December 2004

Shoryu Finishes Year in Strong Form

Musoyama Calls It Quits

Shoryu Finishes Year in Strong Form
13-2, 5 for 6 in 2004:  Kaio Goes 12-3
by “Yukikaze” for SUMO SHIMPO

For ozeki #1-East KAIO, the 2005 edition of the Kyushu Basho represented his fifth chance (and according to some pundits, his final chance) to gain yokozuna promotion by taking consecutive yusho.  And for extra incentive, the battle would take place under the roof of the Kokusai Centre in his hometown of Fukuoka.

But Tomozuna Beya’s top deshi fell behind right out of the starting gate by losing (oshidashi) to komusubi-East KOTOMITSUKI.  This immediately put him behind yokozuna-East ASASHORYU, who had surprised many with his very flat outing two months ago in Tokyo.  Sumo’s only current grand champion quickly re-established the form he had exhibited in the first part of this year by slamming out ten consecutive wins before being run out by another Mongolian, maegashira #1-West HAKUHO.  However, this proved to be but a momentary hitch in the get-along as the pride of Takasago Beya clinched the Cup on day 14 with a yorikiri win over ozeki #1-West CHIYOTAIKAI.  A senshuraku loss to KAIO left SHORYU with a 13-2 record, his fifth yusho of 2004 and the ninth Tenno-Hai of his career.  His aggregate score for 2004 was  78 wins, 12 losses.

Losses to HAKUHO on day 10 and sekiwake-West MIYABIYAMA on day 12 left KAIO at 12-3 for a share of the jun-yusho.  It would have been a nice outing by almost any other standard; but for an ozeki fighting for yokozuna promotion, it left the prospects somewhat cloudy.  Sure enough, it was announced after senshuraku that KAIO would not be considered for promotion at this time – but it was also announced that he would be considered if he wins 13 or more torikumi at the 2005 Hatsu tournament, yusho or no.  The bar has now been set for the “Human Juicer”:  in two months it will be seen whether he has what it takes to clear it and get the tsuna and gohei for himself.

KAIO had the only decent performance among an ozeki group which is destined to be smaller when the next banzuke is promulgated.  CHIYOTAIKAI got pushed around early and often, both by the other sanyaku and by some of the tougher hiramaku men (but did fend off the surging HAKUHO).  A senshuraku win over sekiwake-East WAKANOSATO left TAIKAI with a 7-8 score and kadoban status for Hatsu 2005.  #2-East TOCHIAZUMA was already vulnerable to demotion coming into Fukuoka.  He won his first 3 matches, but then lost his next 3 and withdrew on day 6 to finish at 3-3-9:  he will fall to sekiwake on the next banzuke and will need 10 wins to regain ozeki rank.  #2-West MUSOYAMA was also kadoban for this basho.  He never got going, lost his first three torikumi (the final loss to maegashira #2-West KOKKAI) and announced his retirement the next day (see related article).

Three of the four rikishi in the lower sanyaku did very nicely.  WAKANOSATO’s performance was the strongest of the lot, with ten wins in the first 11 days.  Naruto Beya’s top deshi finished with an 11-4 record, the Gino-Sho, and a chance for ozeki promotion if he can match his strong showing with another one in January.  MUSOYAMA’s retirement left MIYABIYAMA as Musashigawa Beya’s new heyagashira.  He took up the challenge of being the top deshi in strong fashion, holding his own and a bit more to go 9-6.  Because of the strong performances above him on the banzuke, KOTOMITSUKI had to spend another basho in the ‘meat grinder’ of being ranked at komusubi.  But Sadogatake Beya’s standard-bearer fought tough with wins over KAIO, SATO and TAIKAI to grind out a 10-5 and earn a shot at being promoted out of the ‘killer rank’.  The only make-koshi outing in the bunch came from komusubi-West TOCHINONADA.  Kasugano’s top deshi gave it his best effort, but it was not enough as he could only manage a 6-9 showing for another ‘erebeta’ ride into the maegashira ranks.

When he’s not training, eating or performing any of the other rituals and responsibilities of sekitori life HAKUHO will usually be in his private room at Miyagino Beya, sound asleep.  His 12-3 posting to share the jun-yusho and lead the hiramaku standings – coupled with the Shukun-Sho, the only kinboshi of the tournament and likely promotion to the sanyaku ranks – means other stablemasters might start enforcing longer nap times and earlier curfews.  Other worthy top division mentions:

#3-East IWAKIYAMA (9-6)
#5-West KOTONOWAKA (9-6)
#6-East TOSANOUMI (9-6)
#9-West ROHO (Russia) (10-5)
#9-West KOTOOSHU (Bulgaria) (11-4) (Kanto-Sho)
#11-East HAYATEUMI (9-6)
#13-East KAIHO (10-5)
#16-West KISENOSATO (9-6)

