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Senshuraku Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Batjargal Munkh-Orgil slipped out the beya early. It was still cold, the temperature hanging just above freezing, and Batjargal lit up a cigarette, enjoyed the sweet hotness scorching its reviving way down into his lungs. Batjargal peered up at the rising sun; its beams, though cold and thin, seemed cheerful and friendly this morning. Batjargal had never been a sissy, wouldn't want to be called one, and very rarely told anyone the way he felt about anything, but he had to admit sometimes these early morning times in Tokyo were very beautiful. He soaked it all in for a moment--the cold, the sun, the smoke, the feeling he had--then gave an inaudible sigh through the nostrils and started walking.

Nobody recognized him. He loved this about being in Japan, being "Tamawashi Ichiro," as they'd decided together to call him many years ago when he was still not much more than a stripling. As an elite rikishi in Japan's national sport, he now had a good living, men to serve him at his beck and call, and a bubble of respect and deference around him when he went out on the street. Because of his geta sandals, white socks, yukata, and greased-up hairdo, everyone of course knew he was a sumo wrestler. They even knew--or could sense; Batjargal knew--that he was a pretty good one and pretty important too. But they never recognized him. Some rikishi would have felt insulted or disappointed by this. Not Batjargal. He'd been with Kisenosato when the hordes jostled round him, calling his name, seeking a piece of the fame he had. He'd been with Endo, politely fending off the giggling girls with little courteous flirty jokes, then rolling his eyes when they were clear of them later. Tamawashi had no need for this in his soul, and was happy he didn't have to put up with it. The very few fans who recognized him tended to be the respectful type. Those who approached him for a picture randomly because he was obviously "somebody" were harmless and soon gone, and did it without trying to take a piece of who he was.

Yeah, he had what he wanted. It was a good life.

This morning of all mornings, on the cusp of a possible championship, Tamawashi's brow ruffled slightly--he might could be recognized today, he supposed. If ever. Might be chased by the microphones, maybe. He glanced around: nope. To his mild pleasure, as he strolled along the damaged concrete between the soot-streaked buildings, as always no one paid him any mind. Nobody. They let him be who was. Who was he? In his mind, he always just told himself the truth, and the important part to him: he was a rich man. That hadn't always seemed like a possible future, growing up in Ulan-Bator. But now it was the truth. And it was enough. Manifestly enough.

And now this thing was happening. Tamawashi wanted to get away a little bit, think about it. Even he was prone to thinking, from time to time. Because of the ridiculously early Japanese sunrises, it was just 7:00 a.m., and he had a few quiet hours ahead of him with no expectations, and he could get away with it.

Back in the stable, sensing it all settling in, others around him over the last 48 hours or so had given him respectful glances and understated encouragement, but mostly left him his space. No, this morning of all mornings, oddly, he wouldn't be missed.

Tamawashi got on the subway, ignored as always the random stares, while at the same time sharing quietly in the pleasure these people got from him: "there's someone famous," they were thinking. "No. here's someone rich," he always told himself, with quiet, private pride. It worked for both sides.

Tamawashi got off at Shin-Koenji station and walked to Wadabori-Koen. It wasn't a famous park, or even a particularly nice one. The second half of its name, "bori," means ditch, and indeed the character of the park followed that quite literally: long and narrow, it stretched a few dozen meters to each side of one of the ubiquitous concrete-sheathed rivulets that make up Tokyo's waterways. Once upon a time they'd been streams. Or real ditches. Now they were utilitarian. Tamawashi didn't care about that. He just liked the place. Oddly, it was like him: plain. Functional. Nice enough. Boring. Utilitarian. Unnoticed by some. Appreciated, he was secretly confident, by those who mattered. This was enough. For the park, for him. Tamawashi strolled for some minutes, enjoying the trees, the water, the children out early with their mothers. The mothers. Beautiful, so many of them. The sunlight. The situation.

The situation. Tamawashi found a bench. He wiped desultorily with his bare hand at the dew coating it, sat down in the spot he'd knocked most of the wetness off. He could feel the remainder soaking with shocking coldness through his clothes as he sat down. He enjoyed the sensation, savored it. Overcame it, as he had methodically told himself to do with any pain or obstruction he encountered these last two decades: eat it. Eat the pain. That's what he told himself. He let another cigarette.

Ah, the situation. He was becoming a father today, for the second time. Yes! Really. That was there. But it seemed far away. And, he had to admit, that worked for him today: his wife couldn't come, because of that. Good. If he was honest, good. He wouldn't ever say that to anybody, and it wouldn't matter that he felt it. Sometimes things just were what they were. There would be time for that tomorrow. Babies, wives, life--and the fruits of what he was going to do today. Because today, they were going to let him win this one.

Like everyone else, he'd heard the story about how Tochinoshin had had to ask for his yusho. Gone to his stablemaster and said "just let me try. Just this once." How they'd let him try, and how he'd gotten it. It was a great story--one they all thrilled to, though the overwrought expression "thrill" was of course something Tamawashi never allowed himself. Most of the wrestlers didn't. But they could feel it; it was a legend now. Lots of guys talked about it: how maybe they could get their chance. Bragged, sometimes, about how they were going to ask their stablemasters to let them go for it too. Then either didn't actually ask (mostly this) or were told no (Tamawashi smiled wryly to himself). That's what you get.

Sitting on the bench, luxuriating in his cigarette smoke, absorbing the moisture from the old wooden slats of the bench, Tamawashi snorted to himself. Took another puff. Him? He would never ask. And never did. Hadn't had to. And yet here he was, one victory away from taking it. Mind, Tamawashi didn't blame Tochinoshin. The man was a different animal. As for Tamawashi, he had everything he needed. He felt well treated, actually--they'd let him get pretty high on the banzuke, and he'd made a lot of money. Made a lot of friends. Had a good life. And it was the nature of his particular pride--his personal, closely held, private pride--not to ask for things like that. If they weren't going to let him get yusho, he didn't need a yusho. Simple.

No, he'd just done his job. This tournament too. It had been a fun one. Gone out and beat on some guys. Unleashed it a bit. As they sometimes let him do. Sometimes. The yusho hadn't really even occurred to him, or anyone else around him, until about three days ago. Kisenosato had retired. Kakuryu and Tochinoshin had withdrawn. And as for him he'd performed well, allowed this time around to win a few more than normal. Then Hakuho had lost, and suddenly, there it had been: the possibility that he might yusho. It had opened up and bloomed before him, staring him in the face. Real--and available. All that stuff, all those years, and now here it was, like this. So easy, somehow.

Even then he didn't ask his stable master for it. Yeah, they talked about it. But his stablemaster told him to go for it, rather than him asking whether he should. So he went for it. And he beat Hakuho. And now here he was. One more victory. Babies, wives, championships.

One more victory.

Tamawashi knocked a column of ash off the cigarette: it had grown long as he pondered. Tamawashi chuckled to himself. Pondering wasn't something he normally indulged in. But this morning? This morning he let himself.

Tamawashi threw the cigarette on the ground, gloried in the frozen sunshine. Things were all set; in a few minutes he'd have to start heading back, prepare. Today was it. All he had to do was get up there one more time, and it would work out in the way they'd planned. Yeah, the last few days, they'd planned the last pieces of it. Everybody always planned it.

Batjargal smiled to himself. Yes, this one was for him. And it had come to him for the things he had done. And for the way he had done them. This one was right.

ALL SET

M9 Endo (10-4) vs. S Tamawashi (12-2)
I think we've all been hoping, practically pleading, for a Tamawashi yusho or Ozeki run for a couple of years, but I never thought it would actually happen. Now here it is, on the cusp of happening, having developed naturally out of Tamawashi's sumo. And a rash of defections.

But in a last-man-standing-contest, this was the right gunner to still see in the settling dust of Main Street. He had a great tournament, and we were already talking about that before the Hakuho-loss-streak started. Here is what I wrote about Tamawashi on Day 7: "Who is having the best basho? …I think the answer is Tamawashi… he has been wiping the floor with most of his opposition, unleashing himself and slaughtering the sheep."

And in the end the match to give it to him was simple. The tachi-ai looked tentative on both sides; I was waiting for the gyoji to call it back. Tamawashi, however, didn't wait. He easily picked up Endo surging in there. Put a couple of hands on his approaching foe to stop the little man, gave him one sharp blow in the face. Then Tamawashi stepped lightly out of there and Endo tumbled away to the left, hit the clay. And that was that, tsuki-otoshi--Tamawashi had won the yusho.

Wow.

I've been through a lot with this sport--it ain't easy having your eyes too wide open. But good things keep happening too, and this was one of them.

S Takakeisho (11-3) vs. O Goeido (8-6)
As several have said, even though there was no yusho at stake here, he's fresh off a yusho himself with Ozeki promotion on the horizon, so it hardly mattered. As Mike pithily put it, the Sumo Association already won the tournament, miraculously overcoming (and you might even say benefitting from) Kisenosato's retirement, and Takakeisho's success gives them something to pin hopes and ticket sales on during his Ozeki run in Osaka. Takakeisho is still rounding into form, but I think he'll be a good Ozeki in time. Dude is still just 22 years old; when Kisenosato, Takayasu, Goeido, and Kotoshogiku were promoted they were 25, 27, 28, and 28 respectively. Tochinoshin was already 30. Is it slightly premature? Maybe. But I'm down with Takakeisho as an Ozeki. I first noticed him when I attended the Kyushu basho live in 2016; he was still named "Sato," and whanged his opponent out of there like a wrecking ball on fire. It was a "woah, who is this dude?" moment. He went on to take the Juryo championship that basho, and hasn't looked back.

Today he got Goeido, in a bit of old-versus-new. He was deferential, as expected. He stood up, pulled at Goeido's head, and backpedaled. Goeido bulldozed him out: "I'm still an Ozeki, dadgummit!!" Oshi-dashi. Okay, whatever.

Somebody the other day pointed out Takakeisho may end up at Yokozuna by the end of the year. Maybe. Yeah, maybe.

But for now I'm just going to focus on Tamawashi's yusho. Congrats, man.

SURROUNDING THEATRE

J2 Takagenji (5-9) vs. M16 Daishomaru (3-11)
Now here's an unappealing pair (yeah, I read your comment!). Takagenji grabbed the outside left and drove. Daishomaru tried to throw him to the side at the edge and failed; it almost worked, but Daishomaru's heel was already scraping up dirt as Takagenji went down. Yori-kiri win for Takagenji. Anyway, neither of these guys will be in Makuuchi next time around. Yay!

M12 Kagayaki (5-9) vs. M14 Yutakayama (6-8)
Yutakayama first dominated the match, then hung back a little when he got Kagayaki to the edge, then pushed in the wrong direction and let Kagayaki get behind him, then was thrown down on the straw by the butt, okuri-nage.

M13 Yago (8-6) vs. M10 Abi (10-4)
Blech. They must have had this planned, because it looked very fake. Yago was doing nothing, standing around getting pressed hard in the throat, then suddenly he went up high with both hands and pulled Abi right down, hataki-komi, with no resistance. If Abi didn't see that coming he's not very bright, and he is too young and springy to go down so easily.

M11 Ikioi (9-5) vs. M8 Asanoyama (7-7)
Ikioi was driving hard and seemed to be in control, but Asanoyama turned it hard at the edge, slamming Ikioi emphatically to the ground, uwate-nage, in a nice reversal of fortune. It was a literal reversal as well: the gyoji originally had Ikioi as the winner, as all this happened bang-bang right at the edge with Asanoyama hanging on with just one foot on the straw, but the judges soon put it right.

M11 Sadanoumi (9-5) vs. M7 Daieisho (8-6)
It is cool that Sadanoumi has the good grace to cover up that third eye in his forehead with a fat wad of bandage covered by a wide swath of flesh-colored tape, because otherwise we might all spontaneously freak out. Or suddenly become Bodhisatvas or something. Ascend to heaven: "lo! It is the third eye of Sa-da-no-u-miiiiiiii!!!" The Enlightened One didn't have much to show in the ring, though. Kali (Daieisho) head-butted him right in the bandage, no doubt popping that eye liquidly in an instant in there. Bodhinoumi then was battered around the ring mercilessly by Wicked-Eisho and tumbled to the dirt, tsuki-otoshi, third-eye-fluid weeping wetly from the sides of his blunted bandage. Angels died, demons shot forth, the earth was covered in darkness, and Daieisho fans sat placidly on their couches and said, "kewl."

M7 Ryuden (5-9) vs. M15 Kotoeko (7-7)
Ho hum, Day 15 and I'm not sure we'd seen a real match yet. Narrators from Yaochoville, me among them, were all poised with their evil pens to write up another blithering cheat-fest for this one, as Kotoeko was 7-7 and just needed one win for that all important kachi-koshi. Instead, Ryuden got one of his mighty looking arms on Kotoeko's belt and dominated him. He also did something I've never seen before: he reached in, fumbled about, and grabbed Kotoeko by the strip of mawashi covering his perineum: the area of flesh between the anus and testicles. Giving me a change to use the word "perineum" for the second straight tournament. I think Ryuden was trying to lift Kotoeko by the leg here for the coup de grace, but those legs were too strong and smooth, so, well, Ryuden ended up with a handful of the perineum-strip. That's as good a place as any to lift from, I suppose, and Ryuden won, yori-kiri. But I don't think they'll be practicing this move in keiko too often.

M12 Meisei (7-7) vs. M6 Onosho (8-6)
Meisei is very much Daieisho Mark II, and he went after big, round, supposedly good Onosho aggressively here, worrying him about with head-knockers and flab-slappers. Like Daieisho, though, Meisei suffers from a lack of bulk and size, and Onosho gave as good as he got and translated that into Big Mo'. However, it isn't all size and strength. Smarts matter too of course, or at least ring sense and instincts (I'm not convinced you need any "smarts" in sports, but it depends on what you mean by "smarts"). So, Meisei had the right instinctive move and Onosho didn't: as Meisei was driven to the edge he jumped out of the way, and Onosho still moved forward. As a result Meisei was able to sneak out behind Onosho, grab him by his gigantic ass, and win yori-kiri.

M6 Chiyotairyu (8-6) vs. M10 Takarafuji (8-6)
I agree with Mike: these two guys have two of the best fundamental skills packages among Japanese rikishi. Takarafuji may be boring, but he projects solidity out there. As for Chiyotairyu, his best tachi-ai is just so dynamic I could watch it again and again. He's had a great tournament, and I'd like to see him unleashed more. He just had to use and trust that massive tachi-ai attack, no quarter and henka risk be damned, because it is a powerful weapon and nobody else has it. If you like sumo (rather than pageantry), no one aside from Tamawashi (who you know will bring a storm of hard hits) or Tochinoshin (best guy on the belt) brings the intrinsic drama of "how is his opponent going to deal with THAT?" However, here, Chiyotairyu looked light. He landed on Takarafuji and stuck, like an egg dropped on the kitchen floor. He's bad on the belt, so when Takarafuji, who is good on the belt, grabbed him, it was over. Very easy looking yori-kiri win for Takarafuji, as Chiyotairyu brought insufficient oomph-energy to this one.

M16 Daiamami (4-10) vs. M5 Yoshikaze (2-12)
I'm not quite as ready as others to sing the demise of Yoshikaze. Yes, this is the second tournament he has looked absolutely terrible of late, and no, he does not belong at M5 anymore. However, there is no reason he shouldn't belong at, say, M14. Think of Takekaze, who hung around at the bottom of the banzuke literally for years, or Aminishiki, who is still improbably bouncing back and forth between the top two divisions. Yoshikaze could decline quickly, yes, or, more likely, we still have several more years of him, much diminished. I'll hope for the former, as it is cleaner and kinder. In the bout Yoshikaze got lower, stood Daiamami up, and got both arms inside. That's a great position, of course, and any M5 with this position should have been able to make quick work of an M16 like Daiamami. But now the problem asserted itself: Yoshikaze seems totally drained of finishing power. As a result, Daiamami, very large, was able to sling Yoshikaze about by pinching down on those arms. In the end Yoshikaze did win, knocking over the tired and relatively unskilled Daiamami yori-taoshi, but it was dicey, and Yoshikaze's future looks to be dimming.

M4 Kotoshogiku (5-9) vs. M14 Chiyoshoma (6-8)
Chiyoshoma got low and wrapped Kotoshogiku up, and Kotoshogiku tried to bump back at him. At the end Kotoshogiku drove Chiyoshoma into the dirt from this angle, crumpling his wily foe to the dirt underneath him in what was ruled yori-taoshi. I think Chiyoshoma actually won it, doing something I hadn't seen before: even as his legs went out from under him, at the very last second, near the ground, he slung Kotoshogiku around his body, whipping him to the dirt as well. One of Kotoshogiku's arms touched down on this move before Chiyoshoma's butt did, but neither the gyojis nor the judges saw it that way. So be it; Kotoshogiku got the win and I've been enjoying him of late and will look forward to seeing him at M7 or so in Osaka.

M5 Aoiyama (7-7) vs. M2 Hokutofuji (8-6)
The question here appeared to be "who can pull better on the other guy's head?" Because that is what they were both trying. The real question was "who will back up too much?" That of course ended up being Aoiyama, because he backs up a lot. Hokutofuji put good pressure on him to help, and Aoiyama's foot slid across the loose sand past the straw, giving Hoktofuji the oshi-dashi victory.

M3 Shodai (6-8) vs. M1 Ichinojo (6-8)
As usual in the second half of this tournament Ichinojo looked like a big, soft, pillowy tackling dummy, and his opponent was able to easily trundle him around the dohyo like a food cart in a hospital hallway. Ichinojo also left himself wide open, so Shodai had two arms to do this and the easy yori-kiri victory. Ichinojo should be exciting, with all that fearsome bulk, the way I said Chiyotairyu, Tamawashi, and Tochinoshin are with their signature weapons. Instead, when Ichinojo looks like this, I just wish he would go away entirely.

M1 Tochiohzan (5-9) vs. M3 Shohozan (5-9)
Tochiohzan surged forward, sliding both arms inside. Shohozan flew out of there backwards, pulling and retreating. Tochiohzan did fall down, but not before he'd put Hozan's feet beyond the straw, oshi-taoshi.

M2 Nishikigi (6-8) vs. K Mitakeumi (8-6)
Quite a ridiculous crusade with Mitakeumi the last few days. Nishikigi grabbed him, pushed him, and slid him right out like a sled down suicide hill. Mitakeumi had both arms hooked up inside under Nishikigi's armpits, but it made no difference whatsoever as Nishikigi executed the easy kime-dashi win. I'm not easily offended by stuff in the ring in sumo, but I'm offended by the ridiculous Mitakeumi "comeback" this tournament. The post-comeback wins were utter shullbit, and today and yesterday's weak losses represented reality. And for this he gets a special prize?? Yack! (By the way, the other special prizes went to Tamawashi, who got two, and Takakeisho, who got one).

K Myogiryu (5-9) vs. M4 Okinoumi (6-8)
Given his size and skill set, I'd say little Myogiryu did pretty well this tournament at Komusubi, a traditional rank for getting absolutely killed at. Myog' was hungry for more wins today, getting right after Okinoumi and offering solid pressure with his chest. But talk about solid pressure: long, lanky Okinoumi pressed right back. This got Myogiryu on the run, and Okinoumi finished him off with a knock-over, oshi-taoshi.

O Takayasu (8-6) vs. M8 Kaisei (10-4)
This followed the Tamawashi win, so was kind of meaningless--was anybody paying attention? I was certainly off in imagination land. Well, Takayasu leapt in there like a TV-contest-guy jumping into a vat of jello. He stuck nicely in there, holding lower position, and used it to work blobby Kaisei out and away, oshi-dashi.

See you in Osaka. Say: wasn't it fun? I think it was fun.

Day 14 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The biggest news on Day 14 came across the wires shortly after 10:00 AM with the announcement that Hakuho had withdrawn from the tournament. I've read different reasons cited for the withdrawal including soreness in his right knee, a bad left ankle, and then older injuries flaring back up, but those are all made up excuses to deflect the actual reasons for his withdrawal: he's covering for Kisenosato yet again, and nobody in Osaka is going to pay to see Hakuho fight.

And I'm not saying that Hakuho doesn't feel soreness or pain anywhere. The last few years for some dumb reason I've decided to take up running marathons. Suddenly deciding to run long distances in my late forties means that my body can't handle the constant pounding of road running without my getting injured. If you can name a muscle or a tendon from the foot up to the groin, I've injured it in the last two years, and I can't remember the last time I ran without mild soreness at least somewhere.

And it's the same for Hakuho...and all of these guys. The reasons for Hakuho's withdrawal are all fake just like the majority of the results in the ring we see surrounding hyped Japanese rikishi. I mean, through day 10, did any of you think Hakuho was injured? Mitakeumi is injured, not Hakuho. The simple fact of the matter is that Hakuho intentionally dropped his last three bouts for political reasons, and his kyujo is just an excuse to cover for it.

I really don't think there's more to say on the matter beyond what I wrote in my Day 8 and Day 11 intros. Sumo cannot survive without Japanese rikishi being promoted to prominent ranks and actively sharing in yusho, and the Association is demonstrating that any means possible is being used to artificially propel them to such heights.

It cannot be overstated how big the losses of Kisenosato and Mitakeumi were early on this basho. There was no hope for Kisenosato, and now look what they've done for Mitakeumi the last three days. The dude has wins on paper over Hakuho, Tochiohzan, and Ichinojo the first three days after suffering a serious knee injury. Does anybody know the last time a dude came back from a kyujo mid-basho and won three consecutive bouts? The answer is never. For a reason. And yet, Mitakeumi didn't even need 10 seconds collectively to defeat Hakuho, Ichinojo, and Tochiohzan?? It really is incredulous.

A week ago, Mitakeumi was whisked away in a wheelchair. Now the dude is a shoe-in for the Shukunsho and possibly another special prize and yet he can barely move in the ring. It just amazes me the extent that people grasp for straws in an effort to explain the inexplicable, and what transpires technically inside of the dohyo sometimes seems as if it's inconsequential to everyone except me.

But that's why I'm here...to offer the technical analysis, so let's get right to it.

The leaderboard at the start of the day shaped up as follows:

11-2: Tamawashi
10-3: Takakeisho
9-4: Kaisei, Endoh, Abi, Sadanoumi

That means we start with the SadaMight taking on M14 Chiyoshoma. Well, "taking on" might not be the best phrase since Chiyoshoma never gave his foe a chance henka'ing to his right, grabbing the right outer in the process, and then pulling down on the back of Sadanoumi's head with the left all in one fell swoop. Sadanoumi had no chance as he falls to 9-5 and off the leaderboard while Chiyoshoma moves to 6-8. Remember all those years ago when I would rant against the henka?? Sumo has far greater problems these days, but Chiyoshoma executed that thing flawlessly, and it's another good example of how technically superior the Mongolian rikishi are.

With Sadanoumi out, we next move to M8 Kaisei who was paired against rookie, M13 Yago. This was an easy win for Kaisei if he wanted it, and thankfully he did neutralizing Yago's charge by getting the left inside early, and he just demanded the right outer grip, and I dare say Yago ain't never been done like that. It was over in five seconds as Kaisei kept his yusho hopes alive (who are we really kidding?) moving to 10-4 while Yago falls to 8-6.

From time to time people ask me why I no longer do pre-basho reports or post basho-reports, and the simple answer for the pre-basho report is, "I can't predict yaocho." There's no sense whatsoever trying to predict the yusho or saying who I think will do well from certain parts of the banzuke because it's mostly fake now. We can't even get pre-basho keiko reports these days that aren't fake, and exhibit A is Kisenosato's 8-1 performance against Takakeisho prior ot this tournament. As for post-basho reports, I usually report so much during the basho that I use up all my ammo and there's nothing left to wrap up, and so here I'll give my post-basho analysis of Yago and other rikishi as I go.

I like what I see in the kid in terms of his sumo body and his ability to take the bout to the belt. He lacks stamina, however, and so many of his wins this basho were bought and paid for, and so out of the gate the dude's already a mess. There's never been a rikishi who entered the division that I didn't want to get behind and root for, but as soon as I see all the yaocho, I just sour on these guys, and Yago has unfortunately been sucked into the game early. I think he can be another Nishikigi, but time will tell.

M10 Abi looked to stay in the hunt against M3 Shohozan using his tall arcing tsuppari that had little effect against his opponent. Actually, the effect was that Shohozan had the clear opening to the inside, and he knocked Abi back a step, but you could tell he wasn't committed to winning this thing. As Abi skirted right going for a desperate pull, Shohozan just complied putting both palms to the dirt and catching the rest of his body from touching down in an obvious yaocho performance. Abi moves to 10-4 with the win and is still in the hunt, and is this the kind of sumo we like to see from guys on the leaderboard?? Weak thrusts and evasive sumo because you can't bully your 5-win opponent coming in? Back in the day when the yusho meant something, you would never see a bout like this that involved a "leader." Shohozan graciously bows to 5-9 with the loss.

No way M1 Tochiohzan was going to spoil M9 Endoh's leader board fun as Endoh shaded left at the tachi-ai whiffing on a kote-nage. With his opponent vulnerable, Tochiohzan didn't make him pay and just stood there in the center of the ring as Endoh recovered. With Tochiohzan completely mukiryoku and hands in no-man's land (think Hakuho's hands against Mitakeumi), Endoh rushed forward and sent Tochiohzan off the dohyo tsuki-dashi style. That's when you know the bout was fake...when you see Endoh and tsuki-dashi in the same sentence. Regardless, Endoh moves to 10-4 and awaits the results of Tamawashi's bout with the rest of the crew while Tochiohzan quietly bows to 5-9.

Our lone three-loss rikishi at the start of the day was Suckiwake Takakeisho who was paired against M4 Okinoumi. I said previously that yaocho is very hard to predict, but it wasn't for this bout. It seems as if Okinoumi is the most willing of all rikishi to bow down to the Association's darlings, and he did so here doing absolutely nothing keeping his hands in no-man's land as Takakeisho forced him straight back and across with his oshi charge. You have to credit Takakeisho for a fine tachi-ai today, but he didn't even need to go for a pull attempt here because Okinoumi was so upright and limp. Takakeisho stormed his way to 11-3 while HopingTheyScrewMe falls to 6-8. This win was important for Takakeisho as it marks 33 wins over the last three basho, so they will likely promote this dude to Ozeki in between basho. Kisenosato out and Takakeisho in just like that. I'd say out of those 33 wins, no more than 10 were the result of straight up sumo.

If Takakeisho is promoted to Ozeki, it's going to be the same story as Goeido and Takayasu and Kisenosato before him. If you get 'em there with yaocho, you have to keep 'em there with yaocho.

And that brings us to our leader, Sekiwake Tamawashi who was paired against fellow furrener, M5 Aoiyama. With Hakuho's withdrawal, Tamawashi is the best rikishi left on the banzuke, and he also comes in wearing the Dr. Suess StoryTeller hat. Today against Aoiyama he used his tsuppari attack to get an early right thrust into Aoiyama's neck and then swiping away Aoiyama's left arm as the Bulgar fired his own paw nicely into Tamawashi's neck. That sideways swipe from Tamawashi sent Aoiyama (7-7) over to the edge where Tamawashi used his speed to finish the job scoring the easy oshi-dashi win in the end.

With the win, all four-loss rikishi are now out of the yusho race, so the new leaderboard looks like this:

12-2: Tamawashi
11-3: Takakeisho

Tamawashi draws Endoh tomorrow, and it goes without saying that the Sekiwake will win that bout if it's fought straight up. To me, yaocho is so hard to predict, but I can definitely see the appeal of the mighty Endoh throwing a wrench into the Mongolian's yusho hopes and opening the door for Takakeisho. In my opinion, the Sumo Association has already won this basho. You probably have a new Ozeki heading into Osaka to take the sting away from losing Kisenosato; you have this "miracle" run from Mitakeumi (that's how the funny papers are wording it) to feed off of next tournament; and you have drama heading into the final day of this tournament when just four days ago it looked as if Hakuho would put everyone to sleep. I think Tamawashi just goes ahead and wins tomorrow straight up, but it comes down yet again to will he or won't he.

