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You mean assuming Terunofuji is back? Or are you thinking Onosato? Keep in mind that it's Hatsu Basho, so a M17 will throw his hat in the ring.

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!]

Keeping his real name 羽出山 with rare reading for Hatsu juryo promotion is Hatsuyama: peak for Hatsu - or will he stay? he wants to become the kanban rikishi of Tamanoi-beya at the kanban of the heya o o ooo o with Tamanoi-oyakata ooo o o oo o o o vid A dream is to appear with a Ken Shimura kesho mawashi at the dohyo-iri - he is from Higashimurayama like the late comedian and is acquainted with the brother of Shimura - aim for juryo debut is double digits

They've been underdemoting Juryo for a while now. The Shimanoumi plot armor being the most famous example. In the last 6 basho before kyushuu Daishoho has been 40-50, but only lost 2 ranks. A banzuke luck rating of +8. Kyujo doesn't matter, Shimazuumi on 21-24 over 3 basho but up 2 ranks (+5 luck) Then of course the master himself Shimanoumi, 80-100 over 12 basho but up 4 ranks (+24 luck!!) Makuuchi elevator rikishi typically have big 'luck' ratings just because that is how the ceiling of Makuuchi works out (8-7s getting over promoted to fill big voids), but down here there has been a conscious decision to under demote. It also seems like demoted from Makuuchi rikishi don't get this 'protection' their first basho back in Juryo for whatever reason. Just spitballing, maybe this is an attempt to discourage yaocho? I don't think its a kabu thing, too many rikishi that are too far away from qualifying for a kabu getting this treatment.

NikkanSP Premium in the series on retired rikishi had Chiyonoumi this time - teacher now o Entry for Natsu 2015, new juryo after Natsu 2018 o o Hatsu 2019 win against Tobozaru, Kyushu 2020, Haru 2021 o o oo his school since October: Tokyo Metropolitan agric. products high school near Kameari station https://www.metro.ed.jp/nosan-h/news/2024/10/newsentry_150.html o o o o oo o o o o o 4 times a week at the school holding a class on health preservation o

Sumo Prediction Game results for Kyushu 2024 are up! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B_c37D4rSX12ef3-scYxVKw9lxpNW6IjwpjpcDKqs24/edit?usp=sharing Gang, we didn't do so hot this time on a couple of questions. There was a question with only two correct responses(most Ozeki wins in the last 5 days, no one believed in Kotozakura except Eatplaysumo and Namakemono), only Kachikoshi thought that Kirishima would get 0-8 wins, and *NOBODY* predicted that Kotoeiho and Kotoshoho would get a measly 10 wins combined. That might be the first goose egg in Sumo Prediction Game history. @kachikoshi_ won the yusho with 11 correct answers, a full 2 more answers than the Jun-yusho contenders. The average was actually 5.9 wins, which I am going to add 2 to for everyone. This gives the majority of people KKs that participated, but that's fine. Kyujo players get 4 wins.

The YDC confirming Hoshoryu as tsunatori with a 13-2J following a 9-4-2 at Nagoya and an Aki 8-7 tells me the bar has definitely been lowered. If I were Kotozakura, having just cleared the 'traditional' 1st hurdle with a 14-1Y, I'd be a little miffed. My prediction for Hatsu 25 is neither with get the rope, but Onosato will start his run. As this is a speculation thread, though, I'll speculate. What if the result is Kotozakura 15-0Y, Hoshoryu 14-1J? Kotozakura would be promoted, no arguments, but Hoshoryu also improved on the score that put him on a run... I'm uneasy about the implications of that, but Hoshoryu does at least already have a yusho.

The lack of replies thus far says it all: a fairly low-key crop. Nobody really raises obvious question marks, as they all look like they've hit their ceiling and there's no public hint of any acrimonious circumstances behind their departures. All the best to everyone.

Well, try this: go to the db under "Yusho" and look at the Jonidan Yusho for, say, 2015-2024. You'll recognize a lot of the new up-and-comers, and almost all the others are guys who fell down to Jonidan and started back with a Yusho. There are a few exceptions -- Asaazumi in May of this year is one.

