The Graph

[yorikiried by fate]

Like a few of you, I have been waiting for this.

Here's the updated Graph.

The reason why I've been waiting is that I made a couple of non-insignificant visual additions directly after publishing the previous version. Thus my hands are all bloody for rubbing them for a full year.

 

So the changelog:

• Visual helps have been added for determining year and month while scrolling around with large magnification. So no more whining about whichmonthwhatisthisshit.
• The circles showing absences of former champions now carry more information. First of all, you can now always see how many former champions were absent at a given basho. In case one or more former champion(s), was/were absent because of demotion to lower divisions, this is also indicated now.
• The left edge of the Graph has been visually updated to present the initial stage of affairs in I-1958 in a more pleasing way.

 

As for trivia that were easily visually available and have relevance for stuff happening in 2021:

• Thankfully, Hakuho rode West, since his annoying success had been putting the vertical integrity of the Graph in danger for quite a while. In fact, we saw a new record of 62 active banzuke wins in III-21, just before Kakuryu retired.
• The record for most different yusho winners on the banzuke was tied at 11 in III-21 (previously also XI-20 and VII-00).
• After Hakuho's retirement the yusho-experience-level dropped to 15 for XI-21, which is the lowest since IX-93 [!], in the aftermath of the 4-Yok retirement phase (Chiyonofuji, Onokuni, Asahifuji & Hokutoumi) between V-91 and VII-92. Back then this event produced the lowest YEL at 6 in VII-92.
• Terunofuji's consecutive yusho in III-V-21 were the first consecutive yusho since Kakuryu's in III-V-18. (And the same-Yokozuna-consecutive-yusho-drought was only ended with Terunofuji's IX-XI-21 wins.)
• The previous point translates into 15 basho without consecutve wins. This is the second longest such phase in modern history. The longest one came at 20 basho between XI-74 and I-78, when Kitanoumi and Wajima played pingpong a lot.
• In terms of participation, 2021 saw only 4 Yokozuna attendances (2x Hakuho, 2x Terunofuji). This is the lowest number since 1994, when Akebono was the sole Yokozuna. The lowest number all-time is in 1992 with 2, which was of course the time of Nokozuna.
• We had 2 Yokozuna retirements this year, which most previously happened in 2003 with Takanohana II and Musashimaru.
• Additionally, the two retirements came within four basho (Takanohana II's and Musashimaru's  were in I-03 and XI-03, respectively). You have to go back to 1992 to find the retirements of Asahifuji (I-92) and Hokutoumi (V-92), which were shorter apart and are complemented by 1991's retirements of Chiyonofuji and Onokuni, which came in consecutive basho (V-VII-91).
• New Yokozuna Terunofuji is the first Grand Champion to have won two yusho at Sekiwake.
• He is only the third Yokozuna to have won a yusho at Maegashira. The previous guys were Takanohana II and Sadanoyama. The latter had won his first Makuuchi yusho in V-61 at M13w in his THIRD Makuuchi basho (which is in the exceptional category together with Miyabiyama's speedrun to Ozeki).

 

Suggestions and critique: Don't hesitate.

 

If you enjoy this and want to give back, you could help me out with what I posted in another thread.

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by yorikiried by fate
Onokuni, Okinoumi, whatever... ...they are all fat...

[Gurowake]

4 hours ago, yorikiried by fate said:

4-Yok retirement phase (Chiyonofuji, Okinoumi, Asahifuji & Hokutoumi)

O no! One of these things is not like the other.  You even got it right later!

Edited November 29, 2021 by Gurowake

[yorikiried by fate]

5 minutes ago, Gurowake said:

O no! One of these things is not like the other...

Arggh,  no shit, I first typed Chiyonokuni and was proud to have found the typo...

Edited November 29, 2021 by yorikiried by fate

[yorikiried by fate]

Hello world.

The annual update is due. You can find it under this link (which is probably safe, as I use the same file hosting  site to share pirated creatively acquired stuff with my brother-in-law). The link will be valid for two months. If you need it afterwards, just give me a shout.

