Hoshoryu: About those Kinboshi...
Um, yikes
Hoshoryu is looking a little rough in his Yokozuna debut.
Three kinboshi?
Get it together my man…
…except, let’s check out how other Yokozuna did.
I used this query on the Sumo Database: https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query_bout.aspx?show_form=0&group_by=rikishi1&rowcount=5&shikona_changes1=on&rank1=Y&onlyl1=on&rank2=m, thanks to this Reddit post: Yokozuna Who Gave the Most Kinboshi?
I thought: let’s see who also might have had high-kinboshi tournaments in their first outings as Yokozuna.
I stepped through the list, from the top to the bottom, to check who else also had high kinboshi counts in their first outings as Yokozuna, and compiled them in a spreadsheet.
Below are some highlights.
Kitanoumi (September 1974)
Kitanoumi was the 55th Yokozuna, promoted in July 1974, with his debut basho as Yokozuna in September 1974, which went 11-4 for him.
As you can see above, the black dots are the losses, and two were to Maegashira rank wrestlers — two kinboshi.
Kitanoumi went on to be the Yokozuna who gave up the most total kinboshi in his career: 58.
Tochinoumi (March 1964)
This is more like it, thinks Hoshoryu.
The 49th Yokozuna, in his debut basho, gave away three kinboshi while going 10-5 for the full tournament.
You’ll also notice there were two other Yokozuna on that schedule, including the very famous Taiho. (By the way, Taiho gave up one kinboshi in his first outing as the 48th Yokozuna in November 1961.)
In Tochinoumi’s full career as Yokozuna, he gave up 35 kinboshi.
Asashoryu (March 2003)
What about Hoshoryu’s uncle, 22 years ago, in his first outing as the 68th Yokozuna?
Turns out, the old so-and-so gave up two kinboshi himself:
So maybe uncle should shush a bit.
The next Yokozuna, Hakuho, gave up no kinboshi in his first outing. He did lose to Asashoryu, though.
Otori (January 1916)
Otori was the 24th Yokozuna, and you can see that this is from over a century ago…
First, I will note there was an earlier tournament at which he was Yokozuna, but as he didn’t make it to the end of the tournament, I’m not going to count that one. That was in June 1915, which gives you an idea of the frequency of tournaments in ye olden times.
But let’s look at the January 1916 results for Otori, because there’s some interesting details:
We see two kinboshi here, and only 10 days of matches. (That scales to 3 kinboshi, right, right?)
That’s part of the problem of comparability. I really should exclude those who became Yokozuna before 1949, when the tournaments were extended to 15 days.
The other thing to note is the white triangle, which flummoxed me. Evidently, that denoted a tie back in the day. Sumo no longer allows draws as results, and there are do-over matches until there is a definitive winner (and loser).
Kinboshi on First Tournament As Yokozuna
Restricting the stats to the Yokozuna since 1949, which totals 34 total wrestlers, we get the following histogram:
Yeah, those 3 kinboshi aren’t looking good, Hoshoryu.
The three wrestlers in there are Hoshoryu, Tochinoumi (as above), and Tochinishiki (the 44th Yokozuna).
Of course, the March 2025 tournament is not yet over for Hoshoryu. He is up against Ura for Day 10, and he could theoretically lose. Ura v. Hoshoryu is 5-8, but Ura isn’t doing too well this tournament, either. It could go any way!
Excitement!
…..yeah, we’re all going nuts here.
Thank you. It was fascinating looking back through history to see a comparison for perspective.