Day 14 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I noticed quite a few more fans in the arena for Day 14 today. The masu-seki still looked about the same (80% full), but there were definitely more fannies in the upper deck. My guess is about 250 - 300 more fans showed up today than have been attending the tournament to this point. I think it's partly due to more people buying seats for the final weekend pre-basho and then I think there's also a bit of the Tobizaru effect. The nightly news programs can't wait to feature him (after dutifully reporting on the senpai rikishi first), and all of the female newscasters just light up when they mention Tobizaru. The dude's not a looker along the lines of say Brad Pitt or myself, but he's got some personality to him that's clicking with the female fans, and sumo can't afford not to market him.

With more fans in the stands, I didn't think the sumo overall was horrible or blatantly obvious, and so I'd say it's a win for the Sumo Association today. Due to the interest of time (or a lack of it on the weekends), I'm only going to cover the bouts that contained the yusho contenders who lined up at the start of the day as follows:

11-2: Shodai, Tobizaru
10-3: Asanoyama, Takakeisho, Wakatakakage, Onosho

Up first was M9 Onosho who attempted to budge M1 Takanosho at the tachi-ai with two hands to the chest, but Onosho literally spun his wheels in the middle of the ring unable to move his foe. If we stop the tape right there, how can a yusho contender look so hapless at the tachi-ai against an M1 rikishi? As for Takanosho, he flirted with the right arm inside, but this dude buys most of his wins too, and so he failed to take advantage of Onosho. As a result, the two pushed into each other and traded places in the ring with each attempting a weak pull, and then about five seconds in, Takanosho went for a beefier pull and managed to slap Onosho down before he stepped out of the ring himself. This was an ugly bout with an ugly ending fought between two guys who have negotiated the majority of their wins. It just shows in the sumo. With the loss, Onosho is eliminated from yusho contention at 10-4 while Takanosho moves to 9-5.

M8 Wakatakakage faced Suckiwake Mitakeumi, and these two rikishi came out of the same university, Toyo Daigaku. Mitakeumi is the senpai and Wakatakakage the kohai, but I'm not really sure if that has any effect in professional sumo. There is definitely a senpai-kohai effect within professional sumo, and I think that's what caused Wakatakakage to defer to Mitakeumi today. I've been saying the last few days that the rank and filers will eventually drop off of the leaderboard. The reason is...they are not going to allow the "kohai" to rise up and buy/take yusho over the senpai guys in rank like Takakeisho or Asanoyama. Terunofuji already had street cred last basho for his yusho, and 20 years ago when Takatoriki bought his way to the yusho from the bottom rung of the banzuke, he was already a seasoned veteran with heavy sanyaku experience.

Onosho's been around a few years now, but Wakatakakage and Tobizaru are new this year, and so they're not going to let these guys yusho due to the senpai-kohai effect within professional sumo.

Onto the bout itself, Wakatakakage shaded right at the tachi-ai, and the move completely befuddled Mitakeumi. A guy often ranked at Sekiwake and esteemed as highly as Mitakeumi is should have no problem making his opponent pay for such a tachi-ai, but Mitakeumi was lost and could only answer with a weak pull. Now compromised, Wakatakakage was able to take the bout chest to chest getting the right arm inside and grabbing a left outer grip, and form this point, Mitakeumi could not win in a straight up bout. You could just see that Wakatakakage was not pressing and he allowed Mitakeumi to move him back near the straw, and then the youngster did the unthinkable in sumo which was to withdraw his right inside position and give Mitakeumi moro-zashi right there at the edge. The Suckiwake had no momentum, however, and so he went for a weak inside belt throw with the right instead of a straight force-out, and Wakatakakage just plopped himself to the dirt. Easy yaocho call here as Wakatakakage is now eliminated at 10-4 while Mitakeumi is gifted kachi-koshi at 8-6, and there's a reason that NHK only showed one obligatory replay.

The final two bouts of the day featured the four remaining contenders, so let's just continue to go in chronological order. Up first was Asanoyama taking on Suckiwake Shodai, and the faux-zeki weakly attempted to get a right arm inside from the tachi-ai and a left outer grip, but Shodai just pinched in tight with the left while demanding his own right arm to the inside, and the force from the tachi-ai spun Asanoyama a bit sideways. That allowed Shodai to latch onto a left outer grip at the back of the belt, and with Shodai's maintaining his forward momentum from the tachi-ai, he drove forward hard with the legs and slammed Asanoyama down with some oomph oshi-taoshi style about three seconds into the bout. The scary thing is...I don't think Asanoyama was intentionally mukiryoku here. I thought he had the chance to go for a counter right scoop throw at the edge, but the thought didn't even cross is mind and whether Asanoyama was mukiryoku or not, an Ozeki should never be done in like this. Never. The result is Shodai's moving to 12-2 and eliminating all four-loss rikishi on the spot, and that includes Asanoyama who falls to 10-4.

Before we get to the final bout, let me just say that Kisenosato's ability in the booth is like unto his ability in the ring as a Yokozuna. I know they saved him for the weekend when more fans are watching, but he is just terrible blabbering on all broadcast long and managing not to say a single thing.

The day's final bout featured Takakeisho vs. M14 Tobizaru, and like the Wakatakakage - Mitakeumi bout previously, the senpai - kohai effect was in place here. And what does that say about Takakeisho who had a rookie let up for him in the ring today? Tobizaru won the tachi-ai sending Takakeisho back a step or two, but the Flying Monkey (yes, that's the name he chose for himself) wasn't going for the kill, and he allowed Takakeisho to thrust his way back to the center of the ring. From there, Tobizaru's own thrusts were pointless and what he was really doing was just ducking his head forward and asking Takakeisho to pull him down. It took about three tries and the two moving around the dohyo in a non-controlled fashion, but Takakeisho finally sorta connected on a slap causing Tobizaru to go down with a little bit of exaggeration. The result is both rikishi falling to 11-3 and Shodai taking sole possession of the lead as follows:

12-2: Shodai
11-3: Takakeisho, Tobizaru

Tobizaru gets Shodai tomorrow and then the two faux-zeki will fight in the day's final bout. I like Shodai over Tobizaru for three reasons: 1) Shodai's got more experience in the division, 2) Tobizaru is not a proven winner yet, and 3) the senpai-kohai effect. I actually think there's a chance that Tobizaru can win because Shodai's been buying his bouts as well. If Tobizaru were to shade either direction at the tachi-ai, he could defeat Shodai using his speed and a grip on the belt, but I'm quite sure Shodai is going to come out on top.

If Shodai wins, the yusho is his and the final bout of the day is meaningless. As for the two faux-zeki, Asanoyama should win that one handily.

Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The morning news heading into Day 13 was that two more Makuuchi rikishi announced their withdrawals from the basho. The most significant of the two was Terunofuji who was scheduled to fight Wakatakakage in yet another bout that involves a rikishi vying for the yusho. Besides Terunofuji, Chiyotairyu was the other rikishi to call it quits, and the two of them brought the total of Kyujo rikishi between the Makuuchi and Juryo ranks to 13. I guarantee you that neither of these guys is more injured than Kotoshogiku. Terunofuji left to completely take his name out of the running, and I'm sure Chiyotairyu tweaked something somewhere or has a nagging injury, but the rikishi are quitting in droves like this because there's no purpose for them to hang around. They are quitting on sumo and quitting on the system that sumo has become, and so that's why we continue to see no increase in number of fans attending the event. There were only 18 bouts schedule today in Makuuchi and only 16 bouts were contested. I guess "contested" isn't the best word here because there was plenty of bout fixing going on throughout the day.

I think everyone knows which bouts are fake and which ones are real, so today I'll primarily focus on the bouts that involve the contenders. Speaking of the contenders, this is the leaderboard as we entered the day:

10-2: Takakeisho, Shodai, Tobizaru
9-3: Asanoyama, Wakatakakage, Onosho

Since I've already spoiled the M4 Terunofuji - M8 Wakatakakage matchup, we'll start there. The freebie sends Wakatakakage to a 10-3 mark while Terunofuji will exit the tournament with just eight wins. Those eight wins will send him into the sanyaku for November, so we'll see how hard he fights then.

M9 Onosho looked to keep himself one off the pace facing M5 Takarafuji today, and Takarafuji made sure he'd get it coming with the C3P0 arms at the tachi-ai, gifting Onosho the instant moro-zashi, and then offering no defense as Onosho drove him straight back and across. It took maybe two seconds, and is this how we want the yusho-arasoi to look? The word "arasoi" means to fight or go to war, and there was certainly zero fight in Takarafuji today.

Our final three-loss rikishi was Asanoyama who did battle with Suckiwake Mitakeumi today, and the two hooked up in migi-yotsu where Asanoyama grabbed the left outer grip, and with Mitakeumi playing no defense whatsoever, Asanoyama just went for an uncontested outer belt throw bowling Mitakeumi over and down a few seconds in. As they showed replays of the throwing side, you could see that Mitakeumi didn't even have a hold of anything. He kept that right arm in no-man's land, and then when Asanoyama loaded up on that throw, Mitakeumi didn't even think about a counter scoop throw or an inside belt throw. This was yet another uncontested bout in favor of Asanoyama who's gifted his tenth straight win against three losses. Mitakeumi falls to 7-6 in gracious defeat.

Up first among the two-loss rikishi was M14 Tobizaru who drew M1 Takanosho, and I was curious to see if Takanosho would fight straight up here. He unfortunately didn't. Tobizaru actually jumped the gun a bit at the tachi-ai or he thought he did, and so he stood straight up of his own volition thinking the bout would be called back. It wasn't, however, but instead of just blasting the rookie back and out, Takanosho extended his right arm and just waited for Tobizaru to give it a tug, and once that came, Takanosho just ran himself to the edge of the dohyo and waited for Tobizaru to push him out from behind. It took maybe three seconds, and once again Tobizaru wins with a magical pull and then an opponent who was all too willing to just exit the dohyo. Tobizaru moves to 11-2 with the gift while Takanosho is content at 8-5.

Before we move on, prior to the Enho bout they showed the top three bouts that were streamed after the fact from Day 12, and Enho took the number #1 slot but Tobizaru was right behind him at number #2. The problem is, you can't keep fan interest up for long doing the kind of sumo that Tobizaru's showing us. It's why people aren't clamoring to watch the end of this basho right now. There are just too few contested bouts among the yusho contenders.

Our final two-loss rikishi met head to head today in Takakeisho vs. Sekiwake Shodai, and as expected, all sumo basics were basically flushed down the toilet. Takakeisho attempted two simultaneous thrusts into Shodai's chest at the tachi-ai, but it didn't even budge the taller Shodai, and can we really call someone an Ozeki who can't move his opponent from the initial charge? When that tachi-ai flubbed, Takakeisho immediately backed up and to his left going for his signature wild left swipe, but that too had no effect, and if we stop the tape right there...notice how we don't see this desperate kind of sumo from Takakeisho in his wins. We don't see it because he knows the bouts are fixed going in, but this was straight up today, and so the two rikishi would bounce into each other as if doing chest bumps and then push each other away. This happened a time or two before Shodai moved right going for a quick inashi (swipe at the back of the arm), and then he jumped left employing the same move, and Takakeisho couldn't keep up just flopping to the dirt in all his glory. Takakeisho isn't even worthy of a Burger King crown as he falls to 10-3 while Shodai joins Tobizaru at 11-2, and watching slow motion replays of Takakeisho's footwork in the dohyo is extremely painful. He basically has his feet aligned and hops around like Frogger.

With the dust settled on the day, this is how things shape up heading into Saturday:

11-2: Shodai, Tobizaru
10-3: Asanoyama, Takakeisho, Wakatakakage, Onosho

Tobizaru draws Takakeisho, and this is where I think the rookie defers to his senpai and graciously removes himself from the yusho race. Head to head in a straight up fight, I think Tobizaru is the better rikishi, but if I had to guess, he's going to let up for Takakeisho tomorrow.

Shodai faces Asanoyama, and I think this one will be straight up. Right now I give the advantage to Shodai just because he has more momentum.

Wakatakakage faces Mitakeumi, and I think Wakatakakage is the better rikishi. It doesn't mean he'll win, but I favor him in a straight up bout.

Finally, Onosho faces Takanosho, and we saw today that Takanosho can be bought, especially since he already has his eight wins.

There is no way that a yusho rikishi can be determined tomorrow, so you have to watch to the bitter end.

In other bouts of interest, I know some people scoffed when I suggested that M5 Kiribayama's withdrawal against Takakeisho a few days ago was planned, but the Mongolian came back today to fight Sekiwake Daieisho, and he easily survived a henka from Daieisho and chased him around the ring and out using his speed (and size advantage) to knock Daieisho out of the sanyaku altogether for November. Kiribayama moves to 7-6 with the win while Daieisho falls to 4-9. Kitanofuji seemed perplexed after this one saying, "And Daieisho did so well in pre-basho keiko..." When was the last time that ever mattered?

There was some bad acting today, but I blew a snot bubble when I watched M2 Tamawashi clutch M3 Myogiryu near the edge and just fall backwards onto his butt. Every time I see the abise-taoshi kimari-te, I recall the not so epic bout between Takanohana and Wakanohana at the 1995 Kyushu basho were they fought in the playoff for the yusho. Takanohana's backwards fall in the center of the ring was fake and obvious, and he even admitted it later on when the two brothers had their spat. Oh wait, there is no yaocho in sumo. My bad as Tamawashi falls to 5-8 while Myogiryu is still alive at 6-7.

The acting was so bad for the M6 Takayasu - M12 Kotoshoho matchup that they had to rule the thing tsuki-te, or intentionally touching the dohyo with your hand. Okay, maybe the implication is an unintentional touch, but you know what I mean. After dominating the tachi-ai and having Takayasu completely set up for anything he wanted, Kotoshoho pretended to slip off of a hikkake arm tug, and the dude just put both palms to the dohyo. Wow, the crowd certainly got its money's worth there as both dudes end the day 8-5.

M11 Kotoshogiku's descent to the Juryo ranks and likely retirement were sealed today when M17 Ichinojo didn't let up for him. From the tachi-ai, the Geeku had no chance and knew it, and so Ichinojo lightly sent him out of the ring with a hand to the belt from behind. At 2-11 now it's curtains for Kotoshogiku, and I'm sure he'll announce his retirement rather than subject himself to the Juryo division. I at least applaud him for fighting unlike most of the other yayhoos who've withdrawn. As for Ichinojo, he needs to win one more the final two days to stay in the division at 7-6.

