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Aki Basho Day 13 Comments
It really feels like the basho peaked yesterday with the Hoshoryu - Aonishiki matchup. Yes, Hoshoryu lost on purpose, but the bout contained a lot of action, the fans were going crazy, and the ending was quite spectacular. The bout afterwards had well over 2X as many hits on YouTube compared to any other bout of the tournament to that point, and it was closing in on 3X as many views as Onosato's bout on the same day. Isn't it ironic that the bout that really defined this tournament was held between two foreign rikishi? Hoshoryu's willingness to lose that bout seemed to breathe life back into the tournament for one day, but at the end of Day 13, it felt as if the momentum had already disappeared.

This was NHK's leaderboard heading into the day, so let's focus on it first:

11-1: Onosato, Hoshoryu
10-2: Takanosho
9-3: Aonishiki, Shodai, Ryuden

Going in chronological order, M17 Ryuden moved way up the banzuke to take on M2 Ohho, and Ohho greeted Ryuden with two hands to the neck knocking him back a step and standing him upright. This kept Ryuden away from the belt or Ohho's insides, but then Ohho began slowly moving backwards. Fortunately, he never lost sight of Ryuden's neck and always had a paw pushing into it, but it just felt that if Ryuden had really wanted to, he could have found a way to the inside when Ohho began giving up ground. About five seconds into the bout, Ohho went for a risky slapdown, and Ryuden stumbled forward and out of the ring.

I could easily go either way on this bout in regards to Ryuden's will to win here, but the key factor to the bout is that Ohho dominated the tachi-ai but then needed a retreat and iffy slapdown to win. It's just really nice when you get to bouts that involve the leaders and guys win with linear sumo. Oh well. Ryuden is officially knocked out of the race he was never in at 9-4 while Ohho picks up kachi-koshi at 8-5.

Next up was M7 Takanosho coming into the day with just two losses taking on Komusubi Aonishiki who had three losses. Takanosho caught Aonishiki well with paws to the neck at the tachi-ai, but Aonishiki stood his ground threatening to get to the inside. That caused Takanosho to lose confidence in his initial attack, so he next gave up ground thinking pull. Aonishiki is not an offensive-minded guy; he waits for his foes to tire and then he counters extremely well, and so he was patient here as Takanosho thought about the left inside position, but he abandoned it straightway. At that point, Aonishiki moved to his left getting his fingers tangled in the side of Takanosho's belt, and he was able to dashi-nage Takanosho off balance and to the side ever so slightly, and that's when he went for the kill. Aonishiki overdid it just a bit in driving Takanosho down to the venue floor, and it could have been scary because Takanosho's right leg was still stuck atop the dohyo, but he seemed okay afterwards.

Both dudes now stand at 10-3, but the yusho line will not fall that low this basho, so both dudes are out of the race. One thing to note here....this bout was obviously fought straight up, and there were no surprises in Aonishiki's sumo. He played defense from the start and waited six or seven seconds to pounce. In his bout yesterday against Hoshoryu, Aonishiki didn't have time to play defense. Hoshoryu was running the two this way and that, and it was Hoshoryu who set up the kiri-kaeshi. The composition of both of these bouts was completely different in regards to Aonishiki's sumo.

M11 Shodai had an extremely tall order today against Sekiwake Kirishima, but at least Kirishima played nice and didn't destroy the former Ozeki. The Sekiwake had a frontal belt grip from the start, but he let it go quickly and then bested Shodai in a shove match. He was still letting Shodai hang around, however, but Shodai could only play defense. Kirishima worked a face slap in the mix and then he threatened a kote-nage, but he obviously wasn't going for the quick win. Finally, Shodai latched onto Kirishima's left arm near the edge, but it was mostly to keep himself upright and not to counter, and at that point, Kirishima softly forced him back and across...and down to a 9-4 record. As for Kirishima, he decides to win one finally in moving to 6-7.

The penultimate bout featured Yokozuna Hoshoryu taking on Kotozakura, and this was a big dud. Hoshoryu kept both arms wide at the tachi-ai just in case Kotozakura charged forward looking to get inside. He didn't, and so Hoshoryu grabbed a left outer grip and just pulled Kotozakura toward him as he stepped to the side and out of the ring in front of the chief judge's seat. What an anticlimactic bout that was obviously thrown, and you look at the pic at left, and what was Hoshoryu's left let doing on the outside of Kotozakura's?  It was all Hoshoryu setting up the loss just as he did yesterday.  It looks like the pressure got to Asahiyutaka and the Hoshoryu camp. It's unfortunate that yusho races have to be built up and reinforced with yaocho, but it's nothing new. Hoshoryu falls to 11-2 now in defeat while Kotozakura..uh..improves to 8-5.

The final bout of the day saw Onosato take on Sekiwake Wakatakakage, and the tachi-ai was fiddy-fiddy before Wakatakakage got the right arm inside coupled with a left outer grip, but instead of forcing Onosato upright and cutting off his right inside position with the left outer grip, Wakatakakage simply moved to the side of the dohyo and across the straw right in front of the chief judge. This bout was a carbon copy of the previous bout, and it was a bland way to end the day with two uncontested bouts that were ruled force outs but no force was involved in either. The result is Onosato moving into sole possession of first place at 12-1 while Wakatakakage falls to 6-7.

Hoshoryu's loss to Kotozakura had twice as many views as Onosato's win on YouTube, and it says something that people are more interested in a Hoshoryu loss than they are an Onosato win.

The reshuffled leaderboard heading into the weekend is:

12-1: Onosato
11-2: Hoshoryu
10-3: Aonishiki, Takanosho

Hoshoryu draws Wakatakakage tomorrow and there's no sense breaking that one down.

The Onosato - Kotozakura matchup is compelling because I don't believe either of these two have a legit win the entire tournament. As such, I'm not sure who the favorite is. If it's real, Onosato's only chance is to win with a pull. All Kotozakura needs to do is get Onosato into the clinch, and he will win. It wouldn't surprise me if Kotozakura just rolled over, but we'll see.

I guess we're right back at it tomorrow.

Aki Basho Day 12 Comments
One aspect of Sumo that is always worth noting is the marketing. I could argue that there are some sports that need zero marketing. The NFL here in the states is such an example. International soccer events like the World Cup or even more localized events like the UEFA Championships are another example. Basically tell us when and where, and we'll be there. Major League Baseball needs little marketing, but contrast that to minor league baseball where the entire fan experience is chock full of gimmicks in between innings in an effort to compensate for the fact that you are not watching major league competition.

While sumo doesn't have gimmicks in between bouts, a lot of their marketing ploys are along the lines of minor league baseball. They have the yellow bird mascot to appeal to children; they comp local schools tickets if they'll bring the students; and they even make quite a hard push for female fans. I'm still seeing those clickbait news headlines, and one of them recently said something like, "We all saw that pretty lace blouse on the broadcast, but was it really her in the crowd?" I didn't bother clicking on the article because I didn't care who the actress or celebrity in attendance was, but it was an obvious ploy to grab the eye of the female reader.

One of the first clickbait articles that stood out from today were two comedians they comped from row seats to, and a rather large sports outlet, Sports Hochi, dutifully wrote up the article:

The interesting thing about sumo as well is that they actually use marketing atop the dohyo by manipulating wins, losses, and ranks. The yusho race is another example where they love it to go into Sunday just to keep as many eyeballs on the sport as possible, and so many of the Week 2 bouts are arranged in order to keep the fans interested. I know a lot of people don't like to hear that, but it's reality.

I've been harping the entire week on how thin the yusho race was, and it just felt like something had to give soon.

Let's start Day 12 with the Storyteller, Yokozuna Hoshoryu, who was paired against Komusubi Aonishiki, and come to think of it...when was the last time a Yokozuna fought a Komusubi this late in a basho? The Komusubi are always the Day 1 and Day 2 opponents of the Yokozuna, so I wonder why we didn't get this matchup early on?

From the tachi-ai, Hoshoryu came with two hands to the upper torso to stand Aonishiki upright, and then the Yokozuna immediately went into pull mode setting himself up at the edge. As I always say, however, because Aonishiki didn't cause that movement from the Yokozuna, he was ill-prepared to capitalize on it, and so Hoshoryu wasn't beaten back across the straw. Instead, he got his left arm inside and began moving to his left first grabbing at a kote grip and then putting his right hand over the top of his opponent, which is a sure way to commit hara-kiri in the ring. As the action flowed back to the other side, Aonishiki was simply trying to keep up and not dictating any of the movement, so he still couldn't take advantage of anything. Now on the other side of the dohyo, Hoshoryu's next move was to go back to the right kote-nage, but Aonishiki wasn't prepared for a nage-no-uchi-ai with a left scoop throw, and so Hoshoryu stood in the middle of the ring with his right leg touching against Aonishiki, and the Ukrainian sorta went for a kiri-kaeshi, but it was more a case of the Yokozuna kicking his right leg high in the air for added emphasis as both dudes spun around and down noting that Hoshoryu crashed to the dirt first.

The fans were going crazy throughout, and it was a good show, but it was just a show. If we must, let's go to the cartoon birds to break down a real kiri-kaeshi:



The move is properly executed when one dude places his leg in back of the other dude's leg, and then he leans his body into him and both guys fall over in tandem with the loser landing on his back and the winner right next to him. There's a reason why the cartoon is drawn from the rear of the two rikishi because that's the direction they both should fall.  In this bout today, this is how both dudes ended up:



Furthermore, what was so unnatural about this ending is that Aonishiki ended up on the opposite side of his opponent from which the kiri-kaeshi occurred, and we're talking like a full meter to the other side of where the kiri-kaeshi took place.

I've probably watched ten thousand bouts of legit Keiko, and when you're there analyzing things and not there just to be entertained, your brain just learns the proper movements in sumo, and very little was correct in this bout of sumo.

The marketing aspect of it was fantastic, however, and Hoshoryu deserves a lot of credit. As of 7:30 AM Friday morning Japan time, the bout had nearly 180K views on YouTube...more than twice as many hits as the Onosato bout. The Yokozuna now has his first loss, and the Association can finally tout a real yusho race heading into the final three days with Hoshoryu falling to 11-1 and Aonishiki improving to 9-3. This was definitely the shot in the arm the tournament needed.

Of course, some work needed to be done before that final bout to maintain a yusho race, so let's review the penultimate bout featuring Onosato vs. Sekiwake Kirishima. The tachi-ai here was bland as neither dude came with tsuppari, and no one was looking to get to the belt, and so there was a brief slap fight as Kirishima slowly shaded sideways towards the chief judge, and as soon as Onosato got close, Kirishima just turned to the side and stepped across.

Hmm. You watch the slow motion replays and Onosato's palm finally touched Kirishima's torso after the Sekiwake was already leaning back across the straw and turning to the side. It was just a typical bout that involves Onosato where his opponent exits the ring of his own volition. To be fair, Kirishima rolled over for Hoshoryu yesterday, so I'm fine with him rolling over for Onosato today. The result is Onosato even steven with Hoshoryu at the end of the day at 11-1 while Kirishima has purposefully dropped seven of his last eight bouts.

Hoshoryu's loss technically opens things up for the two-loss rikishi heading into the day, Takanosho and Shodai. Neither of those two are going to yusho, but we'll play along.

