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Senshuraku Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Mike is right: there was very little drama going into this final weekend: it did not feel exciting, compelling. Why? Because everybody already got what they wanted before the weekend even started. Hakuho has plenty of yusho and just needed to stay competitive and spread the wealth around. He did that. He'll still win a basho or two here or there, but not this one. Kakuryu got to look like a real Yokozuna and was set up for the yusho. Is he the best guy on the banzuke right now? Maybe. This is the first time we have ever been able to legitimately ask that question--that's a great result for him. I still think Hakuho is better, but I may be living in the past. It's a legitimate conversation. As for Tochinoshin, no doubt he would have loved a second yusho, but coming in to today it looked like he would have to be satisfied with getting promoted to Ozeki, which is a pretty big prize, and more than anyone expected at this point in his career just six months ago. His ascendance, while earned, is a bolt from the blue. So, which of the three of them would get the yusho just felt secondary to these competing, higher priorities.

But I'm getting ahead of myself--the yusho was in fact still up in the air today, and that did make me look forward to the day. It's always a pleasure to write on the final Sunday, especially when the yusho race remains undecided. There is of course usually little actual drama in the ring when the yusho matches happen as the various storytellers, from the Yokozuna to the oyakata to the Association, have usually already made up their minds. But it is interesting to see what they decide, and I am not so jaded that I can't see what I want to see in a good direction if I squint. Sometimes.

Let's take if from the bottom, saving hope would tell us will be the best for last. I do like to see how other guys round out their tournaments. This has to hold us over until the Nagoya July sweat box, after all.

J3 Takanosho (6-8) vs. M16 Aminishiki (4-10)
It was very tiresome the last few days to see Aminishiki be given wins he can't come close to garnering on his own. What is the point? To wit, it was back to reality today--and against a losing-record nobody from Juryo, no less: Aminishiki pulled and retreated desperately, having no other leg to stand on (pretty much literally). While the Makuuchi guys have easily taken Aminishiki out that way in linear fashion, Takanosho couldn't quite manage it, and had to chase him around the ring a bit before finishing him off, oshi-dashi. I have pretty well always like Aminishiki, but with sumo like this, I have to say I am very thoroughly tired of him now. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in Makuuchi in Aki or Kyushu; the modal fan seems to like it.

M13 Ishiura (5-9) vs. J3 Kyokushuho (6-8)
Ishiura just jumped to the side at the tachi-ai--that would be called a henka--grabbed Kyokushuho by the back of the belt, and knocked him down as he staggered around, komata-sukui. In Ishiura, here we have a guy who had to resort to a henka to beat a losing-record Juryo visitor. Like with Aminishiki, I'm pretty done with him.

M17 Nishikigi (9-5) vs. M12 Asanoyama (7-7)
Credit here to Nishikigi for going chest to chest, reaching in deep for the belt, keeping his can back but one foot forward, and going for it. Nishikigi was lodged in there pretty good, and try as Asanoyama might, he just couldn't stretch over Nishikigi's back and get a belt grip in turn. So after a few moments of this Nishikigi got the pay off, driving Asanoyama summarily out, yori-kiri.

M12 Arawashi (6-8) vs. M13 Aoiyama (8-6)
They both stood up straight at the tachi-ai because they're dumb wrestlers who spend so much time giving bouts away they don't bother with sound sumo even when the chips are down. They may internally sigh and think, what does it all matter, anyway? This one was straight up, though, as neither guy really had much of anything on the line. After a little pushing, Arawashi got Aoiyama's arm and started tugging, not a bad idea. However, Aoiyama squared to him well and started with aggressive, high shoves to the face. I'll take Arawashi any day if you ask me to pick which of these guys actually better, and he showed it: just as it looked like Aoiyama was about to drive him out, Arawashi spun around while holding Aoiyama by the bicep, which, in a nifty look, spun Aoiyama to the dirt, kote-hineri.

M14 Sadanoumi (8-6) vs. M10 Takakeisho (9-5)
After a quick two hands to the face at the tachi-ai by Takakeisho, then a second, similar strike, Takakeisho rapidly retreated. Unfortunately, Sadanoumi wasn't good enough to punish him for this, and Takakeisho pulled him down at the edge, hataki-komi. Takakeisho is just better. Takakeisho gets a lot of guff on this site, but remember this: at 21, he remains by far the youngest guy in Makuuchi (by nearly two years). His future remains very bright.

M10 Okinoumi (5-9) vs. M14 Takekaze (5-9)
Okinoumi immediately ducked forward to let Takekaze drag him down by the head, kata-sukashi, which may or may not save Takekaze from demotion to Juryo. Let's hope not.

M9 Daishomaru (8-6) vs. M15 Tochiohzan (8-6)
After a clear false start which resulted in hard-smacking contact, they were slow and hesitant on the second tachi-ai. Then nothing much happened at all, though one guy fell down: they were feeling each other out with hands up high, then Tochiohzan dove forward onto the ground more than he was actually pulled. Unfortunately "wazato-maketa” (lost on purpose) isn't a kimari-te, whereas "hiki-otoshi” (pull-down) is.

M11 Chiyonokuni (11-3) vs. M8 Kagayaki (9-5)
Chiyonokuni already had a special prize in the bag when this one started--and congrats to him, as it is his first ever tournament with double-digit wins--so this one was about showing off. Which Chiyonokuni did as he should: slapping and pushing, then retreating and pulling, getting a tsuki-otoshi win. And why is this showing off as he should? Because Chiyonokuni cannot beat Kagayaki on the belt or with a power force out. Trying to do that would have looked left a sour cap on his nice tournament. He's a master of evasion, mawari-komi, pulling, and hijinks, and he owned that here. Kagayaki also compliantly finished it off by stumbling forward and falling down mostly on his own. Next!

M15 Kyokutaisei (9-5) vs. M7 Chiyomaru (5-9)
Chiyomaru patiently carried the Kantosho Special Prize trophy to the ring on his shelf gut, and the salt-and-sweeping guys carefully picked it up and put it next to the ring. This was very clever by the Association and a nice touch, because in this one Kyokutaisei had to win to get that prize: "here it is for the taking, but you have to beat this belly first.” Except of course that Chiyomaru didn't actually make him get around his belly. Instead, after the lame tachi-ai where Chiyomaru didn't bother to stay straight to him, as Kyokutaisei moved even further to the side Chiyomaru continued to move straight forward, like he was both blind and deaf, unaware that Kyokutaisei was not even in front of him. Chiyomaru continued this tactic throughout the bout, not turning even when Kyokutaisei was behind him, walking him out from the rear okuri-dashi. Chiyomaru looked like he was defeating an invisible phantom in linear force-out fashion, while his actual opponent was behind him.

M7 Ryuden (2-12) vs. M11 Daiamami (4-10)
Daiamami tried a slight henka and giving Ryuden a quick pull, but when didn't work he paid for it. While Big Sweety (Daiamami) was standing there watching his handiwork--keep moving, people!--Ryuden got on him and wrapped his arms around both sides of Sweety's blubbery bulk, getting inside and outside belt grips. Big Sweety had a right inside of his own, and almost spilled Ryuden, but Ryuden had too much momentum, and when they both went down together Ryuden came out on top, yori-taoshi. These guys both had terrible tournaments.

M5 Kotoshogiku (8-6) vs. M16 Myogiryu (9-5)
I was rooting hard for Myogiryu here, who has had an exciting comeback tournament from a bad spot on the banzuke. He quickly got his arms around Kotoshogiku's chest, and despite one wrenching lurch and a little attempt at mawari-komu evasion by Kotoshogiku, Myogiryu quickly forced Kotoshogiku out in dominant fashion, yori-kiri. Yikes! Well, Myogiryu will probably get slaughtered as he moves into tougher territory on the list next time around, but I enjoyed him in May.

M3 Daieisho (4-10) vs. M3 Yutakayama (2-12)
And here is Myogiryu's descendant, Daieisho. We don't need Myogiryu because we have the very similar Daieisho, who is seven years younger. This one was all chest pushes and trying to knock each other's arms out of the way. After weak tournaments by both parties, they both could have used a win here. However, it was Daieisho who did his thing, and despite a little back-and forth because of an ill-advised, out-of-character pull attempt by Daieisho, Daieisho had the better "genki” in this nearly-pure push battle and oshi-dashi'ed Yutakayama convincingly out. Daieisho will sink back to the middle of the banzuke where he belongs and look better there. Yutakayama's time is still coming.

M8 Yoshikaze (7-7) vs. M2 Abi (7-7)
Well, Abi did much better than I expected record-wise, but I still say he has looked frightful. Nevertheless, he still had a Special Prize on this line here. Our contestants treated us to a busy one. Abi dominated most of the match; Yoshikaze was landing few slaps, couldn't get any extension, and was on his heels, whereas Abi was striking hard, long blows to the throat and consistently had Yoshikaze going backwards. However, all it took was one quick, foolish pull in there by Abi, just the tiniest thing: Yoshikaze ducked in on him, drove, and turned this thing around in short order for an oshi-dashi victory. That's experience. I'm tired of Abi already, and just hope they'll let him fight for it (rather than be given gifts) in Nagoya. They won't. He's kind of a poor man's, large-size Ura, and he's taking advantage of the oxygen Ura had.

M2 Shohozan (7-7) vs. M6 Takarafuji (7-7)
I love Darth Hozan. His tachi-strike was lighting quick, two stabbing arms to the face that neutralized Takarafuji and stood him up.  't Hozan capitalized on it by immediately moving in, getting both arms inside, and drove Takarafuji back and toppled him, yori-taoshi. A winning record at M2 is a great result for a guy like Shohozan. It also netted him a Special Prize. Whereas Takarafuji's good start crumbled into dust as his boring career continues its slow slide into further irrelevance.

M4 Chiyotairyu (6-8) vs. M1 Kaisei (5-9)
What happens if you fire a cannonball into a vat of butter at point-blank range? Apparently the butter absorbs the impact and stops the cannonball, because that is what happened here. Chiyotairyu's explosive tachi-ai drizzled out and he was going for the pull within two seconds. You knew it was over for him the moment the pull started. It took a little bit of work for Kaisei--is it fair to say Kaisei does nothing particularly well, but is big enough to get plenty of wins anyway?--but eventually these two got real close, and Kaisei had Chiyotairyu held tight enough to side-sling him down, sukui-nage. Chiyotairyu is terrible on the belt.

M1 Tamawashi (7-7) vs. M4 Shodai (9-5)
Tamawashi was sloppy in this one but still dominated. Did he take Shodai too lightly? Easy to do. Tamawashi started with effective body pushing and neck shoves, but when this resulted in separation and a moment of staring at each other across the gap, Tamawashi gave in to the impulse to fire a rapid flurry of tough-guy windmill pulls. That didn't work and almost cost him the match, because Shodai charged successfully into and through it. However, with a little arm pull and swift, deft change of position to move the line of the match, Tamawashi got Shodai's back to the tawara again and then unleashed more of the destructive head-removing, neck-bruising thrusts he's famous for, giving him an oshi-dashi win and kachi-koshi.

M6 Chiyoshoma (5-9) vs. K Endo (3-11)
One oddity of the last day is that very close to the end, with all the big guns playing each other for a change rather than trolling the ranks, you usually get a few bouts of guys with execrable records finishing off miserable tournaments. Chiyoshoma decided to end Endo's awful debutante Komusubi pasting with a thorough wasting of him. He moved right at the tachi-ai, got a long outside right belt grip and put his left hand on Endo's head, and began spinning Endo around and around, lifting him with his leg, and finally pin-wheeling him embarrassingly to the ground, uwate-nage. As I've said many times, my favorite thing about Endo is watching him get absolutely demolished by better wrestlers.

K Mitakeumi (8-6) vs. S Ichinojo (8-6)
Proxy battle for the future of the sport. Ichinojo moved forward two steps, then back six or seven, retreating and pulling and letting Mitakeumi push him out, oshi-dashi.

The future of the sport remains cloudy and somewhat depressing, but nothing different than it has been for years.

S Tochinoshin (12-2) vs. M5 Ikioi (8-6)
And we come to the now of the sport. In this one, Tochinoshin needed to win to stay in it and give drama to the final match. A Tochinoshin loss would have give the yusho to Kakuryu. A Tochinoshin win would have forced Kakuryu to win to avoid a playoff.

And fresh Ozeki-to-be Tochinoshin was going to make Kakuryu earn it. Hurrah! Tochinoshin kept his striking hands tight and hard at the tachi-ai, a good look for him. He followed this with a quick blow to the face. This gave Ikioi, who is plenty good in his own right, a chance to get inside on Tochinoshin, and he took it, driving Tochinoshin back. But the smothering body contact thus caused was also all to the good for Tochinoshin; he picked up the inside and outside belt grips that are his dominant style, and, with a smooth step to the side, changed the dangerous line of the bout in his favor; in an instant, Ikoi had two feet against the tawara. Ikioi is famed for his strength, and he resisted well. There was some small chance he might escape to the right or left, unleash some desperate gyaku-ten throw. But Tochinoshin was too good for that. He spread his legs wide, manned up, blood rippling through his capillaries and turning his whole bear-like, wicked frame dusky red, and pushed, pushed, pushed--and out went Ikioi's feet, yori-kiri. That's sumo, folks. Oh happiness, we're coming to it.

Y Kakuryu (13-1) vs. Y Hakuho (11-3)
What did they decide at the karaoke party? There is a very small chance they said, "let's just each go for it and see what happens. At worst it results in a winnable playoff and still a Mongolian yusho.” But most likely they decided what story to tell. Some of my least favorite sumo moments in the last fifteen years came during the demonstrative, ridiculous, lengthy fake-sumo final matches between Hakuho and Asashoryu, really putting on a show. Afterwards the irrepressibly transparent Asashoryu would grin with Duper's Delight, unable to contain himself, win or lose.

Would we get more of the same here? Very hard not to get cynical.

Yes we did. Kakuryu didn't move forward much at the tachi-ai, giving quick advantage to Hakuho, as they slapped together nicely and prepared to get on each other's belts and bodies. Kakuryu got a left outside, Hakuho a right inside, with the other side of their bodies turned slightly away from each other. It was Kakuryu who launched a force out charge first, driving Hakuho to the bales. Hakuho had opportunities--and plenty of necessary skill--to get to the side, to change it up. He didn't, and that's when we knew this was theatre. Next, for no particular reason Kakuryu retreated the battle back to the center of the ring. That's when we knew that on top of the outcome theatre we had a typical Asashoryu-Hakuho-style final-day match-up: they were not only going to do Storytelling--they were going to overdo it. Well, I'm sure there were plenty of happy spectators. Give a little length, give a little pizzazz.

Their grips were now reversed: left outside for Kakuryu, right inside for Hakuho--but that was academic. They leaned over further. They huffed and puffed a bit--this does take effort. Finally, the lame denouement: second attempt at a linear force out charge from Kakuryu, this one successful, yori-kiri. And the tournament was over.

Gracious from Hakuho, gratifying for Kakuryu: two yusho in a row, and a few solid months--a reasonable and comfortable stretch--as the apparent top guy in the sport. Taking care. Yep, they all got when they wanted: Kakuryu his fifth yusho and, finally, the appearance of sustained dominance. Tochinoshin an Ozeki promotion, and two, count 'em, two! Special Prizes. And Hakuho? Still hanging around, still telling the story. Still Hakuho.

Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Tochinoshin's "upset" of Hakuho yesterday left the Sekiwake in the lead all by his lonesome heading into Day 13, but the Yokozuna are still the Storytellers. With just a one-bout lead coming in and Kakuryu still to go, Tochinoshin does not control his own destiny. What Tochinoshin's win over Hakuho did do yesterday is keep the leaderboard nice and trim, and so when NHK forecast early on that the storylines of the basho surrounded Hakuho, Kakuryu, Tochinoshin, and Ichinojo, they knew what they were talking about.

Since there's still way too much storytellin' going on and zero chance that one of the big threesome would be legitimately upset today, let's just continue to break things down in chronological order.

M12 Asanoyama made no effort at the tachi-ai against M14 Takekaze allowing the veteran to strike, move left, and go for a quick swipe. It was a bad swipe as it was, but Asanoyama fell forward a step and then just changed his direction toppling over sideways. At 5-8 now it looks as if Takekaze is making a play to stay in the division. As for Asanoyama, he's safely in at 7-6 on the day with more room to give.

M14 Sadanoumi looked to get inside at the tachi-ai against M11 Chiyonokuni, but the latter used his left hand up and under Sadanoumi's right arm nicely twisting him upright and allowing Kuni to rush in and secure the right inside and left outer grip in a flash, and from that point, Chiyonokuni bodied his foe over and out in about two seconds. I'll take a good bout of sumo any day as Chiyonokuni moves to 10-3 while Sadanoumi is quelled a bit at 7-6.

M11 Nishikigi used a nice right paw to M11 Daiamami's face while grabbing him around the left arm to halt his momentum, and as Daiamami shaded left, Nishikigi worked his right arm to the inside forcing the bout to migi-yotsu. As both dudes stood there chest to chest, they grabbed left outer grips and the gappuri bout of sumo was on. I often say that Japanese rikishi are incapable of such sumo, and I think what I mean when I say that is "Why don't we see sumo like this by Japanese rikishi high in the ranks?" They're simply incapable of it, and so the most competitive bouts are fought early in the broadcast.

Nishikigi is obviously the better belt fighter between these two rikishi, and so as Daiamami mounted the first charge attempt, Nishikigi calmly went with the flow, planted his feet near the edge, and just turned the tables sending Daiamami out leading with the right. Kyokutenho would have been proud at this move as Nishikigi moves to 9-4 while Daiamami falls to 4-9.

M13 Aoiyama and M10 Takakeisho engaged in a straight up tsuppari affair with Takakeisho unable to budge Aoiyama, and Aoiyama choosing not to use any de-ashi as part of his attack. Even though his tsuppari weren't having effect, Takakeisho failed to even attempt a pull or swipe, and from this point it just looked as if the fix was in. After three or four seconds of light shoves from both rikishi, Aoiyama backed up and to his right as if to go for a pull, but he just stepped back and out with little pressure from his foe. Aoiyama falls to 7-6 with the move while Takakeisho buys..er..uh..comes out of nowhere to clinch kachi-koshi at 8-5 after his slow start.

Speaking of knowing the fix was in, M16 Aminishiki charged straight into M10 Okinoumi, which would normally be considered suicide knowing his current state, but he knew what was up getting the left arm inside and right outer grip with no defense from Okinoumi. Aminishiki instinctively pulled Okinoumi over dashi-nage style before ducking low all the while with Okinoumi maintaining a left to the inside and his right arm outside and out of harm's way. With Okinoumi standing there like a bump on a log, Aminishiki went for a right outer belt throw easily spilling the willing Okinoumi down and out. I kinda like that term to describe the sumo landscape these days: spilling the willing. Nice yacho here as Okinoumi graciously defers to the veteran suffering make-koshi in the process at 5-8. Aminishiki is gifted a meaningless 3-10 record.

At this point of the broadcast, they interviewed Hoshoryu fresh off of his yusho in the Jonidan division. The dude looked dapper in a slick pair of glasses, and the only reason why I mention him is because he's Asashoryu's nephew. Just file that name away for a year and half and also remember is main rival, Naiya, who happens to be the grandson of Taiho.

M13 Ishiura henka'd to his right wildly against M9 Daishomaru who stumbled forward a few steps before squaring back up, but not before Ishiura was right there in for the kill securing moro-zashi and forcing Daishomaru about three rows deep into the suna-kaburi. What an ugly bout of sumo, and it wouldn't surprise me if Daishomaru (8-5) was repaying a debt here. He showed nothing despite being henka'd at the tachi-ai and with kachi-koshi already safely in hand, he had the means to do it. Ishiura limps to just 4-9 with the quick and dirty win.

Kagayaki came with a right paw into Myogiryu's neck at the tachi-ai driving Myogiryu back a willing step, but instead of continuing on with his initial forward attack, Kagayaki next set up for a pull. The dude wasn't exactly redefining the term "light speed" either, and Myogiryu had ample chance to sneak inside for moro-zashi, but he just dutifully stood there at Kagayaki's bidding. After three or four seconds, Kagayaki finally wrapped his left arm around Myogiryu's right in kote fashion, but I don't think I can really call it a throw. It was more like Kagayaki setting it up and Myogiryu just diving down to the dirt. Myogiryu was painfully mukiryoku here as Kagayaki is given kachi-koshi at 8-5, and with Myogiryu at 9-4, he's got more room to give.

M15 Kyokutaisei is turning a bit into a Takakeisho mastering the tactic of going for tsuppari...while retreating. It's ugly indeed, but M8 Yoshikaze couldn't solve it methodically moving forward looking for the inside as Kyokutaisei just went for a wild pull that felled him to the dirt rather easily as the rookie tried to keep his balance on the straw until Monster Drink bled out. This was an awful bout of sumo, and awful seems to be the best word to describe Kyokutaisei's sumo despite his 9-4 record, but have we mentioned yet that tickets are already on sale for the Hokkaido exhibition coming up in August??  yes they are!!  As for Yoshikaze, he coulda let up here falling to 6-7.

As M15 Tochiohzan and M7 Chiyomaru waited for their bout to begin, Chiyomaru patiently stood still as Tochiohzan began creating a house of cards on Maru's shelf gut. Tochiohzan nearly had the entire house built, but when you have an itch, you gotta scratch it, and that slight movement brought that house of cards down. Tochiohzan was so upset he easily rebuffed Chiyomaru's listless tsuppari at the tachi-ai and gained moro-zashi straightway. You'd think Oh would have it made at this point, but have you ever tried to yori-kiri your way around a shelf gut?? It was too much for Tochiohzan to handle as Chiyomaru was able to squirm out of it, but he did nothing but dodge around the ring as Tochiohzan gave chase trying to connect on a tsuppari or two. Oh never really did connect, but Chiyomaru musta felt bad for ruining the house of cards because on one of the tsuppari attempts, Chiyomaru just stepped out of his own volition. Don't look now but Tochiohzan picks up kachi-koshi with the win, and at M15 he needed it. Chiyomaru falls to 5-8 with the gift, but at M7, he can easily afford it.

Before we move on, I think we just witnessed the worst five bout stretch of the entire tournament. Dayum things got ugly after that fine affair between Nishikigi and Daiamami.

M12 Arawashi went for a quick hari-zashi striking M7 Ryuden's face with the left before attempting to get that same arm to the inside. As for Ryuden, he attempted to avoid that face slap by moving left, but in doing so, he exposed his right side allowing Arawashi to grab the outer grip near the front of the belt. Arawashi quickly followed that up by shoring up his inside left, and before this could really morph into a chest to chest affair, Arawashi wrenched Ryuden back beyond the straw in just a few seconds. The key here was that Ryuden's left inside position was too shallow as Arawashi pinched in on the limb. Well, actually the real key was that Arawashi actually intended to win, and he did so easily moving to 5-8 in the process. As for Ryuden, he falls to 2-11.

M6 Chiyoshoma delivered a single shove into M3 Daieisho standing the latter up enough to where Chiyoshoma rushed into moro-zashi. As the two wrangled a bit in the center of the ring, Daieisho managed to get his left arm inside, but Chiyoshoma countered that with a solid right outer grip, and from this point it was a textbook yori attack from Chiyoshoma who nudged his foe back little by little keeping him pinned in with the outer grip while bodying back safely beyond the straw. Pretty good sumo here from Chiyoshoma who moves to 4-9 while Daieisho falls to the same mark.

M2 Abi got a left paw to M6 Takarafuji's neck at the tachi-ai, but there was nothing behind it, and so Takarafuji was able to rebuff the youngster and send him back the way he come with a few nice shoves, and as Abi next looked for a pull, Takarafuji rested his left arm near the inside of Abi. I say it that way because Takarafuji had the wide-open path to moro-zashi the entire bout, but he never went for it instead opting to play along as Abi went for a few more stupid pulls moving left. In the end, Takarafuji just belly flopped to the dohyo pretending to miss on a shove attempt as Abi when for a final pull, and as Takarafuji fell, he was more determined to slap his hand down quickly instead of push at Abi's legs. If you really care to win a bit, you keep your eye on your opponent until the very end. Takarafuji is nothing but a pawn for Isegahama-oyakata as he intentionally falls to 6-7. As for Abi, it was yet another ugly win over a mukiryoku opponent that moves him to the same 6-7 mark. We'll see if there's more yaocho thrown Abi's way over the weekend in order to get him the Shukunsho.

M3 Yutakayama came with a tsuppari charge against M1 Kaisei, but the Brasilian was hardly fazed by the youngster managing to work his right arm to the inside in an attempt to force the bout to the belt. Yutakayama was hesitant, however, for obvious reasons, and so he continued to shove and move around forcing Kaisei to give chase. Kaisei kept up well attempting a quick kote-nage with the right arm, and while that didn't fell Yutakayama straight way, it kept him on his heels evading this way and that looking to counter. Kaisei maintained the right inside throughout, however, and despite never latching onto the left outer grip, he was able to body Yutakayama upright near the edge and push him back for good. This was a pretty entertaining bout from both rikishi as Kaisei moves to 5-8 while Yutakayama falls to 2-11.

