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Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
As I've watched the last few days play out, I keep thinking about the pre-basho storyline of how the hiramaku rikishi are hot. They didn't mention any rikishi by name, but it was this general campaign of "Let's watch out for the hiramaku rikishi!" It's such a bizarre storyline because you have nine rikishi ranked in the sanyaku above not counting Terunofuji who withdrew before Day 1, and yet the attention was on this general group of rikishi known as the rank and file. It's all cover for the collective poor performances from the Ozeki this year, and the finish to this basho is playing right into that general narrative established pre-basho.

The leaderboard at the start of Day 13 contained one Ozeki, one Sekiwake, and four hiramaku rikishi as follows:

10-2: Hoshoryu, Takayasu, Ohho
9-3: Takakeisho, Abi, Kagayaki

The Sekiwake is the storyteller this basho while the Ozeki is just a token figure on the leaderboard who has never appeared on the top tier of the leaderboard.

Let's follow said leaderboard in chronological order today meaning we start with M15 Kagayaki vs. M9 Abi. Kagayaki kept his hands close to his body in a defensive posture from the tachi-ai signaling he was not trying to do any damage from the start, and so Abi went into fire hose tsuppari mode and easily brushed Kagayaki back and across without argument. As expected, Kagayaki sold this one giving Abi the ridiculously easy win in about three seconds, and two things you don't like to see in a yusho race: 1. A bout with yusho implications occurring just four bouts into the day, and 2. A bout that isn't hotly contested between both parties. This was the worst of both worlds as Abi picks up the freebie in moving to 10-3 while Kagayaki is knocked back off the leaderboard at 9-4 without a care in the world.

That brings us next to M1 Takayasu who was paired against M13 Ohho, and as expected Takayasu came with a high right kachi-age, but Ohho was too big of a load for the M1 to move back. Ohho was also too oblivious to take advantage of Takayasu's high stance, and so the two traded a few jabs before Takayasu was able to work his way to the front of Ohho's belt with the left. Unable to play defense whatsoever, Ohho gave up the right outer grip to Takayasu who pulled his gal in snug, and with little pressure coming from Ohho, Takayasu bowled him over with an uwate-nage as easy as you please. The technique of the throw had a lot to be desired, but what do you expect when Takayasu has purchased seven or eight of this bouts. He's not in yusho form with his sumo although it feels as if he's the forced favorite to yusho right now.

At least this bout was contested by both parties as Takayasu picks up a key win in moving to 11-2 while Ohho is knocked down to the three-loss tier at 10-3, but I am really confused here. As the two approached the starting lines, Ohho was crouched down in his stance with both fists resting on the dohyo, and it was Takayasu who tried to time his charge just as Hoshoryu did against Ohho yesterday. So why didn't Ohho's tactic work today as explained by Onokuni on last night's news show? You can see that if you follow the actual analysis provided by the commentators and media that you'll just go around in endless circles and never come to a logical conclusion. I'm just glad I don't have to pretend like fake sumo is real. It's much easier this way.

With Takayasu winning the battle and maintaining a firm stance on the two-loss tier, it was up to Sekiwake Hoshoryu to make a decision against Takakeisho. Actually, it wasn't Hoshoryu who made the decision, and it was pretty obvious going in what was going to transpire. There is just too much politics in play to have the last remaining Ozeki on the banzuke be eliminated by a young Mongolian.

From the tachi-ai, Hoshoryu was about as committed as Kagayaki earlier in the day keeping his hands high and in a defensive position, and so Takakeisho had free reign to execute his tsuppari attack. It wasn't great, and at one point Hoshoryu fired a few effective shoves to keep the faux-zeki at bay, but he followed that with a dumb pull where he wasn't trying to do any damage, and so Takakeisho chased the Sekiwake around the ring a bit and then finally knocked him across with little resistance. The look on Hoshoryu's face coming into this bout and after the bout reminded me of a boy whose mother makes him take tap dance lessons or something, and he goes through the motions at the dance recital and does his part, but it's the last situation in which he wants to find himself.

With the dust settled among the leaderboard, Takayasu now stands alone on top as follows:

11-2: Takayasu
10-3: Takakeisho, Hoshoryu, Ohho, Abi

Takayasu draws Kagayaki tomorrow, and Kagayaki is the superior rikishi. We'll see what he decides to do, but I think he's going to defer to Takayasu. You'll be able to tell by the sumo content whether or not the bout is fixed.

The entire three-loss tier is paired against each other starting with Hoshoryu and Abi. It goes without saying that Hoshoryu can easily get to the inside of Abi's fire hose tsuppari, and like the previous bout, if Hoshoryu wins, the bout was straight up. I think Hoshoryu will decide to win this one.

As for Takakeisho and Ohho, I don't think Ohho is going to defer to the faux-zeki. Takakeisho has the experience and he's the more crafty rikishi in the dohyo, but Ohho is a load to push around, especially for a weak guy like Takakeisho. I'll give Takakeisho the slight edge in this one, and I don't see how this bout doesn't end in hataki-komi or tsuki-otoshi regardless of the winner.

In other bouts of interest, Komusubi Tamawashi stepped into the ring against Shodai with a chance to officially knock Tamawashi from the Ozeki ranks (please God, let it happen). As usual, Shodai was late and ineffective from the tachi-ai, and Tamawashi was onto him like white on rice using stiff jabs to the neck to knock Shodai back and to the edge in seconds. Shodai was able to escape right, but the move was too slow and Tamawashi easily kept pace and pushed Shodai across with an open hand to the face. I was a bit disappointed they didn't rule this one tsuki-dashi because Tamawashi used a right straight arm to thrust Shodai back that last step but whatever. They talk about Ohho having this grand oshi attack this basho, but Tamawashi showed what a real oshi/tsuki guy can do in this bout, so once again, the analysis provided by the media doesn't matchup up with the real sumo occurring in the ring.

With the win, Tamawashi moves to just 4-9 while Shodai is officially knocked from the Ozeki ranks with his second consecutive make-koshi at 5-8. It will also be the first time in 125 years that the banzuke will contain just one Yokozuna and one Ozeki. Shodai will have a shot to regain the rank with 10 wins in January, and it may happen if he can round up the cash, but what's really ironic here is that you have a completely empty banzuke among the jo'i where the Yokozuna is gone; Mitakeumi is hapless; Takakeisho is running on fumes; and they're relying on the hot hiramaku to carry the basho. And amongst all this, a supposed Ozeki cannot win eight when given two tries? It's a perfect example of a false banzuke.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage defeated a completely mukiryoku M5 Nishikifuji to guarantee at least a tie in the race for most wins in the calendar year. From the tachi-ai, WTK was wide open, but Nishikifuji didn't even bother to get to the inside, and so the action moved laterally where Nishikifuji stayed up high enabling Wakatakakage to get the left arm inside and right outer grip, and from there, Wakatakakage was able to "force" his opponent to the corner of the dohyo by the basket full of salt. As of the end of the day, here's where they stand in terms of most wins this calendar year:

56 Wakatakakage
54 Hoshoryu, Kotonowaka

You'd have to say Wakatakakage is a lock to pick up at least one more win and deliver a bit of good news for Japan...as illegitimate as many of those 56 wins are.

Getting back to the yusho race, the yusho is guaranteed to be decided on the final day. I think it's about as good as sumo could have hoped for at this point.

Day 12 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
When I flipped on NHK News 9 this morning, the first 30 minutes was straight coverage of the Japan-Germany match at the World Cup, and as I was watching it, I was thinking, "Wow, the analysis actually matches up with the action on the pitch...unlike sumo where my eyes are watching one thing and my ears hear something completely different." They eventually did get to the usual sports segment where they showed more World Cup highlights before finally getting to sumo, and they brought in Onokuni (Shibatayama-oyakata) to explain away the day's events.

The non-inflated leaderboard coming into the day was this:

10-1: Hoshoryu
9-2: Takayasu, Ohho

A Takayasu loss would create the potential of Hoshoryu carrying a two-bout lead into the final three days should the Sekiwake decide to defeat Ohho, and as mentioned in yesterday's comments, that was a scenario that could not be allowed to happen.

Sumo is already in a tough spot trying to compete with the World Cup, and it doesn't help that none of the domestic rikishi can carry a basho. As a result, they've got to do everything possible to try and keep things interesting for the die-hard fans heading into the final three days.

The Day 12 broadcast began with a statistical analysis of Ohho and Hoshoryu, and with both of these dudes having entered sumo in the same class, it was easy to show the line by line comparisons of the progression up the banzuke to this point. It was definitely the marquee matchup sumo needed (on paper at least), but before we get to that one, the M1 Takayasu - M6 Ryuden matchup should be covered first.

Takayasu came with his usual kachi-age with the right and as has been the case all basho, the move was too high exposing Takayasu's insides. As for Ryuden, he reached for and got a left frontal belt grip and could have easily pulled Takayasu in tight or gotten the left arm inside forcing the bout chest to chest, but instead, he backed up and to his right faking a pull, and as Takayasu gave chase, he put his hands at the side of Ryuden's head and sorta went for a pull of his own, and Ryuden just dipped his shoulder and did a mini flip and roll across the dohyo.

The bout was fixed, and as is usually the case with faux leaders, there is no powerful sumo on display. Rather, the contact is light and the fall from the loser is fake, and it perfectly fit the mode here. The result was favorable for the Sumo Association, but the sumo itself was not. Regardless, we've seen this before as Takayasu moves to 10-2 with the gift while Ryuden falls further away from the leaderboard at 7-5.

Let's move next to M13 Ohho and Sekiwake Hoshoryu. At the tachi-ai, Ohho's hands were too high leaving him extremely vulnerable to an inside attack, but Hoshoryu did nothing with his own hands, and I knew from the tachi-ai the result of this one. With Hoshoryu just standing there, Ohho retreated about a second in shading to his left and going for a soft pull at the back of the Sekiwake's shoulder, and Hoshoryu just played along continuing to go straight as if oblivious to Ohho's lateral movement, and the result was Hoshoryu flopping forward and down two seconds into the bout with his legs flying away from the action and the direction of the pull. That dive was all Hoshoryu's doing and had nothing to do with the pressure coming from Ohho because there was no pressure coming from Ohho.

I watched the bout the first time on NHK News 9, and they went to Onokuni for an explanation afterwards, and I am not making this up, but he said the difference in the bout was Ohho's putting his fists down first at the tachi-ai and waiting in his stance for Hoshoryu to put his own fists down and go. Here's the graphic depicting the crucial scene:

Because Hoshoryu hurried his tachi-ai, he was not able to apply sufficient force into Ohho, so there you have it. It all makes sense now!! And this whole time I thought they were faking these bouts. Who knew that the placement of the fists at the shikiri-sen made such a difference? I'll be sure to start adding that to my comments moving forward.

What Onokuni did not break down was Ohho's oshi attack because it didn't exist nor could he identify a single thrust from Ohho into Hoshoryu's chest because it didn't happen. Ohho's hands were high and wide the entire bout, and so the focus was on how he placed his fists at the tachi-ai...a complete diversion from the actual sumo in the ring.

The result left both rikishi at 10-2 meaning the top tier of the leaderboard at the end of the day looked like this:

10-2: Hoshoryu, Takayasu, Ohho

This all but guarantees the yusho race going into Sunday, and it's a case of sumo trying to salvage anything at the end of a rough year. Does anybody remember the last time the yusho was decided on a Saturday? I think you have to go back four or five years ago when Hakuho did it, and is it any coincidence that the yusho race always goes into the final Sunday? It just saddens me that there's more theater to sumo these days than actual sumo.

With no one-loss rikishi left, the three-loss rikishi now come into play, so let's examine the bouts of the three-loss rikishi coming into the day.

In chronological order, M15 Kagayaki fought first, and he moved to the top of the rank and file to take on M1 Kotonowaka. Kagayaki struck well at the tachi-ai getting his right arm to the inside with ease, and knowing the fix was not in, Kotonowaka knew his only shot was to retreat and hope for a cheap pull, but Kagayaki was onto him and easily followed him back working the left arm near the inside close to moro-zashi, but before he got it, he already had Kotonowaka forced back and across in mere seconds. Osaka Announcer seemed shocked that this bout was so lopsided, but on a true banzuke, Kagayaki is the M1 and Kotonowaka (7-5) is somewhere closer to Kagayaki's current rank. With the easy, uncontested win, Kagayaki holds serve at 9-3, and he's easily the best Japanese rikishi left on the leaderboard.

M9 Abi was paired against Sekiwake Wakatakakage, and the M9 henka'd classlessly to his right grabbing the back of Wakatakakage's belt and pulling him down a second in. Wakatakakage isn't exactly a ball buster, so I can't say whether or not the fix was in here, but one thing for certain is that in all of these bouts I've covered that have involved "leaders," the sumo has been terrible except for Kagayaki. Abi joins Kagayaki at 9-3 while Wakatakakage falls to 6-6. I can't remember exactly where Hoshoryu and Wakatakakage stand now in the race for most wins in the calendar year, and with sumo's luck, Hoshoryu's gonna edge WTK out by one bout.

The final two three-loss rikishi were Takakeisho and M5 Nishikigi who met in the penultimate bout on the day. From the tachi-ai, Nishikifuji instinctively reached for a right frontal belt grip, and there wasn't sufficient force coming from Takakeisho to knock him off of the belt, but NFJ didn't pursue that grip and pulled back signaling his attitude the rest of the bout. Takakeisho wasn't exactly connecting with his tsuppari attack, but Nishikifuji was whiffing high and wide the entire way and then he'd turn his body sideways a bit offering an easy target, and Takakeisho eventually got things going by pushing a willing Nishikifuji back and across with little resistance.  You look at that pic at right, and Nishikifuji is already looking for a soft landing before he's left the confines of the dohyo.

Nishikifuji hasn't earned jack in the division, so there's no way they're going to let him show up an Ozeki and knock him back off the leaderboard in the process. Takakeisho is gifted the win here as he moves to 9-3 while Nishikifuji falls outta the race at 8-4.

With the changes in the leaderboard, the yusho race now looks like this heading into Day 13:

10-2: Hoshoryu, Takayasu, Ohho
9-3: Takakeisho, Abi, Kagayaki

Takayasu and Ohho face each other from the two-loss tier, and Takayasu is going to dominate that one. In fact, I'd be surprised if it takes Takayasu more than three seconds to win. Ohho hasn't shown any offensive punch his entire Makuuchi career let alone this entire basho, and it's not gonna start tomorrow. If Ohho was smart, he'd look for that right kachi-age and go for moro-zashi from the tachi-ai, but I think he's too obtuse for that. I don't see how Takayasu doesn't win.

The most compelling bout tomorrow is Hoshoryu vs. Takakeisho. A win from Hoshoryu knocks Takakeisho out of the yusho race officially, but I think there is just too much politics involved here, and so I expect Hoshoryu to throw the bout in favor of the faux-zeki. I hope I'm wrong. Hoshoryu looked pissed that he had to lose to Ohho today, so maybe he'll take out that frustration against Takakeisho if allowed to do so.

Abi and Kagayaki face off early in Day 13, and Kagayaki will destroy Abi if the bout is straight up. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if Kagayaki sells though. We'll see.

In other bouts of interest from the day, Komusubi Kiribayama got the left arm inside at the tachi-ai and was shoring up a frontal belt grip with the right, but before that materialized fully, Shodai quickly moved right in an effort to escape, but Kiribayama stayed snug and easily pushed Shodai back and across about three seconds in. Kiribayama doesn't play nice today in clinching kachi-koshi at 8-4 while Shodai is on the brink at 5-7.

Speaking of playing nice, M4 Sadanoumi had moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against Suckiwake Mitakeumi, but instead of moving forward and applying pressure, Sadanoumi immediately retreated making it look as if Mitakeumi was actually executing forward-moving sumo. He was doing nothing of the sort. This was all Sadanoumi moving backwards and then to his right as Mitakeumi finally pushed him across at the edge. What a fake bout this was as Sadanoumi doesn't have the heart to saddle Mitakeumi with an eighth loss leaving both of these dudes at 5-7.

Let's wrap things up here and see what tomorrow brings. Hoshoryu is the obvious Storyteller of the basho, but I would be surprised if they allow him to yusho.

