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SFM’s historian, JK, wraps his two-part article on the greatest of the tsuna wearers
What exactly is it and furthermore, what does it do? The ISF explain themselves and their purpose in existing
Man or myth? Sumo's first yokozuna comes under the spotlight
Tokitsukaze-beya and its famous find themselves the target of Barbara's peek into life inside the heya
Featuring interviews with amateur sumo's European Sumo Union General Secretary and the President of the newly founded Irish Sumo Federation
Would chanko exist without sumo? What is chanko anyway? Find out in Sumo 101
Basho through the eyes of the fans in the seats as SFM gives the mantle of photographer(s) for this basho to Barbara & Gerald Patten. And don't miss our all-Mongolian Bonanza supplied by our Editor, Barbara Ann Klein
Lon gives us his Haru Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results
Mikko Mattila covers the lower division goings on like nobody else around
Mark Buckton glances back to look forward in his ones to look out for come May
Our man Mikko takes us on a tour of his chosen kimarite
Our gaming thread takes a break for April so we can look at the Spanish language book on the sport not long since released
Todd’s bimonthly focus on 3 of the WWW's best sumo sites today
April's man VS monkey debate covers the issue of reducing the number of honbasho
Sit back and enjoy the offerings
made you a sumo fan? Thierry Perran lets us in on his reasons for loving this sport
See what our featured letter is for this issue
Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.
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Oga as yumitori
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promotion in the Natsu Basho. His stable-mate, Kirinowaka, has also stacked up consecutive 5-2 records in makushita and will also be very close to juryo in Natsu basho. This can be the optimal situation for their
rivalry since both are about the same age. In that respect, they can always drive each other to more diligent keiko and race each other to juryo or even a higher rank on the Nagoya
banzuke, should both get promoted to juryo after Natsu. Kirinowaka also had many opponents that were as good as makushita can offer, and his biggest scalpings were
Next
Hakuba
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the highest quadrant of makushita, but never looked to have what it takes to break through the high makushita
barrier. In Haru, he fulfilled his dream with a 5-2 at Ms4, beating men like Dewaotori, Kanbayashi and Raiko. He is small but agile, which was well proven in his kekaeshi (foot sweep)-ending bout against Kanbayashi, but he still needs to improve his sumo in order to survive in juryo. Then again, neither Hokutoiwa nor Tamarikido were supposed to achieve kachi-koshi in their comeback basho in juryo, so maybe Oga has a good chance, too. The third promotee was
Masatsukasa who dropped
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down from juryo after the Hatsu
Basho but jumped right back, thanks to his 4-3 record at Ms2.
Overall, Michinoku-beya had a disappointing basho with all
three sekitori falling to heavy make-koshi misery. Yet, the 22 year-old duo of Hakuba (Ms9) and Kirinowaka (Ms6) carried on their stunning surge towards juryo. Hakuba’s three years of stagnation in makushita has taken a totally new course with an unexplainable 18-3 combined record in the last three basho. His 6-1 consisted of powerful wins over Tamaasuka, Kageyama and Kaido, amongst others, and he will be in great position to try for juryo
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