And finally, Ishiura just stood there in the migi-yotsu position and let Hoshoryu bowl him over with a right outer belt grip in the center of the ring. Looks like the Hoshoryu camp is paying to at least keep him in the division as he moves now to 6-7.

Day 12 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
A bit of news heading into the day was the announcement that Komusubi Endoh had withdrawn from the tournament citing the need to give Takakeisho a free win. It was either that or some inflammation in his ACL in the right knee. Who knows these days? The result of Endoh's withdrawal means that Takakeisho is guaranteed his co-leader status heading into Day 13, and so both faux-zeki are touted as contenders despite doing very little in the ring.

And speaking of contender status, I was curious to note this morning when I watched the NHK News 9 sports broadcast that they only featured three rikishi in the lead-off graphic: Takakeisho, Asanoyama, and Shodai.



I actually watch the news before I watch the bouts, so I had no idea of the Day 12 results, so when I saw this, my first reaction was, "Are they already writing Terunofuji off?" If they're showing one three-loss rikishi in Asanoyama then why not the other major three-loss rikishi, Terunofuji? I was pretty sure Terunofuji lost on the day at this point, and I chalked it up to the News 9 people knowing this and just not bothering to add Fuji the Terrible because he's not a guy they hype anyway. However, during the Day 12 broadcast itself prior to the Terunofuji - Onosho matchup, NHK showed the following graphic:



Once again, only Takakeisho, Shodai, and Asanoyama are listed. Both Terunofuji and Asanoyama were tied heading into the day, so why not add Terunofuji into the fray as well? The obvious answer is that sumo is not covered objectively, and I also have to wonder if they already knew the intentions of the former Ozeki coming into the day.

I'll begin covering the yusho race first in my comments starting tomorrow, so let's get to all the bouts from the day starting from the bottom up as usual.

M12 Kotoshoho caught M13 Ishiura with two stiff tsuppari at the tachi-ai knocking Ishiura upright and onto his heels, and Kotoshoho pounced just like that sending Ishiura back and off the dohyo with one more volley for good measure. Kotoshoho picks up kachi-koshi at 8-4 while Ishiura is still gripping at 2-10.

M15 Shohozan was largely flat-footed at the tachi-ai against M12 Kaisei, and so Baby Huey just used a methodic tsuppari attack to knock Shohozan back, over and out. Pretty simple stuff here as Kaisei moves to 6-6 while Shohozan falls to 3-9.

M11 Chiyotairyu came with a low kachi-age with the left hand against M13 Meisei who reached for the front of the belt with the right hand, and both guys bounced off each other creating a bit of separation. As Chiyotairyu looked to tsuppari his way back forward, Meisei just slipped to his left and lightly pulled Chiyotairyu forward and down with a tsuki to Tairyu's side. This fix was in here as Chiyotairyu falls to 5-7 while Meisei moves to 7-5.

M15 Shimanoumi stayed low at the tachi-ai forcing M11 Kotoshogiku to fight from on top of him, and this frustrated the Geeku a bit and baited him into a few pull attempts, but you could see that Shimanoumi wasn't going anywhere. Shimanoumi continued to just stay low keeping the bout from going chest to chest, and when Kotoshogiku finally attempted a yori charge, Shimanoumi easily slipped to his right and executed a perfect counter tsuki-otoshi at the edge. Kotoshogiku falls to 2-10 now while Shimanoumi ekes his way to 5-7.

M16 Hoshoryu reached for the back of M9 Enho's belt at the tachi-ai with the right hand, but he let it go as soon as he grabbed it, and then just dutifully stood in the middle of the ring with his hands high and not committed to anything. The two played glad hands for a few seconds with Hoshoryu never bothering to actually grab the smaller Enho, and so when Enho went for a weak swipe at Hoshoryu's extended arm, the Mongolian just put his palm to the dohyo, and that was that. I mean, I know that Enho picks up the cheap win here, but is that kind of stuff entertaining to anyone? Enho moves to 4-8, and I guess the design now is to keep him in the division. As for Hoshoryu, he falls to 5-7 and despite his willingness to lose here today, I really can't find anything positive about his debut basho.

M17 Ichinojo came with a weak right hand in kachi-age fashion at the tachi-ai and then put both hands ridiculously hight against M8 Tokushoryu from the tachi-ai, and this immediately gave Tokushoryu moro-zashi, and a half second in you could just see Ichinojo's mukiryoku intentions. Well, Tokushoryu "forced" the listless Ichinojo over and out in mere seconds, and this was just stupidly obvious. Tokushoryu moves to 5-7 after the fix while Ichinojo falls to 6-6.

Our first bout with yusho implications was next featuring two two-loss rikishi in M8 Wakatakakage vs. M14 Tobizaru. Wakatakakage henka'd lightly to his left at the tachi-ai against Tobizaru, but he wasn't looking to inflict any damage, especially when he refrained from grabbing a left outer grip, and so the two squared back up where Wakatakakage fired some nice tsuppari knocking Tobizaru up high, but the M8 wasn't pressing forward. After a brief pull to let Tobizaru back into it, Wakatakakage should have taken advantage again after getting a nice hand up and under Tobizaru's extended left, but Wakatakakage relented yet again and waited for the inevitable pull/slap move to come from the rookie. Said move was a weak pull attempt with the left, and Wakatakakage just walked himself forward and out of the ring altogether. Seems like Tobizaru's "wins" the last few days have been just like this and is anyone fooled? Tobizaru was on defense throughout, and you can't point to a single thing he did to set up this victory. Rather, it was Wakatakakage dictating everything here including the final run-out of his own volition. The end result is Tobizaru's moving to a fake 10-2 while Wakatakakage falls to 9-3.

Before we move on, I don't know the details of why Wakatakakage agreed to be bought out here. Had he won, he would have maintained co-leader status, but as I've been saying all along, none of the rank and filers are going to take the yusho here, and I think Wakatakakage's camp knew this and decided to take the cash. There's also been this minor movement in the media to hype Tobizaru because he's one of those guys with personality. I liken it to those annoying celebrities who have to come up with gimmicks in order to get noticed on television. How about getting noticed with solid sumo instead of pretending that you're the next TV A-lister?

M7 Aoiyama came with his strong tsuppari attack against M10 Sadanoumi, and when Aoiyama actually cares to couple de-ashi with his thrusts, he's nigh unto unstoppable, especially among the rank and file. I mean, this one wasn't even close as Aoiyama scored the wham bam thank you ma'am win moving to 7-5 while Sadanoumi takes his medicine at 5-7.

M3 Myogiryu knocked M10 Kotoeko onto his heels with a perfect tachi-ai, and all Kotoeko could do was attempt to grab at Myogiryu's extended arm as the M3 moved forward swiftly and just kicked Kotoeko's ass in three seconds. You watch sumo like this and how Kotoeko is so useless, and it makes it easy to call the yaocho in his favor when it occurs. Both rikishi end the day at 5-7.

M7 Ryuden easily grabbed the right outer grip against M3 Terutsuyoshi from the tachi-ai, and he never really did get the left arm established inside, but with the two seemingly jockeying there in the center of the ring for a second or two, Ryuden went for an easy dashi-nage that caused Terutsuyoshi to just flop forward and down. What a waste of our time here as Ryuden moves to 4-8 while Terutsuyoshi is 3-9.

M2 Tamawashi came out of the gate hot against M2 Hokutofuji driving him back two full steps with a nice tsuppari attack and de-ashi, and then all of a sudden Tamawashi just backed up without even going for a pull, so with The Mawashi lightly back pedaling and doing nothing, Hokutofuji was able to recover and push his compromised opponent back and across for the "comeback" win. Not sure of the politics here as both rikishi end the day at 5-7.

Up next were two three-loss rikishi contending for the yusho in M1 Terunofuji and M9 Onosho, and as I mentioned in my intro, Terunofuji was already written out of the yusho boards prior to the bout, so it was no surprise whatsoever when Terunofuji failed to grab his foe from the tachi-ai even with Onosho inviting the yotsu-zumo bout! A half second in, Terunofuji had his left arm flirting inside with Onosho pushed over and down, and the right outer grip was there for the taking as pictured at left. But Terunofuji must have forgotten to grab it...yeah, that's it..and so he let Onosho recover and work his way into moro-zashi (all while failing to latch ahold of Onosho), and as Onosho "drove" Terunofuji back, the Ozeki just stayed upright and allowed Onosho to topple him with a right hand pushing up into Fuji's left armpit. After the bout, Onosho shook his head up and down as if to say, "Yeah, that was all me!" All you it wasn't. It was just another blatant mukiryoku performance from Terutsuyoshi, whose camp has obviously decided to withdraw from the yusho race. The end result is Onosho's moving to 9-3 while Terunofuji drops off of the leaderboard at 8-4.

Before we move on, they showed Onosho walking down the hana-michi and straight past the monitor they have set up there to allow the rikishi to view their handiwork. He barely gave the monitor a glance just walking on by as if to continue his badass demeanor. What a crock'a shite this is. Do I need to remind Onosho of his brilliant 0-13 start last basho? The only thing that's changed from then until now is a bunch of cash exchanging hands between stables.

Moving right along, M6 Kagayaki struck M1 Takanosho briefly at the tachi-ai before immediately withdrawing his arms out wide, and that gave Takanosho the clear path to just shove his foe back and across with no resistance. Kagayaki definitely had the C3P0 arms going here as he drops to 6-6 while Taknosho buys kachi-koshi at 8-4.

M4 Tochinoshin reached for a left outer grip at the tachi-ai against Komusubi Okinoumi before quickly withdrawing and putting that arm up high around Okinoumi's head, and that signaled to the Komusubi to come and get me, and he did securing moro-zashi and forcing Shin over and out with no resistance at the edge. I mean, Tochinoshin didn't even think about a counter tsuki-otoshi as he waltzed back and across the straw in mukiryoku fashion. Okinoumi moves to 4-8 with the gift while Tochinoshin falls to 5-7.

The worst bout of sumo in a legit contest today was between Suckiwake Mitakeumi and M6 Takayasu. Mitakeumi had Takayasu on his heels from the tachi-ai, but he wasted that with a left kachi-age up way too high, and so as Takayasu looked to recover, Mitakeumi went for a soft pull followed by an equally soft pull from Takayasu, and then finally we saw a few tsuppari where Takayasu took charge knocking Mitakeumi upright and setting up a left scoop throw that was terribly executed, but the hapless Mitakeumi couldn't survive it just flopping down to the dirt near the edge. Shortly after the Suckiwake's fall, Takayasu also plopped to the dirt indicitive of just how sloppy and ungrounded the sumo was here, but whatever. Both rikishi end the day at 7-5.

At this point in the broadcast, they announced the withdrawal of Komusubi Endoh giving Takakeisho the freebie, and I don't think it's coincidence that Asanoyama and Takakeisho are enjoying these freebies at opportune times. Takakeisho moves to 10-2 with the gift and is the highest-ranked co-leader while Endoh will finish at 3-12.

Suckiwake Shodai next stepped into the ring to face M5 Takarafuji, and the latter kept his arms low and wide at the tachi-ai as he is wont to do when throwing bouts, and this gifted Shodai the opening for anything to the inside. Shodai inserted the left arm first although it wasn't that deep while the right arm was sorta to the inside as well, but it wasn't really moro-zashi because the two weren't chest to chest. They weren't chest to chest because Takarafuji was already moving back, and so Shodai just moved forward in tow and scored as lightweight of a yori-kiri as you'd ever care to see. This certainly didn't "feel" like a bout with yusho implications because there was no serious effort from Shodai's opponent, but who cares? Shodai scoots to 10-2 with the gift joining Takakeisho and Tobizaru in the two-loss column. As for Takarafuji, he falls to 6-6 and becomes the third Isegahama rikishi today to throw his bout.

And that sets up the day's finale between Asanoyama and Sekiwake Daieisho. It was the Sekiwake who struck Asanoyama well at the tachi-ai standing him up, but instead of moving forward, Daieisho was already looking to retreat. This allowed Asanoyama to plod his way forward, but with Daieisho up against the tawara, Asanoyama hadn't created his own momentum, and so instead of finishing Daieisho off, the Sekiwake instinctively forced the action back to the center of the ring with an effective tsuppari attack that drew a collective "Uh-oh" from the crowd. But never fear. Instead of sending Asanoyama all the way back and out, Daieisho went into pull mode timidly moving to his right and really just taking a seat near the edge as Asanoyama tried to keep up barely getting the left inside at the end. Nessen this wasn't as Asanoyama stays in the yusho hunt at 9-3 while Daieisho is a harmless 4-8.

The Sumo Association couldn't have drawn the leaderboard up better than this heading into the final Friday:

10-2: Takakeisho, Shodai, Tobizaru
9-3: Asanoyama, Wakatakakage, Onosho

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
As we enter the shubansen, I was curious to see if the four-day weekend or the tournament to this point had generated any more interest among the paying fans, but as they scanned the Kokugikan prior to the final bout of the day, it looked like there were a few more gaps in the masu-seki and a few more fannies in the seats up in the second level. The first Wednesday after a four-day holiday is tough, so let's see if any more fans come out the remaining four days. It definitely feels to me that they are trying to will a Japanese rikishi to the yusho this basho, and if Terunofuji decides to lose one more bout, the Sumo Association will get their wish. I was worried after the first few days that the yusho line would drop to four losses, but I think the way things are going now, the winner will be alone at the top with a 12-3 record.

M13 Ishiura henka'd to his left against M12 Kaisei at the tachi-ai, grabbed the left outer grip, and kept spinning the Brasilian around the ring, but Kaisei managed to halt their movement and get a left arm under the bottom of his foe. With Ishiura stationery now, Kaisei was able to break off that grip with blunt force and then shove Ishiura back and across for the comeback win. Kaisei was not in a giving mood today as he moves to 5-6 while Ishiura falls to 2-9.

M15 Shohozan and M11 Kotoshogiku hooked up in hidari-yotsu initially from the tachi-ai, but Kotoshogiku could not move or defend himself, and so Shohozan worked his right arm inside as well giving him moro-zashi, and from there it was curtains. Shohozan has won three in a row moving to 3-8 while Kotoshogiku falls to 2-9.

M17 Ichinojo lowered his shoulder into M10 Kotoeko just crushing the Sadogatake rikishi back from the starting lines and sending him moving left in an effort to escape the onslaught, but Ichinojo moved well and stayed square shoving Kotoeko back and across needing maybe three seconds. Watching the replay, Tobe Announcer said, "Ichinojo should do this kind of sumo all the time." Ya think?? Back when I believed in Santa Claus too, that was my thought all the time regarding certain rikishi. Why don't they fight like that all the time? Now I know. Ichinojo moves to 6-5 while Kotoeko falls to the inverse at 5-6.

