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Senshuraku Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Strange days. Up until yesterday we had a crazy, tight yusho race with more than half a dozen contenders, many of them young, all of them "underdogs" in one way or another--no Ozeki, no Yokozuna. This should have been paradise for a fan, and I wish I could report I too had been on the edge of my seat. The truth is, I wasn't. Mike's characterization of the scrum as a "Juryo yusho" race was spot on: it felt like a group of random guys who happened to have good records but were facing varying levels on non-top-level competition.

Oddly, I haven't felt a real jolt of adrenaline in sumo scoreboard watching since the dramatics of Kisenosato's fraught attempt to extend his career. Sumo really needs a truly dominant young wrestler to come along, and none of the contenders in this basho are in that category.

Oh ho, how about Takakeisho, say you. Or Mitakeumi. Don't they count? Along with Okinoumi, they were our contenders remaining as we entered the final Sunday. While I'm on record as liking Takakeisho and saying he is pretty good--he usually is--his sumo this basho was sloppy, weak, and uninspiring. It felt like a desultory scooping up of ten wins by whatever means possible to get back to Ozeki, not like a yusho run. As for Mitakeumi, I do like him as well, but he had stalled out of late. Here are his win totals from his six tournaments since his win in July 2018: 9-7-8-7-9-9. Yawn. Getting his motor back in gear this tournament--and, more important, keeping it going for a few tournaments--would do a lot for sumo.

Then there was Okinoumi. Very early on I predicted Takakeisho as the winner (as well as Tochinoshin dropping from Ozeki--which, sadly, happened). I also singled out Okinoumi for a "why not?" late-career "thank you" yusho the same as have been collected recently by Kotoshogiku, Tochinoshin, and Tamawashi. However, when Okinoumi lost pointlessly to low-ranked guys after his hot start, and when he was not fed to the top of the banzuke at the end, it was evident that a yusho for him was not happening. Coming into today, I considered him to have next to zero chance at the yusho: the run of the basho narrative had already made it apparent that the Association did not consider him a plausible candidate.

So, it was Takakeisho or Mitakeumi, and lined up like this:

Okinoumi vs. Takakeisho: the loser would be eliminated; the winner would have to wait for the results of the next bout.

Mitakeumi vs. Endo: if Mitakeumi lost, he would be out. If he won, he would play the winner of the previous bout in a playoff.

Let's get right to it before covering the other matches.

YUSHO BOUTS

M8 Okinoumi (11-3) vs. S Takakeisho (11-3)
As expected, Okinoumi was no serious impediment for Takakeisho--though the style of match should have favored Okinoumi. Normally Takakeisho is a bump-and-pause guy, keeping his distance and considering a pull between each shove. In this one, instead Takakeisho went straight after Okinoumi and stayed on him. Okinoumi was too high at the tachi-ai and didn't get anything established. Takakeisho stayed low, one hand on each of Okinoumi's pecs, and pushed up, up, up and back-back-back. Despite this, Okinoumi had room to retreat or attack on the right or left, but he stayed square and largely un-dynamic, as if he were trying to win a contest of pushing strength with Takakeisho--which he had already lost, as Takakeisho had the better position in a match of that type. Okinoumi should have reached in for the belt, or darted out to the side and then reached in for the belt, but he opted not to do it, and Takakeisho finished off his force-out in just a few moments, oshi-dashi.

So, Okinoumi out--you could see that coming from a hundred miles away. Advantage: Takakeisho. To reiterate, a Mitakeumi loss in the next bout would have given the tournament to Takakeisho, and a Mitakeumi win would have given us a playoff.

S Mitakeumi (11-3) vs. K Endo (8-6)
This seemed like a good match-up in this spot. Endo has been a tough customer of late, and can win this straight up on a good day. However, in the end, it was an absolute slaughter in favor of Mitakeumi. The tachi-ai was uninspiring: neither guy was fast, the hit was weak, and they both looked cautious. However, the moment following the tachi-ai and all the rest belonged to Mitakeumi: he barreled his chest up with Endo, kept his arms low and tight, and used his huge bulk to drive hard against his smaller opponent. Mitakeumi's yori-kiri win was resounding, and everyone but maybe Takakeisho's mom was glad: Mitakeumi's win set us up for a playoff between the two strongest players of the last few years in the "young Japanese wrestler of the near future" sweepstakes.

Let us travel forward a half hour or so in time and cover the playoff, skipping the opening-band-esque Tochinoshin-Goeido bout that happened in between (and is covered at the bottom of this report).

YUSHO-KETTEI-SEN (PLAYOFF):

S Mitakeumi (12-3) vs. S Takakeisho (12-3)
The first thing that struck me is that these guys are remarkably similar in size and shape--they looked like twins. (Mitakeumi 180cm/177kg; Takakeisho 175cm/169kg). Thank goodness, the match was a pretty good looking thing: no henka, no pull down, no wild slapping about and falling down. Takakeisho lost on his second move: he gave one smallish push, then went for his first pull. That was all Mitakeumi needed. Mitakeumi had chosen the "fists down, waiting for you" pre-tachi-ai approach, which had given Takakeisho the opportunity to set up his attack as whatever he liked. Takakeisho had chosen that one push on the shoulders, then one of his wimpy-looking, hand-flapping little pulls. That might work against lesser guys, but it wasn't going to work against Mitakeumi today. Having had those fists on the ground waiting, as soon as Mitakeumi saw movement from Takakeisho, he was free to launch, and launch he did. By the time Takakeisho tried the pull Mitakeumi was all over him. Takakeisho then tried a bigger pull, up top of the head, but it was too late: Mitakeumi knew what he was about, and kept his body close to and turned to Takakeisho. Within a second Takakeisho's feet were against the straw, and Mitakeumi had put both arms inside around Takakeisho's bulk. From here Mitakeumi had any number of options to win; Takakeisho was leaning forward as hard as possible in order to avoid being pushed out backwards. Didn't matter: powerful Mitakeumi pushed Takakeisho out backwards anyway, oshi-dashi.

Mitakeumi looked good as the winner in this thing. Hoist the shiny trophy, man, hoist the shiny trophy: we'll see you in your upcoming Ozeki run.

I think this worked out just fine for both guys, and for the Association: Takakeisho got his Ozeki rank back, and Mitakeumi, along with his yusho, is set up for a chance to join him.

NOKORI

M17 Takagenji (4-10) vs. J2 Chiyoshoma (6-8)
Big, leaping, effective henka by Chiyoshoma, rolling hataki-komi loss by Takagenji. Hyoof--I'm sure glad this was Chiyoshoma's 7th win and not 8th--I tired of this guy some time ago, and don't need him back in Maku-uchi. As for Takagenji, good riddance. Don't come back.

M13 Kagayaki (5-9) vs. M15 Azumaryu (6-8)
A fair amount of back-and-forth slapping and face shoving here, followed by a big, long half-the-length-of-the-dohyo pull by Azumaryu, which only led to an easy-looking oshi-dashi win by Kagayaki. Kagayaki needed to do much better than 6-9 at M13, though--bad tournament for him

M12 Shohozan (9-5) vs. M16 Yutakayama (9-5)
These are both solid wrestlers who had solid tournaments, and Yutakayama finished it with in a nice effort in this one. After getting slapped in the face at the tachi-ai he was being driven backwards, but he pulled a nifty maki-kae to slip his right arm under Shohozan's left and onto the body. He simultaneously shifted to his left to get his back away from being lined up with the straw. From there he overpowered the smaller Shohozan, driving him across the clay and out, yori-kiri. Welcome back to Makuuchi, Yutakayama, please hang out for a while.

M11 Onosho (8-6) vs. M14 Tsurugisho (10-4)
Tsurugisho was a freshly minted special prize winner in this one, so congrats to him. I still say he is going to get butchered in higher Makuuchi in November and/or 2020, but hey, it has been a long road for this old rookie to get here, so he should enjoy it. As for Onosho, he had a fairly good tournament in comparison to most of his efforts lately, but being around .500 at this rank is not very exciting. Anyhoo, Onosho promptly stuck one hand into Tsurugisho's neck and drove; Tsurugisho wasn't able to do anything at all, and Onosho knocked him over backwards, oshi-taoshi. Solidly done by Onosho.

M10 Sadanoumi (8-6) vs. M11 Enho (8-6)
Sadanoumi started out with a solid effort at keeping Enho from getting in low on him, but he whiffed on continuing that effort: he tried to whack Enho in the face, but his hands slipped over and past, and voila!, Enho was inside on him and had him by the belt. From here Sadanoumi was helpless; Enho twisted him around and whipped him out of the ring, shita-te-nage. I do enjoy watching Enho fight, and my plush Enho doll looks great perched on the couch with me.

M9 Terutsuyoshi (3-11) vs. M13 Nishikigi (6-8)
Odd bout. Nishikigi just stood there as the little man torpedoed his head into him at the tachi-ai, as if it were a false start. However, the gyoji didn't call it back (this tournament has been an absolute mess on the false starts--my advice is that they start enforcing the rule properly, period, but that would first result in a painful period of lots of call backs), so the match continued. Nishikigi kind of rotated to the right, caught Terutsuyoshi's left arm, and got behind him, from whence he tried to bump him out. However, in an extremely unnatural looking denouement, instead Terutsuyoshi used his pinned arm to stick Nishikigi's arm against his own side instead and drag Nishikigi down from behind him, across his arse. Whelp, we're calling that saka-tottari in favor or Terutsuyoshi. I watched it like eight times. Weird. But kinda cool.

M7 Kotoshogiku (5-9) vs. M16 Tochiozan (6-8)
Terrible performance here by Tochiozan, fitting for the match that will unambiguously send him down to Juryo for the first time in more than a decade. He feinted a henka (very slow, insufficiently far) and a pull (very weak), giving little effort to either, and Kotoshogiku easily followed him and blasted him right out, oshi-dashi. Yikes, Tochiozan: if this is what you're going to do, yes, get you gone.

M6 Shimanoumi (4-10) vs. M12 Daishoho (5-9)
Daishoho stood way back off the lines, got up a good head of steam, ploughed into Shimanoumi, then all too easily let him evade to his left and get out of it. They then went to a brief belt-hold stand-off; Shimanoumi did what he needed to, wrenching Daishoho upright, then switching momentum and yanking him to the ground, uwate-dashi-nage. I kind of like Shimanoumi, with his whitish, dirty-looking belt that looks like he forgot to change out from keiko.

M9 Kotoyuki (8-6) vs. M4 Shodai (3-11)
Shodai gave Kotoyuki a free shot here: put both hands down and waited for him. Kotoyuki took the chance, whanging into Shodai hard at the tachi-ai and bending his head back with a wicked arm to the throat. They went through three rounds of this: Kotoyuki driving Shodai's head back, relenting, driving the head back, relenting, and driving the head back and relenting yet again. They then fell into each other's embrace, and I figured it was curtains for Kotoyuki: he has always seemed to admire his own moves to much, but loses in a befuddled way when, to his evident surprise, his awesome moves don't quite finish the job. Not here, so give him credit: he promptly finished Shodai off by tossing Shodai's slumping, tired body to the side, uwate-nage. Kotoyuki had a pretty good tournament; I find a sneaking enjoyment/admiration of him creeping upon me.

M4 Tamawashi (7-7) vs. M15 Ishiura (7-7)
Mismatch. Any reasonable observer should expect an absolute destruction of Ishiura here if a straight up match. However, Tamawashi's tach ai was lame and slow; he just kind of stood up and took a hesitant lean forward, whereas Ishiura ducked in and engirdled Tamawashi's body. From there the yori-kiri win for Ishiura was swift and easy.

M5 Chiyotairyu (2-12) vs M3 Tomokaze (6-8)
So Tomokaze bombed out yesterday on his run for "kachi-koshi forever and ever!!" This tournament he gathered his first ever losing record. I was idly daydreaming earlier this week: could a guy go kachi-koshi literally forever? Yes; it wouldn't be that hard if you were truly great. You'd zing up to Sekiwake pretty quick. Then, depending on how many 8-7s and 9-6s you throw in, you could stay there literally for years. But if you're really that good, pretty soon you'd be an Ozeki and a Yokozuna, and then you'd be expected to win at least eight in any case. The hard part would be at the end of your career: you'd have to pull a Sandy Koufax and retire when you're on top, before you need to. With that in mind, I was rooting for Tomokaze to keep it going. Whelp, he didn't, and somebody wasn't sad: Mike messaged me a video yesterday of himself doing somersaults while wearing a party hat, held on by one of those little rubber bands, on top of a giant cake that took up his whole living room floor when Tomokaze lost yesterday. Rough on the hat, and the cake got a little damaged and Mike pretty messy, but afterwards we the SumoTalk crew were invited over and sat right in the cake, gorging on it with our bare hands, scooping up handfuls of mashed frosting and cake and glooping them into our mouths. So, thanks Tomokaze! It was worth it. Anyhoo, Chiyotairyu was pushing Tomokaze in the face and stuff, as if trying to stuff cake down his gullet, but didn't seem really into it, and didn't have much behind it: no feet, no speed. So Tomokaze grabbed Chiyotairyu by the head and smashed him down face-first hataki-komi into the clay. Hoo, boy, I bet Chiyotairyu wished it were cake down there on the ground instead of just cold, hard dirt.

M3 Daieisho (7-7) vs. M7 Kotoeko (7-7)
This looked good on paper--these are both solid-effort guys--and was good in practice too, with lots of back and forth and a come-from-behind win. To my surprise, Kotoeko immediately got the forceful and skilled Daieisho on the defensive, finding a moment to duck in and put his body to Daieisho's shoulder. From there Kotoeko employed repeated face blows, and Daieisho had to work hard not to fall apart. However, face blows are a game Daieisho knows too, and pretty soon he was giving as good as he got. There was a good amount of movement about the ring as they worked out this violent, kinetic stuff with each other, but when Kotoeko went for a pull, giving up his forward control, you knew it was over. Daieisho had gathered together the pieces of his inner chi and banged Kotoeko emphatically out of the ring, oshi-dashi. Yeah, I like these two guys just fine.

M10 Meisei (9-5) vs. M2 Asanoyama (10-4)
"I coulda been a contender." YES. You both could've. In fact, you both WERE. But here you are instead, having pulled back as appropriate in the end, and now ready to give us a good fight on the last day. This was another good pairing. Meisei went for it with characteristic intensity. He kept his arms together at the tachi-ai, hit hard, and surged his right hand all the way inside to the belt. Asanoyama also got a belt grip, reaching over on the right, but he only got one fold, and consequently that piece of belt slid up Meisei's side, leaving Asanoyama with little leverage. Meisei did not let up, working hard inside and low and pretty soon getting both arms inside. Asanoyama resisted that okay--he is big, strong, and skilled--but it was a matter of time before Meisei finished off this hard-fought, good looking win yori-kiri style. I predict Meisei gets pretty beaten up next time around at a rank a little too high for him, but fine. As for Asanoyama, his future looks very bright--he had an excellent tournament at M2, and made us remember that he just won a whole tournament in May: his performance this time made that win feel more plausible than it did at the time.

M5 Ryuden (6-8) vs. M1 Aoiyama (5-9)
These guys pushed and slugged cautiously at each other's face, then Ryuden cleverly reached out, caught Aoiyama's arm, pulled it, and sent Aoiyama bumbling straight out of the dohyo, zing!, hikkake.

M1 Hokutofuji (8-6) vs. M8 Takarafuji (9-5)
Nice, banging tachi-ai from Hokutofuji, but he didn't follow up quickly and Takarafuji didn't move back much. So, Takarafuji got in control a bit, getting on Hokutofuji's body. No matter. You could tell Takarafuji wasn't going to try to win: watching Hokutofuji rather than attacking him, pulling him away from danger near the edge rather than pushing him further into it. Hokutofuji stayed low, managed not to fall out or down, and picked up a shrug-inducing oshi-dashi win.

K Abi (9-5) vs. M6 Myogiryu (7-7)
Abi had pull on his mind from the beginning, which seemed odd: he is plenty bigger than Myogiryu, has had a successful tournament, and had nothing to lose here: why not just go for it? Myogiryu was eager to take advantage but couldn't get it done. Abi tried at least three pulls before turning the firehose on and going for wild attack that resulted in Myogiryu stepping out backwards at the same moment Abi hit the dirt. They called a do-over, and that seemed the right decision to me. This whole sequence was a mess though; we'd had a false start on the first go-round, and had another on the second; it revealed an attempted henka by Abi. Would he use it after all anyway? No: at that point he just seemed like a clown, and we were all of us all done with him. Even he was done with himself. Myogiryu attacked, Abi pulled, and Myogiryu drove Abi unceremoniously and with oomph right out, yori-kiri.

O Tochinoshin (6-8) vs. O Goeido (9-5)
Although I expected, and predicted, Tochinoshin to not get his eight, after Friday it looked like he might despite it all. However, overall his tournament was a mess: with everything from the sloppy hair-pull loss to yesterday's sloppy touch-out loss, it just didn't feel like he'd earned it. As if to emphasize this point, Goeido grabbed him by the belt with his left hand, tilted to the side, spun Tochinoshin around past and to in front of him, turned with him, and bodied him back and over the straw in one long, smooth yori-kiri destruction. Well, it was fun, Ozeki Tochinoshin. Here's wishing you at least as many post-Ozeki years in Maku-uchi as Kotoshogiku has.

Day 14 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all, for too many days this tournament the atrocious semi-lutirate reporters of Sumotalk (mainly me) have ignored half the rikishi in the Makuuchi division. Just because those men were unlucky enough to be out of the the running for the big prize by the half way mark. Well, that ends here. All are welcome at Sumotalk, so with good spirits and a sunny disposition let's float through all the 19 bouts we witnessed today.

The leader board is awash with battle hardened Japanese veterans and talented Japanese young prospects. In order of Japanese rank we have:

Mitakeumi
Takakeisho
Okinoumi
Tsurugisho

All four are out in front and looking good with 10 wins. The following cohort at 9-4 is about the same size and strength of rikishi, so all to play for:

Goeido
Takarafuji
Asanoyama
Meisei
Yutakayama

Of this leading nine only two will face each other today, but it is two of the highest ranking in Ozeki Goeido versus Sekiwake Mitakeumi. That should thin the herd. Now, on to the bouts.

Ishiura (M15) 7-6 vs Wakatakakage (J3) 7-6
The lightweight Ishiura was swept backwards for the very easy win by the lightweight Juryo visitor. At 7-7 with one more to go Ishiura is probably safe from demotion anyway. There are others in far worse shape than him, Toyonoshima for instance.

Shohozan (M12) 8-5 vs Azumaryu (M15) 6-7
When I watch Azumaryu I think "yea, why not, he seems to belong here." He's big at 6'3 (191cm), moves well and certainly looks strong enough. But then he didn't stick in Makuuchi last time and he's turned 32 now. Him I don't get. His tachi-ai sucks salty balls, so that doesn't help.

And he didn't help his quest to stay in the top division today either. He just stood up at the tachi-ai and moved himself back with a pull on the little brown fire hydrant Shohozan. That will never work bro. A greedy ninth win for greedy Shohozan.

Onosho (M11) 7-6 vs Yutakayama (M16) 9-4
A fine six bout win streak has put Yutakayama in the running for Yusho / Jun-Yusho. Destroying notables such as Enho and Chiyoshoma along the way. Onosho levered him up and drove his wide load straight back out. Oshi-dashi and kachi-koshi for the motivated rikishi who exerts himself the most. Which is just the way things should be.

Tochiohzan (M16) 6-7 vs Enho (M11) 7-6
If he stays at only six wins, Tochiozan may well find himself in Juryo paired against Mitoryu and Tobizaru. An inglorious end to a solid, blue-collar career. Enho wants kachi-koshi and is determined to get it.

Today Enho brought his A-game and henka'd the former Sekiwake. The bout survived and Enho got his left arm inside, deep. They then engaged in a battle for grips with inside wrist control. And Enho was really good at it. He routed Tochiozan for the oshi-taoshi-kachi-koshi victory. There isn't any resistance in Tochiohzan's left leg now. Let's see what 2 months healing can do.

Terutsuyoshi (M9) 3-10 vs Takagenji (M17) 3-10
Even the hard fought, come from behind yori-kiri win here will not save the youngster Takagenji from performing on the Juryo stage in two months time. At 22 years old it's no bad thing for him to bounce up and down between the divisions for a while. Even Chiyonofuji had to do that trick.

Tsurugisho (M14) 10-3 vs Kotoyuki (M9) 7-6
Kotoyuki caught his target center mass with heavy, bludgeoning thrusts that moved the red hot M14 back. Kotoyuki then showcased his wide riding-a-horse stance as he drove his tackle dummy out oshi-dashi, crushing a seated Gyoji for the bonus point. Text book stuff as he picks up his kachi-koshi and a thin pile of envelopes probably intended for Tsurugisho's eleventh win.

There was a joint tournament leader in that bout, but you wouldn't have known it unless you checked the score board beforehand.

Kagayaki (M13) 5-8 vs Kotoeko (M7) 6-7
Head down, check. Elbows tucked in tight, check. Go forward, check. Crash out of the dohyo and tumble to the floor, check. Perhaps Robo-Kagayaki should install one more checkpoint before green for go is initiated. Opponent still in front of me? Abort! Abort!

Shimanoumi (M6) 4-9 vs Sadanoumi (M10) 7-6
When his attempted moro-zashi was trapped half way in, Sadanoumi waited for Shimanoumi to drive forward and just sprang away and let the big guy keep moving. All the way out. Nice and sneaky.

Sadanoumi has gambarized his sumo this week and won 4 out of 5 bouts. That's how you grab a kachi-koshi while nobody is looking.

Chiyotairyu (M5) 2-11 vs Daishoho (M12) 4-9
With six wins between them we shouldn't have expected too much. Chiyotairyu in particular has been a shadow of his prime self. He has only managed to half blast Shodai this basho. The other win was the magnificent henka against joint leader Takakeisho, of all people.

The bout today was ugly and the sort of thing that makes non fans laugh in derision at sumo. Daishoho chest bumped to start things off and then jumped away to let Chiyo fall flat on his face. A horrid hataki-komi. With only two wins in the bag Chiyotairyu is going to fall long and far through the ranks for November. If he gets his strength back in time he should be in the running for a special prize. If not, he's walking straight into Juryo demotion. It's amazing how fast it can happen, just ask Kaisei.

Nishikigi (M13) 6-7 vs Shodai (M4) 2-11
Shodai took the moro-zashi opening, took the initiative and took the yori-kiri win that will, in all likelihood, keep him in the Makuuchi division for the next outing. Nishikigi took one as well.

Daieisho (M3) 6-7 vs Meisei (M10) 9-4
And Meisei lost again to Daieisho. He has a problem getting past this guy. Daieisho is as fast as Meisei and he can get as low too. After the two best weapons of Meisei are canceled out, Daieisho is a bit bigger and a bit better at the pushing game. An oshi-dashi win for Daieisho and a chance to get kachi-koshi on the final day against Kotoeko. That's a pretty good chance.

Tomokaze (M3) 6-7 vs Asanoyama (M2) 9-4
Both of these guys beat Goeido, which shows they have some testicular fortitude. But then Endo beat all three of them in a row, which shows how much chutzpah Endo has this year.

This pair are only a few meals away from the combined 800lb mark and the impact at the tachi-ai was good and heavy. Tomokaze went straight to a strong pull behind the head. Unusually, he doesn't get out of the way or step back very much when he does this, it's just a test of his opponents balance. Asanoyama recovered and the bout went to migi-yotsu. The M2 man finds this type of game to his liking and he first unbalanced and then levered big Tomo over onto one foot before crowding him out of the dohyo for win number 10.

Hokutofuji (M1) 7-6 vs Tamawashi (M4) 7-6
When he lost six bouts in a row during the first week Hokutofuji fell out of contention for the Yusho and the minds of sumo fans. Since then he has quietly scraped his way back to gain kachi-koshi with a winning streak that currently stands at 7 thanks to today's solid push-out win over Tamawashi.

As for Tamawashi, he is still needing one more for kachi-koshi despite being the lucky recipient of not one but two walk-over wins from Ichinojo and Kakuryu. He finally gets to claim his 8 with an opponent that on paper is a gimme, Ishiura.

Kotoshogiku (M7) 5-8 vs Aoiyama (M1) 4-9
As sumo fans, especially those who actually put their money down and bought tickets, lick their wounds from the unusually high number and high ranking of kyujo this basho it would be nice if they could take solace in the quality of the bouts on display. A sort of consolation prize handed out from the middle ranks as a "thank for your support" gesture.

Sadly there is not much of that thinking in evidence here. Aoiyama henka'd Kotoshogiku, who can never stay on his feet after one. Regardless of the quality of sumo shown, big D now has 3 wins in a row at the end of a difficult basho. A 5-9 score going into the last day looks a lot better than the 2-12 he was staring at.

Abi (K) 8-5 vs Takarafuji (M8) 9-4
The sumo force seems balanced between these two, one explodes in a fireball of chaos and the other exudes a calm mist of Zen-sumo. Takarafuji is all about the control. Abi is uncontrollable. In their head to head bouts they are balanced with 3 wins each as well. The difference this basho is that Abi has gained his wins from the Komusubi rank and faced five Sanyaku opponents, winning four of them. Despite being in the pack for a chance to Yusho, Takarafuji hasn't been matched up with anyone higher than M6. Perhaps his chances were not taken too seriously by the SA.

