Sumo Fan Magazine

Amateur Sumo – the sport as it should be Mark Buckton Sakai World Sumo Champs – not all about winning Las Vegas Koen Joe Kuroda Our man reports from the fight capital of the world Rikishi of Old Joe Kuroda A look at a rikishi of yesterday with Kotozakura – our man for October Heya Peek John Gunning John’s early morning dash to Azumazeki-beya & report on TKOTU SFM Interview Katrina Watts sits down with SFM’s Mark Buckton to discuss amateur sumo Photo Bonanza SFM’s best yet – Aki Basho/ Las Vegas / Amateur World Champs / Azumazeki-beya visit – seen nowhere else Aki Basho Review Lon Howard Lon gives us his Aki Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results, and his take on the tournament while ‘gem’ of the basho takes a break Lower Division Rikishi Mikko Mattila Mikko Mattila returns to cover lower division ups and downs Kyushu Basho Forecast Pierre Wohlleben & Mark Buckton Pierre predicts the Kyushu Basho banzuke while Mark previews the ones to watch next time out Sumo 101 Barbara Ann Klein Discovers and explains amasumo & ozumo variations Kimarite Focus Mikko Mattila Mikko once again walks us through his chosen kimarite Minusha John McTague John’s unique bimonthly view of news from outside the dohyo Online Gaming Zenjimoto of ‘game fame’ covers some of the very best sumo games around – his own! Kokugi Connections Todd Lambert Todd’s focus on 3 of the most interesting online sumo sites today Fan Debate Is the limit on foreign rikishi fair? See what our debaters had to say SFM Cartoons Benny Loh In the first of our cartoon bonanzas, sit back and chuckle at Benny Loh’s offerings Let’s Hear From You What was it that made you a sumo fan? Gernobono tells all Readers’ Letters See what SFM readers had to say since our last issue Sumo Quiz The Quizmaster Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.	Since this is an entirely new concept (to our knowledge at least), it’s possible the criteria might be tweaked again, based on new revelations or ideas. We also know the system is not perfect, mostly because of the inherent imperfections of the banzuke itself. If there is any tweaking, it would probably be along the lines of more restrictive, as opposed to less restrictive criteria, as we prefer that the elite elevator rikishi be recognized as having accomplished something genuinely special. But who knows what we’ll discover as we	move along. So now that there’s no doubt who’s #1 in the active ranks, the next question is, “How does Kyokushuzan stack up against Dewanohana, Takamisugi, and others from days of yore? Will he ever be toppled? I do have my own opinion on that but for now that’s all it is since I haven’t had a chance to do the study. We’ll start going into the retired ranks and see how far back in time we get in the next issue. We’ll grow the Elevator Ranking list to 100 and after that we’ll drop off the ones from the	bottom as new ones are added, so the list of the top 100 elevator men of all time will always be available for view on our site. When all is said and done, it will probably take a CEI of at least 5 to be in the top 100 but that’s just another guess on my part. Anyway – don’t expect to see Kongo and Takamiyama in December…this is gonna take a while. Elevator Rules and Ranking Interactive Section Home