Paid Members BigJag Posted November 28, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2023 The latest tournament popped up on my YouTube feed today. It's on the NHK World channel. Not sure who the commentator is but he seems to be very good at explaining the bouts. Very engaging. @Tamura any chance you could give us an overview of the current state of play in Sumo. It's been ages since I watched it properly. Just watched a great match from Day 10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamura Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 (edited) 23 hours ago, BigJag said: The latest tournament popped up on my YouTube feed today. It's on the NHK World channel. Not sure who the commentator is but he seems to be very good at explaining the bouts. Very engaging. @Tamura any chance you could give us an overview of the current state of play in Sumo. It's been ages since I watched it properly. Just watched a great match from Day 10. There's a few commentators and it tends to vary each day, see here for the team. The only one I don't like is Murray Johnson. He knows his stuff, but once during day 15's live coverage he was talking to a younger Japanese woman and it came across as very mansplaining and strange that a gaijin was explaining to a Japanese native about their national sport. The current state of play is probably best off described as a state of flux since the retirement of Hakuho in September 2021. Since then there's only been one yokozuna, Terunofuji, but he's been out of action for most of 2023, winning the tournament in May then pulling out after a handful of days in July. For the rest of the year he's been out injured, and the Yokozuna Deliberation Council have requested that he participate in January's tournament, indicating that they may issue a formal notice if he doesn't. This would only be the fourth notice issued since 1950, the previous one being in 2020 when yokozuna Hakuho and Kakuryu were both issued a notice also for their failure to compete. Basically the ticket buying public want to see the yokozuna in the ring competing, not sat out injured. Below yokozuna you have the ozeki who are a mixed bag. Recent demotions from ozeki are Shodai and Mitakeumi. Shodai and Mitakeumi both looked good prior to their promotion to ozeki but struggled badly at the rank. Takakeisho has been an ozeki since December 2019, and the best that can be said about him is that's he's consistently inconsistent. Every now and then he'll look dominant and win a tournament (although he recently won a play-off for a championship with a henka, or dodge at the initial charge, which is very much frowned upon when being considered for promotion to yokozuna) and the expectations will be lifted that he'll also win the next tournament and finally secure promotion to yokozuna (for a long time he's been tipped as the next Japanese yokozuna, to stop the Mongolian domination), only for him to struggle badly in the next tournament. Following his three tournament wins as an ozeki, his records in the next tournaments are 2-8-5 (the 5 is days skipped due to injury), 3-4-8 and 9-6. Mongolian ozeki Kirishima (formerly Kiribayama) will enter the January tournament as a yokozuna candidate having won in November, and fellow Mongolian ozeki Hoshoryu (nephew of former yokozuna Asashoryu) has been in consistent (albeit mostly unspectacular) form for the last two years, he hasn't had a losing record in a tournament since November 2021. The lower ranks are probably where there's more intrigue right now. Atamifuji is looking like a star in the making. He failed miserably in his top division debut in November 2022 with a 4-11 record, but since being promoted back afer winning the jūryō (second highest) division in July, he's been neck and neck for the chanpionship in the last two tournaments before ending up runner up with an 11-4 record, losing a play-off in September. He'll be ranked higher in January so facing tougher competition each day, so it'll be interesting to see if he's up to the challenge. The one I really had my eye on was Hakuoho, who ented sumo's top division aged 19 after only three tournaments in the lower divisons which was a meteoric rise, so fast he hasn't even had time to grow his hair long enough for the regulation top-knot. He looked great in his top divison debut in July with an 11-4 record, but has been out since with a shoulder injury and might return in January (obviously in a lower division as absence equals demotion). Edited November 29, 2023 by Tamura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 18 Paid Members Share Posted January 18 What's all this about then? @Tamura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted January 18 Paid Members Share Posted January 18 (edited) Had a quick scout around WCSUMO.com. Looks like somebody is trying to set up an American Sumo league. Edited January 18 by BigJag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverYield Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Interesting read this thread👍 Encouraged me to have a deeper look at the prestigious