M1 Tamawashi and M4 Chiyotairyu crashed at the tachi-ai each coming with their tsuppari attack, and when Tairyu wasn't able to just blast Tamawashi back from the start, he began to think pull. He didn't really sell out on a pull, but he was thinking about it, and that's all Tamawashi needed chasing Chiyotairyu around and out with his smooth tsuppari sumo. Tamawashi stays alive at 6-7 while Chiyotairyu's make-koshi becomes official at 5-8.

M2 Shohozan was his busy self against Komusubi Endoh coming with a quick hari-zashi before next attempting a pull and then another face slap followed by a kote-nage all before Endoh had fully come out of his stance. Okay, that's a bit facetious, but Shohozan was his usual busy self simply disallowing Endoh to get to the inside and moving around enough that the Komusubi was lost. As Shohozan dictated the bout, Endoh finally attempted a pull of Shohozan's arm, but he wasn't in a firm position to execute it, and so Shohozan pounced on the momentum shift pushing Endoh back for good. It's easy to tell when Shohozan is mukiryoku, especially when you watch him work in a bout like this. He busies his way to 6-7 while Endoh falls to 3-10.

Komusubi Mitakeumi secured moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against M5 Kotoshogiku, but the former Ozeki tried his best to wriggle free. He never could do it, but Mitakeumi never could keep him in place in order to set up the easy force-out, and this is a testament to just how uncomfortable Mitakeumi is when fighting chest to chest. Around and around the dohyo the two went with Kotoshogiku trying to shake free while Mitakeumi desperately tried to maintain moro-zashi, and after about seven or eight seconds, Kotoshogiku looked gassed allowing Mitakeumi to finally score the force-out win. Mitakeumi clinches kachi-koshi at 8-5 while Kotoshogiku is still left wanting at 7-6.

Next up was Sekiwake Tochinoshin looking to take solid command of the yusho race with a win over M4 Shodai. Tochinoshin kept both arms wide at the tachi-ai as seen at right gifting Shodai moro-zashi...if he wanted it, but Shodai backed out of it, a sure sign that he wasn't looking to secure it in the first place, and so Shin stepped forward with a right hand to Shodai's side and his left hand to the throat, but the Sekiwake was passive opting to back up for no reason instead of keep the pressure on Shodai by plowing forward. At this point, Shodai had yet to employ a single waza, and as Tochinoshin backed up. Shodai was ducked low and there for the taking if Tochinoshin had tried a slapdown. He didn't of course allowing Shodai to recover, and as much as I'd like to say that Shodai finally attempted a waza in going for a pull, it was more of his backing up quickly instead of actually applying any downward force to Tochinoshin's body, but the Sekiwake played along diving to the dirt slapping his right hand down early before knocking Shodai across with the left. This was pretty straightforward yaocho, and it's typical of bouts that involve Shodai or Mitakeumi where they don't do a single thing offensively...or defensively for that matter, and yet they still come away with the victory. Like the Takarafuji bout before, Tochinoshin was only interested on his landing and didn't even look Shodai's way at the end as seen by the pic below. Judging by the crowd reaction afterwards, I think everyone knew in their hearts, but oh well. The end result is Tochinoshin's falling to 12-1 while Shodai picks up kachi-koshi at 8-5!! Spectacular.



Yokozuna Hakuho easily got the right inside and left outer grip against M5 Ikioi driving him back to the edge in a half second...before just bringing him right back to the center of the ring. This start was a perfect example of how the Yokozuna let's rikishi linger to make things look more competitive because Ikioi did nothing to counter there at the edge. Ikioi accepted Hakuho's generous offer and set up shop getting his own right arm to the inside, but he was way far away from a left outer grip. With Hakuho doing nothing, Ikioi thought to himself "may as well if he's gonna give it to me," and so he went for an inside scoop throw that forced Hakuho to move a few steps, but Hakuho wasn't playing that nice on the day. After Ikioi's best shot, Hakuho dragged him over to the other side of the dohyo dashi-nage style tripping Ikioi's right leg at the edge causing him to topple beyond the straw. This was simply a cat playing with a mouse, and there's no reason why Hakuho had to keep Ikioi alive for as long as he did, but it looked good to the fans so no harm no foul. The result is Hakuho's moving to 11-2 while Ikioi falls to a quiet 8-5.

The day's final bout looked to be a doozy on paper with Yokozuna Kakuryu vs. Sekiwake Ichinojo, but the Yokozuna seized the upperhand straightway gaining moro-zashi from the tachi-ai while Ichinojo looked to hang on with a left outer grip. Kakuryu let Ichinojo have anything he wanted on the outsides as he nestled in chest to chest keeping the Mongolith upright, and after both rikishi gathered their wits for a few seconds in the center of the ring, Kakuryu mounted his yori charge for which Ichinojo didn't answer. I mean, the Sekiwake could have at least attempted a counter kote-nage or tsuki-otoshi, but he didn't just allowing Kakuryu to walk him back in the end. Kakuryu is a master belt fighter; he just doesn't show it very often similarly to how Hakuho doesn't always go for the right inside left outer grip. Regardless, the result was Kakuryu's moving to 12-1 while Ichinojo fell to 7-6.

With the dust settled and the yusho line now down to the one-loss level, it looks like this as we head into the weekend:

12-1: Kakuryu, Tochinoshin
11-2: Hakuho
10-3: Chiyonokuni

With so many bouts compromised these days, it's difficult to predict yaocho, but it would be nice to see Kakuryu step aside for Tochinoshin and then Hakuho beat Kakuryu leaving all three foreigners at 13-2 setting up a tomoe-sen. I can't remember the last time that happened, but all three dudes would draw straws to see which two fight first, and then it's basically winner stays on until he wins two in a row. It wouldn't be authentic, but it'd at least give some of the newer fans a taste of a three-way playoff for the yusho.

I don't feel any drama really going into the weekend, but let's just see how it plays out.

Day 12 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Well, we are there. This tournament has sailed along with relatively little blemish:  the best wrestlers have generally been the best.  Hakuho, Kakuryu, and Tochinoshin have had a largely drama-free sail into this final weekend.

That ended today, as Tochinoshin took on Hakuho.  A Hakuho win would mean the tournament would continue on the smooth trajectory:  these three fight it out in a dramatic last few days.  A Tochinoshin win would mean it is all about his run to Ozeki-hood: a sort of capstone crown, with the drama of whether he will also beat Kakuryu as a secondary storyline to just sort of a plain "wow, Tochinoshin!" bewonderment.  I have to say I'm loving the way the crowds seem to be embracing Tochinoshin. I'm not feeling any of that "these durned foreigners!" resentments on this one.  As Mike has astutely pointed out, the Hokutoumi revolution seems to be over, and we're in the time of counterrevolution, when the old guard takes back over: ultimately the foreign dominance remains real, and can only be pushed aside for so long. Tochinoshin, right now, represents its acceptable face.  Expect to see more of it until someone (anyone? anyone? Bueller?) can make a semblance of legitimately challenging it, and thereby making it worth everyone's while to sufficiently support or prop that up. For now at least, the important deferments will be amongst the elites, not extended to a level below that.

LEADERBOARD

Y Kakuryu (10-1) vs. M5 Ikioi (8-3)
This was a lively one. First of all, I do believe that Kakuryu has a pull habit. And that it is a bad habit. And that he doesn't just deploy it when he's mukiryoku, but that he also deploys it foolishly when he fully intends to win, and that it hurts him. He fully intended to win this one.

There was a whole lotta slappin' going on here. Ikioi tried to bump Kakuryu upright with two upthrusting firsts at the tachi-ai, but it didn't work, and Kakuryu stayed tight and aggressed forward and probably could have won in about two seconds with a linear force out. Of course, that carries its dangers if you commit too hard, and so Kakuryu decided Ikioi was compromised enough to fall prey to a quick, hard pull. It didn't work. Ikioi ain't bad, and is having a lively, effective tournament, and he survived it no problem. From there, it was on. Kakuryu worked Ikioi hard with his left hand, slapping hard, and pushed him with his right, but this wasn't doing much to get him a victory, and round and round they went, Kakuryu throwing in dangerous pulls here and there. It finally ended only when Ikioi tried a pull in turn, and that gave Kakuryu the opening and momentum to get on him hard and push him out, oshi-dashi. And with this, Kakuryu kept the pace. On to the more meaningful match.

S Tochinoshin (11-0) vs. Y Hakuho (10-1)
First of all, the amazing thing is Hakuho came in 25-0 in this match-up. 25-0. Wow. That speaks to gaps: one, the gap between Hakuho's sumo and Tochinoshin's: over the years, Hakuho has been dominatingly better than Tochinoshin. Make no mistake. And it also points to the gap between fiction and reality: look what you've seen of Tochinoshin over the past three years. He's an impressive dude, with solid sumo skills and intimidating power. Then, good as he is, consider that he has never--that's never--beaten Hakuho. Try to reconcile that with Hakuho's frequent losses to lesser guys, from Abi to Mitakeumi. That's the second gap. Is it possible Tochinoshin and Hakuho's styles just match up in Hakuho's favor? Possible. But not to a 25-0 tune. Hakuho has consistently beaten Tochinoshin for two simple reasons: one, because he is better. And two, because Tochinoshin has had no political juice. There simply has been no reason to let Tochinoshin win, and so Hakuho hasn't. And that, in a nutshell, is the story of sumo over the last few years.

Would it end here? The arena was certainly pumped. First, Hakuho greased the villain gears with a very obvious--therefore intentional--false start. Tochinoshin wasn't feinting for or close to having his fists on the dirt. This was probably a signal from Hakuho to say, "come on, man, I'm the Yokozuna, I don't wait on you." Because when they went again, Tochinoshin had gotten the message and put both fists down and waited. The tachi-ai was a good, popping skin blast. They immediately went for mutual right-inside, left-outside grips. We were then treated to a show of classic power sumo. They strained. They gripped. They tugged. They muscled. They'd have popped their biceps in two if they could. And inch by inch, Tochinoshin moved the Yokozuna over to the edge and lifted, strained, lifted, powered, lifted, inched, until the Yokozuna was edged over the bales, yori-kiri, and glory descended all over in a rain of purplish cushions. We were allowed to believe that after ten years of losses, the new cowboy had finally twirled his lasso on the dusty plain, and the old one was beginning to edge off into the sunset. It was a very gracious way to let Tochinoshin get to Ozeki; by beating the Yokozuna he'd never beaten, and being allowed to do it in his own forte style, looking good: belt to belt, chest to chest, let's see who has more power. And this way it sure looked like Tochinoshin was the guy who did. You'd love to have it be true. And if Hakuho didn't move right or left in the end, didn't deploy any speed or Yokozuna-esque throws, well, you'd be forgiven for thinking he just couldn't anymore. Not against this guy, the man of the day, the guy who made the cherry blossoms fall off of the tree. It was beautiful, really. In a painterly sort of way. Congrats to Tochinoshin, who has been earning this for years.

PRESENT

M13 Ishiura (2-9) vs. M16 Aminishiki (2-9)
Aminishiki backed up and pulled, what else is new, and even puny Ishiura had absolutely no problem trundling him back and out off of that oshi-dashi as easily as if Aminishiki had been your grandmother. Until Aminishiki collapsed backwards limply into the crowd like a blow-up doll with all the air suddenly let out of him. Dead corpse.

M12 Arawashi (4-7) vs. M12 Asanoyama (6-5)
This one was pretty cool, with a dramatic nage-no-uchi-ai dual throw at the end, with both guy's heads pointed not just down but off the dohyo, and both bodies flying wildly through the air with nary a hand stretched out to save themselves. It was launched off a major drive forward by Asanoyama, but Arawashi triggered it with the throw at the edge, countered in fine fashion by Asanoyama with his own throw. They might as well have been dice at the craps table they tumbled so hard. It was meaningless to determine with twitching body hit the dirt first--it was near simultaneous--so the judges quickly and correctly decided this one was worth a do over. They went belts again, and this time Asanoyama not only slung his opponent around to put his back to the edge, but kept his feet on the ground this time as he summarily forced him out, yori-kiri.

But that nage-no-uchi-ai was pretty cool. Like steaks slung carelessly on a blazing grill: let ‘em burn.

M15 Kyokutaisei (8-3) vs. M11 Chiyonokuni (8-3)
Kyokutaisei retreated. Kyokutaisei pulled. Chiyonokuni got up and in and drove him out, yori-kiri. I don't care what Kyokutaisei's record is, he has looked like crap.

M10 Okinoumi (5-6) vs. M15 Tochiohzan (6-5)
Tochiohzan down here is still the same guy he was up high on the banzuke: he wants moro-zashi. He got it, and kept driving. Right near the edge Okinoumi let go of his grips around the body and tried a throw, pivoting out of there and pushing down with his arm. Which shouldn't have been possible. It worked--Tochiohzan went down--but before Tochiohzan crashed, Okinoumi also stepped out as part of the move. Yori-kiri. This didn't look natural. Next.

M9 Daishomaru (7-4) vs. M17 Nishikigi (8-3)
Linear force out by Daishomaru. Normally I'd be skeptical, but Daishomaru had his hands in the right place, up on the shoulders, and controlled an attempted escape out to the side by Nishikigi, pushing him out as he did it, oshi-dashi. Will not dwell on this.

M8 Yoshikaze (5-6) vs. M11 Daiamami (4-7)
Daiamami hopped at the tachi-ai. Pointless. Yoshikaze, on the other hand, surged: down and inside. He also easily broke one of Daiamami's hands off his waist and assumed moro-zashi. He also turned Daiamami around. He also knocked him down on his hands and knees, okuri-nage (something like "rear throw." It was to be a day of rare "okuri" kimari-te; look for an okuri-taoshi later). This is what happens when an experienced, better guy is motivated to focus and beat an inexperienced, lesser guy.

M14 Takekaze (4-7) vs. M8 Kagayaki (6-5)
Kagayaki doesn't strike me as very smart in the ring, and I smelled danger for him here. I needn't have worried; this was one of those where the loser isn't trying very hard for whatever reason. Takekaze isn't as wizened as Aminishiki, but he's pretty weathered, and he didn't even try a pull here, so it was easy stuff. Takekaze gave one tsuki attempt to the side, but Kagayaki is pretty big and solid, and it didn't faze him. He walked the limp Takekaze out with some matter of fact pushing and shoving, oshi-dashi.

M7 Ryuden (2-9) vs. M14 Sadanoumi (6-5)
Ryuden looks sooooo much like Hakuho to me. He even tried an arm bar tachi-ai here. But it was comically weak compared to The Storyteller and suddenly they had no resemblance at all. Sadanoumi stopped Ryuden dead, wrapped him up with belt grips on both sides, and tipped him dramatically over all the way off the mount, yori-taoshi, while coming down on top of him. It is amazing to me these guys don't get injured more often.

M13 Aoiyama (6-5) vs. M7 Chiyomaru (5-6)
"Maru" means "round." "The judge looks refreshing in his white robe, doesn't he," said my wife. "Look at that belly on Chiyomaru," I countered. "Maru-sugi," (too round), said she. I should have told her no, too flat! Look at the stack of schoolbooks he's balancing on his Shelf Belly: eleven, twelve… they tumbled off eventually and they had to start the match. They pushed rather gently on each other's faces. Aoiyama, sigh, being Aoiyama, pulled Chiyomaru. It didn't work, and they went back to pushing on each other's faces. And Chiyomaru was pushed out, oshi-dashi. He didn't look like he was taking this one seriously. Or he's really crappy. It took him some time to pick up all those books, too, because he isn't very bendable.

M6 Chiyoshoma (3-8) vs. M10 Takakeisho (6-5)
Looks like Chiyoshoma is determined to win that "most losses" contest with Arawashi. He stumbled forward with his head down, allowing Takakeisho to get a good slap in at the nape of his neck, and Chiyoshoma swiped the dirt with one hand and thereby got Takakeisho the hataki-komi win.

M16 Myogiryu (8-3) vs. M6 Takarafuji (6-5)
These guys have had pretty good tournaments, so I was looking forward to this. Big Redemption vs. Little Redemption Turning Sour (Takarafuji has seen his nice start fall apart in week two). It turned out to be a classic Takarafuji match: he was patient and passive. As so often, too much so. Myogiryu was pushing him this way and that, and Takarafuji would kind of maintain and keep low and wait for an opening. I thought he would win for sure, as he's bigger and better, but Myogiryu has been on it for the last week, and while Takarafuji was still waiting to win, Myogiryu was making it happen. Now-now. He got Takarafuji turned to the side and pushed him down and collapsed down on top of him, okuri-taoshi (rear push over).

M2 Shohozan (5-6) vs. M4 Shodai (6-5)
Shohozan went all Takakeisho on us: bump, retreat, repeat. This, for whatever reason, made Shodai really mad, and Shodai went all "oh yeah well my dad is bigger than your dad" on him and did the same thing back, throwing in some massive forearm shoves. The implied taunt in the separation Shohozan allowed to exist in the match totally woke Shodai up; I've rarely seen Shodai this animated, as he destroyed Shohozan oshi-dashi. Maybe someone should give him a nice face slapping before each match and call him nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

M3 Daieisho (3-8) vs. M2 Abi (5-6)
Honestly, I don't understand the excitement about Abi. He's lightweight and sprinty, retreating all over the place and jumping here and there, eleven lords a leaping, ten ladies dancing. To me, he has looked terrible. Show me something forward moving or on the belt in addition to it, and I may forgive. Instead, right now he and Kyokutaisei can have throw a party with nine pipers piping. Abi retreated here too--against little old Daieisho. So I was happy to see Abi get very simply dismantled by the relentlessly forward moving Daieisho, oshi-dashi. The reliably gung-ho Daieisho stayed too close to let Abi escape, breath hot in his face, until all the swans, geese, calling birds, turtle doves, French hens, and partridges lay around dead on a puree of mashed pear pulp.

M1 Tamawashi (4-7) vs. M3 Yutakayama (2-9)
They took turns trying to rip each other's heads off, but Tamawashi is better at that, and eventually extended his arms all the way when he got a little momentum against the overwhelmed youngster, and that was that in an oshi-dashi city win for Tamawashi.

K Mitakeumi (7-4) vs. M4 Chiyotairyu (4-7)
Blam! Whap whap whap whap! Tsuki-dashi win for Chiyotairyu. That quick, that definitive. Believe it.

M1 Kaisei (3-8) vs. K Endo (3-8)
Endo shaded left, then started to push the upright and compliant-looking Kaisei out. But maybe Kaisei's giant bulk was goo sweaty, because Endo slipped off Kaisei's belly and slithered to the ground just as Endo got Kaisei to the tawara, and it was a kind of silly looking tsuki-otoshi win for Kaisei. Okay, Kaisei did kind of push Endo down. Kind of. But it was so, so easy for him. Sigh. See? It makes the other stuff hard to trust, you know.

M5 Kotoshogiku (6-5) vs. S Ichinojo (7-4)
No one was really paying much attention to this, because the coronation kings, Hakuho and Tochinoshin, had already entered the ring and everybody was anticipating. But I'll describe it for you. Ichinojo let Kotoshogiku get moro-zashi, then let Kotoshogiku push him out yori-kiri. With lots of blubbery bouncing up and down by Ichinojo and some spinning of the attack line, to make it look good. Oh, it looked fine. Now that got the crowd's attention! Happy cheers! And that is why they do it.

Mike reigns supreme tomorrow.

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
It was a quiet news day as we head into Day 11. Hokutofuji's withdrawal barely got any ink, and Harvye was absolutely correct in that the episode in his bout against Ryuden yesterday was extremely uncomfortable, but it was such a fluke accident that nobody knew how to handle it. Another circumstance that faces the Association this tournament that might make them queasy is a leaderboard that is so top-heavy with foreign rikishi that they have no choice but to bite the bullet and let the Natsu basho play itself out as-is.

In my Day 1 report I had the gut feeling that both Yokozuna were going to fight the full fifteen and opt not to cover for Kyujonosato this tournament, and then on Day 3 in my intro, I expressed once again how it just felt as if the hype surrounding the Japanese darlings was running out of steam. Ultimately, you have to back things up with actual sumo in the ring, and none of the hyped Japanese rikishi have been able to step up and actually accomplish that.

The only hope now to make this basho interesting down the stretch is to have the elite foreign rikishi lose and that's what's completely wrong with sumo right now. The sport used to be great when rikishi would have to win to stay in the yusho race. Now, unfortunately, everything depends on timely losses.

As we head into the final five days, the leaderboard looks like this:

10-0: Tochinoshin
9-1: Hakuho, Kakuryu
8-2: Chiyonokuni

Chiyonokuni looks about as comfortable among that crowd as a gay dude at an NRA convention, and judging by the content of Kuni's sumo so far, he ain't gonna be hanging around for too much longer. The yusho will come down to a round robin among the top three, so until that happens, let's just start from the bottom and work our way up.

The day began with M15 Kyokutaisei entertaining J2 Gagamaru, and the Juryo rikishi's camp is obvious making a cash run here. Gagamaru opted not to shove his opponent from the tachi-ai instead putting his right arm against Kyokutaisei's left shoulder and just ducking his head as if to say do me now. With Gagamaru in this stance, Kyokutaisei worked his way into moro-zashi getting the left arm in deep and the right hand into a frontal grip, and with Gagamaru continuing to just stand there, Kyokutaisei on an unopposed inside belt throw. Kyokutaisei clinches kachi-koshi at 8-3 with the gift.

M13 Ishiura extended both arms towards M13 Aoiyama at the tachi-ai as if to say "Please don't hurt me." I guess you could say Aoiyama was gentle getting the right inside and the left outer grip before easily forcing Ishiura back and across. There was really no force in this one, and Aoiyama kept Ishiura upright and atop the dohyo in the end, and my impression here was that Aoiyama was just calling in a favor. For Ishiura to just stand there and do nothing is completely out of character for him. Aoiyama moves to 6-5 with the win while Ishiura takes his medicine at 2-9.

M12 Arawashi and M14 Takekaze tussled at the tachi-ai a bit with Arawashi looking for an opening to the inside while Takekaze busied himself fighting off the Mongolian's advances. With neither rikishi making much progress, Arawashi finally grabbed Takekaze's extended left arm in a kote grip and used that to wrench Takekaze upright and all the way back to the edge. As Takekaze got desperate, Arawashi finally worked his left arm to the inside and bodied Takekaze back that last step without argument. Arawashi quietly moves to 4-7 while Takekaze falls to the same mark.

M11 Chiyonokuni's run to this point has largely been sheer luck. Today against M16 Myogiryu, Myogiryu got the right arm to the inside coupled with a left outer grip at the tachi-ai, and he used that stance to quickly drive Chiyonokuni back. Kuni managed to maki-kae, but it was one of those where the attacker let him do it only to retool his own grips from out to in and in to out. That means as the dust settled Myogiryu now had a left inner and right outer, but more importantly, he had the linear momentum, so Chiyonokuni could do nothing as he was forced back in about two seconds. Both rikishi land on 8-3 at the end of the day, but they seem to be heading in different directions.

What does it say about you when M16 Aminishiki doesn't feel the need to henka against you? With Aminishiki actually charging forward into M11 Daiamami, the two knocked each other straight up as they wrassled for some sort of inside position. Daiamami kept Aminishiki firmly upright with a left kote grip, and similarly to Arawashi before, he used the grip from the outside to work Aminishiki back near the straw, and as Aminishiki looked to counter, Daiamami was finally able to work the right arm to the inside scoring the yori-kiri from there. Daiamami improves to 4-7 and doesn't look half bad...when fighting Aminishiki who fell to 2-9.

M17 Nishikigi was nice and fresh for his kachi-koshi interview after picking up his eighth win after M9 Hokutofuji went kyujo giving Nishikigi the freebie. I think Nishikigi has actually found his sea legs in the division, and he's one of the guys I've enjoyed watching these last two basho. As for Hokutofuji, he'll end the fortnight officially at 4-11, so he'll be able to keep himself at the bottom of the division come July.

I never thought I'd hear myself saying I loved the M14 Sadanoumi - M8 Kagayaki bout, but it was as well fought technically as you'd hope to see the first half of the day. Kagayaki looked to take advantage early coming with his usual tsuppari attack, but Sadanoumi went with the flow backing up in stride before grabbing Kagayaki's left arm and twisting him off balance with it. The sneak attack allowed Sadanoumi to get his right arm to the inside and force the bout chest to chest, and normally this would favor the larger dude, but Kagayaki isn't a yotsu guy, and so I enjoyed watching Sadanoumi wrangle his way into a left outer grip and then use that grip to execute a perfect throw once obtained. This was picture perfect sumo and counter sumo, and I loved every glorious second of it. Both dudes finish the day at 6-5.

Is it just me or does M8 Yoshikaze look as if he's lost a step? Today, M15 Tochiohzan scored the easy oshi-dashi win as Yoshikaze was unable to fight off his attack. It was nigh unto linear sumo, but Yoshikaze did attempt to evade back and to his left when he knew he was in trouble. No matter. Tochinoshin was onto him like stink bait finishing the job in about three seconds of nice, oshi sumo. I can't remember the last time Tochinoshin won like this as he moves to 6-5. As for Yoshikaze, he falls to a quiet 5-6.

