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Haru Basho Day 13 Comments
I'm really glad for the youth explosion that occurred on Day 11 when Takerufuji overwhelmed Kotonowaka and Onosato destroyed Takakeisho. I'm not a fan yet of either of these dudes because I want to root for straight up sumo, so when I don't get it consistently from a rikishi, I can't become a fan of them, but the reason I loved that moment was because it provided a perfect example of how exciting real sumo can be. Forget the fact that both Takerufuji and Onosato have purchased over 90% of their wins this basho. Destroying those two faux-zeki on that stage with real sumo really brought the house down, and so in the two days since when all of the bouts with yusho implications have been fixed, the same energy just hasn't been there. That's why I'm glad Day 11 happened...so fans can experience the contrast between real sumo and fake sumo.

I've traditionally called Day 13 moving day because that's when the pretenders are usually knocked off of the leaderboard for good, and the result of the Takerufuji bout today was key because it signaled whether or not they were going to bring the dude back to the pack or whether or not they were okay with him going into the final two days with a two-bout lead.

Let's review the leaderboard at the start of the day that shaped up as follows:

11-1: Takerufuji
9-3: Hoshoryu, Kotonowaka, Onosato, Gonoyama

Though Asanoyama and Ura are not on that leaderboard, they've been using their bouts as well the last few days as sort of an undercard to keep people excited until the last 20 minutes of the day.

Up first among the leaders was M17 Takerufuji who was paired against Suckiwake Wakamotoharu, and I really loved this matchup on paper coming in...if the bout was straight up. It unfortunately was not as Wakamotoharu stood largely upright from the tachi-ai waiting for Takerufuji to dictate the pace, and the rookie did just that by moving forward well and sending the bout to hidari-yotsu. Early on, Takerufuji reached for a right outer grip, but he came up short, and that's when I first realized a big weakness in this dude moving forward: he's got crocodile arms. Wakamotoharu was not putting up that much resistance, but Takerufuji still never got the right outer.

After Takerufuji wrenched Wakamotoharu back a step, he next turned the tables sending the action to the other side of the ring, and I immediately noticed Wakamotoharu's own right hand turned so that the back of his hand was touching against Takerufuji's side, and not the front of the hand. That's an immediate sign of yaocho, and that pic at right was not captured in some split second moment.  Wakamotoharu kept his hand like that the entire way.

As a result, there was no resistance whatsoever when Takerufuji went for the final force out charge, and it also helps explain why Takerufuji was able to lead start to finish and "win" in what looked like to most fans straight up fashion.

It was anything but that. When they showed the slow motions replays, it was painfully obvious that 1) Wakamotoharu could have grabbed a right outer grip at any point, and 2) he not only refrained from getting a deadly outer, but he purposefully put the back of his hand against Takerufuji's side as pictured here.

 I mean, if you can't grab an outer grip, use a tsuki to the side, attempt a kote-nage, or wrap around tight around the outside of your opponent's arm. Wakamotoharu did none of these, and it was clear that his intent was to stand in there like a practice dummy resulting in that lopsided loss at the finish line.

The result pushes Takerufuji to an ill-gotten 12-1, and regardless of what happens with anyone else, his next win gives him the yusho. I was sorry that we didn't get a straight up fight between these two, but after watching this play out, there's no doubt Wakamotoharu (7-6) would have won if he would have at least tried something. That he didn't explains that the Sumo Association is seemingly okay with the first rookie yusho in 110 years, and as I've mentioned previously, I think they're really desperate for sensational headlines at this point.

First, they need to counter the negative headlines that could be surrounding Hakuho's situation after the basho.
Second, they will be competing against and losing out to news surrounding Shohei Otani, Japanese baseball, MLB, Paris Olympic trials for Japanese athletes, and then the Paris Olympics in the summer. Sumo won't have the attention of the general Japanese public until November, so grab the headlines while you can I suppose.

Directly proceeding the Takerufuji - WMH matchup was M5 Onosato taking on Suckiwake Daieisho, and this was a terrible bout (I'll stop short of calling it a terrible bout "of sumo"). Onosato was useless at the tachi-ai, and so Daieisho used a few obligatory thrusts from the initial charge, but you could see him just standing there leaning forward a bit purposefully leaving himself vulnerable. About two seconds in, Onosato moved to his right and went for a mild swipe, and that was Daieisho's cue to just run outta the dohyo and land on two feet on the venue floor below. I'd rate his dismount an eight, but you could tell that Daieisho didn't even want to get his hands or knees dirty today.

At least the carbon footprint from this point will be low as neither dude had to shower after it, and the result is Onosato's cheaply moving to 10-3 while Daieisho falls to 5-8. What's insulting to me is that these two dudes are likely going to swap places on the banzuke come May.

Kotonowaka was the next three-loss rikishi to step into the dohyo, and his opponent today was Takakeisho. From the tachi-ai, Kotonowaka stood straight up and waited for Takakeisho to do something, but the latter was too hapless, and so Kotonowaka stepped to his left and grabbed an outer grip. Takakeisho lightly got his right arm to the inside, and so the two danced near the edge where you'd normally see the dude in Kotonowaka's position dump Takakeisho's ass over and down, but Kotonowaka obviously let up on a throw and allowed the action to flow back to the center of the ring...still in migi-yotsu.

I mean, the biggest clue as to how you knew the bout was fixed at this point is the lack of panic and desperation from Takakeisho. When he's in a straight up fight, he only knows three things: swipe, pull, and run like hell. Today it was too casual as Kotonowaka complied with a weaker than weak right scoop throw attempt by Takakeisho that resulted in Kotonowaka's moving towards the edge on his own, and as Kotonowaka stood there waiting turned a bit to the side, Takakeisho "forced" him across from there. What a sleeper this was, and it was so phony. Takakeisho winning at yotsu-zumo when his opponent who outweighs him heavily has the stifling outer grip? Impossible in real sumo. But this was fake, and everyone knew it as Takakeisho is gifted his eighth win at 8-5 now while Kotonowaka removed himself from the yusho race he didn't deserve to be in in the first place by falling to 9-4 (yawn).

The final bout that featured two leaders was Ozeki Hoshoryu taking on M6 Gonoyama, and I know everyone's thinking, "Wait, Gonoyama was part of the yusho race?" This was another sleeper bout as they stuck neutrally at the tachi-ai before Hoshoryu lazily moved a step right going for a half-assed scoop throw, and Gonoyama just bit the dirt two seconds in. I can't say for sure that this bout was scripted, but don't we expect a little bit more effort from two leaders on Day 13?  It was just another anticlimactic bout that saw Hoshoryu keep himself alive at 10-3 while Gonoyama had a fork stuck into him for good at 9-4.

With that, the leaderboard heading into the weekend has been whittled down to the following three rikishi:

12-1: Takerufuji
10-3: Hoshoryu, Onosato

The magic number as they like to say in Japan for a Takerufuji yusho is now 1 meaning Takerufuji either needs to win 1 more bout or both Hoshoryu and Onosato need to lose 1 more bout and the yusho belongs to the rookie.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, Takerufuji is paired against Asanoyama, and once again, I really love that pairing IF the bout is fought straight up. If it is legit, Asanoyama is the favorite for sure.

Onosato is paired against Abi, and that is an instant loss for Onosato in a straight up bout.

Finally, Hoshoryu is paired against Kotonowaka, and that's an instant win for the Ozeki if he wants it.

Best case scenario for the Sumo Association is that Asanoyama beats Takerufuji and Hoshoryu beats Kotonowaka meaning the yusho wouldn't be decided until the final day. If Takerufuji clinches it tomorrow, there is no reason to tune in on Sunday, so I think it's a likely scenario.

At this point, I'd say the chances of a Takerufuji yusho are 60% with Hoshoryu making up the other 40%. That number would be higher for Hoshoryu if he controlled his own destiny, but he doesn't.

In other bouts of interest, the final bout of the day featured Ozeki Kirishima vs. M7 Kinbohzan, and Kinbohzan caught the Ozeki with two pretty good paws to the neck at the tachi-ai, but he gave up moro-zashi in doing so. It didn't matter, however, as Kirishima was all too happy to let the flow of the bout go against him putting his back to the straw two seconds in. At that point, Kirishima really signaled his intentions when he raised his right foot clear off the dohyo and bent it backwards at the knee. Oh, that's really gonna help you stand your ground against Kinbohzan...standing there on one leg. The force-out was inevitable as Kirishima gave Kinbohzan the easy win, and once again, Kirishima's 3-10 record is just cover for the next time one of the Japanese Ozeki has an off basho. As for Kinbohzan, he moves to 6-5 with the gift, and I'd normally credit him with that tachi-ai, but you have to make a bigger impact so your opponent doesn't get moro-zashi so easily. Kids!

Komusubi Abi caught M1 Asanoyama with some nice paws to the throat from the tachi-ai, but Abi wasn't looking to do damage, and so he kept himself extended to where Asanoyama was able to reach for a left outer grip. Abi spun away from that 360 degrees and made Asanoyama chase him to the other side of the dohyo, but Asanoyama hadn't caused any of that movement, and so he couldn't capitalize on Abi's self-inflicted vulnerability. As a result, Abi was able to push his way back towards the center of the ring, but you could just see him waiting for the next pull attempt, and when it came, he dutifully hit the deck leaving both of these guys at 8-5.

I don't know that there's really any other bout worth commenting on today, and so we head into the weekend with all eyes on Takerufuji.

Haru Basho Day 12 Comments
As the dust settled yesterday, I couldn't help but think what the long-time sumo fans were thinking after they saw both Japanese Ozeki get demolished by a rookie and a dude whose hair can't even be tied in a top knot, and I'm quite sure the Association offices were flooded with calls from disgusted fans. As a result, they started off today's broadcast by taking the leaderboard down to three losses, and it's extremely rare to have a leaderboard cover four tiers of losses, but I think the Association was quelling the anger of the old-timers a bit and saying, "Hey, there's still a viable yusho race going on. Look at the six rikishi we have on the board including two Ozeki:"

11-0: Takerufuji
9-2: Onosato
8-3: Hoshoryu, Kotonowaka, Gonoyama, Takayasu

With four more days to go and the leader already two bouts ahead of the next guy, today was a crossroads of sorts because Takerufuji was either going to seal the yusho today and render the final three days useless, or they would have him lose and make the host of three-loss rikishi relevant again. The mere fact that they showed the leaderboard they did at the start of the broadcast signaled in my opinion the course of action they were going to take on the day

Let's follow that leaderboard in chronological order meaning we start with M8 Takayasu who had to solve Komusubi Abi, but Abi easily won the tachi-ai using his firehose tsuppari attack to keep Takayasu upright and into a defensive posture from the start. Because Takayasu is a load to move around, Abi abandoned his tsuppari attack in favor of a pull attempt that really didn't fool Takayasu because he wasn't moving forward, and so the two squared back up in the grapplin. position briefly before Abi came to his senses again resuming his tsuppari attack and pushing Takayasu back off the leaderboard. Both rikishi end the day at 8-4.

Suckiwake Daieisho and M6 Gonoyama traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai, but Daieisho had the upper hand. Problem was he wasn't using his legs, and so he left himself purposefully vulnerable to a pull attempt, so when Gonoyama moved right and executed a methodic pull, Daieisho just dove to the dirt. Gonoyama stays on the leaderboard...I guess...at 9-3 while Daieisho falls to 5-7.

Up next was the most anticipated bout featuring Ozeki Hoshoryu against M17 Takerufuji, and this bout was unfortunately uncontested from both parties. The tachi-ai contained hardly any contact, and instead of going chest to chest in hidari-yotsu, Hoshoryu moved to his right and set up a light kote-nage throw that Takerufuji dutifully walked into. How do I know Takerufuji wasn't trying to win? As Hoshoryu began executing the throw, Takerufuji didn't even try and counter with a left inside belt throw or scoop throw. Instead, he balled his left hand into a fist and just let it dangle there going along with the throw and ending up on his two feet in a slick dismount at the end of his fall.

To say that Takerufuji knew he had to lose here does not imply whatsoever that he could have beaten Hoshoryu if he wanted to because he can't beat Hoshoryu straight up at this stage of his career. The Sumo Association needed him to lose for two reasons.

#1 It automatically made that three-loss rikishi leaderboard valid
#2 Enough of the elders did not feel that a dude whose bought the majority of his bouts this basho should be allowed to surpass Taiho's record of an 11-0 start in a debut basho.

They've got the headlines already with Takerufuji tying Taiho's mark yesterday, and they've firmly established him as the primary "next" in my opinion, so they lose nothing here by this loss.

Hoshoryu moves to 9-3 and isn't quite out of the yusho race yet. I wouldn't be surprised to see Takerufuji eventually finish at 12-3, so we'll see if Hoshoryu decides to win out.

The final bout of the day featured M5 Onosato taking on Kotonowaka, and like the bout described before, this was a just a bunch of fluff where one dude's camp was ordered to lose. From the tachi-ai, Onosato brought his arms up in kachi-age fashion, but instead of using the arms to drive into his opponent, he kept this arms close to his body giving Kotonowaka what he wanna. As for Kotonowaka, he was not looking to win with straight forward sumo, and so he shaded left, whiffed on a grab of the outer belt, and then sorta executed a kote-nage as Onosato just buckled his left knee and fell over forward and down three seconds in.

What a useless bout whose sole purpose was to restore a bit of face to the Ozeki race by having the mighty Kotonowaka put a stop to Onosato's charge. At least that was the desire on paper. Kotonowaka's sumo was awful again, and he needed an obvious fake dive from his opponent to win.

On the NHK News 9 Sports segment, Onokuni broke down the bout, and he actually took a page out of my book by highlight the unorthodox move from Onosato that led to his demise. And I thought I was the only one who dared point these things out. The way Onokuni explained it, Onosato made a mistake by raising the heel of his foot upward...as if this is something that rikishi do all the time. Of course he stopped short of saying the move was intentional, but it was nice to actually see someone point out the foolish move instead of trying to BS their way around it.

The end result is both Kotonowaka and Onosato landing at 9-3, which reshapes the new leaderboard as follows:

11-1: Takerufuji
9-3: Hoshoryu, Kotonowaka, Onosato, Gonoyama

We still have the problem of the leader two bouts ahead with the three days to go, and so I expect Takerufuji to take another loss tomorrow or Saturday. As long as you can enter senshuraku with the yusho still undecided, you'll keep the fans' attention, so let's see what happens.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, Takerufuji draws Wakamotoharu, and I think Takerufuji can win that bout straight up if he uses his quickness to get to the inside of the slower WMH. Wakamotoharu's experience in fighting at this level is a huge benefit to him, however, so let's just hope for a straight up fight.

Hoshoryu and Gonoyama butt heads tomorrow, and I expect that one to be straight up. I just think it's best to have an anchor on the leaderboard like Hoshoryu to the very end. The Mongolian will win that one if he wanna.

Onosato draws Daieisho, and Onosato is a huge target for Daieisho's tsuppari game. Daieisho will win if the bout is straight up, but I think it's more beneficial to have Onosato hang around since he's gotten all this pub the first 12 days. We'll just have to wait and see. This one's hard to predict.

Finally, Kotonowaka draws Takakeisho, and you have to favor Kotonowaka based on Takakeisho's ineptness the last few days. Course, Kotonowaka is as equally inept, but he's younger, bigger, and stronger. And he doesn't have the reach of a toddler to hinder him, so I'd be really surprised if Takakeisho scored the upset.

