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Senshuraku Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Imagine this: at the end of the baseball season in the U.S. they decide to let one of the minor league teams participate in the World Series. Not even the best minor league team; they take the twelfth best minor league team. That would be the New Orleans Baby Cakes (yes, really); they went 73-65 last year, good for third place out of four in the "American Southern" Division of the Pacific Coast League. In real life, they didn't even make the minor league playoffs. But hey, in our imaginary world, there was a generous slate, the top twelve minor league teams all got in the playoffs, and hey! somehow, the Baby Cakes pulled it off, and won the minors. So the powers that be then selected them to play a couple of games against the best major league team--not a full World Series, just a game or two--for the championship, and wow, they win! The Baby Cakes, the 42nd best team in U.S. baseball last year, world champions. Can you imagine this happening? Can you imagine this team--every single player of which wasn't even judged good enough to play in the majors--winning against the best major league team?

That's Tokushoryu.

In U.S. football I had trouble finding 42 teams. In the top pro league, the NFL, there are 32 teams. If you add in the Canadian Football League's 9 teams, you have 41 teams. Where would we find the 42nd best football team in North America? How about the ridiculous Arena Football League, which doesn't even use the same rules or the same size field, and is basically cheap junk for footballoholics? Well, the Albany Empire, which I'd never heard of, were the top team in Arena Football, maybe making them the 42nd best football team on the continent. So, imagine they are plucked from the Arena League and sent up against the San Francisco 49ers instead of the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. In real life, they would lose (and people might get killed). In our imaginary world, they win! That's Tokushoryu.

I know nothing about soccer (okay, futbol), but I have heard that Barcelona is really good. A quick scan of the UEFA rankings on a random internet site says that Barcelona is the best team Europe. I scan down to #42 and find that this is a team called RDC Espanyol. A little further digging finds Espanyol is 19th out of 20th in its league and has 3 wins and 12 losses. However, imagine it anyway: imagine that Espanyol is plucked up to play a European Championship against Barcelona. Is this plausible? I have no idea. That's Tokushoryu.

I could do this all day, but just one more: the #1 ranked men's tennis player in the world is Rafael Nadal. Fine. Guy #42 is a dude named Albert Ramos-Vinolas. He's 32 years old and turned pro 13 years ago, very similar to Tokushoryu (and, for what it's worth, unlike Tokushoryu, looks like an insane person in his ESPN profile photo). He just lost in the first round of the Australian Open. However, imagine instead that he gets to play Rafael Nadal for the championship instead anyway, after a few intervening matches against other low ranked guys. And wins! That's Tokushoryu.

And what about this Tokushoryu? Our man, 33 years old, spent twelve of the last thirteen basho in the second division. The one time he was in the upper division in those two years he went 4-11. His previous high rank was Maegashira 4--five years ago. He went 6-9. Being M4 that basho put him at #18 in the world. Meaning if sumo had a system where the top 16 guys just fought each other (possible), he wouldn't even have gotten to play. This time around, ranked #42 and last on the banzuke, if they divided divisions by groups of 16, which would allow guys of similar rank to play each other in their division, he would have been in the third division.

But Lo! Here he is, this man, Tokushoryu, your sole leader coming into today, alone at 13-1, and playing in the Super Bowl / World Series / Euro Championship Final / Wimbledon Championship match. The #42 ranked sumo wrestler in the world, on the cusp of a possible championship.

LET'S DO THIS THING!

M4 Shodai (12-2) vs. M2 Mitakeumi (7-7)
Interestingly, because of the shape of the banzuke this time, Shodai is #16 in the world at M4. Meaning that if sumo were to do a round robin of the top 16 guys as I suggested above, each playing each of the others and thereby getting you to 15 matches, Shodai would just sneak into this affair at #16 out of 16. So, um… he's legit! Gratifyingly, Shodai showed us what championship sumo is supposed to look like. The tachi-ai was a crashing barrel of bricks, as Shodai arm-barred Mitakeumi hard. Mitakeumi tried to stretch his arm down and grab a fistful of mae-mawashi, but only got his fingers on there for just a second, as Shodai's force and momentum were too much. Mitakeumi's grip was just a memory and he was going rapidly back, back, back to the straw. There, Shodai give him everything he had and annihilated him: fists to the chest first, then belly-bump-up, then finally diving in and torpedoing Mitakeumi in the midriff with his head, forcing Mitakeumi out oshi-dashi. This was a good-looking display of power sumo by the winner and thank goodness for that.

With the win, Shodai forced Tokushoryu into a win-or-playoff situation; everyone was happy.

O Takakeisho (11-3) vs. M17 Tokushoryu (13-1)
To the business. Both guys had to be worrying about a henka and consequently the tachi-ai was soft. There was a tiny bit of frantic slapping, but they quickly engaged in a high-fat-content smushing together of their massive chests and guts. This was not good for Takakeisho, who is not a belt guy, but he mostly brought it on himself with a little pull during the initial pushing that gave Tokushoryu the opening to close up on him. After this Tokushoryu had slightly better position, lower down against a more stood-up Tokushoryu. Each man had his left arm inside high up on the torso and his right arm outside. Takakeisho tried to throw Tokushoryu off him to his right, but nothing doing, and Tokushoryu used the momentum shift to drive Takakeisho off towards the other side and the straw. When they got to the bales, Takakeisho in turn used Tokushoryu's momentum against him with another throw attempt, this one to his left as this seesaw battle continued. It almost worked: Takakeisho had Tokushoryu on one foot and reeling, tipping towards the straw. However, and it was the key point of the match, instead of keeping going and finishing it, Takakeisho switched, turning his back towards the middle of the ring and pulling Tokushoryu towards him, almost falling backwards as he did so. This saved Tokushoryu from going out and gave Tokushoryu all the momentum: the two staggered the length of the dohyo in each other's tight grasp, Tokushoryu smothering Takakeisho. At the straw Takakeisho went to plant a foot to get extra purchase behind him, but at that moment Tokushoryu gave a little shove with his massive belly, causing Takakeisho to drop that foot outside of the ring in the soft sand instead of in front of the straw as he'd planned. And it was over; Takakeisho was slipping and going down doing half of the splits, and Tokushoryu had won, yori-kiri.

Tokushoryu almost immediately burst into tears and didn't stop crying for several minutes. He cried during the hair-fixing and cried during the national anthem. They showed video of his father, watching back in the hometown with the gathered community, and he was crying too, showing off the cheap brass cuff buttons on his blazer as he covered his eyes, a red poofy down jacket collar poking out around his neck under the blazer--it is cold in Japan in winter. The announcers voice broke a few times, and with all this emotion going on I shed a few tears myself. All around, it was a nice moment.



But was it good for the sport? Congratulations #42.

OTHER NEWS

M13 Kotoshogiku (6-8) vs. M16 Tochiohzan (9-5)
Two broken down old warriors. They smacked together nicely at the tachi-ai, but after that Tochiohzan didn't do much; he had an arm inside a bit, but concentrated on pulling, and Kotoshogiku was too close to him for that to work so Kotoshogiku quickly and energetically body-forced him out, yori-kiri. No retirement for Kotoshogiku yet, looks like he will easily stay within Maku-uchi with this 7-8 result.

M17 Kiribayama (10-4) vs. M12 Chiyomaru (6-8)
In this one Chiyomaru pushed and pursued while Kiribayama retreated and circled. However, Kiribayama was baiting Chiyomaru, and ultimately grabbed Chiyomaru around the head on one side and pushed the armpit on the other, turning him around, and okuri-dashi'ed him out. As usual Mike was right: Kiribayama looked pretty promising. Kiribayama also picked up a Kanto-Sho (Fighting Spirit Prize).

M12 Tsurugisho (5-9) vs. M14 Terutsuyoshi (8-6)
Terutsuyoshi looked good at the beginning of the match, slamming into Tsurugisho's flab and pushing up manfully, but he's too small for such a mano-a-mano approach, and Tsurugisho smothered him, turned to the side, and threw him away out of the ring, sukui-nage.

M11 Chiyotairyu (7-7) vs. M16 Kaisei (7-7)
Featured some of the best grunting since peak Tochinoshin. Somebody grunted very loud at the tachi-ai, maybe Kaisei in frustration, since he sloppily let Chiyotairyu get both arms inside. There was Kaisei with his arms dangling over the top like a dead octopus. However, Kaisei kept playing: he reached down and grabbed the belt with dual outsides. Then the real fun began: can you imagine tsuri-dashi'ing the rotund, 165+ kg Chiyotairyu, picking him up off his feet and carry him dangling out of the ring? Well, Kaisei was imagining it, because Chiyotairyu's feet were hovering. Kaisei never got him fully off the ground but did disengage Chiyotairyu's weight from the dirt such that he was floaty and slidy. Kaisei used that to bring Chiyotairyu over the edge, then put him to a classic straight-on, tippy-toes-for-loser force-out finish. It took a delicious long few moments, and here is where we got more loud Kaisei grunting, but he got it done; yori-kiri victory for Kaisei. Now that's what I came for.

M10 Sadanoumi (6-8) vs. M13 Kotoeko (2-12)
Kotoeko seems overmatched. While I like his straightforward-ness--no tricks, basic sumo--nothing he does is done particularly well. It's fine, but he has no particular weapon. As Gary pointed out, Sadanoumi, on the other hand, is pretty good. So, when Kotoeko slapped him at the tachi-ai then pulled, Sadanoumi was all over it immediately, driving Kotoeko summarily out, oshi-dashi.

M9 Takanosho (7-7) vs. M15 Ikioi (7-7)
Ikioi fared pretty well in his return to the upper division, but was a mess here, getting chased and battered while responding with desperate pulls. At one point Ikioi had a chance to throw Takanosho at the edge, but fell off his opponent's body, got turned around, and had to do a 360 degree spin to survive. However, he pulled it out. Driven to the edge, he gave a last-ditch pull-down attempt, and it worked: down went Takanosho's hand, hataki-komi, a split second before Ikioi stepped out.

M6 Takarafuji (6-8) vs. M14 Shimanoumi (6-8)
For whatever reason Shimanoumi wasn't into this one; he just backed up as Takarafuji, without needing a grip, any particular momentum, or any offensive moves aside from moving his feet forward, maneuvered him straight back and out, yori-kiri.

M11 Kagayaki (9-5) vs. M5 Enho (8-6)
This was a false start, with Kagayaki going early, but the gyoji didn't call it back, resulting in as light a tachi-ai contact as you wouldn't like to see. However, as the gyoji let it go, Kagayaki took full advantage, putting a solid "how to beat Enho" plan into effect: move forward, contain, block off Enho's route to your nethers, and kill. Enho looked tiny, powerless, and vulnerable as Kagayaki surged forward and oshi-dashi'ed him to smithereens. However, the news remains all Enho here: this was his fourth straight winning tournament, and he will probably creep into the top 16 next time. Should be entertaining.

M4 Okinoumi (7-7) vs. M15 Azumaryu (7-7)
Azumaryu always looks kind of limp and strengthless out there, and that was the case today too. Okinoumi wrapped him up and yori-kiri'ed him out. Well, having whiffed on my predictions/declarations in favor of a Takakeisho yusho and Goeido kachi-koshi, at least I got Azumaryu totally, perfectly right! (I said he'd probably get his first make-koshi but stay in the division.)

M3 Tamawashi (4-10) vs. M10 Ishiura (6-8)
Boy, Tamawashi is a lot of fun when he is on the loose. Having already lost plenty, yesterday against Kotoeko and today against Ishiura he said "okay, I'm gonna just win now. Watch how good I am against these tiny little men." Whack!! went the tachi-ai. Boom!!! went the one-breath, one-shot oshi-dashi blast-out of Ishiura, a hurricane sweeping away a sheet of fabric softener.

M2 Hokutofuji (11-3) vs. M9 Yutakayama (10-4)
Nice hard, face-smashing tachi-ai between two guys having excellent tournaments. After that it was a lot of oshi, with Yutakayama focusing on the neck and Hokutofuji on the chest. Eventually Yutakayama outsmarted Hokutofuji: when oshi didn't work for him, he brought his long arms into play, dropping them on and over Hokutofuji, reeled him forcefully in, and sent him swirling past him, ole!, for the hataki-komi win. Sometimes we talk about how a pull doesn't have to be bad sumo, and this was a good example: well played and powerfully executed. I'm looking forward to seeing what Yutakayama can do back in the higher ranks in Osaka in March. As for Hokutofuji, he took the Gino-Sho (Technique Prize), so a banner tournament for him.

M6 Tochinoshin (5-9) vs. M1 Myogiryu (4-10)
Sloppy, lazy-looking stuff. Tochinoshin gave Myogiryu a head-whack-and-pull when they were in the clutch, and that looked to have got things done, but as Tochinoshin pursued Myog' out of the ring, Tochinoshin didn't focus on where he was going. Myogiryu grabbed Tochinoshin's arm and used it to both propel Tochinoshin forward and stop his own momentum. As a result, when Tochinoshin stepped out, Myogiryu was still spinning on the straw for the unlikely uwate-dashi-nage win.

M1 Endo (8-6) vs. M7 Shohozan (7-7)
Shohozan probably wasn't trying here, because Endo doesn't have the power to simply wipe other guys out, but that is what he did: stopped Shohozan cold at the tachi-ai, put his arms around him, and drove him dead, yori-kiri. While his 9-6 finish had to be a disappointment given his hot start, Endo's early scalpings did earn him the Shukun-Sho (Outstanding Performance Award). What's next for Endo? It continues to be an interesting ride with this guy.

K Abi (5-9) vs. K Daieisho (6-8)
I've liked Abi better this tournament; he's shown more power and focus with those striking hands. However, I like Daieisho better--he always seems solid and contained yet explosive. Abi bent Daieisho's head back a few times, but Daieisho responded in kind, and Abi couldn't handle it; after a whiplash or two Abi went into retreat. Daieisho had no problem pursuing and finishing punching Abi out tsuki-dashi.

M8 Aoiyama (4-10) vs. S Takayasu (5-9)
Aoiyama arm barred Takayasu up, then pushed him hard in the face a couple of times. Takayasu in turn bent Aoiyama's nose askance a bit. However, no surprise, in the end this was all about evasion: Takayasu moved aside and Aoiyama fell down, hiki-otoshi. I look forward to watching Takayasu work to show us he can be a solid, tough rank-and-file wrestler now that his demoralizing Ozeki tenure is over.

S Asanoyama (9-5) vs. M8 Ryuden (10-4)
I really like Asanoyama. Could he be starting an Ozeki run? This was his third tournament in a row with double-digit wins. He stopped Ryuden cold at the tachi-ai then began forcing him straight back. He had nothing but body, one arm in, one out, while Ryuden (who didn't do much) had a bit of belt, but it was enough for Asanoyama: he didn't stop his charge until he'd sacrificed himself, knocking Ryuden over backwards with him crashing on top of him, abise-taoshi.

M7 Onosho (8-6) vs. O Goeido (5-9)
Man, on man, once Goeido got abandoned, he sure got worked. In this match-up of sloppy little fireplugs they both got onto the belt; it was Goeido on the outside and Onosho on the in. Goeido then began to fish around for a little trip, picking his food up and sticking it in there. Onosho responded with a mighty, fast, powerful shitate-nage throw that whipped Goeido to the unforgiving earth. Good gracious; so ends an Ozeki.

In March the sumos are in Osaka. It's the best venue; turn up and check out a day. Have a plate of katsu-curry in the little basement venue restaurant; get there early and there will likely be some wrestlers there. Hey, it's still a cool sport.

Day 14 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
On day two of this basho I speculated the unlikelihood of seeing a new champion taking out the yusho. On this, the penultimate day of the basho, Takakeisho is the only previous winner with a chance of lifting the victory cup. Tokushoryu and Shodai, the two leaders, compete against each other today which is a canny decision from the Sumo Association and could lead to a three way playoff tomorrow. When the Yokozuna aren't competing, the competition is evening out more than ever and quickly, too. That's what we want, isn't it?

The aforesaid leadership bout and the Takakeisho v. Asanoyama bout are the two most interesting in deciding the outcome tomorrow.  It is also a day of heightened pressure for 10 or so Rikishi who are currently on 7 losses, which always adds weight to the bout's importance.

In Juryo, Terunofuji, streets ahead of the pack sitting at 13-1 after the day's action, already achieving the Championship, should return to Makuuchi in March. It was in March 2017 when he took the fall for Kisenosato's farcical maiden win and also copped some booing from the crowd for his henka sidestep, earlier against Kotoshogiku. Skip forward 12 months and he was in Juryo, another 12 he was all the way down in Jonidan, 4 divisions from the top rank. He well and truly paid for that henka. His equally rapid rise back up the ranks is a wonderful storyline, which hopefully will continue.

I am pressed for time due to belatedly celebrating my favourite public holiday, "National Whipped Cream Day" today, thus my comments will be a trifle short in licking up the day's events.

M15 Azumaryu v M16 Kaisei
This was a sumo match in slow-mo as the two wrangled positions on the belt, attempting to get comfortable. Aza felt happy enough with a double grip to wrench the big Brazilian around and over the Tawara. Kaisei did not come out to Pele today. Both guys now at 7-7.

M15 Ikioi v M12 Chiyomaru
Maru was intent on holding Ikioi with hands pressed to the neck, but Ikio's persistent forward drive and a hesitant Maru pull were enough to record Ikioi's 7th win. Maru is on the brink of demotion at 6-8.

M11 Chiyotairyu v M14 Shimanoumi
Chiyo the Rhino gave Shima no hope in a rocket blast at the tachi-ai, hands crashing against Shima's chest for a one-sided win, Maru's 7th. Shima at the brink also at 6-8.

M10 Sadanoumi v M12 Tsurugisho
Gisho launched or staggered into Sadanoumi, getting up and under, lifting him and using momentum, sort of fell forward for the yorikiri win, his 5th, whilst Sada collects the dreaded 8th loss.

M13 Kotoshogiku v M10 Ishiura
The Giku had the preferred inside position, as illustrated in Mike's enjoyable intro yesterday, and with a tight hold on Ishiura, drove forward and Ishiura, helpless in the onslaught was easily accounted for. Both guys at 6-8.

M8 Aoiyama v M17 Kiribayama
Aoiyama has becoming as boring and repetitive as a climate change activist. The only way he would be of interest would be if he was filmed demonstrating his plodding sumo on a first floor building balcony, and he then fell off.
Today he came out with (fun)bags of aggressive tsuppari, his weighty thrusts reeling Kiribayama backwards. Kiri, in retreat had no recourse other than twist sideways and Aoiyama, clumsy as always, made it easy by stumbling to the floor. The kimari-te winning move was listed as "kata-sukashi" which implies some force or intention, but really the loss was always Aoiyama's making. Ooh he falls easily.

M4 Okinoumi v M9 Takanosho
Oki came out well but was unwilling to take advantage and Takanosho rallied in return. Oki feebly attempted the pull, Taka was steady, continuing his oshi attack and was rewarded with his 7th win.

M17 Tokushoryu v M4 Shodai
Tokushoryu, a 50 stone, waddling bin-bag of unwanted food scraps and potential grand champion. A prospect that makes me shudder more than if I'd just found out that my sister had blown him. An element of dread is in this bout.

Tokushoryu had the better of the tachi-ai with an inside grip but Shodai wriggled free and was looking in control, driving Shoryu back. As is his happy habit of late, Shoryu twisted aside and felled Shodai with another retreating thrust down move, to a crucial 13th win, delighting his fans and certainly eliciting a few exasperated utterances from Mike. Tokushoryu is on the verge of becoming the most unlikely yusho winner in sumo history. You know what? I'm rooting for him, the big bin bag. Bugger the absurdity of it all, a sumo Grand Champion is a worthy notch on my sister's wish list.

M2 Hokutofuji v M11 Kagayaki
Kagayaki had the better start with a couple of evil thrusts. Fuji, taken aback evaded right, kept low and driving with his usual determination, had Kaga upright and oshi dashi'ed out, continuing his strong showing this basho. 11 wins for him whilst Kagayaki is comfortable on 9.

M1 Endo v M9 Yutakayama
With 4 losses in his last 6 bouts, Endo dropped from one of the Yusho favourites, to settling for a solid yusho highlighted by consecutive Yokozuna scalpings, which really makes it an excellent start to the year for him. Yutakayama is under-ranked at M9, but is steadily making his way up the banzuke, putting in steady efforts. Is he a slow burn type or just another big also-ran?

In the ring it was all about Yutakayama applying powerful walloping thrusts in order to keep Endo from his belt. Endo was persistent but the blows were steadily over-powering him, and clearly tiring, found himself turned around, whereupon Tutaka finished off with a flourishing final shove. Well executed game plan from Yutaka as he is rewarded with his 10th win.

K Abi v M6 Takarafuji
Takarafuji stood his ground against the usual Abi thrusts, then pivoted and assisted Abi's forward stumble with a subtle arm pull for the win. A light affair with both chaps already with losing records.

M5 Enho v K Daieisho
Daieisho was immediately aggressive, maintaining a balanced attack as he chased and cornered Enho, corralling him to the ropes, from which he then blasted Enho from the dohyo and into the waiting Tochinoshin's lap. Daieisho didn't give Enho a chance in a one-sided affair.

M6 Tochinoshin v S Takayasu
A poor tournament for both guys with pride only on the line for the former Ozeki. Takayasu played it smart, clamping a left belt grab then pivoted and pulled Tochi for a no fuss uwate-nage throw down. The ease of the win along with how well Yasu performed it, I would expect more of in coming basho from Yasu, as he realizes his strength is waning and having less effect on his opponents.

O Takakeisho v S Asanoyama
To many, Takakeisho is duty bound to win the basho to uphold the highest rank with no Yokozuna in the mix. Asanoyama is the best of the Japanese Rikishi. He is large, versatile and most wins against him have to be earned.

From the outset, Takakeisho came out with two booming body hits that nearly floored Asa and nearly drove him over the ropes but Asa, big-bodied and resilient, recovered and grabbed a left belt hold whilst Keisho had his own right hold. At ropes edge Asa attempted a throw which resulted in a nage no uchi ai, though Asa was in better position. The throw was held up and they came together chest to chest, but Asa was now in control and better position as he heaved Keisho around again, this time completing the uwate-nage throw for his 9th win and Takakeisho now out of the yusho running.

M7 Shohozan v O Goeido
Shohozan launched low and with speed, gaining moro-zashi, lifting Goeido up and back, following through with a driving surge that nearly completed the job, not quite tipping Goeido over. Before Goeido could fully recover Shohozan the wrenched Goeido to the side and drove lower and harder, crash tackling Goeido in spectacular fashion to the spectator seats as he too fell, sprawling to the ground. The kimari-te description, "yori-taoshi"- frontal crush out- is a fitting description.

Harvye is back tomorrow, tag, you're it, with his ever-eagle eye on the best pie.

Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Allow me to put my false teeth in and take a walk down memory lane back to the mid-1990's when I was living in Fukuoka and stalking the sumos every November when they came for the Kyushu basho. My mainstay stable to visit in the mornings was the Takasago-beya. It was easily accessible from a major subway line, and it had enough sekitori (Konishiki, Mitoizumi, Sunahama, etc.) to attract a lot of de-geiko visitors like Akebono and a Juryo guy from his stable named Daiki who I think was actually murdered after he quit sumo and went back to Hawaii.

Anyway, the sekitori don't enter the morning practice ring until 8:30 or so, but I was always there at least by 7 AM, and so I got to know the Sandanme guys and Makushita guys well. At the time, Takasago had two Makushita guys named Subaru (pronounced su-BAH-ru and not SOO-buh-ROO) and Nanfu. Subaru was Konishiki's primary tsuke-bito, and he was a funny guy and the life of that stable. Nanfu was an undersized Hawaiian who was extremely lean and who fought like a Mongolian.

Both of those guys made it to the Makushita-jo'i, and Nanfu even made it as high as MS1 where he kachi-koshi'ed at 4-3, but the way the banzuke worked out for the next tournament, he was never promoted to Juryo as guys with better records below him jumped him to fill the open slots.

Well, Subaru and Nanfu were friendly rivals, and I've never seen better sanban-geiko between two rikishi than those two guys. Sanban-geiko is where two evenly-matched guys find themselves in the practice ring, and they go at it time and time again sometimes to the tune of 30 consecutive bouts before either takes a break or they let anyone else join the fray. Watching those two dudes spar was sumo at it's finest, and the entire practice tent was on alert because you never knew where the two would end up. Bout after bout they were at each other's throats, and I learned the basics of sumo from watching those two spar more than any other rikishi.

The point of all this is that I know real sumo when I see it, and I know where guys' arms and legs need to be at all times during a bout. I know how bouts are supposed to flow, and I know how guys need to react when their opponents do certain things or get certain holds.

Sumo is not complicated, and I've likened it before to tic-tac-toe where if one dude puts the X here, the O dude has no choice but to put his O there, and so when I watch a Hakuho bout where he does something that's likened to having the first move in a game of tic-tac-toe and he doesn't put his X in the center or one of the corners, I know the bout is fixed.

I start this way because we've seen two very obvious patterns in the sumo of our two leaders.

In Tokushoryu's case, his opponents are winning the tachi-ai and backing him up to the edge where he suddenly springs this tsuki-otoshi trap that comes in the form of a light pat to the side and the opponent just buckling his own knees and falling out of the ring.

As for Shodai, his bouts have been similar as well where his opponents have been winning the tachi-ai and shoving him back to the edge or forcing him to move laterally, and then at the last second he flails an arm with no force behind it that just so happens to touch something which then causes his opponent to dive forward and down across the edge.

Trust me when I say that I never saw sumo like that when watching Subaru and Nanfu.

And beyond Shodai and Tokushoryu this basho, there are obvious patterns to Enho bouts and Takakeisho bouts win or lose. When Enho wins, his opponents are painfully mukiryoku and they never pull him in tight and completely disable his movement before kicking his ass or nearly snapping him in two, and you can see that I've just described his manner of losing in the same sentence.