If you appreciate the thing, feel free to like and comment, so that I know that I am not doing it exclusively for myself.

For the three people who have stumbled into this thread not knowing the Whats and Whys, please download the PDF via the link and read the answers in-document.

After the major revamping last year, I have only added the new data points for 2022 and didn't touch anything design- or featurewise.

Stuff that can be easily derived from Graph-viewing alone (all claims refer to 1958-now):

• 2022 was only the fourth year with six different yusho winners (1972, 1991, 2020, 2022). Although, 2020 should be discounted, as it had only five tournaments.
• 2022 was the first year ever to feature three yusho from Maegashira ranks. As a bonus feature they came in a row, which is also new, even if you'd consider consecutive years. And that's actually an ongoing streak...
• Abi's win was only the second Maegashira win after a playoff situation, the first one being Kyokutenho's in V/12 against Tochiozan.
• Additionally, Abi is the first Maegashira to yusho after a playoff, if higher ranked rikishi were involved. (The aformentioned Kyokutenho and Tochiozan were both Maegashira; note – though – that the latter was the higher ranked Maegashira of the two [M4e against M7w].)
• The 3-way-playoff of XI/22 was the first 3+w-PO since III//97 (with 4 challengers). The previous 3w-PO was in III/94. In all those years, this was only the 6th 3w-PO overall, and the 8th 3+w-PO. Such things are really very rare. Which sounds odd, as Day 14 community exitement about the possibility of which seems – from memory – much more frequent.
• Even if you wouldn't know it anyway, the numbers suggest that we are living in transition times. Never before have there been four basho in a year, where less than 13 wins were enough for the yusho.
• The three consecutive 12-3s from III to VII are (interestingly enough) not unprecedented. In fact, I-V/72 even saw 11-4, 12-3, 12-3, which is the lowest wins-needed-for yusho average, if counted over half a year (11.67).
• Based on that, I figured it would be interesting to look at wins-for-yusho-averages for every year since 1958. Naturally, this couldn't be based on just peering at the Graph, as I include win numbers only for a limited set of cases. Therefore, I returned to the source for all info in the piece, i.e. the Doitsubase.
  So, in fact 2022 had the all-time lowest wins-needed-to-yusho average with 12.33. There are only 6 years overall, were the average was below 13:
  1. 2022 12.33 (13, 12, 12, 12, 13, 12)
  2. 1961 12.67 (13, 13, 12, 13, 12, 13)
   . 1975 12.67 (12, 13, 13, 13, 12, 13)
   . 1999 12.67 (13, 13, 13, 13, 12, 12)
  5. 1972 12.83 (11, 12, 12, 13, 15, 14)
   . 2003 12.83 (14, 12, 13, 12, 13, 13)
  The average over all years – btw – is currently 13.61.

 

Finally, some previewish thoughts about January:

• Since no previous winner retired, we will have a new record of 12 former Makuuchi yusho winners on the banzuke come January. That is, provided everyone fails to do something so outlandishly stupid as to provoke some Stalin-grade purge from the records.
• This will – interestingly – NOT set a new record low for average wins per former winner (22 yusho distributed among 12 rikishi = 1.83). This record firmly belongs to the era around the Yokozuna-less time in the early 90. In IX/92, 9 yusho were distributed among 7 former winners = 1.29! This is one basho after the record low for "banzuke-yusho-experience-level" (8), which originally the whole Graph was about. Back to the roots.
• If Terunofuji doesn't have some sudden premature cybertech based comeback in January and/or someone else doesn't get spontaneously promoted to either Yok or Oz for his pretty eyes alone, January will be the first ever basho (in modern times blabla) with an ACTIVE (as in participating) Yokozuna plus Ozeki sum smaller than two. I guess we will see a couple of extra Sekiwake and Komusubi again soon.

 

Have fun and see you around.

 

 

[Sue]

Quote

• Since no previous winner retired, we will have a new record of 12 former Makuuchi yusho winners on the banzuke come January. That is, provided everyone fails to do something so outlandishly stupid as to provoke some Stalin-grade purge from the records.