In other bouts of interest, Ozeki Kirishima largely stood there with his arms extended giving M5 Midorifuji the quick kata-sukashi a second in, but Midorifuji whiffed on the move, and so the two danced around a few turns before coming away in the hidari-yotsu position. Midorifuji was overmatched at this point, but Kirishima obviously refused to grab a right outer belt grip that was right there for the taking, and so you knew at this point that the Ozeki was throwing the bout. The two stood in the ring for a long time because Midorifuji wasn't in any position to execute an offensive move, and Kirishima refused to grab the right outer, so the bout lasted nearly a minute before Kirishima literally withdrew his left inside position, and that finally gave Midorifuji the momentum shift he needed to score the ill-gotten win. The only reason Kirishima has allowed himself to fall to 3-9 is so it doesn't look as bad when Kotonowaka and Takakeisho can't afford to buy any wins and turn in a similar effort. As for Midorifuji (7-5), they said he won here due to his ability to "gaman." Where have I heard that before?

Takakeisho's tachi-ai against Suckiwake Wakamotoharu consisted of this very awkward stutter step where Takakeisho ended up aligning his feet and standing straight up, and that allowed Wakamotoharu to grab a firm right outer grip, and WMH drove his legs nicely escorting Takakeisho back and across with ease. Because this bout didn't involve a leader, I think most people didn't realize that a supposed Ozeki just had his ass handed to him for the third day in a row. Both rikishi end the day at 7-5, and surely someone will give Takakeisho that last win won't they??

M3 Takanosho caught M1 Asanoyama with such a powerful choke hold at the tachi-ai that Asanoyama was looking at the rafters a half second in. So did Takanosho seize on the tachi-ai win and drive forward into his opponent with his legs? Of course not. He instead backed up to the edge for no reason letting Asanoyama back into the bout. The two ended up in hidari-yotsu where Takanosho refused to grab a left outer grip, but Asanoyama was not in position to press the action, and so Takanosho grabbed the left outer, let it go, grabbed it again let it go, etc. There were so many momentum shifts in this bout that resulted in the Takanosho's (4-8) gaining the upper hand every time that it was no surprise in the end when he just stood straight up and walked across giving Asanoyama (7-5) the cheap win.

The previous bout featured M1 Ura vs. M2 Meisei, and Meisei immediately drove Ura back to the edge from the tachi-ai but refused to latch on, and so eventually Ura was able to escape to his left and bait a sleepwalking Meisei (4-8) into a pull where Meisei's reaction was to turn around 180 degrees and allow Ura (6-6) to lightly send him down okuri-taoshi style.

The crowd got a huge stiffie from the consecutive Ura and Asanoyama fake wins, and both bouts were simply an act of what they call "fan service" in Japan. With the uninteresting leaderboard, they gave the fans two bones here midway to keep them interested.

And finally, my favorite bout on the day that didn't matter was M4 Hiradoumi catching the much larger M3 Ohho with two hands to the neck, and he stood Ohho up and had him pushed back and across before Ohho knew what hit him. It just goes to show the importance of getting a rikishi upright, and if you can do that, even a small dude like Hiradoumi (7-5) can defeat a larger foe in Ohho (4-8).

Haru Basho Day 11 Comments
Back in September when Atamifuji made his debut in the division, the then rookie bought his way to a 10-1 start, which was good enough to put him in sole possession of first place. Somewhere during that run, I remember stating once or twice that they weren't going to let the guy yusho. That statement looked dubious the further we got into the basho, especially when Atamifuji entered senshuraku alone in first place with an 11-3 record. The Sumo Association orchestrated a lot on that day to have Atamifuji lose and a four-loss Takakeisho win, and then Atamifuji didn't even try in the playoff bout against Takakeisho.

I've seen a lot in my day, but I've never seen them let a rookie take the yusho. In fact, in the modern era of sumo, a rookie never has taken the yusho, and they weren't going to let Atamifuji do it last September. The reason I knew that was because Atamifuji wasn't hyped whatsoever prior to his entrance into the Makuuchi division, and he doesn't come from a stable of prominence.

So fast forward to this basho, and we have another rookie, Takerufuji, alone in first place by two bouts coming into the day, and he is the clear favorite to yusho at this point. So...why haven't I said to this point, then, that they weren't going to let this rookie yusho either? The reason is that something just felt different from Day 1 in this tournament when they had all of the Mongolian rikishi lose and Ota Announcer use the term "haran" (or turbulent, tumultuous, etc.) to describe Day 1 of the Haru basho. Traditionally, they've used the term "areru Haru basho," which loosely translated means "The Haru Basho where anything can happen," and while haran has the same implications, they really mean it this time around.

Through the first 11 days now, it looks as if anything can and will happen here in Osaka. What we've seen to this point has been unprecedented in modern-day sumo, and I've never seen anything like it in my 30+ years of watching sumo. One thing I've also never seen in my 30+ years of sumo is such a terrible crop of supposedly elite Japanese rikishi, and it appears that we've reached a tipping point...so much so that they appear ready to allow a rookie to yusho (as long as he's Japanese of course) in order to set a new precedent of young rikishi who are going to usher in sumo's future.

Just ask yourself...who are the Japanese rikishi who received a lot of hype prior to even making it to the Makuuchi division? Takerufuji is definitely one. Onosato is one. Hakuohho is one (he'll be back soon). Ohho was one. Kotonowaka was one. Hokuseiho was one. There may be a few others, but a phrase that I've noticed a ton in the media this basho is "shonenn jidai," or the upcoming young generation.

The experiment of having Japanese dudes reach Ozeki late in their 20's has failed miserably. Kotoshogiku, Kisenosato, Goeido, Takayasu, Shodai, Mitakeumi. Complete failures and embarrassments to the rank. I mean, it's gotten to the point where being ranked as an Ozeki is meaningless, and sumo has to change course.

Back in the day when there were really good rikishi, Yokozuna were crowned in their very early twenties. Kitanoumi, Takanohana, Hakuho, etc. Chiyonofuji was the lone exception as he didn't reach the rank until the last half of his twenties, but you knew from a very early age who the ass kickers were.

And I think that's what's happening here. The Association is trying to return to the environment of 20 or 30 years ago, but unfortunately, it's requiring yaocho to get there. We'll have to see how this all plays out, but I'm quite sure we'll all be able to look back at this basho as another major turning point for sumo (and not a positive one).

With that let's get to the paltry leaderboard that looked as follows to start the day:

10-0: Takerufuji
8-2: Kotonowaka, Onosato

It's not worth slogging through all of the action today, so let's fast forward to the final two bouts of the day that featured all three leaders plus Takakeisho.

In the lead up to the first bout, M17 Takerufuji vs. Kotonowaka, there was a feel that it was already Day 14 or Senshuraku. On one hand, that does bring a bit of excitement, but on the other hand, it is still Day 11 so what's going to become of Day 14 or senshuraku when the leaderboard is down to one guy?

Anyway, this bout was going to purely be would he or wouldn't he in the case of Takerufuji, and coming in, I would have said there's at least an 80% chance that Takerufuji would roll over and let Kotonowaka win, but boy was I wrong.

The tachi-ai was bad from both rikishi, and once again, Takerufuji bounced off of his opponent failing to cling to anything inside or at the belt, and so the rookie immediately darted a step back and to his right threatening a pull and causing Kotonowaka to drift laterally in response. Before Kotonowaka could square up and defend himself, Takerufuji rushed in for moro-zashi and forced Kotonowaka back and across the other side of the dohyo in a flash.

I mean, Kotonowaka was destroyed here, and Takerufuji didn't even win the tachi-ai. I don't think there's anything really new that needs to be said here about how fake and pathetic Kotonowaka is and has been. There is not a single positive attribute to Kotonowaka's sumo, and that was perfectly illustrated here. I mean, dude, is it too much to ask to protect your turf from a rookie? Actually, it is unless the bout is fixed, and thankfully it wasn't here.

Takerufuji moves to 11-0 with the legit win and ties Taiho for best record in a debut all time. The last half of Takerufuji's performance was brilliant, but a lot of that was largely due to his fighting a useless slug. The first half of his bout had a bit to be desired. He didn't win the tachi-ai, and he went into pull mode in one second, but you know who he reminds me a lot of as a rookie? Hoshoryu.

I do think that Takerufuji will become an Ozeki soon, and it's going to take a lot of yaocho to get there, but this dude should also be able to defeat most of his opponents in time who aren't foreigners. That all remains to be seen, but dude put a huge stamp on things today in moving to 11-0 and knocking Kotonowaka off of the leaderboard.

With Kotonowaka unable to protect his turf, it was now up to Takakeisho to protect his against M5 Onosato, and the faux-zeki was afraid from the get-go. I mean, I knew from the tachi-ai that this bout was real because Takakeisho put two arms forward as if to thrust, but then he retreated faster than a leedle girl running from the Big Bad Wolf. Onosato didn't have to do anything but follow Takakeisho around, and after barely connecting on a desperate jab at the base of the neck of Onosato (yes, the dude still has some semblance of a neck), Takakeisho ran to the other side of the dohyo going for desperate pulls and swipes, but all it took was one punch from Onosato to send Takakeisho flying into the midst of the Jedi Council going on West of the dohyo.

After watching Kotonowaka lose, I didn't think it could get any worse, but it got worse here. The Sumo Association should be ashamed of themselves for letting two guys like Kotonowaka and Takakeisho appear on their banzuke as Ozeki. It's just ridiculous, and I loved seeing both of these guys get their asses kicked today.

Onosato was noticeably fired up after the win, and they panned up close on him as he walked back down the hana-michi and through the back halls, and when you think about it, he's never experienced this before. His bouts in Juryo and Makuuchi have been at least 90% fake, and so he's usually as calm as a midsummer morning when he wins. To be sent up to this stage and to defeat an Ozeki like that? Of course the dude's going to be fired up, and I enjoyed watching the emotion following a legit win. The result of the bout is Onosato's moving to 9-2 while Takakeisho falls to 7-4, and here's the new leaderboard:

11-0: Takerufuji
9-2: Onosato

The announcers were lamenting the fact that no rikishi ranked in the sanyaku or above were on the leaderboard, but that's what you get when you ask the Mongolians to pull back and you allow youngsters to buy the majority of their wins.

It will be interesting to see where we go from here, but right now, this basho is a complete mess. It's one thing to have a crazy ending like this with all that adrenaline on Day 14, but it's only Day 11.

Looking ahead tomorrow, Takerufuji draws Hoshoryu, and I'm not even going to try and predict that one. And by "predict" I strictly mean predict yaocho or something straight up. If the bout is straight up, Hoshoryu will get inside early and latch onto the belt. If it's fake, he'll come with the C3P0 arms and give up moro-zashi to the youngster.

As long as we're talking about these two guys, I was not kind to Hoshoryu early in his career. Maybe a better way to put it is that I wasn't playing along with his silly, compromised wins. He's matured significantly the last 18 months, and he is a true Ozeki, and I think Takerufuji can follow a similar path. In fact, the unorthodox way he moves kinda reminds me of a young Takahanada. Remember that bout where he beat Chiyonofuji when he was 19? He looks and moves like that, so I think of all the young, chosen candidates, Takerufuji is the number one candidate to reach the Yokozuna rank...knowing that he'll need cooperation from the Mongolians to get there, and they don't care.

As for Onosato, he draws Kotonowaka tomorrow, and that's a tough call. If it's a two-second slapdown in favor of Kotonowaka, you know the bout was scripted. If the bout is legit, I think Onosato can ride his momentum and confidence from today's win to beat his second faux-zeki in as many days.

In other bouts of interest, Ozeki Kirishima made his make-koshi official by standing straight up at the tachi-ai against Suckiwake Wakamotoharu, and once the two established the bout in the hidari-yotsu position, Wakamotoharu "forced" the Ozeki straight back and across with zero resistance. Wakamotoharu is gifted 6-5 while Kirishima will be kadoban next basho at 3-8.

The Ozeki Hoshoryu - Suckiwake Daieisho contest was weak (and fixed). After a light tachi-ai where Hoshoryu faked an early pull, Daieisho didn't even try and make him pay with forward-moving sumo, and Daieisho didn't attempt a single thrust the entire bout, and so you had both guys dancing and prancing all around the dohyo whiffing on pulls, and then when Hoshoryu finally touched the side of Daieisho's belt, the dude swan dove to the dirt. This was insulting stuff as Hoshoryu moves to 8-3 with Daieisho falling to 5-6.

Komusubi Abi knocked M12 Shonannoumi out of the yusho race by catching him with two hands to the neck, which stood SNNU upright, and Abi was relentless with the de-ashi as he pushed Shonannoumi back once, twice, three times a lady. It's too bad that Abi felt obligated to throw those bouts against Kotonowaka, Takerufuji, and Mitakeumi. Acknowledging that Abi did get a freebie on Day 1 against Kirishima, this guy should be 9-2 at this point. Damn yaocho. Instead, both dudes end the day at 7-4.

No sooner do I call out the Japanese rikishi for their lack of tsuri-dashi, and then M2 Atamifuji (6-5) scores a nice tsuri-dashi win against M1 Ura. Oh wait, it was against Ura (5-6) so it doesn't count.

The M8 Onosho - M4 Hiradoumi bout was meaningless in terms of the yusho race, but I loved Hiradoumi's tsuki-otoshi move at the end. In a real bout of sumo, every dude with his back against the wall should at least attempt that move as a last gasp effort. I was watching the first half of the bouts thinking the sumo was terrible (because it was), but this one impressed me enough to comment on it as both dudes end the day at 6-5.

And finally, M8 Takayasu and M11 Sadanoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and after a very brief stalemate, Sadanoumi went for a useless maki-kae with the right arm that contained no desperation, and that was Takayasu's cue to pivot and execute a left belt throw that felled the willing Sadanoumi (6-5) over and down just like that. Exciting this wasn't; and fixed it was as Takayasu is gifted 8-3.

The only thing that will keep the basho exciting from here on out is a Takerufuji loss, and I think chances are better than not that Hoshoryu will decided to beat him tomorrow.

Haru Basho Day 10 Comments
The broadcast today started on time in order to honor the former Ozeki Kirishima and current Michinoku-oyakata, who is turning 65 in April and will thus be forced to retire from the Sumo Association. For those of us who watched Kirishima fight as an active rikishi, it was a great tribute to the former Ozeki, and old-timer sumo fans surely got more out of that 10 minute intro than they did from the entire day of sumo.

As part of the celebration of Kirishima, they focused on the tsuri-dashi kimari-te, a waza that Kirishima was very adept at using. They showed clips of him defeating former Yokozuna Chiyonofuji and Hokutoumi by tsuri-dashi, and then they also pulled up a clips of Kirishima tsuri-dashi'ing Mainoumi, who they also placed in the mukou-joumen chair for the broadcast.

It was what I call broadcast gold, especially for those of us who knew Kirishima. One of the best parts was the minute or two where they focused on his friendship with fellow Ozeki Konishiki, and they showed numerous clips of the two hanging out of de-geiko. It was great all around, and I started watching sumo full time right at the tail end of Kirishima's career, so I really enjoyed the piece, and I'm sad to see Kirishima go.

As I watched them focus on the tsuri-dashi technique, I had the thought come to me, "When was the last time a Japanese rikishi won by tsuri-dashi?" I think the answer to that question is Tsurugisho, who did it fairly recently, but how about this question: When was the last time a Japanese Yokozuna or Ozeki won by tsuri-dashi? I think you'd have to go back at least a decade and probably two.

Of course they participated in bout fixing 30 years ago, but the elite rikishi still had game and could execute spectacular throws and sweet moves like tsuri-dashi, but just think about dudes like Takakeisho or Kotonowaka. How are they winning these days? How did Kisenosato win when he was an Ozeki or Yokozuna?

They don't make 'em like they used to.

I'm so glad that Hoshoryu is around because occasionally we'll get glimpses of what greatness can occur from the elite ranks. Unfortunately, we only see such greatness from the Mongolian rikishi.

With that, let's just go in chronological order today because the leaderboard is crumbling faster than a stale cookie.

