Re: Yaochou on Senshuuraku?

[Yugo Yodogawa <yyy@soda.berkeley.edu>]

> I happened to be in Japan at the end of last basho (Hatsu-basho in Tokyo in
> January), and I noticed a clear indication (or coincident) of yaochou (?).
>
> If you have a record from last basho, you could verify my point.
>
> I did not recall there were any maches between rikishi with both 7-7
> record.  And ALL 7-7 rikishi WON the matches and made their records to 8-7.
>  As I mentioned before, 8-7 record gives the rikishi a permanent salary
> increase.  Maybe I am too pecimistic.  It might only 7-7 people are more
> into it than the other rikishi.

This is an interesting observation.  I did a little research and found out that
during 1993, 7-7 rikishi were 18-11 on the final day.  One can't rule out the
possibility that yaochou is involved, but then again, it's obvious that a
7-7 rikishi would be more motivated to win than someone whose make/kachi-koshi
was already decided.

I think maybe I'll go back and view last basho's senshuraku and see if I can
detect any fishy-ness in those bouts involving 7-7 rikishi.  At any rate, I
don't think we can do anything more than speculate about this, and at least 
if there is any yaochou, it isn't as rampant as in pro wrestling. <G>

-yugo