Tschumi
Member
AFTER THE FACT:
Hey all. Fun fact. I like Sumo. I live in Japan, and while I'm not a weeb by any means, sumo might be the closest I am to that designation as I've liked it since before I came here. Eeek!
<This is a wall of text, but I promise it's interesting if you go in with an open mind>
Why is sumo a big deal this week?
>>The real question is "Who is Hakuho"?
here's my favorite Sumo youtuber, Jason, with a camera capture of an NHK
special on Hakuho, commentated in English by some of NHK's pro commentators.
The best way to get a handle of his versatility is to just watch a bunch of his bouts
on channels like Jason's (linked later in this post)
>>The next question is "Who is Terunofuji?"
Also Mongolian, Terunofuji is currently the heir apparent to Hakuho. He's a pretty 'great' story, as he has come back from the wilderness of a serious knee injury to become a dominant force who seems on track to be the next Yokozuna.
I can't tell you how sorry I am for the ASMR narration
It's looking like Hakuho, in possibly his final basho, is the only rikishi capable of stopping Terunofuji from getting the top rank.
And btw I hate Terunofuji. More on that in a moment.
A brief word on ranks, and their relevance to Terunofuji: The top two ranks are Yokozuna (Grand Champ) and Ozeki. Ozeki is arguably harder to get - you need to get 33 wins across three basho to qualify, yokozuna seems to only require that you win two basho in a row while at the rank of Ozeki. Getting Ozeki requires consistency, and since higher ranked riskishi are matched up against similarly ranked opponents, it also means beating your direct peers consistently. Getting to Ozeki is a big deal, staying there and moving up to Yokozuna is another big deal in itself - again, it requires longevity. Many Ozeki remain stuck at that rank despite being highly effective rikishi, purely because niggling injuries and intense competition keep them from winning those two basho.
Terunofuji got to Ozeki rank before his big injury. He got to Ozeki, he got injured, he fell down many ranks, now he's back to Ozeki and looking strong. He might even win this basho and gain Yokozuna rank, because he won the previous one.
Why do I hate Terunofuji? Because he did this...
That my friends is about as grubby and dishonorable as you can get.
(fun fact: he ultimately lost this basho against an INJURED Kisenosato in a playoff... Kisenosato tried to beat him with a Henka -- something he never does; he's too good for that shit -- but in the end he just beat him through sheer brilliance)
Because we're up to day 12 of 15, which means that there are only 3 bouts left for each of these Rikishi - the final bout of the WHOLE TOURNAMENT being between the two of them. If they can both remain undefeated until this final bout, then they will be facing off for an undefeated basho on day 15.
Not only that, but the stakes are sky high: Terunofuji might become a Yokozuna, Hakuho could end his career with a record-extending, cherry-on-top, legacy-sealing 45th top division championship.
It's hot shit.
Watching it live might be hard, there used to be a twitch streamer named MbovoSumo but I think he may have been taken down. You can find highlight reels for this stuff on youtube pretty easily. I'd recommend Jason's All Sumo Channel, but he's actually out of action for the rest of this basho with family problems, so a decent alternative would be this channel, NattoSumo, which runs the highlights without vocal commentary.
Hey all. Fun fact. I like Sumo. I live in Japan, and while I'm not a weeb by any means, sumo might be the closest I am to that designation as I've liked it since before I came here. Eeek!
<This is a wall of text, but I promise it's interesting if you go in with an open mind>
Why do I like Sumo? Let me wrap my head around this...
- I like their names, they're complicated but at the same time easy to remember and assign to faces.
- I like the technique. It's clearly a highly complicated and subtle form of wrestling - there's a huge degree of focus on slight weight shifts, momentum, counters and problem solving, footwork... For men who look like giant swollen babies they're incredibly deft and humorously agile.
- I like the pageantry. I mean, why not? It's a medieval sport, dudes sweep evil spirits off the dohyo (platform) after every day's play with a giant stringless longbow. The yokozuna starts every day's competition by shuffling across the dohyo and lifting/stomping his feet while the whole crowd shouts "BANZAI!" Whenever there's an upset the whole audience frisbee their pillows at the dohyo in a blizzard of flying purple. The ranking system is epic and, again, easy to get your head around.
- It happens very often, you basically get a 'world series' every 2 months, all the wrestlers duke it out for a hugely revered trophy (the "emperor's cup") and it's a huge deal, despite its frequency.
- Wrestlers can have vastly different styles. Some of the man mountains rely on pure weight and strength, but there's a dude named Enho, for example, who's about 170cm and weighs 95kg or so, and he made it to the top division on the back of sheer skill, agility and quick thinking.