It was nice to see Kagayaki visit from Juryo today, and he overwhelmed M14 Kitanowaka at the tachi-ai driving his foe back a few steps with some nice paws to the upper torso and neck, and with Kitanowaka flailing, Kagayaki could have easily assumed moro-zashi. He didn't, and so you knew what was coming next. After going completely mukiryoku, Kagayaki allowed Kitanowaka to escape left where he went for a pull so weak that Kagayaki couldn't dive, but on the second pull try, Kagayaki went down to the dirt on all fours in the center of the ring. Kitanowaka breaks his spell by buying this one in moving to 2-8.

M13 Ryuden and M16 Daiamami bumped noggins at the tachi-ai before hooking up in migi-yotsu, and Ryuden's long, gangly left arm was right there at the side of Daiamami's belt, but he refused the outer grip. With Ryuden dangling that left arm out of harm's way, Daiamami finally went for a weak force-out charge, and Ryuden just backed up in kind pausing a bit at the straw before Daiamami sent both guys back and down. Ryuden was in the prime position to counter either direction with a tsuki-otoshi because Daiamami's charge was so weak, but the bout was fixed and Ryuden dutifully took the loss in falling to 5-5 while Daiamami moves to 6-4.

M11 Ichiyamamoto caught M14 Nishikifuji with some nice shoves to the neck at the tachi-ai, and Nishikifuji's only chance was to evade laterally. He moved to his right around the edge of the ring, but IYM stayed snug and thrust Nishikifuji's arse clear off the dohyo earning the tsuki-dashi kimari-te. Nice stuff here as both dudes rest at 5-5.

M15 Roga moved forward well at the tachi-ai against M10 Shodai in a bout that wanted to go to migi-yotsu where Roga also had the clear path to the left frontal grip, but instead of going chest to chest, Roga grabbed Shodai's right arm and just pulled Shodai into his own body as he backed out of the ring. The announcers were correct afterwards when they said, "Roga won the tachi-ai," but then they struggled after that to explain how Shodai turned the tables. They struggled because Shodai didn't turn the tables. The bout was obviously fixed and Roga took the payout as both rikishi end the day at 5-5.

M9 Hokutofuji's arms were too high and wide at the tachi-ai easily allowing M15 Myogiryu to get moro-zashi, and once he had it, he forced Hokutofuji back and across without argument. This bout lacked any pep and was likely fixed as Myogiryu evens things up at 5-5 while Hokutofuji suffers make-koshi at 2-8.

M8 Onosho caught M11 Sadanoumi with a nice paw to the neck at the tachi-ai standing the latter upright, but he ruined that momentum going for a dumb pull. Sadanoumi wasn't looking to take advantage of that failed pull attempt, and so he let Onosho get the right arm inside and force Sadanoumi back, across, and down with little argument. Great tachi-ai from Onosho here, but the follow-up was weak as Sadanoumi just let him do his thang without resisting. Both rikishi end the day at 6-4.

As M12 Shonannoumi stepped into the ring to face M8 Takayasu, I realized we haven't posted the leaderboard yet, so here ya go:

9-0: Takerufuji
8-1: Onosato
7-2: Takakeisho, Kotonowaka, Shonannoumi

You can knock Shonannoumi out of the ranks as he and Takayasu lightly struck from the tachi-ai (can we even call that a tachi-ai?) whereupon Takayasu barely went for this light tap with the right hand at the back of the shoulder, and Shonannoumi was already on his way down forcing Takayasu to catch up with that tsuki. What an ugly and fixed bout this was as both rikishi end the day at 7-3, and I'm almost certain that leaderboard will include the three-loss rikishi shortly.

M7 Kinbohzan was passive at the tachi-ai allowing M16 Endoh to initiate a speedy charge while reaching for the right frontal grip, but Kinbohzan was able to apply the brakes near the straw and get his left arm inside of Endoh's right sending the bout to hidari-yotsu. Kinbohzan went for a counter inside belt throw that forced the action back to the center of the ring, and from there the two went chest to chest were Endoh actually had the right outer grip, but Kinbohzan was determined to win, and that's exactly what he did muscling Endoh back and across not even needing a right outer of his own. Kinbohzan moves to 3-7 with the nice in, and you watch sumo like this and wonder why he even went kyujo early on. As for Endoh, his make-koshi is official at 2-8.

M13 Churanoumi tried to latch onto the front of M7 Tamawashi's belt from the tachi-ai first with the left then the right, but the stronger Mongolian bodied Churanoumi off of his belt and then grabbed Churanoumi's left arm with both of his own arms and bludgeoned Churanoumi across and down kime-taoshi style. Tamawashi didn't fire a single tsuppari here, but he still dominated in moving to just 4-6 while Churanoumi settles for 5-5.

M9 Kotoshoho purposefully walked into a kata-sukashi from M5 Midorifuji, and this uncontested bout was finished in under two seconds. Kotoshoho didn't even try to grab his foe or cause any harm from the tachi-ai as Midorifuji buys one here in moving to 5-5 while Kotoshoho falls to 4-6.

After the break at the midway point, the biggest bout of the day was next featuring M17 Takerufuji vs. M5 Onosato, and Takerufuji was proactive at the tachi-ai coming out of his stance quickly, but he bounced off of Onosato after first contact. Fortunately for him, Onosato was his usual self meaning he wasn't threatening anything from the tachi-ai, and so Takerufuji rushed back forward looking to get the right arm inside. Before he could get established, however, Onosho grabbed a right outer and stepped out wide as if to dashi-nage Takerufuji, but as Onosato has demonstrated his entire Makuuchi career, the move was sloppy and it enabled Takerufuji to barely press Onosato across leading with the left arm and a right push into Onosato's gut.

This one was close, and I was surprised they didn't call a mono-ii to review, but the gunbai went to Takerufuji, and it was the correct call. This bout reminded me of something you'd see in the Sandanme division or Makushita, and the sumo was not sound from either party. Takerufuji's tenacity proved the difference, but you watch this bout, and should immediately think, "These two are the best we've got this basho??"

They are anything but the best this basho, but we're suffering from the following factors:

1. The Mongolians all pulling back
2. The Japanese Ozeki being completely lackluster and hapless
3. Takerufuji and Onosato buying 16 of their collective 18 wins

I really don't see a lot of excitement in this, and I'm pretty sure the officials within the Association aren't thrilled with it, but as long as they allow bout fixing in sumo, we're gonna get sloppy stuff like this that unfortunately impacts the leaderboard.

We won't reshuffle that leaderboard just yet, but the result is a disaster in my opinion because now you have Takerufuji standing alone at 10-0, two bouts ahead of second place that now includes Onosato at 8-2.

Apparently, M4 Tobizaru has left the building due to inflammation in his small intestine, so the dude may return later on. In the meantime, he's slated to finish 5-10 if he doesn't come back while M6 Gonoyama happily accepts the freebie in moving to 7-3.

M3 Takanosho easily won the tachi-ai against M2 Atamifuji and drove the slug back quickly, and near the edge, Takanosho had the clear path to moro-zashi and the easy win, but on a dime, he just dipped his right shoulder down and slid to the dirt before Atamifuji stepped back and across. They called a mono-ii here because the footwork was close, and as they focused on the ending, you could clearly see that no blow came from Atamifuji that would have caused Takanosho's fall. The latter simply slid down Atamifuji's right leg and pushed into that stump while slapping his hand down before Atamifuji stepped back. This bout was clearly arranged as Atamifuji is a weak 5-5 while Takanosho falls to 3-7. The veteran Takanosho would have clearly set his feet, gained moro-zashi, and forced Atamifuji across if his intent was to win.

M2 Meisei struck M1 Asanoyama and moved left as he quickly yanked Asanoyama over by the right arm, but he stopped short on the tottari move and allowed Asanoyama to square back up. The two looked to hook up in migi-yotsu, but before they went chest to chest, Meisei went for a pull move that threw Asanoyama off balance again and gave Meisei moro-zashi. Meisei refused to defeat his opponent, however, and let the action flow to the other side of the dohyo where the two ended up in migi-yotsu again with Meisei maintaining a left outer grip. He was in the perfect position to throw Asanoyama over uwate-nage style, but he relented, and just when he sensed Asanoyama getting a left outer grip of his own, Meisei dove to the dirt a half second early anticipating a throw that never came. This was just silly, but the crowd loved it as Meisei dictated everything here including the final dive in falling to 4-6 while Asanoyama bought one here in evening things at 5-5.

For what it's worth, the top three streamed bouts from Day 9 where:

#1 Ura - Asanoyama
#2 Midorifuji - Hoshoryu (this one surprised me)
#3 Abi - Takerufuji

Speaking of Komusubi Abi, he was paired today against M10 Mitakeumi, and Abi henka'd very lightly to his left and just kept his arms wide open as he waited for Mitakeumi to send him across and down with the right arm high inside. They ruled it sukui-nage, but that was hardly a throw which is why Mitakeumi ended up hopping off the dohyo himself...there was no resistance from Abi to keep him ground to the dohyo. Abi came up limping after the bout, which once again invites the old kadage, "Let up in the ring, and someone's gonna get hurt." Abi (6-4) clearly threw this bout as Mitakeumi takes the gift in moving to a way over-inflated 7-3.

There was a noticeable disturbance in the Force (or arena) as M1 Ura stepped atop the dohyo to face Komusubi Nishikigi, and there was no way NG was going to spoil this party. Nishikigi kept his arms low at the tachi-ai and stumbled forward allowing Ura to grab his right leg and lightly escort him across the straw. I mean, Nishikigi was already heading that direction, so nobody got hurt here...except sumo's reputation for continuing to allow yaocho in order to boost fan interest. Ura moves to 5-5 with the cheapie while Nishikigi falls to 1-9.

Wow, talk about adding insult to injury. You invite Michinoku-oyakata into the broadcast booth and then make him watch Ozeki Kirishima throw a bout to M4 Hiradoumi. Kirishima executed a hari-zashi tachi-ai slapping with the right while getting the left arm inside, and the Ozeki actually had his fingers on a right outer grip, but he let it go straightway and took his left arm to the outside giving Hiradoumi moro-zashi. Because Hiradoumi didn't gain moro-zashi on his own, he wasn't able to finish Kirishima off, and so Kirishima stood his ground well with a right outer over the top before taking the action to the edge where Kirishima instigated a nage-no-uchi-ai with his right outer and Hiradoumi's left inner, and you could visibly see Kirishima dive outta the dohyo and put that left elbow down insuring Hiradoumi won the bout. This was a classic example of the loser dictating everything including the final fall, and it was actually a brilliant performance from the Ozeki start to finish. Kirishima is on the brink at 3-7 while Hiradoumi is gifted 5-5.

M3 Ohho caught Kotonowaka up high with a decent thrust, but when Kotonowaka skirted to his left, Ohho just kept going forward all the way to the edge. Kotonowaka did touch the side of Ohho's right shoulder with his hand, but it wasn't enough force to cause a dude to move to the edge like that against his will. Because Kotonowaka is redefining the term "slow" this basho, Ohho had plenty of time to square back up and move towards KNW. As he did, Kotonowaka went for a weak pull that actually gave Ohho moro-zashi, but instead of digging in with the advantageous position, Ohho backed up to the edge conveniently forgetting that he could have executed a perfect sukui-nage counter throw with the left, and he let Kotonowaka "force" him across from there.

Is there anyone more boring in the dohyo than SlowTonowaka? He can't win the tachi-ai; he always skirts laterally; and his pulls are pathetic. The Sumo Association deserves to put up with this guy ruining things the next eight years since they let his promotion happen. Kotonowaka finds himself at 8-2 with the gift while Ohho falls to 4-6.

Takakeisho stepped into the ring next to face Suckiwake Daieisho, and even though Daieisho won the tachi-ai with two quick paws to the throat, Takakeisho persisted well and used good de-ashi (especially for him) to actually keep Daieisho in a defensive posture. It was Daieisho who was forced to move a bit laterally to counter, and the problem with Takakeisho is he's got the shortest reach of anyone in the division. And it isn't even close. As a result, he's gotta get uncomfortably close for his thrusts to have any effect, and as Takakeisho committed to a forward charge, Daieisho darted to his left and knocked Takakeisho off balance and down with a forearm to the side of the neck.

One of the most entertaining things to watch in sumo is Takakeisho in an uncontrolled fall. You can see the instant panic on his face as he starts to go down and knows he can't do anything about it, and he took a rather hard spill here even though I thought his sumo was very good for him. Takakeisho is denied kachi-koshi at 7-3, and I guess the dude's still kadoban, but he'll surely find that last win from someone. As for Daieisho, I guess he needed that win as he moves to 5-5.

In the day's final bout, Ozeki Hoshoryu henka'd to his right going for the cheap outer grip, and Suckiwake Wakamotoharu had no idea what was happening, and so he plopped forward and down in less that one second. There were noticeable jeers from the crowd after this, and while I understand that on one hand, are these guys watching the rest of the bouts that I am?? There's plenty to jeer about besides Hoshoryu's act today, and just between you and me, Wakamotoharu will take a loss like that this way to Tuesday against a Mongolian in a straight up bout. Hoshoryu oils his way to 7-3 with the cheap win while Wakamotoharu falls to 5-5, and that ending was not good PR-wise for the Sumo Association.

With the dust settled, the new leaderboard looks like this:

10-0: Takerufuji
8-2: Kotonowaka, Onosato

Now that's a sleeper leaderboard if I've ever seen one, and we still have five days to go.

Takerufuji is paired against Kotonowaka tomorrow, and I would be utterly shocked if they let Takerufuji go straight up against the faux-zeki. If the bout is straight up, Takerufuji will win and can you imagine a dude three bouts ahead with four days to go?

The final bout features Takakeisho and Onosato, and I think I'd actually favor Takakeisho slightly in a straight up bout (that's how little I think of Onosato).

I'm quite sure the leaderboard will go down to three losses tomorrow, but we'll see how it plays out. I know I'd love to see Takerufuji go all out, but I don't think they're gonna let that happen.

Haru Basho Day 9 Comments
Today was not a good media day for the Sumo Association. I turned on NHK News 9 first thing this morning and fast-forwarded to the sports segment, and the first story they covered were women's swim trials for the Paris Olympics. They featured swimmer Rikako Ikee, who qualified for the 100M Butterfly, and Ikee's story is big because she was diagnosed with leukemia a few years back and has managed to not only beat it but re-qualify for the Olympics. Up next was Shohei Otani and more LA Dodgers spring training news, and of course Otani news laps everyone else combined right now, so okay...two big names beating out sumo. I can see that.

The third story was the first game of the Spring high school baseball tournament, and after they focused on that for a bit, it was evident that they were burying the sumo highlights (for the record this basho, the term "sumo highlights" is a huge oxymoron). When they did get around to sumo, they showed just two bouts featuring Takerufuji and Onosato each fighting rikishi ranked in the sanyaku.

Surprisingly to me...and to Wakanohana which we'll get to in a bit, both of those bouts were thrown in favor of the youngsters. It really felt as if sumo had lost its momentum after watching the sports segment, so I next turned on the general sumo broadcast and noted that it was being pre-empted again almost to the 5 o'clock hour.

There is definitely something brewing behind the scenes that is causing NHK to limit its coverage of the sumos, and it likely has something to do with the whole Miyagino-beya bullying story, which just won't die in the news. I think everyone is familiar by now with the news of Hokuseiho's bullying and how it's been alleged that Hakuho knew about it and covered it up. Hokuseiho was of course booted out of sumo, and Hakuho was demoted to the bottom ranks of the oyakata hierarchy as a result, and the future of his stable is still in question. Will it get absorbed into the Isegaumi-beya? Will Kaio take over? Who knows? That will all be determined after the basho.

The problem now is that there's a tabloid called News Post Seven that is leaking a story about Hakuho and his cronies (as they put it) roughing up a city official in this tiny Niigata town called Minamiuonuma. Apparently, Hakuho has a brand of rice named after him called Dream rice or something, and the story goes that when Hakuho and the gang were promoting the harvest of this rice in August of 2022, one of Hakuho's guys roughed up a dude on the Minamiuonuma city council and put him in a headlock. The city council guy was then threatened to keep quiet about the matter, and that's all the details that they've released so far.