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Today at the beginning of the broadcast, NHK displayed a graphic that showed the Makuuchi yusho rikishi this calendar year as follows:

Mitakeumi
Wakatakakage
Terunofuji
Ichinojo
Tamawashi

It is obvious that none of those five are taking the yusho here in Kyushu, and so they (Sanbe Announcer and Onokuni) took a few minutes to highlight the reality that we will have six different yusho rikishi this year. In my 30+ years watching sumo, that's never happened, and I'm not sure if it's ever happened in the modern sumo era. This circumstance was being spun as an interesting storyline, but it's a clear example of no anchors in sumo and no continuity.

NHK actually dropped the leaderboard down to three losses today, and the reason there was two-fold. Number one, they need an Ozeki on the leaderboard even if he is sitting at three losses ten days in, and the second reason they need to go down this deep is to add a storyline to help maintain interest. I guess we'll play along and consider the three-loss rikishi as yusho contenders, so here's the new leaderboard to start the day:

9-1: Hoshoryu, Ohho
8-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji
7-3: Takakeisho, Ryuden, Abi, Kagayaki, Hiradoumi

Going in chronological order, we start the comments with M16 Hiradoumi paired against M11 Onosho, and Onosho won the tachi-ai with a nice tsuppari attack before moving out left going for a quick tsuki. It didn't work, but Onosho had Hiradoumi off balance enough that he was able to thrust Hiradoumi back to the edge and almost across but not quite. As Hiradoumi tip toed the tawara and came back into the ring, Onosho greeted him with moro-zashi, and the fat lady sung at that point. Just like that, Hiradoumi is on the leaderboard and then right back off as both dudes end the day at 7-4. What we saw from Hiradoumi was definitely not yusho worthy sumo.

Up next was M15 Kagayaki who was matched up against M11 Chiyoshoma, and Kagayaki's tachi-ai was as light as they come. I mean, the dude stood straight upright and did nothing with his hands, but as bad as that was, Chiyoshoma was even worse...the difference being that Chiyoshoma's bad sumo was intentional. Chiyoshoma immediately began back pedaling pretending he was looking to pull, and as he neared the edge of the ring, Chiyoshoma (4-7) moved left and just went down to the dohyo as if his left heel got snagged in the dirt. Hooboy. This was as fake a fall as you'd care to see, and Kagayaki didn't connect with a single thrust that caused Chiyoshoma's retreat or fall. Kagayaki does move to 8-3 with the "win," but how about this start to the leaderboard rikishi!!

The very next bout featured M13 Ohho against M9 Abi, and with two losses separating these two, Abi had a great shot to close the gap if he wanted to win. And he did. Abi caught Ohho with some nice tsuki from the tachi-ai, and while Ohho's arms were raised, his shoves were purely defensive as he tried to fight off Abi's attack. He didn't come close as Abi had Ohho pushed back and across so forcefully they ruled it tsuki-dashi!! This tsuki-dashi was legit as Abi just kicked Ohho's ass here further pulling the covers off of the farce that is this perceived strong oshi-zumo attack from Ohho. The result is Ohho's falling to 9-2 while Abi picks up kachi-koshi at 8-3 and rejoins the leaderboard.

To find our next leader, we need to fast forward all the way into the second half bouts where M1 Takayasu met up with M5 Nishikifuji, and Nishikifuji looked for the right frontal belt grip from the tachi-ai, but Takayasu's impact at the initial charge was too strong, and it knocked NFJ away from the belt. Takayasu pivoted right and then looked to get the left arm inside. Nishikifuji wanted no part of that and began retreating around the perimeter of the dohyo, but he couldn't shake his foe, and Takayasu used nice tsuppari to knock Nishikifuji to the edge. On the brink, NFJ attempted a right kote-nage counter throw, but his feet weren't set properly because Takayasu was in control the entire way, and so Takayasu was able to push Nishikifuji across and down before Takayasu himself crashed down to the dohyo floor. It wasn't the prettiest of sumo and these pictures of the bout are of unorthodox scenes, but Takayasu dominated here, and Nishikifuji was completely outmatched rendering his yusho contender status as a complete farce.

Takayasu moved to 9-2 with the nice win, but he took an awkward fall at the end of the bout (as seen there at right) and wasn't exactly sprite as he walked down the hana-michi. We'll see how he fares the final four days. As for Nishikifuji, I suppose he's still considered a leader at 8-3, but the dude has no business being on that leaderboard.

The proceeding bout featured M6 Ryuden vs. Komusubi Kiribayama, and Kiribayama put two hands to Ryuden's neck at the tachi-ai before going into an early pull that sent Ryuden stumbling over to the edge but not quite out. Kiribayama thought he had scored the win after that first volley, and he was late in attacking his opponent again, so as the two squared back up, Ryuden had the left inside grip to Kiribayama's right outer grip with KBY having nothing to the inside with the right. Back in the center of the ring, Kiribayama was lower and had a stifling right outer grip, so he was still in charge, but Ryuden isn't exactly a push over. The two jockeyed in the center of the ring for a minute or so before Kiribayama finally moved Ryuden to the side and then tripped him up soto-gake style. This was a great finish after a lousy start as both dudes end the day at 7-4. Like Hiradoumi, Ryuden is kicked off of the leaderboard nearly as fast as he was added.

Sekiwake Hoshoryu was paired against Suckiwake Mitakeumi, and there was no way that Mitakeumi could win a straight up bout, so the question was did Hoshoryu have enough incentive to throw it. In the past, it seems that when a Japanese "elite" rikishi has looked awful the entire basho, the Mongolians will not give them the cheap win, and that was the case today. Hoshoryu used a few short tsuppari at the tachi-ai into Mitakeumi's chest, and that was all he needed to rush in and get the right arm inside with a left outer grip. I mean, Mitakeumi cannot defend himself anymore, and it showed here as Hoshoryu rushed the former Ozeki back and across in under three seconds. That my friends was a perfect demonstration of the gap that exists between these two rikishi. It wasn't even close as Hoshoryu moves into sole possession of the lead at 10-1 while Mitakeumi isn't even gonna kachi-koshi at 4-7.

I suppose Takakeisho is back on the leaderboard, so let's go there next. He concluded the day by facing M5 Hokutofuji, and Hokutofuji didn't even think about moving forward from the tachi-ai or using any thrusts, and so with the M5 standing there, Takakeisho offered a volley of light thrusts before going for his hurried pull/swipes. The second attempt didn't exactly connect, but it was Hokutofuji's cue to just run himself forward, across the straw, and into the first row. He was in total control the entire way, and that was a rare hataki-komi where the loser does not touch down but instead runs himself out of the ring. Whatever. It was an obviously fixed bout to help the Ozeki save face, but the sumo was light and terrible. Takakeisho receives charity in moving to 8-3 while Hokutofuji knows his place at 6-5.

As we reshuffle the leaderboard, it looks like this heading into Day 12:

10-1: Hoshoryu
9-2: Takayasu, Ohho
8-3: Takakeisho, Nishikifuji, Abi, Kagayaki

Hoshoryu is paired against Ohho, and it goes without saying who the favorite there is. The question really is: would Hoshoryu consider throwing the bout? I'd say it's fiddy-fiddy that he does. I mean, you had the Samurai Blue conquer Germany, and the entire nation is focused on that, so sumo desperately needs something. The problem is, an Ohho win doesn't move the needles, so we'll see.

Takayasu draws Ryuden, and Ryuden is the heavy favorite there. Ryuden's huge, and he can get to the belt early. Takayasu's kachi-age tachi-ai can't faze Ryuden, so if both the Hoshoryu bout and Takayasu bout are fought straight up, Hoshoryu's going to have a two-bout lead heading into the final three days. That's a disaster scenario in terms of keeping interest in the basho, so I'd be surprised if either of those bouts are not compromised. Too bad that's the drama in all this.

A compelling matchup tomorrow if fought straight up will be Takakeisho vs. Nishikifuji. Nishikifuji's the favorite there, but we'll see how that one plays out.

I don't know that it's worth discussing any of the other bouts. Sekiwake Wakatakakage won the tachi-ai against Shodai but then went completely limp giving Shodai the inside and the cheap yori-kiri win in a matter of seconds. You have Wakatakakage who was allowed to hoist the cup in March, and the dude can see the benefit of giving back some here. Shodai is still just 5-6, and you'd think they're going to pair him against the likes of Mitakeumi and Takakeisho down the stretch. Mitakeumi will likely give him the win if Mitakeumi has already make-koshi'ed, but Takakeisho can't afford to roll over. Shodai gets Kiribayama tomorrow, so it's a must-yaocho situation for Shodai if he's going to buy that kachi-koshi.

To pile on with the "can't catch a break" news cycle from Day 11, Asanoyama was also defeated in Makushita today dropping him to 5-1. From the MS4 rank, he should be promoted to Juryo for January even if he loses again, but with two other Makushita dudes standing at 6-0, Asanoyama is eliminated from Makushita yusho contention.

I'm pretty sure the elders can't wait to just get this tournament over and head back to Tokyo. I know my focus is half a world away in Qatar.

Day 10 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The World Cup news in Japan has hit a fever pitch with the Japanese match against Germany less than 24 hours away, and maybe it's better that sumo can't garner any attention beyond the obligatory coverage from NHK. Once again, the NHK News 9 program led off their sumo segment with the two casters standing in front of a large screen that depicted an empty arena in Fukuoka. Unlike the day before where Tamawashi blocked 1/4 of the screen, they didn't have anybody blocking it today until they eventually flashed the two rikishi atop the leaderboard heading into the day, Hoshoryu and Ohho.

I think there's actually a holiday in Japan tomorrow, and so we'll see if more fans show up, but the attendance continues to be abysmal. It matters for a few reasons. First, fair weather fans will see a half empty arena and subconsciously think, "Why should I pay attention to this?" Second and perhaps more importantly, it lessens the cash flow available to the sport, and I think it's a direct reason why we are seeing Mitakeumi and Shodai fade so fast.

We'll touch on their bouts in a bit. In the meantime, let's review the leaderboard at the start of the day:

8-1: Hoshoryu, Ohho
7-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji, Abi

Coverage of M13 Ohho's bouts has become inevitable since he is the only Japanese rikishi to occupy that first tier. Let's start there with his bout against M10 Aoiyama. I actually saw this bout the first time on NHK News 9, and the caster mentioned as part of the lead-in to the bout that Ohho has been, "showing strong oshi-zumo to get to this point." I had to make sure she was talking about the same tournament I've been watching because I can't seem to recall any strong oshi-zumo from Ohho other than his bout against Atamifuji early in week 1.

But...I'm more than used to the analysis on television telling me one thing and my eyes observing something totally different, and from the tachi-ai, Ohho's strong oshi-zumo was nowhere to be found. Lucky for him, Aoiyama agreed to be bought off because the Bulgarian commanded the tachi-ai slapping the face with the left and getting the left arm inside as part of a nice hari-zashi move, and just like that, Ohho's strong oshi-zumo skills were gone. With the two now chest to chest, Aoiyama was groping the hell out of Ohho's belt with a right outer attempt but darn the luck...he just couldn't latch on. As soon as Aoiyama realized he was doing everything to win the bout, he quickly abandoned that instinctive quest to grab the belt and brought the right arm up high wrapping it around Ohho's melon while simultaneously bringing the left arm to the outside giving Ohho moro-zashi. From that point, Ohho began his force-out charge as Aoiyama (4-6) helped him along by agreeing to back straight out of the ring, and just like that...Ohho is gifted a soft, easy win that sends him to 9-1. At least one person in that pic at right was taking it serious.

As they showed the replay afterwards, Hakuho--who was providing color--said, "I think this one went to the belt because Aoiyama didn't want to get into a shoving match against Ohho." As if. But once again...there you have the narrative that Ohho is a strong oshi guy although we saw none of that from the tachi-ai, and we've barely seen it the entire tournament. As they described the bout, all the verbs mentioned of Ohho were passive meaning it was Aoiyama who was dictating everything.

Before we move on, it was directly after the Ohho bout when NHK flashed the three most replayed bouts from the day before streamed on the Association's website, and number one was Asanoyama's bout in Makushita. A Makushita bout? Unbelievable. Well, unbelievable to a critically thinking mind, but perfectly normal for the sheep I suppose.

Moving right along, the next leader up was M9 Abi who was paired against M6 Ryuden, and Abi came with his tsuppari which are naturally too high for his own good, and despite his knocking Ryuden back a step, Abi's arms were extended so high that Ryuden was able to apply pressure to Abi's left arm from up and under, and on the second attempt to push up into that biceps area, Ryuden spun Abi around 180 degrees and broke backed him out from there in a flash. Both rikishi end the day at 7-3, and so Abi is knocked off the leaderboard for now, but something tells me we'll see three-loss rikishi back on the board in the next few days.

The next leader up was M5 Nishikigi, and he had a tall task ahead of him in M2 Ichinojo. Well, that's if Ichinojo wanted to win this thing, but of course he didn't. Ichinojo still dominated the tachi-ai slapping with the left hand into Nishikifuji's cheek before reaching around and grabbing the left outer grip at the back of the belt, but instead of securing NFJ in tight with the right inside, Ichinojo brought it high as if to pull at the same time he let go of his left outer grip, and so with Ichinojo in full pull mode, it was all Nishikifuji could do just to make contact before Ichinojo walked back across the straw. Nishikifuji never did make consequential contact as Ichinojo stepped back and across while pulling Nishikifuji down hataki-komi style, and there's a reason why Ichinojo has been the grammatical subject in every sentence this paragraph...he was doing all the work.

Once again we have a complete farce of a bout that involved a so-called leader, and no, this one did not make the NHK Sport show at night. Nishikifuji gets worked this way and that and still moves to 8-2 while Ichinojo suffers a voluntary make-koshi at 2-8. Uh huh.

M1 Takayasu was matched up against Komusubi Tobizaru, who kept his hands down and did nothing at the tachi-ai making Takayasu's kachi-age with the right look that much better. That forearm from Takayasu and a stiff left paw to the throat sent Tobizaru upright, but Takayasu's hips were so high that Tobizaru could have easily ducked under to get moro-zashi, but that wasn't his MO today, and as Takayasu brushed the side of Tobizaru's head with the right hand, Tobizaru just put both palms to the dirt with his butt sticking straight up in the air.

The fix was obviously in here as Tobizaru did nothing to win, but after such a powerful tachi-ai from Takayasu where he scored with the right kachi-age and left choke hold, why didn't he score an oshi-dashi win? He head all the momentum and was moving forward. The answer is that Tobizaru just touched the deck in submission before Takayasu could finish his foe off, and it led to a lackluster finish after a good start from the M1. Takayasu moves to 8-2 after the yaocho while Tobizaru falls now to 5-5.

Our final leader on the day was Sekiwake Hoshoryu, who did battle with Shodai. If you can call it battle. Hoshoryu won the tachi-ai against the listless Shodai, but instead of attacking from straight on, the Mongolian moved a bit to his left. With Shodai still applying no pressure, Hoshoryu ducked into the loose hidari-yotsu position and began driving Shodai back to the edge fully anticipating a counter tsuki from Shodai. It did come, and Hoshoryu's reaction was to dutifully lower his right arm down so that it touched the clay first, and watching live it looked as if Shodai won the bout, but those close to the dohyo (i.e. the judges and referee) could see that Shodai sloppily stepped out before Hoshoryu bit the dust.

The crowd and the announcers waited a bit to see if they'd call a mono-ii, but replays showed that Shodai had indeed stepped out before Hoshoryu crashed down to the dirt of his own volition. Shodai has been involved in over 10 thousand bouts of keiko over his career, and he knows exactly where his feet need to be when he executes a move. In this case, he was not in control from the start, so despite Hoshoryu's willingness to lose, Shodai was hapless and stepped across the straw before his opponent hit the dirt. It's pure haplessness on the part of Shodai who falls to a dangerous 4-6. As for Hoshoryu, he stays tied with Ohho at 9-1, and this is how the leaderboard looks at the end of the day:

9-1: Hoshoryu, Ohho
8-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji

It's my opinion that Hoshoryu was more than willing to lose today, and so that tells me he's willing to take another strategic loss or two for the good of sumo. We'll see what happens.