For what it's worth, in anticipation of Tamawashi's first career yusho, NHK produced the following data graphs for you trivia nerds:

Most basho needed from the start of their career until their first yusho:

Kyokutenho: 121
Takatoriki: 103
Kirishima: 96
Kisenosato: 89

* Tamawashi is currently at 90 basho


Oldest rikishi to pick up their first yusho:

Kyokutenho: 37 years 8 months
Takatoriki: 32 years 5 months
Kotoshogiku: 31 years 11 months

* Tamawashi is 34 years and 2 months this basho

Also for what it's worth, every yusho mentioned above except for Kirishima's was compromised, and the only reason I say that about Kirishima is because it's the only yusho I didn't watch start to finish.  Moving right along, Hakuho's withdrawal gave Ozeki Goeido the freebie today, and lookie here...Goeido picked up kachi-koshi at 8-6!!

That left Ozeki Takayasu with a chance to pick up his kachi-koshi against Komusubi Mitakeumi, and you knew that Mitakeumi was incapable of any resistance. Not even Takayasu could screw this one up as the two bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai before Takayasu just ran around Mitakeumi's left side grabbing the outer grip and then shoring his gal in close with the inside left. From there, Mitakeumi just kept his left leg off the dohyo and hopped back on one foot as Takayasu gently forced him across.

Shame on anyone who thought any of Mitakeumi's last three wins were earned. The dude shouldn't have even come back, and I don't think he's even going to be 100% in Osaka. This was the real Mitakeumi today, and as Takayasu forced him back and across so easily, you could hear the gasp/shock from the crowd as if to say, "Wait a minute. What about the last three days??" The Stepford Fans quickly forgot about this huge paradox they witness in the ring daily when they learned that Goeido, Takayasu, and Mitakeumi are all safely through with kachi-koshi!

In other bouts of interest, Komusubi Myogiryu put a right paw to M6 Chiyotairyu's neck at the tachi-ai, but Tairyu just blew that off as he destroyed Myogiryu back and out in two seconds with his freight-train sumo. I think Chiyotairyu is probably the best Japanese rikishi on the banzuke right now, and you don't see anyone else destroying their opponents like this. I always enjoy a Chiyotairyu kachi-koshi as he moves to 8-6 while Myogiryu is punished at 5-9.

One of the biggest modern-day tragedies in sumo is how Terunofuji and M1 Ichinojo have been stuffed and cuffed into oblivion. I don't even know what's become of Terunofuji these days, and Ichinojo has largely resigned himself to practice dummy. That was the role he played today against M6 Onosho as the Mongolith kept his hands in the middle of his body as Onosho just charged forward and had the Mongolith pushed out once, twice, three times a lady. Midway through the bout, Onosho slipped and was in prime position to be slapped down, but Ichinojo just concentrated on moving backwards and giving his opponent the win. Well done son as Onosho picks up kachi-koshi at 8-6 while Ichinojo graciously falls to 6-8. Before we move on, I hope everyone remembers Terunofuji's march to Ozeki because that's the last time we'll ever see a legitimate Ozeki run.

M2 Hokutofuji was a bit hesitant at the tachi-ai as M2 Nishikigi plodded forward, but neither rikishi were really doing anything tangible at this point. As Nishikigi moved forward, his right knee buckled a bit, and from there Hokutofuji backed up going for a dangerous kata-sukashi as he moved right and barely yanked Nishikigi down by the left arm before Hokutofuji crashed out. This one was close, but replays did show that Nishikigi's right knee did touch down first before Hokutofuji rolled out on top of him. This bout didn't look right from the start as Hokutofuji picks up kachi-koshi at 8-6 while Nishikigi falls to 6-8.

M3 Shodai and M4 Kotoshogiku hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai and Shodai was close to having his right arm to the inside as well, so the Geeku focused on denying moro-zashi while Shodai executed a nice scoop throw with the left that had Kotoshogiku hopping across the ring off balance. With is foe off balance, Shodai attempted a maki-kae with the right arm, and as he did so, he must have sensed Kotoshogiku off balance because instead of demanding that right arm inside, he backed up and pulled Kotoshogiku to the dirt for the easy win. Kotoshogiku could do nothing here as long as Shodai was trying to win the thing, and the former Ozeki falls to 5-9 now while Shodai is a bit better at 6-8. If Kotoshogiku is enjoying a bit of resurgence as some have suggested, I sure don't see it.

M12 Meisei applied good pressure against M5 Yoshikaze driving him back initially, but the crafty veteran scored on a nice inashi shove to the side that send Meisei off balance a bit. Didn't matter though as Meisei was out to win this one, and he recovered to the point of getting his right arm inside and then his left inside as Yoshikaze committed to a pull, and with Meisei in moro-zashi, he just rushed Yoshikaze back and across to a paltry 2-12 record. As for Meisei, he moves to 7-7 with the nice win.

The two best Japanese pushers in sumo hands down are Chiyotairyu and Daieisho. That's why I chortle every time I see someone get a stiffie over Takakeisho and his "oshi" attack. Today M7 Daieisho used his version of the oshi attack to keep M14 Yutakayama upright at the tachi-ai before methodically driving him back and then finishing him off a the edge in about six seconds. Great sumo here as Daieisho moves to 8-6 while Yutakayama falls to 6-8.

M11 Ikioi and M7 Ryuden hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and the two put on a nice display of chest to chest sumo for a few seconds. Ryuden forced Ikioi back a step or two, but the veteran was staved that off easily before sending Ryuden back and upright, and from there he had Ryuden in the perfect position from which to execute his signature kote-nage, and Ikioi did just that slinging Ryuden over and down with a right kote-nage. Ryuden held onto the belt with his inside left too long (they're taught to let go of that on their way down), and the result was his pulling Ikioi square on top of him adding insult to injury. I just love good sumo, and Ikioi produced it here moving to 9-5 while Ryuden falls to 5-9.

I'm not sure what the point of M8 Asanoyama's throwing his bout in favor of M16 Daishomaru was; I just know that he did. Asanoyama had the chance to get the left arm inside at the tachi-ai and take the bout to the belt, but he refrained, and then when Daishomaru shaded to his left going for a weak pull, Asanoyama coulda rushed him out at that point but he didn't. With Asanoyama just standing there waiting, Daishomaru wasn't sure what to do. He started to fire on some pulls, but if your opponent ain't coming forward, they don't work, and so Daishomaru finally drove a left hand into Asanoyama's neck send him flying off the dohyo as Daishomaru followed in kind. This was a perfect example of why they say it's easy to get hurt if you let up in the dohyo (as Asanoyama did today). He took an awkward fall off the clay mound, and it took him a bit to gather his wits and stand back up. As for Daishomaru, since he faced no resistance from his opponent, his oshi momentum took him off the dohyo as well capping off an ugly bout of sumo. Daishomaru ekes to just 3-11 while Asanoyama falls to 7-7.

M10 Takarafuji and M16 Daiamami hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Daiamami had the left arm inside as he attempted to cut off Takarafuji's inside position with the right. The two wrangled for a few seconds in the center of the ring, but Takarafuji wrenched his opponent upright, got the left inside he wanted, and then added insult to injury grabbing the right outer grip, and from there the yori-kiri was textbook as Takarafuji picks up kachi-koshi at 8-6 while Daiamami falls to 4-10. Before we move on, the so-called elite Japanese rikishi cannot do what Takarafuji did today. They just don't have the technical skills to do it. Kids these days...

And finally, M12 Kagayaki drove M15 Kotoeko quickly back to the edge before just halting his charge and putting both hands high as if to pull. The pull would never come, however, as Kagayaki let Kotoeko get the right inside easily, and Kotoeko attempted a scoop throw with that arm that barely moved his foe. I knew the fix was in as soon as Kagayaki halted his initial oshi charge, and so despite the failed scoop throw and Kotoeko with his back to the edge, Kagayaki just stood there upright as Kotoeko next moved left firing a weak tsuki-otoshi and then hooking his right arm up and under Kagayaki's right to send him down ami-uchi style. Ami-uchi is a seldom seen kimari-te for good reason as it's so hard to execute, but if your opponent just stands there and does most of the falling himself, have at it pardner. Kotoeko is gifted his 7-7 mark while Kagayaki at 5-9 will battle for that final win tomorrow that would keep him in the division come March.

That's a wrap for me this basho, and I'll turn it over to Harvye to tell the rest of the story tomorrow.

Day 13 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
So, with 3 days to go there are 5 rikishi in the running to take out the basho. Week two has fared better for the Sumo Association after the travails of week one with the retirement of Kisenosato and the two Japanese Ozeki off to horrid starts and facing kadoban. Goeido and Takayasu will still have to work their arses off to reach 8 wins but I'm confidant both will do so. They face off today which will add pepper to proceedings.

Of the two "replacement" Ozeki Takakeisho and Mitakeumi, Taka, whilst not romping his way as rompishly as per the previous basho, is progressing nicely. Mitakeumi is grimly hanging in on one mighty leg with one win needed for his kachi-koshi.

Hakuho the benevolent, with two off-days has rejuvenated interest, allowing fellow Mongol, Tamawashi to ride alongside him at the top of the leaderboard. Today's final bout between Hak and Takakeisho is the highlight match.

I'm pleased for Kaisei; he's much maligned but always gives total effort and deserves success. Endo at this level is right at the tip of his comfort zone, though with promotion next basho against better quality opponents he's set himself up for more Endo-getting-his-arse-kicked fun bouts.

There aren't many dud matches today, plenty of guys still have much to gain or lose, so hoping for some eager efforts.

I'll follow Harvye's lead from yesterday and focus first on the bouts that really mattered.

S Takakeisho (9-3) vs. Y Hakuho (10-2)
I hark back to when these two met in Nagoya 2017 when Hak metaphorically swallowed Tak whole in a virtuoso performance that clearly emphasized the vast gulf in the two's abilities. I've mentioned it before. Youtube it, it's great fun. Back then Tak wasn't even 21. At the time I thought that this guy wouldn't have much impact and with his comical physique he'd become a play thing for the better guys to toy with. Clearly, I mis-judged him and the gap is now smaller. But not much. Harvye is right in saying Hak's arrogance yesterday has stalled his march to take the yusho and Mitakeumi and Tamawashi were the beneficiaries of Hak's libertarian approach. This is the guy who has churned out sumo landmarks like a school canteen churns out disappointing sausages. Today he would put things right. Today he would revert to the merciless, muscular hunter, homing in on his prey with taut focus and hostile intent.

When it eventuated, three times the two clashed, neither looking particularly aggressive. Hak was only hinting at snaffling the left grip and Tak was doing his buffeting thing. The fourth clash had Tak pivoting left and Hak flopped forward meekly, ending the bout flatter than a pizza base and giving short, rotund men around the world a new hero. I wasn't expecting this. I feel let down.

M2 Hokutofuji (7-5) vs. S Tamawashi (10-2)
Today we will see if Tamawashi really thinks he can take the championship. Against H'fuji he needed to keep him from that low hard drive and prevent him from getting up and in. As shown in his loss to Takakeisho, Tama prefers a stand-up battle.
Tama kept H'fuji at bay, using his great strength. H'fuji over extended and Tama assisted with some pressure to the back of 'fuji's neck, from where he fell forward to eat dirt. 11th win for Tama and I'm right behind him in his search for a maiden yusho as he now has a one-win lead.

M8 Kaisei (9-3) vs. M11 Ikioi (7-5)
This will be interesting. It could also be quite dull. Kaisei has hit his number and we know he is a good-natured soul who may take pity on the battered Ikioi. Ikioi lead with his head into Kaisei's shoulder with solid drive standing him up and off balance for a well earned yori-kiri win and the all important kachi koshi for Ikioi.

M5 Aoiyama (6-6) vs. M9 Endo (9-3)
Aoiyama simply held up Endo with his thrusts who was vainly reaching for the mawashi. Endo over-reached in his search, his balance off. His feat gave way and he fell forward into his familiar abyss of goddammit.

O Takayasu (7-5) vs. O Goeido (6-6)
I know this bout has no effect on the basho but its vitally important for these two.
In a tournament weakened by the injured Tochinoshin and Kakuryu, these two have failed to step up. To his credit Takayasu has come back well after some embarrassing efforts, and I thought that with his man-handling of Aoiyama yesterday, he would be too much for ailing Goeido. Today Goeido looked like a meaningful rikishi again. It was a hesitant first tachi-ai requiring a reset. Goeido was quick on to the inside position, achieving a left grip, he then lifted Yasu up and backwards for a convincing yori-kiri victory. Both guys are now 7-6.

M11 Sadanoumi (8-4) vs. M14 Yutakayama (6-6)
Yutakayama should be desperate for his two more wins but Sada is in form winning his last 5 straight. Yutaka went in looking for the belt and the two jostled in a mutual bear hug dancing cheek to cheek until Sada had migi-yotsu and executed a satisfying left arm throw- uwate-nage victory, whereupon he smoothed his tie and adjusted his collars and forehead protector. Yutaka is on the brink at 6-7

M15 Kotoeko (6-6) vs. M10 Abi (8-4)
Kotoeko failed to withstand, you guessed it, the long thrusting arms of Abi, thinking he could just stand there and deflect them. He couldn't. Abi also now sits comfortably on 9 wins.

M10 Takarafuji (7-5) vs. M16 Daishomaru (1-11)
Daishomaru may as well have competed in this basho via email. Takarafuji needs the win. His technique is akin to someone desperately trying to cuddle another who doesn't want a cuddle. It's why he's the least feared rikishi on the banzuke. His opponents could wear a suit of bubble wrap and not have a single bubble popped. Daishomaru will be going down to Juryo but he might fancy one more scalp to take with him. As it happened, the bus driver cordially received a hard driving 'Maru and sure enough barely resisted his advances for a free ride and a confidence boosting win for Daishomaru. Soft. Alas not a pop was to be heard. On a positive not for Takarafuji, my wife rather admires his muscular legs and butt, perhaps the best-defined amongst the rikishi? Good onya, Takarafuji.

M6 Chiyoshoma (5-7) vs. M7 Daieisho (6-6)
No hijinks from Chiyo today. Easy win for Daieisho as Chiyo crumpled like an origami giraffe in a thunderstorm.

M7 Ryuden (5-7) vs M16 Daiamami (3-9)
Daiamami is also on his way down. Ryuden needs the win with plenty riding on this for him, so I was surprised when Ryuden was ineffectual as Mami came in with speed, low and with purpose, driving Ryuden back and out.

M13 Yago (7-5) vs. M6 Onosho (7-5)
Yago has gained support with his impressive first week efforts. Week two on the other hand, has shown he has the stamina as that of a heavily pregnant gnat with a heavy load of shopping. With both guys looking for their 8th win, I'm hoping he still has some dynamism to give it to Onosho.

A good healthy thwack at tachi-ai, Yago was seeking the mawashi grip that was parried by Onosho. Yago kept calm, had better balance and as Onosho came forward, Yago performed a simple slap down for the win and a satisfying first up basho in the top division.

M6 Chiyotairyu (6-6) vs. M12 Meisei (6-6)
With a 40 kg plus weight disadvantage and facing a rikishi renowned for sphincter-quivering inducing ram-raids, you'd think Meisei would avoid going toe to toe with Chiyotairyu. Well he didn't and copped the full brunt of a bullocking barrage and had no chance. Win number 7 for 'Tairyu.

M12 Kagayaki (4-8) vs. M5 Yoshikaze (2-10)
As distracting as Kagayaki's sweet titties are, and my guess is that if he added more bulk to his body you'd only have to look at Aoiyama's pendulous pair to see what's ahead for Kaga, this has been a disappointing basho for both these guys. Yoshikaze's career has been withering away before our eyes and of late he's been as effective as a rotting cauliflower. The bout started oddly as Yoshi seemingly refused to square up to Kaga (eyes off the tits, Yoshi, focus!) and it looked like Kaga would gain the easiest of gifts. No, Yoshi was given a second chance, but he was still wearing his crippling coat of lethargy and Kaga didn't have to work much harder for his 5th win.

M5 Asanoyama (6-6) vs. M4 Okinoumi (6-6)
Asa came in with an exemplary left-hand belt grip and completed the short, dominant display with an equally exemplary over-arm throw; a truck dumping its heavy load- uwate-nage win.

M2 Nishikigi (5-7) vs M3 Shohozan (5-7)
The Nishikigi revival has stalled as he goes back to his regular boring self. Important bout for both. Shohozan false started in an early display of rude unapologetic aggression which, if it was meant to intimidate, didn't as Nishikigi looked as composed as ever. The second attempt, Shohozan half-henka'd right then kept evading right as Nishikigi simply and steadfastly followed him and forced him out, oshi-dashi. Weak effort from Shohozan.

M1 Tochiohzan (5-7) vs. M3 Shodai (4-8)
I'm surprised Tochiohzan is facing make-koshi today. I find his bouts mostly unmemorable, and his painfully slow pre-tachi-ai distracting. Yesterday's loss against Mitakeumi should spur him to account for the guppy-faced Shodai.  Shodai thwarted Toch's attempts at inside position, he knows his opponent well. It was simple from here. Shodai simply put his head down and barged Tochi across the Tawara, oshi-dashi.

M1 Ichinojo (6-6) vs K Mitakeumi (7-2-3)
"Looks like when they made this fella they forgot to put in the quit." To quote from a movie I watched recently, "Buster Scruggs," this can be applied to Mitakeumi. Ichinojo, for all his talents and immense strength, is currently displaying the immovability of a meringue in an illegal cage fight against a sweet-toothed wildebeest. The crowd was vocal in loud support for Mitakeumi and Ichi wasn't about to put salt in their sugar bowl. Sweet bugger-all effort from Ichi. Mitakeumi the mighty, on one good leg forces out the biggest guy on the banzuke who also has the smallest heart.

K Myogiryu (5-7) vs M4 Kotoshogiku (4-8)
Plenty on the line for Myogiryu who would want to keep his Komusubi rank, and Giku always competes with pride. This was a good contest. 'Giryu tried for the inside grip on Giku who was trying to drive Giryu backwards, half looking he might succeed. They separated and Giku tried again, then it was Giryu's turn to attack and had Giku on the ropes for a split second who then rallied for a rousing force out, classic Giku style.

Two days left of intrigue await.
Only three guys now in the hunt.
Tamawashi 11-2
Hakuho 10-3
Takakeisho 10-3

Tomorrow, Mike lets it all out with great vengeance and furious anger.

Day 12 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
How exciting is it that Hakuho is going to win this tournament? It's… it's… I can't think of anything to say. That's how exciting it… isn't. I'm glad. But exciting it isn't. You know what was cool, though? NHK posted the real leaderboard, with just two guys: Hakuho at 10-1, Tamawashi at 9-2. You know what else is cool? Those are the two best wrestlers on the banzuke still in this tournament. And there was a third cool thing: they were fighting each other today. Hey! I drew the long straw! Heck, let's get right to it.

REALLY COOL, EXCELLENT, GRATIFYING LEADERBOARD

S Tamawashi (9-2) vs. Y Hakuho (10-1)
There was, like, no buzz in the arena for this though. The announcers stopped talking for, oh, a whole minute while waiting for it to happen. They had nothing to say. Just weren't interested. There was a guy in the crowd with a bemused look on his face; he might have been watching pigeons in the park on his lunch break. But! I for one was determined to enjoy this--if possible. Why the caveat? Well, they probably sing a lot of Karaoke together, you know… But! Off to the shores of Lake Kucherla! Let's do this!

Hakuho looked determined to beat Tamawashi at his own game, slapping him very hard in the face. I'd thought Tamawashi was the best at that in the division, but for a few moments here, Hakuho seemed to say, "I can be the best at ANYTHING I WANT, dude." He totally had Tamawashi on the ropes and dying. But there Hakuho got overconfident, sloppy. On his last push he was shading off to his left. Tamawashi, as he needed to and as anybody would, was dancing out of there along the straw in the other direction, escaping. Tamawashi succeeded beautifully--when he was done with his tippy-toe dance, he found himself still in the ring--and staring at Hakuho's back. Hakuho did not give up, turning and retreating away along the edge, but Tamawashi was on him too quickly, and Hakuho too compromised to recover: he was very easy push-out oshi-dashi fodder for the charging Tamawashi.

What happened here? Overconfidence, sloppiness. Hakuho tried to show off a little and paid the price.

And just like that, the tournament went from a boring walk to victory for Hakuho--if he had won he would have been two wins up with three day to go--to a bit of a mad scramble, with Hakuho and Tamawashi tied at two losses and Takakeisho, Kaisei, and Endo following hot at three losses each coming in.

GUYS WITH THREE LOSSES

M6 Chiyotairyu (6-5) vs. M9 Endo (8-3)
You know what I was hoping for. Oh, yes you do! Here was the division's biggest tachi-ai against the division's most destroyable lightweight. Oh, Endo isn't that terrible. But when he gets destroyed, oh man, does he get destroyed. One of these days I'd like to see a tachi-ai so hard the losing rikishi is blasted through the air from his original position and never touches down until he is outside the straw, like a golf ball at the driving range. Is that even possible? Probably not. But I have fun imagining it, and if it was going to happen, it was going to happen here! (And today I'm going to use a lot of exclamation points! I must be in a good mood!)

Sadly, Chiyotairyu hit the Wee Handsome One (Endo) not too hard and just kind of stopped, leaning on him. So Endo grabbed Chiyotairyu's belt with a nice outside right and worked really, really hard to get him over the tawara. However, Endo being small and underpowered, and Chiyotairyu being much like a compressed-neutron-star-bowling-ball, Endo couldn't get him out, even though Chiyotairyu is generally nothing on the belt. In the end-o, Endo had to opt for backing up and yanking Chiyotairyu sharply forward, uwate-dashi-nage, which is a kimari-te you don't see too often. Looked pretty good, I must say, though I still think Chiyotairyu could have reduced him to powder with a more forceful first move. Oh well! (As you can see from the exclamation points, I remain cheerful!)

M8 Kaisei (8-3) vs. M4 Okinoumi (6-5)
Kaisei burrowed in like a badger readying for winter and got both arms inside. Surprising for such a big guy against a pretty decent wrestler like this. It's pretty easy to win when you're that big and you've got both arms inside like that, so that's what Kaisei did, won yori-kiri. We bought this drink called an "oat beverage." Supposed to be healthy. It was like an oily, silky, slimy smoothie. Quite gross. Could coat your whole insides forever. Like oatmeal smoothed in the blender for five hours, perhaps. Somehow Kaisei in this match reminded me of that drink. I won't buy the drink again, but liked the match. I just thought you'd want to know that.

S Takakeisho (8-3) vs. M4 Kotoshogiku (4-7)
And much as I agreed with Mike on Mitakeumi/Hakuho yesterday (see below under Mitakeumi), I have to say I didn't on Kotoshogiku/Tamawashi. Kotoshogiku wasn't an Ozeki for just nothing, and flashes of his best form are still visible. You have to take him seriously, and I loved seeing Tamawashi have to do that. Tamawashi isn't an unbeatable automaton--he's just very good. Kotoshogiku gave Tamawashi a chance to show that yesterday. Anyhoo, as for this one, these guys have very similar styles, so they're an interesting match up. Takakeisho is like a slow-motion version of Kotoshogiku. Kotoshogiku goes bumpity-bumpity-bumpity; Takakeisho goes bump… bump… bump. He's also another guy I disagree with Mike on. Is he terrible? No he isn't. Is he great? No he isn't. But he's very good. His style works and guys have trouble with it. It is contained and repeatable, aggressive yet calculatingly cautious, and I continue to think he is going to be quite a big thing and with good reason.

As for the match, it wasn't very good. A lot of hand-feinting and little weak pulls up high as they deaked at each other and refused to commit to belt or body. In the end Kotoshogiku gave up and let himself be pushed out backwards for no reason--he'd been winning the deak-battle with some decent shots to the neck--when Kotoshogiku figured they'd showed enough. You know one era has ended and another has started when Kotoshogiku is on the giving end rather than the taking.

And so we ended the day with all the three loss guys staying at three.

10-2: Hakuho, Tamawashi
9-3: Takakeisho, Kaisei, Endo

OTHER STUFF WE HAVE SOME INTEREST IN

M11 Sadanoumi (7-4) vs. M12 Meisei (6-5)
Meisei tried keeping Sadanoumi away by stretching out his arms like he was Abi or something. But you know what? Meisei is kind of little. The Man With The Box Tied To His Forehead (Sadanoumi) rushed forward as if the arms were noodles, grabbed some frontal belt, then banged his body into Meisei's bulk. Lo! Meisei was not done. He latched onto Sadanoumi's momentum and tried to throw him, and there they were, both standing on one leg, falling out of the ring and trying not to land first. This is what we love. Meisei's leg detached from the dirt first, sending his body plummeting to the earth a moment before Sadanoumi finally tipped over, so it was a nice sukui-nage win for Sadanoumi. And ain't sumo cool?

When they got to the interview room, Sadanoumi had exchanged the blackboard eraser he had on his forehead for what looked like a limp badly plastered wad of gum. Now why would you want the giant bandage in the match and the weensy one in the interview? I have no idea. Yes, sumo is cool.

M14 Yutakayama (6-5) vs. M11 Ikioi (6-5)
Ho ho! And here came Ikioi, also sporting a squarish protuberance on his forehead, like a little votive candle holder. I expected him to light it on fire and march off on a pilgrimage. Sumo is awesome. As he has often done despite his rampant bandage, Ikioi went head first and straight ahead. Hit hard, moved well, drove hard. "De ashi ga arimashita ne," said the announcer. Yes. One hand in, one hand out, and you move your partner all about. Or, in this case, just backwards for the nice yori-kiri win for Ikioi. Good job, wounded forehead guy #2.

M10 Takarafuji (6-5) vs. M13 Yago (7-4)
These guys aren't that different in style, actually. True to that, they both reached in quickly for the belt. Takarafuji had a right outside. Yago had a left inside, but it was weak and shallow, and he soon let it go. After that it was just a matter of time before the passive, patient one (Takarafuji) worked the rookie back and disposed of him, shita-te-nage--he couldn't quite drive Yago over the tawara, so he dumped the strainingly oblivious 24 year old to the clay instead. For the moment, Takarafuji remains just better.

M16 Daiamami (3-8) vs. M10 Abi (7-4)
Abi drove Daiamami's head so far back Daiamami was shaped like a banana for a moment there. Bananas are not known as good sumo fighters. Out went Daiamami, ZOING!, for the nice, driving oshi-dashi win for Abi.

M14 Chiyoshoma (5-6) vs. M8 Asanoyama (5-6)
Asanoyama has recovered nicely from a terrible start, while it was surprising to look up and see Chiyoshoma at 5-6: "oh, is he bothering to win some?" I was rooting hard for Asanoyama; I'm tired of Chiyoshoma's unpredictable unevenness of effort. It was a kinetic bout. Chiyoshoma gave great effort for the first second or two, pushing very hard and bending Asanoyama's head back. Then he zeroed that effort out with a giant pull and let himself get pushed all the way back across. Then he wiggled around like an albacore in the net off Kessennuma. Then he almost pulled Asanoyama down again; Asanoyama just missed brushing his fingers across the dirt, but managed not to and instead drove against Chiyoshoma's legs for the final oshi-dashi push-out. Good grief, Chiyoshoma's effort is even variable within the match itself!

M7 Ryuden (4-7) vs. M16 Daishomaru (1-10)
Daishomaru looked kind of sad. Well, he ought to be sad! He was especially sad, I suppose, after the gyoji called back a false start during which Daishomaru had henka'ed off to the left a bit. That little trick exposed and wasted, Daishomaru had nothing. Ryuden grabbed him easily by the body, then the belt, and moved him out of the ring, yori-kiri. Daishomaru had a look on his face after the match that said, "oh well, I guess life's like that."