They were right. Today he offered his usual arms low stance and Abi went to town. Knowing that this is a guy who stands and takes it allowed Abi to dig in deep without fear of a quick counter. He put his head down and huffed and puffed until Takarafuji's house crumbled and tumbled out to tsuki-dashi.

Okinoumi (M8) 10-3 vs Endo (K) 8-5
Even though he launched himself into this basho with an eight bout win streak, his best ever (well done Okinoumi) he still hasn't faced anyone higher than Ryuden at M5. And it was Ryuden that beat him and took that lead away. Okinoumi was clearly affected by this as he then lost the next two as well. To men he could be expected to defeat in M10 Sadanoumi & M14 Tsurugisho. These losses kept him away from the big boys though, so it worked out well in the end.

The bout could be reduced to a simple over-powering by a bigger man who wanted to win. That doesn't happen often enough in sumo. But then few averaged sized rikishi are willing to play big man power sumo except Endo. Who did it again today and lost because of it.

Endo squared up to his foe at the tachi-ai and dug his left arm inside. The bigger man pushed through and Endo had his heel at the tawara instantly. Okinoumi tried to bully him out with precious little control over Endo. The Komusubi circled to his right, still glued to the big man with that inner grip. Okinoumi took the outer grip available to him and, in a display of raw power, leaned heavily and swung Endo around 360 degrees to put his gals heels back on the tawara. A heel touched outside and the bout was officially over but the Gyoji didn't notice and let them go. Okinoumi tried to throw a stubborn Endo over in a crowd pleasing collapse at the edge but the bout was already over. The best action of the basho didn't officially take place. They showed it in the replay anyway, good for them.

Ryuden (M5) 6-7 vs Takakeisho (S) 10-3
There was not much resistance in Ryuden today. He backed up from the pushes and went out across the rope without much argument. Even though they were mostly arm pushes with little leg drive behind them, it was enough. Enough for the crowd that thrilled to the one-sided effort. Enough for an 11th win for the 23 year old. Enough for me to move on.

What will it take to stop a rampaging tadpole? Takakeisho has reclaimed the Ozeki rank with days to spare. In the end, there wasn't any real doubt about it. He is now two bouts away from his second Yusho and the inevitable talk of possible Yokozuna promotion in the very near future. Here's a mental picture for you. Tokyo Olympic opening ceremony 2020. Hakuho sharing the stage with a shining young Japanese Yokozuna. The camera slowly nudging towards the Hyogo Prefecture native.

Mitakeumi (S) 10-3 vs Goeido (O) 9-4
And finally we get to the one bout guaranteed to alter the yusho picture. This is the premier match-up of the day. The first and third highest ranked rikishi in the basho. Just one year ago that would have meant Kakuryu facing off against Kisenosato. Oh, how we laughed. How we mocked.

Mitakeumi performed henka. Goeido performed a nose dive to the clay.

In just half a second of action, Mitakeumi stays on the noble path to yusho glory. For day 15 he need only best Endo and he is in a playoff for his second championship. That combined with 12 wins would look very good on his sheet when they consider his request to join the Ozeki club next time out.

Tochinoshin (O) 6-7 vs Myogiryu (M6) 6-5-2
At M6 and still without kachi-koshi, Myogiryu could consider himself unfortunate to be facing an Ozeki and a Komusubi to end the basho with. He didn't let it phase him. And Tochinoshin isn't the intimidating Georgian bear anymore. He's beatable, vulnerable.

Quick off the mark, Myogiryu took an early shallow left grip and doubled down on it with a deeper inside right hold. With that achieved he powered forward, fully expecting to move the Ozeki. And he did, Myogiryu drove straight back and forced Tochinoshin to put a foot on the wrong part of the sand. For the second time today the bout continued for a moment after, but it was a genki yori-kiri for the M6 man. Make-koshi for the kadoban Ozeki. He will need to win 10 yet again in November to keep the rank, as the cycle repeats itself.

We started the day at nine men still left with a chance to take the Emperors cup. They have now been whittled down to just three remaining. With Takakeisho set to take on the early front-runner Okinoumi tomorrow, one of them will get his twelfth win. The only rikishi who can get up there to force a playoff is Mitakeumi if he defeats Endo. In the second to last bout. It's showtime sumo!

Harvye will be here tomorrow to guide us through the debris of the day. Unless Okinoumi wins, in which case he may have to go to hospital with tightness of chest and breathing difficulties.

Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The best way to cut one's teeth on sumo is to have access to a stable where you can watch morning keiko. And I'm not talking about watching morning keiko once. I'm talking about living in a city with a hon-basho and being able to visit multiple stables morning after morning to watch the rikishi practice. It was always cool when the sekitori starting entering the practice area later in the morning, but the best keiko by far was when the Sandanme guys or Makushita guys would do sanban-geiko.

Sanban-geiko is where the same two opponents fight over and over, and it's not really something that's planned. It just happens where you end up with two evenly-matched rikishi in the ring at the same time, and they're so close in ability that they go against each other time and time again in a mini session that could go as high as 30 consecutive bouts. When this happens, everyone in the practice ring let's it go and doesn't try to butt in because you can tangibly feel the fluidity of the sumo in the ring, and no one wants to disturb it.

The last time I visited a morning keiko session was at the 2004 Kyushu basho. I visited the Kokonoe-beya where Asashoryu and Hakuho were there doing de-geiko with Chiyotaikai among others, and with all of those big name people there (including members of the media), it was not an open session to the extent that I could just walk up and sit down on one of the folding chairs, but it was still a great experience.

It may be that morning keiko has changed since then to where it's not as intense as it used to be, but the point is that I really learned sumo by watching morning keiko in Fukuoka day after day and year after year. I learned the natural flow of sumo and how rikishi would react in certain situations whether it was taking advantage of their strength or properly countering when their opponent had the upper hand. The sekitori were primarily practicing not to get injured, but the non-sekitori were practicing to get better, and I learned the X's and O's of sumo by watching thousands of their practice bouts.

The reason I open with that is to illustrate that I know when things are not right in the ring during a hon-basho. I know that upsets can happen and that rikishi can sometimes make mistakes, but I also know fake sumo when I see it, and let me give three examples of fake sumo from yesterday that all involved prominent rikishi:



From left to right is Tochinoshin vs. Mitakeumi, Goeido vs. Ryuden, and Takakeisho vs. Myogiryu.

Regarding Tochinoshin, the key is to look at his hands. I can accept that someone could gain moro-zashi against Tochinoshin from the tachi-ai, but when the Ozeki doesn't use either hand to grab an outer grip or a kote grip to defend himself, I know he's mukiryoku. Furthermore, if you give up moro-zashi, you need to back up your feet and press into your opponent chest to chest creating a tall triangle, not spoon with him forward-facing.

Regarding the second picture, what normal bout of sumo ends like that? I mean, it looks like Goeido has just tackled Ryuden in a game of American football. What illustration that the Sumo Association posts of its kimari-te ends with both rikishi in that position?

As for the third pic, this is just the typical scene when a guy can't wait to hit the dirt with both palms in a fixed bout at the first hint of a pull or tug. Far too many of Takakeisho's bouts end like this for me to take him seriously as even a Makuuchi rank and filer.

I get that all sumo bouts every time don't have to conclude in an orthodox manner, but such bouts should be the RARE exception and not the rule. Day after day after day we get these puff sumo bouts with crazy endings that just so happen to always involve the Japanese rikishi that the Sumo Association is propping up. I mean, is it too much to ask for an uwate-nage where the loser is actually thrown and isn't just weakly twisted down to the dirt with both palms down? Actually, with fake sumo it is too much to ask because these rikishi aren't capable of doing it at this level of the banzuke or we'd actually see it from time to time. Instead, we get these bizarre endings like the Takakeisho - Tochinoshin bout that are improbable in normal sumo.

I am not taking any of this seriously, and so I'm not going to entertain a yusho race. I mean, it's inevitable that someone has to hoist the cup on Sunday, but what's the point of analyzing it if the sumo is not real?

As a result, let's just work our way from the bottom up starting with J2 Takanosho visiting from Juryo to face M15 Azumaryu. Takanosho caught Azumaryu with a nice right paw to the neck from the tachi-ai, but that was partly due to Azumaryu's mukiryoku nature. The Mongolian was standing upright from the start, and then as Takanosho advanced forward, Azumaryu offered the weakest kote grip with his right arm that you'd care to see, and the uneventful oshi-dashi occurred in three seconds or less. Mmm...a tasty yaocho to start the day as Takanosho clinches his place in Makuuchi for Kyushu at 9-4 while Azumaryu falls to 6-7 needing one more win to stay in the division. Heck yes that was worth $10K.

Up next was M16 Yutakayama who wasn't paid to lose against M11 Enho and so Yutakayama just stood upright from the tachi-ai and fired defensive tsuppari Enho's way as the smaller rikishi tried to advance and duck inside. It was clear the first six seconds or so that Enho wasn't going to get close, and so he next tried to tug at Yutakayama's extended arm. That caused both rikishi to change positions in the ring, but it was still the chess match of the undersized Enho's needing to figure out Yutakayama's defensive tsuppari. Enho attempted again and again to sneak inside, but he was beaten back every time, and once Enho was sufficiently gassed, Yutakayama easily slapped him down to the dirt. I wouldn't be surprised if Yutakayama was cashing in on a previous favor thrown Enho's way as he moves to 9-4. As for Enho, he gently falls to 7-6 and needs to buy one more win.

M11 Onosho came with a mediocre tsuppari attack against M13 Nishikigi, and instead of just grabbing Onosho and forcing the bout to yotsu-zumo, Nishikigi played along sorta firing counter shoves of his own. With Onosho not gaining any ground pushing, he moved left, but the mukiryoku Nishikigi wasn't necessary plodding forward, so the move was useless. Nishikigi's mukiryoku nature didn't change and so Onosho was able to get the left arm inside Nishikigi's right pit and push him over to the edge, and instead of countering with a kote-nage that was totally available, Nishikigi just walked across the edge playing along. They ruled it oshi-dashi, but it was more like Onosho's left forearm against Nishikigi's right side trying to pry him across. No worries. Nishikigi did most of this on his own as Onosho moves to 7-6 while Nishikigi falls to 6-7 without a care in the world.

The fans are not paying to see the gyoji try and detect false starts. I mean, the false start call is so subjective, so to see the ref call the M12 Shohozan - M10 Meisei contest back time and time again was not only ridiculous but a complete waste of everyone's time. When they finally did go, Shohozan came with his usual tsuppari attack while Meisei tried to jab and evade. There was a lot of movement here but very little action until Meisei moved left attempting to tug at Shohozan's right arm, but instead Meisei just toppled over pretending that he tripped over his own two feet. I mean, going back to my mention of the "yusho race," how can we take it seriously when one of the contenders can't even tie his shoelaces straight? Just another bad bout of sumo here, and I'm not sure how they ruled it oshi-taoshi in favor of Shohozan. Regardless, the dark one picks up kachi-koshi at 8-5 while Meisei falls to 9-4.

I wonder how many people scoffed last basho when I said that M17 Takagenji's 4-1 start was completely fake? This guy has been a complete dumpster fire since that initial yaocho money ran out, and it continued today in a hidari-yotsu bout against M10 Sadanoumi where the Sadamight easily grabbed a right outer grip and just escorted Takagenji back and across in seconds. As the announcers watched the replay of Takagenji's lethargy, Kitanofuji made the comment that he comes from the same stable as Takakeisho implying that he should take advantage of that, and my first thought was "take advantage of what?" I was still waiting for a good bout at this point of the broadcast that resembled morning keiko as Sadanoumi improved to 7-6 while Takagenji fell to 3-10.

M16 Tochiohzan's only answer for M9 Kotoyuki's tsuppari attack was to extend his arms forward hoping that he could somehow fish for a pull attempt. It would never come as Kotoyuki just stormed forward and knocked Tochiohzan back and out once, twice, three times a lady. Kotoyuki earns the tsuki-dashi kimari-te today as he moves to 7-6 while Tochiohzan falls to 6-7...from the M16 rank. Dude better scrape up some cash from the Kasugano fan club quick, or he's headed to Juryo for the Kyushu basho.

M15 Ishiura is unfortunately figuring out that an easy way for him to legitimately win in the division is to employ the tachi-ai henka. M9 Terutsuyoshi bit on the move hook, line, and sinker as Ishiura oils his way to 7-6 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 3-10. After the bout, Kitanofuji pointed out that neither of the rikishi had their fists solidly touching the dirt at the tachi-ai, and so he questioned why we had to go through the matta nonsense three times in an earlier bout. The off-the-cuff comment drew a nice chortle from Fujii Announcer. I mean, after a horrible display of sumo like this, what else was there to comment on? At least they were honest.

And that bring us to M14 Tsurugisho, our lone rookie this basho. Dude's received a bit of hype due to his fast start, but it's all been bought and paid for. I mean, the rookie's got decent size and there might be some potential there, but let's see what happens after the wad of Oitekaze-beya cash runs out. Today against M8 Takarafuji, the two bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai before the veteran forced the bout to hidari-yotsu grabbing the right outer grip in the process, but instead of digging in and weakening his opponent's left grip by moving to that side and pinching in, Takarafuji just walked his way to the opposite edge into an easy scoop throw from Tsurugisho. I mean, credit the rookie for having the strength to make that throw as Goeido or Takakeisho couldn't do it, but this bout was clearly fixed from the start in favor of the rookie. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse in pointing out how there should have been some semblance of a nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge, but Takarafuji just walked into this one and played right along. Trust me, the wily veteran ain't that dumb. But...the result is Tsurugisho's keeping himself if the fake yusho race at 10-3 while Takarafuji falls back a step at 9-4.

Two of my favorite guys in the division met up today in M8 Okinoumi and M13 Kagayaki, but we unfortunately did not get a straight-up bout. Kagayaki didn't come at the tachi-ai with his normal tsuppari attack, and Okinoumi didn't really try and get to the inside, and so the two sorta glad handed each other in the center of the ring until Okinoumi made a move to his left going for an easy pull, and Kagayaki just belly flopped forward to the dirt. Obvious dive here as Okinoumi moves to 10-3 while Kagayaki falls to 5-8.

M7 Kotoeko shaded to his left at the tachi-ai against M12 Daishoho, but that enabled Daishoho to get the right arm in deep and reel Kotoeko in snug where the left outer was there for the taking from Daishoho if he wanted it. Unfortunately he didn't so not only did he settle for a kote grip, but he just twisted his hip in close allowing Kotoeko to grab the left outer grip. Kotoeko ain't got the skills to bully Daishoho chest to chest even with the outer grip, and the Mongolian easily broke it off practically by moving his body, but he never did apply pressure as the two went back and forth in the ring chest to chest until Daishoho finally let Kotoeko force him back and across with no counter move or resistance. This one actually looked good to the sheep, but Daishoho was mukiryoku falling to 4-9 while Kotoeko is gifted his 6-7 mark.

M5 Chiyotairyu just went through the motions from the tachi-ai against M3 Daieisho sorta slapping but standing straight up and not looking to move forward. As a result, Daieisho just charged forward with his usual tsuppari attack and knocked the mukiryoku (intentional or not) Chiyotairyu back in just a few uncontested seconds. Daieisho moves to 6-7 with the win while Chiyotairyu falls to 2-11. Ugh.

Since this is a basho where ALL of the foreign rikishi have decided to pull back, there was no way that M4 Tamawashi was going to stir the pot against M2 Asanoyama. Tamawashi dominated this one from the tachi-ai using a nice tsuppari attack that drove Asanoyama near the brink, but then all of a sudden Tamawashi just stopped as if he couldn't push his foe another centimeter. Oh the strength of Asanoyama!! Or not. With Tamawashi completely faking it, Asanoyama sorta went for a left swipe, and that was The Mawashi's queue to just flop over to the dirt and assume the missionary position. I mean, Asanoyama had zero going for him this entire bout, and then all of a sudden the Mongolian flops to the dirt.

It's exactly what I was talking about in my intro about these bouts occurring over and over again in favor of guys like Asanoyama and Takakeisho. At some point, you'd think people would clue in, but whatever. Asanoyama "improves" to 9-4 while Tamawashi stays well back of the pack at 7-6, and while we're still on the subject of Tamawashi, let's just examine his record against the Japanese darlings Takakeisho, Goeido, Mitakeumi, and Asanoyama. Oh, whuddayaknow...he's 0-4!!

M1 Aoiyama struck M4 Shodai at the tachi-ai but wasn't looking to move forward with his tsuppari attack. As a result, Shodai took the initiative driving the Happy Bulgar back to the edge where Aoiyama evaded left and mildly pushed at Shodai's right shoulder, and the move was potent enough to throw Shodai off balance to where he just hopped out of the ring. I mean, Aoiyama wasn't looking to do much damage here, but Shodai was completely hapless, which likely explains his 2-11 record. Life's a bitch when people don't throw bouts in your favor. As for Aoiyama, he moves to just 4-9.

I'm rooting hard for M3 Tomokaze's make-koshi. The dude hasn't deserved anything he's been handed in the division, and once he loses his eight, I no longer have to hear about that tired string of however many straight kachi-koshi it's been since he entered sumo. He may have been a legit dude in the lower ranks for all I know, but he's been buying wins in this division hand over fist ever since he arrived. Today against M1 Hokutofuji, Hokutofuji came with his usual tachi-ai where he puts his right hand to his opponent's neck while shading left, and if Tomokaze was really all that, he would have known what was coming and taken advantage of it. He didn't, however, and so the two squared back up standing largely upright and pushing into each other's necks with one hand until Tomokaze went for a decent pull. It knocked Hokutofuji off balance, but Tomokaze couldn't finish him off, and so with the bout having completely gone to hell at this point, Tomokaze went for another desperate pull that nearly worked, but Hokutofuji was able to push Tomokaze off balance by the right thigh sending him onto his back across the straw. Watching replays, it actually looked as if Hokutofuji's hand touched down first, but they didn't bother calling a mono-ii. I mean, who wanted to watch another bout of this? Tomokaze is now on the brink at 6-7 while Hokutofuji moves to 7-6.

I'm with Harvye in that it'd be nice to see Komusubi Endoh pick up a yusho. It wouldn't be real of course, but the dude has put in his time and worked some things out in the middle of the ranks, so it'd be sort of a nice lifetime achievement award. I can say the same thing for Mitakeumi. Yes, both of these guys have had a lot of wins handed to them, but you can also see decent ability when they're forced to fight straight up as well. Today against M7 Kotoshogiku, Endoh seemed okay letting the bout go to hidari-yotsu, and once the Geeku got his own left arm to the inside, he immediately attempted to force Endoh back. When you stop and analyze Kotoshogiku's sumo, this is really the only thing he's got left...get the left arm inside and at least attempt to drive your opponent back. If that fails (and it should 13 times out of 15), he's done.

Endoh took that first move in stride, held up at the edge nicely, and then came away with the right outer grip. This allowed him to push the action back to the center of the ring, and with Endoh in charge, he was able to wrench Kotoshogiku this way and that before finally setting up a right belt throw. Credit Kotoshogiku for his counter sumo out there today, but he just didn't have the strength to best Endoh. As for Endoh's uwate-nage, Kotoshogiku got about as much air being thrown as I'd get if I tried to dunk a basketball these days, but I'd at least give him a 5 on the throw. Endoh picks up kachi-koshi with the win at 8-5 while Kotoshogiku falls to 5-8.

Komusubi Abi came with the usual fire hose tsuppari against M6 Shimanoumi, who really didn't look to counter and get up and under the thrusts. Still, Abi's shoves weren't potent enough to finish Shimanoumi off straightway, and so he went for a dumb pull with just the right hand sorta wrapped around Shimanoumi's head, but Shimanoumi just played along and walked himself outta the dohyo. I mean, for Shimanoumi's sake, I HOPE he was mukiryoku in this one. When was the last time you saw a hataki-komi win where the loser was still upright and not even close to touching the dirt? That was the case in this one, but what other kimari-te could they have called? Shimanoumi had Abi dead to rights when the Komusubi was trying to set up that pull, but instead of shoving Abi back and out, Shimanoumi just played along and waltzed out on his own. The "win" gives Abi kachi-koshi at 8-5 while Shimanoumi falls to 4-9.

Sekiwake Mitakeumi was paired with M6 Myogiryu today, and the two were even steven at the tachi-ai as they traded a few shoves, but before anything could get going (and probably more importantly, before Mitakeumi could bully Myogiryu off of the starting lines), Myogiryu just backed up going for a pull all the while keeping himself square with Mitakeumi's body. The move caught Mitakeumi off guard a bit in that he stumbled forward, but with Myogiryu graciously keeping himself square with the Sekiwake, Mitakeumi was able to push into Myogiryu's body and force him back before the Sekiwake hit the dirt. This one was actually close enough that they called a mono-ii to review, but Myogiryu did step out a sukoshi before Mitakeumi touched down.

At one loss behind the leader coming in, Mitakeumi was still in the yusho race, so if he was fighting well enough to contend for the yusho, why wasn't he able to just blow Myogiryu's doors off from the beginning? Remember, Myogiryu did withdraw for three days partway during the tournament due to injury, so why did Mitakeumi need help to win? I think that Mitakeumi can beat Myogiryu straight up, but it says something in that somebody didn't want to take the chance here in order to keep the yusho race interesting. With the gift, Mitakeumi moves to 10-3, one off the pace with Takakeisho still to fight. As for Myogiryu, he falls to a quiet 6-7 and was hopefully rewarded with cash money for playing nice today. Before we move on, can Musoyama deliver a mono-ii explanation with the best of them or what? If only he had those same skills as an active rikishi, he coulda risen above his faux-zeki rank.

Speaking of the Ozeki ranks, we'll see what Tochinoshin decides to do the rest of the way. With M5 Ryuden today, the aforementioned Myogiryu tomorrow, and Goeido likely on senshuraku, the Ozeki is in complete control of his destiny. Today against Ryuden, Tochinoshin looked for the right inside position while grabbing the left outer grip, but Ryuden's focus was to keep him away from the inside, which would spell certain death. My question is why didn't Ryuden at this point touch Tochinoshin's mawashi and magically make him spin around backwards and fall to his knees similarly to what Takakeisho did earlier? Oh, that 's right. Ryuden doesn't quite have THOSE skills yet. With Ryuden pinching in nicely against Tochinoshin's right arm, the Ozeki finally relented and grabbed an outer grip with the right giving him two outers and Ryuden moro-zashi, but Tochinoshin's right outer was so close to the front of the belt that Ryuden was pinched in too tight to do anything, He attempted a counter belt throw that caused both rikishi to trade spots in the dohyo, but the Ozeki was just bearing down too tight scoring the nice yori-kiri in the end. The was easily the best bout of sumo on the day, and Tochinoshin showed here that he can do what he wanna when he wanna against his Japanese foes. At 6-7 now, he simply has a choice the last few days. Well, I think it's his choice, but who knows? The content of the sumo will tell. As for Ryuden, he falls to 6-7 and just might be the best Japanese rikishi on the banzuke these days....when fighting the foreigners of course. He was a completely different rikishi yesterday against the linebacker, Goeido.

The final bout of the day featured Sekiwake Takakeisho vs. Ozeki Goeido, and we all knew that we were in for a treat here. Or not. Morning keiko this wasn't as Goeido took the initiative from the tachi-ai reaching for a left outer grip and positioning his right hand at the top of Takakeisho's head in pull fashion. For Takakeisho's part, that was about the worst tachi-ai I've ever seen. He immediately aligned his feet in defensive fashion, and then when Goeid made the first move, he hopped forward with both feet completely aligning them again. Does this guy think he's Frogger or something? With Takakeisho completely out of position, Goeido half threw with the left and half pulled, and the result was Takakeisho's just collapsing to the dirt like the house of cards that he is. I watch sumo like this, and I'm just amazed that people look at Takakeisho and see a decent rikishi there. The whole reason why I can call this yusho race fake is that Takakeisho was in the lead coming into the day. With the loss he falls to 10-3 while Goeido moves to 9-4, and the end result is exactly what I described the last time I reported: a Juryo yusho race.

This was NHK's leaderboard at the end of the day:

10-3: Mitakeumi, Takakeisho, Okinoumi, Tsurugisho
9-4: Goeido, Asanoyama, Takarafuji, Meisei, Yutakayama

Count 'em...that's nine rikishi in the yusho hunt with nary a foreigner to be found. I'm afraid that's the current trend in sumo now, so just get used to it.

Since I only call yaocho and don't attempt to predict it, I have no idea what's going to happen the rest of the way, nor am I taking any of this seriously, so I'll turn the helm back over to Gary tomorrow.

Day 12 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
A mate of mine is going top Japan next Monday for the Rugby World Cup and lamented that he would have liked to see live, the last day of this basho. I off-handedly remarked that he wasn’t missing much as the best rikishi aren’t competing. Upon reflection I realized the glib nature of this remark belies the fact that this is the most open basho we have witnessed of late, with 10 or so rikishi a chance to take out the yusho. This is a period of flux in sumo where unlikely candidates are in the running and those that should be dominant are waning. So, although the quality is not as high as recent years, and what we have been fed thus far is facile, forgettable, un-engaging gobbets of pre-digested bilge, the daily permutations and potential outcomes are plentiful and varied. With this in mind, I will only concentrate on the bouts that matter or that interest me.

