Fewest Yusho Winners on the Banzuke

[Tetsuzukiyama]

I was just taking a look at past Yusho winners on the current Banzuke. There are six right now with Kaio, Chiyotaikai, Kotomitsuki, Tochiazuma and Dejima right there underneath Asashoryu.

Considering we could see three or more of these guys retire before anyone new wins the cup, we'd be down to a pretty lean list. I've seen people talk about stats for how many rikishi won during the tenure of a certain Yokozuna but I wanted to ask this, on one condition:

When have there been the fewest Yusho winners on the Banzuke at one time?

Condition: Show us how you looked it up!

I'm curious to know if they came at times of three/four way rivalries or singular domination. Most winners would be good too, I'll consider giving bonus points.

[wanchanyama]

I was just taking a look at past Yusho winners on the current Banzuke. There are six right now with Kaio, Chiyotaikai, Kotomitsuki, Tochiazuma and Dejima right there underneath Asashoryu.

Considering we could see three or more of these guys retire before anyone new wins the cup, we'd be down to a pretty lean list. I've seen people talk about stats for how many rikishi won during the tenure of a certain Yokozuna but I wanted to ask this, on one condition:

When have there been the fewest Yusho winners on the Banzuke at one time?

Condition: Show us how you looked it up!

I'm curious to know if they came at times of three/four way rivalries or singular domination. Most winners would be good too, I'll consider giving bonus points.

Apart from the obvious no winners being on the first banzuke, or that no individual yusho were actually recoginised prior to the early 1900's.

The least number I found was the January 1939 basho where only Futabayama, Minanogawa and Musashiyama had won yusho, Tamanishiki had died in December 1938 and therefore dropped off the banzuke. This was the basho that Futabayama's winning streak was broken by Akinoumi. The basho was won by Dewaminato.

This was matched in the January and May 1940 basho, with only Futabayama, Minanogawa and Dewaminato. May 1940 was won by Akinoumi.

Both these examples are from pre-war era where 2 basho were the norm, being 4 for a few of years from the merger of the Tokyo and Osaka sumo associations.

In the post war era, 6 basho etc onwards,

There does not appear to be times of less than 4 at any point.

4 were:

Kyushu 1971, following Taiho's retirement in Nagoya basho and Tamanoumi's death in October 1971, only Kitanofuji, Kotozakura, Kiyokuni and Wakanami had yusho. Not surprising given Taiho's dominance and Tamanoumi and Kitanofuji cleaning up most of the other yusho over the past couple of years. In the next year, 6 rikishi take the yusho, Tochiazuma, Hasegawa, Wajima and Takamiyama all for the 1st time.

5 were:

1986 March, Chiyonofuji, Hokutenyu, Wakashimazu, Asashio and Tagaryu.

January 1991 with 4 yokozuna (Chiyonofuji, Hokutoumi, Asahufuji and Onokuni) and Konishiki along with Kirishima winning the basho.

July & September 1991 Hokutoumi, Asahifuji, Kirishima, Konishiki and Onokuni being replaced by Kotofuji winning July and then Kotonishiki winning September.

A few basho with 6, mostly in the 90's being March, Nagoya in 1992. Takahanada, Akebono and Mitoizumi across 3 basho with Asahifuji, Hokutoumi dropping off.

All complied manually, so might be some errors. Nothing under 7 for the 50's & 60's that I could think of.

[Tetsuzukiyama]

Awesome answer, Thanks. Three would be a record then if Asashoryu keeps rolling through 2006. Hopefully Kotomitsuki and Tochiazuma can do their bit too and pick up the scraps until the grandpas are out of the way.

So Chiyonofuji managed to choke it down to 5 twice and Taiho had it down to about the same number before he retired? Interesting.

Not that past Yusho winners are the only contenders but a pretty telling statistic I think.

[Yubiquitoyama]

I see Wanchanyama already answered excellently, but since this issue has been addressed before I might as well add a post posted to the mailing list a few months ago by some random lunatic (not changed so current figures wrong):

I agree with previous posters that this is indeed an interesting trivia

question... So naturally it has to be investigated.

After a bit of Excelling I come to the conclusion that 4 is indeed the

lowest number of former yusho winners active on the banzuke in

6-basho-per-year times (post-1958.01). This has actually happened during two

periods (barring mistakes of course):

1971.11-1972.01:

Kitanofuji (7 ys 1971.11, 8 1972.01)

Kotozakura(2)

Wakanami(1)

Kiyokuni(1)

1981.05-1981.09:

Kitanoumi (21 ys 1981.05. 22 thereafter),

Wakanohana-2 (4),

Chiyonofuji (2 ys 1981.09, 1 before that),

Takamiyama (1)

Note however that in 1967.01 there were actually 5 yusho winners active as

Daigo (ex-Wakamisugi) had yet to retire at the time.

