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Day 14 Comments (PZ Kelly reporting)
Over the past two years, as I've toiled to make a new life in the US of A for me and my family, there have been multiple occasions where I considered phoning Mike and asking him for a room at the hotel for the coming basho. I missed the camaraderie, the joie de vivre, the je ne sais quoi. Yet something always held me back (and as you can see it wasn't my unfamiliarity with French). Oh, sure, I dialed in the occasional report, intrigued as always by the essence of Geeku, the aura of Kisenosato, the foetid stink of Goeido. But I could not seem to find my mojo, which is not a good thing for an international man of mystery. After long reflection, I came to realize that what was stopping me was the nagging feeling that since I don't live in Japan any longer, I'm no longer qualified to give my opinion on matters sumo. For a man as humble as you all know me to be, playing the pretender was an horrific consideration, one fraught with dread and self-loathing.

But I've recently relented, if you will, on pointing my finger into the mirror, and I'll tell you why: Because I DO continue to live in Japan. Every time a gaijin plops down on a train seat with a beer in his hand talking too loudly and overly friendly to total strangers, I live in Japan. Every time a cute Japanese OL gasps "Dekka!" when a gaijin whips it out, I live in Japan. Every time a gaijin takes a kilometer long piss while riding a bike down a dark, downtown Osaka street singing Leonard Cohen tunes near the top of his voice, I live in Japan. Every time the taifu wind bends the matsu, the sashimi is dipped in sake, the depaato plays "Auld Lang Syne," I live in Japan. Every time the semi cry, the kaeru croak, the tombo swarm, and the mukade bite, I live in Japan. I live in the temples and the onsens, the sentos and the tanbo, the combini, the izakaya, and the toire.

And because I live specifically in the toilet, I know I can do this shit! I can. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!

So as everyone knows, Goeido came into today with a chance to take his first yusho in Makuuchi, after having taken down Harumafuji on Day Three-teen. One would need the creative powers of a JRR Tolkien or a GRR Martin (or anyone with four fucking names, for that matter) to imagine the Yokozuna (who has what, three zensho yusho in his eight yusho career, and holding a 29-9 edge over the Ozeki, including 19-3 in the most recent 22 meetings, meaning they were once at 10-6 H2H) losing in a three second battle, but that's exactly what happened. The not-so-Grand-on-the-day Champion rushed forward like Superman looking for a phone booth but found only a miserable lump of his home planet glowing greenly in his trembling fingers. I'll give Goeido his propers for setting his legs wide and making a strong twisting counter move, but grab a copy of the OED and flip open to the word "inexplicable" and you'll find a picture of me holding a laptop on which is a freeze frame of a guy at the Kokugikan holding his smart phone on which is a freeze frame of HowDo doing his best Michael Phelps off the blocks imitation. But as the rose colored glasses crowd likes to point out, perhaps not without some sense, anyone can brain fart it on any given day.

Day 14 brought M6 Tamawashi to the Ozeki's table, and after chewing on the former Komusubi (for a single tournament in 2015), we could expect expectoration. With Geeku taking the title in January, the weight is off the collective shoulder of Japan for a homegrown winner, and chances are nerves will not be a problem for the much maligned (and rightly so) Osaka son.

But my mama didn't raise herself no imbecil (actually she raised three, but forget about my brothers), and Bojack and I know enough about successful Hollywoo scripts to understand I need to keep yall on pins and needles by providing transpirations of bouts of lesser import fore I spill the beans about whether a native of the City of a Thousand Bridges would take a yusho for the first time in 86 years.

Day began with Gagamaru, at 5-8 unable now to right the ship (a little joke for my Japanese speaking pals), vs. Amakaze. The combined weight of these two must've caused at least a few seismologists concern, if they happened to crash to the dohyo in tandem. Luckily for us, the younger rikishi pushed out the Gorgeous Georgian without either man falling to the clay. I'd say the inhabitants of Tohoku "dodged a bullet," but I HATE that phrase due to the fact that it is IMPOSSIBLE to "dodge" a bullet. The bullet might MISS you, but there is no way in North Korea (a little joke for my religiously inclined pals) one could "dodge" a bullet.

Although Kyokushuho bested Sokokurai rather simply in a yotsu battle, the method illustrates what straight up sumo typically looks like. There is a reason the men are naked but for a big belt that can be grabbed and yanked.

Poor Chiyoshoma. Had Sadanoumi hit ME with his noggin like he did at tachi-ai to the W12, I would not only retreat and jump out like Chiyoshoma, but I'd probably need six strong men to carry me to the boneyard. Holy fucklesticks. I'll bet the Kokonoe man felt like taking a nap atop that occhan he landed on in the 'spensive seats. Both men move to 7-7, meaning a testing, interesting Sunday is afoot.

If Gaga-Ama above was a tilt of leviathans, the Takekaze-Daieisho tussle was a bout to see who gets the honor of escorting Dorothy to the start of the Yellow Brick Road. At M16, lil' Daieisho came out with guns blazing (a little joke for my 2nd Amendment pals), firing round after round into the chest of the former Sekiwake (really??) until the Mayor of Munchkin City was ignominiously strolling outside the ring, looking like a paper star at a carnival BB machine gun booth. (Just want you to know that I did not need autocorrect for "ignominiously.")

No longer clad in golden mawashi, Shohozan smartly slid to his left a touch at tach, knowing The Hutt Brother Toyohibiki was rolling downhill. Alas for the Fukuoka native, The Nikibi's right arm was just able to prevent Shohozan from getting outside enough to get around and behind, and once cornered and under real threat, the E7 rushed forward too eagerly, allowing Toyohibiki to execute an emFATic slapdown (little joke for my overweight pals).

I don't care if my childlike bluntness gets me relegated to the kid's table this Thanksgiving, I'm gonna come right out and say what everyone is thinking: Tokushoryu has REALLY blubbered up! Perhaps that's why Ikioi had little trouble holding him up from the jump, then using a nice little underarm throw to twist him down hard. Mongolian Ikioi goes to 7-7 for Sunday. Ought to be an anxious sleep with the restless sheep tonight in his steppe dreams.

I'd just like to say here that I appreciate Mike and Harvye going balls to the wall each and every basho, and regret I cannot pitch in more often. They do a great job. And although it sucks that we can't have Kane, at least with his absence comes the opportunity to imagine the sort of INSANE and PORNOGRPAHIC shit the lad must be up to keep him away. Dude's gotten more cooze than a pigeon handler.

One of the young guns Mixmaster Mikenstein put a "watch tag" on some time back, Kagayaki, made a pest of himself by refusing to be swatted at tachi-ai by Chiyonokuni, getting a strong inside left belt and using that to muscle his foe out for his 9th win. Ka-chan is not exactly brimming with skills, but he can smell blood and zero in. Verdict? Keep watching.

Aoiyama used some steady tsuppari early on, but then tried an ill-advised plunge forward that Nishikigi almost perfunctorily dismissed with a swipe to the side. I hope Aoiyama takes it to Ozeki hopeful Takayasu tomorrow, and I hope that Harvye has not been calling Nishikigi "Western Clothing Tree."

Tochinoshin, whose right leg looks like something the hotel maid knocks at 10:30 a.m. to change, stood up to do the man dance with Arawashi and looked like he had jumped into the Spin cycle. I guess it stands to reason when you're taking on the Arawashing Machine! (A little joke for my pals over at Maytag.) I wonder if Shneaky down in Juryo had to find a new bedroll supplier.

Sakatottari? WTF is sakatottari? Well, it's the manner in which Okinoumi defeated Kotoyuki on Day 14. After owning the short shoving match for its entirety, Kotoyuki lost control of his right arm as Okinoumi got up and under it, making his foe look like a schoolboy raising hid hand to answer the question, Whose about to lose this match? Then he sort of guided him out. TPTB decided it was a sakatottari. Debatable, but what isn't is that both rasslers have their KK and are living the easy life.

Takanoiwa was so busy trying to stop Yoshikaze from using his left hand to get in on the front that he didn't notice Starbuck had wrapped up Taka's left arm into a smart lil' armbar. Both men fighting for pride mostly, but I'm sure Yoshikaze is proud of the move he used to win today.

Kaisei pretty much just lent his chest to Daishomaru, who did a great job of pushing up on the giant and keeping Kaisei from falling forward on top of him for the win. When the time was right, however, Daishomaru did just that, let Kaisei fall to his 9th loss.

Myogiryu gave Tochiohzan a nice strong shove to the throat at tachi-ai, but Oh Snap stood there being strangled with a look on his face like, This all ya got, bro? Once that was finished, Tochiohzan came forward and under his foes arms, lifting him up and driving him out.

Damn, no close bouts today, you know, the ones where they both crash down and one wins by a gigachanko? I'd like to say that modern sumo is as useless as tits on a bull, but I hate that phrase, mainly because it implies that the ability to have milk extracted from them is the only use for tits, when we all know THAT'S not true! In fact, I'd prefer any tits in my hands on NOT lactate, thank you very much.

Now where were we? Oh yes, from the start Takayasu gave up his outside right belt in order to secure an inside left belt, but Endo was just the stronger on the day, using his right belt grip to easily lift Takayasu up and back and out. Not much in the Sekiwake's sumo today that shouts for promotion. 12-2 for Endo, who looks to be a world beater when he's ranked in lower Makuuchi. No matter his Day 15 result, he's going to land around M5 or M4 next time out, and in his ten career basho ranked higher than M8, he's had a losing record in eight of them. Elevator going...?

Shodai, at one point 0-7, came in at 5-8 looking to keep it 'spectable. While it wasn't spectacular, the lad was able to manhandle Takarafuji with some straight up, no nonsense tsuki-dashi. It's been a fantastic first year in Makuuchi for the man from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and I'm sure he's made all his fellow "tuats" very proud indeed.

The man who began the year with one of the most unlikely yusho in sumo history, Kotoshogiku, was able to withstand a strong bearhug from Mitakeumi and take his 9th win. Mitakeumi, coming in at 9-4, must have had visions of double Ds, but was unable to solve, like all the Mongolian Yokozuna in January, this perplexing and hard to crack nut known as "El Geeku" in Guadalajara. Harvye's call on Day 2 that both Geeku and Goeido would hop off the Kadoban train was dead on, and in the case of Goeido, in a big way.

For on this day 25 of the month of September in the year of our Lord (well, YOUR Lord, not mine) 2016, the ACTUAL most unlikely yusho ever was snarfed up by a man who was fighting for his rank. Has this ever happened before? I'll get the Sumo Geek Squad on it and get back to you. How you view Goeido's run depends on the sort of person you are, I suppose, and how familiar you are with JPese culture and sumo history, working, ins and outs. I watched every bout of his this basho, and I think he was in good form in several of them, lucked out in several more, and had a few that came with a bow.

But regardless of the kind of fights he was in, he had to step up and finish them off, something that Kisenosato, given a "Hai, doozo" by The Khans in at least four basho during his career (ask The Chauffer), has never been able to do, so credit to the man.

Today he took firm hold of the bow ("the bow" being Tamawashi's opening gambit, namely "stand straight up and place left hand on top of Ozeki's head at tachi-ai and keep it there until Ozeki finally grabs right inside belt") and pulled, and with that pull two years of frustration and underachievement and putting the "rank" in the rank of Ozeki spilled out like so many big, soft balloons all over the joyous Japanese, who now know without question their wrestlers are poised to take back the national sport. On their own merits.

Okay, I'm back. Sorry about that. I'm finishing this report off at the local library, as my laptop exploded into fifty-three million shards of glass, plastic, and solder when I typed that final sentence in the previous paragraph. Doctors are predicting a six to eight week recovery period for the hole in my thigh, and the scars on my face might not show all that much after time.

So, Goeido now holds his place among the legendry, alongside others who will never win another yusho, such as Kyokutenho, Kotoshogiku, Kotomitsuki, Dejima, Kotooshu, Baruto, Takatoriki, Musoyama, and a host of more ancient types with names like Kotofuji, Kitabayama, and Kirishima. (I believe Terunofuji will win another yusho one day.)

Trying to win today, Harumafuji got low under Kisenosato, grabbed the belt, and walked him back and out with ease. It truly is one of the mysteries of sumo that Kisenosato, not great but far superior in my book to Geeku and Goeido, is the one standing outside the Yusho Candyshop hat in hand? I suppose those are ruminations better left to my betters, with whom I seldom have the effrontery to consort.

In the final bout of the day, Yokozuna Kakuryu stayed low after giving up the front belt to countryman Terunofuji, and thus prevented the younger man from using it as leverage. After some moments of struggle, Terunofuji must have relented a touch, tired as he no doubt was, and The Kak made his play, driving forward and upward and shoving the very out of sorts Ozeki out to his 10th loss. What's wrong with him? Store that question alongside, How many licks does it take to get to the chocolate center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsiepop?

So, the tourney is over and I'm thinking that there will be no Day 15 report, couldn't say for sure, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Mike and Harvye work hard enough as it is. I'd like to apologize for there being no Day 8, as that was my duty, and I shirked it. Now I'll go and watch Day 15, as it is finished and I'm interested to see Goeido get his 15th win. Can't fathom Geeku trying all that mightily. Thanks for stoppin by.

Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Prior to watching the day 13 bouts, I was thinking about something I could lead off with today, and I kept going back to Takayasu. In his first basho ranked at Sekiwake--or Sekiwookie in his case, he's generating major headlines for his appearance on the leaderboard, his supposed big wins over elite rikishi, and now talk about his possible promotion to Ozeki. Because Takayasu is half-Japanese half-Filipino, he's kind of flown under the radar a bit. He can't really be considered a gaijin rikishi because he was born in Japan to a Japanese father, but he's not really embraced as a Japanese rikishi presumably because he's not full-blooded. Regardless, I think it's safe to say that nobody dislikes this guy, and he's usually been a good rikishi.

So I was reviewing in my mind what you could call his breakout basho here at the Aki tournament and trying to determine characteristics of his sumo that have stood out. And the more I thought, the more I couldn't really think of anything. His tachi-ai has been below average, the only continuity to his winning techniques came early on when he reeled off his first three wins by hataki-komi, and he's had no signature move that we've seen repeated in his bouts. He's got the resume this basho for sure on paper, but he hasn't passed the eyeball test, at least in my opinion. In fact, I would argue that Takanoiwa, who defeated Takayasu on day 1, has had a much better basho in terms of sumo content.

Besides Takayasu, I was also thinking about Ozeki Kisenosato, and the same thing applies. What stands out about his sumo? How is his tachi-ai? And name one bout where he came away with the distinct advantage due to his tachi-ai? Kisenosato does have the left counter tsuki in his arsenal, but the dude is not a finisher, and you never come away from his wins impressed with his sumo. It's always: he won but did his opponent let up? It's never: Dayum, that was a great bout!

The reason why I continue to harp on this is because within the last two years, we HAVE had an example of a rikishi who does have signature moves, whose sumo can be defined, and who was able to legitimately rise up the ranks. That rikishi is Terunofuji, and you could also make the argument that Ichinojo has definition to his sumo as well. I see patterns in their bouts, and I can tell right away when they're trying and when they're not. Guys who have no continuity to their sumo are guys like Endoh, Mitakeumi, Shodai, and now Nishikigi. All of the aforementioned dudes are being hyped by the media, and all of those guys have enough bouts thrown their way that you can't really define their sumo. Is Mitakeumi a belt guy or an oshi guy? What about Shodai? What are the strong points to their sumo? What are their habits at the tachi-ai? Do we see patterns evolve in the content of their sumo?

Now contrast that to guys like Takekaze or Yoshikaze or Aoiyama or Takarafuji or Tamawashi or Tokushoryu. Or even contrast that with Chiyonokuni. What's been the biggest characteristic of Chiyonokuni's sumo this basho? His penchant for henka at the tachi-ai. While I haven't enjoyed it, at least I recognize it. Normally, sumo rikishi develop patterns in their sumo, but when too much yaocho is involved, it just skews the landscape and muddles the waters. Heading into the Kyushu basho, Takayasu will be an Ozeki candidate, but I haven't seen anything from him the last two basho that has consistently impressed me, and we normally see that in a legitimate Ozeki run.

We saw it with Terunofuji for sure, and we even saw glimpses of it with Kotoshogiku and Kisenosato six or seven years ago. Due to the domination by the foreign rikishi (the Mongolians of course and then Baruto and Kotooshu), those two were never able to reach Ozeki back in their prime, but we at least saw the potential. In Takayasu's case, he's been in the division just over five years and before this so-called run to Ozeki that started in July, he had only been ranked a Komusubi twice in his career. I realize that it could take guys a few years to get settled and figure things out, but the point I'm making is that nothing in the content of Takayasu's sumo the last two basho has warranted his double-digit records not to mention his legitimacy as an Ozeki candidate. When Ozeki runs--and Yokozuna runs--start due to hype in the media, they're meaningless. When they begin because a rikishi visually starts kicking ass and taking names, you know it's real.

Since very little has actually been "real" this basho, I'm just going to go in chronological order again today. At 4-8 coming into the day, M13 Toyohibiki desperately needed two more wins to stay in the division, and he clearly bought his win today against Juryo rikishi Azumaryu. Watching live, the two immediately hooked up in migi-yotsu where Azumaryu grabbed the left outer grip, but the Mongolian didn't make a single move with it to attack or two dig in. Instead, he just stood there allowing Toyohibiki to force him back and out just like that. Watching live I was like, "Toyohibiki's not going for a single shove," and then when Azumaryu failed to make a single move or counter move despite the advantageous position, it became extremely obvious. My best guess is that cash exchanged hands as a result of this win where Toyohibiki inched forward to 5-8 while Azumaryu falls to 6-7.

M15 Tokushoryu and M13 Amakaze hooked up in hidari-yotsu in a pretty methodic bout where Amakaze charged forward without having his gal in snug. Adding insult to injury, it was Tokushoryu who had the right outer grip, and so he easily used his right thigh to the inside of Amakaze's left stump to dashi-nage him across the straw in an uneventful bout. Tokushoryu is still alive at 6-7 while Amakaze falls to 3-10.

M12 Gagamaru was way too high at the tachi-ai just standing there like a punching bag for M14 Kagayaki who used a nice left paw to Gagamaru's right teet to knock him off balance and then the left to the inside to make the yori-kiri official. Gagamaru made no effort at the tachi-ai, and he made no effort to counter despite Kagayaki's being vulnerable, and this one was an easy yaocho call as Kagayaki picks up kachi-koshi at 8-5. Gagamaru falls to 5-8 with the loss, but this dude has figured out how to hoard that cash.

M11 Sokokurai and M9 Takekaze both jumped the gun at the tachi-ai thinking that they had false started, but the ref said go and so they went. Well, at least Takekaze did. Sokokurai just stood there with his right arm pointed forward as if he was fending Takekaze off, but he was just standing around like a blow-up doll at Takekaze's bidding. And still, Takekaze's sumo wasn't good enough to make it quick, but he eventually worked his way into moro-zashi and then of course abandoned that to enter his comfort zone and score the eventual win by pull down of course. The only part of Sokokurai's body that touched the dohyo were the palms of his hands, another sign that he knew he was going down from the start. Oh look...Takekaze secures kachi-koshi with the win at 8-5! Sokokurai falls ot 5-8 with the loss after his mukiryoku effort.

M15 Kyokushuho and M9 Nishikigi clashed hard at the tachi-ai hooking up in hidari-yotsu where Kyokushuho just raised his right arm high wrapping it around Nishikigi's head as if he was trying to set up a kubi-nage. He wasn't of course and just stood there waiting for to Nishikigi to make a move, and said move was a methodic left inside belt throw that Kyokushuho made no bother to defend running sideways out of the dohyo. Is that four out of five bouts of mukiryoku sumo where the foreign rikishi let up for his Japanese counterpart? I believe it is as Nishikigi creeps closer to kachi-koshi at 7-6 while Kyokushuho falls to 6-7.

With both guys coming into the day at 8-4, we finally got a straight up fight between M8 Kotoyuki and rookie M12 Chiyoshoma, and when Chiyoshoma didn't henka, he was there for the taking as Kotoyuki caught him early at the tachi-ai keeping him well away from the belt, and then Kotoyuki kept the pressure up with good de-ashi causing Chiyoshoma's survival instincts to kick in as he attempted to evade right, but Kotoyuki was already onto him like white to rice scoring the easy push-out win in seconds. This was a good example of a rookie going up against a seasoned veteran where the veteran had his way with ease. Kotoyuki has had a quiet 9-4 basho, but we'd of course like to see this a bit higher up the ranks in the future. Chiyoshoma falls to 8-5 with the loss.

M8 Daishomaru was a tad late at the tachi-ai against M10 Arawashi, who bore down on his opponent getting the right inside and left outer grip as Daishomaru attempted to move left, but Arawashi had him wrapped up in short order scoring the easy force out win over the listless Daishomaru. Arawashi stops the bleeding a big at 5-8 while Daishomaru is circling the drain at 3-10.

M7 Ikioi used a nice kachi-age with the right arm against M10 Sadanoumi, but he failed to defend with the left hand, and so as the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu, Sadanoumi easily grabbed the right outer grip and used that to pivot to the side and dump Ikioi to the clay with a pull at the back of the head. Sadanoumi is still alive and well at 7-6 while Ikioi is on the brink at 6-7.

Our first "leader" on the day stepped atop to the dohyo in M14 Endoh, who needed to solve the feisty M7 Shohozan today in his quest to stay on the board. Shohozan was proactive at the tachi-ai catching Endoh early with a left tsuki to his neck, but he just held that left arm fully extended as he drove forward allowing Endoh to move to his right as he retreated and just yank Shohozan out of the ring tottari style by that left arm. How many times have we ever seen a guy just try and straight arm someone out from the center of the ring to the edge without using the other arm? "Never" would be the correct answer as this one looked pretty legit but wasn't. Shohozan takes one for the team falling to 7-6 while Endoh eliminates the possibility of a Goeido yusho today at 11-2. Wait a minute, did I just type "Goeido" and "yusho" in the same sentence? Repent now because the Apocalypse is upon us.

After the bout, Yoshida Announcer reported from the back halls of the venue that Goeido watched the previous bout from the shitaku-beya, and when Endoh won, his facial expression didn't change in the least. Ooh, the drama!! My question is does Goeido even know what city he's in?

M6 Chiyonokuni charged forward (thankfully) into M6 Tamawashi trading tsuppari with the crafty Mongolian in the center of the ring, but as part of the melee, Chiyonokuni caught Tamawashi with a quick right tsuki to Tamawashi's left arm that knocked The Mawashi on his heels just a bit, and as he looked to duck back into the bout, Chiyonokuni reversed gears and pulled him down a few seconds in. Afterwards, Tamawashi said that his right foot slipped a bit in the dirt, and you could see that at the point that Kuni caught him with the right tsuki. Chiyonokuni picks up kachi-koshi with the win moving to 8-5 while Tamawashi falls to 9-4. Interesting how they are feeding Tamawashi to Goeido tomorrow. Tamawashi is easily the superior rikishi and could make Goeido look bad if he tries to win.

M4 Myogiryu moved to his left at the tachi-ai in an effort to grab the quick and dirty uwate, but M2 Tochinoshin reacted to the henka well squaring up quickly and moving to his left to grab the outer belt as Myogiryu charged forward, and the Private used Myogiryu's forward momentum against him well swinging him out of the dohyo and landing on top him for good measure. Not quite sure how they called that a shita-te-nage (inside belt throw), but I've found in sumo these days it's best if you don't pay too much attention to the details ifyaknowwhadduhmean. Both rikishi end the day at 4-9.

M1 Okinoumi was half-assed at the tachi-ai kind of leading with a right kachi-age, and M5 Aoiyama simply made him pay for it catching him with a nice right arm to the body that stood Okinoumi upright, and with no resistance from Okinoumi, Aoiyama just put the de-ashi into gear and pushed Okinoumi back and across without argument. Aoiyama picks up kachi-koshi with the win while Okinoumi is still without at 7-6.

Before we get to the sanyaku, remember this guy?

It's Masunoyama, the guy who gained sekitori status the same time as Takayasu.  Both of these guys were hyped as the first sekitori born in the Heisei Era.  Masunoyama spent a few basho in the division, but could never stay healthy.  To make matters worse, he has a heart condition that causes him to lose his breath in a matter of seconds after extreme physical exertion...sorta like fighting a bout of sumo.  Well, due to serious knee issues, the dude dropped all the way to the bottom of the banzuke, and they interviewd him today as he won the Jonokuchi yusho.  It was nice to see an old face again, especially a guy as genuine as Masunoyama.

M3 Takanoiwa attempted a hari-zashi tachi-ai against Komusubi Tochiohzan slapping with the right, but it was slow developing allowing Tochiohzan to flirt with moro-zashi as Takanoiwa only came away with a left outer grip. With Tochiohzan on the brink of moro-zashi, Takanoiwa skirted to his right creating separation, and after another face slap that barely connected, Takanoiwa rushed back grabbing the left outer belt and using his left leg inside of Tochiohzan's right to beautifully lift him up and off the dohyo kake-nage style. They ruled it uwate-nage in the end as both dudes here finish the day at 5-8.