There's still the outstanding question of Ichinojo, but that's not likely to be resolved before the banzuke is set.

[yorikiried by fate]

4 minutes ago, Sue said:

There's still the outstanding question of Ichinojo, but that's not likely to be resolved before the banzuke is set.

I mean, the banzuke was set yesterday, the Tuesday after the final day, if memory serves and they didn't change that. Therefore, whatever happens, he is on the next banzuke, which is what counts for me. Unless he will be stricken off the thing completely after the fact, which would need some very serious reason. That's what I was aiming at in my comment.

[Seiyashi]

32 minutes ago, yorikiried by fate said:

I mean, the banzuke was set yesterday, the Tuesday after the final day, if memory serves and they didn't change that. Therefore, whatever happens, he is on the next banzuke, which is what counts for me. Unless he will be stricken off the thing completely after the fact, which would need some very serious reason. That's what I was aiming at in my comment.

Think it's Wednesday (jūryō promotions were only announced today) but otherwise, yes. Seeing as the Ichinojō affair has been brewing for the better part of a year with the NSK aware of it, I don't think it's going to result in action that precipitate as to result in him being off the next banzuke in a hurry.

I mean, he might still retire of his own volition if this comes to a head over the next month, but it's not like they're going to decide to forcibly retire him today or something.

[Gurowake]

On 29/11/2022 at 13:13, yorikiried by fate said:

Such things are really very rare. Which sounds odd, as Day 14 community exitement about the possibility of which seems – from memory – much more frequent.

There's quite often, especially recently with lower yusho scores, a very real possibility of a 3+w-PO after Day 14, but it's generally only a hypothetical situation that usually doesn't materialize because the lone leader wins their match and settles it that way.  This time the lone leader was Takayasu...

[Gurowake]

11 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Think it's Wednesday (jūryō promotions were only announced today) but otherwise, yes.

While I'm not sure if it's literally true for YBF since I think he's from somewhere in Europe, but when the decisions are made, it's still Tuesday somewhere in the world.

[Reonito]

3 hours ago, Gurowake said:

While I'm not sure if it's literally true for YBF since I think he's from somewhere in Europe, but when the decisions are made, it's still Tuesday somewhere in the world.

I always see the new juryo announcement on Tuesday evening in my time zone

[yorikiried by fate]

Hello peoples of the world, hello fat-guys-in-diapers gawkers!

It's time again and here's the meat, already.

But still, the extensive comments below might be worthwhile.

 

Whenever I think there's nothing left to improve/do, I seem to receive some inspiration for exactly that. Thus, the graph has seen quite some (mostly cosmetic) work since last year:

• The two Ozeki promotions triggered me to visually clarify the win-loss indicators of successful Ozeki (re)runs. Naturally, I extended this new scheme to Yokozuna runs as well.
• The major retirements on the main graph were a bit redone. I never really liked how they visually dominated, so I did the natural thing and likened them to the intai scheme of the lower part of the graph.
• The record indicators (most ex-champions on the banuke etc.) have been redone. They now don't look like shit anymore.
• New record indicators for Most Foreigners at the different levels of interest added.
• The win indicators for 12- win yusho and playoff yusho got a mild touch-up in order to visually emphazise the 12- win yusho.
• The two Yokozuna event rows, which are naturally dominated by whitespace, are now additionally used to indicate Yokozuna eras.
• The indicators (circles/rings) that show the amount of non-competing former champions have been reviewed, particularly in respect to the color coding. Each completely absent ex-champion is now represented by a white fill, independent of where he's placed on the banzuke. Only if a former champion actually competed for at least a single bout in a lower division, the circle/ring gets colored.
• Also the order of colored vs. non-colored rings has been reversed.

