo coverage here in england (especially pre-internet) so that was basically it until I went to Japan in summer 2003. Remembering my fascination before, I was mad keen to go to a basho, but unfortunately there wasn't one while I was there (double doh!). That meant all I managed was to go to a chanko restaurant. I can assure you this was the authentic chanko experience, complete with fishheads and everything (which taste surprisingly nice!). So eventually my wish to see live sumo was fulfilled in summer 2005 when I managed to go to 2 days of the nagoya basho with friends. On the second day we went, we bought the cheapest seats in the house but managed to sit 3 rows from the front all the way between early makushita and the musubi-no-ichiban...! I particularly liked takamisakari- his behaviour was so weirdly different from all the other rikishi, and he was cheered ecstatically as this was his home tournament. Ama also impressed me, winning both times I saw him although I think he was 6-9 that basho. Since then I've been totally hooked, and this site (along with banzuke.com) is responsible. I just wish I could go to another basho now I know what the hell was going on. It turns out I was sat behind chiyonofuji and diagonally opposite takanohana, and had no idea about it... oh well! Sorry for posting my life story! (Yucky...) rhino

I'm not sure how you can say that sumo is non-violent: as combat sports go it's practically no holds barred! Obviously the aim isn't to hurt your opponent, but non-violent? You routinely encounter hard head clashes, people being thrown headfirst onto the clay floor, powerful slaps to the face, the list could go on- kotenage and tottari are just a part of that. In the words of Musashimaru- "sumo hurts!" (Yucky...) On the other hand I'm not a fan of anything that's likely to cause serious injury, so on that point I agree with you. I've never liked Kaio all that much either, arm twisting or no...

You can get a 30 minute documentary clip on takamisakari at this site, which explains the origins of his pre-bout "thing". It has early footage of Robocop in Makushita, videos of his two kinboshi; and interviews with his oyakata, Kotomitsuki, Miyabiyama and Ushiomaru (I love Miyabiyama's take on the guy). All in english, even though the site is french!

By my count, of the 22 yokozuna promoted since 1960, only 6 of them were promoted without any yokozuna going kyujo in at least 1 of their tsuna-tori bashos (7 if you include Akebono, but there was no yokozuna on the banzuke when he was promoted). Since 1990, no yokozuna has been promoted without at least one yokozuna going kyujo (again except Akebono). (Hello! I've been lurking here for a while, but this is my first time posting (I am not worthy...))