Gurowake

1. Hakuho 13-2 2. Kakuryu 10-5 3. Terunofuji MK 4. Amuru KK 5. Onosho MK 6. Goeido 10-5 7. Sadanoumi MK 8. Tatsu KK 9. Kotokensei MK 10. Ikeru KK 11. Keitenkai KK 12. Musashikuni KK 13. Koike MK 14. Komatsukasa MK 15. Hiroshima KK 16. Sotairyu MK 17. Tosayutaka KK 18. Wakanoshima MK 19. Kizenryu MK TB: 13

Jd64w Yahagi

Jd63e Asakanai

Jk22e Takiguchi

Jk21w Ishii

Jd74w Kitadaichi

1: Kisenosato 2: Hakuho

Ok, if I can sell any of my guys next basho, I'll also take Sd36w Chiyokiryu (23) Jd86e Seito (7)

There are a few of things I would like clarification about: 1) What is the difference between the two Yokozuna ranks? When will Kakuryu stop being a "new" Yokozuna? Or is there ever only one 100-point Yokozuna, being one that won the previous yusho? 2) The "new recruit" that those at the bottom of the rankings get, is that any of the Mae-zumo participants of the previous basho? That would make the most sense, but it's not particularly clear. I'm guessing that anyone eligible to pick one does so at no cost, irrespective of how many other players in their situation already picked them up, but that does effect anyone who wants to buy them before the next basho. 3) When is the soonest I can sell the guys I just bought? I clearly can't sell them before October 2014, but what about November 2014? The color coding of the stables suggests that only those acquired for the previous basho are not allowed to be sold, but that doesn't seem consistent with the wording of the sale restriction. Edit: I suppose it's due to the lack of retroactive applicability of the rule, meaning that I think I can't sell my guys until January. I'd still like clarification.

J12w Daieisho (43) Ms6e Kawabata (39) Ms9e Iwasaki (39) Sd46e Koike (21) Sd56w Chiyonokatsu (20) Sd87e Kotaro (17) Jd10e Shodai (15) Jd11w Narumi (14) Jd51e Harada (10) Jk22e Takiguchi (2) Since the rules say that you have to have people in your stable for at least 3 basho before selling, saving some cash for promising rikishi in the next two basho seems prudent. Thus, I will save my remaining 30 credits.

I don't see how the last sentence follows from the preceding ones at all. No matter how it's structured, it's still just a ranking created based on achievements, not a crystal ball expression outlet. I'd be the last person to proclaim that no rikishi has ever been bumped up by a spot or two because he was well-liked or they simply thought he deserved the push (or whatever else), but this is the first case in a long, long time that they've brazenly broken with long-established principles, not merely exercised the amounts of discretion available to them.If we're suddenly going to consider it justified to reward "potential to go higher", why not put Ichinojo at J1e? Or maybe Osunaarashi and Endo at M1? Surely all three are better candidates to go higher soon in their respective areas of the ranking than the actual occupants of those ranks. I meant in the sense that, if the banzuke were more like the ranking points for golf and that only the past two tournaments were considered (as would be the case right now for Ozeki promotion), Goeido would be ranked higher than Tochiozan. It's the only case where what happened two tournaments ago is relevant in determining promotion after the current tournament. Endo, et al, have exactly the ranks they achieved, and their promotion possibilities after this tournament are independent of their results in March except insofar as their placement on the May banzuke, which was used as a starting point for the July banzuke, already reflected those results. There are only two options to place the two sekiwake, one based on the previous tournament's results, and one based on the last two tournaments' results, with the latter being more predictive of Ozeki promotion; this appears to be the only time that the banzuke committee appears to have taken that latter approach and while it may have more to do with Goeido's longevity as a Sekiwake and their desire to see him promoted than the technical characteristics, at least there's some merit to it. It's no longer baffling, just extremely odd.

I've come up with a possible explanation for the Sekiwake placement: Goeido has 20 wins over the last 2 tournaments, and Tochiozan has 19. Therefore, Goeido would be more likely to be promoted if they get the same result, meaning that he has to be higher on the banzuke. That would actually make perfect sense; if they both went 13-2 and only Goeido got promoted from the west side of the banzuke, things would appear quite strange. This is important to think about because it appears that there is no real memory of *why* people get placed certain places on the banzuke; wherever they fall from one tournament, that's where they will get moved from, not from a theoretical place that they would have been if more than one person could occupy each slot and each slot didn't need to be filled. Indeed, that is one of the things that's odd about the rankings; most leaderboards have point totals or something, not just a straight up ranking. While Ozumo does have titles for the top few ranks, it's still not nearly as granular as the rankings for say, Nascar drivers, PGA tour pros, etc. Thus the banzuke should not just show how well someone did in a tournament, but what their potential to go higher in the ranks should be.

Quoi? Je ne comprehend pas. En Francais s'il vous plait.