As for the visual info provided by the graph for 2023:

• In May, we saw the highest number of former champions on any banzuke. That number is 13. This was immediatly rectified by the intai of Ichinojo and Tochinoshin, which let the number drop to 11 for July.
• Together with the retirement of Tokushoryu we therefore had three ex-champion intai this year, which is not super common, but also not explicitly rare.
• In March we had another record: Five former champions didn't compete for the Makuuchi yusho, courtesy of Tochinoshin, Ichinojo, Asanoyama and Tokushoryu all competing in Juryo (which is a record by itself), while Terunofuji took another 15-day breather.
• Tied rank 2 in that category (four non-Makuuchi-competing ex-champions) occured three times: Twice this year (January and May) and once way back in V-2000, when Yokozuna Musashimaru and Ozeki Musoyama were out, while Kotonishiki and Mitoizumi were placed in Juryo and both additionally didn't turn up (covered by the kosho rule back then).
• Each banzuke of the year had extended sanyaku ranks. Such a full extension year happened twice before, namely 1993 and 1961.
• With the current results, this streak of extended sanyaku ranks is bound to end at 8 (IX-22 to XI-23). This is the third longest streak of extended sanyaku ranks after III-92 to I-94 and VII-60 to V-62 (both 12).
• There were three Ozeki yusho this year. This last happened in 2012, which included Harumafuji's Yokozuna run and Baruto's one-off yusho.
• There was only one Yokozuna yusho this year, which happened only once before, which was last year. Zero Yokozuna yusho happened only in 1992, just before and including part of the Yokozuna-less couple of months prior to Akebono's ascension.
• While the amount of foreigners at several levels has principally stabilized (certainly due to the protective restrictions set up by the NSK), we saw a low outlier in November, with only six Makuuchi foreigners on the banzuke. You have to go back to 2003/2004 to find such a low number. This is just when Asashoryu kicked (shoved?) off at the top, and the slower members of the Second Mongolian Wave slowly dripped into Makuuchi.
• As for the elephant in the room: For a second year in a row, the wins-per yusho average was 12.33. Which is amazingly bad. My grandmother could currently yusho. And she's dead! On Takayasu's grave it will be written: "He couldn't even yusho while the wins-per-yusho average was 12.33 for the second year running!"
• Well, probably not. It will most likely say "He was a nice chap."
• OK, Terunofuji is absent a lot. But he wouldn't necessarily help either. With 8 career yusho, he already has three yusho won with only 12 wins. The only other ex-champions with 3+ Makuuchi yusho that amassed at least three 12- wins yusho are: Musashimaru (1x11, 3x12 with 12 career yusho), Chiyonofuji (4x12; 31), and Wajima (3x12; 14).

 

So the weakness of the current yusho level made me consider if I could represent that visually. As it turned out: Yes I could! But with a caveat.

The measure that I applied goes like this: Take a banzuke. Look at all former champions that compete for the Makuuchi yusho. Look at all the yusho those guys had so far and average the necessary wins they needed for their accumulated yusho. Voila.

This can be plotted onto the graph. The problem is only, that the each datapoint is somewhere between 12 and 14.5, while the graph generally shows stuff between 0 and 63. Of course you could map the values, sneak in some extra labelling and whatnot.

And I did! But this is so specific that I decided to leave that feature out of the "normal" Graph. As a fan service to the real afficionados I have attached the extended version here.
There you can learn – once more – how awsome Hakuho was, how pathetic the current crop is, and how freakish the banzuke/competition situation of July 1972 was.

 

Comment, like, subscribe, make me feel worthy.

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by yorikiried by fate
typos

[Gurowake]

I guess this would have been relevant to consider before, but I didn't think about it until now: Are those foreigners who are granted a Japanese shusshin considered foreigners on The Graph?  I assume not, as you're probably just pulling the foreigner data from the DB where's it's determined by the official shusshin.  It's definitely a grey or possibly gray area.  I think there might be at least one person other than Hokuseiho in this category, though I don't think they're quite as notable.