Komusubi Kaisei reached for the left outer grip as M2 Shodai attempted to cut off the right inside from the Brasilian, but Kaisei was eventually able to worm that arm to the inside, and so Shodai backed up a step attempting a maki-kae, but it's tough to maki-kae on the retreat and have it take affect, and Kaisei showed why storming forward back into the right inside left outer position, and as the two dug back in, Shodai simply had no momentum or positioning from which to dig in, and so the force-out charge was impressive from the Komusubi as Kaisei improves to 5-8. Shodai's make-koshi finally becomes official as well at 5-8 after a nifty run when he was down 0-7.

Sekiwake Takarafuji looked to hook up in hidari-yotsu against M1 Yoshikaze, but it was clear that Café did not want to go chest to chest, and so he kept his head ducked low fighting off Takarafuji's advances to the inside. After a few seconds of this cat and mouse sumo, Yoshikaze was able to fire off a few tsuki that created separation, and as Takarafuji looked to work his way back in close, Yoshikaze caught him with a sideways tsuki to the side of the neck that send Takarafuji down for good. Yoshikaze also improves to 5-8 while Takarafuji falls to 4-9.

Our next leader on the day was Sekiwookie Takayasu, who looked to best upstart M5 Mitakeumi. Takayasu lost the tachi-ai yet again today giving up the deep left inside position and allowing Mitakeumi to stand the wookie upright, and with Mitakeumi looking for the right outside, Takayasu went for a quick sideways pull that had no effect, and so Mitakeumi was able to burrow in even tighter maintaining that left inside, and with Takayasu completely upright now, he attempted one more quick pull, but Mitakeumi was in snug and parlayed that into moro-zashi, and once obtained, Takayasu was unable to defend the yori-kiri from there. Once again, Takayasu was unimpressive, this time in defeat as he suffers a costly loss in terms of the yusho race falling to 10-3 meaning a Goeido win at the end of the day would knock him out of the race completely. As for Mitakeumi, he looked good here moving to 9-4. Afterwards, they caught up with Takayasu for comment, and he said that he moved around too much in the bout. That will happen when you lose the tachi-ai and can't set up your brand of sumo.

In our lone Ozeki duel on the day, Kotoshogiku and Terunofuji hooked up in migi-yotsu, which is not the Geeku's preferred grip, but Terunofuji continued to just stand there like a bump on a log and allow Kotoshogiku to scoop him upright with that right arm, over, and eventually out with little argument. Kotoshogiku predictably picked up his eighth win here moving to 8-5 wile Terunofuji continues to do his duty falling to 4-9.

Ozeki Kisenosato was weak and completely upright at the tachi-ai (what's new, right?) allowing Yokozuna Kakuryu to just dive in and grab the left inside position, but it looked as if the Yokozuna was at least willing to make it look like a fight, but when Kisenosato was unable to respond in anyway, Kakuryu said fine and just twisted the Ozeki over with that left inside belt grip and dumped him across the straw a few seconds in and off the dohyo altogether...something we see all to often in Kisenosato losses. Both dudes ended the day at 9-4, and there's no way that Yokozuna talk can continue for Kisenosato heading into Kyushu.

In the day's final affair, Ozeki Goeido could put a stranglehold on the yusho with a win over Yokozuna Harumafuji, but that would be entirely up to the Yokozuna. Goeido kept his head low and arms in tight at the tachi-ai as if to grab moro-zashi, and I think Harumafuji would have let him get it, but Goeido backed out and to his left a second in. Harumafuji reacted instinctively and actually had moro-zashi, but he was just going along with Goeido's flow, and so when Goeido went for a counter kubi-nage (without the aid of his lower body), Harumafuji just went with it and twisted himself down in similar fashion to the way he lost to Takayasu. After the bout, the guys in the booth actually made the comment that Goeido's sumo was not good, but he magically comes away with the win over a Yokozuna yet again. It goes without saying that Harumafuji could have had his way with the Ozeki today, but he was just along for the ride and not hesitating to go down. The replay from the reverse angle showed that no contact was made between Goeido's lower body and Harumafuji's left leg/hip area, and normally for a kubi-nage to work, you've totally got to use the lower body as at fulcrum, but Harumafuji wasn't out to win here and just dove on cue.  You look a that pic at right, and it appears that Goeido just smothered the Yokozuna, but watch the bout itself and try and identify how that was set up.  I took video of the replays in case you're interested in watching the bout in slow motion and from different angles. The second reply shows just how weak that kubi-nage attempt was, and as you watch the replays, try and identify the moves that Goeido used to win the bout. He backed out at the tachi-ai; he whiffed on a left outer belt grab; he kept his arms up high in a prolonged pull mode; and then he finally attempted a neck throw without using the lower body. That kind of sumo does not fell a Yokozuna; it just doesn't.



The result of the above bout is that Goeido stands alone atop the leaderboard at 13-0 while Harumafuji now falls three back at 10-3. That means that the leaderboard at the end of Day 13 looks like this:



You know, if a group of guys got liquored up prior to the basho and were tasked with coming up with the most improbable outcome possible, we have it here at the Aki basho. And the problem is that the venue continues to completely sell out and has been that way the entire calendar year, and so absolutely nothing is going to change. Get used to the new normal.

Day 12 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
So. With Goeido two up in wins and goggling a good shot to score the championship, viewing him with my modern eyes, it is easy to feel indignant, to label the results ridiculous or insulting. But let me tell you a little bit about my day.

It rained a steady downpour, as the umpteenth typhoon of the season swept across Japan, bringing a deaths in mudslides and flooding as typhoons have always done. It was a holiday, as Japan honored its pagan roots by celebrating the fall equinox. My son and I decided to go out into the now-slackening drizzle for fresh air and a little culture.

We headed to the world's third biggest tomb, a massive, keyhole shaped, 1,500 year old tumulus south of Osaka. It is hidden by triple moats, and despite taking up acres and acres of prime real estate in a now heavily citified area, sits as-is, defended by the Imperial Household Agency: you can only cross the first moat, and only at one point, and then stare across at the jungle-esque foliage tumbling helter skelter from the unmaintained, untouched, wholly organic surface of this ancient, gigantic grave. Raked gravel in arrow-straight lines blocks the causeway. The moat was bright green with congealed algae to our left, and lively with ducks, geese, turtles, and herons in other places, flocking to this oasis of trackless, tangled overgrowth plopped huge, strange, and unknowable in the midst of suburban urbanity. 44 other mounds dot the cityscape nearby, mutely forceful, glots of massive, calcified, yet undeniably thriving tradition seamlessly integrated into our often oblivious modern lives. Western sources frankly say that no one really knows whether the Emperor Nintoku is really buried in the biggest one, 2700 meters in circumference, but the Japanese posters at the site make no mention of this, confidently stating, without nuance, that this is the great Emperor's tomb, and describing his great deeds.

On the way home we met my wife for dinner, and I downed things like slimy potato mixed with raw egg, warm beef salad, and pickled eggplant, washing it down with a glass of buckwheat whiskey. It is festival time, and we ran into dozens of locals wrapped in white and blue cloth, short jackets for the men leaving their nipples exposed, many of them soused after a long day of pushing massive wooden carts around the streets of the town while drinking rice wine and singing. Hundreds of pale paper lanterns festooned the juggernaut carts, or were carried by the participants, swaying in rhythm to the ancient drum, bell, and vocal music they chanted over and over again, some of the men perched precariously on the cart rooves, dangerous no doubt, as they plied the now-dark streets of the town, to the delight of 100s of spectators. Celebrating who knows what forgotten mythos, passed down and down and down, like the thousand years plus of hallowed emperors and their tombs, put up live and visceral in our town tonight, meaning obscure.

And so my modern eyes were poked out of my skull-pate, like the horrors in the hell-realm painting on the back walls of some temple halls here, and I thought of Goeido and his semi-nakedness, his handfuls of salt, his oiled and sculpted hair, the spangled kimono of his judge, his ritualized life and career, and it was all forgiven. Tonight, in the damp equinoctial darkness, I felt at peace with it all. Somewhere under several thousand tons of dirt, behind his triple moats, Emperor Nintoku's decayed and mummified teeth were grinning at me, and as the city bustles on in its business around him, Goeido reaches out for the white paper lightning, grasps from the ether Nintoku's whitened bones, and begins to place the last pieces of his championship into the empty sockets where my modern eyes have fallen out.

MOLDY EMPEROR

O Goeido (11-0) vs. Y Kakuryu (8-3)
I knew it was over at the tachi-ai, when Kakuryu offered a couple of limp dangly arms and looked to the left rather than at his opponent. Kakuryu then proceeded to bash away at Goeido a bit with his arms but not really back that up with foot work, positioning, or getting low, and he added a disastrous pull or two to ensure the win for Goeido, oshi-dashi. I think the writing is on the tomb wall: Goeido's memorial mausoleum is near built, folks. Will you stand in the way of that particular typhoon?

HIS ATTENDANTS (WILL HAVE THEIR BRAINS SCOOPED OUT THROUGH THEIR NOSES WITH A LONG SPOON DURING THE EMBALMING PROCESS, THEN BE BURIED NEARBY)

M14 Endo (9-2) vs. M5 Mitakeumi (8-3)
I've seen little Endo destroyed too many times not to be skeptical. He tsuppari'ed Mitakeumi a few times with big roundhouse blows, then The Bully (Mitakeumi) oozed in upon him like quick Jell-O, but arms folded and up high, and Endo took advantage of the underneath position and drove The Bully out, yori-kiri. Fear not, Endo will not yusho; but I know not where his story goes from here: what is the good if he hops up to the jo'i if he is just going to get destroyed there? Why prop him up if you're going to have to prop him up again in the jo'i? Or let him get his just desserts and be destroyed? I suppose the answer is simple: people like to see him win, so having that happen as often as possible is seen as a plus, and we'll deal with the consequences later. Light the lanterns, roll the cart, cheer and drink sake.

S Takayasu (9-2) vs. M1 Yoshikaze (4-7)
Lazy, wide open, too high tachi-ai by Takayasu, and yet he was able to easily drive Yoshikaze out, finishing with a disdainful little flourish-push for the oshi-dashi win, as if Yoshikaze were some Daishomaru-caliber nothing visiting from the lower ranks. Which he is not. My lip is curling ever more sneeringly at this Takayasu-Ozeki-run business. As Mike says, he sure ain't bad. But why all this? They could have picked worse guys, but he doesn't seem like the right guy at the right time. At any rate, he too keeps meaningless pace with Goeido (it is either Harumafuji or Goeido, folks--period).

Y Harumafuji (9-2) vs. O Kotoshogiku (7-4)
Harumafuji spun Kotoshogiku around and slung him down, shita-te-nage. As with yesterday, when guys want to beat the spent carcass that is Kotoshogiku, it is very easily done. This was Yokozuna sumo vs. a guy who should have retired a year or two ago. Harumafuji keeps the pace, which is good for him and for the basho, so no reason to lose here. As Mike pointed out, the Harumafuji-Takayasu bout yesterday was a pivotal match in the yusho race; tomorrow that ante gets upped: Harumafuji vs. Goeido is the decider. Yeah, yeah, Harumafuji is two behind, but if he wins tomorrow Goeido goes on to crumble. If Goeido wins, it's over.

BARBARIANS AND PEASANTRY

M13 Amakaze (3-8) vs. M13 Toyohibiki (3-8)
A very simple matter. Toyohibiki got in underneath, pushed hard, and won oshi-dashi. At certain restaurants you can ask for extra fat to be ladled in little gobbets on top of your ramen. Amakaze is like that.

M11 Sokokurai (4-7) vs. M15 Tokushoryu (5-6)
Sokokurai never touched the dirt with his right hand, allowing him to get the drop on Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) and drive him to the straw. Saucy is a big boy, and recovered a bit, but was tentative off the lost momentum and initiative, and though they were now bodied up and Sauce had reached in for a grip, he did nothing to take advantage of it. He deeply needed aggression here, but when it failed to materialize Sokokurai removed himself backwards and twist-collapsed Sauce to the dirt, uwate-hineri.

M10 Arawashi (3-8) vs. M16 Daieisho (3-8)
I think we may have seen the last of Daieisho in this division. Arawashi's tachi-ai was wide-open, too slow, and too high, but Daieisho was unable to take advantage. He tsuppari'ed the Mongolian busily in the face, but it had no effect, and Arawashi was able to reach in and grab a belt on the left. From there Arawashi easily yori-kiri'ed Daieisho out--and Arawashi is not a belt guy. Lose like this to an opponent like this when 3-8 from M16, and Juryo rank is richly earned.

M14 Kagayaki (7-4) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (5-6)
Very solid sumo here by the usually inconsequential Sadanoumi against the consistently disappointing Fried Mosquito (Kagayaki). Sadanoumi belted Mosquito upright at the tachi-ai, sent him a second solid bid'ness-offer from below, then clasped onto his mortal corpse like a lamprey eel, one hand at the back of the belt, and forced him out, yori-kiri.

M9 Nishikigi (5-6) vs. M12 Gagamaru (5-6)
Desultory tachi-ai from Nishikigi, but Gagamaru is too slow and let him recover and place both arms to the inside. When Gagamaru desperately tried to then scoop him to the dirt with his right arm, twisting away from him, Gagamaru was too high and had no leverage, and Nishikigi happily drove against his massive, exposed flank and forced him out, yori-kiri. It is hard to get excited about Gagamaru or suggest any strategy for him to improve by, as he just seems too un-limber and roundly rollable to get better. He's been at his ceiling for some time.

M12 Chiyoshoma (7-4) vs. M9 Takekaze (7-4)
I have been amused this tournament to watch guys who should have read their scouting reports employ strategies against Takekaze that leave them dead ducks against pulls and evasions. "Take me!" Chiyoshoma, however, apparently watches tape, because though Takekaze predictably henka'ed, Chiyoshoma was able to turn and follow him, then evade him in his own right and usher the now flummoxed Takekaze out, tsuki-otoshi. Score one for the sabremetricians.

M8 Daishomaru (3-8) vs. M15 Kyokushuho (5-6)
Very satisfying to see a puller get pulled. Kyokushuho was calm as a pickled radish in early spring in this one, bumping Daishomaru upright off the start-up, then right away pulling him forward and down, hataki-komi. A plan well executed, and typical mismatch sumo--I don't care what their ranks are.

M7 Shohozan (7-4) vs. M7 Ikioi (5-6)
Ikioi is having a bad tournament and knew he had to win this. Hence, he was waiting, focused and coiled, at the start line while Darth Hozan dallied about. It worked. Bigger, stronger, and with more will power here, Ikioi drove Hozan back; Hozan seemed surprised and did a little arm pinching, but it was too late for him, and when Ikioi released him, retreated, and slapped at him, he fell down, tsuki-otoshi. Concentration of this kind will do any man a solid, so props to Ikioi here.

M8 Kotoyuki (8-3) vs. M6 Tamawashi (8-3)
If you don't know that I despise Kotoyuki and sneakingly love Tamawashi, you haven't read my reports. So my rooting interest was strong, and I was thrilled--thrilled!--to see Tamawashi destroy Kotoyuki in a power-on-power battle, tsuki-dashi, as if Kotoyuki were a boy and Tamawashi a man. Simply put, Tamawashi overwhelmed him and blasted him out. Allow me to enjoy this a bit. I have been impressed by Tamawashi's strength and hard hitting technique over the last year or two, but he is an aging mid-rank guy taking on a "rising star" and doing it on that guy's terms. And he wrecked him like an iron ball ‘gainst crumbling wall.

M4 Myogiryu (4-7) vs. M6 Chiyonokuni (6-5)
This looked like mukiryoku on the part of Myogiryu. Chiyonokuni chose to take him on straight up at the tachi-ai, and Myogiryu forced him backwards easily with tsuppari. However, Myogiryu relented pointlessly and let Chiyonokuni bring him back to the center of the ring, then tried a pantomime arm-swipe pull shortly thereafter. When Chiyonokuni backed up a little and swiped at him in turn, Myogiryu threw his arms forward in the air, "oh help me, ma, I'm a-dy'in!" and fell to the dirt, hiki-otoshi.

M3 Takanoiwa (4-7) vs. M2 Shodai (4-7)
Great looking match, and I liked what Shodai did here. I was just thinking "nice, solid, upward moving, inside tachi-ai by Takanoiwa," but noticed that Shodai pinned that inside arm with squeezing pressure, neutralizing it. Takanoiwa eventually pulled it out and got it where it belonged, on the belt; during that exchange something happened that I'd never seen before: the strings on Takanoiwa's mawashi got caught in the fray, and were flung off screen so rapidly and far you couldn't even tell what had happened, like a rubble ball popping out of a vise as the pressure mounts and zinging away to unknown reaches of your basement. Takanoiwa then gave Shodai a pretty good slap to the face and drove him to the straw, but Shodai showed strength and slung him bodily out, rolling him over and around, sukui-nage, Good fun.

M1 Okinoumi (7-4) vs. K Tochiohzan (4-7)
Okinoumi's got plenty of wins and didn't really need this one, so he kept his arms high, then opened them wide, and Tochiohzan moseyed on inside and tipped him over, sukui-nage. I felt some excitement about Tochiohzan around a year ago, but right now he's just another guy hanging on and feinting at the sanyaku from time to time; his best is behind him and guys like Takayasu and Kotoyuki are taking the spots he briefly dominated. When you're getting charity to remain close to Komusubi, your Ozeki-candidate days are well cooked.

M2 Tochinoshin (2-9) vs. S Takarafuji (4-7)
Very interesting. Tochinoshin seemed too high up at the tachi-ai and Takarafuji was driving purposefully forward. I was thinking "here we go again." But the simple fact is that at one point, despite Takarafuji having better position and Tochinoshin having no grips, Takarafuji's advance stopped cold, running up against the wall of Tochinoshin's body, and Tochinoshin reversed the momentum and drove Takarafuji out, yori-kiri, without any advantageous grips or position. Tochinoshin just plain looked stronger, which he no doubt is but doesn't always show.

M5 Aoiyama (6-5) vs. O Terunofuji (4-7)
I'll stick by what I said two days ago: Terunofuji's sumo is crap right now. He sort of stood up straight and offered two weak arms forward, and wasn't even looking at Aoiyama when ploughed into him. And plough into him Aoiyama did, removing him in short order, oshi-dashi, like a habitually angry guy putting his shopping cart too violently back into the parking-lot shopping-cart holder thing. Crash! I do not buy anymore that Terunofuji is doing this on purpose. Rather, he has forgotten how to win, and lost drive, will, and focus. He desperately needs to be demoted and find himself in the lower ranks. A basho or two off would help, too. The Ozeki rank, with its appropriately high bar to Yokozuna promotion but its comically low bar to keep from being demoted, is an ongoing disaster that breeds weakness, unnatural results, and political theatre.

O Kisenosato (8-3) vs. K Kaisei (4-7)
You will recall that I resist the notion of Kisenosato as "faux-zeki," and consider him a healthy step above Goeido and Kotoshogiku: I think he is capable of and does quite a bit of winning on his own, is good on the belt, and is a formidable opponent for everyone but the Yokozuna. This has been tarnished a bit by others trying unnecessarily to help him and his utter inability to take advantage of that: the chokes in his never-ending-story Yokozuna runs are embarrassing enough to make us want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But let us not do that: he's still a good Ozeki. Says me. This was a good test match for this theory. You have a very good foreign opponent, a heavy and not easily moved mass in himself, Kaisei. And you have Kisenosato with kachi-koshi in place but Yokozuna run kaput, so there is no reason for Kaisei, on the verge of make-koshi, to be generous. And look what happened: very even steven. They started with their heads down on each other but quite a bit of arm grappling, seeking position. Kisenosato was the first to get it, a left inside, followed quickly by a right outside, a dual grip position which Kaisei was never to match. However, they struggled weightily a bit more before Kisenosato was able to move Kaisei slowly back and topple him at the edge, yori-taoshi. I saw no sufficient reason here to believe this is not Kisenosato's legitimate level. I think he and Kaisei probably go 50-50 even up, and Kisenosato had it today; he does get gifts but not today. He's an Ozeki. Not a Yokozuna. Not a Sekiwake. An Ozeki. That's frustrating, not least him and the Association, but that's the boring truth. A log floating in the river is not a crocodile.

Mike rolls Lucky 13 tomorrow. 

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Once it was announced that Hakuho would withdraw from the Aki basho, you kind of had the sense that the September tournament would become a free for all, but you still had the three remaining Mongolians who would control everyone's destiny. Since Harumafuji is the senpai of the three remaining, he became the storyteller this basho by default, and he responded in kind on day 2 by promptly losing right after Kisenosato went down on day 2. At the time, the story of the basho was of course Kisenosato and his candidacy for the Yokozuna rank, and so by losing to Okinoumi after he watched the Ozeki fall in defeat, Harumafuji was clearly sending the message that he was playing ball.

From that point, you could just feel the excitement of this tournament begin to swell among the Japanese fans, and then during the first weekend, the media first declared the high likelihood of another Japanese yusho this tournament. If the Mongolians are on board fully, the the dreams of the Japanese public can come true, and with a leaderboard chock full of native rikishi heading into day 11, anything can happen at this point.

On day 9, I spoke my peace regarding just how ridiculous this all is, and so I'm going to take the same course that Harvye took yesterday when he said that there is still a yusho race going on, so we may as well entertain it as such.

On that note, let's review the leaderboard as we started the day:

10-0: Goeido
9-1: Harumafuji, Endoh
8-2: Kisenosato, Takayasu, Kotoyuki

Let's start the day off with M8 Kotoyuki, who looked to come with his usual tsuppari attack against M5 Aoiyama, but Aoiyama snuck both hands in between Kotoyuki's paws and delivered a moro-te-zuki that threw Kotoyuki out of his rhythm from the start. Kotoyuki was still proactive in moving forward, but Aoiyama had the momentum backing up a step--which for him is to the tawara--and pulling Kotoyuki forward and down in one fell swoop as he kept his foot on top of the tawara until his foe hit the dirt. They called a mono-ii to review it, but it was as short as you please because this bout wasn't that close. Aoiyama knew exactly where he was the whole time, and he knew the exact moment when to let his heel finally touch down behind the straw. Regardless, nobody was taking Kotoyuki seriously to begin with, so let's hope he's off the leaderboard for good now as he falls to 8-3. As for Aoiyama, he moves to 6-5 with the easy win.

M14 Endoh found himself just one back of the leader, and when that leader is Goeido, we know that anything (i.e. a loss at any time) is possible, and I think the Japanese fans sort of sense this too, and so people are going gaga over Endoh. Today, he looked to solve M6 Tamawashi and keep his hot streak alive, but The Mawashi was out for blood easily shaking off Endoh's right hari-te attempt with a left paw that stood Endoh completely upright and set up a pretty good right slap followed by a right choke hold. To Endoh's credit, he executed a nice left tsuki that threw Tamawashi off balance a bit, but that was all Endoh had in the tank because as he charged towards his foe, Tamawashi greeted him with another right paw to the face and then moved right easily pulling Endoh down and out in less than three seconds. Osaka Announcer was questioning Endoh's choice at the tachi-ai to come with a hari-zashi, but that was inconsequential. The key to the bout was whether or not Tamawashi was going to try and win. If Endoh is all that, and if he is a legitimate yusho contender this basho, he doesn't go down so easily at the hands of Tamawashi, but the Japanese public will continue to overlook common sense as long as the headlines are sensational. With the loss, Endoh is technically still in the yusho hunt at 9-2, so we'll just have to wait and see how his opponents choose to handle him from here. As for Tamawashi, he picks up kachi-koshi at 8-3 with the win, and if Goeido actually loses soon, the yusho line will likely come down to three losses.

We had two marquee matchups coming into the day--on paper, and both of those bouts had serious yusho implications, so let's get to them in chronological order. Up first was a compelling duel between Kisenosato and our basho leader, Goeido. Watching the Japanese Ozeki fight each other is kind of like watching midget wrestling. Though you will be treated to a pretty good fight, they still don't belong in the ring with the big boys. Both Ozeki bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai as neither rikishi has really proven the ability to establish anything from the initial charge, and so after an awkward start, Kisenosato looked to take charge with a light tsuppari attack while Goeido evaded looking to open up something to the inside. At one point, Kisenosato was able to use his signature move--the left tsuki near the back of the right shoulder, but Goeido was too slippery and ultimately ducked under Kisenosato's extended arms assuming moro-zashi, and from there, Goeido executed a yori charge that was so fast that Kisenosato was unable to counter at the edge resulting in his flying off the dohyo backwards, which is what we usually see in his losses.

