I do apologize. There are a couple of loose ends which we need to tidy up from the close of Aki-basho. Thank you for the kind words, Wolfgang, but you are correct. There are several things to note before we move on to Jungyo coverage in the next few days. First of all, when the banzuke committee met in the days following the tournament they determined the entire banzuke but they only actually release the names of those promoted to Juryo because it’s quite the lifestyle change. Upgraded wardrobe, living arrangements and shifting responsibilities. Secondly, there was a raft of retirements. For this article, we will not list out those, like Okinoumi, Kaisei and Daikiho, who had their ceremonies following the tournament but actually retired some time ago. This is just the list of retirements from Aki.

Shin-Juryo

For Kyushu we have three promotions from Makushita to Juryo, one of whom is being promoted for the first time. The Shin-Juryo wrestler is Hitoshi from Oitekaze-beya. The powerhouse stable now boasts seven sekitori. The heyagashira, as the top-dog is known, is Daieisho. Behind him are Tobizaru, Endo, Tsurugisho, Daishoho, Daiamami, and now Hitoshi.

Yuma from Onomatsu-beya and Hidenoumi (Tobizaru’s brother) from Kise-beya return to Juryo and reacquire their sekitori status after brief, single-tournament demotions to Makushita. Neither will rise far from the cut line so the pressure will be on to achieve a winning record if they hope to stay for long.

Retirements

Former top-division champion, Tokushoryu, leads the queue of wrestlers who headed for the exit. Unlike most of the others, Tokushoryu will be staying on as oyakata, as is his stablemate, Akiseyama. Akiseyama had technically put in his papers prior to the tournament but he’s still included here.

Tokushoryu and Akiseyama have already joined the blue-jacket brigade. There are some sad surprises here, as well as a few names that we’d been expecting. Hokuozan, for example, had been kyujo for quite some time. Byakuen follows his brother, Gaia, into retirement…presumably surfing on a beach somewhere. Setonoumi had climbed back into Makushita after suffering a neck injury, winning a lower division yusho in the process. Tachiai wishes all of them luck in their new careers.