Home  |  User Forum  |  News  |  Fantasy Sumo  |  Media Requests  |  Contributors  |  About Us |  Sumo 101  |  Links  |  Archives  |  Swedish

Hatsu Basho Day 14 Comments
A common theme I've talked about this basho is the methods the Sumo Association uses in order to maintain fan interest in the sport. The bouts they select to post to their YouTube channel are not objectively based on the yusho race, and they are also planting stories in the media that focus on supposed social media buzz talking about this or that celebrity spotted during the NHK broadcast, so tune in and see it for yourself! What they don't rely on to promote their sport is the actual sumo itself, which is obviously compromised on a daily basis.

Heading into the final weekend with a very paltry leaderboard in terms of generating interest from Japanese fans, the Sumo Association needed to decide if they were going to let this basho play out organically the rest of the way and head off into the night, or would they put a little WrestleMania twist on things to create SumoMania?

The leaderboard they had to work with coming into the day was as follows:

11-2: Aonishiki
10-3: Kirishima, Atamifuji

Atamifuji's 15 minutes of fame ended a year or more ago, and then the other two foreigners aren't exactly sending the Japanese fans into a frenzy, and so it was a tough leaderboard to work with on Day 14.

Sekiwake Kirishima and M4 Atamifuji were paired together, so let's start with that bout first. Kirishima not only failed to move forward at the tachi-ai, but he began shading backwards, and so you knew something was up at that point. Here's a look at the initial charge:



You can see that Kirishima has his feet aligned and his head up giving Atamifuji the lower stance. The Sekiwake technically had moro-zashi, but instead of digging in, he continued his backwards movement first to his right and then over to his left, and he made sure to keep his opponent square in front of him as both dudes toppled over the edge of the dohyo on the East side. Atamifuji didn't do anything here and was just along for the ride, and for Kirishima's part, he didn't even think about a counter move even though he had the prime position in sumo, moro-zashi, from which to do so.

The bout was obviously fixed in favor of Atamifuji, and I did not see this yaocho coming, but as soon as it happened, I had an uneasy feeling about the rest of the day. The result knocked Kirishima off the leaderboard at 10-4, and he would be at the mercy of an Aonishiki loss to stay in the yusho hunt. As for Atamifuji, he was gifted an 11-3 mark, so regardless of the Aonishiki outcome, he was still in the hunt.

Mathematically, any of the four-loss rikishi coming into the day still had a chance, but that hinged on an Aonishiki loss to Onosato, and so the Association had a choice to make whether or not to let the final bout of the day play out organically and work with a two-man leaderboard heading in to senshuraku or decide to use bout fixing to their favor and potentially create a six-man board. Quite a bit hinged on that final bout, so let's go there next.

Upon moving to Japan in 1994 for work, I was able to fully immerse myself into all things sumo. I watched the NHK broadcast every day in Japanese; I watched the SumoDigest program every night; and I literally stalked the sumos every fall when they came to Fukuoka. When you listen to the Japanese coverage of sumo, especially back then when things were more sane, you get one thing hammered into your brain, and that's the importance of the tachi-ai, so let's start there:



First and foremost, look at the feet. It seems like I've been documenting every day how badly Onosato aligns his feet, but here, his feet are in very good shape, so he knows he's not going to be challenged. As for Aonishiki, his feet are perfectly aligned, and if you want to lose a bout of sumo on purpose, the first thing you need to do is align your feet at the tachi-ai.

Next, Aonishiki is shading to his left at the tachi-ai and to Onosato's right. Wait a minute...I thought that Onosato's left shoulder was injured. If that's the case, why is Aonishiki not attacking that shoulder and that side? Why go to his right?

I mean, these guys are coached, right? They do watch film, right? In any other professional sport in existence, it's all about using your strengths to exploit your opponent's weaknesses. Onosato had a weakness coming into the day and even coming into the basho, so why hasn't anyone been attacking his left side?

A third aspect of that tachi-ai that stands out to me is that Onosato isn't even looking at his opponent. His eyes are shaded to his left as if he doesn't want to absorb the blow from the tachi-ai full on, and so he's not even looking at his opponent.

So right off the bat, we know from the tachi-ai that Aonishiki is making two key mistakes on purpose. 1) He's aligning his feet, something he does not have a problem with normally, and 2) he's ignoring his opponent's weak side. As for Onosato, if your plan is to fight with tsuppari to your opponent's throat, you need to actually look at your target, especially if he's moving laterally, so it's interesting that he was looking in the opposite direction.