M10 Sadanoumi looked to attack forward against M13 Meisei and grab a frontal belt grip, but the latter was on the move early skirting right as he pulled and moved too fast for Sadanoumi to keep pace. It was ugly, but Meisei's mawari-komu tactic worked giving him the oshi-dashi win set up by a series of pulls. He moves to 6-5 while the Sadamight falls to 5-6.

I suppose the most anticipated matchup of the first half bouts featured M9 Onosho vs. M14 Tobizaru. With both rikishi at two losses coming in, they are touted as co-leaders, so let's get to it. Onosho looked to take charge early with a wild tsuppari attack, but the rookie halted that easily getting the right arm inside, and so with his oshi attack neutralized, Onosho was frustrated trying to shake the rookie off using a wild paw to the face of Tobizaru. Tobizaru shook that blow off and used the momentum shift and Onosho's instability to work himself to the left of Onosho and pull him forward and down by the back of the shoulder.

This was not a great bout of sumo, and it's typical of what we see when two dudes have ridden yaocho into the second week. My expectation--especially in the Makuuchi division--is that the sumo resembles the sound sumo you see in the keiko ring. In the olden days when I used to stalk these guys at morning keiko, if two rikishi did sumo as we saw in this bout, the stable master would crack his bamboo kendo sword over both of their skulls. But regardless of my opinion on the matter, Tobizaru moves to 9-2 and guarantees his co-leader status for at least one more day. As for Onosho, he's still on the leaderboard at 8-3 but not for long.

M9 Enho ducked in low against M15 Shimanoumi, and when Shimanoumi didn't even try to latch onto Enho, I was like "here we go." Enho of course couldn't budge Shimanoumi, but with the latter just standing there, Enho began to work left going for a pull, and after one full circle around the ring, Enho went for the lightest of pulls, which was apparently Shimanoumi's cue to just swan dive himself off of the dohyo altogether landing on the lap of the judge sitting ringside East. Give me a break as Enho ekes his way to 3-8 while Shimanoumi falls--literally--to 4-7.

M8 Wakatakakage looked to keep his co-leader status today against M11 Chiyotairyu, and the latter is one of the easiest bought rikishi in the entire division, and it was clear that some money exchanged hands today. Wakatakakage moved right at the tachi-ai going for a light tap at the back of Chiyotairyu's left shoulder, and Chiyotairyu could have easily made the youngster pay, but he didn't squaring back up and lightly putting his hands towards his foe but never doing any damage. After that horrible start from Wakatakakage, he was in no position to attack, and so Chiyotairyu assisted by going for the weakest of pulls, and finally Wakatakakage was able to move forward and push the compromised Chiyotairyu back and across. What a poor display of sumo, and crap like this is not going to bring the fans back. Wakatakakage buys his way to 9-2 while Chiyotairyu graciously falls to 5.6.

M8 Tokushoryu and M16 Hoshoryu hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Hoshoryu was way too upright for his own good. When fighting a behemoth like Tokushoryu, the Mongolian needs to go in low and work from the front of the belt, but he went chest to chest with a bad tachi-ai, and as Tokushoryu pressed forward, Hoshoryu panicked and went for an ill-advised kote-nage near the edge. Tokushoryu was applying to much pressure, however, and this caused Hoshoryu to slip out of the throw where Tokushoryu easily bodied him across and down from there. Hoshoryu continues to struggle at 5-6 while Tokushoryu improves to 4-7.

I thought we had seen some ugly sumo to this point, but M12 Kotoshoho and M7 Aoiyama took the cake in the first-half bouts with their bout of...umm...sumo today. Completely flat-footed, Aoiyama fired some weak tsuppari before leaning right and going for a tepid pull at the back of his foe's left shoulder that caused Kotoshoho to stumble forward, and he was completely vulnerable at this point, but Aoiyama let him back into it using the weakest of tsuppari until Kotoshoho could upright himself and go for a weak pull of is own. That move barely connected, but it was all Aoiyama needed to just rush forward into oblivion and stage dive himself off of the dohyo into a heap in the vacant suna-kaburi. Give me a break as Kotoshoho buys his way to 7-4 while Aoiyama is a harmless 6-5.

M2 Hokutofuji weakly moved right at the tachi-ai going for an equally weak pull of M7 Ryuden, and the latter just bought it hook line and sinker falling forward and down in a bout that lasted maybe a second. The fix was in here for whatever reason as Hokutofuji "improves" to 4-7 while Ryuden suffers make-koshi at 3-8.

M2 Tamawashi fired a thrust into M1 Takanosho at the tachi-ai and then just promptly stood up straight, shaded to his right, and went for the weakest of love taps at the back of Takanosho's left shoulder. With Tamawashi just standing there doing nothing and having backed himself up near the edge, all that was required was Takanosho to move forward and fire a thrust into Tamawashi's torso that sent the willing Mongolian across in about two seconds. Nice mukiryoku attitude by Tamawashi from the start, and this picture shows perfectly what I mean by C3P0 arms. Takanosho continues to buy his bouts moving now to 7-4 while Tamawashi graciously falls to 5-6.

M3 Myogiryu was backpedaling from the tachi-ai against M1 Terunofuji not wanting to go chest to chest, and I can't say I blame him. With the fix not in here, Terunofuji advanced well looking to wrap up Myogiryu's left arm, but when the M3 slipped to his left at the edge of the ring, Terunofuji was in hot pursuit staying low and getting the right arm inside that led to the easy yori-kiri win. Terunofuji breezes to 8-3 while Myogiryu falls to 4-7. Before we move on, Terunofuji's kachi-koshi from the M1 rank means he'll be ranked in the sanyaku for next basho.

M4 Tochinoshin opted for a tsuppari attack against Komusubi Endoh before quickly backing up to the right and going for a mammoth pull. Endoh tried desperately to knock Shin back before he hit the dirt, but Tochinoshin easily kept his feet within the straw as Endoh crashed down, so gunbai to Tochinoshin. What an ugly bout of sumo here as Tochinoshin moves to 5-6 with Endoh suffering make-koshi at 3-8.

The Suckiwake Shodai - M6 Takayasu bout was another ugly display of sumo along the lines of the Onosho - Tobizaru contest I mentioned in the first half. This one was probably uglier, and how is someone supposed to break down a bout of sumo like this when there's no continuity? It was basically a cat fight with limbs and fur flying everywhere with nobody actually scoring on a potent move. At one point Shodai put his hand at the back of Takayasu's shoulder, and then Takayasu was actually able to place his left hand into Shodai's neck, but he just kept the limb extended up high, and so Shodai was finally able to spin Takayasu sideways pushing into that extended left arm before crashing into him and sending Takayasu down onto one knee. Both skulls need to be cracked with the bamboo sword after this one, and is this the brand of sumo associated with a co-leader? Sadly it is, and that's exactly why attendance is still stagnant even after a four-day weekend in between. Shodai moves to 9-2 after that...display while Takayasu falls to 6-5.

The ugliness would continue as M3 Terutsuyoshi ducked down low leading with his head and striking the torso of Sekiwake Daieisho right between the teets. As for Daieisho, his hands were up high having completely whiffed at the tachi-ai, but Terutsuyoshi's reaction was to just back up to his right and on his heels as he waited for Daieisho to finish him off at the edge. Because Daieisho had no momentum from the start, it took him a bit to get the defenseless Terutsuyoshi across the edge, but he eventually did. Sheesh, another ugly ugly bout as Daieisho limps to 4-7 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 3-8.

If I was a child, I'd constantly be asking my parents from the backseat, "Is it over yet? Is it over yet?" Unfortunately, no. Up next was Suckiwake Mitakeumi against M6 Kagayaki, and after standing Mitakeumi completely upright with two hands to the neck, Kagayaki opened his arms wide gifting Mitakeumi moro-zashi as he just backed up with the Suckiwake in tow. This bout was completely uncontested as Mitakeumi moves to 7-4 while Kagayaki had plenty of room to sell at 6-5.

M5 Takarafuji kept his arms low and wide at the tachi-ai against Takakeisho standing up straight and playing the role of a target keeping his arms out of the way and shading to his left as he backed up to the edge, and so Takakeisho easily followed in tow firing a few shoves. At the edge, Takarafuji was so mukiryoku that when Takakeisho scored on the final push out, there was no resistance and so Takakeisho crashed down hard along the edge of the dohyo and it looked as if the dude was having a seizure. It took him a long time to get up, and isn't this one of the youngest guys in the division? He looked way old here finally standing back up with a big patch of tsuchi across his torso. They normally associate a patch of dirt like that with a loss, but in compromised sumo, anomalies like this can and do happen. Takakeisho hasn't legitimately won a single bout yet as he moves to 9-2 while Takarafuji falls to 6-5.

In the day's final bout, Komusubi Okinoumi and Asanoyama hooked up in migi-yotsu, and then Okinoumi literally just stood there and waited for Asanoyama to make a move. Said move was a left outer belt throw where Okinoumi hopped on his foot twice and then was dumped over onto his back in spectacular fashion. The focus at the end of course was on the "powerful" belt throw, but no mention was made of Okinoumi's failure to lift up into Asanoyama with his inside right, and he was so limp on that side when the throw attempt came that there was no chance of a nage-no-uchi-ai. In fact, the pic at left shows that Okinoumi completely let go of anything with that right hand. The bottom line here is that Okinoumi was completely mukiryoku as he falls to 3-8 while Asanoyama has now been gifted six straight wins with two freebies thrown in for good measure.

At the end of the day, the leaderboard looks like this:

9-2: Takakeisho, Shodai, Wakatakakage, Tobizaru
8-3: Asanoyama, Terunofuji, Onosho

As more rikishi battle each other head to head, this list will shrink gradually as we hit the final weekend, but once again, there's no way to predict bout fixing, so the drama here is not an anticipation of good sumo; rather, who is going to defer to whom?

Day 10 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Apologies for the lack of a Day 9 report. When faced with the prospect of an all day fly fishing trip vs. politely declining because of an obligation to talk sumo, it was a pretty easy choice. Furthermore, after watching the Day 9 bouts, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. All of the strategic yaocho occurred in all the right places, and there's nothing from Day 9 that occurred in the ring which needs to be singled out in the intro. One thing that I did find interesting on Day 9 was NHK's decision to limit the leaderboard to just two-loss rikishi, and I think it was the correct decision. As I concluded my Day 8 comments, I posted the leaderboard down to the three-loss rikishi, and there were 15 or so guys in the group. To tout such a group as yusho contenders would signal chaos, and so they were smart to just keep it to the two-loss dudes...and even then, there were nine of them.

Three of those nine were eliminated during Day 9 contests, so heading into Day 10, the rikishi at the top of the leaderboard have been whittled down to six. NHK continued to focus just on those six in the two-loss tier, and so my broadcast feed began with Fujii Announcer and Mainoumi breaking down the leaderboard, which was posted as follows:

Takakeisho, Shodai, Terunofuji, Wakatakakage, Onosho, Tobizaru

As I listened to their analysis, the focus was of course on Takakeisho first, then Shodai, and then they even brought Asanoyama into the mix. They also showed replays from Takakeisho and Asanoyama's bouts yesterday (both of which were yaocho), and through it all it just amazed me that they could sit there with a straight face and pretend that those three were the force this basho. I was starting to doubt that they would entirely gloss over Terunofuji, but finally in the end, Mainoumi said that Terunofuji was the favorite at this point because he's already faced the top-ranked rikishi. There's nobody left on his schedule that he can't beat with his own power (that's how Mainoumi worded it which was an interesting Freudian slip), and so we at least got that from Mainoumi.

This isn't to say that Terunofuji is gonna take the yusho; it just emphasized the point that Terunofuji is indeed the Story Teller. As for the other rikishi in the two-loss column, Wakatakakage, Onosho, and Tobizaru are all just fluff there on the leaderboard, and they are going to fade away in time, so the yusho will come down to someone with name recognition.

Before we get to the action in the ring, we had a rare situation yesterday and today as two Japanese holidays fell on the same day. September 21st is Shubun-no-hi, or the Autumn Equinox while Keiro-no-hi, or Respect for Old People day, falls on the third Monday of September. Because both holidays lined up on the same day this year, they declared yesterday as Old Folks day and today as the Autumn Equinox day. Out of respect for the old folks, however, today's broadcast was full of useless trivia and even sumo haiku written by some chap named Masaoka Shiki. The only reason I bring this up is to point out that Japan just enjoyed a four-day holiday, and so NHK worked hard each of the four days to keep the fans interested in between bouts by taking walks down memory lane featuring contests from decades ago and doing a piece on Chiyonofuji. In short, NHK knows who their audience is (old people), and everything they did this weekend was to play the sentimental card to keep them interested.

Moving to the action itself, M17 Ichinojo kept his arms low at the tachi-ai against a Juryo fellow named Wakamotoharu, and the Mongolith had the clear path to the inside with either arm, but he brought both arms outside and just easily bodied Wakamotoharu back to the edge. From there, Wakamotoharu "halted" Ichinojo's momentum getting the right arm to the inside, and so Ichinojo complied with his own right to the inside on the other side. From this point, Ichinojo had the clear path to an outer grip with the left, but he purposefully just let that left arm dangle there haplessly, and so with no pressure coming from Ichinojo, Wakamotoharu maki-kae'd with the left again with no opposition giving him moro-zashi. Ichinojo continued to pretend to be interested in an outer grip before faking a maki-kae with that left arm, and that enabled Wakamotoharu to begin a yori charge leading with the left inside. Ichinojo instinctively thought about a counter belt throw with the right, but he held up and just backed himself out as Wakamotoharu followed in tow. Nice mukiryoku effort here from Ichinojo, and I'm still trying to decide which yaocho was more ridiculous: Ichinojo's losing to a no-name Juryo guy today or Ichinojo's letting Enho beat him yesterday. Who knows what's going around in the dude's thick skull, but he agreed to fall to 5-5.

M16 Hoshoryu henka'd M11 Chiyotairyu to the right at the tachi-ai and immediately grabbed the side of Tairyu's belt with the right hand. From there, Chiyotairyu didn't bother to squre back up as Hoshoryu bum rushed him out from behind leaving both rikishi at 5-5. Hoshoryu's only legitimate win so far this basho has been Kotoshogiku, and that ain't sayin' much.