M16 Yutakayama v J2 Chiyoshoma
Chiyoshoma hasn’t brought and confidence filling form with him as he rejoins the top division from Juryo with a 5-6 record and only one win from his last six bouts. Yutakayama is both in the running for the yusho and also at risk of demotion. This fact alone sums up this basho. Chiyo leaped into Yutaka with distinct enmity and intent.

M10 Sadanoumi v M14 Tsurugisho
Tsurugisho won’t have too many easier days out than this. Sadanoumi sprung forth, arms extended, was held up briefly by Tsurugi, who then eased aside and gave Sad the slightest of helping hands for the hataki-komi victory. No slapping required. It always puzzles me that so many bouts end this way. A lazy off balance charge that completely flies in the face of the thousands of hours of training they undergo, all with the aim of strengthening their base position, only for that to be discarded in favour of feckless charging.

M8 Okinoumi v M10 v Meisei
I watched Meisei lose v Tsurugisho yesterday in what should have been a straight up win. It was a bout he had full control of right up to the end. Okinoumi and Kagayaki for that matter was the same. I find this disappointing for whatever the reason, whether political or laziness. Considering this, today should be a good matchup as whatever the result, neither is a real candidate for the yusho.

Okinoumi won this with a convincing yori-kiri force out with a much needed win after three straight losses. Meisei was out quickly with clear intent in an aggressive initial blast. Oki met the blow calmly and firmly, his body in classic defensive power stance; legs apart, one in front of the other. Meisei was reaching for the mawashi but Oki evaded well, leaning into Meisei, then finishing him off with strong leg drive for his 9th win, leveling with Meisei.

M11 Enho v M8 Takarafuji
Enho so badly wanted to board that bus. Bus driver Takarafuji had shut the doors and was his usual benign self. Neither attacking nor retreating. Enho tried prying open the doors, attempted to go underneath the bonnet, until enough was enough and the bus driver rose from his seat and deposited the cheeky scallywag onto the footpath. 9 wins for Takarafuji, who has reached double digit wins only twice in his 7 year career in the top division.

M3 Daieisho v M2 Asanoyama
Daieisho was determined to keep Asa’s hands from his belt; wriggling and pushing and ultimately frustrating Asa. Asa managed to close in but still with no belt. Daieisho, with a further violent wrenching wiggle to the side as Asa attempted a right side lunge only to fall to the clay. Daieisho now 5-7, Asanoyama lets an opportunity slide and remains on 8 wins.

M1 Hokutofuji v M5 Chiyotairyu
Hokutofuji won this oshi-dashi, though he should give thanks to his opponent who despite driving Fuji to the edge for what should have been his force out win, went for the unnecessary pull which Fuji used to drive Tairyu back and out. Really disappointing bout and basho for Tairyu.

K Abi v M4 Shodai
Abi gave Shodai little chance today with an endless barrage of awkward thrusts to Shodai’s neck area. Shodai would have expecting this but made no attempt at evasion, just accepted attention, barely responding in retaliation and was forced out for Abi’s 7th win. Shameless Shodai, shortchanging his shareholders in a shoddy shellacking.

M4 Tamawashi v K Endo
Classic Tamawashi, the Tamawashi of his glory-filled January yusho, has returned in time to put a halt on Endo’s slim claims to the yusho. A heavy headbutt as a welcome salvo, was followed by pulverizing shoves upon Endo’s wishbone from which Endo was more likely to discover the secrets of the origins of the universe than develop an effective counter. Ahh, I enjoyed that.

M6 Myogiryu v S Takakeisho
Myogiryu has returned from injury to face a rikishi he has never beaten, who needs one win to return to Ozeki status and is looking favourite for the yusho, much as it pains me to say so.

Takakeisho held up Miyo’s charge, stepped to the left and bundled him to the cold, damp clay. It was over in under 2 seconds. I would have liked a stiffer challenge from Myogiryu. Instead he hit the dirt like shite off a shovel and Takakeisho has his 10 wins.

M5 Ryuden v O Goeido
Goeido has the permanent scowl on his visage as though he’s been given a cake from someone who has visible eczema. With so many good rikishi not competing, he should be the guy all else are chasing. This basho illustrates his standing on the banzuke. He is a battling rikishi in the middle of the pack no better than any of them. I do admire that he has been an Ozeki for 5 years and show resilience and feistiness in maintaining the rank.

This bout Ryuden broke early three times and in two of these Goeido had his measure, though one showed his intentions with a henka. Now, I love a good henka, especially in response to guys who tend to blindly leap forward as Ryuden was doing so today. The fourth start had both guys chest to chest, keeping each other’s arms from the belt before both settled in for a yotsu battle. Thinking that Goeido wilts as bouts lengthen, I assumed Ryuden would upset the Ozeki. Ryuden attempted a lift and drive but Goeido held fast and wheeled around to his right for a beautiful throw, uwate-nage and his 8th win.

O Tochinoshin v S Mitakeumi
Tochinoshin is under pressure. He arrived on the dohyo look tense, brow furrowed, his body sweatier than a stray cat in Chinatown. He needs three wins from these next four bouts or down he drops a ranking. Mitakeumi has plenty on the line, too. If he can get to twelve wins, he might be considered for Ozeki promotion come a good performance in November.
The gyoji called a matta which I confess after repeat viewings I couldn’t pick up. Noshin was less than pleased as his tachi-ai was promisingly strong. He slowly re-set whilst Mitake crouched patiently, or not so patiently as he rose to collect himself in readiness.

The best bullfighters stay close to the bull and as Noshin was set deep behind the white line, Mitakeumi knew he had to be quicker on the jump. This he was, stiletto sharp, negating Noshin’s momentum in coming up under the bigger guy’s arms then driving, bellying him back and out. 9 wins for Mitakeumi and Tochinoshin must win his next 3 from 3, one of many small battles within the main movement.

Over to you, Mike.

Day 11 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
800 lives of men I have walked this Middle Earth, and never have I seen such outlandishly large fellows being athletes. At first I thought they were orcs. However, their manners were fine and their demeanor pleasing; I sensed a strong rule of fellowship between them, and I gathered up the folds of my robes and sat down to watch them beat upon each other. There is nothing wrong with such a bit of manly activity between the willing. Nevertheless it seemed a strange pastime. The world of men is full of such things. I must admit, upon reflection and after relaxing with some pipeweed, that I enjoyed it.

Partway through my sojourn at the large hall where this activity was being held I was handed a pot of ink, sheaf of birchbark, and a sharpened willow rod and asked to write the tale of the day. This I have done, though I see that the fellow who gave me the implements has used some sort of new magic to put my letters some kind of changeable, shining metal box. He said he was from "Sumotalk," a country I have not heard of.

J1 Chiyomaru (6-4) vs. M16 Tochiohzan (5-5)
I settled in with my mug of mead and some scraps of cured elk meat and reflected that this Chiyomaru looks as if he has consumed many thousands of cups of mead one after the other steadily day by day. He was as fat as Shelob, spawn of Ungoliant. His face was also disappearing into his cheeks as if sinking into a bowl of pudding. However, I had forgotten to get my things ready, and he was kind enough to let me rest my mug of mead on his shelf-gut while I settled in. When the fight began he grabbed Tochiohzan by the jowls, but Tochiohzan seemed a calm fellow, and did not let this bother him. He stared straight in Chiyomaru's eyes and remained in place. Having overcome the jowl pinching, Tochiohzan moved forward with aggressive shoves to the midriff and yanked Chiyomaru to the dirt, hataki-komi. Fortunately I'd not forgotten to retrieve my mead before they began, or it would have been quite spilled indeed.

M16 Yutakayama (6-4) vs. M13 Nishikigi (5-5)
Reading the runes, I note that "Yutakayama" means something like "treasure mountain." As such is something I have some experience with, I felt kindly towards him, though I certainly hoped no dragon would fly out from under his mawashi and assail us. I drank more mead. Yutakayama attacked like a waking dragon, and Nishikigi imitated a sleeping town, because Nishikigi's fists were still pressed into the clay until Yutakayama's hands were upon him. Yutakayama then had the simple task of continuing to push Nishikigi upright and back, and this he did, and he vanguished him with simple power and force, yori-kiri.

M11 Onosho (4-6) vs. M17 Takagenji (3-7)
This was a similar match, but much faster. Onosho struck like lightning and burrowed into the bulk of his opponent under his left armpit. While Takagenji was able to reach over Onosho's shoulder and grab the back of his belt, it was already too late: Onosho simply moved his feet and body forward and forced Takagenji easily out, yori-kiri. I am told that when Takagenji returned to his stable, his master was heard to growl, "fool of a Took! This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw yourself in a hole next time, and then you will be no further nuisance."

M15 Ishiura (6-4) vs. M10 Meisei (8-2)
Two smaller fellows, with Meisei one of the leaders, I see. Their bodies looked nearly elven, supple and fine, compared to their slovenly brethren. Ishiura tried to stay low, but Meisei applied too much force, and Ishiura slid inexorably to the edge. There Meisei retreated for a moment. Ishiura should have counterattacked, but instead he began to evade around the edge of the ring and pull, and it was no trouble whatsoever for Meisei to reengage and force him out, yori-kiri.

M10 Sadanoumi (5-5) vs. M13 Kagayaki (5-5)
These two fellows engaged in a bit of manly shoving. It seemed to me that the larger, Kagayaki, should have the advantage, especially as he spent some time wrenching on the arm of Sadanoumi, which would seem to be painful for the smaller man, and advantageous for the larger. However, Kagayaki showed signs of lethargy, and an unwillingness to finish things off, and seemed to me to willingly give up his good position by suddenly pulling backwards. I am merely a disinterested observer, but perhaps that gives me some perspective as well: I would also say that in the final moment, rather than evading as he could have, Kagayaki gave up and stepped out backwards, losing nearly on purpose yori-kiri. Now, I have heard that there is a fair amount of cheating in this sport. I revile this. So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. And I have decided to report on these sumo matches.

M15 Azumaryu (5-5) vs. M9 Kotoyuki (5-5)
Azumaryu seemed to evade, and this seemed to make Kotoyuki angry and frustrated. As Azumaryu backed away from him, Kotoyuki persistently attacked. Given a chance, Kotoyuki withdrew his arms briefly once from Azumaryu's wrap-up and whacked hard at Azumaryu. While this may have satisfied Kotoyuki for an instant, when, in the following moment, Azumaryu removed himself from in front of Kotoyuki, and Kotoyuki stumbled out of the ring in a foolish-looking manner, tsuki-otoshi, how did Kotoyuki feel then? I dare say not well.

M12 Daishoho (3-7) vs. M8 Takarafuji (7-3)
Daishoho smashed very hard into Takarafuji at the tachi-ai, but Takarafuji was heard to shout, "you shall not pass! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass! The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass." With that Takarafuji halted Daishoho's charge. They then engaged in a long struggle, which reminded me of that time I fought the Balrog for days and days in the caverns of Moria and at last smote his ruin on the mountainside. In this case, after many moments of chest to chest struggling and attempts to come to a better grip on the belt, Takarafuji pulled and threw a bit in the end, and this smote Daishoho's hand to the dohyo, giving Takarafuji the uwate-dashi-nage win.

M8 Okinoumi (8-2) vs. M14 Tsurugisho (7-3)
Okinoumi hit Tsurugisho in the upper chest with his forearm, which seemed to me a good idea in a violent endeavor such as this. However, it was for naught: Tsurugisho was not incapacitated, and backed away as quickly as he could. Okinoumi was left behind and flopped to the ground in Tsurugisho's wake, kata-sukashi. Now it may seem to you that Okinoumi deserved to win here, and Tsurugisho to lose. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment.

M12 Shohozan (6-4) vs. M7 Kotoeko (4-6)
A goblin! Wait, no, it is Shohozan. This was an admirable contest of strength, with both men holding tight to each other's silken belts, straining their ample musculature, and attempting to outpower the other. Shohozan had an outside right grip, and Kotoeko an inside right. Shohozan was the more powerful, surging to further attack and forcing his opponent out, yori-kiri. This was a fine display.

M7 Kotoshogiku (4-6) vs. M11 Enho (6-4)
And here was a hobbit. I wonder if he lives in a hole in the ground. This Enho is very hobbit-like. Cute, small, attractive, and possessed of admirable grit and fortitude. Unafraid of the hill troll across the way, our young hobbit leapt in beneath its reaching arms, grabbed the front of its belt, and proceeded to tenaciously yank the troll about from there. Ingenious, our hobbit was unafraid to change tactics, and grabbed the large but hapless troll by the back of his belt and wrenched him about the ring from there some more as well. In the end our intrepid hobbit went back to the front of the belt and shoved the troll back down into his cave, yori-kiri. Perhaps someone can find him a magic ring as well.

M9 Terutsuyoshi (2-8) vs. M6 Myogiryu (5-5)
Another hobbit, this Terutsuyoshi, but less attractive. A bit of a Ted Sandyman, perhaps. The match he fought with his opponent did not make sense to me. He kept his eyes on the ground, and Myogiryu's attack was swift and hard. Terutsuyoshi seemed not be ready. Then he fell forward and sideways to the ground for no reason. True, Myogiryu had forced him back to the edge, but Myogiryu had failed to drive him out, and did not pull him to the side he fell to or apply any definitive blow. No, rather, Terutsuyoshi seemed to lurch forward to his tsuki-otoshi loss for insufficient reason. Why? Even the very wise cannot see all ends.

M3 Daieisho (4-6) vs. M6 Shimanoumi (3-7)
Daieisho should have won one this. He pummeled Shimanoumi repeatedly in the face and had him on his heels. However, at an appropriate moment Shimanoumi stepped out of the line of attack and Daieisho tumbled unceremoniously forward to the dirt, tsuki-otoshi. Sometimes this sport does not look well.

M3 Tomokaze (5-5) vs. M1 Aoiyama (2-8)
The destruction of Aoiyama, who looked even more troll-like than Kotoshogiku, was thorough, quick, and accomplished with a barrage of solid hands and forward-moving feet by Tomokaze, oshi-dashi. At the edge, as Aoiyama plunged off the dohyo, Tomokaze was heard to shout, "go back to the abyss! Fall into nothingness that awaits you and your master!"

M1 Hokutofuji (4-6) vs. M2 Asanoyama (8-2)
I will give Hokutofuji credit here: his attack was sustained, relentless. He pushed hard on the face and head of Asanoyama, then the shoulders, bending him backwards, pushing him to the edge, like a very fine "good morning!" Partway through Asanoyama survived a thrust at the edge and escaped towards the middle. Hokutofuji pursued him and re-engaged, and Asanoyama sensed, "now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that your morning won't be good till I move off." And so it was: Hokutofuji summarily moved him off, oshi-dashi.

M4 Shodai (2-8) vs. K Endo (6-4)
And here appeared to my surprise a golden princeling, comely of face and manner, Endo. Shodai looked a bit of an ogre and too strong for the princeling; when our prince struck against him and snuggled up into his chest and held onto him, I feared Shodai would simply crush him. Shodai was not moving back very much, and things looked dim for the prince. No matter: speaking of dim, the ogre was certainly surprised when the golden prince gave a little jerk, turned to the side, yanked on the ogre's belt, and spilled the ogre to the clay, uwate-dashi-nage. This golden prince has wandered many years in the wilderness, but someday may yet be king.

K Abi (6-4) vs. M4 Tamawashi (5-5)
Abi threw his hands about in flurries, danced about, flung his body here and there, pulled, struck, gyrated. If I were Tamawashi, I might have asked, "do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?" In the end Tamawashi let Abi slip and fall to the clay of his own accord, tsuki-otoshi. Good morning!!

S Mitakeumi (8-2) vs. M5 Ryuden (5-5)
There was great excitement for the man from the mountains, Mitakeumi. This match began with much arm-shoving. This favored the mountain man. However, the dragon, Ryuden, grabbed hold of the mountain man's body, like Smaug snacking on a dwarf. Turned him to the straw and removed him from his lair, osh-dashi. Perhaps you will remember with fondness Ghan-buri-Ghan, chief of the mountain folk in middle earth. After this match Ghan-buri-ghan would have kicked Mitakeumi out of his tribe, invited Ryuden in, and told him, "then you wil kill gorgun and drive away bad dark with bright iron, and Wild Men can go back to sleep in the wild woods." Oddly, I find something wistful and hopeful in this. We can wish it so.

O Tochinoshin (5-5) vs. S Takakeisho (8-2)
This was an important match, and the crowd fluttered with tension and excitement. I drank more mead and puffed on my pipe. It is important not to lose one's cool on the eve of battle. And a battle it was. The early moves favored the fat, puffy one, Takakeisho, who struck up and down and banged his opponent away with force. But the next move favored the great bear, Tochinoshin, who seemed a descendant of Beorn when Takakeisho lurched inwards to him: Tochinoshin grabbed ahold of Takakeisho's great, fluffy bulk and I expected him to destroy him with yori-kiri sumo. It was not be so. Tochinoshin did but pull and twist weakly at Takakeisho's head, which turned Tochinoshin around backwards to the man. This move was so unexpected by all that when Takakeisho resumed his attack upon the now comprised Tochinoshin, Takakeisho shoved Tochinoshin straight into the gyoji: who could have predicted that the match would turn in such a direction? Not the gyoji. Down they went, like dominoes: Takakeisho first yori-taoshi, on his knees in the ring, and the gyoji tumbling away off the mound in front of him. Takakeisho, victorious, stood over Tochinoshin, who was on his hands and knees like a master walking a warg. Whether warg, great bear, or warlike Haradrim, Tochinoshin was defeated in this battle, and it will be hard for him to close out his war with victory.

M5 Chiyotairyu (2-8) vs. O Goeido (6-4)
You...Shall Not...Pass!!!!! You will forgive me, I must use this phrase one more time, for here was Goeido like a wall of iron that no man could pass. Chiyotairyu has the reputation of being as fierce a fighting Uruk Hai on his initial attack, but there was only doom for him here: Goeido did not allow Chiyotairyu to pass, and once Goeido had stopped Chiyotairyu in his tracks on the bridge of Khazad-Dum, forced Chiyotairyu back to his dungeon rapidly and with force, oshi-dashi.

I understand it is customary to list the leaders. I understand they are all from the same country:

Takakeisho, Meisei: 9-2
Mitakeumi, Asanoyama, Takarafuji, Okinoumi, Tsurugisho: 8-3

I apologize; try as I might, I found it hard to distinguish much between them this time around.

Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil. Tomorrow Justin will be with you.

Day 10 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
A sizeable shockwave sent ripples through the sumo world last night with the announcement that former Sakahoko and current Izutsu-oyakata passed away at the age of 58. Sakahoko had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, and he finally told his brothers about it a month ago. They were both with him bedside when he passed away, and the youngest brother, Terao (current Shikoroyama-oyakata), met with the press this morning and said that his brother fought hard to the end.

While Sakahoko only reached the rank of Sekiwake, he still played a prominent role in the Association upon retirement as he assumed the Izutsu-beya. He was one of the few oyakata who was able to raise up a legitimate Yokozuna in Kakuryu, and he was always in complete cooperation with the Association when reigning in his Yokozuna for political reasons. It will likely be announced right after the basho what is to officially become of the Izutsu-beya, but for now the stable will be under the direction of Terao's Shikoroyama-beya.

With that, let's turn our attention to the basho at hand, and I can't remember when a basho has rung so hollow. Personally, I'm one who loves to root for the underdog, but you need dynasties and dominance in sports. You just do. There has to be a measuring stick in place to measure greatness, and individuals or teams really achieve a sense of accomplishment when they're able to legitimately knock out one of the greats. When there is no baseline of greatness to measure anything by, we in effect get a basho that looks like the Juryo division, and that's exactly what's happening here in Aki. I mean, who knows how this thing is going to end, and who really cares? This is the biggest puff basho I think I've ever seen, which is saying quite a bit considering the last few years.

I'm not even going to bother with the leaderboard because there isn't a single rikishi whose fighting well this basho to the extent that it's noticeable, so let's just go from the bottom up.

The day began with Daiamami visiting Juryo to take on M17 Takagenji (speaking of puff sumo). Daiamami reached for the front of Genji's belt with the left from the tachi-ai, but as Takagenji ducked down too low into his opponent, Daiamami backed up easily slapping Takagenji down for the easy hataki-komi win. Daiamami moves to 4-6 with the win, and at J1, he's gotta musta four more wins in five days. As for Takagenji, he falls to 3-7, and his two basho in Makuuchi have been an absolute disaster.

Up next was M16 Tochiohzan who was absolutely gifted a freebie from M15 Azumaryu. From the tachi-ai, Oh came with his hands up high looking to pull (what's new?), and despite his being in a completely vulnerable position, Azumaryu just fumbled around and ducked his head, and two seconds into the bout, Tochiohzan went for the light pull whereupon Azumaryu just put both palms to the dirt still in the center of the ring. Trying to find the silver lining in this, neither dude will have to shower as Tochiohzan buys win number five while Azumaryu falls to the same 5-5 mark.

M14 Toyonoshima withdrew this morning due to a right leg injury giving M13 Nishikigi the freebie at 5-5.

M16 Yutakayama fired tsuppari M12 Daishoho's way from the tachi-ai, but Yutakayama was actually slowly backing up as he did so. He was extremely vulnerable to a push-out attack from Daishoho, but it was clear that Daishoho wasn't trying to make him pay, so with Yutakayama having backed himself up near the ropes, he moved slightly left pushing into Daishoho's right side, and that was all the momentum shift Daishoho needed to stumble forward to the edge and square back up just in time for Yutakayama to patty cake him back that final step. Daishoho was so mukiryoku and upright in this bout it was painful, and I realize the dude is going to fall to Juryo at 3-7 now, but why not sell your bouts for serious cash?  Yutakayama obviously bought one today as he "improved" to 6-4.

When Okinoumi fell over yesterday without even being touched, I knew at that point that they weren't going to let a no-name rikishi take the yusho this basho, and unfortunately for Okinoumi and M10 Meisei, they currently have no-name status. Against M14 Tsurugisho, Meisei started a full step beyond the starting lines, and I was like "this should be interesting." It actually was because Tsurugisho tried to grab a right outer grip from the start, but all that did was allow Meisei to rush into moro-zashi where he had Tsurugisho so upright, the rookie didn't have a pot to piss in. The two stood in a stalemate for about five seconds, and there wasn't a single move available to Tsurugisho, and so Meisei finally forced the action to the edge with a left inside belt throw that naturally drew a right outer belt attempt from Tsurugisho, but before a proper nage-no-uchi-ai could really form, Meisei just put his butt to the dohyo across the edge in unnatural fashion. While Tsurugisho has purchased the majority of wins this basho, I have no doubt there was pressure on the Meisei camp to ease up on the yusho race. He definitely did here falling to 8-2 while Tsurugisho gladly accepts the gift moving to 7-3.

The best thing M9 Terutsuyoshi has going for him is that huge handful of salt he throws prior to his bout. The fun ended there as he ran into M13 Kagayaki who was looking to win, and so Terutsuyoshi could do nothing in the migi-yotsu contest, which didn't necessarily go chest to chest because Terutsuyoshi was looking to escape. Kagayaki never let him keeping him snug with a massive kote grip from the outside with the left arm, and Kagayaki used that vice grip to bully Terutsuyoshi over to the edge and across without argument. I've said it before, but I think Kagayaki is one of the best Japanese rikishi out there when he wanna. He did today moving to 5-5 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 2-8.

Who knows what M15 Ishiura was thinking at the tachi-ai against M9 Kotoyuki because he just stood upright and hopped on one foot as Kotoyuki caught him square in the chest with dual shoves. That knocked Ishiura all the way back to the edge, and Kotoyuki was there to finish him off tsuki-dashi style. My fat gut tells me that this was not a straight up bout, but who can say? Ishiura falls to 6-4 while Kotoyuki moves to 5-5.

M8 Okinoumi blew M10 Sadanoumi back from the tachi-ai, and looked to be in full control, but for no logical reason, he began backing up as Sadanoumi pursued setting up the hidari-yotsu bout. Near the edge, Okinoumi looked to use his deep left inside position to hoist Sadanoumi up and outta the ring but he stopped short just toppling backwards similarly to what Meisei did in his bout. Sadanoumi did have a shallow right grip, which would have called for a proper nage-no-uchi-ai, but before it could form, Okinoumi just dropped backwards to the dirt. Okinoumi had the superior grip not to mention the height advantage, and he coulda slung Sadanoumi over and out with no problem, but he took the fake loss for the second day in a row falling to 8-2 and one more rung down the leaderboard. As for Sadanoumi, he "improves" to 5-5, but this was one of those bouts where Okinoumi dictated things the entire way. It is what it is, so let's move one.

M8 Takarafuji won the tachi-ai against M12 Shohozan and looked to force the bout to hidari-yotsu threatening the left arm to the inside, but Shohozan didn't want any part of the chest to chest contest, so he backed up and to his right looking to spring a trap, but Takarafuji was in hot pursuit easily taking advantage of the momentum shift and pushing Shohozan out in short order. Hey, a straightforward bout here as Takarafuji moves to 7-3 while Shohozan falls to 6-4.