M11 Shodai was up first paired against M17 Ryuden, and Ryuden grabbed an early left frontal grip of Shodai's belt, but instead of lifting him up or shoring up his position with the right arm inside, he lollygagged and waited for Shodai to shake loose. After trading places in the ring, Ryuden kept finding himself with advantageous grips or positioning, but then he'd let them go as quick as he got them. It was all Shodai could do to play defense, and sometimes I think these guys are willing to get beat if their opponent can actually beat them, but after a while it's like, "I gave you enough chances. Time to put a fork into you." And Ryuden did by finally grabbing and holding onto a right outer grip where he used the left inside position to force Shodai back and across the straw. I mean, he could have done this two seconds after the tachi-ai, but whatever. At least to some it looked as if Shodai can still put up a fight. SPOILER ALERT!!: He can't.

The end result is Shodai getting knocked down to 9-3, and the yusho race will not drop that low this basho since one of the Yokozuna has to win on senshuraku and both of them will presumably fight Kotozakura. As for Ryuden, he improves to the same 9-3 mark, but all of the three-loss dudes on the leaderboard are there for eye candy.

M7 Takanosho moved all the way up the banzuke to take on Kotozakura. The ironic thing is that the Sumo Association will pair rank and file yusho contenders with Ozeki like this in order to send a message: if you wanna yusho, you gotta get through the Ozeki. Reality is that fighting Kotozakura is about the easiest matchup you could ask for, especially to a seasoned veteran like Takanosho.

Takanosho was actually very passive at the tachi-ai putting his hands high against Kotozakura's torso, but he didn't do anything. That allowed Kotozakura to gain some confidence and begin a light oshi attack as he pressed Takanosho backwards with a nice paw to the neck, but Takanosho easily shook that off and moved to his left thwarting Zak's hopes at that point. As the two reconnected, Takanosho finally began a tsuppari attack, and his thrusts caught Kotozakura right between the teets standing him upright and enabling Takanosho to push him back and across once, twice, three times a lady.

This was a lot like the Ryuden - Shodai matchup where the victor purposefully produced a slow start only to win rather convincingly in the end. Takanosho now stands between the Yokozuna and Shodai on the two-loss rung at 10-2 while Kotozakura is just filler at this point in falling to 8-4. Good thing the dude's got his kachi-koshi already cause he'll be lucky to win another bout assuming his opponents fight straight up the rest of the way.

In other bouts of interest from the day, Sekiwake Wakatakakage thankfully drew M6 Onokatsu...thankfully because Onokatsu will gladly exchange a win for cash. From the tachi-ai, Onokatsu put his hands forward a bit high, but he wasn't doing anything with them, and so Wakatakakage looked to get inside and maybe grab moro-zashi? Problem was he couldn't be arsed to go through all that effort, and so he ended up just going for a weak pull and Onokatsu dutifully hit the dirt. Wakatakakage moves to 6-6 with the gift while Onokatsu falls to 5-7 without a care in the world.

Rounding out the sanyaku, Komusubi Takayasu drew the feisty M4 Hiradoumi, and Hiradoumi knocked Takayasu back a half step from the tachi-ai where he then seemed content to let Takayasu unleash a few thrusts. Hiradoumi largely waxed them on and off as fast as they came, and he slowly nudged Takayasu back to the straw, but then Hiradoumi graciously went for a pull whose only purpose was to let Takayasu back into the bout, and from that point Hiradoumi stood there like a punching bag waiting for an oshi attack to come. Said attack wasn't great, and so at the edge, Hiradoumi twisted himself around and down to make it look as if Takayasu really taught him a lesson, but it was all for show as Takayasu is gifted 4-8 while Hiradoumi falls to a harmless 6-6.

The M1 Tamawashi - M2 Hakuohho was one of the 12 anointed bouts that the Association posted to their official YouTube channel, so let's go there next. Tamawashi stood straight up at the tachi-ai but did keep Hakuohho at bay with two hands to the head. Hakuohho tried to worm his way inside for a second or two, but then The Mawashi said enough is enough and executed a very nice oshi attack that sent Hakuohho back and across with little argument. I'm actually warming to Hakuohho quite a bit despite his loss here in falling to 6-6. As for Tamawashi, he improves to 5-7.

The other anointed 12 bouts were as follows:

M8 Ura vs. M15 Tobizaru: A rather bland bout where Tobizaru (7-5) put both palms to the dirt about six seconds in after an Ura (8-4) pull [wink, wink]. The ending to this bout looked like those YouTube thumbnails on the right side of the screen when I'm searching for gay porn.

M9 Fujinokawa vs. M15 Shonannoumi: SNNU kept his arms high and wide the entire time as he allowed Fujinokawa to push him out. The Sumo Association is really marketing Fujinokawa hard as he moves to a paltry 5-7 with the yaocho. Shonannoumi had room to sell in falling to 6-6.

M13 Asanoyama vs. J9 Tsurugisho: If you thought Tsurugi the Hutt was lazy in Makuuchi, you should see him in Juryo. He just stood there in this one and was actually stargazing into the rafters as Asanoyama "forced" him across the straw.



It's worth noting that they did NOT post J4 Mita's bout as one of the 12 because he lost. Very little that the Association does is objective.

With that, let's call it a day. The real leaderboard heading into Day 13 is as follows:

11-1: Onosato, Hoshoryu

A leaderboard that I would actually entertain heading into Day 13 is this one:

11-1: Onosato, Hoshoryu
10-2: Takanosho

The leaderboard that NHK and the Association want you to see:



It's all marketing.

Regarding the matchups that count tomorrow:

Hoshoryu draws Kotozakura, and I have no idea what's going to happen there. If Hoshoryu throws the bout, it's going to be obvious to everyone because unlike Aonishiki, Kotozakura has zero skills.

Onosato draws Wakatakakage, and assuming a straight up bout, this is a very tough draw for Yoko Ono. WTK can easily get to the inside of him at the tachi-ai and dispatch Onosato in seconds. Like the previous bout, I have no inkling either way how this is gonna go.

Aki Basho Day 11 Comments
It was notable on Day 9 how NHK changed the criteria for their leaderboard at the start of the day vs. the end of the day. Day 9 began with a total of four rikishi on the board with Hoshoryu checking in at 8-0 and then Onosato, Takanosho, and Shodai occupying the second tier at 7-1. Three of the four won on Day 9, but Takanosho lost meaning with six days to go there were now just three rikishi on the leaderboard. By the end of the broadcast, NHK subtly dropped the leaderboard down to two losses, so they could now show six rikishi on the leaderboard at the end of the day even though the top tier didn't change. They've kept the leaderboard at two losses since then to create the semblance of a yusho race that doesn't really exist.

Years ago, Harvye coined the phrase "The Storyteller" to indicate a rikishi who was in sole possession of first place and 100% in control of his own destiny. This title can only be applied to handful of foreign rikishi, but it's the exact situation we find ourselves in this basho. Hoshoryu has led start to finish, and nobody down the stretch can beat him in a straight up bout with the exception being a fellow Mongolian, but precedent shows that the foreign rikishi will never upset each other when someone is vying for the yusho or an elite rank.

I figured that out very early on in my sumo watching days when Akebono and Musashimaru would fight each other once a basho. The dude who needed the win most always got it without exception, and you could tell the two Hawaiians were not going all out when they were paired against each other.

And that's the same circumstance we have now with the Mongolians near the top of the ranks. This basho, Hoshoryu is the Storyteller, and it's pointless to even pretend like there's a yusho race going on until he loses.

With that, let's cover the 11 bouts the Sumo Association posted to their official YouTube channel today in order of least popular to most popular, and these numbers are as of 5 AM Thursday morning Japan time.

#12 Makushita Jo'i Bouts (5.1K views)
The reason we're only going to cover 11 bouts is because the Association used the final slot to showcase the Makushita Jo'i bouts, which are the final five bouts of the Makushita division. In my opinion, the Makushita Jo'i is the most competitive section of the entire banzuke, and you'll find the best sumo action there. To me, it's worth watching.

#11 Takanosho - Ryuden (9.1K views)
These are two of the better Japanese rikishi on the banzuke in terms of body size and sumo technique, so isn't it interesting that nobody cares about them, especially since they're both technically on the leaderboard coming into the day with 8-2 records?

The tachi-ai was even as both dudes struck each other straight on, and the bout wanted to go to migi-yotsu where M17 Ryuden (in the gold mawashi) had the easy path to a left outer grip as seen here, but he didn't take it:



When that happens, you know the bout is compromised and it unfortunately was here as the two never went chest to chest and ultimately exited the clinch in favor of mild pull attacks. Ryuden actually had Takanosho off balance on his first pull attempt, and he could have attacked from the side, but he let Takanosho back into the bout, and then when it was Takanosho's turn to go for a pull, Ryuden sheepishly dove to the dirt catching himself with both palms. It's unfortunate that we got this from two very capable rikishi as Takanosho is gifted 9-2 while darn it!! Ryuden falls off the leaderboard at 8-3.

#10 Fujinokawa - Ichiyamamoto (13K views)
I have no idea why this bout made the cut, especially with both dudes coming into the day at 3-7. Perhaps they want to try and market M9 Fujinokawa because he's the youngest dude in Makuuchi at 20 years old? M5 Ichiyamamoto caught Lil' Fuji with two hands to the neck and had the dude looking up at the rafters, but he conveniently forgot to drive with his feet. Fujinokawa was fried at this point and couldn't shake off that choke hold, and so IYM went for a very soft pull, which was an excuse to let Fujinokawa out of his grip. Ichiyamamoto next kept his arms wide open allowing Fujinokawa to assume moro-zashi, and with Ichiyamamoto just standing there, Fujinokawa first attempted a tsuri-dashi attempt, but he had too much ground to cover carrying such a big load, and so he put Ichiyamamoto down and went for an uncontested right scoop throw instead. The throw was completely one-side and resulted in Ichiyamamoto cart wheeling down to the dirt. As long as it entertains the fans, the Sumo Association will count this bout as a positive with Fujinokawa moving to 4-7 while Ichiyamamoto's make-koshi becomes official at 3-8.

#9 Hiradoumi - Kusano (19K views)
I think M6 Kusano's popularity is declining because his hair is now tied up in a top-knot instead of that long hair down to his shoulders. I mean, these guys need something unique so the fans can identify them, and they certainly don't identify Kusano because of his sumo skills. Hiradoumi easily won the tachi-ai focusing tsuppari into Kusano's neck that had him moved back near the straw, but Hiradoumi didn't even think about getting to the inside. Instead, he went for a pull that actually had Kusano stumbling across the dohyo with Hiradoumi pushing him to the brink again, but he stopped short of shoving Kusano across. After those two offensive volleys from Hiradoumi, he finally went into pull mode backing himself up across the entire diameter of the dohyo with Kusano in tow, and Kusano was able to make light contact with a wild shove attack, but Hiradoumi backed outta the dohyo of his own volition giving Kusano the cheap win at 6-5 while Hiradoumi falls to that same 6-5 mark.

#8 Wakatakakage - Kotoshoho (21K views)
M5 Kotoshoho blew Sekiwake Wakatakakage off of the starting lines and had the clear path to moro-zashi. He got the right arm inside as Wakatakakage countered with the left outer, but WTK knew if he didn't move laterally, Kotoshoho was going to get moro-zashi. Wakatakakage moved to his left, but Kotoshoho read it perfectly and used his bigger body to swoop in and force Wakatakakage back and across without argument. Wakatakakage's Ozeki dreams are officially done as he falls to 5-6, and Kotoshoho moves to just 3-8 with the dominating win. Isn't it interesting that Kotoshoho can really lay the wood to guys like Wakatakakage and Onosato when he wants to?