This was actually an entertaining bout of sumo because you could see that something was actually on the line here: Goeido fighting for his status as sole leader and Kisenosato fighting for his continued Yokozuna candidacy. The sumo content from both parties wasn't good, and there's little to really breakdown, but you could tell the match was straight up, and both guys wanted to win. Goeido is actually a bad matchup for Kisenosato because the Kid is always so exposed to moro-zashi, and that proved true here as Goeido skates to 11-0 while Kisenosato falls to 8-3 officially eliminating talk of promotion to Yokozuna...thankfully.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Harumafuji was paired against Sekiwake Takayasu, a rikishi whose also got a bit on the line besides the yusho race as the wookie is generating talk of Ozeki candidacy as well. I think also that when the entire shooting match is said and done, this particular bout will be viewed as the most pivotal bout of the basho. With a win, Harumafuji stays in control of his own destiny just one off the pace. With a loss, it moves the Yokozuna two back, it makes Goeido the favorite to hoist the cup on senshuraku, and then it also fuels Takayasu's chase for Ozeki. Getting to the bout itself, Harumafuji won the tachi-ai with a good left paw to the neck and a nice tsuki to the side with the right, but instead of just moving to the inside which was wide open and grabbing the belt, he went for a lame pull at the back of Takayasu's shoulder letting the Ozeki-hopeful survive, and from there it was pretty clear what was coming. After Takayasu recovered from his rough start, the two engaged in a pretty nifty tsuppari-ai where Harumafuji slowly but surely connected on enough shoves to the body to muscle Takayasu back near the straw where the Yokozuna got the right arm inside, but instead of scoring the force-out win straightway, he just moved to his left and dove to the dohyo as Takayasu complied with a late slapdown to make the hiki-otoshi official. I suppose there was enough contact mid-bout when the two traded face slaps in the center of the ring to make this look legitimate enough to the sheep, but this bout was yaocho all the way. First, the Yokozuna dominated the tachi-ai but quickly relented his position with a lame pull. Second, even with the two trading shoves in the center of the ring, who pushed who back to the edge? Takayasu didn't employ a single move in this bout that affected the Yokozuna's movements or tactics whatsoever. And then third, Harumafuji just dove to the dirt despite the deep inside right position at the edge with no counter tactics coming from the Sekiwake.  Answer this question:  look at Takayasu's arms in the pic above.   How does Harumafuji end up on his back a split second later?  The Yokozuna is in the position you'd find one in after a throw.  The supposed winning technique here was ruled as a pull down.

I see a lot of similarities with this bout to the Terunofuji - Takayasu matchup. Sure, Takayasu won in the end, but you couldn't point to a single thing that he did to put the Ozeki on his heels and set him up. Terunofuji won the tachi-ai; Terunofuji allowed the two to trade tsuppari in the center of the ring; and Terunofuji also had the clear path to the inside against the upright Takayasu. In Terunofuji's case, he actually grabbed moro-zashi, but he did nothing with it and allowed Takayasu to defeat him without employing a potent offensive maneuver. Like that bout on day 9, Harumafuji was in complete control here as well and just dove of his own volition in the end. But...there are plenty who believe in miracles, so the result at the end of the day is Harumafuji's falling to 9-2 while Takayasu climbs to the same mark. In the interview room afterwards, Takayasu knew what had happened, and fumbled around with his comments, but what do you say? With the victory over the Yokozuna, Takayasu should be an official Ozeki candidate in Kyushu, and while I really like this guy, setting up a rank through yaocho means you'll have to sustain him at that rank with yaocho, and more yaocho in sumo on a daily basis is what we don't need.

After the bout, the leaderboard changed as follows:

11-0: Goeido
9-2: Harumafuji, Takayasu, Endoh

There are also a host of guys circling at 8-3, but until Goeido loses, they're inconsequential. As for Goeido, I would put his percentage of taking the yusho at about 50%. In the case of Kotoshogiku in January, his getting to the yusho required all three Mongolians to step aside for him, and Goeido will need the same cooperation here as well. Terunofuji already laid down for him yesterday, so he has the two Yokozuna to go starting with Kakuryu in the day's final bout tomorrow. Predicting what the Yokozuna will do is difficult, however, so it's not quite in the bag yet. If both Harumafuji and Kakuryu lie down for Goeido, he's your champion, but who knows what the remaining Khan are going to do? Just ask Kisenosato how many times he's been in a similar position as Goeido and come up short.

Moving to the other bout on the day, Yokozuna Kakuryu welcomed Ozeki Kotoshogiku in a migi-yotsu contest where Kakuryu easily just sent Kotoshogiku down with a left tsuki to the side, a move that is open for every single one of Kotoshogiku's foes. This bout lasted for a just a few seconds, and before the two could get settled in, Kakuryu just dumped the Ozeki with ease picking up kachi-koshi in the process at 8-3. As for Kotoshogiku, he falls to 7-4 but will surely get that last win the next four days. Just the ease with which the Kak won today shows how frail Kotoshogiku is and why they're likely prepping Takayasu to take his place when he retires.

At 4-6 coming into the day, Ozeki Terunofuji had a choice to make against M5 Mitakeumi: do I still go for the kachi-koshi? Or do I take my make-koshi medicine and dole out a few more strategic wins to Japanese rikishi? With two more Japanese Ozeki coming up, I think Terunofuji realized that he may as well continue to play nice and let the Japanese rikishi have their day this basho. After hooking up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, you just didn't see Terunofuji wrap up his gal from the outside right as he is wont to do, and so he just stood there allowing Mitakeumi to burrow in and then set up a slow-developing soto-gake move with the left leg. The Ozeki could have easily countered that, but he instead waited for it to develop and then faked a right kote-nage attempt with the right arm as he was felled with that slow leg trip. If Terunofuji wants to win this bout, that kote-nage attempt comes way earlier. He also doesn't just stand there and wait for things to happen, especially against such an inferior rikishi.

I've said this before, but my biggest pet peeve in sumo right now is how this dude is treated. He is the exact prototype of what an Ozeki is and how they rise up the ranks, but since Japan is incapable of producing such a rikishi of their own, they have to stifle the Mongolian and keep him down just to make it look as if there's parity. Terunofuji falls to 4-7 with the loss, and you may as well make him kadoban for Kyushu since we're lowering the bar to help align Terunofuji with the other three Japanese Ozeki. Ozeki used to go kadoban due to injury, or maybe they'd just fall short at 7-8 once a year, but the current crop of Japanese Ozeki go kadoban with just four or five wins all the time (just look at Kotoshogiku and Goeido from last basho), so all this does is make Terunofuji look like their equal when in reality, they don't even belong in the same division together let alone same rank.

M1 Okinoumi caught Sekiwake Takarafuji with a nice moro-te-zuki at the tachi-ai, but his legs weren't entirely into it disabling him to fend Takarafuji off forever with his tsuppari attack, and so the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu with neither grabbing the outer grip. Okinoumi briefly looked as if he might go for a pull attempt, but he repented quickly as the two settled into a relly nice contest in the center of the ring. As Okinoumi proactively tried to force his gal back, Takarafuji timed a nice move to grab the right outer grip, but Okinoumi threatened with a good left inside belt throw to keep Takarafuji at bay and force the two to square back up. After regaining his strength a bit, Takarafuji went for another force-out charge leading with that right outer, and while Okinoumi attempted a counter throw again with the left inside, he didn't have the strength causing him to crumble to the dohyo in the end. This was likely the best bout of the basho, and both Announcers knew they had just witnessed fine sumo and counter sumo as well. It really was a treat, and one reason why I'm rather contrite today is because the real nonsense on the day didn't occur until the last few bouts. Overall, it was a really good day of sumo highlighted by this bout where Takarafuji kept kachi-koshi hopes alive at 4-7 while Okinoumi completely falls out of the yusho picture at 7-4.

Komusubi Kaisei and M2 Tochinoshin hooked up in the immediate gappuri-migi position meaning both had simultaneous inside right grips and left outers, but Tochinoshin has looked out of sorts this entire basho (genki ga arimasen as Osaka Announcer correctly put it), and so Kaisei was easily able to body his foe upright and force him across the straw without much of a fight. Usually these guys treat us to some good sumo, but not today as Kaisei stays alive at 4-7 while Tochinoshin is long gone at 2-9.

The feisty M1 Yoshikaze made sure to keep Komusubi Tochiohzan from getting to the inside, and the two engaged in a tsuppari affair, but Oh's got some beef to him even in a push-fest, so he kept Yoshikaze at bay with some nice defensive shoves, and when Yoshikaze next tried to duck to the inside, Tochiohzan caught him by the back of the head and just dragged Yoshikaze forward and down. Cafe added a nice flip off'a the dohyo for good measure, but the pull wasn't that forceful. Both of these guys end the day on the brink at 4-7.

M3 Takanoiwa got the right arm to the inside from the tachi-ai, but M8 Daishomaru responded well moving to his left and using a nice left tsuki to throw Takanoiwa forward and off balance, and as the two looked to square back up, Daishomaru caught Takanoiwa with a nice right paw to the throat and followed that with a left uppercut that led to the left inside position, which Daishomaru used to force Takanoiwa back and across. Although Daishomaru's counter move from the tachi-ai was good, I believe that Takanoiwa was mukiryoku as he let the kid come back and completely dictate the pace with little resistance. Takanoiwa falls to 4-7 with the loss while Daishomaru improves to just 3-8.

Before moving on, when I write up my reports I do it as I'm watching the broadcast play out, so during the first week when I just go in chronological order, the report has a nice flow to it. During week two when I go into leaderboard mode, the bouts are out of order, and sometimes it disrupts the flow of my original notes, and the reason I even mention this now is because this was the first bout on the day where I thought one of the parties was mukiryoku.  Granted, there weren't a lot of hotly contested bouts up to this point, but they were still straight up, and that contributed to my overall peaceful mood on the day. I think this bout was mukiryoku, and if so, that means we went 11 straight bouts prior before any funny business. If this bout was straight up, we didn't see our first yaocho until we hit the Ozeki ranks with Mitakeumi vs. Terunofuji.

At this point of the broadcast, they announced Chiyootori's withdrawal giving M2 Shodai the freebie and improving his record to 4-7. Shodai had a rough start, but that will happen ranked among the jo'i when you get the Yokozuna and Ozeki in week 1. In Shodai's case, he was obligated to lose to the Japanese Ozeki, and none of the Mongolians let up for him, so there's seven losses right there. On day eight, he lost to Tamawashi pretty, so Tamawashi sort of a barometer to see just how good the Japanese rikishi are?

M4 Myogiryu struck so hard and fast against M7 Ikioi that he got the right arm inside and threatened the left outer grip forcing Ikioi upright and back so quickly that Ikioi didn't have sufficient room to plant on his counter right scoop throw, so before that even developed, Myogiryu had him forced back and across. This was vintage Myogiryu as he moves to 4-7 while Ikioi has lost his ikioi at 5-6.

The problem with relying in tachi-ai henka so much is that it throws you out of your rhythm when you do decide to go straight up, and that was exactly the case today with M6 Chiyonokuni who faced M7 Shohozan. Chiyonokuni's arms were so wide at the tachi-ai today that even Kisenosato said, "Dude, bring it in a bit," as Shohozan looked to seize moro-zashi in the process. Chiyonokuni was able to escape to his right to avoid certain death, but that put him in a completely defensive posture, and so the bout turned to a game of cat and mouse with Shohozan looking to get inside and Chiyonokuni moving fast and threatening pull. In the end, Chiyonokuni put his arm at the back of Shohozan's head as if to pull, but Shohozan had the momentum and knew it, and so he was able to drive Kuni back and across for the nice win. Shohozan moves to 7-4, and I really want to start liking Chiyonokuni, but he's gotta clean up that tachi-ai first as he falls to 6-5.

M13 Toyohibiki smelled blood against M9 Nishikigi and came out with some nice tsuppari, but Nishikigi wasn't blown away to the point where he couldn't move laterally, and so he chose to go left using a nice tsuki to knock Toyohibiki off balance and set up the inside position. Toyohibiki looked uncomfortable at this point, but since Nishikigi wasn't offensive minded, Toyohibiki went for a stupid pull without proper positioning allowing Nishikigi to push him back across before falling to the dohyo himself. This one was close, but not close enough to call a mono-ii. The first few seconds of this bout was probably the best sumo I've seen from Nishikigi so far albeit defensive sumo. Once he grabbed that left inside position, I would have liked to have seen him be more proactive instead of just standing there, but there were some bright spots from the kid today...finally. He limps forward to 5-6 while Toyohibiki suffers make-koshi fate at 3-8.

M9 Takekaze jumped out of his stance and immediately put both hands at the back of M12 Gagamaru's head, but Takekaze didn't move to either side, so it almost looked as if he was trying to mount the Georgian from the front. Gagamaru didn't read the move quick enough, however, and by the time he realized what was happening, Takekaze moved to his left and pulled Gagamaru out of the ring in less than two seconds. It was dirty sumo from Takekaze no doubt, but Gagamaru's gotta take advantage of that mistake from Takekaze at the tachi-ai. Gagamaru was furious after the bout and could be heard cursing as he walked down the hana-michi. Even the man on the street, Yoshida Announcer, piped in, "Gagamaru was just yelling some things that I can't repeat on the air." I think Yoshida was still on a high from day 9 when he had Akimoto Sayaka's full attention. Anyway, Gagamaru only has himself to blame at 5-6 while Takekaze jumps to 7-4.

M14 Kagayaki used his size advantage over M10 Arawashi today as well as I've ever seen him do it. The kid came with his usual tsuppari at the tachi-ai catching Arawashi squarely with a right paw to the neck that stood the Mongolian upright, and then he used excellent de-ashi to lurch into the right inside position, and his movement was so fast that it enabled him to drive Arawashi straight back and out. Good tachi-ai, good footwork, attack when you're opponent is upright...that is textbook sumo. Kagayaki improves to 7-4 with what I think is his best win so far while Arawashi falls to 3-8.

M15 Daieisho and M10 Sadanoumi began with a tsuppari affair that Daieisho ruled a bit since he's more of a pusher, but Sadanoumi caught his foe with a nice right tsuki that threw Daieisho out of rhythm and gave Sadanoumi the opening to moro-zashi, and once that was inevitable, Daieisho only had a meager pull attempt to counter, but he was too far gone so gunbai to Sadanoumi for the great yori-kiri win. He's 5-6 now if you need him while Daieisho falls to 3-8.

M13 Amakaze and M11 Sokokurai hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, which should normally give the much larger Amakaze the advantage, but his defense against the right outer grip from Sokokurai was poor. He rebuffed Sokokurai the first time, but it didn't take much for Sokokurai to go for the right outer again and get it, and the grip was positioned on the front of the belt, and so Sokokurai was able to lift up on the rookie and eventually work him back and across. The sumo here from Sokokurai was text book in that the key to scoring a yori-kiri win is to raise your opponent upright. When I see rikishi who don't do that, it's an immediate red flag. Props to Sokokurai today as he moves to 4-7 while Amakaze is quite lost in this division at 3-8.

M12 Chiyoshoma came with a sloppy henka to his left, but he was bailed out as M15 Tokushoryu extended his right arm as the rookie was able to grab onto the back of it keeping his balance and spilling the special sauce in the one-second win. Rook's gotta clean that tachi-ai up as he moves to 7-4, and I guess is monkey see monkey do in the Kokonoe-beya with these guys all over the place at the starting lines. Tokushoryu falls to 5-6.

Finally, J3 Azumaryu and M15 Kyokushuho hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Azumaryu grabbed the early left grip, and while Shuho did manage a left outer of his own, he had to work to get it, and so the taller Azumaryu was rested and ready for a force-out charge that was just too good for Kyokushuho to defend falling to 5-6.

I won't deny the drama that's building here in Aki, but it's a shame how it has to be setup with something other than true, sound sumo.

Day 10 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
On Day 6 I wrote up a little leaderboard thing, then erased it. It was too early, and with fellows like Endo and Kyokushuho in there, it really seemed silly. Mike apparently had the same issue yesterday: the leaderboard feels flimsy, farcical, decorated by phantasms like Goeido as sole leader and Endo trailing right behind. But it is Day 10, and what am I here for anyway? This is the leaderboard we have. In January the Hokutoumi Revolution gave us Kotoshogiku as Champion, but for the last three tournaments has simply wafted smoke about Kisenosato's hapless, hopeless Yokozuna run towards us. This time it brings us… Goeido, Potential Champion! This seems like such a fantasy I can hardly give it credit… except for January. Except for January. And so we must soldier on, and consider that this is our real leaderboard, and that while it may go away, it has defined this tournament: this is an open tournament, ruled by illogical underdogs, and we're just not sure yet if Harumafuji, the lone deserving guy left on it, will savage them all in the end, or trot back to lurk in his cave. Let's take a look at these colorful leaders, then. A menagerie!:

• Goeido, 9-0: fights like an epileptic bullfrog. Has all the highest ranked guys left. One question: Will they? Won't they?
• Endo, 8-1: has all the power of a pixie who ate too much dandelion fluff. I thought we had consigned him long ago to Takamisakari territory, but ah no, here he is back again. His yusho chances are zero, though. He's just here as eye candy.
• Harumafuji, 8-1: It's his for the taking, unless he gets sloppy, which he often does, on purpose or out of carelessness or whatever. This tournament he's like a light shining in deep darkness; during his matches I say, "oh yeah, that's right." His matches are a different reality.
• Kisenosato, 7-2: our hearts were filled with hope when he lost two bouts early on, and now they are filled with dread as his ghoulish Yokozuna run revenants. Not dramatic enough, though, methinks: wilt.
• Kotoshogiku, 7-2: only here because he was kadoban and needs his eight. He'll probably only win one or two more.
• Okinoumi, 7-2: when I wrote on Day 6, he was all the rage and a potential Champion. Mirage revealed as sand as usual with rank-and-filers.
• Takayasu, 7-2: Ozeki run? Oh, whatever.
• Kotoyuki, 7-2: classic case of an under ranked guy cleaning up as expected. Zero threat to yusho.

So, the only three contenders for the yusho in this skein of strangeness are Goeido and Harumafuji, with Kisenosato as deep dark horse (or dead horse being beaten and beaten).

LEADERBOARD MATCHES!

M14 Endo (8-1) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (4-5)
Up first is Endo, and while this would be mostly a very entertaining day of sumo, it was not an auspicious beginning. Endo's tachi-ai looked light, but Sadanoumi took it as if he had been hit by a Mack truck, sliding up high against Endo and heading straight-as-it-gets backwards, holding Endo uselessly around the uppers, in a simple linear force-out, yori-kiri.

M14 Kagayaki (6-3) vs. M8 Kotoyuki (7-2)
One of Kagayaki's problems is a lethargic sense to his sumo: slow and insufficiently offensive. Give him credit for remedying that here: he went for it, bashing Kotoyuki in the face on the tachi-ai with both hands, momentarily taking the big pounce off his game by hitting him with some of his own medicine. However, the key word there is momentarily, because much as I detest Kotoyuki's atmospherics, his sumo isn't bad, and you could just tell this was another match where he was going to enjoy an easy destruction of an overmatched foe. Lo! Indeed, Kotoyuki survived the face punches, then delivered a few of his own on the way to an oshi-dashi win. Kotoyuki is not proving anything this tournament other than that he should be a legitimate jo'i mainstay, but hey, there are a couple dozen wrestlers outside it who dearly wish they could say the same.

S Takayasu (7-2) vs. M1 Okinoumi (7-2)
Light-touch tachi-ai from both parties, after which Takayasu mixed a couple of pulls in with his pushes that left him up top and in danger; Okinoumi should have pressed the advantage right there. Instead, after a bit of leaning on each other, Takayasu tried a throw, and latched onto a left inside belt grip that he would use to control the rest of this lengthy match. Okinoumi had a grip here too, but was his old Lake Placid, Sea of Tranquility self: he never drove the action. Eventually Takayasu raised him up and pushed him manfully out, yori-kiri. He is a big fellow and did look good here.

O Kisenosato (7-2) vs. O Kotoshogiku (7-2)
Two blind men looking for an elephant. Kisenosato went for Kotoshogiku's neck on the tachi-ai, then retreated, pulling. Why would you ever do that against Kotoshogiku, whose whole game is forward momentum? However, Kotoshogiku was slow to take advantage, hopping oddly forward, a shot duck, and when they finally bodied up, seemed to forget to gaburu. Kisenosato happily enjoyed the moment of calm and snaked in for a nice inside left grip. From there it was Kisenosato driving the pace, leaning on his man and driving him backwards. Kotoshogiku wiggled quite a bit, but after not taking advantage of Kisenosato's initial fade, he never had anything in this match and was eventual yori-kiri fodder. The better wrestler won this, but it didn't look particularly good or legitimate.

O Goeido (9-0) vs. O Terunofuji (4-5)
I'm going to take the contrary view here and say Terunofuji is out of it and can't get it done right now even if he wants to. I do think his knees are bothering him; in several of his losses he's looked totally demoralized at the end after fighting hard and just not have the power he used to: he can't finish guys off, and hasn't looked like an Ozeki for many basho now. Frankly, he looks like befuddled crap lately. In this match he executed a useless tachi-ai, giving Goeido a little slap in the face but leaving himself open inside, and Goeido was uncharacteristically focused and plainspoken, taking the dual inside grips instantly, one so far on the back of Terunofuji's belt that he had him wrapped up pretty good. He lifted Fuji the Terrible right out, likketty split, yori-kiri. No, I don't think much of Goeido. Yes, I loved Terunofuji pre-injury, and that greatness is going to waste. But this match was well played by Goeido, while Terunofuji looks totally lost to me.

Y Harumafuji (8-1) vs. M5 Aoiyama (5-4)
Oh boy, what's going to happen here? Destruction, that's what. I like Aoiyama much, but he didn't have a plan here, just kind of pushing at Harumafuji, looking at him and holding him at bay, like a starving benumbed with fear in the presence of a huge steppe wolf in Siberia in February 1904. That won't work against a Yokozuna, and why would he think it would? Harumafuji pushed back at him, harder, then dove in on the belt and toppled Blue Mountain over backwards, yori-taoshi. Harumafuji had no reason to lose here and made it elementary and dominant.

Revised Leaderboard; not much change but slight trimming of the two loss fat:

Goeido 10-0
Endo, Harumafuji 9-1
Kisenosato, Takayasu, Kotoyuki 8-2

OTHER MATCHES

J1 Ura (3-6) vs. M13 Toyohibiki (3-6)
The other day when doing this Makuuchi visit thing, Ura looked tentative and terrible, getting schooled by a nobody. Here he looked much better, but we saw bad signs of things to come, too. He took on Toyohibiki head on, but wasn't a match for his power: Toyohibiki had him by the neck and going backwards. To Ura's credit, he slipped out to his right lightning fast and threw Toyohibiki down hard, kata-sukashi. But think about it; if this is how Ura has to beat Toyohibiki, what happens against Kotoyuki? And then against Aoiyama? And so on. I understand the hype about this guy from an entertainment standpoint--yeah, this is fun. But from a sumo standpoint, I'm not convinced. Yes, I will be a little patient, though.

M12 Gagamaru (4-5) vs. M15 Kyokushuho (5-4)
Gagamaru had the momentum here and never gave up, pushing harder than the other guy and thus winning this basic and unobjectionable shoving match, oshi-dashi.

M16 Daieisho (3-6) vs. M12 Chiyoshoma (5-4)
Okay, so Chiyoshoma is showing a good balance of skills and a solid ring presence thus far. Daieisho went after him with a flurry of tsuppari, but Chiyoshoma weathered it, grabbed the belt, and took his time to remove the undersized Daieisho, yori-kiri. He did not look like a rookie here, and looked the better wrestler.

M10 Arawashi (3-6) vs. M15 Tokushoryu (4-5)
I've always said Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) needs to use his weight and bull aggressively inside and push hard, but he rarely manages it. He did it beautifully here though, with a low, fast, punishing tachi-ai that got him underneath Arawashi's right side and driving hard. Arawashi tried a gyaku-ten throw at the end but it was too late as Saucy sent him rolling over the salt basket and away, sukui-nage. Yay.

M7 Shohozan (5-4) vs. M11 Sokokurai (3-6)
It's fun when a guy creeps up on you and realize one day, "I love this guy!" Shohozan has been around for years, but only the last few tournaments have I finally oozed into a deep appreciation for him. Every bout he's in I relax a little, think, "this should be good," and sit back to enjoy. That is fairly rare in Makuuchi these days. He thoroughly dismantled Sokokurai here with a few jabs to the body, a few purposeful chokeholds, then some more thrusts to the chest for the tsuki-dashi win. Ah, falling in love. You go, girl!

M6 Chiyonokuni (5-4) vs. M8 Daishomaru (2-7)
Then there is falling out of love. As predicted, Chiyonokuni has been too small to hold his own up here--so has done so by evading at the tachi-ai. Thank goodness, though, he knew he didn't need to do that here, and treated us to some roundhouse destruction. He drew Daishomaru's attention by throwing up his left arm during the tachi-ai, but wound up and brought his right forearm and first up viciously from below on the other side, knocking Daishomaru smartly back with an attacking body-blow. He controlled the match from there; Daishomaru lasted a bit by running here and there, but Chiyonokuni stayed in close pursuit and scored the emphatic oshi-dashi.

M13 Amakaze (3-6) vs. M6 Tamawashi (6-3)
The game is pretty much up already for our latest silly blubber ball, Amakaze. Yeah, he had a little pushing action here that worked a tiny bit, and it took some time to force him out, but this was an absolutely vicious schooling by Tamawashi, hell's full of bears, using Amakaze for punching practice, unleashing a rapid and heavy barrage of blows to the face, funeral of blunt thorns, that slowly but surely phased the behemoth and drove him out, oshi-dashi. It's fun when guys can really show you his dominance in a particular mismatch.

M7 Ikioi (5-4) vs. M5 Mitakeumi (6-3)
I'm so not into Ikioi. He tried and tried and tried and tried in this one and just couldn't get it done. Sweeping up from underneath on a hard-pushing tachi-ai that did little. Pushing at Mitakeumi. Trying desperately to throw him over to the side. I've never seen such a strong looking and ring-active guy look so ineffectual, tournament after tournament. The Bully (Mitakeumi) just kept his body up against him and kept resisting, and eventually found an opportunity to push him out by the face, yori-kiri.

M4 Myogiryu (2-7) vs. M9 Nishikigi (4-5)
Essentially, while Nishikigi was still standing at the starting lines thinking about it, Myogiryu had already punched him in the face and grabbed moro-zashi, followed swiftly by the yori-kiri win. One of many glorious, violently decisive mismatches today.