In other bouts of interest, Komusubi Kiribayama easily won the tachi-ai against Takakeisho and drove him back a step or two with both arms in position to get to the inside, but instead of getting moro-zashi and securing the quick win, Kiribayama graciously brought both hands up high and pretended to pull, but it was really Kiribayama's backing himself out of the ring as Takakeisho tried to keep pace. Takakeisho took a hard spill off of the dohyo he was that out of control, but hey...he picked up the win!! I mean, Takakeisho took his licks in this one as Kiribayama connected with a few shots to the face, and this was a great example of a dude thoroughly getting his ass kicked and still coming away with the win. How about that?! Takakeisho is still dreaming at 7-3 while Kiribayama has thrown a ton of bouts yet still stands at 6-4.

Suckiwake Mitakeumi was paired against M3 Midorifuji, and Mitakeumi displayed his best tachi-ai of the basho using a series of thrusts to knock Midorifuji upright and back a step, but Mitakeumi wasn't driving with the lower body, and the dude just can't move in the ring these days, and so Midorifuji withstood that decent charge and ducked under Mitakeumi's arms getting moro-zashi. From that point, Mitakeumi was had because the dude has shown a complete inability to counter, and so the two gathered their wits in the center of the ring for a bit, but Midorifuji was eventually able to move Mitakeumi over and across. The sheer size difference here allowed Mitakeumi to hang around for a minute and a half, but it was only a matter of time. An elite rikishi would have easily tried some sort of counter move, but all Mitakeumi could do was lean his weight into his opponent and hope for the best. Mitakeumi falls to 4-6 with the loss, and he has officially been eliminated from Ozeki contention. As for Midorifuji, he's even steven at 5-5.

I suppose if there's a subplot to this basho it's the race for most wins in the calendar year. Coming into the day, the tally was:

Wakatakakage (54)
Hoshoryu (52)
Kotonowaka (51)

M4 Sadanoumi did nothing from the tachi-ai allowing Sekiwake Wakatakakage to eventually get a full head of steam and rush Sadanoumi back and across as if he wasn't even trying (he wasn't). If Wakatakakage was that good, he would have knocked Sadanoumi back from the tachi-ai, but nothing happened at the tachi-ai, and then finally two seconds later, WTK began his charge with Sadanoumi (4-6) more than happy to backpedal outta the ring in tandem. The gift to Wakatakakage moves him to 55 wins...two ahead of Hoshoryu's 53 and three ahead of Kotonowaka's 52.

The best comment the entire basho came from Hakuho today when he said off the cuff of Wakatakakage, "I want him to change the color of his mawashi." WTK is of course sporting the same light gray/green mawashi that Hakuho wore exclusively the last few years of his career.

Two three-loss rikishi were paired today in M15 Kagayaki and M7 Myogiryu. Myogiryu (6-4) obviously owed Kagayaki one here because Kagayaki met his opponent with two hands to the face and then went for a light pull, which was Myogiryu's cue to just put both palms to the dirt. Kagayaki moves to 7-3 with the win and may find himself on the leaderboard in the next few days, which is why I mentioned him.

And finally, M16 Hiradoumi is lurking in the leaderboard shadows as well. He was paired against M11 Kotoshoho today, and Hiradoumi henka'd to his left weakly, and he was easy force-out fodder for Kotoshoho who had his right arm to the inside with his opponent retreating, but instead of squaring up and scoring the quick and easy yori-kiri, Kotoshoho (5-5) just stumbled straight forward and down as Hiradoumi caught up with a weak tsuki-otoshi. Hiradoumi is still buying the majority of his wins, and he too may find himself on the leaderboard soon. Despite that, this was a great example of a fixed bout as he moves to 7-3.

Well, we'll see if Japan can give Germany a good fight tomorrow because that's what's on the mind of every Japanese person heading into the Shubansen.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
With the World Cup in full swing, it's reminding me again of just how much flopping goes on in soccer. In England's match against Iran, The Three Lions earned their first corner kick three or four minutes into the game, and as the ball came into the box, England's Harry Maguire wrapped his arm around an Iranian defender and then pulled the defender into his own body as he toppled over in the box looking for a cheap call. England's players all raised their arms as if to say, "Where's the foul?!" but replays clearly showed that it was Maguire who flopped and dragged his opponent on top of him. He probably should have been carded for the move, but when I was watching replays of it, it reminded me of guys in sumo--particularly the Mongolians--who will grab their opponent's arms either straight on or in a kote grip and then just back out of the ring dragging their opponents into their bodies in an attempt to simulate a win for the opponent. If it happens in soccer, it happens in sumo although the reasons for simulating fake falls are a bit different.

Speaking of fake falls, let's turn our attention to Day 9 where there were fewer fake falls than normal, and when that happens it spells trouble for the hyped rikishi. Before I even knew the results on the day, I flipped on NHK News 9 to watch the sports segment, and here was the lead graphic:



There are two issues that jumped out immediately to me when I saw this. First, the obvious point was the empty stands on Day 9. The optics here are just terrible, and what does that tell the casual viewer about the current tournament?

The second point and less obvious to most is: why is a dude coming into the day at 1-7 featured as the lead into sumo? It turns out that Komusubi Tamawashi yanked M3 Ura down via the gassho-hineri move...a kimari-te (pictured at right) not seen in the Makuuchi division in 57 years. And that's what the headlines are going to focus on at the start of week 2...a rare move executed by a rikishi with a 1-7 to start the day in order to deflect the bad news that's happening all around with the alleged elite rikishi.

I'm too busy watching World Cup matches to touch on every bout, so let's skip the light fandango and focus on the leaderboard and maybe a few other bouts of interest.

NHK did present a leaderboard at the start of the Day 9 broadcast as follows:

7-1: Hoshoryu, Takayasu, Abi, Ohho
6-2: Takakeisho, Nishikifuji

Going in chronological order, M13 Ohho was up first taking on M11 Onosho, and Onosho was proactive from the tachi-ai executing a decent oshi attack that had Ohho upright, but you could see that Onosho was not going 100%, so when Ohho skirted to his left and went for a mild pull, Onosho just kept running forward and right out of the dohyo as the M13 tried to catch up from behind. I did finally see one headline that said, "Taiho's grandson is the first to kachi-koshi!" but they did not replay this bout on the news. And for good reason. Ohho lost the tachi-ai; it was Onosho (5-4) who was doing the attacking; and Ohho's little swipe at the end was the opposite of chikara-zumo, so it does more harm than good to show that kind of sumo on video and declare "First to kachi-koshi!" The gift does propel Ohho to 8-1, but it seems his stable in the past hasn't been able to shell out enough dough beyond getting him to kachi-koshi. We shall see.

Next up was M9 Abi coming in with one-loss taking on a two-loss rikishi in M5 Nishikifuji, and Abi was proactive in his fire hose tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai, and the uncontrolled thrusts were good enough to keep Nishikifuji from latching onto a left frontal belt grip, but NFJ wasn't being bullied around. As soon as Nishikifuji lost that grip, he retreated a bit as if to pull, and then he timed a tug of Abi's extended left arm perfectly pulling Abi forward and off balance near the edge, and it took one more easy peasy Japanesey tsuki to send Abi packing. Unlike the previous bout covered, this bout was fought straight up by both parties, but it was similar in that the winner had to resort to defensive, pull sumo. I mean, in an ideal world, you want to see these leaders winning with nice, forward-moving sumo. The end result here is both dudes ending the day at 7-2 and occupying that second tier on the leaderboard.

A coupla bouts later, M1 Takayasu stepped into the ring to take on M2 Meisei, and Takayasu couldn't make a dent in his opponent at the tachi-ai despite the size difference. Takayasu followed up quickly with a right tsuki aimed at Meisei's neck, but the M2 brushed that aside and turned Takayasu nearly 90 degrees in the process. If you remember Takayasu's bout from yesterday, Kiribayama had him turned 90 degrees twice and failed to do anything with it, but Meisei was trying today, and he showed exactly what you do when your opponent is turned to the side. First, he pushed Takayasu upright with a thrust to the neck, and then he quickly assumed moro-zashi, and from there Takayasu's only answer was a light pull move, but all that did was provide a sufficient momentum shift for Meisei to just run Takayasu outta the dohyo. This one wasn't even close as Takayasu is knocked down to 7-2 while Meisei breezes to 5-4.

I'm sure Takayasu lulled a lot of sumo fans into thinking he's been hot this basho, but he's bought most of his wins to date, and Meisei was just bringing the folks back to reality here. Before we move on, Takayasu's getting knocked down a tier is big because I think he had the most name recognition coming in from the one-loss tier.

We next fast-forward to Sekiwake Hoshoryu who faced Kyushu native M4 Sadanoumi, and Hoshoryu merely henka'd to his right, grabbed a cheap outer grip, and dumped Sadanoumi (4-5) to the clay before the dude had fully come out of his stance. I mean, Hoshoryu is the superior rikishi, but I want to see these leaders win in straight up sumo. Here is yet another bout that you can't show on the news because there's no substance to the sumo. Hoshoryu does move to 8-1 with the grease job, but I still don't like me the henka.

The final bout of the day featured Takakeisho vs. Komusubi Tobizaru, and Tobizaru went for the lamest henka to his right that you'd care to see, but Takakeisho was not charging hard knowing that the bout wasn't compromised, and so he failed to take advantage. From that point the bout was on as both dudes flailed away with their arms in motions that had more bark than bite, but it was the Komusubi who was nudging Takakeisho back. Takakeisho's signature move (and it isn't even a good one at that) is that wild left swipe to the side, and he tried it here, but it just bounced off of Tobizaru harmlessly, and from there, Takakeisho's momentum was compromised allowing Tobizaru to push him across and down to the venue floor. Tobizaru definitely got his licks in here as Takakeisho could only attack with pulls and swipes, and it was quite the telling bout to finish the day. Takakeisho is knocked off the leader board altogether at 6-3 while Tobizaru picks up a nice win here in moving to 5-4.

The result is the following leader board as we head into Day 10:

8-1: Hoshoryu, Ohho
7-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji, Abi

Hooboy. That's gonna be a tough sell the rest of the week if it holds, and you gotta think those one-loss dudes are going to lose right quick. There are a host of 6-3 rikishi waiting in the wings, but the important thing is to get an Ozeki back on the leaderboard. Hoshoryu draws Shodai tomorrow, and I can already taste the throw-up in my mouth if he lets Shodai win that one.

Speaking of Shodai, he was matched against Komusubi Daieisho today, and the Komusubi has seen tougher contests against the teppo pole in the practice room back at the heya. From the tachi-ai, Daieisho fired a few methodic tsuppari directly into Shodai's chest that knocked the faux-zeki back and across the straw once, twice, three times a lady (emphasis on lady). Shodai could do nothing here and was humiliated as the venue grew more quiet after the bout than the public library. The loss sends Shodai to 4-5 meaning he's got a bit of work cut out for him to hold onto that Ozeki rank. Daieisho moves to 4-5 with the nice, easy win, and we'll see what the Hoshoryu camp decides to do against Shodai tomorrow.

Suckiwake Mitakeumi was paired against M4 Wakamotoharu, and the tachi-ai was not sharp from either dude, and after Mitakeumi failed to neutralize his opponent from the initial charge, he went for a high kachi-age, and that allowed WMH to get the left arm inside and knock Mitakeumi upright enough to where Wakamotoharu grabbed a right frontal belt grip, and Mitakeumi could do nothing but walk backwards as Wakamotoharu forced him across. Pathetic. And shame on anyone who was using the buzzword "bariki" when describing Mitakeumi's sumo this basho. I don't think the dude is that far away from retirement. He just can't move in the dohyo any more. The defeat knocks him down to 4-5, and I don't see how he runs the table. It's just gonna take one more dude who refuses to be bought, and Mitakeumi will officially be removed from Ozeki consideration. Can't come soon enough as Wakamotoharu picks up the nice win at 5-4.

I'll end here for the day as there's so much else going on. Before I close, I saw a curious headline about some sort of feud between Ichinojo and his stable master, Minato-oyakata. Apparently, the two are currently communicating through a lawyer. WTF??  With the cat now out of the bag, I'm hoping for a few more stories that go into more details regarding the spat. Just what sumo needs right? Another negative story to occupy headlines.

Day 8 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The biggest news of the basho so far came at the start of Day 8 when it was announced that Chiyotairyu had retired from sumo as an active rikishi. I always liked Chiyotairyu and considered him as one of the better Japanese rikishi the last decade, but like Okinoumi, he's been so caught up in selling bouts the last few years that he was a non-factor in sumo the last half decade despite his ability. I mean, they classify Takakeisho as a tsuppari guy, but Chiyotairyu was the real deal. I think he was even better than his predecessor, Chiyotaikai, who served as an Ozeki for a number of years and was granted a handful of career yusho.

In my opinion, Chiyotairyu is the last of the true breed of tsuppari rikishi, and I'm talking about guys who are built like a bowling ball and have a vicious tsuppari attack (think Hokutoumi...our current Commissioner). Tamawashi and Daieisho are two very good tsuppari rikishi still around, but Chiyotairyu was able to put his weight into it like few other and just crush his opponents back from the tachi-ai. I loved watching the bouts where he tried, and I'll miss him simply because we're losing a true specialist. They aren't makin' like they used to, and that's one reason the sumo content these days is so bad.

Besides the Chiyotairyu news, there was very little news in between days the entire week from the Makuuchi division, and so stories from the lesser divisions like Asanoyama's kachi-koshi and win in the Juryo division as a Makushita rikishi on Friday and then constant reports of that Jonidan dude, Suyama, from Todai and his progress made quite a few headlines. The main reason for that was the lack of an elite rikishi anchoring the basho, and so as we headed into Day 8, here was the leaderboard as posted during the NHK Sunday Sports broadcast:



One interesting note to that leaderboard is that they are displaying the ranks of the sanyaku and Ozeki in the case of Hoshoryu, Takakeisho, and Kiribayama, but all of the other rikishi are listed as "hiramaku." If you remember my day 1 comments, I talked about this as an established storyline of the basho before the bouts had even begun. Terunofuji had withdrawn, and it's evident that dudes like Takakeisho, Shodai, and Mitakeumi can't carry a basho, and so it was necessary to provide cover for this by declaring the hiramaku as "hot," and spinning it as a positive that the so-called elite Japanese rikishi cannot anchor the tournament.

It's just so interesting to me how narratives are established and maintained during the tournament that have nothing to do with the sumo in the ring, and it's frankly what keeps me interested in sumo...the politics of it all.

In the midst of this environment where the elite rikishi aren't stepping up and the hiramaku are hyped, one dude is standing out among the others, but unfortunately the blood in his veins means that he can't be a featured story this basho to the extent that he would be if he was Japanese. That rikishi is of course Sekiwake Hoshoryu, who has already sealed the Ginosho in my opinion. He completely dismantled M4 Wakamotoharu yesterday with a perfectly executed soto-gake leg trip, and it was a thing of beauty to watch him dominate the bout.

I know that the Japanese fans are told to root for certain rikishi and like certain rikishi, but I think true sumo fans are glued to Hoshoryu right now more than any other rikishi. Today against Komusubi Tobizaru, Hoshoryu executed a hari-zashi tachi-ai that enabled him to grab a quick outer grip...a hold he would maintain throughout the bout and eventually use to dashi-nage Tobizaru over and down For the second day in a row, Hoshoryu completely dominated the bout, and he is the shining star this tournament at 7-1.

The one rikishi receiving more hype than Hoshoryu is M1 Takayasu because he's classified as a Japanese rikishi (his dad's Japanese and his mom Filipino). The contrast between Takayasu's sumo and Hoshoryu's sumo is evident. Yesterday against Daieisho, the Komusubi stretched his arms out at the tachi-ai but then just stood there waiting for a light tsuki to come from Takayasu before flopping unnaturally to the dohyo. Watch Hoshoryu's Day 7 sumo and Takayasu's sumo back to back, and it's so clear that one dude is dominating his opponent while the other bout is full of mukiryoku sumo.

On Day 8, Takayasu was paired against Komusubi Kiribayama, and once again, we got a puff bout where Kiribayama kept his hand high and uncommitted at the tachi-ai while shading backwards, but Takayasu still couldn't take advantage. Twice Kiribayama had Takayasu turned to the side to the extent where he could have rushed in and scored the quick okuri-dashi win, and then when the dust settled, we got this pose from Kiribayama where he had his left arm pressed against Takayasu's neck (a useless position) and his right arm positioned near the front of the belt (seen at left) but he was flirting with Takayasu's elbow instead (fresh!). All Kiribayama needed to do at this point was assume moro-zashi against a truly defenseless opponent, but he just stood there and reacted to one of the worst scoop throw attempts you'll ever see. The result was Kiribayama's running and flopping to the other side of the dohyo while Takayasu chased him down. How do you win by sukui-nage and then chase your opponent after the throw?