#7 Kotozakura - Wakamotoharu (35K views)
Kotozakura has the distinction of not being as popular as two of the guys in Juryo whom we will feature next, but first things first. M4 Wakamotoharu stood straight up at the tachi-ai with his arms open, but Kotozakura's first reaction was to go for a pull. Because he did nothing to set that pull up, it was frivolous, and the result were both guys sorta doing defensive tsuppari so they didn't have to go chest to chest. The problem was that neither were attacking, and so Wakamotoharu said "fine!" and forced the bout to hidari-yotsu where he tried to avoid grabbing a right outer grip at first, but Kotozakura's belt was right there for the taking, and so Wakamotoharu grabbed it. He failed to dig in, however, even with Kotozakura's back against the straw, and so WMH stood there and waited for Kotozakura to grab a right outer of his own, and he eventually hoisted Wakamotoharu over and down with an uncontested throw.

I know I say it all the time, but this bout should have gone to a nage-no-uchi-ai if Wakamotoharu was trying to win. He obviously wasn't and so we got this lopsided and lackluster finish where Kotozakura was gifted yet another win in moving to 9-3. 9-3 for that crap sumo?! As for Wakamotoharu, he quietly goes into the night at 6-5.

#6 Asanoyama - Hidenoumi (37K views)
It's amazing to me that J13 Asanoyama is as popular as he it for not having done anything in like five years. Today he was paired against our old friend, J7 Hidenoumi, and this was a watered-down bout that kinda went to migi-yotsu, but Hidenoumi just stood there and let Asanoyama grab a left outer grip, and once he had it, the action flowed to the Shomen side of the dohyo and out where Hidenoumi purposefully did nothing to try and win the bout. And it was obvious as Asanoyama moves to an ill-gotten 9-2 with Hidenoumi falling to 4-7.

#5 Asahakuryu - Mita (46K views)
And here we have our friend J4 Mita who is the next big thing being hyped by the Association. Today he was paired against J11 Asahakuryu, and Mita wanted no part of a chest to chest tachi-ai, and so he lamely moved a bit left. That created some social distancing where the two sorta put hands against each other, but there was no thrusting and no one looking to get to the belt. After a second or two, Asahakuryu had worked his left arm into an attacking position, and so Mita quickly moved right in hopes of setting up a last-gasp pull, but Asahakuryu stayed square and had him easily shoved across in seconds. With Mita standing there across the straw in defeat, Asahakuryu gave him a dame-oshi sending him right into the lap of another rikishi waiting ringside, and then both of those guys toppled backwards on top of a poor lady in the first row.

I've yet to see anything from Mita that is impressive, and I've watched his last few bouts. Four Juryo rikishi came into the day tied for the lead at 8-2, and these two rikishi were half of that group, which is why the Sumo Association posted the bout despite the Mita loss.

#4 Hakuohho - Ohho (50K views)
Okay, from here on out we'll cover Makuuchi bouts where at least one of the rikishi fighting was more popular than the Juryo dudes. First up were our M2's Hakuohho and Ohho who hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai with Hakuohho maintaining a right outer grip. Problem was, he didn't have his left arm securing Ohho in place, and so the two spun a bit in the ring with Ohho going for a maki-kae that gave him moro-zashi. Hakuohho was able to force Ohho back to the edge after the momentum shift, but not across, and so it was Ohho's turn to force Hakuohho back against the straw. Ohho tried to smother his foe back and across, but Hakuohho had both feet pushing against the tawara, and that gave him enough momentum to survive the onslaught. As the action next flowed back to the center of the ring, both rikishi were gassed and all holds were lost, and so Hakuohho dug his noggin up under Ohho's jaw as both dudes caught their breath. After five or six seconds of recovery time, Ohho was finally able to maneuver Hakuohho into a position where he pulled him down in the end.

This bout was not technically sound, but it was entertaining not to mention real. The fans definitely got their money's worth, and you only wish that all of the Makuuchi bouts could be contested in this manner. I'm glad this bout was so popular on the day as Ohho moves to 7-4 with Hakuohho falling to 6-5.

#3 Shodai - Aonishiki (50K views)
All I can say about this next bout is "Oh, brother!" Talk about insulting our intelligence. With supposed yusho implications in place, Komusubi Aonishiki extended his right arm into Shodai's torso at the tachi-ai, and Shodai responded by moving to his left and wrapping up that right arm from the outside. That sent the bout to migi-yotsu, but instead of going chest to chest, both dudes were standing as straight up as you can get, and so with Aonishiki applying no pressure whatsoever, Shodai mounted a quick force-out leading with the right arm inside and then pushing into Aonishiki's side with a left tsuki-otoshi. Because the Ukrainian was completely mukiryoku, the end result was a four second yori-taoshi win in Shodai's favor where it looked as if Aonishiki was being baptized across the straw.

Aonishiki was so uncharacteristic in this bout. Instead of staying low at the tachi-ai and forcing Shodai to come to him, he put that right arm forward and just held it there, and Shodai did the rest. It is simply implausible for a guy as old and creaky as Shodai to beat an up-and-comer like Aonishiki against his will, but this was a clear case of bout fixing in favor of the sentimental Japanese rikishi. The result is Shodai's staying on the faux leaderboard at 9-2 while Aonishiki falls to 8-3.

#2 Hoshoryu - Kirishima (56K views)
I think in straight up head to head competition, Sekiwake Kirishima would best Yokozuna Hoshoryu six times out of ten bouts. Unfortunately, as alluded to earlier, we never get straight up bouts between two Mongolians at this level of the banzuke, and that was the case today. Both dudes hooked up in the gappuri migi-yotsu position meaning they had simultaneous right inside positions and left outer grips, and Hoshoryu moved Kirishima back to the straw in just seconds. Kirishima dug in for another few seconds and then let up allowing Hoshoryu to wrench him over and out with his left outer grip. You can see Kirishima putting his hand down to catch his fall with one foot already across the straw.  No surprises here as Hoshoryu stays perfect at 10-0 while Kirishima falls to 5-6.

#1 Onosato - Takayasu (68K views)
Komusubi bodied Onosato upright at the tachi-ai and began driving him back with nice tsuppari, and Onosato's only option was to dart to his right around the edge of the dohyo and fish for a pull. This was against an old, broken-down dude coming into the day at 3-7 mind you. Takayasu definitely had Onosato on the ropes, and here are two pics side by side that show Takayasu winning the tachi-ai and then Takayasu having Onosato on the brink:



But instead of firing that final shove into his compromised foe's torso, Takayasu turned his right shoulder towards Yoko Ono and said, "Here ya go fella." Because Onosato hadn't set anything up to this point, he wasn't ready to start shoving Takayasu back, and the Komusubi actually began retreating faster to the other side of the dohyo than Onosato could keep up. In the end, I suppose Onosato touched his foe's torso at least once before Takayasu stepped out, but this was Takayasu start to finish bullying Onosato into that vulnerable position and then running across the dohyo and out as Onosato tried to keep up.

I mean, day after day we see this template where Onosato loses the tachi-ai; finds himself on his heels; and then he clearly needs his opponent to let up for him and set up Yoko Ono's victory. I wonder how many of the 68K people who watched this actually clue into this day after day? Anyway, it was yet another yaocho in favor of Onosato who really shows no sumo skills whatsoever. I can't think of a signature move for Onosato other than he chases well when his opponents run out of the dohyo for him.

The end result is Onosato's staying one off the pace at 9-1, but this dude is so fragile. All it will take is a Hoshoryu win coupled with an Onosato loss, and the basho will be over at that point.

Onosato draws Kirishima tomorrow, and it goes without saying that Onosato has zero chance of winning that bout straight up. You'd think the Mongolian is going to let up for him, but it feels like we have one basho every year where the Mongolians bring the dagger early.

As for Hoshoryu, he draws Aonishiki, and I think if Hoshoryu's gonna throw a bout, he's going to make it strategic and throw it against a Japanese rikishi, not the Ukrainian, but we'll see.

I did watch NHK World's digest program to see if there were any other bouts of interest, and I think the only bout worth mentioning was the first bout of that day that featured a dude from China, J1 Daiseizan, stepping into the dohyo against rookie, M17 Hitoshi. Hitoshi executed a bad henka to his left at the tachi-ai that the J1 read it easily, and from there, Hitoshi was forced to flee for his life to his right and run around the edge of the dohyo fishing for a pull. Daiseizan could have pushed him across at any moment but he instead waited for the rookie to execute a pull, which was a giant whiff, and then Daiseizan dutifully changed course away from his opponent and just ran himself out of the dohyo altogether. What a fabulous way to start the day as Hitoshi begs is way to 5-6. I come away less impressed with the rookie each time I watch his bouts, so maybe I should stop watching altogether.

We'll be back tomorrow to see what some of the rikishi on the leaderboard or their opponents choose to do.

Aki Basho Day 10 Comments
Yesterday I mentioned the dude in Juryo, Mita, who's being groomed as one of sumo's next biggest things. The Sumo Association has been posting videos of his Juryo bouts to YouTube every day for most of the basho. They didn't post his bout from today because he lost to a guy who was 2-7 coming in, but they did post Asanoyama's bout, which was of course fixed in Asanoyama's favor. Along with Mita's bouts, they've been posting Asanoyama's nearly every day as well, and the dude currently has an 8-2 record from the J13 rank. Yeah, like that's not fixed or anything.

Last basho, I remember at least once talking about how they were posting Asanoyama's bouts from Makushita, and remember, they only post 12 bouts per day, so they strategically pick the top 12 that they think will generate the most fan interest. The selections are of course subjective to bouts that involve rikishi who will generate the most clicks, and so the Sumo Association is still putting a few eggs in the Asanoyama basket.

In terms of numbers, here's where everyone ranks in number of clicks from the top six bouts on Day 10:

Onosato - Kotoshoho 52K
Hoshoryu - Wakamotoharu 48K
Hakuohho - Aonishiki 36K
Ura - Roga 31K
Asanoyama - Hatsuyama 30K
Kotozakura - Kirishima 29K

Those numbers are as of about 3 AM Japan time so they reflect the number of streamed bouts on YouTube before sumo fans went to bed.

It just boggles my mind that Ura and Asanoyama are in the Top 5 in terms of views, but it's an indication of fans being interested in rikishi who they're told to follow instead of following rikishi who produce good sumo in the ring.

Those numbers are actually down from earlier in the basho when the two Yokozuna were hitting upwards of 70K+ for their bouts before bedtime, and so it feels like a some fatigue is setting in from the perspective of the fans. Every day seems like a rerun from the previous day, and the fans are getting bored with the same old nonsense. It shows in the streaming numbers, and I think it's now being reflected by how many fans are choosing not to show up.

Enough of that; let's focus on the day at hand. In the absence of a yusho race (the yusho race doesn't start until Hoshoryu loses), let's just cover all the bouts from the day in chronological order.

