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| Attention to Akeni
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Carolyn Todd
SFM's newest addition to the writing staff takes an
in-depth look at akeni, their history and production techniques
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| Rikishi of Old
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Joe Kuroda
Joe Kuroda slides former yokozuna Minanogawa under his SFM microscope |
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| Eric Evaluates
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Eric Blair
Eric's wit scythes through the SML and makes clear his opinion of where the future lies for online sumo forums. |
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Eternal Banzuke Phase II
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Lon Howard
Stats, equations and mathematics all lead to a list of sumo's most prolific up and downers
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Heya Peek
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Mark Buckton
Mihogaseki, former home of Estonian sekitori Baruto is toured (and peeked at) by SFM's Editor-in-Chief
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Nagoya Basho Summary
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Lon Howard
Lon gives us his Nagoya basho summary, along with the henka sightings results
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Lower Division Rikishi
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Mikko Mattila
Mikko Mattila casts his watchful eye over lower division goings on in makushita and below.
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Aki Ones to Watch
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Carolyn Todd
Carolyn takes over the job of rikishi job performance prediction for SFM as she looks at those to keep an eye on come September |
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Kimarite Focus
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Mikko Mattila
Our man Mikko's latest trio of kimarite get thrown about the SFM literary dohyo |
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Amateur Angles
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Howard Gilbert
Howard returns with the second of his columns on the amateur sumo scene.
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Sumo Game
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| SFM's very own quiz comes in for a bit of self scrutiny by our secretive man of questions. We'll call him 'X'. |
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Sumo in Print
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Barbara Ann Klein
SFM’s Editor reviews “The Little Yokozuna”, a book for “young” (and older) adults
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| Kokugi Connections
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Todd Lambert
Check out Todd's bimonthly focus on 3 of the WWW's best sumo sites
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Fan Debate
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Facilitator - Lon Howard
Keri Sibley and Eduardo de Paz ponder the concept of ‘to pay or not to pay’ makushita salaries
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SFM Cartoons
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Stephen Thompson
Sit back and enjoy the offerings of one of sumo's premier artists |
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Lets Hear From You
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| What was it that made you a sumo fan? SFM’s own Todd Lambert details his path into sumofandom
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| Sumo Quiz |
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke. |
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Kotomitsuki,
what can you say about him? Well, about all there is to say is,
“8-7 for the fifth time in a row.” Could that be approaching a
record?
There was another shin-komusubi on the dohyo in Nagoya – Asasekiryu
- who had taken his sumo to another level in Natsu by downing
five of the ozeki-sekiwake contingent on the way to his second
straight 10-5 mark. If that wasn’t
heady enough, he
Asasekiryu
He was shortly joined on the kyujo sidelines by M6 Wakanosato, who
injured his right leg on day 4 against Ama. It was a bitter pill
for the erstwhile perennial sekiwake, who had won his first three bouts
and appeared well on his way to a second comeback from a hamstring
injury suffered last September. The hard reality now is that he
has failed to complete half of the basho during the past year and the
only two kachi-koshi he has posted
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were
at M16 and M11 as he battled back up the banzuke. His return to
prominence is doubtful, as he has just turned 30 and there are lots of
hungry youngsters coming up to take his place.
This basho will also be remembered for the ‘Roho Incident.’ To
recall, M3 Roho sped to a 4-2 mark and then was pushed out by
Chiyotaikai on day 7. In an unheard of display, the two men spit
some gritty words at each other while still on the dohyo, but after
that, it was strictly the Roho Show. First, he failed to bow to
the ozeki before dismounting the dohyo. Then, after breaking a
window in the bath, he attacked a press photographer. Finally, he
was verbally scolded by Kitanoumi Rijicho and physically browbeaten by
his own Otake oyakata. Surprisingly, the result was only a
three-bout suspension, after which he won four of his remaining five
bouts to record a convoluted 8-5-2 kachi-koshi. His record will
vie for the vacant komusubi slot with the 9-6 by M4 Baruto and the 10-5
by M5 Kokkai.
Kokkai
If Kokkai does make his sanyaku debut in Aki, I must say he will have
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backed his way into it
because only four of his 15 opponents were ranked higher than him.
Although this can happen around M5 or M6, it’s a stretch to say he’s
taken his sumo up a notch. With the exception of Kotooshu, he and the
other Europeans are still overly addicted to a variety of back-pedaling
winning maneuvers on the dohyo. Oddly enough, this also seems to apply
to the Estonian giant, Baruto, who has the brute mawashi- strength and tsuppari-power to drive anyone out of the circle
in just two forward strides. But here, in just his second
makuuchi basho, he seemed drawn to a curious brew of tachiai sidesteps,
slap-downs, leg-grabs, and other quirky stuff that seemed so
unnecessary. Some of that did work for him but some also did him
in. Hopefully, it will soon click-in that, for him, ‘thinking
man’s sumo’ should come later rather than sooner.
Lately
I’ve been wondering how far down the banzuke Tamanoshima needs to go
before he can dominate and now it appears that M10 is just about right,
as he wasn’t eliminated from the yusho until the 14th day, coming in at
11-4. That probably wasn’t a complete surprise, but for the other
11-4 mark, it’s a perfect description, as the warhorse M12, Tamakasuga,
continues to astound and amaze with his resiliency as he also stayed on
the list of challengers until day 14. At age 34, with four
separate sojourns into juryo since his joi-jin days, he is now assured
of a promotion to his highest rank in nearly four years. For
their efforts,
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