M15 Kotoeko (6-5) vs. M7 Daieisho (5-6)
I like Daieisho a lot. The resounding "smack" sound of the tachi-ai contact here was nice. Daieisho did then move to the side and let Kotoeko fall down, hiki-otoshi, but Daieisho had earned that with tough, real, forward moving initial contact. Guile is allowed if you're mostly power, and that is Daieisho all the way. Go, little red fire hydrant, go!

M12 Kagayaki (3-8) vs. M6 Onosho (7-4)
I didn't want to say it, but as Justin has exposed the truth, I will admit it: I too, despite my love for Kagayaki, have trouble taking him seriously because of those flappy little breasts. Yes: they bother me. I also, frankly, do take it as a real weakness: while some wrestlers wear their fat well and develop a smooth, formidable bulk (Tochiazuma of old was the ultimate example of this), Kagayaki's frame is just not built to put on weight. Instead, it uselessly builds teats. And a flabby waist ring like a half-deflated inner tube. I'm serious about this. If he could get roundly fat in a solid way, he'd be better. Anyhoo, he must have been mad about all the losing he's been doing--this is his fourth losing tournament in a row--because he really bore down on Onosho. Literally. Towering from above and pressing down and into him with fierce arms. Onosho couldn't withstand it for long, and was pinged out of there like a leprechaun leaping from the fireplace, oshi-dashi.

M2 Nishikigi (4-7) vs. M3 Shodai (4-7)
Shodai was very late off the tachi-ai here, but he nearly drove Nishikigi out anyway. Fortunately for Nishikigi, who was on a seven match losing streak here, Vanilla Softcream (Shodai) is hapless, so Nishikigi was able to step niftily to the side at the tawara and wrench Shodai down by the arm kote-nage. Yeah, Nishikigi. He exists. You sure can say that. He sure does.

M2 Hokutofuji (6-5) vs. M1 Ichinojo (6-5)
What did Gary say about fighting Ichinojo? Get low, drive upwards, get there first. I'd add never stop. This match was a carbon copy of the match Gary covered: Hokutofuji did those things, face at times literally pressed into Ichinojo's neck or breast, and oshi-dashi'ed the big, lazy lump out. Hokutofuji did what he needed, and Ichinojo sure didn't. You can think what you like; as for me, after years of this kind of weak-looking losses from Ichinojo, I no longer care why he does it. It is just part of who he is now.

K Myogiryu (5-6) vs. M3 Shohozan (4-7)
Darth Hozan is having a quiet basho, but he usually shows up better; he is pretty good for his size, and he showed it here. Part way in Myogiryu pulled what looked like a pretty slick maki-kae, getting an arm momentarily inside, but before he finished the move Shohozan was pulling a counter-maki-kae on the same side while pulling on Myogiryu's arm on the other side. It didn't end the match--Shohozan slung Myogiryu to the edge with it, not out--but it was the decisive move, because after that everything from Myogiryu was defense and desperation. After a little chasing of the lively jumping jack around by Shohozan, Darth Hozan knocked him down from behind, okuri-nage. That's another kimari-te you don't see very often. It more or less means he threw him down by the butt. Yep, that's what happened. Looked good!

M1 Tochiohzan (5-6) vs. K Mitakeumi (6-5)
Let me just say that Mike's analysis of yesterday's ridiculous win by the literally lame Mitakeumi over Hakuho was definitive. I don't like to call too much funny business--as Don Roid pointed out on one of his podcasts once, a lot of strange stuff happens in sports, and it is just really hard to know--but sometimes the fixing is very obvious and that one yesterday was eye-rollingly obvious. They say truth is stranger than fiction, but the problem with sumo is that it is often fiction. 'Nuf said on that, but I mention it in order to set up that this bout was suspect from before it ever started; with Mitakeumi sporting a bad knee but getting wins like yesterday's, how are we supposed to take him seriously? Against anybody?

Mitakeumi had the sense to henka today, and he then caught Tochiohzan and spun him around once or twice on the way to putting him past the straw, yori-kiri. This winning technique from Mitakeumi was believable-esque, I suppose, with emphasis on the "esque." Tochiohzan was la-dee-da out there.

M5 Yoshikaze (2-9) vs. O Goeido (5-6)
Yikes. What an ugly match in the Ozeki ranks for a Day 12. Ah, me. Whelp, Goeido won, as you knew he would. Gots to try to get to eight! There was a lot of wild slapping by Goeido as this one started off, but Yoshikaze was just kind of standing there, so Goeido grabbed him, rolled out of there backwards in a light circle, and pulled Yoshikaze down by the head, hataki-komi. Ob la di, ob la da, life goes on.

O Takayasu (6-5) vs. M5 Aoiyama (6-5)
This, on the other hand, was in theory not a bad Ozeki Day 12 match-up given what we have these days. Two big guys with some giddyap in their arms from. Sadly, the match was terrible. Aoiyama henka'ed, but Takayasu read it well and was right with him, no problem. After that, a lot of arm stuff. But it didn't have any power behind it. The match took a long time--unusual for Aoiyama. They looked curiously lethargic, and Aoiyama's "blows" in particular looked like somebody shadowboxing. It gave the strong impression of Aoiyama waiting around for something to happen--to get pushed out, say. But it also looked like Takayasu couldn't or wouldn't do it. I was like, "why don't one or the other of you go ahead and win?" I don't know; we get so much inexplicable sumo in the last few matches of the day it is hard to say. Finally, finally, Takayasu got Aoiyama moving back a bit, but they both were so ineffective with their arms here--out of character--that Takayasu had to resort to the body. He snuggled up hard and bumped Aoiyama out, yori-kiri. And I got to circle back to the top and cover Hakuho/Tamawashi.

Tomorrow Justin is a winged faerie of happiness.

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
During the middle weekend broadcasts, NHK will usually air a candid sit-down interview with Kitanofuji and touch on a topic that's current to sumo. The last time they did this the topic was Ozeki promotion, and it came in light of Mitakeumi's quest for Ozeki the latter part of 2018 after his gift yusho in Nagoya. They did the sit-down again this weekend, and the topic focused on violence in sumo in light of the recent Takanoiwa scandal, and then they also talked about Japanese Yokozuna coming on the heels of Kisenosato's retirement.

Kitanofuji was the former stablemaster of the Kokonoe-beya, and he produced two Japanese Yokozuna in Chiyonofuji and the current commissioner of the sport, Hokutoumi. As part of the interview, Kitanofuji stated that he himself was never a violent person as a stable master because it wasn't in his nature, but then again, he didn't need to be because he had Chiyonofuji. It's well documented that Chiyonofuji was a mean sumbitch, and in the interview, Kitanofuji lightly referred to him as a "yanchan," or trouble maker. "Yanchan" also implies a bully like a bully on the school grounds, for example, and when pressed for details, Kitanofuji finally stated, "There's just some things that are hard to talk about."

The interview wasn't necessarily revealing in terms of anything new, but Kitanofuji's final conclusion was, "I don't know how these guys are able to run their stables today because I couldn't do it." In short, corporal punishment and the violence culture has been removed from the stables, and that's translating to softer rikishi in the ring. It's indisputable that the Japanese rikishi these days are not as tough as the rikishi from decades past, and the results of this as seen inside the ring are tangible.

What was implied in this interview with Kitanofuji that couldn't be directly said was the following: "I'll continue to come on your broadcasts and lie through my teeth to cover for these sorry ass rikishi as long as you still pay me, but let it be stated that I'm glad I don't have to deal with sumo in this condition as a stable master." And yet, sumo still has an image to protect and seats to fill, so they're digging up those old secrets from the past purely as a means of survival.

I think all of the negative news (the whole Takanoiwa incident, Takanohana's retirement, Kisenosato's retirement, etc.) and the lack of fighting spirit in the ring is starting to cause fatigue among the fans.  Kyushu didn't have a full house on any day of the tournament, and even here in Tokyo, I'm starting to see more and more empty seats in attendance. This basho is already shot due to the multiple withdrawals of prominent Japanese rikishi, Takakeisho's obvious mediocrity, and Hakuho's decision not to throw any bouts the first 10 days, but it's never too early to start creating storylines and generating interest in the Haru basho, and I think that's what was largely on tap today.

On Day 8, I reported in leaderboard fashion meaning I started with the leaders and then covered the other bouts in reverse chronological order, but a yusho race simply doesn't exist at this point, so let's just go in regular order today.

Before we get to the bouts, I will post the exact same leaderboard that NHK posted at the start of the broadcast:

10-0: Hakuho
8-2: Tamawashi

I don't care what ya say, that's not going to sell a single ticket in Osaka, so something had to give today, and something did.

M12 Kagayaki never bothered coming with his usual tsuppari attack opting to just keep his arms wide open and allow M16 Daiamami the easy path to moro-zashi, and if Kagayaki was nonchalant at the tachi-ai, he was even more casual as he allowed Daiamami to drive him straight back and out in near linear fashion. Nice yaocho to start the day fer ya as Daiamami moves to 3-8 while Kagayaki falls to the same mark.

M11 Ikioi came with a right kachi-age against Daishomaru who skirted left, and Ikioi was lethargic in terms of squaring back up, and so Daishomaru used a left ottsuke to keep Ikioi at his side before Daishomaru lurched to his right firing a reckless neck throw that worked wonders against the mukiryoku Ikioi. Ikioi could have easily gotten his right arm to the inside after that first henka, but his intent was clearly not to win this one. That makes two yaocho in two bouts as the miserly Daishomaru camp finally lightens the billfold for a win this basho. Dude's now 1-10 while Ikioi is a humble 6-5.

M11 Sadanoumi and M15 Kotoeko hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Kotoeko was completely defenseless as Sadanoumi demanded the left outer grip before forcing Kotoeko back and out in linear fashion. Textbook yotsu-zumo today from the SadaMight who moves to 7-4 wile the majority of Kotoeko's 6 wins (against 5 losses) have been purchased this basho.

M10 Abi picked up a freebie today on the heels of M15 Chiyonokuni's withdrawal. Kuni's sumo was so reckless and unorthodox the entire basho that I'm not surprised he injured himself. The ironic thing is he already had eight wins in the bag before his defeat yesterday, so he'll end the fortnight at 8-7 for a kachi-koshi!! As for Abi, he's one step away now at 7-4 thanks to the default win today.

M14 Chiyoshoma henka'd big time to his right grabbing the quick and dirty right outer grip, and M11 Takarafuji isn't fast enough to recover, and so Chiyoshoma just spun him around and out dumping him into the first row of spectators. Chiyoshoma ups his record to 5-6 while Takarafuji falls to 6-5.

M13 Yago and M8 Asanoyama hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Yago used his length to grab a right outer grip, but Asanoyama had the lower positioning and kept Yago upright and moving never letting the rookie hunker down. The lateral movement obviously bothered Yago because Asanoyama was able to easily maki-kae with the left giving him moro-zashi, and not only was Yago had at this point, but he was out of gas as well, so the force-out by Asanoyama was academic. Asanoyama moves to 5-6 with the nice win while Yago falls to 7-4. I'm afraid that Yago is falling into the typical yaocho merry-go-round that pervades sumo. On both days 5 and 8 when I called his action, I identified his opponents as mukiryoku, and those aren't the only gifts he's received this basho.

The problem with the merry-go-round is Yago (and others) win despite their bad habits in the ring, and so when they get into a straight-up fight, they use the same bad habits that contribute to their easy defeats. As for Yago's bad habits, there are two glaring ones through the first 11 days. First, he tends to keep his right arm way too low at the tachi-ai. He kind of swings it up into his opponent's chest like a malformed kachi-age, but the blow has little impact. Second, his stamina is horrible. The dude can't exert any strength after about the six-second mark, so he's gotta get into better shape and worker harder in the keiko ring. As of 11 days, this guy's another Nishikigi...someone with a nice sumo body and fair game, but he can't shake the politics of sumo.

Up next was M7 Daieisho who was scheduled to fight M13 Kotoyuki, but Yuki was forced to withdraw after twisting his right knee as he recklessly exited the dohyo yesterday against Takarafuji. Daieisho moves to 5-6 after the freebie while Kotoyuki will end the fortnight at 4-11.

M7 Ryuden came in high against M12 Meisei unable to establish decent position, but Meisei wasn't strong enough to demand the inside position, so after a few weak tsuppari from both parties, Meisei shaded to his left. He still failed to apply any pressure, and so Ryuden was able to move in and secure moro-zashi. Because the moro-zashi didn't come from a strong tachi-ai, it was loose indeed, and that allowed Meisei to try and wriggle out of it near the edge, but Ryuden was just able to force Meisei down with the right inside yori-taoshi style across the straw before Meisei sent Ryuden down with a counter kote-nage. It was close, but Ryuden won here moving to 4-7 while Meisei falls to 6-5.

M14 Yutakayama was completely mukiryoku against M6 Onosho keeping his arms high and elbows wide from the tachi-ai. Onosho was able to nudge his opponent back, but he doesn't have the game to bully him around, and so Yutakayama actually slipped his right arm deep to the inside of Onosho's left side near the edge. Instinctively, Yutakayama turned the tables forcing the action back to the center of the ring leading with that right arm, but he he casually slipped it upward closer to Onosho's elbow taking away any pressure against his opponent. From there, Onosho fiddled to the right and left before ultimately deciding to move to his left and firing a tsuki-otoshi into Yutakayama's side. It was a weak thrust for sure, but Yutakayama just dove forward and down with his feet and toes aligned so closely he may as well been diving in the Olympics. This was another close finish, which is a sign of how little control Onosho had in the bout, but result is Onosho's moving to 7-4 while Yutakayama falls to 6-5.

M8 Kaisei briefly latched onto the front of M6 Chiyotairyu's belt from the tachi-ai as Tairyu lamely fired a thrust or two into Kaisei's belly, and this was another classic example of Chiyotairyu's being intimidated against foreign rikishi and giving up before the bout really began. Had he charged forward and hard, he could have not only broke that grip off but he could have steamrolled Kaisei back and across. Rather, Kaisei just retooled his stance getting the right arm firmly inside with a left outer grip instead of being attached to the front of the belt, and from this position, Chiyotairyu hardly put up a fight as Kaisei forced him back and across with little argument. What a waste by Chiyotairyu who falls to 6-5 while Kaisei picks up kachi-koshi at 8-3.

M9 Endoh struck hard at the tachi-ai easily gaining moro-zashi against a defenseless M5 Yoshikaze, and Endoh wasted no time forcing Café straight back and across. Takekaze announced his retirement yesterday, and I can't imagine that Yoshikaze won't be too far behind. Coincidentally, during his press conference, Takekaze was asked about his best memory in sumo, and he cited an upset victory of Baruto years ago. They showed a replay of the bout, and that was the first time I've seen Baruto on the telly since he made his acting debut about a year ago in the Japanese blockbuster, "My Brother's Husband." Yes, Baruto was the brother's husband assuming the role of a gay lumberjack from Canada who was visiting the family of his late partner in Japan. I just hope they make the prequel to the movie so we can explore further the underground gay lumberjack culture in Canada.  In the meantime, I have to be content with this current flick happy that they named Baruto's gay character...wait for it...Mike!!
Moving right along, M3 Shohozan weakly henka'd to his right touching M1 Ichinojo's belt, but before he could actually latch onto it, Ichinojo just fell forward playing along. People assume that because Ichinojo is so large that he doesn't move well, but this guy can cover a lot of real estate fast. This was simply an orchestrated bout where the dominant foreign rikishi let his inferior Japanese opponent win. Shohozan moves to 4-7 with the gift while Ichinojo intentionally falls to 6-5.

M1 Tochiohzan secured moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against M2 Nishiki the Hutt, and the veteran wasted no time in driving Nishikigi back and across for the sweet yori-kiri win. It's been awhile since Tochiohzan had done that as he moves to 5-6 while Nishikigi falls to 4-7.

Komusubi Myogiryu was proactive at the tachi-ai firing two paws to the neck of M3 Shodai, who attempted to establish his own position with the left inside, but Myogiryu adjusted well using a perfect ottsuke with the right applying pressure to Shodai's left side and cutting off Shodai's left arm in the process. Myogiryu simply schooled his opponent today persisting with his oshi-zumo that ultimately sent Shodai back and out. Very good win here from Myogiryu who moves to 5-6 while Shodai falls to 4-7.

Having raised three boys, I know all about a man letting up so the boy can win. Whether it was a game of H-O-R-S-E in the driveway or a game of 8-ball in the basement, I was constantly adjusting my shot just enough in order to miss but not make it look too obvious. I actually rooted for my boys to beat me and gave them every opportunity to do so, but if their play was too reckless or hapless, I'd subsequently hang the final E on them or go ahead and see my way through to the 8 ball. They would take advantage of my mukiryoku play from time to time and win, but if I felt they didn't deserve it with their play despite the numerous openings I gave them, I'd just go ahead and win myself. And that's the best way I can describe Sekiwake Tamawashi's sumo today against M4 Kotoshogiku and much of Hakuho's sumo the entire basho.

For starters, Tamawashi brought no tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and the dude's been on a roll this basho, so to come out flat and ultimately let a weak guy like Kotoshogiku force the bout to hidari-yotsu is mukiryoku sumo. Actually, "force" isn't the right word in the case of Kotoshogiku because he didn't demand the belt or set anything up; rather, Tamawashi just let the bout flow that way. With both guys now to the inside, they were still up way too high to really have effect, and with the Geeku doing nothing, Tamawashi went for a scoop throw with the left arm that had Kotoshogiku reeling near the edge. Tamawashi graciously didn't follow through on the throw and let Kotoshogiku survive, and as Kotoshogiku escaped to the other side of the ring, Tamawashi followed him in tow and finally shoved him across with a forearm to the upper torso. Tamawashi completely dictated the bout here and gave Kotoshogiku plenty of openings, but when the former Ozeki couldn't capitalize on them in the end, Tamawashi didn't reward him with the win. Tamawashi moves to 9-2 while Kotoshogiku is still hapless at 4-7.

Sekiwake Takakeisho and M2 Hokutofuji met with nice tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and with neither dude gaining ground, Takakeisho skirted to his left firing a left tsuki into Hokutofuji's side that sent the crowd into a tizzy. The shove had little effect, however, and it allowed Hokutofuji to square back up where each dude resumed their thrust attack in an effort to set up a pull. For Hokutofuji's part, he was merely playing defense, and in the end, he let down his guard long enough to where Takakeisho was able to score the oshi-dashi win, but this was a perfect example of a Takakeisho opponent having to let up in order to give the Sekiwake a forward-moving win. Actually, I don't know if forward-moving is the correct term because it was Takakeisho who couldn't wait to jump out laterally just a few seconds into the bout. The skinny on Takakeisho is that he has a decent tachi-ai, but he doesn't trust himself enough to just bulldoze his way forward, and so he just dinks and swipes, dinks and swipes his way through the rest of the bout. He picks up the win here moving to 8-3 while Hokutofuji graciously goes mukiryoku on his way to 6-5.

Ozeki Takayasu and M4 Okinoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Okinoumi was simply defenseless gifting Takayasu the right outer grip, and from there, Okinoumi didn't even bother to counter as he allowed Takayasu to force him back once, twice, three steps a lady. Ho hum as both dudes end the day at 6-5.

The mukiryoku sumo would continue as Ozeki Goeido offered a quick strike and then backwards pull from the tachi-ai that opened the door for M5 Aoiyama to just flop forward and down half a second in. If Aoiyama would have brought his normal tachi-ai and tsuppari, it would have taken one simple thrust to send the Ozeki packing because Goeido did most of the backing up on his own. As it stands, Aoiyama had no intention of competing here and it was obvious. What a pathetic display of sumo from Goeido who has to be gifted wins to survive. At 5-6, I'm afraid there is plenty more mukiryoku sumo to come. As for Aoiyama, he graciously falls to 6-5 and knows his place in sumo.

By my count, that's four straight bouts of mukiryoku sumo, so why spoil the fun with Yokozuna Hakuho taking on Komusubi Mitakeumi who couldn't even bend his left leg coming into the bout. Hakuho curiously but strategically forgot his dominant tachi-ai here just keeping his hands up high enough to where he allowed Mitakeumi to methodically push him back and out in about three uneventful seconds. The Yokozuna attempted no pulls and no counter moves because with Mitakeumi in his current condition, it would have blown him over like a paper statue in the wind. I mean, just look at the picture there at the point of victory...Mitakeumi's left leg is straight as an arrow and pointing outward. In the picture at lower left, Hakuho is in great position with feet braced against the tawara while Mitakeumi's feet are aligned with him bent over at the waist.  Hakuho could have pulled or he could have gone to either side with a counter move, but he just walked himself back as Mitakeumi plodded forward.

After the "win," Mitakeumi hobbled over to his side and could barely squat down to pick up the stack of kensho envelopes. In fact, it took him longer to execute his squat than it did to defeat the greatest Yokozuna in the history of sumo. Imagine that!!  With caish in hand, Mitakeumi needed help off the dohyo, and then he limped his way up the hana-michi where his tsuke-bito greeted him and acted as his crutch all the way to the dressing room. And we're supposed to believe that this bout was real??  Even Hector Barbossa watching live was heard to proclaim, "Maybe me dexterity ain't so bad after all. Argghh!!"

Five days ago Mitakeumi was carted off in a wheelchair, so this fake win over Hakuho was right along the lines of Kisenosato's two wins over Terunofuji two days after Kisenosato was whisked away in an ambulance with an owie on his shoulder. It's such low hanging fruit here, it's not worth further effort or scorn. The end result is Hakuho's falling to 10-1 while Mitakeumi still has kachi-koshi in his sights at 6-5 despite sitting out the previous four days.

Hakuho's strategy to lose here has multiple benefits. First, it nudges Mitakeumi closer to kachi-koshi, and sumo needs this guy with no Kisenosato around. Second, it brings the yusho line down closer to the masses enabling NHK to promote a larger leaderboard into the weekend. Third, it furthers the notion of parity in sumo where lame Japanese rikishi can still defeat Mongolian Yokozuna on a regular basis.

In the end, it's all about hope. The Japanese fans have a glimmer of hope for the future, and the Sumo Association hopes that the fans will continue to exchange money for garbage.

Harvye gives us all hope for the future tomorrow.

Day 10 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all. A possible new member of the Ozeki boys club is supposed to be cause for a bit of interest, even excitement in sumo. So let's take a peek at the proud champion rank of Ozeki. We have three incumbents and one of them, Tochinoshin, is already kadoban. Even if he came back in a flowing red cape there aren't enough days left for him.

Goeido arrives today at 3-6 ready to best his old friend Kotoshogiku with Hakuho still to come, probably on day 14. So let's say he's 4-7 because Hakuho's mistress is in the second row that day. Is an injured 4-0 finish really believable to the Tokyo faithful? He should be kadoban come March.

Top Oz dog is the flea bitten, flu suffering Takayasu who sits at 4-5 this morning. He has a nice 5-2 advantage over Takakeisho today but of course cannot be optimistic about his chances for day 15. This is likely to mean he would need to go 3-1 with a bite taken out of Goeido. With Aoiyama and Onosho looming in his immediate future, things do not look good based purely on ability.

Three disappointments to their mother, all injured or sick. The rank could seriously use an injection of youth. If only because the Ozeki banzuke is likely to be in tatters at the end of every basho for a while without it. Only Takakeisho is in place to do it right now, the magic number being thrown around is 11 wins, but sumo content and a yusho might count for something.

So far, Takayasu has Takakeisho's number and he's desperate. A loss today puts Takakeisho at 7-3 with the big guns of Hakuho and Goeido still to come, so let's say 8-4 then, just for fun, sorry Goeido. Of course as Goeido can tell you, Hakuho is strangely beatable during a promotion run. If Goeido can do it three times in a row around his, why not one little one for Takakeisho? If he's only needing a 3 win finish and likely to be facing Hokutofuji, Okinoumi and Aoiyama why not? If they move Kaisei up then surely Takakeisho could just flatten him with his genki left hook again.

The outcome for the entire Ozeki rank pivots on the deeds of one man. Who he loses to or if he loses at all. I would welcome the tadpole to the Ozeki slot for no other reason than it should see the weakest suffering demotion. And he's not immune from it either. The boys club has been warm and comfortable for too long. My only fear is my own favourite (favorite) is right in the firing line. But that's line dancing for ya.

Takagenji (J2e) 3-6 vs. Kotoeko (M15w) 5-4
If you were a calloused old member of the JSA, what cash-laden gift could this new year bring you? How about a tall, heavy 21 year old clawing his way out of Juryo? Perhaps that wouldn't be enough for you so lets put him in golden boy Takakeisho's own Chiganoura Beya. Then make him fat-baby cute and turn him into a pair of twins. Oh, the marketing possibilities!

Kotoeko had to work hard to finally okuri-dashi big baby who was trying to land slaps instead of moving his opponent out of the ring. He'll learn.

Kagayaki (M12e) 2-7 vs. Daishomaru (M16w) 0-9
A pair of unloved, 16 loss puppies, free to a good home, must be willing to feed regularly. And after an unambitious bout of keiko, Daishomaru remains winless. All is well with the world.

Chiyoshoma (M14w) 3-6 vs. Meisei (M12w) 6-3
Chiyoshoma must have had money on winning by hataki-komi today. That's all he wanted to do. And Meisei fell for it, literally. You're once, twice, three times a laaadyyyy. Sing along.

Sadanoumi (M11e) 5-4 vs. Daiamami (M16e) 2-7
After Harvye bad mouthing poor Daiamami yesterday, something I would never do, I was all fired up to cheer him on to victory. Gambare Daiamami!

Sadanoumi would have been happy with the migi-yotsu position he immediately had. But as the door was wide open he swapped it for an uncontested moro-zashi instead. Then whilst weighing very close to 100 pounds less, Sadanoumi ripped Daiamami off the ground and before big boy could reset himself, sprinted him straight out, yori-kiri. I'm glad Daiamami gambarized, that could have been embarrassing.

Chiyonokuni (M15e) 8-1 vs. Ikioi (M11w) 5-4
Could these two be further apart in attitude? Ikioi is all about imposing his plentiful power on opponents, but he does it without guile. An honest head down and charge blue-collar guy. Chiyonokuni is a wonderfully sneaky buzzard. Something's gotta give.

Turns out that something is Chiyo's knee. The foolish, brave fool tried to stand in front of an oncoming ugly train and it ran straight over him. Chiyonokuni braced his left foot at the tawara as we've seen so many times before. Today his knee popped at the moment of impact. He went straight down with the leg bent beneath him. And Ikioi on top, crushi-taoshi. I'm no veterinarian but that probably didn't help things.

It was good to see the traditional values of sumo are still firmly in place as they just left him there, with his sounds of pain and suffering entertaining the crowds. After a correct amount of time had passed a young sand sweeper wandered over and stood watching him, clutching his leg and writhing in agony. Other sports organizations treat their athletes like such wimps.

On day 6, with rikishi dropping like flies, I asked who's next? Did anyone pick Chiyonokuni? The good news is he was first Maegashira to kachi-koshi so can watch the rest of the basho with a large bag of cheesy corn snacks and burping beer, like the rest of us.

Takarafuji (M10e) 5-4 vs. Kotoyuki (M13w) 4-5
Kotoyuki doesn't like yotsu sumo, if it doesn't end in something-dashi he don't wanna know. Takarafuji loves him some yori-kiri, even though he loses to it as often as he wins with it. With a 7-5 head to head history, the winner here is the one who imposes his brand of sumo on the bout. Thanks Justin, now it's in my head too.

Takarafuji backed up slowly, staying in contact with Kotoyuki's optimistic oshi. He turned away from the oncoming mass, still nicely balanced and mawari-komu'ed his big self 360 degrees round the ring. With the oshi-stuff not doing it for him, Kotoyuki leaned in closer and tried to get a nice hazu-oshi attack going. Inwardly smiling, Kotoyuki welcomed him in, wrapped him up and the bout turned on a small coin of your choosing.