And speaking of M11 Kotoshogiku, I'm sure he was a sight for the sore eyes of M13 Ishiura, a dude who sat out the first week of the basho and has now returned to try and limit his fall on the banzuke. Ishiura stayed low at the tachi-ai keeping Kotoshogiku upright with his left hand pushing into the Geeku's neck and left armpit. With Kotoshogiku upright, Ishiura was able to firmly establish the left arm inside, and then he switched gears by throwing Kotoshogiku over and down back towards the center of the ring. As Kotoshogiku fell, he went into a defensive roll signaling that his left leg is still badly injured. Both rikishi end the day at 2-8, and it does not look good for the former Ozeki.

M10 Sadanoumi went for a stupid pull at the tachi-ai against M15 Shimanoumi, and when Shimanoumi didn't make him pay, I grew suspicious. Shimanoumi then let Sadanoumi force the action back to the center of the ring where the two hooked up in migi-yotsu, and Shimanoumi had his left hand right there at an outer grip of the Sadamight's belt (as pictured there at left), but he refused to simply grab it. After a quick and senseless pull by Shimanoumi that gave Sadanoumi the momentum, Shimanoumi continued to ignore that left outer grip as Sadanoumi forced him back and across with no resistance. I mean, watch the slow-mo replay of this one and Shimanoumi has the left outer open to him the entire second half of the bout, but he never grabs it. Not sure of the politics involved here as Sadanoumi moves to 5-5 while Shimanoumi falls to 4-6.

Up next was M9 Enho vs. M15 Shohozan, and prior to the bout, they showed the graphic that lists the top three bouts streamed by the fans from the previous day. As is usually the case, Enho's bout topped the list (he faced Ichinojo) followed by Takakeisho (Kiribayama) and Asanoyama (Tochinoshin). Not only were the top three bouts blatant yaocho, but how is it that a one-loss guy coming in ranked at M9 is more popular than the two Japanese dudes ranked at Ozeki? As Joe Biden likes to pontificate, "Think about it, man."

As for the bout itself, Enho came in low causing Shohozan to whiff at the tachi-ai with his hands up high, but he quickly repented and baited Enho into a kote-nage throw where Shohozan slipped to his right and just yanked the smaller Enho around the ring and out. Both rikishi end the day at 2-8.

M12 Kaisei bested M8 Tokushoryu at the tachi-ai and had his foe so upright, he could have gotten either arm inside...or both. It turned out to be migi-yotsu, and Kaisei had Tokushoryu positioned perfectly in order to grab the left outer grip (pictured at right), and despite his hand being right there, he not only let go but he brought both arms high and wide giving Tokushoryu moro-zashi. From there, Tokushoryu was able to switch places with his foe in the ring while Kaisei faked a kubi-nage throw opting to just stand there until Tokushoryu was able to push him out of the ring. As they showed the replay, Fujii Announcer noted of Kaisei, "Wow, he let him [Tokushoryu] maki-kae too easily." Instead of "easily" I probably would have said "intentionally" but whatever. The end result is favorable for sumo as Tokushoryu moves to 3-7 while Kaisei falls to 4-6.

M12 Kotoshoho shaded left at the tachi-ai against M8 Wakatakakage before moving back right and going for a quick pull down at the back of the head. The move caused Wakatakakage to stumble forward, but his athleticism kept him in the bout, and he was able to square back up and knock Kotoshoho upright before getting the right arm inside. A brief stalemate ensued before Wakatakakage was able to make his move knocking Kotoshoho back enough to where Waka grabbed the left outer grip, and from there he scored the easy yori-kiri. After the bout, they caught up with Kotoshoho and he said, "I wasn't able to attack at all today." And this after having Wakatakakage on his heels from the start. The bout was legit as Wakatakakage picks up kachi-koshi at 8-2 while Kotoshoho falls to 6-4.

Up next was M7 Ryuden who welcomed rookie M14 Tobizaru. The tachi-ai was even steven where Ryuden had the opening for the right inside position, but he didn't take it. He was still big enough that Tobizaru wasn't sure how to handle him, and so the two grappled in the center of the ring with a bit of separation. Ryuden constantly passed up opportunities to get inside or grab Tobizaru's belt, and he ultimately let the rookie get the left arm inside at the back of his belt. Ryuden's response was a right outer grip, and instead of the expected nage-no-uchi-ai, Ryuden just stood there so limp that as Tobizaru "threw" him with the left inside, he actually ended up nearly stumbling over Ryuden who was dutifully lying there on his back after making no effort to counter with the right outer belt grip. As if. Tobizaru keeps pace with Wakatakakage at 8-2 while Ryuden falls to 3-7 a richer man.

M13 Meisei and M7 Aoiyama traded tsuppari in the center of the ring from the tachi-ai, and Aoiyama's blows had the greater effect, but he wasn't committed to a forward moving charge. After a few seconds, he shaded to his right looking to pull but coming away with the right arm inside. You could see that Aoiyama wasn't terribly comfortable fighting at the belt, and it allowed Meisei to grab a left outer grip with the right hand at the front of Aoiyama's belt, but he wasn't strong enough to do anything with it, and so Aoiyama easily cut off the outer grip and forced Meisei upright. Meisei was able to sneak both arms in tight for moro-zashi, but he didn't have any leverage and so Aoiyama loaded up a wicked left kote-nage and sent Meisei onto his back hard with a thud. Ooftah as Aoiyama moves to 6-4 while Meisei falls to 5-5.

M6 Takayasu came with his arms in low against M7 Onosho, but the smaller Onosho was able to knock him upright, and at that point, Takayasu went for a dumb pull that gave Onosho all the momentum. He pushed Takayasu back and then went for a quick pull back to the center of the ring that worked wonders against the hapless Takayasu. Onosho picks up kachi-koshi at 8-2 and keeps himself among the token leaders while Takayasu falls completely out of yusho contention at 6-4.

M10 Kotoeko did not pay M6 Kagayaki for the win today, and so Kagayaki just came out and kicked Eko's ass catching him with a right paw to the neck and then using perfect de-ashi to follow the retreating Kotoeko around the ring before shoving him out once, twice, three times a lady. Kagayaki moves to 6-4 with the nice win while Kotoeko falls to 5-5.

M2 Hokutofuji came with his usual tachi-ai of jabbing with the right and retreating left against M3 Myogiryu, but the latter was onto the move well shoving Hokutofuji back near the edge. As Hokutofuji looked to push his way back into the bout, Myogiryu agreed to backpedal a bit, but he just baited Hokutofuji into giving up the left inside, and before Hokutofuji could get established, Myogiryu quickly moved left slapping Hokutofuji down for the nice win. I liked Mainoumi's comments directly afterwards when he said, "That's how a veteran wins." Damn straight as Myogiryu moves to 4-6 while Hokutofuji falls to 3-7.

M1 Terunofuji reached for the inside right at the tachi-ai against M1 Takanosho while sorta positioning his left arm around Takanosho's upper right arm, but the Mongolian simply didn't grab his foe and pull her in snug opting to stay upright and let Takanosho burrow in tight. You have to credit Takanosho for taking what was given him, but Terunofuji refused to grab anything or exert any force into his opponent and so the result was a quick yori-kiri in favor of Takanosho. This one looked legit to the sheep, but Terunofuji was mukiryoku from the start as he gifts Takanosho the easy win. I mean, up to this point, has Takanosho given anyone the impression that he was strong enough to manhandle Terunofuji? It was like Enho supposedly manhandling Ichinojo yesterday. Takanosho is not that strong, and the only thing they could point to that he did well was push into Terunofuji's right side with the left hand. At the end of Day 2 after Terunofuji deferred to Takakeisho and Mitakeumi on consecutive days, I made this statement:

Before we move on, you watch Fuji the Terrible's bouts last basho, and there's not a single opponent he doesn't grab and pull in snug. This basho, however, he's not even trying to latch on.

And that explains Terunofuji's brand of sumo today, so you see the definite pattern in his losses. Fuji gave this one up for political reasons as he falls to 7-3 while Takanosho improves to improves to 6-4.

In a similar bout, Komusubi Okinoumi coulda had what he wanna at the tachi-ai against M5 Takarafuji getting the left arm positioned for the inside and his right arm with the path to Fuji's belt, but he just plodded forward failing to grab his gal, and so near the edge, Takarafuji pivoted right executing the lightest of tsuki-otoshi at the edge where Okinoumi dutifully just fell forward and down rolling off the dohyo altogether. What an easy mukiryoku call here as Takarafuji moves to 6-4 while Okinoumi falls to 3-7.

M2 Tamawashi overpowered Komusubi Endoh at the tachi-ai with his tsuppari attack keeping the Komusubi away from the belt, and as Endoh over-extended himself, Tamawashi was able to spin him around 180 degrees and then dump him from there okuri-taoshi style. Endoh could do nothing here as Tamawashi picked up the easy win moving to 5-5 while Endoh falls to 3-7.

In the Suckiwake ranks, Mitakeumi shaded to his left at the tachi-ai while Tochinoshin remained flat-footed and non-committal, and with Mitakeumi completely exposed after the weak henka, Shin's only answer was a light slap to the side of the noggin with the left as he squared back up but waited for Mitakeumi to dictate the position. With Tochinoshin's inside exposed, Mitakeumi sorta got moro-zashi, but he didn't press in tight and Tochinoshin didn't grab a wide open outside belt grip that was there for the taking (pictured again...at right), so with Tochinoshin just standing there and Mitakeumi doing nothing, the M4 finally went for a weak pull, and that was Mitakeumi's signal to move forward for the cheap force-out win. I don't think either dude needed to shower after this one as Mitakeumi is gifted his 6-4 record while Tochinoshin knows his place at 4-6.

At this point of the broadcast, they announced the convenient withdrawal of M5 Kiribayama citing an injured rotator cuff in the left shoulder. I went back and watched Kiribayama's bout yesterday, and there was no indication afterwards that anything was wrong, but whatever. The move conveniently gave Asanoyama the much-need freebie at 7-3 while Kiribayama will finish his tournament at 6-9. They are doing their best to will Asanoyama into the yusho race, but what a crappy, unmemorable basho he's had to this point.

Up next was Suckiwake Shodai against M3 Terutsuyoshi, and the smaller Terutsuyoshi dominated the tachi-ai slamming his head into Shodai and keeping him upright before grabbing the firm right outer grip on the other side. Oh wait, he failed to grab that advantageous grip or do anything with the left hand, and so finally Shodai grabbed Terutsuyoshi by the left wrist making it look as if the two were dancing to the Blue Danube Waltz, and Shodai was able to lead his gal over to the edge where he then pushed the mukiryoku Terutsuyoshi down hard to the arena floor below. Terutsuyoshi had a few options at the edge because his right arm was positioned so well, but he opted to do nothing resulting in that finish. Shodai moves to 8-2 with the gift and it was funny listening to the announcers try and break down this bout. It sounded like a bunch of serious mumbling and fierce securitization until Shodai grabbed the wrist and then all of sudden, "Oh yes, he grabs the wrist right there. That did it!!" as if all we talk about in sumo is the important of grabbing your opponent's wrist. I definitely get more enjoyment out of the fake commentary than I do the fake sumo. Terutsuyoshi knows his place at 3-7.

Rounding out the day, Takakeisho welcomed Sekiwake Daieisho, and it was Daieisho's tsuppari that had the better effect at the tachi-ai putting Takakeisho on defense immediately, and I counted six solid blows that connected with Takakeisho's neck and face while the faux-zeki scored zero points. The problem was that Daieisho was just thrusting with the arms and not driving the legs, and so the two rikishi were still standing in the center of the ring. Tired of being pummeled in the face, Takakeisho finally went for a weak left tsuki which is the dude's only signature move, and that Was Daieisho's queue to panic, stop thrusting, and let Takakeisho knock him back and out. I've seen this bad rerun a time or two as Takakeisho is gifted his 8-2 mark while Daieisho falls to a harmless 3-7.

With all of the three-loss rikishi losing except for Asanoyama (what were the odds?!), NHK was able to reshuffle the leaderboard down another notch as follows:

8-2: Takakeisho, Shodai, Wakatakakage, Onosho, Tobizaru
7-3: Asanoyama, Terunofuji

As mentioned in my intro, the three rank and filers in the two-loss column are going to fade away leaving the yusho to the four remaining rikishi. Terunofuji is still the Story Teller in my book, but it's useless to try and predict things when yaocho is so prevalent.

Day 8 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Let's do a quick recap up through Day 8 before we head into the second week. Because I spent the entire first week breaking down every bout (something I'll continue to do in week 2), I'll cover the weekend by talking about what I'm seeing in the headlines, and then I'll also briefly comment on the rikishi in focus. Starting at the very end of the Day 8 broadcast after the dust had settled, Sanbe Announcer and Kitanofuji (who returned from his lower back issues today) were lamenting the fact that there were no longer any one-loss rikishi at the end of the day.

Heading into Day 8, Takakeisho, Kotoshoho, and Tobizaru were all 6-1, and of those three rikishi, the only one who has any name recognition is Takakeisho. Against M4 Tochinoshin today, the Georgian simply henka'd left at the tachi-ai and shoved Takakeisho down in half a second. First, an Ozeki can get henka'd, but they have to react better than this. Takakeisho could barely catch himself as he plopped forward to the dohyo, and as the camera focused on him getting up and walking back to his corner, the dude can barely move when he's not fighting. You know how you see old people who are way overweight and they can barely get up or down stairs because they're so fat? Takakeisho walks just like this, and of all the rikishi in the division, I think his waddle is the worst as others on this site have pointed out.

Takakeisho fell to 6-2 with the loss while Tochinoshin is even steven at 4-4, but the sole reason that Tochinoshin chose to win this bout is this:



I didn't take the time to count the number of kensho the dude picked up, but there is the equivalent of $500 cash (USD) in each of those envelopes and there are close to 30 envelopes (you can only see half in the picture), so basically Tochinoshin doubled his monthly salary in less than one second's worth of work. This is going to frequently happen to Takakeisho and Asanoyama as we get later into the basho. The stack of cash is just going to be too hard for these guys to turn down.

As for M14 Tobizaru, he was lost in the ring against M10 Sadanoumi, and at one point he tried a lame keta-guri in the center of the ring. When that failed, Sadanoumi just rushed him out from there sending him to his second loss, and after the bout Tobizaru bit his tongue a bit in jest and had this smile on his face as if to say, "Did you see me try that keta-ugir?" I was like...is this a joke to you? Actually, I know the answer. You can't show me another legitimate sport in the world where the athletes competing at the highest level think their competition on the field of play is a joke. This is just a pure sign that these guys are not trying to win every bout every day. Tobizaru's 6-2 start has been meaningless because all of his wins have been compromised. I mean, you come into the day against a 2 win rikishi, and that's all you can muster??

