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.

Enter Michael J. Stopka, owner of Design Toscano of Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Stopka sells the figurines and wanted to help. After seeing a report on television about Doc’s plight, Stopka sent the dentist a brand new Basho (retail $99).

Doc was overjoyed.

The original Basho remains on the loose, but if authorities can locate the stout statue, he’ll return to the garden with a worthy opponent waiting.

Other News

  • Former Hawaiian sumotori Hajime Morita recently celebrated his 102nd birthday. Morita, who never made the trip to Japan, but performed on
  • Kauai during the plantation era in sumo tournaments held at various locations around the island, still enjoys watching the Japanese feeds of hon-basho tournaments on TV with his grandson, Glenn.
  • Manchester RFU – a rugby club – has hired Sumo World Championships medalist Steve Pateman of the British Sumo Federation to lecture his team on how to tackle. He led a session on how to bring sumo skills to rugby at a coaching master class run by RFU. One big difference: sumo wrestlers don’t run downfield.
  • William “Tyler” Hopkins (ex-Sunahama) and Eric “Fats” Gaspar (ex-Koryu), both natives of Hawaii and both retired, wowed the onlookers at the Missouri Botanical Garden
  • during the Japanese Festival in St. Louis last month. Both wrestlers were themselves impressed by the Gateway Arch and the Mississippi River. The two had wanted to see the landmarks ever since reading Mark Twain while growing up in Oahu.
  • Just a thought: While in Las Vegas, might one of the craftier sumotori make it to a final table of the Texas Hold’em tournaments? I can just hear World Series of Poker host Lon McEachern shout, “Asashoryu’s all in with pocket aces!”

  • I’m all out.

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