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Hatsu Basho Senshuraku Comments
I obviously took a lot of days off this basho, and by the time I chimed in at the end of Day 3, I stated that my feeling after watching Day 1 was that Hoshoryu was going to take the yusho. It just felt as if this was a basho where they needed a legitimate yusho, and after Terunofuji threw a few early bouts, the next logical choice was Hoshoryu. Hoshoryu purposefully lost on Day 5 to Atamifuji, which wasn't a surprise, because the two Japanese Ozeki, Kotozakura and Onosato, got out to such horrible starts that it made sense to see Hoshoryu cover for them, but then when Hoshoryu intentionally lost to Shodai and Hiradoumi on Days 8 and 9, it looked as if he was taking himself out of the yusho race.

I felt at the time that he was covering for Kotozakura because both Kotozakura and Hoshoryu came into the basho as candidates for the Yokozuna rank, and it didn't look good to have the foreign candidate show the Japanese candidate up, especially with the Japanese rikishi coming off of the yusho in Kyushu, and I still feel as if Hoshoryu was trying to lower the bar of his performance those first nine days to closer align himself to Kotozakura, but then as we entered the Shubansen, or last five days, the Association needed to take a hard look at what was the best possible result after considering those first 10 days.

At the end of Day 13, I thought that Kinbohzan was a pretty safe bet to take the yusho. Day 14 panned out exactly how I thought it would, but my shortcoming was that I didn't even look at the senshuraku matchups because I didn't write up a Day 14 report. There is definitely a reasoning behind the matchups, especially when they're trying to sort out the yusho race, and I wonder how I would have predicted the outcome had I given it the time on Day 14.

With the benefit of knowing the outcome now, there were pros and cons to both a Hoshoryu yusho and a Kinbohzan yusho, and I really think it came down to this:  Kinbohzan absolutely wrecked the top three most hyped Japanese rikishi in Takerufuji (Day 9), Onosato (Day 11), and Kotozakura (Day 13). To have him then destroy the only remaining Japanese rikishi on the leaderboard, M3 Ohho, on his way to the yusho would have been worse optics than having an established Ozeki take the yusho and restore a bit of order.

Hoshoryu's yusho means that he will become the sport's 74th Yokozuna starting in March, and although I didn't think that was a very impressive Yokozuna run, the problem is that they set such low standards for Japanese rikishi in terms of promotion to Yokozuna that when a foreign rikishi achieves the same low standard, they have no choice but to honor the promotion.

As I mentioned the day after Terunofuji's withdrawal and retirement, you need a legitimate Yokozuna on the banzuke just to maintain order. When yaocho goes crazy and the sumo content is unbearable, it's healthy to have a strong Yokozuna on the banzuke executing strong sumo in order to remind the fans of what good sumo is.

Looking back on my 30 years of scrutinizing this sport, Hoshoryu does not strike me generally as a strong Yokozuna, but on this current banzuke, Hoshoryu is a strong Yokozuna, and he can defeat anyone else on the banzuke at will except for Tamawashi and Kirishima.

As I was scanning the daily newspapers after the basho, the biggest headline was that Hoshoryu was late for his morning after press conference because he slept in. They were already bringing up the word "hinkaku" and questioning his ability to act like a dignified Yokozuna. I believe that last time that word was used was when Asashoryu was a Yokozuna. I know it was never used for Kisenosato, and so it's reserved for foreign-born Yokozuna who irritate the media.

Anyway, Hoshoryu is still young, so he should be around for awhile, and he is more than capable of maintaining the Yokozuna rank and showing off good sumo. I'm sure he'll be like Terunofuji and average about 1.5 yusho a year while doing his best to cooperate within the system and continually feed strategic wins to Japanese rikishi.

Let's briefly work our way down the banzuke and touch on the other key rikishi this basho.

Kotozakura
Kotozakura was the headliner coming into the basho fresh off of his..uh..yusho in November. There is only one way that a dudes takes the yusho one basho with a 14-1 record and then follows that up with a 5-10 performance where at least four of those wins were compromised, and that way is bout fixing. Kotozakura is the perfect example of how bout fixing can be used to propel rikishi to the highest levels of the sport. The problem is that you can't maintain them at the higher levels without serious money to fix bouts, and so that's why you saw the 5-10 performance here. Kotozakura's sumo content is entirely lacking, and I can't name a single move that he is good at. It sucks that all I have to say about this kid is that he's a fraud.

Onosato
Onosato gets a little bit more leeway, but not much. The dude finished 10-5 with a very nice win over Shodai (hey, I'm looking for positives). He can also beat Ura straight up although Ura did not try and beat him on senshuraku. Still, I think we can give this guy credit for a few wins. Like Kotozakura, however, there's very little from his sumo content that we can even break down. I didn't really see any improvement from this guy in Hatsu, and he's still relying on bout fixing for the majority of his wins.

Wakamotoharu/Wakatakakage
I was happy to see both Waka brothers make-koshi because I'm tired of them taking up space in the sanyaku. None of them had an impressive win this basho, and that Wakatakakage gift from Terunofuji on Day 1 was so lame. As if. I have no idea where the Arashio-beya gets its money, but I can't wait for it to run out.

Sheesh, after commenting on the last four rikishi, I'm remembering why I stopped doing these post-basho reports. There's simply nothing to talk about because so much of the sumo is fake.

Kirishima
It goes without saying that Kirishima should at least be an Ozeki on this banzuke. Not a single rikishi beat him this basho where both parties were going all out. He let up for Hoshoryu and Terunofuji, two rikishi who can beat him legitimately. He let up for Onosato big time, and then he let up for Kinbohzan on Day 14. Speaking of letting up, it felt like he let up during a lot of his wins. His win over Takerufuji on senshuraku was a great example where Kirishima was purposefully soft only looking to pull start to finish and giving Takerufuji a chance. It was close at the edge due to Takerufuji's inability to do good sumo, and we definitely didn't see the sumo this guy is capable of even though he posted an 11-4 finish. I thought it was ironic that he was awarded a Kantosho because he didn't show a ton of fighting spirit...to the benefit of most of his opponents.

Ohho
Ohho obviously did not deserve his 12-3 record this basho nor the Ginosho, but he did show a decent oshi display throughout the fortnight. I mean, compared to Onosato's sumo, Ohho looked great, but he still needed a lot of guys to let up for him to even kachi-koshi...Abi, Tamawashi, Onokatsu, Takanosho, and Kinbohzan just to name a few. This kid's got a good body going for him, and he moves well for his size. He's also the grandson of Taiho, and anything that gives a guy name recognition and something to market gives the Sumo Association further incentive to use him as a pawn. He was a lot better than the two Japanese Ozeki, but those 12 wins were highly inflated. Kantosho this basho? Maybe. Ginosho? No way.

Takerufuji
Takerufuji is such an unimpressive rikishi. I thought the low point of his entire basho was the way he ran from his fight against Hoshoryu on Day 14. It looked to me that Hoshoryu was out to send a message in that one, and so Takerufuji couldn't exit the dohyo fast enough. I want to find aspects to a guy's sumo that I can praise, but what is there to praise about Takerufuji? Like Kotozakura and Onosato, he comes from a major stable that can fund his wins, and so actual sumo ability is rarely required. I'll praise him when he deserves it.

Kinbohzan
I enjoyed every second of Kinbohzan's wins, and I was sorry that he was obligated to lose to Abi and Ohho down the stretch. This guy is single-handedly bringing back the tsuki-dashi technique, and he is as legit as they come. This is what a real Ozeki looks like, and Kinbohzan is one of those dudes on the banzuke that nobody wants to fight, especially when your tsuke-bito doesn't come to you prior to the match and inform you that the fix is in. Name one Japanese rikishi that guys are afraid to fight in a straight up bout. I'll give you two:  Nishikifuji and Abi. Anyway, this guy is a bruiser when he's allowed to be, and he totally deserved the Ginosho award for Technical Merit over Ohho.

This guy was fighting from Juryo last basho, and he could very well go 5-10 in Osaka, but what differentiates him from guys like Kotozakura, Onosato, and Takerufuji is that when he posts 12 wins in a basho, he displays the sumo to back it up. We'll see how high they allow this kid to go. He's one of my favorites.

Hakuohho
It bothers me that we have to talk about this guy, but we just do because he's got a lot of money behind him. I actually think Hakuohho has the best sumo skills out of all the big Japanese names that include Kotozakura, Onosato, Takerufuji, and Hakuohho. They just need to let him figure a few things out, and I think he could be decent, but too many of his bouts are fixed, and it shows when he gets in a tough, straight-up fight because he doesn't know how to win.

Takayasu had to let up for him bigly on senshuraku, and despite gifting Hakuohho moro-zashi, Takayasu had to refrain from using a wide open counter tsuki-otoshi at the edge that would have certainly felled Hakuohho. I think Hakuohho earned two of his 10 wins, and that's being generous.

Tamashoho
Let's finish with the rookie, who was quite unimpressive at the Hatsu basho. He did pick up a few legit wins including Mitakeumi on senshuraku, but Tamashoho is simply too soft. When you're 31 years old and a rookie in the Makuuchi division and your sumo feels soft, you don't have a bright future. This guy kinda reminded me of Asanoyama only they fix bouts in favor of Asanoyama. I mean, Tamashoho did buy a few bouts this basho, but you know what I mean.

The Haru Basho starts March 9th, and I will be at the Indian Wells tennis tournament that day, but I'll try and churn out some comments starting on Day 2.

Hatsu Basho Day 13 Comments
Yesterday as I was watching the recording of the Day 12 bouts on NHK World, a 27-minute digest show, the broadcast ended and then my recording caught one minute of the next show, which happened to be called "Sumopedia." In this particular episode of Sumopedia, they were explaining the yori-kiri (frontal force-out) technique with Murray Johnson narrating in the background. They were showing various clips of typical yori-kiri, and then they showed a clip from the 2010 Kyushu basho, and for whatever reason, they showed a clip of the entire arena before they panned in close to the rikishi preparing to fight on the dohyo.

This is what the full arena shot looked like:



The bout involved Hakuho, which means it was at the end of the Makuuchi bouts, and that's what the arena looked like in 2010. As for the banzuke at the end of 2010, the upper echelons were dominated by foreign rikishi, and the only Japanese Ozeki was Kaio, who would retire in less than a year, and if you were around at that time, you remember how painful it was to watch them give Kaio kachi-koshi is last few basho.

In 2011, Sumo would go through it's gambling scandal, the investigation of which revealed numerous paper trails that showed rikishi organizing fixed bouts and then the payoffs, and so you had the yaocho scandal as well.

There was such an outrage among the Japanese public because the Sumo Association was receiving government subsidies to help support its operations. They eventually had to reclassify the Sumo Association and make it a tax-free entity because it provided entertainment for the public good, but it lost its place at the government teet (although a large part of the Association is still technically funded through NHK money).

The sport was on the brink literally, and something had to change to keep it viable, and that something was the adoption of rampant yaocho to reformulate the banzuke giving Japanese rikishi favorable ranks, and then rampant yaocho was used to orchestrate yusho again for Japanese rikishi after a 10-year drought. This process took several years, but it has led to the current version of sumo wrestling, which RELIES on bout fixing in favor of Japanese rikishi to keep the fans interested.

With that in mind, let's turn our attention to the Day 13 bouts noting that after the Association orchestrated four yusho for Japanese rikishi in 2024 (the first time that happened in 20 years), this has been a reset basho where the foreign rikishi haven't been kept on a tight leash.

At the start of the day, the leaderboard chock full of foreign rikishi looked as follows:

10-2: Kinbohzan
9-3: Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Ohho, Takerufuji
8-4: Onosato, Daieisho, Chiyoshoma

Since everything evolves around M14 Kinbohzan's result, let's start there as he participated in the day's final match against Kotozakura. From the tachi-ai, Kinbohzan caught Kotozakura with two hands to the face/jaw immediately causing Kotozakura to look at his fake yusho board in the rafters. From there, Kotozakura tried to swipe Kinbohzan's arms away, but the Kazakhstani had perfect footwork and was firing thrusts into Kotozakura's torso to push him back and across once, twice, three times a lady. They correctly awarded the tsuki-dashi technique, and by way of review, the difference between a tsuki-dashi and an oshi-dashi is for tsuki-dashi the winner's elbow is locked for the final thrust whereas the elbow is bent on a final pushout.

I like to say if you win by tsuki-dashi it means you kicked your opponent's ass, and that's what happened here as this bout was extremely lopsided. It's also a great indication of how screwed up the banzuke is. Kinbohzan should already be an Ozeki; the best guy on the banzuke--Tamawashi--is ranked at M10; and then you have garbage rikishi like Kotozakura and Onosato ranked as Ozeki. It didn't used to be like this, but just refer back to my intro to see why it HAS to be like this.

Anyway, the win keeps Kinbohzan in command of this basho at 11-2 while Kotozakura's make-koshi becomes official at 5-8.

Moving to the two-loss rikishi, the most significant bout was an Ozeki duel between Hoshoryu and Onosato, and the tachi-ai here was fairly soft with both guys extending their arms as if to push, but nobody was moving forward into the other guy. After a second or two of busy hands from both guys, Hoshoryu thought about getting the right arm inside as Onosato moved forward, but then he quickly went for a kubi-nage throw, and Onosato just walked right into it spinning himself over and down. It half looked as if Hoshoryu's arm was slipping out of that "throw," but this one looked orchestrated to me. In a straight up bout, Hoshoryu would have gotten to the inside for sure against an exposed Onosato, and there's no way Hoshoryu had enough leverage on that neck throw to cause Onosato to spin around like that against his will.

My guess is that Hoshoryu let Onosato beat him in September, and so he was calling in the favor here. Regardless, the superior rikishi won, so whatever as Hoshoryu keeps himself firmly in the yusho race at 10-3 while Onosato is eliminated from contention at 8-5.