As for Takakeisho wins, the pattern is rikishi standing up straight and walking themselves back with Takakeisho plodding forward with awful foot work. Yesterday was a bit of a curveball that resembled Kisenosato's "throw" of Terunofuji several years back when the Kid was promoted to Yokozuna, but just look at Tochinoshin's right arm in this picture:



The right arm is doing nothing just hanging there in no man's land behind Takakeisho's back. No pressure, no lifting Takakeisho off balance. Nothing. Then you look at Shin's left arm. What in the hell is it doing grasping the front of the belt with Tochinoshin leaning forward and dipping his shoulder like that? In a real bout (that would have resulted in a proper nage-no-uchi-ai), Tochinoshin's left arm would have been out wide bent at the elbow mirroring Takakeisho's right arm. Then Shin's own right arm would either be tugging at Takakeisho's belt or going for a scoop throw. Instead, you can just see it dangling there doing nothing, which then resulted in this unnatural fall where that right arm is further exposed in no man's land while the left elbow is touching down early to sill the dill for Takakeisho:



I know this is talking a bit of shop, but you can totally see these discrepancies if you know what you're looking for. If you watch a bout where a foreign rikishi pulls his arm from the solid inside position to the outside, it's a fixed bout. There's a popular term in sumo called "sashi," or "zashi" when used as the second part of a compound word, and that describes a rikishi's getting his arm to the inside because that's the necessary foundation to fuel a proper attack.

There is no term for bringing an arm from the inside out because it's an inexplicable move in sumo. And yet, it happens all the time in fixed bouts if you care to look for it.

I will always point it out because my thang from the start of Sumotalk was to point out: 1) aspects of sumo that are never reported in the media--English or Japanese, 2) aspects of sumo that are never mentioned on the live broadcast--English or Japanese, 3) aspects of sumo that are ignored or purposefully not discussed elsewhere on the internet, and 4) aspects of sumo that a novice to the sport would not be able to pick up merely by watching the bouts.

So...let the expert sumo analysis begin with the first bout of the day featuring M12 Tsurugisho vs. M15 Azumaryu. The two hooked up in migi-yotsu where Tsurugisho latched onto the front of Ryu's belt with the left, but since that left was an outer, Azumaryu was able to lift up on Tsurugisho and make him retool that outer grip further up on the belt. As he did this, Azumaryu grabbed his own left outer and used it to swing Tsurugisho around and down. Pretty basic stuff here as Azumaryu moves to 6-7 while Tsurugisho is floundering at 4-7.

Two veterans clashed next in M11 Chiyotairyu vs. M16 Tochiohzan, and Chiyotairyu took advantage from the start shoving Oh back two full steps, but Tairyu just couldn't resist going for a pull. Tochiohzan survived that pull well, but this guy has lost more than just one step, and so he wasn't able to make Chiyotairyu pay for it. As the two squared back up, Chiyotairyu smartly resumed his push attack that bullied Tochiohzan across the ring and back in short order. Oh tried to dodge at the edge, but Chiyotairyu's eyes were fully on him, and so that final push sent Oh clear off the dohyo. Chiyotairyu moves to 6-7 with the win while Tochiohzan has already purchased his kachi-koshi at 8-5.

M17 Kiribayama henka'd to his left against M10 Ishiura and easily slapped him down less than a second in. Kiribayama cheaply waltzes his way to 9-4 while Ishiura gets pulled to 6-7.

M10 Sadanoumi and M16 Kaisei hooked up in migi-yotsu where Kaisei used his length to grab a nice left outer grip, and so the Brasilian just sucked his foe in tight and executed the perfect yori-kiri win in under five seconds. Good stuff here as Kaisei moves to 7-6 while Sadanoumi falls to 6-7.

M17 Tokushoryu is no match for M9 Yutakayama, but if a little special sauce is headed Yutakayama's way in the form of $10K, anything is possible. And that was the case here as Yutakayama stood largely upright from the tachi-ai inviting a tsuppari contest with Tokushoryu, but TS isn't a tsuppari guy, and so Yutakayama instinctively did what he normally would and got his left hand up and under Tokushoryu's right armpit with Yutakayama's right hand planted firmly into Tokushoryu's neck. From this point, the bout was over if Yutakayama was trying to win, but alas he wasn't so he pressed forward waiting for that stale, feeble swipe from Tokushoryu that we see every day, and he swung with the left arm barely making contact, but Yutakayama dutifully bit the dirt in stride with a knee buckled and fully extended.

The was yet another "comeback" victory by Tokushoryu, and it was comeback because his foe suddenly let up in the end and took a sideways dive. Same bad movie as Tokushoryu buys yet another win moving to 12-1 while Yutakayama had plenty of room to sell at 9-4. I know there are some who are saying that I'm simply calling Tokushoryu's bout as fake because he's a yusho leader, but I called his Day 1 bout fake and his Day 5 bout fake...well before anyone had an idea that he would start out 12-1 on paper. I did the same with Asanoyama last year in May when nobody had an idea early on that he would yusho. Trust me, I can see it.

Moving right along, M12 Chiyomaru connected on some effective jabs into M9 Takanosho's neck from the tachi-ai, and the pushes moved Takanosho back in fine form. Credit Takanosho for using a counter right tsuki to the back of Chiyomaru's shoulder that threw him off balance, but as Takanosho rushed in for the kill, Chiyomaru held him up getting the right arm to the inside, and from there Takanosho attempted to pull his way out of the hold, but that only gave the Shelf Gut the momentum he needed to push Takanosho back so hard that he tripped over his own two feet as he toppled backwards off of the dohyo. Chiyomaru picks up a nice win moving to 6-7 while Takanosho falls to the same mark.

At this point of the broadcast, they showed a clip of Arawashi's retirement press conference. The Mongolian was all smiles, and it was good to see him again. He's retiring a rich dude, so more power to him. At the end, Kotooshu presented Arawashi a bouquet of flowers, and if I was a chick, I prolly woulda shed a tear at the scene. As a guy, I'm thinking to myself, "Is it legal for one dude to give another dude flowers??"



M14 Terutsuyoshi's tachi-ai was interesting as he turned his right shoulder inwards towards M8 Ryuden, and while unorthodox, it kept Ryuden from getting to the inside. Ryuden did have a right kote grip, and so as Terutsuyoshi looked to press forward with a right arm to the inside, Ryuden just moved laterally and pulled Terutsuyoshi forward and down hataki-komi style. Pretty easy bout for Ryuden who moves to 9-4 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 8-5.

At this point of the broadcast, they replayed the Terunofuji bout from Juryo where the Mongolian faced Kotonowaka. A win would give Fuji the Terrible the yusho, and he grabbed an early left frontal belt grip that he used to lift Kotonowaka upright, and despite Kotonowaka's moro-zashi position, Teru showed why he's so terrible bludgeoning Kotonowaka back and across with little argument. Terunofuji is the one guy who defies the moro-zashi position. He'd give it up all the time because he's so strong that he can still force his opponent back and out. At 13-0, Terunofuji takes the yusho, and we'll see what happens in Makuuchi when he eventually gets there. He'll likely run into that brick wall which is the powerful Japanese rikishi!! Gotta love parity in sumo.

Moving right along, M8 Aoiyama seemed to have a shock collar on that gave him a nasty sting each time he tried to cross into M15 Ikioi's half of the dohyo. It resulted in a terribly awkward tachi-ai and bout because Ikioi didn't want to move close to Aoiyama's blubber either. So there you had two guys sorta trading tsuppari with no de-ashi whatsoever, and then all of a sudden, Aoiyama did a 360...right there in the center of the ring for no reason!! As I watched the replays from the reverse angle, you could see Ikioi touch Aoiyama's left side, but it wasn't anything close to force a 360 from a guy who weighs 400 pounds. Unbelievable. After the pirouette, Aoiyama was easy push-out fodder for Ikioi who picked up the cheap oshi-dashi win moving to 6-7. Aoiyama falls to 4-9, and he should have been wearing a tutu today over his mawashi.

After two false starts that were needlessly called by a bored referee, M13 Kotoeko was clearly frustrated against M7 Onosho, so on the 3rd go-around, Eko just stood straight up as if to say, "Are you happy now?" Onosho caught him with a nice choke hold but couldn't quite take advantage as Kotoeko slipped left causing the two to trade places in the dohyo and end up in the hidari-yotsu position. Yotsu-zumo actually favors Kotoeko with these two, but Onosho persisted in a force-out attack. He didn't have Eko pinned in tight, however, and so Kotoeko was able to tip-toe the tawara to his left going for a counter pull. He was able to pull Onosho down, but not before Kotoeko stepped out giving Onosho the win after a fairly ugly bout of sumo. Onosho moved to 7-6 with the win while Kotoeko is a horrid 2-11. Perhaps all of the stable money is going to the coach's son, Kotonowaka, and Kotoshogiku's desperate plea to stay in the division.

And that bring us to M4 Shodai who was paired against M11 Kagayaki, a rikishi who sells as many bouts as anyone. He's pretty good at it too, and it showed today as he leaned forward at the tachi-ai as if he was going to shove the co-leader, but Kagayaki's feet were perfectly aligned and so those initial shoves did nothing. With no pressure coming from Kagayaki, Shodai was able to move forward and push Kagayaki back a bit before assuming moro-zashi, but he still had another step to move his gal back. Normally, that would totally invite a counter tsuki-otoshi attempt from Kagayaki, but he just kept his arms high and wide hopping back with both feet as Shodlooked to keep up.  I mean, there was more space between these two at the edge than two sixth graders slow dancing, but that's what they call yori-kiri these days. There was very little force in this bout as Shodai buys yet another win moving alongside Tokushoryu at 12-1.

Just like with Tokushoryu, go back and read my comments regarding Shodai on Days 1 and 5, and I'm calling the bouts fake then with no knowledge as to what was in store for the yusho race. I actually think it's funny that both camps are investing this much money...in the same basho. I mean, this is like once in a career investment, so to see them both choosing this basho at the same time is quire ironic. They've actually paired these two for Day 14, so that means we'll have a sole leader heading into senshuraku. Shodai is the heavy favorite to win tomorrow in my opinion.

And that brings us to the second half bouts that began with M3 Tamawashi who was just 3-9 coming. M14 Shimanoumi is about the easiest target in the division, so it was no wonder that The Mawashi had him pushed back to the straw two seconds from the tachi-ai. The problem was that Tamawashi suddenly let up waiting for Shimanoumi to counter, and that came with the weakest of right touches to Tamawashi's left side resulting in the Mongolian turning himself 90 degrees waiting for the kill shot. Shimanoumi was too hapless to deliver it, and so the two ended back up in the center of the ring where Tamawashi was sideways slapping with glancing blows so as to not inflict too much damage, and finally Shimanoumi pushed into Tamawashi driving him back a step before Shimanoumi literally did a tit swipe down, and that was Tamawashi's cue to just put both palms to the dirt. For good measure, he kicked his left leg up about as high as Shimanoumi's head before he quickly brought it down thinking...yeah, that leg kick was a bit too much. What a crock of shat as Tamawashi literally falls to 3-10 while Shimanoumi buys another basho in the division at 6-7 from teh M14 rank.

M2 Hokutofuji used his usual tachi-ai to shade left while pushing with the right against M2 Mitakeumi keeping him a bit upright. Mitakeumi was able to get the right arm quite easily to the inside while Hokutofuji grabbed an outer left belt grip, but Hokutofuji had the momentum from the tachi-ai, and that allowed him to force Mitakeumi quickly back to the edge. I thought Mitakeumi could have countered better with his right inside it was that good, but credit Hokutofuji for a solid attack and yori-kiri win. My opinion is that Mitakeumi was mukiryoku here, but I could be wrong on this one. Regardless of that, Hokutofuji moves to 10-3 while Mitakeumi falls to 7-6.

M1 Myogiryu was so lethargic at the tachi-ai that M13 Kotoshogiku popped him pretty good. It was still an awkward start and Kotoshogiku couldn't establish anything from the charge, and then Myogiryu literally wrapped both arms around Kotoshogiku's right arm and pulled the former Ozeki towards his body as Myogiryu just backed up and fell to the dohyo across the straw. This finish was embarrassing at it actually made me laugh out loud...something that happens far too often these days. I mean, how can people watch Tamawashi's fall and Myogiryu's fall and not even question anything? This was a clear yaocho as Kotoshogiku moves to 5-8 while Myogiryu falls to 4-9.

Just as soon as I type that, we get the nonsense between M1 Endoh and M4 Okinoumi. Endoh actually struck his foe well at the tachi-ai looking for a frontal belt grip with the right before settling for the left inside. Okinoumi instinctively worked his own left arm inside only to yank it back out and go into pull mode tugging with a kote grip from the right arm around Endoh's left. That unorthodox move actually threw Endoh way off balance, and Okinoumi had him dead to rights with the clear path of dragging Endoh forward and out, but then all of a sudden on a dime, Okinoumi turned back towards the center of the ring and just put his right knee down. It was such an awkward move, and I am absolutely incredulous watching all this. I'm literally shaking my head as Endoh is gifted kachi-koshi at 8-5 while Okinoumi falls to 7-6.

I almost don't dare go on, but since we must..

Komusubi Daieisho knocked M7 Shohozan back from the tachi-ai with some nice shoves, and that led Shohozan to move right and go for a swipe that halted Daieisho's momentum a bit, but as the two looked to stand toe to toe and fire shoves, Daieisho was gaining the upper hand causing Shohozan to move right once again. When the dust settled from that, Shohozan briefly found himself in moro-zashi, but before he could get established, Daieisho was able to move left and maki-kae with that arm moving the bout to hidari-yotsu. From that point, the two pressed chests in the center of the ring for a minute or so before Daieisho mounted a successful force-out charge lifting Shohozan upright and then driving him back with some oomph. Daieisho moves to 5-8 with the win while Shohozan falls to 6-7.

Komusubi Abi's fire hose tsuppari were noticeably absent against crowd favorite, M5 Enho, and I was like here we go. With Abi applying zero pressure, Enho moved back and left ducking down and coming away with a bear hug around Abi's right leg. From that point, Abi just hopped upright with the left just as Enho lifted up on Abi's right and the result was Abi going vertically airborn a bit as Enho sent him across the straw. It was a pretty cool spectacle to watch, but it doesn't mean that it was real because it wasn't. If Abi was applying any pressure, that finish wouldn't have happened, and that is the first time in my life that I have ever seen something like that. It was totally fake, but the crowd was so energized by it all that they began chanting "En-ho! En-ho!" for a few seconds after the bout.

The Sumo Association's move to ask fans to vote on their favorite bout of the day is genius because all they're doing is gathering data on who gives everyone a stiffie. Oh wait, there are a host of old ladies in the crowd too. Anyway, the obvious favorite is Enho, and so moving forward, they are going to milk the favorites for all they can. It's a brilliant marketing strategy, and as long as the fans buy it, keep it up. Enho fakes his way to kachi-koshi at 8-5 while Abi graciously falls to 5-8.

Sekiwake Asanoyama and M6 Takarafuji hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where both dudes ended up with left outer grips, but I kinda hesitate in calling this one gappuri-yotsu. Just the sound of "gappuri" implies that both guys are digging in chest to chest in a battle of wills, but this was just finesse sumo where the two danced around the ring a few times before Asanoyama finally "forced" Takarafuji across yori-kiri style. Takarafuji could have executed a counter right scoop throw or tsuki-otoshi numerous times in this one, and then at the end he was completely upright as he allowed Asanoyama to just walk him back without argument. This was a puff bout if I've ever seen one as Asanoyama is gifted his 8-5 mark while Takarafuji falls to 5-8.

Ozeki Goeido went for the left frontal belt grip from the tachi-ai, but M6 Tochinoshin had his right arm to the inside, and the real Ozeki began to establish that right position before quickly pulling out (cool). As for Tochinoshin's left arm, he had it high around Goeido's head area at first before faking a left outer grip attempt.  He then brought his right arm up around Goeido's head all the while backing up and never going for the pull. The result was an easy force-out win for Goeido that maybe took three seconds. What a crock'a shat as both rikishi end the day 5-8.

In the day's final bout, Sekiwake Takayasu came with a curious right kachi-age where he kinda struck at Takakeisho before bringing that arm up high. With his left arm up high, he gave Takakeisho a clear opening, but the latter wasn't able to just push Takayasu back and out. The result was Takayasu methodically moving left keeping Takakeisho on the move.  At one point Takayasu attempted a weak pull with one hand, but there was little bark here until Takayasu connected on a face slap that drew blood from Takakeisho's right nostril. That part was pretty cool, but Takayasu quickly repented and turned his body 90 degrees allowing Takakeisho to push him upright and back, and then Takayasu wildly spun at the edge as Takakeisho pushed him across. There were some good blows that connected in this one, but Takayasu let Takakeisho win it. The result is Takakeisho's moving to 11-2 while Takayasu takes one for team sumo falling to 4-9.

As we head into the weekend, all three-loss rikishi have been eliminated from the yusho race with both Shodai and Tokushoryu standing at one-loss before facing each other tomorrow. That means the lowest the yusho line could go is down to two losses, so the official leaderboard at this point is:

12-1: Shodai, Tokushoryu
11-2: Takakeisho

I'm not even going to bother to make a prediction other than I think Shodai will beat Tokushoryu tomorrow. They'll likely announce the senshuraku pairing after that contest, so let's see who they feed Shodai (or Tokushoryu if he wins) on the final day. I think they should pair the winner of that bout with Takakeisho, but we shall see.

Justin's back tomorrow.

Day 12 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
I'm interested in Goeido's fate. In my memory, it seems like Ozeki didn't get demoted--they got promoted or quit. Not many hung around in the Maegashira ranks having once been and Ozeki. My models for this assumption were many: Kaio, Chiyotaikai, Baruto, Musoyama, Tochiazuma. But of course it wasn't really true: Dejima and Miyabiyama had already cycled through the ozeki-filter by the time I started watching and spent many years as Maegashira guys, for example. They didn't really seem like formerOzeki--they weren't Ozeki for very long--but they were.

Checking the numbers, on balance my impression isn't wrong: for most of the last twenty years, demoted former Ozeki fighting on in Makuuchi has been a rarity: of the fifteen rikishi to be promoted to Ozeki between 1999 and 2019 and never make it to Yokozuna, you have had six get demoted and go on fighting for any significant amount of time: the aforementioned Miyabiyama and Dejima, however, are the only ones to have done it early on in the period. The other four are all current, and still fighting. Goeido, if demoted, would make five. That's kind of astonishing. Quick, can you name the four? They are Kotoshogiku, Terunofuji, Tochinoshin, and Takayasu.

What does this mean? Two things come to mind. On the plus side, why not? Why not naturally let these guys organically float up and down? The last few years of the careers or Kaio and Chiyotaikai were painful, marred by the effort and hijinx necessarily to keep them at the rank. Much better to let Takayasu go down and fight were he belongs. The other side is less positive: this trend is another sign of the weakening of the banzuke. Ozeki of late aren't getting promoted to Yokozuna much, and they haven't been strong enough to stay on as Ozeki either. The sport has had to let them go.

On balance? I give it a thumbs up. Better no Ozeki than bad ones. We're trending rapidly towards the "no Ozeki" solution.

On day eight I confidently predicted that Goeido would get his eight and Takakeisho cruise to a yusho. I'm happy to see I'm on the brink of being wrong on both those things. Goeido promptly lost his next two matches and now must win out to preserve his rank, and Shodai promptly beat Takakeisho to take a one-match lead over him which he continues to hold.

The final four days may tell us something about the state of the sport: can the constructed narratives of Goeido and Takakeisho survive the threat of reality? Or will they crumble, bringing a breath of honesty and fresh air?

Let's find out. We'll start with the leaderboard matches today, and for fun we'll include the three loss guys in there.

S Asanoyama (6-5) vs. O Goeido (4-7)
Okay, okay, yes, I know, Goeido is not on the leaderboard. But since I made him the focus of the intro, we have to finish up his saga before moving on. He looked really nervous to me the last two days. Was wondering: had his camp thrown him to the winds, said, "sorry, it's up to you, baby. We're not doing this anymore." Or was he buying the last five, but feared, with his epileptic mayfly act, that he'd screw it up and lose by mistake? Despite myself, I felt kind of sorry for him. He looked like a kid who lost the money from the Boy Scout door-do-door garbage-bag sales and wasn't sure how to tell his Den Master. Well, they both went for the belt, and after a few moments the bigger, better, younger, stronger Asanoyama got both of his hands even deeper in there, around onto Goeido's backside. After this there were two possible outcomes: Asanoyama would give it away--he had a smotheringly dominant position--or he would finish his win, sending Goeido to Sekiwake. Goeido struggled mightily, flexing all his muscles and showing his body strength, jerking this way and that, but Asanoyama had him too tightly and too deeply. Asanoyama forced Goeido emphatically, dramatically, and definitively across the edge in as dominant a display of yori-kiri force as you'll be lucky enough to see.

Wow--and so it ended. After more than five years at the rank of Ozeki, Goeido will be demoted, leaving us with just one Ozeki, Takakeisho, and five former ones floating around in the ranks and files. This is so unusual I had to go and recheck the banzuke just to make sure I wasn't forgetting somebody. Nope. Takakeisho is now it. Amazing. Yep. Happy to have been wrong. Thank you Asanoyama; and hallelujah for justice being done and for Goeido's demotion--finally, Finally!

This would normally be a spot to say a few nice things about Goeido's Ozeki tenure. I ain't doin' it--ain't been earned.

LEADERBOARD MATCHES

M14 Terutsuyoshi (8-3) vs. M14 Shimanoumi (4-7)
Salt Shaker (Terutsuyoshi) was first up of our nominal leaders, and pulled out hoppity-jump-froggy-sumo. By which I mean he put his head down and sprang towards Shimanoumi's knees in a herky-jerky way, pretending that that wasn't going to do that but doing it anyway. Shimanoumi wasn't fazed either way and promptly slapped Salt Boy down, hataki-komi. Salt put two palms on the dirt--and stood right back up. You know what that means, but at least it did get one of our three loss guy off the leaderboard. Good!

M17 Tokushoryu (10-1) vs. M11 Kagayaki (9-2)
If Tokushoryu wins this tournament, I quit. I mean, I love me some Special Sauce, but it is a farce if this Juryo returnee, ranked 42nd out of 42 guys, gets to sneak to the yusho just because sumo never figured out how to make a better tiering system for deciding the yusho and/or planning late-tournament matches. Letting all 42 guys play evenly for the championship, even though they play different levels of competition for at least three quarters of the tournament, has never made sense to me. Kagayaki made Tokushoryu look flabby at the tachi-ai, stopping his momentum cold. Kagayaki then wrapped Saucy up with his arms. However, that is a lot of wrapping to do. Kagayaki looked smothered in the flab folds, and had insufficient purchase to hang solidly onto. As a result, Tokushoryu mounted the first force-out charge, lifting Kagayaki on his belly. Kagayaki ain't bad, and as you would expect, Tokushoryu's charge sputtered out. I was ready to see Kagayaki finish it. However, that's not the way they played this one. When Kagayaki in turn pushed Sauce to the edge, Sauce faked a movement to one side, twitching left, but bailed out to the right, pushing down on Kagayaki's shoulder, and felled him beautifully at the edge, tsuki-otoshi. This means Tokushoryu cannot be eliminated until Saturday at the earliest. My goodness!

M16 Tochiozan (7-4) vs. M9 Yutakayama (9-2)
As you know, I like Yutakayama a lot; he's looking healthy, and has good size and technique. However, he is also under-ranked, and has had easy pickin's as a result this tournament. A yusho would be silly for that reason, but not out of line with similar recent yusho such as the one by Asanoyama. To the match: was it just me, or did he look a little light, a little slow, a little becalmed? For a young guy with mustard fighting a broken down veteran ranked seven slots below him in an important match, Yutakayama sure didn't bring it. He worked away in a desultory manner, giving some neck and chest shoves. Then he put his head down and Tochiozan whacked him to the dirt, kata-sukashi. And that, folks, is how you simultaneously clean up the leaderboard and give a vet his kachi-koshi at the same time. It's like magic!

M1 Endo (7-4) vs. M2 Hokutofuji (8-3)
I don't know why, but Hokutofuji has just never had any juice. He's just kind of there. Pretty good, not great, an afterthought all the time. Too bad. He made mincemeat of Endo today. Remember when Endo looked tiny and smushable? That was how he looked today. Helpless and obliterated. This was accomplished through an evil palm full of neck-squeezing by Hokutofuji, set up by some nice skull-clonking at the tachi-ai. Oshi-dashi. Whew. I wish I could say Hokutofuji were a plausible yusho winner, but he is not getting it this time around He's saying hello, though.

K Abi (5-6) vs. M4 Shodai (10-1)
Hmmmm; something may be going on in Shodai's camp in his favor. They may have decided to support his effort. Interesting. Why? Abi dominated this one, showing his best Abi-ness: fire hoses at full blast, aimed at Shodai's face and neck, knocking and bending him scarily backwards. Back, back went Shodai, and found himself at the straw. Then, miraculously for Shodai, Abi put his head down and decided to finish it battering-ram style. Oh! Shodai tapped Abi on the back and moved out of the way, and Abi finished his downward momentum, putting his hands on the dirt, tsuki-otoshi. Jak rozczarowany! Abi should have won this one. And even if you entertain the possibility that this just happened to happen, fair and square, it still was a sad match, because winning a match more of less by mistake and happenstance is not how you want to build your first yusho. Grumble grumble.

O Takakeisho (9-2) vs. M6 Tochinoshin (5-6)
These days Tochinoshin is a sloppy mess who cannot get to the belt, and this makes his matches a shambles. After bumping chests, these gentlemen deeked at each other for a moment up high. Then Tochinoshin lurched awkwardly down and in, a zombie Frankenstein seeking guts to chew on, and got a loose, rambling grip around Tochinoshin's back with one arm and a few fingerfuls of mawashi on the front with the other. Though Takakeisho was going backwards, he had no problem taking advantage of Shin's discombobulated attack: he turned his body sharply while wrenching on Tochinoshin's arm, and rolled Tochinoshin along the floor while he himself popped up off of the dirt and came down face-first outside the ring. Tochinoshin went down first by a mile, kote-nage victory for The Elect, Takakeisho. This one was over so quickly I fast forwarded through it by mistake the first time, then I had to watch it, oh, eight times on replay to cobble together a description. Why? Sound and fury, signifying little. Not enough there there. On the one hand, it looked kind of cool, big bodies flying and flipping through the air. On the other hand, did either of these guys have a plan?

