Use bouts contested on the dohyo as the main denominator, while keeping defaults and non-techniques separate. Preserve the official announced label even when a replay suggests another description, and do not define a wrestler’s style from a handful of wins.
The Japan Sumo Association’s daily results provide primary evidence for the announced kimarite. A viewer may reasonably discuss a bout in more technical detail, but an official-share table must retain the official label. Any independent technical grouping belongs in another field.
The denominator changes the answer
All recorded results, contested bouts and wins by one wrestler are different denominators. “Oshidashi as a share of all contested bouts” is not the same statistic as “oshidashi as a share of this wrestler’s wins.” Put the count and denominator beside every percentage.
A fusen win or loss is not a kimarite. Results classed as non-techniques must also remain separate from the 82 winning techniques. Withdrawal and a day with no scheduled bout do not become zero-technique bouts.
Opponents and rank change the opportunity
Rank, opponent mix, grip situations, number of tournaments and era can change which techniques are available. If a wrestler’s share changes after promotion, the new opponents may be part of the difference. Retain opponent and tournament, and predefine the before-and-after interval.
One rare technique can dominate a very small sample. Set a minimum contested-bout count. Below it, present named examples rather than a confident ranking. If techniques are grouped into broader families, publish the mapping table and version it instead of regrouping them after seeing the outcome.
Fields required beside a comparison
- official kimarite label and contested, default or non-technique state;
- whether the denominator is all contested bouts or only wins;
- wrestler, rank, opponent, tournament and interval;
- count, percentage, missing state, mapping version and minimum sample;
- banzuke, tournament and extraction cutoff that freeze the population;
- the right-censoring rule for an active or in-progress record, without turning unplayed bouts into zeroes.
A kimarite share is not a measure of personality, courage or intelligence. A signature technique can begin affection for a wrestler without trapping that person inside one percentage.
Watch without demanding the expected answer
After finding the most frequent technique, follow one hand or foot from the tachiai instead of waiting for that label. If another technique wins, the prediction has not “failed.” The bout that escapes the distribution may reveal how the wrestler adapted to a particular opponent.
Counterevidence and the Update Trigger
The result is limited to the stated period, population and missing-data treatment. An official correction, a newly completed tournament, a changed exclusion rule or a failed recalculation is an update trigger. Preserve the previous value, reason for change and recalculation date; do not strengthen a conclusion using only convenient new records.
Freeze the Question Before Reading the Result
The research question is whether the defined metric differs under the article’s stated conditions. “There should be a difference” is a hypothesis, not a conclusion entered before counting. Recalculate wins-only versus all contested bouts, grouped versus ungrouped techniques and alternative minimum-bout thresholds as falsification checks. Preserve a contrary result; heavy missingness or incomparable conditions means hold the conclusion, while a sourced description of individual bouts is the alternative when the official categories cannot answer the group question.
Sources
- Japan Sumo Association daily bouts/results, official 82 kimarite and tournament scorecard (checked 3 September 2026).
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 tournament scorecardPrimary source (as checked for this article)