M12 Asanoyama graciously used his wet rag to wipe the dust off of M7 Chiyomaru's shelf gut that had accumulated the first 10 days, but Chiyomaru couldn't be bought by that act of kindness. The dude came out with a potent oshi attack and nice de-ashi to boot, and credit Asanoyama for attempting to stand there toe to toe countering with tsuppari of his own, but Chiyomaru won this one in about three seconds. It seems as if it's been awhile since Chiyomaru HASN'T backed up during a bout, so it was nice to see him go straight forward today and pick up the win moving to 5-6 in the process. Asanoyama ain't so shabby himself at 6-5.

M6 Takarafuji just stood there absorbing shove after shove from M10 Takakeisho, and with Takarafuji moving just enough to his left, Takakeisho just couldn't connect on a kill shot. After making Takakeisho give chase for about six seconds while firing shove after shove, Takarafuji finally had an opening. Takakeisho was a bit gassed when Takarafuji decided to advance forward and put both hands to Takakeisho's neck. Problem was he didn't really grab on for a choke hold or push with any zeal, so as Takakeisho escaped back and to his right going for a wild pull, Takarafuji just flopped forward and down to the dohyo in fine mukiryoku fashion. Both rikishi end the day at 6-5, and the Takakeisho camp has ponied up serious jack the last few days.

M6 Chiyoshoma shoved high into M10 Okinoumi's neck at the tachi-ai for two or three seconds, and as Okinoumi tried to fight that off and lean forward, Chiyoshoma reversed gears on a dime going for a quick swipe that gave him the left inside position. Chiyoshoma briefly entertained thoughts of working his way into a right outer grip, but he was in so deep that he was able to pull the trigger on a left inside belt throw sending Okinoumi over and down in spectacular fashion. Dude can turn it on when he needs to, and today was such an example as Chiyoshoma ekes forward to 3-8. As for Okinoumi, he falls to 5-6 with after the drubbing.

M5 Ikioi flirted with his right arm to the inside against M9 Daishomaru who thought about going straight up for a second before backing up and moving right fishing for a pull. Ikioi gave chase testing the water for pushes and pulls and after Daishomaru rotated around half the dohyo, Ikioi finally lunged with a left shove that just did connect forcing Daishomaru to step across the straw as he continued to backpedal to his right. Ikioi nearly lost his balance going for the kill shot, but Daishomaru stepped out first rewarding Ikioi with kachi-koshi at 8-3 while Daishomaru settles for 7-4.

M7 Ryuden and M3 Yutakayama traded tall tsuppari with both guys up higher than they needed to be. Because neither dude was really driving with the legs, the tsuppari-fest was all arms as both rikishi danced around the center of the ring looking for some sort of opening. Yutakayama finally got it by working his left arm to the inside, and he wasted no time executing a yori charge. When Ryuden proved stubborn at the edge, Yutakayama was finally able to force him down yori-taoshi style for the nice win. They call it "koshi ga takai," and it's literally translated as having tall hips. What that expression refers to is the type of sumo stance these two showed us today. Rather than coming forward in a crouch style (think about the suri-ashi exercise), these two were standing too upright. Abi has an issue with this as well, but that's probably too much information at this point for two guys who are only 2-9 at the end of the day.

Speaking of M2 Abi, his hips were too tall yet again as he kinda fired some tsuppari M2 Shohozan's way, but Darth Hozan would have none of it charging forward hard and forcing Abi back and out before the youngster could really evade to his right. It was over in maybe two seconds, and Shohozan was even awarded the tsuki-dashi victory, but what this really exposes is just how mediocre Abi is. That gift against Hakuho was a joke, and Abi has no business fighting at the M2 level. Shohozan showed why as both dudes end the day at 5-6.

M1 Kaisei meant bidness against M3 Daieisho getting his left arm up and under Daieisho's right pit trying to pry Daieisho up and creating a pathway to the belt. Daieisho sensed he was in trouble and evaded out wide going for a shoulder slap that knocked Kaisei off balance a step, but as Daieisho looked to rush back in, Kaisei greeted him with a right kote-nage that slung Daieisho over to the edge allowing Kaisei to assume moro-zashi, and from there, the struggle was pointless as both dudes end the day at 3-8 after Kaisei's victory.

Komusubi Endoh hasn't been shown much love upon his return, but at some point, M1 Tamawashi gotta get his. Tamawashi came with his usual tsuppari attack driving Endoh back step by step, and with his back at the edge, Endoh attempted to move left and tug at Tamawashi's extended arm, but he just didn't have any momentum, and so Tamawashi easily knocked him back that final step earning the tsuki-dashi win. Tamawashi moves to just 4-7 while Endoh's make-koshi becomes official at 3-8. Before we move on, Tamawashi's tsuppari attack is so good that neither Ichinojo nor Tochinoshin can solve it meaning on a true banzuke, Tamawashi is third best. As for his choice to defeat Endoh today, I do think that double-row brick of kensho had something to do with it.

M4 Chiyotairyu sorta slammed into Sekiwake Ichinojo, but his heart wasn't into it, and so Ichinojo easily got the left inside and a right outer grip that he used to just pivot to the side and sling Chiyotairyu over to the edge with. Chiyotairyu didn't even bother turning around fully as Ichinojo finished him off that last step with an easy shove from behind. I hate it how Chiyotairyu tends to just give up against the elite foreigners like this, and I say, "At least give them your best shot." Easy for me to say as Chiyotairyu falls to 4-7 while Ichinojo improves to the opposite 7-4.

We finish out the day with our three leaders starting with Sekiwake Tochinoshin who was fed M5 Kotoshogiku. This was one of those bouts where it was completely up to Tochinoshin, and he continued his roll today hooking up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Kotoshogiku actually came away with a left outer grip towards the front of Tochinoshin's mawashi, but Tochinoshin shook that off with ease using a nice inside counter scoop throw that set up a left grip of his own on the other side. He needed maybe a second to gather his wits before planting nicely and spilling Kotoshogiku over and down with as fine a belt throw as you'd care to see. Tochinoshin waltzes to 11-0 with the easy win while Kotoshogiku ends the day at 6-5.

I questioned why Chiyotairyu doesn't give the elite foreigners his best shot, and I only say that because he does have something to offer. M4 Shodai doesn't, so against Yokozuna Hakuho his attitude was "do me now" as he literally just stood there at the tachi-ai allowing Hakuho to secure the right inside position and left outer grip, and the Yokozuna wasted no time in scoring the two-second yori-kiri win. It was just ridiculous to watch Shodai give up like this, and how can he continue to be coddled? Why would you want to see someone propelled to an elite rank if they can't at least try against a Yokozuna? I get why people want to believe the hype because I've been there, but you can't have it both ways. Shodai was an embarrassment here as he falls to 6-5 (how is someone who quits like that 6-5??) while Hakuho controls his own destiny at 10-1.

In the final bout of the day, Yokozuna Kakuryu came with some light tsuppari at the tachi-ai enabling Mitakeumi to back up and attempt a pull against the Yokozuna's extended arms, but the Kak easily survived, and from that point, the bout turned to both guys firing shoves in order to set up the pull. To his credit, Mitakeumi connected on some decent shots, but when you're looking for the pull, you ain't moving forward, and so all the shoves did was nudge Kakuryu upright and not back. And that's not to say that Kakuryu didn't connect on a few shoves either, and the Yokozuna dictated the pace here as the two danced around the ring a couple of times before Kakuryu ended the funny business timing a nice pull at the edge that sent Mitakeumi packing. It was a nice effort by Mitakeumi who falls to 7-4, and don't think that Kakuryu couldn't have just gone chest to chest and won in two seconds flat. He moves to 10-1 with the win keeping pace with the other leaders.

With four days to go, I expect both Yokozuna to at least take one more loss apiece. I also expect Hakuho to beat Tochinoshin tomorrow because if Shin falls to one loss then they can legitimately include the three-loss rikishi on the leaderboard heading into the weekend. There's a lot of 'em, and they're all Japanese, so it would just make things more interesting. Right now, your leaderboard is this:

11-0: Tochinoshin
10-1: Hakuho, Kakuryu

If Shin loses, that puts the following rikishi into play: Ikioi, Chiyonokuni, Kyokutaisei, Myogiryu, Nishikigi.

I know that's like choosing a date from the Omega Moos, but when was the last time sumo ever cared about quality over quantity?

Harvye breaks it all down mañana.

Day 10 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Your leaderboard update is a desultory one from me today:  it's still Tochinoshin coming in with no losses and the two Yokozuna, Hakuho and Kakuryu, coming in trailing with one loss each. It just feels like it is going to stay that way for a few days and that this will play out right at the end. This tournament is in a holding pattern, and that's a good thing: we're seeing sound tournaments from good wrestlers.

So humor me while I instead spend a few brief moments of "what struck me" off of the height, weight, and age chart I doodled for myself on Sunday.

Some guys look big. Some guys, however, are bigger than they appear. For whatever reason, I think of Chiyotairyu as small. That's probably because he's only 182 centimeters tall--shortish in the division. But he's also 190 kilos. I had no idea. That's fifth in the division, only one kilo less than certified giant Aoiyama, and more than apparent behemoth Daiamami, for example. The top five in weight, in order, are Ichinojo, Kaisei, Chiyomaru, Aoiyama, and Chiyotairyu. This probably partly explains why Chiyotairyu's attack is so powerful: his weight is concentrated. He's not a flabberball like a lot of these jokers: he's an iron cannonball.

Here is your other factoid of the day: Hakuho, at 192 centimeters and 155 kilograms, has pretty much a perfect sumo body. Tall and heavy, without getting too flabby. Who else has a body like this? The most similar guy is Ryuden, at 189 / 150. Now I know why Ryuden looks so good to me up there before the matches start: he looks like Hakuho. I'm waiting for him to make something of it. The other guys taller than 190 and less than 170 kilos are Ikioi (194 / 168), Kagayaki (193 / 167), Okinoumi (190 / 161) and, surprise, Tochinoshin (191 / 169). Each guy in that group has gotten significant attention from this fans or foreign fans over the years: he either has had either die hard fans waiting for him to bloom (Ikioi) or has been touted as a bigtime prospect on this site (Kagayaki, many years ago) or has been called by us at one point the best Japanese wrestler on the banzuke (Okinoumi), etc.

My feeling is that it doesn't take long for a sumo fan's eye just to pick this up: this long, supple body is the kind of body that you want. Next time you see a guy with numbers like these come up, watch out. It's taken a long time for Tochinoshin to live up to the promise of the body he has, but look what he's doing now.

M16 Myogiryu (7-2) vs. J2 Kotoeko (7-2)
Sad, sad. Little Kotoeko from Juryo decided it was a good idea to take a little hop back and pull down on Myogiryu's head. That was his tachi-ai, up here visiting in Makuuchi. Extra sad was that Myogiryu chose not to push him right straight out, pausing when he got him to the tawara. This let Kotoeko back into the match with an inside right belt grip, which he parlayed into a yori-taoshi force out. And that's how you get your kachi-koshi in Makuuchi, I guess.

M12 Arawashi (3-6) vs. M14 Sadanoumi (4-5)
Powerful, slapping tachi-ai by Arawashi was followed by a forceful drive for the bales which was survived, barely, by Sadanoumi, who twisted artfully to the side. No matter: Arawashi twisted him around again and did the same thing a second time: held him by the belt and drove him to the bales. No matter, part II: Sadanoumi again artfully twisted to the side, and this time he twisted far enough, employing his own belt grip, that Arawashi was set down outside the straw, yori-kiri.

M16 Aminishiki (1-8) vs. M12 Asanoyama (6-3)
I keep thinking it is about time for a few gifts to Aminishiki, but guys aren't giving any. And why should they? This show is over. So Asanoyama aggressed manfully until Aminishiki was out, as everybody else has done all tournament. But oops! We don't call him Shneaky for nothing, because Aminishiki was turning away and pushing down on Asanoyama's head at the very end there, and Asanoyama put his hand on the dirt before the old bag of bones draped all over him had technically stepped out. Kata-sukashi win for Aminishiki. And they call it sumo.

M17 Nishikigi (6-3) vs. M11 Chiyonokuni (8-1)
If you're impressed by Chiyonokuni's 8-1 from M11, I suppose you're a better man than me. Because he did it with stuff like this. We all know Nishikigi isn't much of a thing. But Chiyonokuni decided his best hope of beating him was with great, dramatic, swooping sweeps of pulls. Oh, he pushed too. He'd push hard for a bit, but only to set up those gigantic pulls. Then he'd dart out of there and do it again. And even that didn't work. Nishikigi got the rhythm of it, survived the vulture swoops, and pushed Chiyonokuni out oshi-dashi in the nick of time as Nishikigi himself fell down on the last of them.

M10 Okinoumi (5-4) vs. M15 Kyokutaisei (6-3)
Much like Chiyonokuni, Kyokutaisei seems to me to be all pulls. There was a moment early in this one where Okinoumi kind of disdainfully pushed Kyokutaisei off of him with a little shove to the neck: "get off of me, you annoying mess!" Fortunately for Kyokutaisei that was apparently for show, as shortly after that Okinoumi stopped moving forward for no reason, moved almost imperceptibly backwards. You knew it was over. And his pushes got weak. Sigh. This was the signal for Kyokutaisei to pounce, and pounce he did, thrusting away until he got a ridiculous tsuki-dashi call out of this depressing affair.

M15 Tochiohzan (5-4) vs. M10 Takakeisho (4-5)
Tochiohzan is doing this ultra -slow crouch thing in the run up, slowly unfurling his arms, looking like an early morning shadow boxer practicing sitting down on the toilet without using his hands. I'm sure he's focusing his inner chi or something, and I'm sure also it is annoying to his opponents, which can be useful against antsy guys. But looks like Takakeisho thought, "whatever man, okay, you're outta here!," because he responded by almost immediately pulling out of the line of the bout after the tachi-ai and swiping Tochiohzan definitively down from the side, hataki-komi. This is the sumo equivalent to baseball where you drill a showboating hitter with a pitch.

M9 Daishomaru (6-3) vs. M14 Takekaze (4-5)
Young Pull King vs. Old Pull King. Oh, yay, contain my joy! It was lame. Daishomaru pushed on Takekaze's face a bit, then lightly stepped to the side and gave Takekaze some downwards direction with a shove in the armpit area, tsuki-otoshi. And that was it.

M8 Yoshikaze (5-4) vs. M13 Aoiyama (4-5)
Aoiyama looked like an absolute monster standing in front of pint-sized Yoshikaze, and Aoiyama brought his hard-hammer roundhouse meat-market hands, which I've always loved from him. However, him being him, he also backed up and tossed in a pull while doing this, so that took away from it. Like, a lot. Yes, when that worked he went back at it and rock-fist-hand-blasted Yoshikaze out, tsuki-dashi, but maybe they should make a rule that you can't get the tsuki-dashi "ass kicking" kimari-te if you pulled on your way to it.

M13 Ishiura (2-7) vs. M8 Kagayaki (5-4)
I expected a huge, leaping henka by Ishiura here, and he sure needed it. Instead, he made a weird feint with his hands, some kind of shell game in the air, at the tachi-ai then waded into the fray. And what a fray it was. Kagayaki completely destroyed the tiny little man by battering down on him with big slapping palms. Out Ishiura went, like a piece of Kleenex in a hurricane. They're giving out the tsuki-dashi like candy today, but this was the first one that was truly earned.

M7 Ryuden (1-8) vs. M9 Hokutofuji (4-5)
This one had several false starts, including one that went all the way to head-butting contact. It knocked Hokutofuji over, and clearly shook him up; he had a hard time standing, and probably needed the concussion protocol. But they don't do that in sumo. Hokutofuji slapped his face hard to try to wake himself up, took forever to get down in the crouch, hesitated long at several points in the process. There was yet another false start after that. It was kind of awful, actually, and painful to watch: it was obvious that they should have stopped the bout. After the bout, Hokutofuji couldn't make it down the hana-michi, and crumpled against the wall and went to his knees. This was damned irresponsible.

What happened in the bout? Hokutofuji did what I thought he should do at this point (short of withdrawing, which is what he truly should have done): tried to pull Ryuden down quickly to get out of there. It didn't work, and as Hokutofuji gamely tried to engage on some body-to-body hard sumo after that ("oh well I guess I have to do this"), Ryuden ticked out of there and Hokutofuji stumbled to the dirt, hataki-komi. It kind of felt like Ryuden should have given the bout to Hokutofuji, but of course that isn't right either. Bottom line, this one should have been stopped. We needed some women to rush up on the dohyo and help Hokutofuji out. Seriously. Sometimes this sport just looks so clueless. Can we please get rid of the stupid traditions? The stupid ones. This wasn't a manly effort; it was outdated, dangerous stupidity. I hated it. Afterwards during the pause before the next match, the announcers were nearly silent--stuck in their private thoughts. The whole thing was sobering and horrid. You just can't go on behaving like this.

M11 Daiamami (3-6) vs. M7 Chiyomaru (3-6)
Battle of the big boys. Shelf Belly (Chiyomaru) was showing off by balancing an egg on his shelf gut. He gave it to Daiamami to try it, but it just rolled right off Daiamami's vertical, too-round belly and broke on the dohyo. Oh well. Hope they don't slip on it. Chiyomaru promptly punished Daiamami for breaking his egg, pummeling him in the face with two hands at the tachi-ai strike, then keeping his right hand mostly on the neck and his left striking to the body, eventually pushing Daiamami out by the mammaries. And BOOM! We had our fourth tsuki-dashi of the day, this one also earned.

Meanwhile, Hokutofuji was STILL down in the corridor; they cut to video of that after the Chiyomaru bout. And these sumo dumbasses hadn't sent anybody in there to take care of him. Just him and the tsukebito, waiting for Hokutofuji to "suck it up, cupcake." "Tough it out." This was pissing me off. Hokutofuji finally did get up and walk off on his own, but this was not right. Grow up, sumo.

M3 Daieisho (2-7) vs. M6 Takarafuji (6-3)
Takarafuji is feeling fine this tournament, and he decided to show off a little in this one. He didn't reckon with Daieisho's gumption. Takarafuji tried a forearm bar at the tachi-ai, then some slaps and shoves, and this looked pretty good. He was beating his small opponent up. He then confidently swarmed in for the body. But oops! Daieisho was no longer there. Things began to go haywire, and you could see the confusion and some desperation slide in as Takarafuji pursued the genki and wiggling Daieisho here and there, now committed to getting into a yori-kiri bout that wasn't on offer. Daieisho had the momentum and knew it, and when they'd spun around enough that Takarafuji's back was to the straw Daieisho took advantage, finishing the bigger man off oshi-dashi. That's what you get for being sloppy.

M6 Chiyoshoma (2-7) vs. M3 Yutakayama (0-9)
When you're 0-9 and need a win, just call on Chiyoshoma! Chiyoshoma henka'ed out of there and had Yutakayama's arm in his grip; all he had to do was move. Backwards and pull, forwards and push, it didn't matter. Hell, twirl to the side and break that arm. Any of this would have worked. Instead, Chiyoshoma stopped where he was, feet flat, holding that arm. So when Yutakayama reacted and ploughed into him, Chiyoshoma fell dramatically backwards, oshi-taoshi, like a glass window being smashed by a tree trunk.

M1 Tamawashi (3-6) vs. M2 Abi (4-5)
I wanted Tamawashi to hand Golden Boy's ass to him. Instead, Tamawashi offered his ass to him. Literally. After the initial contact Abi moved out of the line of fire, and lo!, there was that ass of Tamawashi's going past. Abi went ahead and grabbed it, or the knot on the belt above it, to be precise if I must, and slung the doddering Tamawashi down, uwate-nage. Shullbit.

M2 Shohozan 3-6) vs. M1 Kaisei (2-7)
Shohozan deeked Kaisei in the face at the tachi-ai with two hands, paused to think about it, then went back inside. Go for it, little man. He constantly had Kaisei under threat of moro-zashi in there. He couldn't quite get it, but I suppose we could be generous and say Kaisei was too busy trying to prevent it to pay attention to sound sumo: to throw Shohozan by the arm on the side, which he was dominating. Or crush the little man with his giant belly. Or stop moving backwards. But no. Kaisei didn't do any of that, and we got to see the spectacle of Shohozan forcing Kaisei out, chest to body, yori-kiri. And amazingly, it looked so easy! Isn't that amazing? You'd think it would take a lot of effort and exertion for wee little Darth Hozan to force Kaisei out that way. Well, I'm telling you.

K Mitakeumi (6-3) vs. M5 Ikioi (7-2)
This was a busy one. Ikioi was trying to push up high, while Mitakeumi had two hands full of tits and was pushing up hard and forcing Ikioi back. As the line of the match turned its way off straight and the tawara didn't seem to be getting any closer for either guy, they both put in some pulls. After the disengagement that caused they stumbled over to the edge, both of them, where Mitakeumi was able to swipe Ikioi down, tsuki-otoshi. I do think Mitakeumi had the better technique here--lower, tighter, and with more upwards-force in the early going--but I can't say he looked "good." And yet, at 7-3, he's building that resume again. Better not to spend too much time thinking about this one.

S Tochinoshin (9-0) vs. M4 Chiyotairyu (4-5)
Back in the day when it didn't occur to me that you never know whether the match will be straight up or not, I used to scan the daily match-ups for ones I would look forward to. This is definitely the kind of bout I would have notched for attention. Strength on the left, explosive power on the right. Nowadays, though, I don't do that much, don't anticipate much, because you only know you have a good match once your eyes are on it: half of the time it's clearly a bunch of nonsense, so it isn't worth getting excited about beforehand. Only results are worth getting excited about, and only sometimes. As it turned out, Chiyotairyu went out in linear fashion with a curiously uneffortful look on his face. Let's set that aside and describe what happened. Tochinoshin stopped Chiyotairyu cold. Whap! From there it was legs churning and arms flexing from The Grizzly Bear (Tochinoshin). He got a fistful of salmon-pink belt and even lifted the rotund Chiyotairyu up for a moment, tsuri-dashi style. And that's a lot of man to lift, as we covered in the intro. The yori-kiri win for The Bear came quickly.

M4 Shodai (6-3) vs. S Ichinojo (5-4)
Shodai was whacking at The Mongolith (Ichinojo), but he had no effect. It was like a dandelion attacking an obsidian column. After a moment of this Ichinojo extended both arms hard and thereby pushed Shodai all the way out, oshi-dashi. Wish I could do that. Whoa.

[No Ozeki… the banzuke is weird these days.  But they're not particularly missed.]

Y Kakuryu (8-1) vs. M5 Kotoshogiku (6-3)
The career record between these two is 26 wins for Kakuryu, 22 for Kotoshogiku. Like, wow, man. You could say, "Kotoshogiku gives Kakuryu trouble." Or you could say, "it seem Kakuryu is the designated Kotoshogiku helper-outer." Whichever it is, Kakuryu played right into it--by henka'ing and slapping Kotoshogiku down so hard he rolled across the dohyo and got his sweaty body all muddy, hataki-komi. And why do I say this played into it? Because Kakuryu had to resort to this to ensure he beat his rival, see! And it gave Kotoshogiku that delicious moment of eyeing him angrily during his grudging, chin-jab "bow." The crowd loved it, in a chortling schadenfreude and hiss-the-villain kind of way. Oh, we can all have some fun.

K Endo (3-6) vs. Y Hakuho (8-1)
Hmmm. Endo against Hakuho. Yikes! But fortunately Endo's injury has gotten his debutante Komusubi blossoming tournament off track and left him as an afterthought this time around. If Endo had had 4 or 5 wins coming into this one, it would have been another story, but there was no reason to throw him a bone here at 3-6. Thank goodness. Still, Hakuho gave him a chance. He should have just wrapped Endo up by the belt and pitched him to the clouds. Instead, Hakuho responded to an Endo post-tachi-ai pull by stumbling forward with his hands hanging down, very vulnerable. Endo couldn't take advantage though, and got out of the way, and after that Hakuho decided to beat Endo a bit and make mincemeat of him. He punched him in the head a couple of times, then pulled him by that same head, like a guy playing with a soccer ball. This got Endo all turned about, and the final kimari-te for Hakuho was okuri-dashi, the rear force out, as that was what was on offer. But it should have been, oh, "naguri-ai," or "beat up." That's not a real kimari-te; I just made it up. But.

Mike naguri-ai's the matches tomorrow.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Early headlines on Day 9 were the withdrawal of Goeido and the return of Endoh on day 10. As for Goeido, it's an Ozeki's right to withdraw in order to save face after a horrible start to a basho, and in Goeido's case here in May, it's simply a matter of not having enough guys let up for him. Despite what is reported in the media, his withdrawal has nothing to do with an injury; rather, it's to save himself from further embarrassment and exposure similarly to the path that Kyujonosato has taken for nearly a year now. As for Endoh, he'll make his return on day 10 only to be paired against Hakuho. We'll see if he gets the Incredible Hulkuho or Dr. Banner in a tutu.

