kinda weird how they’re trying to rush hoshoryu or kotozakura into promotion while takakeisho was an ozeki for what, like five years, bagged four yusho and never got it.
No one is really being rushed. If you win as an Ozeki, you’re basically on a Tsuna run and if you win again, that’s the standard criteria for promotion.
And 14-1 jun-yusho plus a yusho next basho, provided it’s one with a stellar record (no worse than 13-2), as an Ozeki likewise has precedent. I think Kisenosato and even Hakuho rose up that way.
So there’s really nothing out of the ordinary at foot, and it’s up to the actors to seize their opportunity. Which obviously Kotozakura has failed to do and Hoshoryu has just taken a stumble toward yesterday, so we’ll see how it all plays out.
The official announcement:
Tamawashi bout to do it?
Day 4 is one of the best single days of sumo I’ve seen in ages. This one is on permanent rewatch.
Also, this dude, what a boss. Look at this fucking drip:
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Hoshoryu’s rope bid hits a roadblock–courtesy of gentle giant killer Shodai!
The last thing I expected at the outset of this basho was the possibility of a Kinbozan yusho.
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Kinbozan just needs to win one of the last two remaining bouts to at least guarantee a playoff. Meanwhile, any of Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Takerufuji, or Oho could also emerge the champion.
What a wild Hatsu Basho.
mitakeumi retire
jesus what happened to this guy
It’s now Kinbozan’s to lose. Would love to see the hiramaku yusho from him or Oho. No Hoshoryu please.
Whelp, the newest yokozuna is likely to be crowned. In the most unlikely of ways.
oh jesus I’ve only seen up through day 13
oh wow, just caught it
Without the playoff, and probably the 3-way playoff for that matter, Hoshoryu doesn’t get the rope with a 12-3 record. Funny how things worked out.
HOSHORYUUUUUUUUUU
100% on this hype train
What’s wrong with Hoshoryu?
Mostly personal, baseless dislike (while begrudgingly respecting his sumo ability).
But beyond that, when it comes to becoming a Yokozuna, a required element is not just ability (which he clearly has), but the Japanese concept of proper “hinkaku” or character (which it is not clear whether he has).
Among recent Yokozuna, Terunofuji, Kisenosato, and Kakuryu are examples of ones who possessed it. While Hakuho and Asashoryu, his uncle, are examples of ones who did not.
There’s question, at least in my mind, whether he won’t end up being much like the latter two in terms of hinkaku, or lack thereof.
And thus, my lack of enthusiasm for his impending promotion.
I guess I could look this up, but I’m sure you can tell me faster. On your lists above are the ones who don’t have it all Mongolian and the ones who do have it all Japanese? I think at least one on the ones who has it that you listed is non-Japanese, but I’m not sure.
Well almost all of the recent Yokozuna with the exception of Kisenosato have been Mongolian, so there’s not a lot to choose from.
To go back as far as my own personal sumo viewing experience goes, the two Hawaiians–Akebono and Musashimaru–had proper hinkaku, while between the Waka-Taka brothers (Wakanohana and Takanohana), Takanohana was a model Yokozuna while his brother may have been a bit questionable in that regard (at the very least, once he left sumo he had the reputation as something of a troublemaker for a while).
So it’s not simple racial profiling. Rather, hinkaku is something that likely comes more easily to Japanese, who already have a built-in conditioning of proper societal behavior upon which hinkaku is based, while the foreign-borns have to learn it and for some, it doesn’t come easy or at all.
**Edit: forgot about Harumafuji, my favorite. A Mongolian who demonstrated proper hinaku as a Yokozuna–until that fateful day when he threw a karaoke remote control at a fellow rikishi at a drinking party and was forced to retire soon after.
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