M11 Onosho came in low against M7 Kotoshogiku easily getting moro-zashi with his left arm the strong side, and Kotoshogiku briefly attempted to evade a bit and get his own left arm to the inside, but Onosho was applying too much pressure and forcing the Geeku onto his heels. As a last gasp effort, Kotoshogiku attempted a pull, but Onosho was in too tight and pushed the former faux-zeki back and across with little trouble leaving both rikishi at 4-6.

While I'm on the subject of the Sadogatake-beya, I'll briefly mention that Kotoshogiku's stablemate, Kotonowaka, is making a bit of noise in Juryo this tournament. He and Ikioi lead the division at 8-2 with five days to go, and while I rarely make predictions regarding sumo these days because it's so scripted, I did state a few years ago that Kotonowaka would be the next Japanese rikishi to legitimately take a yusho.

I don't watch the Juryo bouts on a daily basis, but NHK will always choose one Juryo contest from the day and show it, and I've seen four of five of Kotonowaka's bouts this way, and I'm just here to say that he ain't all that. This guy is buying his wins and when he is promoted to the Makuuchi division, I expect the shenanigans to continue. Look, I have every reason to want to call this guy legit due to my prophecy, but he is buying these records so far in the Juryo division. I didn't see his bout today pictured at right, but I can tell from the still shot that it was fake. More on Kotonowaka later when he actually gets invited to the big dance.

Moving right along, I seriously questioned that I would ever call an M11 Enho win legitimate, but today's the big day!! And really, his only hope is to fight a guy who doesn't just tower over him or outweigh him by too much, and he got that today in M7 Kotoeko. Enho stood straight up at the tachi-ai with his arms extended in defensive mode, and right there I knew the bout wasn't fixed. You'll notice in the obviously fixed bouts in Enho's favor, he goes straightforward and fearless while his opponents always stand straight up and just leave their hands high allowing the easy push-out, but this bout was different. Kotoeko also stood up at the tachi-ai not knowing what was coming, and at this point, Enho had the advantage. A cat fight ensued while Enho darted left making Kotoeko give chase, and with both rikishi largely separated throughout this one, Enho was able to threaten his left arm to the inside just enough to where he was abl to execute a swipe down and dart left yet again, and with Kotoeko upright and off balance just enough, Enho rushed in for the oshi-dashi win. That had to have felt good because everything to this point has just been handed to the dude. He moves to 6-4 while Kotoeko falls to 4-6.

M3 Tomokaze is another guy who has purchased most of his Makuuchi wins, and he ran into a buzz saw today in M5 Ryuden. Tomokaze attempted his bread and butter oshi attack from the start that seemed to drive Ryuden back, but Ryuden was just baiting him into a yotsu-zumo bout getting the right arm established to the inside and a left outer grip before Tomokaze knew what hit him. Tomokaze actually dug in well and used a nice counter right scoop throw to try and throw Ryuden off balance, but Ryuden stood pat and kept the bout at the belt forcing the action to the center of the ring. From this point, it was a battle of strength with Tomokaze fishing for a right outer grip and Ryuden denying him by slamming his body into his foe to keep him upright and far away when each attempt came. This went on for 10 seconds or so until Ryuden quickly shifted gears and felled Tomokaze in the center of the ring with a rapid-fire uwate-nage. It was neat to watch Ryuden school his opponent here as both dudes end the day at 5-5.

Unlike Meisei and Okinoumi, one dude who is on the acceptable yusho list is M2 Asanoyama. Today against M6 Shimanoumi, the bout looked to go to migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Shimanoumi refused to put his right arm to the inside specifically leaving it limp and at the front of Asanoyama's belt doing nothing with it. For his part, Asanoyama did get his right to the inside and easily forced the defenseless Shimanoumi over and out in about four uneventful seconds. If you have the means, watch the replay of this one and focus on Shimanoumi's right arm. It's as limp and ineffective as an old guy whose lost his bottle of blue diamonds, so this was an easy yaocho call here as Asanoyama is boosted to 8-2 while Shimanoumi falls to 3-7. I know we're in the middle of a yusho race here, but I just don't see how people can get excited when they watch uncontested bouts such as this one.

M1 Aoiyama brought his usual stand-up straight and backup sumo without really going for a pull, and so M3 Daieisho just harmlessly moved forward scoring the uneventful and easy oshi-dashi win. Aoiyama falls to 2-8 with the loss and at least credit him for still fighting instead of withdrawing like the other foreigners. As for Daieisho, he moves to a ho-hum 4-6.

M1 Hokutofuji came with his usual tachi-ai of a stiff arm into the neck as he evades or backs up, and it was effective enough against Endoh that the Komusubi couldn't get established inside. With Hokutofuji having backed up a step, Endoh looked to come forward, but Hokutofuji is simply the stronger rikishi, and he muscled Endoh back the other way using a nice oshi attack. Endoh tried to get the right arm to the inside, but he couldn't get close enough, and then he made the big mistake by lurching right and firing a shoulder slap. It barely glanced off of Hokutofuji's left shoulder, and it was a do or die move and so the final push-out from Hokutofuji was academic as Endoh was already off balance at the edge. This was a nice albeit meaningless bout in terms of the yusho race as Endoh falls to 6-4 while Hokutofuji moves to 4-6.

Like Aoiyama before, M4 Tamawashi is making it clear this basho that while he is sticking around, he's not going to do anything to throw a wrench into the Japanese rikishi's fun. Today against Sekiwake Mitakeumi, Tamawashi actually won the tachi-ai with his tsuppari attack where he didn't even bother moving forward, but the thrusts were feisty enough to where Mitakeumi couldn't get close to the inside, and so he chose to evade and move right along the ring's edge, and Tamawashi just nonchalantly gave chase ducking right into a weak Mitakeumi pull attempt and diving forward to the dirt and down. The Mawashi's fall was so exaggerated I think his left foot was higher than Mitakeumi's head at one point, but whatever. Mitakeumi moves to 8-2 with the gift while Tamawashi is a harmless 5-5.

Okay, this next take is going to be really cruel, and I'm only going to resort to it because I know my wife isn't going to read this, but calling Takakeisho an Ozeki is like calling this girl a cheerleader:



Yes, she technically is wearing a cheerleader's outfit, and yes, she technically is on the sidelines at a football game, but this gal ain't participating in a kick line; a male cheerleader ain't holding her up high over his head by one foot; and she ain't standing on the shoulders of her fellow cheerleaders in a pyramid. Actually, if I look at the other cheerleader in the pic, maybe they could pull of the pyramid thing, but you get what I mean.

I just happened to be channel surfing when I came across this game, but the entire cheer squad was built like these two gals in the pic. I couldn't help but think of guys like Takakeisho and Mitakeumi and Goeido, etc., and yeah, I guess they have their titles on the banzuke and their yusho boards hanging from the rafters, but it's all just politically correct shull bit. Let's just call it what it is.

It's been an interesting four days for Takakeisho since I last reported. On day 6 he became the first rikishi in history to actually make contact with a gyoji and have the gyoji upright at the end of the bout and the rikishi sprawled out on the sand. I thought that bout against Endoh was so illustrative. Takakeisho knew the bout wasn't arranged coming in, so what did he do? He immediately backed up from the tachi-ai and went for a few lousy pulls before losing his balance. Contrast that to his sumo the last few days when he knows the fix is in. Takakeisho comes out like gangbusters moving forward and winning via oshi-dashi in mere seconds. You can tell a rikishi is a complete fraud by 1) how he loses, and 2) what his opponents do (or don't do) during his wins.

Today against M4 Shodai, the M4 just stood straight up at the tachi-ai and backed up as Takakeisho came forward with his faux oshi attack. The result was Shodai's backing up to the edge where he finally decided to stand pat and make Takakeisho at least push him across that final shove, but the Sekiwake couldn't do it. He pushed up into Shodai's torso, and when that didn't drive him back, he fired a left hand into Shodai's right teet and Shodai just hit the deck. Yeah, that fall was the result of the "force" coming from Takakeisho's swipe. Or not. Takakeisho is literally pulled up to his 8-2 record, and I think you'd have to say that he's the favorite to yusho here. As for Shodai, he falls to 2-8 and had he actually tried in this one, it would have looked like Takakeisho's loss to Endoh.

Faux-zeki Goeido reached for the left outer grip from the tachi-ai against Komusubi Abi, and when he didn't get it, he immediately darted left going into pull mode. The problem was he had zero momentum and the pulls and swipes weren't even connecting, and so the Fire Hose easily stayed square and connected with a few shoves that sent Goeido to the edge before he used a right forearm to just blast his opponent out of the ring with some oomph. Abi was positioned to send Goeido to the arena floor had he wanted, but he held up on the dame-oshi. Too bad. Both of these guys end the day at 6-4, and the scary thing is that Goeido isn't even as big of a fraud as Takakeisho.

Wow, I just love wrapping up the day's bouts alternating between Goeido and Tochinoshin. Today the latter was paired against M5 Chiyotairyu, the rikishi who unfortunately thinks he's beaten against the foreign rikishi before the bout even starts. Today the two bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai before Tochinoshin forced the bout to migi-yotsu where he shored that up with the left outer grip, and from there the two dug in admirably. I'm not sure if Tochinoshin was playing with Chiyotairyu or if the latter was actually resisting to that degree, but after a dozen seconds or so, Tochinoshin was able to force Chiyotairyu over and across without incident. Tochinoshin moves to 5-5 with the nice win while Chiyotairyu falls to 2-8. Tochinoshin faces Takakeisho tomorrow and then at some point I'm sure they'll pair him against Mitakeumi, so we'll see how much politics is in play for those bouts.

As for the Japanese dream team leaderboard, if anyone is taking it seriously, it shapes up like this at the end of the day:

8-2: Takakeisho, Mitakeumi, Asanoyama, Okinoumi, Meisei
7-3: Takarafuji, Tsurugisho

My money is so on Takarafuji, but what do I know? Harvye's up tomorrow.

Day 9 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all, when I jumped the gun on day 7 with a mock (and mocking) leader-board and declared we would be focusing on only the "top" challengers, and then starting with the M5 Ishiura bout, I was only doing so in jest. A tiny slice of harmless merriment cake. Let's face it, the treats we're being served at this basho are pretty dull tasting.

The trouble with that joke leader-board, I think this is actually it. The lunatics really have taken over the asylum. It's not a joke anymore. We're running out of days, running out of stars. Where are the big match-ups that fire up the crowd for a day at the sumos? The best we can hope for this basho is to find out if Okinoumi defers to Takakeisho or not. The joke is on me, like a naughty boy I teased and made fun, and didn't think about the hurt feelings. I thought sumo was stronger that this. I thought it would be better than this. Something more fun and care free. This may just be sumo 2020. Oh well, something about making lemonade. Or sour mash.

Without doubt the highlight of the tournament so far came late on day 6. You know the one. I think we've managed to solve the mystery of Onomatsu-oyakata's secret drinking buddy. Does anyone remember if Asanoyama beat Goeido or not? That single moment of comedy gold is going to find it's way onto mainstream TV for the next two decades. Part of a compilation show of people hurting themselves. Mostly drunk Russians on icy roads.

Before we start the leader-board of pain and suffering, let's catch up to our little friend Enho!

Azumaryu (M15) 4-4 vs Enho (M11) 5-3
Yesterday Nishikigi made Enho look small. He lazily rose and harassed Enho out of the ring and out of title contention. Well today Enho wasn't going to take that kind of stuff lying down. He gave Azumaryu his very best. At each step of the way Enho clearly had the advantage. Enho reached inside at the front, Azumaryu could only reach over to the back. Enho took an under-grip, Azumaryu barely managed an over-grip. Enho was smaller, Azumaryu could only be bigger. And he laid Enho out length-ways on the sand, abise-taoshi. Poor Enho had dirt on him all the way to the shoulder (about three feet, four inches).

Tsurugisho (M14) 6-2 vs Takagenji (M17) 2-6
Back to the tournament leaders. Tsurugisho has only himself to blame. He came out in a canine themed furry costume and the Gyoji done screwed that pooch. Tsurugisho didn't touch down with either hand as Takagenji jumped the gun. Everyone in the hall, including Takagenji, correctly read it as a false start. Except one guy. The Gyoji with a pot of lubricating grease. Who encouraged Takagenji to go get 'im. Takagenji did, yori-kiri, woof-woof.

Watching the slow-motion replay only made it worse. At the point that Takagenji began rising, howlin' mad Tsurugisho didn't have a paw within a foot of the sand. And no-one raised their hand to help the poor mutt. And just like that, we lose a top contender for the yusho. Oh, when will this basho cease it's wretched cruelty?

Shohozan (M12) 5-3 vs Ishiura (M15) 6-2
Ishiura just smashed recklessly into Shohozan. The veteran came out higher and pushed his little friends head down hataki-komi whilst rotating away to the side. This was very easy scraps to pick up for Shohozan. And another one of sumo's finest falls away from the yusho pace.

Kotoshogiku (M7) 4-4 vs Meisei (M10) 7-1
Meisei doesn't get much credit for being young and full of potential. That's because he tends not to make the usual embarrassing rookie mistakes. He has an old head on his 24 year old shoulders. So far, he has beaten every opponent put up against him. Except Enho, naturally.

At the tachi-ai Meisei met big impact with big impact. Starting far back to give himself some acceleration, he smacked into the blue blaster. Crucially, this also gave him enough room to play with. When Kotoshogiku rumbled forward (the man is unbelievably predictable!) Meisei bladed his hip away from him and kept his feet rotating the action around the edge. He threw his senior over with sukui-nage for the kachi-koshi 8th win. Eventually, Kotoshogiku always stumbles when he's shown an angle. I wonder what his geometry teacher thinks of him now?

Okinoumi (M8) 8-0 vs Ryuden (M5) 3-5
In a lifetime best start to a basho, Okinoumi has also beaten every opponent put up against him. Although, unlike Meisei, he has yet to face the wrath of Enho, which explains the unbeaten streak.

Prior to the start, Ryuden was wobbling his limbs around. Thinking supple thoughts. Okinoumi was all rigid power. He choose a kachi-age to smash Ryuden in the jaw with. Ryuden didn't stay to contest this manly tussle and slid away to the left, trying to bring the M8 down with a pull to the back of the head. Okinoumi not only survived but had his prey turned away and lined up in his sights. Then he tripped his toes on the clay and fell over. Oh so near, and yet oh, so far away. Tripping over your own feet is not a great kimari-te for the fans, so it was called ....... wait for the balls to stop tumbling....... number 37, hiki-otoshi.

Abi (K) 5-3 vs Asanoyama (M2) 6-2
Yusho implications part 19. And it is the first bout to get the crowd's collective pulse racing. Up to this point the most exciting thing was a blown referee decision. The always willing Abi flew at his rival and rocked his head back with multiple thrusting rockets.

Quite a lot of rikishi do this to Asanoyama. Maybe he eats all the silky tofu from the chanko and this is payback. He doesn't seem to mind. When the thrusts are incoming he keeps his arms low and looks to soak it up as he inches his feet closer to his gal. He's a solid hips first kinda wrestler, which is very old school, pre-Hawaiian meat-bombs era.

Abi was wild. Again. He was moving the heavy load all over the place but he was not actually controlling Asanoyama, who was still free to recover balance when knocked about, free to turn a full circle when Abi got behind him, free to move away from the edge when nearly pushed out. And most important of all, he was free to slide an arm inside as soon as he got Abi lined up. That was all that was needed. Asanoyama turned the Komusubi at the tawara and won with no argument because Abi had played himself into a corner, no more moves to make.

Tamawashi (M4) 5-3 vs Takakeisho (S) 6-2
Who is next in line for an embarrassing defeat along Takakeisho's brave march to ten? Look, it's Tamawashi. Time to get washi'ed by the wave action. In truth there was a little bit of wave action to be seen today, most of it was rippling down Takakeisho's back during the slow-motion. An obvious oshi-dashi win for the man who would be king. At least it's out of the way now.

Mitakeumi (S) 6-2 vs Tomokaze (M3) 5-3
Yet another basho spent in Sanyaku for Mitakeumi. This time he's coming off a pair of 9-6 records, a big juicy number put in the books for this basho will make him an Ozeki candidate for Kyushu 2019. It would be nice to have a back-up to Brittle Bones McGee (Takakeisho).

Today he met Tomokaze for the first time and got a bit of a sumo surprise. Mitakeumi got the quicker start and crossed over the invisible dividing line to encroach on the youngster's half of the dohyo. So far so good, but when he extended his arms to begin shoving Tomokaze backwards, it was Mitakeumi's own shoulders that moved back. The taller Tomokaze had anchored himself to the dohyo. He wasn't slow to realize there was an opening for him either. He fired some thrusts at Mitakeumi and rocked his head back. The Sekiwake was in trouble, but in an instant the rookie managed to panic and throw it away with a needless pull. Mitakeumi didn't have to be asked twice, he stepped inside and took control of the situation using his stability to pressure Tomokaze out, oshi-dashi.

There's a reason Tomokaze hasn't tasted make-koshi yet. He's better than his peer group. And long term that's all he needs to be. He gets to compete with Meisei and Takakeisho for the next ten years. And Enho of course.

Tochinoshin (O) 3-5 vs Endo (K) 6-2
Lest we forget, Tochinoshin is still kadoban. Very kadoban. He's going to face the tougher half of his schedule now, that should, on paper, seal his fate. And yet we shouldn't forget the Kaio-house-rule that applies uniquely to sumo. The more an Ozeki is struggling, the more powerful the opponents, the more incredible the wins. Until eight is reached, then the rules seem to fade for some unknown, probably very spiritual, reason.

Sumo Announcement - Those who like full body contact with their sumo should look away now. Ready? HENKA!!! And a full blooded, unashamed henka from Tochinoshin at that. He looked quite speedy out there actually. Yes, speedy and determined. Nice timing too. Oh, and good balance as he scooted away to the right. He even managed to club Endo on the back of the neck to help him on his way. All in all, a wonderful henka. Only four more to go.

Shodai (M4) 2-6 vs Goeido (O) 5-3
Well, he's done it. By a process of attrition and plague, Goeido is the highest ranked rikishi that sumo will showcase today. As is his natural right, he will be appearing in the final bout of the day. The star of the show. Can he turn aside this impudent challenge from the M4 man?

Well yes, rather easily actually. He came out fast and put his head on Shodai's chin. He made him wear the full Goeido beard. Shodai lifted his head to spit out a few hairy strands and that was all she wrote. I, however continued to write about the bad-ass strut Goeido has lately, his shoulders puffed out and a scowl of bad-assery on his face. I am unaccustomed to this mean hombre. He looks like rubber legs Goeido, he smells like fragrant rice but he stays in the yusho hunt like the big tiger of the forest. Once all the adult males have been shot by hunters.

And with that we run out of yusho hunters. In truth no-one could really follow Goeido. So it's best to stop here. I always knew he would make it to the top. What a guy!

On the morrow, farmer Mike will unearth some rotten cabbages for your delight.

Day 8 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
Welcome all to day 8 and still the highlight moment of the basho was the unfortunate but comical spill on day 6 from the gyoji that Harvye remarked on during the Goeido v Asanoyama bout. I'm always a bit mystified why the dohyo needs to be raised from the ground increasing risk of injury anytime someone topples over. Big boys falling heavily to the floor can cause injury let alone an extra half a metre drop when one has been shoved out. Even the MMA has a cage netting, though that's probably to keep the audience out. Am I being a big girl's blouse in bringing this up? Probably.

Since my last report my predictions have also slipped from the edge, though any financial advisor will tell you that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This plays out in sport every day. It's also an indicator that I know shite.

Gary is spot on in suggesting there is a malaise of averageness enveloping this basho.

The Kak, after handing out kinboshi like a politician throws around election promises, has withdrawn as per Gary's prediction. I'm sure Mike will have something to say about this. My view is that as good as Kak is, he's not as good as he thinks he is. His methodical belt focused technique serves him well. When he aborts this in favour of haphazard slapping and pulling he drops a level to the rest of the rikishi. It means he is not focused. Hakuho can get away with reckless sumo, but Kak aint in that league, no-one else is. His withdrawal opens up the basho even more and it is a wide potential list of competitors eying the prize with the opportunity beckoning.

This basho could well be similar to Harumafuji's penultimate basho when he won 11-4, though Okinoumi will be striving for his maiden yusho and is looking good thus far. There. In yet another glib statement I've just swatted Oki with my prediction curse, though I do like him.

As with Gary's report, I am going to limit my offerings to the bouts that matter, despite my disturbing fascination with Kagayaki's jubblies.

M15 Ishiura v J3 Tokushoryu
Tokushoryu poses a serious problem for Ishiura. Like Enho, Ishi likes to dart under his foe's belly seeking to destabilize him. Trouble is, this particular opponent has a particularly large low-slung belly and Ishi needs a miner's license to burrow beneath and was too much to stomach (sorry). Tokushoryu stood his ground and as soon as Ishi came close Shoryu merely slapped him to the floor. Ishi is now 6-2 and Tokushoryu would hope that all bouts in the top division are this easy.

M14 Tsurugisho v M16 Tochiozan
Tochi's career is on the brink. With the soft effort he displayed today in falling clumsily with minimal encouragement from Tsurugisho, he is closing on his 5th consecutive losing basho and certain drop to Juryo. Sure, with a week to go he has time to climb out from his slump, but for me he is starting to smell bad it looks as though the vultures are now not merely circling, but tucking their napkins into their collars and asking for the wine list.
Tsurugisho is now 6-2.

M13 Nishikigi v M11 Enho
Have you ever had an uninvited confrontation with someone's over-excited 8 year old nipper, whose main intent is to smash you in the privates as he knows this is where you are most tender? You have to be nice to him; it's no good simply back-handing him because you possess social niceties, whereas these little devil imps do not. So, you gently keep him at arm's length hoping he'll tire of the game and go back into the yard, eat mud and torment small animals. This is the folly of many rikishi in dealing with the nuisance that is Enho. Even if you win, you are expected to do so, and the crowd will still cheer him not you.

I do enjoy watching Enho; cuter than Thumper, I love his inventiveness and self-belief and hope to keep watching his progression over the years. I'll take 5 more like him than duds like Aoiyama any day.

Nerves as Nishi false started, but second time he used his 70 odd kg advantage well with emphatic shoves as he followed Enho around the dohyo, leaving him no chance. Enho did his best, but it had the same effect as a beach crab nibbling on a walrus. Nishi is now 4-4, and everyone's favourite doll is 5-3 and no-one is hurt.

M8 Okinoumi v M11 Onosho
Now I like Okinoumi. I keep saying this. But it says plenty about the state of sumo when a 34 year old guy, veteran of over 800 bouts in the top division, is in the lead for his first ever 7-0 start to a basho. Throughout his career, each time he has reached san'yaku ranks he has been demoted the following basho. Recent results witness there has never been a better time for lesser guys like Oki to make a real yusho run.
Onosho jumped early and raised a hand in apology to Oki. Such a polite young man.

Oki came out a little high against his shorter opponent, but grim determination was clearly on display as he wiggled and jostled Onosho to the edge. Onosho struggled gamely, however, the formidably fetching Fukuokan forcibly flummoxed Onosho for win number 8 and he is on a roll. This is new territory for him. Not only is he merely putting old ghosts to bed, he is now holding a statistical pillow over their faces until the twitching has stopped. An eagerly awaited matchup tomorrow with Ryuden awaits.

M10 Meisei v M7 Kotoeko
Meisei set himself deep behind the starting lines as did Kotoeko but is was Meisei who used the run up better with a crunching shoulder hit followed up by a couple of blows to the neck then finished off Kotoeko with a killer low, double-handed oshi-dashi victory. Win number 7 for Meisei.

M7 Kotoshogiku v M10 Sadanoumi
On day 6, Sadanoumi couldn't beat Terutsuyoshi in a straight up shoving match. So against the bump and grind of the much larger Giku, my money would be firmly fixed on the familiar Fukuokan. Giku veered left but Sada was quick off the mark, too quick for Giku, and rammed up into Giku's armpits, rocked him backwards and kept driving to force Giku over the bales. Good comeback from Sada, both boys are at 4-4 and I couldn't pick a crusty boogie from my nose in the desert let alone the form of this basho.

M8 Takarafuji v M6 Myogiryu
Myogiryu withdraws gifting Takarafuji his 5th win.

M2 Asanoyama v M1 Aoiyama
Daniel increased his usual length of effort this basho by about 2 seconds using his doughy arms to keep Asa from getting close. As soon as Asa was in, and as I said it didn't take long, Daniel was on his heels and backing out over the ropes. Asa is still within reach at 6 wins, whilst Daniel is currently displaying the resilient immovability of a meringue in an illegal cage fight against a sweet-toothed wildebeast.

K Abi v M1 Hokutofuji
Abi's thrusts, so predictable, were aimed high and a couple collected Fuji who then smartly ducked under the flurry, slipped inside Abi's reach and from there it was yori-kiri time for Fuji's much needed second win.

M5 Chiyotairyu v K Endo
Endo won as he kept his balance, his solid crouching stance weight centred on on the balls of his feet, serving him well, and ever-growing durability under pressure, as Chiyotairyu was rushed and panicky. Endo withstood three solid hits from his much stronger opponent that knocked him about and his ability to wear the blows, dictate the bout and win using the forward momentum of Tairyu was highly impressive.

