Sumo Fan Magazine

Yokozuna Comparisons
Joe Kuroda
SFM’s historian, JK, wraps his two-part article on the greatest of the tsuna wearers

Amateur Sumo's Global Aspirations
Courtesy: International Sumo Federation
What exactly is it and furthermore, what does it do? The ISF explain themselves and their purpose in existing

Rikishi of Old
Joe Kuroda
Man or myth? Sumo's first yokozuna comes under the spotlight

Heya Peek
Barbara Ann Klein
Tokitsukaze-beya and its famous find themselves the target of Barbara's peek into life inside the heya

SFM Interview
Mark Buckton
Featuring interviews with amateur sumo's European Sumo Union General Secretary and the President of the newly founded Irish Sumo Federation

Sumo 101
Barbara Ann Klein
Would chanko exist without sumo? What is chanko anyway? Find out in Sumo 101

Photo Bonanza
See the Haru
Basho through the eyes of the fans in the seats as SFM gives the mantle of photographer(s) for this basho to Barbara & Gerald Patten. And don't miss our all-Mongolian Bonanza supplied by our Editor, Barbara Ann Klein

Haru Basho Review
Lon Howard
Lon gives us his Haru Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results

Lower Division Rikishi
Mikko Mattila
Mikko Mattila covers the lower division goings on like nobody else around

Natsu Basho Forecast
Mark Buckton
Mark Buckton glances back to look forward in his ones to look out for come May

Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila
Our man Mikko takes us on a tour of his chosen kimarite

Sumo in Print
Mark Buckton
Our gaming thread takes a break for April so we can look at the Spanish language book on the sport not long since released

Kokugi Connections
Todd Lambert
Todd’s bimonthly focus on 3 of the WWW's best sumo sites today

Fan Debate
Facilitator – Lon Howard
April's man VS monkey debate covers the issue of reducing the number of honbasho

SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
Sit back and enjoy the offerings

Let’s Hear From You
What was it that
made you a sumo fan? Thierry Perran lets us in on his reasons for loving this sport

Readers’ Letters
See what some
See what our featured letter is for this issue

Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.

Eternal Banzuke – An Introduction

by Lon Howard

flames, being the only ex-ozeki to ever participate in juryo. Should he be held in higher regard than the sekiwake Takamiyama, who holds more sumo records than Daiju ever dreamed of, but never even sniffed ozeki? There are any numbers of rulers one can use to grade the careers of rikishi, and each one of them may be graded as well.

In the end, an Eternal Banzuke – one that combines all prior banzuke – will provide an additional frame of reference for this comparison. It will not stand as a definitive standard – sumo is much too complex for any single barometer to qualify as that – but it will provide a standard that hasn't been available before.

When I first assembled a model for an Eternal Banzuke, I wasn't thinking about a banzuke – but only musing if there was any correlation between rikishi's elevator tendencies and their general standings on the banzuke. To do that, each rikishi had to be assigned a ‘grade’ and it was decided to use the highest median rank (HMR). An HMR is found by calculating the highest rank that a rikishi has held at least half of the time. Eventually, the “elevator” connection was

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I've always thought the banzuke was an ingenious structure – no Eighth Wonder – but really such a model of equity and malleability that it must have been divinely inspired. I especially admire the way sanyaku ranks are so intelligently woven, assembling a hierarchy where almost every rikishi finds his ‘home’ in reasonably short order and rarely meanders far from there – unless he has what it takes to break through and become one of the ‘chosen ones’. Surely, the ozumo banzuke represents an ideal that every aspiring meritocracy should study carefully.

If there is a shortcoming, it must be that a banzuke doesn't provide an historical perspective. Since each one is merely a snapshot of a single group of rikishi at one point in time, for a broad appreciation of a rikishi's career, one must cobble together information from a number of other sources, such as records of number of

basho won, winning percentages, head-to-head outcomes, longevity, etc. No single banzuke can add anything to this endeavor because each one only shows who was what during one basho in history.

But what if all historical banzuke were combined into one? Would it show anything of interest or value? In consideration of the fact that single banzukes are brooded and argued over, published extensively and sold as cultural icons and works of art, it could be worth at least a nodding eye and 15 minutes of fame. Consider some of these questions about how historical rikishi are compared: Can we write in stone that Taiho was the greatest rikishi of all time because he has won the most yusho? Is it fair to say that Mienoumi was better than Kaio because he was yokozuna while Kaio was not? Or compare the careers of Daiju and Takamiyama; Daiju was an ex-ozeki who went down in