Beyond the kyujo information, the majority of headlines are focused on Tochinoshin, who continues to solidify his claim on the Ozeki ranks. As part of this storyline, NHK produced the following graphic that shows Tochinoshin's results year to date:



Dems Ozeki numbers for sure, but there's another interesting aspect that I derive from the graph beyond just the number of wins Tochinoshin has obtained during this Ozeki run.  67% (or two-thirds as we say in Utah) of Tochinoshin's losses are to Japanese rikishi, namely: Takakeisho, Goeido, Takayasu, and Shodai. Those are four political guys who constantly need favors to keep their banzuke status.

What I see when I look at this graph is the overall blueprint of sumo wrestling in general these days. The foreign rikishi are clearly superior, especially when you make that assessment by actual sumo content, but you let the Japanese darlings score enough big wins over the elite rikishi, and it gives the fans a semblance of parity, hope, and a reason to keep coming back. I think in Tochinoshin's case this year, his oyakata has simply given him the green light, and he's capitalizing on his ability in the ring.

The NHK leaderboard at the start of the day consisted of 10 rikishi, and when some of those include Kotoshogiku, Daishomaru, Kyokutaisei, and Myogiryu, I'm not going to take it seriously.



As a result, let's just go in chronological order until the leaderboard gets whittled down a bit more.

I wonder if there's some kind of lottery going on behind the scenes to see who gets paired against M16 Aminishiki each day. Today's lucky winner was Juryo rikishi, Onosho, who really needed to right the ship after his recent three-bout losing streak. At the tachi-ai, he proactively charged with tsuppari to Aminishiki's neck, and after one stupid swipe, he quickly repented and resumed his forward attack, and as soon as Aminishiki went for the pull everyone knew was coming, Onosho drove him back, off the dohyo, and up the hana-michi from whence he entered the arena. Aminishiki suffers make-koshi at 1-8 while Onosho inches closer to a Makuuchi return at 6-3 from the J1 rank.

M13 Ishiura ducked his way into moro-zashi from the tachi-ai after moving left a half step against M17 Nishikigi, but Nishikigi simply used a right kote grip and his left forearm jammed under Ishiura's jaw to lift him up and walk him out tsuri-dashi style. This was pretty cool stuff as Nishikigi improves to 6-3 while Ishiura falls to 2-7.

M12 Asanoyama delivered a right kachi-age into M15 Kyokutaisei's craw at the tachi-ai before the two traded brief tsuppari. Kyokutaisei actually had the path to the left inside, but he refrained opting to move right and of course look for a pull. As Asanoyama adjusted, Kyokutaisei got his right arm deep to the inside, but you could see he was uncomfortable with it. As for Asanoyama, he grabbed a quick left outer grip and used that to mount a charge, but Kyokutaisei was able to counter with a dangerous tsuki simply because Asanoyama wasn't established to the inside with the right. Still, Kyokutaisei's game so far has been to pull, so when his counter scoop throw didn't work, Asanoyama used the momentum shift to force the rookie out leaving both gentleman at 6-3.

M15 Tochiohzan got two arms to the inside at the tachi-ai against M12 Arawashi, but he didn't demand it, and so Arawashi had enough room to escape to his left and mawari-komu around the perimeter of the ring, and after covering about a quarter of the edge, Tochiohzan was off balance enough to where Arawashi simply pulled him down. Arawashi creeps up to 3-6 with the win while Tochiohzan is tamed a bit at 5-4.

M14 Takekaze and M11 Chiyonokuni weren't in sync at a tachi-ai that saw Takekaze stand up first, but since he wasn't charging forward and hard, Kuni came out of his stance with a left hari-te that connected well and caused Takekaze to back up further, and when he did, Chiyonokuni advanced just pushing Takekaze back and across without argument. They awarded the tsuki-dashi here it was that lopsided. Chiyonokuni picks up kachi-koshi at 8-1 while Takekaze falls to 4-5.

All M16 Myogiryu had to do was neutralize M11 Daiamami at the tachi-ai, and he did that with no trouble getting both hands towards the inside that he used to push upwards into Daiamami's body, and with Amami lifted upright, Myogiryu rushed in for moro-zashi and silled the yori-kiri dill in a matter of seconds. Remember that awful start from the former Sekiwake? He's now 7-2 if you need him while Daiamami falls to 3-6.

M13 Aoiyama met M8 Kagayaki with a moro-te-zuki at the tachi-ai (dual hands to the throat), and as Kagayaki tried to persist forward and get anything going of his own, Aoiyama backed up and moved right quickly scoring on a quick pull attempt. Twas ugly, but that's Aoiyama's sumo, and it worked like a charm today as he now improves to 4-5. Kagayaki falls to a quiet 5-4 with the loss.

M8 Yoshikaze was a bulldog today getting his left arm in deep at the tachi-ai and using his right hand to shove into M14 Sadanoumi's left breast, and with Sadanoumi's right up high fishing for a pull, this one was over in about a second and a half. Sadanoumi was mukiryoku here, but I'm not sure if it was intentional or not. Regardless, Yoshikaze will swallow the win at 5-4 while Sadanoumi falls to 4-5.

M7 Chiyomaru graciously had an emerald washcloth neatly folded and perched on his shelf gut allowing his opponent, M10 Takakeisho, to use the rag--which coincidentally matched the color of his belt--and wipe off his sweat prior to the bout. When the action finally got underway, Takakeisho scored on a nice right tsuki into Chiyomaru's neck area (science hasn't declared yet whether or not he actually has a defined neck) and moved forward well, and for Chiyonokuni's part, he responded with a lame kachi-age and tsuppari...as he backed up and moved right, and as soon as Takakeisho connected on his next shove, Chiyonokuni just hit the dirt giving Takanohana's prodigy the win and a 4-5 record. As for Chiyonokuni, he falls to 3-6 with the dive.

M10 Okinoumi looked to come with a moro-te-zuki at the tachi-ai, but M7 Ryuden charged in so fast he nearly stumbled of his own volition. The result was the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and so we were treated to a rare bout between two Japanese rikishi of straight-up yotsu-zumo. I can't really call it o-zumo or chikara-zumo because it didn't ebb and flow with displays of power from both rikishi, but it was a contest to see who could grab the right outer first. Okinoumi got it, and once obtained, he was able to force his foe into position where he executed a nice outer belt throw. Ryuden countered well with an inside left creating a finesse nage-no-uchi-ai, but the experienced Okinoumi won in the end. Nice display of sumo from two JPN rikishi here as Okinoumi climbs to 5-4 while Ryuden plummets to 1-8.

M6 Takarafuji fished for the left inside at the tachi-ai against M9 Hokutofuji, but Hokutofuji concentrated on keeping his arms in tight and pinching Takarafuji away from the belt. Back and forth the two went with the more experienced Takarafuji trying to demand the left inside while Hokutofuji pushed him away. Ultimately, it was Hokutofuji on defense the entire way, and so Takarafuji was finally able to bring his left from an inside-ish position and lock it around Hokutofuji's right elbow pulling Fuji forward and down as Takarafuji danced to his left. Takarafuji's making a bit of a statement these last few days as he improves to 6-3 while Hokutofuji falls to 4-5.

M6 Chiyoshoma out-quicked M9 Daishomaru at the tachi-ai rushing in hard and getting the right inside and left outer grip as if Daishomaru wasn't even standing there. From this point, Shoma shored up his left outer grip and then easily scored the linear force-out win. This bout is a great example of Chiyoshoma's Dr. Jekyll and My Hyde sumo. Today he was all Jekyll and scored about as dominating a win as you'd care to see...over a Japanese dude on the leaderboard no less. Chiyoshoma is just 2-7 while Daishomaru falls to 6-3.

M4 Chiyotairyu moved forward at the tachi-ai firing hands towards M5 Ikioi, but his slaps were light and focused high around Ikioi's shoulders and chest. Ikioi backed up a bit and moved right, and at this point he was vulnerable to get his ass kicked, but Chiyotairyu reversed what momentum he didn't have going for a weak pull, and Ikioi easily survived that and now had the superior position. With Chiyotairyu's forward momentum halted, he was an easy target for an Ikioi pull down, and it came straightway as Ikioi is gifted his 7-2 record. Chiyotairyu falls to 4-5 with the loss, but the dude can turn it back on any time his oyakata will let him.

M2 Abi came with his usual moro-te-zuki tachi-ai that didn't really budge M1 Kaisei, but instead of swiping those arms away and getting moro-zashi, which was wide open, Kaisei just fumbled around with his hands allowing Abi to take a half step left before going for a pull and moving back out right as Kaisei stumbled forward and down putting both palms down to the dohyo and landing on both knees. Nice easy yaocho here as Abi continues to get hyped up at 4-5 now while Kaisei falls to 2-7.

M2 Shohozan came with a right hari-te at the tachi-ai that wasn't exactly fired, so it had no effect on M1 Tamawashi who refused to start with tsuppari instead grabbing his left arm around Shohozan's right in kote fashion. He purposefully whiffed on the kote-nage attempt and then fired a few tsuppari Shohozan's way with no de-ashi involved, and so before Shohozan could really move right and go for a real pull, Tamawashi just stumbled forward and out of the dohyo of his own volition. The picture here looks like something you'd expect from a tottari move, but all it took was a nice love tap at the elbow for The Mawashi to take a dive. Both rikishi end the day at 3-6.

M3 Yutakayama came with a light right kachi-age against Komusubi Mitakeumi who opted for tsuppari, but neither rikishi had much of an effect as Yutakayama drifted to his left. From this point, Mitakeumi had the path to the right arm inside, but he backed out of it allowing Yutakayama to finally take some action and fire effective tsuppari Mitakeumi's way. That set up Yutakayama's getting his right hand firmly up and under Mitakeumi's left elbow, and he really had the Komusubi set up at this point, but there were no legs behind his shove attack, and so he allowed Mitakeumi to escape right, and from there Yutakayama just gave up letting Mitakeumi push him out in the end. It's not fair at this point to say that Yutakayama let up for his foe as the youngster has yet to establish himself in the division. There were good elements from both parties here, so give Mitakeumi the straight up win as he moves to 6-3. As for Yutakayama, he falls to 0-9, but he's had some pretty good moments this high up in the ranks.

Sekiwake Tochinoshin slipped a right hand underneath M3 Daieisho's tsuppari at the tachi-ai pulling him in close as he grabbed the left outer grip, and from here it was a matter of pulling his gal in snug before Tochinoshin just lifted Daieisho completely off the ground tsuri-dashi'ing him over to the edge before letting him down and forcing him across the straw that last step. Just compare the way that Tochinoshin handled Daieisho today to the way that Goeido couldn't handle him, and it's a clear indication of a false banzuke. At 9-0, Shin now has 33 wins over three basho, and there's really no stopping him now until he fights the two Yokozuna. As for Daieisho, he falls to 2-7.

Sekiwake Ichinojo picked up the freebie today as he was schedule to fight Goeido. Ichinojo graciously threw his three of his four previous bouts, so it was nice to see him rewarded here without workin' up a sweat. He's now 5-4.

Yokozuna Hakuho demanded the left arm inside at the tachi-ai against M5 Kotoshogiku as the Yokozuna rushed forward forcing the bout chest to chest all while grabbing the right outer grip, and Hakuho needed about one second to calm himself before unleashing a mammoth right outer grip easily spilling the Geeku to the clay. Incredibly, Kotoshogiku is still 6-3 after the beat down while Hakuho improves to 8-1.

In similar fashion, Yokozuna Kakuryu looked to get the left arm inside and set up the right outer grip, but M4 Shodai was so upright and off balance that Kakuryu just continued his forward momentum forcing Shodai back and across without even grabbing the belt. They ruled it oshi-dashi in the end as Kakuryu had his left palm planted firmly into Shodai's neck at the edge pushing Shodai across before Shodai's desperate counter tsuki-otoshi could take effect. Shodai needed to counter a half-second earlier, but that's just a sign of how much he needs to improves in his sumo. Kakuryu joins Hakuho at 8-1 with the win while Shodai falls to 6-3.

The only leaderboard that matters looks like this at the end of the day:

9-0: Tochinoshin
8-1: Hakuho, Kakuryu

Interestingly enough, Tochinoshin does NOT control is own destiny, and it's still all up to Storyteller 1 and Storyteller 2.

Stay tuned as Harvye spins a few Day 10 yarns of his own tomorrow.

Day 8 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
It's a beautiful day where I am; sun is shining, birds twittering, fluffy white clouds floating along in the blue sky. I've got baseball on the TV--nothing like a day game, with the uniforms crisp in the sun--and the patio door and the windows open. Apparently, I haven't had enough sumo either--I wrote the below already, but it is Nakabi (the middle day) and the narrative of the tournament is floating along nicely without need of any special attention from me, and I don't have anything on the agenda, so I went through the whole banzuke and wrote down the height, age, and weight of all the wrestlers.

I won't reproduce the chart here--the nice thing about this data set is it won't expire until the tournament ends, so maybe I'll refer to it again later--but I will mention the one thing that really jumps out at me:

Ichinojo. We know he's big (at 225 kilograms, he's 21 kilos bigger than the next guy at 204). We may forget how tall he is (193 centimeters, tied for third in the division). But what really strikes me is how young he is. It feels like he has been around forever--heck, he came up with Terunofuji, who has already been through a whole career cycle--but he just turned 25 last month. There are only six guys younger than him. Whether you agree with those who say he has been egregiously holding back for years, or agree with me that he has been sloppy and lacked desire for much of his time in Makuuchi, it is time to be scared of Ichinojo. He is now positioned to combine long experience in the division with youth and compete in a seriously weakened top of the banzuke.

Just for reference, the six guys younger than him, from youngest to oldest, are Takakeisho, Kagayaki, Abi, Asanoyama, Yutakayama, and Daieisho. For all the talk of Abi as a springy young leprechaun, he's just a year older than Ichinojo. Yikes.

M17 Nishikigi (4-3) vs. J1 Sokokurai (3-4)
Bleh. It wasn't a henka that Sokokurai tried, it was an "I'll stand up and try to get out of the way." That won't work, ma'am. Nishikigi followed him easily, and matter-of-factly removed him from the ring with light taps for the easiest oshi-dashi you'll ever see. I could have done it. Sokokurai apparently has an injured foot, so fine.

M14 Sadanoumi (4-3) vs. M14 Takekaze (3-4)
No surprise, this was all evasion by Takekaze, while Sadanoumi's job was to try to keep him square and not fall for any of the pulls mixed in. It had an odd ending, though: Sadanoumi actually slipped forward; while trying to plant in order to drive Takekaze back and out, his foot slid a little too far forward in between Takekaze's legs. As a result, he fell over backwards with Takekaze on top of him, abise-taoshi.

M16 Aminishiki (1-6) vs. M13 Aoiyama (2-5)
Egads, a mess of a match-up with these two lamed underperformers. Aminishiki did the same thing he's done pretty much every day: took one weak-looking pull, then was driven summarily out. Oshi-dashi. I get it that Aminishiki has had an exciting and interesting career, but this is embarrassing. He does not below in Makuuchi. Looking like this, you wonder if he even belongs in Juryo.

M16 Arawashi (2-5) vs. M15 Kyokutaisei (5-2)
Speaking of lame tournaments, here is another pair. Yeah, yeah, Kyokutaisei has five wins. But I've seen nothing in it. As Mike pointed out yesterday, it is mostly pulls. He did a nice job of wrapping up Arawashi's arms early and driving forward today, but Arawashi didn't look to be trying (as usual) and gave up while the fat lady was still in the dressing room, so the oshi-dashi was a little anti-climactic.

M16 Myogiryu (5-2) vs. M12 Asanoyama (5-2)
These two guys, on the other hand, are having legitimately interesting tournaments. Myogiryu, after a bad start, has his genki back, and he yanked his own pull chain hard and revved up for this one. Low, tight, focused push got the surprised Asanoyama thinking pull, but at that point it was already too late: Myogiryu continued his lateral-piled-driver action and knocked Asanoyama over and out, yori-taoshi.

M11 Daiamami (3-4) vs. M15 Tochiohzan (4-3)
Tochiohzan wanted the inside as always, and immediately got it on both sides. He probably could have driven Big Sweety (Daiamami) out from there, but it would have taken time and risk: Sweety is a pretty big load. Recognizing that, Tochiohzan instead opted for a quick back-up and slap down, kata-sukashi.

M13 Ishiura (2-5) vs. M11 Chiyonokuni (6-1)
It's easy to feel disdainful of the henkas, pulls, evasion, and deception of the little guys when they fight bigger, stronger foes. But when they're fighting each other? Go ahead. I had some anticipation of fun hijinx with this one. It didn't last long, though, and wasn't too exciting. They whacked away at each other in an uninspiring slap fight until Chiyonokuni, finally the bigger and better wrestler for once, pulled the overwhelmed-looking Ishiura down hataki-komi. I'm sure it was nice for Chiyonokuni to be able to overwhelm somebody for once.

M18 Yoshikaze (4-3) vs. M10 Takakeisho (2-5)
These guys have both dropped to an unaccustomed place on the banzuke, but they're of a pretty even skill level to each other and are under-ranked, so this match was a good opportunity for them to show that they deserve to go back up. It was a wicked and busy slap fest, featuring lots of head-butting. Yoshikaze's style is frenetic as it is, and Takakeisho, with his strike-retreat-reengage style, isn't that far away from him. This went on for some time, and Takakeisho got the victory, keyed by knocking Yoshikaze a little sideways near the end and then getting back on him quickly to oshi-dashi him out. Yoshikaze has pretty much had his moment, whereas Takakeisho's is probably still coming. I think youth won out here.

M10 Okinoumi (4-3) vs. M7 Chiyomaru (2-5)
Shelf Belly (Chiyomaru) was spotted in the morning ferrying sleeping babies from the ticket gate to the seats, perched on his gut, as a service to young mothers attending the basho. It's cool that he can do that no-hands; the babies have no chance of rolling off, as the shelf is so ample. Nice of the association to do that. In the actual match, at first it was all Okinoumi, looking bored and desultory as usual, as he methodically pushed Chiyomaru back and then bent him like a boomerang, feet on the tawara, shelf gut projecting back into the ring, head being torn off by Okinoumi. But! Chiyomaru resisted well and did a nifty thing, bumping Okinoumi back just a fraction by thrusting his big, meaty right leg forward while simultaneously pushing Okinoumi's head to the left. Okinoumi slid off of Chiyomaru's belly and his own momentum carried him right over the tawara (although Chiyomaru did have to turn to him and give him a tap, resulting in an official kimari-te of oshi-dashi).

M6 Chiyoshoma (1-6) vs. M9 Hokutofuji (3-4)
I think Chiyoshoma and Arawashi got really drunk together on the shores of Lake Kucherla before the tournament and said, "let's see who can lose more this time out!"  It's been a real party. In this one Hokutofuji was able to drive Chiyoshoma back and out, oshi-dashi. If you were being generous, you could say that after a nice, low, hard hitting bump of a tachi-ai for both men, Chiyoshoma's feet slipped and he got discombobulated and, since his reach-ins for the belt didn't work, fell prey to trying some pulls, and that that's how it fell apart for him. If you were being more cynical you'd note that this strong and supple wrestler didn't try to evade left or right when he got in trouble. But hey, he's winning his bet with Arawashi!

M9 Daishomaru (6-1) vs. M6 Takarafuji (4-3)
My opinion is that Takarafuji is far the superior wrestler of this duo, and he showed it. Daishomaru tried to win by moving forward, and while worthy, that was probably foolish against this opponent. Takarafuji took it for a few moments, moving lightly backwards, calm and collected, then coolly stepped to the side and rolled Daishomaru to the dirt hataki-komi.

M8 Kagayaki (5-2) vs. M5 Ikioi (5-2)
Here are two guys both having good tournaments who wanted to keep it going. Kagayaki got inside on the left and under in general, with an outside belt grip on the left. However, as in the previous match, the better wrestler was able to turn this on a dime: as Kagayaki got him near the tawara, Ikioi mightily tossed Kagayaki with the arm he had on his body, sukui-nage, while pivoting out of there.

M7 Ryuden (1-6) vs. M4 Shodai (5-2)
Shodai just stood there at the tachi-ai, while Ryuden surged forward like a flung spear. Just like that Shodai was in trouble, as Ryuden got an overhand right belt grip and was driving hard. However, Shodai did not get to M4 for nothing--he does have some skills, and some experience now too. Hence, when he sensed that Ryuden was too low and driving too hard, Shodai turned to the side and dragged Ryuden down by the shoulder, kata-sukashi. Ryuden never let go of the belt, causing him to flip over in an awkward manner and bring Shodai toppling down on top of him like tenpins on bowling night. Cool.

M5 Kotoshogiku (5-2) vs. M2 Abi (3-4)
They pushed on each other's arms a bit, then, in the key move, Kotoshogiku gave one of those arms a nice tug. This got Abi out of his rhythm and off the attack line, and allowed Kotoshogiku to pounce on him and knock him out with his body, yori-kiri. Ah, the rewards and duties of a young star: Abi beats his betters, loses to his lessers.

M1 Tamawashi (2-5) vs. M1 Kaisei (2-5)
Tamawashi uncharacteristically got into a body-centered, close-in oshi battle with Kaisei here. Kaisei took advantage of that to push Tamawashi to the straw, but fortunately for Tamawashi Kaisei then tried to pull him. He would have been better off trying to finish the force-out: the truth is Kaisei can't compete with Tamawashi on almost any level, so once he'd lost his original momentum, Tamawashi just slid him across the dohyo and oshi-dashi'ed him out.

K Mitakeumi (4-3) vs. M2 Shohozan (2-5)
Shohozan aggressed well here, but Mitakeumi took advantage of it with a little pull. Now, that would have been deadly if he hadn't also moved slightly to the side, but because of that lateral movement Shohozan's momentum was all lost, and Mitakeumi just reoriented the line of the match in his own favor and drove Shohozan back in turn and oshi-dashi'ed him out.

S Tochinoshin (7-0) vs. S Ichinojo (4-3)
This was the match NHK hyped all day, which was both the right thing to do (what's your favorite match up this day? If not this, what, and why?) and bodes well for Tochinoshin's chances: the Association appears to like Tochinoshin's story right now. The match was classic chest to chest sumo, with both guys on the belt on both sides: they almost immediately both had left outside, right inside grips. And it was on: a struggle to see who could out-power and out-last the other guy. Ichinojo had two good chances early: Tochinoshin did not seem ready for the speed with which Ichinojo developed his attack off the tachi-ai, and Tochinoshin got backed to the tawara. However, he's a strong boy and had his legs well apart. Then, Ichinojo picked him up and let him dangle his feet for a moment: a tsuri-dashi attempt. The problem with tsuri-dashi is that while it's not all that hard to pick the guy up, it's very hard to move once you've done so. Ichinojo had to just put him back down in the same spot. A few moments later, Tochinoshin pulled the key move of the match: a little throw-attempt that didn't come close to felling Ichinojo, but did give Tochinoshin the opportunity to maki-kae: switching his left hand from the outside to the inside while Ichinojo was readjusting, giving him moro-zashi. From there, he slowly moved Ichinojo back, getting him to the straw. There, Tochinoshin wiggled Ichinojo backwards and forwards, like the slowest gaburi-belly hump you've ever seen: eek, urk, eek, urk went Ichinojo's fat body, like a piece of plywood in a fickle wind. It worked fine; out went Ichinojo, yori-kiri. Did Ichinojo give it everything he had?  Could he perhaps have evaded better in the end?  Don't know. I'll take it, though: Tochinoshin had Ichinojo wrapped up pretty good.

M3 Daieisho (1-6) vs. O Goeido (3-4)
Open season on Goeido continues. As I've said, Daieisho is easy pickins at this level of the banzuke, and despite his admirable forward-moving sumo and trademark high-level effort, he should be too small to beat anybody at this rank straight up. But against Goeido? Surprise: no problem! No tricks necessary. Daieisho just did his thing--tsuppari, pushes, and forward-moving-feet--and Goeido couldn't handle it. It was too much for the faux-zeki. Out Goeido went, oshi-dashi. Yay!

Y Kakuryu (6-1) vs. M4 Chiyotairyu (4-3)
I like it when they have the directional mikes trained right and you get that good, solid contact sound when guys hit each other hard on the tachi-ai: "whup!" The thing to notice here is that that "whup" is usually very good for Chiyotairyu--nobody has a better tachi-ai attack--but that it didn't move Kakuryu back an inch. That meant curtains for Chiyotairyu, because this was a Yokozuna and Chiyotairyu doesn't have much else in his arsenal. Kakuryu fished for the belt for a few moments, but then decided the best thing was just to release Chiyotairyu: step off and let the coiled force of Chiyotairyu take him down, assisted by a little uwate-dashi-nage belt-pulling action from Kakuryu. Kakuryu is quietly having a very nice tournament, and is undoubtedly very glad to the have spotlight back on someone else this time around.

