[sumo] Kakuryu, next Ozeki

[Jonosuke Gomen]

Well I am not demoting Kakuryu by any means as yokozuna cannot lose his
rank.

But let me digress please.

We all know Yokozuna is a special rank bestowed upon those not only
considered to be unbeatable but also for those who exemplify the class and
grace deserving of the highest plateau of Ozumo.

We talked about long and wide here and elsewhere on yokozuna history with
Akashi Shiganosuke considered to be the very first yokozuna. Of course at
the time of Akashi, there was no such thing as yokozuna, only that there
were some notable rikishi who supposedly performed ceremonial dohyo-iri
wearing so-called white yokozuna belt for a variety of reasons though
mostly related to religious occasions.

There is a record of Tanikaze Kajinosuke (known as the fourth yokozuna) and
Onogawa Kisaburo (the fifth yokozuna) more or less performed ceremonial
dohyo-iri in front of the eleventh shogun Tokugawa Ienari in 1780s.

Essentially in those days Yokozuna was not a rank in Ozumo (the highest
being Ozeki), it was simply a designation used for those (most likely
ozeki) who had performed dohyo-iri or other ceremonies wearing the white
belt we see at Shinto shrines. In case of Tanikaze and Onogawa, they were
actually Sekiwake, not Ozeki.

It has started becoming more formal after the house of Yoshida Tsukasa
being so intertwined with the history of Ozumo granted the license to be
called yokozuna and perform ceremonies as yokozuna. Many consider Raiden to
be one of the strongest rikishi ever around then but he never was granted
the license so he was never a yokozuna.

And then a hundred years or so after the time of Tanikaze and Onogawa, in
1890, a yokozuna showed up for the first time on the banzuke over an
incident. On the May Basho Nishinoumi Kajiro (the first) got ranked as
Higashi Ozeki (Haridashi) which was considered to be below then Higishi
Ozeki Konishiki Yasokichi.  Nishinounu despite granted Yokozuna license
from the house of Yoshida Tsukasa a few months earlier was so agitated over
being outranked by a mere ozeki and so to calm down the situation then Sumo
Kyokai added Yokozuna designation next to his name on the Hatsu Basho
Banzuke.

I am not sure how Konishiki Yasokichi felt at the time but he is generally
known as the first yokozeki to be truly ranked at the yokozuna, the highest
rank on the banzuke deserving of the rank as then Sumo Kyokai amended their
by-laws to make the yokozuna rank for those with the best record in 1909.
Konishiki was also formally granted the yokozuna license by the House of
Tsukasa as the 17th yokozuna (Nishinoumi being the 16th).  Ever since then
House of Yoshida Tsukasa kept granting the yokozuna license for Ozumo.  The
last yokozuna to have been granted the license from them was Chiyonoyama
(the 41st yokozuna) in 1951 and since then the Kyokai has been granting the
yokozuna rank.

So making this really long story short, in true Ozumo tradition, the
highest ranking has been Ozeki while Yokozuna was simply a
designation/license.  That is, Ozumo can go on without having a yokozuna at
all as there were eras in which we had no yokozuna at all.  However Ozeki
is another story.  As Ozeki historically is considered to being the highest
rank, Ozumo must have East and West Ozeki ranked on Banzuke at all times
whenever they will have a basho.

So at this Haru Basho, we only have Takakeisho as Ozeki as Goeido has
exited.  We will have no West Ozeki and this cannot happen in Ozumo.  So in
the past whenever this occurred, we had West Yokozuna to also assume West
Ozeki.  Kakryu will be West Yokozuna rank at the Haru Basho so he will also
become West Ozeki as well.

I am sure Ozumo would not like to have this situation to continue too long
so I am sure everyone there is praying for Asanoyama to win at least 10
bouts (but more likely 11) at the Haru Basho.  How desperate remains to be
seen however.

Gomen Koumuru,
Jonosuke
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