These tabloids love to leak out new details every few days or every week to build up the story and keep people coming back, so it's highly likely we haven't heard the end of this.

Anyway, it just feels like something is going to break, and NHK is pulling back from sumo to lessen the PR hit when it happens. Old people in Japan (and I presume in any country) have nothing better to do than to complain when an organization isn't minding their P's and Q's to their satisfaction, and when it comes to sumo, there can be no bullying and there certainly can't be incidents of a prominent oyakata and his cronies roughing up local officials as if they were a gang of yakuza.

I don't think we'll find out more details until the end of the basho, so let's turn our attention now to the tournament itself.

In recapping the weekend, the highlight of the Day 7 broadcast was the actress, Rikka Ihara, being invited into the booth to provide commentary. Ihara is extremely easy on the eyes, and she was probably too distracting to the sumo itself.

Ihara is currently starring in the NHK morning drama (called asa-dora) Boogie Woogie, and she's a big sumo fan. She even practices sumo exercises and works out at a local sumo dojo, and she had a scene written into the script of her current TV show where she dons a mawashi and challenges a dude (her father or uncle? I don't know) to a match. They showed her character doing quite impressive shiko, and it was a good thing that she was wearing that chastity belt, and then they showed the actual bout where this tiny girl who maybe weighs 100 pounds soaking wet defeated a portly guy who weighs about 175 lbs with a fierce uwate-nage throw to the utter surprise to the obaa-chan watching in the background.

Here below is Ihara standing over her falle foe who is crumbled up in a heap.

The scene from the drama and the bout itself was about the phoniest thing I've ever seen, but I have it on good record that a host of foreign sumo wrestling fans who like to frequent chat boards thought the bout in the TV show was real.

But I digress...

After they showed the clip, Sanbe Announcer explained to the audience that they actually brought Tobizaru on set to consult on the sumo scenes, and so they showed a picture of Ihara and Tobizaru together.

And then just as if it was scripted, they reviewed the Tobizaru - Hoshoryu bout from the previous day where Tobizaru magnificently defeated Hoshoryu. On one hand, the heavy focus on Ihara was better than the action in the ring itself, but on the other hand, you know that they didn't throw all of this production together in one morning. They were setting up this broadcast for a few days or perhaps since the start of the basho, so it was convenient how well everything fell in line like Tobizaru's defeating Hoshoryu on Day 6 so they'd have that highlight.

Another comical part of the broadcast was when they asked Ihara her favorite kimari-te, and she answered shitate-nage. Ihara is a big fan of smaller rikishi who use alleged great sumo skills to beat their larger opponents and so they showed an example of Nishikifuji "defeating" Kinbohzan in a previous basho by shitate-nage, and this is the picture of the ending to that bout:



That either looks like zero shitate-nage bouts I've seen over the last 30+ plus years, or it looks like the typical yaocho pose when the loser suddenly puts both palms to the dirt.

Anyway, the whole Saturday broadcast was devoted to spinning the narrative and telling the audience what to think instead of letting the actual sumo speak for itself, so it was no surprise when they started the Day 8 broadcast and immediately focused on the three most streamed bouts from the previous day:

#1 Onosho vs. Onosato
#2 Daieisho vs. Asanoyama
#3 Shonannoumi vs. Takerufuji

Regarding those three bouts, Onosato suffered his first loss against Onosho. If you remember last basho, Onosho stormed off of the starting lines and crushed Onosato back and across without argument, so Onosato was more prepared on Day 8 forcing Onosho to move laterally and attack. Onosato's footwork was awful and awkward, and Onosho managed to defeat him again after getting an arm to the inside.

As for Daieisho - Asanoyama, I thought that one was straight up.

And then the third bout, Shonannoumi vs. Takerufuji, Shonannoumi was mukiryoku throughout giving the rookie a free kachi-koshi, which left him atop the leaderboard as we entered Day 9.

NHK didn't show the leaderboard at the end of Day 8 because I don't think it sits well with people to have a rookie in sole possession of the lead who doesn't deserve it, but they did start tracking the leaders for Day 9...once the broadcast actually started, and this is what we have to work with heading into Week 2:

8-0: Takerufuji
7-1: Onosato
6-2: Hoshoryu, Takakeisho, Kotonowaka, Abi, Mitakeumi, Sadanoumi, Shonannoumi

Because of the long intro, let's just focus on the leaderboard today going in chronological order meaning we start with M11 Sadanoumi vs. M13 Churanoumi. The two hooked up in migi-yotsu after a good tachi-ai, and Churanoumi had a decent grip with the right hand at the front of the belt. He came close to getting a nice left frontal as well, but Sadanoumi fought that off and shortly attacked leading with a left outer grip. He had Churanoumi pushed up against the straw, but then he just let go of that outer, and so you knew he was going to throw the bout.

From there, the two rikishi traded grips and tussled for a few more seconds before Churanoumi went for a tsuki-otoshi with the right, and Sadanoumi ran forward and twisted his body around 360 degrees as he fell to the dohyo. I think what happened with that fall is that Sadanoumi could feel Churanoumi tugging at the front of his belt with the left, and so he started his dive when that tsuki-otoshi came as well; thus the fall that didn't match the kimari-te. Regardless, Sadanoumi (6-3) was completely mukiryoku the second half of this bout giving Churanoumi (5-4) the cheap win.

M15 Roga's tachi-ai was solid against M10 Mitakeumi as he established the right inside position while grabbing a left outer belt grip on the other side, and Roga simply used the forward-momentum achieved from the tachi-ai to force Mitakeumi back and across in two seconds. This was textbook stuff from Roga who moves to 5-4 while Mitakeumi falls off the leaderboard at 6-3.

M8 Onosho offered the C3P0 arms against M12 Shonannoumi and so Shonannoumi just plowed forward leading with the inside right, and Onosho was dispatched in mere seconds in this uneventful bout. Shonannoumi buys his way to 7-2 and a place on the leaderboard while Onosho falls to 5-4.

Moving to the sanyaku, Komusubi Abi was paired against M17 Takerufuji, and Abi came with his usual moro-te-zuki tachi-ai, which made contact, but instead of pushing forward, he immediately backed up and to his right barely showing a pull, but his MO was to set himself up at the edge so Takerufuji could knock him across that last step. This was a completely uncontested bout thrown in favor of the rookie, and I was really surprised that they allowed this to happen.

To the sheep, it looked like a lopsided victory for Takerufuji, but you simply need to watch the reverse slow motion replay and focus on Takerufuji's right arm/hand to see that this was thrown. If Takerufuji caused Abi's movement back and to the right, it stands to reason that the pressure would have been coming from Takerufuji's right hand or inside position, but the rookie's hand barely grazed Abi's outstretched lunch lady left arm. This was all Abi's doing start to finish including lifting his right leg high off the dohyo as Takerufuji is awarded the oshi-dash win that contained no pushing from his end.

The end result is Takerufuji's cheaply moving to 9-0 while Abi takes one for the team in falling to 6-3. Before we move on, Takerufuji's 9-0 start as a rookie puts him in a tie for second place all time for most consecutive wins in a rookie's debut. Kaisei went 9-0 as did Sadanoumi, the current Sadamight's old man. Taiho holds the record at 11-0, so we'll see if they allow Takerufuji to break it.

The following bout featured M5 Onosato taking on Suckiwake Wakamotoharu, and after a fiddy-fiddy tachi-ai, Wakamotoharu quickly backed up to the edge where he got a very nice left arm inside. As Onosato pursued his foe, he was clueless as to how to finish Wakamotoharu off. The right outer grip was open, but Onosato's right arm was hapless flailing around, and Onosato was applying no pressure. I mean, I say this all the time, but because Onosato didn't cause Wakamotoharu's retreat, he wasn't prepared to finish him off that last step, and this bout was a great example of that. Finally, Wakamotoharu lifted his left leg up and hooked it around Onosato's right leg briefly before just giving up and backing out that last step as Onosato tried to keep up with a right push.

Like the previous bout, this bout was meant to give the appearance of a lopsided win in favor of Onosato, but it was painfully obvious that the fix was in. Onosato moves to 8-1 with the gift while Wakamotoharu graciously falls to 5-4, and once again, it was a huge surprise that both Japanese sanyaku rikishi gave up like this.

As I was scanning the wires afterwards, I came across Wakanohana's daily column, and the headline he used was, "There's either no difference now between the hiramaku and the sanyaku...or Abi and Wakamotoharu's failure to do any sumo in their losses is a problem."

I think sometimes even these former rikishi get so disgusted that they can't help but say what's really on their minds. I was shocked to see the truthful headline instead of the usual propaganda from Wakanohana, so I clicked on his article and here's a translation of the first paragraph:

"The rookie and the sophomore were finally paired against sanyaku rikishi, and I was excited to see what kind of sumo they would produce. The result was that both won, but there was something that disappointed me personally. In the world of competition, it's unavoidable that someone has to lose, but the problem with these bouts today were that both sanyaku rikishi lost without doing any sumo."

Semantically speaking, Wakanohana used the phrase "sumo wo toranakatta," which means they didn't do any sumo. Now, if you use the phrase "sumo ga torenakatta," that means that the two sanyaku rikishi weren't able to get their own sumo going because they were simply overwhelmed, but he was clearly disappointed here that Abi and Wakamotoharu didn't even try.

I was really surprised to read his candid opinion, but props to the dude for telling the truth. He used that headline and wrote the words that he did because he couldn't saying anything like "Onosato's shoves were too powerful," or "Takerufuji was simply too quick to get to the belt" because both youngster's did absolutely zero to cause the movements of their opponents. Finally someone else is willing to say it.

After the shocking back to back results, there were still the Ozeki to get to, so let's move to Kotonowaka vs. Suckiwake Daieisho. Daieisho promptly if not conveniently forgot that he was an oshi guy and so he met Kotonowaka at the tachi-ai and kept his arms limp allowing Kotonowaka to do what he wanna. Kotonowaka sorta had the right arm inside, but he was too hapless to drive his legs forward, and so Daieisho retreated a step and then moved left stepping out of the dohyo of his own volition. Kotonowaka tried to catch up with a right push, but it was completely reactionary. Like the two previous bouts before, Daieisho refused to do any sumo and he backed up based on nothing that his opponent did. The end result is Kotonowaka's cheaply sitting on the bottom rung of the leaderboard at 7-2 while Daieisho falls to 4-5.

M4 Tobizaru comically slapped downward into thin air from the tachi-ai against Takakeisho, and then Tobizaru moved around the ring continuing to slap downward into thin air eight or nine more times until he conveniently found his back to the wall and his feet on the straw. It was an easy single thrust by Takakeisho from there, and Tobizaru was more than willing to retreat across the straw and look for that soft landing below giving Takakeisho the cheap win in the process. Like Kotonowaka before, Takakeisho moves to 7-2 with the result, and like Kotonowaka before, Takakeisho needed his opponent to set the whole shebang up.

Ozeki Hoshoryu kept his arms limp and extended towards M5 Midorifuji making no effort to get to the inside or lock Midori-chan up, and so the M5 quickly moved right looking to set up a kata-sukashi (of course!!), and Hoshoryu put his palms quickly down and stood back up before Midorifuji (4-5) had completed the move. This one was over in less than two seconds, and Hoshoryu clearly signaled with this intentional loss that he does not intend to compete for the yusho in falling to 6-3.

That means the yusho is going to come down to Kotonowaka, Takakeisho, Onosato, or Takerufuji on this reshuffled leaderboard:

9-0: Takerufuji
8-1: Onosato
7-2: Takakeisho, Kotonowaka, Shonannoumi

To have that leaderboard with six days to go is quite bleak. Normally, I would say that there's no way that they'll allow Takerufuji or Onosato to yusho, but this basho just feels different. It feels as if sumo could use a sensational headline before more is revealed about Hakuho's past as an oyakata.

I think one of the two faux-zeki will end up winning this whole thing, but in order for that to happen, the yusho line has got to come down significantly. These four also have yet to fight each other and there's no guarantee that the Mongolians are going to let up for them either. There's a lot more losses to come for all four collectively, and they've paired Onosato and Takerufuji against each other tomorrow. The desired outcome is to have Onosato win, and that would keep the Japanese Ozeki just one off the pace as well as open up the leaderboard to the three-loss rikishi.

I mean, the yusho board being whittled down to four guys at the end of Day 9 leaves no future, so let's hope for the Sumo Association's sake that Onosato wins tomorrow. Thing is...Takerufuji is the better rikishi, so let's just see what happens.

In other bouts of interest, M1 Ura beat M1 Asanoyama at the tachi-ai getting moro-zashi, and before Asanoyama could grab a grip of Ura's belt, Ura moved laterally and to his right executing the perfect kata-sukashi dragging Asanoyama down and across the straw in spectacular fashion. This bout was very well executed by Ura, and all of the yaocho Asanoyama has been involved in since his return to the division hurt him here because he wasn't ready to deal with Ura. Both dudes end the day at 4-5 and will continue to be rikishi of interest the rest of the way, and it goes without saying that Ura's move was a real kata-sukashi compared to Midorifuji's flimsy sumo.

The final bout of the day featured Ozeki Kirishima taking on Komusubi Nishikigi, and the Ozeki alternated ducking down low and firing thrusts into Nishikigi's neck to keep him upright and away from the belt. Kirishima also made the two move around the ring and after five or so uneventful seconds, he rushed Nishikigi back and across from there. Kirishima moves to 3-6, and his main intention this basho was to completely take himself out of consideration for the Yokozuna rank. As for Nishikigi, he is floundering at 1-8 but he's thrown a lotta bouts to this point.

If I could describe the basho up to this point in just one word it'd be: cheap.

Haru Basho Day 6 Comments
The broadcast was not preempted today, and I think as you go into the weekend, the Sumo Association is requesting as much coverage as possible. They are still leading the NHK News Sports segments with sumo, but then right after that is Shohei Otani and the Los Angeles Dodgers. In fact, sometimes they'll do Otani news even before they get to sports because that's what everyone craves right now, especially on the heels of Otani's releasing pictures of his new wife. When they do get around to sumo, the obligatory coverage focuses on the top of the banzuke but during the beginning of the broadcast, they are quick to point out that the two of the three undefeateds left are Takerufuji and Onosato! Who'da ever thunk?

It's interesting because if you consider that Abi already has a yusho and that he's been around for a while, you'd think that the focus would be on him, but when you look at the news wires at the end of the day, Takerufuji and Onosato are getting tons of ink, and the only time you read about Abi is when they highlight his opponent.

Let's quickly run through the action today starting with J1 Takarafuji visiting from Juryo to take on M16 Daiamami, and the flow of this bout was just a tick above molasses running down a level cutting board. Daiamami sorta got the left arm inside from the tachi-ai, but Takarafuji pushed it out of the way sending the bout to migi-yotsu instead. At this point, Takarafuji had the clear path to a left outer, but he refused it, so I knew who was going to win at that point, and sure enough, when Daiamami tapped Takarafuji lightly into his left side, Takarafuji stopped, dropped, and rolled across the dirt. Bad start as Daiamami moves to 2-4 while Takarafuji acts his way to 3-3.

M14 Nishikigi's tachi-ai was horrible, and M15 Roga had him turned to the side a bit not to mention a lethal right frontal belt grip on Nishikifuji's belt, but instead of taking advantage, Roga relaxed his stance and let Nishikifuji assume moro-zashi. Moro-zashi is the prime position in sumo but not when you didn't set it up with good sumo, and so Nishikifuji really struggled to do anything with it, but Roga eventually relented and walked back across the straw as Nishikifuji forced him out in kind. Nishikifuji buys this one at 4-2 while Roga still looks great despite his 3-3 record.