M3 Yutakayama (0-7) vs. Y Hakuho (6-1)
Hakuho kind of looked like everybody else these days here: wild tsuppari and oshi attack. He was scooping upwards with his arms as if he was preparing to get on the belt, but he kept ending up instead with a meaty paw to the face. Thing was, Yutakayama gave it his all and showed very well: he was consistently mangling the Yokozuna's face and choking his neck. Foolishly, Hakuho tried a pull, and the announcers had a moment of sharp excitement as Yutakayama drove Hakuho back with an upper-body charge. But there was nothing in it: Yutakayama didn't have anything set up, so all this desperate charge resulted in was Hakuho finally getting something to work with: both arms inside on Yutakayama's heedlessly advancing body. Hakuho put it away by quick-marching Yutakayama back until he fell over (pulling the Yokozuna on top of him), yori-taoshi. Whelp, if you're going to end up 0-8, this is the way to do it. I'm feeling slightly better about Yutakayama the last few days. As for Hakuho, the choice is his, and the tournament belongs to either him, Kakuryu, or Tochinoshin. They make a pretty compelling trio.

Tomorrow Mike hits the matches like an anvil dropping into a barrel of oyster crackers.

Day 7 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The big news coming into the day was the announcement of Endoh's withdrawal. Reportedly, in his bout against Mitakeumi yesterday, he heard something pop in his right arm near the elbow, and so the Endoh camp is in wait and see mode before they understand the full extent of the injury. Oitekaze-oyakata said it's possible that Endoh might come back later on in the basho, but they'd have to wait until Monday or so to make a decision.

The secondary news on the day surrounded Abi and his interview after defeating Hakuho yesterday.  When the announcer kept asking him questions, he finally said, "Can I leave now?  I need to go and report the win to my mother."  A rikishi saying something like that is unheard of, and so literally overnight everyone is latching onto Abi and his so-called personality. I guess that's okay with me, but when are we going to see a guy hyped again because of the content of his sumo??

The broadcast began today with an awesome interview between Fujii Announcer and Kitanofuji. The theme was reminiscing about rikishi from Hokkaido, and it used to be that Hokkaido was known for producing the sport's strongest Yokozuna. Taiho, Chiyonofuji, and Kitanofuji himself were all from Hokkaido. The two talked candidly for six or seven minutes, and while I don't have time to rehash it all here, they did show a few pictures, which I'll show here.  This first one is of Kitanofuji (lower left) just after he entered the stable sitting with Chiyonoyama and a few others from the stable:



Kitanofuji said he and a few of his friends visited the Dewanoumi-beya when they were in junior high school, and the Yokozuna spotted Kitanofuji and patted him on the head saying, "You're a big kid. Why don't you come and join sumo?" The rest is history as they say, and it was pretty cool to listen to Kitanofuji talk about those early days. He slept on a dirty futon that smelled like abura, he was cold, and he wanted to quit every day. The reason he didn't was because his home town was so far away, he had no idea how to get back home. I'll leave this discussion with one final pic they showed of keiko at the Dewanoumi-beya, and notice how much thinner everyone is:



Those were definitely different times, but the whole talk about Hokkaido rikishi to begin with was in commemoration of Kyokutaisei's rise to the Makuuchi division, the first rikishi from Hokkaido to make the big dance in 26 years. Apparently nobody gave the M15 Tochiohzan camp word that Hokkaido would be featured today because he came out and fully took advantage of M15 Kyokutaisei's penchant to pull the last few days. Kyokutaisei has reached this 5-1 start through yaocho favors and a lot of pull sumo, and he couldn't wait to back up again today. The problem was that Tochiohzan suspected it was coming, and he had Kyokutaisei pushed back and out before the rookie could take more than a step to his right. I don't have anything against Kyokutaisei, but it was nice to see him get his asked kicked by a veteran after going for more pull sumo.

M14 Takekaze gave M16 Myogiryu his best pull shot backing up quickly after the tachi-ai while moving right, and while he came close to pull Myogiryu over, Myogiryu survived, and by this time, Takekaze didn't have the gas to execute round two. He sure tried, but when he did, Myogiryu rushed in for moro-zashi easily bumping Takekaze back to the straw before pushing him out with some force. Myogiryu moves to 5-2 while Takekaze falls to 3-4.

M17 Nishikigi and M14 Sadanoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Nishikigi used his longer arm to grab the right outer grip. Nishikigi was content to allow Sadanoumi to take a shot, and when he did attempt a force-out charge, Nishikigi planted well and swung Sadanoumi over and out leading with that right outer grip. That was a pretty slick move from Nishikigi as both rikishi end the day at 4-3.

M12 Arawashi has gotta get his at some point, and today against M16 Aminishiki, why not? Aminishiki henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai grabbing a hold of Arawashi's mawashi with an outer grip, but the Mongolian was out to win here, and he countered Aminishiki's move with a nice counter inside belt throw with the right, and instead of letting the bout flow to a nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge, he yanked Aminishiki back towards the center of the ring and tripped him up komata-sukui style with a left hand placed freshly behind Aminishiki's thigh. You watch Arawashi react and adjust in a bout like this, and it's comical that he's looked so hapless until now. He moves to 2-5 with the excellent sumo while Aminishiki is a dead man walking at 1-6.

M13 Aoiyama actually got moro-zashi from the tachi-ai, but before he could pull his gal in snug, M11 Chiyonokuni moved left pulling out of the grip, and as Aoiyama gave chase, Kuni was able to work his right arm to the inside and spin Aoiyama 90 degrees, and from there it was an easy push out from behind as Aoiyama limped over the straw. Aoiyama wasn't able to hold his weight on his right leg and collapsed to the dohyo giving that knee relief, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him withdraw at 2-5 now. As for Chiyonokuni, he moves to 6-1 with the win, but the problem I have with that record is that I can't remember a single win from the previous five. That means that the content of Chiyonokuni's sumo lacks any luster this basho.

M12 Asanoyama got the right arm inside at the tachi-ai although M11 Daiamami's charge was so unorthodox, it was tough for Asanoyama to keep it. Both rikishi entertained the thought of a pull, but Asanoyama repented quickly on got the right inside for good. With Daiamami not able to do anything, Asanoyama grabbed a left outer grip towards the front of the belt and used his fine position to force Daiamami over to the edge. Daiamami tried to wriggle out of the yotsu contest moving right, but before he could get more than half a step, Asanoyama had him pushed out for the nice win. Asanoyama moves to 5-2 while Daiamami falls to 3-4.

M10 Okinoumi was cautious at the tachi-ai against M13 Ishiura, but he used his length to get the left arm inside, and as Ishiura attempted to back up and duck down, Okinoumi used that equally long right arm on the other side to grab the back of Ishiura's belt, and with his foe latched in tight, Okinoumi scored the easy yori-kiri win in about three seconds moving to 4-3 in the process. Ishiura falls to 2-5.

M9 Daishomaru and M10 Takakeisho were fiddy-fiddy after a nice tachi-ai from both, and it was Daishomaru shading left first going for a quick pull, but Takakeisho was unable to connect on any tsuppari and make Maru pay, and as Takakeisho fumbled around in his tsuppari attack, Daishomaru moved right and caught Takakeisho with a beautiful tsuki to his left side sending Takakeisho across the dohyo to the edge. Takakeisho's response to the shove was to try and do a 360 away from his charging foe, but Daishomaru was onto him like stink to bait shoving Takakeisho out with ease. I didn't like it that Daishomaru was so quick to the pull trigger, but that tsuki was pretty nifty, and the last half of his bout was solid. He's 6-1 with some decent sumo the last few days. Takakeisho falls to 2-5.

M7 Chiyomaru came into today's bout with a few trophies from his chibi sumo days proudly displayed on his shelf gut, but M9 Hokutofuji was not impressed getting his left arm up and under Maru from the tachi-ai and staying snug enough that Chiyomaru had no room to shove, and from this position, Maru's first instinct was to move laterally and fish for a pull, but Hokutofuji stayed close getting his right arm to the inside and retooling that left arm into an outer grip. Hokutofuji isn't a belt guy, and it showed as he allowed Chiyomaru to escape to his right, but he didn't get far before Hokutofuji shoved him out in the end. Hokutofuji improves to 3-4 while Chiyomaru falls to 2-5.

At this point of the broadcast, Fujii Announcer said we had one bout left before half time, and my first thought was, "Hey, I haven't even called yaocho yet. What's going on?"  M6 Chiyoshoma musta heard me because he dominated his bout against M8 Kagayaki and promptly lost. Shoma won the tachi-ai staying low and driving into the taller Kagayaki with his left arm in deep, but inside of getting it inside or grabbing the front of the belt, he just backed out of the move completely. I mean, it wasn't as if Kagayaki caught him with a shove or anything; he just backed out of superb positioning from the tachi-ai. As Kagayaki moved forward, Chiyoshoma next had the clear opening to the right outer grip, and he actually briefly grabbed it as if to go for a dashi-nage, but he stopped short there as well with Kagayaki near the edge, and as Kagayaki squared back up, Chiyoshoma put two hands into Kagayaki's neck and then promptly just fell over to his left. Kagayaki tried to catch up with his opponent, but he made no contact whatsoever. They ruled it hiki-otoshi, but this was intentional koshi-kudake as Chiyoshoma falls to 1-6 while Kagayaki "improves" to 5-2.

The second half began with M5 Ikioi dominating M8 Yoshikaze from the tachi-ai pushing him back a full step before looking to get to the inside. Yoshikaze kept his arms in tight disallowing a fight at the belt, but as soon as Monster Drink moved left, Ikioi was right there in tow moving in close and shoving Yoshikaze across the bales without argument. Good stuff from Ikioi who moves to 5-2 while Yoshikaze falls to 4-3.

M5 Kotoshogiku and M7 Ryuden hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Ryuden used his length to grab a right outer grip...which he did absolutely nothing with as he allowed Kotoshogiku to just force him back and across in linear fashion. Ryuden was completely mukiryoku in this one as he falls to 1-6 while Kotoshogiku moves to 5-2.

M6 Takarafuji slammed his body into M4 Shodai hard working his left arm to the inside and then demanding the right outer grip, and Shodai had no answer as Takarafuji forced him over to the side and out in less than three seconds. The problem for guys like Shodai who rely on so much yaocho to stay at this level is that when their opponent wants to win, the bout isn't even close. Shodai could do nothing here, and a good rikishi would at least find a way to attempt a counter move. Shodai couldn't as he falls to 5-2 while Takarafuji moves to 4-3.

M1 Tamawashi methodically shoved M3 Daieisho back step by step from the tachi-ai with his usual tsuppari attack, but near the edge, Daieisho moved to his right whiffing on a pull attempt, but it didn't matter as Tamawashi just stumbled forward and out of his own volition. Probably the biggest sign of yaocho is when the loser puts both palms to the dohyo and no other part of his body touches down, and that's what happened here despite Tamawashi's falling off the dohyo altogether. What a lad as Tamawashi graciously falls to 2-5 while giving Daieisho his first win at 1-6.

In the sanyaku ranks, Mitakeumi had no defense against M1 Kaisei who rushed forward and demanded the right arm inside. Once obtained, Kaisei pushed up into Mitakeumi's left armpit setting up the right outer grip, and like Shodai before, Mitakeumi was incapable of countering his opponent's attack, and so Kaisei scored the yori-kiri win in about four seconds. Mitakeumi cools down even further to 4-3 while Kaisei moves to just 2-5.

Sekiwake Ichinojo gave up moro-zashi to M2 Shohozan at the tachi-ai and just stood there pretending to grab alternating outer grips--which he could have taken, but his intent wasn't to counter and win, so he just stood there as Shohozan attempted an inside belt throw with the right.  Ichinojo just took a knew to set up the soft landing, and afterwards, Shohozan commented, "He wasn't that heavy when I threw him."  Right, he wasn't heavy because Ichinojo was applying zero pressure. Ichinojo has now thrown three consecutive bouts taking himself out of the spotlight for week 2 at 4-3.  As for Shohozan, he limps to 2-5.

At this point of the broadcast, they announced Komusubi Endoh's withdrawal giving Sekiwake Tochinoshin the freebie. Fujii Announcer sadly proclaimed that we wouldn't be able to see the O-ichiban (big bout) between these two, and I just had to chortle at that statement. Big bout? It was only big if Tochinoshin was going to be mukiryoku. For Tochinoshin's part, he expressed his disappointment afterwards saying, "Kensho ga mottainai," or I'm sorry to have missed out on the kensho money. Damn straight. Tochinoshin breezes to 7-0.

The sumo gods more than made up for Endoh's absence by allowing us to see Ozeki Goeido fight next. His opponent was none other than M2 Abi, which I believe stands for mama's boy in Japanese. Abi henka'd at the tachi-ai standing up and moving back and to his left using his long arms to easily pull Goeido down in a second and a half. Now, I think Abi coulda beat Goeido in straight up fight, so I was a little bit disappointed to see him go immediately for the pull. Abi is all hype at this point as he moves to 3-4, but with wins now over a Yokozuna and an Ozeki (in name only of course), he has two shukun victories, so if they can get him to eight, he'll win the Shukunsho. As for Goeido, he falls to 3-4 with the loss. At the end of the broadcast, they couldn't wait to catch up with Abi and ask him if he reported yesterday's win to his mother. He said that he did and that he would call his father today since they now had something to talk about. All the announcers enjoyed a good laugh, and they're working this personality angle now, but  that's what you gotta do when you can't hype actual sumo in the ring.

In the Yokozuna ranks, M4 Chiyotairyu slammed into Hakuho hard, but it just didn't look as if he had the confidence to attempt his tsuppari charge, so with Tairyu there pushing into Hakuho's chest (not thrusting him back), Hakuho grabbed the left outer grip, worked his right arm to the inside, and then forced Chiyotairyu back and across with some oomph.  Excellent sumo from the Yokozuna who finishes week 1 at 6-1 while Chiyotairyu falls to 4-3.

In the day's final affair, Yokozuna Kakuryu used tsuppari against M3 Yutakayama but only in an attempt to set up a pull. Yutakayama gave it a decent effort, but Kakuryu wouldn't sit still moving side to side before catching Yutakayama with a sideways pull to the head that twisted Yutakayama awkwardly down to the dohyo and off the clay altogether right in front of the chief judge.

With one full week in the books, there have been few surprises.  As forecast on Day 2, this is likely coming down to three of the four foreigners highlighted by NHK in Hakuho, Kakuryu, and Tochinoshin.

Harvye dishes it up tomorrow.

Day 6 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Why not Tochinoshin?  The Association knows a good story when it sees one, and Tochinoshin certainly is a good story. Calm and resolute-seeming, and an impressive physical specimen.  Fell into oblivion with an injury and climbed all the way back.  Exotic for Japanese audiences as a European, but less threatening than those durned Mongolians who keep winning all the time. Classic power sumo on the belt. His January yusho had Cinderella charm, and topping it with an Ozeki-hood here in May would no doubt be popular.  The sport is desperately in need of Ozeki, and Tochinoshin will make a good one for a year or two, until the sport can reload with a few local guys.

I've always thought yes, there is tons of match-fixing, maybe indeed as high as two-thirds. Hope not. But I would certainly consider that as an upper limit possibility (with one or two a day as the lower-limit possibility). But you still have to be good enough in the legitimate matches to set up plausible narratives in the scripted phase. That is why talent does win out in sumo for the most part--hence the long, nearly exclusive dominance by Asashoryu and Hakuho--and why narratives that aren't backed by sufficient real chops--like the recent Hokutoumi revolution featuring Kotoshogiku, Goeido, and Kisenosato--can't be sustained for too long.

I see the rise of Tochinoshin as a return to sanity for the sport after a period of giddy aspirational local accomplishments that just couldn't keep going, and Tochinoshin presents a solid alternative to a fresh wall of Mongolian yushoson the one hand or more hijinx with not-ready-for-prime-time local guys on the other.

M15 Tochiohzan (3-2) vs. M16 Myogiryu (3-2)
Tochiohzan loves, loves, loves moro-zashi. So what is his worst case scenario? Why, having the OTHER guy get both arms inside, of course. Tochiohzan was foolishly hopping backwards and pulling, and lo!, this allowed Myogiryu to do just that: get both arms inside. Very easy yori-kiri pickins for ‘ol Myog after that.

M14 Sadanoumi (3-2) vs. M16 Aminishiki (1-4)
Aminishiki really and truly has nothing. Nothing. Nothing!  He kind of felt Sadanoumi up on the cheek during the tachi-ai, like a blind man reaching out for the elephant's hairy hide: "what's this?"  It was probably supposed to be a slap. His "attack" over with that gesture, Aminishiki began a pull, but that was so obvious that of course Sadanoumi was already steamrolling forward with all speed to take advantage of it. Bang! Oshi-dashi. Done.

M17 Nishikigi (2-3) vs. M14 Takekaze (3-2)
Nishikigi scooped Takekaze up, pushed him around, and knocked him out, oshi-dashi. The key was keeping Takekaze in front of him.

M15 Kyokutaisei (4-1) vs. M13 Aoiyama (2-3)
Boo. Booooo! Aoiyama. Cripes. Kyokutaisei played it smart here: ran away from Aoiyama. The whole time. Here and there. Hither and thither. There and back again. Town and country. My bonny lies over the ocean. This way Aoiyama could neither pull him nor hit him hard. It looked real stupid, yeah, but it worked. Aoiyama followed Kyokutaisei around, making kind of pathetic-looking little strikes with his hands, until Kyokutaisei found the right moment to grab the confused and frustrated Aoiyama around his ample midriff and remove him from contention, oshi-dashi. And yeah, Kyokutaisei is 5-1. But I haven't seen anything much in it so far.

M11 Daiamami (3-2) vs. M13 Ishiura (1-4)
Big Sweety vs. Stone Ass. Ishiura looked like he'd taken a whole bottle of greenies, because he was way amped. Amped! He henka'ed out of there pretty hard off the initial contact, then engaged in a wild roundhouse swipe that covered a full 180 degrees of arc while connecting with Daiamami's temple halfway across. He then got underneath and to Daiamami's side and tipped him over that way, pushing him down with flinging oomph, kiri-kaeshi. That is a kimari-te you don't see every day. "Kirikaesu" is an everyday Japanese verb which literally means "to turn over."

M10 Okinoumi (3-2) vs. M11 Chiyonokuni (4-1)
This was like a less interesting rematch of the previous bout. Chiyonokuni, like Ishiura, struck once at the tachi-ai but then immediately henka'ed out of there to his left, followed by a lot of wild shoving. It worked just fine because Okinoumi got off balance and Chiyonokuni let him fall down, hiki-otoshi.

M12 Asanoyama (3-2) vs. M10 Takakeisho (2-3)
Sometimes guys try to get all tough and you just know it isn't going to work: that ain't sumo, its showing off. For some reason Takakeisho decided he was going to slap Asanoyama real hard. He got three of these in. But that isn't his game, there weren't enough of them, they didn't come close enough together, and Asanoyama wasn't phased anyway. Eventually Asanoyama just pulled him down in there, hiki-otoshi.

M12 Arawashi (1-4) vs. M9 Hokutofuji (1-4)
Arawashi put one leg back, one leg forward, and one long hand on Hokutofuji's face. He then held this pose like an Adonic piece of Greek statuary. Maybe Hokutofuji has a background as a moving guy at an art museum, because he had no problem sliding said statue across the floor. He would get fired, though, if he really knocked statues out of the room and broke them oshi-dashi like that.

M7 Ryuden (1-4) vs. M9 Daishomaru (4-1)
There were a few moments of pushing at each other's shoulders, but Daishomaru hadn't had a really good pull yet this tournament. He found one here: easy stuff for him, as he was spying for it from the beginning and launched it, hataki-komi, against a ripe and inexperienced foe.

M6 Chiyoshoma (1-4) vs. M8 Yoshikaze (3-2)
Mike and I have complained about this often: so many of the bouts are just a bunch of wild slapping and hitting, how do you even describe it? Let me see: "there was a whole lot of wild slapping and hitting, and then for no discernable reason except that stuff like this happens when you're brawling like that, Yoshikaze took advantage of a chance to pull Chiyoshoma down during the fracas, hataki-komi." There. Next!

M8 Kagayaki (3-2) vs. M6 Takarafuji (3-2)
I'm also going to struggle to mount prose to get at the essence of this one. Here goes: "two guys grabbed each other's arms and upper bodies and stuff and pushed each other this way and that until one of them, Kagayaki in this case, won the bout yori-kiri because that was what was ready to happen then." Sometimes it just feels like 70% of the bouts are a big artless mess. Maybe that's fun? Maybe it looks exciting if you don't have to describe it? I dunno. It feels like there was way, way more belt action and general solidity in the early aughties, say.

M7 Chiyomaru (1-4) vs. M5 Ikioi (4-1)
Chiyomaru placed a plate of pepperoni slices, parmesan crisps, and little cups of wine on his extensive shelf belly before the match, and he, the gyoji in his lustrous pink robe, and Ikioi all snacked collegially off of it for a few moments before Chiyomaru flung the tray aside, brushed off the remaining crumbs, and got down to business. Okay, not really. But he could have! In actuality, it was face and chest pushing by both and evading around the ring by Chiyomaru until he could push Ikioi niftily down by the side, tsuki-otoshi.

M2 Shohozan (1-4) vs. M5 Kotoshogiku (3-2)
Rooting interest is funny. It can hard to figure out how it got into you. The truth is, I root hard for Shohozan pretty much every time. Just seeing him makes me happy. Yay, Shohozan! And I pleasantly anticipate deploying the verbiage, "Darth Hozan." He's kind of serious looking and workmanlike, rarely pulls, rarely henkas. Looks kind of crabby and angry, but in a matter-of-fact rather than glum or unpleasant way. Like a guy who'd do a good job fixing something in your house but doesn't like to chit chat much. I dunno. There has to be more to it than that, but I can't put my finger on it: he just inspires positive regard. He put his head down at the tachi-ai here and burrowed in, driving hard, but couldn't quite get Kotoshogiku over and out, despite having moro-zashi. What happened? Well, Kotoshogiku changed the line of match, and pinched down on Shohozan, kime-dashi, meaning Shohozan was kind of stuck ineffectually against Kotoshogiku's body rather than in good position. Shohozan was also standing up too straight at this point and hence had no driving power and became easy fodder for a gaburi-belly-shove finisher. Zannen.

M4 Shodai (5-0) vs. M1 Kaisei (0-5)
Oh, man. Shodai may be looking much better so far this tournament, but not in this one. He looked weak and helpless. Big 'ol Kaisei got his arms down and knocked Shodai upright at the tachi-ai, then drove solidly and relentlessly into him. It's not like he had a grip or anything. He's just big and heavy and was moving fast. Shodai did manage to tipsy toe a bit along the tawara, seeking to exit stage left and dump Kaisei off the parapet, but Kaisei stuck with him and, in a nice moment, blocked Shodai right off the dohyo with the girth of his belly: smothered him out by absorbing all space with his gut, oshi-dashi. Pretty cool.

K Mitakeumi (3-2) vs. K Endo (3-2)
This was kind of a key match-up: Endo is by far the more charismatic, and has the current "It Girl" shine for the tournament. But Mitakeumi was looking that way as recently as January, is really popular with the crowds as well, and an Ozeki run can happen from him anytime. So who would take this one? At the top of the banzuke, it is not Goeido, Abi, or Shodai who represent Hope to the Japanese fans today: it is these two. So I was mildly intrigued. Mitakeumi wanted it and went full throttle, hoping to take advantage of Endo's lack of size and power. That worked just fine; he had Endo going solidly backwards under a rapid assault of out-flung and bashing arms and hands. When Endo began to stumble under the assault, Mitakeumi immediately took advantage of that with a controlled retreat and pull down, uwate-dashi-nage. Hey, if Mitakeumi wins the 10 he is on a pace for, it's Ozeki-run talk time for him again. And Endo just has to get 8 to be a success as debutante Komusubi, a rank at which guys traditionally get thoroughly vivisected.

S Tochinoshin (5-0) vs. M3 Yutakayama (0-5)
Our hero today (Tochinoshin) struck hard at the tachi-ai, then kept a hand on Yutakayama's face, keeping him at arm's length. But Yutakayama had him going backwards and looked surprisingly good here, because Tochinoshin had gone in too high at the tachi-ai. In fact, Tochinoshin barely survived, twice. First, an evasion and head pull at his far edge of the dohyo, then, after being driven by a still advancing Yutakayama all the way back across to the other side, the same: a nifty twirl out of the way at the straw with a more solid head-pull-down, tsuki-otoshi, against the over-committed Yutakayama. Now, I think Tochinoshin is excellent. But is her truly great? No. He's just really good. That's part of he fun of him: he can get in trouble, even against run of the mill guys like this, and has to use his experience and superior skills to get himself out. He's exciting to watch in that way: his margin for error isn't as big as with some of the Mongolians.

M1 Tamawashi (1-4) vs. S Ichinojo (4-1)
Tamawashi went kind of Takakeisho on us here: trading aggressions with back-ups to see where things stood. That was smart. He's a strong guy, and this succeeded in moving The Mongolith (Ichinojo) backwards. It also kept The Mongolith from grabbing hold of him. I think if Tamawashi had tried his big-time tsuppari, Ichinojo would have just weathered it and grabbed him. Instead, Tamawashi displayed excellent technique by keeping his shoves tight and well placed: mostly on the upper chest or to the armpits, with a few above to the head and at the end a good solid load of shoving on the belly to finish The Iron Blob of Gravity Grease (Ichinojo) off, oshi-dashi. I do love me some Tamawashi. Who is better, him, or Ichinojo? Today, Tamawashi put down a marker to say it is still him.

