A Few Comments

[Yugo Yodogawa <yyy@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>]

Just got back from a trip through Europe yesterday, and have spent the last
couple of hours in the archive reading all the interesting posts I missed.

Regarding the scheduling of the Musashimaru/Wakanohana bout on day 13, isn't
it customary for the two highest ranked rikishi to fight on the last day, and
have the other Ozeki fight each other successively over the course of the last
few days more or less in order of rank?  Musashimaru fought Wakanohana, then
Takanonami, and finally Takanohana, which would make sense considering that
this is the order in which they are ranked at Ozeki.  I found days 14 and 15
to be quite exciting, nonetheless (got a chance to see the last few days in
London, where bouts are shown with several hours delay on a Japanese 
satellite TV service).

I was pleased to see Musashimaru win on day 15 without relying on his
tsuppari attack; he seemed so much more active and determined once he got his
hands on Takanohana's mawashi, whereas before he had a tendency to just stand
there once he got a hold of his opponent's belt.

As far as my opinions on Yokozuna hopefuls for next basho: first of all, I
think Musashimaru looked like the stuff of Yokozuna this basho, and if and
only if he yusho's next tournament, he should be promoted to Yokozuna.  I
don't think one yusho worth of experience is enough to become a Yokozuna;
Futahaguro and Onokuni were promoted with 0 and 1 yusho's respectively, and
look how well they did after promotion.  This is also the first time we have
seen him be successful with a more varied arsenal, which I think is required
for a Yokozuna.  Promoting him with a 13-2 record without yusho would be a
little premature, especially since the kyokai wants to be more strict about
handing out the lofty title after the string of disappointing Yokozuna.

I think the only way Wakanohana could be promoted would be a zen-sho yusho,
and even then it wouldn't be a clear-cut decision.  I think he needs to have
at least three bashos under his belt following his sitting out the Natsu basho.

Similarly, Takanohana should only be promoted if he pulls off a zen-sho yusho.
As we saw in Abe-san's table, the last 10 Yokozuna all had at least a 12-3
record with jun-yusho in the tournament two bashos before their promotion.

Can't wait for the Aki Basho!
-yugo