Sumo Magazine Q& A Corner - Number of Juryo Rikishis

[Joe Kuroda <joe_kuroda@yahoo.com>]

Q. Currently we have 26 Juryo rikishis but wasn't
there a basho when there were more ?

A. The current quota for the 26 Juryo ranks was set at
the May Basho in 1967 (there were actually 36 Juryo
rikishis prior to this basho).  

Since then there were two occasions when there were 27
Juryo rikishis.   The first case happened at the
November Basho in 1975. Juryo East 13 Masudayama
(current Chiganoura oyakata) was on kyujo in the
previous basho and missed the whole basho.  At the
November Basho he was listed in the Banzuke margin as
a ^ÓHari-dashi^Ô Juryo East 13 ranking as there were
Juryo East and West 13 ranked rikishis already on the
banzuke. 

The second occurred in the January Basho in 1981.
Kotetsuyama missed the 1980 November Basho and was
approved for kosho status.  He was ranked at Juryo
East 10 on the Banzuke margin in the Hatsu Basho of
1981 as there were already 13 Juryo rikishis each on
both East and West.

The Kosho status was first instituted in December 1971
and was adopted from the Hatsu Basho of 1972. 
Initially it was stated that even if a rikishi misses
the whole next basho, he can retain the identical
Banzuke ranking but as a ^ÑHari-dashi^Òthe following
basho. 

However since the second occurrence, even when they
had Kosho approved Juryo rikishis at the 1981
September Basho, the1982 January, March and September
Bashos, the Kyokai has reduced the number of non-Kosho
status Juryo rikishis to stay within the quota of 26
Juryo rikishis.                            

At their Board of Directors meeting held on March 18,
1984, the Kyokai revised the status of Kosho approved
rikishi^Òs banzuke ranking.  After their kyujo, in
their next basho if they miss the whole basho again,
they will retain the same banzuke ranking of this
basho the following bashos. As a result, the kosho
rikishis are able to keep their ranking and there was
no need for ^ÓHari-dashi^Ô rankings (listed in the
margin) on banzuke.

Incidentally here are the bashos when there were fewer
than 26 Juryo rikishis:

- 25 Juryo riksihs: January 1969; from September 1972
to January 1973; May 1973; September 1977; January
1980.
- 24 Juryo rikishis: September 1979.
- 22 Juryo rikishis: July 1979.

In May 1967 the number of Makuuchi rikishis was
officially set to 34 but then there was no basho in
which there was less than the number of Makuuchi
rikishis set at 34 after this date.  The quota was
revised at their Directors^Ò meeting held on June 15,
1971 to be within 38 Makuuchi rikishjis (or 34 to 38
rikishis).  The revised quota was put in place at the
September Basho of 1971.  

Here^Òs a list of the bashos in which there was less
than the quota:

- 37 rikishis: September/November 1972; May/July 1973;
January 1980; March/May/November 1982; July to
November 1983; January 1985; March to July 1986;
September 1987.
- 36 rikishis: March 1972; January/March 1973;
September 1973 to May 1979; November 1979; March to
November 1980; July 1981; January 1982.
- 35 rikishis: January /May/July1972; January to May
1981;  Setember/November 1981; March/May 1983.
- 34 rikishis: September to November 1971.

The number of Makuuchi rikishis was again revised in
January 1991 to "less than 40" but since then there
has been no basho in which they did not reach this
quota. 


=====
.....Jonosuke 
  <  Heart  Technique  Physique     ^ÐS   ^ËZ   ^ÑÌ  >

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