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SOS - Shinjinrui on Sumo
Chris Gould
Chris sinks his teeth deeper into how sumo can go about pulling in the younger fans in part two of a three-part series.
Azumazeki up close and personal
Steven Pascal-Joiner / William Titus
A wiz with a pen and a wiz with a lens get together with SFM to share their time with Azumazeki Oyakata - Takamiyama as was - with the wider sumo following world.
Rikishi of Old
Joe Kuroda
Joe Kuroda takes a detailed look at the life and times of a former yokozuna forgotten by many - Maedayama.
Eric Evaluates
Eric Blair
Eric calls the musubi-no-ichiban kimarite call on nakabi in Kyushu as perhaps only he could.
Heya Peek
Jeff Kennel
First time heya visitor Jeff Kennel wrote about, photographed and even made a video of his time spent at Arashio Beya prior to the Kyushu Basho. All to be found within.
SFM Interview
Mark Buckton
Mark interviews Russian up and comer Wakanoho of Magaki Beya.
Photo Bonanzas
See behind the scenes at the Kyushu Basho, morning training in Arashio Beya through the eyes of an artist and exactly what the Azumazeki lads had to eat halfway though the July Nagoya Basho. All originals, all seen here and nowhere else, and all for you.
Kyushu Basho Summary
Lon Howard
Lon wraps the Kyushu Basho in Fukuoka and throws in some henka sighting results for good measure.
Lower Division Rikishi
Mikko Mattila
The lower divisions, their members and results get the once over thanks to Mikko's eyeing of life down below the salaried ranks.
Hatsu Ones To Watch
Carolyn Todd
Carolyn ponders and puts fingers to keys on the ones to watch come January and the Hatsu Basho.
Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila
Mikko's latest clarification of a handful of sumo's kimarite offers unequalled analysis and in depth explanations.
Amateur Angles
Howard Gilbert
Howard looks at makushita tsukedashi and what it means in real terms.
Kokugi Konnections
Todd Lambert
Click on Todd's bimonthly focus on three of the best sumo sites online.
Fan Debate
Facilitators - Lon Howard / Carolyn Todd
Two SFMers talk over the yokozuna benefiting from weak opposition - or not as the case may be.
SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
In this issue's cartoon bonanza, sit back and sample Stephen's artistic offerings.
Sumo Odds ’n’ Ends
SFM's interactive elements including Henka Sightings, Elevator Rikishi and Eternal Banzuke!
Lets Hear From You
What was it that made you a sumo fan? Starting with issue #10, the SFM staff will reveal a little of their own routes into sumo fandom - starting with Benny Loh.
Readers' Letters
See what our readers had to say since we last hit your screens.
Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.

  his brutal training sessions, this time against Shachinosato (later maegashira 3, who joined ozumo at the same time), Sadamisaki experienced an acute pain in his right arm. Not one to be seen as a weakling, he continued on and then went back to his room to collapse. The next morning he woke up with extreme pain in his arm, and he could not get up nor move. He was carried to Keio University Hospital where he had a fateful encounter with Dr. Maeda Wasaburo (1894-1979), an authority on bone marrow and one of the best surgeons in Japan at the time.

Dr. Maeda told Sadamisaki that he needed emergency surgery as it was not a simple broken bone or muscle tear he was suffering, but a serious bone infection known as osteomyelitis. The doctor told him he would need at least one year off from ozumo. By this time Sadamisaki felt that his world had gone totally dark and he broke down crying. He felt that he had nothing to live for as he suspected that it was not only a career-ending injury but a life-threatening one as well. He saw no hope of any sort of comeback; he was ready to give up on his life.

However, Dr. Maeda kept telling him quietly that it was a battle worth fighting just as he has been fighting all his life in ozumo. Sadamisaki felt the doctor’s compassion and kindness. He thought to himself, “a perfect stranger only one day ago, still this man is displaying such a concern for my well-being as if I were his son”. Sadamisaki was to be promoted to sekitori but not even those who had known him for years bothered or cared enough to arrange to get him a kesho mawashi for the dohyo-iri ceremony. He would have been a laughingstock in ozumo as the only sekitori without a kesho mawashi.  Sadamisaki was no longer sure what he was crying about but he decided to trust this 


doctor so that one day he could make a spectacular comeback to reward him by wearing a kesho mawashi everyone could be proud of.

The first part of the surgery went well and Sadamisaki spent two months in hospital for recuperation and rehabilitation, although there was nothing harder than being cooped up in a hospital ward all day long. He wanted to get back to training as soon as possible. As he was progressing well, he was given permission to leave the hospital temporarily, with instructions of how to behave and to not consume any alcohol. But free at last, the old Sadamisaki re-surfaced immediately and he went out drinking. This time, he not only went on a drinking binge but he even got involved himself in a fight with a policeman. For his shisho Takasago Oyakata, who had seen enough of Sadamisaki’s brawls, it was the last straw. He had simply had enough of the shenanigans and told him to leave ozumo and never show his face again.

Sadamisaki left Tokyo to stay with an acquaintance in his home town. He knew it was the end of everything he had worked so hard for and that there was no chance of making a comeback. He spent every day doing absolutely nothing, only dreaming the impossible dream of stepping on the dohyo again.  If there were a miracle, he promised himself he would change; he would become a new man.

Unbeknownst to Sadamisaki, help was arriving from an unlikely source. His name was Mitsuru Touyama (1855-1944), a well-known ultra-nationalist who founded a right-wing organization called Genyo-sha which actively assisted nationalists in other Asian countries trying to abolish colonialism. Touyama, having a deep interest in Japan’s traditional culture, was personally acquainted with influential Kyokai members, including Takasago Oyakata, and he convinced the oyakata to take Sadamisaki back.

Takasago Oyakata was the easy
part, more difficult was his secondary surgery as the surgeon now had to painstakingly shave decayed bone fragments from his arm. It was major surgery, the scale of which one could hardly fathom even now, but miraculously Dr. Maeda succeeded in repairing Sadamisaki’s arm. Dr. Maeda was aware that by this time Sadamisaki was down to a sandanme ranking and had absolutely no money at all. Dr. Maeda personally absorbed all the expenses of Sadamisaki’s extended hospital stay.        

Sadamisaki knew he could never pay the medical expenses but more than anything, he felt he could never repay the doctor for saving his life as he knew that without sumo there was no life for him to live. He knew that he had been given a second chance, the key to a new life.  To symbolize his transformation, he decided to change his shikona to Maedayama Eigoro to honor the doctor’s work. The “Eigoro” part of the name comes from Eigoro Omaeda (1793-1874), a yakuza chief from Gunma Prefecture. He killed a man and was exiled to Sado Island but escaped and became the most powerful “godfather” in Tokyo and the Kanto region in the late Edo era.

After one year’s absence, Maedayama returned to the dohyo for the 1935 January basho, easily winning five bouts while losing one. He learned to channel all his raw emotion and aggression into his sumo. Soon his ferocious tsuppari and harite became so well known that his opponents started expressing their fear of facing him. However, what his opponents dreaded the most was his killer

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