[Gurowake]

Another thing that was also relevant in the past*, but I hadn't really considered before, is when someone wins Yusho under more than one name.  If that person is eventually an Ozeki with the new shikona, there's somewhere else on the graph that shows the name change, but that requires hunting elsewhere, and there's no guarantee that no one in the future will win Yusho with two different shikona without being an Ozeki under the new one.  What I'm getting at is that maybe on the row of Yusho winners, if someone wins a Yusho with a new name, the old Yusho name is updated to include the newer one in parentheses as with name changes on the Ozeki promotion scale.

*Hoshi -> Hokutoumi at very least in addition to the one that just happened (Kiribayama -> Kirishima).  There may have been others, but I'm not sure.

[yorikiried by fate]

45 minutes ago, Gurowake said:

I guess this would have been relevant to consider before, but I didn't think about it until now: Are those foreigners who are granted a Japanese shusshin considered foreigners on The Graph?  I assume not, as you're probably just pulling the foreigner data from the DB where's it's determined by the official shusshin.  It's definitely a grey or possibly gray area.  I think there might be at least one person other than Hokuseiho in this category, though I don't think they're quite as notable.

Yeah, there's some comment about that in the explanations box on the left. The data is indeed pulled from the Doitsubase, therefore treating some foreigners as Japanese, and (some?) naturalized Japanese as foreigners. It's merely the data of the banzuke. Works for me, though, as the numbers shouldn't be tilted very much at any given time.

I agree, though, that "Foreigner # records" are a bit silly from that perspective. But hey, we're here for the drama...

[yorikiried by fate]

59 minutes ago, Gurowake said:

Another thing that was also relevant in the past*, but I hadn't really considered before, is when someone wins Yusho under more than one name.  If that person is eventually an Ozeki with the new shikona, there's somewhere else on the graph that shows the name change, but that requires hunting elsewhere, and there's no guarantee that no one in the future will win Yusho with two different shikona without being an Ozeki under the new one.  What I'm getting at is that maybe on the row of Yusho winners, if someone wins a Yusho with a new name, the old Yusho name is updated to include the newer one in parentheses as with name changes on the Ozeki promotion scale.

*Hoshi -> Hokutoumi at very least in addition to the one that just happened (Kiribayama -> Kirishima).  There may have been others, but I'm not sure.

Well, this boils down to aesthetics or visual clarity. It's been a long time ago, when I made that decision. I vaguely remember arguing with myself about it.

It seems that I wanted to keep the yusho winner row clean, first and foremost. Thus Hoshi > Hokutoumi and a few others (Tamanoshimo > Tamanoumi, Wakamisugi > Wakanohana, Takanohana etc.). In a way, the # of yusho marker is a hint that a name change occured, because – e.g. – Hoshi stops at "1", but is not indicated as a final yusho.

If a name change occurs before Ozekihood I resorted to the name in brackets thing. But that's on the lowest tier of events, so visually I didn't care much. starting from the Ozeki rows, it didn't seem necessary anymore, as everyone either changed the name when becoming Ozeki, or at promotion to Yokozuna. Here, the different rows interact with each other, timewise, so the continuity is implied.

If you consider the relative sparsity of cases, I accept this problem of clarity, for the sake of visuals.

But I'm open for good suggestions.

Edited November 28, 2023 by yorikiried by fate

[Akinomaki]

1 hour ago, yorikiried by fate said:

treating ... (some?) naturalized Japanese as foreigners

Some, but not really - foreign born who join after becoming Japanese are treated as Japanese, e.g. Agora (Iima) - Brazilian till the year before he joined: apparently he would have been treated as Japanese under the new policy even if he hadn't become Japanese. Once entered as foreign shusshin that can't be changed, even if it's only 1 year difference in the time they spent in Japan before joining. But treating those with 10 years in Japan as with Japanese shusshin is a relatively new turn of events, so they some day may reconsider the whole thing and treat those with 7 years in Japan (high school and university) as Japanese after 3 years.

[yorikiried by fate]

5 hours ago, Gurowake said:

Another thing that was also relevant in the past*, but I hadn't really considered before, is when someone wins Yusho under more than one name. […]

I've kind of solved all this, so thanks for the spark. With a little extra visuals (very few), everything is now very consistent and understandable.