As for M12 Kotoshoho, he ran into M17 Ichinojo today, and it was a Mongolith who wanted to win, so nuff said there. Kotoshoho could do nothing as Ichinojo brought him in close from the tachi-ai and easily dumped him with an uwate-nage. The ease with which these three losers..er..uh...one-loss rikishi were pounded today were contributed partly to the frustration expressed by Sanbe Announcer and Kitanofuji, but it's also the exact reason I saw the Yukan Fuji post an article on Saturday with this headline and picture:

The Aki Basho Lacks Any Excitement and Fan Interest in Contrast to Pro Baseball and the J-League

The premise of the article focused on a recent relaxation by the Japanese government on sporting events and how many people they'll allow into the venue. For outdoor events like baseball and soccer, they stadiums were limited to 5,000 spectators. In the case of sumo, the Association decided from the July basho that they'd cap seating to 2,500 spectators per day presumably because it's an indoor arena.

Beginning Saturday, however, all sports were now able to allow capacity up to half of the stadium. Now, it's a bit of an apples to oranges contrast between sumo and the outdoor sports would could draw tens of thousands of fans, but the point the article made was this. With baseball and soccer, the stadiums immediately filled up to half capacity or near half capacity on the first day, while attendance for sumo continues to be dismal and unchanged. In short, people are not clamoring to return to the sumos, and you already now my opinion on the matter.

Though the Association isn't releasing attendance numbers (which emphasizes the point of the article), the author did some rough counting and then estimated 800 people in the masu-seki, which make up the lower section of the arena. The Kokugikan has roughly 1,000 masu-seki seats which hold up to four people each, but the Association is only allowing 1 person per masu-seki, so capacity in the lower section is 1K, and then they hoped to make up the difference in the upper section where all the individual red seats are. The red seats have been all but empty until Day 8, and even then, they probably had 200 people in the reds today as opposed to 50.

The article also mentioned that the average haul for a Tokyo tournament under normal circumstances usually amounts to $10 million USD, but now they're only pulling in about a tenth of that.

These are all points that I've been talking about the entire basho, and if my speculation is correct, it's going to be like this all the way through next summer. We'll see if sumo adjusts their seating process for the November basho by allowing more than 25% capacity, but if they do and the fans continue not to show up, it's really bad PR.

It's a tough spot for sumo to be in, but what do they do? They simply don't have the domestic horses who can perform exciting and legitimate sumo to keep the fans interested.

Okay, let's work our way down the banzuke a bit touching on the rikishi of interest. Asanoyama's stabilizing phase continued today picking up a free win against Yutakayama who withdrew after letting up against Takakeisho on Saturday and coming up lame. What a joke Asanoyama is now at 5-3, and nobody is shelling out more money to see this kind of crap sumo being awarded with victories.

Sekiwake Daieisho dominated fellow Suckiwake Mitakeumi today coming with a sharp oshi attack that prompted a quick pull from Mitakeumi, and as soon as Mitakeumi went for the pull, Daieisho dispatched him with ease. Daieisho moves to 3-5 with the win while Mitakeumi falls to 4-4. Part of the danger of hyping guys pre-basho who rely on yaocho to pad their records is they can easily fall into mediocrity like Mitakeumi, and now how do you sell tickets?

All of the eggs have been transferred to Sekiwake Shodai's basket, and Shodai was dominated at the tachi-ai by M3 Myogiryu before latter quickly went limp and turned himself around for no reason to Shodai could rush him out from behind. The first and instinctive comment form Sanbe Announcer after the bout was, "Shodai can't be proud about this sumo." And this follows the pattern where these darlings win; however, the announcers aren't able to praise any aspect of the sumo or point out specific areas where the victor did well. They'll throw around the usual platitudes like "Shodai is genki" or "Shodai is active" or "Shodai is alert at the edge," but what they never say is what Shodai did to defeat his opponent.

Don't look now but M1 Terunofuji has reeled off 6 straight wins after a nice performance against M2 Tamawashi today. Terunofuji is the storyteller because he's the one who holds all the cards. There is nobody left on his schedule who can beat him straight up, so it comes down to a simple choice.

My biggest frustration for me this basho has been the kid gloves shown to M6 Takayasu. The former faux-zeki loses the tachi-ai every single day and then his opponents let up for him and give him the cheap win. You know when M3 Terutsuyoshi lets up for you that your sumo sucks, and so what if Takayasu makes this huge, fake run this basho. Is it going to sell any more tickets? The answer is what's happening now and what Yukan Fuji dared to report.

M9 Enho continues to get his ass kicked, and after being defeated quickly and soundly by M7 Aoiyama today, Enho found himself at 1-7. The bloom is definitely off of this guy's rose, and I wonder if the lack of kensho money coming into the stable from Hakuho has something to do with the stable's inability to finance wins for Enho of late.

M9 Onosho had M7 Ryuden let up for him today to halt his two-bout losing streak after that fake 5-0 start. The problem was that it was so obvious that it's not going to put one extra person in the cheap seats.

M11 Kotoshogiku made his return yesterday and easily defeated Enho, but in his bout against M16 Hoshoryu today, as the two were hooked up in the middle of the ring in yotsu-zumo, Kotoshogiku's leg gave out on him again, and Hoshoryu sensed it and graciously walked the former Ozeki back and out. It is not looking good for the Geeku who fell to 2-6 in defeat, and the dude will likely call it quits after this basho. As for Hoshoryu, he evens things up at 4-4, and I'm still waiting for a sweet Makuuchi win from him that's legit.

As we head into week two, I'll humor everyone by posting the leaderboard down to three losses:

6-2: Takakeisho, Shodai, Terunofuji, Takayasu, Kiribayama, Wakatakakage, Onosho, Kotoshoho, Tobizaru
5-3: Asanoyama, Takarafuji, Kagayaki, Chiyotairyu, Meisei, Ichinojo

This is what sumo looks like without any anchors. Essentially, it's an upper section of the Juryo division. It's why Sanbe Announcer and Kitanofuji were so bleak at the end of Day 8, and it's why the fans aren't making an effort to shell out their sweet moola to come and watch this.

I honestly don't know the correct choice for the Sumo Association moving forward. If they dial back the yaocho and the fake promotions for Japanese rikishi, the sport will return to the empty arenas we say when the foreigners took 10 straight years' worth of yusho. If they continue the road they're on now, the fans are going to continue to dwindle. You can only fake it for so long.

Okay, my ending is bleak too just like the NHK guys, but I just can't pretend to make something out of sumo that it's not.

See ya back for Day 9.

Day 6 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The Day 6 broadcast began with discussion of Sekiwake Shodai. Maybe they talked about some of the other rikishi before my feed began, but mine started with Shodai. They showed his records from the past two basho, which equal a paltry 19 wins, and they were trying to hype him as a legitimate Ozeki candidate...if not this basho then by next basho. That doesn't surprise me as the focus pre-basho was focused squarely on the Sekiwake coming in, but let's suppose Shodai does reach the Ozeki rank. Is that going to get anyone more excited about paying to come watch the sumos?

The Sumo Association has an agreement with NHK like no other in sports in that the Association charges NHK the same amount per basho regardless of viewership. I think most people know that NHK is a state-run media, and they actually tax each household with a television $30 bucks a month or whatever the current rate is, and in exchange, there are never any commercials on NHK.

So regardless of how well or how bad sumo is doing, the Association gets paid the same, and then they also fleece NHK each time they show bouts from previous basho. I don't have any idea what the current monetary agreement is between the two entities, but NHK is all that sumo has going for it right now in terms of survivability.

Yeah, I know about a thousand fans a day are in attendance, but sumo is used to the NHK revenue plus the gate revenue from 10 thousand fans a day in Tokyo. The difference is staggering, and I'm not sure how long sumo can endure this. Over the decades, they've obviously established an operating budget based on historical gate receipts, and now that the gate is no longer there, what do they do? Furthermore, I've been watching attendance closely this basho, and there's really been no change. We'll see if more people show up for the weekends, but prior to the final bout of the day, here is what attendance looked like:



I realize that due to Covid restrictions that seating is limited, but the arena is nowhere close to being at Covid capacity. Furthermore, as I mentioned in a previous report, I don't think any of the restrictions are going to change leading up to the Olympics next summer, so this is all sumo's got for close to another year. Bringing things full circle, I don't see how getting Shodai or Mitakeumi promoted to Ozeki is going to change anything because there's nothing about their sumo to get excited about. Absolutely nothing.

Moving onto the bouts, M17 Ichinojo had the path to the right inside and left outer grip at the tachi-ai against M15 Shimanoumi, but he refused to latch on letting Shimanoumi escape right, and as Shimanoumi moved laterally, the Slug took both arms to the outside and faked a pull, but all he was really doing was leaving himself completely exposed for his opponent. As the action stalled for a few seconds, it appeared that Shimanoumi had no idea what to do as Ichinojo lightly got his right arm inside again. I say lightly because an Ichinojo trying to win would have pulled his gal in snug as can be, but he just maintained separation here finally allowing Shimanoumi to execute the weakest of a tsuki with the left to the back of Ichinojo's right shoulder, and the Mongolian complied by walking himself out of the ring. The first words of commentary from the announcers were, "He [meaning Shimanoumi] was in danger there." In other words, Shimanoumi didn't do a single thing to defend Ichinojo or set up an attack; it was all the Mongolian who graciously falls to 4-2 while Shimanoumi moves to 3-3.

Our two rookies met up today in M14 Tobizaru and M16 Hoshoryu who came with a quick tsuppari attack with his left foot planted forward, but he wasn't using de-ashi or trying to get inside, and Tobizaru's response was to play defense and stretch his arms forward to keep his foe at bay. Still standing in the center of the ring, Hoshoryu kept up the busy but ineffective tsuppari until Tobizaru went for a weak swipe that barely connected, but that was Hoshoryu's cue to fake dive and put both palms to the dirt. Tobizaru was so unsure of that initial contact that he had to push into his opponent on his way down...a sure sign of no confidence in the first blow, but whatever. Not sure if Hoshoryu was paid for this or if his camp was guilted into letting the Japanese guy win, but Tobizaru moves to 5-1 and has been allowed to win all five of those bouts. As for Hoshoryu, he falls to 3-3, and I'm also on the record stating he doesn't have a legit win either, so fair's fair.

M15 Shohozan came with a nice hari-zashi tachi-ai against M12 Kotoshoho slapping with the right and getting the left arm inside, and while I thought he had a good play for the right outer, he only pressed forward lightly giving Kotoshoho plenty of room to maneuver. Kotoshoho was still lost and he circled in the center of the ring a bit trying to find something to do with his left hand, but he was completely out of sorts. Shohozan obviously wasn't trying to take advantage, however, and so Kotoshoho attempted a light shita-te-hineri move that of course sent Shohozan sprawling across the dohyo. Three bouts in and we have three fake falls just like that that completely defy Newton's laws of physics. Kotoshoho is gifted a 5-1 start while Shohozan falls to a wealthy 0-6, and before we move on...if there is such a difference between these two guys record-wise, why was there such a big difference at the tachi-ai in Shohozan's favor? Accepting sumo at face value rarely makes sense.

M12 Kaisei had the clear path to the front of M13 Meisei's belt with the left but he did nothing with the right hand, and this allowed Meisei to back up and move right, and Kaisei squared up well but still refused to attempt to grab his opponent. With Meisei bordering the ring, he went for a pull of Kaisei's outstretched hand, and he threw Kaisei off balance enough that Kaisei's body crashed into Meisei and knocked him beyond the straw. Not sure that was supposed to be the outcome here as Kaisei moves to 2-4 while Meisei falls to 3-3.

The comedy would continue as M10 Sadanoumi easily got moro-zashi against M10 Kotoeko at the tachi-ai, but instead of pressing forward chest to chest and pulling Kotoeko in close, Sadanoumi just stood there and allowed Kotoeko to back up a half step and get his right arm inside of Sadanoumi's defenseless left. I mean, it didn't even look like a maki-kae because Sadanoumi was applying zero pressure, but whatever. Now in migi-yotsu with Sadanoumi still not pressing forward, Kotoeko was able to turn the tables and easily body Sadanoumi back and across. As Sadanoumi went out, he swung at Kotoeko's right shoulder in a fake tsuki-otoshi attempt, but what he really did was a controlled jump down to the floor below looking for a safe landing. Kotoeko moves to 3-3 with the gift while Sadanoumi quietly falls to 2-4.

M11 Chiyotairyu jumped the gun twice against M9 Onosho who seemed hesitant to go, and perhaps that was the fear of God being manifest in Onosho knowing that this bout wasn't pre-arranged because when they got it right the third time, Chiyotairyu just came out and kicked Onosho's ass with a wham bam thank you ma'am tsuppari attack that was so decisive Onosho wanted no part of it as he bailed across the..uh..bales never considering a counter move. So much for all of this undefeated hype for Onosho who came into the day 5-0, but it's a perfect example of a guy who buys his wins and then gets faced with a bruiser who wants to kick his ass. Good on Chiyotairyu today as both dudes end the day at 5-1, and this bout felt really good after all the nonsense from the first five contests.

M8 Wakatakakage moved right at the tachi-ai going for a brief pull of M7 Ryuden, but the move was flawed and left Wakatakakage extremely vulnerable. Ryuden had both arms underneath Wakatakakage's body, but instead of establishing the inside position and lifting his foe upright, Ryuden just backed away faking a pull move of his own. Still refraining from getting an arm to the inside, Ryuden just stood there waiting for Wakatakakage to make a decent move, and the youngster's next move was a bad pull attempt that cause Wakatakakage to retreat to the other side of the dohyo. Ryuden was right on top of it, but he refused yet again to gain any sort of position, and from there, he kept himself sideways a bit as Wakatakakage just forced him out. The slow-mo replays of this one were quite damning, especially if you focus on Ryuden and what he's trying to do. I'll save you the effort: absolutely nothing. Such an obvious yaocho here as Wakatakakage moves to 4-2 while Ryuden is the opposite at 2-4.