M9 Takekaze (5-4) vs. M4 Chiyootori (1-8)
Hoo, boy. Chiyootori sure has looked bad this tournament, way too low (yes, that is possible), spending several matches staring at the ground while his opponent has his choice of strategies from above against his thus-blinded foe. All things in moderation, and Chiyootori seems to have forgotten that if you're low all the time, your opponents will adapt to that. No one better to do so than Takekaze, who of course just pulled him down, as he's shown us he's the master of hundreds of times before, hataki-komi. "Take me, Takekaze!"

M2 Tochinoshin (2-7) vs. M3 Takanoiwa (3-6)
Pretty good stuff, people. Takanoiwa battered in so hard and straight he looked like an electrical plug trying to make a wall socket out of Tochinoshin. He wedged his head into Tochinoshin's armpit and they were wedded to thick current. They also both had dual belt grips, but Takanoiwa's were better, with one hand a way back on the butt button, while Tochinoshin on one side had just one fold, looking like a guy trying to bend a penny with his fingers. Because they were locked in so close, it was good lift-'im-up territory, and Tochinoshin got Takanoiwa off his feet twice but couldn't finish it. To my amazement, as if to show him he's no meat, Takanoiwa also briefly picked Tochinoshin up. Ooh, it was on. They staggered to and fro with effort, and Tochinoshin would have pushed Takanoiwa out but for Takanoiwa putting up a leg for a trip that didn't work at all as an offensive move, but saved him by being another cling-point to resist removal with. This was followed by more manful striving, but Tochinoshin inadvertently stepped out, yori-kiri, on one backwards surge, and it was over just like that. Okay, so I still don't like Takanoiwa, but maybe I don't know why anymore, because this this was barrel-o'-fun.

K Kaisei (2-7) vs. M1 Yoshikaze (4-5)
Kaisei didn't have to do much here and didn't, retreating peacefully and shading away in a circle, then putting one big meaty right arm on the left side of Yoshikaze's body and upending him instantly, shita-te-nage. Winning while moving backwards usually isn't impressive, but here with Kaisei you still just have to shake your head and say, "that's one big strong dude."

M2 Shodai (2-7) vs. K Tochiohzan (3-6)
Ol' Chestnut Heart (Tochiohzan) was swinging his arms around lazily and sloppily before the tachi-ai like some kind of distraction that looked a lot like "not how am I going to lose this one?" He got inside for a moment, which he likes, but gave that up, then kept his hands up high as Shodai responded appropriately by focusing on staying inside and driving forward for the yori-kiri win. Give-away.

S Takarafuji (3-6) vs. Y Kakuryu (6-3)
This was nice work by Kakuryu and a good effort by both men, though Takarafuji as usual suffered from passivity and had little going on. He did resist for quite a while in what was a long one, though. Kakuryu, similar to Takayasu earlier, tried a bit of pushing, a bit of pulling, but he kept his feet apart, his head low, and was in control throughout. He got a right inside grip on the front of the belt, and bent over in an inverted L shape, keeping his butt back and preventing Takarafuji from getting a similar grip. From there, though it took some time as Takarafuji is the bigger man and not a bad wrestler, Kakuryu was able to push him out yori-kiri. Pretty good stuff here, says me.

Eight, nine; for better sumo we pined. Ten, eleven, Mike puts yeast in bread that's not leavened.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I normally focus on the leaderboard at the start of week 2, but what we have going this basho is not a leaderboard; it's more like a circus. In fact, by the time the dust settled on the day, we still had eight rikishi listed on NHK's leaderboard with the key rikishi, Harumafuji, one off the pace, and so it's really going to be hard to keep track of the yusho race over the next few days. The basic premise coming out of the weekend is that Goeido is undefeated and the sole leader, and so the real drama in week 2 will be whether or not someone will step forward and dare to "upset" the Ozeki in his quest for the yusho.

Eight or nine years ago, I made the prophecy that should Japan produce a Yokozuna in the next 10 years, his name will be Goeido, and wouldn't it be funny if that actually happened, especially in the current landscape of sumo?? And then if Goeido does end up hoisting the cup at the end of this basho, what does that say of Kisenosato? They have done more to coddle Kisenosato over the years in an effort to propel him to the yusho not to mention the Yokozuna rank, so it would be funny to see Goeido rise up and steal his thunder. Actually, it wouldn't, but sumo has corrupted itself to the point where all I can do on most days is just shake my head in wonder that people actually believe all this.

Today's broadcast didn't help much with my morale either because they spent the entire time selling the sport to its target audience: old people, housewives, and kids. The guest on the day was Sayaka Akimoto, whom NHK listed as an actress, but her real claim to fame is/was her membership in the pop idol group, AKB48, the biggest girl group in the history of Japanese pop music that has spawned at least a dozen copycat offshoots. The irony is that the group has about as much musical talent as...well, me, which means zero. The point of the group is not the music, however. Rather, the girls are dressed in skimpy outfits and thrown out there as eye candy for Japanese guys to satisfy their Lolita complex. I won't go into the politics and the culture or sub culture and divisions of the group which is so vast that it makes the Lord of the Ring Trilogy look like three 30 second commercials because basically, I can't wrap my mind around it all since I'm not a nerd, I work a real job, and I get action with a real girl on a regular basis.  Akimoto is a looker, however, even if she is slightly cross-eyed so that you never know which eye is the correct one to look into.

Today, Ms. Akimoto was dressed in a formal kimono, and they sent her all around the venue during the first two thirds of the broadcast to introduce the various corners and amenities available in the Ryogoku Kokugikan. The focus was on everything there except the sumo in the ring of course. Akimoto-san started out in a large dining area where the former Onokuni was sitting at a round table with a bowl of chanko-nabe in front of him. I guess it's fitting that they chose Onokuni since he's the largest oyakata in sumo. In fact, he's still so wide, that bowl of chanko looked like a shot glass in front of him. Trying to make it all look impromptu, Onokuni invited Akimoto-san to sit down and try the chanko, and of course she complied.

Tell me if you've every seen this scene on Japanese television: a hot chick sits down to taste some food on a program. She has perfect posture as she puts that first bite into her mouth with her chopsticks, and immediately, her eyebrows raise and her face lights up as if in total shock at just how good the food is.  "Oishii!" is what they usually say, but Yoshida Announcer and Onokuni were blabbering so much about what goes into the chanko, Akimoto-san could barely get a word in edge-wise.

Onokuni: "Well, you know, we start off making the chanko with a chicken-based soup, and then we add plenty of ingredients in there to provide stamina for the rikishi."

Yoshida Announcer: "Wow, you don't say!"

Akimoto-san: "Wait...can you guys at least let me say oishii already or refer to the taste of this chanko-nabe as sappari shita aji?"

I mean, what two guys talk like this spontaneously? Impromptu the whole thing wasn't, and the whole time I'm watching this play out, I'm like: whatever happened to selling us on the sumo? I come off of a weekend of watching another contact sport-- American football--where all of the commercials are about beer and greasy grub and fast cars and aphrodisiacs, and then I wake up Monday morning to watch a sport that's becoming less and less contact by the day, and I'm treated to talk of recipes, tea time, vending machines for kids, and scarves for women designed with a sumo flair.

I realize that I need to step back a bit with my Western mind and its way of thinking and remind myself that this is just a cultural thing where everyone has their duty and everyone fulfills their roles for the benefit of the group, but I just miss those days when sumo was a true, smash-mouth sport.

Okay, I've avoided getting to the bouts for this long on purpose, but if we must, let's start off with the Ozeki Terunofuji - Sekiwake Takayasu matchup, a contest that fit in perfectly with the mold of today's broadcast. One minor detail regarding Akimoto-san that I failed to mention is that she's half-Japanese, half-Filipino (stop me if you know where this is all going). So there she is sitting in the mukou-joumen chair just gushing over Takayasu and praising him high and low, and then Terunofuji just comes out and starts drubbing the dude.

Terunofuji first came in low looking for the inside position (probably more like looking to get pulled over straightway), but when Takayasu failed to make any move, he agreed to a straight up tsuppari attack, and the Ozeki was actually beating Takayasu at it pretty good so much so that he was able to get to the inside with the right arm. Takayasu complied and actually had the left outer grip as well, but he was so upright that he could do nothing with it. Terunofuji was in complete command throughout but curiously never went for the win, and then as the action flowed to the edge, the Ozeki actually got moro-zashi where Takayasu's right arm was pointing to the rafters. Instead of just driving Takayasu back and out or throwing him over with a scoop throw, Terunofuji instead chose to fit him for a bra positioning both of his arm behind Takayasu's back in a position that I have never seen a rikishi assume in all my years of sumo.

You couldn't see this from the front angle, but they showed it during the slow motion replays, and I have never seen a guy position his arms in that fashion when grabbing moro-zashi, and believe me, I've experienced a lot of bra fittings in my time! Despite moro-zashi, the Ozeki never did anything just standing there waiting for Takayasu to make a move and thinking to himself, "Hmm...is this a 46 band size or 48?", and so the Sekiwake eventually fished for the right outer grip and ended up just bodying Terunofuji upright and across with nothing but a pot to piss in. There really wasn't a move here to describe what clinched it for Takayasu; the two just ended up at the edge with Terunofuji on the wrong end of the yori-kiri. I mean, you look at that pic at left and what is Takayasu doing that would overcome a moro-zashi grip...from Terunofuji no less??  As NHK showed a replay of Akimoto-san clapping furiously for her beau while sitting in the mukou-joumen chair, Kotooshu, who was providing color on the day, pointed out, "I wasn't sure which guy was the Ozeki here!"  What?!

After losing my breakfast with that comment, they went on to talk about Takayasu and possible promotion to the Ozeki rank. It wouldn't happen after this basho, but don't be surprised to see him as an Ozeki candidate for Kyushu. I actually have nothing against Takayasu. He's a solid, solid rikishi and probably better than anything full-blooded that Japan has, so I get it. It just insulted my intelligence to have the broadcast climax with such nonsense. The end result as the dust settled was Takayasu moving to 7-2 with the win while Terunofuji falls to 4-5.  4-5!!  And this with guys like Goeido still skating through undefeated.

I'm not quite sure where to go next. Hey, did you know they have these kiddie vending machines at the venue that actually have snow globes in them with sumo rikishi inside? But wait...they're not snow globes. No, you shake them up real hard and that white stuff floating down through the water is salt. Get it? The rikishi is throwing salt into the ring!!

When Akimoto-san showed us the snow globes, she had one of Kisenosato...of course. Then, she put her money into a machine supposedly, and guess who came out?  Endoh!! I'm sure had she put a few more hyaku-en coins into the machines, she would have eventually gotten snow globes of guys like Kaisei, Aoiyama, and Arawashi, right?

Speaking of Komusubi Kaisei, let's go there next as he was involved in an important bout against M1 Okinoumi. With the yusho still on his mind, Okinoumi fished for moro-zashi at the tachi-ai, but the Brasilian does have his pride, and so Kaisei hit hard grabbing the left outer grip and right frontal grip that was to the outside, but it was in so tight towards the front of the belt that it cut Okinoumi's left arm off completely, and so Kaisei kept Okinoumi upright with that right grip while barreling straight forward into Okinoumi, and the M1 had nowhere to go but back and out. I know that I always look for counter moves at the edge, but both of Okinoumi's arms were cuffed and stuffed in tight, and so it was a lopsided bout in favor of the foreigner.

Coming into the day at 1-7, Kaisei simply got to the point where enough was enough. How many more days was he just going to roll over for Japanese rikishi? I don't know if Kaisei still has hopes for kachi-koshi at 2-7 now, but it's not beyond him to get it if he fights his hardest the rest of the way. Okinoumi fell to 7-2 after the drubbing, but at least he's still on the leaderboard. The whole irony in all of this is assuming that sumo was all straight up, you have a Komusubi struggling at 1-7. He faces a guy who was 7-1 coming in with two wins over Yokozuna and three wins over Ozeki. And yet, the 1-7 guy just goes out and kicks his ass. What are we to make of that?

Since I'm hopping all over the place, let's now focus our attention on the basho leader, Ozeki Goeido, who needed to solve M5 Aoiyama today. Aoiyama set the pace with his usual tsuppari attack, but I should probably rebrand that attack as "tsuppari lite." Goeido looked lost from the tachi-ai standing upright with his hands in no man's land, but Aoiyama just backed up for the Ozeki keeping his hands high as if fishing for a pull. The pull was there and would have worked as the Bulgarian dragged Goeido down with some oomph, but Aoiyama made damn sure he stepped out of the ring sloppily before going for the move. Watching live, you're really not looking at a guy's feet, so it looked like Aoiyama may have won, but watching the replay, you could see Aoiyama make sure he stepped well out (we're talking like a full step as opposed to a big toe) before doing anything.

You watch Aoiyama just destroy Arawashi yesterday actually using de-ashi, and he could have done the same thing today against Goeido, but there was no way he was going to upset this apple cart. As for Goeido's sumo, what was there to analyze? His tachi-ai sucked, and he let his opponent completely dictate the pace. Nothing Goeido did caused Aoiyama to back up, and the winning technique here should have been isami-ashi. My guess is that 90% of the Japanese fans are buying this, but I go back to my theme from day 7: where's the real emotion? Where is the electricity like they had back in the Takanohana days? It simply doesn't exist because the sumo is not there to back it up. Yes, Goeido skates free to a 9-0 record, so we'll see what the three Mongolians and his Ozeki brethren will have to say about it. Aoiyama falls to 5-4 for his troubles.

Continuing to cherry pick bouts, let's move next to the Yokozuna. First up was Kakuryu who met M4 Myogiryu with a fierce tsuppari attack standing Myogiryu upright, and as Myogiryu looked to duck back into the bout, Kakuryu shifted gears into pull mode as he is want to do timing a nice pull that sent Myogiryu down and out a few seconds in. This was a lopsided affair that saw Kakuryu move to 6-3 wile Myogiryu is a harmless 2-7.

Yokozuna Harumafuji charged hard against Komusubi Tochiohzan knocking the Komusubi upright and forcing him to attempt to counter with tsuppari, but that's not Oh's game, and so the Yokozuna was able to easily slip to the side of his foe, grab the left outer grip, and then just dump him to the clay a few seconds in. Harumafuji is making it look easy as he moves to 8-1 with the win keeping one off the pace set by Goeido. As for Tochiohzan, his tough luck continues as he falls to 3-6.

Rounding out the other Ozeki bouts, Kotoshogiku and Sekiwake Takarafuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Kotoshogiku dry humped his foe this way and that and eventually across the straw. Takarafuji of course never once attempted to dig in or counter with a tsuki-otoshi that's always there for the taking against Kotoshogiku, so it was a ho-hum bout. Kotoshogiku moves to 7-2 and will surely be able t scavenge a final win to shed his kadoban status whilst Takarafuji falls to 3-6 after the gift.

M4 Chiyootori came in low and had the left arm to the inside at the tachi-ai against Ozeki Kisenosato, but he made sure not to get in close opting to shuffle a bit to his right. The Ozeki kind of fired some shoves Chiyootori's way, but it was more in an effort to feel his opponent out as Chiyootori squirmed left and right. At one point, the Ozeki even put his hands up high as if to go for a pull, but he eventually settled on a right outer grip that he used to just bowl Chiyootori over. And when I say bowl over, it was more like Chiyootori sensing the move was coming and just diving to the dohyo. Yet another fake bout involving a fake Ozeki as Kisenosato moves to 7-2 while Chiyootori suffers make-koshi at 1-8.

Now that I've finally hit my stride, let's get to the rest of the story. M2 Tochinoshin was non-committal at the tachi-ai allowing M1 Yoshikaze to eventually work his way into moro-zashi, and from there, the Private monkeyed with a few half-assed pull attempts allowing Yoshikaze to just drive him straight back and across felling Tochinoshin off the side of the dohyo with a watashi-komi at the end. Tochinoshin has given up moro-zashi a time or two in his career, but his reaction has always been to dig in with grips to the back of the belt, not these timid little pulls. He falls to 2-7 in a bout where I thought he was mukiryoku while Yoshikaze improves to 4-5.

M2 Shodai worked his left arm to the inside at the tachi-ai against M8 Daishomaru, but Shodai was up too high to really hunker down and attack, and so Daishomaru escaped to his left not really doing much. Shodai squared back up and went for a meager pull before finishing off Daishomaru for good with a left kote-nage throw. Didn't look like Daishomaru attempted a single offensive move here even though Shodai was vulnerable at times. Shodai ekes his way forward at 2-7 while Daishomaru falls to the same mark.

M5 Mitakeumi caught M3 Takanoiwa with a nice right nodowa at the tachi-ai that drove the Mongolian back, but Mitakeumi couldn't sill the dill straightway, and so Takanoiwa countered with the left arm to the inside driving Mitakeumi back towards the center of the ring, and he actually had the momentum to finish off his bidness right there, but he let go with the left inside position allowing Mitakeumi to square back up in moro-zashi where the Japanese rikishi easily swung the listless Mongolian over and out in the end. I'm calling this one mukiryoku as well with Mitakeumi going to 6-3 and Takanoiwa falling to 3-6.

M6 Chiyonokuni continues to move sideways at the tachi-ai more than he goes straight forward, and today against M10 Arawashi he shaded left throwing hard tsuppari Arawashi's direction, and as Arawashi looked to dig in and counter with thrusts of his own, he whiffed on a right face slap that allowed Chiyonokuni to duck in, grab the right outer belt, and swing Arawashi around and out with ease. Legit bout here but another sneaky tachi-ai from Chiyonokuni who moves to 5-4 while Arawashi falls to 3-6.

Hey, have I ever mentioned that if you're bored at the sumos...I mean...if you get the urge to have tea with a sexy lady, you can do so at the Kokugikan?  The sexy lady I'm referring to of course is the hottie with the eyeglasses.



M6 Tamawashi just plowed through M12 Chiyoshoma with his bruising tsuppari attack causing the rookie to attempt an evasion back to his left, but Tamawashi's footwork was beautiful and he continued to strike his retreating opponent with shoves so stiff that he knocked Chiyoshoma back onto his arse drawing the tsuki-taoshi kimari-te. Tamawashi's 6-3 if ya need him while Chiyoshoma falls to 5-4.

Everyone knows that M10 Sadanoumi's best days are behind him including M7 Shohozan who smelled blood here driving Sadanoumi back from the tachi-ai with tsuppari to his neck and face, and while Sadanoumi did briefly grab Shohozan's right arm and give him a tug, Shohozan had the momentum and recovered by assuming the moro-zashi position where he grabbed the back of Sadanoumi's belt with both hands and just threw him across the ring utchari style. Pretty bad ass move from Darth Hozan who moves to 5-4 while Sadanoumi slips a bit at 4-5.

M8 Kotoyuki knocked M7 Ikioi back pretty well at the tachi-ai with his tsuppari attack, and so Ikioi fled to his right throwing Kotoyuki off balance a bit, but Yuki was able to square back up and take advantage of Ikioi's pull attempts driving his taller opponent back across the ring and out. Not sure why Ikioi was fixated on the pull here as he falls to 5-4 while Kotoyuki is sitting...well, not pretty, but he does have a nice record at 7-2.

M13 Amakaze was quick out of the gate against M9 Nishikigi as the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and Amakaze tried to maintain that momentum by driving Nishikigi back thanks to his grabbing the right outer grip, but both dudes were up so high that even Snoop Dogg took a break from rolling his papers. When Amakaze's attack failed, Nishikigi easily turned the tables using his left inside position to scoop Amakaze over and across for the come-back win. This may have sounded good on paper, but believe me, watching live it was a soft bout of sumo as Nishikigi improves to 4-5 with Amakaze falling to 3-6.

M15 Kyokushuho came with a right kachi-age at the tachi-ai against M9 Takekaze but then parlayed that into a stupid pull attempt that actually never came. Despite winning the tachi-ai, Shuho put his hands at the back of Takekaze's head and then just stood there allowing Takekaze to drive him straight back and out. Both rikishi end the day at 5-4.

M11 Sokokurai and M14 Endoh hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Endoh's position was shallow due to Sokokurai's propping him upright. In fact, Sokokurai's position was so good, he advanced forward securing the right outer grip in the process, but the good sumo stopped there as he stood further upright and allowed Endoh to just swing him over and out with a left scoop throw. The throw wasn't powerful and it allowed Sokokurai at least another attempt out a counter outer belt throw of his own, but he stopped just short of executing that move outright and just walked himself sideways across the straw. In a real bout, both guys are dug in at the edge in a classic nage-no-uchi-ai, but in today's brand of sumo, the loser is always upright when he crosses the finish line. Don't look now, but Endoh is 8-1 while Sokokurai falls to 3-6.

M16 Daieisho put both hands at M12 Gagamaru's shoulders and then immediately moved right forcing the Georgian to give chase, but Daieisho didn't move far leading to a tsuppari attack from both rikishi where they were looking for the pull instead of the forward moving win. After Daieisho whiffed on a pull down across Gagamaru's dicky-do, Gagamaru just returned the favor pulling Daieisho forward and down putting us all out of our misery. Gagamaru limps to 4-5 while Daieisho falls to 3-6.

M14 Kagayaki met M13 Toyohibiki with a moro-te-zuki and then immediately moved to his left transferring his choke hold into a kote-nage that spilled Toyohibiki down a second in. You know something's not right when Kagayaki is 6-3. As for Toyohibiki, he just doesn't have the Makuuchi magic anymore falling to 3-6.

Las and probably least, M15 Tokushoryu could not get a hold of J2 Kitaharima, who managed to avoid the special sauce and yank him off balance setting up the oshi-dashi win in the end. Tokushoryu falls to 4-5.

Well, that's a wrap on a day of sumo where nothing seemed right. Bout after bout it just felt like the effort from one party was half-assed, and I'm trying to think if there was a single bout of straight up sumo where the bout could have gone either way. Of course, to listen to Akimoto Sayaka afterwards, she was overwhelmed by the cheers and overall lively atmosphere in the arena. Of course she was. Those comments weren't canned at all. And then to quote her directly, "kono kankaku wo wasurerarenai," or I will never forget this feeling.

I know I sure as hell will. Today was just one big commercial for a sport that can't legitimately sell itself in the ring.

We'll see if the sumo gods are kinder to Harvye tomorrow.

Day 7 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The broadcast began with one of the most memorable bouts I can ever recall in sumo. You have to go way back to the basho before the onset of Sumotalk, the 2002 Aki basho where Ozeki Asashoryu took on Yokozuna Takanohana. That was back when Asa was a bruiser meaning he'd go for punch after punch to the face of his opponent in order to soften him up, and his jabs had good effect against Takanohana allowing Asashoryu to gain moro-zashi. From that point, instead of driving Takanohana back and out, he positioned his right leg behind Takanohana's left in soto-gake position, but he never went for the move, and then just like that, Takanohana scored the win with a counter right outer belt throw.

The crowd was going berserk, and you actually had guys on their feet before the bout was over cheering on the hometown Yokozuna. I always thought Asa went down too easily even when watching it live back then, but regardless of that, the place was going nuts, and it was an electric environment that you just don't see anymore in sumo. Regardless of how yusho races or promotion to elite ranks for Japanese rikishi are set up today, the content of the sumo just isn't there to generate the excitement we enjoyed decades ago.

The Takanohana - Asashoryu bout was chosen by NHK's guest on the day, Hisayoshi Harasawa, a recent silver medalist for team Japan at the recent summer Olympics in Brazil. Harasawa chose one more bout to revisit, a 2007 matchup between Kotooshu and Homasho where Homasho defeated the Ozeki in a classic nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge. Harasawa revealed that he was a huge Homasho fan (aren't we all?), and NHK arranged a meeting between the two prior to the broadcast. When Harasawa pulled out his medal and showed it to Sho-Am-Sweet, Homasho immediately put it around his neck, and no offense towards Harasawa, but that medal looked as if it had found a new home.

After watching the clips with Homie and then watching those classic bouts, it made me remember why I became a fan of sumo in the first place, but I just don't see anything happening in the current landscape that you could call memorable.

On that note, let's head to the action that began with M15 Tokushoryu, who was proactive in his tsuppari attack, but he was up too high allowing J2 Seiro to eventually work his way inside with the right arm and then moro-zashi, and as Tokushoryu tried to slip out of it, Seiro pulled him over to the side and down. Tokushoryu falls below .500 again at 3-4.

M15 Endoh and M15 Kyokushuho failed to get in the clinch at the tachi-ai due mostly in part to Kyokushuho's half-assed right kachi-age and quick pull attempt, but Endoh was all over the move easily shoving Kyokushuho back and out in two seconds...if that. Not sure what was going on with Kyokushuho here, but the nice win propels Endoh to a healthy 6-1 while Kyokushuho falls to 5-2.

M14 Kagayaki kept his eyes on M11 Sokokurai well firing his tsuppari and then following Sokokurai as he tried to slip to his right, but Kagayaki's arms are just too long, and he had his foe in a great choke hold, and it was too much for Sokokurai to handle let alone get a sniff at Kagayaki's belt. And oh how he wanted a sniff!! Kagayaki moves to 4-3 while Sokokurai falls to 2-5.

M16 Daieisho kept his arms out wide as he charged into M9 Nishikigi, and then followed that dumb move up with a lame pull as he sorta moved left, so Nishikigi just complied by shoving Daieisho back and across in seconds. Pretty useless effort here from Daieisho (2-5) against a punching bag in Nishikigi (3-4).

