Kiribayama’s unlikely conversion of a 4-3 start in Osaka into a first career championship means Japan’s national sport has now seen a different title winner for eight straight tournaments.
With a record 13 top-division champions still currently active, sumo has begun to resemble one of Oprah Winfrey's famed giveaway shows: “You get an Emperor’s Cup, and you get an Emperor's Cup — everybody gets an Emperor's Cup!"
While some kind of power vacuum was to be expected in the wake of the sport’s most dominant wrestler retiring, few could have predicted this degree of chaos so soon after Hakuho exited the stage.