M4 Chiyotairyu (3-2) vs. O Goeido (3-2)
Goeido, apparently, is getting thrown to the dogs this tournament. Tough old meat; chew it up, boys! Chiyotairyu did not let up, did not stop advancing, did not stop striking. I actually think Goeido is perfectly capable of beating Chiyotairyu IF he evades properly or IF, as is his wont, Chiyotairyu thinks, "I'll just win with a quick pull." Instead Goeido apparently thought he'd try it straight up. That lasted, oh, a second of two, and then he realized, "gosh darn it, I'd better start pulling." Too late. The freight train had left the station, and it squashed Goeido's pumpkin to pulp all over the tracks: Chiyotairyu knocked him down sideways and half-backwards, oshi-taoshi. Oh! Fun!

Y Kakuryu (4-1) vs. M3 Daieisho (0-5)
I like Daieisho, but he does not belong here, and Kakuryu manhandled him throughout in a thoroughgoing Yokozuna-style victory. First he got under him. Then he drove him back. Then he pulled his head down. Then he got behind him. Then he bent his head back at an unhealthy angle. Then he pulled him to the doomsday clay, hataki-komi, like a sullen bully knocking over trash cans for fun.

M2 Abi (1-4) vs. Y Hakuho (5-0)
Hakuho walked around proud as a lord before this one. Dignified. Composed. But about to make a sacrifice? The gyoji, in his pale blue robe, slowly and portentously raised his black fan. And with that, they zoinged into each other. Abi was very focused in pushing Hakuho high in the chest, forcefully and fast. You could say he knocked the Yokozuna's arms out of the way. Lo! The Storyteller, Hakuho, was going backwards. And then some more. And then some more! And there the Yokozuna was, pulling! You know the end of this story, right? Yes. It was Abi driving a discombobulated-looking Hakuho, who couldn't get anything going here and had no time to react, out of the ring, oshi-dashi. Rain of pink-purple cushions. Now what do I think of that, you may be wondering? I see nothing wrong with it. Abi was excellent here: focused, swift, aggressive, and effective. And as for Hakuho? I will leave it at that.

Tomorrow Mike covers the world in torrential rain.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I've stated this multiple times before, but my favorite section of bouts on any given day is the Makushita-jo'i bouts. These consist of the final five bouts of the Makushita division each day, and they involve the rikishi on the cusp of promotion to the Juryo division and everything that comes with seki-tori status, namely: money, manservants, and chicks. What more does one need in life? The word that I always use when describing the Makushita-jo'i bouts is "cutthroat" because essentially what's on the line are money, manservants, and chicks.

From my very earliest days of stalking the sumos, I'd buy a ticket to the venue and then sneak down to the best seats and watch the bouts up through Makushita-jo'i from the front rows, and I always loved the quality of the fights at the top of the Makushita division. As green as I was back then, it was still the best part of the day because the competition was more fierce there than any other division, and I could just sense it.

What made me think about this was the start of the Day 4 Makuuchi broadcast where NHK was introducing a newly-promoted rikishi to Juryo, Hakuyozan. Now, I don't know anything about Hakuyozan, and I'd never seen him fight before, but as part of his introduction, they showed his bout from the day against Mitoryu (a win of course), and I was half-watching half-eating my breakfast noticing the clear mukiryoku nature of his opponent during the bout when I heard Hakuyozan laugh in embarrassment at the ending of the bout. I actually had to stop and rewind the tape to confirm it, but that's the first time I've ever heard a guy laugh while watching a replay of his bout, and the reason Hakuyozan laughed is because he was embarrassed at how sorry the quality of the bout was. I mean, it was obvious yaocho as his opponent stayed mukiryoku the entire way before stepping out on his own prior to a meaningless, weak pull after the fact, and Hakuyozan knew in his own mind that the bout was thrown in his favor, so he gave this embarrassed, sheepish laugh at the 13 second mark while watching.



I say don't worry Bro. The Japanese fans are all taking this as seriously as the NHK announcer who was sitting next to you, but the point I want to make is that the Juryo division is likely as corrupt as the Makuuchi division. I don't watch the Juryo bouts because I don't have satellite access to them, and they're certainly not worth searching for on the internet, but it's clear that bouts are being rigged in the Juryo division as well, and the video above is one example.

With that in mind, let's turn our attention now towards the Makuuchi bouts, which began with M16 Aminishiki taking on M14 Takekaze. From the tachi-ai, Aminishiki used his long arms to just reach for the back of Takekaze's melon with the intent to pull, and Takekaze walked into it hook, line, and sinker just letting his legs drift behind him as he was pulled. This was Takekaze's likely throwing Aminishiki a bone because nobody is that stupid when facing Aminishiki. Surprise, surprise, that was Aminishiki's first win as he now stands at 1-4 while Takekaze is a safe 3-2.

M14 Sadanoumi caught M15 Kyokutaisei with some nice shoves to the head from the opening, but you really need to focus tsuppari towards the body, not the head. As a result, Kyokutaisei was able to freely circle the ring to his right and spill Sadanoumi to the clay with a hiki-otoshi tug to the head. I thought Kyokutaisei was there for the taking as he hurried his retreat around the ring, but what do I know? He moves to 4-1 with the win as Sadanoumi falls to 3-2.

M13 Aoiyama fired a few proactive tsuppari M17 Nishikigi's way from the tachi-ai, but credit Nishikigi for countering with some thrusts of his own, and now facing some resistance, Aoiyama did what he does best going for a few pulls as he evaded right. That threw Nishikigi off balance just enough to where Aoiyama got the right arm to the inside of Nishikigi's left, and from there Aoiyama easily bodied Nishikigi back and out covering more than half the dohyo. Both fellas end the day at 2-3.

M13 Ishiura henka'd to his left against M16 Myogiryu, who knew it was coming, and so Myogiryu simply stayed square as Ishiura continued to drift fishing for a pull attempt, but all he got was a feisty Myogiryu who knocked Ishiura off balance with enough effective thrusts that Ishiura just gave up when he was pushed back to the straw. Myogiryu has a little bit of mo now at 3-2 while Ishiura is a hapless 1-4.

M15 Tochiohzan got the right arm in early against M12 Asanoyama, but as has been the case the last two years or so, he's not comfortable without moro-zashi, and so he actually retreated a bit hoping to sneak the left arm inside as Asanoyama stumbled forward. Asanoyama kept his balance well and looked to make a game of it with his own right to the inside, but Tochiohzan silled the dill with a nifty left tsuki into Asanoyama's side that knocked the youngster off balance, and before he could recover, Tochiohzan rushed into his coveted moro-zashi position forcing Asanoyama sideways and out for the nice win. The left tsuki from Tochiohzan was one of the finer moves from the day as both combatants now stand at 3-2.

M11 Chiyonokuni was his usual busy self against M11 Daiamami wrapping his left arm around his opponent's right in ko-te fashion, offering a few shoves, and then going for a pull all in a second flat. As the two traded sides around the ring, Chiyonokuni came away with a right outer grip, but it wasn't set up from a left inside, and so before Kuni could really establish himself, Daiamami worked his way into moro-zashi near the edge of the ring. Normally, any rikishi would be in a pickle here, but Daiamami has prolly paid for as many wins in the division as he he's earned, and it showed today by his inability to finish Chiyonokuni off just a full from the edge despite having worked his way into moro-zashi. With Daiamami struggling, Chiyonokuni was able to use that right outer grip to dashi-nage himself out of harm's way and then turn the force-out tables in the end of a wild and crazy match. Daiamami falls to 3-2 with the missed opp while Chiyonokuni is now 4-1.

Nothing to cure what ails you like M12 Arawashi willing to give up a bout, and with M10 Takakeisho desperate for wins, that's exactly what happened here. Takakeisho came out with some stiff arm thrusts that Arawashi could have easily fought off, but he opted to back up with his arms out wide before fishing for a left frontal belt grip. Takakeisho wasn't exactly applying pressure with solid thrusts, but Arawashi carelessly circled left, and as Takakeisho moved right in an effort to keep up, he fired a reckless left shove while moving sideways that of course sent Arawashi flying off the dohyo and into the first row. If you look at Takakeisho's footwork and the way he was moving laterally, there's no way a shove like that would send a rikishi into the first row, but whatever. Sumo needs parity and so Arawashi graciously falls to 1-4 while Takakeisho ekes forward to 2-3.

M9 Hokutofuji moved left going for a weak pull at the tachi-ai against M9 Daishomaru, and Daishomaru wasn't fooled at all. With Hokutofuji compromised and arms out too wide for his own good, Daishomaru smelled blood and just rushed in scoring the oshi-dashi win in two seconds flat. I give credit where it's due, and that was a great win by Daishomaru who moves to 4-1. As for Hokutofuji, he falls to opposite mark at 1-4.

M8 Kagayaki never let M10 Okinoumi get to the belt using some nice shoves at the tachi-ai before getting the left arm inside coupled with a right tsuki into Okinoumi's left side. As Okinoumi shaded to his left, Kagayaki stayed snug and easily forced Okinoumi back and across in another two-second bout. More than a dominating win here by Kagayaki, this seemed more like a case of Okinoumi being his mukiryoku self as both dudes finish the day at 3-2.

M7 Chiyomaru came with some odd thrusts with his elbows extended wide against M7 Ryuden, and that allowed Ryuden to go with the flow, take a step back, and then work his right arm to the inside to halt Chiyomaru's momentum. Now established with the right to the inside, Ryuden quickly grabbed the left outer with his long arm of the law and then used that to turn the tables and put Chiyomaru with his back against the wall. I liked Harvye's description of Chiyomaru's shelf gut, and despite his shaking that gut like a can of paint in the mixer, Ryuden was able to keep him snug and force him back for the nice win. Both dudes end the day at 1-4.

M8 Yoshikaze and M6 Takarafuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu, but they weren't chest to chest. Instead, Yoshikaze was supposedly keeping Takarafuji at bay with his left inside and right hand firing a few shoves into Takarafuji's left shoulder. Look, if Takarafuji had wanted to take this thing chest to chest (and why wouldn't he...he's the bigger rikishi and the belt fighter?), he coulda done it, but he played along as the two fought for position before Takarafuji actually got his right hand to the side of Yoshikaze's belt, but he purposefully didn't grab instead letting Yoshikaze escape to the side, and Yoshikaze went for a meager swipe that of course sent Takarafuji off balance to set up a final pull. Takarafuji exaggeratedly flopped forward across the dohyo despite the lack of quality contact, and I have no idea behind the politics here, but this was yaocho as both dudes end the day at 3-2.

M5 Kotoshogiku and M5 Ikioi hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Ikioi came away with the right outer grip. Instead of pressing the action, Ikioi was content to let the Geeku have a go of things, but he was unable to budge the taller Ikioi, and so Ikioi began to methodically drive Kotoshogiku straight back to the edge. Near the edge, Kotoshogiku tried to dig in, but Ikioi simply reversed gears and used that right belt grip to dashi-nage Kotoshogiku clear across the other side of the dohyo where this time he just bodied the old-timer back with ease. Ikioi moves to 4-1 while Kotoshogiku falls to 3-2.

Don't look now, but M4 Shodai's on the prowl!! Yes, I said Shodai!! When I raised the question early on about who are you excited to see this basho, nobody thought of Shodai, and that's because they hadn't thrown enough bouts in his favor yet. Well a few days and even more yaocho later, we've now got some excitement for the Japanese fans. Today against M6 Chiyoshoma, the Mongolian actually blasted Shodai upright from the tachi-ai getting the left inside and right outer grip to boot, but he stopped using his left inside and just stood there belly to belly allowing Shodai to work Shoma over to the side and out leading with his own left to the inside. Both announcers in the booth immediately proclaimed, "Tsuyoi!!" while watching Shodai's sumo, and of course he's going to look tsuyoi when his opponent stands in there like a wet rag. Shodai wasn't that tsuyoi from the tachi-ai, but let's just overlook those kinds of things as the M4 now finds himself at 5-0 while Chiyoshoma falls to 1-4.

M4 Chiyotairyu made me love him again today by blasting into M2 Shohozan from the tachi-ai and not stopping the freight train until Shohozan was knocked back once, twice, three times a lady. Chiyotairyu was so powerful he was awarded the tsuki-dashi win as he moves to 3-2 while Shohozan falls to 1-4. Before we move on, does anyone seriously think that Shodai could do anything against the Chiyotairyu we saw today? Uh...no.

I'm going to jump ahead a few bouts now to the Sekiwake Tochinoshin - M1 Kaisei matchup because I want everyone to watch the content of their sumo, and then we'll contrast that with a bout where yaocho was obviously in play. Watch the slow motion replay with the following points in mind:

Both rikishi attempt to establish inside positions at the tachi-ai.

Both rikishi's next focus is gaining an outer grip (Tochinoshin gets it first after winning the tachi-ai).

Tochinoshin uses the slight momentum shift of Kaisei's going for the outer grip to make his charge.

Tochinoshin uses his inside position with the right arm to lift Kaisei upright as the first step of his force-out charge.

Kaisei is had at this point, but he still doesn't go easy forcing Tochinoshin to wrench him laterally across the straw instead of just walking straight back.

This was a textbook bout of yotsu-zumo with logical, describable moves throughout. A sound sumo bout is sorta like the game tic tac toe. If the first dude puts his X in the middle, the O dude takes a corner. If X takes a corner first, the O dude takes the middle. The reason adults don't play tic tac toe is because it will always be a draw...unless you're a dipshit, and then I suppose it's possible to lose. In tic tac toe, you do this; I do that; we counter each other with the next logical move, and the game ends in a draw. Every time.

Now, with sumo you have to have a winner, but the concept is the same. Regardless of what your opponent does, there's always a logical response, and the better performer generally wins the bout. So, when we see a bout of sumo where nothing makes sense, you know the bout is either fixed or it involves Goeido.

A perfect example of nothing making sense was the Komusubi Mitakeumi - M1 Tamawashi matchup. Mitakeumi's sumo is practically indescribable while we all know that Tamawashi is a powerful tsuppari guy. So when Tamawashi fails to fire a single tsuppari during the entire bout instead opting to keep his arms out wide, you know he's mukiryoku. And that doesn't even take into account the index finger pull that Mitakeumi executes at the end of the bout that of course causes Tamawashi to stumble out of the ring. Have a look:



This bout defies all logic, especially when you compare it to say the kind of sumo you see during morning keiko. There's not even any debate that this bout was thrown in favor of the Japanese rikishi, and this is just the typical kind of stuff we see day in and day out all to the benefit of the hometown boys. The result here is Mitakeumi's moving to 3-2 while Tamawashi graciously falls to 1-4. Mitakeumi was bleeding above the right eye after the bout due to an incidental head butt with Tamawashi shortly after the tachi-ai.

Okay, we skipped a bout, so let's move back one to the Sekiwake Ichinojo - Komusubi Endoh matchup. I'm not going to bother showing the slow-motion replay here, but there were the same yaocho signs all throughout this bout as well. From the tachi-ai, Ichinojo failed an attempt to establish the inside position keeping his arms out wide, and after a faux swipe from Ichinojo that missed of course a second into the bout, Endoh settled into the deep right inside position. Ichinojo backed up near the straw as if to set up a throw, but it never came, and so with Endoh still deep to the inside, the crowd could sense it at this point. Near the edge, Ichinojo grabbed a left outer grip and used that to march Endoh across the dohyo where he used his right arm wrapped around Endoh's melon going for another throw this time spinning Endoh back to the center of the ring instead of actually attempting to throw him down...something he coulda done with ease. With Endoh now in the center of the ring and Ichinojo's back closer to the edge, Endoh grabbed a left outer grip. It was an awkward grip to say the least, and Endoh actually released it only to retool it two seconds later in a better position. This was a key point of the bout because in a real bout, you're always looking for that momenum shift to attack. If a guy voluntarily lets go of an outer, the correct response is to dig your arm in even deeper and lift the guy upright so his arm is pointing to the rafters. Ichinojo responded to Endoh's mistake by doing absolutely nothing unless you count letting Endoh grab an even better position on the belt. After Endoh re-established his outer grip with Ichinojo's permission, he went for the force-out charge facing zero resistance as Ichinojo just walked back in the end. The crowd was going berzerk of cousre as Ichinojo (4-1) suffered his first defeat of the basho...at the hands of a Japanese darling. For his trouble, Endoh moves to 3-2 and where was this kind of supposed strength yesterday when he got his ass handed to him by Abi tsuki-dashi style??

I could sit here and pick apart this stuff all day, but let's move onto the next bout that saw Ozeki Goeido facing M3 Yutakayama. Goeido failed to rough the youngster up at the tachi-ai, and Yutakayama was actually standing his ground well, but after a few seconds into the sloppy bout, Yutakayama went for a few downward slaps that missed and conveniently threw his balance off, and at that point, Goeido moved forward going for a pull of his own that sent Yutakayama over to the edge, and just as Yutakayama squared back up, Goeido was there to finish him off oshi-dashi style. Goeido moves to 3-2 with the win while Yutakayama is a harmless 0-5.

Yokozuna Hakuho wasn't fooling around with M3 Daieisho delivering a sharp hari-te with the right hand before grabbing his belt with the left hand from the outside and throwing Daieisho over and down nearly as fast as the bout began. Six members of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council were in attendance, and they had sharp criticism for Hakuho afterwards for using the hari-te.  When they were asked about Kisenosato on the other hand, they said they were fine waiting for his return at the next basho before making a decision on whether or not to suggest his retirement.  When a reporter said, "So you'll decided after the Nagoya basho?" the reply was.  "We didn't say Nagoya.  The next basho is whenever he decides to compete again."  So, Kisenosato doesn't receive a word of criticism for his sitting out due to fear of embarrassment and exposure while Hakuho is criticized for a completely legal move in sumo?  The double standard is galling, and it's also reflected in the sumo content these days.  Hakuho skates to 5-0 with the easy win while Daieisho is 0-5.

The day's final bout featured Yokozuna Kakuryu against M2 Abi, and it was a typical bout for Kakuryu where he used tsuppari to keep his opponent at bay while he looked for an opportunity to pull. The first swipe came about two seconds in when the Kak used his left arm to push Abi to the side, and as the youngster quickly recovered and looked to load up for round two, Kakuryu next moved laterally again this time pulling at the back of Abi's left shoulder sending him packing across the straw.  Kakuryu moves to 4-1 with the easy win while Abi falls to 1-4...that lone win coming against Endoh.

Harvye starts the chuban-sen tomorrow.
 

Day 4 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
After all that fuss with the Hokutoumi revolution and getting yusho for Kotoshogiku, Goeido, and Kisenosato, pushing the Kisser to Yokozuna, and pushing Takayasu to Ozeki, like Mike said yesterday, the Sumo Association right now seems okay with having a season of foreigners. Look what has happened to the four guys I just mentioned. Kisenosato is so troubled by injury and ineffectiveness it is painful and embarrassing--you can't help feel bad for the guy. Takayasu is also injured, has been a lackluster Ozeki, and hasn't managed to win a tournament. Goeido hasn't gathered in a second yusho, already has a loss here, and feels like an afterthought. Kotoshogiku of course is a footnote at this point.

None of that would matter if anybody in the group of Mitakeumi, Onosho, Takakeisho, Shodai, or Hokutofuji were showing anything. But Onosho is out of the division with an injury and Takakeisho and Hokutofuji are a combined 1-5 at M10 and M9 ranks. Mitakeumi and Shodai have both started this tournament well, but as I pointed out on Monday, it is actually past time for them to show something:  they need to do it for 15 days for once.  And so our starved eyes turned to the likes of Abi (0-3), Ryuden (0-3), and Yutakayama (0-3). Yep.

I did forgot one guy. Can you spot him? Oi, it's Endo. In sumo's slow moving world, Endo's time may finally be coming. Starting off at 2-1 as a debutante Komusubi is actually quite good, and I look for him to be the story of the tournament for Japanese wrestlers. No yusho or anything like that, but a solid effort to give those who have doted on him in vain for so long a reason to feel good at last.

Which fits with the general narrative of this tournament: the belated fulfillment of slow developing narratives like those of Tochinoshin and Ichinojo, and the further burnishing of latter-half careers (Hakuho, Kakuryu). We're back in Tokyo. It's May. There isn't anything special attached to this tournament. It's time for the association just to take care of some back-burner business. They do get to things. It just takes time.

M15 Tochiohzan (1-2) vs. M16 Aminishiki (0-3)
Zoinks. Aminishiki got one fun roundhouse face slap in, which is good because after that he was ground to meal. He immediately tried a big head pull, but Tochiohzan was bulling into him so hard Aminishiki flew off the dohyo onto his bottom oshi-taoshi and somersaulted backwards off the dais in what looked like a neck-breaking way. Of course his neck was fine. They always are. But me? I would have been dead. Right there, dead. Stretcher, dead body, death.

M17 Nishikigi (1-2) vs. M15 Kyokutaisei (2-1)
Old Golden Belt (Kyokutaisei) looks like he has been to the tanning beds. Trying to compete with Shohozan? Fine. But you'll have to get more mean to be like him. Meanwhile, this was a lot of evasion and swiping on Kyokutaisei's part, in response to which Nishikigi eventually fell down oshi-taoshi in puzzling fashion. "Fell down," I say. Hint hint. Next.

M13 Ishiura (1-2) vs. M14 Takekaze (2-1)
Kind of fun to see the new little guy against the ancient little guy. They both pull because they have to. They're both pretty good at it. But Takekaze is the master of the craft. So, they put their hands on each other's shoulders and stood there looking for the pull. Eventually what Takekaze did was pretty simple: swiped those arms off of his shoulders, thus removing Ishiura's strut support so that Ishiura fell down right in there, hiki-otoshi. Too simple? Next!

M16 Myogiryu (2-1) vs. M13 Aoiyama (0-3)
Well, Blue Mountain (Aoiyama) is clearly mailing it in this tournament, but I figger he prolly wants to stay in Makuuchi nevertheless, so it was time for a win. If you can't beat the now pathetic Myogiryu, see ya. Aoiyama backed up, stepped aside, and pulled on Myogiryu's head for the hiki-otoshi win. Why would Aoiyama need to back up when fighting Myogiryu of all people? But that's really Aoiyama for you. These days, think about it, is his sumo really any more dynamic than Takekaze? I'm done with him.

M14 Sadanoumi (2-1) vs. M12 Asanoyama (3-0)
This looked kind of cool. Sadanoumi had been arm-barred and shoulder-bumped in the face and was getting dominated. They were holding on to each other and Asanoyama was driving Sadanoumi out in a of fact way, then Sadanoumi kind of sprang out of there like a leprechaun while pushing down and in on Asanoyama, tsuki-otoshi, and Asanoyama stumbled and tumbled into the vacated void in such an ungainly fashion that Sadanoumi tripped over Asanoyama's legs and went down too (victorious though) in a glorious muddle.

M11 Daiamami (2-1) vs. M12 Arawashi (1-2)
Big Sweety (Daiamami) is kind of girthy and fun. Eventually he's probably a nothing, but he did a good job of bumping and banging at Arawashi, and of blocking Arawashi's aggression by staying steady and being real round and stuff. There was a nice moment here where Arawashi give Big Sweety a swift, hard kick, but it didn't phase Sweety at all: he had his legs well apart, and is real heavy like. He grabbed the momentum off that failed move by Arawashi and ushered him out, yori-kiri.

M11 Chiyonokuni (2-1) vs. M10 Takakeisho (1-2)
Takakeisho is in a really bad place right now and that is just the kind of wrestler the always focused and ready if limited in ability Chiyonokuni is perfectly set up to take advantage of. Indeed, all he had to do here was wait for Takakeisho to fall down. Takakeisho was doing his bump, retreat, blast thing, but mixed in a pull on which he whiffed because Chiyonokuni was too far away. And with the weensiest helping tap from Chiyonokuni down fell Takakeisho at Chiyonokuni's feet, hiki-otoshi. Next!

M9 Daishomaru (2-1) vs. M10 Okinoumi (3-0)
Well, it was time for Okinoumi to lose I guess. He let the pull expert, the terrible Daishomaru, drive him out in linear oshi-dashi fashion. Shullbit, say I. Next.

M9 Hokutofuji (0-3) vs. M8 Kagayaki (2-1)
Similar to Takakeisho, Hokutofuji looks pretty lost. Fortunately for him, Kagayaki took him on straight up in a power-on-power battle, and that is good for Hokutofuji. Kagayaki was driving Hokutofuji back with hands in the face, which is his forte, but Kagayaki got in too close and let Hokutofuji get onto his body, which is Hokutofuji's forte. Hokutofuji looked like he'd just been wakened from a long bad dream because he immediately applied his skills and used his superior oshi-dashi power to drive Kagayaki out. Let's hope he remains awake tomorrow.

