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Haru Basho Day 14 Comments
Now that the yusho is down to two rikishi who already fought each other five days ago or so, the weekend feels like we're just tying up loose ends with rikishi looking for kachi-koshi and others positioning themselves as Sansho candidates. As I watched the bouts today, I felt like it was such an educational day in terms of who beat who in straight up bouts and then who needed yaocho in order to maintain their contender status.

By way of review, the leaderboard heading into Day 14 was simply this:

11-2: Takayasu
10-3: Onosato

Because an M4 Takayasu win would mathematically eliminate all four-loss rikishi, let's start with his bout against M14 Churanoumi. Churanoumi reached for the left frontal belt grip from the tachi-ai, but Takayasu was able to tsuppari him away from it and force the bout to a shove match, and the former Ozeki took control early moving Churanoumi back near the straw, but Takayasu's shoves were too high, and so Churanoumi was able to work his way underneath Takayasu's arms and shove Takayasu back to the center of the ring. After shifting momentum to his favor, Churanoumi reached for a left outer grip but couldn't quite latch on, and that threat alone sent Takayasu into defensive mode, which ultimately led to him going for pulls, and as soon as he did that, Churanoumi pounced forcing Takayasu up against the edge and then across with a comeback force-out victory.

The bout was obviously straight up, and Takayasu had about three seconds to deliver his best shot before he began to tire. As soon as Churanoumi dug in after being forced to fight with shoves, he slowly turned the tables and took charge, which opened up the path to his victory. If a dude like Takayasu has the energy to start out 11-2 the first 13 days against rikishi much higher than him on the banzuke, how does he run out of energy three seconds in against a dude from the M14 rank? The obvious answer is that Takayasu has been handed so many cheap wins that he's unable to perform in a real bout against an average rikishi at best. The end result is Takayasu's falling to 11-3 in defeat, which means all rikishi sitting on four losses were suddenly back in play.  As for Churanoumi, he's back in it I suppose now in improving to 10-4.

The bout prior to Takayasu's contest featured M15 Aonishiki taking on M6 Takerufuji, and the rookie came in too high for his own good putting a right arm on Takerufuji's shoulder in a defensive posture, and that created a huge opening to the inside for Takerufuji, but the latter couldn't create anything and only offered a few half-assed shoves before quickly going into pull mode. Once he did that, Aonishiki was ready, and he ducked under his now compromised opponent and bulldozed him back and across without argument.

This bout featured two negative aspects of the sumo from both parties involved. First, Aonishiki will never become a great rikishi with that tachi-ai. You can't come in with your arms that high and in a defensive posture and expect to bully anyone around. Second, Takerufuji's tachi-ai is simply hapless. I thought his footwork was actually good today, but his inability to get to the inside and take the bout to the belt was alarming. Of course, his going into panic mode after two unsuccessful shoves was also alarming, and everything about this dude's sumo is alarming...in straight up bouts.

It is so easy to recognize yaocho when it favors Takerufuji.  All of his so-called wins take about three seconds, and his opponents simply back out of the ring for him. When he's pressed as he was today by a rookie no less with a below-average tachi-ai, he folds within two seconds and gets his ass kicked. This guy was a fraud from the beginning, and he's done nothing in the last year to prove otherwise.  It's Aonishiki now who technically stays in the yusho hunt in moving to 10-4 while Takerufuji falls to 9-5.

Moving up the charts, Onosato was given new life with Takayasu's loss, and he could pull even again with a win over Sekiwake Daieisho. Gee, I wonder why I was able to predict yesterday precisely how this bout would play out? Daieisho won the tachi-ai slamming hard into Onosato and moving him back a bit, but instead of really focusing on a tsuppari attack, Daieisho flailed away at a shove or two and then began retreating of his own volition. As for Onosato, he was flailing as well with an impotent attack from the start, and it was only when Daieisho began to retreat that Onosato was able to move forward. Onosato did catch Daieisho with one nice volley to the chest, but as he looked to reload for round two, Daieisho had already backed himself across the straw.  I think the most telling aspect from that pic there at left is Onosato's footwork.  How do you gain any momentum with aligned feet like that?

This bout was so predictable as Onosato is gifted 11-3, and he now stands alongside Takayasu again tied for first place. Regarding Onosato's sumo itself, there was nothing positive to break down. Unlike Takayasu who ruled his bout the first few seconds, Onosato applied no pressure towards his foe, and he was completely at the mercy of Daieisho. As for Daieisho, he's officially eliminated in falling to 9-5, and he's as dutiful as they come.

I know the next pair wasn't part of the yusho race, but let's cover the final bout of the day, M6 Hiradoumi vs. Kotozakura. Kotozakura reached his left arm forward at the tachi-ai hoping to latch onto his opponent's belt, but Hiradoumi came forward with too much force getting the right arm inside and knocking Kotozakura upright enough to keep him far away from the belt. As the action flowed laterally, Hiradoumi grabbed a left frontal belt grip, and Kotozakura knew he was in trouble at that point and so he tried to switch places on the dohyo to shake thing up. That disallowed Hiradoumi to settle into full on moro-zashi at first, but Kotozakura began retreating East hoping to set up a pull, and that opened things cup for the M6. With Kotozakura's retreat, Hiradoumi had all of the momentum, and he easily knocked Kotozakura back and perfectly upright at the straw before hoisting him across yori-kiri style.

One of my favorite things about this bout was this middle-aged lady in red literally praying before the bout that Kotozakura would win (you can see her praying in opposite corners of both pics above), and then when he lost she slapped her hands together in disgust and leaned over nearly sideways in her masu-seki declaring, "Ah, mo-h!!"

She's a great example of one of the sheep who has been programmed to believe Kotozakura is a real Ozeki and all that. It's difficult for them to comprehend not only that Kotozakura lost to an M6 rikishi but that he had no say whatsoever in the bout. Before we move on, I'm more in the camp of the hottie sitting behind the old lady who was very pleased with the outcome of this bout.

And that was the case for both Ozeki bouts. It was unfortunate that the Daieisho camp felt obligated to throw their bout (in exchange for cash of course), but had that bout been straight up, Onosato wouldn't have had any say in that one either. Those final two bouts were so educational, and there wasn't a single positive you could take from either of the Ozeki.

Okay, with the dust settled on the day, this is the new leaderboard heading into senshuraku:

11-3: Onosato, Takayasu
10-4: Churanoumi, Aonishiki, Tokihayate

I would be shocked if both Onosato and Takayasu were allowed to lose, and so that three-loss tier is basically your Sansho winners.

As we look at the key matchups tomorrow, Takayasu fights first, and he is paired against Komusubi Abi. In a straight up bout, Abi will destroy Takayasu in about four seconds. In a fake bout, I'm sure the two will exchange tsuppari for two seconds, and then Abi will move out of the ring laterally with Takayasu in tow. It benefits the Association much, much more to have Onosato take the yusho, and so this one could be straight up, but I don't really have a feel either way.

Onosato will of course fight Kotozakura in the final bout of regulation, the Ozeki matchup that exactly zero of us have been looking forward to, and the problem with predicting this bout is that everything has been so fake for both of these guys, that I don't know who has the advantage in a straight up bout. I've been pretty clairvoyant predicting the key matchups to this point, but I don't have a feel for this bout either nor do I really have a clue how a real bout would play out.

I of course hope that all sumo is real, and so that's what I'm rooting for. Assuming the final bout is, I'd favor Kotozakura 60-40 just because Onosato hasn't proven that he can knock anyone off of the starting lines. Kotozakura also has the size advantage, and I think he's got the better chance of sneaking in a slapdown.

Because I'm positive that the yusho will come down to either Onosato or Takayasu, I hope Takayasu gets it because he won their head to head matchup. I think chances of a Takayasu win are slim, but we'll see.

In other bouts of interest, M4 Ichiyamamoto beat Sekiwake Ohho off of the starting lines and pummeled him back to the edge, and then IYM let up putting his hands high for no reason as Ohho salvaged moro-zashi and forced the action back to the center of the ring. From there, that initial fire displayed by Ichiyamamoto was curiously missing, and Ohho eventually scored the push out win against a mukiryoku Ichiyamamoto leaving both dudes at 6-8.

The hidari-yotsu contest between M8 Atamifuji and M1 Wakamotoharu can basically be summed up in this pic:



Atamifuji had the clear path to the right outer grip the entire way...and we're talking like 12 seconds, but he refused to grab it and instead let that hand just float there with the palm open.  Instead of grabbing the outer grip, Atamifuji was down for the yaocho struggle as Wakamotoharu eventually worked him over and out for the cheap yori-kiri win. Wakamotoharu picks up one of the weakest kachi-koshi in history as he moves to 8-6 while Atamifuji falls to 6-8.

I don't know that any other bouts are worth commenting on today, so let's leave it here and see what they come up with tomorrow.

Haru Basho Day 13 Comments
In the past, I've referred to Day 13 as moving day because it was the critical day of the basho that really separated the yusho contenders from the yusho pretenders, and Day 13 of the Haru basho proved to be quite the moving day. I was pleased that the significant bouts affecting the yusho race were fought straight up, and a lot of the bouts today were quite solid. Of course, we had the usual clown like fake falls, but without further adieu, let's get to the action starting with a review of the leaderboard that shaped up as follows:

10-2: Onosato, Takayasu
9-3: Takerufuji, Tamawashi, Aonishiki

Up first from the leaderboard was M7 Tamawashi who struck M14 Churanoumi with a palm to the left side throwing him off balance a bit, and then Tamawashi switched gears on a dime and moved the other way setting up a kote-nage with the right. He didn't follow through on the throw, however, and you knew at that point that he was going mukiryoku, and so he pulled out of the throw altogether and let Churanoumi push him near the edge, but there wasn't any mustard on Churanoumi's attack, and so Tamawashi moved to his right and fired another good tsuki into Churanoumi's left side that set up the right outer grip. Tamawashi was in prime position with that outer grip, but he promptly let it go as he was trying to set up the win for Churanoumi, but the M14 had no gas left in the tank. Tamawashi finally backed to the West edge of the dohyo where he came from waiting for that final shove from Churanoumi, but Chura-chan was gassed and collapsed after the shove attempt as Tamawashi fired a simultaneous half-assed left tsuki. Tamawashi was in full control and watching things closely, and he quickly stepped his right foot across and out before Churanoumi's fall was complete.

The ref ruled in favor of Tamawashi, and how can you blame him? Tamawashi controlled the entire bout, and he was in full control at the end, but they called a mono-ii and reversed the decision giving it to Churanoumi, and that's what Tamawashi was going for all along, so it was no harm, no foul. Both dudes finish the day at 9-4 and are no longer in contention for the yusho. Just how Tamawashi planned it.

Up next was M4 Takayasu who caught M1 Wakamotoharu with perfect thrusts from the tachi-ai, and even though neither guy was really moving forward out of the gate, Takayasu's jabs were taking effect. After about two seconds, Takayasu began driving with the legs, and he focused tsuppari after tsuppari into Wakamotoharu's torso slowly driving him back and across just like that. About a week ago I talked about how the sumo basics are largely missing from sumo these days, but Takayasu's display here was a perfect mix of the teppo exercise and the suri-ashi exercise. In fact, that's the best sumo I've seen from Takayasu in years. Granted, it was made possible because Wakamotoharu is such a stiff, but it was great to see Takayasu bruise his opponent like that and win in linear fashion. I'll take it for sure as Takayasu moves to 11-2 with the great win while Wakamotoharu falls to a dismal 7-6.

M15 Aonishiki moved all the way up to the last 30 minutes of the day in order to take on Sekiwake Daieisho, and this started out to be a good bout as both dudes came with a nice tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai. In tandem, the two struck together and then reloaded for the next volley once, twice...and not quite three times because as Aonishiki ducked his head and came forward for round three, Daieisho slipped slightly to his left and timed a perfect slapdown of the rookie. This was a classic case of the veteran having been in so many of these fights, and I think there was also a bit of stage fright from Aonishiki. Regardless, the better rikishi won here as Aonishiki is knocked out of yusho contention with a 9-4 record while Daieisho improves to the same 9-4 mark.

In the penultimate bout, M6 Takerufuji and Kotozakura hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and just when I thought, "This should be good," Kotozakura pulled away from the yotsu contest and backed up a half step keeping his eye on Takerufuji. As for the M6, he was completely lost at the tachi-ai thanks to Kotozakura leading with the left inside and playing the part of a brick wall. Takerufuji didn't know which foot to put forward, and so he shuffled his feet around a bit, and Kotozakura sensing the lack of pressure coming from Takerufuji decided to back up that half step and then time a perfect pull to his right as Takerufuji advanced thinking he had an opening at last. It was a sly move, and yes, I always want to see guys win in linear fashion, but credit Kotozakura for winning the tachi-ai. We don't often see that, and his stifling Takerufuji the first few seconds is what let to Kotozakura's nice win.

Kotozakura clinches kachi-koshi at 8-5, and that had to have felt good to get the KK with a legit win. As for Takerufuji, he is knocked out of yusho contention altogether at 9-4 thanks to Takayasu's win earlier. I realize that the four-loss rikishi are still mathematically in the yusho race, but it's coming down to Takayasu and Onosato.

Speaking of Onosato, he finished the day paired against Sekiwake Ohho, and as soon as Ohho crossed the starting lines at the tachi-ai bringing a very good tsuppari attack, I knew the bout was real. As Ohho began connecting on shoves to Onosato's torso, Onosato had no choice but to think evade and pull, and so he moved to his right fishing for a pull or two, but Ohho stayed right in his face chasing Onosato around half of the ring before pummeling him out of the other side just like that.

The crowd seemed stunned at first that it was so lopsided, but I think in the next few seconds as they digested just how good Ohho's attack was, they gave him a very nice ovation...as they should have. People who believe that sumo is all straight up have a difficult time with a bout like this because they just can't compute in their mind that the supposed strongest Japanese rikishi in the sport could get his ass kicked like this. But it was that one-sided as Ohho picks up the biggest win of his career in moving to 5-8 while Onosato falls to a surprising 10-3. I for one did not see this bout going straight up, but I'm really glad it was.

With the dust settled, we are down to two guys with the new leaderboard:

11-2: Takayasu
10-3: Onosato

Looking ahead to tomorrow, Takayasu is paired against Churanoumi. The bout will be the 10th fought on the day, so it should be the last bout of the first half. It's rare to have a bout on Day 14 with heavy yusho implications occur in the first half, and that will take some buzz off of the dohyo. A lot of people still won't be in their seats by then, so they'll miss it.

I'm positive that this bout will be straight up, and unlike Wakamotoharu, Churanoumi is a feisty dude, and his advantage is his ability to move around the ring against the fossil, Takayasu. Sumo skills-wise, Takayasu is the better rikishi, but Churanoumi doesn't have to go toe to toe and take such punishment, so assuming a straight up bout, I think Churanoumi goes on the run early looking for the cheap pull or dashi-nage. Such a bout favors Churanoumi, but Takayasu is the stronger dude and could score on a pull of his own. It's so tough to predict. I think it will be straight up because it doesn't hurt if Takayasu loses, so I'm going to predict the bout in favor of Churanoumi 60-40.

If it is thrown, you'll know right away.

As for Onosato, he gets Daieisho in the penultimate bout, and that will be a similar matchup to the Onosato - Ohho bout today although Daieisho doesn't have nearly the reach that Ohho has. This will be like crocodile against crocodile, and I'm expecting a tsuppari fest for two or three seconds, and then they're going to start going for the pull. Straight up, Daieisho is the favorite 70-30.

The question is though...will the bout be straight up. I think it's 70-30 in favor of a yaocho, and if it's yaocho, Daieisho will deliver a thrust or two and then quickly back up as if he's going for a pull, but the pull will never come and Onosato will win in three seconds.

Enough of that. Let's comment on a few other bout of interest from the day starting with M2 Gonoyama vs. M5 Kinbohzan. After a brief tussle between the two in the center of the ring, Kinbohzan felt the time was right to fake a fall, and so he looked like this:



I think he was trying to spell the letters Y-A-O-C-H-O with that fall similar to the Y-M-C-A song. Both rikishi end the day at 5-8.

M14 Ryuden and M8 Atamifuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and this was a solid bout as Ryuden grabbed a right outer grip using it to hold on against Atamifuji who was ducking down low. This was one of the better yotsu struggles of the entire basho, but Ryuden won in the end leading with that right outer grip, and the main reason why I commented on this bout is to remind everyone just how good Ryuden is. You never see that kind of sumo from anyone who has been on the leaderboard this basho. Ryuden improves to 5-8 with the beautiful display while Atamifuji falls to 6-7.

The fakest bout of the day was the M12 Onokatsu - M8 Ohshoma matchup. Ohshoma shaded right at the tachi-ai going for a very weak elbow to the side of Onokatsu, and Onokatsu put two palms to the clay and just crab walked over to the edge of the dohyo. I think I like it better when Ura does his somersaults as both dudes end the day at 8-5.

The M13 Shishi - M9 Hakuohho matchup was compelling, but the bout was fixed, so it lost its luster. From the tachi-ai, Shishi henka'd to his left softly, and he had the pathway to the left outer grip, but he didn't grab it. As Hakuohho recovered from the henka, Shishi largely just stood there and let Hakuohho come back forward, get moro-zashi, and then force Shishi across the straw without argument. Too bad as Hakuohho oils his way to 7-6 while Shishi falls to 8-5.

M17 Mitakeumi henka'd to his left against M10 Nishikigi, and NG just went with it running himself to the edge where he waited for Mitakeumi to force him across that last half step. Mitakeumi begs his way to 6-7 with the henka while Nishikigi falls to 2-11.

They should have had M11 Midorifuji - M16 Asakoryu fight first because it would have been like the midget wrestles as the undercard. In all serious, this was a very good bout of sumo, and I think we'd get more contests like this if dudes fought in weight classes. The two rikishi hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai with Asakoryu maintaining a left outer grip, and so Midorifuji made the two move in hopes of finagling an uwate of his own. He wouldn't get it, but he timed a very nice inside scoop throw against Asakoryu's outer left, and he was able to sling Asakoryu over and down in pretty spectacular fashion. This was a great bout as Midorifuji moves to 7-6 while Asakoryu falls to the brink at 6-7.

And finally, M18 Tokihayate and M11 Meisei hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and the two danced around the ring a bit with Tokihayate maintaining the right outer grip, and about four seconds in when Tokihayate went for the uwate-nage, Meisei (7-6) just went with the flow and didn't even try to counter with an inside belt throw or scoop throw, and that's how you know the bout was thrown in favor of Tokihayate (9-4).

Well, we're down to just two rikishi, and you can see that the Association is just limping across the yusho finish line here.  The yusho picking were slim coming out of last weekend, but let's see if we can get somewhat of an exciting finish.

Haru Basho Day 12 Comments
Since Hoshoryu's kyujo announcement earlier in the week, the headlines have been extremely quiet in between the action on successive days, and the stories leading into Day 12 were also minimal. With the lack of storylines, the yusho race becomes the only topic the last few days here, and Takayasu's loss yesterday was key because it all but guaranteed the yusho race will go into senshuraku. I'd say there's also a 99% chance that a Japanese rikishi takes the yusho, so all will seem good in the world until the Natsu basho.