S Mitakeumi v S Takakeisho
Takakeisho won this from the outset with a booming low front on hit into Mitakeumi's chest and what looked like a decent head-but which may explain the stunned apathy from Mitakeumi. Two more hard buffets followed and that was all that was needed for Taka's 6th win.

M3 Tomokaze v O Goeido
I know some people have a low opinion of Tomokaze but he is continuing his winning record since his debut in March. Today he accounted for Goeido with only slight unease, for a thrust down win. He held up the charge from Goeido, who should have attempted a belt hold for stability (he rarely does), then moved back and right whilst providing the finishing touches with a slap down win. He came close to the edge but his control under pressure was the deciding factor.
Both guys at 5-3.

O Tochinoshin v M4 Shodai
I know Tochinoshin's demise is there for all to see but me. Perhaps I do look at him through rose-coloured glasses, but I will always back the guy. He looks like a good sumo should. 178 kgs but with distinct muscularity, the hind quarters of a cart horse and the thighs of an Olympic weightlifter. I have my biases and I'll happily back him every time he's on the clay. In probably the weakest basho I can remember (not that long, really) he still should reach his 8 wins. Get behind him, Harvye!

From tachi-ai he nearly gained a double belt grip but settled for the right mawashi. With his left he pushed down on Shodai's head, swinging him around and again coming perilously close to illegal top knot handling. Shodai's only chance was an attempt at lifting Tochi's leg, the healthy one, whilst falling, but really the Ozeki was in control and he now moves to 3 wins. Still within sniffing distance of running the 8 win target down. A 1990's Robert Downey Jr. level of sniffing to be sure but...

Shodai slightly worse off at 2-6.

Tamawashi benefitted from Kak's withdrawal to head into tomorrow's clash with Takakeisho at 5-3.

Tomorrow Gary swallows the sumo universe and regurgitates a galaxy of insights.

Day 7 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all, say what you like about the top guys performances, injuries and absences, this basho has got folks talking about who's going to win the emperor's cup this time round. And that's not a bad thing. With the early removal of that pesky Japongolian from the daily dances, all the boys at or near the top of the banzuke must have been just a little bit more optimistic about their chances to avoid being terrible.

That one man alone would have inflicted, on an average run, around twelve defeats. All of which would have applied more pressure at the top of the rankings, just where they can least absorb it. There's the important matters of kadoban and injuries to deal with. His departure means it may just be possible for all the half-starved wolves to get fed now. But you know that when you feed a few scraps of meat to an injured stray dog, they come back, hungry for the steak in yusho sauce. This one could turn into a dog fight.

Harvye has picked the well fed pup for the win (Takakeisho) with a thumbs down for a Tochinoshin eight. Justin made what is still a wise choice, and took 2-loss Kakuryu for first past the post and gave a thumbs up for the burly Georgian. As there's some fun to be had in picking a cross-eyed mutt for a greyhound race, I want to play as well. I'll back Mitakeumi for his second career yusho. That should lead to a nice "the next generation of Japanese rikishi is here!" sort of headline. I nearly went for Goeido before I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and felt dirty. As I've already seen poor, mangled road-kill Tochinoshin (now 2-5) get oshi-dashi'ed out by Daieisho today, in a horribly one-sided bout, I must go with a thumbs down Georgia-side. Bodishi Georgia.

Now to the tournament of champions. The yusho race is well and truly underway with the finest rikishi in all sumo vying for the ultimate in glory and respect. With that in mind let's narrow our focus today on only the hottest contenders for the title. Only those magnificent enough to demand their names be inked across the hastily erected leader-board of excellence deserve our exclusive attention. We begin.

Ishiura (M15) 5-1 vs Yutakayama (M16) 3-3
We begin with Ishiura, a giant amongst men. The meaty midget hit hard and looked to get in under his opponents defenses, but Yutakayama kept him at arms length and tried to escort him out. This nervous looking tactic was doomed to failure as it allowed Ishiura to move unhindered around the dohyo, never to be caught or even troubled. Yutakayama stumbled and inside went meaty. Who then fouled poor Yutakayama with a hard, sweeping kick to the inside of the lead leg. Oh wait, it IS allowed. Why do rikishi always react to it as though they never even considered such a thing? Big Yama didn't last more than a second after that. Oshi-dashi and our first contender is past the challenge of the M16 man, phew! The race is hotting up.

Tsurugisho (M14) 4-2 vs Enho (M11) 5-1
The second and third of our big name contenders stepped up next. The crowd showed their appreciation for the effort put forth as Enho clambered up and over the tawara. As they crouched down Tsurugisho gave him the hard eye, this guy's not messing. Enho got the start he likes, burrowed in underneath with as deep a grip as his arms will allow. And then, nothing. The usual all-action Enho attack of swinging his opponent around and tipping them over was nowhere to be seen as mean-eyed Tsurugisho just stood his ground, solid as a rock.

To stay in the yusho hunt Enho had to do something quick. He pulled with all his might and opened his stance to prepare for the winning throw. Tsurugisho just hip-humped him to yori-kiri oblivion. It wasn't pretty.

Kagayaki (M13) 3-3 vs Meisei (M10) 5-1
Meisei toyed with defeat today as he was forced backwards and had his heel on the tawara. But like an Ozeki needing a tenth win, he managed to stay in and bring his opponent down before he stepped out. Shitate-dashi-nage and they didn't call for a video replay of this one. They're not going there again, no sir.

Okinoumi (M8) 6-0 vs Myogiryu (M6) 5-1
Soooo is the 6-1 Myogiryu that bad that he can have great inside position on his guy, drive him to the edge, but get turned away from victory? Twice. Or is the now 7-0 Okinoumi really that good? Things that make you go hmm.

This one ended with a horrible looking kote-nage as Myogiryu slumped down and round to sit himself down on the sand. Why grab an opening mae-mitsu grip if you have no need for it? Why upgrade to moro-zashi if you are going to fold your cards at the first hint of offense coming your way? He made himself look like a million dollars for most of the bout and in doing so made Okinoumi look like a sack of moldy wet corn. By the end, there were two sacks out there. And a bad smell.

Ryuden (M5) 2-4 vs Asanoyama (M2) 4-2
Showing Myogiryu how it's done, Asanoyama came out and demanded mae-mawashi. But Asanoyama's start was done with Mike Tyson-esque bad intentions as he swept forwards, raising Ryuden up just a little. True, the now 2-5 Ryuden isn't looking too dangerous, but Asanoyama did what he should have done and got rid of his man with powerful sumo.

Abi (K) 4-2 vs Endo (K) 5-1
It seems strange to talk about these two as the Komusubi pairing, but they are both showcasing their best year in sumo. Abi may belong a few ranks lower, but Endo has matured from boy to man in his 28th year. It's a shame his body hasn't changed much. With his brand of stand-your-ground sumo he could use some extra power.

Today Endo tried to stand in front of Abi, easy to do if you're close in to him. Not so much fun if you are on the end of his thrusting attack. Endo caught one firmly to the side of his neck and his head and body turned. Behind it rammed the full length of Abi in a do or die shove for oshi-dashi glory. Endo has stabilized his sumo. But he isn't elusive. He's going to get caught more often like this as he nears thirty and looks to rely more on his strength and less on his movement. The good news is, both these dudes are still in the running for trophy hunting.

Chiyotairyu (M5) 1-5 vs Takakeisho (S) 5-1
HENKA!!!! Chiyotairyu steals food from the very mouth of the top yusho prospect (and still Ozeki chasing) plush-puppy Takakeisho. To see a 400lb (190kg) plus henka is not entertaining. But it is brutally effective if you are in the brown squishy stuff and your opponent figures he's got an easy win here. With that, err, hataki-komi Chiyo doubles his win total.

Mitakeumi (S) 5-1 vs Shodai (M4) 2-4
Well, Mitakeumi decided he was going to win by oshi-dashi today and he just stuck with it until he did. Shodai was his usual elusive self, giving ground here, bending away there. But it was all defensive, waiting for an opening that never came. Mitakeumi put his head down and went for it, using his strength and body weight to good effect. The boy looks healed to me, 6-1 and his fingertips are almost on the emperor's cup. Along with the other eleven contenders.

Tamawashi (M4) 4-2 vs Goeido (O) 4-2
Goeido has always been quick at the tachi-ai. It wasn't much of a problem for his foes as he usually fluffed it immediately afterwards. Dazing himself with his own head butt, putting his feet in silly off-balance positions or even dipping his hips so low he was a sitting duck. Today he put it together. A sharp tachi-ai that saw him surface inside the bombing range of the Mongolian B-52. A quick snatch of the outer mawashi was followed by getting his head low and ready to overpower. Tamawashi was dislodged and hustled out for the decisive yori-kiri win.

Yusho winner Goeido can feel the thrill of a repeat coursing through his veins. Only one win behind Ishiura.

Kakuryu (Y) 4-2 vs Tomokaze (M3) 3-3
The M3 man is 10 years younger than the 34 year old Yokozuna and 50lbs (20kg) heavier. He wears it well. Kakuryu came out a bit high and took the impact on his chest. I can't blame him. The hefty youngster comes out low yet stable and is a load to manage at the tachi-ai. It could develop into his best attribute.

The tachi-ai was definitely the best part of this bout. After that things went a bit like 2016 Goeido's wobbly legs. Tomokaze turned a push into a sneaky pull at the Yoko's head and Kakuryu put his head down in a massive over-reaction. Tomokaze wrapped the now lowered shoulder with his other hand and pushed him even further down. Kakuryu sprawled about unable to control himself, even hopping on one leg as he dived to the sand. The things sumo fans have to put up with. After watching that display of sumo instability, I'm not sure if Kakuryu will make it to day 15 anymore. I feel a withdrawal coming on.

One hataki-komi, one kin-boshi and a goodbye salute to his freshly retired senpai, Yoshikaze. It was all too much for Tomokaze. Showing just how much it meant to him, the 24 year old walked away crying his eyes out. The ghost of Chiyonofuji was heard to emit a low growl.

And with that we have twelve guys (plus a Yokozuna) all in the running to take the most chaotic of basho. None are more worthy than the rest, and after today that now includes Okinoumi. Let chaos reign as the imp known as Justin sweeps the losing souls into the flames tomorrow.

Day 6 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Today the Sumo Association released its brand new Enho Plush Doll, and it was truly awesome to see them move into the modern world. Enho himself came out on the plaza outside the Kokugikan in purple lipstick and a psychedelic tutu and boogalooed to the electric slide while Beyoncé stroked his abs and sang oo-la-la. Fireworks were going off in cotton candy patterns and giant bins of overripe orchids were tumbled from the roof of the Kokugikan while supercars zoomed up and down on the street streaming out clouds of dry ice smoke. Three whales in swimming pools brought in on semi-trailers were jabbed with electric prods and spouted smorgasbords of ambergris while yodeling their strange whale song, pumped up to 11. Goeido was there and gave out little pieces of sushi for nothin', free, nix, nixa.

Takakeisho was there too, dancing the fuzzy banana, his fat jiggling up and down, painted with gobbets of fluorescent plaster and stamped with 101 plastic smiley faces on his belly. Ten thousand pert young women in miniscule pink bunny suits streamed out behind him and doused beer on him from their kegger-backpacks. As the tide of beer rose and the girls got wet and sang while doing synchronized swimming in the froth a mystical canoe floated down from the moon; Takakeisho climbed in and sang enka folk songs with a dozen 88 year old passengers while the canoe floated through the entrance to the Kokugikan and swooshed down the aisle flashing strobe lights that blinded everyone. By the time Takakeisho reappeared in the middle of the dohyo, he was covered in shiny golden tinfoil and wore a pair of 20-meter-wide white dragon wings on a chest harness. He sang "Who Let the Dogs Out" while Enho dolls rained down from the ceiling by the thousands. I heard some fans were killed in the scrum to pick up the free dolls, but hey, it was really something.

After that, they had some sumo.

M16 Yutakayama (3-2) vs. J2 Takanosho (4-1)
Despite being so fat, it feels to me like there is something zippy about Yutakayama's body. He wasn't too zippy today, though. This was a simple affair of swiping up at each other, but Rich Mountain (Yutakayama) had his head up while he did it, while High Prize (Takanosho) had his head down and put those hands right on that sternum. That's a good way to get a win, and High Prize got one, oshi-dashi.

M15 Ishiura (4-1) vs. M16 Tochiozan (3-2)
Oh, these little genki guys like Ishiura; yeah, sure, they have good tournaments down in these parts once in a while. Then they get killed when they're just a little bit higher though. It is all in good fun. Meanwhile, Tochiozan has become a member of the zombie army, where the question is, how long can he stay on his feet, eating the brains of the weak at the end of the world? Not very long, turns out. It was a terrible tachi-ai where neither guy came forward: two mutual cautious hops, and that favored the man with the Bag of Tricks, Ishiura. Not under threat or pressure, he reached out, grabbed the Zombie, drew him in, and pulled him down near the edge, hataki-komi. Humanity 1, Zombies 0. I was rooting for the Zombie, though.

M17 Takagenji (1-4) vs. M14 Toyonoshima (1-4)
They both bundled their arms across their fronts and slammed into each other at the tachi-ai (good), then grabbed each other by the belt and went for it (good). I suspected right away this was bad for Toyonoshima. No matter how much experience he has, against a big strong boy like this, with both guys having solid belt grips, I didn't see how the Ancient One (Toyonoshima) had any advantage. Sure enough, after a good mutual struggle, including a try at throwing each other, Takagenji got his inevitable yori-kiri victory. As I said on Tuesday, there is just no point to watching Toyonoshima anymore, unless you like Zombies looking for stray rotten brains.

M15 Azumaryu (3-2) vs. M13 Nishikigi (2-3)
[Set to the tune of Scooby-Doo:] "Azuma-zuma-ryu, who are you, and why are so boring now?" On the tachi-ai, Nishikigi seemed to also be thinking, "well, I may as well just beat this somebody." Nishikigi put his head down as if taking a close doctorly examination of the lobules of Azumaryu's areola, wrapped the man's arms up tight from the outside, and drove him straight back and out, kime-dashi (which you don't see that often). I would question Azumaryu's effort here (where was the evasion? The lateral movement?), but what is he doing here anyway? Nishikigi said afterwards that Azumaryu's nipples look fine and healthy.

M12 Shohozan (3-2) vs. M14 Tsurugisho (3-2)
On Tuesday I told you about Tsurugi-dake, the notoriously treacherous peak in the Northern Alps. Tsurigi-san (as opposed to dake) is another, different one of the "100 Famous Mountains," found in Shikoku's hinterlands. It has a smooth grassy field for a peak, and you can get most of the way to the top by riding a little chairlift. This seems a better comparison for Tsurugisho. Actually, I wish Tsurugisho would live up to either mountain--so far, he's just a mountain of flesh. No rocks, no snow, no forbidding sheer cliff faces. Not even a grassy summit. Oh, I suppose I shouldn't be so hard on him: he is 3-2, and I'm not. Anyhoo, The Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Hozan, couldn't climb him. Hozan dicked around inside and low, but much too far away and lethargically, like an overweight 68 year old who had no business taking up the hobby of mountain climbing anyway. Tsurugisho didn't have to do much, mostly pulling; he did have a solid chest bump at the end that got him the oshi-dashi victory, like a fresh spring wind blowing some dandelion fluff off Tsurugi-san's summit. But I wish for a storm, a rockslide, an avalanche. Tsurugisho is just a hill.

M11 Onosho (2-3) vs. M12 Daishoho (0-5)
During the run up for this match, what did the announcers do? They talked about Enho, showed Enho sitting by the side of the ring, etc. Enho, Enho, Enho. Enho was not in this match. He was in the next match. But… but… 'munna get me one them dolls!!! Okay, back to the sumo: sad, hapless Onosho looked to be easy prey for the moving feet, attacking arms, and forward momentum of the focused and forceful-looking Daishoho--until, part way through the match, the softness of Daishoho's attack was exposed. Onosho started to hit back instead of pulling, and summarily forced Daishoho out and over, oshi-taoshi. Ooh, can we get back to Enho now?

M13 Kagayaki (3-2) vs. M11 Enho (4-1)
Yes we can. Man, the crowd was pumped for this. I don't know if I can remember this much excitement around a rank and filer since the heydays of the Clown Prince, Takamisakari. Well, let me be honest: I've been enjoying watching him too. Either he gets creamed like the puff his size says he should be, or some crazy stuff goes down while he tries to chew on the other guy's gonads and you just have to shake your head and say, "hey man, I guess that's sumo too!" Enho didn't get quite so low in this one, trying to examine Kagayaki's belly button for lint instead. Kagayaki concentrated on trying to keep himself square to the little man (95% did it), trying to push Enho upright (about 50% did it), and… well, I wanted to write, "and moving forward and trying to push Enho out." Except he didn't actually do that at all. He hung back cautiously. While that might appear wise given the danger of falling in Enho's punji-stick-pit, how are you going to win if you don't move forward? Commit and beat him. Yes, you stand a chance of losing if you do that. But you will lose for sure if you wait to see what happens. What happened was that Enho briefly got ahold of Kagayaki's knee; that got Kagayaki turned around for long enough that when Enho resumed the forward attack Kagayaki was momentarily out of focus, and Enho drove him out, oshi-dashi.

Everyone in the crowd received a free Enho doll and several thousand helium filled balloons of Enho's head were released from a trapdoor in the dohyo. Children fainted from delirium.

M9 Terutsuyoshi (1-4) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (2-3)
Enho Light (Terutsuyoshi) gave Sadanoumi a poor-man's smack at the tachi-ai, whappin' against him, making the sound of a graham cracker breaking. It was enough though. Sadanoumi was pulling down from above, backing up, and trying no lateral evasion, and that got Enho Light the simple oshi-dashi win.

M10 Meisei (4-1) vs. M9 Kotoyuki (2-3)
In the trio of li'l 'uns--Enho, Terutsuyoshi, and Meisei--I'll take Meisei. Maybe I just don't like change, but this guy has been selling us an honest effort and solid skills in the upper division for a while now, and I trust him more. Remember Ura? Very similar to Enho, but long injured and long gone. Meisei stands here with the identical record to Enho, 4-1, and no one gives a damn. Why? Too focused? Too solid? Not cute enough? Well, whatever. I hugged my Enho doll tight under my arm for security while I wrote my report. It made me feel better about myself and everything. Meisei had to evade--Kotoyuki is big and has a blasting tachi-ai and tsuppari hands and stuff--but Meisei won. Once that initial big push from Chiyotairyu Light (Kotoyuki) was over, Meisei got out of the way and Kotoyuki stumbled out past him, tsuki-otoshi. Meisei didn't look good here; it is okay, I'll sleep with my Enho doll tonight.

M7 Kotoshogiku (3-2) vs. M8 Takarafuji (2-3)
I am often a Kotoshogiku apologist--to me, he doesn't look too bad when ranked in the middle like this. However, this tournament I have felt like guys are letting him freight train them for no good reason. It happens. The same was true here--except that Kotoshogiku fell down while doing it and Takarafuji hadn't quite stepped out yet. Give the Bus Driver (Takarafuji) credit for a swift, well timed step to the side; he earned the tsuki-otoshi victory against the over-committed Kotoshogiku.

M6 Shimanoumi (2-3) vs. M8 Okinoumi (5-0)
Here is our dark horse yusho candidate, Okinoumi. I can get behind that. These two leaned nicely over and put their shoulders together solidly, an upside-down, elongated U. Then Okinoumi pushed real hard. Seeing as he's big and good, that worked just fine: he forced Island Sea (Shimanoumi) right out, oshi-dashi. Keep it going, man, keep it going.

M5 Chiyotairyu (1-4) vs. M6 Myogiryu (4-1)
The whappity sound of the tachi-ai was promising, but Myogiryu wisely pulled way out of the contact zone right quick, and Chiyotairyu's legs started to spin like Fred Flintstone driving his stone age car: whoops, down he fell. Lost his balance in there, hataki-komi. A victory without any particular fighting value from Myogiryu. But, as with Meisei, I'm enjoying the strong start by this scrappy dude, so he and I will both take it.

M7 Kotoeko (1-4) vs. M5 Ryuden (2-3)
Long, supple Ryuden wrapped Kotoeko's arms up off the tachi-ai and it looked good for him. Then he resorted to lots of pulling and it looked bad for him. Fortunately for him Kotoeko probably won't ever amount to much, and Ryuden survived his own backwards scramble around the ring, caught Kotoeko by the belt, and pushed him out, oshi-dashi.

But wait! There was the gyoji, giving the win to Kotoeko. Wha happun? I totally didn't see it, but Ryuden's toe went over the straw and kicked up a good spray of sand on the force out, no doubt about it. Isami-ashi win for Kotoeko.

M4 Shodai (2-3) vs. M3 Tomokaze (2-3)
Another match where the loser looked like the winner. Shodai pushed Tomokaze hard and effectively, and soon had him flying out across the straw. Problem was, as it so often is, Shodai had overcommitted, so Shodai's body was hitting the ground about the same time as Tomokaze was doing The High Step. Meanwhile, whilst falling down Shodai rolled a rapid 360 in the air like a levitating barrel of buckshot. That was his undoing. In something I'd never seen before, Shodai's right hand clipped the ground though the rest of his whole body was still airborne. And so Tomokaze got the weird, bad-looking hataki-komi victory. I'm sure he would say, "anything for my eight."

K Abi (3-2) vs. M1 Aoiyama (0-5)
Mike called him the Happy Bulgar, and I have to admit Aoiyama looked oddly carefree while crashing face first out of the ring to a tsuki-otoshi loss. Abi stepped out of the way of Aoiyama's ultra-linear, hands-up, no-feet charge. Sheesh. Sometimes these guys sure make it look easy--for the other guy.

S Mitakeumi (4-1) vs. M1 Hokutofuji (1-4)
I like a hard-smacking tachi-ai, and Hokutofuji hit Mitakeumi in the shoulder pretty hard with his head. However, he also shaded to the left, as he is wont, and backed up, which he shouldn't. Mitakeumi's attack was, as they say, ippouteki: general, thorough, simple. You make up the translation: he dominatingly brought his hands and body to bear on the retreating Hokutofuji and emphatically defeated him, oshi-dashi. Mitakeumi is contending right now. Put him in there with Takakeisho and Okinoumi.

K Endo (4-1) vs. S Takakeisho (5-0)
And put Endo in there too. He is just too handsome to give up on completely, and he's been legit enough of late, so why not? A yusho by Endo would be a great redemptive moment for the Association and most Japanese sumo fans. I don't think it is that far out of the realm of reality--or that far off. The way things have been going lately, if I search my feelings, Obi-Wan, I discover that I EXPECT Endo to win a tournament… at some point. So why shouldn't "at some point" be now? We shall see. Oh, yes--we shall see. Right after the tachi-ai Takakeisho went for a massive head pull, but Endo doesn't go out like that these days; he has too much traditional, solid game. The moment after the pull didn't work, as Takakeisho looked to square back up, his right foot and/or ankle and/or knee went out from under him--he is so fat and squat, it is hard to tell the difference--and he drooped his knee onto the dirt, resulting in the rare losing kimari-te of tsuki-hiza (literally "touch knee"). It looked for all the world like he was injured, but more likely he was simply sloppy. And slobby. After Justin's description of him as a waddling mess, I was indeed struck today by how untoned, ungainly, and just plain fat he looks. I still think he is pretty good, but he looked bad today--whereas Endo kept it together. This could be very, very interesting…

M2 Asanoyama (3-2) vs. O Goeido (4-1)
This was pretty interesting stuff. Asanoyama is coming on pretty fast. Asanoyama gave up a left outside right away, but after a moment he readjusted and grabbed his own outside left. He immediately used it to wrench Goeido around and put him against the straw. Then they went in to the nage-no-uchi-ai: both with one leg down, one leg up, heads dangling over the void. However, Asanoyama showed his size and skill: he brought his in-the-air leg back down inside the straw, keep his balance, and finished the throw: Goeido was still upside down in the middle of never-never-land, and Asanoyama whanged him out of there, uwate-nage.

Aside: in sports, every couple of days you see something you've never seen before, no matter how long you've been watching. Today there were two of these for me: first Shodai's mid-air barrel-roll hand-touch. Now, in this one, there was no judge present to rule on Asanoyama's lovely victory. Why? A few moments earlier, scurrying along the back of the ring to get in a better position, the gyoji tripped over the tawara and went flying out of the ring and all the way off the dohyo like an Olympic diver. Sometimes we see the gyoji get knocked down by the wrestlers. That was not the case here--he wasn't even close to them. He just… disappeared over the edge, like he was in some other story entirely. It was awesome.

O Tochinoshin (2-3) vs. M4 Tamawashi (3-2)
Justin wrote the report of the tournament yesterday (just one example: Homer Simpson's eyes; amazing…). However, I was excited to see him and me set up for a predictions showdown: on Tuesday I announced Takakeisho for the yusho, Kakuryu for not, and announced that Tochinoshin will most definitely not get his eight. Justin said no yusho for Takakeisho, said Kakuryu is his man, and said Tochinoshin definitely gets his eight. It is on, man!! Tochinoshin got shellacked in this one: driven summarily back by the hard hands of The Beater, Tamawashi. It was yet another match where you could hardly tell who won because while one guy was flying out of the ring in a standing position (Tochinoshin) the other guy was wildly flopping to the dirt (Tamawashi). In this case they ruled Tochinoshin went out first. Oshi-dashi win for Tamawashi. Whatever--I can hardly keep track. What I can say is that Tochinoshin is old, his knee looks like a legit problem (you try it), and, most important, the Sumo Association has no interest in or need to keep him at Ozeki. So I say it is done for him. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. You and me, Justin, you and me!

