This week: Taiho begins his grand sumo career, and quickly proves to be one of the best ever to do it. We’ll use his career to discuss: what does greatness look like in a sport like sumo? What were the highlights of one of the greatest careers in sumo history? And what were the small number of cases where Taiho didn’t prove able to come out on top?
Sources
Cuyler, P.L. Sumo: From Rite to Sport.
Graburn, Nelson, John Ertul, and R. Kenji Tierney. Multiculturalism in the New Japan: Crossing the Boundaries Within.
The Guardian’s obituary for Taiho.
Chunichi Shinbun coverage of Taiho’s run in with the law in 1965 (Japanese-language)
Japan Times coverage of the Taiho instant replay story (note: they mistakenly ID the tournament in question as May, 1969. It was March, 1969).
SumoDB is the place for sumo historical records, and here’s Taiho’s page. Compare him to any other entry (except maybe Hakuho) to see just how insanely dominant he was.
Media
A compilation of Kashiwado/Taiho showdowns (Japanese commentary)
An example of a standard makuuchi dohyo-iri (ring entering ceremony) from Jason Grenier on YouTube
A good explanation of the yokozuna dohyo-iri and what makes it distinctive