Let's examine the leaderboard at the start of the day and focus on that first:

9-2: Onosato, Takayasu, Takerufuji
8-3: Daieisho, Tamawashi, Churanoumi, Aonishiki

Covering the leaders in chronological order, up first was M15 Aonishiki taking on M11 Meisei. At the tachi-ai, Aonishiki stood upright as he is wont to do instead of moving forward, and so Meisei filled that void nicely charging forward and putting his arm towards Aonishiki, but he really wasn't thrusting with a forward attack. He'd thrust and then back up a half step; thrust and back up a step. With Meisei mildly retreating, Aonishiki came forward with his head down, and Meisei instinctively moved left and loaded up as if he was going to go for a kote-nage, but he kept his hand loose (as pictured at left) and only tapped lightly at the rookie's side. As play resumed, it was once again Meisei offering a tsuppari and retreating; offering a tsuppari and retreating until finally Meisei was near the edge and he stealthily stepped his left toe and scraped it across the sand giving Aonishiki the victory at that point.

I mean, watch the slow motion replays on this one and focus solely on Aonishiki. How many times did he connect on a thrust to Meisei's torso causing Meisei to move backwards? The answer is zero. This was Meisei dictating the pace start to finish and brushing that toe across the sand giving Aonishiki the cheap win. Ironically, Aonishiki did connect on a solid push, but it was after the bout was already over and Meisei was turned to the side. A shove like that final dame-oshi that made Meisei step off of the dohyo never occurred during the bout, so as expected, Meisei deferred to the rookie here.

They can generate a lot of cheap headlines with Aonishiki staying on the leaderboard at 9-3, but with Meisei (7-5), there would have been zero interest.

Next up on the leaderboard was M7 Tamawashi who traveled all the way up to the sanyaku to take on Komusubi Kirishima, and as expected, Kirishima completely let up in this one. Granted, Tamawashi is the better rikishi of the two, but Kirishima only fought with one arm today. From the tachi-ai, Tamawashi came with two thrusts up high into Kirishima's torso, and Kirishima's response was to fake a quick swipe down and then back up a bit and move left. As Tamawashi chased him around the perimeter of the ring, Kirishima only used his left arm to carelessly slap Tamawashi's way, but he wasn't looking to do anything but exit the dohyo. After about a quarter turn around the ring, Kirishima turned to the side and Tamawashi caught him for good and shoved him across making it official. Exactly zero Japanese fans paid attention to this bout as Tamawashi maintains leader status at 9-3 while Kirishima falls to a harmless 5-7.

The very next bout featured M14 Churanoumi also making his way to the sanyaku ranks where he was paired against Komusubi Abi. Unlike Kirishima, Abi was not accommodating today, and he took charge from the tachi-ai using his tsuppari to keep Churanoumi up high, and then he connected on a vicious forearm with the right driving Churanoumi back to the edge, and in one fell swoop Abi loaded up a left forearm to the neck that sent Churanoumi back and down without argument. Sheesh, Abi was kicking ass and taking names here, and this was a great display of Abi's true ability...something we haven't seen unleashed in a while. With the loss, Churanoumi is knocked out of yusho contention at 8-4, but let's face it...the dude was never in the yusho race to begin with. As for Abi, he improves to 5-7, and it was nice to see him allowed to go all out today.

The next bout with yusho implications featured M4 Takayasu doing battle against Sekiwake Ohho, and coming into the bout, if you're Ohho's camp you're like, "Just come with your usual tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai." So of course when Ohho immediately forced the bout to hidari-yotsu and stood straight upright in order to give Takayasu the cheap right outer grip, you knew the bout was compromised. Takayasu wasn't able to grab that right outer straightway due to his crocodile arms, and if you're Ohho and your foe's trying to grab an outer grip, what do you do? You could throw him off his craw with a left scoop throw or move right keeping your hips out of harm's way, but Ohho literally just stood there for about four seconds until Takayasu finally grabbed the right outer grip.

Somewhere during that fray, Ohho actually managed to get his right arm inside, and so he had moro-zashi, and if Takayasu struggled to grab a gift uwate, you know he'd struggle with those crocodile arms trying to score a kime-dashi against a behemoth like Ohho. Well, Ohho solved the problem for Takayasu by backing up to the edge and faking a right scoop throw, which was just an excuse to pull that right arm completely out of the inside position, and not only did he do that, but he turned his back to Takayasu and ran around the ring nearly a full turn before Takayasu finally caught up with him and scored the okuri-dashi win.

Ohho made every mistake possible in this bout, and he did it intentionally from the tachi-ai in order to just give it away to Takayasu. I mean, this yaocho was very predictable because a resurgent former Ozeki is about all they've got for supposedly exciting headlines, and so Takayasu is gifted a 10-2 record while Ohho takes his lumps and suffers make-koshi at 4-8. To be fair, Ohho has not earned the Sekiwake rank, so I guess it all works out in the end.

Following that bout was the marquee matchup of the day featuring Onosato and M6 Takerufuji, and as expected, this was a straight up contest. From the tachi-ai, Onosato stood up high as he is wont to do, and that invited a charge from Takerufuji, but the latter also comes in high and thus has very little pop from the initial charge. As a result, with Takerufuji moving forward and applying no real pressure to Onosato, Onosato put both hands behind Takerufuji's head and shoulder area and went for a mammoth pull where Onosato actually jumped in the air as he flew backwards in order to give Takerufuji more time to crash to the dirt before Onosato landed back down. The plan worked, and Onosato picked up the win, but I'm watching this going, "Was there anything here that impressed me?" For any Japanese person who didn't watch the live broadcast but saw this bout replayed on the news at night, what do you think their impression was?

I mean, I want to look for the positives, but I didn't see any here. The winner lost the tachi-ai and only went backwards, and then that girl jump at the end didn't exactly remind me of dudes like Kitanoumi or Chiyonofuji. I appreciate that it was straight up, but the sumo content was really bad. Obviously, sumo content is the last thing the Association is pushing these days, and so Onosato moves to 10-2 alongside Takayasu on the top rung of the leaderboard. As for Takerufuji, he's bumped down a notch to the three loss tier with a 9-3 record.

The final dude on the leaderboard was Sekiwake Daieisho who was paired against Kotozakura in the final bout of the day, and this was a laugher if I've eve seen one. From the tachi-ai, Daieisho completely forgot about his tsuppari attack and put his right arm up high around Kotozakura's left side as Daieisho moved to his right and placed himself at the edge of the straw just waiting for the oshi-dashi kill shot. Problem was that Kotozakura was out of sorts and wasn't going with the flow, and so Daieisho darted back to his left with Kotozakura still stumbling around. With the action back in the center of the ring, Daieisho had the lower position against Kotozakura who was in the attitude of setting up a pull, but instead of taking advantage and scoring the easy push out, Daieisho kept backing out of any advantageous position, and he finally set himself up at the edge again and turned a bit as Kotozakura pushed him out that last half step.

Coming into the day, I thought that Kotozakura could actually give Daieisho a decent run for his money, but Daieisho was in yaocho mode from the beginning here, and he did all the work here start to finish. Politically, you would much rather keep Kotozakura at the Ozeki rank over Daieisho maintaining token leaderboard status, so there was no surprise that they decided to fix this in favor of Kotozakura. With the gift, Kotozakura is now 7-5 and will surely find that elusive eighth win before he has to face Onosato on Sunday. As for Daieisho, he ain't gotta care in the world as he falls to 8-4.

With the dust settled, the new and improved leaderboard shapes up as follows:

10-2: Onosato, Takayasu
9-3: Takerufuji, Tamawashi, Aonishiki

The Association is all but guaranteed the yusho race going into senshuraku, and it's gonna come down to either Onosato or Takayasu. Both of these dudes are going to need yaocho in order to yusho, but go ahead and pick the lesser of two evils between the two.

In analyzing tomorrow's matchups, Tamawashi will fight first of the group, and he's paired against Churanoumi. Hmm...that's an extremely tough call, and I'm of course referring to whether or not the bout will be fixed in favor of Churanoumi. I think Tamawashi will lose that one on purpose, but who knows?  It will either be a very decisive win in favor of Tamawashi or a very decisive yaocho in favor of Churanoumi. I'm going with the latter.

Takayasu is paired against Wakamotoharu, and that would be an extremely compelling bout if it was fought straight up. A straight up bout is a push between these two rikishi, but once again, I think they gain so much more politically by having Takayasu win in a fixed bout, so I'm leaning that way.

Aonishiki is paired against Daieisho, and Daieisho is the favorite there in a straight up bout. I have no idea what's going to happen in this one.

I love the Takerufuji - Kotozakura matchup, especially if it's straight up. Assuming that it is straight up, Kotozakura will win with a slapdown if he can muster a decent tachi-ai. If he's too slow and too upright, Takerufuji will drive him to the edge, and then it's a matter of Takerufuji's being able to sill the yori-kiri dill or Kotozakura's ability to counter with a tsuki-otoshi. It's a pick 'em in a straight up fight.

Finally, Onosato is paired against Ohho, and Ohho can easily beat Onosato in a straight up oshi fight. Unfortunately, I think we're going to get a carbon copy of the Ohho-Takayasu matchup from today, so I expect Onosato to win in cheap fashion.

In other bouts of interest on the day, I loved the M13 Shishi - M1 Wakamotoharu matchup. From the tachi-ai, Shishi shaded a bit left hoping to get the cheap outer grip, but Wakamotoharu denied it straightway, and so the two hooked up in migi-yotsu with Shishi still pestering his foe on that left side looking for the uwate. As for Wakamotoharu, he could do nothing in this bout as the two jockeyed in the center of the ring, and once Shishi sensed that he was in no danger, he lunged for and got the left outer grip at the back of Wakamotoharu's belt and then dragged WMH out dashi-nage style in one fell swoop. With Wakamotoharu on the other side of the straw, Shishi added insult to injury by nudging him off the dohyo altogether with a courtesy dame-oshi.

For how many basho over the past year or so have we heard Wakamotoharu's name mentioned as an Ozeki candidate? And then you have a green guy like Shishi come up and completely kick his ass. It was a great example of how weak and inept these manufactured Japanese names really are as Shishi picks up kachi-koshi at 8-4 while Wakamotoharu falls to 7-5 (how does this guy have seven wins?!).

You can tell the M10 Nishikigi - M5 Kinbohzan bout was fake because Kinbohzan didn't attempt tsuppari from the tachi-ai. He patiently waited for Nishikigi to get the right outer grip. And then finally, when Nishikigi mounted his yori-charge, Kinbohzan pulled out of it at the last moment and put both palms to the dirt. Whatever guys as Nishikigi improves to 2-10 while Kinbohzan settles for 5-7. What I'd really like to see is Nishikigi try and win with yotsu-zumo while Kinbohzan tried to counter with oshi-zumo, and let the best man win...kinda like when we were kids and we'd throw red ants and black ants in the same jar and let 'em fight it out.

The most improbable yaocho of the day was M5 Ura getting moro-zashi against M8 Atamifuji and working him over to the side and out. Well, I guess he didn't technically work Atamifuji out of the ring since the Hutt made sure to step his left foot across the sand to give Ura the cheap win, and it was funny to hear Hiro Morita use words like "tremendous pressure" and "overwhelms" when describing Ura's sumo. I can sum it all up with one word:  fake. Ura is gifted 5-7 and this was just a morsel for the fans as Atamifuji falls to 6-6.

I always take note of what M9 Hakuohho is doing because I really want him to succeed, but he needs to do it right. Today against M6 Hiradoumi he wouldn't get the chance as Hiradoumi henka'd to his left and knocked an overly-aggressive Hakuohho over and down in a half a second. As Hakuohho got back up on the dohyo and they panned out to show more of the arena, my only question was, "Why are there adults dressed up in brown Jedi Knight vests on either side of the dohyo?"

When I was watching SumoWorld today for the scrub bouts, Hiro Morita said just prior to the M11 Midorifuji - M8 Ohshoma tachi-ai, "Can Midorifuji execute his go to move of kata-su-KAH-shi?" The answer one second later was a resounding "NO!!" as Ohshoma welcomed him from the tachi-ai with a quick kote-nage grip with his right wrapped around Midorifuji's left, and he threw Midorifuji over and down in one fell swoop. I don't know why I was so entertained by that call and this bout, but I thought it was a highlight.

Another highlight of my day was right before this bout when I noticed a dude sitting in the front row wearing a super pretty yellow blouse:



I was jealous for sure.

The M16 Asakoryu - M9 Endoh matchup was pretty entertaining. After both parties traded feisty tsuppari from the tachi-ai, Asakoryu grabbed Endo in a left kote-nage position, but instead of setting his lower body to throw right then and there, he moved over to the other side of the dohyo still maintaining that outer arm grip, but before he could execute the throw, Endoh was able to nudge him over and down before he could get the throw off. Good effort, but a big mistake from Asakoryu for not going for the throw as soon as he got the grip. He falls to 6-6 and needs to win one more. As for Endoh, he improves to 7-5, and it looked as if he got the wind knocked out of him as he fell across the straw.

M12 Onokatsu is a beast down low in the Makuuchi division, and today he drew M15 Sadanoumi, and Onokatsu threatened to get to the inside but kept great oshi pressure on his opponent as Sadanoumi moved laterally this way and that in an attempt to find any opening, but Onokatsu was just too persistent, and once he got the firm left arm inside, he forced Sadanoumi back and across without argument. Great stuff from Onokatsu who picks up kachi-koshi at 8-4, and how Japan wishes this dude was Japanese. As for Sadanoumi, he falls to a precarious 6-6.

My take on M10 Shonannoumi this basho is that he's having a lot of favors called in. He looked half-assed again today against M18 Tokihayate monkeying around with a right kote-nage grip, but instead of actually looking to set up a throw, it looked as if he was dragging Tokihayate into his body in an effort to set himself up at the edge for his opponent. Tokihayate did not win the tachi-ai, and he didn't apply any pressure to cause SNNU's movements. This was all Shonannoumi dictating the pace that led to a loss for him. Maybe the dude's just hoarding a bit of cash here as he falls to 2-10. As for Tokihayate, he picked up his first ever Makuuchi kachi-koshi at 8-4, so there was definitely incentive to compromise this bout.

And finally, two dudes who really need to retire hooked up in M12 Takarafuji and M17 Mitakeumi. Mitakeumi ducked low at the tachi-ai but seemed too arsed to really try and get inside, and so Takarafuji stood there stubbornly for about five seconds, and then the action flowed to the edge with each guy pushing shoulders into each other, and the result looked like a nage-no-uchi-ai without any actual throws. Both rikishi touched down nearly at the same time, and they ruled in favor of Takarafuji, but a mono-ii was called and they correctly overturned it as Takarafuji touched down first.

I don't even know why I'm covering this bout other than to say that these two need to retire...soon. Takarafuji falls to 3-9, and from the M12 rank, he needs to win two more. As for Mitakeumi (5-7), he really needed this victory. From the M17 rank, he might be safe with a 7-8 finish, but that's a risky prospect. Both of these guys need to retire and let fresh blood into the division. I mean, if you're going to both just flop over to the edge without doing a throw or a shove or anything, anybody can do that, so let's get some young blood up here to do it.

Haru Basho Day 11 Comments
As we analyze the first 10 days of the basho, the biggest story was the withdrawal of Hoshoryu on Day 9 and the subsequent persecution in the media of the Mongolian regarding his decision. Besides that, the run made by Onosato and Takayasu the first 10 days leading up to their bout yesterday was newsworthy, and then Kotozakura's quest to stave off demotion from Ozeki has been a very minor story.

Once you start heading into the last third of the basho, however, all eyes turn to the yusho race, and so the Sumo Association likes to have the yusho race appear as interesting as possible. I mean, can anyone tell me the last time the yusho was determined on Day 13?  How about on Day 14?  I think the yusho has been determined on Day 14 once in the last two years, but it's a very rare occurrence. In order to keep eyeballs on the sport and fan attention at a peak, they have to keep the yusho race exciting to the end, and so that's what will dictate the outcome of some of these key bouts down the stretch. Like it or not, it's reality.

I think it's time we start focusing on the leaderboard first now in the daily reports, and so we head into Day 11 as follows:

9-1: Takayasu
8-2: Onosato, Takerufuji, Churanoumi

That is a horribly weak leaderboard. I know there's a current Ozeki on there and a former Ozeki on there, and then Takerufuji even has a career yusho, so resume-wise...yes, some might find that leaderboard interesting, but sumo-wise, it's simply terrible. It's also dangerous to have just four dudes with so many days left, a point I've been making for a few days now. I mean, what happens if two guys on that two-loss tier lose on the same day and you have say Takayasu and Onosato left as the only two dudes on the leaderboard? Because they fought on Day 10, it just gets more diluted as we go along, and so what this basho really needs is to lower the yusho line in exchange for more bodies on that leaderboard.

Let's cover the four leaders first going in chronological order, which means we start with a highly anticipated bout on paper featuring two dudes from that two-loss tier in M14 Churanoumi and M6 Takerufuji. The bout turned out to be a huge dud because it was fixed, and from the Sumo Association's perspective, it's more important to have a recognizable and marketable name on the leaderboard than it is to have a straight up bout. At the tachi-ai, Churanoumi never even crossed his starting line. Rather, he put a left foot to the side and stood straight up with his arms out wide, so of course Takerufuji was able to rush forward and push him out in under two seconds. The crowd response to this bout was tepid because you get to this point in the basho and you want to see some competition in such a high profile bout, but no. The bout was arranged beforehand and it ended without any fanfare. Too bad as Takerufuji unworthily moves to 9-2 with the mandate while Churanoumi falls to 8-3.

Next up was M4 Takayasu paired against Komusubi Kirishima, and Kirishima got the green light in this one, so you know it was a quick and easy bout for him. From the tachi-ai, Takayasu came forward with his left arm a bit low perhaps fishing for the inside, but Kirishima struck and then moved away from it to his own left throwing Takayasu out of any rhythm. Takayasu was proactive in his response attempting a few tsuppari, but Kirishima countered with his own tsuppari fire and had Takayasu turned just a bit to his right thanks to a tsuki to Takayasu's left side, and that tiny momentum shift was all Kirishima needed to push his now compromised opponent across the dohyo and out the other side in four or five seconds.

Takayasu gave Kirishima his best shot, which was basically throwing his weight forward from the tachi-ai, but the Komusubi easily navigated around that, set his foe up at the three second mark, and then dispatched him without argument handing Takayasu his second loss and a 9-2 record. As I mentioned yesterday, they needed Takayasu to lose to breath some new life into the leaderboard, and that's why no one got to Kirishima before his bout and said, "Look son, it's better if you let the old guy win today." I mean, Kirishima (5-6) has let six other rikishi win today, so it wouldn't have hurt him to throw one more to Takayasu here, but they need a valid yusho race; thus the result we got today.

Our final leader on the day was Onosato paired against a real formidable foe (or not) in M5 Ura. The tachi-ai here was actually pretty good with Ura coming forward nicely trying to catch Onosato off guard with a tsuki, but Onosato played defense well and withstood Ura's charge. From there, it was Onosato's turn to start executing his thrust attack, and it caused Ura to look up at the rafters as Onosato drove him back. When Ura realized he had no choice, he darted to his right, but Onosato was onto the move and began pushing Ura over and down. Before he could fully fell his opponent, Ura knew he was done, and so he did another one of those clown like frontal somersaults right out of the ring.

