Day 12 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Other than the withdrawal of Takayasu, the overnight news heading into Day 12 was rather quiet. One headline that did stand out to me was the Nikkan Sports newspaper pimping their column by Wakanohana III. The headlines touted Wakanohana's desire to see Mitakeumi win in double digits and then vie for the Ozeki rank. I thought to myself, "This should be good," and so I clicked on it. The first two-thirds of the article talked about Ura and how he fought well against Terunofuji on Day 10 but was unfortunately defeated soundly by Tamawashi on Day 11.

The last third of the article finally got to Mitakeumi, and it contained the usual propaganda hyping Mitakeumi as a possible Ozeki candidate. Wakanohana also considered Mitakeumi key to keeping the yusho race exciting down the stretch. My question is:  what is Wakanohana basing all of this on?  Mitakeumi's sumo?  He just spent two-thirds of his space babbling about Ura...a rikishi ranked at M6 coming into the day 4-7 with terrible sumo, and so of course his excitement over Mitakeumi is not based on sumo.

I loved this line towards the end of the article when still talking of Mitakeumi: "He will still face Shodai, who I want to see fulfill his responsibility as an Ozeki, and then Takakeisho, who could still be recovering from lingering injuries, and I hope to see these three guys become the Three Musketeers who provide the excitement over the final days of the basho."

In short, Wakanohana is gaga over the following four rikishi: Ura, Mitakeumi, Shodai, and Takakeisho. That article is nothing but propaganda garbage playing on the hopes and desires of the Japanese fans. It just amazes me to the extent that people allow themselves to be told whom to root for. None of it is ever based on the actual sumo, and it's all based on whom can we get the fans excited about so they'll continue to pay attention to the sport.

And while I'm on the subject of the Nikkan Sports newspaper, when Terunofuji "suffered" his first loss against Daieisho a few days ago, the Nikkan Sports Newspaper loudly proclaimed, "Terunofuji ni tsuchi!!" or "Terunofuji loses!!"

My question is...why don't they use the exclamation marks when announcing a loss by Takakeisho or Shodai? Why didn't they use the bikkuri mark when announcing a loss by former...(cough, sputter)...Yokozuna Kisenosato? Why do they use the much softer term of "yabureta" or "was defeated" for the Japanese guys?

It's simple media bias, and this new column from Wakanohana that they've started is pure propaganda telling the Japanese fans what they want to hear and keeping the focus from the actual sumo.

Since this is Sumo Talk, let's actually focus and break down the sumo exhibited in the ring on Day 12 beginning with the dudes on the leaderboard as follows:

10-1: Terunofuji
9-2: Myogiryu
8-3: Shodai, Mitakeumi, Onosho, Endoh, Okinoumi, Chiyonokuni

First up was M17 Chiyonokuni who faced a tall task in M12 Tochinoshin IF it was Shin's intent to actually win the bout. Chiyonokuni henka'd left at the tachi-ai, and that in itself tells you a lot about this fake yusho race. Why does the guy supposedly on this hot streak have to henka when facing someone with a losing record? Tochinoshin easily survived that henka and could have wrapped Kuni up with the right inside left outer grip, but he agreed to just stand there and let Chiyonokuni dictate the pace. That meant we got a 30 second bout that covered every centimeter of the ring with both guys flailing away with ineffective tsuppari and then fishing for pulls.

I should say that Tochinoshin was just along for the ride here. At any moment during this bout he could have forced it to yotsu or scored on a pulldown, but he was leaving himself vulnerable just in case. Chiyonokuni couldn't capitalize, however, and the longer the bout went on, the more gassed he got. Around the 30 second mark with both dudes back in the middle of the ring, Tochinoshin put his right hand against Chiyonokuni's left cheek (the one on his face, not his butt) and just held it there...like that's going to do a helluva lotta good, but it was just the nature of this unorthodox bout. In the end, when Kuni was ready to grapple again, Tochinoshin got up and under Kuni's left arm and executed a mediocre tsuki-otoshi but it sent the tired Chiyonokuni across for good. The result is Kuni's getting knocked off the leaderboard at 8-4 while Tochinoshin squares up his record for the first time this basho at 6-6.

The next three-loss rikishi was M8 Okinoumi paired against M2 Kiribayama, and the latter shaded a bit left at the tachi-ai but didn't go for anything, and so Okinoumi squared back up in a bout that was trying to go to hidari-yotsu. They finally got there and Kiribayama had Okinoumi raised up higher, and that gave him the path the right outer grip, but he didn't take it. Instead, he kept that right hand snug at the back of Okinoumi's left elbow in useless fashion. As the two dug in for nearly 30 seconds, it was clear that Okinoumi was not in an advantageous position to attack as Kiribayama had him pushed too high up, but with Kiribayama not doing anything, Okinoumi finally tested the uwate-nage waters with the right. Kiribayama voluntarily moved to the edge where Okinoumi tried to push into his jaw to get him across, but to no avail which emphasized just how weak Okinoumi's attacking position was. Kiribayama held on and the two moved a bit towards the center of the ring, and then all of a sudden Kiribayama forced the bout into a nage-no-uchi-ai throwing with the left inside grip vs. Okinoumi's right outer, but Kiribayama just put his right elbow and shoulder down to the dirt well before Okinoumi touched down.

That was a sly move on Kiribayama's part because Okinoumi had just attacked and failed on an uwate-nage attempt. The older Okinoumi was gassed as well and worn down, but Kiribayama forced the action and just dipped his body to the dirt first gifting Okinoumi the win. I mean, the bout looked competitive, and it was a nice ending for the fans, but Kiribayama was in full control of that final throw including the part where he intentionally touched down first. There was very little force in that nage-no-uchi-ai from either side, but the end result is what the Japanese fans wanted: Okinoumi's moving to 9-3 and staying on the leaderboard.

M11 Endoh traveled a ways up the banzuke to take on M1 Takanosho, and this was a laugher of a bout. Takanosho destroyed Endoh from the tachi-ai moving him back all the way to the straw where Takanosho had Endoh's left arm completely pinned in tight. Dude coulda grabbed an outer grip with the left or just kept up the momentum and pushed Endoh back and across, but the M1 just paused and allowed Endoh to move to his right, and Endoh really didn't connect on pull or slap or anything; Takanosho just dove to the dirt and put his elbow down before Endoh collapsed down himself. This resembled a Shodai bout where Shodai gets destroyed and overwhelmed only to pull a rabbit out of the hat at the edge. Endoh was obviously gifted 9-3 here, and he was completely overwhelmed. Takanosho graciously falls to 6-6, and there wasn't anything in Endoh's sumo today that suggested he was a guy vying for the yusho.

Two more three-loss dudes met up in Sekiwake Mitakeumi vs. M6 Onosho, and Onosho won the tachi-ai standing Mitakeumi upright with some nice thrusts. The charge didn't drive Mitakeumi back, but it scared him into pull position, and as he geared to go for a desperate slap, Onosho just drove him back to the edge with a hand to the neck and then hoisted him across with some shoves to the lower teets. Mitakeumi was thoroughly outclassed in this one, but hey, Wakanohana apparently sees something I don't. Onosho moves to 9-3 with the very good win while Mitakeumi is exposed as a fraud in falling to 8-4. I mean, people are talking about you as an Ozeki candidate. You're facing an M6 rikishi who has accomplished little and you get your ass kicked? It's a perfect example of this skewed banzuke.

Our final three-loss rikishi was Shodai who stared across the starting lines at Komusubi Ichinojo. After some false start monkey business that was more of a case of the referee wanting something to do, they finally got it right and Ichinojo reached for a left frontal belt grip from the charge. He would have easily gotten it if he wouldn't have backed up on his own, but the Mongolith was backpedaling and threatening a kote-nage with the right on the other side. He wasn't committed to that move either, but despite Ichinojo's retreating motion, Shodai could do nothing to take advantage. With a bit of social distancing in place after that awkward start, the two looked to hook back up with some soft tsuppari, but as Shodai came close, Ichinojo just lowered the hammer in the form of a big right ham to the back of Shodai's neck and a left blow to his back. Shodai was simply overmatched in this one, and an Ozeki should never be manhandled by a Komusubi in that fashion. Course, Shodai's not an Ozeki as he falls off the leaderboard to 8-4 while Ichinojo is even steven at 6-6.

Well, two bouts with the musketeers and two losses so far, which illustrates perfectly how Wakanohana is just spewing garbage and not actual sumo analysis. At least Ura won today against Chiyomaru right? Oh wait.

Our lone two-loss rikishi, M10 Myogiryu, stepped into the ring to face M13 Kagayaki. Myogiryu struck well at the tachi-ai staying low and threatening the right arm to the inside, but as Kagayaki backed up a step, he was able to halt the M10's charge with two hands to the throat. At that point, Myogiryu went into complete pull mode and Kagayaki read it like a dirty manga on the subway pushing Myogiryu back across the entire dohyo and out just like that. This was a rather lopsided bout especially considering Myogiryu's good tachi-ai. Once again, though, it's a perfect illustration of a guy supposedly in second place who is unable to defeat a rikishi with a losing record coming into the day. Yusho race shmusho race. This is all just a crock, and Myogiryu was exposed here in falling to 9-3 with Kagayaki improving to 6-6.

The problem with Myogiryu's loss is that it put two bouts between Terunofuji and the rest of the field, and you knew the Terunofuji camp took note. I mean, Terunofuji gave up a bout to Daieisho; he then allowed Ura to hang around way too long making it seem close; and yesterday he allowed his bout to go long with Takayasu all in an effort to make it seem like the Yokozuna is teetering a bit.

What Terunofuji was really doing is preparing everyone for another loss should it become necessary, and after watching too many dominoes fall today, it became necessary against Sekiwake Meisei. From the tachi-ai, Meisei came with two hands to the throat knocking Terunofuji back a step, and I should clarify here...if Terunofuji wants to be knocked back a step, he'll be knocked back a step. Otherwise you'd see it happen all time. I mean, we're not talking about Shodai or Takakeisho.

After the good start from Meisei, Terunofuji looked to set up a kote-nage with the left, but he never positioned himself for the move with the lower body opting to just stand upright and hook his leg inside of Meisei's left. The two played footsie for a brief second, and as soon as Meisei's right foot touched down, he went for an inside belt throw that didn't have much behind it, but Terunofuji just went forward to the straw and then turned around to square back up with Meisei just as the Sekiwake forced him across. They ruled it shita-te-nage, but I'm not sure how it was a throw since the two were chest to chest when Fuji went across. Going back to the throw, in a real bout of sumo if one guy has a left kote grip and the other has a right inside belt grip and BOTH guys are applying pressure, a natural nage-no-uchi-ai is the result. In this bout, one guy was applying zero pressure thus the unnatural movement following and inside belt throw from Meisei.

Regardless of all that, Terunofuji predictably threw another strategic bout just to keep things interesting heading into the final three days. If you have the Yokozuna two ahead with three days to go, there's no hope. Now if feels as if anything could still happen.

At the close of the broadcast, this was the new leaderboard:

10-2: Terunofuji
9-3: Onosho, Okinoumi, Myogiryu, Endoh

The big problem with that is the Three Musketeers are all hovering down in four-loss territory. And that to me is the bigger story in sumo right now...the inability of the supposed elite Japanese rikishi to sustain a yusho race. Terunofuji could lose tomorrow and Saturday and STILL be in a tie with the Three Musketeers.

There were a few other bouts of interest on the day as follows:

Takakeisho looked to pick up a kachi-koshi today against M5 Takarafuji, and the one advantage going for Takakeisho is that Isegahama-oyakata feels guilty about having a foreign Yokozuna, and so Takarafuji and Terutsuyoshi are frequently used as pawns to help give back to the community.

Takakeisho looked to knock Takarafuji back a half step from the tachi-ai, but then Takakeisho immediately went for a useless swipe while shading a bit left. Instead of rushing in and taking advantage of his retreating opponent, Takarafuji just stood there with his hands down. As a result, Takakeisho was able to fire a hari-te that connected with the fingers but still made a sound nonetheless, and the faux-zeki followed the face slap with another shove that sent the willing Takarafuji back to the straw where a final thrust into his torso sent him back for good. Watch Takarafuji's hands in the slow motion replay and he just keeps them down and does nothing with them. He obviously gave Takakeisho the win here sending him to 8-4. As for Takarafuji, he knows his place in the world as he falls to 6-6.

Prior to the bout as the two were warming up, Mainoumi commented that he thought Takakeisho should just go kyujo after that 0-3 start. But no, the mighty Ozeki has dug deep down and shown us some grit fighting his way back all the way to kachi-koshi. Either that or he made the reasonable decision that I mentioned on Day 4: Buy eight wins this basho or buy 10 wins next basho. Good to know that the Takakeisho camp reads Sumotalk.

I think the rikishi all of us look forward to watching these days his M1 Hoshoryu, so we'll go there next. Against M4 Daieisho, Hoshoryu managed to intentionally exhibit one of the worst tachi-ai of the basho coming out of his stance, leaning back in straight up fashion, and then curling his left foot inwards towards the sand. It stood to reason that Daieisho's tsuppari attack could knock a dude in that position off of his perch, and Daieisho did sending Hoshoryu back to the edge where the Mongolian grabbed Daieisho's extended left arm and faked a twisting move that was more of the kid looking for a soft landing right there at the edge of the dohyo. It took about two seconds thanks to that awful tachi-ai by Hoshoryu, but he knows his place in the sport right now. He gives one up here in falling to 3-9 while Daieisho improves...I guess...to 7-5.

Let's leave it at that for today and set up tomorrow. Fuji is paired against Mitakeumi, and then instead of having the two Ozeki face off, they're giving Onosho to Shodai and Myogiryu to Takakeisho. Both Ozeki are underdogs in straight up fights, so we'll see what happens there. Okinoumi is the huge underdog against Ichinojo, and then Endoh has zero chance in a straight up fight against Kiribayama.

In regards to this manufactured yusho race, there is just too much head-to-head action among the leaders for Terunofuji not to hoist the cup in the end, but who knows? Maybe they think it'd be fitting for a Japanese dude to take this yusho this time around. If that's the case, it's gonna be one of the mediocre Japanese rikishi currently standing at three losses.

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Yesterday I mentioned my surprise that NHK kept the leaderboard contained to just two-losses, but after some of those two-loss rikishi were defeated on Day 10 it left an extremely anemic leaderboard that contained Terunofuji as expected and then Myogiryu and Onosho. It was no surprise therefore that for Day 11, the powers at be decided to move the yusho board back down to three losses. I don't know who makes the final call on that decisions, but I'm positive that the Sumo Association's PR department is part of the decision. Because they posted the leaderboard down to three losses, we entered Wednesday as follows:

9-1: Terunofuji
8-2: Onosho, Myogiryu
7-3: Shodai, Mitakeumi, Kiribayama, Endoh, Okinoumi, Chiyonokuni

Let's begin with the leaderboard and then comment on other bouts of interest.

Up first was M11 Endoh who was paired against M14 Kaisei. The bout looked to go hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Kaisei refused to take the inside that was wide open for him. With the Brasilian just dangling that arm in no man's land, Endoh shifted to that side and wrapped up Kaisei's left with both arms, and with Kaisei not even bothering to turn 90 degrees and square back up, Endoh grabbed the back of Kaisei's belt with the right and easily pushed him to the edge without argument. Kaisei finally turned around a half second before being force out giving Endoh the yori-kiri win, but this was mukiryoku sumo start to finish from Kaisei. Endoh is just a token player on the leaderboard now at 8-3, and this guy has been totally fragile this basho. As for Kaisei, he willingly falls to 4-7.

The next three-loss rikishi was M17 Chiyonokuni facing M8 Tobizaru, and Kuni came with his usual tsuppari attack that wasn't moving Tobizaru back. As for Tobizaru, he was doing nothing to win the bout as the two grappled still in the center of the ring, but after a few seconds Chiyonokuni backed to his right going for a weak pull. The move had no momentum behind it, but Tobizaru just dutifully kept his head ducked low. When Kuni still couldn't put a fork in him, Tobizaru decided to dart laterally by doing a 360 and then kept his back to Chiyonokuni, and as Chiyonokuni gave chase from behind, Tobizaru just ran to the corner of the dohyo and somersaulted right off the edge as if he was diving into a pool. Chiyonokuni tried to keep up with it all, but this was mostly the flying monkey doing just that right off the dohyo. This was just silly as Kuni moves to 8-3 while Tobizaru falls to 4-7.

M8 Okinoumi followed that up by taking on M14 Yutakayama, and Okinoumi was late at the tachi-ai allowing Yutakayama to rush in quickly and get the left arm inside, but you could see Yutakayama hold up and wait for Okinoumi to get back into the bout. Okinoumi did get his own left arm inside, but Yutakayama had him more upright than he wanted to be. That put Yutakayama in perfect position to grab a right outer grip with his long arms, but he never did. The two grappled this way and that in hidari-yotsu before they paused in the center of the ring to catch their breath. After this pause, Yutakayama just allowed Okinoumi to grab the right outer grip, and even then Okinoumi didn't execute the force-out straight way because his position was not ideal. No problem as Yutakayama willingly backed out faking a few counter tsuki-otoshi with the right, but he "forgot" to actually pivot to his right and execute the move easily gifting Okinoumi the win. I think Okinoumi is the superior rikishi, but after that tachi-ai, Yutakayama had him by the short hairs and purposefully let him out. Wow, what a yusho race this is becoming as Okinoumi moves to 8-3 while Yutakayama falls to 6-5.