Panic stricken Kotoyuki tried to run away but was run out from behind, okuri-dashi. Nestled in the bosom of the second row, he failed to come back out, or move. Was this the defining demonstration of the dead body ruling? Nope, it's another damned injury. Why don't the so-called sumo lovers in the first three rows prostrate themselves on the floor when they see this happening? It would give the rikishi something soft and squishy to land on, saving many injuries. Selfish old baby boomers.

On day 6, with rikishi dropping like flies, I asked who's next? Did anyone pick Kotoyuki?

Yutakayama (M14e) 5-4 vs. Abi (M10w) 6-3
Yutakayama beat Abi oshi-dashi. Nobody died.

Ryuden (M7e) 3-6 vs. Endo (M9w) 6-3
Despite being the same age, Endo has four times the Makuuchi appearance than Ryuden. Say what you will about him, he has the T-shirt.

The bout looked like it was taken straight from a 1960's movie set in “the exotic far east somewhere” where the hero was trying to infiltrate Mr. Big's gang at the feast, the 7 minute sumo bouts laid on for entertainment. Four hands on they tussle to and fro.

Endo had driven a stiff arm inside to claim deep hidari-yotsu and kept his hips back, denying his foe the mawashi. So far so good, but when he tried to impose his power on Ryuden he just rode himself upright. Ryuden took one, two fistfuls and a true yotsu, four hand, sumo bout was underway. A rare gem with oshi style's popularity.

Naughty Endo had forgotten to check his mawashi was tight and Ryuden once again found his grip closer to the armpit than the hip. Four hands on they tussle to and fro. Endo was always looking to drive forward, Ryuden always resisting and turning. Until he couldn't manage it and Endo scores the manly yori-kiri. His golden bridal gown mawashi dragging twelve feet behind him.

Yago (M13e) 7-2 vs. Daieisho (M7w) 3-6
Yago didn't fool Harvye. He's had a fine debut, nothing can take that away from him. Kachi-koshi should soon follow, just not today. Today he was made to look ordinary. Daieisho ordinary.

Kept away from the belt he shrank in stature, his thrusts lacking thrust. He seemed bewildered by Daieisho's stable yet energetic oshi-sumo. After very little time, frustrated and tiring, Yago brought about his own demise. He just stepped into Daieisho, his arms wide. He was thanked with a slap to the face and the deepest moro-zashi. Yago gave up, Ichinojo style. A motivating yori-kiri win and a tiny ray of kachi-koshi hope for Daieisho.

Asanoyama (M8w) 3-6 vs. Onosho (M6w) 6-3
An early bout of the day from the youth movement, with a combined 46 years up on the dohyo. If that don't make you feel old!

Asanoyama slid a massive leg back low and waited to see if he could absorb an oncoming Onosho. He did it so well Onosho's entire right side was exposed and within reach. Asanoyama placed a sneaky left hand and pushed. Onosho was deflected a full 90 degrees and that effectively ended the de-ashi of our former front-runner.

Onosho is a man of commitment, I'll give him that. He reset, preparing to drive forward behind a hazu-oshi attack. Asanoyama cupped his hand round that same right arm and the attack never came. Onosho was now standing right in front of his boy with all momentum gone. He was flipped forward and he had to stamp out a heavy frog jump to regain his balance.

Persistence is a virtue and Onosho came right back into the fight, determined to make his brand of sumo work. Thanks a lot Justin. Under massive pressure, Asanoyama nearly stepped out. He was driven to the edge. But it was a hurried attack. Asanoyama is a survivor. And then the break happened. The first time Onosho was backed up, still at his preferred arms length, his opponent faked a push and Onosho slid both feet back and stiffened his body into a straight line. Of course the hataki-komi win followed.

Onosho has found his current limit. A patient, read ya like a book Asanoyama is his limit.

Aoiyama (M5e) 5-4 vs. Kaisei (M8e) 7-2
Just a few short days ago this bout would have been as massive as the participants. Since sporting his clean new bandage Kaisei has gone a mere 2-2. Aoiyama has gone from delivering hataki-komi and oshi-dashi to those in need, to being on the receiving end of them with a miserable1-4.

At the tachi-ai Aoiyama led with the top of his head and Kaisei got his face out of the way. The whole bout was decided there and then. Aoiyama now had a heck of a pushing angle on an opponent to big and to injured to side step him. So he went full bore behind a nodowa trying to find it's mark. It didn't because Kaisei turned his face from that as well. Not to worry Aoiyama's cow sized legs managed to bull Kaisei all the way to the straw. Kaisei did turn back and put up some last minute resistance but too little too late. I don't think Kaisei likes getting his boyish features messed with.

Shodai (M3e) 3-6 vs. Yoshikaze (M5w) 2-7
Dirty swine Shodai tries to kachi-age poor Yoshikaze. That's what the headlines should be reading tomorrow. They won't because nobody was watching. Yes, of course Shodai won. He's not as generous as Shohozan you know. Yori-kiri.

Chiyotairyu (M6e) 5-4 vs. Shohozan (M3w) 3-6
Chiyotairyu did exactly what he should do if he wants his tachi-ai and de-ashi combo to remain a fearsome factor in the division. Oshi-dashi Shohozan right into the judges. Instantly.

Tochiohzan (M1e) 4-5 vs. Ichinojo (M1w) 5-4
One of the few antidotes to the sheer mass of Ichinojo is to come in from low, rising up and most importantly get there first. If you fail to combine all three of these things at once, don't forget to kiss your Okamisan goodbye, you won't be coming back.

So did Tochiohzan get there first? Not even close. Ichinojo sprang out of his crouch like a mere 475 pounder. He timed his boy perfectly and took a left outer grip and a right inside scoop to make sure nobody was wriggling out of this one. An undeniable yori-kiri that didn't take too long.

Myogiryu (K1e) 4-5 vs. Hokutofuji (M2w) 5-4
Both these guys have had to come out day after day to do battle with the best that sumo can currently offer. It's day 10 and they're both still hanging in there. That's a lot more than some can say.

Hokutofuji slammed his head in for the kind of start frowned upon in office based sumo with inflatable suits. It did just enough. He went into his high pressure pushing mode and soon had Myogiryu circling away from the straw. Closing in chest to chest, Hokutofuji heaved at a too high Myogiryu and sent him tumbling to the floor.

So you beat three (albeit sub-par) Ozeki in a row and give good account of yourself against a Yokozuna, then lose to M9 Endo. What do you do for an encore? We will see on day 11 when he faces Takakeisho.

Nishikigi (M2e) 4-5 vs. Tamawashi (S1w) 7-2
One rikishi that has so far been immune to the renewed charms of Nishikigi has been the beefy Mongolian. Today he beat him for the fourth straight time and became the third man to kachi-koshi. There was nothing for Nishikigi to be proud of here. Or ashamed of. He was jolted by the immense impact at tachi-ai. Tamawashi forced a step back with each surging oshi attack until there was no more room and thankfully no more punishment.

Tamawashi has the option to demolish Kotoshogiku next. He should take it. Hakuho and Takakeisho are the only two left that would be the crowds choice over him. An impudent 11-4 with the Ozeki in disarray would liven the next couple of basho up.

Kotoshogiku (M4e) 4-5 vs. Goeido (O1w) 3-6
Goeido has been here before, by which I mean been doing awful sumo. And yet when the chips were down, when his back was against the wall, when all hope was lost he still had his fellow Ozeki to easily defeat. And of course his trusty henka.

A backward moving Kotoshogiku was tripped up soto-gake. The only surprise was the kimari-te.

Takayasu (O1e) 4-5 vs. Takakeisho (S1e) 7-2
Hard to wrap your head around but Takakeisho, the mighty vanquisher of both Ichinojo and Tamawashi, really struggles to get Takayasu put away. He's now tried 8 times and managed it only twice. So what is Takayasu's secret?

Apparently it's to stand in front of Lil' Chunk and slam back at him. For each wave Takakeisho sent, Takayasu had just enough time to reset his stance. Then when the 22 year old dug down deep to unleash a tsunami of lava, the Ozeki started flapping his hands about, reached behind the head and jumped out of the way. Lets call it a tactical hataki-komi. Hey, it worked.

Okinoumi (M4w) 6-3 vs. Hakuho (Y1w) 9-0
Be grateful that at least one Yokozuna has survived this car crash of a basho. Just imagine what the headline bout would have been here without Hakuho. Okinoumi vs Takayasu for a combined record of 10-8? Although that would have been a heck of a lot more competitive than this one. To be fair to Okinoumi, he did once destroy Hakuho. That was in the basho that Hakuho went 0-3-12 back in 2015. So yeah.

One man kept a shock absorbing right leg back and rushed in to grab a left mae-mawashi. Keeping his hips low he powered right across the dohyo for an overwhelming yori-kiri win. I didn't watch the other guy, I'm sure he turned up. Tomorrow Hak welcomes a returning Mitakeumi.

In the absence of any pressure, does Hakuho even know there is a yusho race on?

Day 9 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
If someone asked me how many yusho Hakuho had won out of the last five basho he completed, off the top of my head I would have guessed "one." After all, he won only one basho in all of 2018. To my surprise, however, the actual answer is four--80% of the tournaments he fought all fifteen matches of. In short, when Hakuho competes, he is still the best. That has manifested again this tournament; he kind of unexpectedly finds himself atop the leaderboard at the end of week one despite goofing around for a few days in the early going. He's still The Storyteller: if he chooses to compete, he mostly chooses to win. If he chooses not to compete, he's letting in light for others.

I think Hakuho takes this tournament because sumo needs him to. It is easy to get caught up in the false narrative that in sumo, "Japanese = good, foreigner = bad;" that whatever the Mongolians do it chafes at the Sumo Association and they try to prevent their success as much as possible. That simply isn't true. For the most part, Hakuho has been a respectful, gracious Yokozuna and fulfilled his role with constant, patient dignity, and I think the Association is grateful and appreciates him in turn. Yeah, last tournament the Association was happy to see ALL the Yokozuna withdraw and give somebody else a chance--Takakeisho being the fortunate benefactor. But twice in a row? That's a little too much. In this sport, foreigner or not, the rank of Yokozuna remains respected all around the community of stakeholders: the Association and its the stable masters, the wrestlers themselves, the media, the fans, both foreign and domestic. In the tradition-laden, symbolic Hatsu Basho, kicking off the year, you want a little gravitas out there. Hakuho provides that, and right now, they're glad to have him. In the depressing reality of Kisenosato's withering, finding a little strength in Hakuho's presence and command is what sumo needed. Hakuho has done his part, and will continue to be allowed to take his due in moderation.

M16 Daiamami (2-6) vs. J2 Takanosho (1-7)
Big Sweety vs. The High Prize. Gary said the other day he roots against Daiamami every time. I thought about this and it was like, "hmmm, I don't really dislike him, but yes, I think I root against him every time too." Why, then? There's just not a lot going on here. He's big and blubbery and nothingy. He doesn't do much exciting, he's not a threat to move up the banzuke. He's just kind of in the way. So he gets the worst curse of all: apathy. At least I'm invested in my loathing of Daishomaru's sumo. With Daiamami it is an unconscious rejection: "Eh. Step aside, please, let's get to the other guys." Daiamami shoved manfully at Takanosho's face in this one, but Takanosho kept it together and resisted until all the fat hijinx from Daiamami left Big Sweety accidentally facing the wrong direction. Takanosho escorted him out by the butt, okuri-dashi. Buh bye.

M14 Yutakayama (5-3) vs. M15 Kotoeko (4-4)
Yutakayama's been struggling mightily--can't put any pressure down on that knee, perhaps?--and that continued here. Tried to blast Kotoeko out of there with a strong tachi-ai. Didn't work: Kotoeko was still standing. Tried to tsuppari him into dust. Didn't work: Kotoeko absorbed it and advanced. Tried to lean his upper body on him and smother him back and out. Didn't work: Kotoeko used Yutakayama's momentum against him and slung him around and down, tsuki-otoshi. Good work here by Kotoeko, while Yutakayama seems to be settling in as an oft-befuddled, sometimes effective rank-and-filer.

M15 Chiyonokuni (7-1) vs. M12 Meisei (6-2)
It was interesting to hear Chiyonokuni praised by Justin and Gary; I've never liked him. But I dislike him for the same reasons they like him: there is nothing there. Therefore he has to resort to all kinds of crazy jumpery to get wins. Maybe this makes me a frontrunner, someone who turns his nose up at underdogs and likes to see easy dominance and The Victory of the Entitled? Let's hope that is not it. To me, like with Daiamami, Chiyonokuni seems like he is in the way. A smaller, louder in-the-wayness. A noisy distraction. Meisei, on the other hand, is a little mote of "do!" Chiyonokuni brought it hard in this match, channeling stablemate Chiyotairyu and blasting Meisei back off the tachi-ai like he wasn't even there. Props. Meisei survived it and did some arm pulling, but Chiyonokuni whacked him hard in the face as a reward and Meisei dove to the dirt, hataki-komi. I think this was a giveaway by Meisei in the end, but Chiyonokuni's victory was earned. Often that is the best we can hope for: that the benefactor of bad sumo shows us he wouldn't necessarily have needed any help.

M12 Kagayaki (1-7) vs. M14 Chiyoshoma (3-5)
Chiyoshoma grabbed onto the bulldozer of Kagayaki's straightforward attack and rode its blade back to the brick wall of the tawara, then crumpled like an old piece of rusty tin roof being consigned to the corner of the junkyard. Oshi-taoshi win for Kagayaki.

M13 Yago (7-1) vs. M11 Ikioi (4-4)
On Day 2 I dismissed Yago for being 24, and I will stick to that: he is not the next big thing. Think of the dominant wrestlers on the banzuke, perhaps Hakuho, Kakuryu, Tamawashi, Tochinoshin, and I'll throw Ichinojo in for charity. Though he is no longer on the banzuke at all, we should include Terunofuji too, as injury and illness felled what was a big star in the making. Here are their heights/weights, and Yago's:

Hakuho 192/158
Kakuryu 186/157
Tamawashi 188/172
Tochinoshin 191/175
Ichinojo 193/226
Terunofuji 193/178
Yago 187/178

The only guy Yago outsizes is Kakuryu. Therefore he is going to have to display lots and lots of skill. But it isn't all numbers of course: so far, I'm prepared to hedge my Day 2 bet a little bit based on watching a week's worth of performance. Yago has been good on the belt, solid, stable and aggressive. He has game. I'm prepared to believe this can go somewhere biggish--though I'm still betting against it (especially with both knees already wrapped). We shall see, and we shall enjoy it.

Anyhoo, Ikioi put the brakes on this hype-y narrative for today, sticking both arms inside for a quick moro-zashi, standing Yago upright, then crushing him emphatically to the dirt, oshi-taoshi. Say hello to a better wrestler, Yago. You'll get used to it and maybe that can be you someday.

M11 Sadanoumi (4-4) vs. M16 Daishomaru (0-8)
My dreams are coming true: Daishomaru will disappear to Juryo! Can't go fast enough. I'm sure he'll be back, but I will enjoy his absence while I can. For the moment, though, we have to put up with him. Sadanoumi grabbed him, held him tight as he flailed up and down and back and forth, and managed to never let him go. This prevented any pulling, and as Daishomaru has no attack, Sadanoumi had this one in the bag. The Sad Man kept up the pressure and drove/followed Daishomaru out, yori-kiri. Buh bye.

M13 Kotoyuki (4-4) vs. M10 Abi 5-3)
Abi overwhelmed Kotoyuki with rapid fire slaps and busy little feet. Kotoyuki should have countered more, but under that onslaught, whew, what would you do? Kotoyuki evaded and pulled down at the end, but it was too late--he'd already lost, oshi-dashi.

M10 Takarafuji (4-4) vs. M7 Daieisho (3-5)
Daieisho pushed, and Takarafuji passive'd, watching and waiting. This is a pretty good description of their styles in general. Seeing an opening, deciding Daieisho was pushing quite hard enough, Takarafuji stepped to the side and shoved Daieisho in the side of the shoulder. Down went Daieisho, tsuki-otoshi. It's all Takarafuji ever wanted, really.

M7 Ryuden (2-6) vs. M8 Kaisei (7-1)
Could this be Kaisei's tournament? Could we have a Kaisei Moment, just like we had a Tochinoshin Moment? A brief, evanescent flowering of hopes and dreams just before the twilight? A sweet fleeting of redemptive grace? We could. But probably not. Tochinoshin was always better, stronger, more explosive. Kaisei is just kind of there. And happy to be so, from every appearance. Oh, what a happy, jolly fellow! Kaisei wrapped up Ryuden's arms pretty good here, and tried to used that to flip him like a pancake. Problem was both of those arms were wrapped up inside, and while it didn't look much like moro-zashi because Kaisei kept turning to the side to avoid it, it sure enough was, and Ryuden knew it and kept driving it deeper, getting his arms further inside, squaring the match up more and more while Kaisei tried to do diagonal. Eventually Kaisei's position became untenable and he turned away entirely in defeat and was pushed out from behind, okuri-dashi. The cherry blossoms withered glumly in the mud and were trampled to paste on the pavement under the feet of the tourists.

M9 Endo (5-3) vs. M6 Onosho (6-2)
Onosho was really into the idea of beating Endo into smithereens and leaned way forward and bashed away with his arms. Endo said, "oh, okay," stepped back, and let Onosho's overextension carry him to the ground, hataki-komi. And to think Onosho was one of the contenders this basho for a day or two.

M6 Chiyotairyu (4-4) vs. M8 Asanoyama (3-5)
After yesterday's obliterating performance by Chiyotairyu, facing a wrestler who had been struggling and who today put both fists on the ground in a clear "let's do it" offer, I thought this one was ripe for Chiyotairyu to pick up where he left off and deliver another screaming-sun-spot tachi-ai kill. Chiyotairyu undoubtedly realized it too, because it was so obvious he henka'ed instead. That worked very well, safely delivering Chiyotairyu the swift tsuki-otoshi win. Look there are just good times to henka and good times not to, and today was a good time to henka. Sometimes the anticipation just gets too thick and you have to cut it off sharp and freshen things back up for yourself a bit.

M5 Yoshikaze (1-7) vs. M3 Shohozan (3-5)
Battle of fading, aging. Yoshikaze doesn't have the strength or energy to beat most guys these days, but with Shohozan backing up and yanking on his arms a bit, well, that gave Yoshikaze the strength he needed, and this quick and boring oshi-dashi win for Yoshikaze looked very easy. One of these days I'm going to make good on many little promises to myself and stop reporting on bouts like this. Yet here I am again.

M3 Shodai (2-6) vs. M5 Aoiyama (5-3)
After a fast start Aoiyama has tumbled heavily back to earth, cracking the shells of the giant turtles holding the globe up in the netherworlds below. Here Aoiyama pulled and back up, pulled and backed up. Shodai took his cue and followed the retreating hands. Aoiyama managed to pull Shodai to the clay only after he'd stepped in the loose dirt beyond the straw, so it was an oshi-dashi win for the hapless Shodai. The turtles groaned and sighed; eternity marched on.

M1 Tochiozan (3-5) vs. M2 Hokutofuji (5-3)
It was mutual push push push for about two thick seconds, then RELEASE (by Tochiozan), which gave Tochiozan the sudden, boring, effective hiki-otoshi win.

K Myogiryu (3-5) vs. M1 Ichinojo (5-3)
The Flea vs. The Elephant? More like, The Persistent Bouncer Against the Drunken, Slowed Patron. Ichinojo kind of pushed on Myogiryu's face and peered at him from up close, walleyed, then pulled at him for good measure. Myogiryu by contrast just pushed hard throughout. And, as Jeff Probst yells on Survivor when one of the underdoggy-type contestants does well at a challenge by exerting maximum effort, "that is how you DO it!" So Myogiryu pushed Ichinojo out, oshi-dashi.

Aside
In the announcer-in-the-stands role, I could hardly believe my eyes, there sat The Lil' Yokozuna himself, Hokutoriki, the formerly strutting, preening, intolerable Maegashira mainstay who perennially acted like he'd already won the Emperor's Cup and wanted everybody to remember it. He was Kotoyuki before we had Kotoyuki, Kotoshogiku before Kotoshogiku prima-donna'ed as Kotoshogiku. Sitting in the stands, the rapidly-aging Hokutoriki looked as gangster as gangster gets, and his voice was already the hard-living-soaked baritone of a crabby, bitter, forceful 60 year old jerk. Keep it real, Hokutoriki, keep it real. But I ain't going to dinner with you, no never.

S Takakeisho (6-2) vs. M2 Nishikigi (4-4)
Ichinojo showed us yesterday what Nishikigi really is, and so Takakeisho went ahead and showed it again today, pushing Nishikigi easily out of the dohyo with three sharp shoves, one, two, three's an oshi-dashi. Look, I've enjoyed Nishikigi's unexpected flowering as much as anyone else, and agree he is a solid and likable fellow in a minor way. But based on his size and just-adequate skills, his success up here just isn't sustainable.

O Takayasu (4-4) vs. S Tamawashi (6-2)
Who is having the best basho? Easy answers might be Yago (impactful debut) or Chiyonokuni (fun bottom-of-ranks mopping up). A wrong would might be Hakuho: yeah, he is leading, but he's won so many so sloppily he was literally laughing at himself out there. I think the answer is Tamawashi. A year or so ago he was looking very Ozeki like with his powerful strength and attack, but he is realistic and has been giving that all back away again since. This basho, however, he has been wiping the floor with most of his opposition, unleashing himself and slaughtering the sheep. As I've said many times before, he will never make Ozeki--too old, not politically expedient--but he is the kind of guy we have to remember to keep our eyes open for his moments of freedom and enjoy them. This basho has quietly been one of those moments. He continued today, standing strong and pushing hard; all it took was a few moments of iron-armed thrusts at Takayasu's barrel and big melon and Takayasu crumpled at the knees and hit the dirt, oshi-taoshi. An "Ozeki" utterly owned by the aging, overlooked Sekiwake. Boy, when he is fighting hard I just love Tamawashi. He definitely belongs in that little list of current true top talent I put by the Yago match. His seven wins include four oshi-dashi and today's oshi-taoshi. He's got quite a lot of oshi.

M4 Okinoumi (5-3) vs. O Goeido (3-5)
Oh my god. It's like nobody bothers to respect the Ozeki rank anymore. Not that they should. But the number of guys blowing through Takayasu and Goeido like a hurricane in a hay field is astonishing. Goeido was reaching weakly for a few fingertips of Okinoumi's belt and not getting it, and Okinoumi was exploding into him, roundhousing him in the face, and swiftly and decisively knocking him bodily over like he was some inconsequential, forgettable visitor from Juryo, oshi-taoshi. This was an awesome display from Okinoumi. Boy, oh boy, has the Ozeki rank become a blot. Go, Okinoumi go.

M4 Kotoshogiku (4-4) vs. Y Hakuho (8-0)
Hakuho stunned Kotoshogiku with a massive forearm blow at the tachi-ai, and after that Kotoshogiku was kind of tentative, deaking at Hakuho with little hand jabs and not trying to get on the body. Having sized this up, after spending some time standing tall and matter-of-factly palm-punching Kotoshogiku in the face, The Storyteller feinted going for the right inside belt grip, as drawing Kotoshogiku in, and as soon as Kotoshogiku was close enough stepped back while grabbing Kotoshogiku by the other shoulder and slung him to the dirt, tsuki-otoshi.

The Yokozuna will lead this tournament off into the heavens, banners flying. He's that good.

Tomorrow Gary calmly tells you about the brutality of men beating each other up while whimsically musing on the side about the ironies of life.

Day 8 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
A theme of the day 8 broadcast focused on the birthplaces of the rikishi in sumo, and early on NHK produced a graphic that showed the total number of rikishi on the banzuke and then the place they were born breaking it down by prefecture for Japanese rikishi and country for foreign rikishi. Tokyo led the way with 49 participants followed by Osaka, Aichi, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Saitama, Chiba, and then Mongolia who currently has 23 rikishi in sumo. The left part of the graphic below shows those numbers as follows:



After explaining the left section, NHK next expanded the graphic to the right showing the number of sekitori from each of these prefectures or countries, and as you can see, 10 of those 23 Mongolians are currently in the Juryo or Makuuchi divisions for a clip of 43%. The top prefecture in Japan percentage-wise is Saitama who boasts a 12.5% percentage of sekitori rikishi in relation to the total number of rikishi they have on the banzuke.

As part of the explanation, Yoshida Announcer mentioned that the height of the Mongolian invasion came in 2004 when 37 Mongolians were listed on the banzuke, and the drop from 37 to 23 now is just part of the silent movement to eradicate foreign rikishi from sumo. Yoshida Announcer didn't say it in those words, but he suffered a Freudian Slip when he talked about the "Mongolian reign" in the past tense before quickly catching himself and saying, "...that's still continuing."

It's clear that pressure is being put on stables to no longer recruit foreign rikishi even though each stable is still currently allowed one foreigner. Don highlighted a pint-sized Mongolian yesterday in Enho, and then you still have young Mongolians like Ichinojo (and even Terunofuji), but just look how much those guys have been stifled since their breakouts in the Makuuchi division.

When Yoshida Announcer asked Kitanofuji about why the Mongolians are so strong, he used the term, "han-gu-ri seishin," or more simply, "hunger." And it's true. The Mongolians just want it more, and if you look at that graphic above, one thing that really stands out to me is the higher number of Japanese sekitori who come from the most-populated areas. Now, it stands to reason that the number on the left would reflect higher population centers, but the number on the right was not always so. 30 years ago, the strongest rikishi were known to come from what prefecture? Yes, Hokkaido.

We've talked about this before, but as Japan has become a wealthy nation, it's male youth no longer need sumo as a means to get out of the small towns. Nobody goes to bed hungry anymore, and everyone's room and board is provided even if they have to get it from the government teet. Mongolia on the other hand is a nation that lacks wealth, and so you get these young, athletic guys who want to make it big in a wealthy country, and they're doing just that. It all comes down to hunger as Kitanofuji pointed out, and the Japanese just don't have it any more (nor will they ever get it back). Furthermore, two of the "Japanese" darlings aren't even full-blooded Japanese as Takayasu and Mitakeumi both have foreign mothers.

Later on in the broadcast, they showed the first two Mongolians to enter sumo in Kyokushuzan and Kyokutenho, and then they showed some highlights from Kyokushuzan where he was using little-known kimari-te to defeat his opponents in spectacular fashion.



I had been working in Japan a few years when Kyokushuzan broke through, and as I relived those moments today, I thought to myself, "There isn't a Japanese rikishi on the banzuke any more who can do that in the Makuuchi division." The closest thing Japan has I suppose is Ura, but he can't do it in the Makuuchi division.

It's also interesting to note that back in the Kyokushuzan days, the dude wasn't really that dominant. I think his highest rank was Komusubi, but he was really more a novelty than anything else. He did pave the way for the Mongolian greats who came after him, but Kyokushuzan still struggled because there were still so many good Japanese rikishi. But...those days are unfortunately gone for good, and the result is modern-day sumo wrestling where foreigners are frowned upon and Japanese rikishi are artificially inflated. The end result is poor quality in the ring that can't compare whatsoever to the product just two decades ago.

With that, let's turn our attention to the leaderboard. I usually don't like to go there this early in the basho, but when Hakuho is undefeated and your sole leader, the basho is his outright unless he chooses to throw it.

