What Will Become of the Dynasty?
Brian Lewin
The Hanada Dynasty – past or present?

Rikishi of Old
Joe Kuroda
A look at a rikishi of yesteryear with Tenryu our man for August.

Heya Peek
John Gunning
John attends a chanko session at Chiganoura Beya.

Photo Bonanza
For a glimpse at some of the sights you won't see on TV.    

July Basho Review
Lon Howard & John Gunning
Lon gives us his Nagoya Basho summary and his take on upset of the tournament while John chips in with his ‘gem’ of the basho.

Lower Division Rikishi
Mikko Mattila takes a break and Eric Blair covers the lower divisions in his own ‘unique’ way.

Aki Basho Forecast
Pierre Wohlleben & Mark Buckton
Pierre predicts the Aki Basho banzuke while Mark previews the ones to watch next time out.

Sumo 101
Barbara Ann Klein
Gyoji goings on and several things you never knew about the ones officiating.

Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila
Mikko walks us through his 2 chosen kimarite.

Minusha
John McTague
John's unique view of news from outside the dohyo.

Boletín de Sumo en Español
Eduardo de Paz Gútiez
An article on sumo’s very first fan mag – Boletin de Sumo en Espanol

Online Gaming
Jezz Sterling
Hear from the founder of Bench Sumo of one of sumo's most popular games.

Kokugi Connections
Todd Lambert
Todd’s focus on 3 of the most interesting online sumo sites today.

Fan Debate
Henka – good, bad or ugly? See what our debaters think.

Let’s Hear From You
What was it that made you a sumo fan – the Petros Zachos story.

Ngozi on the Road
Ngozi T. Robinson
NTR visits an amasumo event in the north-east U.S. and tells us what it was like.

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

the same could be argued equally for Tenryu. We will never know if Tenryu would have initiated the walkout if he had been promoted to ozeki in that January of 1932, but, apparently, he had been considering this course of action for quite some time and this was not considered a spur of the moment reaction.

After announcing their withdrawal from the Kyokai, Tenryu and other Dewanoumi Ichimon rikishi established the “Great Japan Emerging Rikishi Group”. The non-Dewanoumi rikishi formed the “Progressive Rikishi’ Group”. Both groups jointly organized tournaments and toured the country. Eventually, the two groups merged and Tenryu established a home base in Osaka, founding the Kansai Sumo Association one year later. A 7-day tournament was staged in Osaka in February 1933 by the rebel rikishi under a new set of rules, attracting many curiosity seekers as well as sumo fans.

However, even before the start of the new Osaka basho, some rikishi were leaving the recently formed organization. Musashiyama, who reluctantly joined the rebel association, never felt he was part of the group. Even before the Shunjuen incident, Musashiyama had

been thinking of leaving Ozumo to try a boxing career. Unlike Tenryu and other Dewanoumi sekitori, Musashiyama was not recruited by the previous Dewanoumi Oyakata, and he felt the others were doing everything they could to prevent his rise to ozeki. Musashiyama believed boxing to be more legitimate and void of so-called “yaocho”. He eventually gave up boxing and returned to the Kyokai soon thereafter. Another popular rikishi, the 206 cm and 195 kg giant Dewagatake, and the only original group member not to cut his mage, also returned to the Kyokai several months later.

When Tenryu made his dohyo debut at the January 1920 basho, he initially took the shikona Mikatagahara, after a famous battlefield near his birthplace. In retrospect, Mikatagahara turned out to be an apt name for the young man with a mixed future as it was the winner of the Battle of Mikatagahara (a battle that conceivably could have altered Japanese history), Shingen Takeda, that proved to have a life somewhat mirroring Tenryu’s own career in sumo. In December 1572, the rebel warlord Takeda fought a major battle against Ieyasu Tokugawa, the man who later became Shogun and founder of

the dynasty that held Japan together for generations.  Despite having been aided by troops from his ally, Nobunaga Oda, Ieyasu lost the battle and barely escaped with his life but Takeda, although buoyed by the victory, was himself felled – by tuberculosis – at the time he was making preparations to make his final assault.

Like Takeda, Tenryu won his own initial battle at Shunjuen. He had successfully formed and encouraged the coalition of Dewanoumi Ichimon and non-Dewanoumi rikishi to walk out and establish their own organizations to stage sumo tournaments. Unfortunately, like Shingen Takeda, he did not ultimately win the war as the emerging associations were forced to fold due to financial difficulties, and the rebel rikishi eventually returned to the Kyokai.

With solid performances from newly appointed yokozuna Tamanishiki who had refused to join the rebel group, and a rising star, Futabayama, the Kyokai started to regain its popularity. The new Osaka-based group, however, found it difficult to gain wider acceptance of its existence from the general public and by December 1937, Tenryu decided to disband the
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