The next three-loss rikishi on the day was M2 Kiribayama who was paired against M3 Wakatakakage. Kiribayama had the clear path to the left inside position from the tachi-ai but he refused to take it opting to back up a step and fake a pull. As WTk advanced, Kiribayama had the easy path to the left inside again, but he refrained allowing Wakatakakage to to execute a mediocre tsuki into Kiribayama's left side. The result was both rikishi finally hooking up in migi-yotsu, and instead of trying to lift Wakatakakage upright with his right inside, Kiribayama lowered his hips on that side making the left uwate for WTK closer. Wakatakakage was afraid to grab it, however, and so Kiribayama faked a maki-kae, and that allowed WTK to drag him over ot the edge by the back of the belt and then push him out for good has Kiribayama pretended to resist. Kiribayama willingly took the loss here falling off the leaderboard at 7-4 while Wakatakakage moved to 5-6.

Sekiwake Mitakeumi faced M4 Daieisho, and Daieisho did him a favor by opening with a tsuppari "attack"...all while looking to move backwards. As Mitakeumi moved forward, Daieisho sent a few more thrusts Mitakeumi's way before faking a swipe attempt that left him even more vulnerable at the edge, and Mitakeumi pounced at that point sending Daieisho back and across in short order. If you watch the slow motion replay, you can see that Mitakeumi connected on nothing that caused Daieisho to move backwards and then ultimately a bit right. Daieisho was mukiryoku gifting Mitakeumi an 8-3 mark while Daieisho makes some extra dough in falling to 6-5.

Our final three-loss rikishi on the day was Shodai who was paired against Sekiwake Meisei. The tachi-ai was neutral with Meisei refusing to attack and Shodai showing nothing bout a weak pull attempt that had no effect. The two traded place in the ring with Meisei getting the left arm inside and clear path to a right outer, but he refused to grab the advantageous grip and ultimately just pulled away and moved towards the edge. As Shodai advanced, Meisei got the right arm inside giving Shodai the left, and despite Shodai's having no right inside position, Meisei allowed him to drag the Sekiwake across the ring to the other side where they sorta went into a nage-no-uchi-ai. The problem was that Meisei didn't pivot to the side as you'd expect and he wasn't attempting a throw. Instead, he just went with Shodai's belt throw twisting over and falling onto his back as Shodai's crotch just landed on his face. That had to have been below average, but that's what happens in fixed bouts...you get unorthodox falls. Wow, what were the chances that all three-loss Japanese rikishi won while the only Mongolian lost today? Shodai "improves" to 8-3 with the gift while Meisei falls to 4-7.

Moving to the two-loss rikishi, M10 Myogiryu was paired against M17 Ichiyamamoto who put his hands high at the back of M10 Myogiryu's head as he slowly moved left, and all that did was intentionally give Myogiryu the clear path to a yori-kiri win. This maybe took two seconds, and is this what we really want in a yusho race? Fake sumo across the board and completely uncontested bouts? Myogiryu moves to 9-2 with the gift while Ichiyamamoto finally suffers make-koshi at 3-8.

The final two-loss rikishi was M6 Onosho who faced Takakeisho. You knew that banzuke seniority would win out here, and that was the case as both rikishi aligned their feet from the tachi-ai, but then Onosho slid his left leg back and just waited for the pull attempt to come. Takakeisho moved right and went for a lame swipe, and that was Onosho's cue to just begin his dive. It took all but two seconds in yet another compromised bout that added no drama or excitement to the yusho race whatsoever.

Going back to my intro, they knew at the beginning of the day that Onosho was going to defer to Takakeisho, so right there you've narrowed the yusho race down to Terunofuji and Myogiryu...IF you stick to the two-loss guns. That's just a silly scenario to count on that down the stretch, and so this pairing was part of the impetus in moving the yusho race down to three losses.

The final bout of the day featured Yokozuna Terunofuji vs. Komusubi Takayasu. Terunofuji dominated the tachi-ai and had the right outer grip and left arm right there to wrap around Takayasu's right, but the Yokozuna pulled back and settled for hidari-yotsu where Terunofuji's left hand was in no man's land in the middle of Takayasu's chest. Takayasu slapped that arm away but Fuji could have reached forward and grabbed a frontal belt grip with the left lifting Takayasu back and out but he chose not to. Instead, the two dug into a long, useless bout where Terunofuji simply kept Takayasu around to try and make things interesting while Takayasu couldn't come close to setting up anything offensively. His only "sumo" the entire time was maintaining a left inside position and slumping over out of shape. Fuji hemmed and hawed for about forty seconds before getting into the lethal right dashi-nage position, and he had Takayasu dragged to the West side of the dohyo dead to rights. He noticeably stopped the move, however, and let the bout resume the same boring stance.

There was no way that Takayasu could do anything to win this bout. Nothing. There was also nothing Takayasu could do to defend himself. It was all up to Terunofuji, and the Yokozuna made it look more interesting that it was finally putting Takayasu and the rest of us out of our misery by dumping the Komusubi across the straw and down to the venue floor.

Takayasu didn't get up and was writhing in pain there in the front row of the suna-kaburi, and once again...this is a great example of how people get hurt during fake sumo. Yes, Fuji won the bout, but he exhausted Takayasu unnecessarily to the point where he couldn't find his footing as he was thrown out, and it was a dangerous ploy in the end. The Komusubi did get up eventually but not before several oyakata rushed to his aid ringside. The end result is Terunofuji's moving to 10-1 while Takayasu falls to 4-7. Unsurprisingly, Takayasu announced his withdrawal from the tournament with a contusion in his right buttocks (say it like Forrest Gump).

At the end of the day, the leaderboard barely changed. Onosho slipped down a notch while Kiribayama was eliminated altogether. Here's how it looks now:

10-1: Terunofuji
9-2: Myogiryu
8-3: Shodai, Mitakeumi, Onosho, Endoh, Okinoumi, Chiyonokuni

I should reiterate: that leaderboard is nothing but fluff.  Everybody except for Terunofuji won today thanks to yaocho.  Even if Fuji does drop two more bouts, he's still tied with the gang at worst.

In the interest of time, let's end things here and pick it back up tomorrow.

Day 10 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The dominant headline in between Day 9 and Day 10 was the withdrawal of M3 Kotonowaka citing a torn meniscus and an MCL sprain in his left knee. Officially, the kid will end the tournament at 3-12, but he'll still stick around in the division. I liked what I saw from Kotonowaka up here. He's obviously not ready to defend his rank at this level of the banzuke, but he shows promise. His start to the division reminds me a bit of Hoshoryu. If you remember, I was not a big Hoshoryu fan at all. He couldn't kachi-koshi on his own, and he was steeped in yaocho out of the gate. Now, however, Hoshoryu is quickly becoming everyone's favorite just because you can see the potential, and much more of his sumo his real. He still may buy a bout from the likes of Tamawashi or Ichinojo, but he's really matured the last year. My hope is that Kotonowaka takes a similar path. He's got the size and I think the tools to do so.

I was surprised by the Day 10 broadcast when NHK stuck to their guns in terms of the leaderboard showing rikishi only down to two losses. I was sure they'd go down to three losses in order to make it appear that this yusho race was more than it really is, but they stuck to the two-loss guns. If I stuck to the two-loss line here and did a leaderboard report, we'd highlight the following rikishi:

8-1: Terunofuji
7-2: Onosho, Myogiryu, Okinoumi, Chiyonokuni

Hooboy. There is little interest in that leaderboard, so let's just touch on all the bouts going in chronological order.

The day began with M14 Kaisei vs. M15 Ichiyamamoto, and it was nice to see Kaisei beat IYM at his own game...namely oshi-zumo. Ichiyamamoto actually had a decent tachi-ai where he came with moro-te-zuki that kept Kaisei from advancing, but the youngster couldn't drive Kaisei back. Ichiyamamoto panicked as a result and went for a cheap pull moving to his left, but Kaisei was on the move and focused his thrusts into the chest of Ichiyamamoto pushing him back and across in short order. Kaisei moves to 4-6 with the nice win while IYM falls to 3-7.

M16 Chiyomaru and M14 Yutakayama struck into each other well at the tachi-ai with oshi attacks, but Yutakayama caught Maru up and under the left armpit, and that threw Chiyomaru off balance and shading back a bit, and Yutakayama easily finished off his bidness from there scoring the nice oshi-dashi win that left both parties at 6-4.

M13 Tsurugisho shaded to his left (he's too fat to henka) looking for the cheap outer grip, but M15 Chiyonooh wasn't fooled and easily squared up with his foe before assuming moro-zashi and then using Tsurugisho's momentum against him to force him back and across in under two seconds. The dudes both end the day at the same 4-6 mark.

M10 Chiyotairyu came with a quick hari-te with the right against M13 Kagayaki before executing a straight-forward oshi charge, and Kagayaki responded with lazier shoves allowing Chiyotairyu to just blast him back and out once, twice, three times a lady. During the melee, Kagayaki's forehead crashed into Chiyotairyu's face cutting Tairyu quite badly at the upper corner of his left eye. Nothing like seeing a bit of blood and a tsuki-dashi win fer ya. My opinion is that Kagayaki was a bit nonchalant here, but it's always nice to see Chiyotairyu do sumo like that. He moves to 6-4 with the win while Kagayaki falls to 5-5.

M9 Aoiyama didn't come out blazing from the tachi-ai against M16 Tokushoryu and seemed content to let the latter dictate the pace in this one. As we've seen all basho, Tokushoryu hasn't really tried to get to the belt, and so Aoiyama let Tokushoryu chase him around the ring a bit with ineffective tsuppari before Aoiyama just sprang the pull trap about eight seconds in. Tokushoryu seemed to anticipate the move and went down too easily placing both palms to the dirt just holding that position for a second or three. Aoiyama moves to 5-5 with the easy win while Tokushoryu can't get up at 3-7. For the record, my wife was watching this bout with me, and we were BOTH jealous of Aoiyama's breasts.

M17 Chiyonokuni looked to bully M9 Hidenoumi from the tachi-ai with his tsuppari attack, but the thursts largely glanced to the side. As a result, Chiyonokuni was forced to move laterally while Hidenoumi patiently waited for an opening to the inside. With Chiyonokuni jumping around here and there, he briefly got moro-zashi, but Hidenoumi was able to force his right arm to the inside turning the bout to migi-yotsu. Kuni wasn't comfortable with that and so the two social distanced for a bit before reassuming migi-yotsu where Hidenoumi just locked down around Chiyonokuni's left arm. That kept Kuni at bay until Hidenoumi caught his breath, and once he did, he grabbed a firm left frontal belt grip, raised Chiyonokuni upright, and then forced him back and across without argument.

I suppose Chiyonokuni falls of off the leaderboard now at 7-3, but was he really ever on there to begin with? The biggest problem I have with a guy like Kuni coming into the day at 7-2 and pretending to be a leader is that he could not bully Hidenoumi around whatsoever. I mean, we are talking about Hidenoumi here. I would submit that a real yusho contender would be able to have his way with the M9 rikishi who improved to 4-6 with the nice, patient performance.

Two more leaders stepped into the ring next with M8 Okinoumi taking on M10 Myogiryu, and Okinoumi said I'll take the cash thank you very much. He came with the C3P0 arms from the tachi-ai allowing Myogiryu to set the tone, and Myogiryu chose hidari-yotsu fishing for the right outer grip. At this point, Okinoumi could have countered with his own left arm inside, but he just held the limb in tight gifting Myogiryu the front of Okinoumi's belt with the right hand, and once obtained, Myogiryu lifted Okinoumi upright and easily forced his listless opponent across the straw. I snapped this pic to show just how non-committed Okinoumi was with the left hand. Myogiryu stays on the leaderboard...I guess...at 8-2 while Okinoumi willingly falls to 7-3 a richer dude.

M8 Tobizaru shaded left at the tachi-ai to avoid being pulled into M12 Tochinoshin's tractor beam, but the little dude couldn't hide, and so Tochinoshin kept his hands around Tobizaru's neck threatening a pull, and as Tobizaru moved this way and that, Shin finally reeled him in with the right hand to the front of the belt and the left arm firmly grabbing Tozizaru's belt from the outside. Didn't take much for Shin to just dispatch Tobizaru to the dohyo floor once he grabbed him, and that was that. Both rikishi end the day at 4-6, and the announcers mentioned afterwards that Tochinoshin has yet to kachi-koshi this year. That is definitely by choice.

M7 Terutsuyoshi was aggressive from the tachi-ai against M11 Kotoeko shoving him back two steps with a nice tsuppari attack, but then for no reason Terutsuyoshi moved back and to his left putting his back to the edge and allowing Kotoeko to attack from the center of the dohyo. And attack Kotoeko did, but it wasn't great even with Terutsuyoshi arching his back at the edge and going for a desperate tsuki...without even moving to the side. It almost worked but they ruled that Kotoeko won the bout that nobody cared about today anyway. Kotoeko moves to 4-6 with the gift while Terutsuyoshi falls to 3-7.

Two more "leaders" faced off today in M11 Endoh vs. M6 Onosho, and it was Onosho looking to take charge from the tachi-ai with a nice, low shove attack. It didn't necessarily knock Endoh off of his block, but it did deny him the left frontal grip, and Endoh's only response from there was to move right and fish for a pull. Onosho was onto the move so when Endoh further moved to his right, Onosho caught him with a paw to the chest and sent him across in fairly short order. This one was lopsided as Onosho moves to 8-2 while Endoh falls to 7-3.

M5 Chiyoshoma caught M7 Shimanoumi with a paw to the neck at the tachi-ai, and that helped him set up the right inside position and left outer grip. Shimanoumi smartly did not want to go chest to chest, and he tried to escape out of the hold, but Chiyoshoma used the left belt position to dashi-nage Shimanoumi over to the side and out easy as you please. Chiyoshoma just kneed Shimanoumi off the dohyo that last step in moving to 2-8, and remember, that was his target goal all along. Dude literally banked cash the first week, and now he's doing just enough to keep him in the division so he can rinse and repeat next basho. Shimanoumi didn't have a chance here in falling to 4-6.

Speaking of rinsing and repeating, M2 Kiribayama did the exact move today against M1 Hoshoryu that he did yesterday against Mitakeumi: he henka'd left, grabbed the cheap outer grip, and used it to throw his opponent over and down in one second flat. As for Hoshoryu, I thought he could have adjusted to the henka but he didn't. He also caught himself with two palms to the straw with no other part of his body touching down, so this one was likely arranged before hand as Kiribayama moves to 7-3 while Hoshoryu falls to 3-7.

Speaking of arranged bouts, M5 Takarafuji came with a really weak left kachi-age against M1 Takanosho that was so high and ineffective it was ridiculous. Takanosho failed to make him pay, however, even though he briefly had Takarafuji's arm pinned in close, so with Takanosho literally standing there and doing nothing against a vulnerable opponent, Takarafuji went for this blind downward swipe with that left arm and it magically caused Takanosho to roll over and down. The force is strong in that one as Takarafuji moves to 6-4 while Takanosho falls to 5-5.

At this point they announced the withdrawal of M3 Kotonowaka, which gave Komusubi Takayasu the freebie. Of Takayasu's four "wins," two of them now have been by default.

M4 Tamawashi put his hands forward as if to thrust against Komusubi Ichinojo, but no tsuppari ever came. Instead, Tamawashi began moving backwards...a move we've seen from him often when he throws his bouts. And he definitely gave this one to the Mongolith. Ichinojo did move forward against his retreating opponent, but he really never got an inside position or a firm belt grip. Tamawashi did most of the work here in this lackluster affair that saw Ichinojo eke his way to 4-6 while Tamawashi falls to 3-7.

In a very similar bout, M3 Wakatakakage put his hands forward at the tachi-ai against Sekiwake Mitakeumi but was already backpedaling, and so the Suckiwake moved forward and easily took advantage of Wakatakakage as he aligned his feet and squatted across the straw as if he had dysentery in the woods. The final shove was academic as Mitakeumi is gifted 7-3 while Wakatakakage falls to 4-6.

M4 Daieisho's tsuppari attack reappeared today against Shodai, and the M4 could have taken charge with it as he beat Shodai at the tachi-ai and connected on enough blows to the neck that Shodai was looking towards the rafters several times in this bout. You could see, though, that Daieisho wasn't driving with the legs, and so when Shodai went for a weak swipe to the shoulder, Daieisho floundered to the edge. Problem was that Shodai's swipe was so weak and the faux-zeki wasn't positioned to move forward, and so Daieisho fired a few more choke holds that had Shodai looking up, but when the next weak swipe with the right hand came, Daieisho just dutifully put both palms to the dirt with no other part of his body touching down of course. Gift to Shodai who moves to 7-3 while Daieisho falls to 6-4. Shodai needs just one more win to guarantee kachi-koshi for both "Ozeki." Once he gets it, if Takakeisho still needs a win when the two meet on Friday, Shodai will defer.

