Recognize the rikishi on the postcard and get free cookies!

[Nantonoyama]

my new choice

for me Nantonoyama is right for the place and date : Aki Basho 1971

Day 8

clockwise

Kitanofuji Dohyo-Iri

Kitanofuji vs. Takanohana

Tamanoumi (butt) vs. Kotozakura

Takamiyama vs. Mutsuaarashi

Tamanoumi vs Kotozakura is plausible : shitatenage and second-to-last bout so Shikimori Inosuke (see post above)

I agree with that, and Takanohana is waiting in the east-side for its musubi-no-ichiban bout.

I think we got the right answer

Edited February 15, 2016 by Nantonoyama

[Kaiomitsuki]

Tamanoumi vs Kotozakura is plausible : shitatenage and second-to-last bout so Shikimori Inosuke (see post above)

I agree with that, and Takanohana is waiting in the east-side for its musubi-no-ichiban bout.

I think we got the right answer

or Kiyokuni (butt) vs. Yoshinohana is plausible too... uwatedashinage win for Kiyokuni ?

[Nantonoyama]

http://postimg.org/image/yxwli4d9h/

In this montage I did, left hand = Yoshinohana , center = Kotozakura , right hand = the pic reversed so that the head is upwards

It looks more like Kotozakura in my opinion

[Asojima]

Tamanoumi vs Kotozakura is plausible : shitatenage and second-to-last bout so Shikimori Inosuke (see post above)

I agree with that, and Takanohana is waiting in the east-side for its musubi-no-ichiban bout.

I think we got the right answer

or Kiyokuni (butt) vs. Yoshinohana is plausible too... uwatedashinage win for Kiyokuni ?

The throwing arm is inside. Shitatenage is more likely.

[Nantonoyama]

So I presume we have enough evidence to guess that the left-hand rikishi in the bottom-left pic is yokozuna Tamanoumi in his very last basho, only 22 days before his unfortunate death

[Asojima]

We should have asked my wife. I showed her the pic of the card and told her that we had fun figuring it out. She immediately picked out Jesse, Takanohana and ("What's his name?, Oh Yeah. Kitanofuji"). She also noticed that it was at Kuramae, but it must have been taken just before we got to Japan (1972). :-)

Edited February 15, 2016 by Asojima

[Senkoho]

So first of all, you guys are scarily amazing - you showed just the awesome admirable nerdhood I was hoping for :)

I followed the same thought pattern and got to Aki 1971 but didn't know what to do next.

Tamanoumi seems to be the right answer! Apart from all the evidence you provided, this guess also matches my wristband theory :) (he wore such wristbands in Nagoya 1971, so he probably did so two months later as well)

Now, for the cookies. This is obviously happening. I think Kaiomitsuki deserves them the most, as he was the first person to mention Tamanoumi. Of course Nantonoyama and Asojima contributed considerably as well, but I think that the cookies should go to Kaiomitsuki. Any objections? If none, I shall contact the winner privately to discuss the details.

Thanks again and I'm still speechless :)

Edited February 15, 2016 by Senkoho

[Nantonoyama]

Any objections?

No objection, Kaiomitsuki guessed it right (Yusho winner...) , and then Asojima and I were just providing a body of evidence for his guess

[Asojima]

Washuyama, on 13 Feb 2016 - 03:20, said:

I first saw that postcard in 1975 at the Yokota Air Base exchange (department store) when I first moved to Japan, When I returned to Japan in 2007 the same postcard was being sold at the same store.

Weird. My wife was sorting thru stuff we accumulated in Japan in 1972-1978, and, lo and behold, there was a slightly mangled copy of the same postcard. We do not remember how we acquired it.