For as unpolished as M13 Amakaze's sumo is, he's still quite the blob to push around, and M8 Kotoyuki found that out today striking Amakaze's mass and spinning his wheels just a bit, but Amakaze's arms were out too wide, and as he advanced, Kotoyuki caught him with a quick paw to the side that threw him off balance. Amakaze tried to right that ship with a pull, and that shift in momentum allowed Kotoyuki to finish off his bidness in fine oshi-dashi fashion. This was the first bout between two rikishi from Kagawa prefecture since the Meiji Era that left Kotoyuki sitting pretty at 5-2 while Amakaze fell to 3-4.

M13 Toyohibiki's thrusts were way too high as he's wont to do, and that allowed M8 Daishomaru to slip in underneath and push Toyohibiki completely upright and off balance, and this bout was so lopsided it made Daishomaru look like an up-and-comer. Daishomaru moves to just 2-5 with the win while Toyohibiki falls to 3-4.

M7 Ikioi executed a horrible tachi-ai against M12 Gagamaru with his right arm out wide, and his left arm doing nothing, and his only chance from that start was a quick pull, and so he backed up and right going for a brief kote-nage before latching onto his foe with a right outer grip. Gagamaru was chasing here the whole way and wasn't able to take advantage of Ikioi's rough start, and so Ikioi was able to settle in with the left inside position and yori-kiri Gagamaru back and across straightway. Ho-hum bout as Ikioi improves to 5-2 while Gagamaru falls to 3-4.

M12 Chiyoshoma caught M7 Shohozan with a wicked right hari-te at the tachi-ai and transferred that into a nice tsuki at the back of Shohozan's left shoulder knocking the Sith off balance, but Chiyoshoma followed that with a weaker pull attempt that allowed Shohozan to just bulldoze him back off the dohyo and into the lap of the shinpan who gives the signal when it's time to go. Shohozan was still fired up as he walked down the hana-michi, and a potent hari-te like that--from a rookie no less--will do that to you. I know it's practically anything goes in the ring, but there's still a hierarchy here where a rookie should not be slapping the face of a veteran like that. Shohozan moved to 4-3 with the win while Chiyoshoma showed some balls in the loss at 4-3.

M10 Arawashi kept both arms completely out wide at the tachi-ai and stood straight up against M5 Mitakeumi, so there was no way that Mitakeumi wasn't going to drive him straight back in wham bam thank you ma'am fashion. Sheesh, if you want to let a guy kick your ass, that tachi-ai seen at right will do it as Arawashi drops to 3-4. Mitakeumi improves to 5-2 with the win, and with Mitakeumi and Shodai, we're seeing a pattern here where they'll score well outside of the jo'i, but when fighting from a rank near the top of Maegashira, they continue to get roughed up. Part of that is they are still to junior not to drop bouts to the Japanese Ozeki, but there's definitely a pattern where they can handle the mid ranks but not the top ranks. Of the two, I'm still impressed more with Shodai.

M5 Aoiyama was up high and non-committal in his tsuppari attack against M9 Takekaze, and just like the Toyohibiki - Daishomaru bout earlier, he simply let his smaller, inferior opponent get to the inside, and this one wasn't even close in favor of Takekaze. Anytime Takekaze wins in linear fashion--especially against a foreigner, it's a red flag in my mind as he improves to 4-3. As for Aoiyama, it seems like this basho he has been refusing to use any de-ashi in his tsuppari attack; thus the 4-3 record.

M4 Chiyootori kind of just backed up at the tachi-ai keeping his arms out wide letting M10 Sadanoumi take charge from the start, and even with that, he almost blew it. After getting his right arm to the inside, Sadanoumi applied no pressure allowing Chiyootori to assume moro-zashi, but just like his tachi-ai, Chiyootori had no interest in actually winning this bout, and so he let Sadanoumi grab a right outer grip and then just yori-taoshi him back and down for the listless win. Sadanoumi had lost four straight coming into this one, and it's my opinion that his oyakata bought him a win today to help stop the bleeding. Chiyootori falls to 1-6 with the loss while Sadanoumi improves to 3-4.

M6 Tamawashi jumped out of the gate against M2 Shodai using his long arm of the law tsuppari attack, and Shodai's only answer was to use his left arm up and under to try and catch The Mawashi off balance. Tamawashi would have none of it, however, pummeling Shodai this way and that before getting his own right arm to the inside, which he used to lift Shodai upright and completely off balance dispatching him out of the ring in a lopsided victory. Tamawashi moves to 4-3 with the win while Shodai falls to a tough-luck 0-7. Just my two yen here, but against Tamawashi, a guy who could be Japan's next "hope" has probably gotta show better than this.

M6 Chiyonokuni is getting henka happy, and today against M2 Tochinoshin, he jumped to his left in an attempt to throw Shin off balance, and it worked as Tochinoshin was never able to fully square up and pull his gal in close whiffing on a left face slap that allowed Chiyonokuni to duck under and lift the Private completely upright with a right hand to his left armpit, and that silled the dill as Chiyonokuni was able to send Tochinoshin across and down giving him no chance to do real sumo. Another quick and dirty win as Chiyonokuni "improves" to 4-3 while Tochinoshin falls to 1-6.

Komusubi Kaisei gave up moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against fellow Komusubi Tochiohzan, and the Brasilian really made no effort to battle his way back into the bout. At one point, he had the chance to maki-kae with his right arm, but the attempt was half-assed, and he allowed Tochiohzan to assume full moro-zashi again. Kaisei really made no attempt to latch onto an outer grip or go for a committed kote-nage, and the result was a lopsided win in favor of Tochiohzan, who hadn't beaten anybody since Kakuryu on day 1. Tochiohzan limps to 2-5 with the likely gift while Kaisei falls to 1-6. It can be debated whether or not Kaisei was purposefully mukiryoku in this one, but there are far too many bouts in sumo these days where both parties are not going full throttle.

Ozeki Terunofuji and M3 Takanoiwa hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Terunofuji didn't seem to care about pulling his gal in snug or grabbing a left outer grip, and so he went through the usual motions of a counter scoop throw, but he just wasn't committed in this one finally letting Takanoiwa dashi-nage him over and out without much of a fight. Terunofuji's effort was poor in this one, so the question is was it intentional on the Ozeki's part? Whether it was or not, it's just a continuation from the last bout where we don't see full effort and determination from both parties. Fuji the Not So Terrible of late falls to 4-3 while Takanoiwa improves to 3-4.

Ozeki Kisenosato and Sekiwake Takarafuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but the Sekiwake was mukiryoku from the get-go failing to grab a right outer that was there and making no effort to wrench Kisenosato upright and off balance, and so he eventually let Kisenosato grab a right outer grip and force him out with little resistance. When you have a weak outer grip on one fold of the belt as Kisenosato had today, a good yotsu guy like Takarafuji is capable of putting up a huge fight before he's bested, but there was no effort today as Takarafuji was upright as the Ozeki finally walked him back and out. I'm sure you can all picture Takarafuji's posture as he crossed the tawara. Kisenosato moves to 5-2 with the win, and I wish we could just kill all this talk about Yokozuna promotion once and for all, but the Kid's still hangin' around. Takarafuji falls to 3-4.

Ozeki Kotoshogiku and M1 Yoshikaze hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the start where Yoshikaze backed up a bit faking a maki-kae with the right arm. He never followed through on the move allowing Kotoshogiku to drive him back close to the edge where Yoshikaze looked to go for another maki-kae with the right, but he was non-committal to anything this bout allowing the struggling Ozeki to force him back and across. Kotoshogiku rights his ship a bit improving to 5-2, and he just needs mercy three more days to get that kachi-koshi. Yoshikaze falls to 3-4 but will eat well tonight.

The bout of the day on paper coming in was between our two undefeateds: Ozeki Goeido and M1 Okinoumi. But the problem was we wouldn't get a straight up match as the senpai-kohai system in Japan would call for a win from the Ozeki. Okinoumi was completely listless at the tachi-ai standing straight upright and letting Goeido dictate the pace, which came in the form of hidari-yotsu where Goeido had the solid right outer grip, and even after giving Goeido this huge advantage, the Ozeki was way upright and open to a counter left scoop throw or even tsuki-otoshi, but Okinoumi was just limp here and going through the motions as Goeido swung him over and out with a dashi-nage throw. You could see by the way that Okinumi crossed the straw that there was no effort to his step, and then as they showed him walking down the hana-michi afterwards, he had sort of this disgusted look on his face as if to say, "Well, I did my duty." I feel bad for the dude because I think he's probably the best Japanese rikishi on the board right now, and it must sting to be obligated to lose to a hapless Ozeki like Goeido simply because he's the senpai in rank. The charitable Okinoumi falls to 6-1 while Goeido moves into sole possession of the lead at 7-0. Can't wait to talk about Yokozuna promotion for Goeido in Kyushu. Sheesh, how far have we fallen over the years?

Sekiwake Takayasu executed a poor tachi-ai against Yokozuna Kakuryu allowing the Kak the left inside and right outer grip, and with Takayasu standing completely upright, he was there for the taking. Instead of just driving his opponent straight back, however, Kakuryu went for a meaningless maki-kae with the right giving him moro-zashi and then he hurried on a right scoop throw that had no oomph allowing Takayasu to sorta counter with a left outer belt grip of his own at the edge, but the Yokozuna was out to lose this one from the start as he stepped out of the ring carelessly before Takayasu hit the dirt. It's just insulting to think that a Mongolian Yokozuna would be so sloppy and careless here, especially when Takayasu had such a bad tachi-ai and dictated none of the pace. Takayasu's belt throw in the end was also more of a reaction than it was a counter move, so to see the word "goukai," or "empathic" describe the throw in the headlines afterwards was laughable. Just look at that pic at right.  Takayasu is diving out of the ring like Superman.  A guy who who just unleashed a gouaki outer belt throw doesn't exit the ring like that.  Kakuryu falls to 4-3 with the loss while Takayasu improves to 5-2. Regarding promotion to elite ranks, there's also some talk of Takayasu being up for promotion to Ozeki. They're gonna have to fill the ranks soon enough because Kotoshogiku can't hang around much longer.

M4 Myogiryu caught Yokozuna Harumafuji with a nice right paw to the face, but it left him completely exposed to the inside, so Harumafuji complied with moro-zashi. Myogiryu was able to slip his right arm back to the inside before the two really got settled in, but Harumafuji took the left outer grip instead and used his better positioning to execute an outer belt throw seconds in that swung Myogiryu over and down as the Yokozuna deftly kept his feet in the ring at the edge. That throw was one of the better moves we've seen this basho, but it will just get overlooked with all of the other fake storylines.  With Hakuho out, Harumafuji is easily the best rikishi in the field as he improves to 6-1 while Myogiryu falls to 2-5.

Today was a big dud, especially after watching some of those good bouts from the past. There's not much we can do about the action in the ring, but we can welcome back a Sumotalk legend tomorrow. Should be good.

Day 6 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Have you ever done sumo? I really hadn't. So, the other day when it was announced, to my surprise, that as part of a group activity we were going to do sumo, I was excited. I happen to be a very large individual--at 204 centimeters (same as Kotooshu), I'm tall anywhere. However, at 108 kilos, while I was still probably the heaviest guy in the room, I would be the lightest guy in Makuuchi. I'm not skinny--over the years I've developed a wicked paunch, and have a sheathing of fat over the rest of my body. So why, at 204 cm, am I only 108 kilos? Because actual rikishi are sheathed first with tons of muscle, not fat, and then they're packing on the actual fat in rich profusion on top.

We did this in clothes, and it was friendly, so they told us it was going to be oshi-zumo only: pushing only, no throws. No grips: they didn't want us tearing our clothes. And I was not about to forearm my colleagues in the face off the tachi-ai, either.

I was the only foreigner in this 49 person impromptu sumo madness. I told myself to stay low, and blast them with one big shove off the tachi-ai; repeat as necessary. Stun them. This worked great in my first match; I pretty much tsuki-dashi'ed the guy out in one second. He gasped "tsuyoi" before he even went over the tawara (a black line painted on an alarmingly mobile canvas mat). My second match had the same result, but with a little more effort: I had to shove the guy twice, but it was still easy. The onlookers oohed and aahed.

But now they were on to me. The third guy resisted the shove because he knew it was coming, and grabbed me so low he was basically on my knees. We shimmied and shammied this way and that, but basically I couldn't get any leverage on him, scrabbling from above as he held onto my clothes like a vampire at dawn. It lasted a long time, and eventually he threw me down hard just as he also went down. The shimpan was unsure and called a do-over.

Wait, weren't the rules no throws, no grips? Well the judge wasn't doing anything about it, I was hard to beat, everybody was excited to see an underdog get me, and so this was all tacitly ignored. Suddenly, I'd inherited a huge disadvantage: I was still trying to just do oshi-zumo, whereas my opponents from were willing to do whatever.

By this time I was exhausted--yes, after three bouts. Panting and heaving heavily, I lined up for the tachi-ai, clothes rent, one piece literally fallen off, another dragging torn on the ground. Members of the crowd were enthusiastically shouting, "now while he's tired! Get him while he's tired!" Fine. At that moment I was Tochinoshin and everybody else was Endo. Younger and younger guys were now volunteering to fight me, and I lost three straight. The last match was declared the championship match, and I finished with jun-yusho mostly be default (most people just stopped volunteering to get up there). I'm 45, and in the championship match was pretty easily schooled by a 19 year old who, as in all three losses, grabbed me way down low and threw my old self down, hard, on the ground.

I had a torn toenail and got blood on the dohyo. I have bruises on my arms and chest that are still vivid two weeks later. My clothes were in total disarray (there were women in the crowd and I literally wasn't sure I was decent). When I went back to the admin office with the staff for disinfectant, gauze, and band-aids, me and the other 40s and 50s guys yucked it up: "that's what I get for doing sumo in my 40s," I said. We all had a good laugh.

So, what did I learn from this?

1. Getting old sucks.
2. Stay low. Stay low, stay low, stay low. I tried, others tried harder, and I the end I couldn't get low enough.
3. If your focus is winning, bend the rules until the referee stops you. You'll see this in all sports, and you're a chump and will lose if you stand on principle. Henka, don't put your fist down, whatever. If they can get away with it, dudes are going to do it.
4. Though often forgotten, sumo is still a basic part of everyday culture in Japan. Several dozen people, aged 19 to 79 (yes, 79 year old dude fought a match), broke out in an evening of sumo.
5. Sumo is tough. This was friendly, and I was well beaten up. To each and every actual rikishi out there, no matter what nonsense goes on along the way: props.

Find a way to do some sumo; the easiest is to draw a circle in the sand on the beach (four and a half meters in diameter). You'll learn a lot more after a few facefuls of grit than you can from any reading you can find.

On to the real stuff.

J1 Osunaarashi (3-2) vs. M15 Kyokushuho (4-1)
Crap. I miss Big Sandy (Osunaarashi), and was looking forward to seeing him. He withdrew with a groin injury. Kyokushuho picked up the free win.

M15 Tokushoryu (3-2) vs. M13 Toyohibiki (2-3)
Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) grabbed Kerosene Burp (Toyohibiki) too high, around the head, while Toyohibiki was pushing hard on his chest with two hands, and as Tokushoryu was unable to evade much, too fat or not clever, this was over in seconds tsuki-dashi for Toyohibiki. Sauce consumed. Burp.

M11 Sokokurai (1-4) vs. M16 Daieisho (2-3)
Henka and head pull by Sokokurai here, but he foolishly failed to finish it off, standing there staring at his handiwork. Hence, I rooted hard for Daieisho as he recovered and pursued Sokokurai around the perimeter. Problem is, Sokokurai is a better, craftier, more experienced rikishi all the way, and Daieisho's charge was uncontrolled and desperate. Sokokurai went out but was able to do so while keeping his feet on the tawara and then off the ground just long enough to see Daieisho tumble and put his hand on the ground first, hataki-komi. Drat!

M9 Nishikigi (1-4) vs. M14 Kagayaki (3-2)
Here's how bad Kagayaki is: Nishikigi let him get two arms inside by being wide open at the tachi-ai, and Kagayaki was driving him backwards, but Nishikigi, despite being smaller, was able to manfully lean back and sling Kagayaki around and down to the clay, kote-nage. Watching Kagayaki, with his ideal sumo body, get schooled day in and day out, has definite train-wreck fascination.

M14 Endo (4-1) vs. M9 Takekaze (3-2)
Um, no. The official line will be Endo resisted a pull then a push and slammed Takekaze down, tsuki-otoshi. In fact there was no slamming, only pratfalling. If you watch Takekaze, you're unconvinced: he pulls a bit, then pummels a bit, but then essentially falls on the ground and grimaces in pain: "oooh, you got me!" If you watch Endo, you are even less convinced: he has nothing, slapping ineffectually, confused, and then wins while going backwards: Takekaze falls down off a shove that was working. No.

M7 Shohozan (2-3) vs. M13 Amakaze (3-2)
I was looking forward to this: one of the smallest but toughest against one of the biggest and most silly. And this was a fun one: I could watch it all day. Amakaze started well here: smothering his small foe back with a methodical, quick advance. But Shohozan squirmed out underneath at the tawara, leaving them going in different directions and about two meters apart. As soon as he realized this, Shohozan ran at full speed across the dohyo and ploughed like a car crash into this mountain of blubber--but the size difference was too great and it still didn't work. Shohozan now fought Amakaze along the tawara, trying to knock him out while Amakaze was still on the defensive, with no success. Finally, Amakaze kind of lurched back towards the center and fell down, barely pulled by Shohozan, sukui-nage. It was a lame ending to an exciting bout, but Amakaze was wasted at this point. 200+ kilos has its advantages and disadvantages, and we saw some of both in this one.

M12 Chiyoshoma (3-2) vs. M7 Ikioi (4-1)
Score one for Mongolia. Chiyoshoma, like Amakaze, has been outperforming rookie expectations, and looked the more experienced and higher ranked wrestler as he destroyed Ikioi, who I am more and more underwhelmed by, with one of the best throws you'll see all year. What was that Mike said about chest to chest bouts, with right inner grips for both, and fishing for the left outer? The guy who gets the left outer first usually wins. I mentally recalled that as Chiyoshoma got that left outer. Then Ikioi tried a throw, committing on it so hard he flung one leg way up in the air. But Chiyoshoma, who had both feet wide apart, gripping the earth manfully like the Colossus spanning the harbor at Rhodes, rode it out and smashed Ikioi to the dirt with his own throw on the inside, shita-te-nage. Hit replay. Awesome.

M12 Gagamaru (3-2) vs. M6 Tamawashi (2-3)
Tamawashi showed here why there isn't any need to be intimidated by Gagamaru. Rotund as he is, there is little power to his charges, particularly from the legs, and as he moved forward Tamawashi blasted him in the face, stopping Gagamaru's upper half dead and then bent in upright and backwards. Tamawashi then released, and as Gagamaru plunged back forward, Tamawashi grabbed his arm and twisted him to the ground, kote-nage. Did I mention, this Tamawashi, he hits hard?

M5 Aoiyama (3-2) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (2-3)
Fourth good match in a row. As Aoiyama was determined, and focused on belaboring Sadanoumi's face with leaden arm-falls, all Sadanoumi could do was try to maintain/resist and hope Aoiyama would make a mistake and fall down or get off line--which happened, but Sadanoumi couldn't do anything with it, because Aoiyama is a powerful belly of the beast, and went back after it again with more coagulated-pigiron arm action, knocking the husk of Sadanoumi off the dohyo, oshi-taoshi.

M8 Kotoyuki (4-1) vs. M5 Mitakeumi (3-2)
Kotoyuki's effort was crap here, pulling three times when he should have pushed, hyperactively going forward and backwards illogically all over the dohyo, doing his final pull at a moment when he had Mitakeumi back near the tawara and held by the neck, eyes searching the ceiling for angels. Kotoyuki was then "pushed-out" oshi-dashi, though he was turning away and stepping out on his own in the end. The Bully (Mitakeumi) gave a few pouty "I'm tough" faces while going back to bow his victory in. These two could sit around and have an "I love myself" party, talking about themselves, never looking at each other, eating doughnuts.

M4 Myogiryu (1-4) vs. M10 Arawashi (3-2)
Beautiful mismatch here, as an explosive Myogiryu pounced wickedly off the tachi-ai, was lucky to find this tricksy opponent taking him on straight up, and demonstrated their difference in rank by pounding Arawashi far into the crowd, oshi-dashi.

M8 Daishomaru (0-5) vs. M4 Chiyootori (1-4)
With nondescript guys like Daishomaru, when they come up from Juryo it take a while to figure out what they are all about. First there is "who?" Then there is, "which one is which, Daieisho or Daishomaru?" Then there is "one has a green belt, the other red." Then, finally, there is, "how could I not have told these guys apart, Daieisho does nothing but push, hard, and is kind of likeable, and Daishomaru does little but pull, and is now making me ill?" So, now that I know him, and alarmed by his promotion to M8, I am delighted to see Daishomaru being dismantled this tournament. However, then there was this terrible bout. Chiyootori hopped forward and looked purposefully at the ground, while Daishomaru shaded ignominiously to the left, got behind him, and followed his butt crack across the tawara, okuri-dashi. I think somebody felt Daishomaru needed a win here. Thanks, Chiyootori!

M5 Chiyonokuni (3-2) vs. M1 Yoshikaze (2-3)
Chiyonokuni has been having a lot of success, and it looked like he underestimated Yoshikaze here. While he was busy pushing hard up top, Yoshikaze was scooping underneath, and pretty quickly Yoshikaze was all over him like peanut butter on the roof of your mouth and ran Chiyonokuni emphatically back and out, yori-taoshi.

K Tochiohzan (1-4) vs. S Takarafuji (2-3)
I didn't like this at all. Takarafuji seemed to give up moro-zashi, Tochiohzan's favored position, in which he is dominant, off the tachi-ai, yet was able to get out of it by turning just ever so slightly to the left. After that Tochiohzan kind of stood there, making feints to the body with uncommitted hands, and the maid Eowyn (that would be Takarafuji) drove him boringly out, yori-kiri.

O Kisenosato (3-2) vs. M2 Shodai (0-5)
I didn't like this either. Shodai had all the momentum, lower position, and an inside left, but all of the sudden that just evaporated, his charge wilted for no apparent reason, Kisenosato was easily able to reach over and get the outside right grip, and Kisenosato was then driving Shodai out, yori-kiri. You are too young to tire that quickly, Shodai.

M1 Okinoumi (5-0) vs. O Kotoshogiku (4-1)
Who ever thought this would be a marquee early tournament match-up? Poor tachi-ai by Okinoumi, who let Kotoshogiku get lower inside position. After that Okinoumi had to just hang on, fish-tailing around backwards like an 15-year-old driver backing the car out of the driveway. However, eventually Kotoshogiku got too low at a point where Okinoumi was retreating across the center of the ring, giving him the position and room to sling Kotoshogiku easily to the clay, kote-nage.

Okinoumi has now in five days defeated two Yokozuna and three Ozeki, meaning the highest ranked guy left on his schedule over the remaining ten days is one more Ozeki, Goeido. (Tomorrow.) My goodness. Could he take the yusho? No. But it should be interesting.

O Goeido (5-0) vs. S Takayasu (4-1)
I don't know. For all his hyperactive tsuppari action, Takayasu sure didn't move his feet forward much. It was classic Takayasu otherwise, though, windmilling arms, mean face, and pulls thrown in. This suited The Dancing Mayfly, Goeido, who also has a hyperactive style that feels grounded in hope rather than substance, well. After a lot of wild punching and pulling, Takayasu suddenly ran out of energy, slowing down like an LP on a turntable that had the power turned off--"mweeeeeeeeeerrrru"--and Goeido moved in, grabbed him by the belt, and removed him from the ring, yori-kiri. Goeido is not a legitimate yusho contender either--except "Kotoshogiku in January." The sweaty palms of the Hokutoumi Revolution fondle my face unpleasantly.

M2 Tochinoshin (1-4) vs. O Terunofuji (3-2)
What a match. Both these guys needed wins and had no need to give this away, so they smacked into each other, grabbed those belts, went chest to chest, and made the earth feel heavy with the weight of it. They both had right inner and left outer grips, and it took a goodly smothering while for them to work this out. Fuji the Terrible's grips were very deep, which was probably the difference, and by spinning Tochinoshin slowly, bit by bit, he was able to break off one of Tochinoshin's grips repeatedly near the end. At that point he had enough to finish him, and rounded him into the dirt, uwate-nage. I want this every day. There were more dynamic early bouts, but this top level of skill and power from two vets high on the banzuke is what sumo should be.

Y Harumafuji (4-1) vs. M3 Takanoiwa (2-3)
I don't like Takanoiwa and was happy to see Harumafuji destroy him with a no nonsense, leg-driven, low advance featuring pushing, attacking arms, knocking Takanoiwa right over oshi-taoshi. This is your dominant rikishi this basho, and this is Yokozuna sumo.

K Kaisei (1-4) vs. Y Kakuryu (3-2)
This was a longish bout, but like many it was keyed by one good grip that eventually paid dividends. Right off the tachi-ai Kakuryu ducked in low and grabbed a left outer grip on Kaisei's belt, which he then used to pull him around the ring, making sure never to go too far straight back. Eventually, he used that same outer left grip to demonstrate impressive strength: he yanked hard on Kaisei, causing Kaisei to fade out backwards and gracefully fall over ballet style, uwate-hineri. Impressive work by Kakuryu, who you may have noticed is also a Yokozuna.