Once again, watch Hoshoryu's sumo and Takayasu's sumo back to back, and the contrast in the content is obvious. With the "win" today, Takayasu also moves to 7-1, and one problem heading into week two is that Hoshoryu and Takayasu have already fought, so that marquee matchup is already off the board.

The third one-loss rikishi coming into the day was M9 Abi, and he dominated M7 Endoh today with a nice oshi attack. I mean, Endoh didn't try to win the bout, but Abi still looked good in the win unlike Takayasu. With Takayasu, his opponent was making intentional mistakes and refusing to capitalize on opportunities, and Takayasu was still clueless. At least Abi made it look good against a willing opponent. Abi hasn't been talked about much this basho because he's winning against mukiryoku opponents and his sumo hasn't stood out.

One interesting thing to note about the leaderboard above is that M13 Ohho was the final one-loss rikishi coming into the day, but they didn't even mention his name nor did they show his bout in the sumo news segment. It's one thing to watch Takayasu and Abi fight against mukiryoku opponents, but Ohho is even more hapless, and it's really tough to show his bouts as highlights because they are so obviously fake. I mean, they aren't even playing the "Taiho's grandson" card this basho because there's no content to his sumo. Ironically for the M13, he DID pick up a rare legit win today against M15 Atamifuji, but I think the money's gonna run out soon for Ohho and he will be a non-factor by mid-week.

With all of the one-loss rikishi winning on Day 8, that top line of the leaderboard is preserved heading into week 2.

Kiribayama was eliminated from the two-loss tier after throwing his bout against Takayasu, and that's actually a blow because Kiribayama sumo in the highlight reel is a positive.

Takakeisho maintained his two-loss status over the weekend by dominating Midorifuji yesterday and Wakamotoharu today. Of course, both of his opponents were mukiryoku and Takakeisho knew it coming in, but I'm going to credit him for winning in linear fashion with a nice oshi attack. Yaocho has absolutely ruined sumo wrestling, and that's what's keeping Takakeisho at his rank and current standing on the leaderboard, but at least he executed straight-forward sumo unlike Takayasu or say Shodai in his rare wins.

One problem for Takakeisho is that I don't think that one-loss tier is going to disappear anytime soon, and so he's going to have to continue to buy his bouts in order to stay on the leaderboard. Tobizaru will beat him tomorrow if the bout is straight up.

I'm not going to waste time or bandwidth on the remaining two-loss rikishi other than to say Myogiryu and Ichiyamamoto lost while Nishikifuji bought another win. That means the leaderboard at the end of Day 8 looks like this:

7-1: Hoshoryu, Takayasu, Abi, Ohho
6-2: Takakeisho, Nishikifuji

Talk about a shallow leaderboard, and it's really going to be tough to compete with the World Cup wich such a weak leaderboard.

Before we close today's comments, I suppose we should touch on Mitakeumi and Shodai.

Mitakeumi was easily defeated by Kotonowaka today and Kiribayama yesterday. I mean, the dude can't mount an offensive charge, and he looks terrible. And all of this on the heels of Onokuni coming on NHK News 9 a few days ago talking up a storm regarding Mitakeumi and using the pre-determined word to describe him this basho: bariki (horsepower). How stupid do these people look talking about Mitakeumi and his bariki only to see him get beaten in two seconds by a mediocre kata-sukashi today at the hands of Kotonowaka?

As for Shodai, Ura let him win yesterday, but M4 Sadanoumi wasn't so nice today. In the day's final bout, Shodai's tachi-ai was soft and he looked like a fish out of water flopping this way and that before Sadanoumi was finally able to execute a scoop throw with the left that sent Shodai to the edge where the Sadamight escorted him across with an outside grip to the belt.

Both Shodai and Mitakeumi stand at 4-4 at the end of Day 8, and none of them have legitimately won a bout yet. Shodai needs four wins to maintain his Ozeki status, and Mitakeumi needs to go 6-1 in order to regain the Ozeki rank. I'm obviously rooting against both of them because I don't want to see the banzuke organized on fake sumo. Shodai will probably buy his way to eight because he's a Kyushu native and this basho needs something to breathe life into it the second week in the media, but Mitakeumi is too far gone in my opinion. He's still yet to face opponents who will have too much on the line to sell a bout to Mitakeumi, so it'd take a miracle for him to regain the Ozeki rank.

It was interesting to me that NHK did NOT flash a leaderboard at the end of Day 8. They had plenty of time to show one after the Shodai bout, but we didn't get it.

There were also fewer fans in the stands today than yesterday. The basho had a great turnout on Saturday, and they lowered the man'in on'rei banners for Day 7, but I didn't notice them lowered today. Maybe they did, and I just didn't see it because my thumb was stuck on the fast-forward button, but attendance today was noticeably lower than yesterday. Sumo doesn't have any momentum heading into week 2, and now all of the focus turns to the World Cup.

Brazil is the obvious favorite there, and my darkhorse team to watch out for is Denmark. How nice will it be to watch an entire tournament without any mukiryoku footy?

Day 6 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
An aspect of the NHK broadcasts that we haven't really touched on yet are the three most watched bouts from the previous day. They'll announce the list each day during the first hour, and the most popular bouts streamed after the fact from Day 5 were:

1. Tobizaru vs. Mitakeumi
2. Takakeisho vs. Ichinojo
3. Meisei vs. Shodai

Each day it's consistently been those three rikishi--Mitakeumi, Takakeisho, and Shodai, and those are the most streamed bouts on the day because that's who the Japanese fans are told to watch. Now, nobody is directly coming out North Korean news style and demanding that they stream those dudes' bouts, but the spin in the media, the comments on the broadcast, and the false banzuke basho after basho just leads to those results. I mean, if you're a true sumo fan how do you not want to take a look at Hoshoryu's kawazu-gake win over one of the Fuji guys (Midori or Nishiki...I can't keep them straight)?

The easy answer is that Midorifuji doesn't have name recognition and Hoshoryu is a foreigner, and so the ruse continues where all the focus is placed on fake, elite rikishi, and the sport pays the price in the form of low quality as a result.

Day 6 began with M15 Kagayaki taking on M16 Hiradoumi, and the latter reached for a frontal belt grip with the left from the tachi-ai, but Kagayaki brought his A game and thrust Hiradoumi away from the belt, upright, and then into a retreating posture, but before Hiradoumi could get far, Kagayaki had him thrust across for the tsuki-dashi win. I loved the start to the day here because it was one guy's strength on the other guy's strength, and of course the superior Kagayaki made it look easy as both dudes rest at 3-3.

One of these days I'm going to post a true banzuke that shows where each of the Makuuchi rikishi should be ranked, and Kagayaki will be one of the top three Japanese rikishi.

M14 Ichiyamamoto dominated J3 Mitoryu from the tachi-ai with a very good tsuppari attack, but when Mitoryu came close to the edge, IYM just stopped in his tracks and went into light pull mode. You knew it wasn't his intention to win at that point (at least you should have known), and then it was painfully obvious when one of Ichiyamamoto's pull moves had the J3 turned to the side with IYM grabbing an insurmountable left grip at the back of his opponent's belt, but instead of finishing Mitoryu off, he waited for a weak kote-nage throw from Mitoryu's right before flopping wildly over and out. This is one of those bouts that should have ended in a nage-no-uchi-ai...Mitoryu's right outside kote grip against IYM's inside left belt grip, but because Ichiyamamoto (4-2) let up and made no effort to throw, you had that fake ending.

M13 Okinoumi gained moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against M14 Azumaryu, but it was the Mongolian who pinched in tight from the outsides in an effort to kime-dashi Okinoumi back and across. At the edge, Okinoumi used his belly as a fulcrum to lift Azumaryu onto his tip toes and force the action back to the center of the ring. Before Okinoumi could gather his wits, Azumaryu tried a second kime-dashi charge, and you could see that Okinoumi was gassed. Azumaryu could feel it too because he let up on a right kote-nage throw that would have easily finished Okinoumi off. I knew the winner at this point, and sure enough, Azumaryu went so mukiryoku that Okinoumi attempted a disheveled kata-sukashi, but he didn't have the gas to finish the Mongolian off, and so he went for a final left scoop throw and as if in slow motion, Azumaryu just plopped over and down across the edge. The start here was good, but the bout was fixed in favor of Okinoumi (3-3) no doubt as Azumaryu sells one in dropping to 2-4.

The tachi-ai between M16 Terutsuyoshi and M13 Ohho was light, and T-Yoshi actually had a right frontal grip, but he backed away from the center of the ring and pulled Ohho directly towards him instead of stepping to the side laterally and going for a dashi-nage. That move just invited Ohho to come in and smother him, and that Ohho did getting Terutsuyoshi in a vicious headlock as he grabbed the back of Terutsuyoshi's belt. T-Yoshi actually broke off that belt grip with a left inside belt throw, but he didn't follow through with it, and as Ohho instinctively countered with a right kote-nage, Terutsuyoshi just fell to the dirt. I mean, this wasn't even a throw. Terutsuyoshi (0-6) felt the slightest amount of pressure and just went down giving Ohho the undeserved 5-1 start. All of Terutsuyoshi's mistakes here were intentional and Ohho did nothing to dictate this bout or force his will.

M12 Chiyotairyu connected on a right face slap against M15 Atamifuji before shoving the rookie back so hard he created too much social distancing. As Atamifuji looked to recover, Chiyotairyu next went into pull mode slapping down wildly at his foe, and after two seconds of this, Atamifuji just hit the dirt. I mean, Chiyotairyu did connect on a decent pull, and my opinion here is that Atamifuji didn't want to take any more punishment and took the knee. Regardless of that, Atamifuji (3-3) was not able to impose his will at any point during the bout. As for Chiyotairyu, he moves to 2-4.

M10 Aoiyama came with a weak kachi-age at the tachi-ai against M12 Kotoeko and then stood straight upright just inviting Kotoeko to come and get him. Eko wasn't so sure about that, however, and so Aoiyama fired some wild thrusts and went for some wild pulls, but the one thing he didn't do whatsoever is use his lower half, so it was only a matter of time. With Kotoeko making no progress and tiring out quick, he lunged towards his foe and the two hooked up in migi-yotsu where Aoiyama had the left outer grip, but instead of trying to win with that grip, he went for a fake throw that was really just an excuse to back up and across as Eko pushed along for the ride. Kotoeko was clearly gassed after this one, and he actually drifted back to his side and then dropped off the dohyo down to the venue floor landing on his feet. There is no way he had the strength to overcome Aoiyama if Aoiyama wanted to win this one, but he didn't in falling to 2-4. As for Kotoeko, he moves to 4-2 with the gift.

In a laugher, M10 Chiyoshoma was flapping his arms high and wide at the tachi-ai against M9 Takanosho, and that enabled Takanosho to execute a nice oshi attack that sent the willing Chiyoshoma back to the straw, and then at the edge Chiyoshoma gave perhaps the biggest tell of a fixed bout when he lifted his left leg off of the dohyo altogether and pointed it forward voluntarily taking away any hope of staying balanced. That Takanosho was able to easily push him across that last step was academic as Chiyoshoma sells one here in falling to 2-4 while Takanosho oils his way to 3-3.

I had to chortle when they called M9 Abi a "jitsuryokusha." Directly translated, it means a person with real ability, but the correct nuanced translation for an athlete would be "a dude with game." In this case of course it means someone who has been sufficiently hyped by the media as someone whom you should root for, so let's root for him against M11 Kotoshoho. Abi offered a shy moro-te-zuki from the tachi-ai without moving forward, and it was actually Kotoshoho who moved forward, but he wasn't thrusting or looking to get to the belt. Instead, he purposefully walked right into a cheap Abi pull and then just dove to the edge of the ring catching himself with both palms and no other part of his body touching the sand. It lasted maybe 1.5 seconds, and that's some jitsuryoku I must say!! Abi moves to 5-1 with the cheap win while Kotoshoho falls to 3-3.

M8 Tochinoshin came with dual kachi-age against M11 Onosho that stood him upright enough that when Onosho tried to duck back in, Tochinoshin just pulled him to the dirt with a nice hataki-komi. Easy peasy for the Private who moves to 3-3 while Onosho falls to 4-2.

Do you ever feel like M8 Takarafuji wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and says, "What's the point?" Today against M6 Nishikigi, the two hooked up nicely in hidari-yotsu, but Nishikigi must have sensed that Takarafuji was limp because NG easily maki-kae'ed with his right giving him moro-zashi, and Takarafuji's reaction was to back up and go for a pull. The move was so fast that Nishikigi belly flopped to the dirt as Takarafuji flew backwards across the straw in an upright position. Nishikigi clearly touched down first, but they ruled that Takarafuji's body was too far gone, so they upheld the original decision in favor of Nishikigi (3-3). Sometimes I wonder if they think, "Do we really want to see a rematch?" Nah, saddle Takarafuji with the loss at 0-6.

M5 Hokutofuji kept M7 Endoh at bay nicely from the tachi-ai, and with Endoh unable to get to the belt, he attempted a few pull swipes, but that just compromised his momentum allowing Hokutofuji to push him back and across with ease. Hokutofuji is 3-3 while Endoh is reeling at 1-5.

M7 Myogiryu came with busy tsuppari from the tachi-ai, but they didn't have much effect against M5 Nishikifuji, and so NFJ moved forward into the hidari-yotsu position with both rikishi chest to chest. They didn't stay there long as Myogiryu attempted a sneak attack maki-kae with the right, and Nishikifuji couldn't quite position himself for a counter right kote-nage, and so Nishikifuji found himself completely compromised with his back to the wall as Myogiryu rushed him out and down leading with the inside left. This was simply a veteran move that lead to the decisive win. Both rikishi end the day at 4-2 after flying off the dohyo and into the first row.

M6 Ryuden led with a right kachi-age into M4 Sadanoumi's upper torso, and the two tussled from there before settling into migi-yotsu where the Sadamight had the left outer grip. Ryuden's the bigger and better dude, however, and he used his right inside grip to dashi-nage Sadanoumi over to the edge, back to the center of the ring, and then down. The timing here was good for Ryuden (4-2) because he attacked before Sadanoumi (3-3) could fully settle into that outer grip.

M2 Meisei and M4 Wakamotoharu were poised to clash in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but WMH used more of an ottsuke push into Meisei's breast while Meisei did nothing with his own left inside position. With Wakamotoharu's left in tight and bent at the elbow, Meisei had the clear pathway to a stifling right frontal belt grip (pictured at left...Meisei is in the purple), but he ignored it. From there the two social distanced leading to Meisei retreating without a purpose, and Wakamotoharu eventually caught up with him and offered a light pull, and that sent Meisei flopping to the dirt in exaggerated fashion. The fix was surely in here as Wakamotoharu is gifted 4-2 while Meisei falls to 2-4.

In the sanyaku ranks, Komusubi Tobizaru's tsuppari attempts into the mammoth M1 Kotonowaka were useless, and so he decided to position his right arm inside, but he was just smothered by Baby Waka's size, and Kotonowaka was able to wrap his left around Tobizaru's right and awkwardly kote-nage him back to the edge and across. If Tobizaru was a bigger dude, that ugly kote-nage would have spelled Kotonowaka's demise, but he got away with it because Tobizaru was too small to defend it. I guess size does matter as both guys finish the day at 3-3.

Komusubi Tamawashi came with a high tsuppari attack against fellow Komusubi Kiribayama giving Kiribayama the opening to the inside. Kiribayama thought about getting the left inside, but as he flirted with this, Tamawashi faked a weak pull and that gave KBY the clear opening to shove Tamawashi back and across. Kiribayama moves to 4-2 with the win, and while I think Tamawashi (1-5) was mukiryoku, Kiribayama's sumo was still good.

Komusubi Daieisho came with a nice left tsuki to Sekiwake Hoshoryu's neck and then a good right in the same spot sending the Sekiwake back quickly, but as Hoshoryu retreated, he kept his eyes on his opponent well, and as Daieisho advanced looking for the kill shot, Hoshoryu slipped left and used an inashi to turn Daieisho sideways, and before he could recover, Hoshoryu sent him across with two hands to the chest. Hoshoryu moves to 5-1 with the win while Daieisho falls to 3-3.