As it stood at the start of the day, the leaderboard shaped up as follows:

7-0: Hakuho
6-1: Onosho, Kaisei, Yago, Chiyonokuni

Our first "leader" of the day was M13 Yago who was paired against M16 Daiamami. Yago struck early with a left kachi-age but brought this crazy roundhouse-looking swing with his right arm as well that provided for an awkward tachi-ai. Daiamami was able to move left at the start and apply pressure to the back of Yago's right shoulder, which spun Yago around 360 degrees, but with Daiamami not taking advantage, Yago was able to complete that pirouette and find himself in the perfect hidari-yotsu position where he ultimately grabbed the right outer grip and used it to force Daiamami back and across. I thought Daiamami was mukiryoku from the start here, and he made so many blatant mistakes they couldn't have been unintentional. For starters, when Yago was doing his 360 dance, Daiamami applied zero pressure. Next, Daiamami pulled his right arm out from the inside position for no reason after Yago's 360. And then finally, Daiamami just agreed to be forced straight back and across instead of trying to counter. I like Yago's stuff so far, but he didn't deserve to win this. Still, he finds himself one back of the lead at 7-1 while Daiamami falls to 2-6.

Proceeding Yago was the leader we're all looking forward to watching in week 2: M15 Chiyonokuni. Or not. Today Kuni drew the M12 Kagayaki who did not have those brass knuckles taped to his forehead today. Kagayaki came with his usual tsuppari tachi-ai firing two hands into Chiyonokuni's throat knocking Kuni back a step, but instead of advancing with proper de-ashi, Kagayaki kept his feet aligned as he lumbered forward, so when Chiyonokuni offered a lame swipe down at Kagayaki's extended arms, Kagayaki just flopped forward and down giving Chiyonokuni the easy win. Chiyonokuni moves to 7-1, and I just scoff when I see a dude on the leaderboard who wins like this. Kagayaki falls to 1-7 with the loss, and I think this guy's been mukiryoku most of the tournament so far. Let's see if he can magically pull out four or five wins down the stretch to stay in the division.

Emperor Heisei was in the house today for the second half action, and when the Emperor shows up, the day is known as Tenran Sumo.  He was really neat to see the fans acknowledge the Emperor today because this was his last visit before he retires his post in May and hands the gig off to his son, Naruto.  Just as "the man" was entering the building (not the arena), M8 Kaisei hosted M4 Kotoshogiku who moved slightly left at the tachi-ai looking for a cheap outer grip. He had it briefly but couldn't contain it as he moved Kaisei dangerously over to the edge. The Brasilian was just too bigga load, and he was able to worm his right arm to the inside near the edge, cut off Kotoshogiku's outer grip, and then turn the tables on the former Ozeki with a nifty scoop throw as he moved left. This one was close, but Kaisei easily recovered from the henka moving to 7-1 in the process while Kotoshogiku falls to 4-4.

M6 Onosho looked to solve Sekiwake Takakeisho and stay on the leaderboard, and on paper this was probably the marquee matchup of the day featuring Japanese "hopefuls," but the sumo was just terrible from both parties. Both guys came out with thrusts, but their sole intent was to pull, and so you had un-grounded sumo where Takakeisho connected first with a right that couldn't move Onosho back, and then as Onosho looked to fire a right thrust of his own, Takakeisho dodged it moving left as Onosho stumbled forward and off balance. Instead of squaring back up, Onosho looked to dart laterally and pull Takakeisho forward, but he completely whiffed, so with Takakeisho pressing forward without having connected on anything, Onosho kinda hopped back across the straw going for a wild right tsuki-otoshi that knocked Takakeisho down to both knees at the edge, but Onosho had already stepped out to set up the counter move. This was one of those bouts with a lot of movement but no real contact in the end. The result is both rikishi standing at 6-2, so we'll see if NHk graciously goes two deep on tomorrow's leaderboard.

All of the aforementioned bouts mean little until Yokozuna Hakuho chooses to drop a few. That was unlikely today against a fellow foreign rikishi in M5 Aoiyama as the two were largely upright and flat-footed at the tachi-ai as they exchanged mild thrusts, and with Hakuho applying little pressure, Aoiyama seemed a bit encouraged because he moved forward continuing to fire a few thrusts the Yokozuna's way, but Hakuho finally dug in at this point gaining the right inside position, and he used that inside belt grip to pivot to the side and dump Aoiyama to the clay with a shita-te-nage as if Aoiyama wasn't even there. Another ho-hum win for Hakuho, and if he does end up dropping a bout or two this basho, they will be strategic losses to Japanese rikishi. In the end, Hakuho moves to 8-0 and remains the sole leader not to mention the Story Teller as Aoiyama falls to 5-3.

With the dust settled in terms of the yusho race, we'll enter Day 9 as follows:

8-0: Hakuho
7-1: Kaisei, Chiyonokuni, Yago
6-2: Takakeisho, Onosho, Meisei

In other bouts of interest, M3 Shohozan moved to his right at the tachi-ai going for a quick kote-nage that wasn't really set up nicely, but Ozeki Takayasu just stumbled forward and down giving Shohozan the one-second win. They ruled it hiki-otoshi, but it was more like tsuki-otoshi as no pulling was involved, but whatever. It's just really tough to wind up the day's broadcast by having Ozeki fumble around like this. Takayasu falls to 4-4 with the loss while Shohozan improves to 3-5.

Ozeki Goeido welcomed Sekiwake Tamawashi who kept his arms wide at the tachi-ai refusing to come with his usual thrusts, and that's a gift to the Ozeki who managed to get his right arm to the inside, but he couldn't capitalize on it because his feet were perfectly aligned at the starting lines. Tamawashi actually stumbled backwards likely due to a lack of expected contact and as Goeido finally rushed forward, Tamawashi caught him with a nice thrust to the face to throw him off balance to the point where when the Ozeki wildly came forward again, Tamawashi darted right and fired a wild scoop throw with the right that easily felled the hapless Ozeki at the edge. Tamawashi was not looking to move forward or thrust from the tachi-ai, and so I think he was giving the Ozeki a chance, but Goeido was just too hapless to take advantage of it. The result is Tamawashi's moving to 6-2 while Goeido falls now to 3-5.

Komusubi Myogiryu fired a couple of thrusts into M1 Tochiohzan's neck from the tachi-ai, but he didn't have the strength--or de-ashi--to move Tochiohzan back, and so Tochiohzan voluntarily moved back...and to his left timing a pull down perfectly as he scored the easy hataki-komi win. Both fellas end their day at 3-5.

M1 Ichinojo intended to win today against M2 Nishikigi, and so he did just that making it look too easy. Ichinojo used his length to grab the right outer grip from the tachi-ai and coupled with the inside right, he just forced Nishikigi back and across without argument. Nishikigi's a decent rikishi with good game and a lotta bulk, but when Ichinojo wants to squish his opponent just like grape, he squishes his opponent just like grape. He moves to 5-3 as Nishikigi falls to 4-4.

M2 Hokutofuji came into his bout against M9 Endoh having just enjoyed two freebies in a row, so with socialism reining in sumo, it only stands to reason that he could throw his bout in Endoh's favor today. After the two struck at the tachi-ai, Hokutofuji just backed up spinning his wheels in the process before falling forward and down after Endoh offered a light slap to the head. Hokutofuji either threw this bout or Emperor Heisei lofted a banana peel onto the dohyo form his terrace seat causing Hokutofuji to slip. Take your pick as both rikishi end the day at 5-3.

M6 Chiyotairyu caught M3 Shodai just right from the tachi-ai thrusting with the left and getting the right arm inside just enough that he was able to lift Shodai off his feet and hoist him out of the ring pushing with that same left and lifting with the right elbow. Wow, this was an ass-kicking through and through, and Chiyotairyu definitely has street cred. I mean, have we ever seen the likes of Mitakeumi, Goeido, Takayasu, Takakeisho, etc. defeat anyone like this?? They just can't do it, and that's why those guys have zero street cred. Chiyotairyu's got it as he moves to 4-4, and it's a shame he can't be unleashed the full 15. Shodai licks his wounds after this one falling to 2-6.

The second half began under the watchful eyes of Emperor Heisei with M7 Daieisho taking on M4 Okinoumi. Daieisho gave Okinoumi his best shot, but it was akin to pushing into a brick wall as Okinoumi stood his ground with a right forearm and left hand pushing into Daieisho's right pit, and with Daieisho spinning his wheels, Okinoumi just forced him over with that right forearm and pushed his foe across for the strong win as he moves to 5-3. Daieisho was forced to settle for just 3-5 after the loss.

M8 Asanoyama came with a nice kachi-age against M5 Yoshikaze, and when Kaze tried to move left to get out of the way, Asanoyama squared quickly and easily thrust Yoshikaze back and across in tsuki-dashi fashion. Asanoyama needed an easy win like this to move to 3-5 while Yoshikaze is hapless at 1-7.

Two decent belt guys clashed today in M7 Ryuden and M10 Takarafuji as they hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and Takarafuji easily positioned himself on the strong side to grab the right outer grip first, and once obtained, he kept Ryuden pinned in tight as the latter tried to mawari-komu to his right, but Takarafuji is just too good at the belt to let him go, and he scored the force-out win with ease moving to 4-4 in the process. As for Ryuden, he falls to 2-6.

M14 Chiyoshoma kept both arms out wide at the tachi-ai against M10 Abi who never did connect with a solid thrust, but Chiyoshoma just danced right with arms wide open allowing Abi to square up quickly and thrust him out in mere seconds. They ruled it tsuki-dashi, but that was as little contact as I've ever seen from a tsuki-dashi bout. This was more like Chiyoshoma hopping to the side of the ring and then just backing out of his own accord as he falls to 3-5. Abi is gifted another win moving him to 5-3.

M11 Ikioi blasted M15 Kotoeko back from the starting lines and had his foe on the brink literally one second in, but he just halted his forward attack and let Kotoeko recover. As the two hooked up in yotsu-zumo, Ikioi had the right inside position and could have done what he wanted against the much smaller and weaker Kotoeko. With Kotoeko completely hapless, Ikioi drove him back across to the other side of the dohyo where Kotoeko finally attempted a counter tsuki-otoshi with the left, but there wasn't much behind it, and Ikioi could have easily slammed his foe down with the right inside, but this bought was pre-arranged as Ikioi just flopped to the dirt doing all the work in this one start to finish. Both rikishi finish the day at 4-4.

M11 Sadanoumi was able to stave off M13 Kotoyuki's tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai and yank Yuki's arms just enough to pull him off balance, and without strong de-ashi from Kotoyuki, his thrust attack was rendered useless as Sadanoumi worked his way into a right outer grip that he used to dashi-nage Kotoyuki over as he pulled with the left hand, and when Kotoyuki survived that near the edge, Sadanoumi grabbed the left outer and used it to fling Kotoyuki over and out leaving both rikishi at 4-4.

M12 Meisei got moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against M16 Daishomaru, and as light as the moro-zashi was, Daishomaru couldn't counter it, and so Meisei scored the ridiculously easy force-out win moving to 6-2 in the process while Daishomaru has run out of cash at 0-8.

The final bout of the day was M14 Yutakayama taking on Juryo upstart, Terutsuyoshi. Terutsuyoshi is making a bit of a name for himself for reasons outside of the ring. For starters, he's one of those guys who chucks a huge handful of salt as part of his final shikiri ritual, and then the Hyogo native was also born on January 17, 1995, the day that horrendous earthquake struck Hyogo prefecture. I prefer to judge a guy's popularity based on what he shows in the ring, and in this kid's case, I do like what I've seen from him so far.

Today was a bit of different story as he henka'd to his right at the tachi-ai, but it was more of a lateral shift to set up a quick kote-nage than a jump out of the way and go for a do-or-die pull. It threw Yutakayama off a bit, but he doesn't charge that hard anyway, and so Yutakayama was able to recover and attempt a few pulls of his opponent before finally getting the right arm inside. With Terutsuyoshi having forfeited any momentum at the tachi-ai, Yutakayama charge immediately driving the Juryo rikishi back to the edge, and despite a counter tsuki-otoshi attempt with the left hand from Terutsuyoshi, Yutakayama was able to use that right inside position to force Terutsuyoshi down hard across the edge. Yutakayama moves to 5-3 with the nice win while Terutsuyoshi falls to 6-2.

I suppose there's still a lot of sumo left to go, but this basho is Hakuho's story to tell.  Harvye expounds on that tomorrow.

Day 7 Comments (Don Roid reporting)
It seems like everything is coming to an end. The Takanohana / Harumafuji / Takanoiwa scandal has faded away (for now?), Kisenosato's retirement is a few days gone, Kakuryu has withdrawn, Tochinoshin has withdrawn and as of today, Mitakeumi is history as well. So you have to ask yourself... what's left? You've got the other two Ozeki phoning in the usual 8-7 record, if they can even manage that, and you've got Hakuho all alone up there, like The Grinch on top of Mt. Crumpet, looking down on all the poor Who girls and boys. In this case, I can't actually help but feel sorry for the old Hakster, all alone up there. But what will he do? Will he come down into Whoville and steal all the presents or will his heart finally grow three sizes, leading to him handing out some presents to a few lucky Whos?

I think we are going to be left asking ourselves the "What's left?" question a lot in 2019. The answer is that there's a bunch of ham 'n' eggers and a few Kisenosato's. By that I mean there's the usual group of Makuuchi mainstays who are good enough to stay in the top division, but never able to string together three or four decent basho to move up to Ozeki, and then there's a small group of emerging wrestlers who are good, but not quite good enough to be able to hold down the Ozeki rank, should they make it that far, for any considerable amount of time, while regularly being able to put up Ozeki-worthy numbers and being able to give the Yokozuna a run for their money.

That was the trouble with Kisenosato. He was a fantastic ham 'n' egger, a great sanyaku wrestler, a meager Ozeki and a terrible Yokozuna. Even if he was injury-free and didn't have that huge pressure on him to maintain the rank, he most likely would have suffered a similar fate. For the sport's sake, I hope another Kisenosato experiment is not attempted.

As usual I won't be covering all the bouts, but only the ones that interest me.

Let's start out down in Juryo where there is one guy who's captured my attention this basho. He's a smaller gimmick-type of a guy in the same vein as Mainoumi, Takanoyama or Ura. I love watching these guys. I mean, it beats watching Ichinojo sluggishly oaf around the dohyo, wasting his potential. I'm talking about Enho (J8). You should have seen him on day 5 against Mitoryu. It was like watching an oompa loompa wrestle Augustus Gloop. This guy went undefeated in jonokuchi, jonidan and sandanme after debuting last spring. Now that he's up here with the big boys, though, he's got his hands full and needs every trick he can muster to keep up.

Today he faced off against Arawashi (J10), yes the same Arawashi who does the over-the-top somersaults and cartwheels all the time. Well, there were no gymnastics from Arawashi today, but he did spend the majority of the bout trying to detach Enho's arm from his body. When that failed he charged in on Enho, who parried quicker than a hiccup and pushed out Arawashi for the win. Videos of Enho's day 5 and day 7 bouts have been posted on the Sumotalk Facebook page, which I graciously screen recorded from @sumophotos on Instagram (he's a great follow).

Sometimes it's worth having a look at the lower divisions. Weird stuff happens down there from time to time. In fact, there's a guy called "Ai" who's ranked Jd85. With how advanced technology is now in Japan, could robots just replace flesh and blood sumo wrestlers? Is AI advanced enough to do yaocho? Maybe they could invent a Japanese sumo-bot good enough to take on Hakuho?

The first bout of the upper division didn't look like much to me at first on paper, but turned out to be very entertaining. Yutakayama (M14) and Chiyonokuni (M15) put on a spirited battle. It looked like a stalemate at the tachi-ai. Then, both men started their shoving attacks. Chiyonokuni started to gain a little ground, backing his man up to the straw. Yutakayama was putting up a lot of resistance, so Chiyo went for a pull, but he only lost ground because of it. As the bout came to closer quarters, Chiyonokuni grabbed Yutakayama by the head and arm and threw him over for the win.

Yago (M13) - dude has one of those skulls that protrudes out around his eyebrows so it kind of gives that caveman kind of a look. And really, his offensive strategy was kind of primitive as well. It seemed to be "me big, you small, me run fast and push". Honestly, when you've got two huge guys in a small ring, it's not a bad strategy, but there are ways to defend against it. Daishomaru (M16) chose the avoidance defense, leaping out of the way when the snowplow was headed in his direction, but he ran out of space eventually because you can only jump backwards so many times when you're fighting inside a small circle.

If anyone deserves the Fighting Spirit award this time around, it might be Ikioi (M11) who looked like a pro wrestler taking a razorblade to his forehead earlier in the tournament. Today he had a long staredown with Chiyoshoma (M14) and it caused a matta. The second time around Chiyoshoma hit Ikioi with a right hand to the face at the tachi-ai then went to the belt with said hand, looking for an overarm throw. Ikioi had too wide of a base and managed to maintain his balance, pushing Chiyoshoma out. Immediately after the bout, Ikioi began holding his face and I thought it was his forehead again, but later realized he probably got a finger in the eye at the tachi-ai, another old pro wrestling trick.

While it's probably still too early to start talking about potential yusho winners besides Hakuho, believe it or not both Kaisei (M8) and Onosho (M6) are "in the running" as we speak. Coming in, Onosho is undefeated and Kaisei is 5 - 1. And as silly as what I've just written may sound, given the landscape this basho, all the withdrawals and the constantly over-hyped "youth movement" happening, don't be surprised if someone like one of these two varmints comes up to steal the Emperor's Cup if they avoid losing any more going into the homestretch.

Onosho hit the Brazilian with all of his might, but Kaisei just stood there glaring over him like Christ the Redeemer, solid and unmoving. Maybe his magic Onosho dust wore off? After his initial charge got him nowhere, he meagerly tried to slap down Kaisei's arms, but the sheer size of Kaisei paid off here because he was able to push the backpedaling Onosho out from halfway across the ring.

Mitakeumi (K) is out with a knee injury and is not expected to be back this tournament. According to his stablemaster, "… an MRI showed no bone or ligament damage." Even though on paper he was doing quite well this tournament, he was certainly not in any position to make an Ozeki run, despite winning the Nagoya basho last year. Knee injuries are not to be scoffed at and if Mitakeumi is seriously injured, that's going to hurt the sport even more if he's absent, as it puts another potential Japanese star on the bench. Hokutofuji (M2) gets a free pass today.

I'm not about to jump aboard the Nishikigi (M2) gravy train just yet. Myogiryu (K) can be a slippery customer for anybody to deal with and Nishikigi certainly had his problems with him today. After a matta all Nishikigi could think of was "kotenage". When that didn't work, he went to plan B, but realized too late he had no plan B, so he just got forced out.

I was really expecting Takakeisho (S) vs. Ichinojo (M1) to be a great bout. Two young guys, both in their early to mid twenties, both heavily touted at different times. Instead, what I got was another lack-luster performance from Ichinojo. After some very impressive performances in the first handful of bouts, Ichinojo did what he does best and that's disappoint. He disappointed against Tamawashi the other day and disappointed today against Takakeisho. The live crowd loved this bout, as Takakeisho came straight at Itchy, hitting the walking condominium hard several times and backing him up. Not much came back from Ichinojo who was basically like a kid in the back seat on a road trip asking "Are we there yet?" Yes, dear. We're here. You can go back to the locker room now.

While some things in sumo are way out of whack, like Kisenosato being Yokozuna or Goeido being Ozeki or Ichinojo being M1 (he could be Yokozuna if he wanted), Kotoshogiku (M4) is right where he should be. This is what should have happened to Kisenosato as well. Let him get his tournament win, and let him slide back down to the ham 'n' eggers if that's the way it goes. No shame in that. Geeku is 34 years old now and he's pretty beat up and he's still riding that one trick pony of his, but it's got him this far for this long. He's another guy who is a great rank and filer, a good sanyaku wrestler and a terrible Ozeki. His one trick did not work today against Takayasu (O) who was able to neutralize the hubbity bubbity.



Watching Goeido (O) today was like trying to recreate "Bambi On Ice" with your friends after chugging a bottle of peppermint Schnapps. This bout was all over the place and it looked like a lot of recent Hakuho bouts, only Hakuho is always in complete control even when he looks out of control. But when Goeido's out of control, he's just... Goeido. Anyway, he beat Shodai (M3) today somehow.

Hakuho (Y), the sport's 69th Yokozuna, who recently underwent surgery on his right knee and ankle, took on Shohozan (M3) who's actually a year older than The Storyteller. Sho-ho has five gold stars, but none of them have been at the expense of The Grinch. Overall Shohozan is 0-14 against The Great One. But then again, lots of decent or even good wrestlers have never beaten the demigod of sumo. Hakuho lulled him into a false sense of security buy knocking Sho-ho backwards with two shoves. Then, when Shohozan came forward for the third time, Hakuho timed his pull on the back of the head perfectly and Hozan hit the dirt. This bout didn't even give Hakuho a chance to go berserk. Shohozan was like that dude from "American Pie" who gets laid for the first time with that really hot chick. Before the bout could even really get going, he completely blew it.

With Hakuho unbeaten through seven days and four rank and filers one win behind, I'd strongly suggest that this basho is Hak's for the taking. There's no one left to throw one for and unless one of these new generation beefcakes can go undefeated up until day 12 or 13, don't expect Hakuho to miss taking home his 42nd Emperor's Cup. Enjoy folks!

Day 6 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all, sorry to disappoint with my unsolicited appearance but we will all have to wait until day 8 for the second volume of Mike's new autobiography on Kisenosato "Musings On A Maestro". The western sumo world awaits Mr. Wesemann.

Here's a question for any sumo historian out there. Has there ever been such a meat grinder of a basho with three Ozeki all kadoban? I'm not looking it up to find out, but I am looking forward to it.

Yutakayama (M14e) 3-2 vs. Daishomaru (M16w) 0-5
Daishomaru better make friends in Juryo because he's not gonna be here next time out. He looked optimistic but clueless for his sixth straight defeat. He went in close against Yutakayama's chest at the tachi-ai and then spent the rest of the bout trying to keep the big guy away from him. The only time he was able to move forward was during Big Mama Yama's hataki-komi attempt. As soon as he ran out of hiding spaces it was oshi-dashi time.

Ishiura (J3w) 4-1 vs. Chiyoshoma (M14w) 3-2
As beefy as he is, Ishiura isn't going to get any taller so he aims low. Chiyoshoma knows it and defensively wrapped him up straight away, just managing to keep his crotch away from Ishi's hot breath. Chiyoshoma had full control of Ishiura's shoulders and none whatsoever of the man's hips. Which is more important in sumo?

Round they went, a full 360 degrees, but with running on the outside of the circle and Ishiura clipping his knee Chiyoshoma couldn't get his feet moving fast enough. Down he goes and Ishiura strikes again, shitate-hineri this time.

Yago (M13e) 4-1 vs. Kotoeko (M15w) 3-2
What the body mass index was Kotoeko thinking? He fought for, and got, his left hand inside grip, which is all very nice. It also gave Yago the right outside grip too. Which is a freakin' disaster against this guy if you have a near 100 pound (40kg) weight disadvantage. Yago has already shown enough stuff on the mawashi for it to be yori-kiri suicide for a little man. Which it was.

Now 5-1 Big Yago is certainly getting his wins, I'll give him his due. And with some strong back-from-defeat yotsu sumo too. Kotoeko isn't the one to judge him against though.

Chiyonokuni (M15e) 4-1 vs. Kotoyuki (M13w) 3-2
Chiyonokuni has a 4:1 ass-kicking ratio over his man today. Ah the gulf between a forgotten mid-Maegashira and Kotoyuki. Big, genki Kotoyuki tried for three in a row with his definable sumo and crashed into the nothing man with moro-te-zuki. Three seconds later he crashed into the clay. It was fun while it lasted. They ruled it hataki-komi but it was just as easily tsuki-otoshi with all the deflection Chiyonokuni was rocking.

Yago-Mama beat both these guys, just saying.

Daiamami (M16e) 2-3 vs. Meisei (M12w) 3-2
Is it wrong to cheer for a guys opponent every time? Am I evil or does Daiamami not deserve to be away from Juryo? The dude is young, talented and has no more injuries than anyone else in sumo. A 400 plus pounder that gets his feet jerked this way and that way.

It was more of the same today with Meisei constantly savaging Daiamami for an inside position. When Daiamami tried to stiff arm his face in a vain attempt to stop the embarrassment, it triggered Meisei's now automatic response of tottari. And the one-sided hustle continued. It ended with the 23 year old Meisei blasting his boy oshi-taoshi to the floor, I'm starting to like him.

Takarafuji (M10e) 2-3 vs. Kagayaki (M12e) 1-4
Another gentle, round the tawara win for Takarafuji this time by uwate-nage. Pressing forward on the neck-less one without a solid grip will only end in failure. He exudes a Buddha like patience to his sumo, both bout and basho. The wins will come when they are ready. Ohhmm.

Kagayaki still only has one win to his name but in sumo karma he's way ahead for splitting peoples faces open with his headbutt.

Ikioi (M11w) 2-3 vs. Endo (M9w) 3-2
Leprous Zombie usually does very well against Endo, even when cute cheeks was the flavour (flavor) of the month. Which probably came as a bit of a surprise for our poster girl. Perhaps Endo didn't want any of the ugly getting on him.

Even though the stitching is tearing and there are now body-parts falling off Ikioi, he monsters-up and leads with another headbutt. No thanks said Endo, getting out of the way. A henka-not-really-no-henka to his left to start things off.

Leprous Zombie (What kind of shikona is "Ikioi" anyway? They'd sell more tickets with Leprous Zombie on the poster.) must have been expecting it as he turned instantly and chased down our beautiful, screaming heroine. Who had no defense to getting oshi-dashi'ed into the lap of a front row admirer. Which was worth the entrance fee for one lucky guy.

Kaisei (M8e) 5-0 vs. Sadanoumi (M11e) 2-3
Before the "bout" started the cameras were joyously zooming in on Kaisei's freshly wrapped leg. Sadanoumi cheered up and went straight to the moro-zashi, unthinkable when Kaisei is healthy. A shrewd gamble for Sadanoumi because Big Brazil couldn't limp away fast enough. The most heart-breaking yori-kiri of the day. Sniff.

Kaisei is supposed to be up against Onosho tomorrow. Maybe he shows up, maybe he doesn't, but it's not going to do Onosho's undefeated record any harm at all.

Abi (M10w) 3-2 vs. Asanoyama (M8w) 0-5
Moro-te-zuki from Abi but his feet stay where they are. While Asanoyama's head is ripped backwards his left hand finds it's way to Abi's elbow, spoiling the fun. Abi throttles Asa's neck again and that pesky hand locks his arm straight again. What else can Abi offer? Not much, he tried a desperation hataki-komi on a stable opponent and got lunged out oshi-dashi style.

Asanoyama wins! Lets go Yoshikaze!

Aoiyama (M5e) 4-1 vs. Daieisho (M7w) 2-3
There's a nice brutal edge to Aoiyama's sumo this basho. Daieisho isn't going to be the one to stop him. Aoiyama went for the throat. A quick wink over to Abi and he (gasp) stepped forward! Daieisho did manage to put his left hand to the attacking elbow and tried to get to Aoiyama's side but this behemoth is moving soooo damn well.

Squared up again, Aoiyama goes with his Hatsu party theme for this year and cracks him upside the head to see if he will fall. A bit more oshi good stuff and Daieisho's balance is gone. The bout is ending on hataki-komi so Aoiyama throws his arms into the air and lets him fall, getting his fingers far away from that pesky hair-do. Just in case it turns another terrific victory into crappy defeat. A bullying, one sided smash-em-up to be sure but hey, brutal is as brutal does.

Ryuden (M7e) 2-3 vs. Yoshikaze (M5w) 0-5
Gyoji calls a matta, because we must have one every now then. It gives them something to do except posing and looking sexy for the boys. The crowd enjoyed it so much they did it again. The matta were better than the bout.

Today Yoshikaze managed to put his head down and drive Ryuden straight back and out, left hand in deep, hip to hip, powering through all the way. I think Ryuden was there, but I can't be sure. It looked like that old guy at the temple who did sumo against the gods for fifty years, all on his own, and still losing.

