With the Japan Sumo Association accepting former yokozuna Hakuho¡¯s resignation this week, only four of the 10 most recently retired grand champions remain part of the sport¡¯s governing body.

While that quartet may have won a combined total of 30 Emperor¡¯s Cups during their active days, the six that departed accounted for 117 ¡ª almost four times as many.

It¡¯s a significant loss of high level experience and one that hurts sumo¡¯s efforts to both find and keep young talent in the sport.

And even though many former yokozuna have left professional sumo over the past two decades, Hakuho¡¯s resignation is the biggest blow of all.

He is not just the most decorated wrestler in the history of the sport ¡ª by a significant margin ¡ª but was also a major recruiter of talent dating back to the Mongolian native¡¯s days as an active wrestler.

His namesake event, the Hakuho Cup, has over the past decade and a half grown into arguably the most important sumo tournament in the world for elementary and junior high school children.

In addition to being a major milestone and motivator for numerous current rikishi, including newly promoted yokozuna Onosato, the Hakuho Cup has provided invaluable experience for children from numerous countries across the globe and served as a link between international amateur sumo and ¨­³ú³Ü³¾¨­.

Now with Hakuho¡¯s resignation from the JSA ¡ª the organization that provided the venue for most editions of the Hakuho Cup ¡ª the future of the tournament is unclear.

And even if reports already surfacing about the former yokozuna¡¯s intentions to create a new international professional sumo organization are true, the scale of that challenge is enormous, with all previous attempts to do so having crashed and burned in short order.

Several other prominent ¨­³ú³Ü³¾¨­ stars expressed similar intentions after retiring, but the logistics and financial obstacles, as well as the fractured and highly politicized nature of international sumo, proved too great to overcome.

Regardless of what transpires over the next few years, Hakuho leaving the JSA is a blow to ¨­³ú³Ü³¾¨­, and part of an unfortunate trend among recent yokozuna.

However, before positing possible solutions to the situation, it must be remembered that in each individual case the circumstances behind the separation were unique. It would be a mistake to try and portray the aforementioned six men as victims of some grand conspiracy.

Even so, there are certainly enough commonalities to provide food for thought.

Straight off the bat, it¡¯s obvious that wrestlers who exerted total dominance over the opposition inside the ring often chafed at sumo¡¯s strict rules and norms throughout their careers, finding themselves chastised on multiple occasions.

But official censure ¡ª or...