{"id":9535,"date":"2012-05-22T22:17:31","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T05:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/?p=9535"},"modified":"2012-05-22T22:22:06","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T05:22:06","slug":"kyokutenho-%e6%97%ad%e5%a4%a9%e9%b5%ac-wins-his-first-sumo-title-at-37-years-of-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/kyokutenho-%e6%97%ad%e5%a4%a9%e9%b5%ac-wins-his-first-sumo-title-at-37-years-of-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyokutenho (\u65ed\u5929\u9d6c) wins his first sumo title at 37 years of age"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"oldest<\/a>

Kyokutenho is the oldest to win a sumo tournament in modern times<\/p><\/div>\n

A rather strange sumo tournament ended in Tokyo this past weekend. Kyokutenho, pictured on the left in the above photo I took a few years ago, won even though he isn’t a Yokozuna or an Ozeki (the two highest ranks). Kyokutenho isn’t even a Sekiwake or a Komusubi (the next two highest ranks). Kyokutenho is currently a mere Maegashira (the lowest rank in the top division). Twenty-four sumo wrestlers were ranked higher than him going into this tournament. 24! With only 15 bouts, you don’t have to wrestle the top 16 sumo wrestlers when you are ranked that low. <\/p>\n

Now here is were it gets really weird. If all of the top sumo wrestlers implode, like they did this tournament due to injuries and other factors, a lowly Maegashira like Kyokutenho can win the tournament (merely by posting the best record) even though he didn’t have to face the best sumo wrestlers! Kyokutenho didn’t have to face (the injured) Hakuho, Baruto<\/a>, Harumafuji, Kisenosato, Kotoshogiku, or even Kakuryu (the new Ozeki). The only Ozeki he went up against in accumulating his 12-3 record was an injured Kotooshu, who pulled out of the tournament the next day due to the severity of his injury.<\/p>\n

Let me put this in NFL football terms for those of you from the USA who may not really understand sumo. Imagine a mediocre team like the 2011 Denver Broncos being crowned World Champions even though they never had to play a team with a winning record. No games against the Patriots, Steelers, Packers, Saints, 49ers, etc.–instead, they only have to play teams like the Rams, Colts, Vikings, etc. and since they come out with the best record they win it all. No playoffs–a weak schedule, and lots of injuries to the best teams who would normally win, is all it would take. Such was the lucky fate of Kyokutenho these past two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rather strange sumo tournament ended in Tokyo this past weekend. Kyokutenho, pictured on the left in the above photo I took a few years ago, won even though he isn’t a Yokozuna or an Ozeki (the two highest ranks). Kyokutenho isn’t even a Sekiwake or a Komusubi (the next two highest ranks). Kyokutenho is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[218],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9539,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9535\/revisions\/9539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}