Speaking of deferral, Sekiwake Meisei beat Takakeisho back a full step from the tachi-ai, but he failed to follow up putting his hands forward but waiting for Takakeisho to make the next move. Said move was a weak move to his left where Takakeisho went for his usual wild inashi move, and it barely connected. Meisei moved back to the center of the ring and both dudes engaged in a lot of movement with pushes and pulls, but nothing was connecting. After a few seconds of this fluff, Meisei moved back right to supposedly set up a pull, but it never came of course and so Takakeisho finally rushed forward and scored the final oshi-dashi. If you watch Meisei's movements this bout, none of them were dictated by blows from Takakeisho. It was Meisei dictating the pace start to finish and letting Takakeisho win. Takakeisho moves to 6-4 with the gift while Meisei falls to 4-6.

Before we move on, here's one more way you can tell that a bout is 100% fixed: when Kisenosato is in the booth providing color, he uses the word "gaman" to describe your sumo. He probably used it a dozen times when describing this bout and none of those times regarded Meisei's sumo.

In the day's final affair, M6 Ura was sent up to do battle against Yokozuna Terunofuji. From the tachi-ai, Fuji wrapped his left arm around Ura's right and could have reeled the minnow in at that point, but as Ura looked to escape, Terunofuji turned that grip into a useless kote grip against Ura's forearm. Ura twisted around in this contorted position and was completely vulnerable, but Fuji continued to hold that grip to the crowd's delight. With Terunofuji standing there like a bump on a log, Ura tried a kata-sukashi and then he tried an ashi-tori move against Fuji's left leg, but he couldn't make a dent. And still, Terunofuji just let him try failing to wrap his foe up and dispatch him in short order. At this point, Ura backed away as both rikishi social distanced for a spell and then they grappled in the center of the ring, and only when Ura got the right arm inside did Terunofuji decided to grab a left outer grip. With the crowed oohing and ahhing, Terunofuji shored up grips with both hands and finally went for an outer belt throw 90 seconds into the bout. Just when you thought Fuji had one by uwate-nage, Ura held on with his right hand (actually a no-no in sumo...when you're thrown over and down you're obligated to release your grip so you don't pull your opponent down into possible injury) and so with Ura's back parallel to the dohyo and the dude looking up at the rafters, the Yokozuna provided one more pound to his chest to send him down for good.

The crowd loved every second of this and Terunofuji clearly played it up for the audience by letting Ura hang around in the first place. The Yokozuna was never in trouble, and everyone wins here because little ole Ura managed to hang on against the powerful giant. Whatever. Terunofuji moves to 9-1 with the easy win while Ura falls to 4-6.

Speaking of Terunofuji, he's been more than cooperative the last few days. He agreed to lose to Daieisho and he agreed to make his bout against Ura interesting. I can just sense he's going to throw another bout here soon to a more strategic opponent. The reason I say this is because at the end of the broadcast, NHK flashed the following leaderboard:

9-1: Terunofuji
8-2: Onosho, Myogiryu

I don't see how Terunofuji doesn't take the yusho this basho, but I also don't see how anyone can keep their interest in the final five days of the tournament when you have Onosho and Myogiryu as the two pretend contenders. There's gotta be more movement coming our way just to keep people semi-interested.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Apologies on skipping Day 8, but I'm sure you can guess what my comments would have been on the bouts anyway. I think the two key bouts from the day involved Terunofuji and Shodai. First, Tamawashi had Terunofuji by the short hairs from the tachi-ai, and he could have easily beaten the Yokozuna in about three seconds, but he let him out of the pickle and eventually gave Fuji the win. As for Shodai, he was beaten handily in a straight up affair by Kotonowaka. The bout went to the edge in nage-no-uchi-ai fashion, and the faux-zeki was embarrassed by just how easily Kotonowaka was able to dispatch him with an outer belt throw.

I've said in the past that the Japanese Ozeki would have a tough time keeping themselves in the Makuuchi division altogether, and yesterday's bout was a good example of that. While Kotonowaka does find himself ranked at M3 this tournament, that rank was purchased, and the dude is more of a bottom third guy. I think he could become a legit middle tier Makuuchi dude, but there's still way too much bout fixing surrounding him to know at this point. Still, that bout against Shodai was not an upset. Kotonowaka showed that he is literally the better rikishi, so to see Shodai continually be propped up as an Ozeki is just laughable. And the same goes for Takakeisho.

At the start of the Day 9 broadcast, NHK displayed the following leaderboard:



Terunofuji alone at the top is no surprise, but what really stands out is the lack of Ozeki or Sanyaku rikishi. Mitakeumi is the lone representative from that group, but it's been clear that he's been buying the bulk of his wins. Meisei took an obvious fall against Mitakeumi yesterday, and you can't really go back to any of his wins and say, "Yeah, that was a solid victory." There's nothing about his sumo that is standing out, and he's just a token sanyaku dude among the leaderboard barely hanging on with his sumo.

Myogiryu stands out as the lone one-loss rikishi, but the same thing goes for him. Most of his wins have been purchased, and he's really a difficult guy to hype as a true yusho contender. I will say that he could easily beat Mitakeumi straight up, but the only thing the media has been able to hype about him this basho is his record. Chiyonooh let up for him at the end of their Day 8 contest, and so it's not as if this dude is riding a huge wave of momentum coming into the second week.

Instead of working our way up that leaderboard, let's just cover all of the bouts in chronological order today.

M17 Chiyonokuni made little impact at the tachi-ai against M16 Tokushoryu, so the latter just moved forward not really looking to get into the clinch. Chiyonokuni had his hands pushed against Tokushoryu as he backpedaled, and then at the edge Chiyonokuni predictably moved to his right going for a mediocre pull that was Tokushoryu's cue to just flop forward and down. Tokushoryu attempted absolutely nothing to win this bout and was just along for the ride...and the payday as he falls to 3-6. As for Chiyonokuni, he moves to 7-2 and stays on the leaderboard for now (sigh).

M13 Kagayaki caught M14 Kaisei with a nice choke hold at the tachi-ai standing him up and exposing Kaisei's chest as a big oshi-dashi target, and that's exactly what Kagayaki did...shoved Kaisei back and across once, twice, three times a lady. Kagayaki moves to 5-4 with the win today while Kaisei falls 3-6 after showing little effort in the ring.

M12 Tochinoshin came with a light kachi-age using the left arm against M15 Chiyonooh while securing the right arm firmly to the inside, and Chiyonooh was able to counter with a left outer grip, but Tochinoshin completely ignored it swinging Chiyonooh around to the edge with the inside right belt grip before assuming moro-zashi, and the force-out across the straw from there was academic. Tochinoshin is dominant when he wants to be, and this was a good example today as he moves to 3-6 while Chiyonooh falls to the same mark.

M13 Tsurugisho was lethargic in his bout today against M11 Kotoeko in a contest that looked to go to hidari-yotsu before Tsurugisho went for a light pull that was more of an excuse to just back up to the edge, and from there Kotoeko pounced getting the right arm firmly to the inside. As Kotoeko attempted a rather weak force-out charge, Tsurugisho moved left pretending to attempt a counter tsuki-otoshi, but it was half-assed allowing Kotoeko to score the force-out win before he flopped to the dirt. Ho hum stuff as Kotoeko moves to 3-6 while Tsurugisho was mukiryoku here in falling to 4-5.

M11 Endoh finds himself on the leaderboard after buying most of his win this basho, and today against M15 Ichiyamamoto I would have thought Endoh could have won straight up, but this was just a silly affair that didn't even last two seconds. Ichiyamamoto put both hands to Endoh's neck lightly at the tachi-ai but instead of driving his feet forward, his knees were locked and he was leaning forward just asking to be pulled down. And Endoh complied shading a bit left and going for a mediocre swipe of IYM's extended right arm, and the youngster hit the dirt with both palms and nothing else as part of his premeditated fall. So this is what the leaderboard has come to? Guys need Ichiyamamoto to take a dive in order to stay in the race? Endoh is gifted 7-2 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 3-6.

M16 Chiyomaru came with his usual tsuppari tachi-ai while M9 Hidenoumi latched onto the front of Maru's belt with the left hand. The force from Chiyomaru's thrusts won out, however, and Hidenoumi was forced to abandon the grip and move right. Maru kept up the tsuppari pressure while Hidenoumi looked to get inside, and after Maru went for a pull, Hidenoumi was able to move forward and secure the right inside position. Chiyomaru countered with a left outer grip and immediately went for a belt throw. He wasn't positioned to throw Hidenoumi over, but he exerted enough pressure that he knocked Hidenoumi off balance near the edge and forced him across from there leading with the left outer grip. Chiyomaru improves to 6-3 with the win while Hidenoumi is the opposite 3-6.

M8 Okinoumi moved forward well against M8 Tobizaru looking to get to the inside, but Tobizaru ducked low and backpedaled just enough to keep Okinoumi away from the belt or the inside. Problem was that Tobizaru ran out of room a few seconds in, and Okinoumi was able to abandon his quest for yotsu-zumo and just push Tobizaru across for the easy win. Okinoumi also keeps himself on the leaderboard at 7-2 although this guy actually has talent. Tobizaru doesn't and falls to 4-5.

M14 Yutakayama came with a right kachi-age against M7 Terutsuyoshi and looked to execute an oshi attack, but Terutsuyoshi was able to stand his ground and actually set himself up for the left inside position. He'd never take it, however, even with Yutakayama out of sorts. With Terutsuyoshi non-committal, Yutakayama positioned himself for a pull with hands at the back of Terutsuyoshi's head, but T-yoshi anticipated the move too quickly and just ran himself sideways out of the dohyo before the pull actually came to fruition. Bland stuff here at Yutakayama buys his way to 5-4 while Terutsuyoshi dinks around at 3-6.

M9 Aoiyama faked his way through a tsuppari attack at the tachi-ai against M7 Shimanoumi, and the latter was able to do nothing in response. Instead of continuing to move forward and just kick Shimanoumi's ass, Aoiyama backed up a step to the center of the ring, but Shimanoumi couldn't mount a forward attack, and so in the end, Aoiyama went for a pull of his foe to the side of the dohyo making sure he stepped out before he had Shimanoumi pulled to the dirt. Aoiyama dominated here start to finish including that intentional step-out before Shimanoumi touched down. This was a great example of a rikishi being completely hapless and still winning the bout! Incredible as Shimanoumi fakes his way to 4-5 while Aoiyama had room to selling falling to the same 4-5 mark.

Next up was M10 Myogiryu paired against M6 Onosho, a battle between two rikishi on the leaderboard. At the tachi-ai, Myogiryu panicked and put both hands up high looking for the early pull, but Onosho read the move well and mounted a nice oshi attack against his compromised opponent. With Myogiryu already committed to the pull, he had no choice but to back pedal and that allowed Onosho to push him out in two seconds flat. This bout was completely lopsided, and Myogiryu's sumo indicates that he had no confidence in his ability in this straight up affair. And that's the problem buying your way to seven wins through eight days. When you're feet are really put to the fire--against a dude like Onosho no less, you just panic and resort to pull-first sumo. So telling as both dudes end the day now at 7-2, and more importantly, this extinguished the lone one-loss rikishi leaving Terunofuji two bouts ahead pending the result of his bout on the day.

M10 Chiyotairyu was cautious at the tachi-ai against Sideshow Ura, but when he could see that Ura was not moving forward himself, Chiyotairyu finally stepped forward, pushed the M6 upright, and then grabbed Ura around the back of the head yanking him forward and down without argument. Ura had a ton of dirt on his gut after the bout, and this is what a rikishi normally looks like after a pull-loss, so when you see guys get "pulled" down and only have their palms touch the dirt, you know it's fake. Good to see Chiyotairyu wield the bully stick here in moving to 5-4 while Ura falls to 4-5.

M3 Kotonowaka got the left arm in early from the tachi-ai against M5 Takarafuji, but the latter looked to avoid the chest to chest bout staying shallow before swiping Kotonowaka's arms away and going for a mild pull. As the two hooked back up, this time Takarafuji was the one with the firm left inside position as Kotonowaka countered with a right outer grip. Because Takarafuji had the lower stance, he was able to dictate the flow of the bout from here, and after gathering his wits a bit, he forced Kotonowaka into a nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge where Takarafuji's left inside belt throw was better than Kotonowaka's outer right. It wasn't the best nage-no-uchi-ai I've ever seen, but I'll take it as Takarafuji moves to 5-4 while Kotonowaka falls to 3-6.

Before we move on, I liked Kotonowaka's effort here, and if the dude would only force himself to fight in straight up bouts he'd improve immensely. He lost out to the veteran here, but he does have potential.

Speaking of potential, M1 Hoshoryu is the hottest rikishi on the banzuke in terms of being able to excite the crowd and bring some freshness to sumo. Too bad he's Mongolian or the media would be hyping him to no end. Today against M3 Wakatakakage--another "fresh" rikishi, the two engaged in a nice tsuppari affair that saw Wakatakakage deny Hoshoryu a path to the inside while nudging him back near the edge. As Hoshoryu was looking to get his right arm inside, Wakatakakage rushed forward grabbing the back of Hoshoryu's belt with the left hand so tight that the Mongolian's right arm was pinned to the inside of Wakatakakage's right inside. It was an unorthodox position for both guys disallowing Wakatakakage to execute the body-to-body force-out, and before he could adjust, Hoshoryu planted his right leg to the inside of Wakatakakage's right and executed a beautiful ippon-ze-oi throwing Wakatakakage over and down over his right shoulder.

Wow, that move right there was worth the price of admission today, and this bout reminded me a lot of the sumo you see in the Makushita Jo'i. You have smaller guys that are usually muscular and they're doing hustle sumo with enjoyable finishes. I really like both of these guys and it's easy to see the potential in them, but Hoshoryu has the obvious upside. He moves to just 3-6 with the win (he sat out two days with tonsillitis) while Wakatakakage (4-5) was visibly pissed when they overturned this one giving it to Hoshoryu.

M1 Takanosho and Komusubi Ichinojo stuck at the tachi-ai with neither guy getting anything to the inside although Ichinojo had the clear path to the right inside with his left arm in position to wrap the M1 up around the upper right arm. The Mongolith did neither and just allowed Takanosho to force him to the side and out in about three seconds. This wasn't oshi-zumo nor was it yotsu-zumo form Takanosho. Rather, it was Ichinojo performing mukiryoku sumo and just waltzing across the straw in short order. There is no way that Takanosho can move Ichinojo around that easily with no grip or no tsuppari to speak of, but whatever. It's not surprising to see Ichinojo throw this one in falling to 3-6 while Takanosho is gifted 5-4.

M4 Tamawashi came with his tsuppari attack against Sekiwake Meisei but he was moving backwards with his feet instead of driving forward. Meisei couldn't exactly take advantage and so Tamawashi plodded back forward lethargic in his shove attack while Meisei darted to his right. From there, Tamawashi did square back up, but he just kept his arms high and wide allowing Meisei to fire a few tsuppari into his torso, and Tamawashi happily backpedaled out of the dohyo from there with Meisei shoving in tow. Yaocho was in play here for sure as Meisei moves to 4-5 while Tamawashi falls a notch to 3-6. Tsuki-dashi on the kimari-te? As if.

Sekiwake Mitakeumi was at M2 Kiribayama's bidding today, and the Mongolian slapped quickly with the right hand while henka'ing to his left, and the move was too fast for Mitakeumi to adjust, and so Kiribayama grabbed the left outer grip and just dragged Mitakeumi over to the edge where he pushed him out from behind all in two seconds flat. The move was quick and dirty on the part of Kiribayama as both rikishi end the day at 6-3. More importantly, the bout sent the only Sanyaku/Ozeki rikishi THREE losses behind Terunofuji, and everyone could just feel the basho slipping away at this point of the broadcast.

Komusubi Takayasu moved forward at the tachi-ai against Takakeisho doing nothing but still moving forward nonetheless. As a result, Takakeisho was able to catch up with some hands to the chest before moving left and going for his preferred inashi swipe. The move had little effect on the Komusubi, but Takayasu just wasn't looking to attack here, and so Takakeisho fought away Takayasu's defensive stiff-arms before swiping his left shoulder and turning Takayasu 90 degrees and from there the push-out was academic. This was actually decent sumo from Takakeisho, but that's easy to say when your opponent does nothing to win the bout on his own. Banzuke seniority dictated this one as Takakeisho moves to 5-4 while Takayasu falls to 3-6.

M5 Chiyoshoma was able to shove Shodai back to the edge without really even trying, and you could see the Mongolian just waiting for Shodai to do something. Shodai finally managed an extremely weak inashi swipe with the left, but Chiyoshoma reacted by turning his back to the edge and giving Shodai the middle ground. Still, Shodai was doing nothing and so Chiyoshoma offered one more shove before just jumping forward wildly as if to grab the right outer grip, but what he was really doing was trying to give Shodai the right inside position. Shodai never really secured it, but at that point, Chiyoshoma was already shading backwards as if to pull and so Shodai was finally able to catch up and make it look as if he pushed Chiyoshoma across. It was more the Mongolian moving back on his own, but whatever. All of Shodai's win are the result of indecisive sumo on the faux-zeki's part, so it's nothing we're not used to. Shodai is gifted 6-3 while Chiyoshoma falls to 1-8 and only needs one more win to stay in the division.