It seems like they've really shifted to a strong incumbent bias recently. Until the Tsushimanada decision last year, 4 wins at J9 was a guaranteed ticket to Makushita. Conversely, 4-3 from Ms4 used to give a decent chance of promotion, but after Akiseyama in Jan 2020, there were 16 straight misses until Nabatame last basho. Could be some random variation, but I think we've all gotten the same sense. Not sure who/what is driving this...

I wish you all the best in your efforts to not disgrace the title of ozeki, LOL! Great acceptance speech. You should be writing for some of the guys in the current sanyaku! BTW, I don't trust you to not hit on the okamisan, either.

So he will have 4 good years ahead

I'm interested in trends rikishi climbing back up from the lower divisions, to see if there is any indication that they are being given more time to heal with a corresponding rebound in performance.

Naah, part of the fun is the daily updating..

am happy chiyomaru is not amongst them

I get a pang when a thread about someone dying is bumped. I know they have died but it feels like they have died again.

Wow. What an ocean of coverage! Feyd Onosato has overplayed his hand. It is truly clear now that Kotozakura is the Kwisatz Haderach.

As far as the DB can tell me, there has been exactly one juryo rikishi in the history of 15-day tournaments who faced an opponent lineup that was ranked entirely contiguous with himself: Kyokutaisei in Haru 2017 was ranked J6w and faced everybody from J1w to J6e (10 opponents) and J7e to J9e (5). (Only lineups contained within the juryo division; querying for cases that include adjacent maegashira or makushita rikishi is infeasible due to ever-changing division sizes.)

Same for me. Also, it was quite jarring to see Aoiyama suddenly be the door opener when Kotozakura got into the car for his yusho parade.

2024 statistics, in order of first holding it during the year: Rikishi Held/Won Defenses Defeats Ura 0 0 1 Terunofuji 2 0 2 Wakamotoharu 6 4 2 Hoshoryu 13 8 5 Gonoyama 1 0 1 Kirishima 7 3 4 Tobizaru 2 1 1 Takanosho 6 2 4 Koto/zakura/nowaka 9 6 3 Asanoyama 1 0 1 Meisei 2 0 2 Midorifuji 4 3 1 Takayasu 5 4 1 Abi 7 4 3 Daieisho 7 5 2 Onosato 4 1 3 Hiradoumi 1 0 1 Mitakeumi 2 0 2 Oho 6 4 2 Onokatsu 1 0 1 Roga 2 1 1 Nishikifuji 1 0 1 Endo 1 0 0

Whenever I see this thread bumped, the title still somewhat startles me as if it's something new. It takes a second for me to realize it's from quite a while ago now.

I have added two new (related) sections showing rikishi who attended university. They are: - 'University rikishi (by heya)' showing sub- lists of rikishi grouped by heya. -'University rikishi (by university)' showing sub-lists of rikishi grouped by university. All sub-lists are subdivided into sekitori and non-sekitori. Both sections have a link to an A-Z list also subdivided into sekitori and non-sekitori. These lists are accessed via the "Special categories" link at the bottom right-hand side of the page.

Chiyonoumi wants to make use of his license as teacher for physical education at middle and high schools he obtained at Nittaidai and go for the teacher employment examination for the Tokyo Metropolitan area. He had planned to retired in September, but the employment examination is on July 7th and he prepares for that now. He got into the mood to retire when he dropped from juryo again last year Aki. The danpatsushiki is planned for Feb. 2nd next year in the banquet hall below in the kokugikan. In the interview with Nikkan he told that in his 4th year at Nittaidai he heard from 2 who became teachers "I should have gone pro". He wanted to become teacher all along and hadn't joined the NSK, had he not heard the talk from these 2. He started with sumo in primary school and in all did it for about 20 years: all of it was memorable, so he has no special bout to point out. http://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/202406030000971.html He handed in the papers on the 3rd and they were accepted https://www.sumo.or.jp/IrohaKyokaiInformation/detail?id=649

I couldn't really tell what was especially wrong with Chiyomaru other than age / accumulated injuries catching up with him - but wouldn't be surprised if he added his name to the list prior to next tournament's end. Many just don't seem to retire on time anymore (Azumaryu being a recent similar case). I can't fathom what Onosho is hoping to achieve by staying on. Maybe he is waiting for a kabu, or thinking he surely can't be done at just 28 - but the writing is on the wall.