Sekitori with collegiate sumo experience

[Koukai 4]

Was Kaido from Chuo or from Meiji University?

Edited November 30, 2012 by Koukai

[Asashosakari 19,647]

That's a very interesting question, indeed. (Laughing...) I'll check why I put him with Chuo.

Edit: Definitely Chuo University. The kesho-mawashi was sponsored by Nakano High School, a Tokyo-area school affiliated to Meiji University, but Kaido did not stay in the Meiji system for his university education.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Asashosakari

[Koukai 4]

Thanks. Very interesting.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Updated for Hatsu 2013 with Shohozan's promotion to sanyaku and Azumaryu's juryo debut, the first out of Kyushu Joho..

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Late Hatsu updates for the retirements of Takamisakari and Bushuyama, and updated for Haru 2013 with the Sotairyu and Oiwato (né Kanbayashi) makuuchi debuts. And the links have been changed to sumodb.sumogames.de now, so clicking on them will actually do something again.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Updated with Miyabiyama's Haru retirement, and the Natsu makuuchi debuts of Homarefuji/Azumaryu/Daikiho and juryo debut of Kizenryu.

[Washuyama 641]

Dude, mucho-props for all the work put into this! (Applauding...)

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Updated for Nagoya with the makuuchi debut of Tokushoryu and the juryo ascent of Endo.

[aderechelsea 125]

great topic.

thanks for all the work you put into making this list and keeping it up to date..

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Belated Aki update for Endo's makuuchi debut.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Kyushu update with Higonojo's juryo debut.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Updated for Natsu with Yoshikaze's sanyaku debut, and also Kimurayama's intai (from Hatsu) that wasn't reflected yet.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Updated for the retirements of Tanzo and Kimikaze (back in May), Takekaze's sekiwake debut and the arrival of Jokoryu and Chiyotairyu in sanyaku. Amazingly, of all the collegiate rikishi who reached the sekitori ranks between 2000 and 2009, Takekaze is the only one to make it to sekiwake. (And barring a similar late-career run by Yoshikaze, Homasho or Tosayutaka, he will remain the only one.)

Incidentally, Aki basho is the 5th tournament in a row without any new sekitori from a collegiate background. That hasn't happened since 2006/07 (6-basho gap) and it's only the second time in the last 20 years.

(Although in fairness 2014 is a year with very few sekitori debuts altogether, only 5 so far. The most recent single-digit annual total was 8 debuts in 2009.)

[Johnofuji 232]

Thanks for that Asashosakari seki.

As I graduate I follow these men closely- especially the Nittai dai boys who come and let us train with them when they visit Sydney as well as Nichidai who seem to have a stronghold when getting selected for the World Championships .

One day I hope to get around to making a similar table with all the rikishi who have competed at the amateur Sumo World Championships. Katrina has a list up until a certain date so I will work backwards until she can find it.

I counted about 20 that have won individual Gold medals but I need to dig out all the results to take into account rikishi who won Silver or Bronze like Endo or those that also got medals in the team events like Ichinojo. I also want to include any that just competed and didn't win medals. There are quite a few juniors who have done well like Osunaarashi or Takanoyama who got bronze as a junior in 2000 along with Minaminoshima. The 2004 Junior worlds was a rich harvest for the stables with Kaisei,Tochinoshin , Tochiozan and Goedo all competing against each other.There wasn't much non-Japanese recruitment after that.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

After half a year, a much needed update for:

- the juryo debuts by the Nihon University trio of Hidenoumi (last November), Ishiura (March) and Daishomaru (upcoming in May)

- Homasho's intai back in January

- the recent renaming of Matsugane-beya to Nishonoseki-beya

Natsu will be the 10th straight basho without any collegiate makuuchi debut, the longest gap since the late 80s (1987.05-1989.05, 13 basho).

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Natsu will be the 10th straight basho without any collegiate makuuchi debut, the longest gap since the late 80s (1987.05-1989.05, 13 basho).

The new banzuke topics add another interesting fact - Natsu is also the first time in over 20 years (since Hatsu 1995) that the collegiate rikishi in makuuchi number only 8.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Updated for Nagoya with a bunch of debuts - Takarafuji in sanyaku (first one from Kinki in 35 years), Hidenoumi in makuuchi, and Mitakeumi and Takaryu in juryo.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Early Aki update with Shodai, new sekitori out of Tokyo Nogyo after six years.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Looks like I neglected to make a status post on the last update half a year ago, when I renewed the table code. To wit, the many changes in 2016:

Kyushu 2015: Mitakeumi to makuuchi
Hatsu 2016: Yoshikaze to sekiwake, Shodai to makuuchi, Tsurugisho to juryo, Daido and Tosayutaka intai
Haru 2016: Daishomaru and Akiseyama to makuuchi
Natsu 2016: Ura to juryo
Nagoya 2016: Daiki and Shimanoumi to juryo
Aki 2016: Takarafuji to sekiwake, Tokitenku intai
Kyushu 2016: Mitakeumi to sanyaku, (Daiki->)Hokutofuji and Ishiura to makuuchi, Oyanagi to juryo

And the newest stuff:

Hatsu 2017: Shodai to sanyaku/sekiwake, Daiamami to juryo
Haru 2017: Ura to makuuchi, Asanoyama to juryo
Natsu 2017: (Oyanagi->)Yutakayama to makuuchi

Quite a turnaround from a couple of years ago, when the collegiate presence in makuuchi looked a bit moribund.
 