Y Kakuryu (4-1) vs. M3 Daieisho (1-4)
In the run up to this one I idly wondered if this would be another good one for Kakuryu to lose: hard working, undervalued Japanese opponent, give the tournament some drama early on. Nah, I thought: too soon, too much. Let's see: they hit each other a lot. Kakuryu was doing his thing: pulling, but getting out of there to the side, which kept him set up for the win--at first. Problem was, Daieisho has a low, solid center of gravity, is good on his feet, and kept turning back to Kakuryu promptly and resuming battering him. These pull-and-feint moves by Kakuryu happened twice, and there was to be no third time: when Daieisho squared back up after the second time, Kakuryu had run out of room. Daieisho's attack is tough and powerful, he applied it in full, and out went the yokozuna in convincing-looking fashion for a Daieisho oshi-dashi victory. Hence, for the second day in a row Kakuryu gave up a hatsu-kin-boshi (literally "first gold star"). Zoinks! I didn't expect my prediction of Kakuryu dropping this tournament to take solid form this quickly. Here we go people: looks like we are in for a wild one.

I'm up for it. You?

Tomorrow Gary invites Enho to the prom, but Takakeisho insists on going along as chaperone.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The biggest news story heading into the day was the surprise announcement from the Ichinojo camp that the slug was going kyujo starting with Day 5. The NHK cameras didn't really focus on Ichinojo after his dive against Kakuryu on Day 4, and so at the end of yesterday, I don't think anybody realized he was hurt. The reported diagnosis is a dislocated right shoulder, but I also read in the Mainichi Shinbun that his recovery time was just two weeks of light rest, so who knows the real extent of the injury?

The important thing is that it removes yet another foreign rikishi from the field, so we can focus on the Japanese rikishi. I mean, Ichinojo was in no way going to thwart Takakeisho's quest for 10 wins, but now we have one less obvious yaocho out of the way that would have occurred later on. Ichinojo won't be missed, and the old adage still holds true in that rikishi get hurt when they let up in the ring, something that Ichinojo did against Goeido, Mitakeumi, and Kakuryu.

Before we get to the Day 5 bouts, I'll post a snapshot of the arena just prior to the Kakuryu - Ichinojo bout yesterday:



There are noticeable gaps all over the arena, and I've circled some of them in yellow in the lower section of the arena. I'm not sure if they're still announcing fuda-dome (complete sell-out) because my broadcast starts about 3 minutes prior to the first Makuuchi bout, but even if the Sumo Association is selling out all of the tickets they make available, people aren't filling the arena to capacity. I've been in an arena at maybe 75% capacity when they've lowered the man'in on'rei banners, so it will be awhile before we see a day where those aren't lowered, but I can definitely detect the interest in sumo trending down.

Beyond the empty seats in the arena, NHK's News 9 program is also no longer leading with sumo on their nightly sport's broadcast. They did lead with sumo on Monday and Tuesday of this week, but the last two days they haven't. I noticed it on Wednesday, and I can't remember the last time when News 9 didn't lead with sumo during a hon-basho. NHK is obviously obligated to hype sumo as much as possible, but I wonder if people are calling them and complaining about it. That would never get reported in the media, but I don't see how there isn't fan fatigue at what's going on here. These hyped Japanese rikishi just don't have any substance to their sumo, and I think that even the Japanese fans are starting to tire over all of this. I know I am.

But enough of that. We have another day of hana-zumo on our hands mingled with a few legitimate contests, so let's get right to it.

The day began with M17 Takagenji fresh off of his one day win streak after Azumaryu let up for him yesterday, and a one day win streak is a huge deal for this guy whose a whopping 1-13 in his last 14 bouts. Problem today was that M15 Ishiura was out for blood, and he easily demanded moro-zashi ducking under Genji's outstretched arms at the starting lines and just escorting the youngster back and out in two seconds leading with the left arm. Ishiura moves to 4-1 with the win while Takagenji must be plum broke at 1-4.

Watching M16 Tochiohzan and M14 Toyonoshima take each other on is akin to watching a Senior PGA tour event. Toyonoshima gained moro-zashi from the tachi-ai, but Oh did a nice job pinching in on Toyonoshima's right side, and so the smaller Toyonoshima wasn't able to force Oh back. The two grappled like this for about 10 seconds before Tochiohzan used his left hand at the outside of Toyonoshima's belt to wrench him over to the edge dashi-nage style before finishing the now upright Toyonoshima off with two shoves to the chest. Nifty move there from Tochiohzan who moves to 3-2 while Toyonoshima falls to 1-4.

The M14 Tsurugisho - M15 Azumaryu matchup should have gone to migi-yotsu, but instead of trying to get his right arm to the inside, Azumaryu just lifted it high and wrapped it around Tsurugisho's head. Now, the only time when you should wrap an arm high around an opponent's head is for a last gasp kubi-nage, so to just do it from the tachi-ai and then back up when you had a left outer on the other side is a clear sign of yaocho. With Azumaryu just staying up high, Tsurugisho easily marched him back and across with zero resistance. Obvious yaocho here as both fellas end the day at 3-2, and I'm still waiting for Tsurugisho's first legitimate win in the division.

In a good bout, M13 Kagayaki and M16 Yutakayama hooked up in migi-yotsu with each dude trying to wrench his foe up high. With both guys equally tall, neither had the advantage, so they grappled nicely for about five seconds before Kagayaki attempted a left kote-nage. It didn't quite do the trick, and so Yutakayama was able to use the momentum shift to drive Kagayaki all the way across the dohyo, but at ring's edge, Kagayaki darted right using a nice tsuki into Yutakayama's left armpit to survive, and you knew the bout was on at this point. Both dudes hunkered down again this time in a lower stance where Kagayaki had the right arm firmly inside and was flirting with the left inside as well. Yutakayama held him away from that by the wrist, but he didn't have a pot to piss in position-wise, and so Kagayaki retooled his right inside by lifting Yutakayama completely upright, and that set up the yori-kiri in the end. Beautifully fought bout here, and the contrast between this bout and a Takakeisho bout is in a word: stark. Both rikishi end the day at 3-2.

M13 Nishikigi's moro-te-zuki tachi-ai was light enabling M12 Shohozan to shove him up high and assume moro-zashi. After trading places in the ring, Shohozan began a force-out charge that saw Nishikigi evade to his right and attempt a maki-kae with the left arm, and while it sorta worked, it also gave Shohozan the firm right outer grip, and he used that to dashi-nage Nishikigi clear across the dohyo and then spin him around a bit as he resisted at the edge. Nice yori-kiri win for Shohozan who moves to 3-2 while Nishikigi falls to the opposite mark.

That picture of Enho in geisha drag posted by Justin yesterday is an absolute game changer. I told Justin how superb of a find that picture was, and his reply was, "I cannot be certain it isn’t him." That's good enough for me, and time will tell if it supplants the all-time great Sumotalk pic posted by Kane that has Harumafuji coming out of a drive-thru window and slapping the customer silly.



I thought the Enho - Shohozan matchup yesterday was a perfect example of Enho's place in this division. It was a good contest, and once Shohozan had him in that headlock, I thought that Enho had about a 20% chance of winning the bout. He ended up losing it, but he still had a chance...about a 20% chance. And that's where he is in this division assuming that all of his bouts were fought straight up. He'd win maybe 1 in 5, which would leave him on average at a 3-12 finish. When Enho is involved in straight-up fights, it's easy to tell because his opponent's use the weight difference to their advantage. Enho is always flatfooted and totally defensive while his opponent just used blunt force to grab him in close--usually in a headlock--and then just muscle him to the dohyo. When Enho's opponent's are upright and nonchalant, you know right away the bout is fake. Any of these Makuuchi rikishi can bully Enho around to no end, and so when the reverse seems to happen...when Enho is the one dictating the pace start to finish, you know the bout is fake.

I knew today's contest would be fake the moment I saw M12 Daishoho line up half a meter behind his starting line. I mean, you have a squirrely dude like Enho whose only hope is to run around spring a trap, so why give him more room to escape. Get him early and stick the fork into him. Anyway, with Daishoho backed up like that, I knew his intention at that point. The Mongolian stood straight up at the tachi-ai and put both hands forward, but he did nothing. As Enho advanced, Daishoho offered a meager pull attempt with the right arm as both rikishi circled left, and with Enho not having committed to get to the inside, Daishoho lamely offered a few downward shoves his way that of course didn't connect, and so Enho was easily able to skirt left and catch Daishoho with a "surprise" tsuki-otoshi. The move wasn't even close to knocking Daishoho over, but no matter. The dude just plodded his way out of the dohyo looking for a place to land on the arena floor beneath.

Enho moves to 4-1 with the gift, and he is easily the most popular rikishi in the division right now, which in a round about way illustrates how sorry the Japanese Ozeki are right now (I include Takakeisho in that group). As for Daishoho, he falls to 0-5 and expect more "excitement" from Enho to come because other than Takakeisho, the Sumo Association ain't got nothin' right now.

M9 Terutsuyoshi rushed his charge against M11 Onosho trying to bump him back without really scoring on effective shoves, and so Onosho easily moved to his left going for a slapdown of his opponent's right side that sent Terutsuyoshi crashing to the dohyo about three seconds in. Onosho needed a bit of fancy footwork at ring's edge to stay in until Terutsuyoshi completely bit the dust, but this was a nice win for Onosho who moves to 2-3 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 1-4.

For about 10 seconds, it looked as if the M10 Meisei - M8 Takarafuji bout would go to hidari-yotsu, but Takarafuji kept refusing to get established inside with the left. I mean, Meisei was kind of going for wimpy pulls and Takarafuji was groping Meisei's belt nearly the entire time, but he refused to pull his gal in tight. It was obvious what Takarafuji's intentions were at this point, so the two danced around a bit and went for bad pulls before Meisei finally moved right and offered a weak slapdown at Takarafuji's left shoulder. That of course sent Takarafuji flying into a nifty summersault, but this was as fake as sumo gets. Meisei buys one here moving to 4-1 while Takarafuji falls--literally--to 2-3.

M9 Kotoyuki was intimidated from the start against M8 Okinoumi in a bout that saw Kotoyuki fire lame thrusts from the tachi-ai only to be beaten back by Okinoumi, and after about three seconds, Okinoumi threatened the left inside position before suddenly moving right and pull down Kotoyuki hataki-komi style. Nothing more to see here as Okinoumi moves to 5-0 while Kotoyuki falls to 2-3. Okinoumi may as well make a run this basho with all the furreners out because he's easily the best Japanese rikishi makin' some noise at this point.

M10 Sadanoumi showed good patience against M7 Kotoeko never giving up his quest for yotsu-zumo as Kotoeko tried to dance around the ring to catch his opponent off guard. After about five seconds, Sadanoumi got his right arm to the inside and then also grabbed a left outer, and that enabled him to bully Kotoeko over to the edge and then force him out before Kotoeko could wriggle sideways and go for a desperation pull. Sadanoumi improves to 2-3 with the nice win while Eko falls to 1-4.

M7 Kotoshogiku was gifted the easy win from M5 Ryuden in a bout that saw the two methodically hook up in hidari-yotsu with Ryuden offering a token retreat to his left not really going for anything despite maintaining a firm right outer grip, and that easily allowed Kotoshogiku to stay snug and score the force-out win in maybe four seconds. When you make Kotoshogiku look like a legit former Ozeki and completely ignore your own outer grip while the Geeku had none, you know the bout is fixed, and this was an easy call here as Ryuden was entirely mukiryoku throughout. Kotoshogiku advances to 3-2 with the win while Ryuden falls to 2-3.

M5 Chiyotairyu kinda sorta came with a left kachi-age at the tachi-ai against M6 Shimanoumi, but he quickly retreated for no reason not bothering to use his bread and butter tsuppari attack. It wasn't as if Shimanoumi was throwing a wrench in things either because he had no momentum from the tachi-ai, and the result was both rikishi in the grapplin' position on Chiyotairyu's side of the dohyo pushing into each other's shoulders. They did this for about five seconds before Chiyotairyu went for a stupid pull just gifting Shimanoumi the easy push-out win. Chiyotairyu falls to 1-4 with the loss while Shimanoumi ain't much better at 2-3.

M6 Myogiryu reached for an got a left frontal grip on M4 Shodai's belt from the tachi-ai while Shodai got the left arm inside and then tried to get the right inside as well for moro-zashi. He actually got it, but it was shallow thanks to Myogiryu's left belt grip, and despite Shodai's boosting Myogiryu upright, it was Myogiryu who applied the pressure scoring an easy force-out win while his opponent had moro-zashi and while Myogiryu was way more upright than he should have been. Myogiryu is a quiet 4-1 while Shodai falls to 2-3.

M4 Tamawashi picked up the freebie today due to Ichinojo's withdrawal leaving The Mawashi at 3-2.

M1 Aoiyama put both hands at the back of Komusubi Endoh's shoulders at the tachi-ai, but instead of going for a pull, he just backed up. Endoh took that gift and pressed forward nicely as Aoiyama faked one more pull, but this was simply a matter of the Happy Bulgar moving backwards the entire way and offering no resistance against Endoh. Endoh did nothing here the entire way to set anything up, and he was merely on the receiving end of the good gift. After the bout, Mainoumi correctly pointed out that Aoiyama only used his hands the entire bout. What he failed to mention was that Aoiyama did it purposefully to give the popular Endoh the win. Don't look now but Endoh is 4-1 from the Komusubi rank while Aoiyama falls to 0-5.

M1 Hokutofuji and Sekiwake Takakeisho came with right hands to the neck at the tachi-ai whereupon Hokutofuji just backed up swinging his left arm up and over the top of his foe for no reason. That move allowed Takakeisho to move a full step forward despite not having scored at the tachi-ai, and it was evident from this point what would occur. Takakeisho was unable to bully Hokutofuji back whatsoever, and so he went for a lame pull, and that actually forced the momentum in Hokutofuji's favor. As Hokutofuji advanced, Takakeisho went for a stupid shoulder swipe with the left that had zero effect, and that compromised Takakeisho putting him on the edge of the ring with both feet, and Hokutofuji's response was to instinctively throw a tsuki Takakeisho's way, but he held up never connecting to send the Ozeki hopeful back for good. Instead, he just leaned forward and off balance so when that second shoulder slap came from Takakeisho's right hand, Hokutofuji just bit the dust as Takakeisho sorta perioutted at the edge completely out of control.

Atsui Announcer described the finish as "nantoka koraemashita!" or Takakeisho somehow survived!! I mean, the Sekiwake was on the ropes with both feet leaning back, and Hokutofuji had both hands against his chest, but Hokutofuji dutifully belly-flopped to the dirt instead of scoring the easy win. An Ozeki..which is what they'll eventually make this guy again...should not have his bout described as "he somehow survived." Takakeisho's sumo is just ridiculous, and if we were scoring in boxing (in essence counting blows that connected), he's got maybe three total points over five days. And yet, he's a slick 5-0 just like that!!

Going back to my intro, I just don't think this can last too much longer. It is so obvious how they're building Takakeisho up, and ultimately fans want to see the elite rikishi kicking ass and taking names, not somehow surviving against the rank and file. As for Hokutofuji, he graciously falls to 1-4.

Komusubi Abi was the aggressor from the tachi-ai using his fire hose tsuppari to move Sekiwake Mitakeumi back, but Abi wasn't using his legs and so when Mitakeumi went for as light of a swipe as you please with the left arm, Abi just bit the dust willingly. Mitakeumi is as soft of a 4-1 record as you'll ever see while Abi has room to fall to 3-2.

Ozeki Tochinoshin looked to get the right arm inside against M3 Tomokaze, but Tomokaze pinched it away, and so Shin immediately shifted gears and just moved to his right pulling Tomokaze down in less than two seconds. Tomokaze is a hapless rikishi when money isn't changing hands prior to his bouts as both rikishi end the day at 2-3. As for Tochinoshin, his projected ineptness of late is just an effort to put himself on par with the content of Takakeisho's sumo. Takakeisho drops from the Ozeki rank; Tochinoshin drops from the Ozeki rank. Goeido and Takayasu are frequently kadoban; Tochinoshin is frequently kadoban. It's the same thing that the Yokozuna did for Kisenosato. A foreigner always has to mirror the ineptness of the elite Japanese rikishi.

Moving right along, M3 Daieisho won the tachi-ai against Ozeki Goeido striking him nicely with two hands that pushed the Ozeki back a full step, and Daieisho coulda done what he wanna here, but instead of taking control, he just kept his arms thrust forward waiting for Goeido to go for a swipe or a pull. He did of course, and when it came, Daieisho just belly flopped in exaggeration to the dirt. There's really nothing more to break down here as Goeido is propped up to 4-1 while Daieisho knows his place at 1-4.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Kakuryu and M2 Asanoyama hooked up in migi-yotsu and looked to go chest to chest and battle for the outer grip, but all of a sudden Kakuryu just turned his right hip in the direction of Asanoyama's left hand, and so Asa easily grabbed the left outer grip. Having given Asanoyama the advantage, Kakuryu just backed up to the edge of the dohyo kinda sorta threatening an inside belt throw with the right, but never pulling the trigger. Instead, he allowed Asanoyama to just easily force him across the entire ring and out yori-kiri style. Just like that, Kakuryu saddles himself with his first loss falling to 4-1 while Asanoyama "scores" his first ever kin-boshi as he moves to 3-2 with the gift.

As NHK showed the replays of this one, Mainoumi pointed out just how scary Asanoyama is when he gets the right arm inside. He is?  When did I miss that?  They also pointed out that this was Asanoyama's 100th career victory in the division, and this is the first time I've heard that Asanoyama is a terror when he gets the right arm inside.  Whatever.  I do know that Asanoyama can be pretty damn good when his opponent turns his hips into an outer grip and then shows no resistance as he's being driven out from the other side of the dohyo, but a terror with the right inside?  We'll certainly have to watch for that moving forward.

I think it's still way too early to start analyzing the yusho race, but the Sumo Association is doing all it can to keep the hometown fans interested.

We don't need the hometown fans here as Harvye takes the reins tomorrow.

Day 4 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
Using reason and a minimal smattering of experience it's interesting to muse over who are the contenders for this basho? Who will rise to the fore?

The form metre has Kakuryu as outright favourite. The sole Yokozuna remaining and reigning champ; he deserves the number one seeding, if he wasn't already. Thus, he should win the tournament at un-backable odds now that The Hak has his pivotal pinkie on ice, in a sling and undergoing treatment in a hyperbaric chamber.

I always feel let down when Hak is unavailable and no doubt do all sumo fans. His loss and withdrawal on the first day, the first bloody day of the basho are akin (for me) to the fall of Singapore in 1942. What? Hakuho is down? He is now Japanese, and they won that battle.

But that doesn't mean all is lost, and, we have to become adjusted to his diminishing relevance.

So, the basho is Kak's to lose but who are the other real contenders? Mike and Harvye's speculation is that of Takakeisho being the man to step up. The fact that he's been even considered is a blight on the current state of play, when not even the two Ozeki are thought serious candidates. Now I'll state something stupid, ill-informed and entirely with extreme prejudice. I refuse to back Takakeisho because he just looks ridiculous. From his waddling into to the arena, to his absurdly comical plonk onto his cushion that draws giggles from the commentators very time, to his sumo skills being as limited as an upturned turtle. This is the epitome of Japanese manhood, the returning hero and favoured Yokozuna in waiting?
As there is no Hakuho I am going to breeze through this report and Takakeisho will probably breeze through his opposition, regain his Ozeki rank, win the basho, and become Yokozuna in time for the January tournament and then to really ram it up Hakuho, open the Tokyo Olympic games next year and then probably marry Princess Aiko.

M17 Takagenji v M15 Azumaryu
He's a biggun is Takagenji. 6' ft 3" and 172 kgs and only 22 yrs old. One might think his future is a bright one. Trouble is, he has lost his last 13 bouts in the top division. Azumaryu, conversely is on a roll with wins from all three bouts thus far. Genji barreled in hard with a resounding OOMPH resulting from the hit. Azu withstood well initially but Genji was determined and drove forward again. Azu wasn't as determined, offering only polite resistance, Singapore-like, and so Genji has broken his drought with the oshi-dashi win.

M14 Tsurugisho v M16 Yutakayama
Tsurugisho stepped left in a rather lazy and ineffectual henka attempt which didn't faze Yutaka who dominated with a few nice shoves which served to have Gisho on the retreat. Tsurugisho then attempted to rectify this and stumbled forward with the grace of an inebriated uncle seeking a hug but Yutaka was in no mood for affection, stepped back and watched Gisho crumple to the dirt. Ugly stuff. Win number three for Yutakayama.

M13 Kagayaki v M16 Tochiohzan
Tochiohzan won here through sheer persistence and sticking to his plan. First off, don't get caught staring at Kaga's titties wondering why they remind you of Homer Simpson's eyes. Second, deny Kaga the inside position, keep him upright and stay low and close to him. Kaga couldn't come to terms with this. Tochi wouldn't let him in, frustrating him, then he hit the drive button and from there you could almost see the energy visibly leave Kaga and all that was left was for Tochi to inflict the finishing shoves for a smartly executed oshi-dashi win.

M15 Ishiura v M13 Nishikigi
Amazingly, Ishiura won the bout by driving low and hard, which is always a good tactic, but since when does he do this to a guy with a 70kg weight advantage? Yes, I understand Ishi is a strong fella; his trap muscles being testament to time well spent in the gym, it was just unexpected and good on him. In hindsight and checking the stats I shouldn't be surprised as Ishi now has an 8-6 win record vs Nishi. Ishiura sits comfortably at 3-1 though I can't see him rising with any permanence on the banzuke. At his size it's a huge effort to continually be confronted by monsters but I like to watch him so hoping he'll collect 8 wins this basho and further delight with his wiles.

M14 Toyonoshima v M12 Daishoho
Another hefty wallop as the two came together with Toyo in good position his arms underneath Daishoho's armpits and in good position to keep driving forward but in realization that was too much effort, instead he reversed out, grabbed an arm lock then pulled Daishoho to the floor. Toyo is now on the scorecard whilst his opponent is yet to break his duck.

M12 Shohozan v M11 Enho
Enho, sweet Enho, is a porcelain sumo doll. His picture profile has his face seemingly enhanced with white makeup, defined eyebrows and lips, almost geisha-like. Yesterday he channeled his inner Tamawashi in brutally evicting Kotoyuki from the dohyo and today he takes on the foreboding, foul Fukuokan, Shohozan who looks as though he'd happily take to Enho's demure and delicate features with steel-capped boots. If he could keep the crotch-biter away from his nethers, that is. He succeeded at first with hard parries and shoves to Enho's head and shoulders, but like a determined puppy on the teat and with considerable ring-savvy, Enho burrowed under Shohozan's arms and settled in an awkward position bent forward with Shohozan dominant above him. I know he likes it down there but to me this act is as risky a move as an Australian attempting to tickle a sting ray. The only thing keeping Enho in the fight was his right hand grip on Sho's mawashi, from which it looked Sho wasn't sure how to proceed. If this was a cage fight, a choke hold would have easily seen him off, (has this been mentioned before?) so I assume that is illegal in sumo. What he did was lean over and grab the back of Enho's belt and squish him to the clay, but Enho must be good on the deep power squats, as with his bum centimetres from the floor, he resisted the downward pressure with wonderful strength and flexibility, refusing to be crushed and then managed to bounce back up, though with Shohozan still in dominant position. The effort was too much for Enho, as Shohozan re-gathered and hefted him face down, splat to the clay. Not quite a head kicking but a satisfactory outcome for Shohozan. One day, and I hope that day never comes, Enho will try this head down ploy to a bigger guy than Shohozan and suffer serious harm. Sure, he may be braver than a lunatic, but whether it's acres, inches or kilos, size matters. Still, the most entertaining bout thus far. I hope Enho marries Princess Aiko.

M11 Onosho v M10 Meisei
The two clashed with enthusiasm but Onosho ain't good when a change of direction is required. Second clash Meisei pivoted and Onosho was immediately off kilter, frog-leaped forward and Meisei had little more to do than apply a finishing nudge. 3-1 to Meisei, the opposite for Onosho.

M10 Sadanoumi v M9 Kotoyuki
Sada was off balance and retreating from the outset as a result of Yuki's initial powerful go forward attack and try as he might to escape, Yuki put aside yesterday's embarrassing loss and collected his second victory.

M8 Okinoumi v M8 Takarafuji
A lovely classic victory with a kote-nage kimari-te straight from the textbook. If we can't have Hakuho then moves like this will do. Fuji went in hard, but Oki had a right arm lock under the shoulder, swiveled with perfect poise and weight transference and dispatched the bus driver to the floor. Oki is now 4-0 and has now won 8 from his last 9 bouts.

M9 Terutsuyoshi v M7 Kotoeko
This is an even match up. Terutsuyoshi was the aggressor for the most part with Kotoeko happy to repel and wait, withstanding attacks both high from his opponent's arms and low from attempted leg sweeps. With excellent balance and blocking skills he thwarted Terutsuyoshi's raids then decided to end the fun with a determined surge for the oshi-dashi win, his first for the basho.