As for things that could make the Ozeki rank more interesting besides tweaking the promotion criteria, they could also make it at least slightly easier to demote them. One idea I've had (and I may have gotten it from someone else) is to require 9 wins to escape kadoban (still need less than 8 wins to be demoted), and an 8-win basho by itself causes kadoban. If you can maintain 8 every tournament you can keep your rank but have no buffer; if you slip one tournament before managing 9 you then need to make it up by getting 10 in order to return (the normal re-promotion criteria). You really shouldn't be able to maintain Ozeki by just claiming a bare KK every other tournament. I'd also prefer to see Ozeki being forced to withdraw after their 8th loss than see what happened with Kotoshogiku last tournament.

So this was discussed somewhat in the wrap-up discussion of the Natsu basho, and thought that I'd do a little bit of research into it and show what I found once the next banzuke went up and could expect to have some people frequenting the forum to chime in on it. The basic idea is that it seems absurd that Ozeki are promoted on the basis of three tournaments while Yokozuna are promoted on the basis on two. Instead, the criteria for Yokozuna should be based on at least four tournaments. Requiring one more win per tournament than the Ozeki 33/3 standard and then adding another win on top of that to ensure at least one extremely high-quality performance makes it 49 wins in 4 consecutive tournaments. These should all be at least at Sekiwake with the last 2 at Ozeki. An additional criteria that they win at least one yusho during the 4 tournaments is perhaps recommended, but historically would not make any difference. Maybe one career win is good enough just so we don't see another Yokozuna without a top division yusho. One additional criteria may also be added that may be considered proper for a Yokozuna: maintaining at least 10 wins in each of the 4 qualifying tournaments. What would the historical effect of these criteria be? I looked at the records on the DB back to the beginning of the 6 basho era. We would exclude Kakuryu (at least for now), the most recent Wakanohana (it's said that he'd be remembered in a better light if he just hadn't gotten promoted), and the notorius Futahaguro. Including the additional maintenance of 10-win criteria would exclude Harumafuji (again, at least for now), whom the Kyokai has certainly been unhappy about due to lack of consistency. Onokuni would also have been denied promotion under that criteria. As for additional Yokozuna, the major potential one is Konishiki. In his case, from what I understand, I don't think the reason he was denied promotion had much to do the results of the tournaments not being good enough. The Yokozuna committee would no doubt continue to evaluate the whole of the Ozeki, and Konishiki definitely had some issues besides how well he finished. But at least in terms of performance, he fulfilled the criteria on 3 separate occasions. Another entry to the list of Yokozuna would have been Takanonami for the 4 tournaments starting with his first yusho. Given that he eventually failed to maintain his rank as Ozeki this might be seen as an unfortunate addition, but I don't think he would have appeared any worse than many of the Yokozuna that had good runs similar to his and then retired once they were clearly past their peak. He certainly wouldn't be highly remembered, but he definitely put up some consistent results of the kind that Kakuryu has not. If you exclude the 10-win maintenance criteria, Wakashimazu would also have qualified for promotion with the 49/4 system. Now, the timing of the promotions would have historically been different. Most starkly, Musashimaru would have been promoted about 5 years earlier than he was. But for the most part this system gives promotions at approximately the same time as the current system, sometimes a few tournaments later, but more often earlier once the consistency is there. And as can be seen, the long-term results wouldn't be that much different except for exactly the things that happened that people weren't very thrilled about. Of course, one can say that the results might have been different if the Ozeki could actually be considered for promotion without winning the tournament, being more inclined to stay and give it their all until Day 15. But wouldn't that change in behavior be a positive thing for the sport? Right now Ozeki have very little reason to care once they hit 8 wins and are out of the yusho race. If you at least allow any 10-win tournament to potentially be part of a promotion run and have every win matter, they'll be more interested in making interesting bouts.

This happened again for Nagoya. One of the rikishi is even the same!

This brings up a question that I've thought about before briefly but was distracted by other things and/or didn't have good context to ask it: Does each stable have satellite locations in the 3 other cities on a permanent basis, or do they rent out different places depending on what's available? It would seem quite an expense to rent a location in the 3 other cities that you only use for one month a year, but then how else can you guarantee that you're going to find the kind of space that you need? I guess there's a lot to the economics of the entire sport that I have absolutely no clue about.

Muslims have come up with all sorts of rules for living in the upper reaches of latitude, especially now that Ramadan is occurring at the time of the year with the most daylight. Those that live north of the arctic circle will generally fast by the daylight hours of the nearest major city at a more reasonable latitude; I see Winnipeg is a popular choice for those in northern Canada. Apparently here in the Detroit area (which has a huge Arab population, although with significant percentage of Chaldeans) where the light situation isn't too bad, someone figured the prophet didn't know about the effects of latitude on the length of daylight and as such would not have expected fasting for any longer than the days would be in the holy cities, and thus some use the daylight hours of Mecca to frame their fasting hours. Personally, I would advocate local clerics setting a particular local time for fasting that corresponded to the 12 most sunlit hours and not adjusting that from year to year based on the astronomical changes in order to have a regular Ramadan schedule to follow that need not be recalculated each year. But I'm not religious, so what do I know? Also, Osunaarashi didn't appear to be fazed by last year's fast, going 10-5 in his Juryo debut; his debut this year in the Makuuchi joi will definitely be a real challenge and I see him getting thoroughly schooled on an empty stomach.