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Recent updates:

Nagoya 2017: Mitakeumi to sekiwake (25th overall), Tobizaru to juryo
Aki 2017: Asanoyama to makuuchi, Yago to juryo

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Time for some updates again...

Kyushu 2017: Daiamami to makuuchi
Hatsu 2018: Mitoryu to juryo (first collegiate sekitori for Nishikido-beya, 50th overall out of Nihon University), intai for former maegashira Sotairyu
Haru 2018: Enho to juryo (first sekitori out of Kanazawa Gakuin, 125th collegiate sekitori overall)

Mitoryu is the fourth foreign rikishi to reach the sekitori ranks after attending university, following Ryudo, Tokitenku and Azumaryu.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Jakusotsu
fixed the dates

[Asashosakari 19,647]

And updated again.

Natsu 2018: sanyaku debut for Endo (second for Oitekaze-beya to reach the titled ranks), juryo debut for Wakatakakage (Toyo / Arashio; first collegiate sekitori for Arashio-beya, so a new heya entry), and intai for former one-time maegashira Oiwato and for former three-time juryo Masakaze.

Nagoya 2018: a pair of juryo debuts for Chiyonoumi (Nihon Taiiku / Kokonoe) and Churanoumi (Nihon / Kise).

No further updates for Aki basho.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Aaand we're finally up to date here again. News, well, "news":

Kyushu 2018: Juryo debut for Tomokaze, the 6th collegiate sekitori for Oguruma-beya, and also putting Nippon Sports Science University at double-digit sekitori count now. In addition the tournament saw Satoyama's retirement.

Hatsu 2019: Oguruma again, this time with Yago's makuuchi debut, the 4th for the stable and the 6th out of Chuo University. And another retirement with Takekaze (also Oguruma), who passed on his position as the longest-tenured active collegiate sekitori to stablemate Yoshikaze.

Haru 2019: A collegiate sanyaku debut for the first time in nearly a year, courtesy of Hokutofuji (Hakkaku-beya 2nd, Nippon Sports Science 5th). And yet more Oguruma-beya with Tomokaze becoming the stable's 5th collegiate top division member (and NSSU's 7th). Lastly the basho also featured Tenkaiho's retirement which, together with Satoyama's four months before, has put the lid on Onoe-beya's brief but bright presence on these lists, with at one time 5 collegiate sekitori that were recruited in a span of just three years. (The other three were all ousted in the yaocho scandal in 2011.)

Natsu 2019: It took him nearly three years from his juryo debut, but Shimanoumi became a new makuuchi rikishi (Kise-beya 7th, Kindai University 10th). He was joined by Enho, the first from his alma mater Kanazawa Gakuin and the 3rd for Miyagino-beya.

Nagoya 2019: Back to juryo debuts for this basho, with Ichiyamamoto and Kizakiumi. The former is the 3rd sekitori for Nishonoseki-beya (but the first to debut under that name - it was still Matsugane-beya for the previous two) as well as the 9th for Chuo, while the latter marks sekitori #13 for Kise-beya, #52 for Nihon University, and the 4th to have debuted from the bottom of sandanme.

Aki 2019: And two more promotions this month now. Tsurugisho finally made it to the top flight after nearly four consecutive years in juryo; he is #6 for Oitekaze-beya and the 37th for Nihon University, again a makuuchi debut for that powerhouse after just about two years (following Daiamami, also of Oitekaze). And one level below it's the juryo debut of Asagyokusei, the 4th for the Wakamatsu-beya-derived contemporary version of Takasago-beya and the 12th for Kindai.

Additionally I've made the name change from Yamaguchi back to Daikiho in the tables, and after resisting for a long time I've also added the official English-language names of several universities where those differ significantly from [Japanese name minus daigaku] University.

On a side note: We've reached 12 years since the last university-bred rikishi managed to attain the ozeki rank, and next basho will mark 20 (!) years since that rikishi (Kotomitsuki) made his sekitori debut. There have been 75 collegiate sekitori after him, 41 of whom are still active. 
 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Well, it has been a minute...or rather, 4+ years of minutes, but at long last the collegiate sekitori listings have been updated.

