More wins than losses (Sekiwake and "anomalies")

[Stefan Gelow <f95-sge@nada.kth.se>]

Took a while to answer, but here I am again...

These are the post-war Sekiwake with more wins than losses in Makunouchi:

Shikona(Mku start):        Win%    Mku record
Rikidozan (46.11)	0,581	75-54-15y
Tokitsuyama (49.05)	0,517	359-336-40y
Tamanoumi (52.09)	0,520	303-280-32y
Haguroyama (54.05)	0,501	428-427-29y-1d
Daigo (58.11)	        0,509	387-374-4y
Hasegawa (65.11)	0,510	523-502-0y
Akinoshima (88.03)	0,507	607-590-78y
Kotonishiki (89.05)	0,534	506-441-43y
Takatoriki (90.09)	0,502	505-500-0y
Tosanoumi (95.07)	0,515	316-298-16y
Wakanosato (98.05)	0,534	158-138-49y
Kotomitsuki (00.05)	0,622	84-51-30y
Asashoryu (01.01)	0,615	83-52-0y

If we assume Wakanosato, Kotomitsuki and Asashoryu will eventually reach
Ozeki (Wakanosato maybe the biggest questionmark) I think this makes up a
rather good lineup of 10 greatest post-war Sekiwake... I do miss Mitoizumi a
bit though. He's down to 0,488, mainly because he was active for so long.
The same goes for Takamiyama who is down as far as 0,477. Both good records
for Sekiwake, but worse because of the enormously long careers of the two
rikishi who both won yusho during their careers.

Of the lot above, excluding Wakanosato, Kotomitsuki and Asashoryu, it's only
Akinoshima, Tosanoumi and Rikidozan who have not won a yusho, and all of
them (Wakanosato is the only one of the 13 without jun-yusho!) have at least
jun-yusho to add to that. Rikidozan though, who quit to rejuevenate
puroresu, feeling his Korean ancestry would work against him in Ozumo, still
was relatively young when he quit and is definitely worthy of a place in the
pack. I suppose Tosanoumi possibly could give way to Mitoizumi in a final
top-10 list, but otherwise, this is quite an impressive bunch of Sekiwake.

It's slightly remarkable how the period from 1970 to 1990 is practically not
represented at all. Maybe more of the rikishi with potential were made Ozeki
at that time, or maybe just a coincidence. Takamiyama is the only one I can
think of to represent this period, but maybe there are more I have not
thought of.

Next in line with good records is Dewanishiki who had a remarkably long
career with his first sansho in 1947.11 and his last one in 1962.07. He
actually got two kinboshi out of the unbeatable Taiho, the last one in March
of 1963 at an age of 38. Despite the long career he has a winning percentage
of 0,494, but never managed to win a yusho.

The anomalies:

These rikishi also managed to get more wins than losses during their
Makunouchi careers, but mostly because of short and interrupted careers
which might have been good, but is hard to value:


Shikona (Mku start):        Win%    Mku record
Futagoiwa (1945.11)	0,700	7-3-13y
Toyonobori (1954.03)	0,525	21-19-5y
Hirakagawa (1956.01)	0,518	44-41-20y
Sakahoko (1963.05)	0,533	24-21-15y
Konuma (1976.03)        0,526	10-9-11y
Ryukozan (1990.01)	0,600	9-6-0y
Rikio (1996.07)	        0,514	54-51-15y
Takamisakari (2000.07)	0,571	28-21-11y
Buyuzan (2001.11)	0,563	27-21-12y
Shimotori (2002.03)	0,533	16-14-0y
Hokutoriki (2002.05)	0,733	11-4-0y

The last four of these are of course hard to assess. Whether they will have
good careers or fall back under the 0,5 mark remains to be seen, although
they have started out well. Of the others, Ryukozan is the rikishi who died
of a heart attack after only one basho in Makunouchi. Rikio quit sumo after
an injury (although recent posts have indicated the injury was not the full
reason) and is now in puroresu. Konuma also had an injury after which he
never returned to sumo. I assume the same goes for the others although I
don't really know.

/Stefan Gelow


At 02:39 2002-05-28 +0200, Magnus Berg wrote:
>
>
>--------------------
>Stefan!
>Would you mind posting who the other 10 sekiwake and 7 anomalies are?
>Love statistics like that, as well as putting together things like "10
>greatest post-war sekiwake", impossible and meaningless but so much fun...
>Maguroyama
>
>Stefan Gelow wrote:
>> Out of 425 Makunouchi rikishi (not counting Hokutoriki since I use
pre-Natsu records):
>> 
>> 76 had more wins than losses:
>> 
>> 27 out of 27 who topped at Yokozuna.
>> 27 out of 28 who topped at Ozeki (all except Masuiyama-2)
>> 13 out of 69 who topped at Sekiwake including Wakanosato, Asashoryu and
Kotomitsuki who of course still could reach Ozeki. The rest of those pretty
much makes up the list for the "10 greatest post-war sekiwake"...
>> None out of 61 who at most reached Komusubi.
>> The remaining 9 are what I would call anomalies. It's Buyuzan,
Takamisakari, and a gang of 7 who all had short Makunouchi careers which
ended abruptly in one way or the other.
>> 
>> /Stefan Gelow