[sumo] Chiyonofuji tops all-time favorite sumo ranking -…

[Katrina Watts]

This comes as no surprise to those of us who are lucky enough to have seen Chiyonofuji in action.  He was exceptional with a wide range of skills and a determination we don’t see often these days.  

As far as I can recall seeing, he never lost the same way twice to an a opponent.  When beaten by lower ranked Terao, the following basho he picked Terao up and slammed him to the clay, in a decisive - you won’t beat me again - kind of way.

They used to say Chiyonofuji had his opponents psyched out before the match just with his steely stare across the dohyo when they were sitting waiting.

He also trained like a demon.  After being beaten by, I think it was Kotokaze, he went to the Sadogatake beya and trained with him until the two of them were exhausted and had to be stopped by the supervising oyakatas.

Akebono and Takanohana used to train together to exhaustion in the same way, and in Fukuoka, Akebono had to back to his own heya’s temporary quarters afterwards.  

Are there any who train that hard these days?  Being now away from the scene I don’t know, but did find keiko a bit lackluster when I visited heyas in recent years compared  the 80’s and 90’s.

My vote would definitely have been for Chiyonofuji as all-time favourite.

Katrina
Sent from my iPad

> On 20 Mar 2021, at 12:30 pm, R. Brown <brownro214 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Not surprised.  How many of the respondents actually saw Chiyonofuji or Taiho in action?  Taiho retired 50 years ago and the Wolf 30 years ago, but they are 2 and 3 in basho victories.  Note all three were Japanese.  Could a foreigner ever be considered the "favorite" in Japan?  Who is the favorite baseball player (Ichiro of course), the favorite pop band (probably not a K-pop band).  Not hating on anyone.  I lived in Japan for a couple of years and they are wonderful people, but they are also an insular and homogeneous population.
> 
> Kodaiyama
> 
>> On Fri, Mar 19, 2021 at 7:18 AM Jeffrey Anderson <jpaitv at gmail.com> wrote:
>> https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0007234995
>> 
>> Gaijingai 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
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