I do think we are in for an exciting finishing weekend; Goeido's demotion has cheered me up! The score:

11-1: Shodai, Tokushoryu
10-2: Takakeisho
9-3: Hokutofuji, Yutakayama, Kagayaki

OTHERS

M15 Azumaryu (5-6) vs. M15 Ikioi (4-7)
This is Azumaryu's fifth time in Maku-uchi, and he has never made it to a second basho. Looks like he is headed for a sixth straight upper-dividsion make-koshi; he's still pitching a shutout. But I predict he'll manage to squeak out staying for a second tournament this time around. It should be close. Azumaryu has a nice tall, supple sumo body, and looks like he should be great... but he sure isn't. The match was very easy for Ikioi, who banged heads with him, then knocked him askance with a nice blow from his left elbow. After that Ikioi was behind Azu and ushered him out, okuri-dashi. Yep: if this is how Azumaryu fights, no wonder he can't stick around. Waste of a great sumo physique.

M12 Tsurugisho (3-8) vs. M13 Kotoeko (2-9)
Tsurugisho completely overwhelmed Kotoeko and made him look bad here. Stood him up at the tachi-ai, drove him back, popped him in the neck with a thrust, pulled him mightily to the ground like a sack of rotten corn, hataki-komi. Yipes.

M10 Sadanoumi (6-5) vs. M17 Kiribayama (7-4)
Kiribayama moved left and backwards after the tachi-ai, and Sadanoumi didn't follow quickly enough. Kiribayama then slapped Sadanoumi in the ass and saw him out, okuri-dashi. Ridiculous: Sadanoumi had a great big paw in Kiribayama's mug for most of this sequence, is an experienced guy, and there is no way he didn't realize Kiribayama was ditching the line. Well, that's how you get a kachi-koshi, folks.

M16 Kaisei (6-5) vs. M10 Ishiura (5-6)
Ishiura did the popular new Terutsuyoshi/Enho era "hop and go low" thing, then buzzed around like a horsefly, pecking at the lumbering, blundering Kaisei. After a moment or two of this Kaisei had feigned ignorance and confusion long enough and was standing with his back to the straw at the edge where Ishiura could push him out by the gut, yori-kiri. Do we really think Kaisei doesn't know how to react and have presence better than this? I don't.

M9 Takanosho (5-6) vs. M13 Kotoshogiku (4-7)
Here is one of those former Ozeki. I wonder if Kotoshogiku will let himself drop to Juryo. I would think that would be too much indignity for him. He's close; it wouldn't shock me if this is his last basho. He was embarrassed by Takanosho, who pulled a "young Kotoshogiku" on him, grabbing him by the face, then putting both arms inside, then humping Koto energetically at the edge until the helpless former champ couldn't take it anymore and went out, yori-kiri. Humping used to be Kotoshogiku's forte; when you get done like this by a faceless guy ten years your junior, it is time to move on.

M8 Aoiyama (4-7) vs. M11 Chiyotairyu (4-7)
For once Aoiyama decided to move boldly forward--and we promptly found out why he usually doesn't. Looking as unbalanced as a semi with a catatonic driver careening off a cliff, the rumbling bulk of Aoiyama went down to a tumultuous head-pull-and-kote-nage at-the-edge combo by Chiyotairyu. They both went down in a very heavy heap, but Aoiyama was at the bottom.

M12 Chiyomaru (5-6) vs. M8 Ryuden (7-4)
Ryuden played slappery with Chiyomaru for a few moments, then stepped smartly out of the line of fire and let Chiyomaru plant his amble shelf-gut on the clay, tsuki-otoshi. Chiyomaru fell too easily, with no attempt to turn. And lo! another pesky kachi-koshi for the winner.

M3 Tamawashi (3-8) vs. M7 Onosho (5-6)
Tamawashi pushed up on Onosho's head for a moment, looking good, then reacted to a little pull of Onosho's, stumbled, and fell hiki-otoshi. Next.

M7 Shohozan (5-6) vs. M2 Mitakeumi (7-4)
Shohozan immediately got both arms inside with a more active and aggressive tachi-ai, and he had Mitakeumi dead to rights. There was a bit of jostling at the edge during which Mitakeumi pretended to try to head-throw Shohozan, but that just got him backwards and resulted in an okuri-dashi kimari-te. I don't think Mitakeumi was trying here, because he isn't this bad.

M4 Okinoumi (7-4) vs. M1 Myogiryu (3-8)
This match was a brief stalemate between two respectable, solid guys. Myogiryu worked low and inside, Okinoumi wrapped up Myogiryu's right arm and wrenching him this way and that with it. Myogiryu, however, eventually got that pinned arm down to Okinoumi's belt, neutralizing Okinoumi's attack; the yori-kiri win for Myogiryu followed quickly.

M6 Takarafuji (5-6) vs. K Daieisho (3-8)
Daieisho gave a pliant Takarafuji the old Walter Payton stiff-arm, jamming his fist into our Bus Driver's neck, and with that summarily pushed Takarafuji back and out, oshi-dashi. There was a mono-ii to make sure Daieisho's toes weren't over the straw first, but they weren't, and he won.

M5 Enho (6-5) vs. S Takayasu (4-7)
After a false start that was no less legit than many other phantom dirt touches, but after which nobody moved forward, prompting the gyoji to halt matters and say "let's try that again," we knew we weren't in for a bruising match. A bit of standard Enho theatre followed, with Enho trying to see what he could find inside of Takayasu's belly-button and Takayasu goofing around above and trying to see what he could do with Enho's little arms since no head was visible. I will say it for the umpteenth time: just go after Enho! Attack, kill! Takayasu had room to reach way, way in and grab the back of Enho's belt, and did. I wanted to stand up and yell, "throw him! Throw him! Throw the tiny little man!" The end was patently ridiculous; they went into a nage-no-uchi-ai mutual throw in the middle of the ring, and Takayasu was forced to plop himself onto the dirt in order to fulfill his destiny and the fiction that he couldn't have just tossed Enho to the winds here. It was ruled shitate-nage, but actually Enho just let go and stood up while Takayasu let go and fell down. There was no finishing throw. Oh, you silly sumo, you.

Tomorrow Mike decides he too wants to be a sekiwake.

Day 11 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all, it's day 11 already and it's time to see how some of our ex-Makuuchi boys are doing so far. Old fav Toyonoshima gave up 16 years to Asashoryu's baby nephew. And the 6'1” (185cm) baby massively overpowered grandpa with his leg strength leading to a slamming throw-down. Holy Hell. That's 7 wins and counting.

The cripple that takes a diabetic licking and keeps on ticking, Terunofuji, hasn't been in the top division since the Hatsu basho two years ago when his knee turned to french meringue. He's on an upturn now and his opponent was so concerned to keep his mawashi out of the yotsu machines' reach he ran himself around the ring and out in a panic. That's some rep Terunofuji is rebuilding down there. Zensho so far.

The other Makuuchi yusho winner, Ichinojo, took on the son of former Sekiwake and 1990's mainstay, Kotonowaka. To honor the father the boy has changed his shikona to Kotonowaka part II: Revenge Of The Son. For this sequel Ichinojo was horrible. He snatched at the belt but didn't bend over far enough to reach and he stumbled when forced to alter his stance. With only 5 wins, it's clear he is not ready to return to the top division. Where would sumo be without the good old fashioned injuries and ailments?

Did anyone notice the clever switcheroo the always practical banzuke committee pulled at M3 for this tournament? Bear in mind please, the 14 slots they just decided to drop Tochinoshin for his pair of wins. Sumo's latest addition to the paraplegic stuntmen team, Tomokaze, was demoted a whopping 29 slots of precious Makuuchi rank, and he had one more win than Tochinoshin!

This one legged boy kept falling all the way down until his bouncing ass landed in Juryo. We all know that with his horrific folding knee act Tomokaze wasn't going to show up for this basho & probably not the next either. But it doesn't matter now because he's safely hidden away in the second division. Away from the shining eyes of sub-prime time television. The committee decided to go full Minority Report on the poor schlub and rank him based on his future crime 0-0-15 result this basho. Is it fair? Probably not. But it does prevent an ugly hole opening up in the beautifully balanced banzuke for this basho. And we wouldn't want that would we?


Aoiyama (M8) 4-6 v Tokushoryu (M17) 9-1
Lets start the top division with the largest pair you're going to see today. And Tokushoryu. This bout is only remarkable for one reason, and it's not big Daniel's bosom. With his tsuki-otoshi victory here today (spoiler alert) Tokushoryu now moves on to 10-1 and is still in with a chance to win it all. For the first ten days the highest rank the 33 year old has had to face has been lowly M12. Until he gets to face some real contenders he's just along for the ride. Tomorrow he gets his first true taste of competition from the 9-1 Kagayaki. The JSA is hoping that will be enough. They don't have many marquee match-ups left (except Enho versus the Komusubi of course) and they don't want to waste them disposing of this guy's yusho challenge.

Okinoumi (M4) 6-4 v Tochinoshin (M6) 5-5
Big Okinoumi is coming on strong as sumo weakens around him. I vaguely remember reading about his suffering a chronic problem with his insides. Diverticulitis springs to mind but I can't be sure. Anyone know better? Anyway he seemed in fine form today. He tested his bull strength with the semi-broken former Sekiwake and he did well. Not over-powering but good enough to give him the space to utilize his inner right arm in taking the offence away from Tochinoshin's counter drive. Okinoumi had his other hand on the back of the neck and swung Tochi around for half a circle. Georgia's finest did well to keep his feet at this point but when he didn't fall, big Noumi had a classic migi-yotsu yori-kiri finish waiting for him as soon as he was upright. Very nice stuff and another M1 rank beckons for the Haru in March. I look forward to him going in hard amongst the depleted Sanyaku but it's too late for an Oz run at this late stage of his career. Okinoumi is showing us what might have been.

Hokutofuji (M2) 7-3 v Tamawashi (M3) 3-7
Tamawashi turned 35 last basho. And it's showing. And yet I don't think he will be a part of the retirement flood that is coming our way. He still has a dozen tournaments in him as a Maegashira if he has the motivation. But don't expect him to ever be at his all time prime again. He still has more than enough to handle wild Hokutofuji of course. Who, and this may surprise you, slipped to his left at the jump off. Tamawashi was ready for him and began to put his heavy pushes in where it counts. “Damn, it didn't work” thought Hokutofuji and he stepped to the side again and began to run, a nodowa seeking Tamawashi in hot pursuit.

At the edge Hokutofuji finally got his hand inside deep enough to turn his predator. And he used it to good effect as he got out of the way of the oncoming bulldozer for the fourth time. Tamawashi tried to sidestep into his moving target but the wriggly thing slithered behind and over him crashing Tamawashi down to Tsuki-otoshi. He almost had him, but it's make-koshi for Tamawashi and kachi-koshi for Hokutofuji.

Endo (M1) 6-4 v Myogiryu (M1) 3-7
Despite so much media attention on his good looks and his decent technical skills it's a little odd that Endo, unlike Myogiryu, has never made it to Sekiwake. If he gets run over by Osunaarashi and retires tomorrow he will forever be know as former Komusubi Endo. He deserves to go one higher in this, his career prime.

The former Komusubi delivered a good tachi-ai, hard hitting and stable and then he played his foe beautifully. Endo had wrapped an arm around Myogiryu's right arm whilst denying the former Sekiwake the moro-zashi position, an early threat that Endo might come out of this with two grips to Myogiryu's one. Myogiryu did the text book correct thing and withdrew his arm the only way he could, upwards. His shoulder had to come along for the ride (the two are almost inseparable) and this made him too upright. As soon as he ducked back down into the fight, Endo stepped back and let his boy stumble forward for a sneaky hiki-otoshi win. Handsome Endo has a chance to kachi-koshi against hugly Hokutofuji on day 12.

Shodai (M4) 9-1 v Daieisho (K) 3-7
All eyes were on Shodai here but it was Daieisho in the driving seat. Shodai went forward at the tachi-ai but that's not really his style daddio. It also squared him up nicely for chunky Daieisho to begin pounding him with his oshi attack. Shodai had to spend the rest of this bout trying to free himself from the nodowa and deflecting the smaller man as he sought to regain his stance.

It was Daieisho who beat Daieisho today. And not because he meant to. When he had the basho leader at the edge, head rocked back, he predicted that Shodai would again attempt to slip out to the side and disengage, it's what Shodai had been doing all along. But Shodai didn't do the predictable thing. He stayed where he was, right on the tawara and let Daieisho step across, all alone. This killed the oshi man's momentum as they went back to the centre. Shodai claimed his oshi-dashi tenth win soon after. So near, yet so far for Daieisho who ramped it up for this one and made it an exciting bout. Shodai gets an over-achieving Abi tomorrow.

Abi (K) 5-5 v Mitakeumi (M2) 6-4
A spirited but slow pushing affair from the get go, this one. Abi is reduced to Mitakeumi speed but with even less maneuverability. Setting the injured knee aside for one moment, Abi is strengthening up. His arms are beginning to look more stable when in full contact with the heavier opponents. It was Mitakeumi who turned into the lightweight. Unable to get a hit on target, he decided he'd had enough of getting his head bashed around constantly by the longer armed man and jumped as lithely as he can (not too much) to the side and let an oncoming Abi sail on through. A most un-macho okuri-dashi victory for Mitakeumi. But they both needed the win so a little slyness can be a good thing. Especially if you find yourself the one legged man in an ass kicking contest.

Asanoyama (S) 6-4 v Enho (M5) 5-5
That Enho sure is one crafty little guy. He ducked super low and to the side immediately going for the bigger man's knee. He managed to slap it to the side a bit. Asanoyama moved it away a bit, just a bit. It's only a small thing to start things off but it meant that Asanoyama didn't get to put his foot down where he intended. Mighty Mouse kept wheeling to the side and Asanoyama half stumbled, half lunged to get back into a decent stance. At the same time Enho had grabbed an arm and was pulling in the same direction. This lead to a massive over-correction from Asanoyama and he was now by the tawara. The mouse roared and went forward for the only time in the bout. Oshi-dashi and the crowd roared it's approval. Fun stuff. Legit? Who knows, Enho isn't telling.

Takayasu (S) 4-6 v Goeido (O) 3-7
During the Hatsu basho ten years ago the kadoban king Chiyotaikai announced his retirement. Worn out, injured and lacking power for some time, he made an attempt to get 10 wins from the Oz-wake special rank and didn't come close. He was a few months short of turning 34 years old. It was time, no one was surprised. Goeido is almost exactly the same age as Chiyotaikai was when he retired. Just one more defeat and he will also find himself in the special Oz-wake slot too. But if this guy retires next basho I'll be shocked to the core. Goeido is one of natures great survivors, a true opportunist. During the height of the cold war they said that after a nuclear holocaust the only thing left alive would be the cockroaches. Goeido is sumo's cockroach. Plus, he seems to really like his sumo. If he can just make it another full year, maybe two more, three at most, and go-get-em-Goeido might just be crowned king after all.

Today he went after the former Ozeki with gusto and routed him. Poor Takayasu could only defend against the inevitable defeat for so long before he stepped out. Tenacious G and the yori-kiri of destiny.

Takakeisho (O) 8-2 v Takarafuji (M6) 5-5
Takarafuji is an axe wielding executioner this tourney, the one the king calls for when an unruly noble starts eyeing the crown for himself. After cutting down Takayasu from his Ozeki title once and for all he inflicted a mortal wound, and seventh loss, on Goeido yesterday. Will he make it three in a row against Takakeisho today?

Nope. He didn't manage to get his thang in motion. But that was more to do with the young Ozeki putting a pretty good hit on the numbers, right at the start. The impact looked good to me so I can't fault Takarafuji today. He's not the quickest rikishi even on his best day. He's there to be hit if you want him. The question with Takarafuji is whether he can deflect the second oshi wave or not. It wasn't to be today as he was bulldozed back with two big double armed thrusts. It looks like Takakeisho has finally stolen the last of Chiyotairyu's sumo mojo. He goes 9-2 with that oshi-dashi and gets Tochinoshin for day 12. That's not the intimidating match-up it used to be, 10-2 anyone?

Harvye may have something he wants to say about the leaderboard for day 12. But I doubt it.

Day 10 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
Shodai the Shapeless and Tokushoryu the Toneless lead the pack at 8-1 with Kagayaki, and Harvye's favourite, Ozeki Takakeisho, one win less at 7-2.  A brief glance at Shodai's career record using my advanced Wikipedia skills shows that he has been a consistently average Rikishi since debuting in the top division in the January basho of 2016. Consistency is his strength. In this time, he has never pulled out of a tournament, nor has he threatened for the Championship. Two 11-4 efforts and two 10-4 results, his high points. In the early stages of his 29th year we should be expecting him to be hitting his peak with perhaps this tournament the start of a rise into the Sanyaku ranks for an extended period. I've never seen a Japanese Rikishi so openly jubilant after his win yesterday, and it is refreshing in such a usually staid and personality constricted sport.

I don't hold high expectations for Tokushoryu whose most memorable attribute is his profoundly un-athletic physique, even amongst the current crop of Rikishi. However, this is the diversity of sumo that makes the sport so engaging. That two totally different physical specimens such as Tokushoryu and Enho are competing as equals, must be encouraging to young hopefuls interested in sumo, which accepts all-comers; from the small and nimble to lumpy and grotesque.

Before I cover the main bouts of Makuuchi, in Juryo, Terunofuji continued his rise back to the top with his tenth straight win. It's only a short matter of time until he returns and I'm looking forward to it.

As per my usual lazy manner, I'll be covering just the bouts of interest to me.

M12 Tsurugisho v M17 Kiribayama
Tsurugisho has been using the same strapper as Tochinoshin, judging on the amount of material wrapped around his left knee. He gamely held on against Kiribayama, but unable to put any weight on said knee, after a brief struggle he submitted to Kiribayama who is heading towards a successful first tournament in Makuuchi.

M14 Tokushoryu v M12 Chiyomaru
I would love these two to compete just using their bellies, no arms, just gut-donging it until one guy either falls, or bounced out, or one guy's gut bursts open upon impact. This would truly elevate Sumo into extreme sport ranks. No luck. Chiyomaru came out high and had Shoryu retreating and circling the dohyo until Shoryu propped and shoved aside Maru who kept running across the ropes and off the dohyo. Win number 9 for Tokushoryu.

M11 Chiyotairyu v M15 Ikioi
I look forward to Chiyotairyu bouts due to, say the three bouts per basho he lets loose with his hurricane force tachi-ai that would make the highlights package of any marketing team willing to promote the sport. Case in point on day 7 vs. Yutakayama. No rhino charge today. Tairyu shifted left at the tachi-ai which left him off-kilter and Ikioi took advantage, following him then and shoving Tairyu over the edge for his 4th win. Thankfully Ikioi appeared not to be suffering from his injuries...'cos he won.

M13 Kotoeko v M11 Kagayaki
Expect Kagayaki to be at his most diligent forward moving self as he can achieve kachi-koshi today. Kotoeko came out in feisty fashion showing plenty of aggression but was clearly outmatched. Kagayaki, with poise and patience steadily warded off Koto's thrusts, kept his own thrusts tight to the body, and herded Koto steadily back and out. Kagayaki is now 8-2.

M9 Takanosho v M16 Kaisei
Kaisei started strongly but Takanosho had a hold of a Kaisei arm, shifted left and kept Kaisei guessing and off balance until a thrust to the neck, then final low drive forced Kaisei out. Good win for Takanosho; an example that a moving target is harder to pin down.

M15 Azumaryu v M9 Yutakayama
Potential kachi-koshi for Yutakayama who is showing that he deserves a higher rank on the banzuke.
In a straight up, linear bout, Yutaka overpowered Aza with a series of forceful thrusts into Aza's chest, who really looked a little easy going and compliant today. Successful outing for Yutakayama with win number 8.

M8 Aoiyama v M14 Terutsuyoshi
Terutsuyoshi false started which angered Big Daniel who handed out a dismissive shove which brought forth some vocal ooh-ahhs from the audience. Excellent start to set up some tension. Second time out, Daniel used his big mitts to hold Yoshi off, then attempted a slap down that nearly worked, Yoshi barely escaping. He then countered, more out of self-preservation than anything as he was heels to the rope, by hugging on to Daniel and found he had a left belt grip. He then made a good attempt at a throw that just didn't contain enough power, unsurprising considering Daniels immense size, then stepped back with the slightest arm hold as Daniel lurched forward to the dirt for a hard-earned 7th win for Terutsuyoshi. I'm sure Daniel could have performed better and should have won but I'm past caring about him.

M19 Ishiura v M8 Ryuden
Ishiura came in low and managed a belt hold on the front of Ryuden's mawashi. From here he pulled back and performed a lovely underarm throw worthy of his mentor, Hakuho, to win, shitate-dashi-nage. Ryuden offered little opposition going along with the move, but no harm done as he is 6-4 whilst Ishiura moves to 4-6.

M4 Okinoumi v M7 Onosho
A healthy aggressive tachi-ai from both boys, neither looking for the belt, happy to try and force the other backwards. Oki then man-handled Onosho around with arms under Onosho's pits, driving him out for a solid yori-kiri win, his 6th.

M7 Shohozan v M4 Shodai
A show of strength today from Shodai. Shohozan came out hard, rocking Shodai backwards slightly who wasn't fazed as he got under Shohozan armpits who was busy trying on his slapping thing, and hoisted him over the ropes. Impressive show of strength as Shodai levels the lead with Tokushoryu.



M1 Endo v M2 Mitakeumi
They drove into one another with a clash of heads, Mitake forcing Endo up and back to the edge of the ropes. Endo held on and managed to work back into the dohyo but Mitake had a belt hold and like a discus thrower winding up, he swung Endo around full circle and eventually to the floor. Win by uwate-dashi-nage and I'm sure Mitakeumi hasn't had many of those. Enjoyable to watch.

M3 Tamawashi v M1 Myogiryu
Tama was at his belligerent today with Myogiryu the unlucky victim of a relentless oshi attack. They clashed heads with Tama following up with his jolting thrust. Giryu managed to twist out and tried to get in close but Tama was having none of it. Tama drove in again, Giryu evaded as Tama's charge missed the mark They stood apart in a brief face-off until Tama launched again with three mighty surges with Giryu unable to withstand. With both guys at 3-7 coming into this bout, nothing was riding on it, but these days its such instances when Tama is allowed to release his "inner kracken" and makes for entertaining sumo.

M2 Hokutofuji v K Daieisho
Plenty of lively thrusting from both guys, Daieisho persisting an all out attack and getting the better of the exchanges, with Hokutofuji hapless, absorbing the onslaught and desperately attempting self-defensive slap downs. Daieisho sensed his advantage but over-extended, whereupon Fuji with a faint arm hold, was able to pull him across the ropes for his 7th win.

S Asanoyama v M6 Tochinoshin
Tochinoshin attempted a sort of henka and slap down, but Asa was ok with it, followed him and both settled into belt holds and from here Shin went for a huge right hand throw once, then twice then finally managing to "sill the dill" as Mike would say, (though with far better technical know-how beforehand) with a final almighty heave, dumping Asa over the Tawara. Juicy display from two heavyweights. Asa's chances of taking the yusho took a significant plunge as he's stuck on 6 wins, Tochinoshin will take heart from a powerful display as he is now 5-5.

K Abi v S Takayasu
I'm interested to see how much fight Takayasu has in this basho now that his hopes of an Ozeki return have been thwarted.
Abi's long reach held off Yasu who kept calm, withstood the barrage, and Abi, a little too keen to advance, was off balance as Yasu stepped back setting up the slap down, hataki-komi win with Abi eager to oblige.

O Takakeisho v M5 Enho
Enho needed to continue his evasive mosquito tactics to win this bout. Enho henka'd right with a pitiful slap down attempt. Keisho wasn't fooled. His first assault was lacking authority and Enho managed to push Keisho backwards whose next advance had significant weight behind it which rocked Enho back and from there just one more shove, and a retreating Enho was bullocked back over the ropes.  Win number 8 for Takakeisho.

M6 Takarafuji v O Goeido
Takarafuji easily accounted for Goeido. If a newcomer was watching this in their first ever sumo bout, it would be obvious that Takarafuji was the superior Rikishi. Fuji welcomed Goeido in his normal fashion, holdin' Goeido's advance with his sturdy left shoulder. Goeido was trying for the right belt but our bus driver calmly rejected the attempts, saw an opening, drove Goeido to the edge, heaved him sideways, the momentum leaving Goeido with his back to Takarafuji, who gleefully drove Goeido from the dohyo, okuri-dashi; one of the most embarrassing kimari-te any Rikishi can suffer in a loss, let alone an Ozeki. Goeido's rank is looking very shaky and he will need all his experience and tenacity this week to fight his way back. Tomorrow he faces Takayasu in a bout of great interest.  As for the bus driver, my last report on day 7 he was the most disappointing I've ever seen from him. Yesterday's and today's effort amplifies that absurd effort.

Tomorrow Gary comes tearing in off his long run and bounces a few tail-enders, whilst Mike and Harvye probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Harvye texted me early Sunday morning saying that his Day 8 report was sent, and since Harvye usually delivers his reports in the evenings, I was going to text back, "Wow, that was faster than [insert name of rikishi doing something notably speedy on the dohyo]." The problem was I couldn't think of a single instance these days where a rikishi is speedy on the dohyo as he efficiently takes care of business.

That dilemma followed Day 7 when I saw Chiyotairyu just level Yutakayama to the dirt with a nice forearm, and I remember thinking, "Now that's what I call bariki." I was trying to think of other legitimate instances of bariki--or horsepower--that I've seen this basho, and the only thing I could come up with was Tochinoshin's tsuri-dashi win over Enho earlier in the week.

So, a dearth of speed and an absolute lack of bariki upon the dohyo this tournament has resulted in the following leaderboard as we enter Day 9:

7-1: Takakeisho, Shodai, Tokushoryu
6-2: Endoh, Yutakayama, Kagayaki, Terutsuyoshi

I winced a little bit when Harvye proclaimed that Takakeisho was a lock for the yusho. I mean, he's the guy receiving a majority of the hype, but in order for the dude to yusho he's going to need six or seven guys let up for him in week 2. It wouldn't surprise me to see that orchestrated in the end, but it's a sad state of affairs when that's how the Association needs to elect their champion.

With the Yokozuna having withdrawn early and the other foreigners pulling back in tow, this is yet another rudderless basho that is going to have a Juryo type finish. And that's not to say that a Japanese rikishi couldn't steer the yusho race, but if such a rikishi exists, who is he?

