| Brothers in Sumo – part two Brian Lewin |
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| Yokozuna Comparisons Joe Kuroda |
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| Rikishi of Old John Gunning |
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| Heya Peek Barbara Ann Klein |
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| SFM Interview John Gunning |
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| Sumo 101 Barbara Ann Klein |
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| Photo Bonanza See the Hatsu Basho |
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| Hatsu Basho Review Lon Howard |
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| Lower Division Rikishi Mikko Mattila |
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| Haru Basho Forecast Pierre Wohlleben & Mark Buckton |
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| Kimarite Focus Mikko Mattila |
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| Minusha John McTague |
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| Online Gaming Alexander Nitschke |
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| Kokugi Connections Todd Lambert |
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| Fan Debate Feb's debate sees |
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SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
In the third of our cartoon bonanzas, sit back and enjoy BL’s offerings and put a caption to ST’s pic to win yourselves a banzuke
| Let’s Hear From You What was it that |
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| Readers’ Letters See what some SFM |
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Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.
Chiyotaikai
injuries. They will be kadoban once again in March, for a record-setting ninth time each. As though that wasn’t enough, these are also kadoban #99 and #100 in the history of sumo, for another dubious entry into the record books.
Our two sekiwake are familiar faces as Hakuho and Kotomitsuki both hold on to the rank, but trade places, thanks to Hakuho outpacing the Sadogatake veteran by five wins. More importantly, Hakuho finds himself positioned for another run at the ozeki rank after notching 22
Next
As you will recall, Hatsu Basho saw the return of the dreaded banzuke elevator. The intrepid, but mostly outclassed, group of rikishi who were moved into the top competition pretty much did what everybody expected them to do and went make-koshi, although not nearly as badly as might have been. With “only” 10 to 11 losses apiece, they managed to hold their own, and all of them will likely not fall too far on the new banzuke. On the flipside, none of the regular top guys who had a spell of lower-level competition in January did anything outstanding (with one notable exception), leading to a new banzuke that should feature many small movements rather than the wild jumps and falls we had last time. Of course, this means that a lot of the banzuke-
After the ozeki promotion of last basho, we’re back to familiar stability at the very top of the banzuke. Asashoryu remains the sole yokozuna, but for the first time in more than a year we have a pretender to the throne. Tochiazuma’s dominating 14-1 yusho in January puts him into position for promotion to yokozuna with another yusho, or perhaps even with a strong showing of at least 13 wins. Following him in the ozeki 1 west slot for Haru Basho is recently-promoted Kotooshu, who did not dazzle last month, but got through his shin-ozeki tournament with a minimum of problems and achieved the customary 10 wins expected of an ozeki. The two veterans Chiyotaikai and Kaio did not
