A significant pair of retirement announcements came in the middle of the ongoing November Grand Sumo Tournament.
Veteran ozeki Kotoshogiku hanging up his mawashi means there are now only four men in makuuchi still active who reached the sport’s top division before the start of 2010.
How long Hakuho, Kakuryu, Tochinoshin or Tamawashi have left is hard to say, but it’s clear that the generation that dominated the first decade of the new millennium is really on its last legs.