Mike "Basso Profondo" Wesemann returns tomorrow.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I'm sure many of you read my day 3 report and thought, "Really? There's that much yaocho going on in sumo?" And my answer to that is, "There was on day 3, and it was excessive the first four days." Anyone who has ever written for this website knows that there is no pre-basho planning meeting, and I have never once given anyone the directive to write towards a particular slant or storyline. I ask the writers to comment on what they see, and then we leave it at that letting the reader come to their own conclusions in the end. In my case, I don't want there to be yaocho in sumo, but it's impossible for me to overlook it when it happens, and so as uncomfortable as things may get, I'm going to continue to call every fake bout for what it is.

Now, the reason that I start off with this is because there was a direct turnaround in the sumo today compared to the first four days. And I'm not the only one who noticed it or commented on it. About six or seven bouts in today, I noticed a distinct difference in the competitive level of every bout, and you should be able to detect that in my bout by bout comments, which I will leave unedited so you can see my train of thought as I watched. Now, we're always going to have the fake bouts surrounding the Japanese Ozeki, and everyone knows this, but the sumo overall the first four days was simply awful. In my opinion, I believe that the Sumo Association sent out a message to everyone to clean it up. Now, this can't be reported in the media or on the NHK broadcast because it would be like admitting yaocho all over again, but I believe such a directive was given after day 4 because 1) the sumo today was so competitive at all levels, and 2) as NHK signed off on the day's broadcast, both Inuta Announcer (I think it was Inuta in the booth today) and Kitanofuji made reference to what a solid day of sumo it was.

The final bout of the day was hurried because there were multiple do-overs, and NHK was so pressed for time that they couldn't even show replays of the final bout on the day. So in this hurried fashion, Kitanofuji first said, "Tama ni konna hi ha atte ii," which translates as "It's good to have days like this now and then." To that, Inuta Announcer quickly replied, "Kimochi ha yokatta desu," or "it really felt good."

Yes, it did feel good, and I noticed it before we even hit the intermission. Now, I don't know if the two dudes in the booth were apprised of any such announcement--which again is total speculation on my part, but you can't deny that both of them noticed the night and day difference in the content of the day's sumo. And really, all I ask is that the rikishi fight hard and give it their all every bout. Today we had the grunts; today we had the solid tachi-ai; and today we had plenty of counter moves to tide me over until day 7. It was all good, and those in the know knew it.  The only thing that could have made the day better was if this Yoshida Announcer look-alike sitting in the front row had brought his entire barbershop quartet with him and sung at the intermission.  Oh well.

Starting off the day, we got our first Makuuchi glimpse of J1 Ura, who looked to duck under M16 Daieisho's moro-te-zuki at the tachi-ai, but Daieisho knew what was coming and fought the pesky Ura off well. As Ura tried to sneak inside, Daieisho went for a pull that nearly worked, but Ura slipped away just enough to bring Daieisho crashing down at the same time as Ura. Both rikishi hit down at the same time, so they called a do-over (at least the action was real).

The do-over was much less spectacular with both guys just standing at the tachi-ai instead of charging, and as Ura shaded to his left, Daieisho slapped the side of his melon and then pounced going for the oshi-taoshi kill in mere seconds. Five years ago, I would have said of Ura, "Do we really have to put up with this nonsense?", but now I'm like, "Whoa, Beavis! Real sumo." I'll take as much of that as I can get. Both guys end the day at 2-3.

M15 Kyokushuho struck M12 Chiyoshoma solidly at the tachi-ai and then quickly shaded left looking for the quick kote-nage, and when that didn't form, he switched to a tsuki-otoshi that sent the rookie over and down in exaggerated fashion. Not sure if the fix was in here or whether Chiyoshoma knew he was going down and decided to summersault in the ring, but the winning blow wasn't that emphatic. Regardless, Kyokushuho moves to 4-1 while Chiyoshoma cools off a bit at 3-2.

M12 Gagamaru got the left arm to the inside of M13 Toyohibiki, who attempted to lift the Georgian upright as he back pedaled, but Gagamaru persisted using a right paw to the neck of Toyohibiki saying, "I'll show you upright," and it was good enough to cause Toyohibiki to try and evade to his right, but Gagamaru was onto the move pushing Toyohibiki back and across in the good win for the beast. Gagamaru improves to 3-2 while Toyohibiki falls one down at 2-3.

M15 Tokushoryu and M10 Sadanoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but it was Tokushoryu who was loaded for bear as he drove his legs forward forcing Sadanoumi back with little argument. The move was so swift that Sadanoumi really couldn't evade, and so Tokushoryu grabbed the right outer at the edge that was unnecessary as he already had Sadanoumi defeated in linear fashion. This was great stuff from Tokushoryu, which makes his yaocho performance against Endoh a few days ago even more apparent. He moves to 3-2 while Sadanoumi falls to 2-3

M14 Kagayaki proved to be too much of a brick wall for M9 Takekaze to bully around, and with Takekaze looking half push and half pull, Kagayaki snuck his right arm to the inside and then just barreled forward driving Takekaze back with ease. I wonder if Takekaze has ever thought about fighting from a lower center of gravity. I suppose both rikishi were up too high for their own good here, but it was nice to see Kagayaki pick up a solid win as he moves to 3-2, the same mark held by Takekaze.

M8 Kotoyuki was surely smelling blood today against M14 Endoh as he came with his usual tsuppari attack, but Endoh defended well and managed to briefly grab a hold of Kotoyuki's extended right arm, which threw Yuki off of his game, and so Kotoyuki darted to his left going for a stupid pull, and it allowed Endoh to rush inside and grab the right outer belt. Now, if there's a guy in the Makuuchi division who is clueless when it comes to yotsu-zumo it's Kotoyuki, and so Endoh hunkered down and escorted Kotoyuki back and out for the great win leaving both of these guys tied now at 4-1.  The media had a heydey with this bout in the funny papers afterwards, and even they seemed excited at a legitimate Endoh win.  One rag even went as far as to proclaim Endoh the "Zensho Killer" as Kotoyuki was undefeated coming into the day.  Let's not go that far...

M8 Daishomaru was proactive in attempting to force the rookie, M13 Amakaze back oshi-dashi style, but as bad as Amakaze's sumo is, he can play the role of brick wall pretty well, and so he dug in well and took advantage of Daishomaru's lethargy by working his left arm up and under Daishomaru right and using it to just flick Daishomaru off balance and send him down with some oomph. Amakaze moves to 3-2 while Daishomaru is hapless so far at 0-5.

M10 Arawashi and M6 Tamawashi both struck head one, but Arawashi slipped to his left throwing Tamawashi off balance with a gentle push to the right side, and once he had Tamawashi turned 180 degrees, he got him some manlove as he escorted Tamawashi forward and out. I would have loved to have seen Arawashi do a little gaburi from behind, but oh well. He'll take that 3-2 record while The Mawashi falls to 2-3.

M6 Chiyonokuni henka'd to his left quickly grabbing M11 Sokokurai's extended right arm in kote-nage fashion, and Kuni took advantage of the unsavory tachi-ai to force Sokokurai over to the edge with that ill-gotten grip and a right hand to the face. Sokokurai really had no chance here as Chiyonokuni did win but used some trickery to do so in moving to 3-2. Sokokurai continues to sputter at 1-4.

M5 Aoiyama and M7 Ikioi engaged in a pretty decent tsuppari affair where Ikioi slowly nudged Aoiyama back a step or two, but then all of a sudden, Aoiyama just took a knee. I didn't see a move from Ikioi that would cause it, and the replay from the reverse angle didn't show anything either. As Ikioi looked to have the advantage, I thought the right tsuki-otoshi move was open, and I think Aoiyama knew it too and was waiting for it, and when it didn't come as it should have, he just took a knee at the next point of contact. As much as I enjoyed the day to this point, Aoiyama clearly took a dive in this one falling to 3-2 while Ikioi remains hot on paper at 4-1.

M4 Chiyootori easily got the left arm to the inside of M9 Nishikigi, and so the bout turned to whether or not Nishikigi could fight off moro-zashi on the other side. Chiyootori disallowed a Nishikigi right by twisting his body inwards leaving Nishikigi in an upright, awkward position, and so when Nishikigi attempted to pull out (cool), Chiyootori pounced into moro-zashi for reals and easily drove the hapless Nishikigi back and across from there. Both rikishi end the day at 1-4.

M1 Yoshikaze and M5 Mitakeumi engaged in a horrible tachi-ai where both guys went straight up instead of straight forward, and when Yoshikaze got his left arm to the inside, Mitakeumi just panicked and went for a dumb pull allowing Yoshikaze to rush in and push Mitakeumi back and across from the center of the ring in one fell swoop. It looked as if Mitakeumi teetered on the tawara and perhaps could have kept himself in the ring, but Yoshikaze was right there ready to clean up the mess if he tried. He didn't just opting to step back on his own, and it was probably the right move. I think I've seen enough of Mitakeumi to declare that he is not a great rikishi. I wouldn't even grade him as good. Fair would be more like it. His sumo is just undefined, and there's no continuity to his bouts. Doesn't mean he won't continue to be boosted up to generate buzz, but he's average even for a Japanese rikishi. He falls to 3-2 while Yoshikaze improves to 2-3.

M7 Shohozan made the greater impact at the tachi-ai against M1 Okinoumi knocking the taller Okinoumi upright, and it allowed Shohozan to assume a shallow moro-zashi, but Okinoumi used his height well and pinched inwards from both sides keeping Darth Hozan at bay. After a brief stalemate, Okinoumi went for a kime-dashi, but there was so much real estate to cover that Shohozan slipped to his left at the last instant firing a counter tsuki to Okinoumi's side sending both guys stepping out of the ring nearly at the same time. They ruled in favor of Okinoumi, and I thought he did win, but it was close enough to call it a tie, and so that's what they did.

The rematch was similar with Shohozan fishing for moro-zashi again, but Okinoumi was scared straight this time getting the left arm to the inside, and as Shohozan tried to back out of it and go for a pull, Okinoumi reacted well keeping pace and scoring the force out win in seconds. Okinoumi remains perfect through the joubansen at 5-0 while Shohozan falls to 2-3 despite the good effort.

Sekiwake Takayasu and Komusubi Kaisei hooked up in hidari-yotsu with both guys keeping their cans back away from an outer grip. After a stalemate in this position for a few seconds, Takayasu wrenched his way forward grabbing the right outer grip, and when you have two behemoths going at it chest to chest, the guy who gets the outer first usually wins, and that was the case today. As Takayasu applied the yori-kiri pressure, Kaisei attempted a maki-kae with his right arm, but he was too far gone allowing Takayasu to score the solid, yori-kiri win. Great sumo here as Takayasu moves to 4-1, and will Kaisei falls to 1-4, he's still done a lot of favors for others.

Ozeki Kotoshogiku and Komusubi Tochiohzan hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the start where Tochiohzan just let the Ozeki work him back and out with no resistance. Oh made no attempt to dig in or counter with a tsuki-otoshi at the edge here easily letting up for the Geeku. The sumo up to this point was good because you had guys trying to counter, guys digging in tight, etc., but there was none of that here from the start. ZZZZZZZ as the Geeku moves to 4-1 while Tochiohzan follows suit with Kaisei at 1-4.

And the nonsense would continue as Sekiwake Takarafuji was nonchalant at the tachi-ai allowing Ozeki Goeido the left to the inside and eventual right inside as well, but Goeido was still reckless and didn't take advantage of his moro-zashi straight way, and so Takarafuji grabbed him in a left kote-nage grip but never committed on the throw or set his body up to do so, and so Goeido was able to square back up with both arms to the inside, and so Takarafuji just stood upright and said "do me now" with no attempt to counter whatsoever. Ho hum as Goeido stays perfect at 5-0 while Takarafuji falls to 2-3.

Ozeki Terunofuji went for a hari-zashi tachi-ai that was foiled a bit by M4 Myogiryu's moving to the left, and after the awkward start, Terunofuji looked to pull his girl in tight, but Myogiryu stayed busy and unsettled. Clancy said it best years ago when he used the analogy of a toddler who doesn't want to be held, and Myogiryu was exactly that as Terunofuji first tried to yank his right arm out of the socket and next settle into chest to chest sumo. Myogiryu would never comply, but Terunofuji did have the right inside position throughout, and he eventually got the left outer near the edge, but the slippery Myogiryu made it close in a nage-no-uchi-ai where Ozeki prevailed using his size advantage to body Myogiryu down and out just before Terunofuji crashed down himself. The Ozeki is a cool 3-2 while Myogiryu falls to 1-4.

Ozeki Kisenosato and M3 Takanoiwa hooked up in hidari-yotsu, but Takanoiwa refused to really dig in and go chest to chest, and so that allowed Kisenosato to use his only real move...the left tsuki at the back of Takanoiwa's right shoulder, and that was enough to allow Kisenosato to throw his gal off balance, deliver a face slap, and then assume the left inside right outer grip combination for good. Takanoiwa never wanted this from the start and offered no resistance as the Ozeki forced him back. You can see in the pic at right that he was conveniently upright at the edge taking no chances.  Bor-ring. Kisenosato moves to 3-2, and I can see the yusho race coming down to six or seven guys the final few days, so don't necessarily count Kisenosato out yet. Takanoiwa finishes the day ta 2-3.

Yokozuna Kakuryu and M2 Tochinoshin hooked up in migi-yotsu, and as the two jockeyed for position, Kakuryu was able to execute a crafty maki-kae with the right giving him moro-zashi, and he wasted no time in forcing Shin chest to chest where Tochinoshin attempted a tsuri move with his hands at the back of the Yokozuna's belt. The Kak kept Tochinoshin high and upright, however, as he tested the force-out waters this way and that. With Tochinoshin being stubborn, the Kak resorted to plan B, which was to place his right leg behind the back of Tochinoshin's left and beautifully trip him over and down soto-gake style. This was a great tactical bout where the Yokozuna's skills prevailed moving him to 3-2 while Tochinoshin falls to 1-4.

In the days final bout, Yokozuna Harumafuji shaded to his left at the tachi-ai looking for the quick and dirty outer grip, but M2 Shodai reacted well using his right inside to keep the Yokozuna off balance and then a quick reversal getting his left arm solidly to the inside. Harumafuji reacted with the right outer grip, but he had no inside position whatsoever, and Shodai sensed the vulnerability and immediately went for a nice scoop throw with that left arm. The youngster wasn't planted sufficiently to pull the move off, and so Harumafuji was able to survive with the right outer grip forcing Shodai over and out in the end, but this one was close and credit Shodai for digging in. Harumafuji improves to 4-1 and is our storyteller this basho while Shodai fell to a very respectable 0-5 today. I think I was most impressed with his sumo today more than any other time despite the loss.

I would love for the solid sumo to continue, but we shall see. There are just too many Japanese guys off to hot starts, so it will be tempting not to inflate that leaderboard come week 2.  In fact, I've already seen the headline "With Hakuho Out, Chances Are Good for a Japanese Yusho."  Seems like everyone is in a good mood after a day like today.

Harvye sings tenor tomorrow.

Day 4 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
At the risk of being accused by Mike as being "yet to score," but having already outed my deep geekdom by previously comparing every wrestler to a Star Wars character, today I will complete my Tour of Extreme Nerdiness by comparing each wrestler to a Tolkien character. This was much harder; twee elves do not lend themselves to sumo comparisons. (Hobbits and dwarves, on the other hand, were much easier.) So, for day four, if your tolerance for a bit of absurdity is low, please wait for Mike's no doubt more grown-up report on Day 5. But for those whose tolerance of the willfully obscure is higher, read on. We've got 15 days to get through, people!

M13 Bombur (Amakaze, 2-1) vs. M14 Dead Marshes Corpse (Kagayaki, 1-2)
Why: Tolkien only ever mentions Bombur in the context of being fat. Three matches into his Makuuchi career, that is all that strikes me about Amakaze, too. As for Kagayaki, a vision of a warrior of old--except, actually, flaccid and dead.
Match: Bombur had momentum but nothing else, as his arms were high and wide throughout, and even a Dead Marshes Corpse knows what to do with that, driving Bombur out yori-kiri, leaving him to light little candles of his own in the darkness.

M16 Fili (Daieisho, 1-2) vs. M13 Gloin (Toyohibiki, 1-2)
Why: As Bombur is only mentioned in the context of being fat, Fili and Kili are only mentioned in the context of being young. And because "Fili" and "Daieisho" both have an "i" in their names. (Okay, so I started to run out of stuff as I got low on the banzuke.) As for Toyohibiki, Gloin is the father of Gimli (Shohozan, see below). And he's a random beat-em-up dwarf type. I dunno...Gloin's just trying to move forward and get to the Lonely Mountain with everybody else, but there are so many damn hazards along the way.
Match: Oh Fili, you fool, don't be scared, it's only Gloin!!! Fili tried to get up top for a pull, but if there is one thing Gloin does well it's that initial charge, and Fili was out backwards oshi-dashi before he even had time to finish his move. Worst-sumo-of-the-day award goes to Fili...who really does get killed in the book, too (but not by old Gloin).

M14 Arwen (Endo, 2-1) vs. M12 Deagol (Chiyoshoma, 3-0)
Why: In the movies, quite a bit is made of Arwen. In the book, she actually barely appears, and is just a wistful symbol of doomed but poetic beauty. As for Chiyoshoma, Deagol is Gollum's shabby buddy; dead for hundreds of years before the stories even start.
Match: I guess Deagol has some honor after all, though, because in the end he didn't want to hurt a lady. He grasped Arwen about her bosoms, a bad place to hold anyone but Arwen, and finding her pliable moved up to her neck, then tried to throw her out of his boat by same. It was working like a charm; Arwen was hopping daintily on one foot, one leg high the air...um, and...then Deagol decided to crumple down. They called it shita-te-nage, but this looked for all the world like just Deagol taking a fall to save a lady's honor. The crowd was yukking it up, it looked that silly.

M15 Bill Ferny (Tokushoryu, 1-2) vs. M11 Oin (Homarefuji, 0-3)
Why: Bill Ferny is a thuggish bad guy who rents out ponies, causes trouble, but cannot be so easily disposed of because he is bigger than everybody else. Still, really nothing but a country bully. And Homarefuji as Oin...we've got Gloin, so we might as well have another random old dwarf with nothing to distinguish him!
Match: Oh, that Oin. He withdrew. So we didn't get to see Bill Ferny fight. This is good, though, because Oin has been useless this tournament.

M10 Lotho Sackville-Baggins (Arawashi, 2-1) vs. M15 Farmer Maggot (Kyokushuho, 2-1)
Why: There is something sneaky and underhanded about the undersized Arawashi--that is Lotho all over. Farmer Maggot, on the other hand, is a minor character who turns out to be stout and willing to stand up to anybody. Boy, I hope Farmer Maggot crushes Lotho.
Match: And my wish came true! With a hard-smacking tachi-ai, Maggot got in close and hard, grabbing way, way onto Lotho's belt, and drove him out with lightning gaburu shoves and forward movement, yori-kiri. Yikes! Smashed summer squash!

M8 The Master of Laketown (Daishomaru, 0-3) vs. M12 The Great Goblin (Gagamaru, 1-2)
Why: Daishomaru is a master of the wicked pull; the Master of Laketown is a dreary political weasel. As for Gagamaru, there is something ridiculous about The Great Goblin, unnaturally bigger than his counterparts, with his pendulous belly and uncouth ways.
Match: The Great Goblin was in no mood for nonsense from this treacherous little man: kept him right in front of him and drove him right out in mismatch style, oshi-dashi. And feasted on his guts.

M11 Gollum (Sokokurai, 1-2) vs. M8 Boromir (Kotoyuki, 3-0)
Why: Ah, Sokokurai...cheated, they said; got kicked out of sumo, was let back in because he maybe didn't cheat, aging, kind of scrawny looking, wicked and wily, clever, tricksy. It's Dark There. Kotoyuki as Boromir... pompous, self-centered bully who wants the ring for himself. Loathsome match-up here!
Match: As he is wont to do, Boromir pranced about pridefully before the match, no doubt thinking, "this pathetic creature is no match for me!" Unfortunately, he was right: he stood Gollum up with a hard shove at the tachi-ai, then pushed him around very briefly on the way to belting him unceremoniously out, tsuki-dashi. Too bad...I've always had a soft spot for Gollum.

M6 Dwalin (Chiyonkuni, 1-2) vs. M10 Grishnakh (Sadanoumi, 2-1)
Why: Colorless in the book, Dwalin is portrayed as somewhat of a loyalty-crazy dwarven soldier type in the movie. And if there is a sumo wrestler whose ambience screams right-wing patriot, it is Chiyonokuni. As for Sadanoumi/Grishnakh, random orc who is also described as small. Insignificant?
Match: Poor orcs. Even when it seems like they are going to win, somehow the good guys always pull it out of the bag, darn it all! Dwalin had absolutely nothing here, and Grishnakh had easily pushed him back, keeping low and being forceful, and was about to throw him from the ramparts of Minas Ithil, but Dwalin did a magical dance on the tawara and survived while Grishnakh fell out the window, hataki-komi. Drat those heroes!

M9 Kili (Nishikigi, 1-2) vs. M6 Thorin (Tamawashi, 1-2)
Why: As Bombur is only mentioned in the context of being fat, Fili and Kili are only mentioned in the context of being young. And because "Kili" and "Nishikigi" both have an "i" in their names. Did I already say this? Tamawashi/Thorin...strong, persistent, but ultimately also kind of a bastard somehow.
Match: Sometimes experience just works. Young Kili was battering away enthusiastically at Thorin's face, but Thorin said, "look cousin, you've come too hard," took a wee step to the right, did a polite little pull, and Kili fell all over, hiki-otoshi.

M5 Mountain Troll (Aoiyama, 2-1) vs. M7 Gimli (Shohozan, 2-1)
Why: Lots of candidates to be a mountain troll, none better than Aoiyama. Wield your hammers, big bad body! As for Shohozan/Gimli, one of the easiest parings to make: forget the unfortunate comic relief character from the movies; Gimli is an undersized, prosaic, grumpy, working class get-‘er-done badass in the books. Blue collar blood bastard.
Match: Unfortunately, just like in real life, if a Dwarf tried to take on a Mountain Troll one-on-one, he'd just have no chance. Gimli tried berserker aggression, but the Mountain Troll just grabbed his head and threw him on the ground, hiki-otoshi. And I know there are no dwarves and trolls in real life!

M9 Radagast the Brown (Takekaze, 2-1) vs. M5 random orc (Mitakeumi, 3-0)
Why: There is no Gandalf. I thought of making Takekaze Gandalf--if you can't win with strength, you can always cast a nasty spell. But Gandalf is too noble to be Takekaze. Radagast, however, is both a wizard and also lampooned as a fool. So. As for Mitakeumi, time will tell, but so far I'm having fun watching him wreak destruction when he can, then get destroyed by more important characters whenever needed.
Match: Radagast, having no sword, ran away, but cast a spell of dizziness: as the orc followed him about the forest glade, Radagast kept backing away and around, around, around, until he could grab the orc by his head a little and lay him down to rest, hataki-komi. Poor orcs; they can never win anything. Just like Stormtroopers.

M7 Legolas (Ikioi, 2-1) vs. M4 Fatty Bolger (Chiyootori, 0-3)
Why: Legolas...so beautiful, so powerful, so lithe, so...actually, I just don't get people who like Elves or Legolas or Ikioi. In the book, what does Legolas actually do? Nothing. Then there is Fatty Bolger. A forgotten member of Frodo's circle of helpers, he stays behind to watch Frodo's house. No doubt bouncing his butt happily as he cooks up butter burgers in the little kitchen.
Match: Legolas spent too much time fondling Fatty's cute cheeks off the tachi-ai, like "what are these?", and Fatty said "enough of that" and surged forward, grabbing Legolas's belt. But Legolas is certainly limber, whereas Fatty is just fat, and finding Fatty charging blindly forward with his eyes on the ground, Legolas stepped around and twisted Fatty's arm, sending the poor hobbit into the dirt, kote-nage, to cry over his lost mushrooms.

S Saruman (Takayasu, 2-1) vs. K Faramir (Tochiohzan, 1-2)
Why: I'm just never sure what side Takayasu guy is on. He's got plenty of chops, though. And this the best line on Faramir: "ever you desire to appear lordly and gracious as a king of old." The key word there being "appear."
Match: This was a wild affair. Saruman looked to totally annihilate Faramir off the tachi-ai, driving him straight back to the bales with bludgeoning tsuppari, but Faramir isn't ranked this high for nothing, and evaded in time. When Faramir tried to get his favored moro-zashi, Saruman wisely got out of it with a pull. After a few more moments of scrambling, including an out-of-character head pull by a tiring Faramir, a second pull by Saruman sent the now thoroughly winded and helpless Faramir stumbling into the catacombs, hataki-komi.