M7 Ryuden (0-3) vs. M8 Yoshikaze (1-2)
I figured Yoshikaze might give Ryuden a courtesy victory at this point, but Yoshikaze was instead very busy in a Yoshikaze kind of way, face-pushing him, belt-grabbing him, spinning him around. Ryuden made Yoshikaze work hard for it, but Yoshikaze was dominating the match and eventually knocked Ryuden over like a felled tree at the tawara. Problem was, he also clearly stepped out first while doing it. Lucky for Yoshikaze, when the mono-ii came the judges made the right decision and decided to go halfsies: yes, Yoshikaze stepped out first, but Ryuden's body was already dead--he looked like a cadaver being slung onto the plague wagon--so call it even and make them do it again. Good! The second match, after a bit of good head-down thrusting by Yoshikaze, also resulted in Ryuden being forced over the tawara yori-kiri; this time Yoshikaze also managed to keep his foot in. In short, what you had here was Yoshikaze demonstrating twice that he is much the better wrestler.

M7 Chiyomaru (1-2) vs. M6 Takarafuji (2-1)
Much as I have enjoyed Shelf Belly (Chiyomaru) of late, Takarafuji, who can hang with the big boys when he chooses to, made Belly look pretty second tier here. In a way Shelfie had the momentum, pushing at Takarafuji's uppers, but Shelf Belly was leaning over too far and I thought Takarafuji was going to just pull him down. He almost did at one point. Then Takarafuji impressed me by instead bodying up to ‘ol Shelf and just plain yori-kiri'ing him out. That'll work too.

M5 Kotoshogiku (2-1) vs. M6 Chiyoshoma (1-2)
Ha. I loved this. By rights Chiyoshoma should be able to school Kotoshogiku with all his nimble tricks like a mean shepherd boy chucking rocks at his sheep. And he tried. He started with a leaping henka and looked to spin Kotoshogiku out. He even threw in a kick. But Kotoshogiku isn't dead quite yet, and Chiyoshoma was too discombobulated by all his own gymnastics to seal the deal during his Plan B desperation yori-kiri push. While he was trying, Kotoshogiku got his arms around Chiyoshoma's body so deeply and thoroughly it looked like he was holding a very large baby. Chiyoshoma got real panicky then and jerked about like a fresh sturgeon getting its caviar gutted out and tried another kick and such, but Kotoshogiku had him now and knew it, and bulled him manfully out, yori-kiri. I know the temptation is to think Kotoshogiku only gets wins via gift. Not so here. Chiyoshoma really wanted this one but planned like an ass in trying to get it and got his just desserts when all his schemes fell apart. Very fun.

M5 Ikioi (3-0) vs. M4 Shodai (3-0)
Whole lotta head bashing and arm grappling. After quite a long while of this, which should have favored Ikioi and which I am surprised Shodai did not crumble under, they went to belts. It was only a moment after this that Shodai used his left outer grip to easily power Ikioi back and out, yori-kiri, as if Shodai were a big belt guy. He isn't. Could Vanilla Softcream (Shodai) be emerging from his long, awful trance? Will I have to start calling him Japan's Next Yokozuna again? Let's certainly hope not.

M3 Daieisho (0-3) vs. M4 Chiyotairyu (1-2)
This was an exciting match-up because you had two serious, straight forward power guys here, one of whom (Chiyotairyu) is much bigger and more powerful than the other. I therefore expected and wanted Chiyotairyu to squash Daieisho like a bug in a mano-a-mano death duel. It started that way, but it was all too much for Daieisho and he actually crumpled to the side, tsuki-otoshi, before Chiyotairyu could finish his business.

M2 Abi (0-3) vs. K Endo (2-1)
And here they are, the somewhat randomly anointed Japanese faves of this particular tournament. What an odd and lightweight pair to be gathering that honor. It gave this match some glitter, though. I figured it had to be Endo as winner, even as Abi chased him around the right in a face-bash fest. Somewhere Endo was going to step aside and school the youngster with a pull down or the like. But instead Abi showed here why people like him: he was just too kinetic and youthful to go down that way, and kept turning to face Endo every time Endo changed the line of the bout. Eventually I think it even took Endo by surprise to find he'd run out of room and Abi was still right there in his face and hitting him very hard. Endo stumbled off the clay and hard onto his back a good ways up into the crowd, tsuki-dashi. I do so love to see Endo get exposed and destroyed: I like him fine, but he's just too underpowered. Good job, Abi.

S Tochinoshin (3-0) vs. K Mitakeumi (2-1)
Linear force out by Tochinoshin, yori-kiri. This was either total dominance by Tochinoshin, or Mitakeumi wasn't really trying. Probably both. I think Tochinoshin is a shoe-in for that Ozeki spot, and people seem down with that.

M3 Yutakayama (0-3) vs. S Ichinojo (3-0)
Wow, what a mismatch on paper. And so it was. Their body sizes aren't really that different, but they are different enough, and the experience level is very lopsided in Ichinojo's favor. Ichinojo just grabbed Yutakayama with a long, long left and smothered him out, yori-kiri.

When's the last time we had a padir of Sekiwake like this? Very fun.


M1 Tamawashi (0-3) vs. O Goeido (2-1)
Tamawashi wanted it, so Tamawashi got it. I think Goeido's loss yesterday, combined with Tamawashi coming in with nada, opened the door for 'Washi to go for it today. Goeido lurched in there with a body strike at the tachi-ai and then tried to go blow for blow with this Big Boy, so I'll give him an A for guts and effort, but guess what? It just goes to show how much better Tamawashi is, because Tamawashi kept putting one of his hot iron rods on Goeido's face and soon knocked him out oshi-dashi so hard Goeido stumbled backwards like a drunk tripping over some beer bottles in an alley.

Y Kakuryu (3-0) vs. M2 Shohozan (0-3)
Kakuryu is just so boring and sad looking I had a sudden hope that Shohozan would just beat him and return light and hope to the universe and help spare us the lugubrious saga of another Kakuryu yusho push. And he did! This was a fine dual-face-basher, and Kakuryu was looking solid and poised and I thought he had it in the bag. However, Shohozan in turn had nice tight low focus and started to force the match in the other direction. Then Kakuryu foolishly tried a big ‘ol head pull, and Shohozan didn't go down and kept forcing the momentum, and Kakuryu's foot raked up sand outside the tawara as he collapsed to the stirred-up dirt, oshi-taoshi. Ah! Darth Hozan strikes. I don't care why this happened, I'm just going to go with my emotions here: thank god! Boredom vanquished!

M1 Kaisei (0-3) vs. Y Hakuho (3-0)
Sometimes there is little to say about a Hakuho bout because you just want to write "and Hakuho quickly and easily beat the guy, duh," and be done with it. This was one of those. Hakuho bumped into Kaisei and was getting ready to move back and sling him down by the belt uwate-dashi-nage (which is what the kimari-te actually ended up being), but basically Kaisei just fell down at that point: "me give up!" as Jar-Jar Binks said. Okay whatever. The story remains Hakuho's to tell.

Tomorrow Mike says "check-mate" in an understated fashion before we even notice we were in danger.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
On day one I posed the question about who is there this basho to get excited about?  When I made that statement, I was thinking more along the lines of "what Japanese rikishi is there to get excited about?"  Harvye made a pretty good choice in Abi I suppose, and while the dude has a good sumo body, all of his bouts haven't been straight up, and I have yet to really detect an "it" factor with the kid.  I made the statement primarily based on the lack of hype I was seeing in the news for anyone in particular, and I think we've gotten to the point where the hype well has run dry.

That mindset was reaffirmed during the day 2 broadcast when NHK displayed the following graphic:



Top left you have Kakuryu with the caption "Looking to repeat" referring to his victory in March.  Top right is Hakuho with the caption "Comeback yusho?" referring to a yusho coming off of a kyujo.  Bottom left is Tochinoshin with the caption "Ozeki challenge," which is self-explanatory, and then bottom right is Ichinojo and the caption "Will the giant awaken?" Those are all valid statements regarding the four foreigners, but what struck me is that it was the first time in a very long time where I've seen such a graphic that didn't contain at least a token Japanese rikishi. In fact, it's been a long time since I've seen a graphic that early in a basho that focused on a foreign rikishi at all, and now we've got four of them as early as Day 2.

When I make my comments on the sumo landscape in general, I do it based on the general "feel" I get from the media, and right now the sense I get is that the Sumo Association doesn't really know where to go from here. You can only hype a guy so much. At some point he's got to produce something in the ring, and the only guys who have produced solid sumo in the ring consistently are the furreners.

With that said, if yaocho calls make you queasy, you best not tune in today because rumor has it that even Itai watched the Day 3 bouts and said, "Guys, tone it down a bit, will ya?"

The day began with M16 Myogiryu exhibiting an extremely cautious tachi-ai against M16 Aminishiki saying basically "come push me out if you can." Myogiryu stood straight up and back a half step ensuring that he wouldn't run into an Aminishiki henka, and the move forced Aminishiki to move forward and attack, a ploy we haven't seen from him in at least five years. Ami had Myogiryu close to the edge, but as Myogiryu shaded to his left, Shneaky just couldn't help himself going for a dumb pull, and the instant he did, Myogiryu pounced and pushed Aminishiki straight back and across without argument. Myogiryu has looked as slow as they come these days, but he out-sneaked Shneaky moving to 2-1 with the nice win. As for Aminishiki, he falls to 0-3 and clearly needs help to pick up more than one win per basho. Watching today was just further evidence that the fake kachi-koshi he scored on his return to the division was indeed rigged.

M15 Tochiohzan easily got moro-zashi against M17 Nishikigi today from the tachi-ai, and with Nishikigi not even attempting to counter, Tochiohzan was able to swing him sideways with the left inside position and back across the straw on Tochiohzan's side. The Tochiohzan camp was likely calling in a favor here as Oh picks up his first win at 1-2 while Nishikigi suffered his first loss at 2-1. The entire definition of "mukiryoku" is to let up or show a lack of power/spirit, and the fact that Nishikigi was mukiryoku here was inarguable. What you can argue about amongst yourselves was whether or not it was intentional.

M15 Kyokutaisei was cautious himself against M14 Takekaze at the tachi-ai agreeing to pedal backwards in order to escape a henka. Takekaze pressed forward fairly well, but he ain't got the game to score a linear oshi-dashi these days, and so Kyokutaisei had plenty of room to move to his right. Takekaze responded with a left arm to the inside, but you could literally see him thinking, "Wait...this isn't my brand of sumo," and so he went for a dumb pull instead carelessly stepping beyond the bales as Kyokutaisei looked to advance his way. Pretty ugly bout of sumo here as both dudes end the day at 2-1.

M13 Ishiura struck M14 Sadanoumi with two hands to the chest before shading to his left, and with Sadanoumi failing to adjust to the situation, Ishiura went for and scored on his first hiki-otoshi attempt, or pull down...from the side in this case. This was a lackluster bout of sumo as Ishiura picks up his first win at 1-2 while Sadanoumi suffers his first loss at 2-1.

M13 Aoiyama continued his mukiryoku ways against M12 Asanoyama today maybe stepping a half step beyond his starting line before just retreating with arms extended. Asanoyama rushed forward, but before the bout could even develop into yotsu-zumo, Aoiyama had stepped back beyond the straw. Take nothing away from Asanoyama here as he did what he needed to do, but Aoiyama was simply mukiryoku for whatever reason falling to 0-3 while Asanoyama is a fine 3-0.

M10 Takakeisho attempted to move forward firing a few thrusts M11 Daiamami's way, but while Takakeisho's elbows were locked and arms fully extended, his legs weren't moving in an effort to catch up, and so Daiamami simply moved to his right and slapped Takakeisho down in about two seconds. Takakeisho has looked awful since his return from injury, and today was a good example of that. Regarding this dude, I think it's a combination of a few things. First, he greatly benefited from freebie bouts to rise up the banzuke the way he did. Second, there's probably a legit injury in there somewhere. And third, I don't think oyakata are as willing to help out Takanohana after the recent incident that involved Takanoiwa and Harumafuji.

Much ado was made last basho about Takanohana failing to show up to the yaku-in-shitsu (official's room), and then when he did, he was only there for a few minutes. What do you think goes on in the yaku-in-shitsu assuming that the top brass are in there four or five hours each day of the basho? They ain't talkin' about the weather.  Sumo's "fix" after the yaocho scandal years ago was to forbid rikishi from taking cell phones into the dressing rooms. Now just look what's become of sumo since then. The yaocho problem is ten times as bad, and I think it all stems from the oyakata in the back halls at the venue discussing the way things need to go. Just my two yen. Regardless of that assessment, Takakeisho falls to 1-2 while Daiamami moves to 2-1.

It's been interesting to watch M12 Arawashi and M6 Chiyoshoma work their yaocho magic the last six months or so. These two Mongolians are far superior to any Japanese rikishi on the banzuke. And yet, basho after basho they wallow in the rank and file mire throwing bouts left and right--especially the first week--only to right the ship in the end and keep themselves in the division. It's interesting to watch them hone their skills, and today was a perfect example for Arawashi. Against M10 Okinoumi, Arawashi completely dominated the bout reaching for and getting the left frontal belt grip at the tachi-ai, and with Okinoumi at his bidding, Arawashi circled to his left setting up a nice inside belt throw about three seconds in. The problem was that Arawashi failed to use his left hip as added leverage and then he put his right elbow down to the dirt intentionally before Okinoumi crashed down giving Okinoumi the win...for doing absolutely nothing. Okinoumi did have an outer grip of Arawashi's belt with the right, but he wasn't even prepared to make an offensive throw or to counter with a nage-no-uchi-ai. Arawashi was in complete command the entire way including the end where he made sure his arm touched down before his Japanese foe. Well done my friend. A lot better than that dumb somersault on day 1. Arawashi falls to 1-2 with the loss while Okinoumi sleepwalks his way to 3-0.

M9 Hokutofuji struck M11 Chiyonokuni fairly well at the tachi-ai, but he was unable to move forward properly to execute an oshi attack, and so Kuni was able to move right and work his arm behind Hokutofuji's left armpit and give him a tug, and the result was Hokutofuji stumbling forward facing the outside of the ring allowing Chiyonokuni to rush in and offer a quick push from behind for the okuri-dashi win. Reports are that Hokutofuji has a sore neck, and you could see that here as he just couldn't react and pounce on a few openings. He's now 0-3 while Chiyonokuni is a solid 2-1.

M8 Yoshikaze and M8 Kagayaki were fiddy-fiddy at the tachi-ai in terms of one dude gaining an advantage over the other, but after the initial charge, Yoshikaze's feet were perfectly aligned rendering his tsuppari useless. It took Kagayaki a second or two to clue into this fact, but once he did, he knocked Yoshikaze back so hard to the edge of the ring that Cafe didn't have the wherewithal to muster a counter attack as Kagayaki finished him off with a few final thrusts. Kagayaki takes a step forward to 2-1 while Yoshikaze falls to 1-2.

M7 Chiyomaru met M9 Daishomaru with two hands to the neck at the tachi-ai before going for a brief pull, and with Daishomaru completely befuddled, he had no answer for Maru's antics. Having gotten away with that first pull, Chiyomaru charged forward knocking Daishomaru back a few steps before going for another senseless pull, and with Daishomaru still clueless to his surroundings, Chiyomaru moved forward a third time, and that proved to be a charm as he knocked Daishomaru completely upright at the edge of the bales before finishing him off with two hands to the chest oshi-dashi style. Chiyomaru picks up his first win at 1-2 while Daishomaru falls to 2-1, and before we move on, I think Daishomaru pays for more bouts than any other guy in the Maegashira ranks.

M6 Chiyoshoma got the right frontal grip at the tachi-ai against M6 Takarafuji and coupled with his left to the inside, it really was an insurmountable position. If his intent was to win. It wasn't, however, and so he brought that right arm to the outside letting Takarafuji assume hidari-yotsu before Chiyoshoma just backed himself outta the ring tugging up and under Takarafuji's right armpit as he went. I was talking earlier about Arawashi and Chiyoshoma as to how crafty they can be in defeat, and this was one of those instances where the loser just kept himself square as he pulled or dragged his opponent straight into him. Chiyoshoma prolly shoulda won this bout with a linear yori-kiri after gaining moro-zashi from the tachi-ai, but he parlayed that into what looked like a dominant performance by Takarafuji. It was anything but that as Chiyoshoma dominated the entire way falling to 1-2 while assisting Takarafuji to a 2-1 start.

M7 Ryuden looked to get inside of M5 Ikioi at the tachi-ai, but Ikioi kept his arms in tight before moving to his right and working his right arm in behind Ryuden's left armpit, and with Ryuden still of a mind to move forward, Ikioi used his own momentum against him well dragging him down at the edge a few seconds in while Ryuden tried to watashi-komi Ikioi back and out first. Thanks to the watashi-komi, it was close enough that they called a mono-ii, but replays showed that Ryuden's right knee crashed down before Ikioi stepped out. Tough break for Ryuden who falls to 0-3 because he did have Ikioi upright throughout. On the contrary, if you have your gal upright throughout the bout, you gotta find a way to win it, and Ryuden couldn't leaving Ikioi standing at 3-0 as the dust settled.

Taking a page from Arawashi and Chiyoshoma, M4 Chiyotairyu dominated his bout against M4 Shodai and still of course managed to find a way to lose on purpose. Chiyotairyu knocked Shodai two full steps back from the tachi-ai but instead of firing straightforward thrusts into his opponent's chest, he opted to slap his palms downward at Shodai's chest and shoulders. This allowed Shodai to recover and move left where he was once again set up for an oshi-dashi defeat, but Chiyotairyu failed to go for the kill. Still in danger, Shodai moved back right towards the center of the ring where Chiyotairyu was on him like white to rice but still refrained from firing straightforward thrusts, and at one point, Chiyotairyu actually set up a pull that would have worked wonders, but he never executed it. With Shodai having done absolutely nothing to this point, Chiyotairyu finally grabbed Shodai's left arm and just dragged Shodai into his body as he toppled himself back and down beyond the straw. This was the most obvious yaocho on the day to call if you're scoring at home as Shodai is gifted his 3-0 start while Chiyotairyu graciously falls to 1-2.

Does anyone get the feeling that I do nothing but talk about yaocho?  I only call it when I see it, and it was rampant during this part of the broadcast.  Next case in point was M3 Yutakayama who got moro-zashi against M5 Kotoshogiku from the tachi-ai, but being the gracious rikishi he is, he pulled his right arm to the outside giving Kotoshogiku his preferred hidari-yotsu position. Kotoshogiku still wasn't exactly blowing off Yutakayama's doors at this point, and so Yutakayama weakly attempted to maki-kae...with the same arm he had just pulled to the outside in the first place!!  Unbelievable, but it at least gave the announcers something to call. "Yep, there it is!! The failed maki-kae. That'll get you every time!"  Yutakayama falls to 0-3 after the gift while Kotoshogiku skates to 2-1.

I'm still trying to figure out which two Japanese rikishi going head to head would equate to Japan's version of El Clásico. Komusubi Mitakeumi vs. M2 Abi might be close on paper but certainly not based on the content of the sumo today. I know Abi is tall, but could the dude try and make himself any taller than he did today against Mitakeumi? Abi stood straight up at the tachi-ai going through the tsuppari motions...as he backed up, and then he shifted gears moving to his right going for pull motions in the process. Notice how I said "motions" because he wasn't actually trying to score on the move. Abi made it around one rotation in the ring before he just went for another reckless pull while stepping out beyond the straw and slipping down. Mitakeumi never really made contact, and as Abi went down, the former Suckiwake was standing there bent low with both feet aligned and arms extended, hardly the ending position from both guys that they'd find themselves in after a straightup oshi-taoshi bout. This was all Abi here as the dude falls to 0-3 while Mitakeumi is gifted a 2-1 start.

M3 Daieisho henka'd to his left against Sekiwake Ichinojo, and can you really blame him??  Ichinojo brushed the henka off with ease squaring back up with his foe, but Daieisho understandably did not want to go toe to toe or chest to chest, so Daieisho kept moving laterally this way and that while Ichinojo tried to catch him.  After about seven seconds, Ichinojo finally worked his hands to the back of Daieisho's head going for a mammoth pull down, but as he did so, he carelessly stepped beyond the straw before Daieisho had obviously hit the dirt. The judge pointed to Ichinojo because of his offensive move at the end, but they did call a mono-ii to review. Replays showed that Daieisho's hand touched down a split second before the Mongolith stepped out, so gunbai doori, or victory as initially called to Ichinojo who moves to 3-0.  As for Daieisho, he falls to a tough-luck 0-3.

M1 Tamawashi appeared to be a stiff test for Sekiwake Tochinoshin in his quest for Ozeki promotion, but The Mawashi was unfortunately mukiryoku here.  I mean, you have two guys here who are probably fiddy-fiddy in ability.  One's a pusher and the other is a yotsu guy, so you'd expect the winner to be the one who dictated the pace.  Well, Tamawashi wrapped his left arm around Tochinoshin's right at the tachi-ai attempting to do nothing with it, so after this awkward start, the two traded a few tsuppari with Tamawashi having the clear path to the left multiple times where he could have fired a counter tsuki-otoshi, but he largely just stood there and let Tochinoshin have his way. The problem was that Shin isn't a pusher, and so he wasn't able to fire that kill shot, and so Tamawashi tried to time a pull/slap from the Private, and when it came, he just dove forward and down to the dirt near the edge. Tochinoshin tried to catch up with the move, and the result was his tripping over Tamawashi's corpse laying there in the dirt, but this was just one big yaocho mess with an unnatural ending like the Mitakeumi bout.  I think Tochinoshin can beat Tamawashi straight up, and I obviously don't know what went on behind the scenes today; I just know that Tamawashi took a dive here and graciously gave Tochinoshin the bout, and that's based purely on sumo content from the ring. Just because Tamawashi (0-3) lost today, it doesn't mean that Tochinoshin is a shoe-in for Ozeki. It only means that the Tamawashi camp chose to give the Sekiwake the bout.  That 3-0 start looks good for Shin in terms of promotion.

Maybe I spoke too soon regarding Japan's version of El Clásico because up next was Komusubi Endoh taking on Ozeki Goeido. Of course, this was more of a clinic on how to align your feet in sumo from the tachi-ai than it was a good bout of sumo. Credit Endoh for taking charge of Goeido's ineptness in the ring, though, because after his bad start down low, Endoh recovered nicely and began applying tsuppari pressure. Being the Ozeki that he is, Goeido's first instinct was to go into pull mode, so there the two were, Endoh chasing Goeido around with arms extended while the faux-zeki was looking for an opening to pull. Endoh was actually vulnerable in places with his feet aligned here and there, but Goeido was too hapless to capitalize constantly look for the pull. Endoh would never give it to him, however, and after about six seconds of this nonsense, Endoh connected on a nice left tsuki to stand Goeido upright before hooking him under the shoulder and pulling him down in kata-sukashi fashion. Endoh was not great today as he moves to 2-1; it's just that Goeido's sumo was atrocious as he falls to the same 2-1 mark.

In the Yokozuna ranks, Hakuho chose to just plow right through M2 Shohozan bodying him back quickly from the tachi-ai and then shoving him out for good as Shohozan attempted to skirt to his right. There's really nothing more to say about this one as Hakuho moves to 3-0 while Shohozan falls to the opposite 0-3 mark.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Kakuryu got the right arm inside against M1 Kaisei followed by the left outer grip that he quickly used in for a dashi-nage attempt. The move threw Kaisei off balance, and while he did briefly look to have an opening on a kote-nage against the Yokozuna, his footwork wasn't ready for him to execute on the move. That was Kaisei's best shot in this one because before he could plant on that kote-nage, Kakuryu worked his way into moro-zashi and easily wrangled Kaisei back and across from there. Pretty simple stuff as Kakuryu moves to 3-0 while Kaisei falls to 0-3.

As I hinted in my intro, it seems as if everyone is resigned to the foreigners dominating this basho.  The story could change on a dime of course, and so that's why we tune it.

King's to Harvye tomorrow.

Day 2 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
In sports I'm used to youth coming on pretty quickly. Yeah, half the rookie phenoms flame out, never do anything, get hurt, disappoint.  But the other half?  They dominate right away, take over the sport.  They leave the old fuddy duddies gasping as they stun with their youthful excellence and make it look so easy.  Youth will be served, and supple bodies are usually worth at least as much as experience and guile.  In sports, youth dawns quickly.

And then there is sumo.  It just doesn't happen that way.  There is a communistic smoothing over of the talent levels, a shackling of the rockets, a propping up of the doddering.  Yes, in the end, talent will win out.  But only in the end.  In the meantime, young guys who look to be in too much of a rush are trammeled for a bit while their elders get shined up to glitter a last few years in the setting sun.

I feel like we've been talking about the transition in sumo for years now.  Perhaps we have.  This move from the old guard--Hakuho, Harumafuji, Kakuryu, and Kisenosato being the most obvious names--to their inevitable successors has been unnaturally, painfully slow. Part of this is because most of those elders are really, really good, and the new guys, whichever of them ends up coming out of the scrabble up the scree slope, aren't that high of quality. But part of it also is that the new guys get held back. That was true of Terunofuji before injuries did him doubly in. It is probably true of Ichinojo. And some of the other guys knocking on the door, like Tochinoshin and Tamawashi? They're hardly newbies. They're old, man. Sumo just doesn't work like that:  "young kid stuns the world!"  Nope.  Not allowed.

So, we wait. That seems to me the biggest undercurrent meta-story in the sport right now:  the slow motion apocalypse (to steal a phrase from Grotus) of sumo's current transition to the next generation. Every tournament we tune in thinking, "will it finally happen?"  And so far, it never does.