In Juryo, #13-West ISHIDE finally prevailed on the strength of a hard-fought 12-3 record to take the second division’s championship.  Other contender performances of note:

#1-West TOCHISAKAE (10-5)
#2-East AMINISHIKI (9-6)
#2-West GOJORO (9-6)
#3-West KOTOSHOGIKU (10-5)
#5-East HARUNOYAMA (11-4)
#9-East KASUGANISHIKI (10-5)
#10-East WAKATOBA (11-4)

[back to top]  [back to Sumo shimpo home]

Musoyama Calls It Quits
Won Hatsu Yusho 2000
The Japan Times:  November 18, 2004

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) Veteran ozeki MUSOYAMA announced his retirement on Wednesday after three consecutive losses at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament put him in danger of being demoted from sumo's second-highest rank. MUSOYAMA, 32, decided to call it quits in a meeting with stablemaster Musashigawa on Tuesday night, hours after losing to second-ranked maegashira KOKKAI in a third-day bout.   The native of Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, withdrew midway from the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament with a 2-7 record and needing at least eight wins in the ongoing 15-day tournament to retain his rank.   "I entered the matches with a fighting spirit but was unable to produce results. Those were terrible fights, which I think proved insulting to the fans," MUSOYAMA said.   "Now I think it's my duty to teach young wrestlers what I've done in my career. Hopefully, I'll do it well," he said.

A university sumo champion, MUSOYAMA (civilian name:  Takehito Ozo) entered professional sumo at the 1993 Hatsu Basho by being inserted onto the banzuke at the bottom of the Makushita Division.  He won one Makushita yusho before entering the sekitori ranks at Juryo #9-West at the 1993 Natsu Basho:  his shin-nyumaku debut came only two months later.  The high point of his career was the 2000 Hatsu Basho, where he held the Emperor’s Cup for what would turn out to be the only time in his sumo career.  He posted a 13-2 record in that tournament:  that, coupled with a 10-5 at Kyushu 1999 and a 12-3 at Haru 2000, earned him promotion to ozeki for the 2000 Natsu Basho.  He was in position to watch as stablemates DEJIMA and MIYABIYAMA – college champions themselves – came up the banzuke and earned ozeki promotion as well.  The threesome formed what SUMO SHIMPO correspondent “Yukikaze” referred to as Musashigawa Beya’s “College of Sumo Knowledge”.  They combined forces with their mammoth sempei, 67th yokozuna Musashimaru, to challenge (and finally break) the Futagoyama Beya stranglehold on the top ranks of the sumo world.  It was in a match with MUSOYAMA at the 2002 Natsu Basho that 65th yokozuna Takanohana suffered the serious knee injury that cut short his career.

MUSOYAMA finishes with an overall career record of 554 wins, 377 losses, and 122 absences.  His Makunouchi Division record is 520-367-122.  He won five Shukun-Sho, four Kanto-Sho and four Gino-Sho.  He has two kinboshi on his books.

MUSOYAMA will become a sumo elder under the name of Fujishima and coach wrestlers at the Musashigawa stable.

SHUUBUN 2004:  the Tournament That Wouldn't Die
by "Tonkatsu" for SUMO SHIMPO

In Japanese, Shuubun means autumnal equinox.  So ideally, the third annual SHUUBUN tournament at the "Dohyo of Dreams" should have been held on the last weekend in September.  Since that would have put it a week after the Nationals in Las Vegas, we decided to give everyone a break and hold it on October 2.  Unfortunately, this writer had surgery for a detached retina (not related to sumo) the previous Thursday.  When that was combined with other factors, it was decided to cancel it for this year.

But a number of action-hungry amateur sumotori expressed a desire for some more competition, so it was decided to go forward with SHUUBUN 2004 on October 30.  Since that was the day before Halloween, I considered having black and orange ribbons made for the medals - but didn't do it because we already had medals.

Ten wrestlers (three lightweights, four middleweights and three heavyweights) took to the dohyo with yours truly refereeing.  In very spirited competition, medals were awarded in the four standard weight divisions plus a Masters’ Open and an individual sumo tug-of-war.  The Grand Prize in the tug-of-war was a bottle of sake in addition to a gold medal.

	<<Lightweights:   1) Trent Sabo;  2) Trevor Van Eede;  3) Art Morrow
	>>Middleweights:   1) Troy Collins; 2) Michael Pike; 3) Glenn Crosby
	<<Heavyweights:   1) Justin Crite; 2) Devon Kobashigawa;  3) Jim Lowerre
	>>Openweights:   1) Troy Collins; 2) Justin Crite; 3) Harry Bodkin
	<<Masters Open:   1) Glenn Crosby; 2) Jim Lowerre;  3) Art Morrow
	>>Tug-of-war:   1) Devon Kobashigawa; 2) Justin Crite; 3) Michael Pike

<<THE CENTURION DOMINATES… Troy Collins  decisively demonstrates why he is the current United States middleweight champion, by overpowering Michael Pike to take middleweight gold at SHUUBUN 2004.  Collins also won the Open gold medal without a loss.   (Photo:  “Yukikaze” for SUMO SHIMPO.)

