The year

The year is a drumbeat: basho, rest, basho. Six honbasho in the odd months. About six weeks between each one. The fifteen days are the show. The six weeks are where the next sheet is made.

The calendar

1. Hatsu 初場所January · Tokyo
2. Haru 春場所March · Osaka
3. Natsu 夏場所May · Tokyo
4. Nagoya 名古屋場所July · Nagoya
5. Aki 秋場所September · Tokyo
6. Kyushu 九州場所November · Fukuoka

Day 1 is a Sunday. Senshuraku is the Sunday two weeks later. The next sheet does not appear the morning after — the Kyokai takes a fortnight.

The six weeks

• Jungyo

  A regional exhibition tour. Real bouts, no ranking consequence. The men travel; locals get a card they will not see in Tokyo.

• Asageiko

  Morning practice at the heya. This is where the next basho is actually built — not on jungyo, and not on social media.

• The banzuke meeting

  The Kyokai redraws the ladder. The sheet usually publishes on a Monday, about two weeks before the next Sunday start.

• Intai and recruits

  Retirements often land just after a basho. New men appear in maezumo, then jonokuchi on the following sheet.

Jungyo is worth watching if a tour stops near you, but it does not move the ladder. Injuries picked up there still can. Kadoban ozeki, a yokozuna nursing a knee, a juryo man on the promotion line — those stories run through the gap.

Guess the Banzuke

Between the last musubi and the next published sheet, English-speaking fans place every salaried rikishi — and the makushita joi — where they think the Kyokai will put them. That is older than this site. Tachiai is that board, with comparable cases sitting beside each name.

Most of us start with the ugly cases: a kadoban ozeki, a yokozuna who went make-koshi (he will not be demoted), and the yusho winner (almost never buried). Then you fill the maegashira ladder. Scoring is 2 for the exact slot (rank and side), 1 for the right rank on the wrong side.