Jk23w Fudano

Jd62w Nakamurayama edited to reflect correct side of banzuke

Jd73w Shonannoumi

Jk21e Enshunada

Jd11w Narumi

If 49/4 with 10+ was an additional performance criteria on top of the current one instead of an alternate criteria, that is, jun-yusho with playoff at minimum would be required in two straight tournaments with at least one win, the following would result: Type A delays: 2 yusho equivalent did not meet alternate requirements immediately, additional basho required in order to do so. Type B delays: Did not have consecutive 2 yusho-equivalent on historical promotion, did so (or not) later as noted. As noted before, Kakuryu, Harumafuji, and Wakanohana66 would be Type A, never promoted. Futahaguro and Onokuni would not have been promoted under either criteria. Hakuho: no change Asashoryu: no change Musashimaru: Type A, 2 basho Takanohana: strictly according to criteria would have been promoted earlier; assuming he would have been passed over at that opportunity, no change Akebono: Type A, 2 basho Asahifuji: Type A, 2 basho Hokutoumi: Type A, 2 basho, Type B, 10 basho Takanosato: Type B, 1 basho Chiyonofuji: Type B, 5 basho MIenoumi: Type A, 2 basho, Type B, 3 basho Wahanohana56: Do two consecutive playoff losses with a previous career win count? If so, no change. If not, Type B, never promoted. Kitanoumi: no change Wajima: Type B, 3 basho Kotozakura: Type A, 2 basho Kitanofuji: Type A, 1 basho Tamanoumi: Type A, 1 basho, Type B, 5 basho Sadanoyama: Type B, 18 basho, but then Type A, never promoted, sorta. That is, met alternate criteria on date of historical promotion, but did not meet today's criteria originally and did not do so until 18 basho later, at which time he did not meet alternate criteria. Then he retired. Tochinoumi: Type B, never promoted Taiho: no change Kashiwado: Type B, never promoted Asashio: Type B, never promoted Wakanohana45: Type A&B, 3 basho Tochinishiki: Type A, 2 basho Further previous Yokozuna retired previous to 6-basho era. Current criteria would drop about just as many Yokozuna (accounting precisely for it is tricky with Sadanoyama's and Wakanohana56's situations), but the ones dropped are so long ago that I don't know if any of us have good opinions regarding whether they should have been promoted compared to those recently who have been sources of consternation. Additionally, the promotions would have been recognized on average earlier by the alternate criteria. My personal belief is that the focus on two tournaments is stupid stupid stupid stupid, and by promoting Kakuryu they seemed to imply any Ozeki making two yusho-equivalents would be promoted regardless of previous record. Not to say that it happened in the recent Yokozuna promotion, but there's definitely room for win buying/trading with that narrow focus. I really have high hopes for Kakuryu to do well, but in the case he averages less than 10 wins like he did as an Ozeki (actual number: 9.92 to nearest hundredth, 9.1 excluding the last two Ozeki basho), they definitely need to rethink how they evaluate the current criteria with respect to the rikishi's overall career. It is my hope that I have explained through historical data why their current criteria is unappealing with respect to historical continuity, and have offered a criteria somewhat more aligned with history that would help prevent the Kyokai needing to get their feathers ruffled by under-performing Yokozuna that should have been left at Ozeki.

I'm slightly inclined to believe that his fellow Mongolians laid down for him just long enough, and they could do this without (much) murmuring about the possibilities just because the time period being studied was so short. Maybe he did just up his game for those basho, and he just didn't have the time to prepare after his promotion ceremonies and we'll see him back in Hatsu/Haru form for Nagoya. I certainly have been rooting for him since he was the reason that I got interested in the sport in the first place, but his Natsu performance made me as angry as the NSK. Perhaps there really is something with all the modern social activity that goes on following a new Yokozuna promotion that wasn't really part of things even 20 years ago, and that hoopla can also explain Harumafuji's 15-0, 15-0, 9-6, 15-0. But it doesn't explain the next 4 performances that wouldn't even have gotten him promotion to Ozeki. Neither of them have really shown themselves to be particularly worthy Ozeki (Harumafuji slightly more so with his few scattered Yusho); they had no jun-yushos between them as Ozekis outside of Kakuryu's first qualifying tournament. They had plenty as Sekiwakes (or lower), which suggests that part of the reason that they were so boring as Ozeki is that they hit their 8 wins and stopped caring unless they were in the hunt for the Yusho. Such an attitude would clearly change with the 49/4 and 10+ win criteria (although again, I'm not particularly expecting to change anything, just making conversation). edit: Kotoshogiku, Kotooshu and Baruto have/had 1 Jun-Yusho among them as Ozeki with plenty as Sekiwake. No Ozeki had a jun-yusho between 2009.07 and 2013.05, right as Kisenosato got 4 in a row. Note that Asashoryu "retired" 2010.01, so there weren't two Yokozunas for most of that time, and there were up to 6 Ozeki.