M18 Shishi welcomed Ohshoumi up from the J1 slot, and Shishi easily halted his foe's momentum at the tachi-ai getting his right arm hooked up and under Ohshoumi's left side so well that the Juryo rikishi was completely upright. From there, the obvious move for Shishi was to grab a left outer grip, but instead of taking it, he abandoned the hold altogether and moved to the other side of the dohyo faking a tepid scoop throw along the way. Once he did that, I knew he was throwing the bout, and sure enough, he let Ohshoumi come in and get the left arm inside and right frontal grip, and there was no resistance as the Juryo dude mounted his force-out attack. Shishi picks up some cash in defeat at 6-4 while Ohshoumi all but clinches a berth in Makuuchi next basho with an 8-2 record.

M15 Tobizaru and M16 Nishikigi were poised to hook up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Tobizaru didn't want to go chest to chest. As he tried to wriggle free, the two ended up in hidari-yotsu, and Nishikigi had Tobizaru so upright and off balance that there was no way the Flying Monkey could come back. Well unless Nishikigi purposefully stepped out and that's exactly what he did as he pretended to force Tobizaru back and across only he stepped his left foot across the straw before he forced Tobizaru all the way back. Sheesh, Nishikigi wasn't even trying to hide this one, and they had no choice but to rule isami-ashi as Nishikigi exchanges cash for the loss in falling to 1-9 while Tobizaru is gifted 7-3.

M14 Asakoryu henka'd to his left against M16 Tomokaze, but the move really wasn't that great. Still, Tomokaze knew it was coming, and so he just lamely flopped forward and down breaking his fall with both palms and a harmless little roll. Okay. Asakoryu buys his way to 5-5 with the cheap win while Tomokaze falls to 6-4.

M13 Meisei and M17 Ryuden hooked up in hidari-yotsu at the tachi-ai where Ryuden used his long arm of the law to grab a stiff right outer grip, and Meisei was simply cuffed and stuffed at this point. Because they weren't square on chest to chest, Meisei could do nothing with his right arm, and he was completely at Ryuden's mercy. After gathering his wits for a few seconds, Ryuden executed a perfect dashi-nage throw with that right outer grip sending Meisei over to the edge where he came from and then Ryuden pushed him out from behind making it official. Very nice execution from Ryuden who moves to 8-2 while Meisei falls to 3-7.

M15 Shonannoumi was rather nonchalant at the tachi-ai failing to charge hard while keeping his arms out wide for M13 Tokihayate, and Tokihayate said thank you very much as he assumed moro-zashi. Shonannoumi moved to the other side of the dohyo in order to escape, but Tokihayate simply used that negative momentum against SNNU and forced him out easy as you please. This one was over in two seconds as Tokihayate moves to 4-6 while Shonannoumi falls to 5-5.

Geez, I thought the Asakoryu henka was bad previously, but M12 Mitakeumi and M17 Hitoshi actually managed to outdo it in terms of lameness. From the tachi-ai, Mitakeumi moved to his left and took a second or so to grab Hitoshi's belt, but before he really got a good grip of it, the rookie was already into his soft dive to the dohyo. Mitakeumi tried to make it look as if he caught up but he didn't. They ruled it uwate-nage of all things, but you can watch this one over and over; there was no throw to be found. Hitoshi simply dove to the dirt while Mitakeumi tried to keep up with him. Pathetic stuff as both rikishi end the day at 4-6.

The tachi-ai between M14 Sadanoumi and M9 Fujinokawa was quite good as they came away in migi-yotsu, and it was the veteran Sadanoumi who was able to grab a left outer grip first. Fujinokawa tried to shake that grip off quickly going for a right scoop throw, but Sadanoumi held on and used his left leg pinned at the back of FNK's right leg to take away any throw momentum. As the two moved back to the center of the ring, Fujinokawa knew he had to solve Sadanoumi's left outer grip, and so he went for a series of inside throws, but Sadanoumi kept choking them off as he slowly worked Fujinokawa to the edge and dumped him across with that left outside grip. This was easily the best bout of the day as Sadanoumi moves to 4-6 with Fujinokawa showing a great amount of effort in defeat at 3-7.

M8 Ura was paired against M11 Roga, and Roga delivered a wild, meaningless slap at the tachi-ai with the left before standing straight up and tucking his right arm against his chest. As for Ura, he knew the bout was fixed coming in because he actually moved forward and executed straight up sumo which was half-yori half-oshi as he knocked his compromised opponent back and across in under two seconds. This was simply a bone for the fans to cover up the lack of a real yusho race as Ura is gifted 7-3 while Roga was mukiryoku and sloppy from the start in falling to 5-5.

I suppose the marquee matchup of the first half was M7 Takanosho taking on M11 Shodai, and Takanosho caught Shodai by the neck from the tachi-ai standing him straight up. And Takanosho never let up using that hold and a very nice tsuppari attack to drive Shodai back once, twice, three times a lady. Shodai's "run" this basho has been so phony, and so it was nice to see Takanosho expose it here. I mean, it wasn't even close as both rikishi now stand at 8-2, and Shodai is knocked off of the pretend leaderboard.

M7 Ohshoma just trucked M10 Churanoumi off of the starting lines putting a left palm into Churanoumi's chest and wrapping Churanoumi's left arm up from the outside, and Ohshoma never let up on his forward momentum as he had Churanoumi forced back and across in under two seconds. Wow, that was great stuff from Ohshoma who moves to 6-4 while Churanoumi falls to the same mark.

M8 Kinbohzan put two hands into M6 Onokatsu's neck at the tachi-ai keeping him upright, and then as Kinbohzan looked to get the left arm inside, Onokatsu quickly went into pull mode, and Kinbohzan rode that momentum and his opponent out in two seconds or so. This bout was not really contested by Onokatsu as he falls to 5-5 while Kinbohzan skates to 4-6.

M10 Daieisho has struggled mightily this basho, but he looked just like his old self against M6 Kusano today. Daieisho caught his foe with stiff tsuppari to the chest, and he had Kusano pushed back and across the straw in no time. Wham bam thank you ma'am as Daieisho picks up another legit tsuki-dashi win. The biggest takeaway here was Kusano's inability to do anything against an old, ailing opponent. Daieisho moves to 4-6 with the textbook sumo while Kusano falls to 5-5.

M5 Ichiyamamoto and M9 Midorifuji both stood straight up at the tachi-ai and offered mild tsuppari, but neither rikishi was looking to drive forward. From there, Ichiyamamoto grabbed an easy left outer grip and then waited for Midorifuji to latch onto the belt with a counter right inside grip, and as soon as he did, Ichiyamamoto began marching forward as Midorifuji executed a right belt throw in tandem with IYM's forward movement. It was a very nice throw from Midorifuji, but Ichiyamamoto was not countering the throw whatsoever, so it was a lopsided finish to an arranged bout. Midorifuji moves to 4-6 with the win while Ichiyamamoto falls to 3-7.

M2 Ohho and M3 Atamifuji struck head on at the tachi-ai although they didn't go chest to chest opting to use palms to push into each other's torsos. Ohho got the better of this contest with both hands pressing up into Atamifuji's armpit area, and Ohho just maintained his momentum by keeping Atamifuji upright until he was forced across the straw for good. Nice linear win here for Ohho who moves to 6-4 while Atamifuji's make-koshi becomes official at 2-8.

M1 Tamawashi stood straight up at the tachi-ai allowing M1 Abi to come to him, and so Abi complied with a few thrusts that really weren't driving Tamawashi back, but all of a sudden Tamawashi just fell backwards as if he was tripping over his own two feet. Tamawashi was just being nice here in giving Abi his first win at 1-9 while The Mawashi hasn't got a care in the world at 3-7.

M3 Gonoyama bested Komusubi Takayasu at the tachi-ai putting two hands up under Takayasu's armpits raising him completely upright as Gonoyama easily forced him back to the straw. And then Gonoyama just called off the hot pursuit and let Takayasu turn the tables and force Gonoyama to the side an ultimately out. Gonoyama's moro-zashi was wrist deep by the time this one ended, and he obviously let Takayasu beat him here. Takayasu is a paltry 3-7 while Gonoyama is much better than his 0-10 mark.

Komusubi Aonishiki stayed low at the tachi-ai against M2 Hakuohho who came in way too high for his own good, and as the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu, Hakuohho quickly realized his mistake of coming in high and tried to back out of it fishing for pulls. It was too late, however, as Aonishiki maintained that inside left position while quickly forcing Hakuohho back to the edge and across. You could see Hakuohho running through all of his counter options in a matter of about two seconds and Aonishiki evaporating them just as quickly with his attack. Beautiful stuff here as Aonishiki towers to 8-2 while Hakuohho falls to 6-4.

I read a headline last night where Chiyotaikai said that Sekiwake Wakatakakage was still under consider for promotion to Ozeki if he won out. Why do they insist on rewarding mediocrity? Never mind. I already know that answer. Today against M4 Hiradoumi, Hiradoumi won the tachi-ai forcing the bout to migi-yotsu, and then Hiradoumi quickly bodied WTK back and upright to the edge. I have no idea why Hiradoumi didn't grab a left outer grip for extra leverage, but I guess he didn't need it. He beat the Ozeki candidate with one arm, and there was nothing Wakatakakage could do about it. Hopefully the Ozeki talk is finally put to bed as Wakatakakage drops to 5-5 with Hiradoumi improving to 6-4.

Sekiwake Kirishima had the path to the left inside against Kotozakura, and then he actually got the right arm firmly inside against the defenseless faux-zeki, but instead of attacking from that position, Kirishima pulled his arm out and switched places with Zak on the dohyo. From there, Kirishima literally stood there and waited for Kotozakura to mount an attack, but the oshi charge was so pathetic and flawed, Kirishima was able to get the right arm back inside and then a firm left outer grip that was so close to the front of the belt that Kotozakura's right arm was rendered useless:



There was no way that Kotozakura could come back from that position. Unless Kirishima let him, and that's what unfortunately happened. The Sekiwake stopped applying any pressure and slowly moved his stance upright letting Kotozakura grab a left outer, and once Zak had that, Kirishima faked a maki-kae with the left, which was only an excuse for him to back out of the dohyo with Kotozakura in tow. This was such a farcical bout, and you can't pinpoint a single thing that Kotozakura did to win it. Nothing. But...it's Kotozakura who moves to 7-3 while Kirishima takes one for the team in falling to 5-5.

M5 Kotoshoho was proactive for half a second against Onosato delivering a few shoves at the tachi that sent Yoko Ono back a full step, but instead of reloaded for a second volley, Kotoshoho literally turned his body about 45 degrees and waited for Onosato to attack him from the side. Onosato did of course, and so in tandem Kotoshoho exited stage East while Onosato tried to keep up with a shove attack. Kotoshoho ended up in the first row in a controlled exit, and it was yet another sign that he threw the bout in Onosato's favor.

You remember how he completely kicked Onosato's ass last basho, but the order was given today to go easy, and Kotoshoho certainly did. Kotoshoho's make-koshi becomes official at 2-8 while Onosato begs his way to 9-1. As if.

Yokozuna Hoshoryu fired a quick slap with left hand while getting the right arm inside of M4 Wakamotoharu, and the move was so quick it was easy to miss. Wakamotoharu could not defend the onslaught, and the Yokozuna quickly added the left arm inside and immediately backed WMH up to the edge. Wakamotoharu instinctively put on the brakes at that point, and so Hoshoryu reversed gears and used a beautiful scoop throw with the right to hurl Wakamotoharu back into the center of the ring.

Whew, it seems so rare these days that we are treated to alpha sumo like this, but it was surely nice to see as Hoshoryu makes a statement in going 10-0. Course, he could choose to come with the C3P0 arms tomorrow and throw his bout, but a performance like this one is hard to forget. Ever notice how Onosato has never beaten an opponent in this fashion? As for Wakamotoharu, he was lucky to escape with his life let alone a 6-4 mark.