Will be part of the update one year from now.

 

Cliffhanger!

[Ryoshishokunin]

I missed this year's graph, and apparently it was available until yesterday :( 

Any chance of a reupload?

[yorikiried by fate]

44 minutes ago, Ryoshishokunin said:

I missed this year's graph, and apparently it was available until yesterday :( 

Any chance of a reupload?

Done.

[yorikiried by fate]

My fellow Keepers of Kisenosato's Flame!

It is 15 years ago that I started this Graph thingy. Back then I was living with my wife and baby boy in Latvia (or "f*cking Latvia" as I call it these days) and was only moderately skilled in wasting time. It turned out that "not really into drinking" was a big minus when it came to enduring endless winters, so all that was left was exploring rabbit holes online. I remember that I shortly entertained the notion of looking into this new Crypto thing, but then my wife wanted something (which was most likely trivial, cumbersome and/or annoying) and when I returned from the distraction I thought "Nah, that's a bit crazy anyway..."
 

So I developed this Graph instead. F*ck materialism! Let's cross-breed mediocre command of tools, restricted sense of objective beauty and other people's data vault!
 

Here we are, one anniversary further.
 

 

The never ending story of minute cosmetic advances:
 

• Prompted by a fan request, I clarified shikona changes of featured rikishi.

Originally, I had thought that there are few enough cases of guys going for a new name at random points in time, instead of when they had achieved a new meaningful rank (i.e. Juryo or Ozeki debut). Based on that, I indicated some future names in brackets and relied on the reader's skills to connect the dots in case of promotions. This left a couple of itchy spots, though, as e.g. seeing the debut entry "Shimoyama (Wakamisugi)" wouldn't – at least at first glance – point towards Yokozuna Wakanohana (II).

• While fixing this by adding subtle additional hints, I also connected the dots for real for the handful of yusho by guys changing their shikona after winning their first one.

My smug smile faded quickly, though, as Mr. Kotokamatani trotted along to give me a headache with his fancy new I-will-change-my-name-two-months-later-than-everyone-else antics. In the end, I – helped by a shower of curses, that might or might not have involved moto-Kisenosato as a point of reference – prevailed.

• I swapped (and – IIRC –  additionally modified) the fill colors for Tsukedashi debuts. Starting from Makushita now looks darker than starting from Sandanme, so Regular to Sd-TD to Ms-TD debut decrease in brightness of shade.
• Then I thought I could add the actual debut TD-rank as as small info snippet next to the actual emblem, which turned out to be visually pleasing.
• Finally, I overhauled the indicators for expanded Komusubi and Sekiwake slot numbers. Previously, there were little white numbers in the colored bars, forcing you to properly zoom in to get the exact picture. This was replaced by banded bars with segments representing the number of rikishi placed on the respective rank. This is well distinguishable with a lower zoom level. Well done. Go me.

 

So what does the Graph visually tell us about 2024 in relationship to previous years:
[Disclaimer: Like always, I'm talking about 1958+ stuff; so if I say "never before" it means exactly that or "not since 1958"]

• Let's get the elephant out of the room by stating the obvious: Onosato is the fastest everything.
• He's is also the first guy ever to win a yusho from Komusubi and Sekiwake ranks. He achieved this despite sharing a roof with his shisho, so there's a good chap.
• Talking of many-colored winner ranks. In 2024, champions listed Maegashira, Komusubi, Sekiwake, Ozeki and Yokozuna (2x). The full set had never been achieved in a calendar year. In fact we even saw the uninterrupted set from III to XI. Only the ascending order was screwed up, because f*cking Terunofuji (or maybe his cybernetics roadie) couldn't wait for his turn.
• One major reason why the full straight hadn't been achieved in the past is the absolute rarity of Komusubi yusho. Onosato's was only the 6th ever [= since 1958].