M2 Ichinojo won the tachi-ai against Sekiwake Wakatakakage scoring on a nice hari-zashi that included a left slap to the face and the right arm to the inside, and as Ichinojo drove WTK back, he wrapped his left arm around Wakatakakage's upper right. Ichinojo had the bout won at this point if he had wanted it, but the fix was in unfortunately, and so the Mongolith allowed the action to flow back to the center of the ring where the two tussled for about a minute before Wakatakakage went for a nice inside belt throw that dragged Ichinojo over and down to the venue floor. There was blood all over the place after this one, and Wakatakakage's nose must have been squished inside Ichinojo's blubber. Ichinojo dominated this bout and let Wakatakakage execute that final throw. The crowd loved it, so no harm no foul as Wakatakakage moves to 4-2 while Ichinojo falls to 2-4.

The marquee matchup heading into the bout was M1 Takayasu vs. Suckiwake Mitakeumi, and thankfully the bout was fought straight up. Takayasu came in hot from the tachi-ai knocking Mitakeumi back a full step with a nice kachi-age, and as the two looked to square back up, the bout went to migi-yotsu with Takayasu maintaining a left outer grip. This was the exact position Mitakeumi found himself in against Tobizaru yesterday, but the problem for the Suckiwake was that Takayasu was trying to win and he outweighs Tobizaru by a lot. Takayasu took his time making sure he was settled, and then he methodically drove Mitakeumi back and across without argument.

You watch this bout and Mitakeumi is truly hapless. He can't do anything to help his cause, and this one was extremely lopsided as Takayasu moves to 5-1 while Mitakeumi falls to 4-2. Mitakeumi's bout tomorrow against Kiribayama is a must win if he wants to return to Ozeki, so we'll see if Kiribayama can be bought off. Before we move on, Goeido repeated the talking point of Mitakeumi that his strength is his bariki, or horse power, but where was that on display here? These guys are analyzing something that sure as hell isn't going on in the ring.

M3 Ura did nothing at the tachi-ai standing straight in front of Takakeisho and allowing the faux-zeki to do is thang. Takakeisho took care of this one in linear fashion and roughed Ura up in the process, but if he knows the fix is in, he can do anything against a practice dummy. Takakeisho moves to 4-2 while Ura falls to 0-6.

In the day's final affair, M3 Midorifuji started back pedaling from the initial charge giving Shodai the forward momentum. The problem was that Shodai hadn't caused Midorifuji's backwards momentum, and so he wasn't in position to take advantage. With Midorifuji slipping around like a fish out of water, he actually positioned himself for a kata-sukashi, but instead of going for it, he just let go and continued to wildly dance around the ring until the two settled in the middle of the ring in yotsu-zumo. With the dust settled, Midorifuji actually had moro-zashi, but he didn't commit to the move and let Shodai counter with a right tsuki to his side. Shodai's tsuki was like Mitakeumi's tsuki against Tobizaru yesterday (i.e. weaker than hell), and so Midorifuji needed to stumble over to the edge where Shodai finally pushed him out. Shodai fell onto his knees at the edge of the dohyo which does not happen when you win by oshi-dashi straight up, but it happened here because Midorifuji was mukiryoku. Shodai receives charity in order to move to 3-3 while Midorifuji knows his place at 2-4.

And that's a wrap on Day 6 where by far the biggest news at the end of the day was Asanoyama's moving up from Makushita to fight Tokushoryu in Juryo.  Asanoyama dominated the bout in linear fashion, and I think that news dominated everything else 10 to 1.

Sumo has one more day to impress before the World Cup, and I know for me giving sumo any attention after that is going to feel bothersome. I'll post abbreviated reports on the weekend, and we'll see if they start posting a leaderboard tomorrow.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The news in between days has been quiet all basho, and that's mainly due to the soft sumo we're seeing atop the dohyo. Nobody is fighting hard enough to get injured, and so it's the same scat day after day with nobody emerging to dominate the spotlight. From the media side of things, NHK News 9 started their sports segment with World Cup coverage (of course), and then they did a lengthy piece on Japanese men's figure skating before they even got to sumo. Ideally you want a Japanese bruiser to be able to feature on the news shows, but so far the focus has been on guys like Tobizaru, Takayasu, and Mitakeumi...a tough sell if there every was one.

The Day 5 broadcast was quite vanilla today, so let's just focus on the bouts themselves starting with M15 Kagayaki who struck M15 Atamifuji nicely and used short thrusts to easily nudge the rookie back near the edge. You could see, however, that Kagayaki wasn't going balls to the wall with those short strokes, and about three seconds into this nonsense, Atamifuji went for a soft pull and Kagayaki just flopped to the dirt in obvious yaocho fashion. On paper, they're trying to hype Atamifuji (3-2) because he's just 20 years old, but you can't hype this type of sumo, so it's not gonna stick. As for Kagayaki, he'll gladly take the money and run in falling to 2-3.

M14 Azumaryu and J3 Tsurugisho struck well at the tachi-ai bumping chests and coming away in the migi-yotsu position where Azumaryu had a stifling left outer near the front of TG's belt. From this point, Azumaryu just went limp allowing Tsurugisho to maki-kae with the left, and then Azumaryu just plain let go of his left outer grip altogether coming away with a handful of sagari as Tsurugisho forced him back and across. Definite yaocho here as Tsurugisho moves to 5-0 in the Juryo division while Azumaryu (2-3) appears to be content with selling bouts and not scoring a kachi-koshi in Makuuchi.

M16 Hiradoumi was proactive from the tachi-ai using tsuppari against M14 Ichiyamamoto, and while IYM was on defense, I thought Hiradoumi was more of a belt guy. Attacking the taller Ichiyamamoto with IYM's preferred style was not smart, and Ichiyamamoto showed why playing along as he retreated a step or two before countering with a tsuki into the side of Hiradoumi's left shoulder that sent him packing. Ichiyamamoto moves to 4-1 while Hiradoumi falls to 3-2.

M16 Terutsuyoshi burrowed in tight against M13 Okinoumi forcing Okinoumi back near the edge, but that movement was more Okinoumi's playing defense and looking to spring a trap on his foe. Okinoumi was easily able to circle right and reach his right hand at the back of T-Yoshi's belt although he couldn't quite grasp it. Throughout, Okinoumi had the solid left inside position, and he used that in the end for a kaina-hineri move, and Terutsuyoshi just plopped down to the dirt far too easily. I'm not sure what was going on here, but chikara-zumo this wasn't. Okinoumi moves to 2-3 while Terutsuyoshi now finds himself at 0-5.

M12 Kotoeko put both arms forward as if to push M13 Ohho away from attacking, but attack isn't something that Ohho is too capable of, and so you had these two with extended arms going around the dohyo this way and that, but nobody was doing any damage. It was a strange bout for sure, and midway through, Ohho went for a dangerous pull and was completely vulnerable at the edge, but Eko purposefully didn't finish him off. Kotoeko surprised Ohho with another counter tsuki near the edge sending Ohho to the brink, but once again, Kotoeko relented. Finally, Kotoeko got Ohho in the clinch with the right inside and left outer grip, but instead of going for the force out kill, Kotoeko just stayed limp and was wandering like a zombie back towards the center of the ring when Ohho finally made his first offensive move, which was a light tsuki to Kotoeko's shoulder, and Eko went down like a house of cards.

Goodnight, it was as if these two decided before the bout, "Let's try and put on the weakest display of sumo possible." And they did!! Ohho buys this one in moving to 4-1 while Kotoeko pockets the cash at 3-2.

M11 Onosho and M12 Chiyotairyu bumped chests at the tachi-ai, but Chiyotairyu's thrusts were curiously absent, and so he just stood there and allowed Onosho to push him back and across without argument. Onosho bought this one in moving to 4-1 while Chiyotairyu calls it a day at 1-4.

One advantage to an empty arena is that you can hear M10 Aoiyama lightly grunt during his bouts. It's kind of a high-pitched whining sound, but it's amusing me to the point where I can bear all of this bad sumo. Today against M11 Kotoshoho, Aoiyama was quite passive allowing Kotoshoho to lead, but Aoiyama shaded to his right just enough to where Kotoshoho couldn't get anything established, and after circling the ring Aoiyama grabbed Shoho's melon with both hands and just yanked him to the dirt hataki-komi style. Wasn't pretty, but Aoiyama moves to 2-3 in the process while Kotoshoho falls to 3-2.

M9 Takanosho hurried his charge against M9 Abi who was signaling pull all the way, and as Takanosho rushed blindly forward, Abi backed up a bit and moved right pulling the oblivious Takanosho down and out about two seconds into the bout. Abi did nothing to set up that pull like crush Takanosho from the tachi-ai before quickly switching gears, and I just don't think Takanosho is that obtuse not to have been able to take advantage of that weak pull move from Abi. The fix was in here as Abi moves to 4-1 while Takanosho falls to 2-3.

M10 Chiyoshoma easily worked his way into migi-yotsu with a stifling outer grip with the left near the front of M8 Tochinoshin's belt, and Shin's right arm was rendered so useless that Chiyoshoma easily kept him up high before dashi-nage'ing him across the ring and pushing him out from behind okuri-dashi style. Chiyoshoma dominated start to finish as he is capable of doing against almost anyone on the banzuke as both rikishi settle for 2-3.

M7 Myogiryu was looking pull from the start as M7 Endoh tends to duck in a bit in order to latch onto the front of the belt and Myogiryu's pull was effective enough to drag Endoh a bit to the left and then send him out from behind in under two seconds. Nothing more to see here as Myogiryu oils his way to 3-2 while Endoh falls to 1-4.

M8 Takarafuji offered the C3P0 arms to M6 Ryuden from the tachi-ai and so Ryuden advanced sharply threatening the left arm inside while pinning Takarafuji in place on the other side by wrapping his arm around from the outside. The two jockeyed like this for a bit as the action flowed in favor of Ryuden, and at the edge, Ryuden was able to spin Takarafuji around and send him out from behind for the third okuri-dashi bout in a row. It definitely felt like the dog days of the broadcast at this point with Ryuden advancing to 3-2 while Takarafuji is now 0-5.

The tachi-ai between M5 Nishikifuji and M5 Hokutofuji was fiddy-fiddy with Hokutofuji threatening the left arm inside, but instead of taking it, Hokutofuji just stood there and waited for Nishikifuji to execute a pull move, and when it came, Hokutofuji just flopped to the dirt in kind. Question...do you ever see a bout like this in the Makushita division? The obvious answer is no. If there's any inaction on the part of one rikishi, he's going to get his ass kicked. There was inaction from both rikishi here in a terrible bout of sumo purchased by Nishikifuji who moves to 4-1 while Hokutofuji falls to 2-3.

Before we move on, how can the media hype a 4-1 guy like Nishikifuji? To be clear, they're not hyping him yet, but when a dude picks up cheap wins like this day after day, there's simply nothing to market. It's dangerous when all you have to show on the nightly news casts is fake sumo. Nobody is standing out this basho with sumo worthy of the Ginosho that's for sure except Hoshoryu.

M6 Nishikigi and M4 Sadanoumi looked to go to hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Nishikigi just wrapped his right arm around Sadanoumi's left arm and backed out of the dohyo going for a half kote-nage. You know that this bout was fixed and completely orchestrated because Nishikigi landed safely on the venue floor on both feet while Sadanoumi was pulled into a heap in the corner of the dohyo. How is it possible for a guy to win by oshi-dashi and end up like that in the corner of the dohyo? Nishikigi actually kept Sadanoumi from rolling off the dohyo by holding his body in place with his hands as Nishikigi was standing on the floor below. Total shullbit bout that lasted two seconds as Sadanoumi buys his way to 3-2 while Nishikifuji falls to 2-3.

M4 Wakamotoharu slapped his right hand to the side of M1 Kotonowaka's face and just held that arm in place as Kotonowaka teed up a left tsuki to Wakamotoharu's right side, and two seconds in, Kotonowaka had WMH pushed over and down right in the center of the ring. Yet another bout with little action and too much standing around as Kotonowaka picks up the cheap win in moving to 2-3 while Wakamotoharu threw this one at 3-2.

Komusubi Kiribayama easily thrust fellow Komusubi Daieisho back from the tachi-ai and had him pushed to the edge, but he stopped his attack suddenly and just stood there waiting for a counter tsuki from Daieisho. When it came, Kiribayama just put both palms to the dirt and then hopped right back up. Yoshida Announcer's reaction after this one was, "Hmmmmmm." There is just nothing for these guys to comment on that makes sense. Kiribayama was clearly dominating the bout, and then he just stopped and waited to be pushed over. I'm just glad I can call a spade a spade and declare yaocho instead of having to try and make up stories to explain everything. Both Komusubi finish the day at 3-2.

Komusubi Tamawashi stopped M1 Takayasu in his tracks with initial tsuppari, and with Takayasu up high and his right arm over the top of Tamawashi's left shoulder (as seen at left), the M1 was there for the taking. Tamawashi got his left arm inside and then briefly grabbed a right outer grip, but he let it go and then went into kote-nage mode grabbing Takayasu's left before dragging Takayasu straight into Tamawashi's own body as he ran straight back and outta the dohyo. It all happened so fast that Takayasu didn't even know what hit him, but he magically won the bout. They ruled it yori-kiri, but how does a guy who wins by yori-kiri end up standing on the venue floor at the end of the bout? Takayasu ended up on the venue floor because he was dragged there by Tamawashi, not because Takayasu was exerting force that sent Tamawashi out of the ring. The end result is Takayasu's moving to 4-1 while Tamawashi falls further to 1-4.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage clashed well against M3 Ura getting the right arm inside, but it was actually Ura that forced WTK back to the edge. Ura certainly didn't have enough strength to work the Sekiwake back and across, and so as WTK dug in fishing for a left outer grip, Ura next went into pull mode using the entire length of the dohyo to try and pull Wakatakakage down. It nearly worked, but Ura's right toe scraped just beyond the straw before Wakatakakage touched down, so the initial gunbai ruling in favor of Wakatakakage stood after reviewing the tape. Wakatakakage moves to 3-2, but it would have been nice to see him take charge a bit more instead of just playing defense. As for Ura, he gave WTK his best shot and came up just short in falling to 0-5.

After shifting a bit at the tachi-ai, both Komusubi Tobizaru and Suckiwake Mitakeumi hooked up in migi-yotsu where Tobizaru enjoyed the early outer grip with the left. Still, you could see Tobizaru just standing there limp refusing to take advantage of his better positioning, but the problem here was Mitakeumi was so far away from his own outer grip that he couldn't attack. As a result, Tobizaru stood in close begging Mitakeumi to grab the left outer, but he couldn't do it, and so Tobizaru slowly gaburu'd Mitakeumi back to the edge and then just stood there as if to say, "Are you going to tsuki-otoshi me or not?" Mitakeumi was so out of sorts that he couldn't counter straightway, but once he did offer a very lame tsuki with the left, Tobizaru just dove down and out doing a 720 in the corner of the dohyo. I mean, anyone that watched this and thought it was real is a dumb ass, and that's being nice. This bout was clearly thrown in favor of Mitakeumi who moves to 4-1 while Tobizaru was paid off in falling to 3-2. The Komusubi dominated start to finish including the fake fall at the end.

This was one of the bouts that made the..um..highlight reel...on NHK News 9, and then Onokuni had to come on afterwards and try and justify why Mitakeumi is worthy of regaining his Ozeki perch. I mean, watch the bout in slow motion and identify one thing that Mitakeumi did today that was positive and helped his cause. Here are the bullet points I came up with:

*
*
*

Moving right along, Sekiwake Hoshoryu moved right at the tachi-ai grabbing the cheap outer grip on that side against M3 Midorifuji, and he went for an early kake-nage but wasn't quite positioned to pull it off. As the two reset after that attempt, Midorifuji was in the perfect position to attempt a kiri-kaeshi tripping with his left leg at the back of Hoshoryu's right. Both rikishi crashed backwards to the dohyo, but it was Midorifuji's can touching down first before Hoshoryu hit the deck. They ruled it kawazu-gake, which is hooking your leg to the inside of your opponent and then pushing it backwards as you also lean into the opponent's body and fall back. It was a slick move for sure, and it's the first time it's happened in the division in 10 years as Hoshoryu moves to 4-1 while Midorifuji came up just short at 2-3. Can you imagine if Japan had someone as good as Hoshoryu?