M13 Ryuden lazily kept his arms low and wide against M15 Myogiryu giving the latter moro-zashi, and with Ryuden limp as they come, Myogiryu just plowed forward and forced a very willing Ryuden back and across in maybe two seconds. Another gimme as Myogiryu squares up at 3-3 while Ryuden had plenty of room to sell at 4-2.

M17 Takerufuji put two hands towards M13 Churanoumi's upper torso from the tachi-ai, but Churanoumi was already standing straight up and backpedaling. This was one of those bouts that was over in 1 1/2 seconds, but the victor didn't really connect on anything solid to force his opponent back. Churanoumi simply stood up straight and retreated right outta the dohyo. During the bout, Churanoumi did have the left arm positioned inside, but he didn't attempt to counter with it or put on the brakes as Takerufuji moved forward. "Fixed!" I'm sorry to say as Takerufuji oils his way to 6-0 while Churanoumi falls to 3-3.

M12 Shonannoumi used a nice kachi-age tachi-ai into M16 Endoh, who like Churanoumi before was largely just standing up straight from the tachi-ai at the behest of his opponent. And like the previous bout, Endoh just backed up and across the straw without attempting a counter move as Shonannoumi lightly gave chase. They actually ruled this kime-dashi, which implies that Endoh had moro-zashi, but this bout didn't look anything like a kime-dashi, and if Endoh had moro-zashi, he didn't try and take advantage of it.

When you consider that you have the top 42 rikishi in the sport ranked and that you fight people close to your rank everyday, it makes sense that the bouts would be more competitive than this, but the only bout from the first five that even looked contested was the Nishikifuji - Roga affair. With the gift, Shonannoumi moves to 5-1 while Endoh drops to 2-4.

M11 Sadanoumi and M14 Kitanowaka hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and it was the Sadamight who worked his way onto the left outside belt. Instead of Kitanowaka going chest to chest, he tried to wriggle out of the belt grip, but Sadanoumi held on tight...so tight that Kitanowaka's belt started coming loose. The two tussled this way and that, but Sadanoumi never let go of his two grips of the belt, and he was finally able to twist his foe over and down uwate-hineri style. Finally, we got a well-contested bout, and I dare say...whenever a guy's mawashi comes loose, it means that both rikishi are trying and exerting tremendous force against each other. The tell tale signs are everywhere as Sadanoumi moves to 4-2 while Kitanowaka falls to 1-5.

M9 Hokutofuji looked lackadaisical at the tachi-ai against M11 Ichiyamamoto, and so IYM easily nudged Hokutofuji back with a light tsuppari attack before actually latching onto a left outer grip. Ichiyamamoto is certainly not a yotsu guy, and Hokutofuji had the very nice right inside position, and so IYM was having a tough time bullying Hokutofuji around. Hokutofuji actually started a few inside belt throws with the right, but he'd stop short not wanting to do damage, and so you knew Ichiyamamoto was eventually going to come out on top. They finally went to the edge where a nage-no-uchi-ai formed, and as both rikishi threw, Hokutofuji made damn sure his left elbow touched down before Ichiyamamoto touched across. Hokutofuji gave this one up for sure in falling to 1-5 while Ichiyamamoto evens things up at 3-3.

M8 Onosho caught M10 Shodai with two hands to the neck at the tachi-ai standing Shodai upright, and as Shodai looked to use his size advantage to body Onosho the other way, Onosho slipped into moro-zashi and showed Shodai the yori-kiri door from there. This was a good performance from Onosho who moves to 4-2 while Shodai falls to 3-3.

M10 Mitakeumi and M8 Takayasu traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai where Takayasu slowly nudged Mitakeumi back, but Mitakeumi defended well and kept Takayasu moving just enough to where TY couldn't get comfortable. About five seconds in, Mitakeumi went for a nice pull that almost did Takayasu in, but the dude survived whereupon the two hooked up in the grappling position where you touch foreheads, push against shoulders, and touch elbows in the center of the ring. Both rikishi were gassed at this point, and their age wasn't doing them any favors, so after a very lengthy stalemate where both dudes had chances to win, Takayasu finally went for a pull and that was the momentum shift Mitakeumi needed to seize the day and score the force-out win. Hey, a legit bout from these two as both rikishi end the day at 4-2!

M9 Kotoshoho and M7 Tamawashi both moved forward at the tachi-ai, but The Mawashi quickly got his left palm to the side of Kotoshoho's right shoulder where he turned his opponent just enough allowing Tamawashi to rush him out with some shoves from there. Another real bout as both dudes end the day at 2-4.

M6 Gonoyama looked like a man on a mission today against M5 Midorifuji as GNY used his size advantage well from the tachi-ai to stand Midorifuji up, and before Midorifuji could get settled, Gonoyama was driving with the legs allowing him to push Midorifuji back once, twice, three times a lady. Great stuff from Gonoyama here a she moves to 4-2 while Midorifuji falls to 2-4.

M2 Meisei may be a Terunofuji Killer, but he's on match for M5 Onosato ya know. After a stalemate tachi-ai with Onosato looking clueless, Meisei simply went for very light pulls as an excuse to back himself up and outta the dohyo in about three seconds. You watch the slow motion replays, and there is no contact between Onosato's hands/palms and Meisei's chest the entire time; yet, they had no choice to rule it oshi-dashi because it wasn't yori-kiri. Actually, it was a perfect example of yaocho as Onosato slimes his way to 6-0 while Meisei dribbles to 2-4. It's really hard for me to believe that someone could be so obtuse as to believe that the sumo contained in Onosato bouts is real. Hoshoryu bouts where he's trying are real. This stuff is just fluff.

Speaking of mostly fluff, M2 Atamifuji and M1 Asanoyama climbed into the ring and hooked up in migi-yotsu form the tachi-ai where Asanoyama grabbed the solid left outer grip, and just when you thought Asanoyama was going to kick AMFJ's ass, he suddenly let up at the edge despite Atamifuji's poor position with the right inside. Asanoyama allowed the action to flow back into the center of the ring, and then he kept his hips in a place where Atamifuji could grab his own left outer grip, and then the bout went from a chest to chest contest to Asanoyama pedaling over to the edge and diving down as Atamifuji tried to keep up making it look like a belt throw.

I mean, watch the slow motion replay and focus on Atamifuji's feet just as he's making the throw. He's not planted on either foot, and he does this light hop from one foot to the other all while supposedly executing an outer belt throw. It's simply impossible to throw a dude over against his will when your feet are unstable like that.  Even in the pic at right...do the positioning of Atamifuji's feet make it look as if he just executed an uwate-nage?  Uh, no, but whatever. I think because Asanoyama looked "strong" upon his return to the division, he's now gotta pay back quite a few favors. I mean, he coulda and shoulda kicked Atamifuji's ass today, but he was obligated to lose for whatever reason. As a result, it's AtamiSnoozy who moves to 4-2 while Asanoyama rests at 2-4.

Suckiwake Daieisho failed to come forward against M1 Ura at the tachi-ai, and it's a smart move because Ura ain't gonna bowl anyone over, so watch what he's trying to do and then adjust. And that's what Daieisho did as the two stayed socially distanced for most of the bout as Daieisho just dared Ura to come closer. Every time Ura tried, Daieisho rebuffed him with some shoves or he threatened pulls, and with Ura dangerously close to the edge, he lunged for Daieisho's right leg but stepped out in the process giving Daieisho the easy if not ugly win. I mean, this wasn't Daieisho's fault. Ura is just a gimmick to try and keep the sheep entertained as both rikishi finish 3-3.

Besides the Mongolians (and Kinbohzan), there is not a more gracious dude in sumo right now than Komusubi Nishikigi. Suckiwake Wakamotoharu could barely budge him from the tachi-ai, and Nishikigi had the clear path to the left inside and a right outer grip, but instead of taking advantage, he waited a second or two and then just moved to his left and backed up to the other side of the dohyo. As Wakamotoharu tried to give chase, Nishikigi plopped over and out as Wakamotoharu barely kept up with a left outer to the belt. This was extremely farcical and a sure dive by Nishikigi, who falls to 1-5, and it's obvious that someone is heavily trying to prop up Wakamotoharu who is an undeserved 2-4.

One of the ugliest bouts on the day featured Ozeki Kirishima and M3 Ohho. The two sorta traded shoves, but there was no rhythm to either dude's movement, and so Ohho attempted a lazy pull first moving sideways a bit to do it, but the Ozeki easily kept his footing, so when Ohho snuggled closer for another pull, Kirishima jolted left as Ohho tripped himself to the dirt. Who knows if this was fixed or not? The sumo was so bad from both parties, there was no way to tell. Regardless, it was an embarrassing bout as both dudes end the day at 2-4.

Komusubi Abi easily knocked Kotonowaka upright from the tachi-ai with nice thrusts to the upper torso, and Abi had Kotonowaka driven back two steps before suddenly relenting. That shift in momentum allowed Kotonowaka to move left, and Abi actually jerked to his own left awkwardly and unnaturally anticipating a pull from Kotonowaka that never came, but when Kotonowaka was still unable to muster an offensive attack, Abi resumed a wild tsuppari attack with no lower body whose goal was to make it look like someone was doing something in the ring. After about seven seconds of wild sumo, Kotonowaka sorta went for this light, sideways slap as he moved left, and that was the first real move that came from KNW, and so Abi took the cue and just ran himself outta the ring. What a horrible performance by Kotonowaka, and forget Abi's throwing the bout in Kotonowaka's favor. Just watch the slow motion replays and focus solely on Kotonowaka. It's so embarrassing, and it's insulting that they're trying to pass this guy off as an Ozeki. But, it is what it is with Abi suffering his first loss at 5-1 while Kotonowaka somehow finds himself at 4-2.

Takakeisho and M4 Hiradoumi slapped something together at the tachi-ai as Hiradoumi sorta reached for a left frontal belt grip while Takakeisho sorta tried to thrust, but after an awkward tachi-ai, Hiradoumi simply stood upright, backed up a bit to his left, and then purposefully stepped across the straw as Takakeisho tried to keep up. This was isami-ashi at its finest, but they wanted to prop Takakeisho's look up on paper, and so they awarded this one oshi-dashi. This was so obviously fixed in Takakeisho's favor that hardly anyone cheered after the bout. Takakeisho is gifted 4-2 after the mess while Hiradoumi falls to a gracious 3-3.

M4 Tobizaru's tachi-ai against Ozeki Hoshoryu was so awkward as Tobizaru stood upright and aligned his feet, so when the Ozeki didn't rush and make him pay, you immediately knew the fix was in. I mean, Hoshoryu's MO in any bout he's trying to win is to get inside in a split second, so when you saw him stand upright and keep his arms out of harm's way, you knew he was inviting Tobizaru to beat him. It's really not worth breaking down the bout. Every time Tobizaru haplessly gave Hoshoryu the inside position, the Mongolian would pull that arm back to the outside as if to say, "Just take the moro-zashi damnit!" Tobizaru finally clued in and stuck with moro-zashi, and the force-out charge was uneventful and fake from there. As if. Tobizaru moves to 3-3 with the gift while Hoshoryu is signaling his willingness to withdraw form the yusho race at 4-2.

As if our intelligence hadn't been insulted enough the last few bouts, Yokozuna Terunofuji literally just stood up at the tachi-ai, aligned his feet, and kept both arms out wide allowing M3 Takanosho to grab moro-zashi, and instead of latching on tight from the outside, Terunofuji just agreed to back up and out of the ring with Takanosho in tow. I mean, this is just pointless stuff from the Yokozuna, and I don't see how he doesn't withdraw tomorrow citing some fake injury. He's doing this to show that other people at the top ranks of the banzuke have bad basho too, so the next time Takakeisho or Kotonowaka need to withdraw due to haplessness, it's in everyone's mind that Terunofuji goes through the same troubles. Both rikishi finished the day at 2-4, and it was a terrible way to end the day.

The attendance has been great so far in Osaka, and I really wasn't paying attention to it assuming the arena would be full, but during these last few bouts as they showed the entire arena, there were noticeable gaps in the seating and rows at the top of the masu-seki were entirely empty. I mean, why would you pay money to watch this garbage? If the rikishi were trying to make it look real, it'd be one thing, but some of the bouts among the elite ranks are just insulting.

But, what do I know??

We'll see what happens over the weekend, but sumo surely doesn't have any momentum heading into it. What's there to be excited about?

Haru Basho Day 5 Comments
I know I've said this before, but my usual routine when watching the sumos is to first watch the NHK News 9 Sports segment. I think it's helpful to see which bouts are important to NHK and the Sumo Association, and then I want to get a feel for the spin they put on the analysis. Next, I'll turn on the actual broadcast itself because the first 10 minutes or so contains dead space where no bouts are going on, and so NHK has to fill that time with features, highlights, and of course more spin on what's happening. Yesterday, NHK's general broadcast didn't start until 5:10 PM, and I wasn't sure what was going on because sometimes they'll preempt the sumos due to earthquake info or one of those political debates. For my feed, they just filled the time with boring shots of nature...for over an hour, but today, they had posted on my feed that the sumos were preempted for a variety show.

I'm trying to remember if they've ever preempted my feed with a variety show before. I mean, it's possible that something will bleed 10 minutes into the broadcast, but the announcement said that sumo will start after the news break, which occurs at 5 PM. They cut into my feed before that just as Shodai and Mitakeumi were going through their pre-bout rituals, but that was like 45 minutes into the scheduled broadcast already.

The question I have is what's the reason for preempting the sumo broadcast like this when there's nothing newsworthy? The producers at NHK are making the decision to pre-empt well into the first hour, so why are they doing that? I'm obviously not in the meetings, but a television producer would preempt one show for another due to viewer demand.

The venue has been completely full every day, so there has definitely been demand for tickets in Osaka, but it doesn't seem as if the general NHK audience wants to be bothered with two hours of sumo. I think what's really happening is that Shohei Otani and the pending start of the MLB season is people really want to see.

Day 5 began with M17 Takerufuji who finally treated us to a straight up bout against J1 Tokihayate. Takerufuji took charge at the tachi-ai seizing the left inside and wrapping up Tokihayate's left arm up high, and the J1 couldn't adjust to Takerufuji's speed as the rookie had him wrenched over and out in textbook style. At one point during the bout, Tokihayate thought about a right kote-nage, but the rookie sensed it coming and countered with a left scoop throw to set his foe up at the edge for the easy force-out. I will always, always give credit when it's due for a straight up bout, and Takerufuji deserves praise here. This performance doesn't atone for his first four bouts, which were fixed, but I think we'll all take this as the rookie moves to 5-0.

M16 Daiamami got on the board against M14 Kitanowaka after the bout went to hidari-yotsu early, which favors Daiamami. Instead of going chest to chest, Kitanowaka tried to finesse a counter move, but nothing really formed, so after the two social distanced briefly, Daiamami got a left outer belt grip near the front that he used to lift Kitanowaka upright and force him back with little argument. Both dudes end the day at 1-4, and we started the day with two very nice bouts.

M16 Endoh plowed forward against M14 Nishikigi forcing the latter back to the straw two seconds in, but Endoh didn't push him back solidly nor have a belt grip, and so NG was able to mawari-komu to his right and make Endoh give chase. The two ultimately hooked back up in the center of the ring with Nishikigi now attacking from the West side, and as the two grappled with thrusts, Nishikigi caught Endoh with a vicious right paw to the throat that caused Endoh (2-3) to look at the rafters, and that was the decided blow as Nishikigi (3-2) scored the legit oshi-dashi from there.

Our first fixed bout of the day featured M15 Roga against M13 Churanoumi, and Roga got the early right arm inside, but he failed to grab the belt or get that arm in tight and so Churanoumi was able to move left, grab an uncontested outer grip, and dashi-nage Roger across without argument. Roga was clearly mukiryoku in this one as both dudes end the day at 3-2.