These comments are of course based on actual sumo content instead of media hype, so let's get right to the action in the ring and break it down blow by blow.

The day began with M14 Terutsuyoshi pitted against M16 Kaisei, and notice how once NHK showed their mini-documentary on January 17th featuring a 5-0 Terutsuyoshi who was born on the day the legendary earthquake struck the Hanshin / Awaji / Kelly Household region 25 years ago, the dude has just been thrown to the wolves...literally when you look at all that hair on Kaisei's torso.

Anyway, knowing the bout was not fixed coming in, Terutsuyoshi darted to his left at the tachi-ai, but TeenWolf was onto the move squaring up nicely and using Terutsuyoshi's momentum against him to shove him out in one fell swoop. This was over before it began as both rikishi now share the same 6-3 mark.

M13 Kotoeko shaded to his right at the tachi-ai as M15 Ikioi charged forward with arms outstretched, and by the time Ikioi squared back up with his gal, Kotoeko slipped into moro-zashi. The grip was light, however, and Kotoeko was applying zero pressure, and so Ikioi was able to maki-kae using the right arm with no resistance whatsoever from Eko. Once I saw that, I knew the result as Ikioi now used that right inside position to force Kotoeko back across the straw with as much push-back as he faced during the maki-kae (translation: zero). Kotoeko actually had a left tsuki-otoshi or left kote-nage counter move wide open had he wanted it, but he just uselessly held onto that left belt grip as Ikioi eased him across. Ikioi moves to 3-6 with the gift while Kotoeko is 10 grr richer at 2-7.

M17 Kiribayama moved out left at the tachi-ai against M13 Kotoshogiku in a move called uwate wo tori ni iku, and after grabbing that cheap left outer, he just swung Kotoshogiku over and across without argument. I actually don't have a problem with this move against Kotoshogiku because it's real sumo. Kiribayama moves to 5-4 with the win while the Geeku falls to 4-5.

The Kasugano-beya is apparently not ready to let M16 Tochiohzan fall back to Juryo again just yet. Today against the ShelfGut, M12 Chiyomaru approached the bout with hands high and elbows extended, a position that gave him zero leverage by design, and so Tochiohzan was able to...I guess you could say...shove Chiyomaru this way and that, but I've seen more force in the newsroom when a guest oyakata demonstrates a move on a 5'6" Japanese sportscaster. I mean, you think of sumo as this power sport with slapping and grunting, etc, but this was like two boxers going through a quick sparring session where no contact was allowed.

After about 12 seconds of this nonsense and Tochiohzan's inability to force Chiyomaru back, they finally went to the clinch where Tochiohzan got moro-zashi. The crowd began applauding at this point presumably because it now resembled an actual bout of sumo, but Tochiohzan was clearly uncomfortable with such a dominant position. He hunkered down for another 12 seconds or so because you knew that Chiyomaru wasn't going to make a move, and so after this brief stretch of in-action, Tochiohzan finally moved left looking to set up a scoop throw, but he just didn't have the strength to execute it. Didn't matter as Chiyomaru just ran himself out of the ring with two arms stretched forward and elbows locked. I mean, how can anybody watch this bout and think that Chiyomaru was trying to win? Tochiohzan is simply anemic these days as he moves to 6-3 while Chiyomaru falls to 4-5.

My palms sure got sweaty as M17 Tokushoryu stepped atop the dohyo to face M12 Tsurugisho...I mean what with all the yusho implications involved. Tsurugisho's tachi-ai was as bad as Chiyomaru's effort the previous bout, and so they actually called him back twice for false starting. The third time wasn't exactly a charm, and Tsurugisho's tachi-ai was the exact same as the first two attempts, and you could literally see him pause standing straight upright waiting for the ref's call. When he heard hakkeyoi! the two started moving, but there was as little contact here as the previous bout...and that's saying something!!

Neither dude did anything the first second or two and then finally Tokushoryu offered a few shoves as he faded backwards. With Tsurugisho completely mukiryoku and hands held high, he allowed Tokushoryu to move in and get the left arm inside, and before Tokushoryu could latch onto a right outer grip, the two just moved towards the east end of the dohyo as Tokushoryu scored the uncontested yori-kiri win. I've seen more heated debates between two librarians who are arguing about who gets to put the returned books back on the shelves, but whatever. Tsurugisho falls to 3-6 while Tokushoryu picks up kachi-koshi at 8-1.

M11 Kagayaki didn't need help in dismantling the lethargic M14 Shimanoumi. Kagayaki caught him with some nice hands to the neck at the tachi-ai and shoved Shimanoumi back in short order. At the edge, Shimanoumi attempted to dart left at the last moment and catch Kagayaki off guard, but the taller Kagayaki was able to throw a forearm into Shimanoumi's torso and knock him back before Kagayaki hit the dirt. I've seen better sumo bouts in my days, but at least this was real as Kagayaki moved to 7-2 while Shimanoumi fell to 3-6.

We finally got a good tachi-ai between M10 Sadanoumi and M15 Azumaryu as the two solidly bumped chests coming away in the migi-yotsu position. Azumaryu just let Sadanoumi grab the left outer grip, and he didn't contest the force-out charge from there, but at least the tachi-ai was solid. While I'll praise Sadanoumi for executing the textbook yori-kiri win, it was completely uncontested as Azumaryu didn't even think about a counter move with his own right arm to the inside. Both rikishi end the day at 5-4 as Sadanoumi is gifted the win.

M11 Chiyotairyu struck M8 Ryuden quite well throwing two paws to the chest, but as Ryuden was knocked back a step, he was able to move to his right and grab a quick outer grip. Ryuden continued to move right beginning with a dashi-nage before using a kote grip to just spin Chiyotairyu around and around and then down. Get 'em dizzy and them drop them like a fly as Ryuden easily moves to 6-3 while Chiyotairyu looked good for one second as he falls to 3-6.

It took a bit for Chiyotairyu to pick himself up off of the dohyo, and when he did, he was holding his left elbow. This was reminiscent of Kaio's opponents who were just bullied around in kote-nage style before coming up holding their injured wings. We'll see if Chiyotairyu can continue, but it didn't look good as he walked back to the dressing room.

M10 Ishiura was involved in a pre-basho spat with a non-sekitori rikishi in his stable, and as punishment they're making him return to the dressing room after all of his bouts and take notes of the Ozeki contests on the day. That certainly paid off today against M8 Aoiyama as Ishiura just jumped to his left henka'ing the Happy Bulgar who dutifully moved forward not even bothering to square back up. Actually, when a guy whose henka'd ties to salvage his bout, he'll quickly turn back towards his opponent 90 degrees in an attempt to get something going...an arm to the inside or a kubi-nage grip, but in this case Aoiyama turned the OPPOSITE direction...completely exposing his backside to Ishiura who promptly dismissed the foreigner okuri-dashi style. Ishiura ekes forward to 3-6 with the display while Aoiyama falls to 4-5, and am I wrong in my analysis of this crap??

We got another good tachi-ai from M9 Yutakayama and M7 Onosho who engaged in a battle of tsuppari with Yutakayama looking to gain the upper hand, but you could just see him wanting to score the victory with a pull, and so he wasn't able to bully Onosho back in linear fashion. This indecision allowed Onosho to move to his left and make Yutakayama give chase, but Yutakayama is the better rikishi, and he was eventually able to get the left arm inside to quell his opponent, and then he worked that into the moro-zashi position. From this point, Onosho was had as Yutakayama forced him back yori-kiri style with a final shove to the chest for good measure. It was a decent bout of sumo with the only flaw being Yutakayama's penchant for the pull, but hey, I'll take it. Yutakayama moves to 7-2 with the nice win while Onosho falls to 4-5.

M7 Shohozan came with a hari-zashi tachi-ai against M7 Takanosho looking to get the left arm inside, but he didn't seem comfortable with it as Takanosho shoved him back and away. From that point the two engaged in a feisty affair where both rikishi attempted pushes but were really looking for pulls. Shohozan is the better rikishi here, and he was able to keep Takanosho off balance enough to where the Dark One was able to begin moving right and then spring the pull trap near the edge as Takanosho gave chase. Quite a bit of action here with little substance, but Shohozan does come out on top moving to 5-4 in the process. As for Takanosho, the dude fell to 4-5 in defeat.

In a bout that would have been compelling two years ago, M6 Tochinoshin reached for a left frontal belt grip against M3 Tamawashi, but Tamawashi was able to push him upright causing Shin to go for a pull. As Tochinoshin shaded to his right with the pull, Tamawashi just stumbled forward to Tochinoshin's left, which made no sense in a regular bout, but this was not a regular bout. Tochinoshin squared back up with The Mawashi grabbing a left outer to which Tamawashi promptly pulled his right arm from the inside out...an unthinkable move in sumo if you're trying to win, and from there Tamawashi faked a right kote-nage not necessarily applying pressure into Tochinoshin; rather, the Mongolian was just backing himself up to the other side of the dohyo. From there, Tochinoshin just used that gift left arm to the inside to score the uncontested yori-kiri. Not sure of the politics behind this one, but Tamawashi let the former Ozeki win no doubt about it. Tamawashi finds himself at 2-7 after the loss and I think Greta Thunberg got to the Mongolian prior to the basho and scolded him, "How dare you find yourself ranked at M3 as a foreigner!!"  As for Tochinoshin, he limps forward to 4-5 with the gift.

M4 Okinoumi and M2 Mitakeumi clashed at the tachi-ai with Mitakeumi looking to impose his will with some pushes, but Okinoumi wasn't going anywhere, and so Mitakeumi instantly went into pull mode. From there, Okinoumi had the clear path to the left inside and an easy force-out of his compromised opponent, but Okinoumi totally let up relenting on any pressure, and so Mitakeumi was able to skirt the dohyo's edge moving left pulling Okinoumi down in the process. Okinoumi completely gave this one to Mitakeumi as both rikishi end the day at 5-4.

M2 Hokutofuji executed his usual poor tachi-ai where he extends with his right arm as he shades left. M1 Myogiryu wasn't really fooled as he stayed square inviting a few shoves from both parties, and Myogiryu actually had the deep left inside that he could have used to escort his compromised opponent back and across yori-kiri style, but he relented and allowed Hokutofuji to use his own left inside to sorta apply pressure while Myogiryu put his right arm up high in kubi-nage fashion. The neck throw would never come and Hokutofuji's left arm just slipped up the side of Myogiryu's body resulting in very little pressure there at the edge, but Myogiryu just turned with his head, bowed, and walked out of the ring. Hokutofuji moves to 6-3 with the gift while Myogiryu falls to 3-6. By virtue of those two wins over the Yokozuna earlier in the basho, Myogiryu's monthly salary is boosted for the rest of his career, so what does he care?

There were a lot of bad tachi-ai on the day, but none were worse than M1 Endoh's act against Komusubi Abi. Abi came with arms outstretched as expected, and Endoh's response was to grab Abi's right arm, keep it planted firmly into his [Endoh's]own body, and then immediately back pedal allowing Abi's forward momentum to just destroy Endoh in less than two seconds. Endoh was not trying to win this one for sure as Abi moves to 5-4 while Endoh graciously falls to 6-3. What a bad bout of sumo that centered on two high-profile rikishi.

M6 Takarafuji and Sekiwake Takayasu bumped chests at the tachi-ai coming away in hidari-yotsu where Takarafuji had the former faux-zeki up high not to mention that Takara Boom Day Aye was closer to the right outer. A stalemate ensued from this point for a few seconds, and it was clear that Takayasu was in reactive mode, but before he knew it, he was forced to react to Takarafuji's grabbing the stifling right outer grip. There was nothing he could do about as Takarafuji let him hang around in the ring for 20 seconds or so, but when Takarafuji finally went for the solid force-out charge, Takayasu could do nothing to defend it.

The loss drops Takayasu to 3-6 meaning he cannot regain his former Ozeki rank, and thank the sumo gods. It's bad enough that we have to call Takakeisho an Ozeki, and I'm glad that they didn't pony up the money for his stablemate to regain the rank. I have nothing against Takayasu; I just hate the fake sumo and the mock ranks for these Japanese guys. In short, I don't think the Tagonoura stable can finance two fake Ozeki, and so Takayasu is the one to go.

In victory, Takarafuji moves to 4-5, and I'm seeing it more and more where a guy will still beat a hyped rikishi in the ring, but they at least attempt to make it look like a contest. I mean, Takarafuji coulda downed Takayasu here in three seconds, but he graciously let him stay around so that there was a semblance of a struggle even though there really wasn't.

Moving right along, Komusubi Daieisho knocked Sekiwake Asanoyama back two full steps from the tachi-ai with a potent oshi attack, and Asanoyama's only choice was to move laterally, and so he shifted right looking to mawari-komu a bit, but this only gave Daieisho the clear path the moro-zashi. Daieisho maintained his right inside position, but he allowed Asanoyama to continue to move right and stay in the ring. The problem was that Asanoyama ran out of real estate and found himself on the other side of the ring with his back against the edge and Daieisho in moro-zashi again, but Daieisho wasn't looking to knock the Sekiwake off, and so he stood there allowing Asanoyama to grab a left outer grip and then maneuver his way back to the center of the ring whereupon he executed an uncontested belt throw with the left outer that caused Daieisho to flip over and down beyond the straw.

The last time I reported, I talked about bouts that should go to nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge but don't end up that way because one party is completely mukiryoku. I mean, this was a perfect example because it was Daieisho who had the better positioning the entire way, and yet the Komusubi found himself flat on his back with his opponent fully upright after a scenario that should have called for a nage-no-uchi-ai. Regardless of that, Asanoyama never had the upper hand in this one, and Daieisho clearly let up for him never once doing anything with moro-zashi or at least going for a scoop throw. Asanoyama's 6-3 record is so inflated, and does this guy look like an Ozeki candidate? Actually, he does by today's standard. The superior rikishi in Daieisho finds himself at 3-6 after this one, but he was surely paid for letting Asanoyama win this one.

Hooboy, I think I'm on record as saying that M5 Enho has the tools to legitimately win maybe one bout a basho, so who'da thunk that it would have come against Ozeki Goeido today?  At the tachi-ai, Enho henka'd to his right and latched onto Goeido's extended right arm, and from there he simply used the Ozeki's momentum against him to yank him towards the edge. Goeido put on the brakes and attempted to turn back around, but Enho was onto him too quickly and forced him across in two seconds flat. Some might think, "Why doesn't Enho do this more?" but the simple answer is it still wouldn't work against 95% of the rikishi in the division. That it worked against Goeido actually makes me laugh, but trust me...the Sumo Association would much rather have Enho anywhere in the Makuuchi division than Goeido anywhere on the banzuke.

There was no pressure for Enho to defer to Goeido so he isn't demoted from Ozeki, and I'm sure the Goeido camp was confident that they didn't need to pony up the caish to fix the bout. Too funny, and at 3-6 now, Goeido is in serious danger of losing his Ozeki status with just two more losses. As for Enho, he moves to 5-4, and hey, I get to call a legitimate Enho win!! Probably won't happen the rest of the year, so I'll take it.

In the day's final affair, Takakeisho waddled atop the dohyo to face fellow one-loss rikishi, M4 Shodai, and it was Shodai who took control from the tachi-ai knocking Takakeisho back two full steps. What was funny about it was that Shodai had no de-ashi to speak of, yet he was still able to bully Takakeisho around. With some separation between the two, I suppose you have to credit Takakeisho for shoving his way back into the bout, but all Shodai was doing was baiting him into a pull. With Takakeisho now moving forward and Shodai retreating, Shodai leaned left as if he was going that way, and the instant Takakeisho went for the kill, Shodai darted right completely fooling the faux-zeki and yanking him out of the ring altogether.

It was such a classic move and one that Kyokutenho made a living off at the end of his career, so to see the two "Ozeki" fooled like this in successive bouts made me just shake my head and chortle. The result is Shodai's moving to 8-1, and the clip of the basho was watching him just skip down the hana-michi with this huge grin on his face and a block of kensho envelopes in hand. The dude wasn't excited that he just baited Takakeisho; he was ecstatic because he had at least a full month's salary in his meat hooks from the kensho. It was funny to watch that, and what happened to sumo wrestlers being these dignified warriors? It's all just bull crap just like the sport in its current state.

With the dust settled, the leaderboard heading into Day 10 is as follows:

8-1: Shodai, Tokushoryu (just as I predicted!!)
7-2: Takakeisho, Yutakayama, Kagayaki

There's no way that the one-loss line holds for more than two days or so, but I don't want to take up everyone's bandwidth and data by typing the 7 rikishi sitting at 6-3. In the end, I think Takakeisho is still the favorite to be handed the yusho at 12-3, but all we can do is watch and wait.

Justin is back tomorrow.

Day 8 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
I'm going all in on saying it is a lock Takakeisho will win this tournament. Why? An old-style sumo reason would suffice: he is the highest ranked plausible guy remaining, and he is in the lead. All he has to do is keep winning to cruise unimpeded to the championship. But I realized in a flash--by simply counting to three--that he also has to win this tournament. Why? Because there are only three basho left before the start of the Olympics. I am on board with the conventional wisdom that the Sumo Association will never let Hakuho stand up there at the Olympics and represent Japan on his own. In order to get him a native Japanese partner, someone is going to have two take two championships between now and then and get himself promoted to Yokozuna. They only have three chances; there is only January, March, and May. (Winning the July basho would not leave enough time to promote someone and get the logistics in place.)

Yes, Takakeisho could win in March and May. It is mathematically possible without him winning January. Or he could win just one and be a good runner up the other time, and they could promote him that way. But I think it is happening now, and it needs to for the Association. They are not going to split hairs. They need to get Takakeisho in there and get this done. The path is clear: Hakuho and Kakuryu are out. So it starts now. They've opened the road for him. Bank on it.

In case I am wrong, and just for fun, here are the leaders through seven days:

One Loss: Takakeisho, Shodai, Terutsuyoshi, Tokushoryu
Two Losses: Asanoyama, Endo, Okinoumi, Yutakayama, Kagayaki, Azumaryu

M16 Kaisei (4-3) vs. M15 Ikioi (2-5)
Ikioi smacked in low, hard, and straight, putting his forehead on Kaisei's breastbone, then drove him back. "Oh, here we go--all Ikioi. Good job, man," thought I. But Kaisei is a lot to move, and Ikioi's momentum stopped as Kaisei's right hand oozed its way inside onto Ikioi's belt. That grip wasn't solid and broke off, but Kaisei had a mighty handful of belt on the left outside as well, and, leaning his imposing bulk on Ikioi, bulled the smaller man around the ring. Good-looking yori-kiri force-out win for Kaisei. In the end he was just too big for the broken-down and dispirited Ikioi.

M13 Mitoryu (2-5) vs. M14 Shimanoumi (3-4)
Here is a fresh face: "Water Door Dragon" (Mitoryu). He's tall at 188 cm, very heavy at 195 kg, and is Mongolian. All bodes well. But he's 25 already, and spent the last two years being solidly unspectacular in Juryo. Nope--nothing for him. Amusingly, however, Wikipedia tells me this guy was a former district champion in speed skating. What is probably most interesting is that the guy went to high school and university in Japan--not sure I've heard of a Mongolian on such a long-term trek before. Physique wise, however, he is out of step with his countrymen: fat and blubbery. Mainoumi was saying today that wrestlers have gotten too fat: agree. If you look at the majority of wrestlers especially admired by SumoTalk writers and readers the last decade or so, from Hakuho to Ikioi, Ryuden to Tochiozan, they don't tend to be blubber balls. Yes, you need weight. But not so much that it makes you stiff and ungainly. Frankly, Mitoryu looked ridiculous standing out there. Should have kept the weight off and stuck with speed skating. He did make short work of Shimanoumi, though, winning the tack-ai and grabbing a big handful of frontal mawashi from the motionless Shimanoumi. Mitoryu then deepened the grip to the side/back and promptly yori-kiri'ed the passive Shimanoumi out.

M13 Kotoshogiku (4-3) vs. M17 Tokushoryu (6-1)
Is this thing where Kotoshogiku raises each fist demonstratively in the air before planting it in the dirt before the match new? I don't remember this. It looks pathetic: I want to ask him, "is this all you've got now? Some roundhouse pre-bout fist theatrics?" Well, good thing is he went chest-to-chest with Special Sauce (Tokushoryu). That is a lot of chest. They wrapped their arms around each other high up under the pits, and it didn't look like either man had an advantage. However, one did: Tokushoryu's massive belly was lower down, under Kotoshogiku's, effectively propping Kotoshogiku up and preventing him from getting any gaburi action going. Tokushoryu circled back and away and pulled a sitting-duck Kotoshogiku down, tsuki-otoshi.

M17 Kiribayama (3-4) vs. M13 Kotoeko (2-5)
Nothing much from our lone rookie, Misty Mountain (Kiribayama) so far: floating along quietly at 3-4. However, he had an easy assignment today and made the most of it. Kotoeko got double-inside on him, but Kiribayama had both hands on the belt over the back and managed to judder around the ring in a circle, break off Kotoeko's grips, force the match to the edge, and launch a nage-no-uchi-ai, heads a-danglin' mutual throw at the straw. Extra props to Kiribayama: the result was close, and Kiribayama won it through more grit: Kotoeko threw out an arm to save himself, and that went down first. Kiribayama didn't put his arm down, and got the win, uwate-nage. Granted, Kotoeko isn't very good, but this looked promising on Kiribayama's part. Remember what we were just saying about round bodies vs. svelte bodies? Kiribayama is in pretty good, non-bloated shape, and that helped give him the athleticism he needed to do this.

M12 Tsurugisho (3-4) vs. M16 Tochiozan (4-3)
Tochiozan dominated this one from start to finish, sticking both arms in an ineffectual Tsurugisho's armpits and trundling him over the barrier, oshi-dashi. If this is the best Tsurugisho had to offer, he wouldn't be in this division. Let's move on.

M15 Azumaryu (5-2) vs. M12 Chiyomaru (3-4)
Azumaryu, you may have noticed, is the only guy on the leaderboard I posted above who is not Japanese. He is also one of the lowest ranked on that leaderboard. Therefore, I expected him to lose today: my feeling is stablemasters like to remove distracting guys from the leaderboard so the sport and its media coverage can focus on more palatable guys, and as an aging (32), undistinguished, Juryo-Makuuchi ping-pong-ball foreigner at M15, Azumaryu is at best a distraction. Yep: as expected, Azumaryu looked startlingly limp and inactive, his arms alternately dangling or deliberately grabbing nothing, and Chiyomaru battered him around the ring and banged him out, tsuki-dashi.

M14 Terutsuyoshi (6-1) vs. M9 Yutakayama (5-2)
You can always tell when Terutsuyoshi is on the mound from the giant spray of salt strewn across the dirt. This was a very good match. Terutsuyoshi went all Enho on Yutakayama, leaping forward and down and trying to get in there at the knees with his head in Yutakayama's armpit. However, Yutakayama played it perfectly, standing Terutsuyoshi up. From there it was a cat and mouse game: Terutsuyoshi still had decent enough inside, low position, but Yutakayama had size, strength, and skill. Around and around they went, and Yutakayama impressed me by consistently squaring back up and keeping Terutsuyoshi in front of him and with his back to the tawara; he denied Terutsuyoshi the chance to escape out of there and cause havoc. It was only a matter of time before Yutakayama smothered the smaller man across the barrier, yori-kiri. I am liking Yutakayama a lot.

M8 Aoiyama (4-3) vs. M11 Kagayaki (5-2)
Easy-peasy for Kagayaki, who thrust, banged, and punched the blubbery Aoiyama back and out like a tackling dummy, oshi-dashi. That's what happens, Daniel, when you stand up, back up, and pull. But you know that.

M7 Shohozan (3-4) vs. M11 Chiyotairyu (3-4)
The Impact Double. Shohozan smacked forward at the tachi-ai and hit Chiyotairyu nice and low--but was blown out of there. Whoops. Not going to win that test of force. However, Darth Hozan is no dummy, moved out of the path of the oncoming freight train, and the freight train fell down, tsuki-otoshi. I'm suspicious of this one because throughout Chiyotairyu was staring off to the right--the side he eventually fell down on--when he had Shohozan right in front of him. Why would he do that? Why wouldn't you keep your eyes on your opponent? But whatever.

M10 Ishiura (2-5) vs. M7 Onosho (3-4)
This featured Ishiura inside and low and trying to force the hapless Onosho out, and Onosho desperately trying to sling him somewhere: left, right, or whatever. "Geroff me!!!" Give Ishiura credit for being lively and working hard in this one: I thought he had it, as he dominated the pace and the positioning. However, he is just too small: miraculously, at the very end, while Onosho was dancing on the tawara, Onosho clubbed down desperately on Ishiura's body, and Ishiura crumbled to the dirt in the nick of time to give Onosho a tsuki-otoshi win. This was an excellent demonstration why Ishiura will never move out of the lower half of maku-uchi: he had everything he needed against a relatively weak opponent, but didn't have the size to get it done.

M6 Takarafuji (2-5) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (4-3)
The two most boring, colorless rikishi in the upper division? Well, Takanosho, Kotoeko, and Shimanoumi give them a run for their money. Those would be my top five boring guys. Not that these two are bad wrestlers--in fact, I think part of their boringness comes from being solid guys who don't try to do too much too flashy. They're like the B+ kids in your math class who never raise their hands, have a couple of similarly mild-mannered friends, keep to themselves, and are ignored by everybody. They go off and marry similar nice boring people and have nice solid careers where they show up on time, do as they are asked, and are therefore highly valued employs. Not precisely the salt of the earth, but perhaps the bread dough of the suburbs. But enough of this! How was the match? Boring. Takarafuji laid it on hard at the tachi-ai, leaned down on his man, worked forward carefully but consistently with his feet, and pressed Sadanoumi the last few inches across the bales, yori-kiri. Fine. B+.

M9 Takanosho (3-4) vs. M6 Tochinoshin (3-4)
Tochinoshin is on his way out, willingly or not doesn't matter. How do we know this? He hit pretty hard at the tachi-ai and had the initial momentum, but then Takanosho, of all people, stopped his momentum cold, and instead of hanging in there and grabbing the belt, his erstwhile forte, Tochinoshin pulled and pulled and pulled like a guy removing sheets from the washing machine. Takanosho responded as he should and drove and drove and drove, like a college student stuffing too much laundry into a washing machine, and drove Tochinoshin summarily out, oshi-dashi. Well, it was fun for a couple of years there, Tochinoshin--now you get to be like Kaisei and Aoiyama instead though: hanging around, disappointing most of the time.