Is it too much to ask Ura to stop doing his tumbling routine at the end of his bouts? This bout was straight up for sure, and that was a perfect plan of attack from Onosato, but I think it just cheapens the sport to have Ura--or anyone else for that matter--exaggerate their fall to that degree. You want sumo to appear real, but it doesn't look real when Ura does his front flips like that. The end results is Onosato's coming away with the easy peasy win and moving to 9-2 to join Takerufuji and Takayasu on that two-loss tier.

Takayasu's predictable loss puts the three-loss rikishi now in play, so let's examine all of the rikishi who had a chance to maintain their three-loss status coming into the day...noting that Churanoumi's loss covered earlier sends him down to the three-loss tier.

Up first was M11 Meisei who was paired against M16 Kotoshoho, and Kotoshoho shaded a bit to his right, but it wasn't really a henka. Despite Kotoshoho's slow movement right, Meisei just went straight forward, and so Kotoshoho fired a tsuki into Meisei's left side that did little damage, and as Meisei turned to finally square up, Kotoshoho swiped right to left with a left slap that barely glanced off of Meisei's forehead, and that was Meisei's cue to just put both palms to the dirt. The bout was so awkward that even Kotoshoho fell over careful not to trip over Meisei, and that pic at right is not how a sound bout of sumo ends. Regardless of the politics behind this, Meisei lost on purpose and takes himself off the leaderboard in falling to 7-4. As for Kotoshoho, he moves to 5-6.

Rookie M15 Aonishiki was paired against M9 Hakuohho, and I love that pairing. I know I give Hakuohho a lot of guff, and I do so because so many of his bouts are compromised, but he does have potential, and I thought he'd be a great challenge to the rookie coming into the day. At the tachi-ai, Hakuohho came in a bit high for his own good, and that allowed Aonishiki to duck in a bit and begin firing tsuppari into Hakuohho's torso. The shoves didn't have a great effect in terms of knocking Hakuohho back, but it was enough pressure to keep Hakuohho up high, and Hakuohho just couldn't help himself from going for a pull. Because Aonishiki was applying good pressure from the start, the pull attempt was rather weak and gave Aonishiki more momentum, and so with the rookie nudging Hakuohho up against the straw with nice thrusts, he timed a perfect pull at the edge pulling Hakuohho back into the center of the ring and down. That was one of the best disguised pulls I've ever seen, and it burned Hakuohho for sure.

This was one of my favorite bouts from the day because it was real and it featured two guys who had an equal chance of winning. I think the difference, though, was Hakuohho's lack of experience in being forced to fight for real on most days. When Aonishiki notched up the pressure, Hakuohho (6-5) resorted for the pull, and it cost him. Great win for Aonishiki who moves to 8-3 with the win, and they can now throw out the old "Hey, a Ukrainian is on the leaderboard!" headline.

Shishi was the next candidate attempting to maintain his three-loss status and he was paired against M8 Atamifuji. From the tachi-ai, Shishi wasn't blazing forward as he looked to get the right arm inside, but Atamifuji was coming fast, and he quickly wrapped Shishi up by the outsides of both arms and immediately began a kime-dashi force-out attempt. Shishi persisted well, but his dual insides were only elbow deep, and there was no way he was going to escape the clutches of the Hutt. One of the better wins for Atamifuji this basho as he moves to 6-5 while Shishi falls out of contention at 7-4.

The very next bout featured M7 Tamawashi who was paired against M11 Midorifuji, and Midorifuji actually executed a hari-zashi tachi-ai quickly slapping with the left while attempting to get the right arm inside. The move didn't put Tamawashi onto his heels, but it did take away his lethal tsuppari attack, and so Plan B for Tamawashi was to place a right paw at the base of Midorifuji's throat and choke him back from where he came from. When Tamawashi finally let go, Midorifuji ducked back forward only to be welcomed by a nice slapdown attempt from Tamawashi. The Mawashi would find himself on the leaderboard at the end of the day with an 8-3 record while Midorifuji falls to 6-5 after a really good effort.

The final three-loss rikishi was Sekiwake Daieisho who was paired against the Yokozuna Killer, M4 Ichiyamamoto, and Daieisho planted his two hands high around Ichiyamamoto's neck area from the tachi-ai, but it was Ichiyamamoto who was driving with the lower body, and so he was able to knock the Sekiwake back a full step. From there, Daieisho moved right and barely touched the side of Ichiyamamoto's left shoulder, and IYM dutifully hit the dirt putting both palms to the dirt with no other part of his body coming close to touching down. Clear yaocho here as Daieisho moves to 8-3 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 6-5.

With that, the leaderboard heading into the final four days looks as follows:

9-2: Onosato, Takayasu, Takerufuji
8-3: Daieisho, Tamawashi, Churanoumi, Aonishiki

That's exactly what the Sumo Association wants heading into the last four days. Onosato and Takayasu are the two big names so far this basho, and they'll stay on that board heading into senshuraku. Onosato already has two career yusho, and Takayasu is a former Ozeki.

Takerufuji, Daieisho, and Tamawashi have all taken yusho, so they are assets to the leaderboard as well.

Churanoumi serves no purpose on the leaderboard. Sorry Chura fans.

As for Aonishiki, he's from Ukraine; he's a rookie; and it was one year ago that a rookie (Takerufuji) took the yusho--fake as it was, and so there are three possible angles they can use for headlines with this guy.

As for tomorrow, Onosato is paired against Takerufuji. That bout will be straight up, and Onosato is the 75-25 favorite.

Takayasu draws Ohho, and Ohho is the favorite there in a straight up bout. I think they're going to throw it in favor of Takayasu though.

Daieisho fights Kotozakura in the final bout of the day, and Daieisho is the heavy favorite. Kotozakura can win straight up though because Daieisho has lost a step, but we'll see. This one should be straight up too.

Tamawashi gets Kirishima, and I'd be shocked if Kirishima didn't just roll over for The Mawashi.

Churanoumi will take on Abi, and Abi is the easy favorite in a straight up bout, but I think they'll arrange to have it thrown in favor of Churanoumi.

Finally, the rookie, Aonishiki is paired against Meisei, and if Meisei is perfectly healthy and tries to win, he can easily get inside of the rookie at the tachi-ai and win the bout. He's the favorite, but something tells me they'll throw it in favor of Aonishiki.

In the interest of time, let's touch on just one more bout of the day, the matchup between the two grandsons. Sekiwake Ohho, the grandson of Taiho, and Kotozakura, the grandson of...uh...Kotozakura met up today in the penultimate bout, and Ohho looked to take charge early with a right thrust into Kotozakura's neck area, but Ohho wasn't charging forward with the lower body and instead leaned forward like a stiff board falling over, and so Kotozakura placed his left hand up and under Ohho's right armpit and sent him over sideways and to the brink so much so that before Ohho could even try and recover, Kotozakura pounced with a final push that sent Ohho packing. Kotozakura moves to 6-5, and picks up a very nice win in his effort to stave of demotion. As for Ohho, he needs to use his entire body at the tachi-ai as he falls to a precarious 4-7.

Haru Basho Day 10 Comments
When I was skimming the news at the end of Day 9, there were a few articles that talked about fans harassing Hoshoryu during his Yokozuna dohyo-iri on Monday. Reports are that the dohyo-iri was half-assed, and some of the fans were telling him to take it more seriously. The question I have is how can you take anything seriously when at some point before your dohyo-iri your stablemaster comes to you and says, "You need to lose to Ichiyamamoto today." Being asked to lose to Onosato on Day 14? Yes, we all get that. But being asked to lose to Ichiyamamoto at any point during a basho? It's simply insulting. My speculation is that Hoshoryu's little backwards fake fall against Ichiyamamoto on Day 9 was his way of protesting what has been going on this basho.

The level of fraudulent sumo has been off the charts, and even I'm getting embarrassed by watching it all play out, so it was no surprise to me when I read the headlines prior to Day 10 that Hoshoryu had withdrawn from the basho. I'm sure he was like, "I don't have to put up with this, so I'm not going to." They cited a bad right elbow, but that's just the usual cover we get when Yokozuna withdraw. This is a close-up of the finish of yesterday's Hoshoryu bout, and the Yokozuna did not have the right elbow taped up.

The press is of course badgering Hoshoryu the same way they did Uncle Asa, and it's just part of the game when you're a foreign rikishi. When Kisenosato kept withdrawing or not even showing up for basho, the press was extremely tender and caring saying, "Take as much time as you need and then come back uh boo boo boo."

There's no use complaining about the double standard, but it is worth pointing out that it exists.

I'll cherry pick most of the bouts today going in chronological order starting with M15 Aonishiki vs. M16 Kotoshoho, and Aonishiki was a bit passive at the tachi-ai letting Kotoshoho come forward a bit, and from there to two traded the type of tsuppari where they're really looking for pulls. A pull would not come to fruition, however, and when Aonishiki moved a bit right grabbing an outer grip, Kotoshoho just bit the dirt at the first light tug from the rookie. The only reason this bout is notable is because the win moves Aonishiki to 7-3, a level within striking distance of at least making an appearance on the leaderboard. As for Kotoshoho, he falls to 4-6 in defeat.

M14 Ryuden caught M15 Sadanoumi right in the face with his forehead, and that allowed Ryuden to grab anything he wanted. As Sadanoumi tried to circle around the ring, Ryuden ended up with the right arm inside and left outer grip, but he didn't pull his gal in snug, and it looked as if something was up. When Sadanoumi went for a maki-kae with the left and Ryuden stood there and watched him do it, I knew who was going to win, and sure enough, as Ryuden forced Sadanoumi back towards the straw with two outer grips, he waited for the left inside belt throw to come from Sadanoumi and instead of countering with an outer right throw, Ryuden just dipped his left shoulder down as he dragged Sadanoumi on top of him using the right outer grip. The fans enjoyed it, and I guess that's what counts as Ryuden falls to 4-6 while Sadanoumi is gifted 6-4.

M13 Shishi stood straight up at the tachi-ai, and he got away with it because his opponent was M17 Mitakeumi, and after the two traded light tsuppari, Shishi managed to get his arm up and under Mitakeumi's left armpit keeping him up too high for Mitakeumi's own good. It took Shishi a bit to figure out that the left outer grip was open, and once he grabbed it, he easily spilled Mitakeumi over and down with a nice dashi-nage leading with that outer left. Like his fellow countryman, Shishi also moves to 7-3 with the win, and you've got some cheap headlines there regarding the yusho race and the two Ukrainians if the yusho line were to come down to two-losses. Mitakeumi falls to 4-6 in defeat, and at the bottom of the division, he may retire if he doesn't win at least seven.

I was curious to see how M11 Meisei would respond today, and would we get a good sense of whether or not the dude is injured? His opponent was M17 Shirokuma, and from the tachi-ai Meisei sorta got moro-zashi but it had shades of moro-hazu as well, and so the bout largely consisted of Meisei having a path to the insides and Shirokuma trying to duck down in order to keep Meisei at bay. The two jockeyed like this for about 20 seconds, and then all of a sudden, Shirokuma just flopped to the dirt. In watching the slow motion replay, Meisei brushed the back of Shirokuma's right elbow, and that sent Shirokuma into his dive, and then Meisei tried to hurry and catch up by making it look like a kote-nage throw. A throw it wasn't as Shirokuma just lightly plopped to the dirt giving Meisei the cheap win. Meisei moves to 7-3 with the win, but he is not in yusho contention. If anything, he just guaranteed himself a spot in the division for next basho with the win. As for Shirokuma, he'll have to rethink a few things in Juryo in May as he falls to 3-7.

In a very good bout of sumo, M9 Hakuohho and M14 Churanoumi clashed in a contest that could have yusho implications down the stretch, and the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai although it seemed that neither wanted to go chest to chest. In that circumstance, Churanoumi agreed to give up some ground in order to set up a counter move, but after giving up a few steps, it was clear that Hakuohho was not bearing in full throttle. As you watched the bout, both dudes looked as if they wanted to pull, but Hakuohho was more tempted than Churanoumi, and so Churanoumi wisely forced the bout back to the center of the ring, and then he began working his right hand into position. I thought he should have grabbed a right outer grip at that point because it was open, but instead he wormed his right hand into the hazu position, which is where you lift up on your opponent in the side boob/armpit area, and at that point, Churanoumi all but had moro-zashi. Hakuohho sensed it too and knew he was in trouble, so he tried a desperate pull attempt, but Churanoumi read it and rushed Hakuohho back and across for the decisive win.

That was by far my favorite Churanoumi bout I've ever seen, and it was fun to watch him dismantle his inexperienced opponent. Churanoumi moves to 8-2 with the very nice win, and that's good enough to keep him close to the leader(s). As for Hakuohho, he battled well in falling to 6-4, but he was simply outmaneuvered by Churanoumi at every turn.

M8 Atamifuji and M12 Onokatsu clashed nicely coming away in the migi-yotsu position, and after Onokatsu's first grab at a left outer failed, he simply bodied his foe upright and closer to his grip, and he was successful on the second attempt in grabbing that outer grip. Once obtained, the two traded places in the dohyo, and then it was a classic yotsu-zumo struggle with Onokatsu patiently tiring his foe out before lifting him onto his tip toes and forcing him back and across for good. This was rare, textbook sumo, but it was of course nice to see.

I think it's also worth going back and watching this bout and observing the angle of Onokatsu's body at the tachi-ai. Then compare that angle to that of guys like Onosato, Takerufuji, Kotozakura, Shishi, and Aonishiki. Even compare it to Atamifuji's body angle today, and you can see a main reason why Onokatsu is superior to all of those other rikishi. He moves to 6-4 with the nice win while Atamifuji falls to 5-5.

I was planning on skipping the M7 Shodai - M11 Midorifuji matchup, but I'd be remiss if I didn't comment on Midorifuji's failed kata-sukashi attempt. Leading up to the bout, all the Japanese announcers were talking about how good Midorifuji's kata-sukashi is, and they were warning: watch for the kata-sukashi!

And then three or for seconds into the bout, Midorifuji had his right arm hooked up and under Shodai's left armpit area, and he went for the vaunted kata-sukashi. And it was an utter failure. Instead of pulling Shodai down, Midorifuji sorta hung there like when an uncle is playing with his nephews and he starts curling them as if they were weights at the gym. I am so glad that this bout happened because it was the perfect example of how difficult it is to fell someone by kata-sukashi against their will. It took Shodai just a few more seconds to dispatch Midorifuji maki-otoshi style, and this is one of the oldest and slowest guys in the division, and yet, Midorifuji's kata-sukashi attempt was like flipping a rubber band at a tank and hoping it makes a mark. This one really made my day; no, it made my basho as the kata-sukashi master falls to 6-4 while Shodai is now my new favorite rikishi at 4-6.

M7 Tamawashi pushed M10 Nishikigi back a half step from the tachi-ai with a few good tsuppari, but then Tamawashi just went limp and stood there allowing Nishikigi to throw kind of a combo left kote-nage / left tsuki his way, and while the blow had little force behind it, Tamawashi just fumbled his way over to the edge and stood there with his back still facing the center of the ring and Nishikigi. As Nishikigi went in for the easy kill, Tamawashi suddenly moved left at the last moment causing Nishikigi to flop forward and across the straw as he pushed his way into midair. Tamawashi's antics today reminded me of a shiba-inu playing tricks on it's owner as The Mawashi moves to 7-3 while Nishikigi falls to 1-9. On one hand, there was a bit of entertainment value here, but on the other hand, is it too much to ask for two guys to just go straight up and skip all of the shenanigans?

You love to see a young buck like M6 Takerufuji whose vying for the yusho tested heavily to see if he's yusho-worthy, so why not pit him against the dude with the worst record in the division in M10 Shonannoumi?? The actual bout was as lackluster as the pairing, and from the tachi-ai, Shonannoumi just stood there letting Takerufuji get the left inside and right outer grip, and once established, Shonannoumi slowly moved to his right and back in an effort to make it look as if Takerufuji supposedly forced him that way. The reason you can tell that Takerufuji was the one not instigating any force was near the straw, he let go of the outer grip and sorta girl slapped that right hand downward into Shonannoumi's torso as if to say, "And stay out!"

If that outer grip was key to keeping Shonannoumi in place, Takerufuji wouldn't have let it go, but the youngster was just following Shonannoumi's lead in this one, so regardless of what Takerufuji did, Shonannoumi was going to take that same course sideways out of the ring altogether. A harmless bout here as Takerufuji is gifted kachi-koshi at 8-2 while Shonannoumi falls to 1-9 in defeat.

M5 Kinbohzan put two hands squarely into either side of M9 Endoh's jawbone at the tachi-ai, and half a second later Endoh fell backwards flat on his back like a sack'a potatoes. Something in that exchange between Kinbohzan's two hams and Endoh's jaw seemed to knock Endoh unconscious for a brief second, but he thankfully came to and was able to pick himself up off of the dohyo.

When I first started watching sumo, people would tell me that if you deliver a hari-te just so at the side of someone's jaw, you can knock them unconscious, and that's obviously what happened here. I mean, you look at those placards where the sumos put orange paint on their hands and then stamp the handprint on the large cardstock, and their paws are huge, so I'm actually surprised this doesn't happen more.

I like Endoh, and I was not happy to see this happen, and so the obvious highlight for me was this Endoh fan dutifully recording the bout on her phone only to go through the utter shock of seeing that just happen.

M1 Wakatakakage and M2 Gonoyama met today, and the bout wanted to go to migi-yotsu, but Gonoyama refused to get his right arm inside despite winning the tachi-ai and knocking Wakatakakage back a full step, and you knew he was throwing the bout at that point when he didn't take advantage of his tachi-ai. With Gonoyama letting his guard down on that right side completely, it easily allowed Wakatakakage to get a left outside grip, and he used a light dashi-nage motion with that left outer to seemingly tug Gonoyama across the straw, but Gonoyama was already headed that way all on his own, so this was a soft ending after Gonoyama dominated the tachi-ai. It just bugs me to no end to see yaocho like this as the clearly inferior rikishi, Wakatakakage, oils his way to 5-5 while Gonoyama falls to 3-7.

Komusubi Kirishima welcomed M3 Takanosho with a quick face slap, but it was clear two seconds in that Kirishima's MO today was to throw the bout. He focused on two key aspects of sumo: stand up straight as a board and keep your hands high and wide. After that initial face slap, Kirishima moved laterally to his left, and as Takanosho ducked in looking to score on a push, Kirishima instinctively set up a right tsuki-otoshi into the back of Takanosho's shoulder that would have worked had the Komusubi followed through. As Takanosho tried to recover from that, Kirishima next put his left hand at the side of Takanosho's belt where he had the clear path to the uwate, but of course he didn't grab it. Since you're all aware of my uwate fetish by now, that's the still shot I chose to post from this bout...Kirishima's hand on the belt but his purposefully not taking it.

When it was obvious that Kirishima was the only one creating opportunities to win the bout, he made it easy for Takanosho by faking some pulls and moving over to the other side of the ring, and finally Takanosho was able to sorta connect on a push, but this was mostly Kirishima backing out of his own volition. Kirishima agrees to fall to 4-6 in defeat for whatever reason while Takanosho moves to just 3-7 with the cheap, unearned win.

