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| Attention to Akeni
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Carolyn Todd
SFM's newest addition to the writing staff takes an
in-depth look at akeni, their history and production techniques
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| Rikishi of Old
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Joe Kuroda
Joe Kuroda slides former yokozuna Minanogawa under his SFM microscope |
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| Eric Evaluates
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Eric Blair
Eric's wit scythes through the SML and makes clear his opinion of where the future lies for online sumo forums. |
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Eternal Banzuke Phase II
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Lon Howard
Stats, equations and mathematics all lead to a list of sumo's most prolific up and downers
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Heya Peek
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Mark Buckton
Mihogaseki, former home of Estonian sekitori Baruto is toured (and peeked at) by SFM's Editor-in-Chief
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Nagoya Basho Summary
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Lon Howard
Lon gives us his Nagoya basho summary, along with the henka sightings results
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Lower Division Rikishi
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Mikko Mattila
Mikko Mattila casts his watchful eye over lower division goings on in makushita and below.
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Aki Ones to Watch
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Carolyn Todd
Carolyn takes over the job of rikishi job performance prediction for SFM as she looks at those to keep an eye on come September |
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Kimarite Focus
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Mikko Mattila
Our man Mikko's latest trio of kimarite get thrown about the SFM literary dohyo |
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Amateur Angles
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Howard Gilbert
Howard returns with the second of his columns on the amateur sumo scene.
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Sumo Game
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| SFM's very own quiz comes in for a bit of self scrutiny by our secretive man of questions. We'll call him 'X'. |
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Sumo in Print
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Barbara Ann Klein
SFM’s Editor reviews “The Little Yokozuna”, a book for “young” (and older) adults
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| Kokugi Connections
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Todd Lambert
Check out Todd's bimonthly focus on 3 of the WWW's best sumo sites
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Fan Debate
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Facilitator - Lon Howard
Keri Sibley and Eduardo de Paz ponder the concept of ‘to pay or not to pay’ makushita salaries
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SFM Cartoons
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Stephen Thompson
Sit back and enjoy the offerings of one of sumo's premier artists |
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Lets Hear From You
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| What was it that made you a sumo fan? SFM’s own Todd Lambert details his path into sumofandom
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| Sumo Quiz |
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke. |
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the injury that forced his withdrawal just one basho ago, and with Chiyo, possibly a new one.
As in May, ozeki Kotooshu again spliced together wins on the final two days to eke out his 8-7 kachi-koshi.
Kotooshu
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Ozeki Kaio, though no longer a yusho challenger, continues to thumb
Kaio
his nose at those of us who wrote him off during the Haru
basho. He can still beat up on the non-sanyaku guys and win
enough of the other bouts to get to 9-6, as he did this time.
Maybe he’s learned how to protect his ailing back better as time goes
on – I don’t know – but still you have to think his days are numbered.
If you’ve been counting, you see that none of the five ozeki is kadoban
for Aki. Given the recent past, who would have believed
that? Except for Hakuho, their records aren’t exactly points of
light, but it beats tossing the kadoban bag back and forth.
That rare shin-komusubi kachi-koshi mentioned above was posted by
the maturing young gun Kisenosato, who upset two ozeki while going
through the first-week meatgrinder, and then defeated everyone else
below him except for the upstart Baruto on |
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senshuraku.
This is significant because a clear majority of rikishi posting a
kachi-koshi as a shin-sanyaku have gone on to ozeki.
Most impressive was how thoroughly he overmatched those junior
opponents in the second week. His 8-7 mark still won’t promote
him because both sekiwake – Miyabiyama and Kotomitsuki – booked their
own kachi-koshi.
Kisenosato
When he enters Aki, for the second straight basho, Miyabiyama will
carry a two basho-24 win mark with him, and one would guess the
‘target’ for ozeki promotion is again 11 wins, although it’s possible
that the misty ‘content’ of his sumo could work for him this time if he
only gets 10. That seems unlikely though, as his sumo is never
pretty, even when it’s good. As for the other sekiwake,
Next
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