Why is sumo a big deal this week?
>>The real question is "Who is Hakuho"?
here's my favorite Sumo youtuber, Jason, with a camera capture of an NHK
special on Hakuho, commentated in English by some of NHK's pro commentators.
The best way to get a handle of his versatility is to just watch a bunch of his bouts
on channels like Jason's (linked later in this post)
You might have heard his name - wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't, of course - but this guy is the single greatest Rikishi (wrestler) in the history of Sumo. He comes from Mongolia, but he's got diffuclt-to-attain Japanese citizenship. He has 44 top division wins, which is Gretzky/Jordan/similar level domination, if not more. The next highest basho win count is 32, 4th place on the list is 25. He also holds the record for most championships with an undefeated record (15-0), at 15 - next highest is 8. He's tied with onetime rival Asashoryu for the longest streak of Basho wins, with 7 - he's tied for second with a seperate 6 win streak, and i wouldn't be surprised if he had 5, 4 and 3 win streaks by the bushel.
He's awesome. He's formidable and ruthless. He's over 190cm, he's heavy but as fast and agile as anyone. His style is a mix of brute force and subtlety that is utterly beguiling. He analyses every opponent and executes his plans without error. Unlike most rikishi who have one distinct approach, you'll see him do everything from frantic slapping and thrusting, through belt-holding pushing, to scurrying counter-movement based styles in any one tournament. He typical opens every fight by slapping his opponent hard and ramming his shoulder into their face. Unless you're this guy (this happened a couple of days ago so it's still fresh and funny)
The big deal about Hakuho is encapsulated in this sentence: This is possibly his LAST BASHO ever, and he hasn't competed in a full Basho for a year, pulling out to recover injuries or just not wanting to risk his ageing (35 yr old) body. He was known to be intending to retire after the Olympics, so he's had to extend his career a year longer than he planned to.
>>The next question is "Who is Terunofuji?"
Also Mongolian, Terunofuji is currently the heir apparent to Hakuho. He's a pretty 'great' story, as he has come back from the wilderness of a serious knee injury to become a dominant force who seems on track to be the next Yokozuna.
I can't tell you how sorry I am for the ASMR narration
It's looking like Hakuho, in possibly his final basho, is the only rikishi capable of stopping Terunofuji from getting the top rank.
And btw I hate Terunofuji. More on that in a moment.
A brief word on ranks, and their relevance to Terunofuji: The top two ranks are Yokozuna (Grand Champ) and Ozeki. Ozeki is arguably harder to get - you need to get 33 wins across three basho to qualify, yokozuna seems to only require that you win two basho in a row while at the rank of Ozeki. Getting Ozeki requires consistency, and since higher ranked riskishi are matched up against similarly ranked opponents, it also means beating your direct peers consistently. Getting to Ozeki is a big deal, staying there and moving up to Yokozuna is another big deal in itself - again, it requires longevity. Many Ozeki remain stuck at that rank despite being highly effective rikishi, purely because niggling injuries and intense competition keep them from winning those two basho.
Terunofuji got to Ozeki rank before his big injury. He got to Ozeki, he got injured, he fell down many ranks, now he's back to Ozeki and looking strong. He might even win this basho and gain Yokozuna rank, because he won the previous one.
Why do I hate Terunofuji? Because he did this...
That my friends is about as grubby and dishonorable as you can get.
(fun fact: he ultimately lost this basho against an INJURED Kisenosato in a playoff... Kisenosato tried to beat him with a Henka -- something he never does; he's too good for that shit -- but in the end he just beat him through sheer brilliance)
Spoiling this since it's not so relevant.
When you are an Ozeki, you need to get 8 wins in every tournament. Fail to do so and you become 'katoban', which means that you'll LOSE THE RANK if you fail to make 10 WINS in the next tournament. If you are katoban because you picked up a serious injury? Too bad. If you fail to get 10 wins you'll lose this rank, which is really hard to attain, as I've already made clear.
Anyway Kotoshoguki was a veteran. He'd been an Ozeki for a long time - never cracking it for a Yozokuna (an extremely difficult rank to attain, it's interesting to note that 3 of the last 4 yokozuna were all Mongolian - a country that has its own closely related form of wrestling that they're crazy about - the exception being this guy, who all Japan fell in love with when he secured the Yokozuna rank at long last in 2019, but who retired from injuries within a year of attaining the rank)
Kotoshogiku got a lot of wins - he had a highly effective and distinctive fighting style, its predictability probably the reason he could never really dominate all comers and win those two basho in a row (he existed during a period where there were 3 yokozuna, and plenty of difficult Ozeki, so I'm not even sure he ever got a basho win) - but he was often Katoban and securing his Ozeki rank by getting 10 wins in subsequent basho.