Kotoshogiku (M4e) 3-2 vs. Chiyotairyu (M6e) 2-3
Kotoshogiku owns this guy. Over and over Chiyotairyu tries to impose his weight advantage and he keeps getting reminded of just how bull strong this faded old veteran still is. To the bout.

Booom and you're gone Chiyotairyu! An overwhelming de-ashi taken straight to the tawara for Koto's second favourite (favorite) thing, yori-kiri. His first thing is breakfast in bed with "extras", which a tearful Chiyotairyu will be serving tomorrow morning.

Onosho (M6w) 5-0 vs. Okinoumi (M4w) 3-2
Okinoumi stood his ground well at the tachi-ai. It gave him enough time to think about a little hazu-oshi as he moved the bout back to the centre. It gave him enough time to think about trying some sort of hataki-komi.

While Okinoumi was demonstrating theoretical sumo, he gave Onosho enough time to push him straight out. Which Onosho did. Oshi-dashi. Being a sumo fan ain't all lollipops and rainbows.

Myogiryu (K1e) 1-4 vs. Mitakeumi (K1w) 5-0
The spoiler who would be king has already beaten two Yokozuna, one Ozeki and both the Sekiwake. That's not a bad haul. Riding high on hope, only Ichi and the Hak (new TV show coming soon) looked like they would trouble him. Certainly not one-win Myogiryu. Who blew him away oshi-dashi style.

Mitakeumi's leg went early in the bout so his sumo consisted of backing up, pausing at the tawara and jumping down to the floor. They put him in the big boy wheelchair and took him off to hospital. Looks like it's going to be back-to-back walk-over wins for Hokutofuji.

Takakeisho (S1e) 4-1 vs. Tochiohzan (M1e) 1-4
What sumo fans (the real ones, not you) need right now is for a shining young star to pick this basho up and give them something to smile about. A dizzying display of youthful speed and unstoppable sumo power. Step forward Takakeisho. The hero of the hour.

Oh no! His wave-action didn't work. What is Tochiohzan doing? He's grabbed an outside left so far around his nuts are draped on Takakeisho's thigh. Now he's stuffing his right inside and spinning Takakeisho around. Stop it Tochiohzan!

A magnificent ipponzeoi from Takakeisho. Why is Tochiohzan still on his feet? Is he allowed to chase Takakeisho's bare ass from behind? Don't okuri-dashi Takakeisho from all the way across the dohyo. Bad Tochiohzan, Bad!

Takakeisho has Ichinojo tomorrow, so there's going to be more grumbling in the Ryogoku old people's home.

Ichinojo (M1w) 4-1 vs. Tamawashi (S1w) 3-2
If Tamawashi is up for it, this is the pick of the day. That's an IF. The problem is he's done just well enough to get by, without ever piddling in anyone's lemonade, that I can't tell if he's still in his prime or genuinely starting to fade.

Well, he's good enough to blast away a lazy looking Ichinojo. Tamawashi won it at the tachi-ai. He recovered first from the initial shock-wave and put his head to Ichi's chest. One guy had a good angle, the other didn't. One guy wanted the win.....

Shohozan (M3w) 2-3 vs. Goeido (O1w) 1-4
Shohozan could have put another top ranker out of the basho by flinging a staggering Goeido out to another defeat with a wide open kote-nage. But his sumo has looked weak and disjointed all tournament so maybe not.

Goeido recovered well enough for somebody left alone and won with an uncontested yori-kiri as they both staggered in the opposite direction. He's guaranteed to survive for a few more days with a 2-5 record. We limp on, looking for the good. Because this is not it.

Takayasu (O1e) 2-3 vs. Nishikigi (M2e) 4-1
I'm rooting for Nishikigi this basho. He deserves something for his rags to riches rise up the banzuke and a sansho or two would do very nicely. He kept his cool in front of a posturing Hakuho yesterday so a plague-ridden Ozeki should be no problem for Super-Nishi, right?

Well yes and no. He lost by yori-kiri. But he lost well. He stopped the de-ashi of papa bear, he caused problems for the Ozeki by trying to match hidari-yotsu and he didn't wait to be dismantled slowly when it turned into the second best position. Like Han Solo, he fired first. And he tried to win with a pulling kote-nage. His effort should be applauded. Especially when contrasted to the previous bout or two.

Shodai (M3e) 2-3 vs. Hakuho (Y1w) 5-0
Despite himself Hakuho can't seem to lose to these guys. The power sumo has been entirely absent. Instead that sly grin that says "I can't believe I'm getting away with this" is on full display.

Today he gives the left mae-mitsu a test drive, what's Shodai gonna do about it? Hakuho sweeps forward behind the powerful tachi-ai but then has to back up immediately because the mellow man has quietly claimed moro-zashi. Hakuho uses a mini throw to get his right back to the inside and politely circles his way back to the centre, the test didn't go too well. Shodai is baited to try maki-kae and Hak drops his hand from shoulder to mawashi. The yori-kiri win comes instantly.

Hakuho knows which opponents to test his ring rust on. For him, it's only a passing grade today. Tomorrow he will attempt a triple-lutz oshi-dashi, because Shohozan has never beaten him.

Here's a question for ya. How far down from the peak of the mountain does this guy have to fall before he meets the others clawing their way up?

Kakuryu (Y2e) 2-3 vs. Hokutofuji (M2w) 3-2
Another one bites the dust. Kakuryu dialed it in yesterday and that was good for Ichinojo. But word is he's out for the rest of the basho. Mainoumi said that the YDC could issue that encouragement statement they made up for Kisenosato. Best not to mention his double yusho last year then.

So no kinboshi for Hokutofuji. Which suits me just fine. With the hell he brought to Hakuho I had high hopes that he would be all fired up to terrorize another ten opponents in a row. But my Hokutofuji balloon lost some air when I saw the flapping mess of a performance against Kotoshogiku yesterday. So yeah, karma.

With Mitakeumi "out for now" Tochinoshin and Kakuryu "out out" and Kisenosato "out out out" the big Q is who's next? This is turning into sumo's answer to last man standing.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
This biggest news from the joubansen, or first five days, was the retirement of Kisenosato. The Kid's calling it quits was inevitable because once he stepped across the tawara, it was just plain embarrassing for everyone. It's been nice to read the accolades from everybody regarding Kisenosato, and the biggest headline from day 5 was Kisenosato's surprise visit to the Kokugikan. Apparently the dude walked right through the front doors and immediately had a throng of fans buzzing about him until he climbed the stairs to the back offices to formally greet (aisatsu) the sumo elders and tell them thanks for everything.

To say that Kisenosato was a failure as a Yokozuna is an understatement because the dude didn't even deserve the Ozeki rank, but it's just amazing to me to see how little one's actions atop the dohyo really matter in the scope of things. Kisenosato is still treated as a rock star, and this buzz will create enough momentum to at least carry through the rest of the Hatsu basho, but sumo finds itself in a tough circumstance come March.

As horrible as Kisenosato was in the ring, he still provided a major storyline every basho. I mean, there was real drama every day he competed because he was either going to get his ass kicked in embarrassing fashion or his opponent was going to let up in embarrassing fashion. And somehow we reveled in the futility of it all.

Heading into the basho, Kisenosato was the major storyline, and after a shaky showing at the general soken keiko session, they replayed over and over a keiko session he had with Takakeisho a few days later where Kisenosato finished 8-1 against last tournament's champion. To watch the session was laughable because Takakeisho was going as hard (or soft?) against Kisenosato as Takakeisho's opponents usually go against him [Takakeisho] during hon-basho, but the media had it's headline: Kisenosato goes 8-1 against Takakeisho!! The sumo content was completely ignored as it always is, and so the media was able to instill hope into the fans that maybe this was the basho when Kisenosato would finally turn things around.

After his day 1 loss, instead of breaking down how inept the guy was, the banter was that of creating hope for tomorrow's bout. Could he win tomorrow? And then it carried over to the next day until finally, the dude just couldn't take it anymore and had to retire. This false hope that was built up so strongly basho after basho is now gone come March, and that's going to be the biggest loss due to Kisenosato's retirement. What do the Japanese fans now have to look forward to? Where is there new hope because it sure as hell isn't Takayasu or Goeido.

Giving Mitakeumi and Takakeisho yusho last year was important because there is a huge void to fill now that Japan no longer has a Yokozuna on the banzuke come Osaka. The problem there, however, is that none of the current crop of young Japanese rikishi have any true experience. With Kisenosato, you still had a guy who had gone toe to toe with Asashoryu and fired his fair share of hari-te into the former Yokozuna's face. Kisenosato was also the one who stopped Hakuho's win streak at 63 bouts in a row. I mean, the dude did have game once upon a time, but guys like Mitakeumi and Takakeisho are in the same class as Endoh: they're popular guys who have done exactly nothing in the ring. With Kisenosato (and Kotoshogiku and Goeido) the Ozeki ranks became a joke; the Yokozuna rank became a joke; and the yusho now means nothing, and so guys like Mitakeumi and Takakeisho have no substance to fall back on.

With Kisenosato, there was at least something there in the past. He used to be a pretty good rikishi. It's kind of like Kaio. It was just plain miserable to watch them try and keep Kaio afloat just so they could have a Japanese rikishi ranked at Ozeki, but Kaio was a stellar fighter in his day. The dude legitimately earned his Ozeki rank, and he was a multi-yusho rikishi who actually earned his championships. He fought back in the day when a Japanese guy could take a yusho and then post 13 wins the next basho and STILL be denied promotion to Yokozuna. It's an unthinkable circumstance today, but remember when sumo used to actually be good?? I do, and Kisenosato came from that era, so while it was extremely painful watching them throw bouts Kaio and Kisenosato's way the last few years of their careers, they still had something that was legitimate however long ago it was.

All that is gone now with the retirement of Kisenosato, so where does sumo go from here? I believe that one of the Mongolian Yokozuna will also retire soon to cover for Kisenosato just as they always did once he was promoted to Yokozuna, and it won't be long before they're all gone. It's just different now, and that's why there's some sadness with the departure of Kisenosato...as futile as he was. He's a figure from the past that will never be revisited in sumo again.

That's about a third of the various thoughts running through my head, but there are bouts to fight on the day, so let's get to 'em. M16 Daiamami and M15 Kotoeko hooked up in migi-yotsu after a slight henka to the right by Kotoeko from the tachi-ai, and instead of pressing in chest to chest, Kotoeko tried to wriggle out of harm's way despite his holding a shallow outer left. Daiamami used his size advantage to also grab the left outer grip, and once obtained, he threw Kotoeko down uwate-nage style as Kotoeko still tried to evade a straight up fight. I get it as Daiamami is so much larger, but Kotoeko should have planned a better tachi-ai than that weak henka. Daiamami moves to 2-3 while Kotoeko falls to 3-2.

M14 Yutakayama and M14 Chiyoshoma looked to hook up in hidari-yotsu, but as Yutakayama looked to evade laterally, Chiyoshoma just pulled him forward by the back of Yutakayama's right shoulder with the left while dragging his head forward with the right hand resulting in the easy kata-sukashi. When Chiyoshoma wants to win, he just dissects the competition at this level of the banzuke, and even against a dude with recent jo'i experience like Yutakayama, it still isn't close. Both rikishi are 3-2.

I think that roughly 80% of M16 Daishomaru's bouts are fixed. His wins are far too easy, and he shows no effort in most of his defeats. Today against, M13 Kotoyuki, however, the two fought in a straight-up contest, and there was nothing Daishomaru could do to defend himself from Kotoyuki's tsuki/oshi attack. Before he could really set up a pull, Kotoyuki bullied him back and across the straw without argument. Daishomaru falls to 0-5 after the loss and better put a crowbar to his billfold soon. As for Kotoyuki, he improves to 3-2.

I think M13 Yago is the next Chiyotairyu, and by that a mean a force to be reckoned with among the Japanese rikishi if he fights straight up. The problem with Chiyotairyu is that the Kokonoe-beya is so caught up in politics that Tairyu is usually on a tight leash, so we'll see what happens with Yago, a guy more adept at belt fighting than Chiyotairyu. Today against M15 Chiyonokuni, Yago let his opponent dictate the pace, and so Chiyonokuni was able to nudge the rookie back near the straw with mild pushes and threats of pull. On the brink, Yago finally went for the belt and got it in the form a right outer grip with the left inside position, and then it was his turn to drive Chiyonokuni back to the straw. Just when you thought Yago was going to give his gal that goodnight kiss, Chiyonokuni slipped to the side and tried to turn the tables on Yago with a right kote-nage that never formed and then a left tsuki-otoshi, but Yago never let go of that right belt grip, and he used it to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by pulling Chiyonokuni down to the dirt by that belt grip as he twisted out of harm's way. Twas a nifty move indeed, and while Chiyonokuni coulda been mukiryoku there at the edge, I really like Yago who moves to 4-1. Chiyonokuni falls to the same mark.

M12 Kagayaki proactively fired thrusts into M12 Meisei, but there was just the slightest amount of hesitation on his part, and so pushed against the edge, Meisei was able to dart left and grab Kagayaki's extended right arm and pull the phlebotomist down to a 1-4 record. Kagayaki could have done more to react to Meisei's moving left, but he likely just dove down like that on purpose. Meisei picks up the quick and dirty win at 3-2.

Speaking of drawing blood, it's been interesting to watch M11 Ikioi deal with that couch cushion he has stapled to his forehead after Kagayaki gashed him on day 1. It was definitely bothering him the first few days, but today against M10 Takarafuji, Ikioi actually lead with his head in driving Takarafuji straight back once, twice, three times a lady with a perfect oshi attack. Isegahama is known to freely use his guys like pawns in the ring, and I suspect that Takarafuji just let up against Ikioi here keeping his arms out wide the entire time. Both rikishi end the day at 2-3.

Sadanoumi and Endoh looked to hook up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Endoh was able to maki-kae quickly with the right arm and secure moro-zashi. He used the advantageous position to drive Sadanoumi back near the edge, but Sadanoumi maintained a stubborn left outer grip that enabled him to move laterally and force Endoh clear across the dohyo and pu against the edge. During the melee, Endoh lost the firm left inside position, and so the two grappled in the center of the ring with Endoh looking to regain moro-zashi and Sadanoumi looking for migi-yotsu. With Endoh pinching Sadanoumi's right arm low, Umi finally relinquished and grabbed a right outer grip giving him two outers and restoring Endoh's moro-zashi. Sadanoumi was able to work Endoh back to the straw, but he didn't have the momentum to get him over, and so Endoh turned the tables beautifully leading with the left arm to knock Sadanoumi off of his perch, turn the tables, and then force him down abise-taoshi style. This was easily one of the best fought bouts of the tournament, and it's so easy to tell real sumo vs. mukiryoku sumo. Great job from Endoh who moves to 3-2 while Sadanoumi falls to 2-3.

M10 Abi's tsuppari had little effect against M8 Kaisei who just stood there at the tachi-ai and absorbed it with ease. With Abi making no progress with tsuppari, everyone knew the pull was coming, and once it did, Kaisei knocked Abi back with a single volley using both hands. Kaisei's still perfect at 5-0 while Abi falls to 3-2.

M8 Asanoyama and M7 Daieisho traded tit for tat at the tachi-ai trading a few ineffective blows each, and after about two seconds, Daieisho said, "Enough of this nonsense" and perfectly timed a slapdown of Asanoyama's arms as he attempted his next volley of thrusts. Daieisho is a quiet 2-3 while Asanoyama falls to 0-5.

M6 Onosho is rikishi who they're building back up with plenty of yaocho, but today against M5 Yoshikaze, the youngster didn't need the help. With Yoshikaze doing nothing, Onosho concentrated on moving forward firing thrust after thrust into Yoshikaze's torso, and he had Cafe back and across in mere seconds drawing the tsuki-dashi win. Good de-ashi here from Onosho who moves to 5-0- while Yoshikaze falls to 0-5.

M7 Ryuden came with his head too low at the tachi-ai, and M5 Aoiyama just couldn't resist going for a mammoth pull straightway that didn't work entirely, but it knocked Ryuden off balance enough to where Aoiyama was able to tsuppari him upright and then pull him back across to the other side of the dohyo. Easy peasy Japanesey for Aoiyama who moves to 4-1 with the win while Ryuden falls to 2-3.

M6 Chiyotairyu and M4 Okinoumi never were in sync at the tachi-ai, and when they finally went, Chiyotairyu was lost allowing Okinoumi to force the bout to hidari-yotsu. Chiyotairyu gave up at this point going along for the yotsu ride as Okinoumi grabbed the right outer grip and easily spun Chiyotairyu over and down with an uwate-nage. It'd be nice to see a little bit more effort from Chiyotairyu, but how can you blame the dude as he falls to 2-3?  Okinoumi outpaces him by one at 3-2.

M2 Hokutofuji welcomed M4 Kotoshogiku with open arms--literally--at the tachi-ai allowing Kotoshogiku to easily get his left arm inside and wrench Hokutofuji upright. From there, Kotoshogiku attempted a really weak scoop throw that didn't fell Hokutofuji to the clay, but it was enough of an excuse for Hokutofuji to just run himself clear outta the dohyo. No harm no foul as both rikishi end the day at 3-2.

As they flashed the previous head to head meetings between Sekiwake Tamawashi and Komusubi Mitakeumi, it showed Mitakeumi with a 14-2 advantage overall and a 6-0 record last year. As if. I always point out the yaocho and mukiryoku sumo in the ring, but this is a clear indication using sheer numbers about how farcical things have become. But...they ain't buying tickets to see Tamawashi, so his tsuppari tachi-ai was half-assed lacking any de-ashi as he waited for Mitakeumi to kinda get the right arm inside. It wasn't enough to force a quality rikishi like Tamawashi back, but it was with a compliant Tamawashi, and so the ending was bland as Tamawashi walked himself across the straw as Mitakeumi tried to keep up with a few shoves drawing the oshi-dashi kimari-te. Easy yaocho call here as Mitakeumi move to 5-0 while Tamawashi takes his lumps at 3-2.

Up next was Sekiwake Takakeisho who was easily exposed yesterday by Mitakeumi. When his opponents don't let up for him, Takakeisho's oshi attack is about as potent as an old dude without his blue diamonds. Today against Komusubi Myogiryu, the latter just stood upright with arms extended waiting for Takakeisho to push him back. Course, Myogiryu did attempt that skillful tactic of kicking one leg forward into empty space at the tawara. I mean, that moves really keeps a guy balanced and grounded to the dohyo well, but not against Takakeisho!! The Sekiwake is gifted his 4-1 start while Myogiryu graciously falls to 1-4.

Ozeki Takayasu's tachi-ai was ineffective as he sloppily nudged M3 Shodai back with a few shoves, but the Ozeki left himself so open that Shodai was able to get the left arm to the inside and execute a scoop throw that knocked Takayasu out of his comfort zone. As the two reloaded, Takayasu was still too high, and so Shodai was able to get the right arm to the inside, and he used that to drive Takayasu back near the edge where next got the left arm inside giving him moro-zashi, and from there, the Ozeki was completely defenseless as Shodai forced him down hard to the arena floor. Takayasu was laying there at the base of the dohyo for a few seconds, and it kinda reminded me of Kisenosato. For those of you who have watched sumo as long as I have, how can you not compare "Ozeki" Takayasu with the former greats from the Heisei Era and not just roll your eyes. It really is pathetic what they've done to the Ozeki rank as Takayasu falls to 2-3 while Shodai improves to the same mark.

At this point of the broadcast they announced the withdrawal of Ozeki Tochinoshin. If you're interested in what the falsified injury report says, it mentions something about a muscle tear. Tochinoshin has been covering for the Japanese Ozeki ever since he received promotion, and this basho is no different. Shohozan picks up the freebie at 2-3.

M1 Tochiohzan had a pretty good tachi-ai against Ozeki Goeido getting the right arm inside and firm left outer grip, but he applied no pressure against the Ozeki, and so Goeido was also able to work his left crocodile arm into an outer grip. With Tochiohzan happy to go backwards, Goeido just pressed forward sending Tochiohzan back and across easy as you please. When Tochiohzan attempts to win, he usually goes for a pull and he sometimes still attempts to finagle moro-zashi, but he made no effort whatsoever today despite his good tachi-ai. Goeido is gifted his first win of the tournament while Tochiohzan falls to the same 1-4 record.

Yokozuna Kakuryu was lethargic as he hooked up with M1 Ichinojo in migi-yotsu and rather than establish the firm position, Kakuryu went for a half-assed pull signaling his intentions at this point. As Ichinojo moved back towards his prey, the two hooked up in migi-yotsu again, and the Yokozuna just gave away the left outer grip. Ichinojo dug in as he is wont to do and he firmed up that left outer grip, but with the Mongolith of know mind to do much, Kakuryu went for a right scoop throw that threw the Slug sideways to the point where Kakuryu actually grabbed a left frontal grip that was an outer. From here, Kakuryu could have easily pinched in and rendered Ichinojo's left useless, but he did nothing but wait for Ichinojo to attempt a force-out charge, and when it came, Kakuryu just walked back and across. Look, I've seen Mongolians when they want to win at all costs, and Kakuryu certainly did not want to win this one. The result is Kakuryu's falling to 2-3 while Ichinojo moves to 4-1.

It's too bad that sumo is incapable of producing good bouts of sumo the last 35 minutes of the broadcast similar to what Endoh and Sadanoumi treated us to earlier, but that's just the way it's been for years now.

The final bout of the day featured Yokozuna Hakuho who has shown that he is more than willing to give up a win if someone can just take it. Gone is that stifling right inside left outer grip tachi-ai that no one in sumo has ever been able to solve. Ever. Now all we have, though, is Hakuho hopping around the dohyo like a Mexican jumping bean waiting for someone to take advantage. Today against M2 Nishikigi, Hakuho actually gave us a taste of his patented tachi-ai jumping the gun early when it didn't count, and then after the two reloaded, Hakuho softened up his charge considerably gaining the left arm inside but refusing to hunker down with the right outer grip. Nishikigi complied with his own left inside, but he wasn't in any position to attack as the Yokozuna had him standing upright. Hakuho kept himself upright and mounted a light charge, and Nishikigi's reaction was to go for a mediocre kote-nage with the right, but Hakuho played along just stiffening up and letting his body fall to the dirt.

The referee ruled in favor of Nishikigi, but a mono-ii was called where they determined that at the point Hakuho touched out, Nishikigi's feet were both out of the dohyo even though the airborne M2 had yet to touch down. They could have gone either way with this one, but they ruled it a tie and ordered a do-over. Before we get to next bout, I've seen Hakuho go for a yori-kiri charge, and this was not it. When the Yokozuna wants to defeat someone by yori-kiri, he's squatting low just as they teach 'em, and at the end, he's facing the outside of the ring squatting with both arms still i position to strike.

Anyway, they ruled it a tie to the disappointment of the crowd, and in round two, Hakuho was back to his wild self keeping both arms open at the tachi-ai as he skirted left throwing a wild kote-nage. The move created separation and then as Nishikigi looked to recover, Hakuho moved right going for a wild pull before moving left at the edge and hooking the back of Nishikigi's belt with his left fingers dispatching the M2 forward and out in a wild and crazy bout. This one was close as well, but Hakuho was the decisive winner, and it's another win for the Yokozuna who is just dicking around. The end result is Nishikigi's falling to his first loss while Hakuho moves to 5-0.

It was another typical day of sumo that included all of the elements we're used to seeing:

- A lackluster ending once we reach the sanyaku bouts
- Yaocho in favor of the darlings
- Poor performances by the Ozeki
- Mukiryoku sumo from the Yokozuna
- A few bouts early on with entertaining sumo

Gary makes it two out of three tomorrow.

Day 4 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all, for the three and a half people that don't know, Kisenosato retired today. I never liked him so I'm the wrong person to write his obituary. I'll leave that up to Mike tomorrow. For today I'll just add that he was there to give sumo the shot in the arm it needed. The patient (including me) lived through the unpleasant medicine and a new era is fading in. He was the best Japanese rikishi of his generation and that already made him a Yokozuna in their eyes anyway. His replacement is already among us. We don't know his name but we're looking straight at him.

Sumo elder Nishiiwa was quoted in the Japan Times with this "At the end, people saw him as a weak wrestler but he did enough. It was impressive the way he chased that one win. Unarguably strong Yokozuna are okay too, but I like Yokozuna like Kisenosato who look and act desperate on the dohyo."

I thought the quality of sumo action today was fantastic by the way. Bring on 2019!

Chiyonokuni (M15e) 3-0 vs. Aminishiki (J3e) 1-2
Aminishiki tried to pull an old man trick today (I wonder why?) he dragged two false starts out of Chiyonokuni who then came out slow for the third try, giving the sly old dog a nice forward step across the dohyo. When he got there Aminishiki was pushed away. No sumo required. A tsuki-dashi win that was always going to happen tricks or no tricks.

Chiyonokuni is a wonderfully mediocre nobody. He has no physical advantage he can develop a style around, no go-to move to get him out of trouble, no phase of the bout where he excels, nothing. That's why I like him, he has to fight hard for his chanko each and every day. I'm expecting his fangs to be bared all the way to kachi-koshi. Grrrrr.

Daishomaru (M16w) 0-3 vs. Kotoeko (M15w) 2-1
Daishomaru remains win-less with a quick loss to hiki-otoshi. And so he should with this sort of garbage sumo. Rikishi have for a century and more trained to be stable, to keep their balance. This guy just threw all that out in his desperation to disengage with tiny tears Kotoeko. Grrrrr.

Yutakayama (M14e) 2-1 vs. Daiamami (M16e) 1-2
I admire the weight distribution on Yutakayama. Wide, chunky and low it's suitable for both inner city ramen-ya hopping and off road sumo where grinding-the-gears stability is key. There must still be a problem with his wheels because it took him an age to muscle big Mami out by oshi-dashi. But he got there in the end.

Chiyoshoma (M14w) 2-1 vs. Kotoyuki (M13w) 1-2
I had to smile at this one. Chiyoshoma stood up and tried to deflect Koto to the side with his arms but manfully hold his ground with his feet at the same time. Kotoyuki just ploughed (plowed) through him tsuki-dashi and then looked all casual and cool as though he does this sort of thing every day. He's drawn Daishomaru tomorrow so he just might.

Kagayaki (M12e) 1-2 vs. Yago (M13e) 2-1
Kagayaki nearly had this one early by force-out when Yago's thrusts were loaded with blanks. Big boy Yago recovered well and brought it back to the centre with matching inside lefts. Another push for victory by Kagayaki was ruined when he went make-kae for that little extra boost and Yago pounced driving his man all the way to the other side for the yori-kiri win.

Yago is hoped to be the next big thing by some. But he's not that big. Or that strong. Or that tall. Or that special. He's OK. He belongs here I'm sure. But if you want to know what special feels like when it arrives, look at the Mongolian Terunofuji or the Estonian Baruto or the Mongolian Ichinojo. See the difference?

Meisei (M12w) 1-2 vs. Ikioi (M11w) 1-2
What happened to that no bleeding on the dohyo rule that saw the female paramedic hassled by the referee? Ikioi is a bulging fire hydrant of gore, just waiting to drench everyone at the prom.

We were lucky he decided to move his head to the side at the start but that gave Meisei a nice, solid stance. Ikioi tried to surge again but the difference in footwork meant that he never managed to get in close with Meisei. The walking zombie corpse of Ikioi was half dragged off his feet, half stumbled when he couldn't keep up for a fast and wild kote-nage.

Sumo is speeding up with the youth movement.

Takarafuji (M10e) 1-2 vs. Sadanoumi (M11e) 2-1
Takarafuji surprised his boy with a normal speed tachi-ai today. Sadanoumi over reached with his lead leg and just didn't get given the time to put down to the clay. Jolted by a bigger man forcing himself onto poor sad-man, he recoiled back and never truly recovered from the experience. A strong yori-kiri win for Taka.

