Does the East side really have an edge?

Conclusion

East-side rikishi averaged 7.59 wins and West-side rikishi 7.41. But when the same rank is compared directly, the difference is almost zero. The advantage belongs to banzuke rank, not direction.

Methodology

Period

2000 Hatsu Basho～2026 Natsu Basho

Sample

Basho took all 15 bouts at Makuuchi Kunio

Sample size

East 3,001Basho, West 2,888Basho

Calculation

1Basho average wins. East 7.59 wins, West 7.41 wins

Same status comparison

The average difference between East and West for the same position and number of wins is -0.01 wins, which is practically zero.

How to read this

The overall difference between east and west includes the order in which east is half a page higher on Banzuke.