Welcome to Tachiai’s coverage of the 3rd-division yusho race. As a reminder, this is essentially a single-elimination tournament, with only undefeated rikishi continuing in the yusho bracket. Each round unfolds over two days, so two rounds have been completed, and we are left with 28 men with 2-0 records. They’ll be matched up in rank order on days 5 and 6 to winnow the race to 14. The full list of 28 is below. There are no same-heya complications for round 3.
Here are a few names and bouts of note. Ms14w Fukuzaki is one of the Ms60TD rikishi we’ve been following, as is Ms15w Kazuma, who got injured in his debut basho and sat out four tournaments before roaring back with a 22-1 record to regain his career-high rank. In what is easily the highlight bout of day 5, he will fight former maegashira and fan favorite Ms17w Enho, who is listed at 101 kg, 93 kg lighter than his opponent! Remember that a 7-0 record from Ms15 or higher is a near-guarantee of Juryo promotion. Ms24w Ryusho is another, more recent Ms60TD debutant. The rest of the undefeated group features an interesting mix of prospects, veteran former sekitori, and lower-division lifers. I’ll get into more detail on the contenders once the list gets shorter.
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Thank you for continuing to provide these detailed reports of Makushita! It seems that the people at the top of the division are more likely to get into Juryo with a 5-2 record or something similar than go undefeated. My assumption is that’s because of the skill level of their opponents and sometimes going up to Juryo for a match or two. On one hand, it feels like an advantage for Fukuzaki or Kazuma to go undefeated and get promoted straight to Juryo to avoid grinding through that section of the banzuke. On the other hand, that means less experience and a steeper learning curve in a higher division. We’ll have to see how they and everyone else perform over the next couple of days.
A makushita yusho can catapult a striving wrestler from an injury-inducted low rank into promotion zone. This is a real good thing, isn‘t it?
Thanks to lksumo for reporting the procedure again! Excited to follow!
Yes. The schedule presumably favors guys who are lower ranked because they face others who are lower ranked, while the top of the division is usually stacked with talent.
I mean, the main reason most guys get promoted to juryo with something less than a 7-0 is that only one rikishi can be 7-0 altogether, not because high-ranked makushita rikishi are less likely to actually get one of those 7-0’s: Overall, more 7-0’s are achieved in Ms1-Ms5 than in any other five-rank block. But of course if we’re looking at it as “top 5 ranks” vs “not top 5 ranks”, then the latter have the upper hand, simply because we’re comparing the achievements of 10 rikishi with those of 110.
To mention the 7-0 counts from the top 15 ranks specifically:
Entire 60-rank makushita period (since 1967):
Ms1-Ms5: 69
Ms6-Ms10: 44
Ms11-Ms15: 38
Since the year 2000:
Ms1-Ms5: 37
Ms6-Ms10: 14
Ms11-Ms15: 15
Last 10 years:
Ms1-Ms5: 14
Ms6-Ms10: 7
Ms11-Ms15: 6
So broadly speaking, the first 10 guys are going undefeated around as often as the next 20 do. The rest of the division has a fairly flat distribution, incidentally. For Ms16-30 / 31-45 / 46-60:
since 1967: 69 / 61 / 46
since 2000: 26 / 29 / 22
last 10y: 8 / 12 / 9
Great answer(s) to a slightly strange discussion.