M5 Chiyotairyu v M7 Kotoshogiku
Chiyo's false start was met with a disdainful "not yet" arm out from Giku. Chiyo is 2 from 15 against Giku and it seemed as though he knew his best wasn't going to cut it again today as his initial charge was no more than an open arm welcome to Giku who simply marched forward with Chiyo in his arms for the yori-kiri win. Chiyo picks his targets and I think either lacks starch when it counts or is just plain lazy.

M6 Myogiryu v M5 Ryuden
These two had a great battle of strength and will power from the tachi-ai as they drove into one another shoulder to shoulder, neither willing to concede ground. Good start. Giryu had more in the tank than Ryuden, driving forward, gaining a belt grip and dispensing his foe over the ropes, yori-kiri style.

M6 Shimanoumi v M4 Shodai
Solid simple yori-kiri win for Shodai who used superior strength and weight in what was a total mis-match. Not much else to say, sorry.

M3 Daieisho v M4 Tamawashi
It seems that if Tama's initial blows don't have the desired effect in obliterating his opponent, then he's less likely follow up with extra repeat efforts. Daieisho took the first hit, a charging head-butt, then a slap, but had no intention of retreating or being intimidated. He ground forward with his own headfirst assault which set Tama on his heels, then followed up with a few more shoves and out went the big Mongol and Daieisho picks up his first win.

M2 Asanoyama v K Endo
I agree with Mike about Endo. From a year ago when he routinely ended up in the front row seats, to one and all's amusement, he now knows his game and backs his technique and rarely backs down. You won't see him flapping his arms and attempting head pulls. His MO is to go low for the belt, keep low and balanced and this has served him such he's handling himself at Komusubi rank.

Asa was all over Endo from the start. Asa is bigger and probably stronger than Endo and despite not gaining a belt hold he drove Endo back to what was looking like a regulation force out. With his heels on the ropes and his back bent backwards he somehow managed to twist around and in turn have Asa now bent backwards for a miracle yori-kiri victory. Superb resilience and ring presence from Endo.

S Mitakeumi v M1 Aoiyama
Aoiyama has no desire to mess with the better rikishi in the upper ranks as witnessed by his sappingly inept start to this basho. Yet again he offered himself to an opponent who was intent on going forward and accepted another defeat, oshi-dashi.

M3 Tomokaze v S Takakeisho
We've seen Takakeisho win like this before. Quick, surprisingly quick out from the blocks, ram, bash, one, two, three blasts and its all over now baby blue. At this rate his return to Ozeki is a cert.

M1 Hokutofuji v O Goeido
Goeido must have been paying attention to Takakeisho, perhaps thinking to himself, "hmmm, I should try that."  He launched with speed and power and completely over-whelmed Hokutofuji, the bout ending in about 2 seconds. Simplicity at it's best on display here.

O Tochinoshin v K Abi
Abi was high with outstretched arms as usual but Shin easily shrugged them aside, pivoted right then slapped/forced Abi over the ropes. Trouble was, Shin had a handful of Abi's top knot in the process and thus Shin's win was reversed, and Abi gained a win via disqualification. The hair pull had no real effect on the outcome and was clearly unintentional, them's the rules. Shin didn't cheat, but it was a foul. Despite the setback. I'm confident he can reach his 8 wins. The banzuke needs him at his best.

Y Kakuryu v M2 Ichinojo
If Ichi has any intentions of making a claim for this basho then he needs to start now. Kak has been known to show a benevolent side and today might be the time to gift his young countryman. But it wasn't to be this time. Ichi came out with more enthusiasm than of late, perhaps throwing off his invisible cloak of lethargy and a real tussle appeared imminent. However, this initial liveliness unraveled like my aunty's jumper (sweater). Kak wasn't in generous mode. He fought his way on to Ichi's belt with a strong right hand, readied himself and with one great heave and pull he wrenched the big guy forward then off his feet in a sumptuous move and we all witnessed the rare sight of seeing Ichi covered in dirt. Kak is on his happy path to another yusho, though plenty of time for the winds to change.

Tomorrow Mike, someone who does know his sumo, will offer more culture rather than my agricultural postings.

Day 3 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Okay, who is the best wrestler remaining in the tournament? Easy, it is Kakuryu. But you heard it here first: Kakuryu will *not* win this tournament. While I was a bit startled by Hakuho's withdrawal with an inconsequential/fake injury--and once again, like with his toe, the description of the injury was calibrated to carry an insult--perhaps more startling was when I cast about for a plausible alternate tournament winner and had trouble finding one. This is a sign of the flux in the sport (and flux used to mean something different, too). Who then? Hakuho and Takayasu out. Goeido old and boring and not very good. Tochinoshin washed up, and like him Tamawashi already got his and won't get another. Asanoyama was a fluke; he could win again, but not right now methinks. Mitakeumi would be a great pick, but he already has a loss and has looked lost for a year or so. And...and...that was it. Take a look at the banzuke: can you find another candidate?

So I will go ahead and predict the one plausible guy I didn't mention in Paragraph 1: Takakeisho. As Mike said on Day 1, he is the most marketable thing going. He's decently good too. The Association needs not so much a native Japanese star (although that would be great--for now they will make do with The Enho Circus), but someone holding down a rank that carries gravitas. That person does not currently exist, and hence must be built: Goeido is too old and skid-marked to be plausible, and Takayasu combines the charisma of leftover clay with the fighting spirit of a swamp toad. Not them then, so, who? Takakeisho. One possible danger with the Takakeisho narrative would be if he is still hurt. Luckily for the Association, they have proven in the recent past that injuries need be but a trifling impediment to storytelling. If they want him to have it, he can get it.

But wait, why not Kakuryu, you ask? He just won. Yes, to me it is that simple. In a sport controlled by its own system of deception, there is neither need nor appetite for two yusho in a row by the Invisible Yokozuna. He did it last year, but I don't think anyone wants him to do it again.

M17 Takagenji (0-2) vs. M16 Tochiohzan (0-2)
If two guys were fighting in an alley, and one was pushing on the other guy's chest, and the other was hitting his dude in the face, who would you expect to win? The hitter, of course; not the pusher. Here, Tochiohzan was a'pushin', and Takagenji was a'hittin'. Problem for Takagenji was that in sumo you can't do that closed-fisted hitting thing. So he wasn't really hitting, he was slapping. And eventually pulling. Meanwhile, old, old Tochiohzan kept his shoves focused tight inside. Pound that mochi. Eventually Tochiohzan pushed Takagenji out the end of the alley, oshi-dashi. It was kinda fun; I'll take it.

M16 Yutakayama (2-0) vs. M15 Azumaryu (2-0)
Battle of the returnees. It has been so long since their debuts that the kitchen smells like burnt toast. But I'll still eat it. Yutakayama went for the neck. Azumaryu stood there looking at Yutakayama, arms limp. Now, I fully expected this to lead to a mukiryoku loss for Azumaryu, but the opposite happened: a mukiryoku loss for Yutakayama. Eventually Azumaryu draped those limp limbs on top of Yutakayama and pulled desultorily at him. Lo! This got Yutakayama so off balance and stumbling that he went out, okuri-dashi, though he had to walk the last little bit himself. Jappy to do it. When we have this kind of crap even at this level, well...next!

M15 Ishiura (1-1) vs. M14 Toyonoshima (0-2)
The small, lithe, and young against the round, stiff, and old. Li'l Ishiura absorbed fat Toyonoshima's charge, then stepped neatly to the side, and Toyonoshima dropped heavily to the floor like a sauce-laden meatball falling off your favorite ladle. Plop; tsuki-otoshi win for the little fellow. Toyonoshima was an old favorite of mine, but now he is just old; watching him offers no value, and you want to tell him "it's okay, you can go ahead and retire now."

M14 Tsurugisho (1-1) vs. M13 Nishikigi (2-0)
There is a big, breathtakingly dangerous, wickedly beautiful mountain in the Japan Alps named Tsurugi-dake, and that makes me kind of like Tsurugisho. Beyond that he is a large lump. Not Tsurugi-like at all. Yes, let us run the rookie-o-tron on him: this debut rookie is very heavy (175 kg), not particularly tall (184 cm), and, most important, very old (28). I predict a big zero out of him. It isn't even very close. Sorry about that, buddy; enjoy your cup of coffee in the big leagues. He swiped hard and demonstratively at the the clay with his fist ("here we go!"), whapped hard into Nishikigi with a pile-driver of a tachi-ai, held hard for a moment, then slapped Nishikigi hard to the dirt, hataki-komi. Yeah, he looked good here. Hard. But it was just one day.

M13 Kagayaki (1-1) vs. M12 Daishoho (0-2)
Let's try Gary's theory out: would Kagayaki just put his head down and walk forward? No. He let his arms hang there a bit, Daishoho grabbed them, and Kagayaki backed up and Daishoho put his palms on the dirt, hiki-otoshi. The announcers might say something like, "Daishoho was too low," or, "Kagayaki was smart to back up quickly like that." But I say "let's move on to the next match and forget this execrable pile of non-competitive shullbit as quickly as possible."

M11 Onosho (0-2) vs. M12 Shohozan (1-1)
Onosho showed so much promise at one point; it is sad to see him turning into a flailing joke. I notice the bright new red mawashi--sign of desperation? Fortunately for him Shohozan jumped up too high and Onosho in the ear with his hand; Onosho hit back in in the shoulder with his chest. There's more power in that. Remaining low and large, Onosho scored a very easy oshi-dashi win.

M11 Enho (2-0) vs. M9 Kotoyuki (1-1)
Cute vs. Ugly. Aw, Kotoyuki ain't ugly! Just in spirit, maybe. I should be nicer to him though, he has been better lately--no huffing or hooting, and being not very good has burnished off the sheen of pridefulness. Meanwhile that Enho is awfully cute...have they made a plush toy of him yet? This was typical Enho stuff: ducking in low and pushing at the belt/crotch area. Very kinetic, lots of motion here and there on the dohyo. Kotoyuki tried to push him the face when that face was present and up, and tried the novel idea of pushing that face into the dirt when it was down in his nethers. I'd like to see that just once: a guy losing my having his mug pressed into the dirt because he leaned over too low. Anyhoo, one of the up-face shoves almost worked; the only reason Enho didn't go out was that he grabbed Kotoyuki's arm and used it to halt himself from falling out. Poor Kotoyuki; bad luck there. Enho then eventually had a moment where he not only got in under low but also grabbed the belt down there, and that gave him enough control that he was able to finish off with a wild yori-kiri win.

As I said in the intro, Enho is already a bona fide star. There was a ripple of excitement from the announcers and the audience when he appeared. Expect lots more like today. That's not a bad thing.

M9 Terutsuyoshi (1-1) vs. M10 Meisei (1-10)
Why isn't Terutsuyoshi a star in the way Enho is? He isn't as cute, and his sumo is not dramatic. Some people have it, some people don't. Call him Enho Light. Enho Light tried a frontal force out powered by a torpedo-head to the chest. However, even against Meisei, Enho Light didn't have enough power to make this work. I was startled to realize it was Meisei in fact--Meisei himself is a little guy, but Terutsuyoshi made him look so huge I didn't recognize him at first. Meisei stopped Enho Light's charge flat and drove him to the edge. From there Light could do nothing but resort to pulls; however, Meisei stuck with it, got Light turned half around and off balance, and pushed him out, okuri-dashi. Terutsuyoshi's gonna have to take some lessons with the real Enho.

M10 Sadanoumi (1-1) vs. M8 Takarafuji (1-1)
Battle of the old and drab. This one was a two step. Step one was quick forward advancement off the tachi-ai by Takarafuji, but too high and too outside, so step two was Sadanoumi driving him all the way back out. But! Oops, Sadanoumi was crashing to the dirt on that force out, while Takarafuji smartly kept one leg high as his body went out. His other foot was still hanging on inside the straw; turns out Takarafuji was the actual winner, hataki-komi. Sometimes the actual winner is not easily visible until the replay; I had no idea Takarafuji had actually won. Credit to the gyoji for spotting it correctly, but this doesn't make for a thrilling match.

M8 Okinoumi (2-0) vs. M7 Kotoeko (0-2)
Okinoumi--this guy can be a pleasure to watch. Has the big body needed to be really good, and the veteran experienced to get 'er done. He never has put it all together across time, but sometimes he looks pretty dominant. He spent most of the match pushing Kotoeko around with an extended left arm. However, this was pretty much a long feint; the real match turned out to be about the right hand. When the timing was right and Kotoeko wasn't paying any attention on that side, lo!, Okinoumi's right hand was on Kotoeko's belt and tipping him abruptly and emphatically to the deadzone, uwate-nage. Hell, if talented long-time faithful role-players like Tochinoshin or Tamawashi can get their yusho, let's get one to Okinoumi. He's 3-0…

M7 Kotoshogiku (0-2) vs. M6 Myogiryu (2-0)
These two bumped chests together and this looked pretty good for Myogiryu for a few moments; he had a grip on the front of the belt and was controlling the pace and direction. However, when he failed on his attempt to pivot and pull Kotoshogiku out with this grip (he should have been moving forward instead), Kotoshogiku turned on him and smothered him, reaching over to the back of Myogiryu's belt and thundering him out, yori-kiri.

M6 Shimanoumi (1-1) vs. M5 Ryuden (1-1)
Shimanoumi is one of those boring looking guys who slowly and steadily climbs the banzuke with solid sumo. Unfortunately for him, Sumotalk fave Ryuden also is nothing but solid sumo. This pair spent most of the bout nestled against each other and working hard on the belt; Ryuden eventually controlled it with a grip on the front that he used to push Shimanoumi out, yori-kiri. I think Ryuden was simply longer, stronger, and younger. This was a pretty good match.

M5 Chiyotairyu (0-2) vs. M4 Shodai (1-1)
For the first time this tournament, we got The Cannonball: Chiyotairyu unleashed his girth and power at the tachi-ai and dropped his round body forward like a crashing wrecking ball while blasting up with his arms once separation was created. It did not instantly destroy Shodai, as often happens when Chiyotairyu does this, but give Chiyotairyu extra credit for following through: he kept thrusting, moving forward, and keeping Shodai in front of him, and blasted him out in the end anyway, oshi-dashi. If you're a Chiyotairyu fan, this is what you came for.

M4 Tamawashi (2-0) vs. M3 Tomokaze (1-1)
Tomokaze has never had a losing record in a tournament. He is 24 years old, and has climbed all the way to M3. If you haven't been paying attention to this, now would be a good time to start. While he does not exude charisma or excitement, his relatively smooth form and this consistent success make him a rikishi to watch. He picked up another win, albeit more or less by mistake. Tamawashi had him by the neck and was driving him mercilessly back, but Tomokaze managed to evade out of there and Tamawashi stumbled to his doom, hataki-komi.

K Abi (1-1) vs. M3 Daieisho (0-2)
I don't really like Firehose's (Abi's) style--way too uncontrolled--but I understand why people do. He whipped his arms through the air so fast here for some facial hits on Daieisho that he could have threshed the grain in a Kansas field. However, he also almost immediately turned it into a pull, and we had another match where the winner was flying out of the ring as his opponent fell down. So, Abi looked wild and a bit silly as usual, but picked up another of the kinds of wins that come with this territory, hataki-komi.

M2 Asanoyama (2-0) vs. S Takakeisho (2-0)
And here they were, the two most recent Japanese tournament winners, both young; the crowd was quite excited about this, and I admit I perked up too. Whatever you think of the legitimacy of it--and I will tell you both guys are high quality--with them coming in at 2-0 each, this did qualify as a big match. Unfortunately, it was crap when the bell rang, a dumb, simple one: they bumped into each other, then Takakeisho moved back and to the side a little, fluttered his hands up and down, and Asanoyama dove to the dirt in the space he had vacated, hataki-komi. March of the New Lord; but we wish his kingdom were more prosperous and powerful.

S Mitakeumi (1-1) vs. M2 Ichinojo (1-1)
So we're having another "hi, I'll be an also-ran" tournament from Ichinojo. Too bad. He did a little standing, a little pulling, and backed up while Mitakeumi beat him up around the belly parts with hands, shoulders, and head: biff, pow, bang. Within a few seconds Mitakeumi pushed Ichinojo out, yori-kiri. I have nothing else to say about that.

O Tochinoshin (0-2) vs. M1 Hokutofuji (1-1)
Unfortunately it is a pretty sad spectacle with the lamed Tochinoshin these days. Most days it looks like he just can't dig in with that right leg. There is no way he gets eight wins; the question for me is if he retires this year, or hangs around Kotoshogiku-style for a few more. My hope is for the latter. Hokutofuji has always been a guy with a ton of false starts; there were two here. On the second, Tochinoshin whapped into him pretty hard: BLAM! Nice free shot revenge. I don't think Tochinoshin regretted it: get some frustration out, and let Hokutofuji know, "hey, let's get it together--enough with the dicking around on the false starts." Anyhoo, the fun didn't end there. This was a back-and-forth chest battle. At the beginning Hokutofuji had his head down on Tochinoshin's sternum, and Tochinoshin scrambled about on Hoku's upper body with his arms--looked bad for Tochinoshin. However, Hokutofuji failed to push Tochinoshin out, and they went onto the belt with: advantage Tochinoshin. From here Tochinoshin did what he has been so good at the last few years: slowly and inexorably forced the other guy back. It didn't come easy. Working with manful right inside and left outside grips, he took Hokutofuji to a square position against the tawara, then continued to push. No evasion, no throw: just steady forward pressure, with mano-a-mano tense resistance from Hokutofuji. It resulted in one of my favorite kimari-te: yori-taoshi, where the loser falls over backwards. Tochinoshin tumbled over right on top of him. Righteous destruction at the end; Tochinoshin looked pretty happy with his win.

K Endo (1-1) vs. O Goeido (2-0)
The crowd got fairly excited for this one. Sigh. I felt kind of sorry for them. Well, you pay for some sumo, you should enjoy it, and this is what was on offer. And lo! It was a good one, too. Goeido got an early, long outside left grip and used it to spin Endo around right away and nearly out. Bit not quite: Endo has always had good technique, and he resisted successfully. He was alreadya countering with a right inside grip, and after this he kept tightening it and tightening it; eventually Goeido had to let go, and tried a maki-kae to get something else to hold on to. No dice. Endo was all over inside him, driving him back, and forced him bodily out yori-kiri. Endo is interesting because it has been years since his hype receded, yet he has steadily, slowly improved, and it is still possible to on days like today to muse that there might be something more there one of these days.

Y Kakuryu (2-0) vs. M1 Aoiyama (0-2)
Mismatch. Against Kakuryu, Aoiyama looks like a lumbering, hapless fool, and against Aoiyama, Kakuryu almost never has a political reason to lose. So you can put a match like this in the bank for the Yokozuna; I felt kind of sorry for Aoiyama. I knew it without looking--you can just feel it--but when I went back and checked, sure enough, their history coming in was 19 wins for Kakuryu, 1 for Aoiyama. The only surprise in the match was that Aoiyama looked like he lost on purpose. Who knows, maybe he did. This is sumo, after all. There was a bit of flailing tsuppari arm action on both sides, then Aoiyama leaned his head forward and fell down, hataki-komi. I suppose you could say Kakuryu had moved to the side a tiny bit, and/or that he hit Aoiyama on the back a little to give him added groundward momentum, but there really was no reason for Aoiyama to fall so heavily. Either he was psyched out--possible--or for whatever reason that is the way some people wanted this to go down. For whatever reason. That could be sumo's new motto: for whatever reason.

Tomorrow Justin brings reason to the fore.

Day 2 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all, before we get to the best of the best in the elite division, a quick shout out to the two mountainous Europeans clashing in Juryo today. Kaisei has fallen all the way to J8 for the Aki basho and former Jun-Yusho man Gagamaru has been toiling away in the second division for the best part of three years. Clearly mass is not the most important attribute in sumo.

I would offer that perhaps injuries are the defining aspect of a sumo career. Not IF a rikishi gets injured of course, they all will at some point, but which body-part and what level of severity. With that in mind, the career of hotshot poster-boy Takakeisho does not look good for longevity. Regardless of his aim to make ten wins this basho, he is unlikely to be able to carry Japanese sumo on his back for long. Those knees are going to buckle.

The bout itself was a disappointment, a 900lb (400kg) clash of bellies and Gaga rumbled forward. Kaisei yielded and was backed out in just a few high pressured heartbeats, disappointing. This bout should prepare us for the type of basho we are in for. Let's begin.

Yutakayama (M16) 1-0 vs Takagenji (M17) 0-1
Whilst his young opponent was surprisingly difficult to get rid of, the more experienced Yutakayama went through the gears until the yori-kiri win was in the bag. All offense from him, nothing but defense from the baby-faced assassin.

Daiamami (J1) 0-1 vs Tochiohzan (M16) 0-1
Hey everybody, it's Daiamami!

Fading before our eyes, Tochiohzan just didn't have the forward pressure to get the 420lb (190kg) mound moving. Eventually the old veteran took a pause in his efforts to get rid of the big lump. That's when the big lump grabbed an outer right and bellied him out, yori-kiri. M16 and a 2 loss start for Tochi, that's not a good sign.

Tsurugisho (M14) 1-0 vs Ishiura (M15) 0-1
Harvye can run this rookie through his computational ticker-tape rookie-o-tron tomorrow, but he's a decent size. Last basho I called him filler. Today he has the chance to prove me wrong as he takes on little meaty. He should be all fired up to take full advantage of the greatest opportunity of his sumo career.

Oh, he's lost. Ishiura got out of the way and swung him around for an embarrassing okuri-dashi win. Little meaty scored bonus points as he managed to flatten a ringside “Japanese” yusho winner with his fleshy bowling ball.

Azumaryu (M15) 1-0 vs Toyonoshima (M14) 0-1
Yesterday our returning boy with the fifty year-old face grabbed a strong hold of his much shorter opponent's mawashi from in close and used it to oh-so-easily send him to the clay. And now for today's report.

Ditto.

Toyonoshima sure rolls well. Has he been practicing with Kakuryu? It's almost as though he lined himself up for it. The trick, Potter, is you have to let go of the mawashi BEFORE the throw is in full effect. Now that's a skill.

Shohozan (M12) 1-0 vs Kagayaki (M13) 0-1
Kagayaki is either a sumo genius or a bit stupid. He has refined his sumo to the most simplistic aspect of the ancient cultural sporting activity. He just puts his head down and walks forward. That's it. He's like a great artist who distills all his creativity and skills into drawing a circle. And today it worked, yori-kiri. Tomorrow, who knows?

Nishikigi (M13) 1-0 vs Daishoho (M12) 0-1
These two are about the same size but Daishoho blasted out of the tachi-ai and drove Nishikigi around the ring. And then stalled as soon as Nishi put a right arm inside. And there they stood, matching book-ends leaning on each other.

The crowd was reverentially silent as they thrilled to the moving spectacle of continuous inaction. All except a small child at the back of the arena loudly crunching a dried fish snack. An old man threw peanuts to encourage them to do something, the same method he uses at the zoo, aim for the eyes. After a while the yobi-dashi whispered into Nishikigi's ear “he's not that good you know”. And Nishi just walked him straight out, yori-kiri.

Sadanoumi (M10) 0-1 vs Onosho (M11) 0-1
In with the head and Onosho threw himself at Sad-man, driving to the edge. All without a grip or much control over his opponent. Sadanoumi escaped to the side and dived straight back at Onosho, hooking a leg as his foe went out. That's how you do it youngster. It was called a watashi-komi, which translated means thigh-molesting forcing-upon. Approximately.

Enho (M11) 1-0 vs Meisei (M10) 1-0
The bouts start here. Enho has entered the dohyo. The crowd was all waiting for the move. His potent inside leg. Mainoumi, the most respected and listened to voice in all of sumo (after Mike Wesemann of course) had told Enho to put that leg in between the opponents legs. He told the fans, he told the entire sumo world. Enho must have listened because yesterday he did just that. He used his potent inside leg and won with it. Joyous.

Meisei must have had his headphones on for the last month because he seemed unaware of the terrible fate in store for him. In went the potent leg, and over went Meisei. Crashing to the floor below. Spectacular. The cherub is good for ticket sales and what's good for ticket sales is good for sumo.

Okinoumi (M8) 1-0 vs Terutsuyoshi (M9) 1-0
A bout that acts as an antidote to Enho's previous “winning because he's small” nonsense. Okinoumi, that's the 6 foot 3 (191cm) Okinoumi, absorbed Terutsuyoshi's little guy power and tied him up with a hand under the shoulder, just waiting to be unleashed. Tiny Terutsuyoshi twisted his body trying to stand his ground, because you know, little guy power!

As soon as Terutsuyoshi squared up his shoulders with big dude he was flung back and out onto his little cheeks. Just to emphasize how ridiculously easy it was for him, Okinoumi stood still and posed with his arm up in the air like he had just thrown a basketball one handed. Just as Terutsuyoshi tumbled upside down off the dohyo with his ass in the air. Tsuki-taoshi which today translates as a dose of reality.

Kotoyuki (M9) 0-1 vs Takarafuji (M8) 1-0
Takarafuji is always there to be hit right on the numbers. He's a bit slow and he never angles his body. Kotoyuki said thanks and oshi-dashi'ed him straight out. Just once I'd like to see Takarafuji get his hands up high and slap someone in the face instead of taking the abuse every time.

