Hoping the return of its top wrestlers would provide excitement and restore a sense of stability to a sport tarnished by months of bad publicity, the Japan Sumo Association instead wound up with something new and unexpected.
Although those hopes of stability vanished, and the sport opened the year in a cloud of chaos, a silver lining was found in Georgian No. 3 maegashira Tochinoshin's surprising championship win on Saturday.
Following a 2017 in which three of the sport's four yokozuna had repeatedly withdrawn due to injury and the fourth, Harumafuji, retired after assaulting another wrestler, sumo was in need of a boost.