The M2 Meisei - Shodai bout looked to go to hidari-yotsu early on with Meisei close to a right outer, but Shodai's moves were so spastic that it created a bit of separation with both guys flailing away without making much contact. In the midst of this fray, Meisei was able to duck under his foe and secure moro-zashi whereupon he immediately forced Shodai over to the edge. Shodai attempted to counter with a right kote-nage and then a quick left tsuki, but he was too far gone giving Meisei the emphatic yori-kiri win in the end. Shodai was dominated here in falling to 2-3 while Meisei picks up a nice win moving to the same 2-3 mark.

In the day's final affair, Takakeisho lamely henka'd to his right against M2 Ichinojo attempting to do who knows what, but Ichinojo didn't make him pay, and it was obvious at that point the bout would be thrown. With Ichinojo literally standing there with arms out wide, Takakeisho executed a weak oshi charge, and Ichinojo just backed up and across pretending to fish for a left belt grip in the process. This was simply mukiryoku sumo from Ichinojo (2-3) who gave the win to a struggling Takakeisho. With the gift, Takakeisho moves to 3-2, but he's still behind a host of other rikishi at 4-1.

Five days in and this basho has as little continuity as it had from the start. You'd have to say the bright spot so far has been Hoshoryu.

Day 4 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I haven't seen any news headlines regarding the number of kensho (sponsor) banners purchased for the Kyushu Basho, but I presume it's lower than it was last year. The reason I bring it up is because you look at the empty stands in Fukuoka, and it's clear that there is a shortage of cash flowing around the arena. Kensho are paid out to rikishi in the form of cash because it doesn't leave a paper trail, and then you have other sources of cash going into stables from fan clubs (ou-en-kai), etc. When there's a cash flow problem in sumo or for a particular stable, you can't buy as many bouts, and I think the perfect example of this over the last year and a half is Shodai. As soon as he lost his oyakata after he was booted out of sumo early last year, Shodai hasn't been the same rikishi. It's not because Shodai has gotten older, and it's not because he lost the coaching from his former stablemaster. It's simply because he doesn't have the money coming in that he used to in order to purchase bouts.

I know people don't like to hear discussions about this, but it's real and an integral part of sumo, and I think with less cash going around, the yusho race gets extremely blurry. The last few basho, talk of the yusho line has cropped up early on, and I think Yoshida Announcer was the first to mention it in September sometime around Day 5. When you don't have any clear front runners early, it's a sign of an ugly yusho race, and in my opinion, there's a cash flow issue causing it here in Kyushu.

Day 4 began with M15 Kagayaki welcoming Bushozan up from the J2 slot, and Kagayaki met the Juryo rikishi with nice hands to the neck, but then he backed up, which was the first red flag. After Bushozan retreated himself, Kagayaki moved forward again with his foe backed up near the edge, but Kagayaki didn't finish him off. Next, the M15 had the right inside and clear path to the left outer grip, but he refrained from grabbing it. Finally, he had the opening to moro-zashi--something Tobe Announcer acknowledged mid-bout, but he didn't take that, and at that point Bushozan went for a terrible pull shading left, and that was Kagayaki's cue to just walk out of the dohyo. That lame pull attempt was the first move from Bushozan to which Kagayaki could react, and you saw the results. Kagayaki sells in falling to 2-2.

M16 Hiradoumi and M14 Azumaryu clashed well from the tachi-ai coming away in migi-yotsu, and Hiradoumi kept his right side away from an Azumaryu left outer as the M16 attempted a quick force-out charge. Azumaryu withstood that early charge and forced the action back to the center of the ring. After a bit of wrenching, Azumaryu executed a fairly easy inside dashi-nage with the right grip bowling Hiradoumi over with ease. I liked Hiradoumi's (3-1) effort, but he was simply no match for the larger Azumaryu (2-2).

The tachi-ai between M13 Okinoumi and M15 Atamifuji was lackluster, but Okinoumi was still pushing the rookie back with methodical tsuppari. Okinoumi quickly halted that attack, however, and let Atamifuji push the action back to the other side of the dohyo with the left outer grip. Okinoumi's own left was positioned near the inside, but you could see he didn't want to grab it and go chest to chest. Instead, he went for a pull that had Atamifuji stumbling over to the brink and Okinoumi was right there to push him out from behind, but he stopped short and let the rookie recover again. From there, Okinoumi found himself in moro-zashi, but he just went limp as can be and let Atamifuji kime-dashi him back and across. As if. Okinoumi sold this one no doubt in falling to 1-3 while Atamifuji buys his second win of the contest at 2-2.

M16 Terutsuyoshi ducked low and shaded right from the tachi-ai against M12 Kotoeko, but instead of trying to grab Eko's leg, T-Yoshi just stayed there waiting for the slapdown. It came in under two seconds, and Terutsuyoshi just put both palms to the dirt as he hopped over to the edge. What a silly, compromised bout this was as Kotoeko buys his way to 3-1 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 0-4.

M14 Ichiyamamoto and M12 Chiyotairyu traded tsuppari barbs from the tachi-ai, but you could see that Tairyu wasn't into it, and similarly to the previous bout, as soon as IYM went for a very meager pull, Chiyotairyu also put both palms to the dirt with no other part of the body touching down...a clear sign of yaocho. Ichiyamamoto moves to 3-1 with the cheapie while Chiyotairyu falls to 1-3. Tobe Announcer asked Asahiyutaka afterwards what was good about Ichiyamamoto's sumo, and his reply after thinking a bit was, "Chiyotairyu's tachi-ai was weak." Way to describe Ichiyamamoto's sumo, but to be fair, these guys are put in tough spots when asked to break down obviously fake bouts.

At this point of the broadcast they showed a graphic that depicted the youngest Makuuchi rikishi as follows:

20 yrs old: Atamifuji
22 yrs old: Hiradoumi, Ohho
23 yrs old: Kotoshoho, Hoshoryu

It's obvious who the potential star among those five is.

M13 Ohho and M11 Kotoshoho traded tsuppari before Kotoshoho moved right sloppily to the other side of the dohyo, and when Ohho went for a mediocre pull, you could literally see Kotoshoho launch himself forward and down by pushing off of the dohyo. This marked the third bout in a row with an obvious, fake fall as both rikishi end the day at 3-1.

M10 Aoiyama proactively came with tsuppari at the tachi-ai against M10 Chiyoshoma, and it kept the Mongolian upright and at bay for a spell, but Chiyoshoma was finally able to swipe Aoiyama's arms away and grab the front of Aoiyama's belt, and once he did that, he ushered Aoiyama over and across in a flash leaving both dudes 1-3.

M9 Abi cradled M11 Onosho's melon with both hands from the tachi-ai, but Abi began shading backwards and then to his left fishing for a pull. In the process, Abi tripped over his two feet and collapsed to the dohyo as Onosho looked to catch up with a left tsuki to the side. These two are so involved in yaocho that it's hard to tell if Abi took a dive here or whether or not he really did slip. And that's the problem. We're talking about that and not sound sumo from either party. Both combatants finish the day at 3-1.

M8 Tochinoshin came with a half-assed right kachi-age against M8 Takarafuji while also reaching for the left frontal grip, and with Takarafuji applying no pressure from the charge, Tochinoshin went into pull mode and Takarafuji complied by flopping to the dirt. I don't know if the bout was fixed, but Takarafuji (0-4) was surely mukiryoku in his effort. Tochinoshin moves to 2-2.

M9 Takanosho came with his hands too high at the tachi-ai against M7 Myogiryu, and so the latter was able to dictate the pace pushing Takanosho back, threatening a pull, and then getting moro-zashi. Once Myogiryu had moro-zashi, Takanosho couldn't react fast enough as Myogiryu forced Takanosho back to the edge and then sent him across with a final push. Hey, a legit oshi-dashi win here as both ninja end the day at 2-2.

M6 Nishikigi and M6 Ryuden engaged in perhaps the most sound bout of the basho so far. The two went chest to chest from the tachi-ai in hidari-yotsu fashion, and Nishikigi had the upper hand with his head driving into Ryuden's upper torso. As Ryuden looked to counter, Nishikigi grabbed a right outer grip and easily forced his gal back and across from there. Well done boys as both rikishi end the day at 2-2.

M5 Nishikifuji dictated the pace of his bout against M7 Endoh using sharp tsuppari to keep Endoh upright and fishing for the inside belt from a distance. The two never made it chest to chest, but Nishikifuji was able to work Endoh over to the edge and push him across earning the tsuki-dashi win. Good stuff here from Nishikifuji who moves to 3-1 while Endoh is showing his age in my opinion at 1-3.

M4 Wakamotoharu pushed M4 Sadanoumi back from the tachi-ai with few thrusts, but the Sadamight was able to halt his foe's charge near the edge and force the bout to hidari-yotsu. With WMH neutralized, Sadanoumi could have made an attempt at a right outer grip, but he subtly brought his hips in close on the other side gifting Wakamotoharu the right outer grip. Once obtained, Sadanoumi did nothing to counter his foe's stance, and the yori-kiri was easy from there. It was subtle, but Sadanoumi (2-2) let his foe win this one as Wakamotoharu moves to 3-1.

The tachi-ai between M5 Hokutofuji and M3 Midorifuji was bland as Hokutofuji was too upright for his own good, and with Hokutofuji not pressing forward and applying pressure, Midorifuji was able to retreat back and to his right going or a half-assed pull, but rather than counter it, Hokutofuji was more focused on slapping his right palm down beyond the straw than he was in pushing into his compromised opponent. Regardless of what you thought of this bout, it was ugly sumo and not worth the fan's money as both gentleman end the day at 2-2.

I suppose the marquee matchup on the day was the Komusubi duel between Tobizaru and Kiribayama, and Kiribayama struck well from the tachi-ai, but Tobizaru was so low Kiribayama couldn't sustain an arm to the inside. Plan B was to fire thrusts into his foe, which he did, and as Tobizaru looked to duck back under, Kiribayama did what every rikishi should against guys like Tobizaru or Ura who duck under, and that something is to grab a firm grip at the back of the belt. Kiribayama got it with the left, and Tobizaru was neutralized at this point. Along with the stifling left outer, Kiribayama had his right arm up and under Tobizaru's left armpit that not only gave Kiribayama the great inside position, but it enabled KBY to lock Tobizaru's head in place. Tobizaru's ability to attack was null at this point, and he was at the complete mercy of his fellow Komusubi. Kiribayama let him hang around for about 20 seconds before easily dragging Tobizaru forward and down by the back of the belt. This one wasn't close as both dudes finish the day at 3-1.

Every time I go to https://www.sumo.or.jp to check the day's results, I'm greeted with the following graphic:



Am I the only one that notices the irony of last tournament's winner coming into today's bout at 0-3? As I like to say, the optics of that are not good, and so Komusubi Tamawashi got of the schneid today against Komusubi Daieisho as both rikishi came out hot from the tachi-ai trading tsuppari before Tamawashi pushed Daieisho off balance with an inashi to Daieisho's left side. As Daieisho looked to recover, Tamawashi kept up the pressure firing tsuppari and moving laterally just enough to keep Daieisho off balance start to finish. In the end, Daieisho attempted to pirouette out of trouble, but Tamawashi caught him with some stiff shoves just as he finished his 360, and that was that. Daieisho falls to 2-2 while Tamawashi finally decided to win at 1-3. Before we move on, the fans did get their money's worth from this bout.

M3 Ura henka'd to his right against Suckiwake Mitakeumi, but Mitakeumi wasn't charging forward and hard, and so it looked as if the two did a dosey doe in the corner of the ring, and then the tussle was on. Ura allowed Mitakeumi to do what he wanna, and so Mitakeumi attacked with the right arm to the inside. As soon as he got it, Ura put his arms high around Mitakeumi's head and just pulled his opponent into his body as Ura jumped out of bounds and off the dohyo altogether. Mitakeumi finished the bout on his belly looking over the edge of the dohyo as if he was on a cliff, and it's a pure sign of yaocho when an oshi-dashi "winner" is out of control like that. Occasionally dudes will go for a do-or-die shove at the edge, but Mitakeumi was completely upright here and was just pulled out of the ring by Ura. When Ura needs to let up for you, the Ozeki ranks should not be in the cards, but whatever. Mitakeumi finds himself at 3-1 while Ura graciously drops to 0-4.

Sekiwake Hoshoryu and M1 Takayasu stepped into the ring next, and as they did so, NHK flashed a graphic updating us on the most wins by rikishi this calendar year as follows:

51 Wakatakakage
47 Kotonowaka
46 Hoshoryu

As they panned in close to Wakatakakage sitting ringside, I presume they were trying to create a storyline of "Can Hoshoryu run Wakatakakge down?" In a real world, yes. But this isn't a real world. If the Sumo Association tabulates wins for the calendar year as efficient as we count election ballots here in the States, we should know the winner of the Nenkan Saitasho sometime in mid-December.

Back to the bout at hand, the two struck well at the tachi-ai, but Hoshoryu lifted his right leg up and put it forward, a move (seen at right) that will guarantee defeat, but unfortunately, that's what Hoshoryu was looking for here. Takayasu was unable to knock Hoshoryu off balance even with the Mongolian on one leg, but no matter. After maybe two seconds of "struggle," Hoshoryu just dove to the dirt putting two palms down and standing up much quicker than Takayasu could deliver the seemingly winning technique. They ruled it hataki-komi, but if you watch the slow motion replay, you can clearly see Hoshoryu taking his dive and then Takayasu trying to catch up to said dive with a slap down. Obvious yaocho here as both rikishi end the day at 3-1, and it just wouldn't do to have a Mongolian alone in the lead after four days. Shame on sumo for allowing antics like this in such a high-profile bout.

I'm sure M1 Kotonowaka has been frustrated the last two days having to give up wins to the two faux-zeki, and so he took his frustrations out on Sekiwake Wakatakakage today. WTK came low at the tachi-ai reaching for a right frontal belt grip, but Baby Waka positioned his own right hand in tight enough that it kept Wakatakakage at bay. The Sekiwake still looked to press forward, but he didn't have any leverage as Kotonowaka used his size advantage to lean into his foe, and as they got closer to the edge with Kotonowaka playing defense, the M1 suddenly moved right and timed a perfect kaina-hineri move twisting WTK over and down with that right arm positioned so well from the start. It was a good move from Kotonowaka who moves to 1-3, but fans should also take note at Wakatakakage's (2-2) inability to force his will on a lower-ranked opponent.

Moving right along, M2 Meisei completely neutralized Takakeisho's tachi-ai forcing the faux-zeki to abandon thoughts of a tsuppari attack and immediately position his hands up high for a pull, and as soon as he did, Meisei drove him back and across the straw with little argument. This was a classic example of Takakeisho coming into a bout knowing that it wasn't fixed, and so he didn't even attempt a confident oshi charge opting for a pull at the first sign of resistance. That shows a complete lack of confidence in his rank and ability as Meisei (1-3) picks up his first win and a fistful of kensho to boot while Takakeisho is lowered to 2-2.

In the day's final affair, M2 Ichinojo and Shodai clashed in migi-yotsu that took a bit to get going because Shodai faded backwards from the charge, but once settled into the yotsu-zumo bout, Ichinojo easily grabbed a left outer grip, and Shodai was done at this point. As he is wont to do, Ichinojo let his pal hang around for a bit, but Shodai could do nothing as Ichinojo ushered him across the dohyo and out. Shodai was hapless here, which is pathetic for someone ranked as an Ozeki. Both rikishi end the day at 2-2.

Four days in and we no longer have any undefeated rikishi. That fact was the biggest news item afterwards as nearly all the media outlets pointed out that this is the first time in 53 years that no undefeated rikishi remained at the end of Day 4.  Once again, the reality we're facing here is less than mediocrity.  This basho is poised to end up like a Juryo tournament where you have five or six guys vying for an 11-4 yusho. We'll see if someone like Takayasu can keep it at 12-3, but we're not off to a good start for sure.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The last three yusho rikishi were Tamawashi, Ichinojo, and Terunofuji. Terunofuji of course withdrew from the tournament before it started while Tamawashi and Ichinojo are making it known early that they have essentially withdrawn from competing in this tournament. Those two have started out a collective 1-5, and the only reason one of them has a win is because they fought each other.

