The correct answer to the Twitter Quiz was B: Chiyonofuji. I admit, I would not have known the answer without looking up the data in the SumoDB. As reader @henzinovitost pointed out, Akebono, Hakuho, and Takanohana had rather rapid rises into the salaried ranks. The long reigns at Yokozuna are apparent in the charts of all of these wrestlers.
Which Yokozuna's career is represented here? Poll with choices below. pic.twitter.com/5rlS0np5DE
— 立合 (@tachiai_blog) October 15, 2018
This is the rise of Akebono. Hakuho, Takanohana, and several other Yokozuna had rapid rises like this, though often with a few setbacks in Sandanme or Makushita. By the way, Akebono is literally Rikishi #1 on the SumoDB.
i’m loving these charts.
If you get the chance could you maybe show us a few charts of wrestlers with the most dramatic peaks and troughs? or with a particularly unusual/interesting overall shape?
Oh, definitely.
Off the top of my head, Ryuden and Kotoshogiku could be interesting
Ryuden is very interesting. https://tachiai.org/2018/10/14/tachiais-sumo-career-tracker/
Kotoshogiku’s recent troubles are a mere wobble in comparison.
Just saw that older post, whoops!
I think you should compare every current rikishi’s hair to Chiyonofuji’s hair. Chiyonofuji has the most glorious hair.
Loving these charts! Keep ’em coming :o)
Going back and looking at Ryuden, It is correct that he fell all the way back to Jonokuchi? Hard to imagine he in he same division as Hattorizakura.
Yup. He nearly went banzuke-gai.
Wow. That sent me to Dr. Wikipedia:
“However Ryūden suffered a fracture of his right hip joint in his juryo debut in November and had to withdraw from the tournament. During his long injury recuperation he made two abortive attempts to return, breaking the hip twice more. This resulted in him falling all the way down to jonokuchi 17 in the rankings. For four consecutive tournaments from January until July 2014, although still injured, he entered and fought one match before withdrawing, solely to prevent falling off the banzuke completely.”
Three broken hips has got to hurt.
Wow! Akebono got a kachi-koshi and a new career high rank in every basho from the start of his career until he reached sekiwake — three years and a basho. He made ozeki seven basho later but was absent from the first basho at that rank. It took him only three more basho to get his two yusho at ozeki (he’d already won a yusho during his ozeki run). Other than Akebono, in the modern era only Kitanoumi, Chiyonofuji, and Asashoryu made yokozuna after participating in three basho at ozeki. Like Akebono, Wajima and Futahaguro were ranked at ozeki for four basho before promotion to yokozuna (but they participated in all four).