There's no need to post a leaderboard or analyze the yusho race until Hoshoryu chooses to lose.

Aki Basho Day 9 Comments
Nothing major happened during the middle weekend of the tournament that warranted any comment, and I felt like the biggest turn of events from the weekend was Kotozakura's suffering losses on days 7 and 8. Three losses behind Hoshoryu coming into Day 9 completely disqualifies Kotozakura from the yusho race, and while there are a couple of other scrubs heading into the day with just one loss, it's going to be a very thin leaderboard down the stretch unless both Yokozuna start dropping a few bouts. Hoshoryu has been giving his opponents major openings the last three days, and it feels like at some point he's just going to have to take one of those dives where he puts both palms to the dirt prematurely.

With that in mind, lets comment briefly on the crowd in Tokyo this basho. I believe they're saying that the basho is a complete sellout, but if so, it's a very casual sellout each day. I didn't get my usual NHK World feed on Day 7, so I was watching YouTube videos from the Sumo Association official site, and they gave us a fairly wide pan of the lower arena prior to the Takanosho - Wakamotoharu matchup, and it looked like this:



That bout was #14 on the day, so it was well after the break separating first half and second half Makuuchi bouts when many fans will get up and stretch their legs. I was a bit surprised to see that scene on a Saturday because the weekends are usually quite full.

I've also noticed a trend the last few years where fans are buying masu-seki (which are designed to hold four people), but only two people are showing up. If you've ever sat in a masu-seki with four people, it's absolutely miserable unless you're a seasoned obaachan who can sit in the seiza position for two hours straight, so I don't blame people for wanting the extra room, but it noticeably thins out the crowd.

Here is an example from today as Onosato and Wakamotoharu were going through their pre-bout rituals:



Back in the 80's and 90's, the arenas were always packed like a can of sardines, and all the dudes were there in suits or the women in dresses piled on top of each other. You could just feel the electricity in the arena back then, but those days are gone. It's just gotten more casual from the manner of dress to the number of fans in the arena, and of course it has bled over into the sumo. Back in the day you wanted to mask yaocho and use it as little as possible, but these days it's quite blatant and represents the overall casual attitude the sport has assumed.

There's not going to be a lot to huff and puff about later on this week with this leaderboard coming into the day:



It really feels as if Hoshoryu has been giving his opponents opening, and a loss from the Yokozuna would liven things up by bringing the two-loss rikishi into play, but for now we'll play the hand we've been dealt.

Day 9 began with M18 Shishi taking on M14 Asakoryu, and Shishi had the opening to the right inside position, but he didn't pursue it. I mean, you get a small dude like Asakoryu chest to chest, and there's no path to victory for him, so Shishi was signaling his intentions early on. With separation between the two, Shishi next connected on a roundhouse slap to the face against Asakoryu, but he didn't follow it up with anything. With Shishi still standing there leaving his sides exposed, Asakoryu finally lurched into moro-zashi, but it was Shishi that began to set up what looked like a left kote-nage. The Ukrainian never followed through with the throw, however, and let Asakoryu maintain moro-zashi. Finally near the edge, Shishi looked to instigate a right kote-nage throw against Asakoryu's left inside belt grip, and a modest nage-no-uchi-ai formed with Shishi diving across the straw as he pulled Asakoryu with him. The key moment of the nage-no-uchi-ai was Shishi who had his right leg completely pinned against the back of Asakoryu's left rendering AKR's left leg useless, but instead of following through on that, Shishi lifted that leg away and just dipped his left shoulder and left elbow down gifting Asakoryu the cheap win. I know, I know, you want to think that the bout was real, but it wasn't as Shishi voluntarily falls to 6-3 while Asakoryu moves to 4-5.

M14 Sadanoumi welcomed Fujiseiun up from the J5 slot, and the bout looked to go to migi-yotsu from the start, but Sadanoumi actually brought his left arm from the inside position to the outside thus forfeiting moro-zashi altogether. As he did this, Sadanoumi shaded to his left, and that gave Fujiseiun the momentum he needed to score the quick, harmless, and uncontested force-out win in about three seconds. Fujiseiun moves to 7-2 with the win while Sadanoumi drops to 3-6.

M17 Ryuden and M13 Tokihayate hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Tokihayate had the right outer grip, and he tried to use that grip to bully Ryuden over to the edge with a series of force-out attempts and dashi-nage, but Tokihayate never had the solid left inside position to keep Ryuden in check. As a result, Ryuden was able to stand his ground, and after Tokihayate completely gassed himself with those early moves, the two social distanced for a second before Ryuden rushed into moro-zashi and backed Tokihayate across for the comeback win. Ryuden continues to lurk at 7-2 while Tokihayate falls to 3-6.

M13 Meisei easily got the right arm to the inside at the tachi-ai against M16 Nishikigi, and with NG not even using his right arm, Meisei was able to pivot and secure moro-zashi, and Nishikigi quickly gave up just as he has done nearly everyday of the basho. Really boring stuff here as Meisei ekes his way to 3-6 while Nishikigi falls to 1-8.

M12 Mitakeumi fished for moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against M16 Tomokaze, but he couldn't get any depth with his arms as Tomokaze was pressing in too tightly. With Mitakeumi's moro-zashi forearm deep, Tomokaze pinched in from the outside while simultaneously bodying Mitakeumi back and across without argument. Easy pickins for Tomokaze who moves to 6-3 while Mitakeumi falls to 3-6.

M11 Roga got the left arm inside against M15 Shonannoumi at the tachi-ai, and he used his right arm to clamp in on SNNU's own left arm on the other side. Shonannoumi clenched his fingers together in an effort to pinch in on Roga's left inside position as he bodied him back near the straw, but Roga countered beautifully with a maki-otoshi that saw Roga move to his right and twist his opponent over and down. Pretty nifty move as both rikishi finish the day at 5-4.

Our first "leader" was up next in M11 Shodai taking on M15 Tobizaru, and Shodai stood straight up at the tachi-ai allowing Tobizaru to move forward quickly getting the left arm inside with the wide open path to moro-zashi. Shodai was already retreating a step or two, so if Tobizaru pressed, he could have won the bout in about two seconds, but he instead kept that right arm dangling so Shodai could grab it and try to yank at it. The problem was that Shodai had no momentum and no position from which to attack since he hadn't created anything from the tachi-ai, so after he failed on that right arm tug, Tobizaru just backed up to the other side of the dohyo and out with Shodai barely able to keep pace.

What a crock this was, and I'm curious why they think it's a good idea to make it look like Shodai is resurgent this basho. You watch the slow mo replays, and there's nothing that Shodai did start to finish to make Tobizaru move the way he did, but the fix was in giving Shodai the win. This was yaocho in its purest form as Shodai is gifted kachi-koshi at 8-1 while Tobizaru falls to 6-2.

I haven't commented a lot on rookie, M17 Hitoshi, and my overall impression is that he isn't completely useless, but he's been buying these wins of late. Today against M10 Churanoumi, the two bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai as Churanoumi reached for the left frontal grip, and while he didn't get it, Churanoumi made enough of a statement with his tachi-ai that the rookie immediately went into pull mode, and as he did, the oshi-dashi was academic from there with Churanoumi scoring the easy win as he moves to 6-3 while Hitoshi gave up too early in falling to 4-5.

M8 Ura smelled blood today against the ailing M10 Daieisho, but the former Sekiwake said, "Not so fast" as he easily kept Ura at bay with defensive tsuppari. When Ura realized he couldn't win in linear fashion, he began retreating a bit looking to set up a pull, but Daieisho was onto his foe connecting on some nice thrusts. That caused Ura to move to his right near the edge of the ring looking to spring a surprise tsuki-otoshi, but Daieisho stayed square and was able to pummel Ura back and across for a legit tsuki-dashi win. I hope Daieisho enjoyed it because there are very few tsuki-dashi left in his future as he moves to 3-6 while Ura falls now to 6-3.

M9 Fujinokawa darted in quickly at the tachi-ai against M7 Ohshoma creating a decent slap, but FNK had no real pop to his charge, and so Ohshoma grabbed him around the outside of left arm in kote-nage fashion (think Kaio back in the day), and he used the right kote grip to bully Fujinokawa over to the edge while also pushing into Fuji's neck with the left hand. This one was over quickly and Fujinokawa never had a chance in falling to 3-6. As for Ohshoma, he did what he needed to do against a much smaller foe in moving to 5-4.

Our next leader, M7 Takanosho, greeted M9 Midorifuji with two hands to the neck, but instead of driving forward and knocking Midorifuji upright, Takanosho relinquished the neck hold and began backing up slowly while also going for weak pulls where it looked as if he was trying to climb over the top of his foe. With Takanosho intentionally upright and shading back in the process, Midorifuji just moved forward and scored the easy push-out win over his self-compromised foe.

It was interesting to watch these two bouts back to back. In both bouts, you had rather large dudes fighting runts who belong on the undercard. In the real bout, Ohshoma flexed his muscles and showed that all he needed to do was latch onto his opponent and reel him in. In the second bout, Takanosho refused to grab his opponent and kept himself extremely vulnerable by trying to reach for who knows what over the top of his opponent.

Takanosho falls now to 7-2, and his intent to lose today was a curious one. I think you need as many dudes in the yusho race late in the week as possible, so I'm not sure why he chose to throw this one. As for Midorifuji, he moves to 3-6, and you know this bout was fake because when was the last time Midorifuji won in linear fashion against a much large opponent? I'll save you the time: never.

M8 Kinbohzan put two hands into M6 Kusano's neck and thought about moving forward, but he adjusted on a dime and simply moved to his left grabbing a left outer grip at the back of Kusano's belt using it to sling himself over to the edge instead of executing a dashi-nage against Kusano. As for Kusano, he went along for the ride with his right arm inside, and in tandem, the two danced across the straw with Kinbohzan stepping out giving Kusano the very lightweight win. I really miss straight up sumo from Kinbohzan who falls to 3-6 while Kusano is ho-hum yaocho-filled 5-4.

Before we move on, there's another dude in the Juryo ranks named Mita who is off to a hot start and who like Kusano the last few basho can't tie his hair up into a top-knot yet. Mita's bouts are always part of the Top 12 that the Sumo Association chooses to post to their official YouTube channel, and he's the next guy they are trying to force feed to the fans.

I've watched a few of his bouts, but it's hard to tell his real ability when his opponents let up for him as Chiyoshoma did today. Anyway, Mita is the next Kusano, so watch for him in Kyushu.

M6 Onokatsu stood straight up at the tachi-ai and let M4 Hiradoumi come to him, and as Hiradoumi looked to score on a few shoves, Onokatsu kept his armpits open as they say (that really implies that his inside are exposed and that he's too upright). The two grappled for six or seven seconds with Onokatsu largely standing there like a bump on a log. I guess he did reach for a left frontal belt grip at one point, but he just went through the motions and Hiradoumi eventually pushed him back and across. This definitely wasn't power sumo from Hiradoumi against his mukiryoku opponent, but he'll take it in moving to 5-4 while Onokatsu falls to the same mark.