M1 Kirishima was paired against M6 Takayasu, and this turned out to be a quality bout thanks to Kirishima not going for the kill early. The two didn't go chest to chest at the tachi-ai as Takayasu moved a bit to the left, and as the two looked to square up, Kirishima quickly got the right inside and put his left hand on the side of Takayasu's belt, but he didn't grab the outer and instead pulled both arms away giving Takayasu a chance. From there the two brawled all around the ring trading nice pushes, and there was noticeable beef behind the sumo from both rikishi so much so that they began to tire and ended up in hidari-yotsu. Once again, Kirishima refrained from grabbing an outer grip although it was there for the taking at the front of Takayasu's belt, and the action moved to the edge where Kirishima used a slick tsuki-otoshi with the right instead to fell Takayasu across the edge and down.

We see this quite a bit where the Mongolians will give up advantageous positions and give their opponents openings but still win in the end in order to produce a good bout, and that's what we got here. A solid bout of sumo start to finish where the rikishi in control the entire way won in the end. No complaints from me as Kirishima moves to 10-3 after his tenth consecutive win. As for Takayasu, he looked as good as he's looked in awhile falling to 7-6. Before we move on, I thought the highlight of this bout was Kirishima's controlled backwards somersault dismount off of the dohyo:



M3 Ohho drew M4 Ura, and this was a harmless bout where Ohho came with his expected shove attack and Ura stayed low in a defensive posture. As the two circled the ring with Ohho pushing and Ura ducking, Ura had a chance or two to get to the inside, but his intention today was to simply put on a show, and after about five seconds when Ohho went for a pull, Ura dove to the dirt and kicked his legs up behind him in exaggerated fashion to make things look more spectacular than they actually were. As expected, this bout was not fully contested so as to not upset a Japanese leader's position on the leaderboard, but the better rikishi won anyway, so it's no harm no foul as Ohho maintains his three-loss status at 10-3 while Ura hasn't a care in the world at 6-7.

Komusubi Abi welcomed M11 Takerufuji, our final three-loss rikishi coming in, and this bout was thrown from the start as Abi pretended to henka to his left, only he lifted his right leg up in the air and held it forward completely taking away his balance as seen in the pic at left. As for Takerufuji, he never beats his foe at the tachi-ai, and his footwork was too sloppy to take advantage of Abi's gift, and so Abi just continued to move left right out of the dohyo as he feigned one last pull. Takerufuji tried to keep up and fully extended himself parallel to the dohyo, but he never did push Abi out. The Komusubi took care of that on his own.

If you look at the end here, which guy is in control?

Abi's got his left foot balanced on the Tawara and his right foot is going to break his fall in a very controlled landing on the venue floor while it's Takerufuji whose going to have the dirt (tsuchi) all over his torso. They say that the loser is the one covered in dirt, and that was actually the case here as Takerufuji touched down before Abi was out, but everyone including the judges and referee knew this one was fixed, and so they let it go.

Takerufuji moves to a gifted 10-3, and I'm trying to remember if he's even won a single bout straight up this basho. As for Abi, he of course knows the game and will take some extra allowance money in falling to 7-6.

We had three four-loss rikishi at the start of the day in Onosato, Daieisho, and Chiyoshoma. We already discussed Onosato's defeat against Hoshoryu, so let's next move to Sekiwake Daieisho and M5 Chiyoshoma who were paired against each other today.

Chiyoshoma came at the tachi-ai with his left arm sorta fishing for the inside position and his right arm high and wide in no-man's land, and Daieisho was able to catch him with an early right tsuki to the side knocking a willing Chiyoshoma off balance. From there, Chiyoshoma pretended to go into pull mode although he kept himself square the whole time and played along as Daieisho executed sound tsuppari to push Chiyoshoma back and across. On one hand, yes, Chiyoshoma was extremely mukiryoku here, but on the other hand, Daieisho still beat him with solid sumo, so I was okay with this expected result which keeps Daieisho mathematically in contention at 9-4 while Chiyoshoma is eliminated from yusho contention at 8-5.

With that, the leaderboard heading into the weekend is as follows:

11-2: Kinbohzan
10-3: Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Ohho, Takerufuji
9-4: Daieisho

Looking ahead to tomorrow, Kinbohzan is paired against Kirishima, and I think they're gonna let Kinbohzan win it. In a straight up bout, Kirishima would be favored 70-30 just because of his experience, but I think they're gonna let Kinbohzan win just to keep the yusho line at two-losses.

Hoshoryu is paired against Takerufuji, and this one's a tough call. I mean, it goes without saying that Hoshoryu would win 100% of the time in a straight-up bout, but yaocho is very difficult to predict. My gut tells me Hoshoryu will win this.

Ohho is paired against Takanosho, and I love that matchup. Takanosho is favored 60-40 in a straight up bout, but I think they're gonna let Ohho win it because Hoshoryu should beat Takerufuji tomorrow.

That leaves us with Daieisho who is really a formality at this point. He's paired against Hiradoumi, and that's a pick 'em.

If I was doing brackets, my prediction for the leaderboard at the end of Day 14 would be as follows:

12-2: Kinbohzan
11-3: Hoshoryu, Ohho

Once again, yaocho is very hard to pick, but I think the Association wants it fairly clean heading into senshuraku. I would be very surprised if there wasn't at least one Japanese rikishi on the board heading into senshuraku, and I think that guy is Ohho.

In other bouts of interest, M5 Hiradoumi took on M15 Hakuohho, and the latter's tachi-ai was awful enabling Hiradoumi to get moro-zashi, but instead of mounting a force-out charge straightway, Hiradoumi elected to back out of moro-zashi and then back his way over to the side of the ring and out altogether with Hakuohho in tow.

I took this pic right after the tachi-ai from a slow mo replay from NHK World, and focus on the feet:



Hakuohho's feet are completely aligned, which is something they preach against from the very beginning. If you're feet are aligned, you have no balance and you cannot win. By contrast, look at Hiradoumi's feet. One foot forward and one foot back creating a nice angle in order to give him the best balance possible. It's like riding the subway in Japan standing up if you can't hold onto a bar or a handle above you. How are you going to position your feet?

Anyway, these little things jump right out at me, and you see a major red flag like that and then Hiradoumi giving up moro-zashi, and then Hiradoumi moving laterally and back instead of trying to force out his opponent whose feet were aligned, and it all adds up to yaocho.

Hakuohho picks up a cheap kachi-koshi at 8-5, but he's one of the chosen, so I think it's good to continue to focus on him. As for Hiradoumi, he dictated start to finish masterfully as he settles for 6-7.

Hatsu Basho Day 12 Comments
In between Days 11 and 12, I was scanning the wires to see if there was any real news coming across, and I noticed an immediate trend in the headlines of the news articles on the front page:  the majority of them focused on this celebrity attending the sumos, that actress seen on the broadcast sitting in the suna-kaburi, a baseball player who attended the sumos for the first time and posted on Instagram how impressed he was with the fierce fighting. By far, the minority of articles from the front page focused on actual sumo, rikishi, or specific bouts on the day, and it hit me that the Sumo PR department is working hard...not to promote the actual sumo and build upon successes in the ring; rather, they're inviting celebrities to attend the sumos and comping them prime seats that will ensure that the viewing public sees them on the broadcast. They are then asking the media outlets to write up news articles pointing out who was spotted at the sumos or reporting on what this famous athlete posted on Instagram in regards to his or her experience in watching the bouts live.

I took a picture of the front page, and every story with a purple checkmark is focused on the celebrity aspect of who's attending, and not on a specific rikishi or a specific bout that took place on the day:



My personal favorite was the second checkmark from the bottom that was a scoop on Chiyotaikai (current Kokonoe-beya stable master) where the CEO of a company was spilling the beans on Chiyotaikai's personal life. Apparently, the CEO was friends with Chiyotaikai for a spell and lavished him with entertainment and gifts, and then Chiyotaikai stole his gurabia idol girlfriend (a gurabia idol is a swimsuit model with unusually large tits) and started ghosting the CEO, and so the CEO was dragging Chiyotaikai's private life through the dirt including an accusation that Chiyotaikai would often drive a car when he was still an active rikishi, a sin that will get you booted out of the Association.

Okay, maybe that article wasn't focused specifically on a celebrity or a sports athlete, but they purposefully put "Gurabia Idol" in the headline, and I know I was like, "Hmm...swimsuit model with big tits?  Picture of Chiyotaikai?" and it got me to click on the article.

The point is that there is a major push going on right now to promote the celebrity angle of who is attending the sumos, and then the Association is asking the celebrities and athletes in attendance to post on social media regarding the experience in an effort to get people to notice sumo with those sensational headlines. It wouldn't surprise me if they were going as far as having people specifically post in sumo chat boards during the broadcast saying things like, "Hey, I'm watching the live broadcast, and I think I see so and so actress there in the second row." It's not, "Hey, tune in to see some great sumo and an exciting yusho race."

A few days ago I was speculating in regards to the NHK viewership numbers and how bad they were, and this new push by the PR department confirms that they can't get people to tune in for the sumo itself, so they're trying to attract attention by comping celebrities prime seats and asking them to post about it on social media.

I guess you gotta do what you gotta do, but I'm not the only one who recognizes how terrible the product in the ring has been.

Speaking of the product in the ring, let's move to the Day 12 bouts, and once again, we'll focus on the yusho race. The leaderboard at the beginning of the day was as follows, so let's start there:

10-1: Kinbohzan
9-2: Ohho
8-3: Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Takerufuji

No wonder they're reaching out to popular figures in pop culture for attention because the average Japanese fan is going to see that leaderboard and go "Where are all the Japanese rikishi?"

The key bout to rectifying that situation was the M14 Kinbohzan - Ozeki Hoshoryu matchup, so let's start there. From the tachi-ai, Kinbohzan stood up softly and extended both arms, but he wasn't going for a tsuki into his opponent's neck or chest. As for Hoshoryu, he leisurely stepped to his right and touched Kinbohzan's left arm, and the M14's reaction was to just crumble to the dirt of his own volition. And by crumble, he first put his palms down, then he lightly touched his knees down, and then he finally got into the missionary position, and the time it took Kinbohzan to orchestrate that fall equaled the time of the actual bout itself prior to his dive. Hooboy, this was bad, and now I know why they are using the term "Gurabia Idol" in the sumo headlines.

The result is Kinbohzan's coming back to the pack at 10-2 while Hoshoryu stays one behind at 9-3. More importantly, this result enabled the Sumo Association to post the leaderboard down to the four-loss tier. In a straight up fight, Hoshoryu was the favorite to win, but you could tell after watching this that the Association wanted to take no chances. The order was given for Kinbohzan to take that dive.

Let's move to the two-loss tier that featured M3 Ohho fighting M1 Kirishima, and from the tachi-ai, Ohho came out looking for a tsuppari attack, but it didn't have enough oomph behind it to knock the M1 back a step. As a result, he quickly tried a brief pull and compromised his position in the ring, and after he did that, Kirishima pounced ducking in low and coming away with the right outer grip. The former Ozeki promptly used that belt hold to dashi-nage Ohho to the other side of the ring, and there was a lot of real estate to cover, which allowed Ohho to try and wriggle free, but Kirishima kept him in place and ultimately got him in the manlove position, and from there, he dumped Ohho forward and down across the straw okuri-nage style.

This was a costly result in terms of team Japan as it left both dudes 9-3, and I think the result of this bout, which occurred before the Hoshoryu - Kinbohzan matchup only solidified Kinbohzan's need to take that dive later on.

With four of the five leaders covered in those first two bouts, the final leader was M11 Takerufuji, who was paired against Kotozakura in the day's penultimate bout. The two hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Takerufuji showed just how easily it is to get an outer grip against Kotozakura as he took it with the left outer. As the two snuggled in chest to chest, Kotozakura used an effective belt throw with his right inside position to completely turn the tables and put Takerufuji at the edge and on the brink as seen at right.

At that point, Takerufuji didn't have a pot to piss in, but you could see Kotozakura pause and purposefully not force Takerufuji across that last half step, so with Kotozakura just standing there waiting, Takerufuji went for this really light tsuki into Kotozakura's left elbow, and the tsuki had no leverage whatsoever, but next thing you know, Kotozakura flew across the ring to the other side and down. Wow, those were either some serious Jedi powers exhibited by Takerufuji, or Kotozakura was hamming up the fake, sideways fall. I'll go with the latter.

Yeah, it doesn't look good to have a Yokozuna candidate 1) fall to a 5-5 record, and 2) supposedly get his ass kicked by an M11 rikishi, but this result shows how desperate the Association is to have as many Japanese rikishi on the leaderboard as possible. With the gift, Takerufuji maintains his three-loss status at 9-3 and I suppose it gives them some name recognition on the board because this dude was the first Makuuchi rookie to yusho in like 100 years, but I'll bet if you asked all of the attendees in the arena today, only half of them would be able to tell you that because the actual yusho run was so unimpressive.

Kinbohzan's loss immediately brought the four-loss rikishi into play, so let's examine them next starting of course with Onosato who came into the day at 7-4. He was conveniently paired against M5 Chiyoshoma, and Chiyoshoma did all the work here striking forward at the tachi-ai keeping Onosato upright, and then Chiyoshoma moved to his left, got the left arm inside, positioned his right hand up high around the back of Onosato's neck as seen at right. After setting himself up, he backed up outta the ring with Onosato in tow, and you can tell who was in charge here by how softly and in control Chiyoshoma's landing was as he exited the dohyo down to the arena floor. He hopped down on one foot and then tip-toed his way through spectators in the first row in complete control. As for Onosato, they're gonna say he was quick and powerful here, but Chiyoshoma literally ran circles around him in setting up this bout start to finish.

It was over in maybe two seconds, and the result is both dudes standing at 8-4, and the Sumo Association gets what they really want...Onosato back on the leaderboard.

M15 Hakuohho was also 7-4 coming into the day, and he fought M10 Tamawashi in the second Makuuchi bout on the day. Tamawashi failed to bring his usual tsuppari attack at the tachi-ai, and he kept his arms wide and high gifting Hakuohho moro-zashi, but the youngster couldn't do anything with it...prolly because he didn't earn it. Tamawashi leaned forward after giving up the dual insides, and that was enough to keep Hakuohho at bay. After a few seconds, Hakuohho tested the force out waters, but Tamawashi used a left outer grip to turn the tables at the edge and easily throw Hakuohho off balance with this back against the straw before he nudged him down from there. Tamawashi gave the dude his chances, but Hakuohho didn't grab it by the horns, and so Tamawashi casually threw him over to the edge and forced him down leaving both rikishi at 7-5 and eliminating yusho hopes for either.

