"Hoshie-ban", A Cool Honbasho Experience

[Hakuhonofan 334]

A die hard sumo fan and regular contributor to newspapers' illustrations Matsushima Atsushi had a fun and amazing way to keep track of honbasho results by creating an illustrated banzuke (at the moment only for makuuchi and juryo) called Hoshie-ban (星絵番).

He originally made this for fun and the first prototype was done for Aki basho 2014. Since then he had made ones for Kyushu basho 2014, and Hatsu basho 2015, both of them were distributed for free among small circle of sumo lovers who knew of its existence and wrote to him for copies.

The way it works, on each rikishi panel, there were fifteen rounds that you could mark in yourself to track that rikishi's record. I.e : keep it blank for winning record, and darken the circle if the rikishi lost. At the end of the basho, you can count what a certain rikishi's record is.

Pictures are copyrighted to Matsushima Atsushi :

Aki '14 Hoshie-ban prototype (makuuchi) :

Kyushu '14 Hoshie-ban (makuuchi) :

Hatsu '15 Hoshie-ban :

The illustrator and his creation :

Tamawashi with his creation :

Closer look to Ichinojo's Kyushu'14 panel. The 15 circle on the bottom is for the daily record tracking :

And his result :

Endo's Kyushu '14 result :

Tenho's Kyushu '14 result :

Takayasu's Kyushu '14 result :

Hakuho's Kyushu '14 result :

Kyushu '14 rikishi based on seniority :

Fun illustrations about sumo posted on newspapers (Sponichi, et al) from Matsushima :

Hakuho :

Sponichi '14 :

Fukuoka's 2013 incidents :

Kisenosanta, 2013 Christmas :

(Taken from the illustrator Matsushima's blog, Kitawaki Takashi's blog, Mitaka Sumo Club, Takemochiya1161's blog, and wakanoaki-dosukoi841's blog )

Edited February 6, 2015 by Hakuhonofan

[Hakuhonofan 334]

Atsushi Matsushima announced his facebook page for Hoshie-ban Score Card Club. On his blog he thanked all who supported his work, but unfortunately at the moment was unable to have his work integrated with JSA's honbasho's venue like he dreamed it could.

But he'd like to connect with more sumo lovers and when you join his fb Hoshie-ban SCC, you'll get a chance to have the latest Hoshie-ban edition, and the first edition Hoshie-ban Score Card bulletin that he just finished.

Edited February 18, 2015 by Hakuhonofan

[Kintamayama 45,537]

Maybe someone should volunteer to go over the Engrish for him. And no, it's not "cute", because as good as these are, they will be plagued with shades of Bennylo until then..

[Hakuhonofan 334]

  On 18/02/2015 at 09:05, Kintamayama said:

Maybe someone should volunteer to go over the Engrish for him. And no, it's not "cute", because as good as these are, they will be plagued with shades of Bennylo until then..

Yeah, he's working on it. I already offered a hand if he needs help.

Btw, Hoshie-ban, illustrated Sumo Score Card for Osaka 2015 edition has come out. Anyone who would like a copy could contact Matsushima Atsushi through his blog here to get it. He posted his email address there linked to his name on the latest blog post.

It is free, but since he only made limited copies, you might want to hurry before they run out.

I have my copy in the post already, courtesy to Matsushima, and I can't wait to use it for the upcoming honbasho.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Hakuhonofan

[Pica-Pica 24]

He's a talented artist -- I love it! (Applauding...)