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.

Henka Sightings Summary

by Lon Howard

for his day 14 slip-away from Iwakiyama.

Kyokushuzan still heads the list of makuuchi men in percentage of bouts henka'd at 13%, the same number he was at the last time. Shunketsu's identical percentage didn't change because he wasn't in makuuchi for this basho, and may not show up again for a while as he posted a 6-9 record at J5w. Of the men still in the division, Hokutoriki and Roho are 2nd and 3rd, with 8% and 7%, respectively.

The count of rikishi still unsullied by henka (over the last five basho) diminished by four this time, as Aminishiki, Jumonji, Kisenosato, and Kokkai all yielded to the call. Right now there are only ten makuuchi regulars still without a henka in these basho. Our June issue will include another more complete Henka Sightings Summary with a list of the men still ‘standing’. The last detailed Summary published in February can be seen here. Voting was a little more brisk during Haru, so for that we thank you. That's all until June – until then, remember (stolen from someone): “When in doubt…henka!”

Home

You may easily slap a ‘Henka Light’ label on the just concluded Haru Basho. Both henka nominations and validated henka were markedly down from the averages over the previous four basho Henka Sightings has covered. Nominations dropped to 25 from an average 36 per basho, while actual henkas slipped to 12 from the previous average of 17. Over the five basho, these numbers show no trend, although the highest number of henka occurred in Hatsu at 23; so if we get another relatively low number in Natsu, maybe we'll be tempted to think that the guys got a ‘talking to’ after the Hatsu Basho. At this point though, I'm more inclined to chalk it up to happenstance.

Although gross numbers were down, the percentage of validations to nominations stayed right at 48 per cent. A small oddity arose, in that there were no unanimous yea or nay votes on any of the nominated bouts.

Six of the 12 perpetrators in

Haru were winners, so that drops the overall henka win percentage 2 points slightly to 63%. So far, in five basho there have been 80 henkas and 50 of those have been winners. This time, there was only one henka with ten or more votes involved where the no votes were either 0 or 1 (day 10: Hokutoriki over Iwakiyama, 16-1). With 'Riki's victory, the 100% win percentage for that particular category of henka remains intact, at 11 for 11.

On the individual side, both Kyokushuzan and Hokutoriki led the slimmed-down henka parade with two, with ‘Shoes-on’ and Aminishiki heading the nominations list with three each. Futeno, Dejima, and Iwakiyama were all targeted twice, with Iwakiyama the only one to lose both times. Last time, I noted a small anomaly in that neither Kokkai nor Tochiazuma had even one nomination through the four basho covered. Well, they both joined the fray this time, but of the two, voters only pointed their henka fingers at Kokkai