M5 Meisei (1-6) vs. M8 Ryuden (4-3)
Meisei finally withdrew--was that one win worth the seven days of compromised battering?--giving Ryuden the freebie.

M1 Endo (6-1) vs. M5 Enho (3-4)
I was glad to get this match-up: a showdown of the old hype and the new. Before the match they declared that the winner gets to call himself "Endho," and the loser henceforth will be known as "Eno." It is always funny how Enho makes his opponents look huge: for the first time ever, Endo looked like a giant. Enho took a little swipe at the air at the tachi-ai, missing, and didn't try to get in low, and Endo came forward but then stopped, and we knew what was on: too much caution from Endo, playing into Enho's hands. Endo remained careful throughout this bout of intermittent punches followed by standing stare downs; Endo was reluctant to go for it, grab the little man, and crush him the way he was crushed by all four wrestlers who beat him this tournament (the excellent victories by Okinoumi, Onosho, Tochinoshin, and Shodai--do a "control F" search for Enho on this page and read those descriptions for a guide to how to beat Enho). If you are in doubt that Endo gave this away either through intention or terrible strategy, re-watch the match: when did Endo do anything that could result in victory? Yes, you could argue he did things intended to not result in defeat, but as we saw the thing that resulted in was, yes, defeat: since Endo was mounting no sustained attack, Enho found a moment when Endo was vulnerable and mounted a vicious little attack instead, and out went Endo, oshi-dashi. How could it have ended any different way? Endo had no winning plan. Endo knows which way the wind blows; he's better off not being the glory boy any more--he often gets to do real sumo as a reward--but there are prices to be paid, and this loss was one of them.

M2 Mitakeumi (4-3) vs. M1 Myogiryu (2-5)
Myogiryu is tough, man. Mitakeumi is tough too, and bulled Myogiryu around the ring a good bit, but when Mitakeumi couldn't finish it, stingy Myogiryu had enough energy to finish it instead, bulling back with a chest-to-chest, belt-hugging finishing charge, yori-kiri. I like that Myogiryu plenty.

M3 Tamawashi (2-5) vs. K Daieisho (2-5)
Tamawashi has been in major giveaway mode this tournament, and that continued: he stood up, took a bunch of oshi punishment from the lively Daieisho, and was driven straight out oshi-dashi without offering counterpoint. Next.

S Asanoyama (5-2) vs. M4 Shodai (6-1)
In theory either of these two guys is set up to possibly win the tournament (though neither will: Takakeisho is The Elect). And what did we get? It was pretty good, especially if you squint. There was some uninspiring tsuki/oshi slap-trading action at the beginning, but they did then fall in on each other's bodies. Shodai did a pretty job from there, whipping Asanoyama summarily to the ground with an immediate, massive left arm body thrown, sukui-nage. I do think Shodai is marketable, and expect him to hang near the top with Takakeisho for the rest of the tournament, but long term Asanoyama--who to my eye went down too easily on that throw--is the way better wrestler.

M2 Hokutofuji (4-3) vs. S Takayasu (3-4)
Speaking of marketable, Takayasu has proven a dud, and it is interesting how little attention his fall-from-Ozeki / quest-to-return saga has garnered. It is just not a story line. "Ho hum, he never felt like an Ozeki anyway": that's the tone, and I'm in full agreement. In fact, I'm in "please, please don't get your ten, because it won't be good for you or for us" mode. Hokutofuji is the better wrestler, and dominated this object-lesson throughout. Hokutofuji put his head down, started pushing, and never stopped. A couple of times Takayasu nearly fell over backwards, but he had enough veteran savvy to survive for a while. He spent most of the match in his defensive, diagonal-to-you, legs-apart position, but he had no opportunity for offense: Hokutofuji had him dead to rights. Hokutofuji kept burrowing and burrowing and burrowing, and finally got the very satisfying oshi-dashi win over the just-trying-to-survive Takayasu. This was a changing-of-the-guard match: for the first time ever, expect Hokutofuji to be the higher ranked guy in March.

O Takakeisho (6-1) vs. M4 Okinoumi (5-2)
As we all know, Okinoumi has significant skills but is also one of the most prone to give away bouts; as a result, this match was to be a clear test of my theory: would Okinoumi show his stuff and even stuff up or at least make it competitive, or would he wet-rag it and make sure The Elect (Takakeisho) is kept on track? It turned out to be the latter. Like Endo earlier, Okinoumi offered no offense when presented with a favorite as an opponent. The Elect planted two hands on Okinoumi's chest and drove him like a plough: Okinoumi slid straight back right to the straw. The Elect then pulled, dragged Okinoumi across the right in the other direction, and wrenched him around 180 degrees with a throw. Okinoumi did nothing. The Elect then bodied up and tried to force Okinoumi across the straw. Okinoumi? He held on. It looked to me like he could have twisted to his left at the last moment and escaped; he chose instead to twist to his right, into The Elect's momentum, and of course that was it; out he went, yori-kiri. And that, folks, is sumo 2020.

K Abi (3-4) vs. O Goeido (3-4)
I was really excited to see Goeido at 1-4 and kadoban; "it is finally happening!!" I thought. But I forget about the weak banzuke. Since then, with his two wins the last two days and with a lack of elites to face, his path to eight should proceed relatively smoothly. Sigh. The match was kind of comical: the guy with the firehoses wasn't Abi today, it was Goeido: he came out with a hyperkinetic flurry of slappity hands, moving sharply forward, whereas Abi just tried to pull down on him. This worked fine for Abi: the gunbai went to Abi, because he did fly out of there, but the mono-ii followed in a moment and the decision to reverse was very obvious: Goeido flopped to the ground, plop, significantly before Abi put his foot down outside. So, Hataki-komi win for Abi. I still say Goeido gets his eight: he only needs to go 5-2, and the only guy he might need to lose to for political reasons, Takakeisho, is The Elect and will probably have things wrapped up by the final Sunday, leaving The Elect free to lose to Goeido as well. In sumo, you can call that a lot of things, and one of them is respect. That doesn't mean I like it: that traditional respect between rikishi is one of the things that robs fans of respect for the sport.

Tomorrow Mike celebrates Mardi Gras early.

Day 7 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
At the halfway stage of the showpiece, Shodai is shouldering the lead at 6-1. Yes, Shodai. At first this is more difficult to believe than a catholic priest actually sleeping with an adult female. There are another 6 all-Japanese Rikishi hopefuls including only one guy from the Sanyaku, at 5-1, that of Takakeisho.

Of course, we miss the Yokozuna input and Gary in his excellent introduction yesterday wrote of that significance. However, it's a scenario we are accustomed to, so we make do with the new Sumo world order gradually taking shape. Of interest is whether Shodai continues his fine effort in week two, with the likes of Takakeisho and Endo in that group of six most likely, judging current form, as the main rivals for the yusho. Shodai has been rewarded for his determination to advance and dictate the bouts rather than the hit and retreat or hope for an error tactics that are widespread.
Endo's coming of age and obvious improvement this last two years is testament to his durability and persistence. He is no longer on the receiving end of the absolute thrashings for which he was rightly derided for and he has solidified his base and balance and know has a clear method that has helped his consistency. I'm sure many of us are hoping for this to continue.

I'm also watching the return of Terunofuji, now at Juryo 10, unbeaten and dominating the division. His rise is a welcome sub-plot to this basho. I wonder if there is a chance we may see him visit the top division this week?

On to the bouts I'm interested in.

M16 Tochiozan v M16 Kaisei
I've always appreciated these two veterans and look forward to the clash. Kaisei is large and ungainly, prone to the ugly loss and hasn't achieved levels he deserves.
A tense grappling match occurred. Tochiozan thwarting Kaisei's attempts on the belt. Tochiozan had a belt hold of his own and went looking for a throw but Kaisei's weight and bulk were too much as Kaisei twisted in the throw and they both hit the dirt with Tochiozan landing first. Win number 4 for Kaisei.

M14 Terutsuyoshi v M17 Kiribayama
Terutsuyoshi took the risk at tachi-ai in looking for an arm hold for an attempt and uwate-nage throw. He wasn't in tight but no matter as Kiri played along with the ploy, falling to the floor as Terutsuyoshi moves to his sixth win.

M14 Tokushoryu v M13 Kotoeko
Kotoeko thought he could take on the much larger Tokushoryu front on and was duly driven back, overwhelmed by by Shoryu's weight and forward force. Tokushoryu also has win number 6.

M13 Kotoshogiku v M15 Ikioi
Ikioi's career is dragging on like a dying sloth. He limped from the dohyo yesterday in his win, but professional that he is, he will always turn up. Giku, the once solid, low to the ground rock is these days more of a sandhill.  Giku was wound up for this, knowing his opponent is frail. He ploughed into Ikioi who was driven back quickly for the yori-kiri win to Giku who his keeping his head above water and is now 4-3.

M12 Tsurugisho v M10 Ishiura
Ishiura charged, head down into Tsuru who simply thrust his hands down upon on Ishiura, moved sideways and Ishiura cantered to the clay. Ishiura's tactics against an injured opponent were woeful. Tsuru could barely move after yesterday's injury and I have to say that this was an absolute gift from team Ishiura.

M11 Chiyotairyu v M9 Yutakayama
Chiyotairyu came out in full bull-dozer mode with Yutaka willing to take him on. Brutal start from Tairyu but nearly wasted the effort with an inept pull that Yutaka wiggled out of. Tairyu re-set and launched another huge jolting shoulder charge which knocked Yutakayama to the floor. Ahh. Like air, you never tire of breathing it. More of this please, Chiyotairyu.

M9 Takanosho v M11 Kagayaki
Excellent tachi-ai with a resounding slap as they clashed. Takanosho used a right thrust to lift Kaga up, then drove forward for a solid force out win. Lovely simply plan and effective outcome for Takanosho.

M7 Shohozan v M8 Ryuden
With both guys 3-3 I expect a proper contest here. Shohozan unleashed a rapid flurry of facial slaps and thrusts that Ryuden wore with ease, holding his ground. Ryuden was looking for an opening but Shohozan kept up the slaps, keeping Ryuden at bay twice so Ryuden moved sideways as Shohozan thrust forward and Ryuden's patience paid off with Shohozan unable to regain balance and Ryuden assisting his passage across the Tawara with a rear push out win.

M6 Takarafuji v M6 Tochinoshin
Slap down win in half a second for Tochinoshin in a forgettable encounter. I would pay serious money for that to be surgically removed from my memory bank, as soon as that procedure becomes available. Takarafuji's bus-driver license should be revoked. Nothing more to say.

M4 Okinoumi v M5 Enho
Oki was quick on to Enho who tried to slip left but was wrapped up in a hold Enho had no chance of escaping. Oki had the belt, surged forward and down as Poor Enho was squished to the floor in ugly fashion, such that I let out a fearful gasp. Enho looked stunned and not surprising. He might as well have been hung like a pig on a hook which would be less cruel than witnessing the battering the lad took. I fear for Enho. As Gary said, he may gain respect in not reverting to a more elusive target, but he may win more often and be less likely to be rushed to the hospital emergency department.

M1 Endo v M3 Tamawashi
Endo again used his smarts. Tama came in low in the cannon ball drive which Endo held off then grabbed an arm hold then pulled Tama across the ropes. Arm bar win for Endo, his 6th.

M2 Mitakeumi v K Daieisho
Mitakeumi came out with low driving power, pushing Daieisho backwards. Daieisho responded well from the edge, fighting back but Mitakeumi had grabbed the belt, swung Daieisho around and from here pushed him back, easing him over the edge very politely for a well-executed yori-kiri win.

M1 Myogiryu v S Takayasu
Both guys at 2-4 but Takayasu needs a win now if he wants to regain that Ozeki status. His form doesn't warrant enthusiasm even from the spectators who normally cheer his signature, "Hrrrmmph" move in the pre-tachi-ai routine. Strange bout. Takayasu lead with his weighty left fore-arm shove and Giryu used his arms to Keep Yasu from getting in close, which appeared to be his method of attack- defence. From here things slowed down to a complete halt in a mid-dohyo stalemate, both guys holding each off with one arm, taking a breather. Yasu had enough and rudely slapped Giryu, prompting Giryu to closer quarters which Yasu must have been waiting for. He grabbed a left belt hold and after a bit of jostling he steered Giryu to the edge and then with a mighty shove into the seats. Yasu is still in the game.

S Asanoyama v M2 Hokutofuji
Hokutofuji lead with a right neck thrust which Asa is somehow adept at absorbing. Asa, unperturbed kept up an unrelenting forward drive with his superior power on show as Fuji was driven back and out for an impressive yori-kiri win to Asanoyama.

M4 Shodai v O Goeido
Crucial bout for both guys here with Shodai needing the win to keep the lead and Goeido off to a slow start but looking promising with a good win yesterday.
A wonderful crunching tachi-ai showed that they meant business. Goeido has the better of the hit and had an arm hold on Shodai who managed to break free. He then drove Goeido back and was chasing him around the edge, but Goeido whilst looking all at sea, had managed to hook onto Shodai's arm, almost as a means of support. He even slipped into a vulnerable half-splits position but recovered as Shodai was being half dragged and half stumbling forward himself; no control at all. Things were moving too fast for him. Goeido righted himself, Shodai stumbled past and from here Goiedo settled and fired out a couple of finishing shoves to Shodai' back. Relieving win for Goeido who could easily have lost, himself.

O Takakeisho v K Abi
The two were upright at the tachi-ai, some lazy slapping from both having little effect. Keisho then did his swivel left and swipe thing which had the desired outcome of dislodging Abi backwards and from here Keisho took the opening and oshi-dashi'ed his way forward for win number 6.

Bout of the day was J13 Terunofuji v J8 Kotoshoho.
Harvye had mentioned that Kotoshoho was a talent worth keeping an eye on and from what little I've seen, yep, he looks promising. A resurgent Terunofuji is a good test for him. Fuji was in control for much of the bout, but Koto never let up, at one stage driving Fuji back to the ropes before being pancaked from an arm throw from Fuji.
Yes, Kotoshoho was defeated but I look forward to his progression.

Tomorrow Harvye colours our world with sunshine yellow with happiness all the way...

Day 6 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all and welcome to the start of the real basho. We are now without either Yokozuna which, if truth be told, was always going to be the situation. Did you buy your box seat?

As before The Magnificent Miyagino told the media about all the problems that afflicted Hakuho before the basho. He also mentioned in passing Hak hurting his back as he fell hard on Monday. Although this might be covering for Hakuho over-doing it after taking half a bottle of herbal Viagra on Sunday night. The point is the star of the show was again not in the kind of shape to actually perform up to the level of a Yokozuna. And nor was fevered Hakuho's understudy Kakuryu. And if a Yoko doesn't win like a Yoko should, the Yoko must sit down. But then the crowd stands up and walks.

Kakuryu's absence should never have been in doubt. He wasn't anywhere near ready to perform at the ultra high level of sumo's glorious elite. His new oyakata Michinoku (former Ozeki Kirishima) now is willing to tell us that Kakuryu had an illness and had lost near ten kilos (20 pounds) in weight before the basho even started. That should have been the end of the discussion. We're not talking about just some rank two above Sekiwake here. The tsuna is supposed to mean something. Something outside of a merely sporting sense, sumo claims a special place in Japanese society, feeding into the history, religion, culture and national pride.

How do we know this? Because sumo tells us so, that's how. Many Sumotalk readers have long since past the initiate stage (Shouldn't you by now have emailed Harvye and become Sumotalk writers instead? Much more fun.) but search the archives of your sumo memories and there you'll find the hushed tones used to speak of the other-worldly status of Taiho and Futabayama, by sumo itself. And their near god-like presence in Japanese culture. Tales of old men wrestling with the actual gods at a shrine and always suffering a humble defeat, 'til the day they died.

Those who wear the priestly white, we were told, are pure men. The Ozeki are the sporting champions, Yokozuna is literally on another level. Close to unbeatable because the Shinto gods decree that they win. Modern local fans are lapping up the news that Kisenosato is still beating his Ozeki heya-mate in practice time and time again. It should be disheartening news as the active Ozeki cannot even best a retired dude. But no, it's wonderful as it proves the Yokozuna are the chosen few, invincible for ever. Red hot Asanoyama was asked to visit before this basho but it wasn't to lock horns with Takayasu. No, it was for the last Japanese Yokozuna to show his special status is still intact by continuing to win.

And that might be the cause of this mercenary attitude to the Yokozuna rank. It's not very Japanese anymore. Which is what the pink suited, former Yokozuna Kitanofuji was alluding to whilst watching a Mongolian perform the ancient ceremony of dohyo-iri. "This is crap-all to do with us." I'm misquoting him, but it's near enough. And he said it live when he didn't realize his microphone was still on. The respect for the rank does not extend to the man unless he is Japanese. In truth the rank hasn't been Japanese since 1993 when Akebono popped their cherry.

The only holdout against the black ships has been Takanohana. His brother tried too, but was the worst performing Yokozuna ever. Until the next Japanese Yokozuna nearly 20 years later in Lord Kise himself. Takanohana was the biggest ticket seller in sumo history. And yet they didn't pimp him out quite like this. When he was injured he took a mega-kyujo that lasted 7 straight basho. Try that Kakuryu, I dare you.

The main worry might not be Mike's insistence that sumo has too much talent, an overwhelming talent that needs to be asked to politely step aside, but too little talent. No more consistent Yokozuna or even Ozeki talent left to sell. The ranks and the talent pool that fills them are depleted. So the JSA sells the family silver and trashes the supposedly hallowed status of the tsuna. It's no longer Japanese anyway. Not their history, their religion or culture and it's no longer a source of national pride, but of embarrassment. So why not? Neither Mongolian Yokozuna were going to finish this basho or stop themselves being tormented by men with half their ability. Their oyakata knew. Sumo knew.

And yet there they were for the banzuke printing and more importantly the ticket printing. Advanced sales are the reason for this mess. Walk-up tickets are not the main business model for sumo. It wouldn't survive long if it was. Would you spend your hard earned money for a ticket on the day a 1-4 Goeido taking on Tamawashi is the headline act? That's what we have on offer today. This is the real tournament for January now. The basho only seems to be in disarray. The double withdrawal was always on the cards. This is now the dull burger we were actually going to eat, not the one on the shiny poster. Their weak, vulnerable Yokozuna sumo (words that should not go together) didn't need to have been seen. The Maegashira were lining up to pocket the cheap and easy kin-boshi. They knew too.

Tochiohzan (M16) 3-2 v Kiribayama (M17) 3-2
Oh please no. Not another fast moving, long armed Mongolian causing trouble within the tawara. Not again. Not so soon. Poor sumo couldn't take it. No mas por favor, as they say in Japan.

Tochiohzan won a long, competitive bout. But Kiribayama made it that. With a losing position all the way through he showed heart. With a neck throw, a trip and bringing it all back to hidari-yotsu he showed technique. Lets hope he doesn't strengthen that body of his.

Kizakiumi (J3) 0-5 v Ikioi (M15) 1-4
Ikioi is back in Juryo. At least for today anyway. Why they dredged up a winless wonder for an opponent is beyond me. Perhaps it keeps the Juryo yusho exciting with all the unbeaten rikishi down there facing each other in a play-off on the final day. That would be Terunofuji fighting himself then. Ikioi got him out in the end but it was hard work for him. And he hit the deck as he did so, nearly causing a mono-ii. Which is the closest Kizakiumi has come to winning yet.

Terutsuyoshi (M14) 5-0 v Tokushoryu (M17) 4-1
Today was Terutsuyoshi's birthday. Jealous of all the presents birthday boy was getting, Tokushoryu pulled an extra-salty hataki-komi in the middle of the party. He won't be invited next year.

Kotoshogiku (M13) 3-2 v Azumaryu (M15) 3-2
They've never met before and they didn't really meet today either. Azumaryu touched nipples with big blue and then sprang backwards. Without an opponent in front of him, down stumbles Kotoshogiku. Looking every day of his 35 long years. Don't say the old Japanese folk don't have a sense of humor, they laughed at this one. Uwate-dashi-nage, kinda.

Kaisei (M16) 2-3 v Kotoeko (M13) 2-3
Kaisei moves so well for a guy his size. When injury free he's really light on his feet. Well, his feet don't think so. Today big Brazil went into full Kagayaki mode leaving poor Kotoeko as the oshi-dashi victim.

Tsurugisho (M12) 2-3 v Shimanoumi (M14) 2-3
For once Shimanoumi found someone he could really enjoy a good tussle with. It was pretty lively stuff from these two but Tsurugisho is a wriggler rather than a straight line driver and didn't quite stop his opponent doing what he wanted. A bit less hefty hustle and a bit more focused power from Tsurugisho could see him improve to a mediocre lower Maegashira one day. I'm onboard.

Shim stuck a wedge into the shoulder which dislodged the frenetic blubber barrel and Tsurugisho collapsed to yori-taoshi when his knee buckled under him. Like Hakuho before him Tsurugisho refused to get up unless they called a mono-ii. Instead he lay on the clay grimacing in pain and clutching his knee. Perhaps as a form of political protest. The dohyo police wheeled him away in the big chair they use for all awkward rikishi that refuse to walk.

Chiyomaru (M12) 1-4 v Ishiura (M10) 2-3
Oh my! Chiyomaru wasn't messing about today. He caught fisty, sorry feisty Ishiura with a nice controlled moro-te-zuki and then went for the boy. This was meaningful oshi-sumo. An impatient get the hell out!!! style that only Chiyotairyu has shown before. Oshi-dashi and then some.

With only 1 win out of 5 he'd been performing better than the record suggested. And there's not too many men we can say that about this basho.

Takanosho (M9) 2-3 v Chiyotairyu (M11) 1-4
If only Chiyotairyu could do his patented brand of sumo now. He'd be in the lead of this whole competition, unbeaten and threatening to be crowned next Ozeki. But sumo is a cruel, slightly drunken mother with a penchant for maiming her children. The rehabilitating M11 henka'd the no rep, no name rookie. AbemaTV subscriptions just took a 2 percent upswing in subscriptions off that one. But it's 2 wins for him so that's nice.

Kagayaki (M11) 5-0 v Yutakayama (M9) 4-1
A real match-up here. Two young bulls doing well. It didn't disappoint. We're nine bouts in and we finally have a contender for best bout of the day. A rare gem as both men came out of it looking strong, as dominance of the bout swayed between them. The techniques and positions don't matter so much as the effort that was put on display here. Both were up for the win, either could have won and all would be well with sumo. Who won you ask? We did.

Sadanoumi (M10) 2-3 v Ryuden (M8) 3-2
Yutakayama by oshi-dashi. I need to lie down. We wait all day and then two full blown sumo bouts come in a row. The folks in the crowd aren't used to it. Amidst much hyperventilating the dynamic duo of Sad-man and Dragon-boy rocked the house with hard fought, evenly matched sumo. What a golden era we are having in this err, 10 minutes.

An early right hand mae-mitsu for Sadanoumi as he blocked Ryuden's path to the inside. He put his shoulder over this grip straight away, making it twice the threat. Ryuden worked to dislodge it, but it was cinched in. Sadanoumi drove hard for the straw and the Mongolian dug in and pivoted away from the mae-mitsu and took his own outside grip. Crucially his arm wasn't just loosely going round the outside of his opponent as many do. His forearm was tight under the still dangerous mae-mitsu arm, weakening it, preventing a break-out throw coming from that side. The Mongolian is seriously good at this. Sorry, I mean the non-denominational rikishi is seriously good.

All the while, Sadanoumi was pressuring with his legs, reducing the space the taller man had to work in. At the end both men had fairly even double grips but Ryuden had no room to put his feet back and his body length was now a liability. For the first time in the bout, Sadanoumi squared up with Ryuden and powered him out and down for a damn fine win in a damn fine bout. They ruled it abise-taoshi for the extra flattening he delivered as he rode the dragon down. And now, although I don't smoke, I think I need a cigarette.

Takarafuji (M6) 2-3 v Aoiyama (M8) 3-2
Was this bout the third pearl in row? No it wasn't, but it wasn't a turd in the bowl either. Aoiyama clearly appreciated Takarafuji never side stepping his opponents and he launched himself into the combat without any reservation. Of course Taka was still there to be hit, he always is. But even knocked back to the tawara Takarafuji is one of the stickiest stains to dislodge, in a good way. He did manage to pivot out to the side for some respite but his style of sumo is very much body on body. Perhaps with a bit of cinnamon and sweet jasmine oil rubbed in.

Where others would have taken the chance to run, Takarafuji dove back into the fray. Good on him. But Aoiyama really wasn't interested in going backwards today and squeezed a high clamp onto Taka's arm and flung him to the side, kote-nage victory. Massive and stable. Now there's a combination. Aoiyama just needs the opponent to play his game.

Meisei (M5) 1-4 v Shohozan (M7) 2-3
When Shohozan leaps into hidari-yotsu with you, he doesn't think much of your game. He was right on the money today as Meisei could only stand there transfixed by the grip that had him too upright at first and then tipped straight down when he tried to move. It was all about Shohozan and his uwate-nage. Meisei looks primed for a long fall down the ranks.

Onosho (M7) 1-4 v Enho (M5) 3-2
I find myself apologizing to Enho San once again. My comments on him on day 3 were laden with an immature and unprofessional amount of sexual innuendo. Today Enho garnered my respect. He met Onosho full on at the tachi-ai and tried to gain moro-zashi in a tough yotsu struggle. Onosho denied the grip and with Enho chest to chest with him, and more crucially their hips at the same level, Onosho powered his way through to the strong yori-taoshi finish.

If only Enho would fight like this every day I'm sure he would earn the respect of many more sumo fans. He would also lose every single day.

Tochinoshin (M6) v Shodai (M4) 5-0
There was plenty of impact from Tochinoshin at the tachi-ai but unfortunately for him Shodai was set to soak it all up. Most of the impact came from setting his body weight in motion, he didn't leave that crunchy right leg of his connected to the floor and so he bounced off. Worse, Shodai was ready to rumble forward and sweep him out in a horribly one-sided yori-kiri.

Day 7 pairs Shodai with Goeido, we will see then if he means to go on to big things this January or if his early wins are just padding against the coming disappointment.