M6 Takayasu entered the day at 7-4, and he needed to solve M2 Atamifuji to keep himself in the hunt. Takayasu extended his arms at the tachi-ai as if to tsuppari, but there was no lower body behind it, and so Atamifuji easily brushed that off and assumed moro-zashi. Giving up moro-zashi to a Hutt is that last thing you want to do, and Takayasu attempted to neutralize it with a left kubi-nage throw, but that's one of the most useless throws in sumo (in a legit bout), and Atamifuji showed why turning Takayasu completely around before shoving him across from behind. Takayasu is knocked out of yusho contention that he was never in to begin with at 7-5 while Atamifuji picks up just his third win to finish the day at 3-9.

Komusubi Abi struck M4 Shodai nicely from the tachi-ai standing him upright before Abi next used a forearm into Shodai's chest to knock him clear back to the straw. And then Abi just suddenly stopped his charge even with Shodai dead to rights. As Shodai recovered, Abi conveniently went into pull mode and backed up across the dohyo with Shodai in tow, and Abi stayed square the entire way allowing Shodai to push him back for good. This bout was clearly thrown in favor of Shodai for who knows what reason, and the result knocks Abi out of yusho contention completely at 7-5 while Shodai is gifted 6-6. Before we move on, if you have the means, go back and watch Abi after he stepped back and across. He sorta balanced on his left leg and put his right leg in the air teetering there for a second or two at the edge of the dohyo before he brought the right leg back down. He was in full control of his motion, which means that Shodai did not push him across that straw against his own will.

Sekiwake Daieisho waited for M4 Ura to charge forward at the tachi-ai, and when he did, Daieisho simply pushed downward onto Ura's shoulders and head keeping him at bay, and after four seconds or so of constant pummeling, Daieisho had Ura off balance and he pushed him down for good tsuki-taoshi style to pick up the easy win. Daieisho continues to hang around moving to 8-4 while Ura falls to 6-6.

With all of he four-loss rikishi settled at the end of Day 12, the official leaderboard stood as follows:

10-2: Kinbohzan
9-3: Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Ohho, Takerufuji
8-4: Onosato, Daieisho, Chiyoshoma

Kinbohzan's loss essentially doubled the number of Japanese rikishi on the leaderboard, and now you have guys like Onosato and Daieisho for more name recognition.

It's one thing to have what looks to be an exciting leaderboard heading into the final three days, but it's quite another to deliver the leaderboard with such puff sumo.

In my intro I talked about how the Association and media are using celebrity sighting to try and hype sumo up. Can you imagine what someone thought if they're like, "Okay, I'll give it a watch," and then they see nothing but yaocho at critical junctures? I would think that Hoshoryu - Kinbohzan bout is the last thing you'd want running on the highlight reels during the evening news shows, but how do you not show it?

Anyway, as we look forward to tomorrow, Kinbohzan is paired up against Kotozakura. A win for Kinbohzan would mean make-koshi for the relatively new Ozeki, so there are plenty of political reasons to throw this bout in favor of Kotozakura. I really don't have a feel for this one, but I do know that Kinbohzan has a 100% chance of winning if that's his intention coming in.

Hoshoryu gets Onosato, and the same goes for this bout. If Hoshoryu wants to win, he will. A win by Hoshoryu will knock Onosato out of yusho contention, and I'm leaning towards a Hoshoryu win, but we'll see what his camp decides or what's decided for them.

Daieisho and Chiyoshoma square off, and Chiyoshoma is the clear favorite in a straight up affair. Neither of these dudes is going to yusho anyway, so it might be straight up.

Takerufuji draws Abi, and Abi will win a straight up bout. I get the sense, though, that they're gonna want to have this thrown in favor of Takerufuji for political reasons.

Kirishima gets Takayasu, and like all the previous bouts we mentioned, there is a clear favorite here, so it's a matter of will Kirishima or won't he?

And finally, Ohho draws Ura, and that's a bout where the Japanese leader is actually favored. I think Ura's gonna throw it favor of Ohho anyway, but in a straight up bout, Ohho has a 75% chance of winning.

There really weren't any other bouts of interest, but we had two doozy fake falls today.  M10 Meisei (4-8) took an obvious dive in his bout against M17 Nishikifuji. The Nishikifuji camp is gripping because at M17, if you suffer make-koshi you go back to Juryo, so his team is ponying up the cash or making deals with the devil to buy his kachi-koshi, and he now stands at 7-5. One more fake bout to go.

A few bouts later, M13 Shonannoumi crushed M9 Ohshoma back from the tachi-ai and really gave him the business bullying him back to the straw in just a few seconds. I mean, Ohshoma was dominated so soundly, he could never deliver a counter move that Shonannoumi was waiting for, and so of his own volition, Shonannoumi started wobbling to his right still waiting for a touch from Ohshoma, but when it didn't come, Shonannoumi just bit the dust. As he lay there stomach first on the dohyo, he looked around as if to say, "I didn't mean to make it that obvious," but no worries bro, it was way obvious. Both of those yayhoos end the day at 6-6.

Hatsu Basho Day 11 Comments
I think the expression that bests summarizes the state of this basho is, "You can't have your cake and it eat it too." The cake is obviously an inflated banzuke and yusho results from 2024 that are very favorable to Japanese rikishi, but when you set things up with fake sumo, there will eventually come a point when it gets exposed, and that's what's happening here at the 2025 Hatsu basho. The difficulty the Sumo Association has is that they're actually a hybrid sport that relies on heavy bout fixing; yet, there is plenty of legitimate sumo as well, and so the organization is trying to come across as a fully legitimate sport with the help of a complicit media, but they have to rely on rampant bout fixing in order to stay relevant.

I've seen the result of what happens when Sumo attempts to eliminate yaocho, and said result is embarrassingly empty arenas that would ultimately kill the sport.

And the problem does not solely rely on the presence of foreign rikishi on the banzuke. Who are the best technical fighters Japan has right now in the Makuuchi division? The top seven are as follows (because I couldn't come up with 10):

Nishikigi
Kagayaki
Abi
Meisei
Takanosho
Gonoyama
Daieisho

While Abi and Daieisho have taken yusho, it's obvious that these Japanese rikishi are not a high priority for the Association. The Japanese rikishi who do receive the hype come from prestigious stables and stables with ample cash on hand, but they are not top 10 Japanese rikishi, and so you have the dynamics of foreign rikishi who are unconquerable in straight up sumo; over-inflated Japanese rikishi who receive the bulk of the media coverage; and then the everyday rank and file, and these groups are all thrown into this giant mixer known as the Makuuchi division.

There's nothing else like it that I'm aware of in professional sport across the globe, and perhaps that's why we're so fascinated with it.

It almost feels like we should be on Day 13 instead of Day 11 based on the leaderboard, which shaped up as follows coming into the day:

9-1: Kinbohzan
8-2: Ohho, Chiyoshoma, Takerufuji
7-3: Hoshoryu, Onosato, Kirishima

To me, it's a huge waste of time to comment on all of the bouts because so many of them are fake, so let's go in order based on the leaderboard.

I'll start once again with M14 Kinbohzan, who is the storyteller of the basho. For those new to Sumotalk, the storyteller is the dude on the leaderboard who controls his own destiny meaning he's got a legitimate lead, and he's good enough to defeat enough of his remaining opponents down the stretch to maintain that lead...if his camp so chooses.

Today, Kinbohzan was matched up against Onosato, and this is a dangerous pairing if you're not going to order a fixed bout in favor of Onosato. And they didn't. I'm not sure if it was a money issue or if Sumo officials felt like Onosato stood a chance on his own because he was paired against a guy ranked at M14 who was in Juryo last basho, but this bout illustrated a lot.

Kinbohzan dominated the tachi-ai putting his right hand at the base of Onosato's jaw where he then forced Onosato halfway to the straw in that one-handed chokehold. Onosato's only prayer was to evade quickly and go for a pull, but that left him vulnerable to a push out from Kinbohzan, and there was no way he was going to catch Kinbohzan by surprise after getting his ass handed to him like that at the tachi-ai.

Onosato darted right looking to pull, and then he scooted back left as Kinbohzan advanced, and luckily for him he moved around enough to where Kinbohzan didn't catch him squarely in the torso and send him two rows deep tsuki-dashi style, but Kinbohzan still kept his eyes on Onosato well and thrust him down and out in about three seconds. I just loved the reaction from this lady in the third row at the end of the bout:



Her expression of "How could this have happened?" says it all. It happened because you dutifully believe everything you're told by the media.

Where do you even start with this one? First and foremost, legitimate Ozeki don't lose the tachi-ai to M14 rikishi. Ever. And not only did Onosato lose it, but he needed to go see his chiropractor shortly after the bout to get readjusted.

Secondly, Ozeki never belong in the fetal position at the base of the dohyo, and they never belong in the wake of an M14 after their bout.

If you're wondering where Onosato is in that pic above, he's lying in a heap at the edge of the dohyo while Kinbohzan is calmly and collectively walking back to his side with his opponent in his wake.

I of course expected this bout to be compromised, but I'm always glad when they're real, and the result here is Kinbohzan's moving to 10-1 while Onosato is knocked off of the leaderboard now at 7-4.

From the two-loss tier, M3 Ohho fought first, and he was paired against M12 Onokatsu. Onokatsu used effective thrusts to knock Ohho up (did I just type "to knock Ohho up"?) high at the tachi-ai, and it enabled Onokatsu to worm his left arm inside and grab a right outer grip. Ohho's own left inside position was just forearm deep, and so Onokatsu was in full control so much so that after yanking a completely defeated Ohho this way and that in the ring, Onokatsu voluntarily backed up across the straw pulling Ohho into his own body. The ending happened so fast even Ohho was confused, but this was a perfect example of an arranged bout where the loser on paper dominated start to finish.  That pic at right is so perfect.  Ohho's belt is coming loose, which tells you who applied force to who, and then you have the intentional step-out by Onokatsu, which his arms down at the edge.  So telling.

I mentioned yesterday listening to the excuses the oyakata would give on the general NHK broadcast after bouts like this. There wasn't a single positive thing you could say about Ohho's sumo, so they probably used words like "gaman" or phrases like "his concentration was good," totally meaningless platitudes to make up for a totally meaningless bout. Ohho moves to 9-2 after suffering the complete ass kicking while Onokatsu settles for 6-5 with some nice pocket change.

M11 Takerufuji was the next two-loss dude to step in the ring, and his opponent was Sekiwake Daieisho. Takerufuji's tachi-ai was decent (if you don't count his footwork), and he was able to neutralize Daieisho's tsuppari attack before quickly moving right and going for an inashi swipe. That move sent Daieisho over near the edge, but the Sekiwake had plenty of time to square himself and greet his advancing opponent with a potent tsuppari attack, and Takerufuji's answer to that was to go for a series of lame pulls. As he did, you could see Daieisho shift gears and go on the offensive, and he only needed to connect on about two shoves to send Takerufuji into the second row.

Once again, there was a complete lack of any substance to Takerufuji's sumo and his Makuuchi resume to this point has been completely fabricated with fake sumo. He falls to a costly 8-3 in terms of the yusho race while Daieisho improves his record to 7-4.  Before we move on, I couldn't find any pics of this bout on the wires because there were too many photos of Kinbohzan choking Onosato into oblivion.  Not a good look for the faux-zeki.

The final two-loss rikishi on the day coming in was M5 Chiyoshoma paired against Ozeki Hoshoryu in the day's final bout. The tachi-ai between the two was methodic with Chiyoshoma standing straight up and aligning his feet, and that allowed Hoshoryu to get the left inside and right outer grip early, and from there, Chiyoshoma largely just went with the flow as Hoshoryu dashi-nage'ed him around the ring a time or two before pushing him down and out. Chiyoshoma lightly fell sideways across the edge indicating just how little force was exerted between the two, and this was a perfect bout of hana-zumo where the goal was to saddle Chiyoshoma with another loss.

It should be noted that Hoshoryu could have won this bout straight up, but this was just exhibition stuff here in order to bump Shoma another rung down the leaderboard. As he result, he's now barely hanging on at 8-3 while Hoshoryu finds himself at that same 8-3 mark.

The only rikishi from the leaderboard we've yet to cover is M1 Kirishima who was paired against M10 Tamawashi, and like the previous bout, this one also featured two Mongolians and contained nothing but fluff sumo. Tamawashi seemed to take charge at the tachi-ai using a nice tsuppari attack, and he could have easily defeated Kirishima in one fell swoop, but he stood around enough to where Kirishima was finally able to sorta execute a left kote-nage that sent Tamawashi over near the edge but not across, and as Kirishima advanced, Tamawashi got the right arm inside with the clear path to a left outer grip. Instead of taking that left outer, he brought his left arm up high in the kote position, and then he abandoned his right inside altogether, and from there, Kirishima lightly forced him across to where Tamawashi put his bum down in the corner of the ring and then backwards somersaulted off of the dohyo.

It pains me that we rarely get a straight up bout between two Mongolians, and Tamawashi was being really nice here in helping Kirishima improve to 8-3 while The Mawashi himself falls to a harmless 6-5.

With that, the new leaderboard shapes up as follows:

10-1: Kinbohzan
9-2: Ohho
8-3: Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Takerufuji

Kinbohzan draws Hoshoryu, and I expect Hoshoryu to win that bout. Head to head in a straight up bout, Hoshoryu has the 70-30 advantage only because he has more experience in the division, especially high up on the banzuke. Assuming a straight up fight, Kinbohzan's only chance would be to connect on a tsuki from the tachi-ai, but I think Hoshoryu's too wily and could dodge such a thrust easily. Politically, it makes no sense to have Hoshoryu throw the bout in Kinbohzan's favor unless someone wants to guarantee the yusho for Kinbohzan.

Ohho draws Kirishima, and there's no way that Ohho can keep Kirishima from getting to the inside. I expect Kirishima to come in light and ultimately take a dive as a result of an Ohho pull attempt. This one has tsuki-otoshi written all over it.

The remaining dude on the leaderboard, Takerufuji, is paired against Kotozakura, and I'm quite sure Zak will win the straight up bout. Takerufuji can only legitimately win by pull, and Kotozakura doesn't came hard enough and low enough to be baited.

