Asashosakari

Well, I just print them out and keep them that way (so much for "strange" (In a state of confusion...)), but I only started last November, so... However, the sumo gods must be watching over you, as The Internet Archive's web spider has archived the topics page exactly once (many sites of the same activity level have been archived dozens of times, oh well), and...it's the January 2002 update. ;-)

Two SML posts (one older, one from a few months ago) on the subject that might be of interest in this context: Asahi article - 16 July/97 Tatsunami lost to former Tatsunami at court Sorry to add to the off-topic-ness. :-)

I'll go against the grain here, and vote for him becoming Ozeki in the next year. (Applauding...) Mainly because the current crop of Ozekis seems to be destined to give him lots of opportunities to score victories, with Musoyama being only a shadow of himself, and the other 3 having a tendency to get injured. And Kyokutenho himself has been remarkably injury-resistent so far, distinguishing him from most other Ozeki candidates of late (i.e. Takanowaka, Kotomitsuki). But as already mentioned in this thread, he certainly isn't getting any younger (turning 29 in a few months), which is why I voted "Ozeki in the next year" instead of "Ozeki, but it will take some time". I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him take advantage of the current situation in the upper ranks, but if he doesn't do it soon, he probably will become the next rikishi to join the Sanyaku elevator.

Yes, I was thinking that too... I hope we're wrong though... I don't think it necessarily takes yaocho for that same effect, under those circumstances. Imagine you're a mid-Maegashira who's fortunate enough to stand 8-5 after 13 days. Right now, you have nothing to lose by going all out in your last two bouts...you've got KK anyway and if you do get injured, you get kosho for the next basho, preserving your mid-/high-Maegashira rank, but with a 10-5 you could possibly get into Sanyaku with some luck. But without kosho...who's going to risk their health just to be M1 instead of M4, if the downside is that a potential injury could send you to the bottom of Makuuchi or even into Juryo with only one missed tournament. Better take a safe 8-7 and stay injury-free... I'm still hoping the whole thing was just hot air from Kitanoumi and it won't be implemented the way he envisions it. :-P

Maybe Kyushu 1985, moto-Ozeki Kotokaze's retirement basho? Kyushu 1987 looks like a good candidate, too... Looking at those results, there do seem to be lots and lots of bashos from around 1984-1988 in which very few low-ranked rikishi went make-koshi, often as little as 1 or 2 out of the last 10+ maegashira. Perhaps that's the answer to my own question about why the number of Makuuchi rikishi fluctuated so wildly at that time. :-P I'm not a fan of the y-word at all, but I guess with those results, it's not so surprising that people have claimed that era as a prime period of yaocho...

Sure looks like it. Maybe Kitanoumi thinks there's just too darn much talent in Makuuchi these days and he wants to spread some of it to Juryo with those new kosho rules... (In love...) I can see the banzuke topics entry already: "This is the first time for two rikishi to compete in the Juryo Division only 3 tournaments after they had both been ranked at sekiwake or sumo's third highest rank simultaneously since former sekiwake [some rikishi] and [some other rikishi] were ranked in Juryo for the [some basho several decades ago] tournament."

Don't I know it...from ms15e to ms7w with a simple 8-6-1, wow. :-P The check's in the mail, Zenjimoto. (Being ninja...) (Laughing...) ;-) That's been pretty funny to watch indeed. Although somebody's got to break through sooner or later, and with (I think) 4 Ozeki potentials for Nagoya, maybe it's finally time for the first ST Ozeki. :-)

I've never really understood why kosho status is granted in advance, and not right before the basho the rikishi would need to sit out. Chiyotaikai is thought to be severely injured, gets kosho and ends up sitting out Hatsu despite reportedly being able to compete. Takanowaka is thought to be healed in 4 weeks, doesn't get kosho status and ends up dropping from Sekiwake to M6w because his recovery turns out to take longer. And both because kosho decisions are made 2 months in advance and apparently won't be reversed even in the face of evidence of a wrong decision. On that note, I believe even the current system of dropping long-term injured rikishi almost a full division with every tournament they miss is the wrong approach - a triple 0-0-15 (or 0-0-7) due to a wrecked knee just isn't the same as three 0-15 (or 0-7) due to bad sumo, and really shouldn't be treated as such. And now with the apparent plan to abolish even the one-basho grace period for injuries, it's going to get even worse, as Yubi-zeki already pointed out. (Just do not get it...) If they want to abolish the kosho system, they'll at least need to reduce the banzuke demotions that injured rikishi face. E.g. perhaps 6-mai instead of the usual 10 to 12-mai in Makuuchi and Juryo, 20-mai instead of 40-mai for Makushita, etc. Without kosho, for somebody who misses 2 tournaments, that would come out to about the same drop as before, whereas for 3 or more justified absences it would soften the drop a bit. For one-basho absences, it would be worse than currently (no further demotion if you have kosho, beyond the one you take for your injury basho), of course, but if the Kyokai abolishes kosho anyway, I'm sure the guys would rather drop from M8 to M14 instead of all the way to J4 or J5.