Abi (K) 2-3 v Hokutofuji (M2) 4-1
Abi delivered an interesting new take on the henka. He faked a moro-te-zuki start and suckered Hokutofuji in. Jumping to the only side he can, left, he back-peddled to allow the chump of the day to run himself to the straw. An easy okuri-dashi for the one-legged Komusubi. The look of joy on the wrinkly faces ringside was matched by Abi's own expression. He can't believe he's getting away with it.

Okinoumi (M4) 3-2 v Daieisho (K) 2-3
This bout gave me terrifying flashbacks. Okinoumi must have been taken over by the spirit of Kisenosato for this one. He flung Daieisho down with a perfect, almost gentle tsuki-otoshi. He even halted the charge with a Kisenosato-like hand reaching out from the astral plane to Daieisho's shoulder. And Daieisho was glad to depart, unnerved by the unholy alliance of mind and body. I've never seen a rikishi so completely inhabit another. Go watch it and tell me it wasn't the mind of Lord Kise reaching out and using Okinoumi as a flesh-puppet.

Asanoyama (S) 3-2 v Myogiryu (M1) 2-3
There was a moment, just a brief one, where Myogiryu might have brought down Asanoyama in the middle of the dohyo. But the moment passed and Asanoyama went back to working it, working it, working it. I'll say two things that Asanoyama has going for him. One, he sticks to his game plan and two, his mawashi is a lovely shade of purple.

Endo (M1) 4-1 v Takayasu (S) 2-3
Two powerful pushes from Endo and one small one to finish Takayasu off, tsuki-dashi. Finish him off for the win and also for any realistic hope of regaining the Ozeki rank. An 8-1 run in the second week is not going to see anyone, not even his Filipino mother, bet money on that.

It's on for Endo now. The highest ranked guys he has left to face are Abi and Myogiryu. With the level he's performing at, that should be very comfortable indeed. We might have a tense race to the yusho developing here. That can't be a bad thing, can it?

Takakeisho (O) 4-1 v Mitakeumi (M2) 3-2
Mitakeumi isn't in his best condition but he came on like King Kong today, smashing Taka back all the way to the edge. But once there, it was Takakeisho that got the first piece of control over his opponent. A hand levering up from under the shoulder. He turned an oncoming Mitakeumi and slid out to the side for the tsuki-otoshi win. Mitakeumi wanted this one and he nearly got it.
Takakeisho looked pretty calm under fire though.

Tamawashi (M3) 2-3 v Goeido (O) 1-4
Goeido was quicker at the charge, as he so often is. He deliberately bonked heads and rushed to crowd Tamawashi's personal space. Right or wrong Tamawashi was trained never to do yotsu-sumo, to stick to pushing and only pushing for him. It made him very good at it. But to create space, he moved away from an oncoming Goeido who had the jump on him at tachi-ai. Two years ago Tamawashi could have recovered from that but not now, even if he wanted too. Two years ago he might have chosen to keep his arms tucked in nice and tight, but not today. Goeido just used his one awesome day per basho card. He is resilient isn't he? I'm beginning to admire him. Last man standing, Goeido.

How many Mongolian Yokozuna does it take to screw in a Japanese Ozeki? None. They all have to be absent, injured or fired. Ta Da!

For day 7 Justin shows what can happen if you email Harvye & ask him the time.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
To no one's surprise, Yokozuna Kakuryu withdrew at the start of the day after his scripted 1-3 start. The reason cited was inflammation in his left ankle with a whopping two weeks' recovery time needed for the "wound" to heal. I mean, you could see Kakuryu hobbling around on that leg from the start, so better safe than sorry.

Actually what's happening here is that the Mongolian Yokozuna are still covering for Kisenosato's sorry ass career as a Yokozuna. It just wouldn't do to have these two Mongolians winning every basho as Hakuho and Asashoryu did a decade ago, and so they're just cheapening the Yokozuna rank to help justify why they let Kisenosato attain it in the first place. When was the last time the YDC came out with harsh criticism of these two? I scan the headlines every morning, and no one's saying a peep because they never would/could criticize Kisenosato, so this is just re-enforcing the message to the fans:  this is just what happens to Yokozuna darn the luck.

As the NHK broadcast began here in the States, NHK was panning in close to Takakeisho's yusho board hanging in the rafters of the Kokugikan. I don't know that a guy has had a board hanging there for doing less than Takakeisho, but for whatever reason, he is the shuyaku (central figure) in sumo right now. NHK also spent some time focusing on Endoh, Myogiryu, and Hokutofuji following their multiple victories over the Yokozuna and Ozeki, and then they concluded that with a graphic saying just how unpredictable the Hatsu basho has been the last four years with four different rikishi picking up their first career yusho in January.

This is all in an effort to have people stay tuned for an exciting, unpredictable finish, but more and more empty seats are showing up to the sumos these days because you need legitimate elite rikishi to anchor the sport, not pieces of crap like Takakeisho and Goeido. Though Japanese people are quite gullible in general, the general public has to be clueing in now to all of the yaocho going on, and it would continue today, so let's get right to it.

The day began with M15 Azumaryu vs. M17 Tokushoryu in a bout that saw Azumaryu lamely put his right arm forward for the sole purpose of offering it to his opponent, and Tokushoryu obliged by wrapping his arms around the limb and using a kote-nage motion to wrench Azumaryu over and out. Of course Ryu was all too happy to just march out of the dohyo in stride resulting in a very lightweight start to the day. Tokushoryu is buying his 4-1 start while Azumaryu is a nonchalant 3-2.

M17 Kiribayama's thrusts into M14 Shimanoumi's neck and torso where sharp from the tachi-ai, and all Shimanoumi could do with his own arms was try and defend the onslaught. It didn't work as Kiribayama battered his foe for five seconds or so knocking him upright and then slipping to the side to grab the left outer grip, and once obtained, Kiribayama used his momentum to swing Shimanoumi over and out. This one wasn't even close, but it was real as Kiribayama moves to 3-2 while Shimanoumi falls to 2-3.

M16 Tochiohzan looked to best the listless M13 Kotoeko from the tachi-ai using some thrusts to set up moro-zashi, but the start was simply a result of Kotoeko's standing upright with his hands held high in this compromised affair. Tochiohzan rushed into moro-zashi...a position he is no longer comfortable with, and so he pulled out (cool) and used a few more shoves against his defenseless opponent. With little pressure coming from Tochiohzan, Kotoeko was able to shade left and actually find himself back in the center of the ring with a left arm to the inside to boot, but he was not looking to win this one and just put both palms to the dirt when Tochiohzan's lame pull attempt came. This fall was premeditated for sure as Kotoeko falls to 2-3 while Tochiohzan buys a useless win at 3-2.

Does anybody seriously think that a dilapidated M13 Kotoshogiku could beat M16 Kaisei in a straight up fight? I hope not. Today from the tachi-ai, Kaisei was limp in his charge as Kotoshogiku shaded to his left, and the result was a hidari-yotsu contest where the Brasilian just let the Geeku do his thang. Kasei actually had his right hand at Kotoshogiku's belt, but he never latched onto the outer grip and just backpedaled out of the ring as Kotoshogiku attempted his force out charge. Kaisei was a prime example of mukiryoku sumo today in giving the win to Kotoshogiku who finds himself at 3-2. As for Kaisei, he falls to 2-3 after the gift.

M12 Chiyomaru came with a tsuppari attack geared for someone who stands two meters tall, so against M14 Terutsuyoshi, Maru's arms were way up high allowing the TheRuntTsuyoshi to assume moro-zashi. Even when Terutsuyoshi did get both arms inside, Chiyomaru still kept his hands high for a second completely defenseless as Terutsuyoshi pivoted right executing a light inside belt throw with the right hand that of course felled Chiyomaru over and down. There was little force here, and Chiyomaru just put his shoulder down and rolled over perfectly off of the dohyo landing on his feet on the arena floor below. If you've ever wondered why they practice that shoulder roll during morning keiko over and over, now you know. Terutsuyoshi is your basho leader at 5-0 and like two seconds after his win, NHK couldn't wait to show a graphic on the screen introducing tomorrow's mini-documentary to be shown in between the Juryo and Makuuchi bouts:

TERUTSUYOSHI  ~Born on January 17th~

The M14 was born 25 years ago on January 17th, the same day that the tragic Hanshin / Awaji Earthquake struck the Hyogo area of Japan. And Terutsuyoshi's hometown?? Surprise, surprise. He hails from Awaji, an area that received heavy damage during the disaster. Both Sawada Announcer and Kitanofuji seemed surprised by the coincidence when you knew that it was written on the broadcast notes in front of them.

"What? Terutsuyoshi comes from Awaji AND he was born on the same day of the earthquake? And he's 5-0?  And we're doing a documentary on him tomorrow?  What are the odds?!"

Moving right along, M15 Ikioi finally got off the shneid paying M12 Tsurugisho to let up in the bout. The two went chest to chest at the tachi-ai, and this was easily the best start to any bout on the day to this point. Neither dude had an outer grip...nor were they close, so they pressed chests for about five seconds before Ikioi looked to set up a maki-kae with the right arm. That's usually a do or die move, but Tsurugisho just stood there so much so that Ikioi pulled out of the attempt grabbing a right outer belt grip instead, and as he dragged Tsurugisho over to the edge, he threw him down with ease. I actually thought this bout was legit until the finish when Tsurugisho made no effort to counter the maki-kae attempt or Ikioi's throw despite the sweet left inside position. Normally, the ending of a bout like this is prime nage-no-uchi-ai territory, so when you see one dude go down so easily with the other one standing in place where he executed the throw, the bout is fake. Ikioi buys his first win at 1-4 while Tsurugisho is 2-3.

M11 Chiyotairyu connected on a quick right hari-te against M11 Kagayaki and followed that up with a left kachi-age into Kagayaki's chest, but the de-ashi were completely absent. Kagayaki didn't necessarily bully his way into prime position, and it was more a result of Chiyotairyu just starting to back pedal in front of the chief judge. Kagayaki took advantage pushing Chiyotairyu out far too easily, and I think Kagayaki was calling in a favor here. Chiyotairyu falls to 1-4 in defeat while Kagayaki joins Terutsuyoshi unblemished at 5-0.

M10 Ishiura struck M10 Sadanoumi fairly hard at the tachi-ai only to immediately backpedal and look for a pull. Because Ishiura won the tachi-ai, Sadanoumi really didn't have sufficient momentum to take advantage of the pull, and so as he pressed forward, Ishiura had the wherewithal to grab Sadanoumi's right arm from the inside and yank him across the straw to his left as Ishiura shaded right attempting to stay in the dohyo until Sadanoumi touched down with his right elbow. This one was close and should have warranted a mono-ii, but they gave Ishiura the nifty ami-uchi win leaving both rikishi at 2-3 on the day.

M9 Takanosho connected with a decent right paw to M9 Yutakayama's neck from the tachi-ai, but he held the thrust too long allowing Yutakayama to sneak in and grab the left outer grip. By this point the two already had dual insides with the right, and so Yutakayama used his left outer grip to keep Takanosho in check as he attempted a force-out charge. The problem was that Takanosho was positioned deeply to the inside lifting Yutakayama more upright than he wanted to be, and so Yutakayama switched gears and went for a pull that eventually felled Takanosho to the dirt. This was a decent bout as Yutakayama moves to 4-1 while Takanosho falls to 2-3.

In my opinion, M8 Ryuden is the best Japanese rikishi on the banzuke. I'm of course not privy to the politics that goes on behind the scenes, so I can only speculate as to why they prop up a useless guy like Takakeisho or Goeido and keep Ryuden down in the mid-maegashira. I think it has to do with the amount of financial backing the stable has from its supporters, and there's also some kind of hierarchy going on with the oyakata, but whatever. Ryuden has the most tools currently of any Japanese rikishi.

Today the dude was paired with M8 Aoiyama, and before the two could really get started from the tachi-ai, Aoiyama shaded slightly to his right and felled Ryuden just like that with a right ham to the back of Ryuden's neck. Ryuden is a better rikishi then this, but he showed nothing at the tachi-ai. I couldn't tell whether that was intentional or not, but the end result is both dudes sitting now at 3-2 after a disappointing bout.

M7 Onosho struck M6 Takarafuji well at the tachi-ai, but that will happen when your opponent is mukiryoku. Still, it was a great start from Onosho and I only wished he would have kept fighting in linear fashion. He moved to the side instead looking to set up a pull, but in order for a pull to work, your opponent needs to be showing some aggression. Takarafuji wasn't, and it was obvious, and so Onosho had to move to the side of Takarafuji and look for a swipe that didn't really connect, but Takarafuji obliged by turning himself around 180 degrees, and from there Onosho was able to push him out from behind. Onosho looked pretty good here, but it was against a mukiryoku opponent. No surprise that Onosho bought his first win here as he limps to 1-4 while Takarafuji falls to 2-3.

M7 Shohozan connected on a hari-te with the right at the tachi-ai against M5 Enho who immediately moved left creating some separation, but as Enho looked to evade, he kind of stumbled and found himself at the edge of the straw. When the Sith didn't advance for the kill at this point, it was clear he wasn't looking to win this bout. After letting Enho regain his footing and come in close, Shohozan offered a few mild slaps before just standing there with his hands near Enho's shoulders waiting for the pint-sized rikishi to make a move. Enho kinda got the left arm inside and then the right as he moved laterally, but nothing was coming, and so Shohozan got proactive and whiffed on a left pull attempt and just threw himself down to the dohyo. It happened fast, but if you watch the slow motion replay--especially from above, you can see that Shohozan purposefully whiffs and then just crashes himself to the dirt without Enho touching him.

Leading up to the bout, NHK showed the most popular bout from the day before, and Enho's bout was the most watched. It's been like that for awhile, so it should be no surprise that they're not only using yaocho to keep him in the division, but they're slowly moving him up the ranks as well. He moved to 3-2 with the win while Shohozan graciously fell to 2-3, and before we move on, if you're above the age of say 14...and you're a dude, you shouldn't be wearing homemade Enho caps. Just sayin'.



The fakery would continue with M5 Meisei--who can barely move his left arm--taking on Ozeki Tochinoshin. At the tachi-ai, Meisei at least came straight forward, but his left side was completely exposed to a right outer grip from Tochinoshin if he wanted it. The right was also there if he wanted the inside, but he didn't of course opting to go for some soft pulls instead. Meisei survived because Tochinoshin wasn't trying to win, and after the pull attempts created separation, Shin rushed forward only to have Meisei dart to his left and swing that wounded wing into Tochinoshin's side, and despite there being no power behind the move, Tochinoshin stumbled forward and then hopped with both feet down and out. This was an obvious yaocho, and to think that a guy who should probably be kyujo could send Tochinoshin into Musoyama's lap at ring's edge it's comical. Some may say that it was due to Tochinoshin's forward momentum, but the guy was in full control the entire way as he hopped forward with both feet instead of trying to put on the brakes and square back up. That was Meisei's first win of the basho, and he cannot win another at 1-4 unless he buys it. As for Tochinoshin, he's just doing his duty at 2-3.

Two 4-0 rikishi met up today in M2 Hokutofuji and M4 Shodai, and Hokutofuji just stood straight up at the tachi-ai, put both arms forward, and then just back pedaled. Shodai read the situation and tried to catch up with some thrusts, and while he did make contact, this was simply Hokutofuji acting as if he was fighting Takakeisho. Fake the tsuppari and back up to make it look as if you're opponent is doing the work. Shodai did little here in this sleeper as Shodai buys his 5-0 start while Hokutofuji falls to 4-1.

The firehose was on full display today as Komusubi Abi took on M1 Myogiryu, and Abi just couldn't stand still in the dohyo and attack forward. Fortunately for him, Myogiryu was only looking to retreat, so even with Abi moving this way and that and going for a pull or two, Myogiryu just stood there and let Abi do his thang. After five or six seconds, Abi finally came forward and thrust towards Myogiryu who promptly allowed himself to be shoved out turning to the side so he could find a soft landing. I have no idea of the politics behind this one, but Myogiryu was mukiryoku for sure. When they showed the replay from above, Myogiryu never put a single foot forward after his initial step at the tachi-ai, and with an opponent in retreat mode and going for pulls, it's unthinkable for a rikishi to just stand there so passively. Both rikishi end the day at 2-3.

In a pretty good bout, Komusubi Daieisho and Sekiwake Takayasu traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and for the first time in a long time it seemed, Takayasu actually connected on some nice blows. Despite knocking Daieisho off balance with a swipe or two, Takayasu never had his de-ashi moving forward. Never. As a result, Daieisho was able to survive the onslaught and keep Takayasu on edge enough to where the frustrated former Ozeki went for an ill-advised pull that Daieisho read like a dirty manga on the subway. Daieisho sent Takayasu out with some oomph, but it was not indicative of the bout as a whole. Takayasu was decent, but it wasn't the entire package without those legs, and so all these years of puff sumo in his favor caught up with him here. Both rikishi end the day at 2-3.

Sekiwake Asanoyama and M1 Endoh proved a compelling matchup, but before we get to that, allow me to comment on a situation I frequently see in sumo. Asanoyama got out to a 3-0 start, and he picked up a decent comeback win against Mitakeumi on Day 1, but his next two opponents (Okinoumi and Tamawashi) let up for him. On Day 4, I'm sure he thought the could just come out and storm his way through Abi, but the reverse was true where Abi just kicked his ass. When guys like Asanoyama get so much handed to them, they approach real bouts as the favorite, and so they get complacent thinking that they can just show up and win because that's what they've been doing the majority of the time anyway thanks to mukiryoku opponents. Takayasu was a decent guy the first half of his career, but he totally fell into this trap the last four years or so where he can't get anything going because he hasn't been forced to work hard to earn anything. Guys start believing the hype that surrounds them, so when they're in a straight up bout against mediocre competition, they tend to get beat pretty badly.

And so we move to Asanoyama's bout with Endoh...a guy who received endless favors his first few years but then faded away when other guys were vaulted into the elite ranks. Harvye was right when he mentioned how Endoh has improved greatly because he's largely had to fight his way back into things. Now, that bout against Hakuho was a joke, but still, Takakeisho couldn't have put a mukiryoku Hakuho on his back like that. Endoh did, and that's because he's actually had to fight straight up for several years now.

At the tachi-ai, Endoh easily got the right arm to the inside and he was close with the left hand to the inside as well. Asanoyama twisted left and back trying to maki-kae out of moro-zashi, but Endoh used a swipe with the left hand that turned Asanoyama a bit, and when the two squared back up, Endoh lurched into moro-zashi. From there, Asanoyama wasn't able to conjure up a counter move, and so Endoh forced him back and down yori-taoshi style leading with the left arm across the chest. I mean, who was the Ozeki candidate here? You don't get worked at the hands of Endoh like that if you're a serious Ozeki candidate. Asanoyama was completely lost in the ring because he's forgotten his ring sense, and constant yaocho in your favor will do that to you. Now Asanoyama finds himself at 3-2 after two real bouts, so what's his camp going to do moving forward? That remains to be seen as Endoh moves to 4-1, and before we get too excited, the wins over the Yokozuna were fake, and so Endoh needs to be careful that he doesn't fall into the same trap as Asanoyama.

At this point they announced the withdrawal of Kakuryu, which gave M2 Mitakeumi a much-needed freebie. The twice yusho rikishi and former Sekiwake moves to 3-2 with the win.

Ozeki Goeido exhibited a nice tachi-ai against M4 Okinoumi, and I think Okinoumi let him get the favorable position as the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu because Okinoumi didn't keep his hips back and away from Goeido's crocodile arms even though he could have. So, with Goeido maintaining the right outer grip, the yotsu bout was on, but Goeido was clearly uncomfortable going chest to chest with the taller rikishi. His sumo was sloppy enough that he accidentally gave Okinoumi moro-zashi, but Okinoumi refused to take advantage of it instead agreeing to a nage-no-uchi-ai where Goeido was throwing with the right outer and Okinoumi was countering with the left scoop throw. Both rikishi crashed down to the dohyo as they should (which is how you know bouts like the previous Ikioi - Tsurugisho are fixed), and the ref ruled in favor of Goeido, but they called a mono-ii where replays showed that Goeido's right hand clearly touched down first.

The announcers were gritting their teeth and talking in zannen tones, but the judges threw Goeido a bone and called for a do-over. In the rematch, Goeido actually looked to get moro-zashi from the tachi-ai, but he was too hapless to do anything with it, and so Okinoumi circled back and to his left a bit easily catching Goeido in a left kote grip that he used to send the faux-zeki down to the dirt with embarrassing ease aided by a right hand at the back of Goeido's melon. Okinoumi was not going all out either match and he still won both of 'em. This was a costly loss for Goeido because he's kadoban at 1-4 now, and if they're to get him to eight wins over the next 10 days, it's going to be mighty ugly. The take of the basho thus far as to be Gary's calling for a changing of the guard. Seems like no one cares about Goeido anymore, and remember that Endoh gave him the freebie yesterday. Nasakenai.

In the day's final affair, Tamawashi's tachi-ai can best be described as a drunk staggering forward looking for something to hold him up. For his part, Takakeisho moved to his left and offered the weakest of swipes, and of course Tamawashi put both palms to the dirt about two seconds in. What really caught my eye was just how fast Tamawashi stood back up and headed back to his side of the dohyo. I mean, he did that faster than I've ever seen Takakeisho come out of the chute at the tachi-ai, but it is what it is and the powers that be are doing everything they can to make Takakeisho appear as an elite rikishi. He's anything but that, and the content of his sumo bears that out, but whatever...he's the ugliest 4-1 now that you'd care to see. As for Tamawashi, he falls to 2-3, and before we finish this, I couldn't help but notice the gaps starting to appear in the crowd at the end of the day.

It's one thing to have empty seats show up at the Kyushu basho, but the Hatsu basho is probably the most well-attended because you have nothing else to compete with it like baseball and soccer. To see empty seats and masu-seki popping up all over the arena in Tokyo is a true sign that the fans are just getting tired of this charade. People know when the sumo is real and enticing, and all we're seeing out there these days is pure theater.

Speaking of thespians in the park, Gary is back tomorrow.

Day 4 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
When the signals come, they come clearly.

Line up the dominoes. One: a Mongolian won the last tournament. Push that domino over. Domino two: it is the January, New Year tournament--the most prestigious. Domino three: Kakuryu lost on day two. Domino four: Hakuho last on day two. Domino five: Hakuho lost again on day three… you see where the dominoes are going.

And as soon as I saw the 1-2 records by the yokozuna early yesterday morning, I thought, "oh, one or both of them will withdraw soon." A few hours later, prophecy fulfilled: Hakuho withdrew.

The signals amount to this: this tournament is ceded to Japanese hopefuls, and that dill was silled by the time we finished the first Tuesday. Whew. And we were left with: a pile of crazily scattered dominoes. Like everybody else I'm saying Asanoyama or Takakeisho are your double-sixer, but stick your hand in the pile, and heck, anything could come up.

Since he stopped dominating willfully at the close of 2017, there have been nine tournaments Hakuho did not win. In only three of those did Hakuho complete more than five matches before withdrawing. When he loses these days, he punches that ticket early. The numbers for Kakuryu are less dramatic but similar: over his last six non-yusho tournaments this is the number of bouts he had completed: 0-6-15-15-8-1

If I were the king of a pile, and I was forced to step off the heap of bodies from time to time to let somebody else wave their flag, I would want to do it in a way that lets everybody know I didn't really have to. I wouldn't struggle mightily up there for fifteen days and pretend to lose on the last while my opponent struts around and cries a bit and my nose gets rubbed in it. I'd climb down off the pile on day two or three and let everybody else grub around amidst the dead bodies for two weeks for gold coins. "I can climb back up when I feel like it."

Wouldn't you?

M17 Kiribayama (2-1) vs. M17 Tokushoryu (2-1)
Mike said on Day 1 he noted and liked Kiribayama in the past. My Rookie-O-Tron likes him okay: good, but not great, says the simplistic readout. Our Rookie-O-Tron numbers: at 184 cm, Kiribayama is reasonably but not impressively tall. At 138 kilos he is not real big, but not small either. Room to grow there. Best for him, at 23 he is fairly young. None of these numbers jump off the page, but none of them make you throw him in the reject pile with the "too short" or "too old" guys either. Let's see how he did in the ring: Tokushoryu got the momentum jump on him at the tachi-ai by pushing him back. However, Misty Mountain (Kiribayama) didn't worry, because he had dual belt grips. Lo! Say, that's pretty good! But Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) is real big and real round, and Kiribayama seemed to be smothered in a ball of cotton: he couldn't do anything with those grips. Special Sauce also had grips, and began to use his bulk to drive Misty Mountain back. All the grips broke off, and it was all body-to-body pressure; at the edge they dramatically tumbled out together, Special Sauce having sold out on his to try to wrap it up yori-taoshi ("knock ‘im over"). It worked: it took a mono-ii, but Tokushoryu was indeed the last to touch the dirt.

M15 Tochiozan (1-2) vs. J3 Daishomaru (3-0)
Ooy, on day one Mike got to mention how little he missed Chiyoshoma, who has been relegated to Juryo, and on day two I get to say how little I miss the awful Daishomaru. Let's see if there was anything terrible to say in his cameo today. Tochiozan kind of looked around above Daishomaru's head for something to do while Daishomaru drove at him, head down and ploughing ineffectually into his chest. Tochiozan easily stepped to the side and slapped him down hataki-komi. This was too easy for Tochiozan; Daishomaru had good low position and should have been able to do better. But.. it's him!

M14 Terutsuyoshi (3-0) vs. M15 Ikioi (0-3)
Salt-Toss on the left, Youse-Old-Fave on the right. Salt-Toss went for the modified henka: bump and move. This worked well, as Ikioi stumbled past him and was oshi-dashi fodder for the Terutsuyoshi win. I get why lots of foreign fans like Ikioi, but he's always been too inconsistent for me, and right now is just in the "I feel a little sorry for you" category.

M16 Kaisei (2-1) vs. M14 Shimanoumi (1-2)
Oh, Kaisei. What could have been, if your blubber weren't so rubbery. What are you doing, hanging around down here at M16? Floating around like a lump of kakuni in a bowl of miso soup? Today Kaisei staggered forward while barely hanging on to Shimanoumi's belt with his fingertips, then, like a zombie getting all too easily axed by the heroes, was felled by a step-aside-and-pull uwate-dashi-nage of Shimanoumi. Death of the Kakuni Zombie.