Komusubi Abi pulverized M1 Wakamotoharu back from the tachi-ai connecting easily on nice tsuppari, but instead of continuing that forward charge which was not defended by Wakamotoharu whatsoever, Abi suddenly reversed gears pretending to go into pull mode, but it was just an excuse for him to back up and straight out of the ring despite Wakamotoharu's not having connected on a single blow. In fact, this was the scene one second after the bout:



And yes, that's the winner crumpled up in a heap in the corner of the dohyo and the loser offering to help him up. It shows you clearly who was in control and who had no control. But none of that matters in fake sumo, which is exactly what we got here as Wakamotoharu sheepishly moves to 6-4 while Abi falls to 4-6.

The best bout of the day featured Daieisho vs. Ohho in a battle between two Sekiwake, and this one did not disappoint. Both dudes came out with the tsuppari guns blazing, and you had the youth and strength of Ohho pushing Daieisho around a bit, but the latter stood pat and used enough counter punches to keep Ohho at bay just enough. Daieisho looked for a pull opportunity once, but didn't really commit to it, and as Ohho advanced thinking that pull was coming, Daieisho briefly got moro-zashi, which scared Ohho away. Back and forth they went until both rikishi were gassed, and the only negative aspect to this bout was that it ended in a slapdown where Daieisho timed an Ohho lunge perfectly. That lunge didn't have much on it enabling Daieisho to score the victory, but this was a great display of two tsuppari guys working their craft in the ring. Why can't we have this type of effort everyday is what I want to know. With the win, the veteran Daieisho moves to 7-3 while Ohho falls to 4-6, but it's due to an effort like this one today from Ohho as to why I still refer to him as a Sekiwake instead of downgrading him to Suckiwake.

The marquee matchup of the day featured Onosato vs. M4 Takayasu, and Onosato came with a really soft kachi-age with the right arm, and I'm not so sure he even intended to do that. With both guys so upright, neither were able to make an impact at the tachi-ai, and I took this snapshot of the tachi-ai at the point of impact:



Takayasu is entirely flat-footed while Onosato is getting no push from his lower half, and so this was a finesse start where Takayasu seemed okay with retreating in order to look for an opening once his foot hit the Tawara. Because Onosato wasn't executing a push attack and was merely moving his body in Takayasu's direction, as soon as Takayasu's foot touched the straw, he got the left arm inside. Onosato could feel that his opponent was now in a position to counter attack, and so he panicked by reaching for a right outer grip at the back of Takayasu's belt in order to dashi-nage him across, but Takayasu was too fast for him, and that statement tells you a lot...when Takayasu outquicks you, you've got serious issues. Anyway Takayasu took the initiative by lowering his head and going for the quick force-out of his compromised opponent, and so this bout turned into a do-or-die force-out attempt from Takayasu and a do-or-die pull from Onosato. It was close, but Takayasu essentially lunged at Onosato's right leg forcing the faux-zeki to step his left foot across the straw before Takayasu touched down.

First and foremost, the bout was indeed real, so I'm grateful for that. Beyond that fact, however, this was quite a flawed bout. Whatever happened to two heavyweights going chest to chest and then playing out a chess match from there? Or, where has the art of the true oshi attack gone, especially from two guys who are heavy favorites to yusho? There just wasn't much in the way of sumo technique to describe here. The tachi-ai was sloppy and Takayasu went into defensive mode from the start, and then both guys rushed their final attacks resulting in this scene at the end of the bout:



That's indicative that the sumo was all over the place, and that's what happens when two dudes who are so used to yaocho are suddenly thrown into a straight-up contest. The result is Takayasu taking over sole possession of first place with a 9-1 record while Onosato is bumped down to the two-loss tier at 8-2.

In terms of the yusho race, this bout should have occurred on Day 14, not Day 10, and so there are still five long days to go with random matchups down the stretch in order to determine the yusho winner.

Moving right along, fresh off of his hot victory over Hoshoryu yesterday, M4 Ichiyamamoto had the opportunity to pick up a legit scalp today against Kotozakura. The tachi-ai was fiddy-fiddy with both dudes standing more upright than they should have been, so no one had the leverage to knock the other off of his craw. Kotozakura got the left arm a bit inside, but he didn't demand the position, and so Ichiyamamoto was able to insert his right arm to the inside of Kotozakura's left side leading to what we thought would be a light hidari-yotsu contest, but before Kotozakura could get established, Ichiyamamoto darted to his right and went for a quick kata-sukashi slapping down with his left hand at the back of Kotozakura's left shoulder. The faux-zeki wasn't prepared for the move and toppled over rather easily showing just how week the dude really is.

They key issue in this bout...which will never be pointed out by the media or analyzed properly on the broadcasts...was Kotozakura's failure to establish himself at the tachi-ai. With Ichiyamamoto coming in that upright, he was the perfect target for a few tsuki into the chest, or he was the perfect fodder to reel in tight and force the bout chest to chest, but a supposed Ozeki could do neither of those two things. The result is Kotozakura falling to 5-5 in his quest to stave off demotion from the Ozeki rank. He'll need to buy three of his next four bouts because I dunno if Onosato is going to be nice to him on senshuraku. As for Ichiyamamoto, he improves to 6-4 with the easy win.

As mentioned in the intro, Hoshoryu has withdrawn from the tournament, and that gave M5 Ura the freebie as he moves to 4-6.

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

9-1: Takayasu
8-2: Onosato, Takerufuji, Churanoumi

That is still a very weak leaderboard, and of the collective 40 bouts those four have fought so far, only Churanoumi's sumo today was worthy of a yusho contender. There's still way too many day to go with such a thin leaderboard, so it will be beneficial for all parties to have Takayasu lose soon so they can add the three-loss rikishi to the mix.

Haru Basho Day 9 Comments
I understand that none of the Japanese fans want to see the foreign rikishi do well, but the problem when at least some of the foreigners aren't part of the focus is that you only have Japanese rikishi who's ranks have been completely manufactured on display, and so the risk is obvious yaocho for all of the key bouts, and then that's what gets replayed on the nightly news shows. If you were a fair weather sumo fan and you watched some of the bouts I highlighted over the weekend on the nightly news show, would you be tempted to come back and give sumo another chance? It's rather embarrassing what is allowed to happen, and then when you have a completely complicit media, what we're really getting here is the Truman Show.

Day 9 began with rookie M15 Aonishiki welcoming Nabatame up from the J5 slot, and Aonishiki's weak tachi-ai was exposed a bit as the J5 was able to push the Ukrainian back a bit, but Aonishiki quickly recovered and returned the oshi-dashi fire sending the action back to the center of the ring. From there, Nabatame panicked a bit and started looking to set up a pull, and that's when Aonishiki upped his game using some nice shoves to finally get the left arm deep inside, and once he had that position, he forced Nabatame upright and too the edge before reversing gears and using his left thigh to trip Nabatame back and down kiri-kaeshi style. Slow start but a great finish from Aonishiki who moves to 6-3 with the nice win.

M18 Tokihayate won the tachi-ai knocking M14 Churanoumi back a full step, and with Churanoumi a bit upright, Tokihayate rushed in and grabbed the right outer grip, which was close enough to the front that it cut off Churanoumi's left inside position. From there, Tokihayate yanked on Churanoumi's belt looking to set up a force-out or an uwate-dashi-nage, and Churanoumi desperately tried to wriggled out of the grip, Tokihayate had him hooked and was able to drag Churanoumi clear over to the other side of the dohyo where he forced him down to the first row from there.

I am so glad I took the time to show all of those tachi-ai from the weekend where dudes had the chance to get the outer grip from the tachi-ai but let them go because the bouts were fixed. Here is the scene of Tokihayate with his hand on the outer grip.  Unlike all of the other bouts I highlighted over the weekend, thankfully Tokihayate actually grabbed it:

This bout is exactly what happens when a dude decides to take the uwate he's earned from the tachi-ai and then hold onto it. Churanoumi came into the day on the highest tier on the leaderboard, and yet, once he gave up that early uwate due to a failed tachi-ai, he had no say in the bout from there. It's just so telling, and I'm glad this scenario played out as early as the second bout on the day. Churanoumi was clearly exposed as a fraud here as he falls to 7-2 while Tokihayate really gave him the business in moving to 5-4.

M14 Ryuden kept his arms high and wide from the tachi-ai against M17 Mitakeumi, but the latter couldn't take advantage and largely just stood there with his feet aligned, and so Ryuden finally took the initiative and moved forward, and Mitakeumi's response was to attempt to set up a pull. That was ill-advised, and the results was Ryuden forcing the bout into yotsu-zumo where he worked the left arm inside and grabbed a right outer grip, and from there the force-out was academic as Ryuden moves to 4-5 with the easy win while Mitakeumi falls to the same mark.

One of the biggest farces of the basho is M16 Asakoryu coming into the day at 5-3. Today he was matched up against M13 Shishi, and the Ukrainian looked to get the right arm inside from the tachi-ai. Asakoryu knew that a chest to chest contest was trouble, and so he tried to squirm out of this going for a series of pulls that briefly threw Shishi out of sorts, but he recovered nicely and re-established that right arm inside, and from there, Asakoryu's only hope was to counter with a left kote-nage. Problem was that he's way too short to execute that move against a larger guy like Shishi, and Shishi was able to sideways nudge Asakoryu over and across as he was attempting to set up the kote-nage. Decent sumo here from both parties, and I'm glad the bout was real as Shishi one-ups his foe at 6-3 while Asakoryu falls to 5-4.

M12 Onokatsu kept his hands non-committed at the tachi-ai against M16 Kotoshoho, and the latter slowly moved towards his opponent, and as Kotoshoho inched forward, Onokatsu inched backwards. A few seconds in, Onokatsu was able to grab the side of Kotoshoho's belt with the left hand, but instead of using that as leverage to dig in, he just kept going backwards, and so this was a very lackluster and staged force-out win in favor of Kotoshoho. Onokatsu, the foreigner here, is purposefully keeping himself out of contention in falling to 5-4 while Kotoshoho oils his way to 4-5.

M12 Takarafuji and M15 Sadanoumi hooked up in migi-yotsu, and as Sadanoumi looked to press in and grab an outer grip, Takarafuji moved this way and then that way in attempt to keep Sadanoumi off of the belt, so in the end, Sadanoumi pivoted to his left and felled Takarafuji with a nifty tsuki-otoshi thrust to the side. Pretty basic stuff here as Sadanoumi improves to 5-4 while Takarafuji falls to 3-6.

M17 Shirokuma was completely soft at the tachi-ai against M11 Midorifuji, and I knew right away what they were trying to set up. With Shirokuma keeping his arms outstretched and not committed to anything, Midorifuji moved to his left, and we're not talking a cat quick move, which is what a real kata-sukashi requires. As Midorifuji moved to set up the kata-sukashi, Shirokuma actually moved left as well and began dipping his shoulder before spinning over in the center of the ring, and the timing of the kata-sukashi was completely off. Of course, this wasn't an actual kata-sukashi; it was Shirokuma taking a dive as part of an arranged bout and then rolling across the dohyo, and I really don't get what the big stiffie is over Midorifuji and these kata-sukashi wins. Regardless, someone in the Association thinks they're valuable, and so Midorifuji moves to 6-3 after the setup while Shirokuma falls to 3-6.

The tachi-ai between M10 Shonannoumi and M8 Ohshoma was lackluster as Ohshoma sorta fished for something to the inside, and with Ohshoma being somewhat proactive, Shonannoumi decided to go into pull mode moving back and to his right, but Ohshoma read it like a dirty manga on the subway and forced Shonannoumi back and across without incident. What an awful bout all around as Ohshoma moves to 4-5, but at least it was real as Shonannoumi falls to 1-8. Before we move on, if you're wondering what's wrong with Shonannoumi, the answer is he's not buying any bouts.

M11 Meisei was paired against M8 Atamifuji, and the two clashed in migi-yotsu, and then for whatever reason, Meisei just moved sideways to his left and walked across the tawara with Atamifuji trying to keep up. In one second, Meisei was trying to deny Atamifuji getting the right arm inside, and then the next moment, Meisei moved sideways and out. They did pan in close afterwards to Meisei's lower back, which was all taped up (if it's even possible to tape up a lower back), and if his lower back is giving him trouble, then yes, that would explain is movements today. We'll see what happens moving forward, but at 6-3 now, I think it's safe to say that Meisei will not make another appearance on the leaderboard this basho. As for Atamifuji, he improves to 5-4 for doing virtually nothing but standing there and being a blob.

In just a laugher of a fixed bout, M7 Tamawashi caught M9 Endoh squarely with two hands to the neck, and choked Endoh so far upright he coulda done what he wanna from there, but after thrusting Endoh back near the edge, he let Endoh out of the hold and opted for the C3P0 arms. That enabled Endoh to get the left arm inside, and he began forcing a very willing Tamawashi across the entire diameter of the dohyo, but Tamawashi accidentally responded with a counter left tsuki-otoshi that was going to work but he held up realizing the damage it was doing. From there, Tamawashi feigned a pull that allowed him to back up to the other side of the dohyo, and with his feet on the Tawara, you thought Endoh was going to score the force out win, and even Endoh thought that, but Tamawashi had far greater plans. Instead of just walking back and across, Tamawashi tried to manufacture a nage-no-uchi-ai with his right kote-nage grip vs. Endoh's left scoop throw position. Problem was that Endoh had no clue what was going on as Tamawashi literally dove off of his feet landing on his back across the ring all the while Endoh just collapsed in the center of the ring wondering what the hell was even going on.

Yes, this is the exact posture I expect a dude to assume after winning by sukui-nage:



I mean, this was full on professional wrestling type tactics. All that was missing were the ropes and turnbuckles as Tamawashi dives off of the leaderboard to a 6-3 record while Endoh--still in a dream--found himself at 5-4.

Full disclosure here, but as I'm writing this, I do not know the results of the rest of the day. I used to get up and watch NHK News 9 sports and get all of the results from the day and then I'd go back and watch the bouts. Now, however, I usually just look for the first stream available and watch that, so I don't know what's going to happen from here. So I'll just say this:

At this point it is very dangerous to remove Churanoumi, Meisei, and Tamawashi from the leaderboard, which would leave Onosato, Takayasu, and Takerufuji. That threesome would be fine if it was Friday, but we're still in the middle of Day 9, and it feels like we're already counting on those three yayhoos to carry the weight of the basho for the next seven days?? That is not a good formula, so we'll see how things shape up from here.

Moving right along, M7 Shodai stepped into the ring to face M9 Hakuohho, and Shodai is actually a rikishi that Hakuohho can beat straight up, and he did that today crashing into Shodai and knocking him upright and thus opening up the path to moro-zashi. Before Hakuohho was even established in moro-zashi, he was driving Shodai back with the lower body, so when he had the two insides secure, it was a spot on a match. A rare legit win here for Hakuohho, and before we get too excited, we need to remember he did this against Shodai. What's next? Hakuohho winning by uwate-nage over Mitakeumi? In all seriousness, I only root for straight up sumo, and we got it here and Hakuohho's performance was perfect as he moves to 6-3 while Shodai falls to 3-6.

I think it would make some sense to add Hakuohho to the leaderboard at some point in terms of maintaining basho interest for everyone not named Mike Wesemann, so we'll see if that yusho line drops soon. I think it has to because we're so early in the week.

M10 Nishikigi was passive at the tachi-ai allowing M6 Takerufuji to come to him, and Takerufuji agreed to go chest to chest here because he knew the bout was fixed in his favor. After bumping chests and coming away in the hidari-yotsu position, Takerufuji looked as if he was trying gaburi-yori, but the move wasn't having an effect on Nishikigi, and so Nishikigi pretended like he was setting up a right kote-nage throw pivoting near the edge but forgetting the throw. He repeated the same motion again giving him an excuse to now stand with his back to the straw, and when the second kote-nage didn't come, Takerufuji easily assumed moro-zashi and scored the gift force-out win. I can't praise Takerufuji here because he did nothing to cause Nishikigi's movements. This was all Nishikigi and Takerufuji was simply along for the ride. Takerufuji maintains his leaderboard status at 7-2 by way of yaocho while Nishikigi's make-koshi is official at 1-8.

M6 Hiradoumi kept his feet perfectly aligned at the tachi-ai against M3 Takanosho, but the latter's shove attempts were purposefully soft, and when Hiradoumi moved to his left going for a cheap slapdown, Takanosho just kept moving forward as he dove down putting both palms to the dirt. This was over in about two seconds, and why risk the chance of getting injured? Shame, shame, everyone knows Hiradoumi's name at 5-4 while Takanosho falls to 2-7.

The tachi-ai between M3 Tobizaru and M1 Wakamotoharu was decent, but instead of going chest to chest, Tobizaru quickly swiped down at Wakamotoharu's arms and put a thrust into Wakamotoharu's left side as he (Tobizaru) moved right, and the result was WMH stumbling over to the straw. As Wakamotoharu squared back up, the two girl slapped each other for a second or two before Tobizaru rushed into moro-zashi. Despite both insides, Tobizaru was up much higher than he wanted to be, and so Wakamotoharu was able to lean right and go for a counter tsuki-otoshi at the edge, and the result was Tobizaru's flying down to the dirt while Wakamotoharu slowly stepped his left foot all the way down to the venue floor technically never touching back and out before Tobizaru's body crashed down.

They called a mono-ii and upheld the ruling in favor of Tobizaru, and I thought it was the correct call. This was a case where Wakamotoharu's body was too far gone and completely beyond the straw when Tobizaru touched down, and I always favor giving these bouts to the aggressor. They could have ruled either way, however, because rulings in bouts like this are completely subjective. Why waste everyone's time though by making these two fight again? Good call as Tobizaru moves to 3-6 while Wakamotoharu falls to 5-4.

M2 Chiyoshoma dominated M1 Wakatakakage from the tachi-ai using a nice push attack to move WTK back near the edge, but instead of following through on the attack, Chiyoshoma suddenly went into pull mode signaling his intentions. At the other side of the dohyo, Wakatakakage couldn't put Chiyoshoma away because he wasn't cause of CYSM's retreat, and so the Mongolian got a left arm inside and faked a scoop throw, but all he was really doing was giving himself an excuse to topple across the straw and hurriedly put his hands down before Wakatakakage touched out. The problem was that Wakatakakage actually touched down first, and so they called a mono-ii and declared it a tie and had the rikishi do it over so they could give WTK the win.

In the do-over, the start was the same with Chiyoshoma pushing Wakatakakage back quickly from the start, but then Chiyoshoma started flailing at nothing giving him an excuse to put his back to the straw, and as Wakatakakage advanced, Chiyoshoma tried to make it look like a left kote-nage from the Mongolian and a right scoop throw from Wakatakakage, but Chiyoshoma made damn well sure to put his right elbow and hand down first so Wakatakakage couldn't screw it up again. This ending was so fake. In once instance, the two are sorta in a position to do the nage-no-uchi-ai, and then in the next instant Chiyoshoma's right arm drops vertically and slams the dirt all the while with Wakatakakage trying to keep up with it all.

It's all so phony it makes my head spin sometimes, but the end result is Wakatakakage's moving to 4-5 while Chiyoshoma falls to 3-6.

In the sanyaku ranks, Komusubi Kirishima was paired against M2 Gonoyama, and Gonoyama henka'd mildly to his left, and Kirishima's reaction was to still face forward instead of squaring up with his compromised foe. The problem with the henka is that it was poorly executed, and Kirishima wasn't charging that hard to being with, and so as the two squared back up, it was Kirishima's turn to put a left hand at Gonoyama's right side, but instead of following through on the tsuki, he pulled his hands out wide and began backing up to the straw, and Gonoyama easily scored the soft force-out from there.