M15 Myogiryu had the clear path to moro-zashi against M12 Shonannoumi, but instead of inserting his arms in tight and pressing SNNU upright, he just let those arms dangle, and so when Shonannoumi went for a very weak kote-nage with the right, Myogiryu played along and backed up to the edge where Shonannoumi ultimately forced him across. BOR-RING as Shonannoumi buys his way to 4-1 with Myogiryu falling to 2-3.

M13 Ryuden charged hard into M11 Sadanoumi grabbing the firm right outer grip, but he didn't get the left inside, and so Sadanoumi was able to work his way into moro-zashi. That works for most rikishi, but Ryuden is big enough that he was able to grab a left outer as well and use his size to his advantage similarly to what we see Terunofuji do. Sadanoumi gave the force-out effort a nice college try, but Ryuden was the stronger rikishi and was able to dump Sadanoumi across the edge with a powerful right uwate-nage. Sadanoumi's own left arm was pointing too high inside to really counter, and so Ryuden moves to 4-1 with the nifty throw while Sadanoumi falls to 3-2.

At this point of the day, the general NHK broadcast started, so I had commentary on all of the bouts from this point forward.

M10 Shodai and M10 Mitakeumi traded decent tsuki at the tachi-ai, but Shodai stayed too upright and overextended himself, and so Mitakeumi found himself in moro-zashi two seconds in. Before Shodai could regroup, Mitakeumi actually lifted Shodai off of his feet as if to tsuri-dashi him out, but there was way too much ground to cover, and so Mitakeumi wisely set Shodai down and then just forced his arse across from there. Wow, this was a pretty good bout between two old timers as Mitakeumi picks up a very nice win that left both dudes at 3-2.

Because this was still the start of the general NHK broadcast, they announced the withdrawals of M6 Tsurugisho and M7 Kinbohzan...two guys I really like watching in real fights.

M11 Ichiyamamoto and M9 Kotoshoho traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and both guys are so tall and gangly and rather unorthodox that I had to remind myself who was who. The two traded mediocre tsuppari for five or six seconds before Ichiyamamoto was able to finally connect on a nice thrust as Kotoshoho looked to move laterally, and the result was a nice oshi-taoshi win for Ichiyamamoto who focused on straightforward sumo while Kotoshoho was the one who looked to evade. Both rikishi end the day at 2-3.

M8 Onosho and M8 Takayasu struck well at the tachi-ai with each using thrusts, and while Onosho focused on Takayasu's torso with little effect, Takayasu caught Onosho by the neck lifting Onosho upright just enough to where Takayasu grabbed a firm right outer grip and used it to drag Onosho over and out just like that. I wonder if a memo went out after Day 3 warning the dudes of such rampant yaocho because Day 4 and Day 5 to this point have been quite solid. Takayasu picked up a legit win here in moving to 4-1 while Onosho falls to 3-2.

M9 Hokutofuji came with his usual tachi-ai of striking with the right while shading a bit left, and lucky for him, M7 Tamawashi was just standing there in a defensive posture. With Tamawashi completely forgetting that he's a tsuppari guy, Hokutofuji slowly nudged him back, and then near the edge. At that point, Tamawashi went for a thrust as an excuse to back up onto the straw, and Hokutofuji easily pushed him across from there. Hokutofuji needed charity here in moving to 1-4 while Tamawashi falls to the same 1-4 mark.

At this point, they announced the two withdrawals which resulted in M6 Gonoyama moving to 3-2 and M5 Onosato moving to 5-0.

As part of the NHK News 9 sports coverage, they invited Shibatayama-oyakata (former Onokuni) into the studio for analysis, and for whatever reason, they resorted back to their introduction of these oyakata by zooming in on their crotch:



I will never figure that one out as long as I live. What's the point in showing us the package of a 400 pound man??

Anyway, he broke down the Kotonowaka - Ura bout and then the Terunofuji - Ohho bout, and then when they were asking him his overall impression of the basho so far, he said, "Onosato is the only one whose shining this basho." They showed that quote in the jimaku below and then used a font for Onosato's name that made it look as if it was lit up, or shining. Get it??

The fact that they are focusing on Onosato like this and not Abi shows you that they are trying to create a narrative with the fans hyping up the new guys. And the fans will believe it too, and so that's Sumo's plan to survive this next decade...fabricate these new, young superstars who are incapable of consistent, quality sumo.

Moving right along, M4 Tobizaru and M4 Hiradoumi hooked up in the solid hidari-yotsu position from the tachi-ai, but each dude was way far away from a right outer grip. They pressed chest to chest for about 12 seconds before Tobizaru attempted a maki-kae, but it was slow developing and so Hiradoumi was able to grab a left outer grip and slip his right arm to the inside, and he took control from there constantly wrenching Tobizaru around and tiring him out before mounting a perfect force out charge as he kept Tobizaru from escaping with the right inside position. Loved this bout as Hiradoumi moves to 3-2 while Tobizaru falls to 2-3.

M3 Takanosho stuck M5 Midorifuji with a few nice jabs winning the tachi-ai, but then Takanosho just kept his arm extended as if to say, "Are you gonna swipe my arm away already ya dumbass?" Midorifuji finally did, and Takanosho pretended to lose his balance and fumble over to the straw where he turned around just in time to allow Midorifuji to execute the final, uncontested push-out. This was a crock as Midorifuji buys his way to 2-3 while Takanosho is 1-4.

Komusubi Abi caught fellow Komusubi Nishikigi with two nice paws to the neck at the tachi-ai, but let's face it...Nishikigi is too big of a load for Abi to handle, and Abi knew it, so he immediately went into pull mode. Abi was more than vulnerable as he went for the pull, but the fix was already in, and so instead of making Abi pay, Nishikigi just flopped forward and out with a little help from his friends. Abi moves to 5-0 with the ill-gotten win while Nishikigi falls to 1-4.

Suckiwake Daieisho caught fellow Suckiwake Wakamotoharu nicely at the tachi-ai and dictated the pace start to finish with a nice tsuppari attack as WMH tried to swipe the thrusts away and get to the inside. He never got the chance, but he befuddled Daieisho enough to where the latter had to resort to a pull/swipe at the end that threw Wakamotoharu off balance and down. Great start and very mediocre finish for Daieisho who ekes forward to 2-3 while Wakamotoharu falls to 3-2.

Kotonowaka was extremely passive against M1 Ura at the tachi-ai, and just when the bout looked as if it may go to hidari-yotsu, Ura switched gears and got the right arm instead. Ura was smart enough not to go chest to chest and so he immediately executed a kata-sukashi felling Kotonowaka right there in the center of the ring easy as you please.

This was the first bout they showed on the nightly sports show, and Shibatayama-oyakata attributed it to first-time Ozeki nerves. That is such a crock'a shat line of thinking. Nobody whose supposedly great gets nervous because their ranking goes up. Did Carlos Alcaraz ever seem nervous when he overtook the number one ranking in men's tennis a few years ago? No. He still went out and kicked everyone's ass. It's just an excuse to cover for the pathetic Ozeki, who should really be ranked around M9.

People are afraid to fight a real Ozeki. Nobody's afraid of fighting Kotonowaka, not even Ura. He's either a guaranteed win or a guaranteed payout. Kotonowaka falls to 3-2 after the embarrassing loss while Ura picks up a very legit win in moving to 3-2. You weigh 172 kg and you can't solve Ura??

Along those same lines, nobody is afraid to fight Takakeisho either and M2 Atamifuji showed why today. The sumo from both parties was bad today, but Atamifuji simply used his Hutt girth to plow into Takakeisho and force TS to pull, and once he did, Atamifuji sputtered a bit but eventually got enough of a push attack going to send Takakeisho off of the dohyo. Easy win or easy payout. Guys love being paired against Takakeisho too as both of these yayhoos finish the day at 3-2.

Ozeki Hoshoryu and M1 Asanoyama hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai and Hoshoryu reached for a left outer grip, but Asanoyama used his size nicely to not only rebuff his foe, but Asa grabbed his own left grip on the other side. Asanoyama attempted to yank Hoshoryu over to the side with his left outer, but that lasted a half step before Hoshoryu showed just how superior his sumo is by setting up the perfect inside belt throw with the right and dumping Asanoyama across the straw and onto his back in the corner of the dohyo. It's a shame we don't see more throws like this in sumo because that was boss. Hoshoryu didn't slam Asanoyama down as he did a few basho ago when he sent Asanoyama into kyujo status, but this was still an ass kicking. Hoshoryu moves to 4-1, and it'd be nice to have a real Ozeki's presence on the leaderboard during week 2. Asanoyama falls to 2-3, but I admired his effort here.

M2 Meisei caught Ozeki Kirishima with a nice jab from the tachi-ai, but Kirishima laughed it off, moved to his left, and swiped at Meisei's extended arm sending him off balance and down about two seconds in. Kirishima picks up his first winna the basho at 1-4 while the Terunofuji Killer falls to 2-3.

Speaking of Yokozuna Terunofuji, he obviously made up his mind early that he wasn't going to spoil the yusho race for anyone two basho in a row. Today against M3 Ohho, the Yokozuna was as passive as ever making no attempt to thrust towards his opponent, grab a belt grip, get to the inside, or latch on from the outside. With Fuji largely just standing there, Ohho executed a slow-going push attack, but the Yokozuna played along backing up in kind, and then at the edge, Ohho got the right arm inside. Terunofuji set up a counter with a left kote-nage, but he purposefully stepped back and across as he pretended to execute the throw giving Ohho the cheap win.

I scanned the Day 6 morning headlines fully expecting to see an announcement of Terunofuji's kyujo, but it looks as if he's still going to pass out Halloween treats for another day.

The media was going gaga over the fact that Ohho's win was the first time in history that three generations of sumo rikishi have scored a kin-boshi. Ohho just did it; his father, Takatoriki did it; and his grandfather Taiho of course did it. What a boring piece of trivia, but okay. They need to generate headlines about something. Both of these rikishi ended the day at 2-3.

We'll pick it back up tomorrow and examine each bout again.

Haru Basho Day 4 Comments
The Day 4 broadcast began with a trip down memory lane clear back to the year 1985 where former Ozeki Asashio won his first career yusho. They showed the upper echelons of the banzuke from the basho, which was stocked with quality Japanese rikishi, and then they showed select bouts key to the yusho race. Asashio peaked at that basho, and knowing what I know now, it wouldn't surprise me if he had a little assistance along the way to his only career championship, but aside from that, Asashio was also known as being one of the ugliest rikishi ever. After retirement, he would go on to inherit the Takasago name, and he's the one responsible for recruiting Asashoryu into sumo.

Takasago took a lot of guff as Asashoryu rose to the top of the banzuke and dominated sumo for a spell, and I always wondered why they picked on Takasago all the time and blamed the oyakata for Asashoryu's antics. In the end, I came to realize that they were upset with Takasago because he wasn't forcing Asashoryu to compromise bouts like they needed him to. Asashoryu threw strategic bouts here and there for sure, but he definitely wasn't like Terunofuji who we see today. It's also my opinion that the Association was upset at Takasago for ultimately allowing Asashoryu to surpass Takanohana's yusho total of 22, and that's why both Takasago and Asashoryu constantly received negative press.

By the time other foreign Yokozuna came along, there were simply no elite Japanese rikishi left on the banzuke (remember how painful it was to watch them try and prolong Kaio's career so they could keep a Japanese Ozeki on the banzuke?), and it felt as if the Sumo Association was resigned to its fate. All of the oyakata who mentor foreign rikishi now fully comply with the needs of the Association, but there was a big, painful learning curve with Asashoryu and Asashio.

Aside from that, former Shikoroyama-oyakata, Terao, also made his debut at the 1985 Haru Basho. They showed a clip of him alongside his brother, Sakahoko, on the morning the banzuke was released, and both brothers clutched a banzuke in their hand in front of the press before simultaneously going knuckle-deep up their noses together. When I watched that I was like...yep, those two are related!

Enough of that. Let's get to the Day 4 action noting that the general NHK broadcast did not start in Japan until about 5:10 PM.

The day started with M17 Takerufuji taking on M15 Myogiryu, and it was obvious that Myogiryu wasn't trying here. Myogiryu kept his arms pointing low from the tachi-ai and then simply backed up putting his heels against the straw as Takerufuji gave chase. Had force coming from Takerufuji been the cause of that retreat, the rookie would have easily been able to fire that final shove into his foe's chest, but Takerufuji's response was to go for a pull back to the center of the ring. What an unbelievably poor choice that was, but Myogiryu saved him by going for a pull of his own whereupon he backed himself out of the ring for good because Takerufuji surely wasn't doing anything. I mean, go watch the replays of this bout and try and identify anything the rookie did to win this. He did plenty to lose it, and it's no surprise that Takerufuji had the tsuchi marks on his body after this and not Myogiryu. Takerufuji's 4-0 start has been completely fake while Myogiryu is just playing along at 2-2.

M15 Roga moved forward well at the tachi-ai forcing the bout against M16 Daiamami to migi-yotsu, and it was Roga that forced his foe upright enough to where he grabbed a lethal left outer grip near the front of the belt. The two dug in from there in the center of the ring for about 20 seconds before Roga bumped his opponent upright as if to break off Daiamami's belt grip before immediately reversing gears and pulling his foe forward and down with a dashi-nage. I would just say compare Roga's sumo to Takerufuji's sumo, and you can see which performance was legitimate and which was totally fake. Roga moves to 3-1 with the nice win while Daiamami falls to 0-4.

M16 Endoh and Kitanowaka hooked up in hidari-yotsu and immediately hunkered down as they vied for the deciding right outer grip. After a few seconds, Endoh went for a maki-kae getting the right arm inside, but he had to give up more than half the dohyo to do it. He brilliantly used his heels against the tawara to stave off Kitanowaka's immediate force-out charge, but the veteran stood pat and used his moro-zashi to force Kitanowaka across the other side of the dohyo and out. What a great example here of a maki-kae being a do-or-die move as Endoh picked up the very nice win at 2-2 while Kitanowaka falls to 1-3.

Aren't the real bouts obvious?

M13 Ryuden and M13 Churanoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu after Ryuden tried to sneak into moro-zashi from the tachi-ai, but Churanoumi stayed way low forcing Ryuden to do a bit of work. Churanoumi went for an early inside dashi-nage with the left, but Ryuden was positioned too well to fall for it, and so the two squared back up before Ryuden eventually smothered Churanoumi back and across. Wow, they must be making up for yesterday with these three legit bouts in a row that saw Ryuden move to 3-1 while Churanoumi fell to 2-2.

We commented yesterday about how Shimazuumi looked as if he hurt his knee after letting up for Churanoumi, and he did not look good as he exited the dohyo, and sure enough, the dude had to pull out today due to an injured calf giving M14 Nishikifuji the freebie at 2-2.

M11 Ichiyamamoto looked for a thrust attack from the tachi-ai while M11 Sadanoumi attempted to get inside, and so both rikishi scrapped around the ring for a few seconds with neither giving ground. Ichiyamamoto's tsuppari quickly became defensive as Sadanoumi swiped sideways at his extended arms, and Sadanoumi finally connected with a left swipe that caused Ichiyamamoto to stumble near the edge. By the time he tried a 360 and desperate pull attempt to counter, Sadanoumi was already in his craw pushing the compromised Ichiyamamoto backed and across for good. Four real bouts in a row as Sadanoumi moves to 3-1 with the patient win while Ichiyamamoto falls to 1-3.

