Behind The Curtain - September 2017

The leaves are falling on the ground, and sumo is returning to Tokyo for the Aki Basho.  In addition to the tournament returning to Tokyo, for the final Tokyo basho of 2017, but we have a couple rikishi that are returning from behind the curtain.

Kizenryuu Ms1 East tallied up a 4-3 to finally make it over the line and land back into Juryo.  This was his 3rd consecutive 4-3 record.  He posted 4-3 from Ms2 West, next 4-3 from Ms1 West, and finally 4-3 from Ms1 East.  This also the 7th time he has been promoted to Juryo, talk about elevator rikishi.  It should be expected that Kizenryuu can stay in the paid ranks a little longer.  He is one of Ura’s preferred asageiko partners.  You figure he must be getting better since he gets to train with a superior rikishi. Kizenryuu belongs to Kise-beya.  He is from Kagawa prefecture.  He is 32 years old.

Kitaharima Ms2 East smashed out a 6-1 record to him back into the paid ranks.  His shikona is interesting.  The first kanji in his shikona is Kita or North, and it stands for Kitanoumi-beya, where he is a rikishi.  The second kanji, harima, is an ancient name for an area in the west of Hyogo prefecture where he is from.  In addition, as of the last basho, Kitaharima has had 829 consecutive matches in honbasho.  Kitaharima belongs Yamahibiki-beya.  He hails from Hyogo prefecture.  He is 31 years old.  Like his fellow rikishi Kizenryuu, this marks his 7th promotion to Juryo, yet another elevator rikishi.

In addition to these two rikishi putting their silk mawashi again, we have two rikishi who will be putting on a silk mawashi for the very first time.

Daiseidou Ms3 East produced a nice 5-1 record to step out from behind the curtain.  Since changing his shikona from Sasanoyama, he has had only one losing record.  Maybe he had ought to have done that sooner, he has spent 32 basho in Makushita, a long slog in the unpaid ranks.  At 24 years old, he should have plenty of good sumo left in him.  Daiseidou belongs to Kise-beya.  He is from Aomori-ken, very famous prefecture for sumo rikishi.  Supposedly Aomori boys do good sumo from all the walking through deep snow.

Yago at Ms11 East nailed a perfect 7-0 record and the Makeshita Yusho!  What is even more impressive, he did this in only his 2nd tourney in sumo!  As a college sumo champion, he was allowed to enter sumo at the Makushita Tsukedashi 15 rank.  He posted a 5-2 record at that rank in May.  At this point, his shikona will remain Yago.  Yago belongs Oguruma-beya.  He is from Hokkaido, another prefecture with deep snow, get for future sumo rikishi to build up leg and core strength.  He is 23 years old.