K Barliman Butterbur (Kaisei, 1-2) vs. S Eowyn (Takarafuji, 1-2)
Why: Forgetful, good natured, largish, sometimes very helpful, sometimes infuriatingly mentally-not-there, Kaisei's body and spirit are very Barkeeper of Bree. As for Takarafuji and the fair maid Eowyn, she wants to be allowed to fight, but never is. She does eventually slay a major baddy when finally given a chance. We'll see about that part.
Match: Eowyn kept her arms in tight and tried to plonk Butterbur right off the dohyo with a battering ram tachi-ai, but Butterbur was barely stirred and chose to grab hold of the young lassie and lean on her. Tiring of this, he tried to toss her down into a pile of straw, but Eowyn grew up tough, and she didn't fall; as Butterbur tried to find his next move he found Eowyn advancing on him, using against him the momentum he'd given up on his failed toss, and at the end she just shook him this way and that a bit and then dumped him to the bar floor, sukui-nage. Take that, you old lech!

O Pippin (Goeido, 3-0) vs. M3 Ted Sandyman (Takanoiwa, 2-1)
Why: Of all the major characters, Pippin always seems like the funny little addition with a bit of cute that verges on the faintly ridiculous. Ted Sandyman, on the other hand, was an ugly-moraled grubby little climber. Wow, I'm actually going to root for Goeido today!
Match: Sandyman looked to be in total control here, with powerful dual belt grips, one inside, one out, but Pippin used his lone grip to try a toss that broke one of these grips free, and when Sandyman tried to reload he wasn't quick enough and stood up straight. Pippin reacted swiftly and skillfully, emphatically driving Sandyman back and tossing him into the Brandywine River, yori-kiri. Yay, Pippin!

M1 Erkenbrand (Okinoumi, 3-0) vs. O Theoden (Terunofuji, 2-1)
Why: So colorless and just there that they left him out of the movies entirely, Erkenbrand is a useful but forgettable good-looking-warrior type. Theoden, on the other hand, was a broken down old king who however, in the books, pretty much just says, "okay, let's fight to the death, boys."
Match: Theoden looked a little senile, spreading his arms wide to embrace Erkenbrand, who happily said, "yeah, I'll take both arms inside and low, thanks!" But it didn't seem to matter, Theoden was so big and strong here he simply bullied Erkenbrand back to the straw. Unfortunately for Theoden, though, senility is rough: he lost hold of Erkenbrand, and as he tried to push him out from behind, they both stepped way out over the tawara. But it was very plain to see that Theoden's foot planted firmly down in the death zone first. This was ruled "saka-tottari," which should but does not translate as "oops, sorry about that." Meanwhile, who knew the sequel to Lord of the Rings would be "The Adventures of Erkenbrand!" Erkenbrand is 4-0 and besting major protagonists left and right!

O Denethor (Kisenosato, 1-2) vs. M1 Grima Wormtongue (Yoshikaze, 1-2)
Why: Denethor is a grumpy old unhelpful "steward" who thinks he is king, but will never, never be king. As for Yoshikaze, this is kind of unfair, and at the same time, just right: slippery, wild: you can't trust this guy in the ring because he'll bamboozle you with a lot of floozle-doozle.
Match: Denethor pushed manfully on Grima's chops, but Grima pushed back, and things looked to go badly for old man Denethor. But Denethor allowed the push and let Grima in close, wrapping him up close, then turned and pushed down, winding Grima around him lower and lower, a bit of string on a spindle, until Grima, grabbing at the back of Denethor's knees, collapsed into the fetid dust, kote-nage. And his eyes saw darkness.

M4 Balin (Myogiryu, 1-2) vs. O Merry (Kotoshogiku, 2-1)
Why: Balin is a friendly, practical, steady-as-she-goes dwarf who actually also has some heft; willing to take on the goblin hoards of Moria in the end, but can't actually win that fight. Merry is good natured, does pretty well with what he has, a major character, but an ultimately disposal random hero type of the second tier.
Match: Balin's fist was definitely not down on the tachi-ai, but no matter, he didn't get much out of it, as when they went chest to chest he was up way too high. He did sling Merry around, maki-kae into a belt grip, and push Merry to the bales, but he "couldn't" get him out, and the crowd oohed for the heroic Merry as Merry drove the action back to the center of the ring. Still chest to chest, Balin was playing Merry's game throughout, and Merry looked good here in finally doing his old gaburu thing and forcing Balin out, yori-kiri. Yay for him. Merry and Pippin, what a pair.

Y Sam (Harumafuji, 2-1) vs. M2 Beorn (Tochinoshin, 1-2)
Why: Sam is the loyal sidekick, but, actually, if you read close, tremendously resilient, heroic: a powerful character in his own right, and in the end, lots more fun than Frodo. Tochinoshin as Beorn? Half man, half bear. Werebear. Done.
Match: Rather smaller than Beorn, Sam decided to spin Beorn around a few times at the beginning, a dancing bear circus, to disorient him. This didn't work very well, as when Sam came to rest he found Beorn's hairy claw dug in deep on his belt. No matter. Sam hunkered down and resisted Beorn's attempts to throw him to the ground and eat him alive. This lasted a long time. When at last Sam determined Beorn was tired and standing up straight enough, he pushed him out of his garden, yori-kiri.

M2 Eomer (Shodai, 0-3) vs. Y Frodo (Kakuryu, 1-2)
Why: As Eomer becomes a king only when one of the other characters dies at the end, we never get to see this young badass be king much...time will tell how it fares with Eomer. As for Kakuryu, we had to have a Frodo...and Kakuryu is perfect. Frodo is great on the one hand, but he is one of the most boring heroes of literature on the other: he mostly goes around being rather sad, complaining about what a great weight the ring is, and is eventually overshadowed by heroic Sam (Harumafuji) and the return of the King, Aragorn (Hakuho).
Match: Off of a bruising tachi-ai, Frodo got his left hand down low and inside, and controlled the match from there. I still say his attack was too linear, but after some lurching backwards and forewards during which his control switched to a hold on Eomer's left arm, Frodo seemed to sense that he needed to shake it up, and it was in pulling back and re-engaging in a slightly different direction that he got his final momentum, driving Eomer out yori-kiri, dumping Eomer into the fiery chasm of Mount Doom.

Mike helps you understand The Silmarillion tomorrow.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The obvious theme of the day 3 broadcast focused on the late Chiyonofuji, and NHK had every meaningful graphic, picture, and video clip ready as they remembered the historic Yokozuna. It was actually quite enjoyable to relive the memories, and it almost made up for all of the bad sumo we saw in the ring. Almost. As I was watching the video clips from yesteryear, I was wondering to myself, "Does the general population realize that the sumo we see in those old clips is no longer existent in the upper ranks of today's sumo?" Is it too much to ask for a chest thumping tachi-ai where both guys get a right arm to the inside and then jockey for the left outer grip? Actually, it is too much to ask because on a false banzuke like this, you have so many mismatches every day that it produces these two general outcomes time after time: 1) a complete mismatch where a one rikishi--usually a foreigner--crushes his opponent, or 2) a bout that flows unnaturally and lacks a good tachi-ai, a grunt or two, a rikishi digging in, a commitment to counter sumo, and the feeling after the bout of "Now THIS is why we watch."

The irony is that such poor sumo is actually drawing the fans to the arena in droves, and so the Sumo Association is literally selling its soul by using fixed bouts to maintain its popularity. Just recall the landscape shortly after Asashoryu's retirement. You had Hakuho running away with every basho and threatening the all-time consecutive bout winning streak; you had a handful of up-and-coming foreigners threatening the highest ranks; you had zero Japanese rikishi who were able to make a dent in anything; and you had about three rows of seats filled on the weekdays with the cheapskates sitting up in the nosebleeds.

Granted, you had a couple of major scandals that also soured people's perception of sumo, one of which was proof of bout fixing itself, but it's not like sumo had those major crowds prior to those scandals. Sumo is setting records today where you have to go back to the 90's to match, so why the gradual decline in attendance all through the aughties? The answer is the decline of competitive Japanese rikishi to make fans want to come out and see, and so what the Sumo Association has done is create these IMAGES of Japanese rikishi who are worthy of Ozeki or who are on the cusp of promotion to Yokozuna or who have the ability to become Japan's next hope, when in reality, those hyped rikishi are mediocre at best. The contrast between Chiyonofuji and the dudes he fought in his day when compared to the modern day Japanese rikishi is just stunning, and it's on display every time they take us down memory lane with those video clips.

I almost don't even want to get to the day 3 bouts because they were so bad, but if we must...

M16 Daieisho opened with tsuppari that had little effect against M14 Kagayaki, but Kagayaki wasn't doing anything either, and with both dudes still in the center of the ring, Daieisho just fell forward. I didn't see the move that caused Daieisho's fall live and I didn't see it in the replays, so we already have our first suspect bout as both rikishi end the day at 1-2.

M14 Endoh and M15 Tokushoryu hooked up in migi-yotsu from the start where Endoh enjoyed the right outer grip. Tokushoryu was able to dig in and make it look good, and then after a few seconds Endoh drove Shoryu back to the edge where Endoh was completely vulnerable to a counter tsuki-otoshi with the right hand that never came, so at that point you knew it was just a matter of time. Endoh is now 6-0 against Tokushoryu, which means Tokushoryu will take that wad of cash over a win any day. Endoh moves to 2-1 with the gift while Tokushoryu falls to 1-2.

M13 Amakaze was late at the tachi-ai standing straight up, and he had both arms extended forward in a defensive posture. That allowed M15 Kyokushuho to secure the easy left inside, and he had the right outer grip there for the taking, but he spent his time on that side just slapping uselessly at Amakaze's left side. The result was a mukiryoku Kyokushuho who let Amakaze force him back and out in linear fashion. Any time you have a Mongolian who loses to a bad rikishi like Amakaze after THAT tachi-ai, you know it's fixed. I'm not purporting to know how it's all fixed, I just know that we haven't seen a legit bout yet three contests in. Both rikishi end the day at 2-1.

M11 Homarefuji henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai in hopes of catching M13 Toyohibiki off guard, but the plan didn't work, and all it took was Toyohibiki to square back up and pummel his foe back and across with little resistance. Homarefuji falls to 0-3 and should just withdraw before he really gets hurt. I mean, when you're injured to the extent where you can't even henka, take your medicine and pack for Juryo in Kyushu. Toyohibiki picks up his first win.

M12 Chiyoshoma just henka'd to his right against M11 Sokokurai felling his fellow furry with a right hand to the back. It didn't appear as if Sokokurai even tried to keep his balance here falling to 1-2 while Chiyoshoma is off to a hot 3-0 start...on paper.

M12 Gagamaru looked to pop M10 Arawashi with a nice thrust from the tachi-ai, but Arawashi survived it famously shading to his left and coming away with a right frontal belt grip and left inside that allowed him to dump Gagamaru straightway with a left scoop throw. I'd want to praise this sumo today from Arawashi (2-1), but it was set up with a mild henka. Gagamaru drops to 1-2 with the loss.

M10 Sadanoumi fished for moro-zashi at the tachi-ai against M9 Nishikigi, but he did it shading backwards instead of charging hard into his opponent's craw, and so with Sadanoumi actually retreating and Nishikigi now bearing down, Sadanoumi twisted around and went for an ushiro-motare looking move that was more like ushiro-retarded. That left him turned around at the edge with his back facing his opponent, and so Nishikigi easily shoved him out from behind. This was a crock of a bout as Nishikigi buys his first win at 1-2 while Sadanoumi can afford it at 2-1.

M9 Takekaze struck M8 Daishomaru in his usual fashion, which meant he struck and went for the immediate pull that sent Daishomaru towards the edge, but curiously, Takekaze didn't move to finish his gal off. He just stood there facing the center of the ring and watched out of the corner of his eye as Daishomaru walked out of the ring on his own. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought the fix was in here as well. Normally when you pull a guy towards the edge, you chase after him just to make sure he's done in, but Takekaze gave a casual swipe here and was done with it as Daishomaru just ran himself out. This was horrible sumo regardless as Daishomaru falls to 0-3 while Takekaze moves to 2-1.

M8 Kotoyuki shaded to his right at the tachi-ai looking to catch M7 Shohozan off guard, but when that didn't work, we finally got a straight-up well-fought bout as Shohozan stood toe to toe with Kotoyuki in a tsuppari-fest. After Kotoyuki's trick tachi-ai didn't work, he at least remembered to use de-ashi, and so he was able to plow straight forward and drive Shohozan back and across leading with a wicked paw to the neck in the process. Kotoyuki looks good I suppose at 3-0, but the dude is relying too much on crafty tachi-ai. Shohozan falls to 2-1 with the loss.

M6 Chiyonokuni and M7 Ikioi bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai, and as Chiyonokuni looked to rush forward, it was clear that Ikioi was going to stand there and fish for a well-timed pull. And so around and around the ring the two went with Chiyonokuni looking to get inside, and Ikioi standing there waiting for the pull. After about 10 seconds of Chiyonokuni's inability to get to the inside, he looked a bit gassed, and so Ikioi made his move rushing forward and using a Chiyonokuni pull attempt to his advantage to send his foe into the front row. It was a win for Ikioi despite no ikioi in his sumo. Kariya Announcer and Oguruma-oyakata in the booth had nothing but praise for Ikioi, but I was like "why get a stiffie over such passive sumo?" Ikioi moves to 2-1 while Chiyonokuni falls to 1-2.

M6 Tamawashi bullied M5 Mitakeumi back to the edge with his methodic tsuppari, but then he rushed forward in kachi-age fashion allowing Mitakeumi to slip out of the attack and shove Tamawashi towards the tawara. Tamawashi squared back up with the right to the inside, but he did nothing as he allowed Mitakeumi to polish him off in the end. Mitakeumi is an impressive 3-0 without being impressive at all in his sumo. Tamawashi falls to 1-2 and let up here in my opinion.

It seems as if I'm calling a lot of mukiryoku up to this point, and even if the guys aren't throwing the bouts, has anyone noticed that nobody is winning with a solid tachi-ai, an arm to the inside, a lift of up the opponent, and a good charge back? And wait until I start posting pictures of the higher-profile bouts. There isn't a one of 'em that isn't an unorthodox ending to a bout. There was no textbook sumo to this point in the broadcast, and there's little to come. It just sucks.

M5 Aoiyama finally decided to move forward in his tsuppari attack against his opponent for today, M4 Myogiryu, and Myogiryu really didn't have an answer. As Myogiryu tried to stand in at the edge, Aoiyama shifted gears going for the right kote-nage that sent Myogiryu back across the ring and down. Powerful stuff here from Aoiyama who can turn it on when he wanna at 2-1. Myogiryu falls to the inverse mark at 1-2.

Komusubi Kaisei stood his ground well against M3 Takanoiwa at the tachi-ai working his right arm to the inside and coupling that with the left outer grip, and there was nothing Takanoiwa could do from here as Kaisei scored the straight-forward yori-kiri. This was our first textbook bout on the day, and isn't it interesting how when foreigners fight foreigners, you see their true colors shining through? Wait a minute, did I just quote Cindy Lauper?? Anyway, Kaisei picks up his first win at 1-2 while Takanoiwa was completely outclassed here in falling to 2-1.

Sekiwake Takarafuji kept his arms in tight at the tachi-ai as M4 Chiyootori tried to fish for something inside, but the Sekiwake stood his ground well and was patient waiting for an opening that that would come in the form of a left to the inside, and that was followed by the quick right outer grip, and from there it was curtains as Takarafuji picks up his first win at 1-2. I'd really like to see these guys set up these wins with better tachi-ai, but oh well. Chiyootori falls to 0-3.

I kind of groaned when I saw Ozeki Terunofuji step up in the ring against M2 Shodai because I thought the Ozeki would defer to one of Japan's "hopes," but thankfully he didn't, and the real difference between these two was on display as Terunofuji crushed into his opponent hard demanding the right inside and left outer grip similar to, dare I say, Hakuho? From there, Shodai could do nothing and was completely overwhelmed being forced back and out in mere seconds. Terunofuji moves to 2-1 with the win and is a solid candidate to sneak up and take the yusho. As for Shodai, he falls to 0-3 and has had a tough go of things so far. He ran into a brick wall today, and then he sacrificed himself for the cause against two Japanese Ozeki the first two days.

M2 Tochinoshin henka'd to his left against Ozeki Kisenosato but really didn't attempt to pull the Ozeki down in the process, and as the two looked to square back up, Kisenosato gave Tochinoshin his best shot--and only real move in his arsenal--which is the left tsuki to the back of the right shoulder, but the move lacked any Viagra, and so Tochinoshin was able to square back up, get the right inside, and watashi-komi Kisenosato back and out with the left hand behind Kisenosato's right knee sending the Yokozuna hopeful to a 1-2 record in just three days. Regardless of the henka today, Kariya Announcer said it best when he pointed out that the Yokozuna candidate has already lost to two hira-maku rikishi. Sumotalk readers of course know that Kisenosato has never been a legitimate Yokozuna candidate, but a 1-2 record in three days is awful.

As for the henka itself, we see guys do this to Kotoshogiku a lot and now to Kisenosato, and I think they do it to sort of help the Ozeki save face in defeat. We see the results when guys go hard against these lame Ozeki, and it usually ends up with the Ozeki lying in the fetal position at the base of the dohyo, so I think the henka here was to at least provide a semblance of an excuse. Still, do you think Tochinoshin would have beaten Hakuho with that same henka? Or even Harumafuji? Tochinoshin improves to 1-2, and it's simply a matter of his not being willing to lose to all three Japanese Faux-zeki in the same basho. And why should he?

After the bout as the announcers had nothing to talk about except how lame Kisenosato is, Kariya Announcer said that he asked Chiyonofuji one day what Kisenosato needed to do in order to get better, and the former Yokozuna answered quickly with a question of his own saying, "Why doesn't he ever go and do keiko with Hakuho?" It's just a different mindset these days with the modern Japanese rikishi, and it shows in their sumo. Thankfully Kisenosato's Yokozuna run is over because I hate having to pretend to talk about fake issues throughout the basho.

Moving right along, Sekiwake Takayasu came with a right kachi-age that stopped Ozeki Kotoshogiku in his tracks, and after lifting Kotoshogiku up high, Takayasu retreated going for a pull that worked like a charm felling the Ozeki in less than three seconds. This bout simply came down to the fact that Takayasu decided to win, and he moves to 2-1 after the easy win. Kotoshogiku suffers his first loss of the tournament at 2-1, but you can be damned sure he'll get his eight heading into his hometown, Kyushu.

Ozeki Goeido and Komusubi Tochiohzan immediately hooked up in migi-yotsu, and as Tochiohzan began to drive Goeido back, the Ozeki gave up moro-zashi and went for his bread and butter move: the useless kubi-nage. But the instant that Goeido's right arm touched Tochiohzan's melon, the Komusubi just took a knee with the right in ridiculous fashion. I mean, look at this picture. What sends a guy in hot pursuit down to the dohyo? A slap down or pull down with the emphasis on the word "down." How in the hell then is Goeido's arm still way above his head? Where was the force that drove Tochiohzan to his knee if it didn't come from the Komusubi himself? This was just ridiculous stuff, but if people will people in climate change, they'll believe that this bout was legit as Goeido moves to 3-0 while Tochiohzan falls to 1-2.

Yokozuna Kakuryu and M1 Yoshikaze bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai and focused on a wild tsuppari affair where neither rikishi was performing sound sumo. Kakuryu was upright throughout and didn't want to seem to get to the inside, but he was able to rebuff each of Yoshikaze's advances, and so around and around they went when Yoshikaze finally slipped down to the dohyo. Prior to the basho, they mentioned that Kakuryu has been having lower back trouble, and I could definitely see that manifest in this bout as he had no power to simply lunge forwards. The Kak only improves to 1-2 with the strange win while Yoshikaze falls to the same mark.

In the day's final affair, Yokozuna Harumafuji got the left inside early against M1 Okinoumi and secured the right frontal grip, but instead of making a quick move he dug in content to prolong the bout. Okinoumi countered well with a right inside throw attempt, and though Harumafuji easily survived, he was still just standing there like a bump on a log, so Okinoumi executed a maki-kae with the right arm that Harumafuji just let happen. Instead of pouncing on that shift in momentum, Harumafuji allowed the moro-zashi and then danced here and there before finally letting Okinoumi just fall on top of him and assume the missionary position in yori-taoshi fashion. Harumafuji was clearly mukiryoku here as Okinoumi improves to 3-0, and that's not to take away from Okinoumi. I think he's easily a top three Japanese rikishi at the moment, but Harumafuji does not lose to a hiramaku rikishi when the Yokozuna starts out with the inside position and frontal belt grip. There was also no attempt to counter Okinoumi's moro-zashi attempt, and then there was the awkward ending to the bout. Regardless of that, Harumafuji falls to 2-1 completely opening up the yusho race.

With Hakuho out, anything can and will likely happen by the end of the fortnight. I wouldn't be surprised to see the yusho line fall as low as 11 wins, and then I wouldn't be surprised to see a tomoe-sen (a playoff among three or more guys tied after 15 days) for the yusho either. Kisenosato will not be crowned Yokozuna at the end of this basho, but if he can finish the tournament just one off of the yusho lead, I guess we start this whole tired scenario again for Kyushu. That's getting a bit ahead of ourselves, so let's see what tomorrow brings first.

Harvye will be back to tell you all about it.

Day 2 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Who's faster, Bob Hayes or Usain Bolt? Running the 100 meter dash in 10.6 seconds in 1964, Hayes was the fastest man in the world. Forty plus years later, Usain Bolt ran it in 9.58 seconds. In between there were a dozen or so incremental improvements.

Jumping high? George Horine jumped an incredible 2.0 meters in 1912. Greatest ever? Hardly. Javier broke his own record twice, and got it to 2.45 meters in 1993. He can still hang onto "best ever": the 23 years his record has stood is the longest in the 100+ years people have been counting, again with dozens of incremental increases.

Throw something far? Ralph Rose was the shot put record holder with 15.5 meters in 1909. After 81 years of steady progression, Randy Barnes threw one 23.1 meters in 1990--a statistically huge advance of about 50% over Rose.

What is the point of this in a sumo report? In each sport I chose to look up that has measurable results in basic athleticism, competing against an absolute, the "greatest" is steadily getting greater. Who was faster, Hayes or Bolt? A pathologically contrary philosopher might run around saying Hayes was "faster" in relative terms against his competition, or some other endearing nonsense, but that would never be anything but splitting hairs: Bolt is faster. Sotomayor is greater. Barnes is stronger. There is just no comparison. In practical terms, no one would argue that Bolt is not the greatest sprinter of all time, nor Sotomayor the greatest high jumper.

In sumo, we don't have the luxury of such comparisons because they compete against each other, not against an absolute standard. We can't say "Hakuho won the tournament in 0.87 gigachankos." So we turn to other, less absolute records. And lo and behold, there's Hakuho holding five major ones, and second in a sixth. Most career tournaments, check, and it's not really close anymore, 37 to 32. That should be enough to declare him "greatest ever" right there. Most undefeated tournaments, check, with 50% more than the next closest, 12 to 8. Most wins in a calendar year, check, and has done it twice with 86. Most career Makuuchi victories, check. Most consecutive championships, tied with Asashoryu at the top with 7. The only blemish is winning streak, where his 63 is tied for second behind Futabayama. And so on.

So, from an objective, counting-stats viewpoint, already he is the greatest ever. There is no real argument. Now, some people would want to say "yeah, but, sumo was better in the 60s, the quality has declined, Taiho was better." Nonsense. As with any other sport, incrementally over the years, sumo wrestlers are getting better, stronger, faster. Training, knowledge, nutrition, strategy: all of these things advance, as they did for Bolt, Sotomayor, and Barnes. Like it or not, if Taiho could be teleported through time, Hakuho would wipe the floor with him, just as Bolt wipes the floor with Hayes, Sotomayor with Horine, Barnes with Rose. Leaving those who will insist that someone else is greater than Hakuho, because they are psychologically dependent on some reason that makes them do so, to resort to the same "yeah but against poor competition" or "the weather was better" or "at sea level natto ferments faster" (yeah, I'm making stuff up) papier-mâché arguments that you'd use to justify calling Hayes "faster" than Bolt. All those arguments are nonsense. This is an easy one, folks. Whether from a counting-stats or an athletic-progression point of view, and better yet from both combined, the answer is clear:

Hakuho is the greatest sumo wrestler of all time, period. There IS no argument.

And since he's out this tournament and I don't get to say anything more about him for fifteen days, THAT is the one thing I wanted to say about him. This tournament can celebrate his shadow. Hope to see him in November; let us turn to the rule of lesser men.

M15 Tokushoryu vs. M16 Daieisho
Unfortunately, the first bout of the day often demonstrates why the guys are at these nether regions. Tokushoryu needs to get inside on the belt, lean hard on him man, and bull him around. Daieisho needs to get inside and drive really hard. Neither man did either. Tokushoryu came in arms akimbo like a superhero landing from the sky. Daieisho fell back, overwhelmed. However, Tokushoryu also fell down for no good reason as Daieisho stumbled away from him over the tawara. It could have gone either way, but was given to Daieisho with the ridiculous kimari-te of tsuki-otoshi. I've pretty much given up on Tokushoryu offering anything akin to good strategy, and now look to him mostly for comedy sumo.

M15 Kyokushuho vs. M14 Kagayaki
Fried Mosquito (Kagayaki) is so bad I don't understand how he is still in the division. Here he kind of stood there with his hands in the air, palms occasionally up, like a Buddhist meditater demonstrating the mudras, or Karate Kid Ralph Macchio posing for The Crane but never unleashing it. Granted, Kyokushuho didn't look good here either, as his response was to back up, but it was enough, as he twisted Kagayaki down before he went out, hataki-komi.

