Sumo Fan Magazine

Amateur Sumo – the sport as it should be Mark Buckton Sakai World Sumo Champs – not all about winning Las Vegas Koen Joe Kuroda Our man reports from the fight capital of the world Rikishi of Old Joe Kuroda A look at a rikishi of yesterday with Kotozakura – our man for October Heya Peek John Gunning John’s early morning dash to Azumazeki-beya & report on TKOTU SFM Interview Katrina Watts sits down with SFM’s Mark Buckton to discuss amateur sumo Photo Bonanza SFM’s best yet – Aki Basho/ Las Vegas / Amateur World Champs / Azumazeki-beya visit – seen nowhere else Aki Basho Review Lon Howard Lon gives us his Aki Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results, and his take on the tournament while ‘gem’ of the basho takes a break Lower Division Rikishi Mikko Mattila Mikko Mattila returns to cover lower division ups and downs Kyushu Basho Forecast Pierre Wohlleben & Mark Buckton Pierre predicts the Kyushu Basho banzuke while Mark previews the ones to watch next time out Sumo 101 Barbara Ann Klein Discovers and explains amasumo & ozumo variations Kimarite Focus Mikko Mattila Mikko once again walks us through his chosen kimarite Minusha John McTague John’s unique bimonthly view of news from outside the dohyo Online Gaming Zenjimoto of ‘game fame’ covers some of the very best sumo games around – his own! Kokugi Connections Todd Lambert Todd’s focus on 3 of the most interesting online sumo sites today Fan Debate Is the limit on foreign rikishi fair? See what our debaters had to say SFM Cartoons Benny Loh In the first of our cartoon bonanzas, sit back and chuckle at Benny Loh’s offerings Let’s Hear From You What was it that made you a sumo fan? Gernobono tells all Readers’ Letters See what SFM readers had to say since our last issue Sumo Quiz The Quizmaster Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.	Elevator Ride by Lon Howard		aforementioned Elevator Rules and Ranking. There are six former and two current makuuchi men who are still competing but are considered retired for this study since the count would have already stopped for them under the Rules. They are listed underneath the official Elevator Ranking and will be added to the Ranking in the next issue. There is one – Kasugao – who has more than 15 total basho but has never qualified for the Ranking because his ‘string’ was broken under the Rules before it got to 15. Because of these restrictions, some rikishi may never qualify to be ranked. Such is life. The two tools used in the ranking are (1) how many banzuke spots (currently 42 in makuuchi) a rikishi moves from basho to basho, and (2) how often he changes direction. Each rikishi’s tally must be continuous, so for each man you must determine a point to start and end the count. The starting and ending points are usually the first and last makuuchi appearance but both may be adjusted under the Rules. Calculating the Ranking: After recording the number of banzuke spots a rikishi moved Next Home
	If someone says, “Elevator Rikishi”, whose name jumps out? For me, that name is ‘Kyokushuzan’ and I’ll bet most fans concur. But if they asked, “Who’s in second place?” you might wonder how could you tell. During this flight of fancy I started wondering if anyone had ever tried to measure or compare rikishi in terms of their ‘elevatorness’. After grousing around I couldn’t find anything so I thought it might be fun to tinker a little to see if it was possible. Well the tinkering got incredibly extreme and ground on much longer than I imagined but at last there is a product which purports to separate genuine elevator royalty from those just along for the ride. So is Kyokushuzan really number one? Before we pull back the curtain and see, let’s look at how we settled it. Here I’ll just cover the basics but for the nitty gritty details, click on Elevator Rules and Ranking after getting through this discussion. We normally use the term ‘elevator rikishi’ with the makuuchi men so that’s where	we’re looking. Also, the concept bears more intrigue when you consider we’re looking for men who are consistently inconsistent, yet manage to stay in the highest echelons of sumo in spite of themselves. They key word is *stay* because we’re looking for those special rikishi who go a long way without really going anywhere, but manage to stay competitive in makuuchi even though their consistency is woeful. Once in juryo, they lose that special character – they’re just another rikishi who couldn’t stay in the top division. If they go to juryo one time and don’t go right back to makuuchi next basho, they are considered ‘elevator retired’, injury or not, and go on the Elevator Retired List. The record they attained to that point is permanent. This initial study will look at active rikishi but in future issues we’ll begin to add those from the retired ranks. Only those with at least 15 basho to study are included, and ozeki and yokozuna are excluded. Presently, I found only 20 active men who qualified to be listed in the Elevator Ranking. The complete list is found in the