The final bout on the day featured Yokozuna Terunofuji facing M4 Daieisho, and from the tachi-ai we got our first red flag when Terunofuji gave up the left inside position in favor of grabbing Daieisho's sagari. It's one thing to accidentally grab the sagari and quickly let them go, but Fuji held onto them for 3 or 4 seconds. As for Daieisho, he was defensive from the start not even attempting to attack with his usual tsuppari, and so with Daieisho vulnerable and Terunofuji failing to take advantage and focusing on those sagari, I knew he was gonna lose at that point.

Terunofuji eventually let the sagari go, but he still had the upper hand with Daieisho ducked low and nary a pot to piss in, but Terunofuji failed to wrap him up kime-style and instead just waited for Daieisho to come out of the clinch executing a few tsuppari that sent a willing Terunofuji upright, and then Daieisho got both arms inside and forced Terunofuji back for the yori-kiri win. I guess "forced" isn't entirely true since Terunofuji was doing half the work here, but the Yokozuna clearly deferred to Daieisho in this one.

I mean, you have a tsuppari or bust guy in Daieisho who doesn't even attempt to attack from the tachi-ai, and then you have Terunofuji who never made an effort to grab a hold of his opponent, and you could just see this result formulating from the start.

You could actually feel it coming with losses by Mitakeumi and Myogiryu earlier in the day. Myogiryu's loss wasn't as consequential because he's not going to yusho anyway, but it did put the next closest rikishi two losses back. What really stung the pride of the Japanese rikishi and the Association as a whole was Mitakeumi falling to three losses back. At the start of the day, Sanbe Announcer and Mainoumi were lamenting this:



There is just nothing to show there from the Sanyaku/Ozeki rikishi, so to have the following leaderboard at the end of Day 9 today would have been unacceptable:

9-0: Terunofuji
7-2: Myogiryu

Fuji's strategic loss today is key because it sorta helps the Association save face in regards to the anemic rikishi they have placed in the elite ranks, and the loss also allows NHK to re-inflate the leaderboard down to three losses...where guys like Shodai and Mitakeumi are conveniently lurking.

It's meaningless to speculate about the yusho race until Terunofuji chooses to drop two more bouts, and even then...can anyone else keep up?

Day 7 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
It's been another quiet day on the news front although it was mentioned that Hoshoryu will return to action on Day 8. With Terunofuji continuing to breeze through the competition, the question now is will the rest of the field be able to keep pace? Due to time constraints on the weekend, let's just cover the jo'i and then the Myogiryu bout since the media seems to think it's swell that a 34 year-old is challenging Terunofuji for the yusho. I guess they need something to keep themselves entertained.

34 year-old M10 Myogiryu faced M7 Shimanoumi who barely put up a fight today. The two bumped heads at the tachi-ai as Myogiryu flirted with the left inside. With the right inside as well he was close to moro-zashi, but Shimanoumi ended up getting his right inside, so Myogiryu happily took the outer left. And that was as exciting as it got because Shimanoumi was listless allowing Myogiryu to score the uncontested force-out win. Myogiryu keeps pace...I guess...at 6-1 while Shimanoumi falls to 3-4.

Let's jump up to M4 Daieisho vs. M2 Kiribayama. Heading into the day, Kiribayama garnered most of the press as a possible dark horse, but today he was solely focused on outdoing Chiyoshoma in the fake fall department. The Mongolian ran straight into Daieisho's outstretched arms without an offensive plan, but Daieisho's thrusts really didn't have any effect so Kiribayama moved to his left faking a swipe into Daieisho's shoulder, but what the Mongolian was really doing was waiting for contact so he could take a dive. Said contact was a light slap to the side of Kiribayama's head, and the dude just flipped himself over parallel to the dohyo as he latched onto Daieisho's left arm to help him spin.

As Kiribayama was heading down the hana-michi in to the back halls, he spotted his tsuke-bito and broke out into a huge grin. You could see his tsuke-bito laughing as well behind his mask, and I did not like the optics of that. If you were really trying to win a bout of sumo, would you be laughing like that after a loss? Of course not. The two were laughing at Kiribayama's theatrics and talk about a lack respect for the sport. Kiribayama intentionally falls to 5-2, the same mark as Daieisho.

On the subject of fake falls, let's say you have a dude that weighs 300 lbs +. How much force do you need to knock him over against his will? With that in mind, let's move to the Komusubi Takayasu - M1 Takanosho matchup. Takanosho stood upright with his hands wide and in no-man's land, and so Takayasu was able to nudge him back near the straw. The problem was that Takayasu was applying no pressure, and so Takanosho moved right anticipating contact from Takayasu. It never really came. I mean, as Takayasu turned, his left arm grazed Takanosho, but the M1 just fell sideways and over. That made for two bouts in a row with implausible falls from the losing rikishi. I mean, Isaac Newton has to be rolling in his grave at the lack of force it takes to move these guys around. Both rikishi end the day at 3-4.

M5 Chiyoshoma kept his hands high and wide against Sekiwake Meisei allowing the Sekiwake to lightly drive him back, But Shoma's backwards motion was due more to his faking pulls than actual pressure applied by Meisei. At the edge, Chiyoshoma moved to his left faking another pull, and Meisei was befuddled even though Chiyoshoma was not trying to win this. As a result Meisei found himself standing upright and vulnerable, and so Chiyoshoma caught him with a roundhouse and began a soft oshi attack, and as Meisei evaded laterally, he barely touched Chiyoshoma by the back of left arm and Chiyoshoma just put both palms to the dirt and then stood right back up. Three obvious yaocho in a row, and things were looking ugly. Meisei was gifted 3-4 while Chiyoshoma fell to 0-7.

Sekiwake Mitakeumi and Komusubi Ichinojo looked to hook up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Mitakeumi actually had both arms inside although extremely shallow. That allowed Ichinojo to grab a stifling left outer grip while he fished for another grip with the right hand. He wouldn't get anything definitive, but he just used his bulk to force Mitakeumi back and across without argument. The media was starting to make a little bit of noise regarding Mitakeumi, but this all but knocks him out of the yusho race at 5-2. As for Ichinojo, he moves to just 3-4 with the easy win.

Takakeisho's tachi-ai made no impact whatsoever against M3 Wakatakakage even though the M3's hands were wide and non-committed. With nothing really happening, Wakatakakage backed up for a pull and Takakeisho was actually vulnerable, but Wakatakakage didn't follow through with the move allowing Takakeisho to survive. As Takakeisho looked to square up, WTK shaded left faking another pull but he was really just standing square and flat-footed waiting for Takakeisho to shove him. And shove him he did knocking Wakatakakage onto his butt and off the dohyo altogether. Takakeisho knew the fix was in because he never once went for a pull or a swipe. When he has to fight on his own, he'll maybe go for one shove and then immediately go for the pull. He didn't even think about it here because he knew the fix was in. Both rikishi end the day at 3-4.

M4 Tamawashi kept his arms wide open at the tachi-ai allowing Shodai to get the left inside, and once it was there, Tamawashi just wrapped his arms around Shodai's left and pulled Shodai into his own body backpedaling straight out of the ring. You could tell who was in full control here by the way both dudes exited the dohyo. Shodai stumbled down onto all fours across the straw while Tamawashi just looked back and hopped off the dohyo. Obviously fake bout here as Shodai is gifted 5-2 while Tamawashi falls to 3-4.

Yokozuna Terunofuji welcomed M3 Kotonowaka and the M3 did well to use some straight arms into Fuji's body to keep him away from the inside. The two grappled like this for a few seconds with Terunofuji being patient and Kotonowaka unable to do any damage to the Yokozuna. After eight seconds or so Kotonowaka got the right arm to the inside, and that allowed Fuji to move in and force the bout chest to chest. Fuji the Terrible eventually both got two outer grips to Kotonowaka's shallow moro-zashi, and Baby Waka could do nothing to stop the Yokozuna's force-out attempt. Great effort by Kotonowaka, and you can see that the kid has some tools as he falls to 2-5. As for Terunofuji, he stands alone at the top at 7-0.

Day 6 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
With no Makuuchi withdrawals in between days, the headlines seemed to focus mainly on the rare kimari-te we saw yesterday. I also saw a headline that read, "There are only four kimari-te we've never seen in Makuuchi. Who will be the first to pull one of them off?" This type of focus on the sport always bugs me because it implies that sound sumo can't carry the day, or the headlines in this case. Sound sumo was definitely absent on Day 5, so I had higher hopes coming into Friday. Because a major typhoon was making it's way across the northern tip of Kyushu and into west Honshu on Day 6, the sumo broadcast was pre-empted a bit causing me to miss the intro.

The sumo began with M17 Chiyonokuni facing former Makuuchi mainstay, J3 Sadanoumi. You'd hardly knew that Kuni was undefeated coming into the bout because his sumo has been full of compromises and mediocre. Today he came with his usual tsuppari attack, which kept Sadanoumi away from the belt, but it had such little impact that Umi just yanked Chiyonokuni sideways by his extended right arm and then pushed him out straightway from there. At 5-1 now Chiyonokuni will continue to garner zero headlines.

M15 Ichiyamamoto can barely move in the ring, and so M13 Kagayaki caught him in two hazu-grips (think pushing up at the side boob on both sides) from the tachi-ai and shoved him back and across hazu-oshi style without argument. Kagayaki is a cool 4-2 and is setting himself up nicely to sell a ton of bouts down the road. As for Ichiyamamoto, make-koshi seems inevitable for the dude at 1-5.

M16 Tokushoryu offered a stiff-arm into M13 Tsurugisho's torso from the tachi-ai, but it did no damage and enabled Tsurugisho to force the bout to migi-yotsu, his preferred style. With Tokushoryu standing there like a bump on a log, Tsurugisho tested the force out waters while reaching for a left outer grip, and while his crocodile arms weren't quite long enough to secure the belt, he was able to reverse gears at the edge and throw the listless Tokushoryu over and down with a nice tsuki-otoshi to the side. Tsurugisho is even steven at 3-3 while Tokushoryu is hapless at 1-5. And to think that Tokushoryu actually took the Makuuchi yusho last year...

M12 Tochinoshin and M14 Yutakayama hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Yutakayama grabbed the early right outer grip, but before he could really attack with it, Tochinoshin wrenched him over to the edge with his left inside position, and from there the Private was able to grab a solid right outer grip of his own. With Yutakayama's grip on one fold of a loose belt, he had little momentum to stave off Tochinoshin's force-out charge giving Tochinoshin the solid win in the end. It's laughable to watch sumo like this from Tochinoshin and then to think he couldn't have done the same thing against previous opponents like Endoh or Chiyotairyu. He moves to just 2-4 with the win while Yutakayama falls to 3-3.

Speaking of M11 Endoh, he reached for the front of M16 Chiyomaru's belt at the tachi-ai but was pushed away by Maru's initial tsuppari, but Chiyomaru wasn't driving with his legs and just kept his arms up high intentionally exposing himself, and so Endoh was able to retool his attack and get the left arm inside with the righter outer grip to boot. With Chiyomaru just standing there, Endoh went for a tiny uwate-nage, and that was Maru's cue to just swan dive to the dirt. They ruled it uwate-dashi-nage, which is comical because I've never seen anyone execute a dashi-nage without using their feet. Until now I guess. Endoh continues to buy bouts hand over fist this basho in moving to 4-2 while Chiyomaru nonchalantly falls to 3-3.

M15 Chiyonooh and M11 Kotoeko hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Chiyonooh reached for and grabbed a left outer grip, but the two didn't seem comfortable digging and going chest to chest, so they sashayed to the other side of the ring where Chiyonooh wrenched Kotoeko to the edge with a hurried outer belt grip throw. He lost his grip mid-throw, but he was just able to body Kotoeko across the straw that last half step to pick up the win. This bout was not fought well at all, but it was real so I'll take it as Chiyonooh moves to 3-3 while Kotoeko falls to 2-4.

M10 Myogiryu henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai against M14 Kaisei, and Kaisei's reaction was to just keep plodding forward instead of squaring up with Myogiryu and securing the right arm inside...a position that was open to him. With Kaisei mukiryoku from the gate, Myogiryu quickly pounced forward and just as Kaisei slowly squared back up at the edge, Myogiryu was there to execute the final push out. Remember how we talked about the oshi-dashi kimari-te being highly inflated a few basho ago? This was a great example of just that as Myogiryu buys his way to 5-1 while Kaisei is picking daisies at 2-4.

M10 Chiyotairyu just pulverized M7 Shimanoumi from the starting lines with that freight train tsuppari attack we used to see from Tairyu quite regularly. These days we're lucky to see it twice a basho, but we were treated to it here as Chiyotairyu just destroyed Shimanoumi off of his line and forced him back in wham bam thank you ma'am style. That Chiyotairyu doesn't attempt this kind of sumo every bout is a clear indication of how steeped he is into bout fixing. Both rikishi end the day at 3-3.

M7 Terutsuyoshi ducked low against M9 Hidenoumi and easily grabbed Hidenoumi's right like in true ashi-tori fashion, and before Hidenoumi could react, Terutsuyoshi had his opponent lifted up and hopping beyond the straw in mere seconds. Terutsuyoshi moves to 3-3 with the crafty move while Hidenoumi falls to 2-4.

Somebody thinks it's a good idea to have M6 Ura win instead of getting his ass kicked on a daily basis, so the fix was in the third day in a row with today's willing participant M9 Aoiyama. Aoiyama put two hands forward at the tachi-ai but made sure not to use his legs, and the result was both rikishi clasping both hands right there in the center of the ring. I'll admit, I was a bit jealous by all the hand holding, but in time Ura did go for a quick pull. Aoiyama's reaction was to just stand there flat-footed which tells you he had no mind to move forward, but then Ura just backed up to the edge, and so Aoiyama followed in tow lightly putting his hands and forearm high into Ura's head instead of just pushing him out with a body blow. With Aoiyama purposefully wrangling up high, the two moved back to the center of the ring for more hand holding until Ura went for the right inside. Aoiyama's reaction was to turn his body 90 degrees and just stare at Ura waiting for him to take advantage as pictured at right. There was this awkward pause for a second or two before Aoiyama realized Ura wasn't going to do anything, and so Aoiyama put his hand at the side of Ura's head as if to pull, but the pull never came finally allowing Ura to sorta push his self-compromised foe across and down to the venue floor.

This one was ruled oshi-dashi by default, but Ura's strategy was anything but oshi. He came with zero tsuppari in this bout, and the oshi-dashi was only a result of Aoiyama's keeping his hands high and body upright at the edge so Ura could score the ill-gotten win. I'm glad I brought the oshi-dashi kimari-te being inflated up a few bouts ago because this was an even better example. There is no way on God's green earth that Ura could beat Aoiyama in oshi-zumo, but there it is on the board for all to see. This was also one of the three bouts NHK News 9 featured on their sports broadcast. Let's see...you have two guys coming into the day at 2-3...the highest rank between them is M6. The winning technique is the most common one in sumo these days. What could possibly make this a bout of interest?

That's what I thought. Ura buys one again in moving to 3-3 while Aoiyama willingly falls to 2-4.

M8 Tobizaru just stood there at the tachi-ai allowing M6 Onosho to cue up a left ottsuke to Tobizaru's right torso, and there was zero resistance from Tobizaru as Onosho pushed him over to the side and out dumping him right into the lap of the gyoji in waiting. I mean, Tobizaru didn't move a muscle from the start. How can anybody watch this bout and not deem Tobizaru as mukiryoku? I'm just incredulous watching some of this stuff. Onosho moves to 5-1 in the obviously-arranged bout while Tobizaru falls to 4-2.

M8 Okinoumi and M5 Takarafuji struck well at the tachi-ai looking like they'd go to yotsu-zumo, but Takarafuji didn't want to go chest to chest, and so there was some movement and jockeying around the ring, but in the end, Okinoumi was able to work his way into moro-zashi and it was curtains for Takarafuji at that point. This was a decent bout of sumo between two veterans, and at least it was real. Okinoumi moves to 4-2 with the easy win while Takarafuji falls to 3-3.

At the M5 rank, Chiyoshoma can go just 2-13 and still not get demoted from the division, so the dude has been banking cash the entire basho. Today against M1 Takanosho, Chiyoshoma faked a pull from the tachi-ai without following through, but the move befuddled Takanosho and took him completely out of any rhythm. From there, it was all Chiyoshoma moving this way and that pretending to set up pull after pull but just coming up short darn the luck. In the end, Chiyoshoma faked a keta-guri but only used that to put both hands high at the back of Takanosho's head and wait. Problem was that Takanosho didn't have any momentum the entire bout, and so it was Chiyoshoma who finally executed a pull making sure to step out before Takanosho hit the ground. They had no choice to rule this one oshi-dashi as well, but you'd be hard pressed to find a single shove that Takanosho executed that had any effect. The loser did all the work here as Takanosho is gifted 3-3 while an 0-6 Shoma laughs all the way to the bank.

The silliness would continue as both Komusubi stepped into the ring to face off. Ichinojo looked to take charge with a nice oshi attack from the tachi-ai, and he had Takayasu driven back near the edge in no time, but he refused to go for the kill waiting for Takayasu to make some kind of contact. It came in the form of Takayasu's touching his right arm at the back of Ichinojo's left armpit, and that wasn't even a tsuki, but it was Ichinojo's cue to just run himself across the straw. You particularly watch this one in slow motion replay and you're like, "How did that contact send one of the biggest guys two meters to the side?" It didn't. It was Ichinojo's doing all the work and giving Takayasu the cheap win if I've ever seen one. Both dudes finish the day at 2-2.