I predict another tournament of the same, with a Hakuho or, second choice, Kakuryu yusho. But I'll hope for the unexpected.

M16 Myogiryu (1-0) vs. M17 Nishikigi (1-0)
Myogiryu pile-drivered his upper body into Nishikigi, and it seemed to be working just fine. But that damn tawara. It gets in the way. It is just so darned hard to get guys over it, sometimes it seems as high as a battlement. Nishikigi stuck there, and used his left-hand-grip to turn the line of the bout so that it was now Myogiryu whose back was to the tawara. Nishikigi then pushed Myogiryu pretty easily over and out, yori-kiri. Myogiryu, you are old.

M16 Aminishiki (0-1) vs. M15 Kyokutaisei (0-1)
Night of the living dead? (I just can't wait until Aminishiki plays Takekaze!) During the dohyo-iri, I swear old Shneaky could hardly even walk, limping along behind the gyoji, and yet here we are expecting him to fight a bout. Zombie sumo. Would he feast on Kyokutaisei's flesh? He would not. He spun around this way and that, but Kyokutaisei stuck with him and dished him out some of his own medicine, felling Aminishiki plop onto his bottom with a swift, kicking trip. Ha! Take that! Suso-harai.

M14 Sadanoumi (1-0) vs. M17 Tochiohzan (0-1)
I'd forgotten all about Sadanoumi. And here he is. He's still got some genki in him, apparently. He drove Tochiohzan back with his upper body and popped him over on his side, yori-taoshi, while, um, falling down. I have no idea what Tochiohzan thought he was doing here. Next.

M14 Takekaze (1-0) vs. M13 Aoiyama (0-1)
If you were menaced by a fast-moving bowling ball twice your size and sprouting arms and legs, what would you do? Perhaps you would step to the side and let the bowling ball go past. You might give it a pat as it went by: "whew! That was close!" That is what happened her, with Aoiyama in the role of Bowling Ball and Takekaze playing Alarmed Victim, squeaking out a tsuki-otoshi victory while just avoiding getting crushed to death.

M12 Arawashi (0-1) vs. M13 Ishiura (0-1)
By rights Arawashi should be able to pick Ishiura up and sling him 11 rows deep like an akimbo boomerang. Ishiura knew it, so he henka'd wildly and spun around to Arawashi's side as they grabbed each other's waists in mutual desperation. However, it is a measure of how lightweight Ishiura is, literally and figuratively, that once Arawashi stopped his own momentum, he was able to turn the momentum of Ishiura's body in the other direction as well, as if Ishiura offered no more resistance than a feather duster fetched impatiently from the cleaning closet by a matter-of-fact Polish cleaning lady. Arawashi flicked said feather duster over the tawara, yori-kiri.

M12 Asanoyama (1-0) vs. M11 Chiyonokuni (1-0)
Seems to me Chiyonokuni should have tried to see if he could body up this low ranked foe and beat him the hard way. Maybe he just can't and knew it? Asanoyama certainly knew what to expect--a pull--and so kept advancing and kept square and upright, and Chiyonokuni's little swipe pull attempt (yappari!) had no effect. Asanoyama got the yori-kiri win in just a moment.

M10 Okinoumi (1-0) vs. M10 Takakeisho (1-0)
Takakeisho stuck right in there on Okinoumi's grill, deeking away with his hands. He probably needed to retreat, smash back, and take advantage of the mo, that would give him, as is his wont, but he didn't, and he gained no headway doing what he was doing. Eventually he gave in and resorted to a pull and Okinoumi just drove him out, yori-kiri.

M11 Daiamami (0-1) vs. M9 Hokutofuji (0-1)
Boy, Hokutofuji is looking pretty lame. He put one hand on Big Sweety's face and left it there, and I normally like to see that, but there was no aggression with it--in fact he was backing up as he did it--and Daiamami just kept on keepin' on and knocked the scared-looking Hokutofuji over backwards, oshi-taoshi. Hokutofuji better get his confidence back pretty soon, because if you're scared of Big Sweety (Daiamami) you're nothing but an also-ran.

M8 Yoshikaze (1-0) vs. M9 Daishomaru (1-0)
Yech. These guys hit each other and Daishomaru then stepped to the side. Yoshikaze rocketed past him like a frozen ham on a greased ice rink, and Daishomaru was there to push him that last bit out from behind, okuri-dashi. Next.

M8 Kagayaki (0-1) vs. M7 Chiyomaru (0-1)
A blunderbuss is an old kind of gun. A blubberbus is Chiyomaru. Both of these guys have potential, but Kagayaki did the better job of focusing on keeping Chiyomaru's hands off him while pushing him backwards, and soon parked the blubberbus in the garage, oshi-dashi.

M6 Chiyoshoma (0-1) vs. M7 Ryuden (0-1)
I'm kind of interested in Ryuden. He's got a good sumo body he could add weight to. However, Chiyoshoma has a similar body, and more kinetic whiplash strength. Ryuden was keeping his head low and working hard, but so was Chiyoshoma, who then took advantage of wildly open arms by Ryuden midway through the bout and got all over Ryuden, body and belt. Chiyoshoma emphatically tossed Ryuden to the dirt, getting some distance on the throw--shotput!--shita-te-nage style. Now we know who is better.

M6 Takarafuji (1-0) vs. M5 Ikioi (1-0)
Mr. Boring vs. Mr. Disappointing. Pretty good-looking mat though. Mr. Boring (Takarafuji) whiffed on an early belt gripped--when he wrenched up, he let go--and was kind of desperate to get back on the belt after that. Consequently when he did get a grip he left his feet behind, and Ikioi swiftly and sharply pivoted and whipped Takarafuji down to the dirt, sukui-nage.

M4 Chiyotairyu (1-0) vs. M5 Kotoshogiku (0-1)
By rights Chiyotairyu should have cannon-balled Kotoshogiku through the back wall. Instead Chiyotairyu got up under his man but then just kind of stood there and lolled back and forth a bit before letting Kotoshogiku tip him over, sukui-nage. Next!

M3 Daieisho (0-1) vs. M4 Shodai (1-0)
Little Daieisho the Red Fireplug tsuppari'ed Shodai hard in the face and looked to have Shodai confused, off his game, and vulnerable. However, Shodai has looked marginally better lately, and has good size. He also showed his strength here: there was a moment when his head was bent backwards by Daieisho, but he nevertheless aimed his arms at Daieisho with a sideways swipe, and just that knocked the little man to the dirt, tsuki-otoshi. I always like Daieisho, but his size just limits what he can, especially ranked at M3. He is going to get slaughtered this tournament.

M3 Yutakayama (0-1) vs. K Endo (0-1)
Speaking of getting slaughtered this tournament, my #1 candidate for that is Daieisho's fellow M3, Yutakayama. I haven't liked his sumo thus far and can't understand how he snuck up to M3. Like, really? Watch for him to get schooled by teacher this time around. I figured Endo, who usually employs solid technique, would have plenty of veteran wiles to put this one in his pocket, size and power disadvantage or not. And that's pretty much what happened. This was a push battle, arms-in-the-face style, and went back and forth. Endo was not going to win it going forward, but he damn sure was going to win it going backwards; after a couple of evasions and hithers and thithers, Endo moved back and to the side quickly enough that Yutakayama plopped to the clay, hiki-otoshi. We'll see if Yutakayama can take advantage of these lessons in July, because May is going to be painful for him.

S Tochinoshin (1-0) vs. M2 Abi (0-1)
Mike asked yesterday who we're excited about seeing this basho. I will admit that it is Abi, despite myself. Despite myself because I also agree with those who say this guy has some fire and momentum, yes, but not enough size, strength, or killer instinct that I can see to amount to much more than an Ikioi type career, or perhaps Yoshikaze if he reaches his ceiling. Nonetheless, he was the guy I thought of most while writing the intro: magical burst of dominant youth. We've seen a succession of guys like Mitakeumi, Shodai, Takakeisho, and Onosho get attention as the possible next big thing and then slow down or start going backwards, causing us to turn our lustful eyes to the next raw youth who shows a bit of spark. Right now that guy is Abi. But frankly it is only a fantasy: seven wins this tournament would be a great result for him, and instead I'm sticking him in the Slaughterhouse Bucket with Yutakayama and Daieisho. Don't get me wrong; Abi is not bad, but he isn't what we dream him to be, and we're about to see that demonstrated. I had no doubt that Tochinoshin, who is driving for something real, would beat him, and that is what he did. Abi made it look good with lots of manic hands to the face and some determined wriggling resistance once Tochinoshin caught him between his grizzly limbs, but what you were seeing here was a more experienced, bigger, better, stronger, more patient, stable wrestler in Tochinoshin taking his time and never being in real danger on his way to a cautious but thorough yori-kiri win. This Tochinoshin Ozeki thing is happening. Abi and his ilk can wait.

M1 Kaisei (0-1) vs. S Ichinojo (1-0)
Avast, ye lubbers! Whale off the portside! And whale off the bow! Thar they blow! Two mighty leviathans of the deep, plump with krill! Man the harpoons! Even the gyoji was thick-bodied and pot-bellied for this festival of fun. Our two ambergris horses gave us a match worthy of their weight, playing to type, as both got right inside grips and they then leaned on each other chest to chest. There was no way Ichinojo was going to lose that. You know how skim milk and whole milk look pretty much the same, but one tastes thin and insipid and the other is a creamy explosion? Ichinojo is whole milk. Kaisei is skim. There's just no "there" there to Kaisei. I suspect his fat is packed with air bubbles, like Amazon package-wrapping. Ichinojo's girth is salted with lead.

M2 Shohozan (0-1) vs. O Goeido (1-0)
Shohozan is just the kind of guy who might have the guts to beat Goeido on an early day. But not this one. Goeido got a couple of good head butts in and pushed Darth Hozan out in seconds flat in linear fashion, oshi-dashi. Next.

Y Kakuryu (1-0) vs. M1 Tamawashi (0-1)
For such good wrestlers, what a lame match. Stop letting these guys into the karaoke bar together! Tamawashi was giving wee little pushes rather than blasting away as he is capable of. And Kakuryu was standing there, hitting back in desultory fashion. Then Tamawashi appeared to slip to the side and stumble out, as if Kakuryu was a blocking dummy that had been greased with pig fat. Tsuki-otoshi. Whatever. Next!

K Mitakeumi (1-0) vs. Y Hakuho (1-0)
Oooh, the delicious frisson of "Will he? Won't he?" What story is Hakuho going to tell us? I figure he will win this tournament, but if not, I figured he would start losing it here. Hakuho was pretty sloppy, with lots of backwards movement, and Mitakeumi, if he had struck quickly and aggressively, pushed instead of pulled, committed instead of shown fear, could have taken advantage of the Yokozuna at a couple of points. However, he didn't, and Hakuho was careful not to move too far back. Hakuho kept seeking the belt as he evaded and pulled. Eventually he got it and dumped the tentative and thoroughly disoriented Mitakeumi to oblivion, uwate-nage.

Tomorrow Mike rings our giant iron bell with a stone hammer.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
As we head into the Natsu basho, the talk has been mainly focused on three topics.  1) Kisenosato has withdrawn yet again from the Natsu basho.  2) Tochinoshin is being considered for promotion to Ozeki.  And 3) Takanohana finds himself sitting ringside as a judge for the first time in nine years after being demoted two classes in the oyakata hierarchy.

By the time the Makuuchi bouts started--which is when I pick up the live feed on my satellite here in the States, the talk focused first on Kisenosato and then on Tochinoshin.  As is usually the case on day 1, Kitanofuji was in the booth offering color analysis while Mainoumi sat in the mukou-joumen chair, and Kitanofuji did not mince words when discussing Kisenosato.  He said that injuries heal, and the problem right now with Kisenosato is not an injury.  Rather, he doesn't have any confidence in the ring.  When Kitanofuji finished with his analysis, the first word out of Mainoumi's mouth was "kibishii," or you were quite tough on him.

Kitanofuji is likely tired of coming up with excuses for Kisenosato, so he told it like it was.  Mainoumi tried to soften the blow by saying that he'd like to see Kisenosato take a few more months to get his confidence back and then make a return. Whatever.  Uh, I hate to break it to Mainoumi, but the problem with Kisenosato is not his confidence.  He's a perfect example of what happens to a guy who is sent up the banzuke and into the elite ranks on pure yaocho. Once you get him there, ya gotta sustain him there, and that's obviously been a problem the last year as rikishi are no longer just laying down for him. Because Kisenosato is Japanese, everyone is going easy on him, and I still haven't heard anyone call for his retirement.

The second topic of conversation focused on Tochinoshin, and talk about two rikishi on the opposite ends of the spectrum in Kisenosato and Tochinoshin.  For those of you scoring at home, Tochinoshin has 24 wins the last two basho, and while the unwritten rule is 33 wins over three basho from the sanyaku, there have been plenty of cases in the past where runs to Ozeki included a kick-ass basho from the Maegashira with Terunofuji being the most recent example.  Technically, Tochinoshin needs nine wins, but I've read where some would like to see double digit wins since one of the basho during this run did come from the Maegashira ranks. Regardless of the numbers, if you examine just sumo content, Tochinoshin is superior to the Japanese dude they have ranked at Yokozuna and the two yayhoos ranked at Ozeki, so it's just a matter of politics.  Are they gonna let him do it or aren't they?  I'm not going to speculate either way. The bottom line is that Tochinoshin is a top five rikishi on this banzuke joining the likes of Hakuho, Kakuryu, Ichinojo, and Tamawashi.

Enough of that nonsense.  Let's focus on the real nonsense otherwise known as sumo in the post-Kaio era. M16 Aminishiki meant well going for M17 Nishikigi's throat with a right paw from the tachi-ai, but Nishikigi had the de-ashi clamping around that right arm of Shneaky's and driving the crusty veteran back in a flash. Aminishiki attempted to spin to his right at the edge, but Nishikigi had all the mo and easily pushed him out before stepping out himself.  Look at Nishikigi even getting his picture posted in the Sumotalk funny papers.

M16 Myogiryu and M15 Kyokutaisei treated us to a wonderful migi-yotsu contest where Myogiryu had the left outer grip, but Kyokutaisei had youth on his side and kept Myogiryu moving with a few counter belt throws before finally cutting off Myo's outer grip. Myogiryu knew it was do or die at this point, so he rushed in with the left inside going for the quick force-out, but Kyokutaisei was able to counter with a right tsuki-otoshi sending both dudes across the ring and out at the same time.

They called a do-over, and in round 2 Kyokutaisei henka'd to his left, but Myogiryu adjusted on a dime getting his right arm to the inside and the left outer grip after a brief tussle, and Myogiryu's grip was near the front of the belt, so he was able to use that to lift Kyokutaisei upright and off balance scoring the official yori-kiri win the second time through.

M15 Tochiohzan hopped forward a half step at the tachi-ai causing his feet to be aligned, and while Oh actually had the left arm to the inside and the path to moro-zashi, his feet wouldn't cooperate allowing M14 Takekaze to dart left going for his signature pull, and it worked like a charm thanks to Tochiohzan's failed tachi-ai that left his feet aligned.

It was at this point I was thinking to myself, "Hey, we're off to a legit start," but it would turn quickly from there. M13 Aoiyama ducked his head and then aligned his feet at the tachi-ai showing a willingness to back up as M14 Sadanoumi charged forward. Playing no defense, Aoiyama moved to his right as Sadanoumi established the left to the inside, and with Aoiyama not looking to win, he allowed Sadanoumi to just bull rush him across the ring sideways and out. Sheesh, we can't even get four bouts in before yaocho rears its ugly head.

M13 Ishiura moved to his left against M12 Asanoyama from the tachi-ai, but Asanoyama read the henka well keeping himself square using a right kachi-age and then a right paw to the neck, and with Ishiura now looking to run, Asanoyama caught him with the right arm deep to the inside leaving Ishiura nothing but his hands up high as if to pull. He wasn't established to do even that, however, and so it was one of those yori-kiri bouts where Asanoyama had to let up at the end just to keep Ishiura from flying off the dohyo.

M12 Arawashi and M11 Chiyonokuni struck each other well at the tachi-ai as Arawashi extended his left arm forward appearing to grab the front of the belt, but he was just waiting for that first pull attempt to come, and when it did, he just somersaulted his way forward and down in ridiculous fashion. Easy call here as Arawashi is off to his usual yaocho-ridden start.

M10 Okinoumi and M11 Daiamami hooked up in a methodic hidari-yotsu contest, and it was the veteran Okinoumi using his skills and length to grab the left outer grip, and once he got it, he wrenched Daiamami upright and forced his foe back and across with little argument. During the fracas, Okinoumi actually lost his left inside position leaving himself vulnerable to the inside, but Daiamami was too hapless to notice. This bout was a good example of sumo with no real force behind it thanks mostly to Daiamami making mistake after mistake.

M9 Hokutofuji kept his arms wide and feet aligned at the tachi-ai allowing M10 Takakeisho to drive him back quickly with his tsuppari attack, but it wasn't that powerful allowing Hokutofuji to instinctively move left going for a tsuki-otoshi that worked pretty well, but he failed to follow up on that move and allowed Takakeisho to recover and resume his attack. Once again, Hokutofuji was able to evade throwing Takakeisho off balance, but his intent today wasn't to win, and so the third time was a charm for Takakeisho who finally scored the oshi-dashi win in the end with a little cooperation from his friend. Afterwards they caught up with Hokutofuji, and all he kept repeating was, "Mottainai, mottainai," or I blew it!!  That was just Hokutofuji's way for covering for his mukiryoku sumo because he never did anything to try and win the bout. Hokutofuji and Takakeisho actually come from the same high school with Hokutofuji being the senpai. If a senpai doesn't want to lose to a kohai, he'll show more desperation in the ring.

M8 Kagayaki offered a moro-te-zuki at the tachi-ai against M9 Daishomaru, but quickly abandoned the move and just kept his arms wide allowing Daishomaru to attack from down low and lift Kagayaki upright with a right under the left pit, and from that point Kagayaki showed no intention of playing defense just going with the flow as Daishomaru worked him over and out. Kagayaki was completely mukiryoku in this bout as he gifts the Daishomaru camp a 1-0 start.

M7 Chiyomaru kinda came with a right kachi-age at the tachi-ai against M8 Yoshikaze, but Maru was backing up from the start and not going for a single punch. Yoshikaze pursued and went for a half-assed pull attempt, but it looked to work wonders as Chiyomaru just ran himself across the entire diameter of the dohyo to the other side. This bout was all bark and no bite at this point, and it was clear that Chiyomaru was mukiryoku and without Yoshikaze really connecting on anything, Chiyomaru just fumbled his way around the edge of the dohyo stepping across in the end as Yoshikaze tried to catch up with a push. No worries; Chiyomaru did all the work just stepping out of his own volition gifting Yoshikaze the win.

Before we move on, the problem with sumo these days is that so much of it is fake. Coming into the basho, who were you excited about? I can't think of a single dude that I'm looking forward to watching because it's practically impossible for someone to fight the full fifteen days without a compromised bout.

M7 Ryuden and M8 Takarafuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and it was the veteran Takarafuji who showed the youngster how to work his way into the right outer grip and then wrench your foe upright, over, and out. When Takarafuji tries, he's pretty potent, especially against the rank and filers like Ryuden whose rise up the ranks aren't fully legit. Easy peasy Japanesey as Takarafuji picks up the nice, early win.

M6 Chiyoshoma and M5 Ikioi were fiddy-fiddy at the tachi-ai ultimately hooking up in the hidari-yotsu position where Shoma went for a quick left scoop throw as Ikioi had an outer grip of the Mongolian's belt. The result was an extremely awkward nage-no-uchi-ai where Chiyoshoma was the only one doing the throwing. Well, if you can call it throwing. All he did was spread his legs as far apart as possible during the throw before putting his right elbow down to the dirt giving Ikioi the day 1 gift. As the announcers watched the slow motion replay, Kitanofuji said, "Of course his elbow is going to touch down first from that position." The position they were talking about is Chiyoshoma's failure to plant a leg prior to the throw opting to go for the splits instead. Nice, unnatural flow to the bout here as Chiyoshoma gifts Ikioi the win.

M5 Kotoshogiku and M4 Shodai hooked up in the hidari-yotsu position, but neither dude was really able to grab the outer grip. Shodai looked to just stand his ground and make the former Ozeki commit to something, and so Kotoshigiku bellied his foe upright and eventually grabbed the right outer grip. In the process, Shodai began to counter with a left inside scoop throw, and so both rikishi found themselves at the end in a nage-no-uchi-ai where Shodai's left arm was too extended and Kotoshogiku only had a grip of one fold on Shodai's belt. The result was an awkward finish where Shodai had to pump twice to finish the old fossil off. As they watched the slow motion replays, there was really nothing to praise from Shodai's victory, and in a word, Kitanofuji described it as "yokunai," or not good. It's hard to explain exactly in words, but these bouts between the Japanese rikishi simply lack chikara, or any power. I think the ultimate insult to Shodai was when the announcers said that "he's even been passed over by stablemate Yutakayama on the banzuke." Ouch.

Speaking of M3 Yutakayama, he was no match for M4 Chiyotairyu because Chiyotairyu's intent was to win today, and win he did blasting Yutakayama off of the starting lines and freight training him off the dohyo altogether with three potent thrusts once, twice, three times a lady. I'm in love with this dude when he fights like this, and he's the only Japanese rikishi in the division who has an element of fear to his attack.

Komusubi Mitakeumi exhibited a horrible tachi-ai with his feet aligned and arms doing nothing, but fortunately for him, M3 Daieisho was gonna let him win, and so without doing anything but going for a phantom pull, Daieisho just started retreating for no reason allowing Mitakeumi to follow in hot pursuit and sorta push Daieisho out. It was more a matter of Daieisho's just walking himself back on his own, but whatever. They asked Kitanofuji what was good about Mitakeumi's sumo this bout as they watched the replays, and he said, "He rushed forward fast when given the chance." Stunning.

M2 Abi caught Sekiwake Ichinojo with a pretty nice moro-te-zuki at the tachi-ai, but he couldn't budge the Mongolith with a push attack, so he immediately darted to his right looking to spring a trapdoor. It wouldn't happen as Ichinojo was able to get his right arm sufficiently to the inside, and so Abi next tried to dart to his left. Ichinojo was onto him like stink bait offering a few potent thrusts that sent Abi flying off the dohyo. There was a bit of buzz prior to the bout as Abi was going through his shiko exercises since the dude can lift his legs high above his head, but that was as much flare as Abi exhibited today. He simply got his ass kicked as Ichinojo clobbered him with those Christmas hams that most of us call hands.

Sekiwake Tochinoshin was unable to grab a hold of the busy M2 Shohozan at the tachi-ai, and so he settled for a right frontal grip to the outside and a left arm over the top. While he did have his foe in snug at this point, he also gave Shohozan moro-zashi, and the dark one with moro-zashi ain't no pushover. Shohozan moved to his right well fishing for some kind of inside belt throw, but Tochinoshin pulled his gal in tight going for a tsuri-dashi. He was able to lift Shohozan clear off the dohyo, but they were in the center of the ring, and so after Shohozan landed, he was able to turn the tables and force Tochinoshin near the edge, but the Private would not be denied going for another tsuri-dashi that left Shohozan's feet scrambling like a fish out of water, and in the process, his big toe scraped beyond the ring before Tochinoshin forced him out for good. I suppose this was a bit of a scare for Tochinoshin, but he fared well especially after giving up moro-zashi.

M1 Kaisei got the right inside grip from the tachi-ai against Goeido, but instead of pulling the faux-zeki in tight, he just stood there limply allowing Goeido to pivot out left with a grip on Kaisei's belt dashi-nage style, and as Kaisei was dragged over to the edge, he had an opening to execute a right kote-nage that would have worked had he attempted it, but he just stayed limp and upright walking himself across the bales as Goeido persisted.

In the Yokozuna ranks, Hakuho scored on a quick left hari-te against M1 Tamawashi in a wild start to the bout where both rikishi were flailing their arms and making contact with shoves but not setting anything up for the kill. Watching live, you could hear the flesh being slapped, but ultimately both rikishi ended up separated by about a meter in the dohyo. They paused for a few seconds staring each other down, and after about three seconds, the Yokozuna just rushed in and shoved Tamawashi back and off the dohyo before the former Sekiwake could score on any slaps or shoves of his own.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Kakuryu and Komusubi Endoh traded shoves in the center of the ring with neither dude getting close to the belt, and so there they stood for two or three seconds firing shoves but really looking for the pull, and it was the Yokozuna who struck first sensing an opening and spilling Endoh to the dirt on his first try.

Up until this point, a Mongolian Yokozuna has always covered for Kisenosato and withdrawn, but there's no reason why these two can't go the entire fortnight. I did read an injury report regarding Kakuryu and the ring finger on his right hand.  BFD.  Is there anyone in the division who doesn't have at least two digits on their body taped together?

I can't say it was the most compelling start to a basho I've every seen, but at least we didn't have one of the elite foreigners go down in yaocho fashion.  Give them time.

Harvye saves the day tomorrow.