M14 Azumaryu (2-1) vs. M13 Kotoeko (2-1)
Azumaryu is nice and tall, and I like this. Today he easily worked Kotoeko here, there, and everywhere, never in danger, long arms outstretched and whacking away at Kotoeko's head. He was like a guy playing with his kid at the beach. Eventually he knocked the little whippersnapper into the sand, hataki-komi. "Whoops! Sorry son, did that hurt?"

M12 Tsurugisho (1-2) vs. M12 Chiyomaru (1-2)
Bigger Belly Bounce-Off Bonanza! They started with slappery. Tsurugisho ignored the pressure and, once the bellies glommed together like two overheated mochis in your microwave oven on the little special tray, Tsurugisho reached down and got some fistfuls of Chiyomaru's lime-green mawashi in front. Chiyomaru remained very, very busy with eye-and-nose-removal attempts, but Tsurugisho closed his eyes, lifted Chiyomaru's shelf-gut, and put him over the straw, yori-kiri.

M11 Chiyotairyu (1-2) vs. M13 Kotoshogiku (1-2)
It is great having other writers, because sometimes we wake each other up. I found I was still dreaming of Chiyotairyu as "Mr. Explosive Excitement!" and writing about him as such. Gary calmly pointed yesterday that no, yo, he's like a kid's pop-gun: cork comes out, string goes limp. I was like, "oh. Yeah. Drat." Hope springs eternal. In this one the "pop" was flesh hitting flesh, but Chiyotairyu was the one who went backwards; maybe his pop-gun jammed. Kotoshogiku enthusiastically humped him--it is impossible not to think of dogs and legs when this guy is working his stuff--then energetically reversed course and slung Chiyotairyu to the ground, tsuki-otoshi. A very faint "pop" indeed. Sigh.

M10 Sadanoumi (2-1) vs. M11 Kagayaki (3-0)
I do love Kagayaki when he is on. He leveraged Sadanoumi up and drove him back. He gathered him on both sides and did not let him escape. He looked and was big and powerful and dominant. At the edge he could have gone for the pull or a throw but opted to keep pushing and pushing. At the end he released Sadanoumi from his grip and pushed forward with his body in one moment, and Sadanoumi flew out of there as if Kagayaki's body were a trampouline. Sproing! Yori-kiri. If Kagayaki looked like this every day, he'd be famous and awesome.

M9 Takanosho (2-1) vs. M10 Ishiura (0-3)
Ishiura jumped in low, Takanosho thrust high. And like a guy who didn't realize there was another step down, Takanosho was jarred and thrown off when nothing was there. That was all Ishiura needed: he thrust and pushed and got an easy yori-kiri win. Mike called Takanosho "useless" on day one. Isn't concision great?

M8 Aoiyama (2-1) vs. M9 Yutakayama (2-1)
Aoiyama has become one of my pet boredoms. Yutakayama is one of my pet hopes. Ever since he and Asanoyama both had surprise big tournaments together and looked like one might take a surprise yusho in July 2018, I've been on for both guys. Asanoyama has followed it up with legit stuff; Yutakayama got hurt and promptly had four losing basho in a row. But lo! He has righted his ship, and now has four winning tournaments in a row, climbing back from ignominy. Watch him: he still may have something. The match was typical crap from Aoiyama: backing up while platsching at his opponent with weak little deaks. Yutakayama had no trouble withstanding the frippery and drove Aoiyama out, oshi-dashi.

M8 Ryuden (2-1) vs. M7 Onosho (0-3)
Head holding... head holding... head holding… A tense head-holding of a match. Then Ryuden decided to be a movable object, pulled the resistible force of Onosho's head, and down went Onosho, driving himself face first into the clay, hataki-komi. Put Onosho in the "a feel a little sorry for him" category.

M6 Takarafuji (1-2) vs. M7 Shohozan (2-1)
Shohozan nearly jumped forward off the ground, so eager was he to apply his hands to Takarafuji's face. Since Takarafuji didn't bother moving forward, this looked kind of funny. You would think it would have worked in Shohozan's favor, all this aggression, but this is Takarafuji's style: stand around, see what happens. Shohozan was a little too genki, and when Takarafuji stepped out of the way after a bit of tussling and spinning, ‘Rafuji was able to pull Shohozan to the ground, tsuki-otoshi. Believe it or not, this is exactly what Takarafuji plans.

M6 Tochinoshin (1-2) vs. M5 Enho (2-1)
Hooboy. What a mismatch. Circus time! End-of-days madness. I had no expectations for this match--could have turned out as anything. Of course it was entertaining. Of course it looked a little silly. And it was great. They smashed up against each other, Enho looking tiny, Tochinoshin looking like his muscles were going to shred and pop out of his flesh, wagging and flapping. Enho wanted to go low at the tachi-ai, but Tochinoshin instantly got one of his arms under one of Enho's, forcing the tiny grub into the stand-up match. Enho did have both arms inside at first, so Tochinoshin got to reach down onto the belt on both sides outside. And it was on. We haven't seen it from Tochinoshin for a while, but he did it here: employed a glorious, full-fledged tsuri-dashi technique, where he fishes the guy off the ground, carries him on his chest, and drops him down outside of the ring. It was a good one: I don't know if I've ever seen anyone lift the other guy so high during the tsuri-dashi; maybe that was just because Enho is so small: it really looked like Tochinoshin was carrying a child, or like they didn't belong to the same species. Some kind of Gandalf-Hobbit camera-perspective trick. Enho did as you are supposed to when hoisted like this: wiggled about wildly, which of course looks both great and ridiculous. It was totally ineffective: Tochinoshin had such a strength and size advantage that no amount of wild kinetic energy was going to stop him from finishing. And that he did: calmly walked to the edge, bearing his squirmy burden, and made the tricky part look easy: putting the other guy down outside without stepping out yourself. This right here was worth the price of admission. Whenever I get tired of sumo, there are bouts like this to remind me of why it is still so great sometimes. Thank you gentlemen, thank you.

M4 Okinoumi (1-2) vs. M5 Meisei (0-3)
I liked Meisei's upward thrusts and forward aggression here. But I liked Okinoumi's patience, body control, and smothering belt technique better. After a few uncertain moments Okinoumi consolidated Meisei in front of him between his arms, then used his superior size to force him out, yori-kiri. Yep.

M3 Tamawashi (2-1) vs. M2 Mitakeumi (1-2)
If they allowed close-fisted hits in sumo, Tamawashi would be a Yokozuna. Fortunately they don't, because there would be a lot of concussions. Anyhoo, Tamawashi did not use punches in this one, opting for a series of chest-shoves. These were tight, but Mitakeumi is a load and they didn't do enough. Also, Tamawashi hurt himself by throwing in a couple of pulls. Should have thrown in a couple of punches instead. Mitakeumi did too good of a job of keeping his back to the middle of the ring, consistently turning out of trouble, and he eventually bumped Tamawashi out, oshi-dashi. Well, okay.

S Asanoyama (3-0) vs. K Abi (0-3)
Abi's firehose arms were in full effect, and to put it plain and simple he overwhelmed Asanoyama and knocked him over, oshi-taoshi. I was getting ready to write, "but Asanoyama is nothing if not solid, and he weathered it and recovered," but that is not what happened. There were at least three wickedly effective hits right to the face, and in between Abi was moving forward and bumping Asanoyama hard with his head and body, and all this was plenty. Like the Tochinoshin bout, I could watch this over and over; I could also try to apply lots of fancy description to it, but I'll stick with the simple, because simple it was: oshi-obliteration at its best. I don't like Abi's overly-wild style, but if he makes it look like this more often, it will change my mind.

M4 Shodai (3-0) vs. S Takayasu (2-1)
Nice hard slapping flesh-on-flesh tachi-ai, then a bit of dancing. Takayasu foolishly kept himself at arm's length when slapping, as if afraid to go in close with Shodai. Afraid of Shodai?? Shodai was not afraid, and Shodai went in. He grabbed a solid body grip and you knew it was over. Shodai dominatingly drove the unfortunate Takayasu out, oshi-dashi. Takayasu is another member today of our "feel a little sorry for you" club.

O Takakeisho (2-1) vs. M1 Endo (3-0)
And here we had it; our first "big match" of the tournament. Yes: with Endo reminding everyone of his past hype, and having both Yokozuna scalps, and with Takakeisho the "It" kid of last year and, it seems, tomorrow, these two stood here on Day 4 as plausible yusho contenders, and my interest was as sharp as the average sheep's. I've been saying Endo is coming, folks, and here we stand. Would Endo's rise pick up steam today? Or would Takakeisho remind us of his inevitability? Unfortunately the bout was suspicious. Endo worked to shove Takakeisho around the ring, driving him back and getting him near the straw, and it looked like he had it in the bag: better skilled, more focused, more versatile. But instead of finishing Takakeisho off with one more shove, Endo rolled to the side and fell down, tsuki-otoshi. What??? You could say that Takakeisho gave Endo a little shove in the head that created Endo's fall, or that Endo stumbled, but this was the kind of match where the announcers have to suck on their teeth between trying to explain it: a little cultural thing in Japanese that means, "this is difficult, but…" And thusly Takakeisho resumed inevitability.

K Daieisho (1-2) vs. O Goeido (0-3)
I liked Gary's stuff yesterday about the 15-year-turnover cycle, and will be very glad when Goeido is gone. However, I've gained a grudging respect for Goeido the past year or so, as he seems to have cleaned up some of the wildness and can occasionally dispatch displays of power. Here he started with some exaggerated windmill-style all-arm slaps that drove his foe back. Daieisho then counterattacked and drove the match towards the middle of the ring. Headed for the edge, Goeido grabbed Daieisho by the head and flipped the little man neatly into the air by the neck, kubi-nage. It looked good, people.

Y Hakuho (1-2) vs. M2 Hokutofuji (3-0)
And Hakuho withdrew with a bruised perineum. Okay, I made the perineum part up. But withdraw he did, and hey, at 4-0 Hokutofuji's hat is officially in the ring.

M1 Myogiryu (1-2) vs. Y Kakuryu (1-2)
As this started, I was trying to convince myself into the idea, "well, I suppose Kakuryu could still win out and win this tournament." But with thirteen to go, no, not plausible, thought I… and at that moment the match started. Kakuryu drove Myogiryu back with a little forklift action: arms low and in an L, feet moving forward. But! All of a sudden those arms were outside, then they were high… they were drifting further and further up and out, and lo! Myogiryu had both of his arms in Kakuryu's armpits and was driving Kakuryu back, back, back, out, and gone, oshi-dashi. Zoinks. Like I said at the top, when the signals come, they come quickly. This was just another domino: Kakuryu will most-definitely not be winning this tournament. In case you didn't hear him and Hakuho before, he said it again today: no, no, no, and no again! Sigh. I expect his withdrawal today.

Tomorrow Mike carries fire across the moor.

Day 3 Comments (Gary Jones reporting)
Hello to all and welcome to day 3 of the first basho of the first year of a new decade. All the bright-eyed young fans of sumo may look forward to what new joy the decade will bring, but for miserable old timers like me the Hatsu Basho 2020 is the beginning of the end. Woe, woe and thrice woe.

The quietest but most telling sign that winter has truly arrived is the depleted Sanyaku ranks. The top tiers have been cut down to a bare-bones eight man affair for this Basho. The lowest it's been since 2005 drew to a close. Back then a 20 year old Hakuho was still just a painfully talented Komusubi. The other top slots were usually populated by familiar faces like Asashoryu, Wakanosato, Kotomitsuki, Kyokutenho, Chiyotaikai, Miyabiyama, Tochiazuma and of course, Kaio. Every single one of those big names are now long gone. Consigned to memories. And occasional NHK highlights. Well, maybe not Kotomitsuki. Woe I say.

They say that a generation in sumo lasts only 15 years before it inevitably comes to an end, well, here it is again. Exactly 15 years later and the grim reapers scythe is already hard at work felling the last field of extra-large wheat. 2020 has arrived just in time to clear out the old guard once and for all. Woe be upon us. Woe and a tiny bit of pox, but the apothecary said that should clear up eventually.

Despite the medical leeches, Tochinoshin has fallen hard and fast. Bad as it is for him, with only two wins last basho his new M6 rank is actually more generous than the banzuke committee might have been. It's highly doubtful he will ever come close to regaining the Ozeki rank anyway. Occasional lower Sanyaku visits are all he has left before he finishes with a ticket to Tbilisi. Woe unto thee.

Takayasu will turn 30 before next basho and he has already sustained a career changing injury to his arm. The arm that has never lifted the Emperor's Cup. He is now desperately trying to keep his fingertips back on the Ozeki rank this basho. Takayasu has never been a force in the Sanyaku and it's becoming increasingly unlikely he ever will. It's sobering to think we may have seen his best already. Oh.

In the New Year the man himself, Hakuho, set sumo feathers flapping by talking about his own retirement. A no-no in itself. In a TV interview segment he let cameras gaze inside his previously hidden sanctum. When asked why he was being so open and relaxed about it, he dropped the bombshell and said something like “Whatever happens, it's all over this year. So you might as well see it all. I'm retiring this year anyway”. He then stood back and let the shock-wave ripple through all of sumo. Upon hearing this news Takakeisho's father proudly reported he had experienced the stiffest “gentleman's morning salute” for the past 23 years.

It's time to cue up your old Doors album on vinyl because this is the end, beautiful friends. The end.

Before we get to the big boys, a mid Juryo bout was worth a look today. Ichinojo twice tried to heave a 20 year old over by uwate-nage. And twice failed. In only his second Juryo appearance Kotoshoho kept his shizzle together and when Ichi had his rear leg a little too far back, spilled the yusho winner straight down, inner-arm throw, for his third win out of three. I know, I know, the assumption is that Ichinojo never legitimately loses to local talent, and mistakes were made, but I think that there is a chance, just a slight chance, that this one might actually be talent.

Hidenoumi (J2) 1-1 v Kaisei (M16) 1-1
And now for the big boys. At 440 pounds (200kg) before breakfast Kaisei is the only boy Ichinojo can play on the see-saw with. Today he did what he should against inferior competition. He went chest to chest with no messing about and put that crushing bulk to good use. For a moment he even got low, low for him, and denied the shorter armed Hidenoumi a grip. As controlled a yori-kiri as you could wish for. Now do it again next basho away from the scrubs please.

Tochiozan (M16) 1-1 v Tokushoryu (M17) 1-1
Former, and most deserving, Sekiwake Tochiozan is one of yesterdays generation. It's more a result of small, accumulated injuries than pure age but the dude is done. Spent like a prize stud bull after a full day with a new field of cows. With his tongue lolling out, you can't really expect anything more from him. There was a time when it wasn't ridiculous to think he might have made it to Ozeki, he was in the top cluster of his local peer group. But Goeido and Kotoshogiku went there instead. Them's the breaks. Tokushoryu has never beaten Tochiozan but today his belly did. It walked Tochiozan out for the easy win.

Kiribayama (M17) 1-1 v Ikioi (M15) 0-2
Day one saw the crowd give a warm return for Ikioi during his walk around the ring. Once he healed a bit Juryo was never going to keep him. But he'll also never be the same. The new decade doesn't want him here for much longer. Today a 23 year old played him for a fool, moving out of the way at the tachi-ai and pulling the nearest arm for an almost straight-line rush off the dohyo for poor winless Ikioi. He still has my support, but only for old times sake.

Terutsuyoshi (M14) 2-0 v Azumaryu (M15) 2-0
Tiny terror Terutsuyoshi taught the Mongolian what happens when you stand up to far and let the little guy get inside. A fast and hard rush over the tawara. I'd have thought Azumaryu would know that already, but I could be wrong.

Shimanoumi (M14) 1-1 v Kotoeko (M13) 1-1
Watching Shimanoumi is now becoming laborious. He rarely seems to put much more than heavy resistance into his bouts. If the opponent can dislodge him that's about it for the bout. Today he tried to genki it up a bit by aggressively chasing the nimble Kotoeko. It was always going to be a mistake. Kotoeko owns this guy. Shimanoumi was lunging at his foe, trying to gain control of him but he didn't have it from the get-go. Near the edge Shim was turned and helped over the bales. Played again Shim.

Tsurugisho (M12) 1-1 v Kotoshogiku (M13) 0-2
It would seem sumo, like football, is a game of two halves. At the first kick it was all Tsurugisho behind a nice moro-zashi based run to the edge but his right arm was shallow and Kotoshogiku knows the hug and chug game pretty well by now. He angled away from the right side and forced Tsurugisho's elbow up. The inside grip changed places, and so did the momentum. It should have been a struggle of blubbery titans, but instead Tsurugisho browned his brown mawashi even further and gave ground all the way across the ring, making Koto look like a true champion.

Chiyomaru (M12) 1-1 v Kagayaki (M11) 2-0
We knew it would happen at some point, but today Kagayaki made the proud announcement that he had learned a third move. He said he didn't intend to let everyone know about it until he knew the sex of the move. But when Chiyomaru got in close and started a strong push for the straw Kagayaki just had to reveal the wonderful news to his sumo family. He side stepped and pushed at the outside of his opponent's shoulder. He said he hasn't a name for this move yet (a drunken uncle shouted out shovey-otoshi) but it worked so well he might feel like doing it again in nine months time. After this he put his head down and went back to moving forward for the oshi-dashi win. Congratulations Kagayaki.

Sadanoumi (M10) 1-1 v Chiyotairyu (M11) 1-1
The rotund Chiyotairyu used to be good fun to watch, lots of meanness with lots of weight behind it. But now? Meh. Some pots go off the boil and never get back to bubbling. The grossly underrated (skill-wise anyway, he's still undersized and banged up) Sadanoumi withstood the half a second of potency that is Chiyotairyu lately and wonderfully dismantled any offensive prospects for the former oshi-thug. Sadanoumi takes it with a no-nonsense oshi-dashi.

Ishiura (M10) 0-2 v Yutakayama (M9) 1-1
Now that the JSA has informed “pit-bull” Ishiura that punching the crap out people is no longer considered good sumo etiquette he has gone on a losing streak. Unsure how to proceed, he tried to win with purely defensive sumo waiting for the other guy to collapse. But he's no Kisenosato. Yutakayama rousted him for the win in the end.

Aoiyama (M8) 2-0 v Takanosho (M9) 1-1
Every now and then Aoiyama has these sort of bouts. He gets a good start on a guy who he's beaten before, and then it all falls apart. Leaving him back-peddling to maintain range with an opponent that moves forward quicker. And they ALL move forward quicker. Today the bout hit the fan for Daniel San when, following a good tachi-ai, he heaved his massive arms out to get some evil offense going. Only by the time his hands reached the target, the target had moved about a foot (30cm) closer than Aoiyama wanted. This left big D with a weak pull option and a lively Takanosho inside his defenses. Out we go again. Oshi-dashi for Takanosho.

Shohozan (M7) 1-1 v Onosho (M7) 0-2
Two rams smashed heads loudly together at the tachi-ai. One ram stumbled and fell down leaving the other to strut his funky stuff for the lady sheeps. Shohozan is Da Ram!

Ryuden (M8) 1-1 v Tochinoshin (M6) 1-1
It's a crying shame that these two haven't met very often. On the dohyo I mean, I'm sure they have many fond memories of Ryogoku lovers lane in that old convertible Nissan. Ryuden is one of the few who can give Tochi as good as he gets in a yotsu battle. Something most opponents have skulked away from with the Georgian behemoth.

They are both coming off three make-koshi in a row. So this effort wasn't going to be their best but it still delivered. And, if you like the manly tussle of yotsu sumo (I do), this was the best bout of the day. Ryuden show-cased his mastery of using angles and arm placement to deny an opponent a damned thing. He was leading the dance throughout and fully deserved his yori-kiri win. A bout like this just makes me wish more rikishi would develop the skills and the physical strength to bring it like this. But it's too easy to bloat up in weight and push, push, push.

Meisei (M5) 0-2 v Enho (M5) 1-1
I've teased Enho once before (OK 46 times before) but I'll say this for him. He's a stable little monkey. His legs are usually flexed and his foot placement is irreproachable. He's also the fastest thing in sumo. As Justin has mentioned he is keen on drag racing, I think the high octane Enho would be the perfect match for the Australian speedster.

Today Meisei showed that pushing Enho's head straight down doesn't necessarily get you what you want. Hakuho's favorite boy can resist with the best of them. Enho got himself deep inside and worked Meisei till he dropped. Shitate-dashi-nage for another win at his highest ever rank. You go Enho. Don't let them bully you.

Takarafuji (M6) 1-1 v Shodai (M4) 2-0
Well after eight years in Makuuchi, Takarafuji decided to try going forward. He didn't like it. As he pressed forward chest to chest Shodai planted his right leg back and pulled our boy up with the left inside arm. Round turned Taka and just like that his back was to the tawara. The oshi-dashi soon followed. As he walked back to the dressing room Takarafuji had this to say to a roving reporter, “never again”.

Abi (K) 0-2 v Tamawashi (M3) 1-1
Ever since they stopped rikishi taking a basho off to heal an injury we have been getting things like this to entertain us. Abi has no business being up there. I assume he is hanging around to pick up a few scrap wins to soften the demotion coming is way. The fact that he takes Tamawashi with him as he flies out backwards only shows how far the tough guy Mongolian pusher has declined. But at 35 Tamawashi is at the very tail end of his career. They called a rematch despite Abi's foot breaking the plane of the dohyo looong before Tama touched. The re-do was even less competitive. One second into the bout and Abi is apologizing to the old folks in the second row. Now apologize for making me sit through all that.

Mitakeumi (M2) 1-1 v Takayasu (S) 1-1
Cuddly bear Takayasu is in a desperate situation. And it's making him mean. He re-introduced Mitakeumi to smash-mouth sumo with a wicked kachi-age to start things off. I don't think Mita recovered his mojo after that. Takayasu stood in front of him but wasn't going to be moved today. The slightly disappointing winning move was a reverse gear hataki-komi, but at least he set it up first.

Asanoyama (S) 2-0 v Okinoumi (M4) 1-1
The Shin-Sekiwake is coming close to owning Okinoumi, they are now 7-1 in the head to head match-ups. Asanoyama brought the game to migi-yotsu pretty quickly and yori-kiri'ed the 34 year old out almost as quick, hauling him up onto one leg and winning with very little wasted effort.

Endo (M1) 2-0 v Goeido (O1) 0-2
The double kinboshi and unbeatable Endo against the beaten Goeido. Was there any doubt? Goeido, whose father was kadoban on the night he was conceived, threw himself into the bout only to realize a moment later he was all alone at the party. Endo had whirled to the side and found easy tsuki-otoshi pickings as Goeido stumbled round and down. He looked horrible out there, 0-3 is the correct score for him.

Takakeisho (O1) 1-1 v Daieisho (K) 1-1
Goeido's opponent tomorrow, Daieisho looked comfortable and relaxed (resigned?) as he enjoyed a small shoving contest before the inevitable oshi-dashi loss to the bloated Ozeki puffer fish. Push, smush, whoosh and he's done. If it's so damned devastating, why don't smaller oshi guys like Daieisho just copy the moves of Takakeisho? Are they copyright?

Hokutofuji (M2) 2-0 v Kakuryu (Y) 1-1
Before the basho started there were rumblings that Kakuryu might not show up. That he wasn't healthy enough to perform to the hallowed level of a Yokozuna. But as pre-basho ticket sales are mildly interesting to the JSA, here he is. As advertised. And he has been awful for three straight days. He went backwards on day one and lost because he didn't want to grapple with Endo. He went backwards on day 2 and only won because Abi is in worse shape than he is. Today he summoned up the will to go forward, if only to surprise his foe. And it went very bad for him, very fast. Once Hokutofuji dug his heels in, that was it. Kakuryu didn't have the strength to keep him off. He was savaged. Hokutofuji is on a roll again and the over-powering oshi-dashi finish caused the heavens to open and start raining kinboshi prizes again.

I feel sorry for Kakuryu, despite the rank he holds the respect for the man behind it has never seemed quite as high as it should be. Even if he never managed to make Yokozuna and stuck at Ozeki as some claim he should have, he has been in sumo's top three performers for what? Five, maybe six years. Yet since becoming Yoko (a quick look up on the interweb thingy) 35 basho ago he has been announced as appearing in the circus despite not being ready, no less than 9 times. That's a huge percentage of his career prime. And they're not done encouraging this injured ring pony onward yet.

The only good thing about it for Kakuryu is that a forward moving tachi-ai today sets up a henka somewhere down the line. A nice fat, juicy one.

Hakuho (Y) 1-1 v Myogiryu (M1) 0-2
Hakuho lost. Lets get that out of the way first. He didn't mean to, but he did. He tried to get the jump on still speedy Myogiryu and didn't put either hands down. The always reliable professionals in the Gyoji department didn't notice. But Speedy-giryu was still there to meet him half way across the white stripes anyway. Hakuho is slowing up. Sorry let's be a bit more accurate, Hakuho has slowed up.

He tried to grab his trusty mae-mitsu grip but the M1 pulled his hips back and Hakuho's fingers were plucked out of there. Hakuho tried to power his way into position, always a surefire thing for him, but Myogiryu held firm. Worse he had a hand under the Yokozuna's shoulder and began to impose his own 350 pounds (157kg) on the bout. Hakuho flexed back at his boy but instead of grinding forwards, his rear leg slid slowly back, like he was pushing at a rock. This was all the veteran Myogiryu needed and he snapped out of there for the finest tsuki-otoshi win of his career. Let the kinboshi deluge commence once more.

As a side note the champ, and still Khan, Hakuho will turn 35 during the next basho. The previous King of all he surveys, Chiyonofuji, didn't quite make it to 36 and he was astounding people with his longevity as a Yokozuna. It's time to appreciate the last sips of a very fine vintage. I'm going to enjoy watching the greatest of all time so far (here's looking at you Takakeisho) for as long as the ride lasts. But the number of basho he has left can probably be counted on one hand, with the number of yusho left to win down to one. Woe indeed.

Day 4 will bring us the harmonious announcements of Harvye H, as kinboshi winners take on Yokozuna.