M12 Shonannoumi got a defining right inside grip against M10 Mitakeumi from the tachi-ai, but Mitakeumi did not want the chest to chest clash, and so he moved wide to his left. As the two reconnected, SNNU thought about moro-zashi but opted for a bad pull instead. Against most other rikishi, it would have spelled his doom, but not against Mitakeumi. Mitakeumi to his credit did try and secure moro-zashi after the momentum shift, but Shonannoumi was pinching in too tight to make it effective, and so after a grappling over to the edge, Shonannoumi caught Mitakeumi with a nice right tsuki-otoshi that sent the former OldZeki down for good. It wasn't pretty from either party, but it was legit, so I'll take it as Shonannoumi moves to 3-1 with Mitakeumi falling to 2-2.

Okay, maybe I spoke too soon. M9 Hokutofuji charged low into M9 Kotoshoho, and as soon as he bumped into his opponent, Hokutofuji just hit the dirt half a second in. Replays showed that Hokutofuji purposefully whiffed in his usual right thrust attack from the tachi-ai, and instead of making contact against his huge target, he just put both palms to the dirt as Kotoshoho tried to keep up. They ruled it hataki-komi, but there wasn't a slap to be seen as Kotoshoho oils his way to 2-2 while Hokutofuji literally falls to 0-4.

M8 Takayasu came with low kachi-age using both arms against M10 Shodai knocking Shodai upright a bit, but Takayasu's ensuing thrust attempts had no effect against Shodai, who is still a decent defender. It showed here as he was able to frustrate Takayasu into an ill-advised pull attempt, and as soon as it came, Shodai seized on the momentum shift and pushed a self-compromised Takayasu back with ease. This wasn't pretty, but it was real with both dudes ending the day at 3-1.

M7 Kinbohzan attempted a left hari-te at the tachi-ai against M7 Tamawashi, but it was mostly bark and no bite because the Mongolian was able to connect with paws to Kinbohzan's jaw pushing him upright and off balance. Kinbohzan looked lost from there not knowing how to defend himself, and so when Tamawashi's final thrust came, it knocked Kinbohzan into the first row with some oomph. Kinbohzan's backwards falls was not controlled, and the dude sprained his back when he landed in the front row resulting in his kyujo from Day 5. Tamawashi moves to 1-3 with the win in yet another straight up bout.

M6 Gonoyama got the solid right arm inside from the tachi-ai against M8 Onosho who looked to thrust from the start, but his attack was too late allowing Gonoyama to dictate the pace here. Gonoyama forced Onosho upright and back near the edge, and as Onosho looked to counter, Gonoyama quickly shifted gears moving to his left catching Onosho with a nice tsuki to the side of Onosho's right shoulder. As Onosho stumbled down he attempted a counter tsuki of his own, but it largely whiffed giving Gonoyama the solid win. It's not necessarily how they draw it up, but it was legit as Gonoyama moves to 2-2 with Onosho suffering his first defeat at 3-1.

I was really enjoying the day until M5 OhNoSato entered the ring to face M5 Midorifuji. From the tachi-ai, Midorifuji came with the C3P0 arms standing straight up and allowing Onosato to just plow him over and down. To the sheep, this one looked like more Onosato bariki, but when you have such a size difference between two rikishi and the smaller guy is totally mukiryoku, this is what's gonna happen. At least Onosato moved forward here in purchasing another win on his way to 4-0 while Midorifuji falls to 1-3.

I noticed today that when they showed the top three bouts from yesterday, Onosato came in at #3, so the incessant hype is starting to take hold although the sumo content is still lacking.

This is also the point where they started the NHK general broadcast, so the producers at NHK obviously thought something else was more worth their viewers' time.

Up next was M6 Tsurugisho taking on M4 Hiradoumi, and the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Tsurugi The Hutt had the deep inside position. Hiradoumi was so had at this point that his only option was to put his right arm up high around the slug's neck. You look at that pic at left, and there is simply no way that Hiradoumi can come back from that position unless Tsurugisho lets him, and that's exactly what the M6 did. When Hiradoumi felt his foe let up, Hiradoumi went for and got what would have normally been an improbable maki-kae, and you notice that there wasn't a momentum shift whatsoever because Tsurugisho was not applying pressure. From there with Hiradoumi in moro-zashi, he worked a willing Tsurugisho over to the edge before yanking him down dashi-nage style.

The problem with all that was Tsurugisho was expecting to be forced out, and so the sudden momentum shift cause him to injure his left knee as it planted in the dohyo funny. Just think about going down some stairs in the dark and thinking you have one stair left when you're really at that bottom. That last step is extremely awkward and jolting, and that's what happened here as Tsurugisho could not get up from the dohyo.

They quickly called up the Pawn Stars to dispatch their antique wheelchair, and I was like, "How are they gonna get this guy off of the dohyo and into that chair," and they literally had to roll Tsurugisho over a couple of times to the edge of the dohyo as if they were wrapping up a body in carpet before disposing of it at the dump.  They then had him sit up at the edge of the dohyo and plop down into the chair. Dang, I think Tsurugisho is my favorite guy to watch right now, so I'm sorry to see him get injured like this while letting up for his opponent. But you know how the saying goes with both rikishi ending the day at 2-2.

M2 Atamifuji came with extreme C3P0 arms at the tachi-ai against M4 Tobizaru who immediately assumed moro-zashi, but you could see that Tobizaru wasn't trying to set his foe up for defeat. I mean, it's one thing for a big guy like Terunofuji to pinch in from the outside against a smaller opponent in moro-zashi, but Atamifuji wasn't doing that here. Instead, he was like a lost puppy at the mercy of Tobizaru. Fortunately for Atami The Hutt, Tobizaru wasn't trying to win, and so Atamifuji tried this weak, weak maki-kae with the right that sorta worked, but he gave up on it and let Tobizaru back into moro-zashi. Tobizaru graciously moved the action from the edge back to the exact center of the ring, and from there he hunkered down waiting for Atamifuji to finally apply pressure from the outside and work Tobizaru over to the edge and across kime-dashi style. This was a complete farce as both rikishi end the day at 2-2.

Komusubi Nishikigi is easily bought off, and he was today for sure against Suckiwake Daieisho who struck the listless NG in the chest from the tachi-ai and methodically moved forward with his thrusts as Nishikigi retreated back just as fast. This was over in maybe two seconds as Nishikigi simply gave up from the tachi-ai. At least Daieisho made it look good with a nice thrust attack instead of some phantom pulls as both dudes end the day at 1-3.

The most anticipated bout of the day according to NHK News 9 was the Komusubi Abi - Suckiwake Wakamotoharu matchup that featured two undefeated rikishi from the sanyaku, and Abi dominated this one from the start jumping out of the gate quickly and catching Wakamotoharu with two hands to the neck, and with Abi driving his legs forward hard, Wakamotoharu didn't have a pot to piss in and he knew it giving up near the edge as Abi pummeled him back and across tsuki-dashi style.

It's extremely rare for a Komusubi to start out 4-0 because they're paired against all the guys above them in the first week, and so if Abi can garner a few more favors from Terunofuji and Hoshoryu, he's the clear favorite to yusho as Wakamotoharu falls to 3-1.

M1 Ura ducked in low against Takakeisho who came in way too high at the tachi-ai, but fortunately for TKS, Ura wasn't trying to beat him. Instead of gaining moro-zashi, Ura backed out of his position and purposefully moved over near the edge where he kept his head ducked low and his arms extended outward and high. It was an extremely awkward position and allowed Takakeisho to eventually seize moro-zashi and tally a rare force-out..um..win. After all of the favors Ura has been shown this basho, it didn't make sense for him to saddle Takakeisho with another loss...something that Ura could have done with ease here. The end result is Takakeisho's being gifted 3-1 while Ura falls to 2-2, hopefully splitting the kensho with his foe behind the scenes afterwards. Ain't cash convenient?

Ozeki Hoshoryu looked to get inside of M3 Ohho from the tachi-ai, but the fruit of Taiho's loins did well to fight the Mongolian away and force Hoshoryu to move laterally as he looked to get inside. It took a few seconds, but Hoshoryu finally worked his way into the solid left inside position forcing the bout to yotsu-zumo. Ohho was out of options at this point, and so he leaned in heavily against his smaller foe. Hoshoryu was too far away from a righter outer belt grip, and so he chose to back up thinking about a maki-kae with the right, but he stopped that short and unleashed a quick left inside belt throw instead. The Mongolian wasn't positioned well for the move, however, especially against such a large opponent, and so Hoshoryu dangerously tip-toed one more step along the tawara keeping his balance until Ohho crashed down to the dirt. It was both easy and not easy for Hoshoryu who improves to 3-1 while Ohho put up a very good fight in falling to 1-3.

Getting back to the theme of my intro, there was no way that Asashoryu was ever gonna start out a basho 0-2 let alone 0-4 unlike Ozeki Kirishima and his stable master, Michinoku-oyakata, who fully cooperate when needed. As a result, you never hear guys like Michinoku or Isegaumi get maligned in the press. Today against M1 Asanoyama, Kirishima forced the bout to migi-yotsu, but instead of going chest to chest and establishing good position, Kirishima just backed up quickly shading a bit to his left while faking a pull that was really an excuse to back outta the dohyo in two seconds flat. As I watched the slow motion replays here, what really stood out to me was how vulnerable and lost Asanoyama was at the tachi-ai, but when the Ozeki will do all the work for you, take what's given I guess, and Asanoyama did in moving to 2-2. As for Kirishima, he falls to 0-4 and why withdraw when there are more favors you can give?  His nonchalance in the picture at left says everything.

The penultimate bout on the day featured Kotonowaka vs. M3 Takanosho, and Kotonowaka came in too high for his own good leaving his left inside vulnerable, but Takanosho refused the right arm inside and instead moved around the edge of the dohyo. Kotonowaka tried to catch him with some thrusts, but he didn't cause the movement, and so he couldn't capitalize on it. After a half turn around the dohyo, the two hooked up in migi-yotsu for real. Takanosho had the better position, so when Kotonowaka went for a few terrible left kote-nage attempts, Takanosho was in the perfect spot to just force Kotonowaka back and across, but he refused signaling his intentions. As the two came to a stalemate, Takanosho was in the perfect position to grab a right outer grip as seen at right, but he refused to do it. Problem was, Kotonowaka was not in a good position to attack, but after standing there for a few seconds, Kotonowaka went for another poorly positioned left kote-nage, and once again Takanosho could have forced him back but he instead just dipped his left shoulder down and flopped to the dirt.

In a real bout at the edge like this, Takanosho would have countered Kotonowaka's left kote-nage with a right inside scoop throw or belt throw creating a nage-no-uchi-ai, but that's in a real bout. This was anything but that as Kotonowaka is gifted yet another win and 3-1 record. As for Takanosho, hopefully he was given some of the kensho in falling to 1-3.

In the day's final affair, Yokozuna Terunofuji was intentionally lethargic at the tachi-ai allowing M2 Meisei to come in hot and get moro-zashi. Terunofuji is normally just fine giving up moro-zashi because he can latch in tight from the outside and apply immense pressure towards his opponent by leaning into him, but instead of doing that here, he kept himself upright willingly and just backed across the straw with Meisei in tow. It gave the crowd a stiffie, but this was simply a matter of Terunofuji pulling himself further out of the yusho race as both dudes end the day at 2-2.  I chortled a bit as I read the headlines afterwards where they killed Meisei the "Terunofuji Killer."  Yeah, right.

Yaocho the final three bouts of the day ruined things on an otherwise pretty good day of sumo, but that's just the way it's gotta be these days (sigh).

It's pretty clear the Mongolians are pulling back this basho, and so we'll see if Abi can keep up his momentum.

Haru Basho Day 3 Comments
I pulled in Sunday night after a three day stint at the Indian Wells tennis tournament going on right now in Palm Springs, California, and after watching so many good tennis matches up close, I didn't have the stomach to turn on sumo and watch the fixed bouts from Day 1. When I purchased my seats for Indian Wells, I doled out quite a bit of cash for a Stadium 1 seat, and I guessed right on the session where they ultimately slotted Djokovic to play a Russian-turned-Aussie, Aleksandar Vukic. The match went three sets with Djokovic ultimately coming out on top, but how can you go from watching high level tennis like that for three days to stomaching today's version of sumo wrestling?

The answer is you can't, and so I didn't want to ruin the tennis experience by watching the Day 1 bouts. On Day 2, it was back to normal in terms of work and getting back into the grind, but I still couldn't turn on the Day 2 bouts because I didn't want my intelligence insulted.

Finally here on Day 3, the tennis high has worn off enough, and so I quickly watched the bouts from Day 1 and Day 2, and now I'll comment on all of the bouts from Day 3.

Before we get to the bouts, we need to get to the biggest news in between basho, the excommunication of Hokuseiho from Sumo and the demotion of Hakuho down to the lowest rung on the oyakata ladder. It turns out that Hokuseiho had not only been bullying his younger stablemates, but in some instances he was torturing them.

It was reported that Hakuho knew the bullying was taking place, but he did nothing to rein Hokuseiho in, and so they finally kicked the dude out of sumo altogether and demoted Hakuho as low as they could.

I think the timing of this is really telling, and it shows how sumo and the mainstream media are in complete cahoots as to when the story would come out and the duration of the story once the news did come out.

You may remember that Hokuseiho suddenly withdrew from the Hatsu basho. He beat Shonannoumi in a pretty good bout on Day 5, and then on Day 6 they announced Hokuseiho's withdraw due to a knee injury. Hokuseiho did not injure his knee in that Day 5 bout, but the Association had just wrapped up their investigation into the matter and decided that Hokuseiho needed to be kicked out of the Association.

Instead of announcing all this during the Hatsu basho, they just went with the kyujo story and let Kotonowaka do his thing and attain the Ozeki rank, and they didn't announce the action after the basho either because they didn't want to take away from the attention on Kotonowaka. And that's how it went for another month when the story finally came out--in complete unison with all the media outlets--a day or two before the release of the Haru Basho banzuke.

The story was everywhere in the news for 24 hours, and then it was pretty much gone as soon as the banzuke came out. It's the classic "release the story late on a Friday when nobody cares" and everyone has forgotten by the time Monday comes around. Even the banzuke that is always reworked a few days after the previous basho didn't include Hokuseiho, so everyone knew it was coming a month before the announcement.

It was reported that Hokuseiho was burning his younger stable mates with portable stoves; he would frequently slap them in the nuts; and then I read one horrifying account that involved a broomstick and the buttocks of his juniors. From what I read, it sounded like the punishment was just, and Hokuseiho will not be missed. He was about as lazy as they come, and the majority of his bouts were fixed. On one hand, I'm glad he's off the banzuke, but on the other hand, they're going to replace him with another youngster (Takerufuji in this case) whose going to be involved in just as many fixed bouts.

Sumo cannot afford to take any steps backwards these days, and so they did as much damage control as possible and then we started off the Haru Basho with all three Mongolians losing in consecutive fashion on Day 1. You have your biggest audience on a Sunday, and so that wasn't a coincidence. Sumo has become a desperate game generating as many positive headlines as positive and avoiding the negative news at all costs.

The reason? They kinda gave it away at the start of the Day 3 broadcast with the following graphic:



Due to the timing of the Japanese school year which starts in April and ends in March, the Haru Basho is the big basho where they feed the banzuke with new recruits. There are newbies scattered throughout the year entering sumo at the other hon-basho, but the Haru basho is when they try and add meat to the bone, and these are the numbers reflected in that graphic:

Haru 1992:  160 new recruits (highest ever recorded)
Haru 2023:  33 new recruits
Haru 2024:  27 new recruits (lowest ever recorded)

That's an 18% drop from the previous year, and this is why we see so much fake sumo these days. The Sumo Association is in pure survival mode, and they are using any means necessary to make the sport appear valid.

With that, let's get to the day's bouts commenting on individual rikishi where necessary. The day began with a big dud as M17 Takerufuji henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai against M15 Roga, and Roger even knew the direction his foe was going to move beforehand because he put his left hand down straightway to break his fall. After the bout, Sakaigawa-oyakata correctly pointed out, "Roga's not the kind of guy who loses so easily."