M13 Amakaze vs. M14 Endo
The first of our two honest-to-goodness rookies, Amakaze. Over the years, I've used an (overly) simplistic rubric to evaluate sight-unseen rookie guys: are they tall, big, and young? If so, they'll do well. Whereas the shorter, lighter, and older they are, the less well they'll do. Amakaze checks in at an amazing 206 kilograms, but is a pedestrian 185 cm tall, and is already 25 years old. Mediocre stats, mediocre future hereby predicted. And watching him in the ring that's probably optimistic. His legs are so fat, he has trouble reaching down to touch the ground for the tachi-ai, making him vulnerable to a speedy attack as he looks back up from the effort. However, Endo has trouble generating power, and pretty much bounced off blubber tub and was pursued out, oshi-dashi. I felt kind of embarrassed for Endo here.

M13 Toyohibiki vs. M12 Chiyoshoma
Also already 25, our other rookie Chiyoshoma is shorter than Amakaze at 183 cm, and not much more than half the weight at 132 skimpy kg. Prediction: will be lucky to ever get a kachi-koshi in Makuuchi. He looked like a practice dummy here for Toyohibiki...until they got going, and Toyohibiki squared-up off the tachi-ai contact like a lumbering wheelbarrow of wrenches being spilled in the mud: Chiyoshoma twisted him by the head and tipped his iron all over the ground, uwate-dashi-nage.

M11 Sokokurai vs. M12 Gagamaru
Hoo, boy, Lord Gaga looked bad here. Sokokurai too, really. Sokokurai wisely evaded at the tachi-ai, but unwisely did so in polite doe-see-doe grab-the-belt fashion, rather than tipping Gagamaru over like a wet barrel of pickles. So I thought it was curtains for Sokokurai, as Gaga is too big for him, but no, Gagamaru's "charge" was more like a crumbling block of bleu cheese being forced into the shredder at work than any sort of solid Old Gouda, because he just kind of whirled his feet and was turned over by Sokokurai, hot tater-tot, fresh from the oven, uwate-nage. How many food metaphors can I mix in one match? And I'm not even hungry! Mmmm…. Gagamaru…

M11 Homarefuji vs. M10 Sadanoumi
Ridiculously easy here for Sadanoumi, who swiped Homarefuji's limp asparagus arms off him once, reached under and grabbed his delicious looking bluegreen eggplant vegetable belt, and pushed him out into the chive dip, oshi-dashi. Healthy snack!

M9 Nishikigi vs. M10 Arawashi
Arawashi was way early on this one, and the judge should have called it back. As a result, while Nishikigi was still looking at the dirt, Arawashi had gone ahead and taken advantage, getting his paw deep deep inside on the left. The result was as lovely an upending shita-te-nage win as you'll see, but Arawashi didn't earn this one the way you'd like to see him.

M9 Takekaze vs. M8 Kotoyuki
Sometimes things are very, very simple. This was a size, age, and career momentum mismatch, and all Kotoyuki had to do was not fall prey to the henka. He accomplished this buy moving back and to the right, then, having checked, moved forward instead and forced Takekaze out oshi-dashi so easily he might as well have been rolling my office chair across the carpet to the Unit Meeting (yes, we have to bring our own chairs to that one).

M7 Shohozan vs. M8 Daishomaru
This one featured the overly strict gyoji with his meaningless matta calls, making the run-up feel interminable. After being wronged on one of these, Shohozan walked over and passed right close by him as if to say "I can't hit you, but I can intimidate you." But he controlled himself, and handled it properly by channeling his aggression into the do-over, where he blasted out Daishomaru, who is a nothing from pullville, out oshi-dashi. Darth Hozan, folks...Darth Hozan.

M7 Ikioi vs. M6 Tamawashi
People like Ikioi. I do not. He makes me want to say, "so what," and, "there's no THERE there." I'll take Tamawashi, who hits hard. Tamawashi did that here: slammed into Ikioi off the tachi-ai, got the momentum in his favor, then drove quickly and relentlessly into him for the oshi-dashi two second win. Ikioi looked like leftover wet pancake in the sink when you're doing dishes.

M5 Aoiyama vs. M6 Chiyonokuni
Yesterday Aoiyama hit his blinded foe so hard he knocked him back a good two meters. Today he kind of gently tapped away at Chiyonokuni, as if afraid he would break him. That won't work! Chiyonokuni pushed him out in short order, oshi-dashi.

M5 Mitakeumi vs. M5 Chiyootori
This didn't look particularly good. Mitakeumi had control with a good hard shove at the tachi-ai; he chose to capitalize on this, however, by pulling, and lucky for him Chiyootori kind of looked at the ground, flailed his arms around like a dying albatross, and was easily ushered to his tomb of Styrofoam and ice, uwate-dashi-nage. If you want to eat albatross.

S Takayasu vs. M4 Myogiryu
Hmmm...say it ain't so, but feels strange to type "Sekiwake Takayasu." Let's see how it looks on the dohyo (I agree with Mike that yesterday it looked...just...terrible!): today Takayasu did much better, effective with the whirling arms, keeping Myogiryu off him just enough until he could launch the uninspiring but effective hataki-komi pull. Nothing technically wrong; looked good enough for jamcakes.

M3 Takanoiwa vs. S Takarafuji
Oh, I'm so TIRED of Takanoiwa already! To steal a line from Mike, tell me, what is this guy's style? What is he known for? What got him up here to M3? When he first came up, he was known for hitting hard off the tachi-ai, and okay, he did that here--and it was pretty much all he needed. It stood Takarafuji up, and so Takanoiwa drove him to the bales. Takarafuji, who should be much the better wrestler, survived once, but he was still standing up high with no leverage, so Takanoiwa tried it again and drove him out this time, yori-kiri. Terrible Sekiwake debut thus far for the oh-so-beautifully-bodied but oh-so-boring-in-the-ring Takarafuji.

O Kisenosato vs. K Tochiohzan
Ah, the mighty Kisenosato pushed out the charming but luckless Tochiohzan, oshi-dashi. Tochiohzan bought a one way ticket to "it's not my day, man!" and had to give it up to the flubber whale that he found advancing upon him.

M2 Tochinoshin vs. O Kotoshogiku
Agg, blech Part I. One thing that is clear over the first two days is that Kotoshogiku and Goeido are going to get those kadoban-killing kachi-koshis. Pity. Tochinoshin stood up, grabbed nothing, was driven back, and then stood up even further and gave up, pursuant to then being finally beaten, yori-kiri. He looked like a guy who thought he'd buy a delicious box of tomatoes at the street market in Brooklyn in 1922, lurching absentmindedly from his seat to bid on them, then said "nah, never mind, they're yours!" when he noticed the pretty lady across the way had already bid on them. Stepping back politely now, stepping back politely…

O Goeido vs. M2 Shodai
Agg, blech, Part II. Shodai tried to wrestle with one arm in the famed "upward pressure on the armpit with the forearm technique." By which it would be hard to hold up a stack of three books, let alone a fully grown man. And so, while Shodai practiced one handed sumo, his right fist happy to have a day off and "take the air," as they used to say, gamboling about Winchester Park, Goeido hustled and bustled and huffled and puffed and got a yori-kiri win.

K Kaisei vs. O Terunofuji
Double blob-ism. Two of the biggest of the big here, and lookin' good, if what you like is a little old fashioned belt grapplin' fat ripplin'. Terunofuji controlled this and made it look easy because, as they leaned upon each other like stones in a boulder field, his head was just under Kaisei's: good 'ol lower position. So, he swung 'im to the right, swung 'im to the left, and slung 'im outta the ring, out of balance and beaten, uwate-nage. Every day, every day, every day, please!

Y Harumafuji vs. M1 Yoshikaze
I loved this match. Harumafuji was moving cautiously forward, ho hum, I'm going to push this little man out. But he forget he was fighting The Possessed, who responded to the plodding attack by hitting Harumafuji hard in the face a couple of times. Yo, man, what!?!? was Harumafuji's slow motion reaction--so slow he almost lost. He was still looking to be in shock, staring at Yoshikaze in a stunned way and reaching ineffectually for him, all the way back to the bales. But he is not a Yokozuna for nothing, and he evaded there, while apparently remembering: "he HIT me!" Retaliatory blam, whap, decapitation attempt with hand, and lo, Yoshikaze was falling over the bales, oshi-taoshi, destroyed, dead, desolated. I loved watching Yoshikaze go for it here, and Harumafuji respond. Bring it.

M1 Okinoumi vs. Y Kakuryu
Yesterday as Kakuryu was losing, I was thinking the problem with his sumo is it is too linear (and you get to decide WHY it is). These days when losing, it has often been his "pull habit." Another way of saying that is that when he backs up, he doesn't do it to the side; he just pulls while going straight back, leaving him a sitting duck. Yesterday, too, this time going forward, by doing nothing but taking on Tochiohzan straight up, he left a lot of ways to get beat. Today, the same. Kakuryu drove forward, drove forward...here I sat, thinking, "too linear! All Okinoumi has to do is...ooh, and there, he did it!" It took Okinoumi one tiny, easy step to the left at the tawara, and Kakuryu's dominant but linear bout came to an end as he was twirled very neatly to the clay by Okinoumi, kote-nage. Wowza. Okinoumi can smell his special prize from 13 days away, while Kakuryu apparently has had enough at the buffet and is retiring to his room.

Mike sings pretty ditties tomorrow while watching birds flit amongst the branches in autumn sunshine.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The biggest story in between basho was easily the sudden passing of former Yokozuna, Chiyonofuji. I mean, the dude was on the broadcast two or three times per basho, and he's never had any health issues over the years. He still looked young, and he still looked as fit as he did when he was an active rikishi, and then all of a sudden, he's gone. That means in less than one year's time, sumo has lost the top two yusho rikishi of all time who were full-blooded Japanese. Both Kitanoumi and Chiyonofuji were also icons in the sport whose absence now leaves quite a big gap moving forward.

I would argue that the only remaining Japanese sumo icon still alive is Takanohana, but he's got the charisma of a lump of coal. Hokutoumi and Asahifuji share 12 career yusho between them and are Takanohana's senpai Yokozuna, but neither of those guys would be considered an icon in the sport, at least in my opinion, and so with the death of Kitanoumi and now Chiyonofuji, it really makes me wonder who is going to fill the void once Takanohana retires?? I guess we'll worry about that in a few decades, but the circumstance of not being able to produce another icon from Japan is looming long term.

The second biggest story that occurred in between basho was the announcement that Tokitenku has malignant lymphoma. When it comes to events surrounding sumo, I don't know when I've been moved more (for better or worse) than when I watched Tokitenku's presser as he announced his retirement. The dude already had his head shaved, and he started out in good spirits, but the press conference turned quite emotional as you can imagine. I never rooted for Tokitenku when he was an active rikishi, but I'm rooting for him hard in his fight against cancer now, and it's interesting how facing one's own mortality really seems to put things in perspective.

So we enter the Aki basho with the passing of Chiyonofuji and then the retirement announcement by Tokitenku, and we're next greeted by the most popular running headline in sumo these days: Kisenosato is up for Yokozuna promotion for the 5th time. This guy has never been up for legitimate Yokozuna promotion even one time, so after absorbing those two heavy topics of Chiyonofuji and Tokitenku, that Kisenosato headline feels as light as that feather floating in the wind at the end of Forrest Gump. And just wait until we get to the Ozeki's sumo.

Lest we get too far ahead of ourselves, however, let's turn our attention to the start of the day 1 broadcast that began with Fujii Announcer, Kitanofuji, and Mainoumi in the mukou-joumen chair going through the obligatory motions of starting off talk surrounding the Yokozuna. Hakuho of course withdrew from the basho a few days ago citing issues with the big toe on his right foot, his right ankle, and his left knee. All three injuries are well documented and were caused when...um...when..well...actually, who knows? And what ever happened to talk about that injured left elbow we used to get prior to each tournament?

Hakuho's full withdrawal is his first in 10 years, and when you think about it, it's quite remarkable for a dude who fights at the very top of the banzuke to go an entire decade without missing a tournament. In fact, show me the last Yokozuna or Ozeki whose done that, and I'll show you a Japanese rikishi with actual game.

The reason Hakuho hasn't had to go kyujo in 10 years is because his body simply hasn't been taxed because the banzuke has been so laughable since Japan's last legit Ozeki retired in Kaio. We rarely get straight up fights between the elite Mongolians as it is, and so Hakuho probably takes more guff from the missus at home than he does atop the dohyo.

I know that many people will automatically think that Hakuho's withdrawal opens up the door for a Kisenosato yusho, but all it really does is remove one of Kisenosato's formidable opponents, who may have let him win anyway. As I emailed to Kane prior to the basho actually starting, "I think it increases the Kid's chances of a yusho from about 20% to 33%. Reality is...Kisenosato still needs help in everyone of his bouts except maybe against the Geeku." Who knows why Hakuho chose to withdraw? The good thing is that the sumo will tell the real story in the end, and frankly, that's the only reason I watch these days.

With Hakuho out, the threesome on the broadcast attempted to portray Harumafuji and Kakuryu as the pillars of the basho now, but you could tell they were just going through the motions. As NHK showed the top section of the banzuke without Hakuho, the talk of course was "where is the yusho going to come from?" It really could come from anywhere, and it wouldn't surprise me to see the yusho line drop as low as 12 wins.

Okay, that intro focused more on thoughts I had rolling around in my head that prolly should have been written up in a pre-basho report, but let's get to the day's action...if you can call it that.

M16 Daieisho came with his usual tsuppari at the tachi-ai, but they were all bark and no bite, so M15 Kyokushuho easily worked his way in between the shoves to pull Daieisho down easily about two seconds in. For all of Daieisho's effort from the tachi-ai, it had zero effect on Kyokushuho.

M14 Kagayaki meant well from the tachi-ai using a few thrusts to force M15 Tokushoryu to retreat back and to his left, but instead of continuing on with his thrust attack, Kagayaki settled for yotsu-zumo as both rikishi assumed the left arm inside, and from this point, Tokushoryu ruled the roost driving Kagayaki upright and easily driving the mother hen clear across the ring and out.

At this point of the broadcast, they mentioned that for the fifth basho in a row, the attendance is "O-iri," or completely sold out. They'll lower those man-in on-rei banners after sales reach something like 80% on the day, but all tickets available for pre-sell for the full fifteen days are gone. Which begs the questions: what are the fans actually coming out to see?

M13 Toyohibiki kept his left arm up high and his right arm to the outside against M14 Endoh allowing Endoh to eventually grab the right frontal grip. Both rikishi got their left arms to the inside as well moving the bout to hidari-yotsu, and from there, Toyohibiki was just along for the ride never making an effort to lift Endoh up or really commit to a counter tsuki-otoshi with the right at the edge, and so the yori-kiri win was quite easy for Endoh. Toyohibiki was mukiryoku throughout this bout, and you decide for yourself whether or not it was intentional. I know it bugs a lot of people when I rarely give Endoh credit for his wins, but what has this guy ever shown us? If he was all that, he wouldn't need yaocho to keep him in the division. If you got game, you'll rise up the ranks.

Our two rookies clashed today, and they previewed the bout by showing short self introductions from both of them. When M13 Amakaze introduced himself, it was as if he was trying out for one of those stupid variety shows in Japan where they ironically refer to the guests as "talents." He hammed it up for the cameras making faces and talking in an overly-jolly voice, and then he concluded his intro with the piece sign. You know when a guy acts like that, he's covering up for some sort of insecurity. Today he was paired against fellow rookie, Chiyoshoma, yet another Mongolian who also fights from the Kokonoe-beya. It was evident here that Amakaze is using that so-called personality to cover for his horrible sumo because he was high and listless at the tachi-ai allowing Chiyoshoma to grab a right outer grip and just fling Amakaze over and down without a fight.

M11 Homarefuji emphatically slammed both fists down to the clay and then shaded right in an exaggerated tachi-ai that M12 Gagamaru handled with ease threatening his left to the inside before just shoving Homarefuji back and down by the face. They said on the broadcast that Homarefuji suffered a muscle tear in his lower right calf area during the summer exhibition season, so look for him to be entirely useless this basho.

M10 Sadanoumi hopped forward at the tachi-ai perfectly aligning his feet, and normally that spells disaster in sumo, but M11 Sokokurai was his usual passive self and failed to capitalize as both rikishi couldn't really commit to a yotsu-zumo bout. They're not really tsuppari guys either, and so Sadanoumi just pressed forward ultimately getting his left arm to the inside that set up an ugly push-out at the end. Both rikishi were upright here at the edge, and six bouts in on the day, we didn't see anything that was close to a decent bout of sumo.

M9 Takekaze henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai slapping M10 Arawashi down before he even knew what hit him. Just great. No wonder you can't get a ticket to the sumos these days.

Now that the exhibition event in Morioka is over, the other rikishi should have license to go out and kick M9 Nishikigi's ass on a daily basis. Of course, it didn't help that the youngster was a day late and a dollar short at the tachi-ai, so before he was fully out of his stance, M8 Kotoyuki was pummeling him with his usual tsuppari attack, and Nishikigi had no answer as Kotoyuki made quick work of his foe dispatching him in short order.

M7 Ikioi outclassed M8 Daishomaru despite a weak tachi-ai from Ikioi where he attempted a right kachi-age that had no effect. A rikishi with game will take advantage of that, but Daishomaru looked lost as he moved forward with an obligatory oshi attack, but Ikioi came to his senses, moved to his right, and easily escorted Daishomaru out from behind in a quick bout.

At this point, they reviewed the Juryo bouts, and the bout of the day featured Ura vs. Osunaarashi. Ura escaped left against the Ejyptian and used the right inside position and his body well to force Osunaarashi off the dohyo in exaggerated fashion. As I've said before, it's been a long time since we've seen a gimmick guy have success in the Makuuchi division (you have to go back to guys like Kyokudozan, Mainoumi, Tomonohana, and even Takatoriki to some degree), but dudes in the past have shown that their shtick can get them as high as Komusubi, and I expect the same with Ura.

We finally got a hotly-contested bout from M7 Shohozan and M6 Tamawashi who stood toe to toe in the center of the ring trading tsuppari. Shohozan briefly flirted with the left to the inside, and I think that threat was enough to put Tamawashi on his heels a bit because after a few more seconds of trading blows, Shohozan was able to stay lower than his foe and eventually drive him back and across after a quick pull attempt from The Mawashi. As they panned in close to Shohozan after the bout, I was like, "Sweet...a Jedi braid on a sumo!"

M5 Mitakeumi offered a right thrust into M6 Chiyonokuni at the tachi-ai causing Chiyonokuni to back up to his right, and as Mitakeumi gave chase, Chiyonokuni faked a few slaps and largely just stood there doing nothing. Once they reached the other side of the dohyo, each rikishi got their right arms in deep with Chiyonokuni standing completely upright, but Mitakeumi was unable to finish his gal off, and so Chiyonokuni attempted a kubi-nage with the left arm, but it was arm only with no commitment from his lower half, and so he let Mitakeumi shore his position back up with the right arm to the inside while keeping his own right away from Mitakeumi altogether, which allowed Mitakeumi to finally score what looked like an emphatic yori-kiri win. This bout was wrong from the beginning as Chiyonokuni backed up for no reason and continually left himself vulnerable without really going for anything. There was just no continuity here, and it took Mitakeumi a while to kill his prey despite multiple opportunities to do so.

M5 Aoiyama came with a slow moro-te-zuki whose real affect was that Aoiyama's finger poked M4 Chiyootori squarely in the left eye. Even watching live, I could see that Chiyootori was closing his eyes, and so he kind of felt his way around Aoiyama's tsuppari, but with no vision to help him, Aoiyama was able to evade and just shove Chiyootori to the side with a paw to the face. Chiyootori was done at that point doing nothing to stay in the ring, and I can't really blame him. It's been awhile since we've seen an eye gouge, but then again, this is professional wrestling.

Sekiwake Takarafuji came with a meager left kachi-age at the tachi-ai, but this dude has no effect unless he's more to the inside, and so a bit of separation was created after the tachi-ai to which Myogiryu responded by just ducking down low and shoving the listless Takarafuji back and out. Sheesh, in your Sekiwake debut you prolly oughta give a little bit more effort than that.

Not to be outdone, Sekiwake Takayasu established nothing from the tachi-ai against M3 Takanoiwa, and despite that, he just plodded forward in a hurried charge that Takanoiwa dissected by moving to his left and pulling Takayasu down by the side of the head and shoulder. These false banzuke produce poor bouts like this from supposed upper echelon rikishi, and by false banzuke, I mean you have way too many guys who are in undeserved slots due to yaocho in sumo. Simple as that.

Ozeki Kotoshogiku and M2 Shodai hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Shodai did absolutely nothing letting Kotoshogiku make it look real as he scored the yori-kiri win leading with that right arm. Shodai made no effort to do anything, and while I don't believe Shodai has earned this rank on his own, he still let up for the Ozeki today.

A great example of a false banzuke is Tochinoshin's being ranked at M2 while you have a host of Japanese rikishi ranked above him who can't even hold this dude's jock. Exhibit A is Ozeki Goeido, Tochinoshin's opponent on the day. The two hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where both rikishi ended up with the left outer grips. Goeido had his left outer grip first, but Tochinoshin's belt was loose, and so the Ozeki's left hand was nearly as high as Tochinoshin's armpit. This allowed Tochinoshin to grab the equalizing left outer of his own, and as soon as he got it, Fujii Announcer sounded the alarm that Goeido was in trouble. As the two dug into the gappuri-yotsu bout, Kitanofuji implied that Tochinoshin's hold was not good for Goeido.

Wait a minute. Why would an Ozeki be in trouble against an M2 when the Ozeki has an outer grip and sufficient positioning on the inside? In a normal world, he wouldn't, but it's just funny to see the instinctive reaction of the guys in the booth when a Faux-zeki gives up a grip, which could spell trouble for him. Anyway, back to the bout at hand...Shin just stood there and kept his feet nicely aligned allowing Goeido to "muscle" him back and out causing an awkward sideways fall out of the ring on the part of Tochinoshin because the sumo wasn't natural. What a joke.

Ozeki Terunofuji was half-assed at the tachi-ai keeping his arms out wide after a quick left slap, but still, the Ozeki's bulk allowed him to force M1 Yoshikaze back, but then he pulled Yoshikaze forward right into his own body with a left kubi-nage allowing Yoshikaze the easy moro-zashi, and from there it was a given as Terunofuji was driven back in nice, mukiryoku fashion.

Ozeki Kisenosato gave up moro-zashi to M1 Okinoumi from the tachi-ai, and Okinoumi clearly looked uncomfortable in the advantageous position. But what was he going to do? Kisenosato did nothing to counter other than to threaten with a weak right kubi-nage, and so Okinoumi just dispatched him across the tawara leaving the sheep at the venue in total shock. It wasn't in short order, but Kisenosato was doing nothing, and so Okinoumi had no choice. All three dudes on the broadcast just laid into the Ozeki with deserved criticism. I mean, this was a pathetic display of sumo, and there was simply no way to spin it. Kisenosato is just plain awful, and what's so funny is that Okinoumi was not pressing the action. I've been watching sumo for over two decades now, and I know what a charge should look like when a guy grabs moro-zashi.  That charge wasn't there from Okinoumi, but what choice did he have with the Ozeki offering zero resistance?

As they were showing the replays of this horrible sumo from Kisenosato, Fujii Announcer made another biased slip with the comment, "Shall we change the mood of things by going to a shukun interview with Yoshikaze?" The producer obviously let him know in his earpiece that Yoshikaze was ready in the interview room, and so Fujii made the remark, but my question is...why does the mood need to change? Can't we celebrate an upset from an M1 rikishi over an Ozeki? Why should the mood be bad if all sumo is unbiased and straight up?

The answer is that there's definitely a bias in sumo towards the Japanese rikishi, and there's definitely a narrative set before each tournament, and if something happens that's contrary to that narrative, the announcers can't hide it 100% in their commentary.

As if on cue, Yokozuna Kakuryu was non-committal at the tachi-ai not really pushing and not really trying to get to the inside against Komusubi Tochiohzan, but he did create enough separation to keep Tochiohzan away from moro-zashi...for awhile. After about five seconds of relative inaction, Kakuryu let Tochiohzan creep inside and then added insult to injury by going for a quick pull silling the dill as Tochiohzan pounced to the inside for good and sent the Yokozuna packing. More mukiryoku sumo from a foreigner as a Japanese guy wins, and I think Kakuryu was reacting here to the bout before him. Look, everyone knows what's being spun in the press, and I think rikishi and their oyakata are reacting in kind to help support the narrative of the times.

In the final bout of the day, there was no way that Yokozuna Harumafuji was going to let up for his opponent.  How do I know? Because he was fighting a fellow foreigner.  A fellow foreign rikishi who is head and shoulders better than any Japanese rikishi on the banzuke. The Yokozuna was sharp from the tachi-ai gaining the left mae-mawashi and coupling that with a right paw to the neck standing Komusubi Kaisei completely upright to where he just shoved him back and out in short order capping off a day of truly ugly sumo.

Get ready for a bad basho. You can't dick around with the banzuke this long and then have a presence like Hakuho sit the thing out and expect fifteen days of solid sumo. It's not how the sport works. Well, it's not how it used to work I'm sorry to say.

Hopefully Harvye has something brighter to report on tomorrow.