>>UPSY-DAISY… Trent Sabo bounces back from his disappointing finish at the Nationals, taking Art Morrow airborne on the way to winning the SHUUBUN 2004 lightweight gold medal. (Photo:  “Yukikaze” for SUMO SHIMPO.)

A Word From The Publisher
by "Tonkatsu”

This issue of SUMO SHIMPO marks the end of volume six.  As many of you know, SUMO SHIMPO started in June of 1999 as a two page broadside.  I went to our web site at www.sumoshimpo.com before I started this piece and reread some of the items from that first year.  We have come a long way since then, but we still have a long way to go.  The print version still only has about two dozen subscribers but the on-line version is read by people all over the world. 

During the run up to the recent national championships, I spent hours on line wading through the hundreds of entries on Yahoo and Googol under the heading "sumo."  I was surprised and pleased to find SUMO SHIMPO at number nine on Yahoo and thirty-nine on Google.  The SUMO SHIMPO web site is one of the few I found that is updated on a regular basis.  In a lot of the cases the entries have little if anything to do with sumo.  In some cases the letters S-U-M-O are an acronym for something else altogether.

We started SUMO SHIMPO on a shoestring, and we still pretty much operate it on a shoestring.  It doesn't matter, because SUMO SHIMPO is a labor of love.  Yukikaze, Shirabara and I love sumo.  We love watching it, we love talking about it and at least in the case of Yukikaze and myself, we love doing it!  Personally, what I love the most is teaching it, especially to little kids.

This year, thanks to sensei Gary Goltz of the Goltz Judo Club, I was able to start a sumo class in Claremont.  Currently, I have a father and daughter, a father and son and two of the son's friends.  The kids are all eight and nine and they take to sumo like ducks to water.  As I have said before, what more natural sport for little boys than one in which the basic technique is pushing and shoving?

SUMO SHIMPO was my idea in the first place but I couldn't produce either the print or online versions without Yukikaze and Shirabara.  Thanks to them and to all our readers.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a joyous and prosperous New Year.  There are a lot of exciting things coming in sumo next year, so stay tuned!
    
[back to top]  [back to Sumo shimpo home]

California Sumotori Currently Eligible for Shodan Rank

[back to top]  [back to Sumo shimpo home]

Dohyo Doings
by “Tonkatsu” for SUMO SHIMPO

This news article falls into the category of "good news, bad news".

First the bad news.  The dohyo in Round Rock, Texas has fallen victim to expansion of the gymnastics school whose property it was built on.  Unfortunately, the Lone Star Sumo guys only had one event on it after they built it.

[back to top]  [back to Sumo shimpo home]

First Nuke-Nuke in Sixteen Years
by “Tonkatsu” for SUMO SHIMPO

In sumo terminology, “nuke-nuke” can mean either a day in a basho where east and west alternate wins or a basho in which a rikishi alternates between winning and losing every day of the basho.  This story is about the latter.

Since there are eight odd- and seven even-numbered days in a basho, a rikishi will go kachikoshi if he wins starting on shonichi and makikoshi if his wins start on day two.  In the current instance, Juryo #12-East KATAASUKA of Kataonami Beya (who had just been promoted from the Makushita Division) won on shonichi of the just-finished Kyushu Basho and then lost every other day to the end of the basho.  This marks the first such instance in sekitori competition in sixteen years.

World Sumo Championships
Report by "Tonkatsu" for SUMO SHIMPO

After a year off due to last year’s cancellation due to the SARS scare, the twelfth World Sumo Championships and the third World Shin-Sumo Championships took place October 15 and 16 at the Erdgas Arena in Riesa, Germany, the site of the eighth World Sumo Championships in 1999.  Twenty-nine countries were represented.  This was up slightly from 2002 but still well below previous turnouts.  The United States was the only North American country represented; Brazil was the only South American country, South Africa the only African country, and Australia was the only representative of Oceania.

The United States team consisted of two women and five men.  The women were Danila Oder (CA) middleweight and Mashid Tarazi (CA) heavyweight.  The men were Joe Davis (CA) lightweight, Troy Collins (CA) middleweight, James B. Thompson (CA) heavyweight, Kena Heffernan (HI) open and Kelly Gneiting (ID) team.

The Japanese came with an apparent determination to reassert their dominance of their national sport.  When the dust cleared, they had won every men's division except the lightweight,.  Including medals won by their women's team, they led the medal count with four gold, two silver and two bronze.  The United States did not take any medals this time, but all of the men won at least one match in the their individual divisions.