Sekiwake Mitakeumi lowered his head into M3 Kotonowaka at the tachi-ai as the M3 just stood there literally doing nothing except allowing his opponent to drive him back. Mitakeumi sorta had the right arm inside and he was sorta pushing with the left, but this was just a pre-determined bout that saw Kotonowaka stand there with his hands to the side doing nothing the entire time. Mitakeumi moves to 5-1 with the gift while Kotonowaka's time will likely come eventually. For now he's 2-4.

M4 Daieisho suddenly remembered his tsuppari attack today against Sekiwake Meisei after that debacle yesterday vs. Ura. Daieisho caught Meisei with a nice left to the neck while pushing with the right, and that forced Meisei to mawari-komu to his right and look for a pull you would have thought, but instead Meisei just put both heels against the straw and ducked forward waiting for Daieisho to pull him down. That fall was way too easy from such a light pull, but whatever. Politics pervade sumo to no end, and this was another example with Daieisho moving to 4-2 while Meisei falls to 2-4.

You'd have to say the most anticipated matchup on the day was Shodai vs. M2 Kiribayama, a contest that saw both dudes come into the day at 4-1. Kiribayama grabbed the left frontal grip from the tachi-ai that started off as an outer, but Shodai brought that right arm to the outside so as to not be entirely cuffed and stuffed. Really, Shodai's only hope at this point was to focus on a counter kote-nage with the right arm, but the move had zero effect other than to give Kiribayama the solid right outer grip, and the Mongolian positioned himself perfectly in a yotsu stance driving Shodai back and across before the faux-zeki knew what hit him.

You watch this bout and go, "Wait, whose the Ozeki here?" The ironic thing too is that let's suppose Kiribayama agreed to throw this bout in Shodai's favor. Shodai could not execute the same level of sumo we saw today from Kiribayama even against a mukiryoku opponent. I mean, Kiribayama was so precise. He easily won the tachi-ai, got the frontal belt grip, lifted his foe upright, and then pounced at the momentum shift when Shodai went for a counter move. It was just beautiful to watch unlike any of Shodai's "wins" legitimate or not. The result here is Kiribayama's moving to 5-1 while Shodai falls to 4-2.

M4 Tamawashi was not loaded for bear at the tachi-ai allowing Takakeisho to deliver his best shot, but Takakeisho's charge was as limp as a wet rag, and so Tamawashi easily absorbed his opponent's attack before slowly dancing right while threatening a few pulls. Despite Tamawashi's having his foot against the tawara, Takakeisho did not dare come forward and attack instead thinking about a pull as he timidly back pedaled. Tamawashi's reaction was to come out of pull mode and just move forward firing a few tsuppari that easily sent Takakeisho back across the straw. You try and find one positive aspect of Takakeisho's sumo here, and you'd have to say the tachi-ai because Takakeisho actually moved forward. The problem was that it had zero impact against Tamawashi, and so the faux-zeki was completely at Tamawashi's bidding today and he knew it and he quit as a result. As they watched the slow motion replay, Wakamatsu-oyakata commenting from the mukou-joumen chair described Takakeisho's sumo in one word today:  "kowasa," or fear.  The comment was spot on, and how can you have an Ozeki who displays fear when fighting an M4...in a normal world that is?  Tamawashi pulls even at 3-3 with the win while Takakeisho falls to 2-4.

In the day's final bout, M3 Wakatakakage kept his arms in tight against Yokozuna Terunofuji denying anything to the inside before going for a quick pull. That pull from WTK didn't have a chance in succeeding, and I think it was more in an effort to get the hell away from Fuji the Terrible and make him give chase. Fuji was cautious as he approached the M3, and then he was finally able to wrap Wakatakakage up with both arms around the side of WTK's limbs. Now in the kime position (and Wakatakakage in a useless moro-zashi position), Terunofuji worked his magic wrenching the youngster this way and that and back to the straw and finally across. Wakatakakage gave it a good fight, but he was reeled in by the Yokozuna early and had no escape. The result of this bout coupled with Chiyonokuni's loss to start the day leaves the Yokozuna as the only unblemished rikishi at 6-0. As for Wakatakakage, he'll live to fight again at 3-3.

Last basho, the Mongolian Yokozuna (both Hakuho and Fuji the Terrible) did not show a willingness to give up any silly losses. Terunofuji gave three up two basho ago but still took the yusho when nobody else could creep up to fill the void, and it feels like that's the case this tournament. With no one there to fill the void, Terunofuji just keeps on winning.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
With no major headlines occupying the news at the end of Day 4, we received notification of a flurry of withdrawals prior to the Day 5 contests. First, M2 Hokutofuji announced his withdrawal citing a right knee injury suffered during his bout with Terunofuji the previous day, and then it was announced that M1 Hoshoryu had withdrawn due to a bout of tonsillitis. I presume that Hoshoryu will rejoin the fray later on if he tests negative for Covid, but the kid is a wildcard that I think even the Japanese fans are learning to appreciate. You get to the last 30 minutes of the broadcast and a lot of the thought surrounding the Japanese rikishi is, "Just don't eff anything up," but with Hoshoryu, people actually enjoy watching his sumo.

We may as well start at the bottom and work our way up again, and so that means M15 Ichiyamamoto was up first against J3 Wakamotoharu. The two came out thrusting from the tachi-ai, but IYM's hands were higher than they should have been, and so the J3 looked to gain the upper hand. Ichiyamamoto's pull attempts didn't help him either, and after the two traded places in the dohyo, Wakamotoharu was able to get up and under a pull-happy Ichiyamamoto and easily push him down to the venue floor. Ichiyamamoto was gimpy again climbing back atop the dohyo, so we'll see how long he can last at 1-4.

M16 Tokushoryu has been lost with his sumo the past few basho, and it showed again today vs. M14 Yutakayama. Tokushoryu didn't even look for the belt or the inside instead agreeing to a thrust contest with the taller Yutakayama who managed to turn Tokushoryu around with a left grip to the outside of his belt, and the okuri-dashi win was academic at that point. Yutakayama moves to 3-2 with the nice win while Tokushoryu falls to 1-4.

The reason nobody is excited about M17 Chiyonokuni is because of bouts like the one he had against M14 Kaisei today. Kuni's tachi-ai was horrible and it enabled Kaisei to knock him back a few steps from the initial charge even though Kaisei wasn't looking to grab onto his opponent. With Kaisei just standing there, Chiyonokuni went for one of those useless swipes down the front of a guy's body as he darted left, and Kaisei played along just fumbling forward and out of the dohyo altogether. Chiyonokuni was so slow here he couldn't even score the okuri-dashi win, so they had to rule it hiki-otoshi. I rule it yaocho through and through as Chiyonokuni barfs his way to 5-0 while Kaisei falls to 2-3 a richer dude.

M13 Tsurugisho's fever has subsided allowing him to return to the dohyo today to face M16 Chiyomaru, and what a treat it was! I think he managed to pull off the slowest tachi-ai henka in the history of sumo moving to his left and going for a weak pull to which Chiyomaru didn't bother to adjust. After running to the edge, he finally turned around in time for Tsurugisho to offer that last shove sending Maru down to a harmless 3-2 record while Tsurugisho picks up the laugher at 2-3.

M13 Kagayaki had the nice hazu position from the tachi-ai against M15 Chiyonooh, and that halted Oh in his tracks and led him to test the pull waters, but Kagayaki is just too big and good to be fooled like that, and he pounced against his retreating foe scoring the easy push out win in moving to 3-2. Chiyonooh falls to 2-3 in sound defeat.

M12 Tochinoshin failed to grab M10 Chiyotairyu from the tachi-ai even though Tairyu brought no force whatsoever. With Tochinoshin's hands in no man's land at the side of Chiyotairyu's body, it enabled Tairyu to slowly shift left and go for a soft pull, but Tochinoshin just went along with it turning sideways and down flopping to the dohyo and giving Chiyotairyu (2-3) the cheap win. Tochinoshin falls to 1-4 in defeat.

M8 Hidenoumi was quick out of the gate against M11 Kotoeko getting his right arm inside and forcing the bout to yotsu-zumo, but the two weren't solidly planted to the dohyo so instead of going chest to chest, there was a lot of maneuvering around the ring with right arms halfway inside. After the two gathered their wits a bit, Kotoeko cut off Hidenoumi's right inside position, but the taller Umi grabbed a left outer grip using it in an attempt to throw Eko over to the side. Hidenoumi wasn't positioned well enough to pull the uwate-nage off, and so Kotoeko slipped out of it at the edge, but as Eko looked to skirt right, Hidenoumi did the hustle and knocked his butt into the side of Kotoeko causing him to step out before he could mawari-komu. They ruled it ushiro-motare, and it was something like five years since we've seen that winning technique.

Full disclosure...there is no such thing as a spoiler for me in sumo. I know all of the results even before I start watching the broadcast, and I saw the media making a big deal out of this bout, but in my opinion, if you thought this ushiro-motare win was a big deal, you're far too easily entertained. It was a below average bout of sumo with a fluke ending as both rikishi end the day at 2-3.

So much for M11 Endoh being on a roll. Today against M9 Aoiyama he didn't pony up, and so Aoiyama cradled Endoh's melon in both hands from the tachi-ai and then just backed up pulling Endoh forward and down in the process. It took about two uneventful seconds as Aoiyama improves to 2-3 while Endoh falls to 3-2.

M8 Tobizaru ducked his head way down low at the tachi-ai against M10 Myogiryu, but instead of taking advantage, Myogiryu just stood there with his left arm extended as if to kachi-age. Such a move never came, and Myogiryu just waited for Tobizaru to swipe at that arm before he flopped to the dirt. What an ugly display of fixed sumo here as both dudes finish the day at 4-1.

Before we move on, there are a host of guys now at 4-1 and even Chiyonokuni at 5-0, but nobody has generated hype in the funny papers yet because the sumo content of all these dudes is just crap. This bout didn't feel like one with yusho implications, and neither did Chiyonokuni's because the content is so lacking.

If Tsurugisho showed us the slowest henka ever earlier in the day, M7 Terutsuyoshi showed us the most half-assed. Against M7 Shimanoumi, the dude took a short step to his left and just stood up barely bothering to slap with one hand. Problem was that Shimanoumi took forever to adjust to the move, and by the time he did, Terutsuyoshi was ready to mawari-komu to his left. Shimanoumi did manage to extend his right arm as if to fish for something to the inside, and so Terutsuyoshi just grabbed that arm and pulled Shimanoumi directly into Terutsuyoshi's own body manufacturing the fake oshi-dashi win. What a bad day of sumo this has been, and it's crap bouts like this that contribute to the mess. Shimanoumi improves...I guess...to 3-2 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 2-3.

The yaocho would continue as M8 Okinoumi refused to grab M6 Onosho from the tachi-ai even though Okinoumi had the clear opening. Instead, Okinoumi went through the pull motions, but he wasn't committed to the move whatsoever. Rather, he was setting him self to be pushed out with ease, and so Onosho clued in instigating a tsuppari attack before Okinoumi went for another dumb pull near the edge just walking himself back and across with Onosho in tow. Another bad bout of sumo here as Onosho moves to 4-1 while Okinoumi had plenty of room to sell at 3-2.

M5 Chiyoshoma had the path to the front of M5 Takarafuji's belt at the tachi-ai but didn't grab it, and then with Takarafuji doing nothing with his hands, Shoma had the opening to the right outer grip at the back of Fuji's belt beyond the knot, but darn the luck...he just couldn't hold onto it. Still, Takarafuji wasn't doing much, but as Chiyoshoma stood there, Takarafuji touched him lightly on the gut and that was the Mongolian's cue to put both palms to the dirt and then plop right back up. Can the bout fixing get anymore obvious than this? Unfortunately the answer is yes as Takarafuji moves to 3-2 while Chiyoshoma voluntarily falls to 0-5.

Okay, it gets worse now with M6 Ura vs. M4 Daieisho. Daieisho offered some soft tsuppari at the tachi-ai, but if you look at his feet they were perfectly aligned as he had no intention of applying any real pressure to Ura. For Ura's part, he ducked low and waited for Daieisho to do all the work, and after a few fake thrusts and pull attempts form Daieisho, Ura go to the left side of him, and so Daieisho just stood there as Ura took about two seconds to lift his guy and hoist him across the straw. They ruled it okuri-tsuru-dashi, but this had about as much oomph to it as a white guy doing a layup at the front of the rim, touching the rim as the ball goes through the net, and then proudly proclaiming he just dunked. Yeah, I guess.

This bout was as fake as it gets. I mean, Ura took forever setting up that silly move, and what was Daieisho doing the whole time? Just standing there with his butt facing his foe and going along with it all. Two seconds is a long time in a sumo bout, so for Daieisho to just stand there and wait for it all to happen was unconscionable. It's just silly how Ura appears to be this magician when his foes let up for him, but he gets his ass handed to him right and proper in straight up bouts. Easy one to call here as Ura moves to 2-3 while Daieisho had room to sell at 3-2.

At this point of the broadcast they announced the withdrawal of Hokutofuji that gave M1 Takanosho the freebie boosting his record to 2-3.

The next scheduled bout was Komusubi Takayasu vs. M1 Hoshoryu, but with the latter's throat problems and subsequent withdrawal, Takayasu picked up a much needed win...his first winna the basho in fact at 1-4. Dude needed it for sure because he's looked awful the first four days.

Komusubi Ichinojo struck Sekiwake Meisei at the tachi-ai knocking him back a full step, but before the Mongolith could latch onto his opponent, Meisei darted right looking to show Ichinojo the trap door. The problem was there was too much separation between the two, so before Meisei could reinitiate contact, Ichinojo squared back up and moved left executing a nice pull of Meisei in the process. Ichinojo was just too big and surprisingly too fast here pulverizing Meisei as both dudes end the day at 2-3.

M4 Tamawashi fired two or three thrusts into Sekiwake Mitakeumi's neck at the tachi-ai but The Mawashi was actually moving backwards as he did so. It wasn't like Mitakeumi was doing jack shat, however, and so Tamawashi moved forward again going through the tsuppari motions a second time, but he wasn't applying any pressure, and so Mitakeumi was finally able to skirt right and go for a mediocre pull. Tamawashi's reaction was predictable as he put both palms to the dirt before flopping forward and down. Mitakeumi did none of the work here in moving to 4-1 while Tamawashi drops to 2-3.

M3 Kotonowaka shaded to his right at the tachi-ai against Takakeisho, but it was more of an effort to move backwards and give Takakeisho the momentum than it was to execute a sneak attack. As Takakeisho looked to catch up, Kotonowaka next moved left while still backpedaling, and so Takakeisho stayed in hot pursuit trying to connect on a few tsuppari. It lasted maybe two seconds and looked good to the sheep, but if you watch the slow motion replay, Kotonowaka's backwards movement is dictated by himself, not by any contact that Takakeisho is making.

Another way to put it, if you looked down at the dohyo from above and Takakeisho was standing at 12 o'clock, Kotonowaka's backwards motion heads towards four o'clock and then over to 7 o'clock. Takakeisho was just trying to keep up as Kotonowaka provided the directional movement in this one. Takakeisho buys another one here as both rikishi end the day at 2-3.

What in the hell was THAT tachi-ai, Wakatakakage? They say you're never supposed to align your feet at the initial charge, but leaning your body backwards while you put one foot forward?? That guarantees you'll get destroyed even against Shodai, and that's what happened to the M3 as Shodai knocked him off balance causing Wakatakakage to stumble his way outta the ring in less than two seconds. I just watch this stuff and shake my head in disbelief that the top division of any professional sport could produce such bad technique and execution. It goes without saying that Wakatakakage (3-2) threw this one in favor of Shodai who now finds himself at 4-1.

After the bout, the announcers of course played the angle that Shodai was strong and dominant, and Oguruma-oyakata said, "This is the kind of sumo that got him to Ozeki in the first place!" Uh...what? In the thousands upon thousands of sumo bouts I've watched over my lifetime, I have never seen a guy end up in the position of Wakatakakage after a hard tachi-ai. That was completely voluntary. As they queued up the slow motion replay, they were ready to indentify the blow that caused such a reaction from Wakatakakage, but the NHK Announcer started to suggest a kachi-age before pausing a bit because there wasn't anything definitive. I mean, you look at this still shot I took of the tachi-ai, and Shodai's head is raised; his hips are higher than they should be; and neither arm is delivering a crushing blow into Wakatakakage's torso.

Did Shodai make contact at the tachi-ai? Of course he did. Did he strike so hard that it would have knocked WTK into that position? Absolutely not. Has any rikishi in the history of the sport knocked a guy into that position? Not that I've ever seen. The only way you end up like that is if you're leaning your body backwards to begin with. I think the most telling aspect of this bout is that Shodai could not win by oshi-taoshi or tsuki-taoshi even with Wakatakakage in that position. In the end, the M3 was in full control of his footwork as he exited the ring.

Moving right along, Yokozuna Terunofuji welcomed M2 Kiribayama in a bout that featured two rikishi coming into the day at 4-0. From the tachi-ai, Terunofuji got the right arm inside and tried to wrap his left arm around the outside of Kiribayama's right, but the latter stayed on the move not wanting to go chest to chest. After about six seconds of grappling and movement, the two became socially distanced before Fuji next reached his left arm to the inside grabbing the front of Kiribayama's belt. That allowed the M2 to grab a right outer, but that's a largely useless grip against Terunofuji especially without the left inside. The two hunkered down in this position for close to 30 seconds before Kiribayama tried a maki-kae with the right. He got it, but he was too tired to execute anything from it, and so Terunofuji committed to a force out charge using the left inside position and right outer grip in the end to finish his foe off. Terunofuji is spotless at 5-0 while Kiribayama falls to 4-1.

