Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon

The Fukuoka sumo tournament drew to a close today with yokozuna Hakuho knocking off fellow-yokozuna Asashoryu to finish up at a tidy 15-0, nabbing his twelfth career title in the process. Moreover, Hakuho set a new modern sumo record with his 86th victory of the year–not bad at all, considering he wrestled a total of 90 times in 2009. Asashoryu started out strong, going undefeated the first week of the tournament, but collapsed in the closing days to finish 11-4.

Among the ozeki, Kotooshu in particular impressed, finishing at 10-5. He seems to be edging toward yokozuna candidacy. All the other ozeki managed to eke out winning records, with the notable exception of veteran Chiyotaikai, who pulled out of the tournament with a 2-9 record. Since he was already kadoban after a losing record in September, this means he forfeits his rank. If he can win ten or more in January he will be restored to ozeki, and he has vowed to give it his all then, but there are also plenty of voices calling for him to hang up his mawashi. He was a marvelous wrestler in his prime, but that is all far behind him now.

I played fantasy sumo, as usual. My bête noire this time around was 33-year-old Bushuyama, he of the thinning hair and fading strength. Ranked at Maegashira 3 West, he finished a reasonable 6-9. But I managed to pick his match wrong pretty much every day of the tournament. I’d given up on him as a wrestler and so usually predicted him to lose. But he’d string together two or three victories in a row, and so I’d switch and say he was going to win–whereupon he’d immediately revert to his losing ways. Given the tight scoring required to do well in fantasy sumo, this daily loss thanks to Bushuyama was fatal to me. I ended up with a 5-10 record overall and will no doubt drop far down in the banzuke rankings for the next tournament. Maegashira 1 West Aminishiki also finished at 5-10 and so I have a kind of warm and fuzzy feeling for him now.

(Aminishiki image from www.wikipedia.org)