| 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.
| Rank | Yokozuna | Winning Percentage | Win | Loss | Draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jinmaku | 100.0% | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 2. | Tachiyama | 96.6% | 84 | 3 | 2 |
| 3. | Tanikaze | 96.1% | 49 | 2 | 7 |
| 4. | Tochigiyama | 93.5% | 115 | 8 | 9 |
| 5. | Inazuma | 91.1% | 82 | 8 | 14 |
| Jinmaku’s result is based on one basho after he was promoted to yokozuna. | |||||
subsequently nicknamed “45 Days” (in Japanese, 45 days or one month and a half has the same reading, “Hito-Tsuki-Han” as “one push and a half”). There is even a legendary story of one rikishi blown back so far that he landed in a box seat, and the next day’s opponent backed away off the dohyo even before Tachiyama had had a chance to touch him. The opponent was said to have lost the bout with a hitherto unknown technique of “Stare Out”. Tachiyama was so powerful and often resorted to such rough tactics that he never became as popular among the general public as Hitachiyama or Umegatani II.
Table 5 – Modern yokozuna winning percentages
| Rank | Yokozuna | Percen- tage |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Futabayama | 88.2% |
| 2. | Tamanoumi | 86.7% |
| 3. | Taiho | 85.8% |
| 4. | Asashoryu | 85.3% |
| 5. | Tamanishiki | 85.2% |
Weighing only 104 kg, the 27th yokozuna, Tochigiyama Moriya, was the lightest to date (the 45th yokozuna Wakanohana
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Ozeki Onogawa was granted his yokozuna license at the same time as the 4th yokozuna Tanikaze (Tanikaze passed away earlier than Onogawa therefore Onogawa became the 5th yokozuna). Onogawa and Tanikaze were great rivals and they brought ozumo to an unprecedented level of popularity in the Edo era. They squared off 17 times in Edo sumo and Onogawa won 3, lost 6 and recorded 3 draws, 2 holds and 3 no results. Onogawa was the only rikishi with whom Tanikaze had repeated trouble. As attested to by the number of draws and holds, their bouts always turned out to be competitive and were never easily decided.
The 7th yokozuna Inazuma Raigoro (1802-1877) was well known for his sumo philosophy dissertation, “Sumo Instruction”, which was written to disseminate Sumo-doh (the Way of Sumo). In his view, the
The 19th yokozuna Hitachiyama Tani-emon (1874-1922) was known as “Sumo Saint” and is considered to be one of the greatest yokozuna in sumo history. Hitachiyama was a star in the golden age of ozumo along with his rival yokozuna Umegatani Toutaro II (1878-1927) – an ozeki he said should be considered for promotion at the same time he was told he would be granted the yokozuna license. Hitachiyama believed a rikishi was a strong samurai warrior and tried to live a life according to Sumo-doh. He also took efforts to learn from abroad and traveled to the United States and Europe. As a Toshiyori after his retirement, working for the Sumo Kyokai, he helped to stage an overseas jungyo in Hawaii and the continental United States.
Tomozuna Beya yokozuna, the 22nd yokozuna Tachiyama