Overall, this was the worst day of sumo so far content-wise but I get why they need to manufacture these sub plots to keep people interested and entertained. Tamawashi is the only guy on the banzuke who can defeat Terunofuji, but I don't see that happening when they are paired together down the road, so this will be yet another tournament where the drama lies in Terunofuji's willingness to lose in order to manufacture a yusho race.

Day 4 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
In between Day 3 and Day 4, I checked the wires every hour to see if Takakeisho would announce his kyujo. It's a tough spot for a guy like that who starts out 0-3. There is no sense spending money on seven bouts only to still get demoted from the Ozeki rank, so the decision has to be made as to whether or not the Takakeisho camp can scrape together enough cash to buy eight wins. I suppose he can still fall from the rank and then try to win 10 next basho, but that's even more money, so we'd get a good glimpse of the faux-zeki's intentions today.

We may as well start there since we're talking about it, and Takakeisho's Day 4 opponent was M1 Hoshoryu...a rikishi that Takakeisho has no chance beating straight up. You could just see that the faux-zeki was a different dude from the tachi-ai, and that happens when he knows he's going to win. He came forward well knocking Hoshoryu back a step with a dual thrust attack, but he still couldn't help going for a pull right after. Problem was that Hoshoryu wasn't ready to go down yet, and so you had Takakeisho in the middle of a retreat and Hoshoryu steaming forward. The Mongolian predictably applied little pressure firing a few soft thrusts before grabbing Takakeisho's belt with the right. At this point Takakeisho was so upright it was silly, and the M1 could have easily driven his legs forward scoring the yori-kiri then and there, but he paused and let Takakeisho assume the left kote position. Hoshoryu waited for the throw to come, but it was so weak there was no pressure mounted against Hoshoryu from which to dive, and so the two spun around the ring a half turn before becoming separated. As Hoshoryu moved back towards his foe, Takakeisho fired off that wide left tsuki that barely connected, but it was Hoshoryu's cue to just put both palms to the tawara as he danced out of the dohyo in full control.

What a silly bout this was as Hoshoryu was mukiryoku start to finish. All we heard about in the media the first three days was Takakeisho's "kubi no mondai," or neck problems. Did that look like a guy out there with a sore neck moving around like that? Of course not. Takakeisho's neck wasn't hurt the first three days of the tournament just like it wasn't bothering him today. The difference today is that he knew he was going to win coming into the bout and so he put on his badass panties and tried his best to put on a show. The show was barely mediocre, but that's one down and seven to go as the faux-zeki moves to 1-3. Hoshoryu falls to the same mark, but dude knows his place. He's only 21 and likely a future Yokozuna.

Moving all the way down to the first bout on the day, J2 Kyokutaisei visited from Juryo to take on M15 Chiyonooh, and from the get-go you could tell this was a legit bout of sumo. Taisei shaded a bit left grabbing the outer grip, but Chiyonooh immediately secured the right inside position, and the textbook bout of yotsu-zumo was on. Normally when a dude moves laterally to grab a cheap outer grip, he has a tough time getting the inside position on the other side, but Kyokutaisei had the right inside enough to where he had Oh cuffed and stuffed. Oh's belt was coming a bit loose keeping him in the bout, but Kyokutaisei was persistent and ended up scoring the perfect yori-kiri win. Everything here from the belt grips to the angles to the footwork was precise and correct. This was one of the best fought bouts of sumo the entire tournament as Kyokutaisei picks up his first win while Chiyonooh falls to 2-2.

M16 Tokushoryu stuck a paw into M14 Kaisei's throat at the tachi-ai and then retreated throwing the Brasilian off balance, but not enough, and so as Kaisei looked to charge forward, Tokushoryu moved right looking to surprise his foe with a pull or a tug. It didn't quite work and as Kaisei came forward again with nice shoves, Tokushoryu darted back left, but he just couldn't move fast enough to evade Kaisei who was on the prowl. Kaisei finally pinned Tokushoryu upright at the edge and shoved him across for the nice win. This wasn't as technical as the previous bout, but it was still well fought from both parties...Tokushoryu's best against Kaisei's best, and Kaisei came out on top moving to 2-2 in the process while Tokushoryu falls to 1-3.

M15 Ichiyamamoto and M14 Yutakayama both came with nice tsuppari at the tachi-ai, but the more experienced and simply better Yutakayama began to nudge Ichiyamamoto back. At that point, the youngster thought about a pull, and that allowed Yutakayama to force him to the edge, and so Ichiyamamoto's only choice was to run for his life around the edge of the dohyo to his right, but Yutakayama's momentum was just too good, and he caught Ichiyamamoto on the other side of the dohyo and sent him into the 3rd row of the suna-kaburi. Wow, another well-contested bout as Yutakayama moves to 2-2 while Ichiyamamoto's struggles continue in straight up bouts at 1-3. Ichiyamamoto got up slowly favoring his knee, so we'll see how he fares moving forward.

At this point of the broadcast, they announced the withdrawal of M13 Tsurugisho. Apparently the dude came down with a fever overnight, and so they kept him out to be safe. His PCR test came up negative, so he'll likely return soon, but he's going to have to dig himself out of a 1-3 hole. As for Chiyonokuni, he'll take the freebie on his way to a nice 4-0 start.

M11 Endoh faced M13 Kagayaki and with these two you have a gimpy Endoh who has been buying his wins so far and Kagayaki who is all too eager to sell, and that's what transpired today. Kagayaki caught Endoh from the tachi-ai with some nice paws to the neck and drove him back in short order, but at the edge you could see Kagayaki pause in his attack and wait for Endoh to attempt a counter move. Said move wasn't much. Endoh moved to his right and really didn't make significant contact with his foe, but instead of trying to adjust, Kagayaki just kept moving forward and flopped across the edge rolling over in self-inflicted defeat. Endoh fakes his way to 3-1 with the bout while Kagayaki falls to 2-2.

M16 Chiyomaru intentionally whiffed with his right hand thrust attempt while keeping his left arm in light kachi-age position against M11 Kotoeko, but all Maru was doing was exposing his inside to his foe. Kotoeko didn't take the inside, however, and so Maru went through the motions of pretending to shove, but he was just waiting for Kotoeko do return fire of his own. When he finally did, Chiyomaru was all too happy to fake a pull or two in order to give himself an excuse to retreat to the edge and there Kotoeko finally caught him with some shoves to the torso that sent him out. If you watch the replay, you'll notice that all of Chiyomaru's movements backwards are voluntarily and not the result of any contact made by Eko. Chiyomaru sells his first loss at 3-1 while Kotoeko buys his way to 2-2. Tsuki-dashi? Hardly.

M10 Myogiryu moved to his left at the tachi-ai looking for the cheap outer grip against M12 Tochinoshin, but his hand slipped off the belt leaving him vulnerable. As for Tochinoshin, the natural move would have been to adjust and get the right inside, but that arm was pointing straight down and well out of harm's way. Instead of making Myogiryu pay for that tachi-ai, Tochinoshin just squared back up and waited for Myogiryu to come forward, and as he did using a shove attack, Tochinoshin faked a bad pull and just walked himself to the edge with Myogiryu in tow. The push out was non-contested as Myogiryu buys his fourth win while Tochinoshin falls to 1-3. Mainoumi explained it as Tochinoshin not being genki, but how is that possible? A guy has to fight five seconds every 24 hours. How can he not be genki? If something was really wrong they'd detect it at keiko, but Tochinoshin is just peddling bouts here and I don't blame him. He's gonna retire a rich fella.

Speaking of peddling bouts, M9 Aoiyama has been on a roll of his own coming into the day 0-3, and his opponent today was M10 Chiyotairyu. The latter barely put up a fight as Aoiyama greeted him with a nice tsuppari charge and then drove him back and across according to his own will and pleasure. As is usually the case, Chiyotairyu doesn't even try against the bigger foreigners as both rikishi end the day at 1-3.

M8 Okinoumi struck M9 Hidenoumi well at the tachi-ai getting the left arm firmly inside and you could see Hidenoumi try and avoid the chest to chest clash by backing up and thinking about a maki-kae. With Hidenoumi on the retreat looking to counter and Okinoumi pressing forward nicely, Okinoumi was able to secure moro-zashi has Hidenoumi moved to his left, and before Hidenoumi could set up a counter tsuki-otoshi, Okinoumi pinned him in place and just plowed forward setting up the nice yori-taoshi win. Easy does it for Okinoumi who moves to 3-1 while Hidenoumi is listless at 1-3.

M7 Shimanoumi caught M8 Tobizaru with a nice right paw to the neck at the tachi-ai, and that helped Shimanoumi drive Tobizaru back near the edge. When it was clear that Tobizaru was not going to swipe Shimanoumi off balance, he moved right to the other side of the dohyo only to have Shimanoumi force the bout to migi-yotsu with the nice right inside position. Shimanoumi used that position to raise Tobizaru upright, which also brought Tobizaru's right hip into the perfect place for Umi to grab the left outer, and once he obtained, he wasted no time in bowling Tobizaru over uwate-nage style. On one hand I want to say "great sumo from Shimanoumi (2-2)" but on the other hand he was fighting Tobizaru (3-1).

M7 Terutsuyoshi was a bit late coming out of his stance giving M6 Onosho some confidence in his forward moving tsuppari attack, but the thrusts were not pushing Terutsuyoshi around, and so he had more than enough room to backpedal and then bait Onosho into a pull trip with Onosho moving forward and Terutsuyoshi suddenly darting right. The hataki-komi worked like a charm sending Onosho to his first loss at 3-1 while Terutsuyoshi moves to 2-2.

M5 Chiyoshoma and M6 Ura both came into the day winless albeit for different reasons. After two false starts form Chiyoshoma, Ura was late on the third attempt, which would normally spell trouble, but not if the bout is arranged. Chiyoshoma rushed forward against Ura who had ducked down low, but the Mongolian didn't grab Ura and pull him in tight. And it wasn't like Ura was squirming this way or that either. Chiyoshoma had his left arm resting underneath Ura's right side and his right arm positioned to the outside of Ura's left but he definitely wasn't trying to reel him in. Still, with Ura not moving, Chiyoshoma faked a kata-sukashi, but the move never came. Instead, gave Chiyoshoma a reason to back up to the edge, and that's where Ura finally made a move following suit pushing Chiyoshoma off the dohyo altogether.  Ura also crashed off the dohyo altogether creating a big mess on the venue floor, a sign that Chiyoshoma was applying no counter pressure to Ura.

I guess the fans appreciated it, but my question is: where was this from Ura the first three days? How was he able to defend himself today and counter like that? The answer is that Chiyoshoma didn't apply any pressure and did most of the work. At M5 Chiyoshoma has plenty of room to sell, so who cares if he's 0-4? Ura buys his first win at 1-3.

M4 Daieisho was proactive from the tachi-ai against M5 Takarafuji using his tsuppari attack to keep Takarafuji upright and at bay, but you could tell Daieisho didn't want to commit to coming in close and finding himself caught in a yotsu bout. Takarafuji moved just enough and defended himself for a bit, but the constant pressure finally got him off balance to where Daieisho was able to pull his foe over and down. This was a decent cash between two veterans that saw Daieisho move to 3-1 while Takarafuji fell to 2-2.

M4 Tamawashi kept his arms out wide and just ducked in low against M3 Wakatakakage saying do me now, and Wakatakakage did. It took maybe two seconds for Wakatakakage to move left and go for a pull of his compromised opponent, and Tamawashi even helped sell the fall diving to the edge with both palms down and legs raised up higher than his back. Still, Tamawashi picked himself right back up because the whole thing was planned. Hell, I'd take a dive like that if it'd make me ten grr richer, so why not? Wakatakakage buys one here at 3-1 while Tamawashi laughs all the way to the ginkou at 2-2.

M2 Kiribayama henka'd to his left in order to grab the cheap outer grip against Komusubi Ichinojo, and the Mongolith seemed fined with the move as both dudes settled into migi-yotsu with Kiribayama maintaining that outer grip. From this point there was little action as Ichinojo was content to stand there while Kiribayama tested the force-out waters leading with the left outer, and this bout was about a minute long with Kiribayama slowly adjusting his position lower and to the side and Ichinojo making no move whatsoever to counter or win. I mean, it was a nice force-out win for Kiribayama in the end, but in my opinion Ichinojo wasn't trying to win this one. Kiribayama is fast becoming the darling of the basho now at 4-0 while Ichinojo plods his way to 1-3.

Up next was Komusubi Takayasu facing Sekiwake Mitakeumi, and Takayasu finds himself in a tough position on Day 4. In my opinion he deferred to Shodai on Day 2, and then he was roughed up by Kiribayama and Wakatakakage resulting in his 0-3 start with some beefy opponents yet to come and then Takakeisho against whom he'll likely be obligated to lose. With that said, today's matchup was an opportunity for Takayasu to pick up a win against a mediocre foe, but the dude is just lethargic this basho. Mitakeumi beat him back from the tachi-ai a step, and then as Takayasu looked to get the left arm inside, Mitakeumi shoved him back again looking to move forward for the kill. with Takayasu bracing himself, Mitakeumi went for a weak swipe resulting in the Komusubi's just plopping forward and down about four seconds into the bout. I think my old man who is 82 years-old can get in AND out of my sedan faster than Takayasu got up today. Sheesh. The guy looks spent in falling to 0-4 while Mitakeumi picks up a rather easy win in moving to 3-1.

I thought the Kyokutaisei - Chiyonooh contest that led off the day was going to be the best bout of the day, but they may have been outdone by M3 Kotonowaka and Sekiwake Meisei. Meisei was quick out of the gate obtaining moro-zashi against the M3, but Kotonowaka is a beast to move back for a smaller guy like Meisei, and so at the edge, Kotonowaka was able to halt Meisei's momentum and maki-kae with the right arm sending the bout to migi-yotsu. Meisei was still sharp enough to grab the left outer grip, but Kotonowaka was not going to go easy. Meisei attacked as he should have with the left outer grip, but Kotonowaka countered as he should have with his size and the right inside position. Meisei tested the force-out waters two or three times before finally backing up a bit, going for a maki-kae with the left in the process, and just slipping to his right. As Kotonowaka plowed forward looking to make Meisei pay for the maki-kae, the Sekiwake was already to his side executing a nifty dashi-nage with the inside right that sent the M3 on his way.

Like the first bout of the day, the angles and the footwork and the belt work was all proper here, and the result was a great bout of sumo. It's obvious that I don't like Kotonowaka, and it's not that I don't like the rikishi himself. I don't like that the dude has bought his way all the way up to the M3 rank having accomplished nothing on his own. This bout showed that the tools are there, but he's not going to develop them if they keep allowing him to lean on yaocho for his kachi-koshi. It's their choice as both parties end the day at 2-2.

M1 Takanosho caught Shodai with a nice right nodowa from the tachi-ai standing Shodai upright and allowing the M1 to drive him back. In the process, Takanosho followed up with a choke hold from the left hand, but as he did so, he started purposefully drifting to his right and creating an opening for Shodai. Shodai figured it out and fired a counter tsuki-otoshi into Takanosho's left side, but the M1 was already on his way down giving Shodai the cheap win. What's worse, Takanosho injured his right knee during the fake fall, which is the danger of mukiryoku sumo. I've been warming to Takanosho lately, and I was sorry to see him hurt like this especially at the expense of yaocho.

As is usually the case, Shodai's opponent did all the work including taking the dive that gave Shodai (3-1) the win. You can't point to a single thing that Shodai did during this bout other than catch up with the tsuki-otoshi after Takanosho (1-3) had already committed to going right and taking the dive. Everybody knows it including the announcers because there's nothing for them to praise after Shodai's bouts. They hem and haw, and if it's Kitanofuji he usually just comes right out and says how bad Shodai's sumo was. I've seen this bad movie before, so let's move on.

I already covered the Hoshoryu - Takakeisho matchup, so let's move to the final bout on the day, Yokozuna Terunofuji vs. M2 Hokutofuji. Hokutofuji came with his usual tachi-ai that results in his retreating a bit, and so Terunofuji rushed forward looking to grab hold of his gal. Hokutofuji knew it was curtains if he was caught, and so he stayed low with elbows bent disabling Fuji from grabbing him around the top of the arm. The two grappled like this for a spell with Fuji going for one pull that sent Hokutofuji back towards the center of the ring and then another more effective pull that felled him for good about eight seconds in. This was really a cat and mouse affair with the mouse just trying not to be hit while the cat scored the win on the second pull attempt. Fuji is impenetrable when he wants to be, and he moves to 4-0 with the easy win. Hokutofuji falls to 2-2 and put up as good of a fight as could be expected from him.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I mentioned yesterday that we're looking for that story to emerge other than the obvious focus on Terunofuji, and the early candidate now is Kiribayama. As I watched the News 9 Sports program first thing this morning, I hadn't realized until they mentioned it that Kiribayama had defeated both Ozeki the first two days of the tournament. 20 years ago that would be huge news, but in 2021 I would think you'd be made fun of if you DIDN'T beat both of these Ozeki. Since we're already talking about Kiribayama, let's review his bout first today against Komusubi Takayasu.