sport of sumo wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted January 21 Paid Members Share Posted January 21 Martin Licis, high level strongman and former WSM, checks out Sumo. As part of his very impressive Strength Unknown web series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamura Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 On 1/18/2024 at 10:11 AM, Egg Shen said: What's all this about then? @Tamura Basically there's amateur sumo worldwide, the main reason being there's no easy way to become a professional sumo wrestler in Japan. I say easy, because it's certainly possible if you have the means and the motivation, but you'll need lots of both. These short (two minutes each) videos give some useful background, apologies for lack of embedding but Youtube doesn't allow them to be for some reason.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZt7WEfbGYshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dicAVdozx70 I'll exclude Mongolia which does seem to have a decent system for feeding people into sumo (hence the high number of Mongols in sumo). But to get into professional sumo you'll need to be under 23, travel to Japan (and I'm guessing you'll need a working visa, which probably isn't easy to get). take part in the application process, be accepted by a stable, do menial chores around the stable while sleeping in a dormitory with the rest of the wrestlers while slowly working your way up the sumo pyramid to hopefully reach the second highest jūryō division. Why the second highest you may well ask? Well, until you reach that division you don't even get a salary only a small allowance. Some current and recently retired gaijin demonstrate the timescale involved, Aoiyama (Bulgaria) took two years from debut to reach jūryō, Kaisei (Brazil) took nearly four years, Tochinoshin (Georgia) took nearly two years. I can point to plenty of Japanese rikishi who've taken even longer than that. So bearing all that in mind there are probably some decent amateur sumo wrestlers outside of Japan, who simply aren't willing to make the rather extreme sacrifices needed in order to became a professional in Japan. So it might be worth a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 22 Paid Members Share Posted January 22 (edited) Yeah, seeings as its free on Fite, i might take a look. Nice one @Tamura Edit* must be free in the States, listed at £7.99 here Edited January 22 by Egg Shen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted January 27 Paid Members Share Posted January 27 (edited) Did anyone watch ? On 1/18/2024 at 10:11 AM, Egg Shen said: What's all this about then? @Tamura Doesn't seem to be much info about. Edited January 27 by BigJag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamura Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 Haru (March) basho spoilers. Spoiler Wow. Just wow. I got totally hammered in the fantasy sumo thinking that last tournament's hot debut and this tournament's hot debut might struggle this time round, but sumo is much healthier for it. Ōnosato debuted in the top division in January (in only his fifth tournament, he skipped a couple of steps on the pyramid due to excellent performance in amateur sumo) and looked really impressive finishing with an 11-4 record. Obviously that meant promotion from lower maegashira ranks to the upper ones which means fighting stronger opponents, but he still managed to finish this tournament with an 11-4 record. However he was completely upstaged by Takerufuji, who won the title on his top division debut with a 13-2 record, writing himself into sumo record books in the process. He equalled Taihō's record of 11 consecutive wins in the first 11 days of a top division debut, he set the record of fastest Emperor's Cup win since debut after 10 tournaments, was the first wrestler to win their debut tournament in the top division since Ryōgoku Kajinosuke II in 1914, and was the first wrestler to gain all three special prizes (outstanding performance, technique and fighting spirit) in a single tournament since Kotomitsuki in 2000. He lost to ozeki Hōshōryū on day 12 and left the arena in a wheelchair after suffering a leg injury to former ozeki Asanoyama on day 14, leaving everything up in the air on day 15. If he didn't compete and Ōnosato won his match, Ōnosato would have ended up with an equal record but would have won the tournament by default as Takerufuji wouldn't be able to compete in the required play-off. Which ended up largely academic after Takerufuji decided to gut it out and Ōnosato lost later anyway. With those two having red hot debuts (and not forgetting Atamifuji, runner-up in his first two top division tournaments) the Japanese crowds seem red hot right now, have a read of the Japan Times article Takerufuji’s triumph is one for the ages for some more detail. Obviously it's a bit premature to be talking about yokozuna promotion, but there's definitely lots happening right now. Natsu basho starts on 12 May. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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