Day 2 Comments (Justin Williams reporting)
Welcome Sumotalkers and fellow bullshit-artists to my first report of the new decade.
Whilst my country is enduring months of sky-smothering smoke with bushfires creating havoc in almost every state, thousands of homes lost, millions of animals cooked to a blackened crisp and hysterical accusations of who to blame dominating the media, cafes and pubs and the dinner table, it is a relief I can look north to tranquil, currently non-disaster affected Japan, whose citizens know a thing or two about natural disasters and are rather more tolerant and accepting of the vagaries that Mother Nature hurls upon them. No matter how extreme.

Looking back to the January basho of 2019, I was curious to see what dramatic changes there have been in the sport over 12 months.

The big news from that basho was the retirement of Yokozuna Kisenosato and Tamawashi’s brief rise for his one and only tournament win. There are three youngsters on the rise, Takakeisho, Mitakeumi and Asanoyama, all of whom have had breakout wins (admittedly, Taka’s came in the last basho of 2018) and there is no indication that the ranks will provide anymore newcomers to threaten these three Japanese hopefuls and the two Mongol Yokozuna. The Ozeki ranks were the biggest disappointment. Does anyone really expect a Goeido or Takayasu breakout yusho? Yes, Takayasu is now Sekiwake but his form is ominously bad even after one bout yesterday when Tamawashi beat him like he was his daddy and Goeido was equally flaccid against Hokutofuji. The most popular Rikishi is Enho, who if he had a face like the bag of chisels that is Goeido, would scarcely receive a polite clap from the crowd, and struggles to win half his bouts, though I’ll never neglect to watch him.

This year I expect the winners to continue to come from the Yokozuna ranks-Hakuho wants to finish on a high, and the three afore-mentioned youngsters. Thus, no new basho victors nor any insightful opinions from me. Though I would love for another new Champ, so my unheralded outsider for the year is “faute de mieux” …... Daieisho.

On to the bouts.

M14 Kiribayama v J2 Kotonowaka
This first bout was lot of fun without displaying any skilled technique. Kotonowaka's sole intention was to parry and evade, swipe and evade, pull down and evade several times to Kiribayama which he did so in energetic fashion before Kiri placed a strategic left hand against his throat and then must have whispered, “calm down, mate, let’s have a breather.” Which they did and enjoyed the applause of the spectators. With a push Kiri re-ignited the action whereupon Koto threw a right round arm as Kiri lunged forward, that knocked Kiri to the cold damp clay. Both new boys are at 1-1.

M17 Tokushoryu v M16 Kaisei
Kaisei, so often a gormless passenger meant business today as he advanced with poise and purpose and try as he could, Tokushoryu’s effort was negated easily and was soundly beaten in the face of the Brazilian wave.

M15 Azumaryu v M16 Tochiohzan
The two met shoulder to shoulder and jostled, Tochiohzan looking to Keep Azu’s big paws from his belt. Azu then simply plopped one paw on Tochi’s head, stepped back with the pull as Tochi spluttered forward face down for win number two to Azumaryu.

M15 Ikioi v M14 Shimanoumi
I enjoyed this tussle. Ikioi lead with a rather soft right fore-arm that should have had larger dose of malice behind it, and then the two both kept low, neither really looking for the belt grip, just spending plenty of time with their heads against the other’s shoulder until Shima whispered into Ikioi’s ear and said, “now you can roll over,” and the compliant Ikioi did just that with some well-rehearsed tumbling.

M13 Kotoshogiku v M14 Terutsuyoshi
The Giku, Grand Champion this very basho in 2016, now at M13. He hasn’t been at this low a level since May 2005 as a strapping 21 year old. His once solid dependability now about as stable as a middle-east ceasefire. If ever his opponent, Terutsuyoshi opens a chanko restaurant you can be sure the dishes are well seasoned. Yoshi was quick from the blocks, too quick to let Giku gain any momentum. He was able to lift Giku just enough then step inside and right, grab Giku’s left arm who was now off-balance and turned sideways. Yoshi maintained the initiative and despite the size difference, managed a well earned under-arm throw for his win number two. Giku is currently in a hole the sort around which mourners gather.

M13 Kotoeko v M12 Chiyomaru
Maru came out strongly, intent on hard shoves to Kotoeko’s head which to no surprise had him reeling backwards. Despite this, well, survival kicked in and Koto twisted out of the firing line and now Maru, over extended and off balanced had Koto executing his own thrusts, wisely aimed lower, making each one count as he gradually forced the much bigger guy back for a hard earned oshi dashi win.

M11 Chiyotairyu v M12 Tsurugisho
Tairyu came out high and, though today his much vaunted charge was nullified by Gisho as they settled into a grappling position just sorta leaning into one another with neither guy gaining any belt holds. A brief rest and Gisho slipped a right arm under his foe’s arm and rumbled forward for the yori-kiri victory. There might have been some conspiratorial whispering between these two but this early in the play no harm done.

M11 Kagayaki v M10 Ishiura
Kaga had no time for any Ishiura evasiveness or slippery maneuvers and with trademark steady forward press (and titties that lactate helium), Ishiura had nowhere to go but out for Kaga’s second win.

M9 Takanosho v M10 Sadanoumi
Sadasorta started well, gaining the left grip but didn’t use it for any attacking ploy. Rather, he let Takanosho drive him to the ropes before taking control with his right hand pushing down on Taka’s head as he pulled him down and out before stepping out, himself. He cut it close but no denying it was well-timed and a good wine for Sortasadder.

M9 Yutakayama v M8 Ryuden
Good start from Ryuden, bullying Yutaka back right to the rope. Yutaka preyed himself from this position and forced the contest to the middle but Ryuden still had momentum and this time he’d claimed the belt and Yutakayama force was spent. Both guys now one win apiece.

M7 Shohozan v M8 Aoiyama
The Hill of Flesh that is Aoiyama had it easy today. A brief, illusion of a fight. Shohozan’s attitude was like that of King Henry the 8th to his wives- “I won’t keep you long.” Hill of Flesh merely stood his ground, placed his big mitts on Shohozan’s shoulders, who flopped to the ground on all fours with less grace than Anne Boleyn’s decapitated head.

M7 Onosho v M6 Tochinoshin
Tochinoshin went low and gained a left belt, just, as Onosho attempted to bush back. Shin kept his low, strong stance and was muscling Onosho backward who then did well to pry himself free, only for the determined Shin to chase him out with a couple of weighty barges.

M5 Meisei v M6 Takarafuji
Between these two, Takarafuji is clearly the strong and more patient. Meisei is just the right size for Fuji to man-handle him as shown today. Whilst Fuji was calmly moving forward and looking for the belt, all Meisei could manage to sort of hit and retreat which did not deter our favourite Japanese bus driver who calmly herded his passenger into position, snaffled a double mawashi hold and drove him out to his last stop of the day.

M5 Enho v M4 Shodai
Enho sprung forth quick and straight into Shodai’s welcoming embrace. Enho was unfortunately in that familiar, uncomfortable position, head tucked under his opponent’s armpit and eyeballing their crotch. Shodai was not mucking about. He grabbed the back of Enho’s belt, then just leaned down and drove his impish, foolish arse to the ground like a tent peg.

M1 Myogiryu v K Daieisho
After the initial flurry of whirling arms from both guys, Giryu revealed his intentions with a hopeful pulldown attempt, whereupon Daieisho pushed him back, Myogiryu tried again with the same result then Daieisho finished him off with a firm shoulder. Daieisho is now in the hunt.

S Asanoyama v M3 Tamawashi
Oomph! Tama lead with a right paw to Asa’s neck that would make a hippo gasp. Asa, bent backwards took the blow and normally if Tama starts of like this I expect the unfortunate receiver to be in the seats pretty quick. Asa is not only dependable he is durable. He responded with a couple of thrusts himself, took another brace of slaps from Tama, who then went for an underarm throw he had no right to consider. Asa is not some limp stooge he can easily throw about. All it did was leave him turned around and exposed and he knew he’d cocked it up. So out he walked.
When Asanoyama first arrived in the top division he never looked out of his depth. Now he looks to be carrying depth around with him.

M4 Okinoumi v S Takayasu
Unusually from the tachi-ai, Takayasu went straight in for the belt and happily had a double grip so it should have been a regulation win from here. He drove in and had Oki on the retreat, but Oki fought back, wriggled free of Yasu’s left who then gritted his teeth and went for the kamikaze charge. Yasu came perilously close to the edge, no, both feet were on the rope and he just managed to force Oki to step out before he followed, crashing to the floor. A close one for him but he’ll take it.

O Takakeisho v M2 Hokutofuji
As Mike says, Takakeisho is the name on everyone’s lips; like a cold sore.  Hokutofuji angled left at the first engagement, again, which caught Keisho unawares as he stumbled past. Fuji was on him and finished him with a final hefty headbutt to the chest combined with a shove to the neck. How Takakeisho did not foresee this tactic, I’ve no idea but well done to Fuji outwitting his foe.

M2 Mitakeumi v O Goeido
Goeido rammed forth driving Mitake right back until his feet were levered against the rope, a quick defeat a near certainty. On the edge Mitake managed to first get under Goeido’s arms, deflecting his momentum upwards, twisted free and from there simply drove the Ozeki back and out. Terrific survival skills from Mitakeumi whereas Goeido who should have had his first win is now 0-2.

Y Hakuho v M1 Endo
This was a great action-filled bout that may be the turning point in Endo’s career. Endo evaded left slightly at tachi-ai while Hak lead as usual with a left slap that barely registered on Endo with Hak over extended. He re-set quickly and needed to be as Endo was in on him as they both grabbed a belt grip. Hak tried an overarm throw but like Tamawashi earlier he had no positioning nor body weight behind it and Endo countered with an attempted trip that nearly toppled the Yokozuna, who thought that disposing of Endo would be easier than what was transpiring.  Hak still had a belt and dragged Endo to ring centre and went for another ill-conceived throw with Endo again countering with a leg swipe. Hak was determined to complete the throw, but this was sloppy work and downright arrogant and Endo seized his chance, hooked a leg under Hak’s leg and foamed down upon him like the contents of a burst dam, one great body slam to the clay. Endo was up in a flash and channeling Olympic sprinter Maurice Greene post victory, he wiggled his tongue to the ecstatic crowd, tasting and relishing victory.  Endo now has two consecutive Yokozuna scalps to announce his intentions for the yusho. Yes, Hak was loose today as was Kak yesterday but I am pleased for Endo.

K Abi v Y Kakuryu
There’s a saying, something like “birth, death, taxes and Abi’s manic fire-hose tsuppari.” Well sort of.
Well today Abi’s outstretched arms were launched towards The Kak who shrugged them aside with Abi unable to adjust his advance as Kak simply helped him on his way over the rope. After the Hak and Endo bout this was like a bowl of porridge following a Michelin-starred meal. No matter, another enjoyable afternoon’s sumo and even better, Gary returns tomorrow with his list of British monarchs he would like to see compete in sumo.

Gary reports tomorrow

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
It felt as if there was a certain atmosphere of newness at the start of today's broadcast. We all know that the Reiwa clock began ticking last year at the beginning of May, but the Hatsu basho carries with it a celebration of the New Year, and it feels as if sumo has now officially entered the Reiwa Era. The lead in to the Makuuchi bouts on Day 1 began with the headline of "Whose the first Yokozuna of the Reiwa Era??" NHK then promptly only focused on Takakeisho and nobody else.

It's probably inevitable that Takakeisho is the next Yokozuna meaning we get to live the whole Kisenosato fiasco over again. They of course showed interview clips with Takakeisho and bouts of rigged keiko (yes, it has come to that), and he stated that promotion to Yokozuna was on his mind. Takakeisho also made a point of stating that he wanted to become the next tsuki-oshi Yokozuna.

I suppose some argument could be made that Musashimaru was a tsuki-oshi Yokozuna, but the Hawaiian was also so good at the belt that he was more well-rounded than just an oshi guy. That means you have to go clear back to Hokutoumi to find the last tsuki-oshi Yokozuna, and for those of you who remember Hokutoumi, how did his sumo compare to Takakeisho's sumo now?

That is a purely a laughable statement because they couldn't even fake the sumo bad enough to worthily mention Takakeisho in the same sentence as Hokutoumi, but politics pervades sumo these days like no other period, and so I don't see how Takakeisho doesn't don that white side belt eventually. As for Mainoumi, his comments on Takakeisho were quite candid. He said he felt as if we'd see one tsuna-tori basho from him this year but that the dude needed more horse power (bariki) if he was going to become a tsuki-oshi Yokozuna. Parsing out Mainoumi's comments down to the truth: according to Mainoumi they're going to throw at least one basho in Takakeisho's favor this year, and the dude has zero bariki so of course there's room for more.

I watch Japanese news quite religiously, and when it comes to sports these days, it's all Olympics all the time. In fact, at the conclusion of yesterday's Saturday Sport's News broadcast, they hyped the Sunday Sport's News telecast and didn't even mention Day 1 basho highlights would be part of the broadcast. To be fair, they did do a profile on new Komusubi Daieisho on Saturday, which generated ticket sales of at least 2, but sumo wasn't something they were using to hook the viewers to tune in tomorrow (Day 1).

With Japan absolutely gaga over hosting the summer Olympics this summer, you know that sumo is going to want to showcase itself and get all the free publicity it can, and so I think a major push these first four basho will be to maintain the current crop of Japanese Ozeki and then hopefully get Asanoyama to Ozeki and Takakeisho to Yokozuna. It was like the basho last May when Trump was visiting. There was no way they were going to have 45 present that trophy to a foreigner, and the Sumo Association wants to be represented when the world is watching at the Olympics.

And so we start a new year of theater with the Hatsu basho, and I think Kane said it best when he looked at the new banzuke and texted me two simple lines:

M5 Enho
M6 Tochinoshin

As if.

If it appears that I'm avoiding talking about the Day 1 bouts, you'd be right because it was a terrible day of sumo. The day began with J1 Chiyoshoma and M17 Tokushoryu hooking up in hidari-yotsu where Chiyoshoma promptly stood there and let Tokushoryu bully him forward chest to chest and force Chiyoshoma back and out into the first row. Tokushoryu had lost seven straight to Chiyoshoma coming in, but a little caish will solve most problems. It did here as I realized how little I miss watching Chiyoshoma fight mukiryoku.

A guy I've had my eye on since he was promoted to seki-tori status was M17 Kiribayama, our lone rookie this basho, and I was interested to see how he'd fare against M16 Kaisei. The rookie won all right, but the bout was fixed in his favor, so it took the luster away for me. Kaisei was nonchalant at the tachi-ai faking a few short shoves as he allowed Kiribayama to shade left and latch onto a left outer grip. With the rookie moving laterally, the two traded places in the dohyo with Kiribayama still maintaining that outer grip, but he had nothing to the inside. Kaisei did. In fact, Kaisei had moro-zashi with Kiribayama's left arm up and over Kaisei's right shoulder, and a veteran like Kaisei shoulda sent Kiribayama three rows deep. Kiribayama knew it too because he used his right leg to the inside of Kaisei's left in an attempt to trip him up, but Kaisei had the rookie dead to rights. He never did make an effort to finish him off, though, letting the rookie spin away at the edge as Kaisei just walked himself across. They ruled it hiki-otoshi, but there was zero hiki coming from Kiribayama as this was all Kaisei dictating the pace from start to finish as he gifts the rookie an undeserved win.

Two veterans clashed in M16 Tochiohzan and M15 Ikioi, and it looked as if Ikioi wanted to get established with the left arm to the inside, but Oh just backed up and to his left pulling Ikioi forward and down easy as you please.

M15 Azumaryu stopped M14 Shimanoumi dead in his tracks at the tachi-ai getting the right arm inside in the process, and there was nothing that Shimanoumi could do to counter his larger, better foe. Azumaryu just methodically moved forward using his bulk to force Shimanoumi back and across without argument. Nice win for Ryu today.

M13 Kotoeko backed up from the tachi-ai looking to do who knows what while M14 Terutsuyoshi charged forward getting his right arm to the inside. Kotoeko countered with his own right inside, and as the two spun round and round in the middle of the ring, Kotoeko came away with the left outer grip, but there was so much lateral movement here, that Eko lost his right inside position. He attempted a dashi-nage or two, but Terutsuyoshi was two slippery and maintained his superior inside position with the right hand...superior because Kotoeko didn't have an inside grip of his own. The bout lasted about a minute before Terutsuyoshi made his move ducking his head and working his way into moro-zashi, and from there he easily bulldozed Kotoeko back and out tripping him up watashi-komi style for extra credit.

M12 Chiyomaru focused his tsuppari a bit too high for his own good, but fortunately he was facing M13 Kotoshogiku and trying to beat him as well. Try as he might, Kotoshogiku couldn't counter with a feeble left arm sorta to the inside, and so Chiyomaru just bullied him back and then caught the former Ozeki with two nice shoves to the chest that sent him across for good. Nice dominating win for Maru here.

M12 Tsurugisho and M11 Kagayaki were a stalemate at the tachi-ai as Kagayaki used some effective shoves to keep Tsurugisho upright. After a few seconds, Tsurugisho actually got the right arm inside, but because he didn't set that up with a good tachi-ai, he wasn't in a position to impose his will. Instead of looking for a force-out move, Tsurugisho went for a quick pull, but Kagayaki was ready for it and sent the youngster flying across the ring just like that.

In a curious bout, M11 Chiyotairyu came with his nice oshi attack against M10 Ishiura using his legs in the process, and after connecting on a few shoves that sent Ishiura back to the edge of the ring, Ishiura just dashed to his left as if to escape, but he stepped out in the process as he tried to spin away. The ending here was unorthodox for sure, but I think it was likely that Ishiura knew he wasn't going to win the bout, and so he just stepped out instead of having Chiyotairyu rush forward to send him two rows deep.

M10 Sadanoumi rushed forward getting the right arm to the inside forcing his bout against M9 Yutakayama to migi-yotsu, but Sadanoumi's footwork was too loose, and it allowed the taller Yutakayama to force the Sadamight upright before grabbing the left outer grip, and once Yutakayama had that left outer grip, he forced Sadanoumi back and across with ease. It looked to me that Sadanoumi wasn't really trying in this one, but what do I know?

Speaking of not trying, M8 Ryuden totally let up for the useless M9 Takanosho. Ryuden actually won the tachi-ai and had Takanosho upright, and the dude coulda chosen either hand to get to the inside with an outer grip on the other side, but instead of pressing the action, he just stood there and allowed Takanosho back into the bout with a lame pull. There was such little force behind the pull that Ryuden still had the left outer grip and right hand to the inside...had he wanted it, but instead he pulled the right arm out and up high as if to pull, and he basically just backed up out of the ring in pull motion and Takanosho forced him back. Total yaocho here as Ryuden defers to the lesser rikishi, but hey...if they were paying me 10 grr to start out 0-1, I'm sure I'd do it too. That oyakata stock doesn't come cheap.

In an extremely curious bout, M8 Aoiyama wasn't necessarily looking to kick M7 Onosho's ass from the start because from the tachi-ai, Aoiyama wasn't moving forward. He was still in push mode keeping Onosho upright, and after maybe two seconds, he side-swiped Onosho with a ham to the right cheek, and Onosho just bowled himself over and down. There was such little force in this one, especially to cause Onosho to flop down like that, so it's likely that Aoiyama was calling in a favor from a previous basho.

Ozeki Tochinoshin moved to his left in a move commonly referred to as uwate wo tori ni iku, and he actually got the left outer on the side of M7 Shohozan's belt, but Shin promptly let it go as the two traded places in the ring. With some separation between the two at this point, Tochinoshin never made an effort to grab his foe, and so the two jazz-handed each other back and forth with Shohozan going for a weak pull that had little effect. With the two square now but not chest to chest, Tochinoshin offered a few jabs with the intent to do nothing, and so eventually he let Shohozan rush to the inside, gain moro-zashi, and then force Tochinoshin back and across without argument. Total yaocho in this one as every foreigner not ranked at Yokozuna continues to inch their way down the banzuke.

M6 Takarafuji stood still at the tachi-ai against M5 Enho, and rikishi will do that so as to not be fooled by a henka, but Enho came straight forward getting his left arm to the inside. Takarafuji coulda established his own left to the inside but he purposefully kept it shallow letting Enho dig in. The two stood like this for about 15 seconds before Takarafuji pressed forward getting that left inside in deeper and grabbing the right outer grip over the top in the process, and from this point, Enho's only hope was that Takarafuji would let him win. And he promptly did. Takarafuji relented on his left inside allowing Enho to burrow in close, and after a few more seconds of jockeying, Enho went for an inside belt throw with the left hand. Though in a position to throw with his right outer and turn the ending to a nage-no-uchi-ai, Takarafuji just went limp with the arm allowing Enho to throw him over whereupon Takarafuji just put his elbow down to break his fall. The sheep were completely fooled by this one, but Takarafuji was mukiryoku throughout. As part of the replay sequence, they showed the ending to this one from above, and you can see Takarafuji afterwards laying there on his side playing dead while Enho is standing completely upright in the center of the ring. If Takarafuji had applied any force with that outer grip, both rikishi would have crashed down at nearly the same time. Instead, Takarafuji just went limp and put that elbow down easy as you please.

While the previous bout looked sorta real, the next one was completely obvious. M4 Shodai got his left arm inside and high at the tachi-ai, but M5 Meisei was already moving backwards resulting in an awkward start. With Shodai pressing, Meisei looked to move to his left at ring's edge, and Shodai threw a right elbow his way, but Meisei just spun around and down of his own volition. This was a bad bout start to finish as Shodai picks up the freebie.

The silliness would continue as Komusubi Abi had M4 Okinoumi pushed upright from the tachi-ai and back a few steps, but Abi couldn't finish his foe off. Okinoumi moved to his left at ring's edge, but he still wasn't going for anything. With Okinoumi standing there listless with both feet at the edge, Abi looked to mount a final attack but just slid his right foot outwardly collapsing to the edge with Okinoumi still standing there doing nothing. As the announcers watched the replay, they were all like, "Oh see...Abi slipped right there causing his fall." Abi didn't slip whatsoever. Nothing that Okinoumi was doing applied any pressure that would cause Abi do to anything. Dude just went down because he owed Okinoumi a win. Whenever you hear the excuse "ashi ga nagareta," you know the bout was fixed.

I hate it when I start feeling sorry for rikishi, but that's the case with Sekiwake Takayasu. Hooboy this dude is bad, but the ironic thing is he's still head and shoulders better than stablemate Takakeisho. Today, Takayasu was paired against M3 Tamawashi, but Tamawashi wanted the win, and so he got it using a stiff tsuppari attack to knock Takayasu upright and back before the former faux-zeki knew what hit him. They jobbed Tamawashi in this one downgrading the kimari-te to oshi-dashi because this was a tsuki-dashi all the way. Whatever. Takayasu is still reeling as Tamawashi picks up the nice win.

Two Japanese rikishi who are darlings but not complete frauds met up today in Sekiwake Asanoyama vs. M2 Mitakeumi. Mitakeumi won the tachi-ai bigly using a couple of shoves to send Asanoyama back to the edge, but instead of rushing in and finishing him off, he went for a dumb pull that totally let Asanoyama back into the bout. With Mitakeumi's back now against the edge, Asanoyama was able to work his right arm to the inside and nudge Mitakeumi upright just enough to grab the left outer grip in the process. When Mitakeumi couldn't counter with an outer of his own, Asanoyama pinned the former Sekiwake in tight and then forced him back and across with some oomph. Good win here from Asanoyama after completely losing the tachi-ai.

M2 Hokutofuji used his normal tachi-ai of putting his right hand into his opponent's neck and shading back to his left. His opponent, Goeido, was able to do absolutely nothing from the start, and so Hokutofuji methodically worked himself left until he found himself back in the center of the ring, and he used a mild left tsuki into Goeido's right side that easily sent Goeido forward and down. I mean, could Goeido be any more hapless than this? The scary answer is yes as he suffers a terrible Day 1 loss.

And that brings us to Takakeisho who was paired against M1 Myogiryu, and the last thing Myogiryu was looking to do was win here standing completely upright and aligning his feet at the tachi-ai. I mean, if a tsuki-oshi rikishi has an ounce of bariki, he just shoves his compromised foe straight back and out, but Takakeisho's response was to move to his left and attempt a quick pull. The problem was that Myogiryu was not moving forward or ducking down, and so it had no effect, and so Myogiryu turned 90 degrees to face his opponent again, and he just kept his hands up high going for a light pull while backing up, and this allowed Takakeisho to go with the flow and push Myogiryu back and out with little fanfare. At the edge, Myogiryu wasn't actually pushed out with any force; rather, he just sorta turned sideways and chose where to step out giving Takakeisho the lightweight win in obvious yaocho fashion. I think the main takeaway from this bout is that Takakeisho was not able to push Myogiryu back in linear fashion. It was somewhat linear at the end, but that's because Myogiryu was pulling and backing up in that direction. Takakeisho was along for the ride and exhibited zero bariki here never forcing Myogiryu backwards with shoves to the chest.

In the Yokozuna ranks, Kakuryu just stood upright against M1 Endoh with his hands high and wide, and so facing no pressure, Endoh just turned 90 degrees to his right as Kakuryu stepped forward trading places with Endoh. Endoh did manage the left arm to the inside, but Kakuryu just kept his hands up high looking to pull but not really pulling with force, and just like that, Kakuryu walked himself out of the ring stepping out with the left foot while Endoh crashed to the dohyo. The ref pointed in Endoh's favor, but there was zero applause because nobody in the arena knew who had won. Kakuryu dictated the pace the entire way, and Endoh did nothing to knock him out of the ring, so everyone was in a state of confusion as they went to the tape to review the ending. The crowd finally cheered when the chief judge announced that Kakuryu stepped out first giving Endoh the cheap win. This was obvious mukiryoku sumo by Kakuryu who just stayed up high and did all the work including stepping out before Endoh fell to the dirt. We've seen this bad movie before, so let's move on.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Hakuho was paired against Komusubi Daieisho, the rikishi who was gifted a win over the Yokozuna last basho. There would be no yaocho here today, however, as Hakuho got the left arm inside and right outer grip after a hari-zashi tachi-ai, and he never attempted to make this one look interesting wrenching Daieisho this way and that before forcing him back in about five seconds. Come this summer when the Lympics start, it'd be a crying shame if Takakeisho and Hakuho were standing on the same pedestal as two of the sport's Yokozuna, but I just can't see them allowing two Mongolians to hold the rank without a Japanese rikishi there as well.

I could be wrong about that, but that's why they script 'em.

Justin is up tomorrow.