From the tachi-ai, the M1 had Takayasu cuffed and stuffed completely neutralizing Takayasu's left arm to the inside while Kiribayama maintained his own left inside position. Takayasu was up high and turned in a bit, and the right outer grip was there for the taking, but instead of just grabbing it and finishing off his foe in mere seconds, Kiribayama chose to get fresh with Takayasu's left wrist. Seems like every few days I take a picture of this exact scenario with Takayasu: he leaves himself completely exposed but his opponents are playing nice and refuse to grab that stifling outer grip.

The two stood in this pose for nearly a minute before creating some separation and ending up in the grappling position. Mind you, this entire bout lasted over three minutes, so we've gotta go quick. With the two pressing into each other's shoulders, Takayasu wasn't able to attack, and so we entered phase three of the bout with Kiribayama maintaining a right inside position while Takayasu had the left outer grip. Still, Takayasu wasn't able to attack, and so Kiribayama faked a few trips and a suso-harai move, but he was still waiting for his opponent.

About two and half minutes into the affair, Kitanofuji--the color analyst on the day--actually started engaging the NHK Announcer in conversation...mid bout. The Announcer trying to cover for Takayasu said of the action, "Takayasu is taking his time here" to which Kitanofuji responded, "He's not taking his time. He doesn't have the strength to attack." The tone of Kitanofuji's voice correctly suggested how frustrated he is with the sheer incompetence of the supposed elite Japanese rikishi. I don't ever recall the two analysts carrying on a conversation mid-bout like this, but there was nothing going on the entire three minutes from Takayasu, and I'm glad that Kitanofuji corrected the Announcer's favorability bias towards Takayasu.

In the end...3 mins and 15 secs into the bout...we finally had movement, and for Kiribayama's part, he went for a light tug with the inside belt grip, and Takayasu just went down to the dirt in exhaustion. What a crazy bout this was, but from the beginning, Kiribayama intentionally refused to take advantage and let Takayasu hang around, but as Kitanofuji commented mid-bout...Takayasu was just incapable. Telling stuff here as Kiribayama moves to 3-0 while Takayasu falls to 0-3.

Let's drop back down to the beginning and visit each bout on the day. M16 Tokushoryu welcomed Daiamami from Juryo with some nice thrusts to Daiamami's neck, which was a surprising move...not because Tokushoryu used tsuppari but because he actually revealed that Daiamami has a neck. This stood the J2 up well making Tokushoryu think about hidari-yotsu, but the shove attack was working so well, he abandoned yotsu altogether and shoved Daiamami back and across for the nice win. Tokushoryu picks up his first win at 1-2.

M15 Ichiyamamoto and M16 Chiyomaru engaged in a very good thrust affair from the tachi-ai, and Chiyomaru seemed content to allow Ichiyamamoto to nudge him slowly back, and just when the sophomore thought he had an opening, Chiyomaru moved left pulling at IYM's extended arms before dragging him down by the back of the shoulder. Purely veteran move here as Chiyomaru moves to 3-0 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 1-2.

Up next was Maru's stable mate, M17 Chiyonokuni, who faced M14 Yutakayama, and in an almost identical bout, the two engaged in a tsuppari contest with Yutakayama moving Kuni back, but Kuni moved to his left timing a tug of Yutakayama's arms, and that threw him off balance enough to where Kuni sent him packing hiki-otoshi style. Chiyonokuni also moves to 3-0 while Yutakayama falls to 1-2.

M15 Chiyonooh looked to make it three in a row for the Kokonoe-beya against M14 Kaisei, and Kaisei made sure it happened keeping his arms wide open at the tachi-ai gifting Chiyonooh moro-zashi, and as Chiyonooh began his force-out charge, Kaisei just went with the flow resulting in a linear force-out charge in three or four seconds. To think that Kaisei couldn't have at least attempted a counter move here or a lateral movement is foolish. We have our first fixed bout of the day as Chiyonooh moves to 2-1 while Kaisei falls to a quiet 1-2.

M13 Tsurugisho went for a really weak henka to his left grabbing the outer grip against M12 Tochinoshin, and like the bout before, Tochinoshin could have easily countered here, but he made no effort whatsoever. Shin did have his right arm to the inside, but instead of pulling his gal in snug and upright, he seemed to use that right to just pull Tsurugi the Hutt into his own body as Tochinoshin willfully stepped back across the straw. This tachi-ai was so slow I had to check to make sure I wasn't watching the slow mo replays, and sure enough...it was live. Tsurugisho picks up the ill-gotten win as both rikishi finish the day at 1-2.

M13 Kagayaki was quick out of the gate and had M11 Kotoeko pushed back quickly and trying to balance on one leg, but you could see from the start that Kagayaki wasn't trying to keep Eko in close or pulverize him with actual shoves to the torso. As a result, Kagayaki just stopped his charge at the edge and literally waited for Kotoeko to put his one leg back down to the dohyo and then move left. The move lacked any speed, but Kagayaki just watched it happen and then went with the flow as Kotoeko tried to counter slap his foe across the edge. This was more of Kagayaki's walking across of his own volition, but whatever. Kotoeko clearly bought this one after a horrible tachi-ai and slow sumo. He buy...er uh...picks up his first win at 1-2 while Kagayaki had room to sell at 2-1.

The bout fixing would continue as M10 Chiyotairyu didn't even try against M11 Endoh putting his hands high over the top of Endoh's head and just whispering to his gal, "Do me now." And Endoh did executing the mediocre oshi attack while Chiyotairyu happily back pedaled out of the ring. You'd expect to hear a few slaps or some grunts from a bout of sumo, but this was just a puff match as Endoh is gifted 2-1 with Tairyu falling to 1-2.

M10 Myogiryu and M9 Hidenoumi were completely out of sync at the tachi-ai, and it was Hidenoumi refusing to put his right hand down. The dude made the mistake of flinching causing Myogiryu to charge, and then Hidenoumi instinctively stood up, and the ref said go, and so Myogiryu went blasting the listless Hidenoumi back and across in maybe two seconds. Hidenoumi looked around standing on the venue floor as if he had just been gypped, and in reality, this should have been called back, but Hidenoumi has been buying his bouts left and right in the division, so I'm glad he got his ass kicked today. Put your fist down and fight already. Myogiryu is a cool 3-0 while Hidenoumi falls to 1-2.

M9 Aoiyama easily knocked M8 Okinoumi upright at the tachi-ai with his thrust attack, but you could literally see Aoiyama refuse to move forward as if there was this secret line he was forbidden to cross or his shock collar would buzz. As for Okinoumi, he was clueless. The dude is not an oshi guy, especially against a beast like Aoiyama, and so with Okinoumi spinning his wheels, Aoiyama put his hands towards Okinoumi's face in defensive mode as he backed up to his right close to the edge. From there, Okinoumi finally clued in looking to score the oshi-dashi win, but before he could really connect, Aoiyama just fake pulled his way across the straw. Low quality stuff here as Okinoumi is gifted 2-1 while Aoiyama falls to 0-3.

M7 Terutsuyoshi stepped into the ring with Ura's blood still in his fingernails. His opponent today was M8 Tobizaru, and Tobizaru's camp wisely reasoned among themselves, "Why don't we pony up the cash today and keep our dude's nose on his face." This bout was identical to the Terutsuyoshi-Ura matchup yesterday with a soft tachi-ai and both dudes ducking low with arms on shoulders, but you'll notice that Terutsuyoshi's roundhouses were missing today. I could easily see that he was just waiting for Tobizaru to make a move, and said move was Tobizaru's grabbing the right belt from over the top, and instead of looking to counter--like getting the left arm inside, Terutsuyoshi just stayed hunkered down low waiting for pressure to come from the outer grip. When it came in the form of a very light throw attempt, Terutsuyoshi just somersaulted himself over and down in the center of the ring. This is the exact fall they practice every morning in keiko, and Terutsuyoshi was clearly compromised in this silly affair. Tobizaru buys his way to 3-0 while Terutsuyoshi has a thicker billfold at 1-2.

As long as M6 Ura's camp refuses to pony up cash for bouts, his opponents are going to view the dude as an easy win. You knew the bout today was real when Ura lined up way behind the starting lines. I mean, the dude is looking for any sorta gimmick to give him a chance, but M6 Onosho just rushed forward at the tachi-ai, knocked Ura upright, and then sent him back and across oshi-taoshi style for the easy win. People may think that I'm being harsh on Ura. I'm not being harsh. The dude does not belong in this division, and I'm being blunt with the facts as presented the first three days of the basho. Ura falls to 0-3 in defeat while Onosho improves to 3-0.

M5 Takarafuji looked to get the left inside at the tachi-ai against M7 Shimanoumi, but he wasn't trying hard to get it, and so Shimanoumi stayed busy and evaded the move. With Takarafuji lightly giving chase, the action moved to the perimeter of the dohyo where Shimanoumi was close to getting moro-zashi, but Takarafuji kept moving to his right around the edge pulling Shimanoumi down before Takara Boom Dee Ay stepped out himself. Fuji moves to 2-1 with the bland win while Shimanoumi falls to 1-2.

M4 Tamawashi graciously allowed M4 Daieisho to do the thrusting for both guys in their bout today, so with Tamawashi keeping his arms defensive and wide, Daieisho simply shoved him upright, back, and across with Tamawashi willing to go. Not sure of the politics behind this one, but Tamawashi was not looking to win whatsoever as both dudes end the day at 2-1.

Another guy who sucks in this division is M3 Kotonowaka, and yet he finds himself ranked this high having shown no real ability in the ring. He's able to do that for the same reason a washed up Kotoshogiku was able to yusho all those years ago: cash speaks. Today, M5 Chiyoshoma was more than happy to get paid against Baby Waka, and so he stood upright from the tachi-ai, backpedaled for no reason, and then evaded to his left all without Kotonowaka applying any pressure whatsoever, but Shoma realized he was moving too fast to make anything look real, so he finally just stood there slumped over and waited for Kotonowaka to stick his fingers in the back'a Chiyoshoma's belt, and when the slightest of pressure came, Shoma just dove forward and down. Where have I seen that position before from Chiyoshoma?  A crock'a shat if I've ever seen one (and I have!!) as Chiyoshoma falls to 0-3 while Kotonowaka is an implausible 2-1.

We already touched on Komusubi Takayasu so let's move to M3 Wakatakakage vs. Sekiwake Meisei. This was a terrible bout from the sanyaku that saw both parties attempt to shove at the initial charge, but no one was making any headway, and so Meisei swiped down at WTK's body while moving left, and then pulled his stumbling foe down for good about two seconds in. Wakatakakage's body didn't even touch down here (it was just the palms), and that signals either a thrown bout or lightweight sumo. Take your pick as Meisei picks up his first win at 1-2 while Wakatakakage suffers his first loss. My guess is that with Tatsunami-oyakata as part of the broadcast today, they arranged for a Meisei win.

Sekiwake Mitakeumi is not in the league of M1 Hoshoryu these days, but we all know that doesn't matter a hill of beans. Hoshoryu actually knocked Mitakeumi back from the tachi-ai, but instead of getting to the inside or grabbing an outer grip, the Mongolian just rested both palms against Mitakeumi's sides waiting for the Suckiwake to make a move. Said move was a weak pull with Mitakeumi moving left, and with Mitakeumi's feet against the straw, Hoshoryu could have pushed him back for the easy win, but darn the luck...Hoshoryu conveniently lost his footing causing him to duck down and regain his balance instead of finish his foe off. With Hoshoryu now backpedaling his way to defeat, Mitakeumi moved forward getting the left arm inside, but he was still having trouble bodying Hoshoryu back, and the youngster needs to learn to just walk back that last step. Instead, he waited for any force to come, and when it finally did, it knocked Hoshoryu onto his fanny down to the venue floor below. Good example of how people get hurt in compromised sumo. There's no pressure and counter pressure involved, and so the results are these strange falls at the edge. Luckily Hoshoryu (1-2) seems to be okay, but he definitely threw this one in favor of Mitakeumi (2-1).

Komusubi Ichinojo crushed Takakeisho back from the tachi-ai in two fell swoops, but he didn't grab the faux-zeki, and so Takakeisho moved to his left going for a few wild swipes in a panic. Ichinojo was quick to adjust moving back in and getting the right arm inside and a left outer to boot, and Ichinojo just threw Takakeisho down into a heap at the edge Greco-Roman style for the easy uwate-nage win. This was Ichinojo's first win at 1-2 while Takakeisho is a complete mess at 0-3. Sumo's a cruel world if you're not going to pay the cash. Course, last basho Takakeisho injured himself just by going through the tachi-ai motions against Ichinojo, and now the media is dredging up the good ole injured neck story even though Takakeisho insisted prior to the basho that he was just fine.

M2 Hokutofuji moved forward nicely at the tachi-ai against faux-zeki Shodai knocking him upright, but despite winning the tachi-ai, Hokutofuji stopped his forward momentum and then just backed up on his own all the way to the other side of the dohyo. You could see Hokutofuji fish for the toku-dawara with his right leg, and then as Shodai advanced close, Hokutofuji pivoted and put his left leg across the straw without any pressure whatsoever coming from his opponent. This was one of those bouts where the loser did all the work and the victor came way with the win despite not scoring a single blow or connecting on a single move that influenced his opponent's movements. Everybody knows how fake this was as Shodai moves to 2-1 while Hokutofuji graciously falls to the same mark.

The day's final bout featured Yokozuna Terunofuji vs. M1 Takanosho, and they tried to make a big deal out of Takanosho's 4-3 advantage head to head against Terunofuji coming in. As if. Takanosho did show well in terms of not allowing Terunofuji to grab him straightway from the tachi-ai using a stiff arm and then darting over to his left, but that dohyo is not as big as it looks on TV, and so Fuji kept up with his opponent's movements well and finally grabbed from the outside with the right arm and left inside position. Takanosho had no choice but to fight from that point, but Terunofuji was just too big and strong as he smothered Takanosho up against the edge and across leading with the left inside. What's so scary about that pic at right is that Takanosho has no escape.  Fuji's sumo is precision at its best as he moves to 3-0 while Takanosho put up a decent effort in falling to 1-2.

The story in my opinion the first three days is not the Mongolians beginning to show their domination. The real story is the inability for Japan to produce a prospect who can legitimately compete not necessarily for the yusho every time but a legit 10 wins per basho. He's just not there, and that's why Kitanofuji can't sleep at night.

Day 2 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The news between Day 1 and Day 2 was rather quiet with most of the focus on Shin-yokozuna Terunofuji picking up his first win. He defeated Ichinojo yesterday and drew Hoshoryu today, and other than those two, there really isn't another rikishi among the jo'i who can even appear to challenge Fuji the Terrible. At the start of the broadcast today, they showed the jo'i banzuke and everyone's records, and frankly there were just too many 0-1 starts tagged to the rikishi who are supposed to be exciting the fans.

There's really not anything more to say until someone appears from out of nowhere to shake things up. Maybe that will be Wakatakakage, but it remains to be seen.

Let's start our analysis with M15 Ichiyamamoto vs. M17 Chiyonokuni, and it was the latter catching the sophomore with a moro-te-zuki at the tachi-ai and driving him upright, and as Ichiyamamoto looked to fight his way back into the bout, Kuni reversed gears and pulled him down with ease. Pretty simple stuff from the veteran who moves to 2-0 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 1-1 after buying his first win yesterday.

At M13, Kagayaki has got to post a good record to keep himself in the division and still be able to peddle bouts, so he went all out again today against M14 Yutakayama challenging him to an oshi bout of sumo where Kagayaki was never in trouble. It took 5 or 6 seconds, but Kagayaki used a nice straight forward attack to send his opponent upright and back posting a 2-0 start. Yutakayama falls to 1-1, and while I am cherry picking bouts today, the first four bouts on the day were all real.

M14 Kaisei threw his bout yesterday against Yutakayama, but like Kagayaki, he finds himself too close for comfort at the bottom of the banzuke, so he fought for reals today against M13 Tsurugisho. Kaisei demanded the right inside position from the tachi-ai and followed that up with a left outer grip, and there was nothing Tsurugi the Hutt could do but be forced back in linear fashion. Kaisei moves to 1-1 while Tsurugisho falls to 0-2.

M12 Tochinoshin came with a weak right kachi-age against M11 Endoh but then just brought that arm outside giving Endoh the easy peasy left inside grip. Inside of digging in with a right outer or left inside position of his own, Tochinoshin kept his right arm in no man's land before just backing up and bringing that right arm up as if to pull, but this was more in an effort to just back himself out of the dohyo with Endoh in tow. This was a quick bout of sumo with very little contact as both rikishi end the day at 1-1. This was also the first yaocho of the day so five real and one fake to this point. I suppose I'll take them odds.

M10 Myogiryu has decided to kick ass and take names so far this basho, and today's victim was M11 Kotoeko. Eko put his hands forward in defensive mode as if to say don't hurt me, but Myogiryu just blew right through those hands and pushed Kotoeko back and across before he could fully evade to his left. Great sumo from Myogiryu here as he moves to 2-0 while Kotoeko falls to 0-2.

