Amateur Sumo – the sport as it should be
Mark Buckton
Sakai World Sumo Champs – not all about winning

Las Vegas Koen
Joe Kuroda
Our man reports from the fight capital of the world

Rikishi of Old
Joe Kuroda
A look at a rikishi of yesterday with Kotozakura – our man for October

Heya Peek
John Gunning
John’s early morning dash to Azumazeki-beya & report on TKOTU

SFM Interview
Katrina Watts sits down with SFM’s Mark Buckton to discuss amateur sumo

Photo Bonanza
SFM’s best yet – Aki Basho/ Las Vegas / Amateur World Champs / Azumazeki-beya visit – seen nowhere else

Aki Basho Review
Lon Howard
Lon gives us his Aki Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results, and his take on the tournament while ‘gem’ of the basho takes a break

Lower Division Rikishi
Mikko Mattila
Mikko Mattila returns to cover lower division ups and downs

Kyushu Basho Forecast
Pierre Wohlleben & Mark Buckton
Pierre predicts the Kyushu Basho banzuke while Mark previews the ones to watch next time out

Sumo 101
Barbara Ann Klein
Discovers and explains amasumo & ozumo variations

Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila
Mikko once again walks us through his chosen kimarite

Minusha
John McTague
John’s unique bimonthly view of news from outside the dohyo

Online Gaming
Zenjimoto of ‘game fame’ covers some of the very best sumo games around – his own!

Kokugi Connections
Todd Lambert
Todd’s focus on 3 of the most interesting online sumo sites today

Fan Debate
Is the limit on foreign rikishi fair? See what our debaters had to say

SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh
In the first of our cartoon bonanzas, sit back and chuckle at Benny Loh’s offerings

Let’s Hear From You
What was it that made you a sumo fan? Gernobono tells all

Readers’ Letters
See what SFM readers had to say since our last issue

Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.

  with 6-1 and is getting back to high makushita, after an injury suffered at Ms3 caused him to plummet back to lower makushita.

In sandanme, the yusho winner was a long time makushita veteran 31-year old Yoshio, who was undefeated beating Sawai’s high school rival Kageyama(19) in the process. Kageyama started well with 5-0 but then lost to both Yoshio and Mongolian Daiki (6-1) to finish with 5-2. Sakaigawa-stable’s pusher Kadomoto also notched up a 5-2 record losing twice with hatakikomi. Nakanishi, who dominated jonidan in Nagoya and jonokuchi in the Natsu basho, started with a win but then lost his first bout as professional after 15 straights wins. Surprisingly, Nakanishi wasn’t even close in the yusho race and had to settle for a mere 4-3 at Sd27. 		One particular sandanme rikishi who drew attention this basho was Tooyama who is a 29-year old makushita level rikishi from Tamanoi-stable. He writes an online blog covering various topics from Tamanoi-beya and sumo in general, and along with that suddenly came more into the spotlight. He was badly injured and missed two basho resulting in steep downfall to the bottom of sandanme. He won six in a row before losing to jonidan yusho winner Wakanoho.

In jonidan, a Russian teenager with a large body, Wakanoho, won the yusho with a clean 7-0 record beating Nishiuchi in a play-off. Wakanoho is only 17 years old and this was his third basho. Previous records were 6-1 and 5-2 so he has definitely started up strongly. He didn’t face ex-college rikishi 200kg Maeta (6-1) but beat Nagoya 		basho’s jonokuchi yusho winner, Takahashi, (6-1) with tsukiotoshi. Sandanme competition is clearly a better measure for Wakanoho’s current level so in Kyushu, he will be one of the most interesting upper sandanme rikishi. Maeta and Takahashi join him in sandanme next basho too.

30-year old former makushita Azusayumi took the jonokuchi yusho in his come-back basho after a long absence. This time, there weren’t any highly hyped newcomers in jonokuchi. Mongolian Seiro, who comes from a well-known Mongolian wrestling family, started with 5-2 in jonokuchi, using mainly throwing techniques.

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