This was another one of these times. He was Katoban, and on the second last day of this basho in 2017 he had his chance for 10 wins - against Terunofuji. Terunofuji had a good reason to win - he was on the way to losing the championship to Kisenosato in a playoff final after finishing with the tied best record in the tournament - but he didn't have a good reason to use a henka.
Henka is a perfectly legitimate wrestling technique, in which the rikishi will feign to charge his opponent then simply step aside at the last moment and let the opposing riskihi's momentum send them flying over the edge of the dohyo. But it's generally considered less-than-optimal, from an honour perspective, as well as being below the rank of Ozeki, and to employ it to get an easy win from a guy who's on his last legs fighting for his rank is just... well, listen to what Jason (the commentator in the linked video, who never swears, a great youtuber) says about it: "Oh! What was that? Come on! Boo! That... That is such bullshit. God! Ozeki should NOT do that."
I'll never forgive him for that, though of course my opinion means nothing to him, and so it should be.
When you are an Ozeki, you need to get 8 wins in every tournament. Fail to do so and you become 'katoban', which means that you'll LOSE THE RANK if you fail to make 10 WINS in the next tournament. If you are katoban because you picked up a serious injury? Too bad. If you fail to get 10 wins you'll lose this rank, which is really hard to attain, as I've already made clear.
Anyway Kotoshoguki was a veteran. He'd been an Ozeki for a long time - never cracking it for a Yozokuna (an extremely difficult rank to attain, it's interesting to note that 3 of the last 4 yokozuna were all Mongolian - a country that has its own closely related form of wrestling that they're crazy about - the exception being this guy, who all Japan fell in love with when he secured the Yokozuna rank at long last in 2019, but who retired from injuries within a year of attaining the rank)
Kotoshogiku got a lot of wins - he had a highly effective and distinctive fighting style, its predictability probably the reason he could never really dominate all comers and win those two basho in a row (he existed during a period where there were 3 yokozuna, and plenty of difficult Ozeki, so I'm not even sure he ever got a basho win) - but he was often Katoban and securing his Ozeki rank by getting 10 wins in subsequent basho.
This was another one of these times. He was Katoban, and on the second last day of this basho in 2017 he had his chance for 10 wins - against Terunofuji. Terunofuji had a good reason to win - he was on the way to losing the championship to Kisenosato in a playoff final after finishing with the tied best record in the tournament - but he didn't have a good reason to use a henka.
Henka is a perfectly legitimate wrestling technique, in which the rikishi will feign to charge his opponent then simply step aside at the last moment and let the opposing riskihi's momentum send them flying over the edge of the dohyo. But it's generally considered less-than-optimal, from an honour perspective, as well as being below the rank of Ozeki, and to employ it to get an easy win from a guy who's on his last legs fighting for his rank is just... well, listen to what Jason (the commentator in the linked video, who never swears, a great youtuber) says about it: "Oh! What was that? Come on! Boo! That... That is such bullshit. God! Ozeki should NOT do that."
I'll never forgive him for that, though of course my opinion means nothing to him, and so it should be.
So why am I saying this today?
Because we're up to day 12 of 15, which means that there are only 3 bouts left for each of these Rikishi - the final bout of the WHOLE TOURNAMENT being between the two of them. If they can both remain undefeated until this final bout, then they will be facing off for an undefeated basho on day 15.
Not only that, but the stakes are sky high: Terunofuji might become a Yokozuna, Hakuho could end his career with a record-extending, cherry-on-top, legacy-sealing 45th top division championship.
It's hot shit.
How can you watch?
Watching it live might be hard, there used to be a twitch streamer named MbovoSumo but I think he may have been taken down. You can find highlight reels for this stuff on youtube pretty easily. I'd recommend Jason's All Sumo Channel, but he's actually out of action for the rest of this basho with family problems, so a decent alternative would be this channel, NattoSumo, which runs the highlights without vocal commentary.
<this video got taken down, i can't explain, blame nattosumo >
A final note: If you want to know more/watch more/learn more, I recommend going through Jason's backlog of videos (he's been doing this for years and years) his commentary is always very informative.
Happy watching! Thank you for your time.
*humblebow*
>A final note: If you want to know more/watch more/learn more, I recommend going through Jason's backlog of videos (he's been doing this for years and years) his commentary is always very informative.
Happy watching! Thank you for your time.
*humblebow*
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