The competition format for the individuals was slightly different from previous years.  Instead of the usual modified single elimination with repechage (in which you only advanced to the repechage if you lost to one of the two finalists), this year each competitor fought in three preliminary heats.  This meant that whereas in the past if you lost your first match you could be done, everyone got at least three matches.  The results of the heats were then used to seed an eight-person bracket which was single elimination with repechage.  As in the past, two bronze medals were awarded in each division.

The United States didn't send anyone in the women's lightweight or open divisions.  In the women's middleweight division, Danila Oder didn't get any breaks in the draw.  In the first heat, Danila lost to Kirstin Schmidsdorf of Germany by soto-gake.  In heat two she was forced out yori-kiri by Erge Nugis of Estonia.  Finally, she was forced out yori-kiri by Barbara Lenarduzzi of Italy.

As she did at Aomori in 2001, Mashid Tarazi carried the US colors in the women's heavyweight division.  In the first heat she drew a countrywoman of her coach Svetoslav Binev, Tsvetana Bozhilova of Bulgaria,  losing by tsuki-dashi.  Round two saw her going down yori-taoshi to Saguna Chalermthip of Thailand.  In round three she lost to Edyta Witkowska of Poland by yori-kiri.

As a two woman team, Danila and Mashid entered the team competition already conceding one match.  In any case, they won the first round by default because Kyrgyzstan was a no show.  The sledding got much tougher in round two when they drew Russia.  Mashid lost to Marina Dvoretskaya by oshi-dashi, while Danila lost to Svetlana Panteleeva by shitate-nage.  In spite of this loss, they made it to the repechage.  That was the good news:  the bad news was that they drew Japan.  Mashid drew Mina Saito, who forced her out by yori-kiri.  Danila faced Satomi Ishigawa, who she described to this writer as coming at her with tremendous focus and intensity.  In spite of Danila's best efforts, Satomi took her out and down by yori-taoshi.  Japan went on to garner one of the bronze medals.

In the men's lightweight division, Joe Davis faced Janos Kismoni of Hungary, losing by yori-kiri.  In round two, Joe drew the eventual champion, Vitaliy Tihenko of Ukraine, and again lost by yori-kiri.  The third time was the charm for Joe as he bested Francisco Pereira of Portugal by oshi-dashi.

Troy Collins started the middleweight division with a loss by oshi-taoshi to Craig Cramer of South Africa.  In round two he lost to Saber Hussein of the Netherlands by utchari.  Troy marked his first win in World Championship competition by defeating Taweesak Anoree of Thailand by hiki-otoshi.

Grand Master James B. Thompson, making his second appearance at the Worlds, dropped round one to Juri Uustalu of Estonia by shitate-nage.  James then reeled off two straight wins over Martin Gray of Australia by sukui-nage and Carlos Neves of Portugal by yori-taoshi.  With a record of 2-1 James had to win one more match to make it to the elite eight.  Unfortunately he drew Takayuki Ichihara of Japan, who slapped him down by hitaki-komi.  Ichihara went on to win the division.

For the second World Championship in a row, veteran Hawaiian middleweight Kena Heffernan found himself in the open division, having failed to qualify as a middleweight.  Undaunted, Kena kicked off the first heat with a win by okuri-taoshi over Eros Saidero of Italy.  Round two saw Kena forced out on a yori-kiri by Jacek Jaracz of Poland, an eventual bronze medalist. In the final heat he beat Ville Turtainen of Finland by oshi-dashi.  With a record of 2-1, Kena had to win one more match to move on.  This time he drew another eventual bronze medalist, Geraldo Fujishiro of Brazil, and lost by yori-taoshi.

In the men's team competition the US team of Troy Collins, Kena Heffernan and Kelly Gneiting drew a bye in the first round.  Round two found them facing Finland.  Troy lost to Tomi Rajamaki by oshi-taoshi.  Kena again faced Ville Turtainen:  this time he won by tsuki-dashi.  One more win and the US would have advanced; but Kelly fell to Mikko Yla-Poikelus by shitate-nage.

12th World Sumo Championships & 3rd Shinsumo World Championships

October 16-17, 2004:  Erdgas Arena, Riesa, Germany

>>I HAVE MY EYES ON YOU… Kevin Emslie of Great Britain (right) seems to be taking no chances as he gets ready to charge Russia’s Igor Kurinnoy in the Lightweight competition at the recently-completed World Sumo Championships in Riesa, Germany.  Kurinnoy went on to share the bronze medal. (Photo from FoxSports.com.)
COUNTRY MEDALS JPN 8 RUS 7 POL 6 BRA 4 GER 4 UKR 4 BUL 3 HUN 2 NED 2

[back to top]  [back to Sumo shimpo home]

JUNIOR DIVISION YUSHO WINNERS