Abi (M10w) 2-1 vs. Endo (M9w) 2-1
Ah sumo, you still deliver a variety of treats to the masses. Today handsome Abi battled even handsomer Endo to see who gets his face shoved in most and who ends the bout with his ass exposed to the ceiling light for the photo op. One oshi-taoshi later and it was Endo crashing off the dohyo. With his pert, pale cheeks exposed. Again.

Ryuden (M7e) 1-2 vs. Asanoyama (M8w) 0-3
Ryuden must be getting a reputation as a pretty good mawashi man because every other opponent is tying a very loose looking knot when they face him. Ryuden got his right hand in and sure enough the single strand of silk gave way instantly but we then got to see the best yotsu bout of the day.

Ryuden worked this one masterfully. He has some Hakuho-like moves (kinda). An alternating mix of hip and grip use to both defend and put away Asanoyama with a strong yori-kiri. Strangely, Asanoyama looked far better today than the first three days combined. Oh well, he has Daieisho next so a win might just happen soon.

Kaisei (M8e) 3-0 vs. Daieisho (M7w) 1-2
I have to confess I burst out laughing at Kaisei last basho (vs. Takakeisho) I thought it was hilariously bad but today I laughed out loud along with Kaisei. A man amongst boys he just stood his ground and waited for the insipid oshi attack of Daieisho to dribble away.

When he rumbled forward he claimed the prize for biggest oshi-taoshi of the year. I know it's only January but Daieisho's prone body was seven feet away from the guy who shoved him over. It was almost unfair, poor Daieisho.

Kaisei has announced his candidacy for the leader-board good and early with some beautiful sumo. I'm waiting to see what sort of ugly defeats are coming his way, because they are.

Aoiyama (M5e) 3-0 vs. Onosho (M6w) 3-0
A terrific match-up early on with this pair both undefeated and looking very good. Takakeisho and Mitakeumi have tap danced naked in the spotlight and taken all the attention, but Onosho is developing at a hell of a rate.

The bout looked for a moment to be yet another good one with Aoiyama cracking a right hand to Onosho's melon sending him stumbling around and down. But when Onosho got up he made a big play of messing with his hair until a hand was raised and everybody had to leave their comfy cushions to give him a win by the hair-pulling foul of hansoku.

The fingers were in the hair, Onosho's head was turned to the side by them, so a legitimate call. Everybody happy? No, not quite.  Aoiyama was most displeased because he had absolutely destroyed his foe in two seconds flat and there was no come back possible from Onosho. But them's the breaks. Keep your sticky fingers to yourself.

Chiyotairyu (M6e) 1-2 vs. Yoshikaze (M5w) 0-3
Three gentle shoves to set the tackle dummy up followed by one simple hataki-komi leads to a win for Chiyotairyu. Raise your hand if you were surprised. No? Yoshikaze looked miserable afterwards, perhaps the doom clouds of retirement are going to rain on more than one rikishi.

I grew to like "Lil' Yoshi" during the middle part of his career. Win or lose he took no bull plop from much bigger guys or from the three Ozeki amigos at the height of their, er, powers. Getting his battered snout to the Sanyaku trough when more obvious choices meekly faded to M2.

He's not that ancient but the overachieving has taken it's toll on a body that didn't match his spirit to begin with. I hope his doesn't turn my love into hate by serving the bull just to keep going. Does anyone (except Yoshikaze's mum) think he has a legitimate chance to make eight?

He has a piddled off Aoiyama tomorrow, I have a car crash fascination for that bout.

Shodai (M3e) 1-2 vs. Okinoumi (M4w) 1-2
The mellow man tried to deal with Okinoumi's hazu-oshi attempt by giving up ground to his opponent. How much did he give up? All of it. Those that live by the marsh-mellow sword die by it's soft, sugary blade. Easy oshi-dashi win for whoever is Shodai's opponent, it just happened to be Okinoumi today.

Kotoshogiku (M4e) 2-1 vs. Shohozan (M3w) 0-3
Last basho these two stole the show when they met with Kotoshogiku coming out on top and looking like a million dollars. The uninspiring Shohozan has his first win by oshi-dashi despite Koto grabbing an obvious fistful of hair, hanging on to it but not pulling him down. I'm not connecting the two events. That's all in your mind.

Takakeisho (S1e) 3-0 vs. Mitakeumi (K1w) 3-0
A rematch of the oh-so-shocking highlight from Kyushu with both looking strong and up for it, yes please!

And Mitakeumi does it again. Need a parade piddled on? He's your boy. He withstood the irresistible wave-action by getting into his strong stance. He brushed aside the left hand swipe that felled three mighty Kyushu dragons in a row by stepping into his opponent. He forced out Takakeisho by, err, being a lot better at yotsu sumo.

There's a smell of future rivalry developing here. These two dogs want the same bone and it doesn't look like they will share it. If sumo was as tough and competitive as ladies figure skating one of these two would be due a knee re-alignment from very heavy assailants in Donald Trump masks.

Tamawashi (S1w) 2-1 vs. Tochinoshin (O2w) 0-3
Tamawashi drove Tochi right to the straw with a strong nodowa. Tochinoshin wriggled out but was followed mercilessly and run out a second later. That was a one sided blow-out, much like Tochinoshin's legs.

Jokes aside, this is the injury that ends Tochinoshin's career. His style (singular) relies so much on absorbing stress through those legs and hips that they can never fully recover whilst active. And that thought doesn't make me happy.

Ichinojo (M1w) 2-1 vs. Goeido (O1w) 0-3
Ichinojo is fun to watch. He soaked up a strong drive for the edge from Goeido at the start and then became "difficult to move" when Goeido foolishly took moro-zashi. As hard as the Ozeki tried (the Ozeki is Goeido by the way) to get his opponent to the edge he was being slowly suffocated in shoulder blubber.

In the same way that a Spanish bull drops it's head and the matador knows it's time. Ichinojo's opponents eventually put their feet back and straighten their bodies, their heaving bellies the only movement. Ichinojo knows. Yori-kiri from the man you don't want moro-zashi on.

Still hurting from last basho's injury, Goeido has been taken on mano a mano and found lacking this basho but no-one will notice or care with the Kisenosato "thing". A free ride has arrived just in time. Goeido is always in the right place at the right time through-out his career. If this guy misses a jungyo tour bus with all the top ranks on it, Hakuho had better get off. It's going to go over a bridge in flames and Goeido will take the next two yusho by default.

Takayasu (O1e) 1-2 vs. Tochiohzan (M1e) 1-2
It was Tochiohzan that hammered in the final nail in Kisenosato's coffin. Did Takayasu look to gain a little pay-back for his heya-mate? Papa bear was frowning today. Grrrrr. He bounced Tochiohzan's head off his shoulder to start and then let rip with some good looking thrusts for a fast tsuki-dashi win. Takayasu certainly needed the wins for his own flu-ridden sumo but maybe there was just a little extra on this one?

Tochiohzan has a near 3:1 career advantage over big bear. The Ozeki may have been a slow developer but holy heck that's some good going from Tochi-san. The S.A should start a new honorary rank for this guy. What's Japanese for gatekeeper-tough-stud?

Kakuryu (Y2e) 1-2 vs. Myogiryu (K1e) 1-2
Kakuryu has trouble with the quick ones like Myogiryu, fortunately for him sumo hasn't had too many of them. He nearly lost it when Myogiryu turned the Yokozuna's thrusting attack aside and charged in for the kill. Nearly but not quite. Kakuryu is a light footed guy and he sprang out of there whilst taking control of Myogiryu's head, no hair pulling this time.

Kakuryu instantly turned retreat into a full blooded attack with a massive right nodowa quickly followed by a massive left nodowa to get the oshi-dashi victory. Good aggressive sumo from both men here.

Hokutofuji (M2w) 3-0 vs. Hakuho (Y1w) 3-0
Holy heck Hokutofuji, you wonderful, genki boy you! An undefeated Maegashira going toe to toe with a legend. A bout so razor close the mono-ii needed a slow-mo mono-ii. What's not to love?

Hakuho went for the early outside left. When that came up short he used it to turn his boy aside. Hokutofuji withstood it and the two were now squared up with four limbs flying. This is Hokutofuji's specialty and the thrust and slap fest was on!

Insane but true the rikishi that broke through his opponent's defenses was Hokutofuji, and he drove his way forward in an awe inspiring show of balls, I mean technique. Any other rikishi would have fallen to him. Hakuho was bent backwards from a thrust to the head putting his entire upper body over the tawara, both his arms flailing wide, one leg up in the air. Compromised beyond all hope.

And then Hakuho won. Legend.

Kisenosato (Y1e) 0-3 vs. Nishikigi (M2e) 3-0
Nishikigi has been denied. He has been denied a kinboshi. He has been denied his time in the spotlight with all Japan watching. He has been denied the finest run of victories in his entire career. Nishikigi has been denied greatness!

Although he has also been given a walk-over win and he can now cross the road in Tokyo traffic confident he will not be taken out by an 80 year old in a hit and run incident. Kisenosato nooooo!

Smile folks, the worst is over.

As a side note I see a lot of daily reporting going on in the comments from perfectly knowledgeable people with a lot to say. I also repeatedly see Harvye asking for some help with the site, to share the workload. How about bringing the two things together and emailing him?

Mike gets two sumo legends going head to head for day 5, it's the big one, Hakuho vs. Nishikigi.

Day 3 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
I was very interested in Mike's view of the recent Takanoiwa resignation and the whole tidying up of this "calamitoshambles" side show. As he said, there are now no witnesses on active duty within the Sumo association. The Yakuza element, of course adds extra colour and intrigue and probably will never be substantiated and is purely hypothetical. If more info comes to light, I am very eager to hear it.

More importantly let's focus briefly on the on-going dilapidated ship wreck that is Kisenosato. I am writing this before his next bout against Tochiohzan who himself will feel he deserves some bonus cash after two close misses against the other two Yokozunas. The Sumo association is desperate to keep a Japanese Yokozuna, if not on the dohyo then on paper at least. They have crapped in their own pants and now need to get used to the smell. The Kiso-situation denial is spreading like lantana. The President, Hakkaku is seemingly blind to Kiso's recent record, stating that all he needs is a change of attitude. Kiso's attitude is fine, it's his ability which is in a death-roll and nowadays he can barely speak sumo as a second language; a sad state of affairs. How they must be hoping Takakeisho can continue his surging form. Kiso needs to somehow save face for them until Takakeisho or Mitakeumi can be fast-tracked to Ozeki then Yokozuna so to all intents and purposes they can maintain the belief in the strength of Japanese sumo. No-one wants another embarrassing tournament withdrawal from Kiso. How much kensho has been budgeted for, I wonder?

My wife, who loves watching Sumo, actively barracks against Kisenosato and rejoices in his every loss. "Who will take his place once he's gone?" I ask her.

I expect seismic changes in the top ranks over the next year if not 6 months with all except Hakuho looking fragile; an eager crew beneath them hungry and sensing the transition.

J1 Daishoho (1-1) vs. M15 Kotoeko (1-1)
So, one Mongol in Takanoiwa has departed and we welcome another in Daishoho. He has been consistent in Juryo, steadily working up the ranks with wins over several more experienced opponents. I have never seen him before, and Kotoeko only a couple of times, so keen to see them at it. And perhaps some wrestling.
Daishoho was excited. So excited he ignored the sissy slap from Kotoeko and leapt into his waiting arms.
Kotoeko accepted this gift of affection and summarily herded the newcomer across the ropes with the kimari-te judged as okuri-dashi - 'rear push out'. Which may have been Daishoho's intention from the outset.

M15 Chiyonokuni (2-0) vs. M16 Daishomaru (0-2)
I like Chiyonokuni, always have. I appreciate his tension and energetic vibe, a working advertisement to the benefits of vitamin B. His pre-tachi-ai has more snap, crackle and pop than a bowl of rice bubbles. He is 28 years old and been around awhile yet has never progressed higher than M1. Some suggest he is too small, yet he is listed at 145kg which is at least 10kg more than Harumafuji and 12 less than Kakuryu. He has shown excellent flexibility and quickness of foot and always starts each bout with enthusiasm. So why is just a lower middling rikishi? Is he even worth discussing? I suggest that each bout he has no clear idea of how to win, he just reacts to his opponent on the day. It's kept him in Makuuchi and credit to him for this, but I always feel he should be in San'yaku on a regular basis, if only he could find his, wait for it…..brand of sumo. Ha! What a crap, hackneyed expression and I've gone and used it. Daishomaru has been heading south, too and I don't expect Chiyo to hold him up.

A henka from Daishomaru but Chiyo was onto him. Daisho seemed to be at a loss to do anything else so Chiyo accepted his gift for an easy win. I think Daishomaru should review his tactics.

M16 Daiamami (1-1) vs. M14 Chiyoshoma (1-1)
When Chiyoshoma is on he is one of the more entertaining rikishi on display and the most skillful. I'm sure Daiamami was as impressed as I was when Chiyo latched his right paw onto Mami's mawashi with the dexterity and speed of a thieving macaque. From here Chiyo slung-hurled Mami uwate-nage to the floor. Beautifully crafted take down from a smaller guy on an opponent 50 kgs heavier. Nothing genki about Daiamami.

M13 Yago (1-1) vs. M13 Kotoyuki (1-1)
Kotoyuki was aggressive against Meisei who is much smaller than today's opponent, Yago who has been a steady performer in Juryo, has size, and we'll soon see if he has much else. He and Kotoyuki buffeted and shoved each other before Yago attempted a pull without earning the right. As he pulled, Yuki just stormed forward so Yago obliged with another pull, stepped aside and the hapless Yuki stormed into the spectators. Yago collects another win.

M14 Yutakayama (2-0) vs. M12 Meisei (0-2)
Meisei came hard, low in to Yutakayama's breadbasket and didn't let up. Yutakayama assisted Meisei somewhat with a retreat and a pull about as useful as a crocheted condom. Regulation yori-kiri win for Meisei.

M11 Sadanoumi (1-1) vs. M11 Ikioi (1-1)
We last saw Ikioi looking more busted than a broken piss-pot, limping from the dohyo, head-bandage battered askew, sadder than a lost orphan. I've always thought that if he could only relax on the dohyo, loosen up, he'd be twice or thrice as effective. He looks the goods. He's also my wife's second favourite rikishi (after Kakuryu). His set up is carefully staged; impressive as he sucks in all his perceived tension and drama during his routine. And there it stays, bound tight within him until a flurry of nervous energy inevitably sees him fall flat on his grimacing bonce.

Today's bout we witnessed the battle of the bandages with Sadanoumi clearly trying to outdo Ikioi's gauze with his own healthy padding taped to his forehead resembling from a distance, half a loaf of bread. "Bonecrusher" Kagayaki was the cause of his head wound, too.

Ikioi's limp was gone and along with a fresh dressing, he bounced in brighter than a hooker's promise.
Business as usual. There was a solid oomph to open proceedings but again the guy hitting lower, in this case Sadanoumi, gained initial advantage and didn't let up, scoring a rewarding yori-kiri victory. As for Ikioi, all froth and no beer.

M12 Kagayaki (1-1) vs. M10 Abi (1-1)
Whatever becomes of Abi he will be remembered for his extraordinarily graceful shiko. Like a dog taking a long piss against a wall. His sumo technique, however, is less grace more panic, and can be loosely described as that of one person desperately attempting to keep a flea infested leper the hell-away from his body.

I find it hard to take Kagayaki seriously as although he is a sizeable physical specimen, his mostly manly attributes are off-set by his sweet little man-titties. My money was on Kagayaki as I figured he would stick to his usual game plan of tight, methodical forward advance, looking for the oshi-dashi force out. Abi did his usual thing of keeping Kaga away from him with rapid fire thrusts, drawing Kaga in then followed a quick step backwards allowing Kaga to sprawl forwards with a legitimate hataki-komi slap down. Kaga will have to wait until his day 4 bout with Yago for another head splitting opportunity.

M10 Takarafuji (0-2) vs. M8 Asanoyama (0-2)
Balance, the key to any sport. Takarafuji kept his, Asanoyama had none. They came together, Asa lost his footing and "Fufi guided his fall with a nice elbow hold and the bus driver is on the scoreboard.

M8 Kaisei (2-0) vs. M9 Endo (2-0)
If Endo is regarded as a Sumo sex-symbol, surely that symbol is a question mark? Before his injury last basho, Kaisei was showing strong and sure-footed sumo, utilizing his assets of strength and size. Expect Kaisei to account for Endo and also expect to see him ranked higher next basho.

Kaisei gained a right-hand hold on Endo's belt and from there I though it would be a quick finish. Endo also had a mawashi grip and ably resisted Kaisei's attempts to throw him and even managed two hands on the bigger guy's belt. Kaisei was persistent, and withstanding him proved too much for the golden boy as Kaisei eventually achieved the uwate-nage throw he was trying for. Endo was brave to take on Kaisei in this fashion and the bout was better for it.

M7 Ryuden (1-1) vs. M6 Onosho (2-0)
When you see these guys on the screen together you can easily forget how big they are. Onosho doesn't look overly big on the telly, but I saw him interviewed on NHK by a normal sized man and the contrast between them was stark. Onosho is massive. At 160 kgs and built low to the ground, like Takakeisho he is an awkward boulder of a boy. Ryuden is positively svelte in comparison but whereas he seems destined to hover in the middle and lower ranks, Onosho looks to be on the way up. I think his physique is limiting but Takakeisho has a yusho so what do I know.

Onosho was keen and jumped the blocks once in a false start. Second time around and he was immediately dominant. His initial strong shoves were briefly blighted by his own hesitant pull before he launched forward and Ryuden, with some token resistance, had no chance. Onosho, as he was driving forward had the opportunity for a stabilizing belt hold but didn't take it. As he progresses, he may need it against better opposition. 3-0 for Onosho.

M6 Chiyotairyu (0-2) vs M7 Daieisho (2-0)
Heavy clash of foreheads at the tachi-ai, 'Tairyu went harder and lower second time around in a reckless torpedo dive from which Daieisho offered little resistance, retreating across the bales. Sloppy win for 'Tairyu.

M5 Aoiyama (2-0) vs. M4 Okinoumi (1-1)
Daniel is off to a strong start and I just hope he remembers how it came to be. If he stays aggressive, the Oki has no chance. Well he went exactly to plan and with his admirable strength, mowed Oki down like a strip of grass in the back lawn. 3 and 0 for Daniel.

M4 Kotoshogiku (1-1) vs. M5 Yoshikaze (0-2)
A straight forward, linear tachi-ai blast from the two but Giku is heavier and stronger than Yoshi and it was over very quickly. Yoshi had no chance and gave in easily. It seems he has less that scrappy attitude, and as though his girth has grown in its place.

M3 Shodai (0-2) v M3 Shohozan (0-2)
Shodai was brutalized by Tamawashi yesterday and will relish the much smaller Shohozan today and neither will want to be 0 and 3, so expecting a tussle. Shohozan was up and into Shodai's throat as if the guy owed him money. Shodai shook it off, bullied Shohozan to the edge and finished him off with some neck thrusts of his own. Shodai is now in the hunt.

S Takakeisho (2-0) v S Tamawashi (2-0)
I'm expecting Tamawashi to compete in the manner his fans (I'm one of them) expect of him. Takakeisho is in a patch more purple than Grafton jacarandas (excuse the Aussie imagery) and although he looks as though he's incapable of wiping his own back-side, he's gained a hard-hitting reputation, and with it, confidence and surety. He knows his strengths and has a simple plan - hit hard and repeat. If he doesn't resort to unnecessary pulling, it should continue to serve him well. Last meet he disposed of Tama easily. I'm hoping for a better contest today.

I shouldn't be surprised by 'Keisho's strength but I think Tamawashi was. They went toe to toe with 'keisho ignoring Tama's attempts to slap his head off and matching him body blow after body blow with Tama using all his strength to keep 'keisho at bay. They traded salvos while eye-balling each other in between. Tama attempted a sort of right hook which 'keisho ducked under and drove Tama out for an impressive win by oshi-dashi.

K Mitakeumi (2-0) v O Goeido (0-2)
Goeido is in trouble and if that isn't bad enough he has a weird, mole-type growth on his stomach. He is in poor form due to an injury or not, though its difficult to tell as he normally has the ebullience and joie de vivre of a valium-infused concrete traffic bollard. Mitakeumi is always strong in week one and confident after impressively dismissing a Yokozuna yesterday. Goeido may have to resume his henka-ing ways to notch his first win. Mitakeumi started well with his favourite, up and in thrusting drives but eased off allowing Goeido a mawashi grip, in doing so driving Mita back. From there I thought was over but Mita swiveled and threw Goeido and his mole to the dirt.

O Takayasu (1-1) v M2 Hokutofuji (2-0
Takayasu will need more than lady-luck and a dubious ruling from the judges to best the tenacious Hokutofuji today. I like 'Fuji. He keeps his hips low and tries to drive on the up and always move forward. Takayasu has the poor habit of looking for the easy slap down and it detracts his rank and ability. Apparently, he is also recovering from the flu. I like the way they both set themselves back from the white markers at the tachi-ai giving ample room for the opening launch. 'Fuji faded left and in to 'Yasu keeping low as planned and 'Yasu upright. 'Yasu moved forward with some solid tsuppari but 'Fuji stepped right this time leaving 'Yasu off balance and with his back to 'Fuji, whereupon 'Fuji was all over the Ozeki, shoving him into the seats. A good win for 'Fuji and an ugly loss for 'Yasu.

K Myogiryu (0-2) v O Tochinoshin (0-2)
Is Tochinoshin physically suffering? Clearly his injury last July has seen him below his immense potential best and treading water, such that he was beaten yesterday when he was in a clear favoured position of strength. This time last year Myogiryu was on his way to the Juryo championship and now their paths meet.

Shin started well with hefty shoves forcing 'Giryu back. 'Giryu did well to slip inside with a double belt grip and just like that he had Shin upright then backwards and out. Clever work from Myogiryu and The Shin is still winless.

M1 Ichinojo (2-0) v Y Hakuho (2-0)
This bout looks good on the face of it, though rarely amounts to much.
Ichinojo starts at the tachi-ai with the energy of a polar bear de-frosting, but when he is in serious play-mode, he is capable of acts of sudden, orgiastic violence. Today I expect The Hak to herd Ichi back to his cave.  Well Ichi wasn't about to let Hak treat him like a kid this time. The initial clash had both guys looking for yotsu and Ichi had Hak on the retreat. Hak did well to maneuver his way out of trouble but whilst both guys a belt hold, Ichi had Hak up high and awkward. Ichi shuffled Hak backwards and should have won from this position of strength but for some reason failed to do so. This indecision enabled Hab to grab a stronger left grip and lower himself into his power position, legs bent, powerful rump out. This time Hak was doing the driving and Ichi's turn to resist. Both guys then relaxed for a breather, taking stock of the situation. Hak feinted a leg trip then heaved a mighty left arm uwate-nage for a well-earned win. Great contest.

Y Kisenosato (0-2) v M1 Tochiohzan (0-2)
I'm not sure anybody expects Kiso to win this. We've said before, the sport needs its Japanese Yokozuna, but right now Kiso aint that guy. Poor Tochiohzan won't care. If he loses, he'll be 0 from 3 and cheered doing so from the ring by the crowd. At tachi-ai, Tochiohzan eases his rear to the clay as if mentally attempting to slow the rotation of the planet. He potters along with the urgency of a cucumber. If there were a rule against time-wasting he would be 0 and 15 every basho. Kiso allowed Tochi inside for a crucial left belt grip, and dominant hold under Kiso's armpits. Kiso tried to shake him off but had nothing. Tochi worked Kiso with that strong left around and duly eased Kiso out. Tochiohzan finally gets his kinboshi and from the look on Kiso's face as the cameras lingered on him in a painful to watch close-up, he knows he is well and truly cooked. For a moment I thought he might cry. Please don't. It's bad enough our cricket captains do so, I want Kiso to keep his dignity. Don't worry Mr Hakkaku, Kiso has 12 more days to score that turn-around win.

Y Kakuryu (1-1) v M2 Nishikigi (2-0)
This is an intriguing matchup. Nishikigi is in the midst of revival mode Freddie Mercury would have been proud of. A regular in the lower M ranks he has advanced to M2 and surprised everybody on Day 2 with an outstanding throw of Tochinoshin, a move so late in execution as to be positively posthumous. Cuedos to Nishi who has enjoyed his most successful 12 month run in his career. This is also his first ever bout against a Yokozuna.

Kakuryu is prone to laziness or carelessness or both; at least it can look that way, and I'm hoping his ankle injury or whatever it was that precluded his participation in November will see him through this basho.

They both went in hard in solid yotsu style with Nishikigi in better position leaving Kak too high. From here Nishi gathered himself and rumbled Kak backwards in what would be described in rugby terms as a solid ball and all tackle. There was some conjecture from the judges over whose foot went out first but momentum was clearly with Nishi and he deserved his third win.

Wow! In the top ranks it's Hakuho prevailing and staring down at a group of would-be usurpers. I'm sure he is up to and will motor on regardless, like a liner through tugs.

Tomorrow it's time to sit under a tree in the wonderful 40 degree Aussie heat.

Day 2 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Do the nationalities take turns? I think probably so. Not strictly one-for-one. But kind of informally. So when I saw Goeido, Takayasu, and Kisenosato all wiped out yesterday, and Kakuryu and Hakuho winning with ease, I thought, well, maybe it is the Mongolian's turn. Takakeisho winning November's go-round was like a party, a feast, a blessing, a ride on the favorite merry go round for Team Japan. So now it is time for them to get off the merry go round for a bit and let the Mongolians back on to it to smash it to pieces with big hammers. Maybe. We'll see.

Who is the best rikishi on the banzuke? This remains an easy question for me. Hakuho. I don't have to think about it very much. So it is his turn.

Well, let's see how everyone else's turns went.

M16 Daiamami (0-1) vs. J2 Takagenji (1-0)
"Takagenji"? Really? Like "Tale of Genji" Genji, or something? High Genji? The bestest Genjie? It also reminds me of something like "Genkiyoku." Highly Genki. Most lively highst Genji. I love this shikona. This is going to be a guy to enjoy a little bit. Takagenji. Ooh! Well, he wasn't very genki, and he was not a classic. Big Sweety (Daiamami) scooped and shoved, shoved and scooped. And wiggled his body and pressed with it like a guy trying to blot out some pencil marks on a sheet of 8x11 paper with a giant wad of bloody, fresh-from-market raw tuna. This worked; yori-kiri win for Big Sweety.

M15 Chiyonokuni (1-0) vs. M15 Kotoeko (1-0)
Here was the true genki, in the person of Chiyonokuni. At this level, under-ranked and rabid, I'm expecting lots of savage damage this tournament. Feral explosions. Especially against someone so colorless as Kotoeko. I remember nothing about Kotoeko's sumo from previous Makuuchi work, to the tune that I'd have to look it up to know anything. Instead, I decided I'd just observe him today. See if I remember. A fresh start, shall we say. Chiyonokuni whapped Kotoeko brutally in the face like a spring suddenly sprung, a zinging zoing across the face. A few more aggression-unbottled-and-fizzing strikes with the arms and BAM, tsuki-dashi win for Chiyonokuni. Yep.

M16 Daishomaru (0-1) vs. M14 Chiyoshoma (0-1)
Now for limp against lump. Daishomaru pulls and pulls. Chiyoshoma throws and throws. Not wrestlers. Matches. Well, today Chiyoshoma wanted to win, so he leapt in the air like the tenth day of Christmas and grabbed Daishomaru by the back of the belt. I could write that Chiyoshoma then shoved him out, okuri-dashi, but the truth is that Daishomaru grimaced and gave up at this point and so they finished it off by both standing up and relaxing as Daishomaru stepped out. Boy, oh boy, do I not like Daishomaru's sumo.