M6 Takayasu and M8 Tokushoryu hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Tokushoryu had the clear path the right outer grip. He purposefully kept that right hand up high, however, near Takayasu's left shoulder doing nothing with it, and I knew the bout was fixed at that point. When they showed the replay, it was even more obvious as Tokushoryu had multple paths to that outer grip, but he kept pulling back. From there, Takayasu attempted a weak inside belt throw with the left, and that left him so vulnerable that Tokushoryu instinctively responded with a right tsuki-otoshi that had Takayasu just reeling at the edge. And yet, Tokushoryu let him out of it, and so Takayasu's response was a ridiculous 360 and then weak swipe that was apparently Tokushoryu's cue to put both palms to the dirt. How anyone can watch the slow motion replay of this and not see the yaocho is beyond me, but I'm sure there are plenty of ostriches out there. Takayasu moves to a joke of a 4-2 while Tokushoryu falls to 1-5.

M9 Enho faced a similar opponent size-wise today in M6 Kagayaki that he did yesterday in that fake win over Ryuden, and with Kagayaki's intent to win today, you could just see the stark contrast in the flow of the bout today compared to yesterday. Kagayaki swung both arms upwards from below at the tachi-ai just in case Enho tried to move forward, and that caused Enho to scoot left, and while he briefly had an arm to the inside, Kagayaki shoved it away with ease. Enho next attempted to get fresh with Kagayaki's right thigh, but Kagayaki stopped that nonsense simply by moving and firing thrusts towards his foe, and with Kagayaki on the clear attack, Enho's only option was to evade and try and spring some fort of trap near the edge. It would never happen though as Kagayaki's thust attack had Enho so befuddled that he stepped across the straw before he could evade left. The speed and determination from both parties in an Enho straight-up bout vs. an Enho fixed bout is so distinct and noticeable, and it was on display again here as Kagayaki scoots to 4-2 while Enho is a hapless 1-5.

As an aside, Kotoshogiku is going to try and make a return tomorrow, and they've paired him against Enho, so we'll see if Enho can actually pick up a legitimate win tomorrow.

M7 Aoiyama was hesitant in his tsuppari attack against M5 Takarafuji throwing a few thrusts but not driving forward with the legs, and so the two stood there at a brief standstill since Takarafuji was not trying to bully his way inside. As the two grappled a bit, Aoiyama went for a signature pull that sent Takarafuji sprawling, but instead of catching up and knocking Takarafuji across for good, Aoiyama waited for him to square back up. Aoiyama was clearly mukiryoku at this point as the two joined up in the center of the ring with hands pushing at each other's shoulders in the grapplin' position. After a few seconds of this, Aoiyama went for a keta-guri of all moves, and that's how you know he's really dinking around. The move failed of course, and so the Happy Bulgar immediately backed up as if to pull and as Takarafuji moved forward for the oshi kill, Aoiyama side-stepped him and sent him down tsuki-otoshi style. Yes, Aoiyama won the bout here, but he was still mukiryoku. It's like Hakuho who dinks around all the time in the ring constantly giving his opponents openings, but when they can't capitalize on them, so be it. More than anything it maintains a sense of parity between rikishi, so gunbai to Aoiyama here as he moves to 3-3 while Takarafuji falls to 4-2.

M5 Kiribayama and M2 Tamawashi engaged in a pretty good tsuppari contest today where Kiribayama seemingly had his way connecting on some good thrusts and dispatching Tamawashi in five seconds or so. My opinion here is that Tamawashi let him win because there was a lot of inaction on his part, but I think what's important here is that suppose Tamawashi came like this against another rikishi...like say an Onosho. Would he have been able to dispatch Tamawashi as cleanly and decisively? I think not. Not even the four darlings higher up the banzuke could have done this, so it was a good win for Kiribayama who moves to 4-2 even if I think Tamawashi (2-4) was a bit mukiryoku.

M2 Hokutofuji used his classic tachi-ai against M1 Takanosho where he chokes with the right while shading a bit left going for a tsuki on that side, and Takanosho was completely unprepared for it. And why would he be prepared? He buys nearly all of his wins, and so when someone comes full boar, he just crumbled as he did today. Hokutofuji's left tsuki turned Takanosho 90 degrees and off balance, and Hokutofuji just rushed him out from there in maybe two seconds. Hokutofuji moves to 2-4 while Takanosho falls to 3-3.

I was so glad to see M1 Terunofuji's sumo today against Komusubi Okinoumi because this is exactly what I've been talking about the entire basho in terms of his "sticking" to his opponent from the tachi-ai when he does his normal brand of sumo. From the get-go, Fuji grabbed a stifling left outer grip, and he used that to keep Okinoumi in close while he hemmed him in on the other side with a right pushing into Okinoumi's left side. With Terunofuji's legs driving forward, Okinoumi had no answer...especially the way his right arm was pinned in tight, and the force-out win took maybe three seconds. Had Terunofuji done this against the likes of Takakeisho and Mitakeumi the first two days, there's no question he'd be 6-0. For now, he's 4-2, and he holds all of the cards. As for Okinoumi, he takes his medicine falling to 1-5.

Komusubi Endoh didn't move his feet a millimeter at the tachi-ai against Sekiwake Mitakeumi grabbing a left frontal belt grip and then just standing there ducking forward and low waiting for Mitakeumi to pull him down. The pull came two seconds in, and just like that, Mitakeumi is gifted another cheap win. I'm incredulous that these guys are still hyped after such sorry ass sumo, but it is what it is. Mitakeumi has been gifted his 4-3 start while Endoh settles for 3-3.

M4 Tochinoshin reached for and grabbed a left outer grip at the tachi-ai against Sekiwake Shodai, but his reaction from there was to let go and back up positioning himself for a pull attempt (pictured at left). His left hand was placed at the back of Shodai's head while his right hand was perfectly placed at the back of Shodai's left shoulder, but instead of executing the pull, he abandoned it and continued to just move to his right bear-hugging Shodai with his arms up so high that Shodai was able to score the ridiculously easy force-out win. There was never a pause in this bout. It was Tochinoshin doing all of the movement and work and Shodai getting credit for another fake win. Shodai moves to an ill-gotten 5-1 while Tochinoshin falls to 2-4.

Sekiwake Daieisho pelted M4 Yutakayama with a straight-forward tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai while Yutakayama attempted to swipe the thrusts away, but this was all Daieisho who connected well with thrusts to Yutakayama's torso sending the M4 back and across with relative ease. Daieisho limps to 2-4 with the win while Yutakayama falls to the same 2-4 mark.

Oh brother! M3 Myogiryu dominated the tachi-ai against Asanoyama grabbing a firm left outer grip while getting an inside belt grip on the other side with the right hand, but instead of moving inwards and lifting Asanoyama upright in order to set up a force-out charge, Myogiryu just backed up, let go of the outer grip and held onto Asanoyama's sagari instead. On the other side, he abandoned the right inside potion and put that hand at the top of Asanoyama's head. Unthinkable sumo in a real bout, but this one was set up, so with Myogiryu's having abandoned everything and keeping his arms high and wide, Asanoyama assumed moro-zashi and easily forced Myogiryu back and across from there. I really am insulted when I watch sumo like this, and the Onokuni completely ignored Myogiryu's tactics as he tried to explain this one whole watching the replay. It was inexplicable for sure as Asanoyama picks up another charitable win at 3-3 while Myogiryu falls to 3-3.

M3 Terutsuyoshi henka'd to his right throwing a pretty good right roundhouse into the top of Takakeisho's head, but as he executed the move, he was already leaning backwards with feet aligned and standing on his heels. On the other side, Takakeisho isn't known for coming hard out of the gate, and so he easily squared up and shoved the off-balance Terutsuyoshi back those last few steps beyond the bales. I mean, give credit to Takakeisho for the forward attack, but when your opponent is leaning back on his heels at the edge anyway, it's pretty tough to eff that up. Obvious set up in this one as Takakeisho is gifted his 5-1 mark while Terutsuyoshi falls to 2-4. Remember that Takakeisho was kadoban last basho, so he's got to get those eight wins, and then we'll see what happens from there.

Well, no upsets today on paper and Chiyotairyu's complete dismantling of Onosho means it's getting a bit crowded at the top as we head into the first weekend. Justin may check in tomorrow, and we'll see what I do over the weekend.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Today marks the final day of the joubansen, or first five days, and the tournament has held few surprises so far. Terunofuji is the obvious story teller at this point despite his 0-2 start, and he's going to have a ridiculously light schedule in week 2. And when I say light schedule, I'm not talking about the strength of his opponents since everyone he's going to fight up here except for Tamawashi are light; rather, I'm referring to the list of no-names he'll be paired against in week 2. I'm not predicting a Terunofuji yusho at this point, especially since his sumo has not resembled the consistent solid attack he displayed last basho; I'm just saying he holds all the cards if that's what he and his stable master decide to do. With everyone else--namely Asanoyama, Takakeisho, Mitakeumi, and Shodai, they have to rely on the majority of their opponents to let up in order to win, and the sumo bears that out every day. It's far too early to start talking about the yusho, however, so let's get to the action starting from the bottom up.

The day began with rookie Hoshoryu taking on Nishikigi, and Nishikigi kept his arms wide open at the tachi-ai gifting Hoshoryu moro-zashi. Despite that, Nishikigi was able to body Hoshoryu back near the edge, and then he just let go of Hoshoryu's arms from the outside and let the rookie nudge him back to the center of the ring where Hoshoryu went for a light trip of Nishikigi's right leg, but Nishikigi was already spinning and falling in a different direction. In order to trip a guy, you have to be pushing him over your leg. This was just a light touch that Nishikigi anticipated leading to another fake fall from Hoshoryu's opponent as he's gifted a 3-2 start while Nishikigi falls to 2-3

M13 Meisei picked up the freebie today as M16 Kyokutaisei was forced to withdraw after rupturing his Achilles tendon darn it (as my mom would say). Meisei moves to 3-2, and I actually think Kyokutaisei fought on that bad leg for a day, so let's hope it's not injured too badly.

Speaking of kyujo, Kitanofuji also had to withdraw from the basho as one of the chief color guys on both the TV broadcast and the radio broadcast. The former Yokozuna is citing lower back pains that are making it difficult for him to sit upright for that long. With Kitanofuji out, that means Mainoumi is the top color guy on TV to try and spin the nonsense into believable sumo analysis. Hmm..sounds kinda like what I do!!

M17 Ichinojo and M12 Kaisei hooked up immediately in the migi-yotsu position where both dudes had left outer grips, but Ichinojo wasted no time throwing Kaisei over towards the straw and breaking off his outer grip. Now in firm control maintaining the left outer grip, Ichinojo briefly toyed with another dashi-nage before just executing the easy force out win. Kaisei didn't even try and counter here because he was had and he knew it. Ichinojo moves to 4-1 with that only blemish being the Day 1 gift given to Hoshoryu. As for Kaisei, he falls to 1-4.

M12 Kotoshoho came in low against M15 Shimanoumi at the tachi-ai whereupon Shimanoumi put his left hand at the back of Kotoshoho's right shoulder in perfect position to spin him sideways, but he never executed on the tsuki. With Kotoshoho now upright, Shimanoumi had the wide open path to duck under for moro-zashi or at least slip that left arm inside, but he did neither just standing there like a bump on a log until Kotoshoho weakly got his own right inside. On the other side, Shimanoumi could have easily countered with his own right inside, but he kept that arm up high resting against Kotoshoho's left shoulder. From there, all of a sudden Shimanoumi just backed himself up right out of the ring as if to go for a weak kata-sukashi while Kotoshoho followed in tow. Total yaocho here in favor of Kotoshoho who moves to 4-1 while Shimanoumi backs his way to 2-3.

M15 Shohozan reached for a frontal belt grip at the tachi-ai against M11 Chiyotairyu, but it was a dumb move as Chiyotairyu dusted off his freight train tsuppari attack and just blasted Shohozan back and across in one and a half seconds. Great stuff here from Tairyu who moves to 4-1 while Shohozan is still an o'fer.

M14 Tobizaru and M10 Kotoeko were involved in a wild contest were both focused on tsuppari; yet, neither guy had any solid footwork, so it was all upper body thrusts where both dudes looked too timid to attack. At one point Tobizaru had Kotoeko up against the edge, but just as he went for the final shove, Kotoeko darted right in escape and around and around they went again until Kotoeko finally got a right arm inside, which he used to force Tobizaru over and down yori-taoshi style.

If you've ever seen morning keiko at a sumo stable, try and recall the suri-ashi exercise. This is where the rikishi will put both forearms forward like a praying mantis and then drag/slide their feet one by one across the dohyo as they move forward. They do this as it's the basics for proper footwork. During a thrust attack, the legs should be driving forward in this manner and even during a force out charge, the legs should be driving forward across the dohyo. When Hakuho scores a yori-kiri win on his good days, he's squatting at the edge, which is the position from which you do suri-ashi.

In this bout there was none of that at either point and it showed in the sloppy sumo exhibited by both rikishi. You'll see, however, that when two guys are so steeped in yaocho that when a real bout occurs, the actual sumo content just goes to hell. As the dust settled, Tobizaru suffered his first loss at 4-1 and where was his stellar sumo today against a weak guy coming in? It was nowhere to be found because his first four bouts have been fixed. As for Kotoeko, he limps forward to 2-3.

M8 Tokushoryu and M10 Sadanoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Sadanoumi perfectly raised Tokushoryu up with the left arm meaning that Tokushoryu's left hip was closer to a right outer grip. Sadanoumi grabbed it straightway and dictated the bout from here forcing Tokushoryu back near the edge before doing a dashi-nage with the right outer and quickly transforming that to a scoop throw with the left that completely caught Tokushoryu off guard and sent him packing. What a slick move by Sadanoumi who moves to 2-3 while Tokushoryu falls to 1-4.

M9 Onosho's tachi-ai was weak against M7 Aoiyama who caught his foe with two hands to the neck, but instead of driving forward against his vulnerable opponent, Aoiyama went for a pull instead, but he graciously kept Onosho on his feet and just backed up and out of the ring as Onosho tried to keep pace. This was a great example of the loser doing all of the work including backing himself up and outta the ring. You can watch the replay and you'll see there wasn't a single thing that Onosho did that caused Aoiyama to be backed up against the straw, and Onosho finally gathered his wits as Aoiyama was standing on top of the tawara ready to be shoved out. Onosho is gifted a 5-0 start while Aoiyama gets paid to fall to 2-3.