There was a ton of fluff here, and it was clear that the bout was compromised as Kirishima falls to 4-5 while Gonoyama limps his way to 3-6.

M5 Kinbohzan traveled up from the mid-ranks to take on Sekiwake Ohho, and he easily bested Ohho at the tachi-ai landing a few nice thrusts to keep Ohho upright, but then Kinbohzan began leaving those arms extended a bit longer than he needed to. First it was the left and then the right, and Ohho finally yanked at Kinbohzan's right arm, and that was the Kazakhstani's cue to start waltzing over to the side. As he did, he needlessly kicked his right leg into no-man's land for no other reason than to completely put himself off balance. Ohho didn't really take advantage, and the two traded a few more shoves before Kinbohzan backed across of his own volition. If Ohho's attack was causing Kinbohzan's defensive movements, he would have scored the oshi-taoshi win when Kinbohzan lifted that leg off the ground, but this was simply yet another bout thrown if favor of the Japanese rikishi by a foreigner as Kinbohzan falls to 4-5 while Ohho buys his way to the same 4-5 mark.

One of the days last week, I talked about the basic sumo exercises that rikishi are taught from the beginning.  How in the hell did I not remember to add that sideways kick into thin air that Kinbohzan employed today.  Man, I'm really off may game this basho.

Sekiwake Daieisho looked to do battle with M5 Ura, and Daieisho sorta head-faked at the tachi-ai pretending as if he was going to come forward, but then he abruptly paused in order to see Ura's intentions. As for Ura, he stayed back just a bit, but he didn't move laterally, and so Daieisho moved forward and connected on a nice tsuki that sent Ura back a step, and as Daieisho loaded up on his next thrust, Ura ducked down in order to ward off the blow, and so Daieisho slapped him over and down instead. Ura anticipated the pull, and he ridiculously decided to do a frontal somersault right there in the middle of the ring that even had John Ritter chiming in from the grave, "Uh, isn't that a bit too much physical comedy?"

I think that Ura does so much more damage to sumo than he helps it. What do you think the reaction of the coveted 18-54 year-old beer drinking demographic is when they see that? Oh right...none of them like sumo because of theatrics just like this from Ura today. Gimme a break already is all I can say as Daieisho skates to 6-3 while Ura clowns his way to 3-6.

One of the most anticipated bouts on the day...I guess...was M4 Takayasu traveling up the ranks to take on Kotozakura, and after an awkward tachi-ai, the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Takayasu turned his right hip way away from his opponent in an attempt to take away the potency of Kotozakura's inside left position. The only problem with that is it exposed Takayasu's left side to an outer grip, so would Kotozakura grab it? The answer is no even though his hand was right there to latch onto the front of the belt. I mean, as the two went through a stalemate in the middle of the ring, Kotozakura did everything during that time BUT grab an outer grip, and so I knew the outcome of the bout from that point. After a few more seconds of inaction, Kotozakura perhaps felt some pressure from somewhere, and so he moved to his left and just flopped to the dirt landing on both palms. What the hell??

I happened to be watching a broadcast with Japanese commentators, and the dude announcing let out a huge "O-ttoh!" after the fall, which can be loosely translated as, "How the hell am I going to describe that?!" After a brief pause, he finally declared, "Kotozakura loses his balance." He didn't add "on purpose" but everyone knew that dive was intentional. Geez, and just coming off of the Ura clown show we get this crap??

They ruled it shitate-dashi-nage, but I'm telling you, there was no dashi nor nage to be found. When a rikishi does a real dashi-nage throw, he has to use his legs to gain sufficient leverage, but this was all Greco Roman style, and it was more of a reaction form Takayasu than any real plan.

With the gift, Takayasu moves to 8-1, and this is the kind of sumo you can expect to see the rest of the way. Can't wait!! As for Kotozakura, he had room to fall to 5-4 after buying a string of bouts the last few days.

Up next was Onosato taking on Komusubi Abi, and Abi was quick outta the gate slapping at Onosato's face with the left before grabbing the outer grip on that side, and he immediately executed a dashi-nage move in two waves that resulted in both dudes circling the entire ring once, but what Abi failed to do...on purpose...was to actually dashi-nage linearly out of the ring. I mean, the point is to get your dude out of the ring, so why would you just move in circles inside the ring? Well, you'd only do that if you were throwing the bout, and that's what Abi did here. After his two circular dashi-nage attempts, he noticeable waited with his arms out wide for Onosato to square back up, and once he did, the uncontested yori-kiri came straightway. In fact, it was so uncontested that Onosato's momentum caused him to hop to the corner of the dohyo and then down to the venue floor. If rikishi A is trying to force rikishi B out, you'd expect rikishi B to be applying counter pressure back towards the center of the dohyo, but there was absolutely no pressure coming from Abi, and that's why the two awkwardly landed down on the venue floor...from a yori-kiri bout.

No on is surprised to see this thrown in favor of Onosato as he moves to 8-1 while Abi falls to 4-5, and isn't this just great? Onosato and Takayasu survive at 8-1 by doing absolutely nothing in the ring!!

The final bout of the day featured Yokozuna Hoshoryu paired against M4 Ichiyamamoto, and Hoshoryu moved slightly to his right at the tachi-ai causing IYM to whiff on his initial tsuppari attempt, and Hoshoryu at first went for the right outer grip, but then you could see him pull back and position his right arm in the kote-nage throw position. The Yokozuna began a kote-nage, and he even got his right leg inside of Ichiyamamoto's left to lift IYM up and off balance, but Hoshoryu could feel that there was zero pressure coming from the hapless Ichiyamamoto, and so Hoshoryu put both feet back on the ground and then just sat down beyond the straw on his leedle bum giving Ichiyamamoto the cheap win.

I'm really at a loss here watching such blatant yaocho during prime time of the sumos. The last seven bouts where fake, and of course the foreign rikishi all went 0-4 down the stretch. Both Hoshoryu and Ichiyamamoto are level at 5-4 after this debacle, and it's going to be a long six days from here with such a weak leaderboard:

8-1: Onosato, Takayasu
7-2: Takerufuji, Churanoumi

Haru Basho Day 8 Comments
One of my favorite things about last basho was that you had Kinbohzan in the lead the full 15 days, and he was doing it with sound, textbook sumo. When the news programs showed clips of Kinbohzan's bouts during the nightly news sports segments, they were actually able to show straight up sumo. Hoshoryu was also neck and neck with Kinbohzan, and obviously when they showed highlights of his bouts on the nightly news, they were getting video of sound sumo. And even with Ohho puttering along as the third wheel, you had a guy with a decent oshi attack whose sumo looked plausible on most days. It felt quite normal because the guys at the top of the leaderboard were/are all capable of sound sumo.

This basho has been the exact opposite, and just from this weekend alone, there were so many telling aspects in the bouts that involved the leaders at the end of Day 8. Because NHK World posted a leaderboard at the end of Day 8, let's examine most of the rikishi on the board from the weekend to see how we got here:



The Sumo Association has their number one choice at the top of the leaderboard in Onosato. As I watched the bouts from the weekend, I snapped this pic of Onosato's tachi-ai against Chiyoshoma on Day 7.



First and foremost, notice the body angles of both rikishi. Chiyoshoma (on the right) has one foot forward and one foot back, which is how it's supposed to be, and then his body is coming in at the 10 o'clock angle from the West side. As for Onosato, his footwork is not bad, but he's not even coming in at the 1 o'clock angle from the East side. He's far too upright to create any leverage from the tachi-ai, and this is his angle of attack every day.

The most glaring aspect of this photo is Chiyoshoma's left hand. It is right there at the front of Onosato's belt, and if he grabs that belt grip, Onosato's right arm would have been rendered completely useless, but instead of grabbing the mawashi, Chiyoshoma cups his hand a bit to avoid the stranglehold grip altogether. And it's not like that left hand touched Onosato's belt before Chiyoshoma pulled it back quickly. Chiyoshoma's hand was touching Onosato's belt for about two seconds (an eternity in sumo), and grabbing that grip would have been akin to stealing candy from a baby. Of course, Onosato had no say in the bout until Chiyoshoma in one fell swoop suddenly faked a pull that allowed him to back his way all the way to the straw, and from there, Onosato was able to sorta score the pushout win, but that was all Chiyoshoma.

On Day 8 against Ichiyamamoto, IYM backed up immediately from the tachi-ai against Onosato trying to set up an easy push out win for the faux-zeki at the edge, but when Onosato could muster the force to knock him back because he didn't cause his opponent's retreat, Ichiyamamoto started to counter with thrusts of his own that worked wonders, but the dude took a dive just short of knocking Onosato back and out of the other side of the dohyo.

So, just over the weekend, you have the dude at the top of the leaderboard unable to manufacture anything in his two bouts, and both opponents had to rely on theatrics and fake dives to hand him the win.

Next up on that leaderboard is Takayasu, and the yaocho in his favor has been just as bad. I took a couple of snapshots from his bout against Wakatakakage on Day 7. First is the tachi-ai:



Just like the previous bout I mentioned between Onosato and Chiyoshoma, Wakatakakage had his right hand at the side of Takayasu's belt from the tachi-ai, but he of course didn't grab it. Notice the footwork from the two rikishi and the body angles are identical to the previous pic. This is not a coincidence. These leaders cannot create any leverage from the tachi-ai because they're too upright and their footwork is not correct.

In the Day 7 Wakatakakage - Takayasu tussle, the two grappled for a bit before finding themselves back in the center of the ring, and this is what they looked like as they paused to catch their breath:



The footwork and body angles of both dudes are correct, but look at Wakatakakage's left hand. It's right there at the front of Takayasu's belt, and Takayasu can't do anything to keep him from grabbing it. That hand was close to the frontal grip for two or three seconds, but Wakatakakage never grabbed, and if he had, he would have rendered Takayasu's right arm useless, and that would have set up an easy yori-kiri for Wakatakakage. Of course we know that Wakatakakage voluntarily back himself over to the ring, so Takayasu could push him out in the end.

As for Takayasu's bout against Hoshoryu on Day 8, this was the tachi-ai:



Do you see the obvious pattern? Hoshoryu's body angle is the perfect angle while Takayasu is too upright. Because Takayasu is upright (they call that position koshi-ga-takai, or his lower back is too high), Hoshoryu is in the perfect position to grab the right outer grip, but he of course purposefully doesn't grab it and then runs circles around Takayasu before positing himself near the edge and pulling at Takayasu's right wrist.



Hoshoryu magically let go of the wrist and fell backwards out of the dohyo, and they ruled it oshi-taoshi, but if you watch the slow motion replays, that right hand or palm of Takayasu's never makes contact with Hoshoryu's body to push him down. It was as fake as can be, but there you have Takayasu as a fellow leader alongside Onosato not to mention Hoshoryu's obvious ploy to keep himself off of the leaderboard to this point.

Coincidentally, Churanoumi also finds himself on the one-loss tier at the end of the first week, and to his credit, he did pick up a legit win over the weekend. Of course, he did it against Mitakeumi in a seesaw battle on Day 8, but at least credit Churanoumi for beating one of the slowest and most vulnerable dudes in the division. I didn't bother snapping any pics of Churanoumi's sumo because his tachi-ai are not as predictable as the other two rikishi. Kotoshoho did throw his bout against Churanoumi on Day 7, and most of the Churanoumi's wins this basho have been compromised. Thing is, he's not going to yusho, so it's not worth spending much time on him.

Takerufuji leads the way on the two-loss tier, and that's another name that the Sumo Association wants on their marquee. I took this photo of  the tachi-ai between Takerufuji and Endoh on Day 7:



The body angles from the waist up are good for both rikishi but that's largely meaningless with the sloppy footwork from both dudes on their lower halves, but the glaring part of this tachi-ai is Endoh's right hand there at the side of Takerufuji's belt ready to grab that decisive outer grip. Of course Endoh purposefully doesn't grab the outer grip and then he backs up in linear fashion while Takerufuji forces him out in tow. To be fair, Takerufuji's suri-ashi and posture during the force-out charge were correct, but it was clear that Endoh simply stayed high and backed himself up out of the ring without applying any counter force Takerufuji's way.

I thought the snapshot of the tachi-ai was telling, though, because you can see a noticeable pattern where the opponents of these "star" rikishi are in the perfect position to dominate the tachi-ai, but they seldom follow through. It's why when Onosato or Takerufuji or even Takayasu for that matter get beat that the bout is so lopsided. When dudes try to beat them, they take full advantage from the tachi-ai and make it quick.

Neither Tamawashi nor Meisei or worth commenting on from the leaderboard as they will eventually fade out in Week 2. From Meisei's current rank of M11, he's a legit 11 or 12 win rikishi in my opinion. As for Tamawashi, I still think he's the best rikishi on the entire banzuke. He may have lost a step since he turned 40, but I don't think anybody in the division can defend against his tsuppari attack.

Before I close, I took one more snapshot of the tachi-ai from the Hakuohho - Onokatsu bout on Day 7:



The pattern is manifest again where Onokatsu has the left hand in the perfect position to grab a stifling outer grip, but he didn't take it. Had he taken it, you couple that with Hakuohho's absolutely horrible position as he's upright and in pull mode, and the bout should have been a force-out victory for Onokatsu in a second and a half. Of course Onokatsu sacrificed his advantageous position from the tachi-ai and orchestrated everything in favor of Hakuohho handing the dude the cheap win in the end.

Coincidentally, watch the Hakuohho - Kinbohzan bout from Day 8 and notice how easily Kinbohzan kicks his ass. Hakuohho is in that same vulnerable position that all these guys are in, and so when their opponents want to beat them, they beat them badly.  Kinbohzan showed what can happen when he wants to win. I mean, it was over in seconds just as the Onokatsu - Hakuohho bout should have been, but Kinbohzan wasn't paid off, and the result was obvious.

So, once again, as we head into Day 9, here is our leaderboard:



The top four guys are as ill-gotten as they come, and we have the snapshots to prove it. I think it's safe to say at this point that Onosato is the favorite because they can buy five more wins for him, and that should get the job done with a 12-3 yusho.

See you all on Day 9 where I'll do another full report.

Haru Basho Day 6 Comments
A sumo term I learned very early on as part of my fandom was "sumo-no-naiyo," or sumo content. Ideally, a rikishi's sumo content would be based on the basic exercises that these dudes are taught from the time they enter the sport. There are four basics two of which facilitate a proper offensive attack (teppo and suri-ashi) and two that are stretching exercises (shiko and mata-wari) to help combat injuries. For this intro, let's focus on the two basics that are used for effective attacks in sumo.

The suri-ashi exercise consists of a rikishi squatting low with his hands forward, and then he drives each foot forward one after the other while dragging them across the dirt. Done correctly, this would facilitate an effective push attack, but it also fuels a proper yotsu attack if you have the inside position or a grip on your opponent's belt.

The teppo exercise consists of a rikishi standing in front of a pull and then slamming his palms into the pull one after the other as if he were executing a push attack. As he does this, it's important that he rotates pushing off of each foot, and it's kind of like suri-ashi without advancing forward.

All sumo attacks should contain these basic elements, but if you watch Makuuchi bouts these days, the basics are entirely missing. Take Onosato's sumo for example. How many times during a bout does his palm really catch his opponent squarely in the chest? How often is he squatted slightly driving with his feet as he executes his oshi attack? The answer is really never. The dude is always upright, and he spends more time chasing his retreating opponents than doing much else.

And it's not just Onosato; it's everyone, but the reason I single out Onosato is because you'd expect a dude ranked at Ozeki to have mastered the basics and put them on display for the majority of his bouts. When such basics are absent, it's obvious to me as someone who has watched thousands and thousands of bouts in the keiko ring and knows what real sumo should look like. With that in mind, let's analyze the Day 6 action.

The day began with M16 Asakoryu taking on M17 Mitakeumi, and Asakoryu henka'd to his left at the tachi-ai. That alone tells you that Asakoryu doesn't have the confidence to beat one of the most vulnerable rikishi in the division, so the next time he wins a bout going chest to chest against Nishikigi, you'll know something's up.

Anyway, Mitakeumi easily survived the move and used nice tsuppari to back Asakoryu up against the straw on the other side of the dohyo from where he started, and with Asakoryu now cornered, the two hooked up in migi-yotsu, and the larger Mitakeumi easily forced Asakoryu over to the side and across for the very nice win. Mitakeumi moves to 4-2 while Asakoryu falls to 3-3.

J3 Roga made an appearance from Juryo to take on M16 Kotoshoho, and the two bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai with Kotoshoho seemingly taking the upper hand in their tsuppari exchange, but near the edge, the bout went to migi-yotsu, and before they could really go chest to chest, Roga quickly moved left and timed a perfect tsuki into Kotoshoho's right side that sent him down.

I've talked before a few times about how inflated the oshi-dashi kimari-te has become. It's by far the most common kimari-te the last few years even though straight up oshi guys are few and far between. The reason we see so many oshi-dashi, however, is because it's so easy in a compromised bout for the loser to just back up and let his opponent harmlessly push him back that last step. Well, the tsuki-otoshi kimari-te isn't what it used to be either because when rikishi take dives, it's so easy to rule the bout tsuki-otoshi. In the olden days, this move by Roga was the classic tsuki-otoshi, and it was nice to see it here as Roga moves to 4-1 while Kotoshoho is shown the trap door in falling to 3-2.

M18 Tokihayate and M15 Sadanoumi were completely out of sync at the tachi-ai, and that's never a good sign in terms of expecting a straight up bout. And the two showed why as they hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Sadanoumi had the clear path to a right outer grip thanks to Tokihayate's standing straight up and aligning his feet at the tachi-ai. When Sadanoumi didn't use the right outer to attack and then when he let it go straightway, I knew he was gonna lose, and sure enough, when Tokihayate went for a meager dashi-nage with a shallow inside grip, Sadanoumi just plopped over and down.

I've been watching the Abema broadcast lately because they have Japanese oyakata doing the analysis. The only problem is that they don't show their names, so I'm not sure who was in the booth today, but the way he described the bout is, "Tokihayate didn't let Sadanoumi grab his belt." Uh, okay. What, were there measurable moves Tokihayate did to keep Sadanoumi away from the belt? There weren't any. Sadanoumi just let it go, but whatever. I listen to the analysis and I'm like, "Are we watching the same thing?" Tokihayate buys his way to 4-2 while Sadanoumi falls to 2-4.

M13 Ryuden and M17 Shirokuma hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and both dudes grabbed firm left outer grips. If Ryuden was trying to win this thing, he would have had Shirokuma forced back and across in three seconds, but he pretended to struggle as if he just couldn't move Shirokuma around. As for Shirokuma, of course he couldn't budge Ryuden either, and so Ryuden set up an inside belt throw with his right and literally dragged Shirokuma over near the edge, dipped his left shoulder down, and then pulled Shirokuma down on top of himself trying to conjure a nage-no-uchi-ai.

I've seen hundreds if not thousands of nage-no-uchi-ai in my day, and that wasn't one of them. First, look at that pic above and try and determine where Shirokuma is getting leverage for the throw. His left leg should be up and inside of Ryuden's right, but Shirokuma has the left foot slightly off the dohyo doing nothing. Second, a nage-no-uchi-ai does not result in one guy landing on top of the other. In a true nage-no-uchi-ai, both dudes' outside forearms are out wide and it's a contest to see who can refrain from breaking their fall first. Winning a nage-no-uchi-ai usually means you're going to scrape up your forehead or mage because that's the first thing that touches down, but this was all theatrics here. Shirokuma had no say in anything here; it was all Ryuden pulling his gal on top of him across the edge. The Abema dudes were saying of Shirokuma, "Wow, he's going to be an exciting rikishi in the future." He is? He's just 2-4 and he's bought both of his wins. As for Ryuden, he falls to 3-3 and he's just earning extra cash here.