 

• Takakeisho retired with 4 career yusho, which is the second highest for career Ozeki after the eternal Kaio (5).
• Generally speaking, multiple career yusho for retiring non-Yokozunæ didn't even happen until Kaiketsu and Takanohana (I) set the precedences beginning in the late 70s. The reason for this is not readily apparent, so it's likely just manifest randomness.

 

• In VII (and IX) we had 13 different former Makuuchi yusho champions on the banzuke again, which makes me unhappy for aesthetic reasons. As Kotozakura's yusho will put a third record marker on the Graph for January 2025, I'm praying for number 14. Go Atamifuji! Become AtomiFuji!!
• With a lot of ex-champs come lots of absentees. The last time every previous champion was competing in Makuuchi for at least one bout was way back in VII-2020, right after the Covid break, which allowed everyone to recover from injuries like normal people do. We came close, though, as three times only one former champ was AWL (Wakatakakage on his way back up in I and II , and Takerufuji in VII).
• The amount of ex-champions on the banzuke naturally comes with lots of new first time winners. In the last 5 years (2020-2024) we had 9 such debutants, which is a record tied with the periods of 2018-2022 and 1971-1975 (or 1972-1976, as all the yusho debuts occured in the period of 1972-1975).

 

• Terunofuji's 10th yusho is worth mentioning, I guess. He's the first new dai-Yokozuna since Hakuho's ascension in III-2009. Though, isn't Kisenosato also a champion of champions of all our hearts? A bit like Lady Di, just with less clothes and tunnels.
• Kirishima's and Takakeisho's demotions make it 9 in 5 years, which is ridiculous and unprecedented.
• Talking of inconsistency and relative shiteness of the top crop: Last year I introduced the yusho power rating for the extended version of the Graph. If you cannot be bothered to scroll up for the details: For each tournament, look at all competing ex-champions. Calculate the average wins for winning their respective yusho up until this point in time. In most eras this would always be above 13, often as high as 13.5 and hovering around 14 when Hakuho was in his pomp. Now it stayed below 12.7 all year. The year's average is 12.6 and the worst ever. Nota bene! I know that the yusho average this year was 12.83. I'm talking about the career wins-for-yusho averages of the competing ex-champions.

The dreaming-of-good-old-times-when-you-needed-16-wins-for-second-place-extended-graph is here.

 

Give me your love!
[and if you happen to find a Bitcoin in the upholstery of your third Bugatti...you now where my postbox is!]

 

Edited November 28, 2024 by yorikiried by fate

[Ryoshishokunin]

Onosato's name sure appears a lot of times on the graph this year.  

This is one of my favourite end-of-year posts, and long may it continue.  It's a great detailed bit of datavis like you don't otherwise see in sumo.  Kudos!

[yorikiried by fate]

Dear AI-bots posing as my former acquaintances of sumo-knowledge-fame.

 

To keep up appearences on all sides, I entrust you with the update of the eternal graph, which - one day for sure - will be the key for unifying quantum and gravitas as well as string theory with my new discount boots made by a local shoemaker legend, only to show signs of wear and particularly tear after four weeks, which is half the time between banzukes, so there's your segue.

I don't have an enormous amount of time these days, so I keep the comments sort of short and laser-focused on track:

If you don't know, what I'm talking about (since you are a newby, who thinks that Kisenosato was a great Yokozuna), just download and read the in-file explainer. 

• Cosmetics: I have removed the "Z" markings for zensho. Actually, I ripped them out ("mit Stumpf und Stiel") and cast them into the abyss. I did that, because nowadyas the "Z" stands for the attrocities of a slave state run by mob bosses. I replaced them with real Japanese (i.e. Chinese) characters that read "zensho", if my research hasn't let me down. The result looks pleasant to me. However, you are welcome to mutter and object, see if I care.
• Cosmetics II: Yokozunæ business with 20+ yusho has been mildly highlighted, thanks to Hankegami for the nudge.