M9 Aoiyama completely let up for M9 Hidenoumi putting his hands forward as if to pull, but then he just moved backwards creating an opening for Hidenoumi. Hidenoumi did move forward, but it wasn't from sound sumo, and so he was still lost with Aoiyama near the edge getting the right arm to the inside. Aoiyama didn't use that arm defensively, however, and just leaned forward waiting for Hidenoumi to finally figure things out and go for a lame pull, and when he did, Aoiyama just stepped forward and down flopping back towards the middle of the dohyo. Our second fake bout here as Hidenoumi buys his first win while Aoiyama is 0-2.

M10 Chiyotairyu used light tsuppari to keep M8 Tobizaru at bay from the tachi-ai, but Tairyu wasn't looking to move forward whatsoever. He also wasn't trying to set up a pull, so that meant one thing: he was waiting for Tobizaru to make a move. After the nice start, Chiyotairyu put his hands up high waiting for Tobizaru to assume moro-zashi, and once he did, Chiyotairyu just played along with a rather weak inside belt throw from Tobizaru's left. Ho hum as Tobizaru buys his way to 2-0 while Chiyotairyu falls to 1-1.

M8 Okinoumi had his left hand near the front of M7 Shimanoumi's belt from the tachi-ai, but instead of grabbing it, he just brought his arms out wide waiting for his opponent to make a move. I guess there was a pull in there somewhere because all of a sudden Okinoumi just put both palms to the dirt and that was that. Even watching the slo mo's nobody could detect a winning technique, but just play along will ya? Both dudes finish the day at 1-1.

Someone finally brought the whoopass to the basho in the next bout, and that someone was M7 Terutsuyoshi. His opponent, M8 Ura, failed to come forward at the tachi-ai standing up and then moving back to the left, and I don't know if it was the tachi-ai that annoyed T-Fuji or what, but as soon as the two settled into the grapplin' position pushing into each other's shoulders, Terutsuyoshi began unleashing roundhouse hari-te connecting straight into Ura's face.

If we pause the tape at this point, whatever happened to that slick magic we see from Ura when he defeats guys like Kaisei or Ichinojo with seeming ease? I mean, every Ura win sees the guy darting this way and that befuddling his confused opponent before setting up the easy yori-kiri, so where was that magic today?

It was nowhere to be found as Terutsuyoshi would strike his opponent hard in the face and then look to set up a ke-kaeshi or other move. This happened about four times and finally it was Ura who made a move looking to go for a weak pull, but Terutsuyoshi's timing was too good here, and it was the veteran Tsuyoshi who pulled Ura out and down off of the dohyo altogether. Ura sat up with blood streaming out of his nose, and the dude had to gather his wits for nearly 10 seconds before standing up and climbing back atop the dohyo. Wow, that was an ass kicking as Ura falls to 0-2 while Terutsuyoshi picks up his first win.

There were a few obvious yaocho on the day, but I nearly blew a snot bubble as I watched M4 Daieisho try his signature tsuppari attack...while moving his feet backwards. I mean, it made sense considering his opponent was M3 Kotonowaka, a rikishi who has to buy his wins in the division, and that was the case in this one. Because Kotonowaka didn't set up Daieisho's retreat with attacking sumo, he couldn't finish him off at the edge, and so the two briefly looked to move back to the center of the ring before Daieisho just backed up again, and the second time was a charm as Kotonowaka finally got his act together and shoved the willing Daieisho across leaving both dude's at 1-1.

Early on if there's someone who looks to make some noise this tournament, it's M3 Wakatakakage. Today he drew Komusubi Ichinojo who came with a harmless tachi-ai before drawing his left arm back and giving WTK the opening to the right inside. As for Ichinojo and his own right arm, he just withdrew it altogether never looking to put it in play. The rikishi dug in at that point with Ichinojo waiting for the youngster to make a move, but we all had to wait awhile. I think even Ichinojo was getting bored because he brought that right arm upright completely out of harm's way allowing Wakatakakage to grab the easy frontal belt grip with the left a minute into the bout. WTK still didn't have the confidence to make an attack against the Mongolith, and so Ichinojo tried that popular move we always see: Kachi-age-dashi. Yes, Ichinojo began moving forward with his right arm up high in a useless kachi-age pose, and that finally allowed Wakatakakage to skirt to the side and yank Ichinojo across. Ichinojo clearly let up start to finish in falling to 0-2 while Wakatakakage moves to 2-0.

M2 Hokutofuji came with the usual right jab shade left approach at the tachi-ai with Sekiwake Mitakeumi coming slow out of the gate. Hokutofuji paused a bit seeming to wait for Mitakeumi to attack, but when nothing came, Hokutofuji moved to his right and across Mitakeumi's body going or a light pull of Mitakeumi's belt with the right hand. I don't think the M2's intent was to win with that move because it never really connected, but Mitakeumi just plodded forward and out of the dohyo unable to keep his balance. Regardless of what went on there, it did not look good for Mitakeumi. A true Sekiwake doesn't lose to that light move, and Mitakeumi didn't even put up a fight in the awkward bout. So much for the lone Japanese dude who "won" his bout yesterday among the sanyaku. Just like that Mitakeumi falls to 1-1 while Hokutofuji improves to 2-0.

I mentioned yesterday that I like Meisei as a rikishi, but the dude is not a Sekiwake. That showed today in a straight up tsuppari fight against M1 Takanosho where the larger Sho stopped the Sekiwake in his tracks before forcing him to move laterally in an attempt to spring a trap. It'd never come as Takanosho easily stayed square with Meisei pushing him over at the edge into a heap. Meisei falls to 0-2 while Takanosho picks up a nice win at 1-1.

Komusubi Takayasu moved up the banzuke a few notches to take on Shodai, but the fight was lackluster. The two clashed at the tachi-ai with neither coming away with the true inside, but Takayasu did come away with a fistful of Shodai's sagari pulling the decoration clear out of Shodai's belt. Normally when a rikishi does that, he throws the sagari wildly to the side looking for something better to grab, but Takayasu must have held onto the things for three seconds. I knew at that point he was mukiryoku, so it was just a matter of Shodai trying to work his way into position. He looked to get the left arm inside as he nudged Takayasu back and then the two ended up in migi-yotsu. Still the two were incapable of going chest to chest in a bout of sumo that can't actually be defined because there are no official terms describing the actions from these two. They did stand in the ring for about 30 seconds before Shodai sorta looked to attack with the right inside while Takayasu sorta looked to fake a kubi-nage, but in the end it was an easy push-out for Shodai against a defenseless opponent. Shodai is gifted his first win while Takayasu falls to 0-2.

M2 Kiribayama would surely let up for Takakeisho today wouldn't he? In a way, he left himself vulnerable at the tachi-ai keeping his hands up high and positioning his right as if to possibly set up a pull or a neck throw, but Takakeisho couldn't take advantage of his exposed opponent. So with Takakeisho failing to come with a credible oshi attack, Kiribayama moved forward lightly firing some shoves into Takakeisho's side, and that immediately sent him into pull mode, but the move was so hapless that Kiribayama just moved forward catching Takakeisho with a right hand to the teet that sent Takakeisho back and across for good. The shove wasn't that hard, but Takakeisho couldn't keep himself atop the dohyo and so he waddled a few rows deep into the suna-kaburi having lost soundly for the second day in a row.

When they showed the top three streamed bouts from yesterday, the Takakeisho - Hokutofuji bout was #1. It doesn't bode well for people to tune into sumo only to see this garbage from Takakeisho. The kadoban Ozeki is already 0-2 while Kiribayama picked up a nice fistful of kensho in improving to 2-0.

The day's final bout featured Yokozuna Terunofuji against M1 Hoshoryu, and the two hooked up in migi-yotsu as Hoshoryu looked to shade left. That allowed the Yokozuna to grab the solid right outer grip at the back of Hoshoryu's belt, and while the smaller Hoshoryu was able to wriggle away from Terunofuji's inside right, Fuji the Terrible simply used the right to push Hoshoryu out and down according to his own will and pleasure. Hoshoryu gave it a good effort, but this one wasn't close as Terunofuji skates his way to 2-0 while Hoshoryu is still in decent standing at 1-1.

The difference in sumo ability is stark, and Terunofuji is clearly picking up where Hakuho left off showing everyone what real, powerful sumo looks like.

So far it looks as if Wakatakakage is the only hope in creating a positive secondary storyline, but there's still a long way to go.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I find it difficult to get excited about sumo again, especially after a long layoff that included the Olympics and the US Open tennis tournament. For me it's difficult going from hotly contested matches and races to bouts of sumo that rarely seem competitive and where supposedly top-class athletes are making the most basic of mistakes in the ring.  The biggest news by far in between the two tournaments was the official promotion of Terunofuji to Yokozuna, and that was the obvious focus on the Day 1 broadcast. I keep wanting to call the dude an Ozeki, and that's probably because he's the last guy we will ever see who truly obtained the Ozeki rank organically, and so he has long been the standard bearer of what an Ozeki is and was.

I suppose I'll get used to his new title in time, especially now that Hakuho has withdrawn from the tournament. Apparently the Covid is running rampant in the Miyagino-beya, and so that means Hakuho is kyujo yet again (along with Enho if anybody cares...I know I don't). I'm always amused at the canned line from the media of this supposed "added pressure" now to Terunofuji that he's the lone Yokozuna.

What a laugher. Somebody circle the pressure from the following banzuke now that Hakuho is gone:



The obvious choices are Ichinojo and Hoshoryu, but the Mongolians never produce hotly-contested bouts against each other just as the Hawaiians never did back in the day either.  That's an anemic banzuke if I've ever seen one, and if Sekiwake Asanoyama wasn't kyujo, it'd actually be worse if you know what I mean.

Besides the withdrawal of Hakuho and Terunofuji's new promotion, they did their best to hide the announcement that Juryo rikishi Takagenji was booted out of sumo for marijuana use. The dude tested positive in early July, but they opened an official investigation into the matter which was really a way to buy time until they could announce the excommunication one week into the Olympics when nobody was paying attention to sumo. Course, I could argue that nobody is paying attention to sumo now, but whatever. Takagenji's absence from the sport now is a harmless headline, so let's focus our attention on Day 1.

I thought it interesting that NHK showed the following graphic several times during the broadcast including the intro:



This is a list of just four rikishi who were able to yusho in their debut basho as Yokozuna:  Taiho in Kyushu 1961, Takanosato in Aki 1983, Takanohana in January 1995, and Kisenosato in Haru 2017. Of course Kisenosato and Takanohana are on that list while not a single foreigner is there. Just sayin'. If you stop and think about it, a new Yokozuna is the hottest dude in the sport. He's just won two consecutive tournaments, and so it stands to reason he'd be the favorite heading into the next basho. That more dudes haven't accomplished the feat of taking the yusho their debut basho just shows you how much political debt a dude accrues in rising to the rank.

In the case of Terunofuji this basho, I don't see how he doesn't yusho in the absence of Hakuho. The two dudes that fill the Ozeki ranks are a complete mess, and there is just nobody riding any sort of wave on that banzuke except for maybe Hoshoryu (just what we don't need...another foreigner).

I was actually surprised at the size of the Day 1 crowd considering this weak banzuke, but perhaps people are intrigued by the new Yokozuna. It's also interesting to me that sumo is allowed spectators in at all. Why couldn't fans show up for the Olympic events but they can show up for sumo wrestling? Emergency declarations are still in place and the number of new Covid cases in Japan are still high, so why sumo and why not the Olympics?

I think the reason is that Sumo is desperate for revenue and they quietly pleaded with city officials to allow fans into the venue. Have you noticed lately how no Japanese rikishi have really gone on big runs? The two Yokozuna have won the last three basho, and then January's winner was Daieisho... a dude that can win a lot of bouts on his own and did in January.

I'm thinking with less and less cash floating around, it's getting harder and harder to finance a fake yusho for guys like Shodai and Takakeisho where start to finish you have to pony up $10 grand per day.  We'll see about that, but I don't see how anyone but Terunofuji takes the yusho this tournament.

In the interest of time, let's just focus on that rockin' banzuke starting from the sanyaku up, which means we start with Komusubi Takayasu vs. M3 Wakatakakage. Takayasu sorta came with a kachi-age using the right arm, but it was so weak and Takayasu's body was so high that WTK simply assumed moro-zashi and began a force-out charge. Takayasu knew he was had and thought about a right counter kote-nage, but his position was so poor, he couldn't go for the move and instead found himself being pushed back to the edge swiftly by the youngster. Instead of countering at the edge, Takayasu focused on a soft landing, and it came in the form of the Komusubi just putting his right knee down beyond the straw. Hooboy, Takayasu looked awful here. As the dudes in the booth analyzed the bout, Mainoumi offered from the mukou-joumen chair, "Takayasu's kachi-age was so weak." And it was. Nuff said there, but Yoshida Announcer graciously jumped in trying to lessen the blow as he said, "Was is that Takayasu's kachi-age was weak? Or was it that Wakatakakage's charge was too good?" Trust me (and Mainoumi), it was the former. Takayasu was completely hapless here in starting off 0-1.

Up next was Sekiwake Meisei taking on M2 Kiribayama, and I actually like Meisei quite a bit, but the dude is not a Sekiwake...at least as how I remember this sport from way back when. Kiribayama was soft at the tachi-ai keeping his arms up high, but Meisei couldn't take advantage, and so Kiribayama moved left grabbing an outer grip in the process. Still, the Mongolian was the one doing the retreating if Meisei wanted to take advantage, but he simply couldn't, and so the two retooled their grips before getting into a slap fest, and Meisei quickly hit the dirt from there. This was kind of a phantom ending, so a favor could have been owed here in this lackluster bout. Meisei falls to 0-1, but I like him enough not to refer to him as a Suckiwake.

One dude that will still maintain his Suckiwake title is Mitakeumi who ironically enough fought a former Suckiwake in Takanosho who finds himself ranked at M1 for this tournament. The tachi-ai was light, and Takanosho did nothing to take advantage. As for Mitakeumi, he moved forward a bit, but you couldn't tell if he was meaning to thrust or trying to get to the belt. It wouldn't matter as Takanosho lightly retreated and then began to move left. It wasn't really a mawari-komu move because that's used in an effort to get out of your opponent's way. In this bout Takanosho stopped after a step or two and just stayed high allowing Mitakeumi to push him easily across the straw with a left forearm.  Watch the slo mo replay and look for any effort made by the M1 to win this bout. Simply wasn't there as Mitakeumi is off to a soft start with the win.

And that brings us to Takakeisho who drew M2 Hokutofuji. We all know what Hokutofuji brings to the tachi-ai (jab with the right while shading left), but who knows that Takakeisho can muster? Today the dude was completely upright leaving himself exposed with arms out of position, and so the M2 went through his tachi-ai motions before shoving Takakeisho all the way upright before spinning him around 90 degrees. Takakeisho musta thought he could evade this poor tachi-ai, and so he attempted a 360 pirouette, but he forgot to move laterally so he just spun there like a little girl in a new dress and then found himself staring right back down the barrel of Hokutofuji's thrust attack. It took one blow to send Takakeisho about five rows deep, and this was a horrible display of sumo from one whom they refer to as Ozeki.

After the bout, Kitanofuji was just incredulous over Takakeisho's tachi-ai saying, "He doesn't even put his head down" referring to one of the most basic moves in sumo at the initial charge. You could tell Kitanofuji was frustrated because he has to sit there and watch such a poor display of...whatever (we won't call it sumo)...and then try and pretend that this guy is an Ozeki. It's a hot seat, which is why I'm glad I'm sitting on the opposite side. Takakeisho was kadoban coming into the tournament, so a Day 1 loss is a tough place to be. I'm sure they'll find the cash somewhere, but the dude was exposed today.

In the day's penultimate bout, Shodai welcomed M1 Hoshoryu in another grave mismatch if Hoshoryu is trying to win. Hoshoryu was nonchalant at the tachi-ai keeping his arms out wide and allowing Shodai the pathway to the right inside position, but Shodai didn't demand it. Still, Hoshoryu was already shading backwards of his own volition, but Shodai couldn't deliver the lethal blow, and so Hoshoryu moved left a bit, and when Shodai came forward completely upright, Hoshoryu said thank you very much and assumed moro-zashi resulting in a quick force-out defeat of Shodai on the opposite side of the dohyo. Shodai's inability to counter was a bit alarming considering this dude's rank, but this was simply another bout where the Mongolian left himself vulnerable and provided an opening for his opponent, but he wasn't just gonna hand it to him for free.

The day's final affair featured Yokozuna Terunofuji paired against Komusubi Ichinojo, and I actually think Ichinojo could give Terunofuji problems. The problem for us, however, is that the Mongolians fight each other the way the Williams sisters used to compete in grand slams against each other in women's tennis, and so we ended with a good bout but a soft bout nonetheless. Terunofuji secured the right inside and left outer grip from the tachi-ai while Ichinojo barely countered resulting in a largely linear force-out in Terunofuji's debut at the rank. I mean it looked good, but it's my opinion that Ichinojo and Hoshoryu where willing to let their foes win today. Terunofuji was able to take full advantage whereas Shodai was haphazard and clueless.

It wasn't a rip-roaring start to the tournament, and we're going to need someone from lower in the banzuke to make things exciting (no, not Ura who also lost today). The gap between the Mongolians and the rest of the field is just so vast that a day like today in sumo will be the new normal.