The problem with five dudes spread out on the leaderboard all facing each other on Day 11 is that two of them are going to lose, and so the leaderboard gets thinner and thinner with too many days to go. If my guesses are correct, the yusho line will fall to two losses so they can include the four-loss rikishi in an attempt to keep people interested.

If we examine the four-loss rikishi coming into the day, Onokatsu and Tamawashi both purposefully lost to dudes above them on the leaderboard, so they are eliminated from yusho contention standing now at 6-5.

Daieisho beat Takerufuji as previously mentioned, so he'll still be hanging around.

M15 Hakuohho was paired against M2 Tobizaru, and the youngster was losing to Tobizaru in a push contest for the first four seconds or so. With Tobizaru gaining ground little by little, Hakuohho went for a stupid pull, and if Tobizaru wanted to win, he would have pounced at that point. When he didn't, you knew exactly what they were setting up. With Tobizaru now lollygagging round, Hakuohho connected on two shoves or so, but his feet were still planted to the dohyo, and so that enabled Tobizaru to nuzzle back in close.

After a few seconds of Hakuohho's inability to attack, Tobizaru next found himself in moro-zashi further exposing how vulnerable Hakuohho was, but it took TZ less than two seconds to bring his left arm back to the outside where he let Hakuohho get an inside belt position with a left outer grip. Still, Hakuohho hadn't earned that position so he couldn't attack from it, so there the two stood for at least 20 seconds, and from time to time Tobizaru would accidentally put his left arm against the side of Hakuohho's belt in the uwate position before pulling it back and thinking, "That's right; I'm being paid to lose." After what seemed like a minute, Hakuohho finally made his "charge" and Tobizaru went completely limp allowing Hakuohho to throw him down across the edge.

This bout was obviously fixed and Tobizaru did everything possible not to win the bout despite having prime position throughout to do so. He agrees to fall to 5-6 in exchange for cash while Hakuohho buys his way to 7-4. As if.

The next two four-loss rikishi to fight were paired together in Komusubi Abi vs. M6 Ichiyamamoto, and Abi henka'd to his left going for a quick pull that didn't work, and then as Ichiyamamoto looked to regroup, Abi went for a second pull. Now that it was clear that Abi was in henka/pull mode, Ichiyamamoto tried to evade and look for an opening, but Abi finally came to his senses and began a nice tsuppari attack that sent IYM across for good. This was an awful start for Abi but a nice finish as he moves to 7-4 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 6-5.

Finally, M6 Takayasu traveled up into the sanyaku ranks to take on Suckiwake Wakamotoharu, and Takayasu crushed Wakamotoharu at the tachi-ai choking him with a beefy left paw so that WMH was looking at the rafters, and then Takayasu followed up with an equally effective right paw choking Wakamotoharu upwards, and Wakamotoharu had no choice but to retreat, but Takayasu caught him with yet another left paw to the throat before shoving him back and across for good. Wow, that was an awesome attack from Takayasu who earned the tsuki-dashi winning technique if I've ever seen it. He maintains a glimmer of hope at 7-4 (he really doesn't, but let's play along) while Wakamotoharu suffers make-koshi at 3-8 and may need to go into counseling after that one.

By the way, are there two more tired rikishi that the Wakatakakage/Wakamotoharu brothers??  A few years ago, somehow the stable came into some cash, and they bought Wakatakakage a yusho and then tried to get Wakamotoharu promoted to Ozeki, but these two guys are as useless as tits on a bore...I mean boar.

Speaking of useless, we may as well cover Kotozakura who was paired against the aforementioned Komusubi Wakatakakage, and this bout was a complete laugher. Both rikishi stood straight up at the tachi-ai, and WTK actually had the path to the inside right but he instead moved to his right and promptly stepped out of the ring as he pretended to skirt along the edge of the dohyo. The referee caught it right away and signaled the end of the bout surprising everyone in the arena, but this was simply a ridiculously thrown bout in favor of the only guy weaker than the Waka brothers: Kotozakura. Both rikishi end the day at 5-6, and it still may be a chore for Kotozakura to get kachi-koshi because he'll likely be paired against some of the leaders down the stretch, and they'll take the easy wins and kensho money to boot.

Sheesh, four more days to go, so we'll see if this mess can be cleaned up a bit down the stretch. I don't see how the yusho doesn't come from Kinbohzan or Ohho at this point.

Hatsu Basho Day 10 Comments
It really feels like this basho is in damage control after such a horrific start. You had a so-called Yokozuna candidate come out of the gate and fall flat on his face in Kotozakura. Onosato had favors called in early resulting in his terrible start, and then around the middle weekend, you had the only legitimate Ozeki start losing in order to cover for Kotozakura and Onosato. In the midst of that, you lost a legitimate Yokozuna from the banzuke, and while all of that was going on, you had a few largely no-name foreigners running away with the yusho race.

I would be really curious to see NHK's viewership numbers from this basho. They never post them for obvious reasons, but it'd still be interesting to see them. I'd also be interested to know at what point the general NHK broadcast has been starting this tournament. At least 95% of the people reading this get their sumo feed online after it's been pirated from NHK's cable channels and posted to the internet, and I'm not saying that's bad as I rely on some of those pirated streams too at times, but they are never feeds that signal when the general NHK broadcast starts.

I used to get the feed on my satellite dish at home that was used as the general broadcast feed, and my version started at 4 PM Japan time every day, but you could tell when they'd start the actual broadcast in Japan to the general public because they'd put up the usual graphics and the NHK Announcer would all of a sudden pretend as if his broadcast was just starting, so he'd start by re-welcoming everyone.

Anyway, I greatly miss having that feed, but after watching it for 30 years and not having it now, I can still guess what's going on, and after watching Day 10, I'm quite positive the PR Department is in damage control.  Throughout the day, I got glimpses of the inside of the arena, and while they say the basho is a complete sell-out, the arena is quite full but not packed.

This is a shot up close of the mukou-joumen side six bouts into the day:

This is a crappy, low-quality shot (thanks NHK World) just before the Ura - Wakamotoharu matchup that occurred well into the 5 o'clock hour.  There are chunks of empty section above Wakamotoharu's head and behind the NHK World logo banner, and there are noticeable red seats in the upper right corner.  These upper tier seats are not sold prior to the basho, and they're dubbed toujitsu-ken, or tickets that don't go on sale until the day of.

And then this was the view I gleaned from the NSK's YouTube channel prior to the Daieisho - Hoshoryu matchup.  Once again, it's mostly full but there are gaps everywhere:

What I'm surmising is that the current state of sumo with its banzuke not based on merit and the current poor quality of sumo in the ring is going to lead to more gaps in the seating over time.  People are just gonna reach their breaking point as to how much fake sumo they'll tolerate.

Getting to the day's action itself, at the start of the day, the top two tiers of the leaderboard looked like this:

9-0: Kinbohzan
8-1: Chiyoshoma

They've been adding the two-loss rikishi as well just to get a couple of Japanese rikishi on the board in Ohho and Takerufuji, but overall, this is a weak, weak leaderboard in terms of rank and name recognition.

Let's start from the top and work our way down the leaderboard, which brings us to the Komusubi Abi vs. M14 Kinbohzan matchup first. From the tachi-ai, Abi put his right palm to the side of Kinbohzan's cheek, and Kinbohzan immediately flopped to the dirt putting two palms down to break his fall and keep the rest of his body from touching down. It was over in half a second, and I know amateur fans who want to believe this was real will try and scrutinize the slow mo replays and see if Abi's face to the cheek caused that fall (it didn't), but that's simply missing the forest for the trees. The pic at right shows Kinbohzan the instant before he dived, and you can see Abi really doing noting.

What we really need to focus on with this bout is Kinbohzan and what he was doing at the tachi-ai and the answer is nothing. Instead of that lethal tsuppari attack we've seen the entire basho, he put his hands forward and high as if to say, "Do me now." Abi didn't exactly follow through, but he didn't need to as Kinbohzan dove after sensing that initial contact. It was very predictable that Kinbohzan would start throwing bouts to add more Japanese rikishi to the leaderboard, and that's what happened here as he voluntarily falls to 9-1. As for Abi who "improves" to 6-4, he prolly didn't even have to pay for this win as there was plenty of politics behind it.

Our one-loss rikishi coming into the day, M5 Chiyoshoma, was paired against M1 Kirishima, and the tachi-ai here was all finesse as neither dude bothered going for the belt or aligning chests. Instead, they both flailed away with meaningless tsuppari, and then a few seconds in Chiyoshoma put his hands up as if to pull. The problem was that Kirishima wasn't bearing towards him, and so they traded a few more wild, ineffective thrusts, and then all of a sudden Chiyoshoma anticipated a dual thrust from Kirishima and dove sideways and down as soon as he felt contact. For a rikishi to fall at that angle, his opponent would have had to sideswipe him, but you can see in the pic at right (the instant before the dive), Kirishima was not swiping laterlaly, so this was simply a matter of Chiyoshoma picking his spot and taking a dive left.

Watching live, it looked extremely fake, and then the replays backed up the fact that Chiyoshoma's fall was not caused by anything coming from his opponent. Chiyoshoma falls now to 8-2 with the loss, and it's no surprise whatsoever that Chiyoshoma was also asked to lose today in order to strengthen the leaderboard by actually weakening it. Kirishima moves to 7-3, and I think he actually wins in a straight up bout regardless, but this bout was fake and scripted all the way.

Moving down to the two-loss tier, M11 Takerufuji was paired against M6 Ichiyamamoto, and this was simply a copout bout. Takerufuji henka'd poorly to his right, and his feet were so aligned he nearly tripped over them. From that kinda position, you're not going to apply any pressure to your opponent, especially one who checks in at 150 kg, but this bout was scripted, and so Ichiyamamoto didn't even look at his opponent and instead dove a bit to his right and just belly flopped forward and down a half second in. Goodness gracious. Is this the type of sumo you want people to scrutinize from your leaderboard? The problem is that over time fans clue into the fact that the sumo content is so poor, and yet these guys keep on magically winning. Takerufuji maintains his two-loss status with a cheap 8-2 record while Ichiyamamoto adds to his petty cash at 6-4.  Before we move on, I'm having a difficult time finding pictures of Takerufuji on the wires, which is an indication that he's not really being sold hard to the fans.  I mean, how can you sell this crap?

Our next two-loss dude, M3 Ohho, was paired against M10 Tamawashi, and Tamawashi caught Ohho with a headbutt in the upper corner of his right eye drawing a fair amount of blood, and from there the two traded tsuppari with Tamawashi knocking the fruit of Taiho's loins back a step. Instead of continuing that effective charge, however, Tamawashi briefly put his hands up high as if to pull and then took the bout to hidari-yotsu where he used his inside position to pull Ohho into his body as Tamawashi simply backed his way outta the dohyo and stepped that right foot across prematurely with Ohho in tow. Another scripted affair here as they keep Ohho on the leaderboard at 8-2, and while I didn't have the regular NHK feed with the Japanese announcers, I guarantee you all they talked about was Tamawashi's sumo and the mistakes he made because it was Tamawashi dictating things start to finish with nothing to break down coming from Ohho. Ohho didn't win the tachi-ai, and he did nothing to control Tamawashi's movement or momentum as the Mongolian settles on 6-4 with extra spending money.

If we summarize the four bouts that involved today's leaders, we have two bouts that didn't even last a second and then two finesse bouts that included a fake fall and another rikishi pulling his opponent into his body while backing out of the dohyo.

Both foreign rikishi lost and both Japanese rikishi won. What were the odds?!!

The shenanigans surrounding the leaders suddenly brought the three-loss rikishi into play, so let's examine their bouts.

M12 Onokatsu began the day at 6-3, and he was paired against M17 Tokihayate. The two hooked up in hidari-yotsu with Onokatsu forcing Tokihayate up higher than he wanted to be, and Onokatsu was in the prime position to grab a right outer grip. He faked it a couple of times only to have his hand just "slip" off of the belt, and after a few seconds of nonsense, Onokatsu voluntarily worked himself over near the edge where Tokihayate swung him around, out, and all the way down to the venue floor with this cheap kote-nage type grip. Onokatsu simply ran out of the dohyo of his own volition here, and you can't have too many foreigners on the leaderboard ya know has Onokatsu drops to 6-4. As for Tokihayate, he oils his way to a 5-5 clip.

A rikishi I'm warming up to a bit, M15 Hakuohho, also came into the day at 6-3, and he was set to do battle against M9 Ohshoma. Hakuohho was unable to establish anything at the tachi-ai, and so Ohshoma took charge with a quick slap to the face and a left outer grip. Instead of going chest to chest, Hakuohho moved laterally as the two changed places in the ring, and the two ended up with Ohshoma maintaining two outer grips and Hakuohho with moro-zashi although it was just forearm deep. Ohshoma was eager to make a move quickly and so he began to force Hakuohho back to the straw, but at the edge, Hakuohho darted right going for a counter tsuki-otoshi move, and Hakuohho looked to step out just as Ohshoma himself crashed down to the dirt.

This one was extremely close, and the call could have gone either way. Hakuohho did touch out first, but when he did, Ohshoma's entire body was practically beyond the straw so they ordered a do-over after the referee just had to guess and point in favor of Hakuohho initially.

For round two, Hakuohho was once again sloppy at the tachi-ai ducking a bit low and aligning his feet, and so Ohshoma went for a quick slap down. Hakuohho kept his balance and moved laterally, and this time it was Ohshoma who had moro-zashi when the dust settled. Hakuohho quickly worked his right arm inside as Ohshoma hadn't applied forward pressure yet, but that gave Ohshoma a firm left outer grip coupled with the right inside, and after gathering his wits for a few seconds, Ohshoma forced Hakuohho over to the edge and dumped him soundly with a left outer belt throw. Adding insult to injury, Ohshoma landed on Hakuohho just for good measure, and that ending was easily top three this basho. That was great technical sumo from Ohshoma who moves to 5-5 while Hakuohho falls to 6-4, and once again, you can see that Hakuohho lacks sound sumo skills in the ring. Dude has potential, but when the bouts is straight up, it always seems to be his opponent who looks like the technical genius and that was the case here.