Note also that the last time there were less than 4 yusho winners was

1940.01-1940.05 with Minanogawa, Futabayama and Dewaminato. I started this

control with 1909.06, so this was still well within the checked period. Less

than 3 active yusho winners never occurred after there actually had been

three yusho winners post-1909.06 (as early as 1911.02 in fact), although 3

wasn't particularly uncommon between 1911 and 1940.

***

The reverse question, the most active yusho winners was quite recent (rather

natural given the absurd period of different yusho winners occurring around

the shift of the century), namely 11 2000.07-2000.09:

Takanohana-2 (20 yusho)

Akebono (9 2000.07, 10 2000.09)

Musashimaru (7)

Kotonishiki, Takanonami (2)

Mitoizumi, Takatoriki, Kaio, Musoyama, Dejima, Chiyotaikai (1)

Apart from the period just before this (2000.03-2000.05), 10 active yusho

winners has only occurred once before, in 1958.01 with Mitsuneyama,

Chiyonoyama, Kagamisato, Tochinishiki, Yoshibayama, Tokitsuyama,

Wakanohana-1, Asashio-4, Tamanoumi and Annen'yama.

***

A related question that I encountered during my Excelling is how many yusho

the active yusho winners actually had under their belt.

This question is even more related to the number of basho during a year, so

the records are naturally far back. Not counting the first few basho after

1909, the record of minimum total yusho of active yusho winners stands at 4

in 1926.01(Nishinoumi-3 with 1 yusho, Tsunenohana with 2 and Tsurugahama

with 1).

Naturally the post-war record of 7 also comes early on in 1946.11 and

1947.06 with Maedayama (1), Haguroyama (3 and 4 resp), Akinoumi (1 and 0

resp), Saganohana (1) and Bishuyama (1).

However, it turns out the post-1958 record is not as one could imagine

before the 6-basho-per-year has started to take effect, but actually

occurred in a rather freakish period in the early 90s and stands at 8 in

1992.07 (after all the big guns had retired one after another; this was the

basho Mitoizumi won btw):

Konishiki (3 yusho)

Kirishima (1 yusho)

Kotofuji (1 yusho)

Kotonishiki (1 yusho)

Takanohana-2 (1 yusho)

Akebono (1 yusho)

Note that this is quite unique and the number of yusho of past yusho winners

are normally around 20-45.

***

The record of most past yusho of active yusho winners of 49 yusho is again

rather recent and has of yet only happened once, in 2000.03:

Takanohana-2 (20 ys)

Akebono (9)

Musashimaru (7)

Wakanohana-3 (5)

Takanonami, Kotonishiki (2)

Mitoizumi, Musoyama, Dejima, Chiyotaikai (1)

***

I should just add that right now (April 2005) the 6 yusho winners have won a total of 23

yusho. The record of four could probably be tied rather soon if Asashoryu

keeps winning and the old guys retire. Even 3 is in reach, but I doubt it

will happen...

I assume there is some mistakes in this and any mistakes could change the

end results, but for now, I'll think I'll go with this before Outlook

Express crashes on me ;)

/Stefan Gelow (a bored statistics junkie if anyone really doubted that)

Edited January 8, 2006 by Yubiquitoyama

[AsaMoe]

I was just taking a look at past Yusho winners on the current Banzuke. There are six right now with Kaio, Chiyotaikai, Kotomitsuki, Tochiazuma and Dejima right there underneath Asashoryu.

Considering we could see three or more of these guys retire before anyone new wins the cup, we'd be down to a pretty lean list. I've seen people talk about stats for how many rikishi won during the tenure of a certain Yokozuna but I wanted to ask this, on one condition:

I was just taking a look at past Yusho winners on the current Banzuke. There are six right now with Kaio, Chiyotaikai, Kotomitsuki, Tochiazuma and Dejima right there underneath Asashoryu.

Considering we could see three or more of these guys retire before anyone new wins the cup, we'd be down to a pretty lean list. I've seen people talk about stats for how many rikishi won during the tenure of a certain Yokozuna but I wanted to ask this, on one condition:

I will already doubt the original text. Three will not retire, before Kotoosho or Hakuho will win their first yusho