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SOS - Shinjinrui on Sumo |
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Chris Gould
Chris sinks his teeth into how sumo can go about pulling in the younger
fans - currently so noticeable by their absence. The first of a
three-part series.
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Sumo World Championships |
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Mark Buckton
Mark Buckton reports from Sakai near Osaka, site of the latest Sumo World Championships.
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Rikishi of Old |
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Joe Kuroda
Joe Kuroda finishes off his look at former yokozuna Minanogawa.
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Sumo 101 / Eric Evaluates |
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Eric Blair
Eric expains sumo fan terminology - with the inevitable twist - for
those just getting into the sport and still subject to the know it alls.
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Age stands still for no man |
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Joe Kuroda
Former ozeki Kiyokuni will retire in November under the compulsory '65
and you are out' rule. JK takes a look at this quiet earth mover.
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Feel the Sumo |
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Eduardo de Paz
Read and feel the renowned Leonishiki's passion for all things sumo at his first live event.
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SFM Interview |
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Mark Buckton
Mark interviews Colin Carroll - again - Irish star of Sakai.
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Photo Bonanza |
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See the Aki Basho bonanza as well as the largest collection of pics you
are likely to see on the Sumo World Championships earlier in October.
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Aki Basho Summary |
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Lon Howard
Lon wraps the September Aki Basho and throws in some henka sighting results for good measure.
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Lower Division Rikishi |
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Mikko Mattila
The lower divisions, their members and results get the once over thanks to Mikko's eye of things 'beneath the curtain'.
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Kimarite Focus |
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Mikko Mattila
Mikko's latest clarification of several of the sport's plethora of kimarite.
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Amateur Angles |
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Howard Gilbert
Howard Gilbert - manager of New Zealand's amateur sumo team takes a look at the approaching Russians.
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Kokugi Konnections |
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Todd Lambert
Click on Todd's bimonthly focus on three of the best sumo sites online.
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Fan Debate |
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Facilitator - Lon Howard
Jesse Lake and Rich Pardoe hammer out their differences on a current furor - promotion criteria.
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SFM Cartoons |
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Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
In this issue's cartoon bonanza, sit back and enjoy Benny Loh's
offerings and put a caption to Stephen Thompson's picture to win
yourselves a banzuke.
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Sumo Odds ’n’ Ends |
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SFM's interactive elements including Henka Sightings, Elevator Rikishi and Eternal Banzuke!
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Readers' Letters |
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See what our readers had to say since we last hit your screens.
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Sumo Quiz |
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The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.
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promotion
with his win. When the promotion didn’t come, did I think he was
robbed? Not at all! He only has two basho as ozeki, and
with his ability, he will surely be promoted. This disappointment
should have helped him focus to prevent early losses in Aki. That lesson
and the excitement and expectation that results for the next basho is
something that hard promotion criteria will never give.
JL: Despite the original intention behind the
formation of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council (YDC) to hold the ranks
of ozeki and yokozuna to a higher standard so those rikishi would be
worthy ambassadors for Japan, history shows that the current system has
actually lowered the standard by allowing the promotion of weak
yokozuna.
Let’s imagine a world without a YDC, with hard core criteria requiring
two consecutive basho with at least 13 wins as the standard from the
beginning. In just the last 30 years, we would not have suffered
through three miserably weak yokozuna – Wakanohana, Onokuni, and of
course, Futahaguro. Some of their exploits as yokozuna:
Each with a single 13+ win basho; Wakanohana with 4 kachi-koshi in 11
basho; Onokuni with just six 10+ wins in 23 basho; and Futahaguro with
just four 10+ wins in nine basho plus a career-crowning oshitaoshi win
over his oyakata’s wife. With such firm criteria, sumo would not
now be enduring these legacies.
During the same period, every ozeki meeting that standard was
eventually promoted anyway, as well as every ozeki with two consecutive
yusho. So where’s the higher standard? All that’s been
accomplished is the promotion of unworthy candidates. Hard core
rules may be “cold-hearted”, but they work.
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Since
Onokuni, the yokozuna situation has improved immensely with hard
core criteria being ‘internally’ adopted by the YDC; but recently there
has been much discussion by them and Kitanoumi Rijicho indicating a
willingness to make exceptions. This will just cause a repeat of
the situation in the 1980s and prior, with yokozuna whose careers come
crashing down right after promotion. Who wants to go through that
again?
I do agree that hard core criteria would produce periods with saturated
or vacant ozeki and yokozuna ranks but I disagree that the criteria
would keep changing as a result. If there are five rikishi
skilled enough to win two consecutive yusho, it just means that in each
basho, we’d have 10 head-to-head yokozuna bouts. How is that not
exciting?
Having no yokozuna would make it all the more exciting
when an ozeki makes a run. And a six-ozeki run wouldn’t last long
because, among other things, it would be a real mathematical challenge
for all of them to hold their rank for an extended period, especially
if there were two yokozuna. And just to be realistic,
periods with far too many or far too few ozeki and/or yokozuna would be
few and far between, so let’s rein in the hypotheticals
here.
With the YDC, shinpan and rijicho changing their jabber with each
succeeding basho about what it takes to become ozeki and yokozuna,
these ranks are losing their meaning. In light of the bar for
promotion being raised and lowered with such unreasonable frequency,
even those who are promoted must wonder if they really deserve their
rank if they were promoted during a period of leniency.
The truth is there can never be any
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perfect promotion system because the level of the competition will always fluctuate, and sometimes a
mediocre ozeki will string two strong basho together, and then crash
and burn after his yokozuna promotion. But with set promotion
rules, when this does happen, any criticism could be easily answered
with three short words: He earned it
One final note for now: I am confident that even if hard rules
had been used in the past for promotion to sumo’s highest two ranks,
the opening ceremonies for the Nagano Winter Olympics would have been
just as special.
RP: Jesse has correctly acknowledged here that no
promotion system – even one with set rules – can be perfect. A
promotion committee isn’t perfect either, but at least they have the
prerogative to correct mistakes, which is exactly what was done after
Futahaguro. Why is this ability to fine tune seen as a faulty
inconsistency? And what is so special about 13 wins over
two basho? How was 13 wins chosen? Is it a convenient
number to eliminate recent yokozuna that have been judged “inferior”?
The trouble with applying criteria after the fact is that it uses data
that just isn’t present at the time the decision is made. Onokuni
had achieved 15-0 yusho/12-3 jun-yusho and was denied
promotion. He then achieved 13-2 jun-yusho, and was
promoted. The promise and potential appear to be there, but
history has now shown us that the potential was not achieved (perhaps
as a result of injury).
But any criterion needs to consider all its impacts - not just a select
few. The 13-win criterion would not have promoted Taiho (13 wins/
Next
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