The fans did get their money's worth from these two bouts.

M6 Takayasu has been on a bit of a hot streak after winning four straight bouts to enter the day at 6-3, and today he needed to solve M1 Takanosho. Takayasu came out with some confidence executing a nice tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai, but Takanosho was in full control as he retreated while waxing on and waxing off Takayasu's thrusts. With Takayasu flustered a bit near the edge, Takanosho was able to duck his head and move right, and as Takayasu adjusted too slowly, Takanosho was able to get moro-zashi and force Takayasu back that last step. Sheesh, none of these 6-3 rikishi today can catch a break as Takanosho moves to 3-7 with Takayasu falling to 6-4.

M3 Gonoyama blasted the 6-3 Onosato back from the tachi-ai placing perfect thrusts into Onosato's torso and driving him near the edge. But then all of a sudden Gonoyama just halted his charge, and waited for an Onosato pull, and when it came, Gonoyama just flopped to the dirt spread eagle style. Normally when a guy goes for a pull like that after his opponent has driven him back with effective thrusts, he finds himself in the third row, but in a fixed bout, the dude with all the momentum from the start suddenly flies to the deck at the first sign of a counter move from his opponent. Onosato moves to 7-3 with the fake win, and this is simply an effort to try and get a Japanese Ozeki back onto the leaderboard. As for Gonoyama, he gets paid to fall to 5-5.

Two 6-3 rikishi looked to do battle next in Sekiwake Daieisho vs. Ozeki Hoshoryu, and these two struck chest to chest from the tachi-ai with Hoshoryu flirting with an inside left, and I automatically thought to myself...where is Daieisho's tsuppari attack? Before I could even finish that thought though, Hoshoryu moved slightly to his right and touched the back of Daieisho's belt, and the Sekiwake just flopped forward and down less than two seconds in. Daieisho put both palms to the dirt with nothing else coming close to touching down, and that is a clear sign of yaocho. I have no idea what the politics where behind this one, but it was not fought straight up as Hoshoryu moves to 7-3 with Daieisho falling to 6-4.

Due to the purposeful losses by Kinbohzan and Chiyoshoma earlier, the new leaderboard at the end of Day 10 is as follows:

9-1: Kinbohzan
8-2: Ohho, Chiyoshoma, Takerufuji
7-3: Hoshoryu, Onosato, Kirishima

With five days to go, we're probably looking at a 12-3 yusho line at best because all of those guys still need to fight each other for the most part.

In other bouts of interest, the day ended with Kotozakura paired against M5 Hiradoumi and the tachi-ai was fiddy-fiddy before Hiradoumi began swiping downwards while retreated to the side directly in front of the chief judge, and with Kotozakura in tow, it was an easy and gifted win in favor of Kotozakura (4-6) as Hiradoumi (5-5) largely backed himself over to the side and out.

Finally, two former Ozeki fought today in M4 Shodai and M7 Mitakeumi, and Shodai dominated the tachi-ai getting the right arm inside and using it to force Mitakeumi back to the straw, and at the edge, Mitakeumi tried to skirt right and go for a counter tsuki-otoshi that nearly worked, but Shodai simply had too much momentum from the tachi-ai, so give Shodai the nice oshi-dashi win in the end. He moves to 5-5 with the win while Mitakeumi's make-koshi becomes official at 2-8. It was easy to make fun of these two as Ozeki because they never earned their rank or their yusho, but this was a technically sound bout today that I rather enjoyed.

Well leave it at that as we head into the Shubansen. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the Ozeki ultimately take the yusho, but they'd have to do it with a 12-3 record at best.

Hatsu Basho Day 9 Comments
I was really sorry to see Terunofuji retire as we headed into the first weekend. I know he wasn't doing much lately (by design), but his presence there on the banzuke still meant something. When allowed to fight at full strength, Terunofuji was able to establish a baseline of greatness, and when you watched him execute his craft straight up, you could see the strength and power characteristic of a real Yokozuna. With all the crap that's allowed to go on right now atop the dohyo, you at least had Terunofuji there to bring everyone back to reality, so now that he's gone, there is a huge void on the banzuke.

My best memory of Terunofuji was his original run to the Ozeki rank. I commented at the time that it would be the last real Ozeki run you would ever see in sumo, and that meant that the guy legitimately earned his way to the top against a very difficult banzuke. At the time you had three Yokozuna in Hakuho, Harumafuji, and Kakuryu, and then you had the three clown Ozeki in Kisenosato, Kotoshogiku, and Goeido. Terunofuji thrashed his way through those three and legitimately achieved the Ozeki rank, and once he did, you had a powerhouse of four Mongolians at the top of the banzuke that couldn't be toppled by any of the Japanese rikishi.

The problem that posed is that the four Mongolians would suck up all of the wins at the top leaving nothing for the others, and so the four would take turns going kyujo in subsequent basho...usually two at a time just to give everyone else a chance. Six months later they orchestrated the first Japanese rikishi in 10 years, and thus began the modern-day decline in the quality of Sumo wrestling where quality sumo took a backseat to rampant bout fixing.

It's been a tough 10 years, and we will never return to the quality of sumo enjoyed when Terunofuji was first crowned an Ozeki (sigh).

The sumo over the weekend was a mess although the results weren't surprising, and I'll comment on a few of the bouts from the weekend as we examine Day 9.

The day began with Shiden visiting from the J2 slot to take on M16 Kagayaki, and in a rather uneventful but real bout, the two clashed in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai going chest to chest, and Kagayaki easy as you please grabbed the left outer grip and forced the Juryo rikishi back and across without argument. Kagayaki moves to 3-6 after the easy win.

M16 Tamashoho and M13 Kotoshoho traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai with Kotoshoho seemingly in control only to give that up by going for dumb pulls.  Whenever Kotoshoho moved forward with his thrusts, however, he had the rookie on his heels, and he figured this out the last half of the bout when near the edge, Kotoshoho was able to grab his foe in the right kote-nage grip and hoist him across the straw in the end. It wasn't pretty, but Kotoshoho will take it as he moves to just 2-7 while Tamashoho falls to 3-6.

M13 Shonannoumi met M17 Tokihayate with a bruising tachi-ai where SNNU focused on a beefy shove attack where his legs were fueling the charge. Tokihayate knew he was in trouble early and began moving to his right around the edge of the ring, but before he could muster a counter attack, Shonannoumi had him pushed across with ease. Both rikishi end the day at 4-5.

M17 Nishikifuji looked to push M12 Onokatsu back from the tachi-ai with a high shove attack, but Onokatsu was able to get his left arm inside after giving up a step or two, and he brought Nishikifuji closer to the vest by wrapping his right arm around Nishikifuji's left. Onokatsu still wasn't able to position himself for a kote-nage throw, but his size proved too difficult for Nishikifuji to handle, so when NFJ finally went for a pull, Onokatsu steamrolled him across and down for the nice come back win. Onokatsu moves to 6-3 with the win, and he's quickly becoming one of my favorite rikishi in the division. As for Nishikifuji, he falls to 4-5 after giving a good effort.

On Day 8, M15 Kitanowaka was paired against Takerufuji, and Kitanowaka stayed high and wide from the tachi-ai willingly moving backwards from the start despite no pressure from Takerufuji, and then Kitanowaka moved to the other side of the dohyo and turned his body into a vulnerable position as he put his right foot sideways against the straw, so when Takerufuji connected on the final pushout, Kitanowaka's foot was caught awkwardly against the straw, and the Pawn Stars had to wheel him out of the arena in the antique wheelchair.

It's one thing for guys to go mukiryoku and throw bouts, but it's quite another when someone gets needlessly injured because they're dutifully throwing a bout, and that's what happened to Kitanowaka on Day 8 against Takerufuji. As a result, Kitanowaka was forced to withdraw from the festivities in what will end up as a 4-11 record, and his opponent for Day 9, M12 Nishikifuji, moved to 5-4 after picking up the fusensho (win by default).

And that brings us to the unworthy M11 Takerufuji who was paired today against M14 Kinbohzan, and the result of this bout would signal whether or not the Association was okay with letting things reset a bit after the four fake yusho last year, or whether or not they wanted the Japanese rikishi dominance to continue.

Kinbohzan was lax from the tachi-ai opting not to go for the dominant tsuki attack we've seen from him this whole tournament, but Takerufuji wasn't charging forward hard and opted to skirt right looking for a pull. The move wasn't effective at all, and so Kinbohzan faked a pull of his own when he could have sent Takerufuji across easily with a final tsuki. Instead of employing that tsuki, he allowed the action to flow back to the center of the ring where Kinbohzan instinctively got the right arm inside. The left outer grip was there for the taking by Kinbohzan, but he didn't take it and instead let Takerufuji push him to the edge. Takerufuji didn't have enough mustard on the shove, and so the two moved laterally where Kinbohzan finally felled Takerufuji at the edge with a very soft left kote-nage.

This bout was certainly not fought straight up by Kinbohzan as he gave Takerufuji plenty of openings, and even that final kote-nage was sheepish at best. It was almost as if Kinbohzan was waiting for a stronger counter move from Takerufuji, but the latter was hapless start to finish, and so it was nice to see Kinbohzan come away with the win even if that may not have been his intention coming into the bout. The result is Kinbohzan's taking a commanding lead at 9-0 while Takerufuji falls to 7-2.

We'll see what the Kise-beya decides to do moving forward in terms of Kinbohzan and the yusho race. Even if they pair this guy with dudes at the top of the banzuke, he'll be able to smoke any of the Japanese rikishi and also give the Mongolians a decent fight.

Next up was M15 Hakuohho taking on M10 Meisei, and Meisei came with the complete C3P0 arms at the tachi-ai and even raised them up high giving Hakuohho the uncontested left inside and right outer grip. Still, Hakuohho couldn't do anything with the position because he didn't set it up with a good tachi-ai, and so the two rikishi dosey doed around the ring a bit where Meisei began an effective inside dashi-nage only to quickly halt it because it would have done damage. The two never did settle in tight chest to chest where their feet were dug in, and as the action flowed to the opposite side of the dohyo, Meisei just stood there and waited for a dashi-nage from Hakuohho, and when it came, Meisei flopped around and down in a very controlled fall. Easy yaocho call here as Hakuohho is gifted 6-3 while Meisei falls to 2-7.

M7 Mitakeumi attempted to push M11 Midorifuji from the tachi-ai, but his arms slipped up high giving Midorifuji moro-zashi. Midorifuji doesn't have the strength to effectively fight from the moro-zashi position, but Mitakeumi isn't exactly a spring chicken, and so quite a nice bout ensued where both dudes exerted full power.

If we stop the tape here, you'll notice from this bout that Midorifuji never once thought about a kata-sukashi...his supposed signature move, and the reason he never thought about it is because the bout was real, and his kata-sukashi wins are always fake.

Anyway, the two dug in for about 20 seconds, and you could see that Midorifuji sensed he had an opening for an inside belt throw, and so he forced the action near the straw where he went for a very good right inside belt throw that had Mitakeumi hopping on one foot before he was thrown over. This bout was one of my favorites of the tournament so far, and it's easily my favorite win by Midorifuji ever as he moves to 2-7. As for Mitakeumi, he falls to the same 2-7, and when you can't beat Midorifuji in a straight up bout, it's time to start thinking about retirement.

In a completely fake display of sumo, M10 Tamawashi pretended as if he was coming with his tsuppari attack against M7 Endoh, and I suppose he did for a half second, but then he suddenly moved a shade to his right and ducked his head with Endoh positioned to Tamawashi's left, and before Endoh could even react with a slapdown, Tamawashi dove to the dirt, rolled over twice, and then softly landed on the venue floor below. That was as fake of a dive as you'd care to see as Tamawashi obviously threw this one all by himself in falling to 7-2 while Endoh (4-5) picks up a win without really touching his opponent. How about that?!!

M6 Ichiyamamoto was proactive at the tachi-ai against M9 Ohshoma executing a soft push charge where it didn't look as if Ohshoma wanted to defend himself. The action moved back to the straw without a lot of force involved, and Ohshoma got the inside right at the edge while Ichiyamamoto grabbed an outer left. The two were standing so straight up, however, that no one had good leverage until Ohshoma began a right force out charge that would have worked if he didn't stop it for no other reason to throw the bout. With Ohshoma upright and vulnerable, Ichiyamamoto went for a quick suso-harai (back leg trip), and that threw Ohshoma off balance enough to where Ichiyamamoto was able to finally push Ohshoma across and down. Ichiyamamoto himself flew off the dohyo as well because no pressure was coming from Ohshoma, and this bout was fake start to finish as Ichiyamamoto buys his way to 6-3 while Ohshoma falls to 4-5.

M6 Takayasu focused on a thrust attack against M8 Takarafuji while the latter entertained getting the left arm inside, but Takayasu was the more powerful rikishi and he thrust Takarafuji back and across in mere seconds. Takayasu moves to 6-3 with the nice, easy win while Takarafuji falls to 4-5.

Speaking of Takarafuji, on paper he handed M5 Chiyoshoma his first loss on Day 8, but that had to have been the most farcical bout of the first eight days. Chiyoshoma quickly drove Takarafuji back to the edge in half a second with a nice chokehold, and then Chiyoshoma singlehandedly put his hand down across the straw and cart wheeled himself down to the venue floor below before Takarafuji knew what happened. I mean, the dismount by Chiyoshoma was beautiful, but the fake sumo was not, and everyone knew that this bout was staged.

So the question coming into Day 9, would M5 Chiyoshoma throw his bout against M9 Churanoumi? He certainly gave Churanoumi plenty of openings in a bout that saw Chiyoshoma dictate start to finish in a thrust contest between the two where Chiyoshoma was always in control, but he wasn't doing anything to actually win the bout. After six seconds or so of curious grappling where Chiyoshoma actually had the path to the left inside with a right outer grip, Chiyoshoma refrained from taking that and ultimately positioned his hands up high as if to pull, and then he even backed up near the edge leaving himself vulnerable, but instead of clueing in and pushing his self-compromised opponent back, Churanoumi recklessly tumbled over and down to Chiyoshoma's right. Churanoumi (3-6) took a beating here even though Chiyoshoma was being nice, but I was glad to see that Chiyoshoma didn't outright throw the bout as he moves to 8-1.

