kumoryu

The agony of the long-distance Takayasu fan repeats itself, like a never-ending car-crash you just know is certain to happen every time, however easy it should be to avoid. Tomorrow? One win, and a loss by Onosato? Could it be? Of course not! We can't even whisper the thought. Sunday? No, no, of course it won't happen, we've been here too many times, let our hopes rise up too often, seen our dreams dissolve into ashes with such cruel inevitability. Best not to look; just lower our heads and walk away. yet still I look to find a reason to believe

and still I look to find a reason to believe

Even that was enough to jinx him

The other day, I was reading a blog about the old 60s TV show Doctor Who which I loved so much when I was a boy. It pointed out that every episode ended with a cliffhanger where either the Doctor or his companion were in mortal danger, but as a viewer you KNOW that the next episode will begin by resolving the cliffhanger and everything will be OK: nevertheless, you needed to watch the next episode, not because you thought the Doctor might die, but to find out how the cliffhanger would inevitably be resolved. Being a Takayasu fan is like that, but in reverse. It seems like every basho there comes a cliffhanger where you think "This time, he just might get the yusho," but you KNOW it's all going to go wrong somehow. You need to keep watching, not because you think he'll do it this time, but to find out how it's going to go wrong. It's heartbreaking, but utterly compelling. I love him so much.

Who does "BigSlow" refer to?

I always used to read ST during tournaments back in the day, and the thing that seems to be missing in the above discussion was that it was fun; it was a laugh. It was entertaining in a way that SF by nature is less set up to be. Things got out of hand as the number of writers dropped until it was just the one guy left, and he certainly isn't fun any more; but for a longish period of time it was a very entertaining read.

Is there really such a thing as a "ginboshi"? I may be completely wrong here, but in my history of watching sumo on NHK and Sumo Digest and other Japanese TV I don't think I ever heard anyone talk about "ginboshi". Is it just a thing that gaijin sumo-fans have come up with? Not intending to be antagonistic here, just curious.

Thanks so much for these I don't know why, but every time I see the thread title, I read it as "Video Nasties" -- but they are great in fact.

Look, I'm sure there is precedent for a K - K - S - O run, although I've never figured out how to do the database search for things like that, but I bet it's very rare. The K - S - S - O runs mentioned above are much more normal I think. But I bow to superior knowledge here and will hope you are right, because I'm a huge Takayasu fan.

Surely there would be no suggestion of an ozeki promotion after just one tournament at sekiwake? At best, they might take a strong showing here into account and, if he can follow it with two good basho at sekiwake, give him a nod after the July basho. But even then, I believe they have a history of setting tougher standards for a returning ozeki -- wasn't Miyabiyama denied where others might have been promoted? Much as I love Takayasu, I don't think there's any way it's possible in May.

Deep sumo poetry from Takakeisho: I will be concentrating tomorrow as well. Today is another day, is what I'm thinking. I want to face tomorrow and deal with it again. Today was today and I was able to concentrate. If I concentrate on tomorrow it will continue into the next day.

The numbers in that table are really revealing. Interesting that you took the last four years, but if we take the last three calendar years (in this case, 17 basho) Hakuho and Kakuryu are practically even -- 106 wins v 105 wins over 17 basho. To compare with the most recent yokuzana in their final 17 basho to give a measure of how they compare: 133 2Y 4J Akebono 84 2Y 3J Takanohana 118 4Y 3J Musashimaru 154 5Y 3J Asashoryu 149 3Y 2J Harumafuji 97 2Y 3J Kisenosato 106 4Y 1J Hakuho 105 3Y 2J Kakuryu Given that both Asashoryu and Harumafuji's careers were cut off early for non-performance-related reasons, the average for the other four retired yokuzuna is 108. That would suggest to me that if either Kakuryu or Hakuho miss the next tournament completely they will be in the range where retirement is practically certain. That's true for both of them, not just Kakuryu, the difference over these last three years is not numerically significant.

Surely there's a difference between a 13-2 yusho and a 12-3 yusho after a play-off (possibly a three-way play-off)? I'd imagine that 13-2 would get him ozeki, 12-3 wouldn't. Incidentally, if he does get promoted, that would create three sanyaku vacancies? Sekiwake: Mitakeumi, Takanosho Komusubi: Terunofuji, and, er, Takayasu?

Am I missing something? They've met on numerous occasions before....

I was really hoping the four ex-ozeki would have a full round-robin against each other, but only four of the six matches will have happened this basho. So long as all four remain I aim to keep monitoring this. The results this time: Takayasu 2-0 Terunofuji 1-1 Tochinoshin 1-1 Kotoshogiku 0-2

So we now have four who are confirmed and theoretically Terunofuji could still join them, so can I ask again, what is the record?

What is the record for the number of former Ozeki in Makuuchi at any one time? We could, just conceivably, have five next basho, if Terunofuji gets promoted, Goeido gets demoted, and Kotoshogiku survives, plus Tochinoshin and Takayasu.

What are the chances of Kotoshogiku retiring now after a make-koshi, and loss of his sanyaku status, at his "home" basho?

Thank you so much. I'll enjoy playing with that for a while. Is there any way to exclude basho where the guy was in juryo?

This is a back-of-the-envelope calculation (and I'd love to know if there's a way to get the database to do this for me), but this I think is the list of the top-10 winningest makunouchi so far this year (* denotes currently kyuyo):: 1. Harumafuji 45 2= Takayasu 44* 2= Mitakeyumi 44 4= Hakuho 42* 4= Takakeisho 42 6 Yoshikaze 41 7 Tamawashi 40 8 Hokutofuji 39 9 Ichinojo 38 10 Kotoshogiku 36 These numbers look really low to me -- even if Harumafuji was to win every remaining bout this year he would only get to 62, and we only recently saw Hakuho getting consecutive years numbering in the 80s. Who is going to end the year on top? And how will that compare to a typical year -- if there is such a thing? Can the database show me this?

Don't know what you're seeing there???? No more chances to give up a kinboshi, I think

I think Kotoshogiku will retire the day he gets his eighth loss - not much point for him to drop down into the maegashira ranks.

Taka-yes!

It's possible the last two days will give us: D14: Harumafuji v Takayasu; Hakuho v Terunofuji D15: Terunofuji v Takayasu; Harumafuji v Hakuho and they could all still be yusho candidates going into those last two rounds

Ranked as komusubi or above, Goeido has never, not even once, put together 33 wins in a three-basho sequence.