M15 Aonishiki was paired against fellow Ukrainian M13 Shishi, and as expected, we got an amateur tachi-ai where both guys stood straight up instead of charging forward and hard leading with their domes. This resulted in a few defensive slaps before Aonishiki ducked his way into the right inside position, and after trading places on the dohyo, the rookie grabbed a left outer grip, and I'm glad I did that breakdown of a nage-no-uchi-ai in the previous bout because Aonishiki did exactly what a dude does in using his inside leg when he's applying pressure with an outer grip. After using it to nudge Shishi off balance and over to the edge, Shishi knew he had no leverage on a counter throw, but before he could fully pull out (cool), Aonishiki pushed him over and down for the nice win. The tachi-ai wasn't good, but everything else was pretty decent, and Aonishiki picks up a very nice win here in moving to 3-3 while his fellow countryman falls to 4-2.

M14 Churanoumi easily got the left inside against M12 Takarafuji, and with Churanoumi bearing in, Takarafuji moved to his right hoping for surprise tsuki to the side, but you kinda have to earn things from the tachi-ai, and Takarafuji wasn't in a position to do anything. After the shake-up laterally, Churanoumi next got a right hand up and under Takarafuji's left armpit, and he easily pushed his foe over and down for the nice win. Churanoumi moves to 5-1 in victory while Takarafuji falls to 2-4.

M12 Onokatsu and M10 Shonannoumi clashed lightly at the tachi-ai with neither dude really establishing the inside position, and after a short pause, Shonannoumi went for an ill-advised pull of Onokatsu's left arm, but the move was weak and Shonannoumi's backwards momentum gave Onokatsu everything he needed to rush forward and push Shonannoumi across for the easy win and 5-1 record. Shonannoumi's sumo today shows why he now stands at just 1-5.

M11 Meisei henka'd to his left against M9 Hakuohho and lightly tapped HOH on the right shoulder, and Hakuohho just flopped forward and down. You can never tell completely because it was over in half a second, but I'm wondering if this bout was arranged because usually a guy that gets henka'd can survive it better than that. It looked to me that Hakuohho knew he was going down, and so he didn't even pivot and try to survive. What a cheap bout all around as Meisei oils his way to 4-2 while Hakuohho falls to the same mark.

M9 Endoh was rather lethargic at the tachi-ai against M11 Midorifuji never bothering to reach for a frontal grip as he is wont to do. As Midorifuji pressed forward, he was up too high, and Endoh instinctively put his left hand on Midorifuji's belt, but he didn't grab and dig in. It was clear that Endoh was mukiryoku at this point, so when Midorifuji went for a light tsuki to the backside of Endoh's left armpit, Endoh just turned himself around 180 degrees and let Midorifuji okuri-dashi him out from there. Nice arranged bout here as Midorifuji squares his record at 3-3 with the cheap win while Endoh falls to 4-2.

Similarly to Endoh, M10 Nishikigi didn't bother going for an inside position against M8 Ohshoma, and that was an immediate red flag. Then when Ohshoma darted to his left all but whiffing on a pull, Nishikigi had his foe dead to rights for the nice and easy force out, but instead of pressing ahead, Nishikigi just stopped his charge and stood there until Ohshoma grabbed a left outer grip. Instead of countering with the right inside position, Nishikigi simply stayed upright and walked himself back and across with Ohshoma in tow. Nishikigi voluntarily falls to 0-6 while Ohshoma buys the cheap win at 2-4.

M7 Tamawashi failed to execute a tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai against M6 Hiradoumi, and the Mongolian seemed to go with the flow as Hiradoumi tried to move him around. Still, Hiradoumi really didn't have a firm inside position, so there was a lot of bark in this bout but little bite. Just when it looked as if Tamawashi was going to let Hiradoumi force him out, Hiradoumi went for a dumb pull, and with Hiradoumi backpedaling as a result of the pull, The Mawashi moved forward fast and caught the retreating Hiradoumi with a push to the chest that sent him back and across before Tamawashi hit the dirt. It was close, but Tamawashi only needed that single push to win the bout...against an opponent who had self-compromised his position. The result sees Tamawashi improve to 4-2 while Hiradoumi falls to 2-4.

In an obviously fixed bout, M7 Shodai put a high forearm into M5 Ura's neck area from the tachi-ai, but that completely exposed Shodai's insides. Still, Ura didn't seize moro-zashi or really try and do anything even though Shodai was so upright. As if it couldn't get any worse for Shodai, he went for a very weak pull with his opponent already in the perfect position to drive him back and across, but Ura pretended to fall for the tactic and basically tried to do a handstand at the edge before Shodai was nudged back and across. What a fake fall from Ura, and why would any rikishi need to kick his legs up that high? It was just silly sumo as Shodai is obviously handed the cheap win leaving both dudes at 3-3.

M5 Kinbohzan thrust both hands into M8 Atamifuji from the tachi-ai, but Atamifuji moved laterally and connected on a nice right paw to Kinbohzan's face that threw the Kazakhstani out of sorts. With Kinbohzan now on his heels, Atamifuji tried to take advantage, but he really couldn't get an oshi attack going, and he wasn't positioned to the inside, and so once Kinbohzan regained his wits, he began an effective push attack that had Atamifuji thinking pull, and as Atamifuji set himself up for a pull, Kinbohzan rushed his foe back and across for the decisive finish. Both dudes end the day at 3-3 after this one, and it was a pretty good tussle start to finish.

M4 Ichiyamamoto stood straight up and aligned his feet at the tachi-ai against M6 Takerufuji, but Takerufuji wasn't moving forward to take advantage of the gift, and so the two traded tsuppari across the starting lines for a second or two before Ichiyamamoto faked a tug at Takerufuji's extended arm, and that was really an excuse to just back himself up to the edge. As Takerufuji rushed forward for the kill shot, Ichiyamamoto moved a bit to his left faking a pull, and the move prolly would have worked but he stepped back and across of his own volition giving Takerufuji another cheap win. You watch the slow motion replays, and there's not a single thing that Takerufuji did that would have caused Ichiyamamoto's retreat. IYM did that all on his own in order the gift wrap the bout for TFJ, and even then, Ichiyamamoto still had to safely step across before Takerufuji could eff things up. Takerufuji is unworthy at 4-2 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 3-3.

M2 Gonoyama charged hard against a lethargic M1 Wakamotoharu from the tachi-ai, and then we found out why WMH was so lethargic. The bout was fixed in his favor, so he didn't bother doing anything. Gonoyama basically freight trained Wakamotoharu back to the edge before dipping his left shoulder and slamming his left hand across the straw into the dirt before Wakamotoharu stepped out. This was as fake as they come as Gonoyama willingly falls to 1-5 while Wakamotoharu's is so useless at 4-2.

Komusubi Abi put two hands into fellow Komusubi Kirishima's neck and then just swiped down across his dickey do, and Kirishima's response was to stumble forward and purposefully run himself outta the dohyo just like that. This fake bout was so pointless as Abi moves to 4-2 while Kirishima purposefully flounders at 3-3.

Sekiwake Daieisho was extremely passive at the tachi-ai against M4 Takayasu standing straight up and purposefully forgetting his tsuppari attack. As Takayasu moved forward, he wasn't exactly kicking ass and taking names, and Daieisho could have easily moved a tick to his right and taken control of the bout, but he just stood there waiting for Takayasu to connect on a thrust, and when he finally did, that was Daieisho's cue to just exit stage East. Another useless bout here as Takayasu (5-1) has bought all of his five wins while Daieisho settles for 3-3 with a bit more pocket change.

M1 Wakatakakage was looking to get to the inside against Sekiwake Ohho at the tachi-ai while the latter tried to push him away. Ohho's thrusts were entirely ineffective and when Wakatakakage latched onto the front of Ohho's belt with the right hand, Ohho panicked and went into pull mode moving a bit to his left, but before he could actually execute the pull, Wakatakakage got deep to the inside and forced the upright Ohho back and across. This bout really wasn't close as Wakatakakage picks up a very nice win over an overly-hyped rikishi in Ohho. Both dudes are now 2-4.

M3 Takanosho won the tachi-ai against Onosato by striking him up high and leaving him vulnerable, but then for no reason other than to throw the bout, Takanosho moved himself to his left all the way over to the straw. Onosato's reaction wasn't cat quick, but it didn't need to be as Takanosho was just standing there with his body turned a bit. Onosato finally connected on a soft left tsuki to the back of Takanosho's right armpit, and that was Takanosho's cue to step across the straw. Yet another Onosato bout this fits the pattern: he loses the tachi-ai; his opponent sets himself up at the edge; Onosato finally makes positive contact; his opponent steps across willingly. If you remember the discussion of suri-ashi and teppo from my intro, observe the pic at left and see if Onosato is doing either of those moves?  His feet are perfectly aligned, which is the cardinal sin in sumo, and there was no teppo thrust there that connected to Takanosho's torso to cause him to step out.  It's no surprise that they continue to fix bouts in favor of Onosato, but the basics are lacking in every bout. Regardless, he moves to 5-1 while Takanosho accepts his role in falling to 2-4.

M2 Chiyoshoma came with a hari-zashi tachi-ai against Kotozakura slapping with the left, and the move was so good that Chiyoshoma opened up the path to moro-zashi. Which he of course didn't take. The problem was that Kotozakura didn't have any momentum to knock his self-compromised opponent back, and so Chiyoshoma started backing up on his own for no reason, and as Kotozakura plodded forward, Chiyoshoma grabbed a right outer grip and used it to pull Kotozakura into his body. When Kotozakura still couldn't force the compromised Chiyoshoma back from there, Chiyoshoma finally went for a pull as an excuse to step back and across. Kotozakura was so useless in this one despite Chiyoshoma's begging him to employ a waza, but he was simply incapable of doing so...against a virtual practice dummy. It all worked out in the end as Chiyoshoma orchestrated a win in favor of Kotozakura leaving both rikishi at 3-3.

Yokozuna Hoshoryu executed a quick slap at the tachi-ai against M3 Tobizaru before moving to his right, and the two tussled for a few seconds before Hoshoryu came way with a firm right kote-nage position and the left outer grip to reel Tobizaru in close. From that point, Tobizaru was completely had, and the Yokozuna led with the left outer as he marched Tobizaru back and across in perfect yori-kiri fashion. Hoshoryu moves to 4-2 after the solid performance while Tobizaru falls to 1-5.

It's still too early to talk about the yusho race, and I even think it's too early to speculate who will be on the board. Of course names like Onosato and Takayasu come to mind, but those guys are seriously buying every single bout, so what if the money and/or goodwill runs out? It would only take two consecutive losses to completely change things up. Let's see what shakes out during the first full weekend.

Haru Basho Day 5 Comments
I'm seeing a lot in the headlines the phrase, "Areru Haru Basho," and that phrase was around even when I started watching sumo in the early 90's. The direct translation is "The Turbulent Haru Basho," and the nuance is that anything can happen at the Haru Basho in Osaka. The real reason they use this phrase is to cover for all of the yaocho needed to keep the basho interesting, and we certainly got our share of compromised bouts today (sigh). Without further adieu, let's get right to the..um..action.

M17 Mitakeumi and J2 Kayoh hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Kayoh began mawari-komu'ing around the ring, and normally a dude would do that to set up a scoop throw, which was indeed open due to Mitakeumi's high stance, but the J2 never went for the throw and danced around the edge a full turn and a half before faking a pull and stepping out giving Mitakeumi the cheap, unearned win. Mitakeumi is gifted 3-2 with the fixed bout.

M16 Kotoshoho used some defensive paws forward at the tachi-ai against M18 Tokihayate opting not to go chest to chest. The tactic seemed to work, however, and Tokihayate was not able to break down KSH's defense, and so a few seconds in, Kotoshoho moved to his right grabbing an outer grip, and he used that sideways momentum to sling Tokihayate over to the edge and almost out, but Kotoshoho needed to give his foe one last nudge to knock him across for good leaving both dudes at 3-2.

M15 Sadanoumi demanded moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against a soft M17 Shirokuma, and as Sadanoumi pressed the action, Shirokuma's only hope was to move laterally. In the process, Shirokuma managed to get his left arm inside, but it was shallow, and he was way too upright for his own good, and so Sadanoumi pulled him in close and wrapped his right leg around the outside of Shirokuma's left and tripped him back soto-gake style for the nifty win. This was one of the better tactical performances of the basho as Sadanoumi squeaks his way to 2-3 while Shirokuma falls to 1-4.

M16 Asakoryu's tachi-ai was soft as M14 Churanoumi reached a left hand forward trying to get a frontal grip, and even though that failed, Asakoryu was just standing there, and so Churanoumi slapped him forward, turned him around, and pushed him out from behind. Pretty bland stuff as Churanoumi moves to 4-1 with the okuri-dashi while Asakoryu falls to 3-2.

M15 Aonishiki came with tentative pushes against M14 Ryuden, and while those shoves kept Ryuden at bay, they didn't drive him back. Aonishiki kept his head ducked low and then finally dove in looking for moro-zashi coming away with the firm left inside but his right arm couldn't latch onto Ryuden's belt. With the rookie ducked low, Ryuden kept him in tight and was finally able to twist him over and down kaina-hineri style. This is the best thing that can happen to a rookie. Yes, Aonishiki lost in falling to 2-3, but this is exactly how you learn to win in the division. As for Ryuden, he moves to a cool 3-2 record with the nice win.

M13 Shishi and M12 Onokatsu hooked up in the gappuri-yotsu position from the tachi-ai with each maintaining right insides and left outer grips. If two guys this size were going at it for real, these are the best matches in sumo, but they unfortunately weren't. With Onokatsu applying little pressure, Shishi hurried a left outer grip, and instead of allowing himself to be thrown over, Onokatsu just stepped himself across the straw giving Shishi the cheap win.

Had Onokatsu been trying, we would have seen a spectacular nage-no-uchi-ai there, but all we got was a soft throw with the loser choosing to step out. I'm glad they didn't rule this uwate-nage because there was not real throw involved as both rikishi now stand at 4-1.

M11 Meisei struck M11 Midorifuji well from the tachi-ai firing dual thrusts into Midori-chan's torso sending him back a full step, and with Meisei bearing in leading with the left inside, Midorifuji tried to escape to his own left, but Meisei stayed snug the entire way and easily pushed Midorifuji across the straw for the nice win. Meisei one ups his foe in moving to 3-2 while Midorifuji falls to 2-3.

M10 Shonannoumi was all forearms today against M12 Takarafuji leading with dual kachi-age at the tachi-ai and then continuing to keep Takarafuji up high with another forearm to the chest. Takarafuji looked to escape to his left, but Shonannoumi's just too damn big, and so he was able to smother Takarafuji and pull him down in uneventful fashion. Shonannoumi picks up his first win at 1-4 while Takarafuji falls to 2-3.

In a compelling bout on paper, M9 Hakuohho squared off against M9 Endoh, and it was Endoh getting the left arm inside and right outer grip from the tachi-ai, but instead of forcing the bout to yotsu-zumo, Endoh just moved laterally to his right and backed outta the ring pulling Hakuohho along for the ride. This is a great example of a bout where it looks like a dominant win for the victor, but this was all Endoh. He won the tachi-ai, got the positioning he needed, and then backed right out of the ring with his opponent in tow. Endoh was the last dude without a loss until now, and the result here is both of these dudes standing at 4-1.

I wish we could have gotten a straight up about between M8 Atamifuji and M10 Nishikigi today, but Nishikigi just stood straight up at the tachi-ai and went limp despite getting both arms inside. He promptly brought the left arm outside turning the bout to migi-yotsu as he backed up near the ring, but Atamifuji couldn't rush him out because he hadn't caused Nishikigi's backwards momentum to begin with. With Atamifuji struggling, Nishikigi (0-5) moved to his right around the perimeter of the dohyo a quarter turn and then just stepped out. I mean, he literally just stepped out giving Atamifuji (3-2) the ill-gotten win.

Back when they excommunicated 15 or so rikishi during the yaocho scandal of 2011, NHK news would show suspicious bouts that involved the dudes that were kicked out, and this finish looked exactly like those bouts. Thank the gods there is no longer yaocho in sumo. Whew.

M7 Shodai meant well from the tachi-ai bringing a shove attack M8 Ohshoma's way, but the latter gave up some ground in order to come away with the better hand, and so after Shodai pushed Ohshoma back a few steps, Ohshoma stopped Shodai's momentum getting the right arm inside coupled with a left outer grip, and from there, Ohshoma turned the tables and forced Shodai to the side and across for the nice yori-kiri win. Ohshoma picks up his first win at 1-4 while Shodai falls to 2-3.

M5 Kinbohzan caught M7 Tamawashi with a beautiful tsuki from the tachi-ai standing The Mawashi upright and forcing him to move back and then to his right. Kinbohzan stayed square, however, and had Tamawashi pushed back and across in mere seconds earning the legit tsuki-dashi win in the process. Kinbohzan moves to 2-3 while Tamawashi falls to 3-2.

M5 Ura kept his feet aligned at the tachi-ai as he ducked towards M6 Takerufuji, and for Takerufuji's part, he used a nice oshi attack to drive a willing Ura back step by step. At the edge, Takerufuji caught Ura in the chest with the finishing blow, and then there was this little pause as Ura stood there and then fell backwards a few rows deep into the Jedi Council sitting on the East side. I mean, Takerufuji's oshi attack looked good, but Ura was mukiryoku and not trying to win this bout, which is why he stayed completely square with his opponent...so Takerufuji would have a nice easy target. Both rikishi end the day at 3-2.

M6 Hiradoumi and M4 Ichiyamamoto traded a few shoves at the tachi-ai before Ichiyamamoto quickly moved right going for a haphazard pull, and Hiradoumi anticipated the move and put both palms squarely down before Ichiyamamoto really made any contact. In watching the replay, it was obvious that Hiradoumi started diving down before Ichiyamamoto actually pulled him, but whatever. This is just the way it is these days as Ichiyamamoto moves to 3-2 while Hiradoumi falls to the opposite 2-3.

One of these days I'm going to make a poster board of what the ending of fixed bouts look like, and anytime you see a rikishi in the position that Hiradoumi assumed below in the center of the ring, you know the bout was fixed:



And just as I type up Hiradoumi's fake fall, M2 Gonoyama gave us carbon copy fall against M4 Takayasu. From the tachi-ai, Gonoyama dominated catching Takayasu with shove after shove into Takayasu's gut (and that's quite the gut!!), and the action quickly moved in favor of Gonoyama with Takayasu being pushed back to the straw, but it was noticeable that Gonoyama never went for the kill shot, and as he let up at the edge, Takayasu sorta grazed the top of Gonoyama's head and shoulder, and that was Go's cue to just flop to the dirt. I mean, watch the slow mo replay, and the dive was obvious as Takayasu oils his way to 4-1 while Gonoyama has thrown a ton of bouts this basho in falling to 1-4.