In a similar bout, M3 Gonoyama pulverized M4 Shodai with chokeholds and thrusts start to finish, and at any point in the point, Gonoyama could have rushed in and forced Shodai back and across, but Gonoyama kept letting up and giving his opponent openings. Shodai could only muster weak shoulder slaps, and so in the end, Gonoyama stopped all grappling motions with his hands before standing completely upright while waiting for Shodai to tackle him across the straw. Gonoyama was stiff as a board as Shodai went for the tackle, and Shodai also hit the deck completely out of control, which happens in a fake bout when your opponent isn't applying any counter pressure. It's really hard to describe these fake bouts because the actions and the movements are so unorthodox, but this was clearly a matter of Gonoyama (5-4) dictating start to finish and then giving up in the end as he gave the bout to Shodai (4-5) for who knows what reason??

If I had to guess, it was to give the Shodai "win" over Hoshoryu yesterday more legitimacy, and that bout yesterday was the same formula as this bout today. Hoshoryu dictated start to finish and roughed Shodai up a bit before backing himself up to the edge and standing there as he waited for the final shove from Shodai.

Because I didn't do any pre-basho homework, I failed to notice that Hoshoryu's name was also bandied about as a possible Yokozuna candidate here in Hatsu coming off of his jun-yusho performance in Kyushu. Normally, an Ozeki must win two consecutive basho in order to be promoted to Yokozuna, but for political reasons, they'll promote a guy with just one yusho plus another basho with a yusho-worthy performance. There is even precedent where they promoted a dude in the 80's who took zero yusho, but he did post two consecutive yusho worthy performances back to back, so they gave it to him for political reasons. Anyway, it would not look good for Hoshoryu to fill the vacant Yokozuna slot so soon while the Japanese Ozeki flounder, and so even if the dude does end up taking the yusho at say 12-3, it's too low of a number to promote him.

Moving right along, I was sorry to see M3 Ohho be obliged to take a fake dive against Kotozakura yesterday, but politics will always prevail in sumo. Today, Ohho's opponent was M2 Atamifuji who latched onto a frontal belt grip with the left, but Atamifuji didn't do anything with it, and just stood there as Ohho moved left and executed a rather mediocre kata-sukashi, and Atamifuji dutifully just hit the dirt when it came. Not sure of all the politics behind this one, but it was a harmless thrown bout that keeps an extra Japanese rikishi on the board as Ohho moves to 7-2 while Atamifuji is plum outta luck at 2-7.

Komusubi Wakatakakage welcomed M1 Takanosho, and it was Takanosho who won the tachi-ai connecting on a few shoves, and as WTK backpedaled a bit, Takanosho lowered his head inviting a pull, but Wakatakakage couldn't clue in, and so he instead got moro-zashi with his back against the straw. With both dudes completely upright (which rendered WTK's moro-zashi largely ineffective), all Takanosho had to do was pinch in from the outside against Wakatakakage's arms and kime-dashi him across, but he instead just stood there and played along as Wakatakakage slowly (emphasis on slow) worked his way to Takanosho's left side and slowly felled him sukui-nage style. This one was obviously thrown in Wakatakakage's favor as he oils his way to 4-5 while Takanosho finishes the day at 2-7.

Komusubi Abi was paired against M1 Kirishima, and Abi brought the firehose tsuppari from the tachi-ai, but they had little effect due to the lack of pressure coming from Abi's lower body, and so Kirishima was able to slip a bit left and connect on a nice shoulder slap at the back of Abi's right shoulder, and that sent the Komusubi stumbling all the way over to the edge where Kirishima pushed him out from there. Kirishima moves to a cool 6-3 with the easy win while Abi falls to 5-4.

Sekiwake Wakamotoharu was matched up against M2 Tobizaru, and the Suckiwake connected on a decent kachi-age into Tobizaru's grill at the tachi-ai, but it didn't put Tobizaru onto his heels. As the two grappled from there, Wakamotoharu wasn't making any progress, and so he instinctively and stupidly positioned his hands as if to pull, and Tobizaru got the right arm deep inside and had WMH dead to rights from that point. Instead of scoring the easy yori-kiri, however, Tobizaru backed up and faked a pull himself, and that gave Tobizaru the excuse to back up to the straw and wait for Wakamotoharu to deliver that last blow. Everyone knew that this was thrown as Tobizaru willingly falls to 5-4 while Wakamotoharu buys just his second win at 2-7.

Ozeki Hoshoryu was paired against M5 Hiradoumi, and the Ozeki connected nicely at the tachi-ai with a shove or two, but then he stopped frozen in his tracks and waited with hands extended forward for Hiradoumi to move left and sorta pull him over. There was minimal contact from Hiradoumi, but the Ozeki had his cue, and so he dove catching himself with both palms as he kicked his legs up high, and then he hopped all the way to edge one more time for good measure. I've seen some fake falls in my day, but this one was right up there with the best of 'em. It's obvious that the Association thinks it's better that Hoshoryu does not take the yusho and thus gain promotion to Yokozuna, and so the Mongolian is playing along here as he fakes his third loss of the tournament to finish at 6-3. As for Hiradoumi, he moves to 5-4 with the cheap win.

Kotozakura drew M4 Ura today, and Ura burrowed in from the tachi-ai gaining the quick and uncontested moro-zashi, and after the action moved near the straw with Kotozakura's back to the wall, Ura felled Kotozakura with a mediocre left scoop throw that wouldn't have worked if Kotozakura wasn't playing along. Normally when a dude goes for a left scoop throw, you counter with a right uwate-nage or a right kote-nage, but Kotozakura pulled that right arm away from Ura and used it to soften his fall to the dohyo. This was a soft, soft bout, and it was simply a matter of Kotozakura paying Ura back the win Zak owed him for diving last basho. I watch these phony bouts, and I don't feel so bad for missing three straight days as Kotozakura falls to 3-6 while Ura picks up the cheapie at 5-4.

In the day's final affair, Onosato was paired against Sekiwake Daieisho, and Daieisho greeted Onosato with two hands to the torso although you could see that Daieisho's heart wasn't into the bout. As for Onosato, he moved a bit to his left, and his feet were completely aligned meaning he had no balance at that point, but Daieisho didn't apply any pressure and waited for Onosato to formulate a soft pull, and Daieisho dutifully walked into it flopping down to the dirt in about three seconds. This stuff is so fake and so anticlimactic as Onosato is gifted 6-3 while Daieisho falls to the same mark.

Those last three bouts barely kicked up any dust, but once it was settled, this was the leaderboard at the end of Day 9:

9-0: Kinbohzan
8-1: Chiyoshoma
7-2: Ohho, Takerufuji

Even with those two Japanese rikishi in the two-loss tier, that leaderboard lacks zero excitement, and so I'm sure Kinbohzan is going to lose in short order to take the leaderboard down to the three-loss rikishi where Onosato, Hoshoryu, and a host of other recognizable rikishi await.

Hatsu Basho Day 5 Comments
The big news heading into Day 5 was the announcement that Yokozuna Terunofuji had withdrawn from the Hatsu Basho after throwing his Day 4 bout against Tobizaru. Beyond just the Yokozuna's withdrawal, Association officials are leaking all over the place that Terunofuji will announce his retirement. No press conference has been announced yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Fuji go at this point. His body is not beat up as is being reported. I mean, when was the last time a Yokozuna really got injured? It was probably Takanohana decades ago when he needed to have his knee rebuilt and he flew to France to do it.

The bottom line is that Terunofuji is more of a liability to the Association than he is an asset right now. If he fights at full strength, he'll take the yusho every time. If he half asses it like he's purposefully done here in January, it tarnishes the rank. Nobody is watching sumo for Terunofuji, so why not clear the decks for a Japanese successor? He's going to get a sweet severance package, and it sounds as if he'll remain with the Association for now as a scrub oyakata with the Isegahama-beya.

In my opinion, it's actually quite dangerous to get rid of him because you really need someone from the Yokozuna rank to exude power and provide legitimacy to this sport, and we know that none of the Japanese rikishi can do that. It's been the case for nearly 30 years now. Kisenosato was a joke of a Yokozuna and everyone knew it, and Wakanohana decades before that was awful. Both dudes were pushed into the rank due to politics, and the next Japanese Yokozuna is going to suffer the same fate.

It just sucks that politics dictates so much in sumo these days, but that's the landscape we gotta deal with here.

Day 5 began with Sadanoumi making an appearance from the J1 rank to take on M17 Tokihayate, and the tachi-ai was sound with both dudes coming away in the hidari-yotsu position, but it was Sadanoumi who managed to grab a right outer grip, and it was near the front of the belt, and so he wasted no time in lifting Tokihayate upright, pushing him off balance, and forcing him back and across without argument. This might be the most textbook yori-kiri we've seen all basho as both dudes finish the day at 3-2.

In a well-fought bout, M16 Tamashoho and M15 Kitanowaka traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and then both dudes danced around the ring continuing their shoves while looking for an opening. Kitanowaka went for the slapdown first, and while Tamashoho survived it easily, he wasn't in a position to pounce, so the two resumed a few more shoves before Tamashoho dove inside getting the right inside position, and he immediately attempted to force a rather upright Kitanowaka across, but at the edge, Kitanowaka was able to use his length to latch onto a left outer belt grip, and he used that to counter the rookie's force-out charge, and the result was a very nice comeback win for Kitanowaka at the edge. I thought the rookie was going to win this one midway through, but Tamashoho (1-4) simply lacks any power. As for Kitanowaka, great ring sense here as he scoots to 3-2.

M16 Kagayaki and M15 Hakuohho clashed at the tachi-ai, and you could see from the start that Hakuohho's footwork was not stable. The two looked to go to hidari-yotsu, but then Kagayaki backed up a step to the center of the ring where they both settled for migi-yotsu. From this point, it was Kagayaki simply using his size advantage to lean in on Hakuohho and make him do the heavy lifting. Kagayaki would reach for the left outer here and there, and as Hakuohho began to tire, Kagayaki forced him back near the edge, got the convincing left outer grip, and then hoisted Hakuohho back and across for the nice yori-kiri win.

Kagayaki shows how difficult he is to beat in a straight up bout as he picks up his first win at 1-4. As for Hakuohho, I think this was my favorite bout so far of his short, Makuuchi career. Yes, he ended up losing, but he showed some grit in there, and if they would just let him fight straight up all the time, he'd learn how to perform better in bouts like this. He falls to 3-2 in defeat, and I see potential there, but they need to stop all of the yaocho shenanigans.

M17 Nishikifuji reached for a frontal grip of M14 Kinbohzan's mawashi, and he nearly had it, but Kinbohzan was able to push him back, and so Nishikifuji smartly went into retreat mode dancing around the ring and making Kinbohzan keep pace. Kinbohzan easily kept up and continued to apply pressure, and after Nishikifuji did a useless 360 in the ring, Kinbohzan pounced getting the right arm inside and left outer grip, and in textbook fashion, he used the left outer to lift Nishikifuji off balance as he marched him backwards and across.

If you were to ask me what Kinbohzan's style was, I'd say he was a pusher and thruster, and I think that's generally true, but to see those belt skills at the end was quite impressive. I mean, you watch everything in Kinbohzan's arsenal today...the tachi-ai, the shoves, the yori-kiri finish, and do you see that type of ability and execution from Onosato or Kotozakura? No way Jose, and I can say that because some of my best friends are named Jose. Kinbohzan is a slick 5-0 while Nishikifuji falls to 2-3.

I'm not sure what they put in the chanko today, but we got our fifth straight bout in a row with M12 Nishikigi taking on M12 Onokatsu...two of my favorite guys in the division. The charge was fiddy-fiddy as they hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and Nishikigi made the first push with his belly to knock Onokatsu upright and grab for the right outer grip. He didn't get it, but he sent a message to the youngster that he was close, and so the two largely stood there chest to chest with Nishikigi threatening that right outer and Onokatsu trying to figure out a counter plan.

The longer they went on like this, the more advantage it gave Nishikigi because he was leaning into his opponent like a chunk of deadwood making Onokatsu exert more power to keep him at bay. After what seemed like 20 seconds or so, Nishikigi finally made his yori charge, and while he didn't grab the right outer, he was able to body Onokatsu back to where he stepped across the straw a bit prematurely, which was due to his being gassed. I love commenting on these real bouts and watching the chess matches play out, and Nishikigi moved to 4-1 with this nice win while Onokatsu falls to 2-3.

As much as I hate to see fixed bouts, I thought the timing of the M13 Kotoshoho - M11 Takerufuji bout was good because it gives you a stark contrast between a fake bout and a real bout. Kotoshoho was nonchalant at the tachi-ai agreeing to let Takerufuji dictate the pace, but Takerufuji didn't slam into him hard and force the bout chest to chest. As Kotoshoho moved a bit right, the two finally hooked up in migi-yotsu with neither dude coming close to a left outer grip.

In the yotsu contests up to this point, the two combatants leaned heavily into each as they looked for their next moves, but here, there was no leaning into each other and no real force being exerted from both parties. The primary movement in this bout was caused by Kotoshoho feigning a right scoop throw, but that was just an excuse for him to back up near the edge. Even though Kotoshoho set himself up, Takerufuji was having a tough time forcing him across and so Kotoshoho stepped back and across while firing a meager tsuki-otoshi into Takerufuji's left side that sent him into the first row while Kotoshoho nonchalantly stood there in the corner. After watching the previous yori-kiri bouts, how does the winner of this bout end up in West judge's lap while the loser is in complete control as he stands there in the corner?

This was such a telling, fixed bout, and I'm kind of glad it came at the end of five really good bouts. Anyway, Takerufuji is a complete fraud as he's gifted 4-1 while Kotoshoho takes the cash at 1-4.