The withdrawal/pullback from the three Mongolians does not present good optics for the sport. Who is the star rikishi this tournament? Who is going to anchor the yusho race? The answer to those questions is nobody. Three days in, and I think Tobizaru is getting as much run as anybody. The problem with that and everything going on in the sport right now is nothing is based on solid sumo and powerful rikishi. The Mongolians can turn it on any time they want, but they're obviously pulling back here, but the problem is there's nothing to fill the void.

As is usually the case, the first bit of info I received on Day 3 came from the NHK News Watch 9 Sports segment, and this is what it looked like:



That's a preview of the Tamawashi - Tobizaru matchup on the day, and look at the stands in the background. The optics for that is just terrible, and I'd be curious if someone from the Association's PR department is going to say something to NHK about it. You have an empty arena and then they show "highlights" from the Tobizaru - Tamawashi bout, and it's Tamawashi standing straight up and allowing Tobizaru to grab his leg and ashi-tori him out of the ring in a matter of seconds.

I mean look at that tachi-ai there.  Look how vulnerable Tobizaru is so close to the dohyo with Tamawashi standing right over him, and yet the Mongolian's only reaction is stand straight up and let Tobizaru run him out of the ring.  There was no power on display anywhere, and it's just this puff segment with nothing to intrigue the viewers.

The sports segment itself began with World Cup coverage and the headline "Five Days Away!!" and it went on for quite awhile before they even got to sumo. The good news is that sumo DID beat out the short segment they did on the mascot reveal for the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024, so I guess sumo has that going for it.

The only reason sumo is able to survive right now is because it has a state-run broadcasting company that's forced to cover it. None of the private broadcasting companies want to touch it with a ten-foot pole, and nobody will even look sumo's way once the World Cup starts. At some point, you have to put a legitimate, quality product on the dohyo, and the Association refuses to do so in the name of saving face for the Japanese rikishi. What's worse, because they have a guaranteed income from NHK broadcasting rights, there is little incentive for them to change anything, so it's status quo as we examine Day 3.

The day began with M16 Terutsuyoshi squaring off against M16 Hiradoumi, and T-Yoshi charged hard while staying low and getting the right arm to the inside, but he ducked to Hiradoumi's right side, which completely opened up Terutsuyoshi's own right side for a right outer grip from Hiradoumi. From this point it was clear that Terutsuyoshi was not trying to win, and he then backed up towards the edge as if to go for an inside throw, but he instead just squatted behind the straw as if taking a crap in the woods, and Hiradoumi gently set him down beyond the straw yori-taoshi style.

In a real bout, someone would have flown off the dohyo backwards here into the first row, but Terutsuyoshi was in full control and did this nifty little flip to the venue floor where he landed safely on his feet. No power to speak of here as the fix was obvious in for Hiradoumi who moves to 3-0 while Terutsuyoshi's billfold gets fatter at 0-3.

M15 Atamifuji and J2 Churanoumi exhibited as poor of a tachi-ai as you'd care to see with both guys using the C3P0 arms to establish little from the get-go. As the dust settled, Churanoumi had the clear path to moro-zashi, but he refused to take it, and so you had two guys technically in a yotsu-zumo stance even though the guys were not chest to chest. As they fiddled with their arms this way and that, Churanoumi grabbed the rookie's belt with the left hand and just backed outta the dohyo with Atamifuji in tow. They ruled it oshi-dashi, but Atamifuji was not shoving at any point during the bout. I'm sad to see the Isegahama camp finally relent and pay for the rookie's first win at 1-2.

Unlike the previous bout, M14 Ichiyamamoto struck hard into M14 Azumaryu from the tachi-ai looking to nudge the Mongolian with a tsuppari attack, but Azumaryu was too stout causing IYM to flail without a purpose, and in the midst of this, Azumaryu timed an Ichiyamamoto thrust attempt by scooting a bit left and sending IYM down tsuki-otoshi style. It looked to me as if Ichiyamamoto walked into this one deliberately but who can say? The end result is Azumaryu's picking up his first win at 1-2 while Ichiyamamoto suffers his first loss at 2-1.

The tachi-ai between M15 Kagayaki and M13 Ohho was fiddy-fiddy, but Kagayaki wasn't looking to do any damage in his attack. Instead, he began backing up slowly before setting up for a pull that was really an excuse to back outta the ring for good. Ohho picks up the oshi-dashi win (of course) without doing any damage whatsoever with an oshi attack. Kagayaki banks more yen in falling to 2-1 while Ohho buys his way to the same mark.

In another compromised bout, M12 Chiyotairyu struck M13 Okinoumi well driving him back a full step from the tachi-ai, but then Tairyu went into pull mode, and as Okinoumi lightly touched him at the back of the head with the right hand, Chiyotairyu just flopped to the dirt breaking his fall nicely. I think the two here were just trading wins as both dudes end the day at 1-2.

M11 Onosho drove into M12 Kotoeko hard from the tachi-ai driving Eko back quickly, but at the edge Eko escaped left and managed to pull Onosho down just as Kotoeko stepped out.

Unfortunately they declared it a tie meaning we have to cover the rematch. The rematch was actually pretty good although not technically sound. After a wild tachi-ai, the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu with Kotoeko pressing the action, and after some quick separation they resumed the bout in migi-yotsu where Kotoeko pressed yori style while Onosho tried to counter with tsuki-otoshi. Around the ring they went before Kotoeko's yori position proved to be too much. Good fight here although the sumo basics went out the window as both dudes rest at 2-1.

M10 Chiyoshoma came out of the gate against M11 Kotoshoho as if he'd polished off a fifth of Jack Daniels an hour earlier. I suppose that he was going for the uwate to the right, but Chiyoshoma was purposefully staggering off balance from the start. After the mild henka, the two rikishi hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Chiyoshoma kept his hand as limp as possible, so when the weak kote-nage came from Kotoshoho, Chiyoshoma just ran across the tawara a few steps and dove down. A nage-no-uchi-ai this wasn't as Kotoshoho buys one here in moving to 3-0 while Chiyoshoma needs to revisit a few acting classes at 0-3. This was terribly obvious.

M10 Aoiyama was proactive from the tachi-ai against M9 Takanosho keeping the latter at bay with nice tsuppari, but this wasn't a Chiyotairyu balls to the wall attack. Rather, the Bulgarian was signaling with his hesitation that he could spring the pull trap at any moment, and so Takanosho was stuck between a rock and hard place. With Takanosho unsure, Aoiyama methodically resumed a forward moving oshi attack and had Takanosho (2-1) pushed back and across in short order picking up his first win in the process at 1-2.

As Takanosho tip-toed along the edge of the cliff, he suddenly lost his balance and went down as if he too had been imbibing pre-bout with Chiyoshoma. It half looked like the dude fainted a bit, but I really didn't see a decisive blow to the head or face from Aoiyama. Takanosho got up gingerly so we'll see how he fares moving forward.  There was also a headline on the wires about the possibility of rikishi getting tested for concussions.  Probably not a bad idea.

M9 Abi fired a nice paw into M8 Tochinoshin's neck from the tachi-ai, but the larger Shin could have easily brushed it aside since there was no lower body behind the push. Instead of standing his ground, Tochinoshin moved awkwardly left as if to grab a kote grip, but instead he just tumbled over and down thanks to no contact that came from Abi. Tochinoshin broke his fall with both palms and lightly hit the dirt, which is a curious way for a guy to lose by tsuki-otoshi. I mean, the booth had to think of something because they couldn't declare it yaocho, and so I will. Abi is a cheap 3-0 after the gift while Tochinoshin knows his place at 1-2.

Talk about doing nothing from the tachi-ai, which was M8 Takarafuji's stance against M8 Endoh. Takarafuji kept his arms high and out of harm's way allowing Endoh to easily work his way to the left side of his opponent and tug at Takarafuji's right arm, and as Takarafuji complied by running forward and out of the dohyo, Endoh offered a slight push from behind drawing the okuri-dashi kimari-te. Wow, Takarafuji was as mukiryoku as they come here in falling to 0-3 while Endoh oils his way to 1-2.

M7 Myogiryu kept his arms low and tight from the tachi-ai against M6 Ryuden trying to work his way inside at the belt, but Ryuden used his size nicely to pinch in from the outsides, and with Myogiryu cuffed and stuffed, Ryuden executed the nice force-out charge looking a bit like Terunofuji where they don't need the inside position to score the force-out because they're so big. Easy does it for the 2-1 Ryuden in this straight up affair while Myogiryu falls to 1-2.

M5 Hokutofuji's tachi-ai was bad as the dude was too upright and flat-footed, but it wasn't M6 Nishikigi's intention to take advantage. He did offer a forearm that easily drove Hokutofuji back near the edge, but then Nishikigi just pulled his arms to the outside and raised them up gifting Hokutofuji moro-zashi. As I often say, if you didn't earn the moro-zashi, you're not going to have great momentum to attack from it, and that was the case here as this was mostly Nishikigi waltzing backwards and out of the ring with Hokutofuji in tow. Nishikigi was so mukiryoku both parties tumbled down to the venue floor which is a clear sign of mukiryoku sumo at the edge. Hokutofuji moves to 2-1 with the cheapie while Nishikigi loves to sell at 1-2.

M5 Nishikifuji caught M4 Sadanoumi with a paw to the neck from the tachi-ai, and then as he started to drive his foe back, Nishikifuji just crumbled to the dirt with no kind of move coming from Sadanoumi that would have caused the fall. My goodness, at least try a little harder. Koi Announcer declared, "Ashi ga nagareta!," which is translated as "His legs slipped out from under him." Whenever you hear that term, it's guaranteed yaocho, and that was the case here as Nishikifuji was likely returning a favor as both dudes end the day at 2-1.

M4 Wakamotoharu was one of the dudes on the Day 1 chart for most wins in the calendar year, and you know he's not going to pass up on a softie like M3 Ura. WMH caught him with a forearm to the neck standing Ura upright, and as Wakamotoharu pressed, Ura tried to shade right, but WMH was right there to shove him back and across with some oomph. Wakamotoharu moves to 2-1 with the legit win while Ura wasn't even close in falling to 0-3.

M3 Midorifuji's tachi-ai was awful as the dude stood straight up, and Komusubi Kiribayama pummeled him back to the brink with a few slaps. As the action halted near the edge, Kiribayama had his left arm hooked up and under Midorifuji's right shoulder ironically in the perfect position to execute a kata-sukashi. Dude should have done it, but instead he waited for about 30 seconds with Midorifuji's head locked beneath Kiribayama's left arm similarly to Napoleon Dynamite roughing up Kip before the Mongolian easily felled Fuji with a nice dashi-nage throw. Kiribayama moved to 2-1 after the easy win and when they caught up with Midorifuji (1-2) in the back halls and asked him how his neck felt, he replied, "It stings."

I already briefly mentioned the Komusubi duel between Tamawashi and Tobizaru in the intro, and there was no sumo here to breakdown. Tamawashi was obviously mukiryoku from the tachi-ai, and he made no effort to counter Tobizaru's leg grab. It's just a cheap method of inflating Tobizaru's record to 3-0 while Tamawashi graciously falls to the inverse mark of 0-3.

Sekiwake Hoshoryu and M2 Ichinojo hooked up in migi-yotsu where Hoshoryu moved out wide in an attempt to grab a right outer. He wouldn't get it, but he did have Ichinojo upright with the Mongolith clinging on with a left outer grip, but the two weren't chest to chest, and so Hoshoryu was able to stay on the move and finagle Ichinojo over to the edge where he scored the yori-kiri from there. Wasn't the greatest bout ever as Hoshoryu moves to 3-0 with Ichinojo falling to 1-2.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage offered some hands to the head from the tachi-ai against M2 Meisei before the two hooked up in migi-yotsu, but before they could get settled chest to chest, Meisei just ran to his right as if to pull, but all he did was dart out of the ring with WTK in tow. Meisei actually had the nice position with the right inside to attack, but he wasn't looking to win here emphasized by his sloppy footwork at the edge. Whatever. It was clearly fixed coming in as Wakatakakage is gifted 2-1 while Meisei falls to 0-3.

Komusubi Daieisho fired tsuppari Suckiwake Mitakeumi's way from the tachi-ai, but Daieisho was shading backwards instead of moving forward, and so Mitakeumi charged forward not really pushing and not really going for the inside position or the belt. He was just pressing forward without applying pressure to his opponent, and so as Mitakeumi made a lunge for Daieisho, the latter simply moved to his right and showed the Suckiwake the trap door. Not a great bout, but I'm glad they didn't throw it in favor of Mitakeumi as both dudes end the day at 2-1. Before we move on, a so-called elite rikishi should never find himself face down on the dohyo under any circumstances.  Never.

M1 Kotonowaka kept his arms wide at the tachi-ai as he bounced into Shodai from the tachi-ai, but Shodai couldn't secure the firm moro-zashi, and so Kotonowaka just kept back pedaling with hands high as if to pull, and that was his MO until he had backed himself across the straw. Shodai actually fell forward with legs spread to either side and palms down, and that is certainly NOT the typical ending to an oshi-dashi bout. Oshi-dashi implies that the victor methodically pushed his opponent back in a controlled fashion. Kotonowaka was so mukiryoku here, that as Shodai tried to push into his body, Baby Waka was already moving back. It was an ugly win and an obvious bout thrown in favor of Shodai as he moves to 2-1 while Kotonowaka is playing nice at 0-3.

I saw in the headlines that they asked Miyagino-oyakata (a.k.a Hakuho) how Shodai was able to beat Kotonowaka for the first time after going 0-5 against him, and the explanation was, "He attacked today with his hips in better position." Oh, I see. That's why he couldn't establish moro-zashi, and then that must have been why he fell down across the edge seemingly out of control. It's the hips. Gotcha.

In the day's final bout, M1 Takayasu was able to show his true colors against Takakeisho, which meant Takayasu won the tachi-ai by thrusting Takakeisho upright and back a step or two, and just as Takakeisho looked to duck back into the bout, Takayasu turned the tables and caught him with a well-timed pulldown. This was actually a decent way to end the day--with proper sumo coming from Takayasu, but it was ruined a bit by the fact that Takakeisho was involved. Regardless of that, both dudes end the day at 2-1, and I'm sure these two yayhoos will be on the leaderboard well into Weak 2...I mean, Week 2.

There have been no intriguing headlines in between days, so back at it for Day 4.

Day 2 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The message spun in the media yesterday was, "Watch out for the hiramaku," and then my Day 2 broadcast began with an interview of newly-promoted Komusubi, Tobizaru. The phrase "Komusubi Tobizaru" is an oxymoron in and of itself, but regardless of that, we've had the hiramaku rikishi hyped yesterday and a Komusubi hyped today, but through all of this, not a single mention has been made of the last two rikishi to take the yusho--one a hiramaku rikishi (Ichinojo) and the other a Komusubi (Tamawashi). The subjectivity of media coverage based on the race of the rikishi is quite off-putting, and the end result is fans being fed this shullbit about how good the Japanese rikishi are, but then they see something totally different in the ring.

Sumo cannot survive like this, and just after 4 PM as the judges were about to enter the arena prior to the Makuuchi bouts, this was the view:



To be fair, a few of those seats filled in over the next two hours, but the Kyushu basho has taken a serious step back attendance-wise. I specifically remember commenting last year about how well the Fukuoka faithful were turning up. If you remember, 2021 was still a precarious year coming off of Covid, especially in Japan, but by the time the Kyushu basho rolled around, the attendance in Fukuoka was quite good. Now a year later with no attendance restrictions in place, we're getting maybe half of the fans that we got last year. It's just not sustainable when the Association puts a crap product atop the dohyo all in the name of saving face for Japanese rikishi.

Let's cover each bout on the day and then maybe comment on some of the sumo from Day 1 where relevant. The day began with M16 Hiradoumi welcoming Chiyomaru up from the J1 slot, and Chiyomaru easily won the tachi-ai using nice tsuppari to the neck, but instead of advancing forward and keeping up the pressure, Chiyomaru just went limp and brought his arms to the outside gifting Hiradoumi moro-zashi.

