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.	be officially recognized as watashikomi. The very tall (203cm), young Bulgarian and new star, Kotooshu, with by far the most amazing reach in the makuuchi division, has already won five bouts with watashikomi during his short career in makuuchi. Kyokushuzan is the only other rikishi who has more wins by watashikomi for now. In all likelihood, Kotooshu will soon surpass him and might even beat all records in watashikomi- usage in years to come. His reach gives him opportunities to use watashikomi often both at the end of an attack and as a tricky tool for defense against twists and even throws. A good example of Kotooshu’s watashikomi repertoire was seen last year on day 9 in Kyushu basho, where he performed a very rare inside the dohyo watashikomi as a counter move to Tokitenku’s uwatenage attempt. There are grounds to assume he will keep winning with watashikomi in the future too. Since watashikomi is very rare by default, Kotooshu may	Photo by John Gunning
		well become the king of watashikomi, regardless of how successful his career turns out to be. Techniques covered above have a relatively small role in sumo, but they add a lot of flavor to the whole technical spectrum seen on the dohyo. Without leg trips, sumo would lose an enchanting spice of versatility. Even though these techniques are quite rare events, they usually compensate for the lack of frequency by being truly	overwhelming, resulting in full “ippon” (if a judo term is allowed here). Uchigake, in particular, boasts of having almost without exception a very high quality profile in makuuchi sumo. There exist more obscure leg techniques, but those will be covered in the future. It is sotogake and uchigake that comprise the core of pure lower leg techniques in sumo. Home