M3 Gonoyama wasn't trying to get to the inside of M5 Ichiyamamoto nor was he trying to use shoves to set his foe up. As for Ichiyamamoto, his approach was quite defensive, and at one point, he even backed up a step as if to go for a pull. It never came to fruition, but Gonoyama didn't take advantage so with Gonoyama largely shading backwards while thinking about pulling at IYM's outstretched arms, Ichiyamamoto timidly moved forward until Gonoyama was "pushed" across the straw. I mean, not once during the entire bout did Ichiyamamoto plant a palm firmly into Gonoyama's chest while driving with the legs to push his foe back. It was just tit for tat sumo with very little significant contact from either party. IYM ekes his way to 3-6 with the gift while Gonoyama fall to 0-9.

M1 Tamawashi used both hands to the neck of M2 Ohho from the tachi-ai, but as The Mawashi moved forward, he did so ever so lightly applying little pressure, and as soon as Ohho skirted left going for a tiny pull, Tamawashi put both palms to the dirt and that was that. What a snooze fest as Ohho buys his way to 5-4 while Tamawashi falls to 3-6.

M1 Abi used his tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai to try and create an opening against Komusubi Aonishiki, but the latter wouldn't budge. As is usually case, Aonishiki stayed low and in the clinch, and after firing a few jabs his way, Abi ultimately decided to go for a pull three or four seconds in. As he did so, the Ukrainian pounced and had a self-compromised Abi pushed back and across in no time. Vintage sumo here from Aonishiki who can play these Japanese rikishi like a fiddle in moving to 7-2 while Abi is still winless at 0-9.

Fresh off of his victory over Kotozakura yesterday, Komusubi Takayasu welcomed M2 Hakuohho, and the Komusubi was unable to defend himself at the tachi-ai whatsoever. While Takayasu reached for and got a right outer grip, Hakuohho lurched into the moro-zashi position from the start and had Takayasu forced back and across in under three seconds. Really good stuff for Hakuohho who moves to 6-3 while Takayasu falls to 2-7.

Our two Sekiwake did battle in Kirishima vs. Wakatakakage, and Kirishima kept his arms and side open at the tachi-ai giving WTK what he wanna. Wakatakakage ultimately got the right arm inside and a left outer grip, but the two weren't chest to chest, and that largely neutralized Wakatakakage's inside position. Kirishima stood his ground with a right inside belt grip, and Wakatakakage did not look comfortable from this position, and so he was content to largely stand there. Kirishima sorta attempted a maki-kae at one point, but WTK was able to spin away, and then the two ended up in hidari-yotsu with Wakatakakage owning a right outer grip, but Wakatakakage never looked comfortable nor was he able to attack, and so after a full minute, Kirishima finally spun him around and down with an easy scoop throw.

Kirishima could have ended this in five seconds, and I think he was letting WTK hang around to make the dude look more viable, especially with all this Ozeki promotion talk, but in the end, Wakatakakage made little impact on the contest, and Kirishima showed how easy it was to dispatch him in the end. Both rikishi now stand at 5-4, and Wakatakakage's hopes of promotion to Ozeki are gone. Trust me, that's a good thing, and I like Wakatakakage.

The highlight of the previous bout was this mouth breather pictured below who kept waving his hands and arms up and down as if he were conducting a symphony to the movements of the two rikishi:



The tachi-ai between Kotozakura and M3 Atamifuji was mild as the two looked to hook up in migi-yotsu, but Atamifuji never lifted his head and stayed ducked down low. That was Kotozakura's cue to move a bit right and pull with the right hand against Atamifuji's side while attempting a slapdown over the top with the left. I say attempting because Atamifuji was already on his way down before that blow from the top connected, and this was a meaningless fixed bout that gave Kotozakura (6-3) the cheap win while Atamifuji falls to the brink of make-koshi at 2-7.

Yokozuna Hoshoryu keeps giving his opponents chances to beat him, and you'd have to think one of these days someone will clue in and actually make it happen. Today's opponent was M5 Kotoshoho, and the Yokozuna stood straight up and kept his arms out wide in C3P0 fashion. Kotoshoho tried to connect with some shoves up high, but Hoshoryu swiped his left arm away as the Yokozuna moved right. As Kotoshoho looked to square back up, Hoshoryu actually kicked his right leg in between Kotoshoho's legs, which is an obvious move if you're trying to throw yourself off balance.



Kotoshoho didn't have sufficient momentum to capitalize, however, and when he finally did gather his wits and go for another oshi charge, Hoshoryu side-stepped to his left and slapped at the back of Kotoshoho's right shoulder, and KSH stumbled across the straw at that point giving Hoshoryu an ugly win and 9-0 mark.

I think the last clean Hoshoryu bout we got was against Atamifuji on Friday, and since then, he has definitely been leaving himself vulnerable. As for Kotoshoho, he falls to 2-7 now, and that's not a good look to have last basho's yusho dude suck so bad the basho after. He simply owes too many people favors this basho, and they're being called in.

Onosato put two hands forward at the tachi-ai as if to try and catch M4 Wakamotoharu by the neck, but WMH simply brushed Onosato's left arm aside and had Yoko Ono turned 90 degrees a second into the bout. Instead of simply rushing Onosato sideways and out, Wakamotoharu stood there with his arms out wide, and after Onosato did a 360 in the ring, Wakamotoharu grabbed a left outer grip and an inside right grip and began walking himself backwards towards the edge. With Onosato still trying to catch up, Wakamotoharu let go of the outer left and looked poised to counter with a right inside throw at the edge, but instead of throwing, he just stood there stiff as a board eyeing the venue floor below as Onosato literally rode him down to the floor yori-taoshi style.

I suppose this was pretty par for the course in regards to an Onosato bout. He lost the tachi-ai; his opponent had him dead to rights but didn't attack; and then his opponent set himself up at the edge. The pic below is a few seconds into the bout, and you can see that it's Wakamotoharu in the advantageous position with Yoko Ono upright and flat-footed.

Just another day at the office I suppose. In my three plus decades of watching sumo, nobody has ever done a 360 in the ring and survived in a legitimate bout. Legit this was obviously not as Onosato is gifted kachi-koshi at 8-1 while Wakamotoharu knows his place in falling to 6-3.

With Takanosho's loss, the leaderboard has been whittled down to just three dudes with six days to go, and that's a PR nightmare for the Association, so to no one's surprise, NHK posted the following leaderboard at the end of the day:

The yusho race doesn't begin until Hoshoryu chooses to lose.

Aki Basho Day 6 Comments
Through the first six days of this tournament, I feel as if the quality of sumo is greatly improved compared to the first six days of Nagoya. I mean, some of those broadcasts last basho were completely unwatchable, and I think it partly had to do with the way the day would end with Hoshoryu throwing all of those bouts. You'd have guys the first half of the day that didn't even care how bad the yaocho looked, and then you had the Yokozuna at the end of the day throwing bouts as well. It just feels a bit different this basho, which is nice. I mean, you have a certain few dudes who have to be sustained in their elite ranks on the banzuke, but the overall quality of sumo is undoubtedly better this tournament.

Instead of doing all of the bouts on the day, let's cover the 10 Makuuchi bouts that the Sumo Association felt were worth posting to their YouTube channel at the end of Day 6, and I'm going to start with the last three bouts of the day and then go in chronological order from there.

M4 Hiradoumi demolished Kotozakura from the tachi-ai getting the right arm inside and a left frontal belt grip, but as Hiradoumi began knocking Zak upright and back, he let go of that frontal grip and that allowed Kotozakura to swipe that arm away with a weak right scoop throw motion. Problem was that Hiradoumi still had all the momentum, so near the straw, the M4 was still ducked down with the perfect position to grab the left frontal again. He didn't of course and just stood there waiting for Kotozakura to make a move, and the latter finally went for a tepid kote-nage with the left arm, and at this point in a true bout, Hiradoumi would have countered with a right scoop throw or a right inside belt throw, but he did neither and just went along with it flopping down across the straw.

This is how the Sumo Association illustrates a kote-nage:



The dude executing the kote-nage is in the foreground, and the dude in the background has a left inside grip and is countering with that throw; that creates a true nage-no-uchi-ai.  Compare the feet of the two cartoon birds with the feet of both rikishi above.  I mean, Kotozakura has his legs crossed at the ankles for cripes sake!  Both rikishi should have had outside legs planted and inside legs pushing up against the opponent.

I point out the lack of nage-no-uchi-ai all the time, but a bout like this should have ended in one of those nage-no-uchi-ai as depicted in the cartoon, which is a circumstance where both rikishi are executing throws at the same time. It's a beautiful thing in sumo, and the result is a very close call as both rikishi crash down across the edge landing on either their forearms or even their heads, but all we get these days are one sided throws, which result in the exact way that Hiradoumi was listlessly twisted over and down in this one.

And has it really come to this? Are we at the point where I'm forced to breakdown cartoon sumo between two birds instead of actual Ozeki sumo??

Kotozakura moves to 5-1 with yet another gift while Hiradoumi cools himself off a bit in falling to 4-2.

The very next bout featured Onosato vs. M3 Atamifuji, and it was the latter who moved forward listlessly getting the right arm inside and motioning for a grab of the left outer, which was wide open, but Atamifuji withdrew that hand quickly not wanting to do further damage. As for Onosato, that was one of his worst tachi-ai ever, and even with Atamifuji letting up, Yoko Ono was in no position to attack. Here's a screenshot I took after the tachi-ai:



Just look at Atamifuji's left hand.  What's he trying to accomplish with that??  What he's not trying to accomplish is winning the bout despite his much better stance and the clear path to a left outer grip against a completely upright opponent.

Anyway, a few seconds into the bout, Onosato still had no leverage to press forward, and so Atamifuji kept backing up all the while with his hand positioned to grab an outer grip, but he of course wouldn't take it:  Finally near the edge, he did grab the left outer, but he did so while continuing his retreat, and essentially Atamifuji just walked back and across the straw of his own volition. They ruled it a frontal force out, but there was zero force coming from Onosato, and you could just tell. Like Kotozakura, Onosato is at an equally unworthy 5-1 while Atamifuji falls into oblivion at 1-5.

Yokozuna Hoshoryu faced M2 Ohho, and Ohho came in high going for two hands to the neck, but his lower body wasn't fueling that attack, and so the Yokozuna was able to assume moro-zashi and prop Ohho upright. From there, it was a very straightforward yori-kiri where Hoshoryu bodied the M2 back and then used a nice wrench with the left inside belt grip to send Ohho across sideways. I mean, everything was correct here in Hoshoryu's movements and footwork, etc., and we did not see such correct tactics from Onosato or Kotozakura in the previous two bouts. Hoshoryu leads the whole shootin' match at this point with a 6-0 record while Ohho falls to 2-4.

I think after the Kotoshoho debacle last tournament, the Association is mandating that the yusho here in September come from the Ozeki or Yokozuna rank, so it's a lock among those three.

Let's now move towards the bottom of the banzuke and work are way up in chronological order covering the other seven bouts the Association thought were the highest priority.

I think it's safe to say that M10 Daieisho has lost a step and that right quick. Today against M12 Mitakeumi, Daieisho tried to bully the former Ozeki back from the starting lines with his tsuppari attack, but Daieisho only made progress for a step or two before Mitakeumi stubbornly dug in. Daieisho next tried pushing from a different angle, but Mitakeumi wouldn't budge and after about six seconds in when Daieisho went for the first pull, you knew he had just given Mitakeumi his best shot. Daieisho tried one more pull that didn't work, and then the two dug in assuming the grappling position rather than going chest to chest. They largely stood like this for over a minute, and then when Mitakeumi felt the timing was right, he tried an oshi attack of his own, and Daieisho was so gassed, he toppled over like a ton of bricks.