In the sanyaku ranks, Komusubi Kirishima welcomed M1 Wakatakakage, and he ended up giving him a hero's welcome by keeping his hands high as if he was going to pull WTK, but the pull never came as Kirishima quickly backed to the side and out with Wakatakakage in tow. This is the most efficient way to throw a bout, and you don't even need to shower afterwards. Kirishima drops this one on purpose in falling to 3-2 while Wakatakakage is gifted his first win at 1-4.

Komusubi Abi was paired against Sekiwake Ohho, and the two traded some nice tsuppari from the tachi-ai with Ohho gaining the upperhand for a second or two, but then Abi really began connecting on stiff thrusts, and he had Ohho turned nearly 180 degrees, but instead of pushing him out from behind, he let Ohho square back up. As Ohho turned back around, Abi had him looking at the rafters with a wicked left paw to the face, but he let Ohho out of the move, and when Ohho's back was against the straw, Abi subtly tugged at Ohho's elbow and switched places with him in the ring, so now with Abi's back to the straw, he stood there and absorbed the final blow from Ohho.

We saw good sumo here in patches, but Abi clearly let up for Ohho, a rikishi they're trying to build up along the lines of Kotozakura. Ohho begs win number two in moving to 2-3 while Abi takes one for the team in falling to 3-2.

Sekiwake Daieisho was paired against M1 Wakamotoharu, and Daieisho came out strong knocking WMH back a full step, but then Wakamotoharu turned the tables and pushed Daieisho back the other way. Daieisho dug in well, however, and then when he put a hand on Wakamotoharu's right shoulder, Wakamotoharu just did a front flip right there in the dohyo. Uh, okay. Everything was going well until those useless theatrics at the end as both rikishi land on 3-2. I'm not even going to speculate on what was going on out there today, but it wasn't straight-up sumo.

I almost don't dare go any further, but if we must we must. Up next was M3 Takanosho taking on Kotozakura, and Takanosho came out of the gate hard landing some nice thrusts into Kotozakura's upper torso and jaw area, but Kotozakura did land a nice sideways swipe that threw Takanosho off a bit. As the two squared back up, Takanosho resumed his tsuppari attack, and Kotozakura clearly went into pull mode, and so the two moved around a bit before Takanosho timed a Kotozakura pull attempt perfectly that enabled TNS to send Kotozakura completely upright at the straw and across the tawara from there with a final push. This was probably the best bout of the day to this point, but the key takeaways are that 1) the dude not ranked at Ozeki was the aggressor, and 2) Kotozakura could only play defense today. Says a lot as both dudes settle for 2-3.

Onosato was paired against M3 Tobizaru, and Tobizaru gave up at the tachi-ai putting his hands forward with palms pointing towards his foe in a defensive posture, and Tobizaru just stood there until Onosato could muster a push attack. When it came, Tobizaru backed up in tandem with Onosato's thrusts, and then Tobizaru turned around 180 at the edge ensuring that Onosato couldn't eff things up from there. What a waste of a bout as Onosato is gifted 4-1 while Tobizaru falls to 1-4.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Hoshoryu was matched up against M2 Chiyoshoma, and Chiyoshoma henka'd wildly to his right grabbing a cheap right outer grip. Hoshoryu was able to get his left arm inside and square things back up, but it was clear that Chiyoshoma wasn't trying to finish him off straightway. As for Hoshoryu, he could have grabbed a right outer of his own to send the bout to gappuri-yotsu, but he purposefully refrained and stayed put with his back to the edge of the straw until Chiyoshoma forced him across.

The sad thing is that we never get a straight up bout between two Mongolians, and someone thought it best that Hoshoryu suffer another loss today, and so that's what happened. Both rikishi end the day at 3-2 after this scripted bout.

It's still hard to get a good feel for this basho because there has been so much fake...I mean turbulent sumo, so we'll hang around to see another day I suppose.

Haru Basho Day 4 Comments
Sumotalk has existed for over 23 years, and during that time, I have always gathered my news from various wire services. You have the Jiji, Kyodo, and Tsushin services, and then there are also aggregator sites that collect articles from the heavy hitting sports rags like Sports Hochi, Nikkan Sports, Sankei Sports, Supo Nichi Annex, etc. Up until January of this year, in those 23 years I had never seen so-called "Sumo" articles show up on the wires that were essentially clickbait using the lure of unnamed celebrities in the headlines who were supposedly spotted during the live NHK broadcast. On one of the days last tournament, I mentioned this phenomenon of how those clickbait articles were starting to appear that had nothing to do with the actual sumo; rather, they were trying to get the low hanging fruit to click on them to see what celebrity was having a blast at the event.

The common thread of these articles is that they always mention the live sumo broadcast, or "Ozumo-chukei," in the title, and then they'll add something along the lines of "You'll never guess who was spotted on the live sumo broadcast!" or "This and that talent (word in Japan for celebrity) was seen during the live broadcast!"

As I was gathering information and photos for Day 4, I noticed that the clickbait articles are coming from two primary sources:  a website called "The Answer" and a website called "The Digest." I found an article each from these rags back to back and so I took a screenshot as follows:



The first article tries to get you to click on it to see which female celebrity was so excited about Takayasu's Day 3 win that her unheralded joy (o-yorokobi) was even mentioned on the broadcast. The second article wants you to click on it to see who the famous celebrity from the Kansai Region was who was spotted at the sumos yucking it up, and then it also mentions that the famous talent, Tajin, was even in attendance. Both titles mention the phrase "Ozumo-chukei," which I've circled in red, and both articles are obviously a ploy to try and get people to pay more attention to the live sumo broadcast by baiting them with celebrity sightings.

I have no doubt that the Sumo Association is paying these outlets to post these articles online, and so the question is:  why since the inception of the internet are these clickbait articles suddenly starting to pop-up?  I have my opinion on the answer to that question, but I think the more important question is:  why isn't the Sumo Association advertising their rikishi?  Why are they relying now on celebrity sightings during the live broadcast instead of actual, straight-up sumo?

It's a double-edged sword because on one hand, you want a lot of people to tune into the sumos and pay attention to the rikishi, but on the other hand, if people pay too much attention to the Japanese rikishi, they're going to realize what frauds they are because the sumo to justify the ranks of some of these dudes simply doesn't exist.

Enough of that. Let's get to the Day 4 bouts that started with M17 Shirokuma welcoming Kagayaki up from Juryo, and Kagayaki easily won the tachi-ai putting two hands to Shirokuma's neck, and that set up the migi-yotsu contest, but instead of grabbing a left outer grip, Kagayaki purposefully exposed his hip on the right side to an ill-gotten left outer grip by Shirokuma. Problem was that Shirokuma had no momentum, so when Kagayaki applied frontal pressure, Shirokuma not only lost the outer grip, but he found himself backed up near the straw. Not to worry, however, as Kagayaki began backing up across the entire length of the dohyo, and he finally just walked back out with Shirokuma trying to keep up.

I saw multiple articles in the press that said, "Shirokuma finally earned some kensho money from the Shirokuma Electric Company!" I guess Shirokuma Electric has been sponsoring the dude's bouts with kensho banners, and today he finally "won" thus earning the prize money. Get it? Shirokuma Electric sponsoring Shirokuma bouts?? Whatever.  The cynic in me wonders if they had Shirokuma win today just so they could publish the headlines about the connection with Shirokuma Electric.  I mean, how else am I going to find a picture on the wires from a Shirokuma bout?  Furthermore, multiple outlets covered the same story.  Anyway, the polar bear is gifted his first win at 1-3 and all of the money he earned from the kensho and more went straight over to the Kagayaki camp for his generosity.

Up next was M18 Tokihayate taking on M16 Asakoryu, and the pint-size Asakoryu was quite proactive from the tachi-ai using tsuppari to stand Tokihayate up a bit, but instead of using his lower half to try and drive Tokihayate back, Asakoryu panicked and went for a dumb pull, and that allowed Tokihayate to pounce and get the left arm deep inside and the right arm wrapped tightly around AKR's left. Asakoryu tried to escape across the dohyo, but Tokihayate held on snug and easily forced the retreating Asakoryu back and across. Good start form Asakoryu, but it was a terrible finish for him as both rikishi end the day at 3-1. We'll see if the Asakoryu yaocho fund was exhausted after just three days.

One flaw I've noticed already with M15 Aonishiki's sumo is his soft tachi-ai. I don't know what it is, but whiteys have a tough time executing sound tachi-ai. If you ever have the misfortune of watching amateur sumo that involves White guys, you can readily see how soft the tachi-ai are. Kinbohzan is a notable exception, but Aonishiki's initial charge is way soft. He got away with it today against M17 Mitakeumi because the latter is so weak, and it showed as the rookie was able to choke Mitakeumi up high and slowly nudge him back and across without argument. Aonishiki moves to 2-2 with the easy peasy win, and Mitakeumi now finds himself at the same mark after buying his first two wins.

M16 Kotoshoho put two hands towards M15 Sadanoumi at the tachi-ai making contact, but then Kotoshoho stood straight up and started moving back and to his right in front of the chief judge. All Sadanoumi had to do was follow his foe's retreat, and he easily pushed him down and out in under three seconds. It's likely that the bout was fixed coming in because Kotoshoho's only effort was to lose the bout, and that he did in falling to 2-2 while Sadanoumi picks up the cheapie at 1-3.

M14 Ryuden kept his hands wide and head ducked low against M14 Churanoumi begging the latter to pull Ryuden down. Churanoumi gave it a half-hearted effort, but when it didn't work fully, Ryuden waltzed over to the edge, squared himself back up, and just stood there waiting for Churanoumi to push him across that last step. This bout pretty much redefined the term "mukiryoku sumo" as Churanoumi buys his way to 3-1 while Ryuden is a harmless 2-2.

M12 Onokatsu got the left arm inside easily against a defenseless M12 Takarafuji from the tachi-ai, and then Onokatsu just plowed forward forcing Takarafuji back and across in two seconds. Onokatsu did pump the brakes a bit at the edge to keep Takarafuji atop the dohyo, and this bout was a great example of how false the banzuke is. Both of these dudes are ranked at M12?? The difference in ability is not even close as Onokatsu quietly moves to 4-0 while Takarafuji falls to 2-2.

M13 Shishi was nonchalant at the tachi-ai (remember what I said earlier about Whiteys and tachi-ai) against M11 Midorifuji, and that allowed Midorifuji to work his right arm up and under Shishi's left shoulder, and that's actually the perfect position from which to execute a kata-sukashi. The problem was that the bout was not fixed in Midorifuji's favor, so when MFJ moved right to attempt to execute the kata-sukashi, Shishi simply fired a right tsuki into Midorifuji's side that pushed him over and down with ease. Shishi read that one like a dirty manga on the subway in moving to 3-1 while Midorifuji stands now at 2-2.

M10 Nishikigi stood straight up and kept his arms wide and pointed downward, and that gifted M11 Meisei moro-zashi. Before they could even go chest to chest, Nishikigi just started backing up and Meisei "forced" him across in about two seconds. Nishikigi was entirely mukiryoku here in falling to 0-4 as Meisei takes the freebie in moving to 2-2. At least no one got injured.

In a very similar bout, M10 Shonannoumi just kept his armpits open at the tachi-ai allowing M9 Hakuohho to bulldoze his way to the inside, and Shonannoumi was happy as a clam to simply back up as Hakuohho moved forward. This too was over in two seconds, but the curious thing here is that the winner found himself in a heap on all fours at the corner of the dohyo. How do you win by yori-kiri and end up in a losing position after the bout? The easy answer is that there was zero counter force pushing back into Hakuohho from Shonannoumi, and that's the result of fixed sumo. If the winner is the one who gets dirt all over him, you know the bout was fixed, and it was obvious here as Hakuohho buys his way to 3-1 while Shonannoumi falls to 0-4.

It was monkey see monkey do the next bout as well with M8 Ohshoma standing straight up at the tachi-ai and keeping his insides exposed to M9 Endoh. Endoh wasn't exactly redefining the term "speed" here, but he didn't need to against a 100% mukiryoku Ohshoma. At the end of the slow tachi-ai, Endoh got his left arm inside and went for a very loose scoop throw, and Ohshoma's reaction was to put his left palm to the dirt and then just bellyflop down altogether. This bout also lasted mere seconds and was completely uncontested by one of the parties. Endoh moves to a cheap 4-0 while Ohshoma takes the money in falling to 0-4.

M7 Shodai and M8 Atamifuji looked to hook up in migi-yotsu, and Atamifuji had the opening to get a deep right arm inside, but he instead raised that arm up high leaving it in a useless position. Speaking of useless, Shodai wasn't able to capitalize on Atamifuji's shenanigans, so around the ring they went for a spell with Shodai trying an unsuccessful pull, and it was obvious that Atamifuji was just standing there waiting to be done in. Finally, Shodai was gifted a left outer grip, but his back was to the wall, and Atamifuji was right there in the perfect position to force Shodai across with a deep right arm inside (pictured at left), but instead of forcing Shodai across, Atamifuji ran around Shodai's right side and stepped out of the dohyo altogether. They tried to rule this uwate-dashi-nage, but it was yaocho through and through as both rikishi end the day at 2-2.

I mean, you look at that picture above with Atamifuji in the red mawashi, and what were the chances that Shodai could come back from that stance if Atamifuji was trying to win by lowering his right shoulder into Shodai's body?  I'll save you the trouble: zero.

M7 Tamawashi stood straight upright and left his insides completely exposed to M6 Takerufuji, but the latter was completely hapless from the start and couldn't take advantage of the gift. Tamawashi even voluntarily slid one foot so far back it nearly touched the straw, but all Takerufuji could do was monkey around with something that looked like moro-hazu. If you stop the tape right there, Takerufuji's inability to do anything despite Tamawashi's intentions was due to a complete failure to use his lower body. Anyway, with Takerufuji unable to do anything, Tamawashi slowly worked his way back to the center of the ring and gave Takerufuji a shove, and you could see Tamawashi move forward with his head ducked and his left arm outstretched so he could be pulled down at the edge, but Takerufuji couldn't keep his balance and fumbled that gift, and the result was Tamawashi's outstretched left arm making contact into Takerufuji's torso that pushed Takerufuji out for good.  Oops.

Tamawashi was trying everything in his power to throw the bout, but Takerufuji couldn't take advantage. This was also clearly a tsuki-dashi as Tamawashi's elbow was locked when he made that final accidental thrust, but they ruled it oshi-dashi instead. Regardless, Tamawashi moves to 3-1 with the easy win while Takerufuji falls to 2-2. First rookie to yusho in 100 years my arse.

M6 Hiradoumi won the tachi-ai against M5 Ura and methodically pushed him back near the edge. Ura did try and evade to his left, but Hiradoumi stayed square throughout and had Ura on the ropes, but then for no reason other than to throw the bout, Hiradoumi suddenly went into pull mode, and as he backed himself across the entire length of the dohyo, Ura rushed forward and scored the cheap oshi-dashi win...to the delight of the crowd I might add. I mean, the only reason you go for a pull is if you're in trouble. Ura was doing nothing to cause Hiradoumi any trouble, so this was yet another farcical bout giving the fans a stiffie with the cheap Ura win. Ura is an ill-gotten 3-1 while Hiradoumi settles for 2-2.

M5 Kinbohzan put two hands to M4 Ichiyamamoto's neck at the tachi-ai, but instead of driving forward and knocking IYM onto his toes, Kinbohzan just started to backpedal leaving his arms up high in the process, and so Ichiyamamoto was easily able to advance forward, get the left arm inside, and "force" a very compromised Kinbohzan back from there. Kinbohzan dictated start to finish in defeat as he falls to 1-3 while Ichiyamamoto is a cheap 2-2.

M3 Tobizaru dictated his bout with M4 Takayasu using a nice series of shoves to keep Takayasu upright and at bay. Tobizaru had numerous attempts to get moro-zashi and rush Takayasu out, but you could see that Tobizaru was trying not to win. Takayasu's biggest flaw is that he can't fend off an outer grip close to the front of his belt, and Tobizaru's right hand could have grabbed a frontal grip at any point but he refused to do so. As the bout wore on, however, Takayasu was completely gassed and even the announcers knew it, and so with the two standing there in a stalemate in the center of the ring, Tobizaru had to do something, so he went for a ke-kaeshi trip. The kick connected but didn't topple Takayasu over, and so Tobizaru dragged him down shortly after the ke-kaeshi attempt by the back of the head. This one should have been ruled hataki-komi as Takayasu suffers his first defeat at 3-1 while Tobizaru picks up his first win at 1-3.

Komusubi Abi came in high and wide against M2 Chiyoshoma at the tachi-ai, and that enabled Chiyoshoma to get a ridiculously deep left arm inside. Abi responded with a right kote-nage grip as he moved right, but he never bothered to attempt an actual throw that was there if he wanted it. Problem was the bout was fixed from the start and you could see that neither dude was really trying, and so Abi kept moving right not going for a throw allowing Chiyoshoma to softly force him across for the cheap win. These guys haven't fought for over a year, but Abi (3-1) must have owed Chiyoshoma (1-3) something.

Sekiwake Daieisho didn't even bother going for his usual tsuppari attack against Komusubi Kirishima, and so the latter assumed moro-zashi and forced Daieisho back and across without argument. Did Daieisho owe Kirishima something or did he simply give up from the start because he knew he couldn't defeat his opponent straight up? Who knows as Kirishima moves to 3-1 while Daieisho falls to 2-2.

In probably the best bout so far (which isn't saying much), M3 Takanosho bested Sekiwake Ohho at the tachi-ai shoving him upright and putting him onto his heels, and Ohho briefly tried some pushes to stop the bleeding, but he knew a second and a half in that he needed to get outta there. As he retreated a bit to his left, Takanosho rushed in and the two both got left arms to the inside, but both rikishi were standing up so high, I'm not sure if you could call that hidari-yotsu. With Ohho still retreating left around the perimeter of the ring, Takanosho stayed snug enough to chase Ohho down and force him across for the nice win. Both dudes end the day at 1-3, and after the bout I scrolled back through all the contests, and the last bout where both guys were trying to win as they were in this matchup was the Midorifuji - Shishi contest.

Onosato sorta looked to get his right arm inside from the tachi-ai against M1 Wakamotoharu, but the latter easily rebuffed the faux-zeki using a right paw to the throat to choke Onosato upright as seen in the pic at left. When WMH finally let go of that hold, Onosato was so upright that he didn't have any leverage to counter attack, and so Wakamotoharu ducked in and got the left arm firmly inside, and from there, all Onosato could do was go for an ill-advised pull, but because the bout was fought straight up (our second in a row!), Wakamotoharu (3-1) easily rushed him back and across saddling Onosato with his first loss at 3-1.

This is the exact reason that I couldn't declare Onosato a favorite to yusho yesterday. Buying all 15 of your bouts is a tall order, and I think what happened here is the Onosato camp were confident that he could be Wakamotoharu straight up. Uh, nope.

M1 Wakatakakage got an easy right frontal grip against Kotozakura from the tachi-ai, but he kept his left arm limp and allowed the faux-zeki to get his own fat left inside, and from there, the two moved in tandem with Wakatakakage retreating and Kotozakura giving chase. This was a noneventful yori-kiri in favor of Kotozakura that was the result of a fixed bout. Kotozakura limps his way to 2-2 while Wakatakakage falls to 0-4.