The action obviously turned to real sumo again with the next bout that saw M11 Midorifuji work his way into moro-zashi shortly after the tachi-ai against M13 Shonannoumi, but SNNU took a page out of Terunofuji's book and pinched in tightly around both arms from the outside. In a fake bout, Midorifuji's opponent would let him set up the kata-sukashi, but you notice he didn't even dare attempt it today. After gathering his wits for a few seconds, Shonannoumi went for a mammoth kime-dashi, but he started the move in the center of the ring and couldn't quite get Midorifuji across. As the two hooked back up, it was Midorifuji once again assuming moro-zashi and Shonannoumi wrapping around the outsides with both arms, and Shonannoumi was simply too big of a load for Midorifuji to handle, so on the second kime-dashi attempt, Shonannoumi was able to yank his pesky foe across the straw for good in moving to 2-3 while Midorifuji falls to 1-4.

M10 Tamawashi came with his usual tsuppari attack against M10 Meisei, but you could tell these guys weren't out there brawling as Meisei retreated to the straw, put his heels against it, and then just flopped forward at his master's feet. They ruled it hiki-otoshi, but Meisei was well on his way down before Tamawashi made any downward contact. Who knows what the politics was behind this, but the bout was obviously fixed as Tamawashi moves to 5-0 and Meisei falls to 1-4.

M9 Churanoumi and M9 Ohshoma engaged in a light tachi-ai, and you could see from the start that Churanoumi was thinking pull. Ohshoma was careful not to walk into it, and so the two danced around the ring for a bit until Ohshoma was able to time a decent pull of Churanoumi. The sumo was lame here because Churanoumi was looking pull all the way, and Ohshoma had his guard up. Ohshoma moves to 3-2 with the nice win while Churanoumi falls to 2-3.

M8 Takarafuji looked like a spring chicken against M7 Mitakeumi who is so slow it's painful. Mitakeumi could do nothing start to finish here as the aggressor, Takarafuji, eventually worked his left arm inside and followed Mitakeumi around the ring a bit before forcing him out (yawn). Takarafuji moves to 1-4 with the legit win while Mitakeumi falls to 2-3.

M8 Roga made his first appearance of the basho taking on M7 Endoh, but Roga's right leg was really bothering him, and he couldn't defend himself against Endoh who burrowed in low and forced Roga straight back and across with little fanfare. I was bumping around online and found a video of Roga when he got injured in the keiko ring, and if I can find it again, it's worth analyzing the video together so you can see the way they practice sumo basics in the ring and those basic movements vary greatly from sumo in fixed bouts. Anyway, Endoh moves to 2-3 with the easy win while Roga is an obvious 0-5.

M5 Chiyoshoma put two hands high into M6 Takayasu's neck at the tachi-ai before quickly moving right and grabbing an outer grip, and before Takayasu knew what hit him, Chiyoshoma was turning Takayasu to the side dashi-nage style before dragging him to the edge and forcing him across from there. Speed was the difference here as Chiyoshoma moves to a cool 5-0 while Takayasu falls to 2-3.

M6 Ichiyamamoto greeted M5 Hiradoumi with some stiff tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and that put Hiradoumi on the defensive and looking to pull from the get-go. Ichiyamamoto's tsuppari attack isn't exactly what I'd call precise, but it was busy enough to keep Hiradoumi from getting inside, and so the closer Hiradoumi got to the straw, the more confidence IYM gained. After a series of failed swipes that put Hiradoumi's back to the edge, Ichiyamamoto went for the kill getting the left arm inside trying to scoop throw Hiradoumi over and across. Hiradoumi countered nicely with a right kote-nage creating a messy nage-no-uchi-ai at the end, but Ichiyamamoto was a bit stronger as he sent Hiradoumi down first. Wasn't textbook but Ichiyamamoto will take it in moving to 4-1 while Hiradoumi falls to 1-4.

Speaking of messy sumo, M2 Tobizaru and M4 Ura clashed today with Ura looking pull from the start, but Tobizaru wasn't able to take full advantage, and so the two briefly hooked up in migi-yotsu. Anytime that Ura is in a clinch, it's to his disadvantage, and so he tried to pull his way out of the clinch causing the two to social distance themselves. As Tobizaru looked to close the gap, Ura kept skirting laterally, and a frustrated Tobizaru finally went for a pull of his own from the center of the ring. Ura could see it coming, and so he went for a do-or-die pushout, and Tobizaru just did manage to pull Ura down before Tobizaru was blasted out of the ring himself. The amateur fans love to see this kind of sumo as Tobizaru moves to 4-1 with the win while Ura falls to 2-3.

Before we move on, do you know how you can tell if you have no game in life? You'rehave to dress like this in public to get attention:



Only in Japan.

Course, if dressing like that got me a front row seat to the sumos...

Moving right along, M1 Takanosho proactively came with a tsuppari attack against M1 Kirishima from the tachi-ai, but Kirishima dodged the thrusts well swiping at Takanosho's outstretched arms enough to were Takanosho could gain no momentum. This continued for about five seconds before Kirishima finally saw an opening for him to get to the inside, and he didn't even need an outer grip as he had Takanosho forced back and out in a flash. Kirishima moves to 2-3 with the nice win while Takanosho falls to 0-5.

Komusubi Wakatakakage was no match for Sekiwake Daieisho who blew his foe off of the starting lines with a nice tsuppari attack and then chased WTK around the ring as he looked to flee and set up a desperate pull. It would never happen as Daieisho used excellent footwork to knock Wakatakakage back tsuki-dashi style. And yes, this was an ass-kicking. Daieisho moves to 4-1 after the great performance while Wakatakakage is exposed further in falling to 2-3.

Komusubi Abi's win over Suckiwake Wakamotoharu wasn't quite as straightforward, but Abi still dictated the pace here after Wakamotoharu simply stood straight upright at the tachi-ai, which took away his momentum. As for Abi, he was actually looking to skirt right, but with Wakamotoharu standing there exposed, Abi repented of his ways and finally got an oshi attack going to which Wakamotoharu had no answer. It was over in about four seconds as Abi moves to 4-1 while Wakamotoharu falls to 1-4.

Kotozakura and M4 Shodai actually went chest to chest from the tachi-ai and stuck together in the migi-yotsu position where it was Shodai who grabbed the left outer grip. Realizing he had the advantage, Shodai tested the quick force-out waters only to see Kotozakura counter with a right inside belt throw and think about a left maki-kae that never formulated. That counter move gave Shodai pause, and while Shodai is largely useless these days, he still knows how to defeat a guy with an outer grip, and so for round two, he lifted Kotozakura more upright before mounting his yori charge, and he executed it faster than Kotozakura could handle, and the result was both dudes crashing down across the straw, but Shodai used his right arm masterfully to keep Kotozakura in front of his body ensuring that Kotozakura would fall back first. Wow, I can't remember the last time I saw such precise sumo from Shodai. That it came against Kotozakura who was supposedly a Yokozuna candidate speaks volumes...and not in favor of Shodai.

This was actually great sumo from both parties, but Shodai was simply better in his execution as he moves to 2-3 while Kotozakura is falling off the map at 1-4.

M3 Ohho caught Onosato with two hands to the face halting any momentum Onosato tried to gain from the tachi-ai, but Ohho relinquished the advantage as he backpedaled looking to tug Onosato across and out with a left inside grip. Onosato tried to hold on with a shallow right outer, but Ohho was able to break him off of that grip and then push Onosato out from behind. The sumo here wasn't great from both dudes, but it was a well-fought bout. The difference was Ohho's winning the tachi-ai, and if Onosato really wants to become a serious rikishi without needing bouts fixed in his favor, he's gotta figure out a good tachi-ai. He lost it today and subsequently lost the bout as he falls now to 2-3. As for Ohho, don't look now but the dude is 5-0.

Speaking of 5-0, it was quite glaring up to this point that the only other rikishi 5-0 were foreigners with Ozeki Hoshoryu having the chance to go 5-0 himself against winless M2 Atamifuji, but when you consider the potential yusho race and leaderboard, they've gotta bring that line down and do it right quick.

As a result, Hoshoryu let up today from the tachi-ai where the two hooked up in migi-yotsu, but Atamifuji was so upright, the front of his mawashi was completely exposed to a left frontal grip from the Ozeki. Had he wanted it. When Hoshoryu didn't take it, I knew he was going to throw the bout, and so Hoshoryu stood there limp trying to set up a nage-no-uchi-ai near the edge, but Atamifuji wasn't in any position to throw with his left outer, and so Hoshoryu took the action back to the center of the ring and waited for any type of pressure to come form Atamifuji. It came in the form of a left kote-nage, and so Hoshoryu just went with it and spun himself around 360 degrees and then down taking one for team sumo.

There's only one way to go from Hoshoryu's position on the left to Hoshoryu's position on the right after such a weak throw (and look how awful Atamifuji's footwork is), and that's by spinning around yourself to ham it up.

Expect the other 5-0 foreigners to follow suit as Hoshoryu lowers the bar in falling to 4-1 while Atamifuji is gifted his first win at 1-4.

The final bout of the day was scheduled between Yokozuna Terunofuji and M3 Gonoyama, but due to Fuji's withdrawal and retirement, Gonoyama picked up the freebie moving him to 4-1.

Hatsu Basho Day 4 Comments
The last time rikishi from Japan took four of the six yusho in a calendar year was back in 2001. Akebono was gone and Musashimaru was pretending to flounder around with a wrist injury, and Asashoryu wouldn't storm onto the scene for another year or so, and so Japanese rikishi were able to take four of the six cups rather easily. The reason that Japanese rikishi hadn't been able to yusho four of the six times until 2024 was due to the widening gap in ability between the Japanese rikishi and the foreign rikishi, and of course the four yusho last year were all financed and illegitimate in terms of merit.

In order to take the Makuuchi yusho when you can barely win Makuuchi bouts under your own power, you need a lot of favors and/or a lot of money and usually it's a combination of both. All stables in Japan have fan clubs, and the reason for these clubs is to raise money in return for access to the rikishi like dinners, ringside seats, a night of drinking, etc. The money raised from these fan clubs is used to finance stable operations, and if enough money is left over, the stable can use that money to purchase bouts.

What we're seeing here so far in Hatsu is at least one of two things:  favors are being called in from last year's fake runs from the big four; or, the reservoir of money is drying up, and they need a basho or two to refill the coffers.

I think it's worth everybody's time to read this article published in Time magazine nearly 25 years ago because it greatly helps illustrate what's happening in today's world of sumo:

I Don't Care If I Get Killed

In part of the article, a rikishi who was the chief bookmaker in arranging bouts four decades ago explained it as follows to TIME magazine:

TIME: How did the match-fixing work?

Itai: Usually, it was arranged through the attendants (Mike addition...this refers to tsuke-bito). Sometimes, just before bouts, in the dressing room. Sometimes, the day before. Or attendants would arrange it while top ranking wrestlers were getting dressed in their isho-mawashi, (Mike correction...this should be kesho-mawashi) elaborately decorated silk aprons used in a ceremony before high-ranking wrestlers’ first bouts. It was kind of an ordinary thing, in the dressing room with all the wrestlers there.


TIME: Was money exchanged?

Itai: No, not usually. But if someone owed a point and they needed a win, then they had to pay. So if someone already owed me [a win] but needed me to lose, he had to pay 200,000 yen. The ultimate aim is to win eight out of 15 matches. If you win five without fixing, you have spare bouts. You can sell those losses. If you aren’t strong enough to win five serious bouts, your ranking will be lowered. So you need money to fix bouts to keep your position.


The translation of this discussion is obviously not perfect, like the phrase "five serious bouts" should be "five legitimate bouts," but still...you get the gist of how everything works behind the scenes in sumo wrestling. In a different part of the interview, the wrestler says that the first time he threw a bout, he did so at the order of his stable master.

So...bouts can be arranged either between rikishi for money...the base amount of which is 200K yen; they can agree to trade wins in consecutive basho; or, a rikishi's stable master can come in after meeting with board members or receiving instruction from a higher up or simply by reading the room, and he can tell his wrestler to throw the bout on the day in the best interest of everyone.

It's not complicated, and once you understand how it works, there's very little that happens atop the dohyo that doesn't make sense.

With that in mind, let's cover all the action from Day 4 starting with M16 Kagayaki who was paired against M17 Tokihayate noting that Kagayaki is notorious for selling his bouts to anyone who will fork over the money. Kagayaki dominated the tachi-ai getting the left arm inside deep, and two seconds in, he had Tokihayate completely off balance on his left foot as soon in the pic at right. If it was Kagayaki's intention to win, he would have scored the easy scoop throw at that point, but instead, he kept his arms limp, raised his own body up, and then at the first sign of life from Tokihayate in the form of a weak, inside belt tug, Kagayaki just traded places in the dohyo with his foe and stepped across the straw. Tokihayate buys his way to 3-1 here while Kagayaki keeps hoarding cash at 0-4.

M15 Kitanowaka slipped to his right at the tachi-ai against M17 Nishikifuji using his length advantage to grab the cheap outer grip with the right, and Kitanowaka pivoted to the side and easily swung his gal over to the edge.  Nishikifuji could not escape his foe as Kitanowaka used his right leg to pin NFJ in place and force him across. The tachi-ai was cheap, but Kitanowaka is the superior rikishi as both rikishi land on 2-2 at the end of this legit bout.

M14 Kinbohzan is picking up the legit wins early and often leaving him plenty of room to sell later on, and today he was paired against the rookie, M16 Tamashoho. Kinbohzan caught the rookie with perfect tsuki to the upper torso at the tachi-ai, and Tamashoho's only hope was to retreat and fish for a pull. It wouldn't happen as Kinbohzan had all the momentum and scored the powerful tsuki-dashi win in seconds. Another legit bout here as Kinbohzan moves to 4-0 while Tamashoho appears overmatched at this level of the banzuke in falling to 1-3. Before we move on, Onosato has never handled an opponent like this. Ever.

M13 Shonannoumi won the tachi-ai against M15 Hakuohho because he tried, and the key was Shonannoumi's getting a stiff paw to the neck of Hakuohho that stood him upright and forced him back. As Hakuohho fished for the tawara with his feet to give himself some extra leverage, he came up too short, and that allowed Shonannoumi to reverse gears and pull the hapless Hakuohho forward and down for the easy win. Hey, three legit bouts in a row!! Shonannoumi picks up his first win at 1-3 while the Hakuohho camp obviously bought their dude's own hype and thought to themselves, "Our opponent is 0-3 coming in while we're 3-0?  We'll beat him straight up."  Or not.