It's likely we're seeing the final days of Daieisho who falls to 1-5 while Mitakeumi evens things up at 3-3. On one hand, you'd think Mitakeumi would be like "Welcome to the club" referring to the has-beens like Mitakeumi and Shodai dwelling among the lower ranks, but I don't even think Daieisho can survive that right now in his condition. We'll see.

M6 Onokatsu stood straight up at the tachi-ai letting M8 Ura come to him, and the way Ura agreed to move forward foreshadowed that he knew the bout was fixed coming in, otherwise he would have been dodging and darting from the start. With Ura pressing in tight, Onokatsu had plenty of chances to grab outers, establish the inside with either hand, unleash a kote-nage, etc., but he refrained from all of that and played along. Ura is incapable of setting up and beating Onokatsu, and so in the end with the action flowing back towards the center of the ring, Onokatsu went along with a very weak left scoop throw from Ura. I mean, Ura wasn't even set with his feet to unleash a throw that would succeed let alone against a dude who weighs 171 kg and doesn't want to be thrown, but Onokatsu was clearly mukiryoku start to finish, and so the ending was a harmless sukui-nage on paper. Ura moves to 5-1 with the fake win while Onokatsu settles for 3-3, and I think because you're not going to see the yusho race excitement come from the lower ranks, they're using Ura as a crutch to keep people interested until we get to the last 15 minutes of the broadcast.

The tachi-ai between M4 Wakamotoharu and M6 Kusano was good as both rikishi agreed to hook up in hidari-yotsu, and Kusano came close to grabbing an outside right, but his crocodile arms proved to be too short. As for the longer Wakamotoharu, he did seize a right outer grip and wasted no time using his position to force Kusano over to the edge. Kusano looked to counter with a left scoop throw, but before he could really get it set up, Wakamotoharu had him forced down across the straw.

I'm glad we got a straight up bout here because it shows the difference in ability between these two at this point. We all know that Wakamotoharu struggles against the elite rikishi on the banzuke in straight up bouts. Here, Kusano was overwhelmed by Wakamotoharu in a straight up bout, and so Wakamotoharu is probably at his true rank on the banzuke while Kusano is way over-inflated even at M6. WMH moves to 5-1 with the win while Kusano falls to 2-4.

M1 Abi put two hands into M2 Hakuohho's shoulders at the tachi-ai instead of the neck, and instead of attempting to push his way forward, he immediately moved laterally to his left pretending to pull, and Hakuohho followed along trying to keep up with it all. In the end, they ruled it a force-out in favor of Hakuohho, but you watch the slow motion replays, and Hakuohho barely touched his foe the entire way. This was Abi start to finish throwing the bout in Hakuohho's favor and only needing two seconds to do it. If you assume Abi was paid the standard 200,000 yen fee for a thrown bout, that basically amounts to $1K USD for each second of work. Sounds like a good gig to me, which is why guys like Abi (0-6) and Gonoyama are just fine earning cash instead of wins.

The two Komusubi met up today in Aonishiki vs. Takayasu, and the two engaged in a sloppy push affair where both were standing upright and just flailing away with their arms instead of fueling things with the lower body. It looked like Takayasu was the one trying to connect on shoves with the Ukrainian waxing on and waxing off faster than Takayasu could pummel him, and after five seconds or so, Takayasu realized he wasn't going anywhere, and so he went for a pull. That was exactly what Aonishiki was waiting for, and he easily pounced and drove Takayasu out after the ill-advised pull attempt. Aonishiki loves to fight defensively and why not? None of his Japanese counterparts can beat him straight up, so stand your ground and wait for the mistake. He moves to 4-2 with the nice win while Takayasu falls to 0-6.

M3 Gonoyama stayed low as he plowed forward from the tachi-ai pretending to mount an oshi charge against Sekiwake Wakatakakage. As for the Sekiwake, he could do nothing from the start, and so he backed up half a step and moved right, and Gonoyama watched him do it, but instead of squaring up with his compromised foe, Gonoyama still plowed straight forward flopping to the dirt as Wakatakakage offered a very half-assed tsuki to the back of the left shoulder. What a waste of a bout as Wakatakakage is gifted 4-2 while Gonoyama drops to 0-6 with more petty cash in his jar. I hope Wakatakakage doesn't get promoted to Ozeki after this basho. Why do we need another useless dude occupying the rank and relying on yaocho to keep it?

Finally, both Sekiwake Kirishima and M1 Tamawashi were flatfooted at the tachi-ai standing straight up instead of lunging across the starting lines. The result was a methodic exchange of tsuppari that was dominated by The Mawashi. When Kirishima realized he wasn't getting anywhere, he started thinking pull, and as he did, Tamawashi stayed square and had Kirishima pushed back and across in four or five seconds. Tamawashi, the best rikishi on the banzuke, moves to 3-3 with the easy win while Kirishima suffers consecutive losses (this one legit) to fall to 4-2.

And that's a wrap on Day 6. We'll see if I have anything to say over the weekend.

Aki Basho Day 5 Comments
I was bumping around a bit on YouTube Monday catching up on college football highlights over the weekend when I saw a thumbnail to the right advertising the Hoshoryu - Takayasu bout from Day 2, and I was like, "Oh yeah, sumo." September has been one of those months where we buried a good friend and neighbor on the 5th after he took his own life, and then five days later the Charlie Kirk assassination took place about 8 minutes south of us on the interstate. Come to think of it, I can't remember a political assassination happening in the United States during my lifetime (I was born in 1970), so to have one occur so close to home shakes you a bit. Furthermore, one of my sons is employed by Utah Valley University where the incident took place, and another son works in the O.R. at the hospital where they took Charlie's body into emergency surgery, so suffice it to say that some in my family had a personal, up-close look at the tragedy, and it takes time to heal from such things.

September has also had it's highlights as well. There have been some fine meals, a few brook trout landed on my fly rod, and then I was able to track and get up close to this guy a week ago in the Utah mountains:



I was so close I could smell him, and coincidentally, I have been so close to distant relative and former Yokozuna, Moose-sashi-maru, that I was able to smell him too, and I'm not gonna say who smelled worse.

Anyway, I know I'm late to the party here, but there have been too many events recently that relegated the current basho to non-factor status, but I'm caught up now on the first four days, however, thanks to my trusty DVR having recorded the digest program that NHK World offers each night.

When you watch the NHK World version of the bouts, they show the age of each rikishi prior to each bout, and I was shocked to see how old some of these guys are.

When I first started watching sumo in the late 80's, the majority of the rikishi on the banzuke joined sumo out of junior high school, so they were in their mid-teens when they began learning the ropes. The great rikishi earned sekitori status by the age of 18 and then the truly great Yokozuna would be crowned around the age of 21.

Japan didn't become an economic force until the late 80's, so sumo for most of the guys back then was a way out. It was free room and board and an escape from the promise of an otherwise dreary life in rural Japan.

The Hawaiian rikishi had similar stories back then. Sumo was a way for those kids to get off the islands and perhaps make it big in Japan. When guys like Takamiyama and Konishiki and Akebono went to school in Hawaii, they didn't even wear shoes. I know one of those guys told me that several decades ago, but I can't remember which one now. It was a way out for them just as sumo was a way out for the rural kids in Japan.

You don't see Hawaiian rikishi anymore because the economic situation in Hawaii is flourishing these days. The way the world is connected now, it's also easy for the athletes on the islands to pursue football or other sports, and so the truly great rikishi in sumo now hail from third world countries like Mongolia or countries with poor economies like Ukraine. Sumo is still an escape for them from the otherwise dreary conditions back home, and so they naturally have an incentive to work harder than their Japanese counterparts.

Around the mid-90's, guys like Musoyama and Tosanoumi burst onto the sumo scene, and what set them apart was that they entered sumo from college...something you rarely heard of back then. Now, however, it's extremely rare for a kid to enter sumo before he graduates from high school, and nearly all of the rikishi enter the sport now out of college.

Having watched this transformation take place over the decades, I can truly say that rikishi who come out of college are soft. It was true in the 90's and it's even more true today now that sumo has become politically correct. Sumo stables were very violent places until the turn of the century. There was this fine line of how far do you take the abuse and still keep it legal that the stables had to walk, and this toughened the guys up and turned them into warriors, but with the onset of the internet and the free flow of information that we see today, Sumo can no longer afford the PR hits that result from violent acts that occur in the practice dohyo.

Hakuho lost his stable and Hokuseiho was excommunicated from sumo altogether just a few years ago due to acts that occurred during practice that were completely acceptable decades earlier.

Just imagine if the NFL eliminated all tackling and made the players hang flags from their belts instead. While that's an extreme example, the transformation of sumo over the decades is definitely trending from rough tackles to a more non-contact version, and it's manifest daily atop the dohyo. I've seen the transformation firsthand, and it's a culmination of the factors that I've explained here.

It's just reality these days, and so maybe that's why I don't circle the start of a new basho on my calendar anymore.

With that, let's get to the Day 5 theatrics starting with rookie M17 Hitoshi vs. M16 Nishikigi in a bout where the average age of the two rikishi is 31.5 years old, and one of the dudes is a rookie. Nuff said.

Nishikigi reached for a left frontal grip from the tachi-ai, but Hitoshi was able to rebuff him back. With Nishikigi's feet aligned, Hitoshi was able to move forward and score on a series of volleys that had Nishikigi pushed back and across with little argument. At 35 years of age and suffering from cellulitis, I can see how Nishikigi is just a blob in the ring this basho as he falls to 0-5. As for Hitoshi, he picks up a nice first win with proactive, forward-moving sumo.

M16 Tomokaze caught J3 Nishikifuji with some nice shoves to the neck and head area, and then as Nishikifuji tried to duck his way forward, Tomokaze retreated and executed a nice pull down of his opponent near the edge. Tomokaze set this one up by winning the tachi-ai and staying proactive throughout. He's now 4-1 while Nishikifuji falls to 3-2.

It's really nice to see M15 Tobizaru down this low on the banzuke, which is were he truly belongs. Today he faced M18 Shishi, and Tobizaru was proactive looking to get a right arm inside, but Tobizaru isn't a yotsu guy, and he wasn't going to win in a belt contest against Shishi. As a result, he backed out and both rikishi social distanced throughout as Shishi chased his foe around before finally getting to the inside forcing Tobizaru back and across with ease. Both rikishi finish the day at 3-2.

M17 Ryuden and M14 Asakoryu traded defensive tsuppari from the tachi-ai where Asakoryu eventually got the left arm inside, but he didn't want to go chest to chest, and so Asakoryu moved to the other side of the ring. Ryuden countered with a right kote grip and the two dug in for about three seconds before Asakoryu attempted an inside dashi-nage throw. He had too much real estate to cover, however, and so Ryuden was able to put on the brakes and drag Asakoryu down with a right outer grip. Wasn't pretty as Ryuden moves to 4-1 while Asakoryu falls to 1-4.

M14 Sadanoumi grabbed an early right outer grip from the tachi-ai against M15 Shonannoumi but then quickly let it go, and then it seemed as if Sadanoumi refused to use his arms the rest of the way. As he ran around the dohyo, Shonannoumi tried to catch him with a few shoves, and finally SNNU grabbed a right outer of his own and slung a defenseless Sadanoumi out of the ring. This kind of sumo is simply theatrics and contained no sound sumo moves as both rikishi sit now at 3-2.