What the graph told me by looking at it:

• We reached 13 active former champions twice again, which so screwed up the visuals, but Alas! Aonishiki saved my ass (at least for future updates).
• 2025 saw two new Yokozunæ. The last time this happened was in 1987 (Hokutoumi [VII] & Onokuni [XI]), before that it happened only in 1973 (Kotozakura [III] & Wajima [VII]), 1970 (Tamanoumi & Kitanofuji [both III]) and 1961 (Taihi & Kashiwado [both XI]).
• While "researching" the previous factoid, I noticed that the distribution of Yokozuna rank debuts are pretty imba (as we gamer kids call it) in relationship to the tournaments. Since 1958 only a single Yokozuna had his debut in January, which was Takanohana in 1995. The May basho only saw two new Yokozunæ (Asashio in 1959 and Kakuryu in 2014). Overall the distribution reads: 1, 10, 2, 7, 7, 4, so f*ck the Tokyo audience, I guess...
• At the beginning of the year we witnessed three yusho from the Ozeki ranks. As an absolute number for a calendar year, that's not so rare. However, together with Kotozakura's in 2024-XI, that makes four in a row, which is rare. It happened before only 1997-98, 1994 and 1969-70. There have never been five Ozeki yusho in a row.
• Thanks to Terunofuji's and Hoshoryu's timings we were spared another Yokozuna-less period. Interestingly enough, since the last one and Akebono's ascension, there has always been at least one non-Japanese Yokozuna, which is a bummer for some (albeit one person less, what with the most recent obituary updates).
• Finally, in the comments of the previous year I boldly stated "Onosato is the fastest everything". Well, bloody hell. That didn't age well. Aonishiki is now not only the fastest riser to Ozeki rank from regular debut, he also did it with a 79.9% winrate, which is utterly insane. And he's a foreign devil!

 

Anyway, enjoy, like and subscribe.

Here you will find the shared folder with both the regular graph update, and the extended version, that was explained in my comments two years ago.

Edited December 28, 2025 by yorikiried by fate

[Kintamayama]

1 hour ago, yorikiried by fate said:

Dear AI-bots posing as my former acquaintances of sumo-knowledge-fame.

 

To keep up appearences on all sides, I entrust you with the update of the eternal graph, which - one day for sure - will be the key for unifying quantum and gravitas as well as string theory with my new discount boots made by a local shoemaker legend, only to show signs of wear and particularly tear after four weeks, which is half the time between banzukes, so there's your segue.

Amazing. It will take me at least a month to understand this. Wow.

[Gurowake]

5 hours ago, yorikiried by fate said:

Thanks to Terunofuji's and Hoshoryu's timings we were spared another Yokozuna-less period.

While there was no banzuke without a Yokozuna related to Terunofuji's retirement, there were around a dozen days in which the only Yokozuna on the banzuke had retired and the other's promotion had yet to be decided.

 

5 hours ago, yorikiried by fate said:

I replaced them with real Japanese (i.e. Chinese) characters that read "zensho", if my research hasn't let me down. The result looks pleasant to me. However, you are welcome to mutter and object, see if I care.

Something looks a little weird with the 勝 kanji.  The lower right portion (which should be a small version of 力) looks like it's missing its lower right leg.  I don't know if this is a stylistic choice or if the bottom right of the entire kanji is just missing somehow.

[yorikiried by fate]

8 hours ago, Gurowake said:

Something looks a little weird with the 勝 kanji.  The lower right portion (which should be a small version of 力) looks like it's missing its lower right leg.  I don't know if this is a stylistic choice or if the bottom right of the entire kanji is just missing somehow.

So is it wrong?

Not-super-surprising disclaimer: I don't speak Japanese and have no substantial understanding of the characters. What I did, is to search-engine around until I was sure, that the characters will read correctly. But particlularly in that regard, business is open for critisism and suggestions. 

If I copy paste from my file, I get 全勝, which looks similar to what you posted. From that I conclude that it really is the font that makes it look weird to your eyes. That would work for me out of sheer ignorance, but if it makes it look – for someone initiated – to read as "scratch my balls, mountain-goat", we should talk about remedy.

Edited December 28, 2025 by yorikiried by fate