M12 Nishikigi was nonchalant at the tachi-ai as M13 Kotoshoho came forward quick with arms extended, but with Nishikigi just standing there, Kotoshoho spun his wheels a bit and then took a knee right in the center of the dohyo. They ruled it a pull down, but Nishikigi didn't make any move that caused that fall, and this was a great example of a rikishi (Kotoshoho at 1-3) returning a favor called in by his opponent (Nishikigi 3-1).

M12 Onokatsu used a decent shove attack against M11 Midorifuji winning the tachi-ai and forcing Midorifuji to retreat around the ring and look for a pull. He would never come close as Midorifuji moved to the other side of the dohyo, and Onokatsu applied too much pressure with his shoves and size advantage, and with Midorifuji digging in the near the edge, Onokatsu grabbed a left belt grip over the top and used his right arm inside to force Midorifuji upright and across with little resistance. Another good, legit bout here as Onokatsu moves to 2-2 while Midorifuji falls to 1-3.

M10 Tamawashi opted not to use any thrusts at the tachi-ai against M11 Takerufuji, and he instead stood upright giving TFJ an opening, but Takerufuji was too hapless to take it, so with a willing Tamawashi just standing there, Takerufuji panicked and went for a stupid pull, and as he did, Tamawashi caught him with a simple palm to the chest that sent Takerufuji back and across scared like a leedle girl. Tamawashi is a cool 4-0 if you need him while Takerufuji falls to 3-1.

In an orchestrated bout, M10 Meisei charged hard getting the left arm inside, but as M9 Churanoumi moved to his right, Meisei just kept plowing forward, and so this was half Churanoumi connecting on a light tsuki to Meisei's right side and half Meisei just belly flopping forward and down of his own volition. Ugly, fixed bout here as Churanoumi ekes his way to 2-2 while Meisei falls to 1-3 a richer dude.

After a slow tachi-ai between M9 Kotoshoho and M7 Mitakeumi where neither made an impact, Kotoshoho barreled forward a step before reversing gears and looking to pull as Mitakeumi tried to regain the forward momentum. Mitakeumi didn't have the ability to withstand his opponent's hataki-komi, and while not clean, Kotoshoho was able to drag Mitakeumi forward and down using his opponent's momentum against him. This was legit, but it was not a good bout of sumo as both rikishi end the day at 2-2.

M6 Ichiyamamoto extended both arms from the tachi-ai against M8 Takarafuji, but there was little contact made as IYM wasn't connecting on shoves and Takarafuji looked as if he wanted to grab Ichiyamamoto's extended right arm. Just when you thought "this is ugly," it took an even worse turn as Takarafuji moved to the side and just collapsed to the dohyo as if he slipped. Yes, he slipped you see as Ichiyamamoto picks up the cheap win in moving to 3-1 while Takarafuji falls to 0-4.

M5 Chiyoshoma came in high from the tachi-ai against M7 Endoh, but instead of looking for moro-zashi, Endoh used a few high shoves of his own into his opponent, and Chiyoshoma was able to move a bit left and yank Endoh off balance by his extended right arm, and as Endoh looked to square back up and retreat in the same motion, Chiyoshoma rushed in and pushed Endoh into the lap of the referee in waiting on the mukou-joumen side. This was a pretty ugly bout start to finish as Chiyoshoma moves to 4-0 while Endoh falls to 1-3.

M6 Takayasu purposefully whiffed up high at the tachi-ai giving M4 Ura the left inside position and a right outer grip, and instead of using his size and strength advantage to dig in and go chest to chest, Takayasu just stood there as Ura slowly worked his head up and under Takayasu's left armpit, and with Takayasu just standing there, Ura spun around and tried to twist a willing Takayasu down in the process, but Takayasu needed to aid the fall forward. I'm not even going to pretend I knew about the tsutae-zori technique before this bout, and this match was so phony. Takayasu was as mukiryoku as they come, and he facilitated the move start to finish. If you enjoyed this bout, you're what Itai called an amateur sumo fan. Anyway, I just roll my eyes when the Sumo Association needs to generate extra excitement by having Ura supposedly win by these rarely-seen techniques as both rikishi end the day at 2-2.

M5 Hiradoumi latched onto the front of M3 Gonoyama's belt with the left from the tachi-ai, but he couldn't do anything with it as Gonoyama tried to shove Hiradoumi back with hands to the face before getting the left arm deep inside. Once Gonoyama had the inside position, Hiradoumi knew he was in trouble and started to retreat, but Gonoyama used that momentum against him to shove Hiradoumi straight back and out. Gonoyama improves to 3-1 with the nice win while Hiradoumi falls to 1-3.

M2 Atamifuji made no effort whatsoever to neutralize Komusubi Wakatakakage, and so he stood there upright as WTK eventually got moro-zashi. Once Wakatakakage had the dual insides, Atamifuji didn't do anything to counter like grab an outer grip, so when Wakatakakage slipped to his right in an attempt to perform a kata-sukashi, Atamifuji just played along putting his elbow to the dirt. I would have liked to have seen Wakatakakage win this one by force-out after getting moro-zashi, but he didn't have the strength; thus the light ending with a willing accomplice. Atamifuji falls to 0-4 after the bout while Wakatakakage move to a cheap 2-2.

Suckiwake Wakamotoharu and M4 Shodai hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and then Wakamotoharu just stood there not bothering to get a grip of Shodai's belt or even get his left arm in deep, so with the Suckiwake just standing there, Shodai went for a methodical tsuki-otoshi with the right hand and Wakamotoharu flopped to the dirt. If you watch the slow motion replays, you can see that Wakamotoharu actually began his sideways dive before Shodai made contact, and this was another useless fixed bout where Shodai was calling in a previous favor. Both rikishi end the day at 1-3.

Sekiwake Daieisho used a decent thrust attack from the tachi-ai against M3 Ohho, but as he moved Ohho slowly back with his thrusts, you could sense that there was no force between the two. At the edge and as if in slow motion, Ohho slowly grabbed Daieisho's extended left arm and pulled him across the straw in yet another fixed bout. If you look at that pic at left, Daieisho held that arm extended like that for at least a full second, which is an eternity in sumo, and it was clear that he was letting Ohho do is thang. Another favor being called in here as Ohho moves to 4-0 while Daieisho falls to 3-1.

Komusubi Abi put two hands into the base of Onosato's neck and then moved left as if to set up a pull, but before he could execute it, Onosato hopped forward aligning both feet and then just dove outta the ring pusing with both feet as he jumped forward. Good grief. This crap is simply unwatchable, and whenever you see a dude fall forward and kick his feet up higher than his head, you know the fall was fake. Abi is absolutely the superior rikishi here, but Abi was calling in the debt and so Onosato was obliged to orchestrate that fake dive. Unbelievable as Abi moves to 3-1 while Onosato falls to 2-2.

Ozeki Hoshoryu connected well with two thrusts to M1 Takanosho's upper torso, but the M1 stood his ground well, and so the two went back and forth trading shoves and looking for possible pulls. In the process, Hoshoryu was up a bit high, and I thought there were multiple chances for Takanosho to seize moro-zashi, but he just played along, and then when Hoshoryu went for a left tsuki-otoshi near the edge, Takanosho flew over and down in exaggerated fashion. While more entertaining, this bout didn't pass the smell test either as Hoshoryu stays unblemished at 4-0 while Takanosho falls to 0-4.

Kotozakura was completely useless at the tachi-ai (what's new?) allowing M1 Kirishima to get the right arm inside and left outer grip closer to the front of the mawashi, and as Kirishima settled in, he switched places on the dohyo with his foe and methodically forced him back and across the straw without argument.

The difference between these two skill wise is so vast, so it's silly to entertain the notion that it's Kotozakura who is the one ranked at Ozeki. As if. Kirishima chooses to pick up his first win in moving to 1-3 while Kotozakura falls to the same mark.

In the day's final affair, Yokozuna Terunofuji came with a lazy left kachi-age into M2 Tobizaru's chest, but he wasn't looking to do any damage, and as Tobizaru backed up to the edge of the ring, Terunofuji didn't bother to pursue and look for the kill. As the two reconnected, they engaged in cat and mouse sumo where the Yokozuna utterly refused to latch onto his opponent and reel him in tight, and after about five seconds, Terunofuji literally turned his left shoulder and side towards his opponent, and that was Tobizaru's cue to push Terunofuji sideways, and Terunofuji just ran out of the dohyo from there giving Tobizaru the cheap okuri-dashi win. It goes without saying that this bout was fake as Terunofuji falls to 2-2--likely to cover for the big four who all lost--while Tobizaru oils his way to 3-1.

It's already looking like the yusho line will fall to 13-2 at best, but there's still a lot of theater to come.

Hatsu Basho Day 3 Comments
For the first time in 20 years, I spent the holidays in Japan staying there for close to three weeks before coming back to the US on January 7th. I didn't spend a whole lot of time watching television, but I caught a few news programs here and there, and then as I traveled around, you see headlines in airports and at the train stations.  I was there during the release of the banzuke and the lead up to the Hatsu basho, but I never saw any stories that touched on sumo. Now, if I had searched for sumo news online, I could have easily found it in all the usual places, but as someone who wasn't searching it out and who would have easily noticed a sumo headline or stopped to watch a segment on television had one appeared, I just didn't see anything.

My conclusion is that the core sumo fans are enjoying what's being fed to them in the sport right now, but sumo is not gaining popularity in Japan or demanding anyone's attention if they're not looking for it. I actually tried to bring it up a few times like in taxi cabs when the driver got chatty, but they were always like, "What? Are you trying to talk to me about sumo?" Instead, everyone wanted to get my take on Donald Trump and what the real pulse of politics is in America.

Personally, I've been distracted these first three days by the Australian Open tennis tournament. My intention was to report on all of the Day 3 bouts, but then I saw that Naomi Osaka was paired against Karolína Muchová, and I'm like...do I want to watch a bunch of fake sumo from Day 3 and type up a report or watch two great tennis players slug it out in Round 2.

Easy choice.

The problem is you go from watching a tennis major or playoff football (American football...both college and pro) and then you watch sumo side by side, and it's really hard to stomach what they're trying to pass off as a professional sport.

I still haven't looked at a single headline, so all I know is what I've gleaned from Murray Johnson and Hiro Morita the first three days of the short, 30-minute broadcast I have access to in English. Those guys are just dutifully repeating the notes and talking points given to them by the producers, so it's not exactly like John and Patrick McEnroe giving us impeccable insight and commentary on tennis.

My overall thoughts on the first three days of sumo (I have watched every bout) are as follows:

- After Day 1, I felt like Hoshoryu was the favorite to yusho. Sometimes I can get a feel for the yusho one or two days in, and while Kyushu 2024 wasn't like that, I just felt like Hoshoryu was going to take the yusho after Day 1. That's probably due in part to Terunofuji faking his way to a loss on Day 1 and Onosato getting legitimately beat by Tobizaru. Now that we're three days in, it's looking more and more like a Mongolian is going to yusho, so while it's extremely early, I think the odds are like 80-20 that the yusho goes to Terunofuji or Hoshoryu.

- Hakuohho and Takerufuji have yet to win a legitimate bout. On Day 2, NHK World played the taiko drums and declared the Hakuohho - Tokihayate bout as a "Bout of the Day," and my question is:  what has Hakuohho done in the division to deserve bout of the day status over so many other rikishi? The answer is that he's done absolutely nothing. He's simply one of the younger guys that they've picked to carry sumo over the next decade, and so the majority of bouts will be thrown in his favor. The other dudes they've handpicked are Onosato, Takerufuji, and Kotonowaka.

Getting back to the Hakuohho - Tokihayate bout, Tokihayate won the tachi-ai and came away in the hidari-yotsu position with a nice right outer grip, and despite Hakuohho failing on his maki-kae attempt with the right, Tokihayate simply ran out of the dohyo when he felt the slightest pressure come from Hakuohho's inside belt grip.

One of my sons just started his career, and so he set up a 401k retirement fund. He's estimated to have $3,500 in his account at the end of 2025. We asked AI to calculate what that money will be worth in 40 years, and it showed us a formula likely taken from financial textbooks that assumed a 7% gain per year, and then it gave us the estimated amount.

That formula used to calculate the funds reminds me of the common formula that you'll see in the majority of wins by Onosato, Kotonowaka, Takerufuji, and Hakuohho. The formula goes like this:

1. They won't win the tachi-ai. They'll usually get knocked back onto their heels from the start, but sometimes their opponents will be mukiryoku and just stand there, but even still, those four won't blow their opponent off of the starting lines because they can't.

2. They will always be on the defensive. The only exception is if their opponent backs up from the tachi-ai straight out of the ring, and if/when that happens, none of the four will have scored on a thrust to cause that backwards movement.

3. The win is almost always an improbable, comeback win at the edge usually caused by the opponent carelessly stepping out of the ring (see Takanosho vs. Onosato on Day 3) or anticipating a pull and going down on all fours with little contact from one of the chosen four.

This formula plays out day after day with these guys, and it's really hard to watch it.

- It sounds like the main storyline heading into the basho was Kotozakura's Yokozuna candidacy. As I mentioned previously, I haven't read any of the headlines yet, but I don't know what else could trump that unless it was Hakuohho's return to the division. I think it's safe to say after three days that Kotozakura will thankfully not be promoted to Yokozuna after this basho.

- Our lone rookie this basho is Tamashoho, a Mongolian dude who has taken over 13 years to reach the division. He bought his lone win on Day 1, and then he's lost his last two. It's been hard to tell how legit his bouts have been, but I suppose I'll get a better gauge on him as the tournament rolls on. Dude will turn 32 in March, and he is a total non-story this basho.

- M8 Roga and M14 Hokutofuji withdrew from the basho before it started. Roga was injured conducting butsukari-geiko prior to the tournament, and I haven't heard what happened to Hokutofuji. Their withdrawals have absolutely no bearing on the tournament.

And those are the storylines for the 2025 Hatsu basho. The most significant headline prior to the basho (Kotozakura's pending promotion) has already been erased, so the main focus will continue to be the improbable comeback wins day after day from the big four.

I'll comment on every bout tomorrow although you could probably taken my comments on any given day from the Kyushu basho and copy/paste them here, and you'd never know the difference.