M13 Meisei had M12 Mitakeumi on the run early using his speed to work his way into a very shallow right grip with a path to the outer grip on the other side. You could see that Meisei was letting up here by refusing to get in deep, and so he agreed to a stalemate in the ring. Problem was that Mitakeumi was doing nothing and was incapable of doing anything, and so Meisei finally relinquished his inside position and darted right as if to set up a pull. Instead of going for a pull, however, he rested his left arm lightly at the back of Mitakeumi's right shoulder and then just turned his body nearly 360 degrees stepping out prematurely in the process. This was a joke bout if I've ever seen one (and I've seen one!!) with both rikishi settling for 2-3.

M13 Tokihayate and M11 Roga ended up in the migi-yotsu position after a tachi-ai from Tokihayate where he came in too high, and before Tokihayate could even pivot, Roga secured his right inside position and had his foe forced back and across in maybe two seconds. Tokihayate blew this one at the tachi-ai in falling to 2-3 while Roga moves to 3-2.

I suppose I need to concentrate a bit more on 10 Daieisho's sumo this basho. It seems he's lost that desire to pop his foe from the tachi-ai with a solid tsuppari attack, and that was the case today against M10 Churanoumi. With Daieisho in a defensive stance from the start, Churanoumi focused on swipes to the back of Daieisho's shoulder, and on about the third try, he had Daieisho turned 180 degrees setting up the easy pushout from behind. Daieisho falls to 1-4 in defeat while Churanoumi mops up the easy win in moving to 4-1.

9 Midorifuji kept both arms out wide at the tachi-ai gifting M9 Fujinokawa moro-zashi from the get-go, and Midorifuji didn't do anything to try and counter as he moved to the other side of the dohyo and stayed square to his opponent so he could force him back just like that. Fujinokawa has purchased his last two wins as he moves to 2-3 while Midorifuji falls to the same mark.

Oh brother! M8 Kinbohzan made sure to stay soft at the tachi-ai against M11 Shodai, but when Shodai couldn't bring anything, Kinbohzan danced completely around and to the side of Shodai grabbing a left outer grip, and he pretended to set up a nage-no-uchi-ai where he conveniently just sat his butt down across the straw while Shodai was still trying to figure out what was going on. Hooboy, this one was obvious as Shodai moves to 4-1 with the gift while Kinbohzan falls to 1-4.

This graphic alone is a great manifestation of just how fake sumo is these days:



Moving right along, the M7 Takanosho - M7 Ohshoma bout was likely fixed. Neither rikishi had any pop from the tachi-ai, and both guys seemed to trade off moving forward and then moving back. With neither one grabbing the bull by the horns, Takanosho (4-1) scored the easy, uncontested win in about three seconds that doesn't deserve further comment as Ohshoma falls to 2-3.

M8 Ura used very good footwork to keep himself balanced from the tachi-ai against M6 Kusano, and I snapped a pic of the two early on in the bout:



You can see that Ura's left knee is forward and bent properly giving him balance on the frontend while the trailer foot his also keeping him grounded to the dohyo from behind. Kusano on the other hand has his feet aligned, and the direction of his feet don't quite match the direction of his torso in terms of providing optimal balance, and so Ura was able to dictate this one as he offered a few hesitant shoves. Ura is of course not a push guy, and so a few seconds into his attack, he backed up going for a pull as he yanked Kusano's outstretched arm, and Kusano was so off balance that he found himself parallel to the dohyo as he landed on the dirt with Ura still keeping himself in the ring. What a telling bout in terms of Kusano's inability to do anything against Ura (4-1) as Kusano falls to 2-3.

I did not expect a belt contest between M5 Kotoshoho M5 and Ichiyamamoto, and I don't think those two were expecting it either. I mean, it certainly seemed like both were extremely uncomfortable in the migi-yotsu position where IYM had the left outer grip, and so they went back and forth with Ichiyamamoto briefly losing that left outer, but because Kotoshoho wasn't applying any counter pressure, IYM grabbed it again straightway and forced his foe back across from there in an unimpressive yotsu contest. Kotoshoho falls to 2-3, and I'll bet at least 80% of the people in attendance don't even remember his taking the yusho in July. As for Ichiyamamoto, he inches forward to that same 2-3 record.

M6 Onokatsu stayed limp at the tachi-ai against M4 Wakamotoharu giving WMH what he wanna. The problem was that Wakamotoharu couldn't take it, and so the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and Onokatsu's right hand was positioned perfectly to grab a right frontal grip as pictured here:



When he refrained and kept that lethal hand out of harm's way, I knew he was throwing the bout at that point. With Wakamotoharu still unable to do anything, the two dug in for 10 seconds before Onokatsu mounted a half-assed force-out charge that was working and so he stopped short of the straw, and after letting the action flow back to the center of the ring, Onokatsu just backed up to the edge with Wakamotoharu in tow. I mean, there was no pressure coming from WMH and there was no counter-pressure coming from ONK as the two moved across the straw in sync giving Wakamotoharu the cheap, scripted win and 4-1 record. As for Onokatsu, the foreigner unsurprisingly defers to the Japanese rikishi in falling to 3-2.

Fresh off of his legit win over Onosato yesterday (in a very technically unsound bout from both parties), M2 Hakuohho tried his luck today against M4 Hiradoumi. Hakuohho was proactive from the tachi-ai looking to put together an oshi charge, but his feet were so aligned and he was too upright, and so he couldn't apply the sufficient pressure needed near the edge. Once it was clear that Hiradoumi was going to easily stand his ground, Hakuohho began to backpedal fishing for pulls, but Hiradoumi had all the momentum and scored the tsuki-dashi win in the end. Hiradoumi has looked good so far this tournament in moving to 4-1 while Hakuohho falls to 2-3.

Two things really stood out to me in speed watching the action over the first four days. First was Kinbohzan yesterday against Fujinokawa bending his knee in half the latter part of the bout as if he had a broken his tibia. Of course the hapless Fujinokawa was able to swipe the willing Kazakhstani down from that position as pictured here.



Second was on Day 2 when Tamawashi grabbed Onosato by the neck from the tachi-ai forcing the faux-kozuna to stare upwards at his fraudulent yusho boards hanging in the rafters as soon below. Tamawashi began pushing Onosato back by the neck only to flop to the side near the edge.



Although not quite as potent as his chokehold against Yoko Ono on Day 2, Tamawashi went for the neck again against Komusubi Takayasu today standing the walking carpet upright and pushing him back near the edge. Takayasu moved to his left--ever so slowly--in an effort to evade his foe, but Tamawashi stayed square and easily forced him across from there. Tamawashi is still the best rikishi on the entire banzuke as he moves to 2-3 while Takayasu falls to 0-5.

It was too bad to see Komusubi Aonishiki feel obligated to throw his bout against Onosato on Day 1, but the Ukrainian is already on his way to the mediocrity hopper where the other gaijin rikishi reside. These other furries are of course choosing to be mediocre and will occasionally rise up and take a yusho or threaten in the yusho race at least. We've seen that with Kinbohzan, Aonishiki, Kirishima, etc. the last year, and two of those hoppers met up today Aonishiki taking on Sekiwake Kirishima.

As expected, Kirishima was proactive from the tachi-ai using a flurry of pushes and slaps keeping Aonishiki on the defensive, a place where the Ukrainian is actually comfortable. In this case, however, Kirishima's jabs to the head and face were so quick that Aonishiki could barely keep his eyes open. As the dust settled, the Mongolian forced the bout to hidari-yotsu where the two dug in for a spell. After a few seconds, Kirishima set himself up by going for an inside belt throw, which was really an excuse to walk himself over to the edge, but Aonishiki wasn't ready to push him out, so back to the center of the ring they went.

A few seconds after that spat, Kirishima pretended to go for a maki-kae with the right, but instead of getting moro-zashi, he purposefully turned his back 180 degrees to his foe, and Aonishiki was able to dispatch him okuri-dashi style from there. Kirishima saddles himself with his first loss of the basho at 4-1 while Aonishiki improves--so to speak--to 3-2.

I was a little bit shocked when catching up on the first four days of action, and one of the English announcers (I think it was Ross) said that Sekiwake Wakatakakage was up for promotion to Ozeki. It sure doesn't feel like he's an Ozeki candidate, but then again, the bar for reaching Ozeki has been lowered well below the knees in recent years.

WTK's opponent today, M1 Abi, bested him at the tachi-ai using a nice dual chokehold that allowed Abi to force Wakatakakage back a full step, and then all of a sudden Abi began pulling for no other reason than to step outta the ring and give the Ozeki candidate the cheap, undeserved win at the edge. Whenever there's a false start in sumo, they talk about the two guys not being in sync, and the ending to this bout was certainly not in sync. You had Abi already down on the venue floor when Wakatakakage attempted that do or die pushout before he fell to the dohyo in a heap himself. This one was a hot mess fixed in favor of Wakatakakage who limps to 3-2. As for Abi, he falls to a dutiful 0-5.

M3 Gonoyama dominated Kotozakura from the tachi-ai standing him straight up and leaving Zak vulnerable, but then Gonoyama suddenly changed course and began slapping downward as he voluntarily backed his way to the Tawara. Because Kotozakura didn't cause that retreat, he was unable to take advantage of it, and so Gonoyama paused for a split second thinking, "What do I do next?" and his response was to move a step to his right and stand there on the edge until Kotozakura was able to weakly push him across. And weak Kotozakura's sumo was here as his camp clearly purchased the bout in boosting him to 4-1 while Gonoyama falls to 0-5.

Let's cover the day's final bout before the penultimate bout in order to point out the contrast in results after identical tachi-ai coming from the rikishi fighting from the West. In the day's final bout, M2 Ohho (fighting from the West) caught Onosato by the neck with the right hand standing his opponent upright and leading to a wide open path to a left outer grip against the defenseless Yoko Ono. He didn't take it of course, and instead of pushing forward with that chokehold, he slowly backed up and dipped his left shoulder towards his opponent. Onosato rested his right arm at the back of Ohho's shoulder causing the M2 to just hit the dirt, and the actual downward pressure from Onosato didn't actually occur until Ohho was already midflight.

You watch the slow mo replay here, and there's nothing that Onosato did that caused any of Ohho's actions or movements today. It was simply a scripted bout where the loser dominated the tachi-ai and then took a dive. That's Sumo 101 these days as Onosato is gifted 4-1 while Ohho falls to a quiet 2-3.

In the penultimate bout, Yokozuna Hoshoryu fighting from the West caught M3 Atamifuji with a right chokehold from the tachi-ai that also stood Atamifuji upright rendering him extremely vulnerable. Unlike Ohho who voluntarily began retreating, the Yokozuna utilized his tachi-ai to move forward getting the right arm inside and a left outer grip. With Atami the Hutt already on his heels, Hoshoryu simply maintained his forward momentum and dispatched Atamifuji without argument.

Hoshoryu could use these same tactics against every other rikishi on the banzuke except for Tamawashi and Kirishima to produce identical results. That he doesn't is indicative of how he lowers the bar of his sumo to make things appear equitable.

These were two very instructive bouts to end the day as Hoshoryu remains perfect at 5-0 while Atamifuji falls to 1-4.

See you back here tomorrow.