Calculate a kimarite share as the number of wins by that technique divided by the relevant contested bouts. Define the dates, division, winner population and playoff treatment first. Keep defaults and the Association’s non-technique results separate from the 82 named winning techniques. Preserve the original label beside any normalized value.
The Japan Sumo Association distinguishes the 82 kimarite from several outcomes that are not techniques. Its daily results identify the east and west wrestlers, outcome and winning technique. A claim such as “the most common makuuchi technique” is not reproducible unless it also states which days and tournaments are included and whether championship playoffs count.
Store one bout per row
Useful fields are tournament, day, division, east wrestler, west wrestler, winner, loser, official result label, normalized category, playoff flag and source URL. For a wrestler profile, decide whether the denominator is that wrestler’s wins or all of their appearances. “Thirty percent of wins” is not the same as “thirty percent of bouts.”
An official profile may display a recent-technique tendency over a stated window. Do not treat that moving window as a career statistic. Save its scope and retrieval date if you cite it.
Normalization needs a versioned dictionary. Never delete the original Japanese label, and do not throw an unfamiliar outcome into “other” merely to complete the chart. Route it to review. Show the raw count and denominator with every percentage; two wins by the same technique can produce 100 percent in a tiny sample without establishing a stable style.
Respect historical boundaries
Applying today’s list backwards can rewrite the categories used by an older source. Establish the interval in which the result labels are comparable. If the record system changes, publish separate series or a clearly documented crosswalk. Compare shares rather than raw counts when divisions or tournament populations differ.
Predefine the hypothesis and expose the limits
A usable hypothesis might ask whether push-and-thrust kimarite form a larger share in the same division and three-basho window than in the preceding three. Fix the interval, classification and denominator before calculating. If a conspicuous technique is selected only after the table is seen, label the exercise exploratory. A result that reverses when defaults and non-techniques are included, when all appearances replace wins as the denominator, or when unresolved labels are excluded is definition-sensitive—not a secure change in style.
The official kimarite is the final result label; it does not preserve every exchange or establish the wrestler’s intention. If video appears to suggest another technique, keep that observation separate rather than overwriting the official result in the dataset. Recheck after the tournament, and record the old value, correction reason and affected chart when the source changes.
Watch the decision before the label
After reading the table, do not decide that a wrestler will “always win by oshidashi.” Watch the choice immediately before the official technique: whose hand reached inside, whose foot lost its line, or when the angle changed. A frequency table is not a prediction game. It is a magnifying glass for the chain of decisions that produces the final label.
Sources
- Japan Sumo Association, daily bouts/results, 82 kimarite, and wrestler search (checked 3 September 2026; refresh after a tournament ends).
Source links used for verification
Each link was used for the corresponding claim in this article; inclusion is not a blanket endorsement of the whole page.
Article verified:
- Japan Sumo Association daily bouts and resultsPrimary source (as checked for this article)
- Japan Sumo Association 82 kimaritePrimary source (as checked for this article)
- Japan Sumo Association wrestler searchPrimary source (as checked for this article)