M9 Enho's camp finally pried open the jar of petty cash and bought the dude a bout against M7 Ryuden. Enho henka'd right at the tachi-ai but failed to grab Ryuden's belt or any other part of this body, but Ryuden just stood upright and waited for Enho to charge back in and get settled. He finally got the left arm inside and grabbed the back of Ryuden's belt and Ryuden's reaction was to just wrap around that left arm and apply no pressure. Enho tried to lift Ryuden up by the inner right thigh--fresh, I know--but he just couldn't budge him, and through all of this Ryuden did absolutely nothing to latch onto Enho and neutralize him. As Enho began spinning Ryuden around a few times, he finally grabbed the back of Enho's belt, but he still exerted zero counter force as he allowed Enho to rush him out of the ring from behind.

This was completely typical of a fixed bout in Enho's favor where the little dude is seemingly so quick his opponent just can't keep up with his speed and skill. The problem is we've already seen too many bouts where Enho's opponents want to kick his ass, and that certainly wasn't Ryuden's intention today. Enho buys his first win at 1-4 while Ryuden falls to 2-3.

M6 Kagayaki dominated the tachi-ai against M8 Wakatakakage threatening the right arm inside before blasting Wakatakakage in the face with an excellent thrust using that same right hand, and that pushed Waka back near the edge where Kagayaki could have finished him off, but he failed to follow up with the left hand allowing Wakatakakage to squirt left and tug at Kagayaki's right arm. Still, Kagayaki was square with his opponent who was on his heels by the edge, and he had the perfect chance again to fire a few more kill shots but he refrained keeping his hands high around the neck and shoulder area but never going for anything. When a rikishi 1) fails to finish off his opponent when the chance is there, and 2) keeps his hands high and wide you know he's setting his opponent up for the win, and that happened here as Wakatakakage could do nothing even with a right arm to the inside, and eventually Kagayaki just pulled out of everything and stood straight up allowing Wakatakakage to push him across the entire ring and out with zero resistance. Shullbit sumo here as both rikishi end the day at 3-2.

M5 Kiribayama was completely non-committal at the tachi-ai against M5 Takarafuji flailing this way and that but never failing to get to the inside despite openings all over the place. As for Takarafuji, he was befuddled by Kiribayama's speed and overall busy nature, and he spent the first five seconds of the bout chasing his foe around the ring. The two finally hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Kiribayama signaled his intentions for reals by clasping his hand around Takarafuji's upper body just asking to get his ass kicked. I mean, who does that in a bout of sumo if their intent is to win? The answer is nobody, and the two grappled a bit more until Takarafuji grabbed a right outer grip, and Kiribayama was all too cooperative as Takarafuji "forced" him across the bales and out. Easy yaocho call here as Takarafuji moves to 4-1 while Kiribayama falls to 3-2.

M4 Tochinoshin came with a right kachi-age at the tachi-ai that was way too high against M6 Takayasu, and then shortly thereafter Shin just pulled both arms out high and wide gifting Takayasu the path the moro-zashi. Takayasu got the left arm so deep it was beyond the knot at the back of Tochinoshin's belt and then he was focused on grabbing the front of Shin's belt with the right hand. Despite Tochinoshin's giving him every chance possible to take charge, Takayasu was too hapless to do so, and the result was a nage-no-uchi-ai between Takayasu's left inside belt grip and Tochinoshin's right kote-nage position. There was very little power in either throw, and the difference was Tochinoshin's right leg inside of Takayasu's left that just instinctively lifted the former faux-zeki up and over just like that. Tochinoshin gave Takayasu every opening possible here, but he was too hapless to capitalize against Tochinoshin's size, so Tochinoshin will take the win at 2-3 while Takayasu falls to 3-2.

M4 Yutakayama seemed to take charge against M1 Takanosho at the tachi-ai firing thrusts into Takanosho at will, but instead of moving forward, Yutakayama was slowly backing up despite no pressure or shoves coming from his opponent. Just like the previous bout, it looked to me as if Yutakayama was offering his opponent an opening, but Takanosho just couldn't capitalize. With Yutakayama's feet against the tawara, he moved right and lifted up at Takanosho's left arm, and while it wasn't a strong move at all, Takanosho just crumbled to the dirt in defeat. I'm not sure that was supposed to happen, but Takanosho was hapless from the start today falling to 3-2. As for Yutakayama, he moves to 2-3 with the victory.

As a side note, I see that Takanosho is being touted as Onigiru-kun in the media, and I can't be sure, but it seems like I saw on NHK or read somewhere that the dude can pound down 25 o-nigiri in a single setting. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong down in the comments section, but I wish his sumo was as hardy as his appetite.

Moving right along, the two Komusubi met up today in Okinoumi vs. Endoh and they treated us to an outstanding gappuri yotsu contest. Okinoumi came with a kachi-age tachi-ai but quickly established the left arm inside grabbing a right outer grip, and as the two switched places in the ring, Endoh came away with a right outer of his own. As the two gathered their wits in the ring, you could see Endoh retool his grip on all folds of Okinoumi's mawashi, and his better outer grip allowed him to press the action, and it was beautiful to see both dudes exert force as Endoh had Okinoumi up on top of the straw, but Okinoumi used that extra momentum from the bales and his overall size advantage to rebuff his foe and push the action back towards the center of the ring. From there, it was Okinoumi's turn to attack with the left inside position, and now it was his turn to force Endoh up onto the straw, but Endoh's outer grip was just too good, and when Okinoumi was forced to relent, Endoh took advantage of the momentum shift and finally forced Okinoumi across for good.

A bout like this sticks out like a sore thumb these days, but this was easily the best bout of the first five days. In fact, I don't think we'll see a better fought bout than this the rest of the tournament. Endoh moves to 3-2 while Okinoumi falls to 1-4 and before we move on, as I scanned the wires for pictures, there wasn't a single pic or mention of this article anywhere in the Japanese media.  It's an indication that the focus is not on good sumo but the names they hope to hype in order to sell more tickets.

I wish we could have ended the day on that note, but we've got the darlings to get to so here goes. We'll start off with Sekiwake Shodai against M2 Hokutofuji, and Hokutofuji came with his usual tachi-ai where he goes for the throat with the right while moving left only this time his charge was just weak and he all but backed his way over in front of the chief judge just waiting for Shodai to rush over and push him out. And that the Sekiwake did in about two seconds. What a weak bout of sumo with no pressure from either party as Shodai is gifted a 4-1 record while Hokutofuji falls to 1-4. I mean, you contrast this bout with the one between the two Komusubi, and you can absolutely tell when both guys are trying.

Up next was Sekiwake Daieisho vs. M1 Terunofuji in a bout where Terunofuji reached for the left inside from the tachi-ai and had Daieisho's left arm wrapped up on the other side...if he wanted it. Curiously, he didn't and so Daieisho was able to back up and to his right making Fuji give chase. Fuji the Terrible moved well and kept pace with Daieisho who wasn't able to really fire tsuppari because he wasn't moving forward, and so around the ring they went where Terunofuji once again got the left arm inside and right arm around Daieisho's left, but he wasn't pulling his gal in snug for whatever reason. Instead, Terunofuji executed a very light force out charge leaving himself vulnerable, but Daieisho wasn't able to counter and pull him down before stepping out. Terunofuji moves to 3-2 with the win, but he definitely let Daieisho (1-4) hang around in this one.

Fuji's stablemate, M3 Terutsuyoshi, was paired against our final Sekiwake, Mitakeumi, and Terutsuyoshi's tachi-ai consisted of his leaning forward too far with arms extended as if to say, "Pull me down now, bro." And Mitakeumi did. Good grief, what a terrible display of sumo. Terutsuyoshi put both palms down to the dirt after the light arm tug from Mitakeumi, but no other part of his body touched the dirt, so at least the two don't need to shower after this one. Mitakeumi moves to an unimpressive 3-2 with the gift while Terutsuyoshi falls to 2-3.

M3 Myogiryu fired a few tsuppari Takakeisho's way, but he was slowly backing up as he did so. Takakeisho didn't connect on anything until Myogiryu was up against the straw, and at that point, Myogiryu just kept his arms out wide giving Takakeisho a big juicy target. This one lasted maybe three seconds, and it was all Myogiryu just throwing the momentum in Takakeisho's favor from the get-go. Takakeisho moves to 4-1 with another fixed bout under his belt while Myogiryu falls to a harmless 3-2.

The day's final bout was similar as M2 Tamawashi looked to initially come with tsuppari against Asanoyama from the tachi-ai, but he couldn't start moving back fast enough keeping his arms up high and wide without really going for anything, and the result was Asanoyama's easily chasing Tamawashi around the ring and out in just a few seconds. Such a lightweight way to end the day, and I'd be surprised if anyone was fooled by such mukiryoku sumo. Both parties end the day at 2-3 as Asanoyama is gifted another charitable win. Before we conclude, I was scanning the wires for today's pictures, and I couldn't help notice how identical Takakeisho and Asanoyama's bouts were. I've sandwiched the side by side pictures above this paragraph, and it doesn't matter who is who.

After Asanoyama's second "win," Mainoumi declared that he has now entered a "stability phase" implying that the 0-3 start was just a fluke and this is the real Asanoyama. Then, after the yumi-tori-shiki just as NHK was signing off, the NHK Announcer repeated the phrase in regards to both Ozeki. I can just see the sheep watching the broadcast thinking to themselves, "Well, they said it...it must be true." Good thing for that.

And speaking of stability phases, I do believe I'm back again tomorrow!!

Day 4 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
As I was watching the Day 4 broadcast today, it just felt as if Atsui Announcer and Mainoumi were trying too hard to make something out of nothing in regards to the action atop the dohyo. Without the two Yokozuna and legitimate Ozeki, the basho just feels rudderless so far. The expectation coming in was that the yusho would come down to either Asanoyama, Takakeisho, Mitakeumi, or Shodai, but with the horrible start from Asanoyama, that leaves us with three rikishi who cannot solely carry a basho, and it's showing in the ring.

Let's get to said dohyo where M17 Ichinojo was passive at the tachi-ai letting J1 Ikioi come to him, and in doing so The Slug was backed up a step or two, but he came out of the fray with the right inside and left outer grip, a position from which Ikioi simply could not recover. Ichinojo took his time keeping his gal in snug before executing a textbook yori-kiri leading with that left outer grip. It's how they write it up as Ichinojo moves to 3-1 while Ikioi falls to 1-3.

M16 Kyokutaisei came in low at the tachi-ai against M15 Shimanoumi before moving left, and as the dust settled, the two came away in migi-yotsu where Shimanoumi enjoyed the left outer grip. After a few seconds of inaction, it looked as if Kyokutaisei wanted to duck under and break off that outer grip, but Shimanoumi quickly ducked his head, retooled that outer grip to the front of the belt, and then bulldozed Kyokutaisei back. Kyokutaisei attempted a quick pull but that just added to his demise across the edge as both rikishi end the day at 2-2. Kyokutaisei came up limping after his Day 3 bout, so keep an eye on that moving forward.

M15 Shohozan came high with his tsuppari attack against M16 Hoshoryu, but there were no de-ashi behind the attack, and it was if he was just signaling to the Mongolian, "Come and get me." Hoshoryu brushed off Shohozan's extended arms easily and briefly flirted with the right hand at Shohozan's belt turning him a bit before just burying his head into Shohozan's chest and pushing him out just like that. I thought Shohozan was mukiryoku here as Hoshoryu moves to 2-2 while Shohozan falls to 0-4.

Before we move on, I misstated on day 1 when I said that Hoshoryu was already likely better than any Japanese rikishi on the banzuke. He's not, but it doesn't mean he can't get there with a little more bulk and experience.

M14 Tobizaru's tachi-ai against M12 Kaisei was horrible where he had the total C3PO arms going up high towards the Brasilian just clueless as to what to do, and what was more comical was Kaisei's failure to exploit it and get to the inside. Instead, Kaisei just stood there waiting for the rookie to make a move. Said move was a weak pull where once again Kaisei failed to make him pay, and then when Tobizaru darted left, Kaisei just played along and spun around 180 degrees allowing the rookie to bum rush him across the dohyo and out. The announcers were so excited to declare Tobizaru's record at 4-0, but I was thinking to myself, "For doing what?" What a poor display of sumo here from the victor, but when yaocho is in play, this is the result. As for Kaisei, he falls to 1-3 without a care in the world.

M11 Chiyotairyu showed M12 Kotoshoho the business crushing him from the tachi-ai and driving him over to the side of the dohyo, but then all of a sudden Tairyu just halted his attack and waited for Kotoshoho to make a move. That move was to shift right as Chiyotairyu just fumbled his way forward and down in a fixed bout in favor of Kotoshoho that left both dudes 3-1.

M13 Meisei and M10 Kotoeko struck well at the tachi-ai, but there was always a bit of separation between the two as Kotoeko first threatened a right arm inside while Meisei whiffed on a reckless left kote-nage. After this initial flurry, they flailed away with random tsuppari until Kotoeko gave a weak tug at Meisei's extended right arm causing Meisei to just flop forward and down in a direction different from the direction of the tug. Whatever as Kotoeko picks up his first win at 1-3 while Meisei is even steven at 2-2.

M9 Enho issued a quick hari-te at the tachi-ai, but M9 Onosho just plowed right through it quickly bodying Enho back, and in the process, Enho was able to get the left arm insie and right outer grip. It meant nothing, however, as Onosho just latched onto that left arm and used it to force Enho across the dohyo and out. This was similar to a kime-dashi with a grip on just one arm, but whatever it was, it worked as Onosho easily moves to 4-0 while Enho really needs someone to let up for him at 0-4.

M8 Wakatakakage moved left at the tachi-ai putting both hands at M10 Sadanoumi's right shoulder, and Wakatakakage just continued circling left and dragging Sadanoumi down and out by that right shoulder. I think Sadanoumi coulda done more to stand his ground and establish the right arm inside, but what do I know? Wakatakakage moves to 2-2 while Umi falls to 1-3.

M7 Ryuden and M7 Aoiyama traded tsuppari at the tachi-ai were neither dude was looking to move forward with good footwork, and after a few seconds of this stalemate, Aoiyama finally plodded forward but didn't look committed in his charge, and so Ryuden was able to skirt left and turn the tables putting Aoiyama in position with his back against the tawara. They briefly resumed tsuppari until Aoiyama went for an uncommitted pull, and that was the momentum shift that Ryuden needed to score the final shove out win leaving both guys at 2-2.