M13 Yago (1-0) vs. M14 Yutakayama (1-0)
Like most sumo fans, I still dream of the true "next big thing" and want it to be a Japanese guy. Like everybody else, I was high on Endo when he first came up (look back at Sumotalk on this--it was wild for him). When Mitakeumi and Shodai arrived, I hoped they had ARRIVED. I play up Takakeisho's strengths because I want him to be it. I got way overexcited when Yutakayama and Asanoyama finished high in the yusho race a couple times back. I just can't help it. When was the last time we had a truly dominant, truly electrifying newcomer? That would be Terunofuji. And before that? Hakuho dimmed the lights on everybody else for a whole decade. I too want some young Japanese guy to come and short everybody else's bulbs out with voltage-shock awesomeness like that. So I perk up when I see guys like Yago. For a few minutes, or a few tournaments. I give in momentarily to hope.

No, Yago is not the guy. Here are some things about him, and they tell me he is not the guy:

• Height: 187. Quite tall, but about three centimeters short of being intimidating.
• Weight: 178. Very heavy. Could be parlayed into heavy wins. Or could make him a lame, immobile butterball.
• Age: 24. Not especially young for a Makuuchi debut. This is the most important stat in these three. Give me young, tall, and heavy, or just young and tall, debuting in Makuuchi at 21 or 22 at 190+ centimeters, and you have something. At 24, unless the guy is truly enormous, I'm yawning. So, I am yawning at Yago. But he gave me hope. For a moment.

Anyhoo, howdeedoo? He did bad. He was quickly stood up by the under-ranked Yutakayama, who then easily handled him with a series of I-mean-business neck-grabs. Yago's best moment in the match came as he managed to stand there a bit, resist it, and not get beat right away. But he finished himself off with a dumb rookie move, pulling at Yutakayama rather than sticking things out, and Yutakayama thanked Yago by using the free momentum to drive him right out of the ring, oshi-dashi. Well, like I said, Yago's 24.

M13 Kotoyuki (0-1) vs. M12 Meisei (0-1)
Mike summed up Kotoyuki perfectly yesterday: he's only got about a second and a half of thrust left in him. This makes it not even fun to hate him anymore. He's just another guy. A "what are you doing here?" guy. I'm surprised every time I see him in maku-uchi. But, whelp, here he is. I like Meisei, on the other hand. He reminds me a little of Daieisho. In the match, goshdangit, Little Snow (Kotoyuki) defied Mike and me, shoving hard and purposefully like a manure pile on fire for the whole, oh, ten, fifteen seconds, discombobulating Meisei into little discoagulated bits and knocking him over, oshi-taoshi.

M11 Sadanoumi (1-0) vs. M12 Kagayaki (0-1)
Kagayaki pushed him in the face, pushed him around, crumpled him into the ground by pushing down on that face. Who? Who did Kagayaki push in the face and batter and crumple? Who? Sad Man. That's Who. Oshi-taoshi.

M11 Ikioi (1-0) vs. M10 Abi (0-1)
Pssst! Pssst! Ikioi! You have a piece of lost mochi from the new year's ozoni soup plastered across your forehead! Or is that a piece of wet wonderbread the kids stepped on, licked, and stuck to your face when you were napping? Oh, man, sometimes sumo is awesome for very strange reasons. What I'm referring to, of course, is the bandage used to cover up the brow wound he bled profusely from yesterday. If I were Abi I'd ram right into it again. Maybe throw in some nice, hard tsuppari, aimed just a little too high. Lo! Abi did try the rapid tsuppari. This succeeding in ripping the bandage half off, after which it flapped unhappily in the vaporous winds. Good! But Abi won the match by darting out of the way; Ikioi crashed pathetically down, tsuki-otoshi. Ikioi also seems to have hurt his leg/knee/something doing that, and looked very sad and ridiculous shuffling slowly back up the corridor like a dying elephant. I hope he was alright because then I won't feel so bad about getting so much enjoyment out of this comedy.

M8 Kaisei (1-0) vs. M10 Takarafuji (0-1)
Kaisei looked awesome yesterday. Today he just grabbed Takarafuji's arm, stepped to the side, and let Takarafuji fall down, kote-nage. Very smooth, very easy. Every so often Kaisei has a very good tournament. Positioned at M8, this may become another of those.

M9 Endo (1-0) vs. M8 Asanoyama (0-1)
And here in Asanoyama is the normally quite good wrestler that Kaisei made look so weak and nothing-ish yesterday. I expected a dramatic return to form today facing Endo, as Endo is pretty much Kaisei's strength-and-size opposite. "Now this is what I signed up for!" thought Asanoyama as he crouched for the tachi-ai. Wrong. Asanoyama went for some tsuki thrusts, but Endo took the measure of that, gave as good as he got, and drove Asanoyama straight back and out, tsuki-dashi. I didn't believe in this--too linear, too defiant of the laws of physics, too much leaning back by Asanoyama--but I hope you did, because otherwise it isn't any fun.

M6 Chiyotairyu (0-1) vs. M7 Ryuden (0-1)
The Cannonball vs. The Long Dragon. These are two of my faves of late, and I hoped for good stuff. Chiyotairyu didn't have enough powder in the cannon when he lit it, though, flumpsing forward without oomph. Maybe we can play pretend and say Ryuden swiveling a bit to the side robbed Chiyotairyu's attack of its power. However, that story evaporated when Chiyotairyu sloppily left his arms floppily all over the place and Ryuden was able to get both of his own arms inside like a guy preparing to lift a flour sack. Enough describing for this undeserving match: Ryuden drove Chiyotairyu out, yori-kiri.

M7 Daieisho (1-0) vs. M6 Onosho (1-0)
The Little Red Piranha, Daieisho, does best when he has a little separation so he can hit hard. I know that sounds paradoxical but it is true: if he gets too close he is stuck with the body, and that's not his game. He got too close to smooth-bodied young Onosho here, and it didn't work out. Daieisho still managed to drive Onosho back, but Onosho stepped out of the line and let Daieisho fall down, tsuki-otoshi, when he was ready.

M14 Kotoshogiku (1-0) vs. M5 Aoiyama (1-0)
Like Kaisei, Aoiyama had a dominant win yesterday, and so I was wondering if he is going to put on a show for us this tournament. Today the answer was "kind of." He won very easily, but did it moving backwards: he took a step or two back, focused, then pulled the blithering Kotoshogiku down by the head, hataki-komi, as if this were child's play. Well, going backwards is a big part of Aoiyama's game too. I dunno. Give him 8-7.

M5 Yoshikaze (0-1) vs. M4 Okinoumi (0-1)
That stupid Konosuke, the red gyoji, called a false start for no reason, as he loves to do. I just can't stand him. Okinoumi looked pissed off, giving weight to my theory that Konosuke is not a cool, strict gyoji, but a show-offy prima-donna who likes to be thought to be a cool, strict gyoji. Okinoumi took his anger out on the fading Yoshikaze, grabbing him by the face and squeezing him by the cheeks until his legs went out from under him like an asphyxiated llama, koshi-kudake (more or less "waist lowering").

S Takakeisho (1-0) vs. M3 Shohozan (0-1)
Takakeisho was at his best here. Bang! Pause. Bang! Pause. Bang! Pause. Bang! And that was all it took: he bang-paused Shohozan right out of the ring on exactly that many bangs: four. Oshi-dashi. Granted, Shohozan played Takakeisho's game here, taking it on straight up and getting well worked. But there is no doubt this type of attack by Takakeisho is effective. The question is, can he still win when opponents try not to let him do it? We'll find out as the tournament progresses. Or, if we don't find out, and everybody does what Shodai and Shohozan did and takes him on mano-a-mano, that means the fix is in for him.

M3 Shodai (0-1) vs. S Tamawashi (1-0)
Boy, Shodai looked like a sleepwalker here. Tamawashi grabbed him and shoved him around like a practice dummy, finally throwing him out of the ring with an emphatic shove, oshi-dashi. Before the match the announcers said "Tamawashi will do push sumo; Shodai wants to stick something in there." Yes. Shodai tried to stick something in there in the same way a guy might try to poke a piece of straw into the grill of an out-of-control pick-up truck careening down a hill. That's how you get run over.

O Takayasu (0-1) vs. K Myogiryu (0-1)
And here we are in Ozeki land. With the Ozeki being Takayasu. And facing… Myogiryu. Um, Ozeki Takayasu against Komusubi Myogiryu. In 2019. My, the future is certainly a hard thing to predict! Here we are, in the future. And it feels so much like the past. Well, you know, the future doesn't exist: there is only the ongoing present, forever and ever. Kinda cool. Anyhoo, Myogiryu did a nice job of getting inside and low, but Takayasu ain't that bad, and he's just too big and strong for Myogiryu. Takayasu leaned on Myogiryu a bit, then bashed at him some and sent Myogiryu flying from the ring, oshi-dashi, like a piece of dandelion fluff on the breeze.

M2 Nishikigi (1-0) vs. O Tochinoshin (0-1)
Are we going to have to start taking Nishikigi seriously? He looked 100% solid against Goeido yesterday. Nothing special, but nice, stable, working-class sumo. Same thing today. He and Tochinoshin went chest to chest, and Tochinoshin pulled a nice maki-kae to get inside/outside grips. Looked like he had Nishikigi dead to rights. But whoops! Just as Growling Bear (Tochinoshin) was finishing Nishikigi off, Nishikigi launched a belt throw off his own right outside grip and deftly tipped Tochinoshin past the edge first, uwate-nage. Tochinoshin underestimated his opponent here and got a little complacent: "okay, I'm just going to grab you here; now I'm going to just ease you out, okay, here we go…" And BOOM! Nishikigi said, "ease me out my ass."

M2 Hokutofuji (1-0) vs. O Goeido (0-1)
Hokutofuji wasted a good post-tachi-ai henka by false-starting on it, and the gyoji made them re-do. Hokutofuji really didn't want to lose, though; he henka'ed a bit again, this time in the form of a shade to the left and some revolution. However, Goeido was ready, having had a preview, and followed him and sent Hokutofuji to the straw. Hokutofuji resisted, however, and proceeded to embarrass the Ozeki. Hokutofuji ain't that good, just okay, but Goeido couldn't get him out. Didn't have the power. So Hokutofuji brought it back to the center, pushed hard, took advantage of a pull by Goeido, and drove Goeido out, oshi-dashi. For Goeido doubters like me this was pretty satisfying. And hey! The Ozeki are a combined 1-5. This is a good thing, methinks.

Y Kisenosato (0-1) vs. M1 Ichinojo (1-0)
The crowd was really up for this. You would think they'd have been dreading it, with all that has gone on. With yesterday. And November. Well, hope springs eternal. But what a mess this was. There were three false starts. Then Ichinojo put both fists on the ground as if to say, "okay, do me." Kisenosato tried. Oh, he tried. He pushed. He shoved. He huffed. He puffed. But Ichinojo's house did not fall down. So Ichinojo had Kisenosato dead to rights at the straw as a result, but didn't finish it off: he let it come back to the center. However, Kisenosato's huffing and puffing remained no better than an 88 year old trying to blow out all his birthday candles at once, so Ichinojo responded to the stumbling and bumbling by karate chopping Kisenosato on the back on the head and rolling him to the clay, hataki-komi. The atmosphere in the arena turned grim and deadly. The announcers literally didn't know what to say.



Kisenosato has just got to retire. I mean, I wish him no ill, but this is painful, and bad for the sport.

Y Kakuryu (1-0) vs. K Mitakeumi (1-0)
They hit each other low and hard, then had a slide-me-back contest. Mitakeumi moved his feet, while Kakuryu planted his, and Kakuryu slid back, back, back to the straw. If Kakuryu hadn't evaded by this point, having lost a full meter plus just by sliding (his right foot never changed position, just slid and slid), he wasn't going to. Mitakeumi smelled the kill, brought out the big guns, and bash-thrusted Kakuryu out, oshi-dashi.

We haven't finished Day 2, but I had an epiphany after this one, and I'm going to leap all the way to the end and predict it: this tournament is Hakuho vs. Takakeisho.

M1 Tochiohzan (0-1) vs. Y Hakuho (1-0)
Hakuho almost screwed up my newly minted story immediately. They were pawing at each other a bit, limbs akimbo, when Tochiohzan spun Hakuho right around with a little belt yank that put the Yokozuna at the edge. Hakuho, however, didn't want to lose, and kept right on spinning. This was a desperation move, and looked like a bad one, but Tochiohzan ran past him and out as if he were caught in the gears of that spinning. They ruled it tsuki-otoshi, though there was neither tsuki (thrust) nor otoshi (knockdown). From Tochiohzan's perspective, the kimari-te was "oops! Oh, crap!" Hakuho treated the cameras to a half embarrassed, half bemused smile: "hey, I won that one anyway. Whoa!" I've seen some weird, sloppy wins by Hakuho over the years, and this one was right up there with the silliest. Well, he's not a Yokozuna for nothing: sometimes that means he wins good, but sometimes it means he knows how to win bad.

Tomorrow Justin explains what it is like growing up with a last name like Williams or Jones.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The biggest news in between basho was the sudden retirement announcement from Takanoiwa who allegedly roughed up a tsuke-bito during the Kyushu exhibition season. The tsuke-bito apparently forgot something that Takanoiwa needed, and so the Mongolian rikishi struck the youngster in the face several times with an open fist hat a Fukuoka hotel.  Takanoiwa resigned from the sport a few days later, and just like that, all of the key players from that bizarre scandal last year (Takanohana, Harumafuji, and Takanoiwa) are all out of sumo.

I don't think any of it is coincidence. There are still some major questions that have gone unanswered, namely who really did assault Takanoiwa that sent him to the hospital about a week after Harumafuji bullied him during a night of drinking that didn't even leave a mark on Takanoiwa's body?  I personally think that the yakuza was somehow involved in something that lead to Takanoiwa's beating, and if that ever got out, it's best to have the parties involved as far away from sumo as possible.

As for Takanohana, it was also revealed that his wife divorced him in October adding insult to injury, but I've been reading reports since the summer that say the dude was drinking so much it was affecting his ability to function within the Association. It's all a sad story, but Takanohana brought this upon himself by lying to the Association to begin with in regards to the whole Takanoiwa incident.

Unfortunately, the biggest headlines in sumo always have nothing to do with actual performance in the ring, and I don't see that changing this year. Guys like Mitakeumi and Takakeisho are obviously being groomed to take Kisenosato's place because that dude is a lame horse who needs to be shot, but if you prop guys up with yaocho, you have to sustain them with yaocho, so we'll see how long the Japanese public puts up with it all.

The new year got off to a weak start with the lame tachi-ai between J1 Terutsuyoshi and M16 Daishomaru with both rikishi striking lightly and Daishomaru going into passive pull mode. This enabled the Juryo rikishi to work his left arm inside and use the right hand to pull Daishomaru near the edge, and Maru was just as half-assed at the edge as he was at the tachi-ai turning around just in time for Terutsuyoshi to finish him off in ho hum style. Daishomaru was clearly mukiryoku here as Terutsuyoshi is gifted a Makuuchi win.

M15 Chiyonokuni and M16 Daiamami made up for the lack of fighting spirit in the previous bout although that doesn't necessarily translate into sound sumo. It didn't here as Chiyonokuni came a'shoving while Daiamami was looking to evade and pull first to his left and then to his right. Through it all, Chiyonokuni was able to stay mostly square and keep Daiamami upright, but he wasn't able to win with straight-forward sumo. Near the edge, Chiyonokuni went for a pull causing Daiamami to trip over Kuni's foot and stumble to the edge where Kuni made it official oshi-dashi style. Sloppy sumo was the name of the game here from both parties.

M14 Chiyoshoma dominated the tachi-ai against M15 Kotoeko in a bout that looked as if it was going to hidari-yotsu, but for no reason whatsoever, Chiyoshoma pulled his left arm outside and circled right around this opponent lining himself up at the edge allowing Kotoeko to easily turn and stumble his way into the yori-kiri win. Sanbe Announcer emphatically declared, "Kibishii seme," or a ferocious attack on the part of Kotoeko, but what a laughable statement. This was Chiyoshoma doing all the work and letting Kotoeko take advantage at the end. Afterwards when asked for comment, Kitanofuji yet again couldn't even remember Chiyoshoma's shikona, a sign that these guys don't even care about the foreign rikishi.

M13 Kotoyuki was quick outta the blocks against M14 Yutakayama, but it seems that Yuki only has a second and a half of thrust in him these days, and so Yutakayama easily halted his forward charge near the edge and pushed Kotoyuki all the way back across the dohyo. Kotoyuki attempted to skirt right and go for a pull, but it was poorly executed, and so Yutakayama kept his feet easily and pushed Kotoyuki back and across for good.

Our lone newcomer to the division, M13 Yago, was paired with M12 Meisei in a bout that saw the two hook up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Yago enjoyed a stifling right outer grip. Yago used his girth to pinch Meisei's left arm useless, and he wasted no time in executing the textbook yori-taoshi win. This was the best sumo of the day to this point, and I like what I've seen so far of Yago. Coincidentally, the name Yago loosely translated stands for something like "tub of blubber."

Two of the better rank and file rikishi who just can't seem to shake the politics of sumo hooked up in M12 Kagayaki and M11 Ikioi. The crown of Kagayaki's head connected square with Ikioi's lower forehead just above the right eye drawing blood immediately. Undeterred, Ikioi maintained his left inside position keeping the two in close and forcing the oshi guy in Kagayaki to go for a pull. When it came, Ikioi pounced and sent Kagayaki back and across in quick fashion. After the bout as Ikioi took his victory squat, his face was a bloody mess, but he sure looked like a badass to me. Contrast that to the Demon Kogure fellow who will surely ruin one day of the broadcast this basho with his feathered crown and face paint that makes him look as manly as a little girl in her Sunday dress.

M10 Abi was stiff as a board at the tachi-ai sorta coming with a moro-te-zuki against M11 Sadanoumi, but Abi couldn't evade to his right fast enough. His pull attempt was ineffective, however, allowing Sadanoumi to keep both hands pressed near the front of Abi's belt, and as Abi escaped, Sadanoumi just pushed him forward and across. It could be debated as to who touched out first, but Abi was well beyond the confines of the dohyo still in pull mode before Sadanoumi finally touched down. Fortunately, the judges didn't call for a replay, so we move on.

M9 Endoh came with a left hand to M10 Takarafuji's neck area since it still can't be confirmed that Takarafuji actually has a neck, and with Endoh's arms outstretched, Takarafuji just stood there without trying to counter. With Endoh making no headway, Takarafuji finally backed up feigning a right kote-nage, but he purposefully wasn't committed to the move and allowed Endoh to survive. After Endoh recovered, the two ended up in hidari-yotsu with Endoh committed to the left and Takarafuji just holding Endoh's right arm downward instead of using his size advantage to burrow in with a left of his own. From here, it was clear that Takarafuji had no intention of winning, and so Endoh gathered his wits and went for a quick tsuki-otoshi to the side that of course felled Takarafuji to the dohyo without much of a fight.

M8 Kaisei and M8 Asanoyama hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and the problem here was that Kaisei was trying to win. Asanoyama shifted left after the tachi-ai, but Kaisei bore down on him so quick that the Brasilian didn't even need the left outer grip to force Asanoyama back and across. It's kinda scary when the foreign rikishi actually try and win these things. Prior to the bout, the entire first row of masu-seki fans on the mukou-joumen side were holding up Asanoyama placards. Hope that was worth the trouble.



M7 Ryuden was too high and wide at the tachi-ai allowing M7 Daieisho to connect on some effective tsuppari and strong-arm Ryuden back so quickly and decisively that Daieisho drew the tsuki-dashi win. Despite his bad positioning from the tachi-ai, I don't think Ryuden was mukiryoku here. He was just too lazy at the tachi-ai, and Daieisho is one of the better Japanese pushers in the division.

The best Japanese oshi guy is M6 Chiyotairyu who was paired against M6 Onosho today, and I obviously wrote that sentence before watching the bout. After putting two hands to Onosho's neck with no de-ashi, Chiyotairyu just backed up going for a phantom pull as Onosho looked to catch up. Onosho wasn't in proper position to score the push-out win against Chiyotairyu, and so Tairyu moved to his right and feigned a grab of Onosho's belt all the while just stepping out on his own. I'm not sure how they ruled this one oshi-dashi because the only contact Onosho made at the end was putting a weak arm against Chiyotairyu's belly after his foe was already clearly out of the dohyo. It was one of those classic, "And stay out!" touches a rikishi gives to his opponent after a mukiryoku bout where the rikishi in defeat does all the work and the victor finally scores his first punch after the bout is already over.

M5 Aoiyama's intent was to win today, and just he easily destroyed M5 Yoshikaze back from the starting lines with a few methodic ham shoves to the neck and body. With Yoshikaze driven back so quickly, it looked as if Aoiyama was expecting his opponent to dart either way, but with Yoshikaze still standing upright, Aoiyama just rammed his right knee square into the front of Yoshikaze's mawashi sending Cafe back and across hiza-dashi. It's a good thing that Aoiyama didn't connect a few centimeters lower or Yoshikaze would have been a candidate for the Vienna Boys Choir.

M4 Kotoshogiku and M4 Okinoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Okinoumi just stood there upright allowing Kotoshogiku to force him back near the edge. With Kotoshogiku struggling to force Okinoumi back and across, the former Ozeki was susceptible to an easy tsuki-otoshi from Okinoumi with the right hand, but instead of properly executing it, he went for a backward pull of Kotoshogiku, which of course force Okinoumi back for good giving Kotoshogiku the cheap win.

Sekiwake Tamawashi and M3 Shohozan engaged in a curious bout where both parties exchanged non-committal tsuppari for about two seconds, and then the Sekiwake got his right arm deep into Shohozan's left side. Tamawashi could have felled Darth Hozan with a scoop throw here or just bull rushed him out, but he took his arm out of the move creating a bit of separation before both rikishi used shoves to set up a pull. After a few more swipes, Shohozan appeared to lose his balance and then he just hopped to the side and out of the dohyo altogether. Tamawashi did nothing to aid in Shohozan's fall although they did rule it tsuki-otoshi, but this was yet another good example of those curious bouts that seemingly dominate half of the broadcast.

Across the aisle, Sekiwake Takakeisho was paired against M3 Shodai in a bout that saw the Sekiwake rush across the starting lines firing a few shoves only to be rebuffed backwards by the larger Shodai. Shodai didn't pursue an attack, however, and so he let Takakeisho come back forward again and this time shove Shodai back and across for the methodical win. The positive to take away from this bout is that Takakeisho won moving forward, but he certainly wasn't able to destroy Shodai from the tachi-ai, and Shodai employed no tactics to try and win the bout or to even counter at the edge. I'm not sure whose the better rikishi between these two in straight-up sumo, but I'm quite sure that Shodai deferred to his foe today.

In the Ozeki ranks, Tochinoshin welcomed M2 Hokutofuji who kept his arms out wide as he moved left completely susceptible to the Ozeki's attack. But the problem was that Tochinoshin wasn't in attack mode. His right arm was naturally to the inside from the tachi-ai, but he pulled that back and just stood upright agreeing to whatever Hokutofuji had to offer. Hokutofuji wasn't exactly wielding a beating stick, and so in the end, the Ozeki went for a phantom swipe that connected on nothing, but it did allow the Ozeki to back himself up to the edge, and from there, Hokutofuji scored the ridiculously easy push out in the ho hum bout. Tochinoshin is obviously lying low again this basho to no one's surprise.

Ozeki Goeido and M2 Nishikigi hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where the Ozeki briefly had an outer grip on Nishikigi's belt, but Nishikigi used his size and strength advantage to not only cut off the Ozeki's outer grip, but he also demanded his own right outer on the other side. Goeido was in a pickle at this point if Nishikigi's intent was to win, and unfortunately for Goeido it was. Nishikigi mounted a methodic force-out charge to which Goeido answered with another left outer grip, but this left had Goeido so far extended that Nishikigi easily grabbed the belt with the right inside and drove Goeido back to the edge where he ultimately dumped him with the left outer grip. Goeido was completely exposed here, and I always love to see legitimate bouts end in uwate-nage.

Rounding out the Ozeki, it would take a blatant yaocho on the part of M1 Ichinojo against Takayasu to prevent an 0-3 start from the Ozeki, but fortunately we'd get a straight up bout here. Ichinojo came with a right kachi-age preventing the Ozeki from scoring any points at the tachi-ai, and then Ichinojo was content to dig in read Takayasu's attack. The Ozeki moved forward and attempted to get his left arm to the inside, but Ichinojo easily fought that off with a right shove into Takayasu's left side that sent the Ozeki off balance. Takayasu's response was a weak pull as Ichinojo made his move, but Ichinojo was into his craw forcing the Ozeki back and into the first row tsuki-dashi style.  In a word, Mainoumi described Takayasu's sumo as "light."  Ya think?

The announcers were lamenting the fact that all three Ozeki were beaten the first day, but that will happen when two of the Ozeki were gifted their ranks and the foreign Ozeki has to consistently lose to maintain the mediocrity.

At the start of the broadcast, NHK showed a graph that depicted all three Yokozuna and the year they had in 2018. Here's the result:



The entire banter focused on all three Yokozuna collectively using phrases like "they were all injured" or "they're all over the age of 30." The ploy was to project all three Yokozuna as equals who all go through their struggles. Hakuho only had 31 wins last year and that includes a 15-0 yusho in September. As for Kisenosato, he only mustered 11 wins the entire year all of which were fixed bouts. Kakuryu was clearly the dominant Yokozuna on paper, but the talk was all about putting these three on equal ground in an attempt to cover for Kisenosato's complete ineptness.

This kind of tactic works because the talk never focuses on sumo content. I mean, they showed clips of pre-basho keiko from all three rikishi, and in Hakuho's case you had him kicking ass and taking names at the general Soken session. Then they cut to Kisenosato against Takakeisho where the latter is literally falling over face down in order to give Kisenosato wins. It's just such a farce, and we'll see how long the Japanese fans continue to buy into it.

First up on the Yokozuna board was Kakuryu welcoming M1 Tochiohzan, who henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai looking for the pull, but he was never able to latch onto the back of the Yokozuna's belt, and so Kakuryu easily squared back up and shoved Tochiohzan clear across the dohyo and out tsuki-dashi style. I guess speed is another element completely missing from Kisenosato's "attack" whereas the two Mongolians haven't lost a step.

Speed was evident in Hakuho's match as well against Komusubi Myogiryu where the Yokozuna came with a right kachi-age as Myogiryu shaded to his left attempting a henka. Hakuho's charge was too swift and powerful, however, so with Myogiryu's already having taken himself out of the bout, Hakuho just slapped him down in one fell swoop firing a coupla dame-oshi afterwards for good measure as Myogiryu tried to keep himself upright.  Myogiryu's body never did touch down aside from his hands in a sign that he likely gave up at that first slap attempt from the Yokozuna.

The final bout of the day featured Kisenosato against Komusubi Mitakeumi in a bout where both rikishi hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Mitakeumi had the clear path to the right outer grip, but the dude graciously refused waiting for Kisenosato to do anything. Problem was, Kisenosato can't do anything, and so Mitakeumi finally maki-kae'd with the right getting moro-zashi, and from there he forced the Yokozuna back and across without argument. Kisenosato was so limp here, Viagra is actually thinking about throwing a few kensho banners into the mix prior to his bouts.  Mitakeumi could have sent him a few rows deep into the crowd in this one, but it was evident that he was going easy on the Kid. Yet another pathetic performance from Kisenosato, who could do nothing, and it just goes to show that Kisenosato only wins when his opponents blatantly let him.

Getting back to that Yokozuna graphic, the only thing that Hakuho, Kakuryu, and Kisenosato have in common is their rank on paper, and it's evident in every facet of their sumo.

The original Story Teller, Harvye, is up next tomorrow