Despite the advantageous position, Hiradoumi didn't gain moro-zashi on his own, and he couldn't budge the Shelf Gut, and so Maru executed an easy maki-kae with the right, but instead of using it to attack, he stood still waiting for a left tsuki from Hiradoumi. When it came, Chiyomaru literally ran himself to the other side of the dohyo and then lightly stepped out as the M16 looked to catch up. Such fake sumo here, and it was obvious that Hiradoumi couldn't budge his larger opponent. Doesn't matter though. Chiyomaru was willing to sell as Hiradoumi moves to 2-0 (his win yesterday against Atamifuji was legit)

M15 Kagayaki was slow at the tachi-ai presumably waiting to see what M16 Terutsuyoshi would bring, and when T-Yoshi came straight forward with no offensive punch before moving right, Kagayaki went into gear scoring the easy oshi-dashi win. Kagayaki moves to 2-0 while Terunofuji is the opposite 0-2.

M14 Ichiyamamoto struck M15 Atamifuji by putting both hands up high, and with the rookie applying zero pressure, he was easy pulldown fodder for the more experienced Ichiyamamoto. No point in making this flashy if you can pick up the easy win via pulldown as Ichiyamamoto moves to 2-0 while the rookie is still winless. I'd rather see the rookies take their lumps like this than buy wins, and I don't think IYM needed to shower afterwards this one was so easy.

M14 Azumaryu used a left kachi-age at the tachi-ai against M13 Ohho and threatened the right inside against the listless M13, but instead of pressing forward, Azumaryu just backed up as if to pull, but that was just an excuse to set himself up for the easy push-out win from Ohho. A classic bout where the victor does none of the work except follow along to the edge. Ohho is a sheepish 1-1 while Azumaryu is a bit richer at 0-2.

M12 Chiyotairyu wanted to crush M12 Kotoeko, and so he did. Tairyu used his vintage freight train charge, and Eko couldn't move laterally fast enough before he was bulldozed out of the ring. This was a far cry from Chiyotairyu's fake effort yesterday against Kotoshoho as the Kokonoe dude moves to 1-1. Kotoeko falls to the same mark.

Speaking of M11 Kotoshoho buying bouts, he bout another today against M13 Okinoumi. Okinoumi came with a light tachi-ai but he was already ducked lower than he needed to be, and as soon as he sensed pressure coming from Kotoshoho (took a second or two), he just spun his feet back and put both palms to the dirt. Classic yaocho finish here as Kotoshoho buys his 2-0 start while Okinoumi has made some sweet moolah these first two days at 0-2.

M10 Aoiyama completely "forgot" he was an oshi guy against the mighty M11 Onosho opting to get his left arm barely to the inside, and with Aoiyama just standing there, Onosho pushed up into Aoiyama's left breast (a feat unto itself) and then used that momentum to push the willing Aoiyama back and across without argument. What a silly bout this was as Onosho moves to 2-0 while Aoiyama falls to 0-2.

M10 Chiyoshoma and M9 Abi were both flat-footed at the tachi-ai with feet aligned as if they knew the fix was in. And it was. After some sloppy tsuppari exchanges the first second or two, Chiyoshoma just moved backwards and let his left foot slide half a meter across the straw in exaggerated fashion as he fell forward catching himself with both palms of course. The excuse on the broadcast for this performance from Abi was, "He has experience fighting in the sanyaku." Huh? Abi's a cheap 2-0 while Chiyoshoma is a richer 0-2.

The tachi-ai between M8 Takarafuji and M9 Takanosho was decent, but Takarafuji immediately gave up and started shading backwards, and so it was easy pickings for Sho who executed the light oshi charge in defeating the willing Takarafuji. Another inflated oshi-dashi win here as Takanosho buys this one at 2-0 while Takarafuji falls to 0-2.

M7 Myogiryu came in low against M8 Tochinoshin without a purpose, and as Myogiryu methodically reached for a left frontal grip, Tochinoshin slapped him down about two seconds in. Looked like Shin was calling in a favor here as both rikishi end the day at 1-1 after the uneventful contest.

Speaking of uneventful contests, I think the only two bouts so far where both dudes were trying to win was the Hiradoumi - Atamifuji matchup and Chiyotairyu vs. Kotoeko.

M7 Endoh charged low into M6 Nishikigi catching him off guard a bit as Endoh established the firm left arm inside and right outer grip. Endoh seized on the momentum and quickly tried to force Nishikigi back and dispatch him with the right outer throw, but Nishikigi's belt came loose meaning so did Endoh's outer grip, and having lost all momentum at the edge, Nishikigi fought his way back into the bout with a left scoop throw that forced Endoh to backpedal, and Nishikigi was too quick in pushing him across before Endoh could score the pulldown win. Good contest here that was close, but gunbai to Nishikigi who picks up his first win as Endoh falls to 0-2.

M6 Ryuden was completely nonchalant at the tachi-ai allowing M5 Nishikifuji to do his thang, and that he did using nice tsuppari to keep Ryuden up high before going for a nice pull, and all throughout, Ryuden had the clear path to the inside as Nishikigi wasn't bullying him around, but this one was fixed, and it resulted in the lopsided victory for Nishikigi who moves to 2-0 with the cheap win. As for Ryuden, he falls to 1-1 and got up slowly, and that happens when someone lets up in sumo as Ryuden clearly did today.  The headlines accompanying this pic read, "There was no way Nishikifuji was going to lose to his childhood rival."  What was missing was the follow up, "because Ryuden let him win it."

The hot hiramaku, M4 Wakamotoharu, henka'd to his left against M5 Hokutofuji in an attempt to grab the cheap left outer grip, but Hokutofuji was trying here, and he was able to recover from the henka, force the action back to the center of the ring, and maintain the firm right inside position. Wakamotoharu's henka was do or die, and when the dust settled with Hokutofuji in prime position, WMH's death was swift and decisive as Hokutofuji marched him back and across in perfect yori fashion. Great comeback here by Hokutofuji as both dudes end the day at 1-1.

M3 Midorifuji tried a quick hari-zashi slapping with the right in an attempt to get the right arm inside against M4 Sadanoumi, and the Sadamight completely let him do it. Offering no defense, Sadanoumi just stood there in the center of the ring as Midorifuji slowly positioned himself for the kata-sukashi, and when it came, Sadanoumi did his part by somersaulting over and out. You watch the slow motion replay here, and Sadanoumi did NOTHING to try and win this bout or neutralize his foe. Both kids end the day at 1-1, and the headline accompanying this pic was, "Sadanoumi knew the kata-sukashi was coming and still couldn't stop it!"

Komusubi Daieisho was hesitant at the tachi-ai against M3 Ura, and when the latter didn't rush in forward as if he knew the outcome, you knew the bout was real. As Daieisho advanced threatening with tsuppari, Ura's only move was to shade right and back in an attempt to fish for a pull, but Daieisho was too quick and powerful and easily dispatched Ura across the straw in maybe three seconds. This is how you do it against Ura if you're trying to beat him. Thankfully Daieisho was as he moves to 1-1 while Ura is winless at 0-2.

Fresh off of beating Shodai down yesterday, Komusubi Tobizaru welcomed M2 Meisei today, and the two engaged in a rather spastic tachi-ai where arms and legs were flailing away, but nothing was being accomplished. After a few seconds of this, Tobizaru moved right and back against the straw, and Meisei actually had him dead to rights with the left arm inside, but instead of pivoting and forcing his compromised opponent back, Meisei dutifully put his right elbow down across the straw instead. The ending here was quick as Tobizaru's position was awful causing him to fly into the front row, but Meisei sacrificed this one giving Tobizaru the cheap win. The V against Shodai was legit; this one was not as Tobizaru moves to 2-0 while Meisei knows his place at 0-2.

Komusubi Kiribayama scored a couple of nice headshots against Sekiwake Wakatakakage from the tachi-ai before going for a pull that would have worked if he hadn't have stopped it midway through, and as Kiribayama allowed WTK to recover and get into the migi-yotsu clinch, you knew that Kiribayama wasn't trying to win here. Kiribayama further enabled his opponent by backing up to the edge and exposing his right side to an easy peasy right outer grip from WTK, and with Kiribayama just standing there, Wakatakakage gathered his wits for a few seconds, and when Kiribayama withdrew his right inside and brought it up high for no reason, that was the momentum shift WTK needed to pounce. The final few seconds here looked good for Wakatakakage, but Kiribayama did everything to set it up as both dudes end the day at 1-1.

M2 Ichinojo easily won the tachi-ai against Suckiwake Mitakeumi pushing him back a step or two, but instead of charging forward, Ichinojo veered to his right as his opponent shaded left, and so all Itchy needed to do was turn around at the edge and wait for Mitakeumi to offer that final shove. Ichinojo was clearly mukiryoku the last half of this one, and here we have yet another oshi-dashi that was nothing of the sort. Mitakeumi wasn't thinking oshi at any point during this point nor was he positioned to execute such an attack. At 2-0, Mitakeumi needs eight more gifts to regain his Ozeki rank. As for Ichinojo, he falls to 1-1 (and Tamawashi let him win yesterday).  Before we move on, I think I'm enjoying the false headlines in the media this basho more than I am the sumo.  The one here read, "Mitakeumi's skill and horsepower were too much for Ichinojo."  Yeah, you tell 'em!!

In a similar bout, Komusubi Tamawashi won the tachi-ai against Sekiwake Hoshoryu using a few tsuppari, but then Tamawashi moved right for no reason just like Ichinojo before. Hoshoryu fished for a few pulls against his opponent, but if you didn't set up the pull with momentum, it's very hard to score with the pull, especially against a dude like Tamawashi, and so when Hoshoryu's pulls didn't work, Tamawashi just moved to his right and sloppily stepped across the straw as Hoshoryu attempted a hikkake move. Hoshoryu was always one step behind his opponent here, but Tamawashi orchestrated the loss perfectly in falling to 0-2. Hoshoryu moves to 2-0 after trying his best to throw the bout against Kotonowaka on day 1.

M1 Kotonowaka was too hapless to take advantage yesterday, and he faced Takakeisho today...a rikishi that Kotonowaka can easily beat if he wants to. It wasn't in the cards today as Baby Waka just stood there upright allowing Takakeisho to work his whatever you call that charge. I guess those were tsuppari, but the only reason Kotonowaka moved back was because he meant to. At the edge, Kotonowaka positioned himself for a right kata-sukashi, but the problem is it was working too well, and so the youngster quickly stepped both feet across the edge as Takakeisho plopped to the dirt. Kotonowaka could have easily held his footing there and scored on the throw, but the bout was arranged coming in.

As they showed the slow motion replay, Mainoumi said, "It was all Kotonowaka could do to defend himself against Takakeisho's tsuppari," and yet, as you watched the action on the screen, Takakeisho wasn't connecting on any tsuppari. It was just a silly game here as Takakeisho is gifted 2-0, and when the greedy Kotonowaka (0-2) refuses a win against an Ozeki with all those kensho on the line, you know the fix is in. I think they're setting up a Takakeisho yusho here in Kyushu to try and save face for the Ozeki, but there's still a of sumo to go and a lot of cash that has to change hands before that happens.

In the day's final bout, M1 Takayasu won the tachi-ai against Shodai (how couldn't he?), and it looked to me as if Takayasu had the clear path to the left inside and right outer grip, but he refrained and stayed ducked a bit low as Shodai moved to his right looking for a pull. That's just what you want right? An Ozeki moving laterally and getting sneaky with his sumo against the rank and file? After the lateral move, Takayasu found himself in great position again with the left arm at Shodai's belt, but he was so limp he allowed Shodai to maki-kae using the right with no consequences, and at that point, Takayasu kept his hips high as Shodai moved him back and across. Takayasu just hopped down to the arena floor below in full control, and it was obvious that he gave the win here to Shodai. Both of these dudes finish the day at 1-1, and what a puff bout of sumo to end the day.

You miss the Yokozuna because he usually puts a stamp on the day with powerful sumo, but here in Kyushu we're just getting soft, compromised sumo to end the broadcast. That's just the way it's going to be in November, and we'll see how long they can keep the attention of the fans. They have five more days essentially before the World cup takes over.

Back at it tomorrow.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Every time the Kyushu basho rolls around, it's interesting to relive my memories starting with my very first exposure to sumo wrestling while living in Japan, senshuraku of the 1989 Kyushu basho. On that day, Konishiki defeated Chiyonofuji to clinch his first career yusho (he'd end up with three championships), and I remember thinking that this guy just can't lose. Oh how naive I was then, but that's all water under the bridge now. I actually missed recording the Day 1 bouts today, which doesn't surprise me because I'm wrapped up in college football at the moment, and then there's that tiny event on the horizon known as the World Cup.

I'm shocked that the sumos didn't think to start this tournament last week because all of week 2 they're going to be competing against the World Cup. Actually, there won't be any competition. Everyone's going to favor a real sporting event over the fluff that is sumo these days.

Because I failed to record the Day 1 bouts, my first exposure to the basho was the NHK News Sunday Sports cast, and that was all I needed to see to determine how they're trying to spin this basho. They brought in Kotoshogiku (a Fukuoka native...as if that's going to increase interest in this thing), and the headline highlighted in gold at the upper left of the screen was, "The Hiramaku are hot in Kyushu!!"

What?! The Hiramaku (rank and file)?? That's like a sports show in the UK beginning their World Cup Analysis shows with this headline, "Watch out for the USA!!"

What is the point of hyping the middle of the pack, or mediocrity? It makes no sense unless you're trying to spin the current state of sumo into something it isn't, and the spin today was unbelievable.

The first headline NHK used to hype the basho was, "Will this be the first time in history hiramaku rikishi take the yusho three basho in a row?" Both Ichinojo and Tamawashi took their recent yusho from the hiramaku, and they're all but preparing the fans to think that it's actually a positive if another hiramaku rikishi takes the yusho for a historic third time in a row!

Part of the reason they need to hype they hiramaku is to help explain why the chart for most wins in the calendar year lacks any Japanese Ozeki (or former Ozeki as in the case of recently-demoted Mitakeumi). Here are the current standings for most wins this year as we head into Kyushu:

1. Wakatakakage (49)
2. Kotonowaka (46)
3. Hoshoryu (44)
4. Kiribayama (43)
" Wakamotoharu (43)

When you see a headline that says, "Watch out for the hiramaku," you really need to consider in the inverse of that statement which is, "Where in the hell are the Ozeki?" It was so interesting, however, that they never mentioned the Ozeki and their failure to carry a basho as a legitimate topic this year in sumo. The actual name of an Ozeki was mentioned only once the entire segment, and it was uttered by Kotoshogiku at the very end when they asked him for his thoughts on the yusho race. Of course he had to mention Takakeisho as one of the favorites, but that was it. They didn't even show replays of Takakeisho's bout (which he "won"). Instead, these are the three replays we got...from a Sunday sports show on Day 1 of a basho:

M1 Kotonowaka vs. Sekiwake Hoshoryu
M16 Hiradoumi vs. M15 Atamifuji
M1 Takayasu vs. Sekiwake Wakatakakage

I really was incredulous, but as they showed these three bouts and Kotoshogiku drawing his analysis using yellow lines of a telestrator, the other sports casters and guests had these intent looks on their faces as if the very Buddha himself was revealing the true path to sumo enlightenment.

Enlightened Sportscaster: "Wait a minute, oyakata. Are you saying that Takayasu's brilliant footwork set up his win, and it wasn't just Wakatakakage grabbing Takayasu's extended arm and walking back on his own?"

Kotoshogiku: "Sou desu."

Enlightened Sportscaster: "Hoh-----"

During the broadcast it was also mentioned that Yokozuna Terunofuji withdrew from the basho citing inflammation in both knees, but the ironic thing was they showed clips of him practicing with stablemate, Atamifuji (our lone rookie this tournament), and Terunofuji looked just fine. And that's because the Yokozuna is just fine, and he's only withdrawing to mirror the haplessness this year of the Japanese Ozeki.

If none of the Ozeki are on the chart for most wins this calendar year, neither is Terunofuji.

And so...the PR department at the Sumo Association wants us all to get ready for more mediocrity in sumo this basho and consider it historic.

Even though I missed the live broadcast, I did catch NHK's digest version they showed later on in the day. The arena was only about half full on a Sunday, so I can only imagine how scarce things are going to be this first week.

As they showed all the results from the day's action with the winning rikishi highlighted in yellow, the sportscaster made sure to highlight the bouts of all the rikishi from Kyushu. As if that and making Kotoshogiku the chief analyst for the news shows this basho is going to encourage the Fukuoka faithful to turn up for the tournament, but that's all they got.

There was nothing worth commenting on from the day that isn't the same old skat, and so we'll pick up bout by bout analysis tomorrow and revel in the mediocrity of it all!