M6 Kagayaki and M8 Tokushoryu hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but the bout didn't feel right from the start. Despite having Kagayaki where he wanted him, Tokushoryu's right inside position was purposefully weak, and so the two circled the dohyo a few times where Tokushoryu had his opponent standing on the tawara completely upright. Kagayaki was dead to rights here, but Tokushoryu just let him out of it, and so the sloppy bout continued where Tokushoryu next went for a pull attempt while retreating just kneeling himself to the dohyo in self defeat. I mean, Kagayaki was completely hapless here and did nothing to put Tokushoryu his heels, and this was a good example of the loser doing all the work including the silly dive at the end. They shouldn't have showed slo-mo replays of this one at the end because it was obvious as Tokushoryu falls to 1-3 while Kagayaki moves to 3-1.

M5 Kiribayama stuck M6 Takayasu with a nice left choke hold at the tachi-ai that stood the former faux-zeki upright, and at this point the Mongolian coulda done whatever he wanna, but he stupidly (and intentionally) backed up hoping Takayasu would push him out. When Takayasu couldn't, the two hooked back up in hidari-yotsu and right there in the center of the ring, and Kiribayama grabbed the right outer grip...and then promptly let it go. He faked a few more tries at it until Takayasu finally mounted a force-out, and Kiribayama's response was to just go with the flow. You can't point to a single thing Takayasu did to set this one up. It was all Kiribayama including his willingness to lose in the end as both rikishi settle for 3-1 records.

M4 Tochinoshin's tachi-ai consisted of his putting both arms high at the back of M5 Takarafuji's head as if to pull. The pull never came of course, and Shin just left his arms up there as Takarafuji bulldozed him back and out in two seconds flat. Sheesh, after a decent start to the day, we've had a ton of fake bouts in the middle layer as Takarafuji moves to 3-1 while Shin falls to 1-3.

Hooboy. And just as I mention the phrase fake sumo, we got the M3 Myogiryu - M4 Yutakayama debacle. From the tachi-ai, you could just see Myogiryu not wanting to get inside even though Yutakayama failed to come with tsuppari at the tachi-ai. A few seconds in, Myogiryu backpedaled for no reason allowing Yutakayama to catch him briefly with a paw to the neck, but Yutakayama was not moving forward with his legs and so Myogiryu slipped into moro-zashi at the edge. And then promptly abandoned it as the two went back to the center of the ring. I mean, there was never any continuity or flow in this one, so when Yutakayama finally brushed against Myogiryu's left arm, the latter just fell over taking a knee at the edge. As Yutakayama scooted back to his side, you could just see the guilt on his face as he buys his first win at 1-3. Myogiryu had plenty of room to sell falling (literally) to 3-1.

After a blatant false start that was called back, M3 Terutsuyoshi seemed hesitant the second time around shading right against Komusubi Endoh, but the Komusubi read it well and kept his arms low and inside easily bodying Terutsuyoshi back and clear off the the dohyo without needing a belt grip. It wouldn't surprise me if Endoh was calling in a favor here as both dudes finish 2-2.

Sekiwake Daieisho struck M1 Takanosho well at the tachi-ai driving his hands into his opponent's neck, and the Sekiwake dictated the pace the first half before just stopping and leaving his hands up high and non-committed. From there, Takanosho finally took charge driving his palms into Daieisho's chest as the latter continued to keep his hands up high, and once Daieisho was driven back to the straw, he just stood there and allowed himself to be pushed straight back. Takanosho bought this win here as he moves to 3-1 while Daieisho falls to 1-3.

In a strange bout, Komusubi Okinoumi put his left hand at the front of Sekiwake Mitakeumi's belt at the tachi-ai before quickly withdrawing it and pulling both arms way out wide just gifting the Sekiwake moro-zashi. But Mitakeumi was completely listless and really couldn't bulldoze Okinoumi out, and so Okinoumi pressed with the left outer grip dragging Mitakeumi to the edge where he just waited for the right counter scoop throw to come. It came alright but it was so weak that Okinoumi had no pressure to play along with, so he stood there hopping and holding onto the left outer grip as Mitakeumi stepped back and across. Oops. Okinoumi gave the Sekiwake every opening possible here, but if the dude can't capitalize on it, he doesn't deserve the win. It just kills me how they always hype guys based on hope and desire and never on actual sumo content. Mitakeumi now falls to 2-2 while Okinoumi picks up his first win at 1-3.

The M1 Terunofuji - Sekiwake Shodai bout was curious as Terunofuji moved hard looking as if to get the right arm inside and left outer grip, but he pulled back while still bodying Shodai back. For no apparent reason, Terunofuji backed up into the center of the ring, but Shodai wasn't able to take advantage, and so the M1 resumed a tsuppari attack that drove Shodai back again and out. What strange sumo from Terunofuji who normally loves to latch onto his opponent, but I think this was more of Shodai's inability to do anything even though Terunofuji let him hang around, and so the Mongolian just pushed him out in the end. Shodai suffers his first loss at 3-1 while Fuji evens things up at 2-2.

It was only a matter of time before Asanoyama got his first sympathy win, and it came today at the hands of M2 Hokutofuji. The bout seemingly wanted to go to migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Hokutofuji wasn't going to latch on and Asanoyama has been too frazzled to execute textbook sumo, and so a few seconds in Hokutofuji just backed up two full steps as if to pull, but he of course never made contact with his foe. As Asanoyama approached, Hokutofuji got the right arm inside again and grabbed a left outer grip and started to move left, which would have let him easily dashi-nage Asanoyama across the straw, but you could see him squelch that muscle memory and just stand there waiting for the final blow with the two upright and still in migi-yotsu. Hokutofuji never tried to move laterally as Asanoyama finally pushed him off the dohyo altogether, and Hokutofuji crashed down hard onto his back, a clear sign of what happens when you let up in the ring. You just watch the slow motion replay of this one and there isn't a single thing that Asanoyama does to force Hokutofuji back, and the reason it took so long for him to shove Hokutofuji off the dohyo is because he didn't create the momentum to do so in the first place. It was all Hokutofuji all the time. This was embarrassing stuff if you ask me as Asanoyama is gifted his first win at 1-3 while Hokutofuji better get paid after this one falling to 1-3.

In the day's final bout, M2 Tamawashi had one decision to make against Takakeisho: Do I? Or don't I? Unfortunately, he didn't engaging his foe in a tsuppari attack that saw the rikishi flail around all corners of the ring with Tamawashi having the clear opening to the right inside and then choke holds that had Takakeisho near the edge, but through it all he kept letting Takakeisho back into the bout, and then at the end, he put both hands wide against Takakeisho's shoulders and just waited for the final shove-out to come. Easy yaocho call here as well that sees Takakeisho move to 3-1 while Tamawashi falls to 2-2. It's worth pointing out again that Takakeisho knew this bout was fixed coming in because he didn't attempt a single pull.

We'll pick it back up tomorrow.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Three days in and I already have the feeling of, "Will this never end?" Pre-basho, it was clear that the Association wanted the three Sekiwake hyped. By default, you also have the two dudes ranked at Ozeki, and the only other rikishi fighting in the tournament besides those five who got any ink whatsoever was Hoshoryu. I get it that any major sport needs to market its star players, but the problem with sumo is that the "star" players have lousy sumo skills, and it's obvious atop the dohyo. Of the six who received the pre-basho hype, five of them lost today, but look at the bright side...I'm not going to call as many yaocho.

We began the day with M16 Hoshoryu moving left at the tachi-ai and looking for the cheap outer grip, but it was M16 Kyokutaisei who reacted well grabbing a left outer early that was so close to the front, it was pinching Hoshoryu's right arm useless. At that point you could see how uncomfortable the rookie was especially when Kyokutaisei next worked his way onto the front of the belt with the right hand. Hoshoryu didn't have a pot to piss in as Kyokutaisei went for a quick dashi-nage, and while Hoshoryu survived, Kyokutaisei grabbed the front of the belt again, threatened a leg trip, and then forced Hoshoryu all the way over and out yori-taoshi style.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've seen a Mongolian be defeated like this in such technical fashion, and if Hoshoryu goes back to watch the tape, he needs to focus on that stupid tachi-ai Go hard and establish the inside first, and then you'll be just fine. As for now, he's only got that gift from Ichinojo on Day 1 on his resume at 1-2. Kyokutaisei is 2-1 if you need him.

And before we move on, NHK showed Uncle Asa's very first win in the Makuuchi division against Daishi. Asashoryu's sumo back then was still a bit unpolished, and I was able to see some similarities between the two particularly how Hoshoryu's gonna struggle a bit until he puts on more weight.

Now after all of that analysis, I'll save some bandwidth here by informing everyone that M17 Ichinojo struck M15 Shohozan like a brick wall at the tachi-ai and then promptly moved left pulling the Dark One down about a second in. Ichinojo is 2-1 while Shohozan falls to 0-3.

M13 Meisei kept M15 Shimanoumi upright with a few tsuppari before backing up to his right and going for a quick pull to which Shimanoumi bit hook, line, and sinker Because this came in the center of the ring, there was a lot of ground for Shimanoumi to cover after being pulled, and he didn't quite make it to the edge. Shimanoumi turned around slowly just as Meisei came in to push him sideways and out that last step. This was our first fixed bout on the day, but fortunately it wasn't obvious to most as Meisei moves to 2-1 while Shimanoumi falls to 1-2.

M12 Kotoshoho and M14 Tobizaru engaged in an active tsuppari affair where Tobizaru was able to keep Kotoshoho upright. I thought there were multiple chances for Kotoshoho to get inside, but he didn't, and so he allowed Tobizaru to dictate the pace as they went around the ring trading shoves. About eight seconds in, Tobizaru went for a poorly executed hikkake where he pulled at Kotoshoho's right arm, and the Sadogatake rikishi just hit the dirt in a direction that was different from the direction of that tug. I was spicious throughout this one when I saw Kotoshoho fail to get inside as he had plenty of openings, he had the size advantage, and he was fighting a rookie, but then when I saw that dive at the end it silled the dill. Tobizaru has paid for his 3-0 start while Kotoshoho falls to 2-1.

At this point they announced the withdrawal of M11 Kotoshogiku giving M11 Chiyotairyu the freebie on the day. If Kotoshogiku is unable to return later in the basho, this will seal his Juryo fate for next basho.

M12 Kaisei grabbed the quick left outer grip against M10 Kotoeko at the tachi-ai, and Kotoeko wasn't able to shake out of it leading to a migi-yotsu contest where Kaisei had the left outer grip and Kotoeko was simply lost. Having given up the outer grip, Kotoeko kept his hips out wide on that side and tried to keep Kaisei away from the firm inside position, and so they grappled this way for a bit before Kaisei scored the easy force-out win leading mostly with that left outer grip obtained at the tachi-ai. Kaisei picks up his first win at 1-2 while Kotoeko is winless.

M9 Enho tried a neko-damashi against M10 Sadanoumi at the tachi-ai and despite trying to shimmy left, Sadanoumi was able to latch onto him with a left outer grip, and that was all Sadanoumi needed to force Enho over to the edge and dump him across before he could even think of a counter move. If you're Enho (who fell to 0-3), the last thing you want to see coming into the day is an opponent who really needs the win. Sadanoumi did as he moves now to 1-2.

M9 Onosho looked for moro-zashi at the tachi-ai against M8 Wakatakakage, and while he didn't quite get it, he had the right arm inside deep and was pushing Wakatakakage upwards chest to chest. From that point, Onosho decided to go for the left outer grip and execute a do or die force-out charge, but Onosho wasn't able to grab that grip, and it allowed Wakatakakage to respond extremely well with a counter utchari that caused both dudes to crash down to the dirt at the same time. It was so close I thought they were going to call for a do-over, but they said Wakatakakage's body hit down first, so gunbai to Onosho...who moves to 3-0 in the process. As for Wakatakakage, he falls to 1-2.

M7 Aoiyama henka'd to his left against M8 Tokushoryu easily slapping his foe down in less than a second. Nice uneventful stuff here as Aoiyama moves to 2-1 while Tokushoryu falls to 1-2.

M6 Kagayaki was able to place two hands up and under M6 Takayasu keeping him upright and away from the belt and there was curious inaction from the part of Takayasu who really did nothing except go for a wild slap towards Kagayaki's head midway throughout the bout. Kagayaki was able to nudge the willing Takayasu back near the edge where Kagayaki shaded right and just leaned his body downwards into Takayasu's extended left arm, and that was enough to cause Takayasu to put both palms to the dirt and signal defeat. I'm actually surprised that NHK showed the replay from the backside in such slow motion because it clearly showed that Takayasu just took a dive anticipating a slap or pull down from Kagayaki that never came. Both rikishi end the day at 2-1.

M7 Ryuden and M5 Takarafuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu sumo from the tachi-ai whereupon Ryuden made zero effort to contest the bout. Staying stiff and upright, he allowed Takarafuji to grab the right outer grip and force Ryuden back and across just like that. Takarafuji moves to 2-1 with the gift while Ryuden falls to 1-2.

M4 Yutakayama and M4 Tochinoshin struck each other hard at the tachi-ai where Tochinoshin was content to play Yutakayama's game and battle him with shoves instead of at the belt. The bout didn't have a lot of continuity to it, but Tochinoshin used his size and experience to bully Yutakayama around and out with little trouble. Shin picks up his first win at 1-2 while Yutakayama falls to 0-3.

M3 Terutsuyoshi came in low against M5 Kiribayama looking to get the right arm inside or at the belt, but in a flash Kiribayama scooted to his left and scored the quick kata-sukashi win in about one second. Despite not doing any forward moving sumo, Kiribayama is 3-0 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 2-1.

M2 Tamawashi used his long-arm tsuppari of the law to keep Komusubi Okinoumi upright and far away from the belt, and throughout the bout he focused on choke holds to take away Okinoumi's momentum, so around and around they went with Okinoumi never coming close to the belt resulting in the methodic oshi-dashi win for The Mawashi. He moves to 2-1 while Okinoumi is winless at 0-3.

M1 Takanosho won the tachi-ai against Sekiwake Mitakeumi standing him upright whereupon Takanosho went for a quick pull. It didn't work well, but Mitakeumi's only response after gathering his wits was a counter pull attempt of his own, and Takanosho read the move like a dirty manga on the subway easily pushing Mitakeumi back and across with little effort. Hooboy as both rikishi stand at 2-1.

At this point of the broadcast, the chief judge, Miyabiyama, just got up from his cushion ringside and exited the venue.  I was like, "What?  We don't have to watch the rest of the bouts?"  My excitement was short-lived after NHK announced that Miyabiyama had merely gone to the bathroom.  In the media afterwards, it was funny to hear all of the reasons why he had to do that.

"Well, he was having pains in his stomach."

"He said that he didn't feel well and needed to get up."