Sumo Fan Magazine

<DATE> Contents

Sumo Souvenirs
Mark Buckton Second of a two parter on sumo souvenirs - some hints on avoiding the fluff.

Konishiki
Chris Gould Takamiyama's 60s / 70s successes notwithstanding Konishiki was sumo's first full-on mover and shaker from lands afar leaving Chris G to take an in-depth look at the ripples the big guy left behind when exiting the sumo pool.

Rikishi of Old
Joe Kuroda Joe Kuroda's looks back at the life and times of former yokozuna Shiranui.

Eric Evaluates
Eric Blair Eric IDs the true winners of the henkafest that was the Haru Basho senshuraku.

Rikishi Diary
Mark Kent Mark Kent - English pro-wrestler and amateur heavyweight sumotori - takes his training a step further on his road to European and World sumo glory.

Heya Peek
Mark Buckton Oitekaze Beya just to the north of Tokyo and not far from the abode of SFM's Ed-i-C falls under the microscope.

SFM Interview
Carolyn Todd Carolyn interviews Riho Rannikmaa during his recent trip to Osaka - head of all things sumo in Estonia, friend and mentor of Baruto, this is a man with something to announce.

Sumo à la LA
Alisdair Davey SFM's man in the shadows reports on his recent jaunt in LA, as guest of the Californian Sumo Association and SFM reporter at large.

Photo Bonanzas
Hot on the heels of the recent Ise bonanza - Haru up close and very very personal - some of our best pics to date.

Haru Basho Summary
Lon Howard Lon wraps the Haru Basho and chucks in a few bits on the henka issues the top dogs are suffering from at present.

Sumo Menko
Ryan Laughton Sumo cards of old brought to life once again by expert collector Ryan Laughton. None of your BBM offerings here - Pt II of III.

Natsu Ones To Watch
Carolyn Todd Carolyn ponders the ones to watch come May and Natsu when sumo comes home to Tokyo.

Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila Mikko's latest look at sumo's kimarite offers unequalled analysis and in depth explanations.

Amateur Angles
Howard Gilbert On your marks, get set, go - Howard Gilbert walks us through the months ahead on the amateur calendar.

Kokugi Konnections
Todd Lambert Click on Todd's latest selection of the best sumo sites the WWW has to offer.

Fan Debate
Facilitator - Carolyn Todd Should it or shouldn't it? Honbasho go on the overseas road that is. See what SFM's Chris Gould and James Hawkins have to say.

SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson In this issue's cartoon bonanza, sit back and sample ST's latest artistic offerings.

Sumo Odds & Ends
SFM's interactive elements - as always includes Henka Sightings, Elevator Rikishi and Eternal Banzuke!

Let's Hear From You
What was it that made you a sumo fan - A. S. - the face in the crowd reveals almost all - to see everything you'll have to close your eyes.

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 a genuine banzuke.

Natsu Ones to Watch

Text and Photos by Carolyn Todd

should bizarrely get him to komusubi after this phenomenal and unexpected rise. So far he hasn’t done badly against the joi-jin but it’ll be interesting to see if he can sustain his performance. Previously he blended in with all those other ‘T’ names mid-makuuchi but now he’s a vibrant, smiley, confident presence around the hallways. He joined sumo at the same time as his buddy Kotoshogiku but, although he was initially faster up the banzuke, for some reason it’s taken him much longer to show his full ability. Hopefully now he’ll be a another young talent to energize the top of the division.

Ichihara
So, Ichihara ended up 5-2 after the hype and attention, and lost his juryo promotion chance… However, he looked extremely strong throughout the basho and his result should be enough to put him on top of the makushita pile for Natsu. Barring catastrophe, he should get a pretty healthy promotion for Nagoya, and maybe this delay will be a good consolidation period for him – and give his hair a chance to grow a bit! That mage’s going to be a long time coming…

Ichihara

Hakuho
So, here we go again. Fired up by his marriage and the impending arrival of his first child, will Hakuho have the added incentive to make this tsuna run count? I’m going to say that he does. After the fiasco of his first attempt, with discussions of his yokozuna dohyo iri style and his victory parade before he was anywhere near promotion, this time, after the crashing down to earth of injury and kyujo, he’s kept his head down and seems to be focussing on actually deserving promotion instead of celebrating the alleged foregone conclusion of his yokozunahood.

Hakuho

It can be said, and has been said by Asashoryu, that his henka to win the yusho was unbecoming

of a yokozuna aspirant, but that’s a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ sour grapes response. Instead of cowering in the face of Asa as other sekitori have admitted to doing, he demonstrated that he has the mental strength to play the yokozuna at his own game, and that’s how he’ll eventually succeed because Asa will have a harder time beating him psychologically.

Toyonoshima
So what’s going on here?? Toyonoshima has surprised everyone with his form in the last two basho. Hatsu basho could have been a blip, to be followed by a crashing makekoshi, but no.

Toyonoshima

He only just got kachikoshi but in this game that’s enough, and