In the day's final affair, the tachi-ai between Yokozuna Hoshoryu and M2 Gonoyama was fiddy-fiddy before Hoshoryu stepped to his left and executed a nice slap down of his foe two seconds in. This reminded me of the scene in Memoirs of a Geisha when Nobu-san alerts Sayuri that the Yokozuna (played by Mainoumi of all people) was going to do hataki-komi!! And sure enough, the Yokozuna did much to Nobu's delight. There wasn't really any time for delight here as Hoshoryu moves to 3-1 with the easy win while Gonoyama falls to 1-3.

Onosato's loss today essentially resets the entire basho. As far as I'm concerned, tomorrow is Day 1 again in terms of the yusho race and also in terms of Kotozakura buying his way to kachi-koshi as he is even steven at 2-2.

Haru Basho Day 3 Comments
I'm coming into this basho buttsuke-honban style meaning I haven't read any of the news articles prior to the basho, but I'm sure the number one story heading into Osaka focused on newly-roped Yokozuna, Hoshoryu. I admittedly was surprised that they allowed another foreigner to reach the Yokozuna rank, but as I said upon the retirement of Terunofuji in January, you really do need a presence at the top of the banzuke to establish a baseline of sumo that has the potential for greatness, and Hoshoryu can surely be great when he chooses to do so.

I can say that I wasn't surprised when he rolled over for Abi on Day 1 by just keeping his arms wide and high at the tachi-ai before turning himself around and looking for a soft landing on the venue floor below. I did read after the fact that it was the first time a newly-roped Yokozuna had lost in his debut since Takanohana way back at the 1995 Hatsu basho, and I vividly remember jumping off the couch when Musoyama scored that victory with a powerful left uwate-nage that sent Takanohana clear off of the dohyo.

Regarding Hoshoryu, having him lose on Day 1 was merely a ploy to make it seem as if all of these guys at the top of the banzuke are vulnerable on any given day when we really know they're just trying to cover for when Kotozakura or Onosato gets their asses kicked.

Moving right along, I guess another storyline this basho is the kadoban status of Kotozakura. You can't fake a guy to the Ozeki rank first and then to the yusho next without expending a serious amount of capital and goodwill, and so the cheap high will definitely come down, and that's what we're seeing with Kotozakura.

I'm sure that dudes like Hakuohho and Takerufuji and Onosato will continue to get the most run, but after watching the first two days of sumo, nothing has changed with any of these guys. It's all just puff, fake sumo, and I'm quite sure the fans have noticed by now.

I really don't have anything else on my mind, so let's cover all of the bouts from Day 3!

The day began with M18 Tokihayate taking on J1 Tamashoho, and this was a bland affair where both guys went through the obligatory oshi motions, but you could see that Tamashoho was really looking to pull because he constantly positioned his hands up high. After about six seconds of soft sumo, Tamashoho simply ran out of real estate, and so Tokihayate finally pounced sending Tamashoho across the straw for good leaving both dudes at 2-1.

At M17, Mitakeumi is on the brink, and it's obvious the stable is buying wins for him to keep him in the division a little longer. Yesterday against Tokihayate, Mitakeumi recorded what I believe is the slowest ever uwate-nage throw in history, and M17 Shirokuma also played along today. After hooking up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, Shirokuma grabbed the easy left outer grip (pictured at left)...and then promptly let it go. There was no way Mitakeumi was going to force Shirokuma back after that start, and so Mitakeumi retreated all the way to the edge with Shirokuma's left hand in the perfect position to grab another outer grip. He didn't of course and went completely limp, and that was Mitakeumi's cue to pivot left and score another...you guessed it!!...uwate-nage. This one wasn't as slow as the one yesterday, but it was fake as Mitakeumi moves to a cheap 2-1 while Shirokuma collects some lunch money in falling to 0-3.

When I was catching up on the Day 1 bouts and I saw M16 Asakoryu step into the ring, I was like, "Look at that tiny rookie." And then it dawned on me that he's been up here before, but his impact was non-existent in his Makuuchi debut. Today he was paired against M16 Kotoshoho, and Kotoshoho put both hands at the side of Asakoryu's head, but he conveniently forgot to pull. He did, however, remember to back up, and so he quickly backed to the side and arched his back completely across the dohyo as Asakoryu tried to keep up, and with Kotoshoho in that ridiculous position, Asakoryu was easily able to send him off the dohyo.

This actually looked a lot like an Onosato bout. It looked like power sumo to the novice fan, but if you go and re-watch the slow motion replays, you can see that Asakoryu made zero contact from the start that would have caused Kotoshoho to assume that position. Kotoshoho did it all on his own and then even arched his back like that to make it look emphatic. Emphatic it wasn't but fake it was as Asakoryu buys his first win at 1-2 while Kotoshoho had room to sell at 2-1.

Our lone rookie this basho, M15 Aonishiki, is a fellow from Ukraine whose got a nice sumo body. His tachi-ai aren't as bruising as say Baruto's tachi-ai were, but something tells me we haven't seen him fully go out yet. Today he was paired against M15 Sadanoumi, and the latter did nothing to try and win this bout. It doesn't mean that he could have won if he tried, but he didn't try. From the tachi-ai, Sadanoumi shaded to the left a bit, and the two eventually ended up in hidari-yotsu but they really weren't chest to chest and struggling. After securing a solid left inside belt grip, Aonishiki went for an impressive throw that slung Sadanoumi over and down, but the throw wasn't contested. A dude whose trying would have at least tried to counter with a right kote-nage, but Sadanoumi just stood there listlessly and allowed the throw to happen.

Aonishiki moves to 1-2 with the win, but once again, I feel as if we've only seen shenanigans in his sumo so far, so give it more time. As for Sadanoumi, he falls to 0-3 in defeat.

Unlike Asakoryu, I do remember M13 Shishi from his previous appearance in the dance, and he was paired today against M14 Churanoumi. In another awful bout of sumo, neither dude went for a push and they certainly didn't go chest to chest from the tachi-ai although Shishi did get a right arm close to the inside from the start. This bout was destined for ugliness as Shishi managed a weak right slap to the side of Churanoumi's head, and then as the two got close again near the edge, Churanoumi went for his own lame slap before just falling backwards and falling onto his leedle bum. What the hell is going on here??  In my intro, I failed to mention how bad I thought the sumo was the first two days, and Day 3 has just picked right back up where the first two days left off. If I was a paying fan, I'd be pissed at this crap as both dudes finish the day at 2-1 after the...um...oshi-taoshi win.

M12 Takarafuji and M14 Ryuden hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Ryuden was just smothering his opponent, but you could see that Ryuden was refraining from grabbing a right outer grip. With Ryuden applying no forward pressure, he backed all the way over to the other side of the dohyo and then allowed Takarafuji to grab a right outer, and then that was Ryuden's cue to just stand tall and walk across the straw making it look as if Takarafuji scored the yori-kiri win. I sure am glad I didn't bust my arse back from the Indian Wells tennis tournament going on right now to cover this stuff as both rikishi end the day at 2-1.

M12 Onokatsu's tachi-ai was soft today against M11 Meisei, but Meisei was looking to pull and so he moved to his right but couldn't pull the slippery Onokatsu down. As a result, Onokatsu was able to get the solid left position inside, and with Meisei on the run now, Onokatsu eventually grabbed a right outer, and so he forced Meisei this way and that before finally crushing Meisei across the straw as Meisei looked to escape out of the clinch. Slow start here, but the middle portion and the ending were good as Onokatsu moves to 3-0 with Meisei falling to 1-2.

M10 Nishikigi managed to do absolutely nothing against M11 Midorifuji, and so Midorifuji got the right arm inside as Nishikigi leaned over the top of him. With such a difference in size here between these two, it's comical to think that Nishikigi wouldn't at least try and grab an outer grip or pinch in from the outside, but he was just along for the ride today. For Midorifuji's part, he was trying to set up a kata-sukashi, but Nishikigi was so big it ended up being a fake dashi-nage with Midorifuji dragging a more than willing Nishikigi across the straw with that initial right inside grip. Ho hum as Midorifuji moves to 2-1 while Nishikigi falls to 0-3.

In a bad bout of sumo, neither M10 Shonannoumi nor M9 Endoh were looking to establish themselves at the tachi-ai, and so you had SNNU standing there with his hands in a defensive position while Endoh moved to his right going for a quick if not haphazard kata-sukashi. The move caused Shonannoumi to flop forward and down as he tried to push Endoh back, and while it looked to me as if Endoh had clearly stepped out first, they ruled in favor of Endoh saying that the top of Shonannoumi's right foot (ashi-no-kou) touched down before Endoh touched out.

They called a mono-ii and upheld it, and I couldn't quite tell who the chief judge was because I only saw the back of his head. I think it was Chiyotaikai, but it was one of the worst explanations I've ever heard. It was just as muddled as the day's sumo, and that's saying a lot as Endoh moves to a weak 3-0 while Shonannoumi falls to 0-3.

In another soft contest, M8 Ohshoma stood straight up at the tachi-ai against M8 Atamifuji and then started walking back to the straw. Both dudes had right arms inside, and then Atamifuji grabbed a left outer, but this bout was not a chest to chest struggle. Instead, Ohshoma simply walked back and across with Atamifuji in tow trying to make it all look real. It wasn't as Atamifuji moves to a cheap 2-1 while Ohshoma falls to 0-3.

I promise that I'm trying to find any positive in the day's action, but it's been really tough.

As if right on cue, M7 Tamawashi gives all of us something positive by choosing to fight straight up against M9 Hakuohho. From the tachi-ai, Tamawashi planted a left palm into Hakuohho's face, and the latter has largely been handled with kid gloves up to this point, so when he experienced that hand to the face and his opponent's lower body driving into the move, his only option was to get the hell outta there. As a matter of survival, Hakuohho immediately did a 360 backwards trying to wriggle out of the shove, but Tamawashi was moving forward and sent his foe back and across for good with a follow-up right forearm.

Isn't it interesting how Hakuohho couldn't even be competitive in this bout?  Instead of at least trying to stand his ground and execute a counter move, he got the hell outta there as fast as he could in order not to get hurt. Both rikishi end the day at 2-1, but this was a great example of the farce that is Hakuohho's career to this point.

As I watched the Day 1 bouts, I took two snapshots that I thought were quite telling. The first one is from the Shodai - Takerufuji matchup from Day 1:



Shodai, in the black mawashi, has that right hand up high and completely out of harm's way when that hand should firmly be grabbing the side of Takerufuji's belt. As for Takerufuji, he's completely upright with his feet aligned, and he has zero chance of winning a straight up bout from that point. Of course, Shodai purposefully didn't grab the right outer and let Takerufuji win, but I thought it was a great snapshot of the level these guys are going to in order to let up for Takerufuji.

Speaking of M6 Takerufuji, he was paired against M6 Hiradoumi today, and once again, Takerufuji came out of his stance and stood straight up fully exposing himself, and so Hiradoumi easily lurched inside with both arms getting moro-zashi, and from there Takerufuji's only prayer was to back up and to the side, but Hiradoumi had him forced back and across before Takerufuji could fully counter with a slapdown. It was over in seconds as both dudes end the day at 2-1, and Takerufuji hasn't come close yet to picking up a legit win.

M5 Kinbohzan executed the type of sumo today against M7 Shodai that led to Kinbohzan's jun-yusho performance last basho, which means that the Kazakhstani came out of his stance with a perfect oshi attack fueled by the lower body, and Shodai had no answer as he was pushed back and across once, twice, three times a lady. Both rikishi end the day at 1-2, and it was obvious the first two days that Kinbohzan threw his bouts against far inferior opponents in Hiradoumi and Takerufuji.

M4 Ichiyamamoto had his choice of getting to the inside of M4 Takayasu from the tachi-ai, and you could see him flinch with that left hand, but he suddenly reversed gears and opted for a soft oshi attack. The problem was that even a soft oshi attack was working wonders against Takayasu, and so IYM let up even further so that when Takayasu went for a soft swipe, Ichiyamamoto just waltzed over to the edge and put his back to the edge waiting for the kill shot. Said shot wouldn't come, however, and Ichiyamamoto must have anticipated a pull from Takayasu because he suddenly squatted down bending both knees and then he just flopped forward and down before Takayasu made any contact.  If you thought the bout was real, explain what Takayasu did to cause Ichiyamamoto to assume that position as depicted at right.

 Hooboy, this was obviously fake as Takayasu buys his 3-0 start while Ichiyamamoto falls--quite literally--to 1-2.

M3 Takanosho met M5 Ura at the tachi-ai with some nice pushes and had Ura pushed back to where his feet were touching the straw, but then Takanosho suddenly let up and held his hands high as if to pull, and you knew what was coming next. Ura didn't have a pot to piss in so he couldn't take advantage of Takanosho's charity straightway, and so he circled around the ring and lightly tugged at Takanosho's right arm, and the latter just went down on all fours breaking his fall with both palms flat against the dirt.

When there's nothing else to excite the fans, you can always count on them to feed Ura cheap, improbable wins, and that's what we got here as Ura is a magical 2-1 while Takanosho takes the knee at 0-3.

Komusubi Kirishima and M2 Chiyoshoma hooked up in migi-yotsu where Kirishima easily grabbed a left outer grip. Chiyoshoma went for a slow a maki-kae that gave him moro-zashi, but he wasn't pressing and so you could tell that the two dudes were simply going through the motions. After retooling their positions, Kirishima came out of the fray with the right outer grip contesting against Chiyoshoma's left inside. After a brief stalemate, Kirishima began a mild dashi-nage charge, and Chiyoshoma didn't bother to counter, and so it was a lighthearted affair where they were ensuring that neither would come away injured. Kirishima picks up the uncontested win and moves to 2-1 while Chiyoshoma falls to a harmless 1-2.

Ohho is making his Sekiwake debut this basho, and I'll continue to use the title Sekiwake until he really starts sucking. Today he was paired against M3 Tobizaru, and after an extremely soft tachi-ai from both parties, Tobizaru had the pathway to moro-zashi, but he refrained from taking it and largely stood there until Ohho could get his oshi attack in gear. As he did, Tobizaru stood straight up for him resulting in what looked like a powerful oshi-dashi in favor of Ohho, but it was all set up with mukiryoku sumo and Tobizaru's backing up to give Ohho the forward momentum. Ohho picks up the cheap win moving to 1-2 while Tobizaru falls to 0-3 without a care in the world.

Sekiwake Daieisho met M1 Wakatakakage today, and the two engaged in a lively tsuppari affair that was dominated by the Sekiwake. Wakatakakage's footing was wrong from the start whereas Daieisho's footwork was solid, and so the Sekiwake scored on a few pushes before felling Wakatakakage in spectacular oshi-taoshi style right in the middle of the ring. It's hard to say if Wakatakakage was letting up here because the dude's sumo is always soft. Regardless, Daieisho will take that easy win in moving to 2-1 while Wakatakakage falls to 0-3.



Prior to the bout, they showed an adult holding up a handmade sign that read, "Wakamotoharu, Wakatakakage, we are brothers." Man, how would like to go through all that work creating a sign only to watch Wakatakakage get his ass kicked like that?  At least the gal's cute top matched the color of the sign, so I'll give her that.

Moving right along, Komusubi Abi caught Kotozakura with a right chokehold from the tachi-ai, but Abi wasn't driving forward with his sumo, and it was almost as if he was waiting for Kotozakura to make a move. The problem was that Kotozakura hadn't set anything up, so despite Abi's letting him out of the chokehold and moving around the ring waiting for a push from Kotozakura, it never came. In the end, Kotozakura looked to set up a horrible pull, but he was off balance and stumbling towards the edge and so Abi used an easy forearm to nudge him across in a lackluster finish. Abi moves to 3-0 and picks up the easy win despite letting up. As for Kotozakura, he's like the second coming of Takakeisho in a giant body as he falls to 1-2.

I mentioned "chokehold" twice in the previous paragraph, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Kane's new band is called Chokehold, and trust me, they kick a lot more ass than the sumo wrestling we see these days.

On Day 1, I took the following snapshot from the Onosato - Wakatakakage bout about one second after the tachi-ai:



You can see that Wakatakakage is in the perfect position to grab a left outer grip against the defenseless Onosato, and look at the position of their bodies. Wakatakakage is low and has the perfect footwork going whereas Onosato is up high and turned to the side a bit with nothing doing on the right side. Of course Wakatakakage never grabbed the left outer, and he let Onosato back into the bout giving him the cheap win, but pictures like this are so telling when breaking down fake sumo.

As for Onosato's bout today, he was paired against M2 Gonoyama, and I typed out that previous paragraph before watching their bout today, and wouldn't ya know it...it was a carbon copy start. The two looked to hook up in migi-yotsu, but Gonoyama crushed Onosato back so easily from the start that the faux-zeki was upright and near the edge with Gonoyama's left hand fondling the outer grip but of course never grabbing it.



From there, Gonoyama completely reversed the momentum gained from the tachi-ai and just backed up the entire length of the dohyo faking pulls that never came, and finally at the edge, Onosato connected on a mild push as Gonoyama was going across.

Here was Isegahama-oyakata's breakdown of Onosato's sumo today: "He was pushed back, but he thought he'd be okay, so it was a matter of keeping pace." Yeah, that's pretty much it. What he didn't say was a single thing that Onosato did to win the bout because such a move didn't exist.

In looking at the pic above that I took, you can see Onosato's footwork is out of sorts, and Gonoyama has the prime position to finish his foe off yori-kiri style, but he immediately backed out of that stance and gave Onosato the win. That this bout was fixed is indisputable, and it just follows the usual pattern where Onosato loses the tachi-ai and is on the brink only to have his opponent throw it in the end.

On one hand, I'd say that Onosato is the favorite to yusho at 3-0, but on the other hand, how can you make a dude the favorite when he loses every single tachi-ai and has no noticeable skills based on the sumo in the ring? You can't, and so let's see how things play out through Week 1. As for Gonoyama, he gets paid to fall to 1-2.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Hoshoryu welcomed softie, M1 Wakamotoharu, with a paw to the neck that lifted WMH upright, and the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from there where the Yokozuna never went for the right outer grip in an attempt to let his foe back into the bout. Problem was that Wakamotoharu didn't set anything up, so he wasn't ready to attack when the Yokozuna relented, and so Hoshoryu got his foe in the kote-nage grip with the right, and Hoshoryu positioned his body directly in front of Wakamotoharu begging the latter to push him over as seen here:



I mean, if you're going to go for a throw whether it's uwate-nage or kote-nage, you need to position yourself a full step to the outside of your opponent based on Hoshoryu's stance there.  Crossing your right leg behind your left is also a great way to get your ass kicked, but Wakamotoharu was so hapless despite Hoshoryu's antics that the Yokozuna kept moving with the flow of the throw causing Wakamotoharu to slip right down Hoshoryu's body and plop across the straw. They ruled it kubi-nage as Hoshoryu did wrap his arm around Wakamotoharu's head near the end, but this was really Wakamotoharu's inability to do anything despite the Yokozuna letting up for him. Both dudes end the day at 2-1, and if you're officials in the Sumo Association, don't you have to be shaking your head at the inability of these rikishi to capitalize on the openings that Hoshoryu gave WMH today?

There are so many takeaways from today's sumo, but hardly any of them involve superb sumo from this rikishi or that. In fact, who's sumo was the best today start to finish? You'd have to go with Tamawashi or Kinbohzan.

Well, let's see what tomorrow brings, but my hopes are not high.