March Sumo Tournament Winner - Congrats to Yokozuna Kakuryu!

Yokozuna Kakuryu snagged his 4th top division championship in the March/Haru 2018 tournament in Osaka.  It has been over a year since he won his last championship and this tournament he was helped by the absence of the other two Yokozuna helping him sail to a relatively easy victory.  Kakuryu has been in sumo for over 16 years...over half of his life as he is at the tender age of 32.  Here is Kakuryu on his #3 2018 BBM Sumo card.

Chuck Norris Rookie Cards - 1974 Japanese Yamakatsu/The Way of the Dragon

When Chuck Norris goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Bruce Lee.  Believe it or not, these two legends met on the screen in 1972 in the movie The Way of the Dragon eventually leading to (spoiler alert) Chuck Norris', aka Colt, death.  Probably the one and only time a Chuck Norris fact that doesn't play out in his favor.  During the insane Bruce Lee hype that swept through Japan in the early 1970s, Yamakatsu captured these two martial artists on a set of trading cards leading to rookie cards of the now famous Chuck Norris.  The Way of the Dragon set has 48 cards with some repeating images, but most of them capturing Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee in different stages of their final duel.  Adding additional cards to my personal collection of this 1974 Yamakatsu set is one of the goals that I set for myself this year.  It'll be difficult to complete this year, but I'd like to get a lot closer than where I am at.  In the meantime, these three rookie cards of Chuck Norris will have to be some of the highlights of my 1970s Japanese card collection.

Thanks Billy for inspiring this post with his awesome Bruce Lee NASCAR card.

What's your favorite Chuck Norris fact?

Mine is:

After Chuck Norris got done vacationing in The Virgin Islands, they were just known as The Islands.

Show me the Yen!! How much money do sumo wrestlers make?

I get the question every so often of "How much money do sumo wrestlers make?"  Unfortunately, the real answer is "It Depends."  I know that is pretty unsatisfying, but sumo wrestler salary is confusing and complex.  The top division sumo wrestlers' salaries are made up of the following categories:

1. Monthly base salary
2. Lifetime cumulative record salary, paid 6 times a year
3. Tournament Stipend (To offset expenses)
4. Bout Prize Money (if the bout is sponsored)
5. Tournament Prize Money for winning and individual awards
6. Fan Club Contributions
7. Endorsements

It could be someone's fulltime job trying to keep track of all this and I am sure there is a small army at the Japan Sumo Association doing just that.  However, the majority of a sumo wrestler's salary is typically made up of the monthly salary and this information is published in various forums each year.  I did a quick and dirty Excel Spreadsheet to show the increase in a sumo wrestler's monthly base salary from the early 1970s until last year.  There are some interesting trends:

1. Yokozuna Hakuho with his 40 tournament wins and longevity in the sport yields him close to a $25,000/month base salary.  His true salary is probably 2-4 times that amount.

2. The huge sumo boom that started in the early 1990s and lasted until the late 1990s is reflected in the above pay chart.  Wakanohana, Takanohana, and Akebono all contributed to this huge increase in popularity.

3. The stagnation of the salaries is evident in the 21st century.  Popularity stalled due to the rise of the Mongolians and the subsequent lose of Japanese interest.  Profits dropped and the Sumo Association could not afford to really increase wrestler salary.

4. It is hard to see, but the gap between Juryo and Yokozuna base salaries is closing.

5. The biggest base salary jump is from Sekiwake/Komusubi to Ozeki.  It makes sense since this is the true delineation point between a good and great wrestler.