The last update above concluded with commentary on the long drought of collegiate ozeki, but the last few years ended up producing three new ones in quick succession, overall #8 to #10 - although Asanoyama, Shodai and Mitakeumi all failed to leave much of a mark on sumo's second-highest rank for a variety of reasons. Since the end of 2019 we've also reached the milestones of 150 collegiate sekitori (Hitoshi in Kyushu just now), 100 maegashira (Midorifuji in Hatsu 2021), and 50 sanyaku (Ura in a couple of weeks).

Some other developments of the last four years concerning heya that have had collegiate sekitori at some point in their history: 

• Azumazeki-beya (briefly led by former collegiate Takamisakari at the end) and Oguruma-beya have shut their doors, although Oguruma's Takekaze has started up a spiritual successor at Oshiogawa-beya.
• Tomozuna-beya was renamed to Oshima, Irumagawa-beya became Ikazuchi, and Nishonoseki-beya is now known as Hanaregoma, a second entry on the heya list by this name.
• The aforementioned Hanaregoma is newly led by a former collegiate rikishi, ex-Kataonami's Tamanoshima. Two stables saw their reins handed over from one university rikishi to another: At Irumagawa/Ikazuchi-beya from Tochitsukasa to Kakizoe (formerly of Fujishima-beya), and at Tokitsukaze-beya from Tokitsuumi to Tosayutaka. Meanwhile, Takasago-beya is no longer helmed by a collegiate since former ozeki Asashio turned 65 in 2020.
• A fresh trio of stables led by recent yokozuna/ozeki have produced their first collegiate sekitori and joined this tracking thread: Naruto-beya, a new Nishonoseki-beya, and Takekuma-beya.

To my surprise the forum engine-enforced post size limits that caused the original thread to be abandoned in 2012 are apparently no longer in effect, or at the very least they're much higher now. I'll refrain from putting all data into single tables again - that was already quite cumbersome to read when this effort started with 85 rikishi fifteen years ago, and now we have almost twice that number at 151 - but it does mean that I'm not forced to split things up as much as it looked back in 2012, and consequently this thread might actually not need to be replaced again sometime this decade as I had expected. I've still decided to add a 5th table to the chronological listing as the decade-by-decade splits are working quite well, but the by-university listing has actually gone from 4 to 3 tables (by recombining Nihon University which was previously split in two), and the by-heya listing remains split into four almost equal-sized tables.

BTW, speaking of Nihon University: While it retains its spot as the by far most productive university sumo programme, it remains noteworthy how few truly top-tier rikishi have come out of it in the last several decades. Four of its first five sekitori representatives made it up to sekiwake between 1970 and 1988, but of the 53 sekitori that followed only two managed to reach that rank: later ozeki Kotomitsuki, as well as Hayateumi whose promotion was of the most fluky kind. And while plenty of them have been ranked as komusubi, "underwhelming" doesn't come close to describing their results at the rank.

All in all the 2020s are so far producing collegiate sekitori at the same clip as the previous decade: The 2010s saw 45 juryo debuts, and 2020 to 2023 featured 18 for the exact same annual average of 4.5 rikishi. However, there's a notable split between 2020/21 (5) and 2022/23 (13) - it remains to be seen if that's just random variance both ways, or if the more recent two-year period heralds a trend towards even greater collegiate representation. Chances are it's the latter, especially if the recently revised makushita and sandanme tsukedashi regulations achieve what they are intended to do, namely make turning pro more attractive for university graduates.

[Asashosakari 19,647]

Time for an update again.

Hatsu 2024: The promotions were already in the tables as part of the previous update (for the record: Ura to sanyaku, Onosato to makuuchi, Takerufuji to juryo), but two further developments occurred later on: Nishonoseki-beya's Takahashi changed his shikona to Shirokuma, and veteran Azumaryu from Tamanoi-beya called time on his career. He was the third-most senior collegiate sekitori, behind only Myogiryu and Takarafuji.

Haru 2024: Takerufuji moved up to makuuchi, only one basho after his juryo debut.

Natsu 2024: Sanyaku debut for Onosato, making him the first collegiate sekitori of the 2020s to go up to the titled ranks. Two other pairs of rikishi achieved new milestones as well, with Oshoma and Tokihayate reaching the top division, and Onokatsu and Kazekeno earning their juryo debuts. Recently founded Oshiogawa-beya makes its first appearance in the thread courtesy of Kazekeno, and is of course helmed by an older member of this thread in ex-Takekaze.

Nagoya 2024: And another step taken by Onosato, this time to sekiwake. Two more moves possible. (Well, one for this thread as there are no yokozuna columns...) In other news: Nakamura-beya, led by ex-Yoshikaze, only came into existence a month ago, but is immediately debuting a sekitori with Kayo who was part of those branching out into the new stable from Nishonoseki-beya.

I didn't really know what to do with the temporarily(?) closed Miyagino-beya, so I've just left it sorted under M-O in the by-heya list for now, despite the annotation saying "to Isegahama-beya" which would ordinarily mean a move to the I-K section.