Shimanoumi (M6) 0-1 vs Kotoshogiku (M7) 0-1
The old former Ozeki charged out super low and tried his very best to dislodge Shimanoumi. Nope. Shimanoumi barely had any grip but he used his hip and legs to bully the old blue blaster back and out in double quick time. A very one sided yori-kiri win.

Kotoeko (M7) 0-1 vs Myogiryu (M6) 1-0
This should happen to Kotoeko more often. The bigger man came straight at him. Charging behind some thrusts, he knocked little Kotoeko back and out with zero argument. A simple but effective oshi-dashi.

Tamawashi (M4) 1-0 vs Chiyotairyu (M5) 0-1
Well, the big Mongolian guy did what he needed to. He came in low enough, leading with his head and pushed. It's a shame the big Japanese guy didn't do a single thing. Unless you count standing up and getting knocked backwards as a sumo thing. Kaisei does.

Ryuden (M5) 1-0 vs Shodai (M4) 0-1
Both men fell heavily to the floor at the end of this one. A decent, tactical game of grapple and maneuver led to Shodai rotating at the edge with a strong inner grip to spill his foe over. Ryuden also had a good hold of Shodai and held on with a death grip as he fell, pulling Shodai crashing down after him. It seemed like Shodai got the win but the worst of the fall. This unsafe work environment is why Ichinojo yields at the edge. I'm happy to report the magical power water was taken to safety as the humans impacted the concrete.

Tomokaze (M3) 1-0 vs Endo (K) 0-1
The most handsome Endo didn't show much fear of the 400lb Tomokaze. Standing right in front of the big youngster, Endo parried the thrusts coming his way and shoved back. It only took him two, maybe three seconds to work his way inside and get Tomokaze (the name means windy gas from tomatoes) moving back and out for the smooth oshi-dashi win.

Mitakeumi (S) 0-1 vs Daieisho (M3) 0-1
There's a lot to like in Daieisho. Not to actually win anything, but he is a genki go-get-'em kinda guy most of the time. Win or lose he brings his best to the opponent and he very nearly beat Mitakeumi in a lively thrusting game that covered the whole dohyo with frenetic movement.

Daieisho made two mini-comebacks that would have ended the day for the majority of salary-men toiling in sumo. With a bit too much momentum near the tawara he put his head down to push and Mitakeumi pounced, tsuki-otoshi, grateful it was over. Daieisho lets you know you're in a contest.

Aoiyama (M1) 0-1 vs Takakeisho (S) 1-0
When they met last time Aoiyama effortlessly swatted away the oh-so-brave Takakeisho. He ended a dream of the heroic comeback from injury and cast the new Ozeki down to the perilous situation of ten or die.

This was Aoiyama's apology. He stood up and moved backwards. It doesn't matter what his arms were doing, his massive legs instantly went backwards and kept going in that direction around the outside of the dohyo until the chubby tadpole caught up with him and bodied him out, oshi-dashi. That's two, only eight more to go.

Ichinojo (M2) 1-0 vs Goeido (O) 1-0
There's two ways to watch this bout, depending on whether your mawashi is half full or half empty. If you're particularity well endowed, and you squint sideways, you get to see Goeido being at his all-time awesome best. In fast, in hard and powering to the winning line, yori-kiri.

If you pack a shriveled, half empty silk wrapping, you will see Ichi being his usual fat lazy lump self who can be distracted with a large cookie with a smiley face on it. This is Sumotalk not the official Nihon Sumo Kyokai website, so Goeido is still Goeido. The luckiest Sekiwake in decades. That's two wins, only six more to go. Please allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your rank saving kachi-koshi Goeido San.

Tochinoshin (O) 0-1 vs Asanoyama (M2) 1-0
Sporting the latest fashion of wearing lunar landing insulation around his destroyed knee, Tochinoshin tried to use his inner grip to wrench Asanoyama up and over. But the wide hipped one stayed earth bound and simply drove forward for a yori-kiri win. At least they don't have to overturn the judges decision with this one. Tochinoshin has entered the end of days and will be gone before Hakuho. Or even Toyonoshima if he's not careful.

Kakuryu (Y) 1-0 vs Hokutofuji (M1) 1-0
And just like that, Kakuryu restores pride to the rank of Yokozuna. How much would the idle masses chatter about a new era if the M1 guy had smashed both Yokos? It didn't take too much out of Kakuryu, just his patent pending step-in-close, pressure and deflect game. Officially hataki-komi but the correct translation here was cat with a mouse. The Yokozuna tussles with Aoiyama tomorrow. Cat with a moose anyone?

Abi (K) 0-1 vs Hakuho (Y) 0-1
No bout to see here. The great one has departed the basho with a broken finger on his right hand. His stable master, Miyagino The Magnificent, has said it was first injured against Shodai on day 8 of the last basho. Tickets purchased with the expectation of seeing a 42 yusho winning Dai-Yokozuna live and in the flesh were not automatically refunded.

Day 3 sees the welcome return of Harvye.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Several news stories popped up prior to the Aki basho including the announcement that Hakuho has obtained Japanese citizenship; Yoshikaze's announcement that he is retiring; and Takayasu's announcement that he is going kyujo due to a dinged up left elbow. Perhaps Hakuho's announcement is worth more than just a passing glance, but those kinds of stories aren't going to fuel interest in the here and now, and so Takakeisho's return from injury has dominated the headlines leading into Aki.

Regarding the minor headlines, it was no surprise to anyone that Hakuho finally obtained Japanese citizenship. Unlike Asashoryu, Hakuho married a local gal, and he's got three children with his wife who are all Japanese citizens, so it makes the most sense for him to grab some citizenship himself. The first reaction is that Hakuho is going to remain with the Association after retirement as an oyakata, but I don't think that's a lock. Previous foreigners turned Japanese that have opened stables have only received shat jobs in the organization, and what one really needs to rise up the oyakata hierarchy is the Japanese blood, not a silly piece of legal paper.

It may be that Hakuho does open a stable after retirement from his day job as an actor, especially since he'd be able to use his dai-Yokozuna status to open a stable not named after a share of oyakata stock, but we shall see. I mean, on one hand he can open a stable and hire someone to run it so all he'd need to do is just show up to his oyakata job, but I'm not so convinced that's what he wants to do here. A stable is a huge money-sucker, and who knows whether he wants to put up with the politics within the Association. Can you picture Hakuho sitting on a cheap folding chair pulling guard duty the basho after retirement? I say don't do it.

As for Yoshikaze, I really have no comment on his retirement, so let's move to Takayasu. His kyujo announcement this basho is a non-story to me because while all four Ozeki (counting Takakeisho) withdrew from the tourney in July, Takayasu had already been gifted kachi-koshi, so he can sit this one out and still have his name painted with the fat Ozeki brush for the Kyushu banzuke.

Because Takayasu does not need eight wins this basho, it frees up a few more wins for Goeido and Takakeisho. Goeido is kadoban and needs his eight while Takakeisho needs 10 to be restored to Ozeki, so it's a good thing they don't need to fish for Takayasu's eight as well. I don't see how Takakeisho isn't restored to Ozeki, and I wouldn't even be surprised to see him start 10-0. The bad news for Takakeisho at this level of the banzuke is he can maybe win two or three on his own. The good news is that without Takayasu around to grub for wins, there are going to be more people willing to give up one or two wins for the cause. Sumo just can't afford not have a Japanese rikishi generating positive headlines every tournament, and Takakeisho is the best they got...which is a scary statement in and of itself.

Okay, on that note let's get to the non-action because after watching the broadcast once through without taking any notes, we may just hit Itai's declared mark of 80% today.

Chiyomaru visited from Juryo today to face M17 Takagenji, and he met the youngster with a moro-te-zuki before quickly stepping left and forcing Genji forward and down easy as you please with a left arm thrusting into the back of Takagenji's right shoulder. Remember that fake start from Takagenji in Nagoya? Whoever was bank rolling that prolly needs to step in again soon or this kid's doomed.

It was nice to see M16 Yutakayama return to the division, and I'm sure he was even more excited to see an M16 Tochiohzan who wanted nothing but to set up a pull in their bout. Tochiohzan won the tachi-ai and had Yutakayama upright from the start, and Oh had the clear path to the inside half a dozen times during the fracas. He had legit moro-zashi at least twice, but as Kitanofuji said afterward, "Seme-kirenakatta," or he just couldn't attack forward. Instead, he kept backing out of sweet positions, and when he finally backed up close to the edge, Yutakayama was able to fell him with a left kote-nage. A few years ago, I pointed out that Tochiohzan no longer wanted to fight unless he had moro-zashi. And then from about a year ago, he didn't want to do anything but pull, so I'm a bit melancholy to watch the decline of one of Japan's better rikishi the last 10 years.

M15 Ishiura submitted an early entrant for ugliest tachi-ai of the basho standing straight up and just thrusting both hands downward into the thin air. That allowed M15 Azumaryu to gab the easy right outer grip, and before he really applied any pressure, Ishiura literally took a knee in the dohyo giving Azumaryu the win. They ruled it uwate-hineri, but this was the version without the hineri. What it looked like Ishiura was really trying to do was just get a look around at things with his head stuffed under his opponent's crotch.

Our lone rookie whose generating a bit of excitement (or not) is M14 Tsurugisho who was paired against washed up veteran, M14 Toyonoshima. From the tachi-ai, Tsurugisho moved left looking for a cheap pull that did nothing but allow Toyonoshima to next step right and go for a pull of his own. The problem was that Toyonoshima wasn't looking to fell his opponent with the attempt, and so he just stood there completely upright allowing Tsurugisho to advance, get the right arm inside ridiculously deep, and then force the veteran back and across with zero resistance. I'm in my second decade now of watching Toyonoshima do sumo, and I know when he's trying to win. He had so many openings to the inside or a pull, but he willingly failed to execute any of them to completion. Tsurugisho bought his first Makuuchi win. So let it be written, so let it be done.

M13 Kagayaki got the best of M13 Nishikigi at the tachi-ai using a nice moro-te-zuki to stand his foe upright, but you could just see that Kagayaki wasn't looking to take further advantage. The bout naturally went to hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Kagayaki had his right hand positioned at the left side of Nishikigi's belt for the easy outer grip, but he didn't grab it for a few seconds. Finally when it was clear that Nishikigi wasn't going to fight it off, Kagayaki grabbed the outer, but his force-out charge was light and fake, and that allowed Nishikigi to escape to his right and go for an uncontested inside belt throw with the left that of course threw Kagayaki over and down without resistance.

If you know your sumo (and I know my sumo), this was the perfect set up at the edge for a nage-no-uchi-ai where Kagayaki had the right outside grip and Nishikigi the inside left. What would have happened in a normal bout is that Kagayaki would have planted his left foot outside and used his right leg in close to Nishikigi's left as leverage to hoist him up and out, but instead of planting and hoisting, Kagayaki just hopped over to the edge on that left foot and spun down landing on his widdle bum. After a nage-no-uchi, the loser (and even the winner) gets dirt on their elbow, shoulder, or forehead. In this case, Kagayaki came away with sand on his arse while Nishikigi was standing upright. Easy yaocho call here.

M12 Daishoho used his size to completely rebuff M12 Shohozan at the tachi-ai knocking the Sith back a step, but instead of advancing and taking advantage, Daishoho chose to stand there upright and let Shohozan come back in and secure moro-zashi. Shohozan's force-out effort was weak and timid largely because he was so susceptible to a counter tsuki-otoshi or kote-nage from the larger Daishoho, but such a move would never come. Instead, after standing Daishoho up against the edge for a few seconds, Shohozan pivoted right going for a quick inside belt throw, and Daishoho just complied putting his left knee to the dirt as Shohozan spun him around.

As they watched the replay where Shohozan was given moro-zashi after completely losing the tachi-ai, Sanbe Announcer posed two questions to Kitanofuji: 1) Is it that easy to get to the inside of Daishoho? Or 2) is Shohozan that good? Kitanofuji replied, "You're correct on both counts." Uh, no. Sanbe was correct on the first question when he used the perfect word "Amai" to describe just how easy he let Shohozan get to the inside, but this victory was not earned by Shohozan.

Speaking of not earning victories, next up was M11 who stepped into the ring to face M11 Onosho. Enho henka'd to his right from the tachi-ai attempting to latch onto Onosho's flailing left arm, but he couldn't get a decent hold. Didn't matter as Onosho didn't make him pay by just squaring back up at the edge and letting Enho come back into the inside. Enho looked to have the path to moro-zashi, but he didn't want to get caught in tight, and so he backed his way up maintaining that left inside the entire way.

Now, if I told you that rikishi A got his left arm to the inside in a yotsu bout, what would you say rikishi B's natural reaction would be with his right arm? He'd try to get an outer grip first, and if he couldn't do that, he'd certainly wrap his opponent's left arm up with a kote grip (think Kotoshogiku's right arm in every bout...or Terunofuji). Onosho did neither and just lamely left that right arm dangling over the top in between an outer belt grip and a kote-nage, so when Enho went for a scoop throw at the edge, it was completely uncontested and resulted in a silly little summersault from Onosho where he just flipped over onto his back. I always bring up the nage-no-uchi-ai because it should have happened here in a normal bout, but this bout was arranged from the beginning resulting in Onosho's doing nothing to win or even counter. Typical yaocho win here for Enho.

M10 Sadanoumi and M10 Meisei engaged in a light tachi-ai where Sadanoumi did nothing to get a limb to the inside despite Meisei's being vulnerable. The bout eventually ended up in migi-yotsu, but you could tell it wasn't a chest to chest power bout, and so with Sadanoumi not pressing, Meisei was able to dance right, keep his right arm inside, and then reach over with the left over the top of Sadanoumi's shoulder to execute a kata-sukashi. Usually in sumo, you have milliseconds to set up your winning technique, but when your opponent isn't trying as was the case with Sadanoumi here, Meisei had all day to set up that winning shoulder slap.

M9 Terutsuyoshi ducked under K9 Kotoyuki's outstretched arms at the tachi-ai, and you could see from the beginning that Yuki wasn't looking to thrust. Terutsuyoshi quickly evaded to his right making Kotoyuki give chase, but Kotoyuki didn't look out for blood even when Terutsuyoshi stumbled just a bit in his retreat and was standing there off balance and vulnerable at the edge. After the two squared back up, Kotoyuki still wasn't thrusting and elected to instead just step over wide to the edge and turn around, and from that point, Terutsuyoshi just rushed in and scored the easy oshi-dashi win against the defenseless Kotoyuki. I don't normally equate Kotoyuki with textbook sumo, but there were so many obvious, intentional mistakes here giving Terutsuyoshi the bought and paid for win.

M8 Takarafuji was cautious in his charge against M7 Kotoeko presumably guarding against a henka, and when it didn't come, Takarafuji used his bulk to force the bout to migi-yotsu where Fuji grabbed the easy left outer grip. Kotoeko did what he could to counter with the right inside firing a scoop throw attempt that briefly separated Takarafuji from his outer grip, but Takarafuji used his size and technical advantage to regain it, and from there he scored the easy force-out win.

This was such a sound bout of sumo, and if you've ever visited morning keiko, you quickly notice that there's not much variety in the sumo content. If rikishi A does this, rikishi B responds with that, and it's not like they come in with these huge playbooks. Sumo is a very basic sport, especially at this level, and so it's always nice to see a soundly fought bout like this one, and it's a huge contrast to the unorthodox sumo that is compromised. Funny how I get so excited about a boring bout like this Takarafuji win.

M7 Kotoshogiku and M8 Okinoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Okinoumi used his length to grab the right outer grip, and Kotoshogiku's only hope at this point was to move laterally and try and throw his foe off balance. It wouldn't happen, however, as Okinoumi stayed snug and forced Kotoshogiku back to the West side of the dohyo. As part of his methodic yori charge, Okinoumi forced Kotoshogiku to step out where the toku-dawara meets the regular ring, and the Chief Judge, Mitoizumi, raised his hand signaling that Okinoumi had stepped out. I'm not sure if Okinoumi saw that hand and let up or if his intention was to let Kotoshogiku counter and win because the Geeku slung Okinoumi over and down, but a mono-ii confirmed that Kotoshogiku had indeed stepped first.

M6 Myogiryu threatened with the right inside at the tachi-ai against M6 Shimanoumi who focused on cutting off anything to the inside, so after some grappling, Myogiryu used that right arm to push Shimanoumi up by the throat before getting the same arm back to the inside. With Myogiryu burrowed in tighter now, Shimanoumi attempted a quick kote-nage with the left, but he just wasn't set up well enough, and Myogiryu was able to take advantage of the momentum shift and force Shimanoumi back and across with ease.

M5 Chiyotairyu came with palms forward against M5 Ryuden not really looking to bully his foe back, and so Ryuden easily forced the bout to hidari-yotsu where he looked for the right outer grip. He never did get it, and so he executed an easy maki-kae with the right against the defenseless Chiyotairyu getting moro-zashi and then retooling his right arm to the outside belt grip to drive the listless Chiyotairyu back and across. I can't say for sure if this one was rigged, but during the replay when Ryuden executed that ridiculously easy maki-kae, Kitanofuji said, "Why did he even bother doing that maki-kae?" drawing a chortle from Sanbe Announcer signaling that Chiyotairyu was at Ryuden's bidding throughout this bout.

M4 Tamawashi came with a tsuppari attack against M4 Shodai, but he wasn't using his legs and that allowed Shodai to survive. The problem was that Shodai had set nothing up of his own from the tachi-ai, and even with Tamawashi's fighting just with the upper body, he was still dominating the bout. Shodai was attempting to time a pull against Tamawashi as he thrust, but The Mawashi wasn't lunging forward, and so this bout was basically Shodai wildly dancing around the ring for eight seconds before Tamawashi finally drove him back and out okuri-dashi style.

Komusubi Abi came with a moro-te-zuki tachi-ai against M3 Tomokaze slowly but surely nudging Tomokaze back near the edge with a nice thrust attack, and Tomokaze was in full reaction mode at this point as Abi dominated the bout. Still, you could just see that Abi wasn't looking to kick his ass, and so when Tomokaze managed to get a right arm at the back of Abi's neck in pull position, Abi just played along and dipped right rolling himself off of the dohyo altogether. The kimari-te was hataki-komi, or slap down, so I'm not sure how that would result in Abi's stop, drop, and rolling his way down to the arena floor if this bout wasn't fixed. It obviously was as Tomokaze continues to buy wins in the division.

And that brings us to Sekiwake Takakeisho who was paired against M3 Daieisho in his first bout since May. I saw quite a bit of footage of Takakeisho doing pre-bout keiko, and it was ripe with yaocho, and so that's simply a harbinger of what's to come during the hon-basho.

Like Tamawashi before, Daieisho opened the bout with a tsuppari attack, but he wasn't driving his legs forward, and so that allowed Takakeisho to counter with shoves of his own that weren't really connecting, but there was enough action in the ring to make this look like a heated bout. Takakeisho's initial thrusts were coming from way up high almost as if he was slapping down, and perhaps that was signaling what came next in the form of a quick pull attempt. It not only failed miserably, but it gave Daieisho all the momentum he needed...if he had wanted it, but he just responded with more tsuppari and no lower body. This drove Takakeisho back a few steps until the Sekiwake went for a wild right tsuki at the side of Daieisho's shoulder that actually sent Takakeisho stumbling over to the edge with feet completely aligned and out wide.

He was ripe for the taking here with his right hand centimeters from the dohyo, but Daieisho just let him off the hook by doing nothing while waiting for the Sekiwake to regroup. With Takakeisho still failing to connect on a single shove, Daieisho next moved him back across to the other side of the ring, and when the next left tsuki came from the side by Takakeisho, Daieisho just dove into the missionary position at ring's edge. A clear sign of a fake fall is when the only part of the body that touches the dirt are the palms of the loser, and this was the case here as Daieisho dutifully took a dive giving Takakeisho the 1-0 start. I mean, you watch the slow-mo replay here, and Takakeisho didn't connect on anything real the entire way, but there was enough movement from both parties to make the audience believe, and that's all that matters.

Moving right along, M2 Asanoyama came with a quick right kachi-age before fishing for and getting the left frontal grip against the belt of Sekiwake Mitakeumi. When Mitakeumi couldn't shove him away from that frontal grip, he next moved left going for a counter pull, but Asanoyama kept his footing well and just escorted Mitakeumi back and across with ease. Nice, dominating win from Asanoyama here, and it was refreshing to see a real bout of sumo.

Ozeki Tochinoshin and M2 Ichinojo looked to hook up in migi-yotsu, but Shin simply refused to secure the right inside position. In the process Ichinojo latched his left hand onto an outer grip and applied a bit of pressure, and that just caused Tochinoshin to flip over onto his elbow and down in curious fashion. Tochinoshin's sumo consisted of getting nothing with the right hand while grabbing a few sagari with the left and that was it. Ichinojo's a big lug--and a better rikishi all around than Tochinoshin in my opinion, but he's not strong enough to send Tochinoshin flopping over and down like that with such simple effort from the left hand. Tochinoshin took a dive here, and it was so obvious that NHK waited awhile to finally show a replay, and then we only got one quick angle and that was that. Not sure what Tochinoshin's MO is this basho, but he intentionally dove here.

A point that NHK was sure to make when talking about Ozeki Goeido was just how well he seems to perform at the Aki basho. Well, when your opponents like M1 Aoiyama just roll over for you, how can someone not do well? Today at the tachi-ai, Aoiyama put both hands forward before quickly retreating only he conveniently forgot to pull as he back-pedaled, so in essence, he was just backing himself up to the edge and giving Goeido the bout. Goeido was quite hapless here, and the push-out wasn't cut and dried, but with Aoiyama doing most of the work, the Ozeki was able to follow along and score the oshi-dashi win in less than three seconds. What an obvious fake bout this was.

And speaking of fake bouts, the newly-crowned Japanese citizen, Yokozuna Hakuho, decided to make this basho compelling from the start. He came with his usual hari-zashi tachi-ai slapping with the left and forgetting to get the right arm inside. Instead, Hakuho pivoted to his left firing a wild roundhouse that barely--and intentionally--glanced off the top of Hokutofuji's dome. From this point, Hakuho had the right arm back to the inside, but instead of grabbing a left outer grip that was there for the taking, he brought that left arm up high and just pulled Hokutofuji into his body as the Yokozuna conveniently backed up to the edge. With Hokutofuji still having done nothing to this point, Hakuho backed slightly to his left grabbing a kote grip, but he just continued to pull Hokutofuji into his body resulting in the yori-kiri victory for Hokutofuji who was just trying to keep up with it all.

As part of the shtick, Hakuho flopped all the way off of the dohyo and then literally sat on Kyokutenho for a few seconds who was leaning to get out of the way ringside. Had that been a Japanese oyakata, there was no way Hakuho would have done that, but since it was Kyokutenho, he just sat there on his comrade with that fake look on his face of "How did that just happen?" How it happened was Hakuho's orchestrating every move because you can't point to a single thing that Hokutofuji did to set this one up. These days in sumo, however, that doesn't matter, and so the end result is Hakuho's saddling himself with a Day 1 loss just like that.

The excuse from the Hakuho camp afterwards is that the Yokozuna is suffering from a swollen pinky on his right hand.  Ya don't say?!  In fact, Miyagino-oyakata was quoted in the funny papers as saying, "He can't even use his little finger."  I mean, as soon as I hear someone with a swollen pinky, my first reaction is, "You better go kyujo!" and that's exactly what Hakuho's done.  Just like that, the Yokozuna throws a bout, withdraws, and collects his sweet paycheck for the next two months doing absolutely nothing.  A swollen pinky?  The greatest sumo wrestler of all time has withdrawn from a tournament citing the most useless digit on the human body?

After the bout, Hakuho ripped out his sagari with the right hand, and then as the cameras followed him out of the ring, up the hana-michi, and into the back halls of the arena, Hakuho never once looked at his right hand, clenched his fist, or gave a single glance at his right hand as if to indicate something was bothering him.  But hey, one media outlet reported that Hakuho is going to the hospital the morning of Day 2.  Yes, the hospital!

Before Hakuho announced his withdrawal, I actually read an article that quoted an unnamed oyakata who was speculating that Hakuho was too nervous after having just obtained Japanese citizenship.  In fact, he was quoted, "I don't think I've ever seen him so uncomfortable at the starting lines ever."  What's funnier than these lame explanations is that no one will even bothering questioning them.  They'll just take it all at face value as part of the political ruse.  I don't see how anyone could watch the Nadal - Medvedev match and then turn around and watch Day 1 of the sumos and even consider that we saw the same intensity and will to win.  All of the excuses surrounding Hakuho's withdrawal are simply as fake as the sumo.

I guess we couldn't get too ridiculous for the final bout that saw Yokozuna Kakuryu refrain from getting to the inside of Komusubi Endoh opting to shove him up high before springing the pull trap a few seconds into the bout. There's really nothing to break down here. Endoh wasn't able to do anything against the Yokozuna, and when Kakuryu is trying to win, he gets out of the way when he pulls instead of dragging his opponent square into his body. Easy victory here for Kakuryu to end a day that had enough excitement for the Japanese fans that they'll be sure to tune in for Day 2.

If you know what's good fer ya, you'll tune into Gary's Day 2 tomorrow.