Bad conscience is getting to me that I've just jumped into posting on the board a couple of days ago, so let's remedy that. (Laughing...) I'm a 22 year old German student of economics (I know, I'm nuts) and I've been following sumo on and off via Eurosport for a couple of years now. I honestly don't even remember when I saw my first basho, but I figure it must've been in 1997 as I recall seeing Konishiki shortly before he retired. Incidentally, the big guy was also the first rikishi that caught my eye at the time and got me interested in sumo. :-( That "on and off" phase lasted until last autumn when I visited the Kyokai site for some reason and stumbled across the headline "Asashoryu promoted to Ozeki"...and upon clicking into his profile, I was surprised to find out I'm born on the same day as him. That's probably one of the weirder reasons for getting hooked on sumo. (Eh?) Anyway, I ended up watching all of last year's Nagoya and Aki basho on Eurosport shortly afterwards, then rushed into seeking out as much information about sumo as I could find, and the rest is history, as they say. :-)

Takanosato, if not others as well. It seems Futabayama is the only other one who managed to do that, although the tournament records linked from Chiyozakura's Yokozuna list (which I shamelessly harvested for this info) aren't entirely complete, so maybe there's another one.

What are kinboshi awarded for in Sekitori-Oracle? Couldn't find that in the rules page, so I'm a bit lost. :-D EDIT: Argh, nevermind, found it by browsing through the old results archive. :-D

On the other hand, it might mean another lackluster tournament from the Ozeki contingent in Nagoya... :-D

I'm basically worried that he may be a little outclassed in Makushita at first either way, so starting out around Ms35 where he could "safely" go 2-5 might be preferable to a rank in the 50s where even an unlucky 3-4 could drop him back to Sandanme. Of course, now he's probably gonna win the Sandanme yusho with a straight 7-0 in Nagoya and follow up with a KK in Aki and prove both of us wrong. :-D

Wakatoba has shown really good fighting spirit in all 3 bashos in 2003 in my opinion, and improved steadily, and I'm hoping he can make a pass at Makuuchi promotion later this year. Even if not, at 8-7, 8-7, 7-7 his current Juryo stint is already loads better than his previous two in which he only managed one KK in 6 tournaments, plus he's only turning 26 next month, so he should still have some ways to go. Let's hope he secures another 8-7 KK against already-sure-to-be-promoted Kasuganishiki tomorrow. (Blinking...)

No, the Sandanme yusho will be decided in a play-off between Hagiwara (Sd37e) and Tenpozan (Sd60w) who are both 7-0. I agree though, I think another tournament in (admittedly, high) Sandanme won't hurt Kotooshu in the least, it might even give him the chance to make his Makushita debut at a fairly safe banzuke position in Aki if he gets another 6-1 in Nagoya, not the Ms50 or so he would have got if the promotion was coming at this time.

Congrats to Wakakosho for continuing his now 16-basho streak of always getting between 6 and 8 wins...I'd say he's the embodiment of "perennial Juryo" these days. (Blinking...)

I wouldn't be surprised to see them scheduled against somebody like Takamisakari or Tamanoshima on Day 12 and/or 13, high-ranking Maegashira who are still fighting hard for their KK. That should provide them decent enough opposition without getting all sanyaku involved in it.

He has to be. Or he's constantly drunk or something. He doesnt even fight! He just stands up at the tachi-ai, and when his opponents gets hold of him he slowly backs out. (In a state of confusion...) He was doing a lot of that "no tachi-ai to speak of" thing last basho as well, although he did muster something vaguely resembling fighting spirit after that stage in his bouts. But even that's gone now, so 0-10 and counting... (Whistling...) I almost can't believe that's the same guy who went 9-6 in his shin-nyumaku basho only four months ago (and looked good doing it).

Yes, all -tsukasa are from Irumagawa-beya. There (almost) never being a rule without any exception, Hokutotsukasa (Jd107w) is apparently from Hakkaku-beya. ;-)

Looks like a heated battle for Juryo promotion this basho, with only 2 of the 10 top-ranked Makushita rikishi having less than a 2-2 after 4 bouts...

And he better get a sansho this time around too or I'm seriously going to wonder what the Kyokai is doing with those lately... (In a state of confusion...)

He actually seemed back on track in Hatsu though, getting a 9-6 that promoted him back up to J1e. With a 10-5, he probably would have snagged a spot in Makuuchi for Haru, as Tochinohana was really lucky to hold on to his, getting a 7-8 and only dropping from M14w to M15e. Haru basho on the other hand was just plain awful for him, at 4-11, including 4 straight losses at the end (3 of those against rikishi who ended up demoted from Juryo), so including his current 0-3, he's on a 7-bout losing streak. A real shame, I would have liked to see another smaller, versatile rikishi in Makuuchi. Let's hope he can stop his fall before it's bye-bye Juryo for him... (Nodding yes...)