Easily, the best bout fought on Day 2 was the Roga - Kitanowaka matchup, and you can't watch that bout and Roga's performance today and then believe that Roger didn't have a clue in this one. Takerufuji's 3-0 start has been completely fabricated, and while his sumo on Day 2 against Endoh looked believable to the sheep, Day 1 and Day 3 were jokes. This kid has been manufactured to this point I'm sorry to say while Roga falls to 2-1.

M15 Myogiryu was completely mukiryoku against M16 Endoh doing nothing at the tachi-ai and allowing Endoh to fire a few tsuppari. As Myogiryu moved back, he put his right arm up high around Endoh's neck giving Endoh what he wanna, but Endoh still struggled to bully his opponent around. Myogiryu ultimately moved to his left as if to set up a right kote-nage, and the move would have worked, but he stopped short and then stepped back and across the straw. They ruled it a force-out in favor of Endoh, but there was no force coming from Endoh that caused Myogiryu (2-1) to step across. This was just a puff bout of fixed sumo in favor of Endoh (1-2).

In a similar bout, M16 Daiamami was completely mukiryoku from the tachi-ai allowing M14 Nishikifuji to go for a few tsuppari of his own, but they had no effect allowing Daiamami to flub his way into a left outer grip, and he coulda got the right outer as well, but he quickly moved that left inside to an outside position giving NFJ the advantage. At least he tried to give it to Nishikifuji, but the latter was so clueless that Daiamami eventually had to flop over to the side and down making it look like a tottari move came from Nishikifuji. It didn't, and this was yet another fixed bout of sumo that saw Nishikifuji move to 1-2 with Daiamami literally fall to 0-3.

The dudes in the booth and Don Sato in the mukou-joumen were sure earning their pay today being forced to provide analysis of these bouts as if they were real.  Before we move on, the reverence when Don Sato entered the arena was palpable.  No one messes with the Don.

M13 Ryuden grabbed a left frontal grip from the tachi-ai against M14 Kitanowaka, but instead of lifting KNW upright and pinching his right arm in useless, Ryuden kept both armpits open gifting Kitanowaka moro-zashi. From there, Kitanowaka sorta mounted a force-out charge, and Ryuden aided it by keeping his right arm and hand completely out of harm's way.

I mean, look at that picture at right and tell me what Ryuden is doing with that right hand?

The soft yori-kiri came about eight uncontested seconds later as Ryuden takes a wad of cash home to the sister wives in falling to 2-1 while Kitanowaka buys his first win at 1-2.

M12 Shimazuumi rushed forward well from the tachi-ai against M13 Churanoumi, but he "forgot" to use either arm, and so he waited for Churanoumi to grab a left outer grip and sorta dashi-nage Shimazuumi out in about two uneventful seconds. When you let up in the ring, the chances that someone gets hurt rises, and it looked like Shimazuumi tweaked his already bandaged right knee as he didn't know which way Churanoumi was going to drag him. Churanoumi buys yet another win in moving to 2-1 while Shimazuumi falls to 0-3.

M12 Shonannoumi was lost at the tachi-ai allowing M11 Ichiyamamoto to move forward with a few tsuppari before getting the left arm inside with an easy pathway to a right outer grip, but the dude went completely limp near the edge and waited for Shonannoumi to execute a weak kote-nage with the right, and in a straight up bout, IYM would have countered with a left inside belt throw or scoop throw, but he just flopped over and down instead giving SNNU the cheap, undeserved win and 2-1 record. Ichiyamamoto falls to 1-2, and if you want to know a good indicator of how to tell whether or not a bout if fake, use this tried and true method:

1. Watch at least one thousand bouts of keiko between rikishi ranked Makushita and below
2. Note the similarities in the one thousand bouts
3. Recognize a bout that looks nothing like morning keiko

M11 Sadanoumi easily got the right arm inside and left outer grip against a listless M10 Mitakeumi from the tachi-ai, but instead of going chest to chest and using his advantageous position, Sadanoumi backed up as he dragged his opponent into his own body. Mitakeumi was too clueless to finish the Sadamight off, however, and so Sadanoumi regained his position towards the center of the dohyo and took a dive to his right as if Mitakeumi has executed a scoop throw (a big as if). They ruled that both dudes hit the dirt at the same time, and so a redo was ordered...just what I didn't want.

Because it was obvious that Sadanoumi was trying to throw the first bout, you knew he was going to throw the second as well and he did. Instead of getting an arm inside or a belt grip in an attempt to make the bout look real, he kept both arms out wide at the tachi-ai gifting Mitakeumi moro-zashi, and then Sadanoumi backed outta the ring faster than Mitakeumi could force him back. What a fake bout as both dudes end the day at 2-1.

M9 Hokutofuji stood M10 Shodai completely upright from the tachi-ai with a beefy paw to the throat, but instead of building on that tachi-ai win and forward momentum, Hokutofuji relented and just backed himself around the ring and out with Shodai in tow. I'm trying to think if we've had a real bout to this point as Shodai assumes 2-1 while Hokutofuji falls to 0-3.

M9 Kotoshoho moved to his right at the tachi-ai without a purpose against M8 Takayasu whereupon KSH went through a few tsuppari motions towards his foe, but he wasn't trying to do any harm. Takayasu finally forced the bout to migi-yotsu where Kotoshoho stood still so Takayasu could grab a firm right outer grip while Kotoshoho kept his own right arm up high in a disadvantageous position. From there, the two jockeyed for position this way and that across the ring, and when Takayasu finally got Kotoshoho near the edge, Takayasu was extremely vulnerable to a counter tsuki-otoshi, but Kotoshoho just backed across the straw instead of attempting a counter move. It was decent sumo to the sheep, but Kotoshoho (1-2) was mukiryoku in giving Takayasu a 3-0 start. Can you imagine my horror in going from watching Djokovic play to then coming home and watching Tamawashi dive against Takayasu on Day 2?

M7 Kinbohzan lightly put a left hand up near M8 Onosho's face at the tachi-ai, but Kinbohzan made sure to keep his arms wide and out of harm's way. Problem was that Onosho was a bit befuddled, and so he went for an ill-advised pull early on that equaled instant death in a straight up bout. Fortunately for Onosho, however, this bout was compromised, and so Kinbohzan advanced towards his retreating foe with complete C3P0 arms until Onosho managed moro-zashi, and once Onosho had the dual insides, Kinbohzan backed up for him across the ring and out never thinking about a counter move. This was a force-out win that contained little force as Onosho buys his way to 3-0 as Kinbohzan graciously falls to 1-2.

Speaking of C3P0 arms, M7 Tamawashi displayed them as well at the tachi-ai against M6 Gonoyama completely forgetting that he (The Mawashi) was a tsuppari-first guy. With Tamawashi signaling his intentions, he began backing up and to his left waiting for Gonoyama to charge forward and execute a force-out, but the latter was hapless and retreated himself as if to pull. A pull never came, though, and with Gonoyama retreating one direction, Tamawashi (0-3) dove the other direction flopping over and down giving Gonoyama (1-2) the cheap win in the process. You watch a bout like this and think "Don't these guys have any pride whatsoever?"

By my count, we have yet to see a straight up bout to this point, so we are surpassing Itai's number of 80% as the average number of fixed bouts on any given day.

The tachi-ai between M5 Midorifuji and M6 Tsurugisho was awkward with TS staying up high and Midorifuji hesitant to get inside. The two stood like this with Tsurugisho thinking about latching onto the back of Midorifuji's left shoulder, but after a few seconds of inaction, he went for a mediocre pull and Midorifuji flopped forward and down. Whatever happened to the kata-sukashi, Midori-chan? I don't know what politics were in play here, but the flow of this bout was not natural. At least the better dude won as Tsurugisho moves to 2-1 with Midorifuji falling to 1-2.

M4 Hiradoumi was quick out of the gate getting moro-zashi against M5 Onosato, but instead of digging in and lifting Onosato off balance, Hiradoumi backed up a step and then moved to his right backing up across the straw with a clueless Onosato trying to keep up. I mean, you watch the instant replays here and try and identify anything that Onosato did to cause Hiradoumi's movement, but there was nothing. The announcers finally decided that Onosato won due to "bariki," or horsepower.

A minute later, the man on the street called up to the booth and reported, "I talked to Hiradoumi, and he was at a loss for words as to what happened out there at first, but he finally said it was Onosato's bariki." What a cop-out from all involved as Onosato continues to display horribly poor sumo but still manages to win at 3-0 while Hiradoumi falls to 1-2.

Prior to the M3 Ohho - M4 Tobizaru matchup, they showed an aerial view of the arena, and I couldn't help but notice everyone wearing brown vests on the East and West sides of the dohyo.

I think they run a promotion in Osaka of "Buy an expensive ticket, get a Jedi costume to wear to the basho."

It's either that or I'm just fooled into thinking all these unnatural dives are fake when it's really the Jedi powers that are in play. It's either Jedi magic or witchcraft.

M3 Ohho connected on effective tsuppari against M4 Tobizaru, and it really looked as if Ohho could have bullied him back and out of the ring, but Ohho let up midway and just stood there allowing Tobizaru to execute this weak slap at the back of Ohho's left shoulder, and that was Ohho's cue to hit the dirt just like that. No way Jose was this real as Tobizaru buys his way to 2-1 with Ohho falling to 1-2.

M3 Takanosho struck Suckiwake Wakamotoharu well at the tachi-ai getting a paw to the throat that stood Wakamotoharu upright and gave Takanosho the path to moro-zashi, but instead of seizing the advantageous position, Takanosho instead got the right arm inside in half-assed fashion and moved that way just sloppily stepping out of the dohyo no thanks to anything Wakamotoharu was doing. What an unbelievable day of fixed sumo to this point as Wakamotoharu is gifted 3-0 while Takanosho falls to 1-2.

Komusubi Abi was the aggressor from the tachi-ai catching Suckiwake Daieisho with two hands to the neck before Daieisho could really get any tsuppari going, and once Abi started driving his legs, Daieisho's only hope was to retreat and show his opponent the trap door. It wouldn't happen as Abi caught Daieisho with some powerful thrusts to the chest, and before you knew it, Abi had just won the first straight up bout on the day. Good for him as he moves to 3-0, and it was also nice to see him not go easy on Takakeisho yesterday. Abi's the top choice at this point if a Japanese dude takes the yusho while Daieisho falls to 0-3.

I had to re-swallow the throw-up in my mouth after watching Kirishima fall to M2 Atamifuji yesterday, so it was nice to see Ozeki Hoshoryu fight the M2 straight up today. Hoshoryu charged hard into the Hutt getting the right arm inside early, and Hoshoryu wasted no time in executing a right inside belt throw. JabbaMiFuji used his girth to survive the throw, but he was off balance, and so Hoshoryu burrowed in tight still leading with the right inside, and all Atamifuji could do was try and counter with a left kote-nage. It would never come to fruition as Hoshoryu rushed Atamifuji back and across in about four seconds never letting his foe maintain his balance. Hoshoryu moves to 2-1 with the nice execution while Atamifuji falls to 1-2. And of course there were no photos on this bout on the wires afterwards because it doesn't fit the Association's narratives.

Ozeki Kirishima purposefully kept his hands high at the back of M1 Ura's head from the tachi-ai without going for a pull, and I knew at that point he was going to throw the bout. Ura failed to get moro-zashi, and so Kirishima moved a bit right pretending to set up a back shoulder slap causing Ura to stumble a bit near the edge. The Ozeki let him square back up and then just stood there waiting for the first touch to come from his opponent. Said touch was a weak swipe with the left, and that was Kirishima's cue to flop forward and down giving Ura the cheap win. Normally if you swipe at someone's side and connect, they move sideways a bit, but Kirishima's forward flop completely contradicted Ura's actual move. Anyway, it's obvious Kirishima's purposefully losing to excite the fans and give them hope as he falls to 0-3 while Ura's 2-1 mark is utter nonsense.

One problem with promoting Kotonowaka to the Ozeki rank is that there's more scrutiny on the guy; thus, more people are paying attention to just how bad is sumo is. His leedle slapdown win against Atamifuji on Day 1 was laughable, and then that bout yesterday against Asanoyama was straight up resulting in an easy win for Asanoyama.

Today Kotonowaka was paired against Komusubi Nishikigi, and the two clashed fairly well looking to go to migi-yotsu, but there were a few uncontested maki-kae a second in, which told me instantly that the bout was fixed in favor of Kotonowaka.

Remember the comment I made earlier about the formula for detecting yaocho? If you watch morning keiko from the younger rikishi, you never see more than one maki-kae in a bout. It is literally a do-or-die move, so when you see guys going back and forth trading maki-kae in the center of the ring, you know the bout is fake.

And that was the case here as the two settled in tight with Nishikigi keeping his left hand as far away from an outer grip as possible. The problem for Kotonowaka is that he's never proven that he can fight from the belt, and so he was lost there in the center of the ring. Thankfully for him, Nishikigi for no reason other than to throw the bout backed up going for a wrist-deep kote-nage with the right, but that was just an excuse to set himself up at the edge as an easy tsuki-dashi target.

What an insult this was to the tsuki-dashi kimari-te, and it's worth noting that Kotonowaka did nothing to set up a win by push-out or thrust-out, but that's what you get when bouts are fixed...kimari-te that don't reflect anything that happened during the bout. Kotonowaka is a weak-looking 2-1 while Nishikigi falls to 1-2.

M2 Meisei easily nudged Takakeisho back from the starting lines with his feet aligned and half-assed thrusts, and just think what he could have done if he was driving with his legs. Meisei purposefully relented with his tsuppari attack and waited for Takakeisho to do something, but the dude was just hapless. Meisei showed how vulnerable Takakeisho was when he gave a light tug at his extended right arm, but Meisei let up on the move keeping Takakeisho in the bout. With Takakeisho still doing nothing to win the bout, Meisei next slapped at his left shoulder knocking Takakeisho over to the edge where his left side was completely exposed. Meisei instinctively looked to grab a right outer grip (pictured there are right) that would have allowed him to easily drive Takakeisho sideways and out, especially with one of Takakeisho's feet not grounded to the dohyo.  Meisei pulled back just as quick as he got the right outer, however, and moved to his left allowing Takakeisho to scoop his left arm up and under Meisei's right side, and from there Meisei just flopped out of the ring. As if. Takakeisho is gifted his 2-1 record while Meisei quietly falls to 1-2 a richer dude.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Terunofuji and M1 Asanoyama hooked up in the solid migi-yotsu position from the tachi-ai where the Yokozuna noticeably did not go for the easy left outer nor did he wrap his left arm tightly around Asanoyama's right. Asanoyama was still at the Yokozuna's mercy as the two leaned chest to chest in the center of the ring. After a pause for a few seconds, Asanoyama lunged for a left outer grip, and while he was far away, you could literally see Terunofuji stand upright and then allow Asanoyama to come in and get that grip. Once he had it, the fans really got excited, and the bout began to move all with Asanoyama's belt coming apart in the process. When the dust settled, Terunofuji came away with his own left outer grip, and the two struggled in the ai-yotsu position for a bit more until Terunofuji finally said enough and scored the force-out win.

This was clearly an example of Terunofuji making himself look vulnerable to justify his early loss on Day 1 and the early losses by the Mongolian Ozeki in general, but I'm glad Terunofuji didn't throw this one. He moves to 2-1 while Asanoyama falls to a worthy 1-2, and partway though the bout when Asanoyama's belt started coming undone, I thought we might get a glimpse of his disco stick. Thankfully we didn't.

What a disappointing Day 3 there was with too much yaocho to stomach, but I think that's gonna be the MO for the tournament throughout. Sumo has to keep everyone as engaged as possible because the biggest story right now in Japan is Shohei Otani, and any coverage sumo gets is just obligatory because everyone wants to see Shohei all the time.

Right back at it tomorrow.