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.
Elevator Rules
| 1. | Excluded Rikishi: Yokozuna, Ozeki, and all rikishi with less than 15 basho to study. |
| 2. | Entry Point: Use first makuuchi appearance. One subsequent juryo appearance is permitted as long as the following appearance is back in makuuchi. Once two consecutive juryo or below appearances are recorded, the count starts over again with the next makuuchi appearance. |
| 3. | Stop Point: Use last makuuchi appearance. One juryo appearance is permitted if next appearance is back in makuuchi - but the stop point will always revert back to the last makuuchi appearance. If a rikishi who has been listed in the Ranking records two consecutive juryo or below appearances, he is transferred to the Elevator Retired List and his CEI is considered permanent. Upon official retirement, he is transferred to the Retired List with his permanent CEI. |
| 4. | If a rikishi never accumulates 15 consecutive basho in makuuchi under these rules, he will never be listed in the Ranking at all, although the results of his matches will continue to be added to the database in case he might qualify at a later time. |
| 5. | All sanyaku ranks other than East are considered West, e.g., S2e, S2w are both counted as Sw. |
| 6. | When counting banzuke spots going down to and coming up from juryo, use the makuuchi banzuke for the basho 'going to' to count the total spots moved. Only count the banzuke spots actually occupied. e.g., if the makuuchi banzuke only goes to M15e, don't count the M15w spot because it is not occupied. |
| 7. | If a rikishi retained his rank under the kosho system with a record of 0-0-15, that basho is excluded from the count since the rikishi did not 'earn' the zero that would have been used in the calculation. |
| Note (1) Trying to be exact in accounting for more than two spots for each sanyaku rank (in the cases where that occurred) required a system in which produced nonsensical outcomes further down the banzuke, such as rikishi going from M6e to M7e, yet being credited with a 0 or a 1 count in spots moved. | |
| Note (2) There are several other technical considerations to the Rules that involve highly improbable situations, and are not mentioned because we didn't want to further clutter the Rules discussion. | |
Elevator Ranking
| RIKISHI | MOQ | AFQ | CEI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kyokushuzan | 9.69 | 0.6981 | 6.76 |
| 2. | Hokutoriki | 7.70 | 0.7895 | 6.08 |
| 3. | Tokitsuumi | 7.60 | 0.7692 | 5.85 |
| 4. | Buyuzan | 9.17 | 0.5909 | 5.42 |
| 5. | Kaiho | 7.30 | 0.6667 | 4.87 |
| 6. | Aminishiki | 8.00 | 0.6000 | 4.80 |
| 7. | Shimotori | 8.52 | 0.5500 | 4.69 |
| 8. | Asasekiryu | 8.00 | 0.5714 | 4.57 |
| 9. | Takamisakari | 6.48 | 0.7000 | 4.53 |
| 10. | Tamanoshima | 7.34 | 0.5714 | 4.20 |
| 11. | Kyokutenho | 6.32 | 0.6486 | 4.10 |
| 12. | Kotonowaka | 6.48 | 0.6118 | 3.96 |
| 13. | Jumonji | 6.68 | 0.5714 | 3.82 |
| 14. | Kotomitsuki | 5.48 | 0.6071 | 3.33 |
| 15. | Tochinonada | 6.12 | 0.5208 | 3.19 |
| 16. | Iwakiyama | 5.71 | 0.5000 | 2.85 |
| 17. | Tosanoumi | 4.48 | 0.5424 | 2.43 |
| 18. | Dejima | 5.35 | 0.3958 | 2.12 |
| 19. | Miyabiyama | 4.71 | 0.4054 | 1.91 |
| 20. | Wakanosato | 2.13 | 0.4138 | 0.88 |