After the initial clash, Aonishiki moved to his left allowing Onosato to bring his right arm up and catch the Ozeki with a nice paw to the throat, and instead of fighting that off, Aonishiki just maintained his initial lateral maneuver and continued to move to his left as he dove exaggeratedly to the dirt on the other side of the dohyo.

The bout was ruled as an oshi-taoshi (push down) win for Onosato, and here is the paw to the throat that drew the oshi-taoshi:



You can see Onosato with his right hand at Aonishiki's throat, and if he continues that pushing motion, Aonishiki would theoretically be thrown into the lap of the judge beneath the red arrow.  Onosato did not have any lower body fueling that shove, and Onosato was not dictating any part of the bout, and so Aonishiki's fall occurred way over on the other side of the dohyo as seen here:



Wait a minute. If the kimari-te was push down why did Aonishiki end up on the opposite side of the dohyo to the judge (marked with the red arrow) that was in the initial path of the so-called push?

I can break this bout down frame by frame and find every flaw, but just watching it live, everyone knew that it was fake. We haven't seen Onosato go for anyone's throat the entire basho, and we haven't see Aonishiki in such an uncontrolled manner all basho, so when the two worlds collide at the same point, everyone knows it's fake. But...that's what sumo needs to keep people watching, and so that's what we got today...an exaggerated fake fall that of course benefited the Japanese rikishi.

The end result is Aonishiki's getting knocked down to the three-loss tier, and that immediately makes anyone with four losses eligible to yusho. And wouldn't ya know it...Onosato finished the day at 10-4, so he's back in contention. How bout that?!  As for Aonishiki, he checks in at 11-3 tied now with Atamifuji, but Aonishiki is still the Storyteller heading into senshuraku.

With the four-loss rikishi still in play, let's examine the bouts of everyone besides Onosato who came into the day with four losses:  Abi, Ohshoumi, Hiradoumi, Shishi, and Asanoyama.

Going in chronological order, M6 Hiradoumi and M16 Ohshoumi were first up, and Hiradoumi won the tachi-ai getting the left arm inside, and he stood Ohshoumi upright to the point where Hiradoumi was able to grab a left outer grip to boot. Ohshoumi was able to grab a left outer of his own, but Hiradoumi was already driving him back immediately to the straw in linear fashion. Then, for no reason other than to throw the bout, Hiradoumi aligned his feet and waited for Ohshoumi to now push him back across the entire diameter of the dohyo, and at the edge, instead of moving to either side and executing a counter tsuki-otoshi, Hiradoumi just went with the flow and let Ohshoumi topple down on top of him. This bout was fixed in favor of Ohshoumi for sure as he moves to 10-4 staying in the yusho race while Hiradoumi falls to 9-5 with a bit more cash in his pocket.

Up next was M14 Shishi who was paired against M1 Yoshinofuji, and I'm glad that I'm making the tachi-ai a theme today because you can tell easily when someone is throwing a bout by what they do at the tachi-ai. In their bout today, Shishi put two obligatory hands forward but immediately began backing up and to his right...hey, maybe it's a Ukrainian thing as he chose the same course as Aonishiki. Near the edge, he paused letting Yoshinofuji grab a right outer grip while Shishi put his left arm inside but it was half-assed.



If you look at that pic, Shishi has his left leg to the inside, and he could have easily used that leg to attempt to throw Yoshinofuji off balance before executing a scoop throw or inside belt throw, but Shishi just kept that arm limp. As for Yoshinofuji, he's got an uwate, but his positioning is all wrong, and so there was this awkward two second pause there at the ring with both guys flinching on moves but not delivering, and in the end, Shishi just jumped off the dohyo to the floor below as Yoshinofuji was trying to twist his foe down by the back of the belt.

It was a very unorthodox finish and obvious yaocho giving Yoshinofuji a much-needed win as he moves to 7-7 while Shishi takes himself off of the leaderboard at 9-5.

Komusubi Wakamotoharu welcomed M16 Asanoyama by getting the left arm inside with a right outer grip, and as WMH pressed chest to chest nudging Asanoyama back, Asanoyama attempted a maki-kae with the right. The move worked for a half second until Wakamotoharu maki-kae'd right back sending the bout to its original hidari-yotsu with Wakamotoharu maintaining that stingy right uwate. As the Komusubi pressed Asanoyama to the edge, Asanoyama attempted a tsuki-otoshi with the right, but it had no mustard on it and the M16 was quickly dispatched after that. Not power sumo for sure nor was it a spectacular ending like we've seen in some of Wakamotoharu's bouts previously, but I think the Komusubi was just trying not to hurt his foe in this one. Wakamotoharu moves to 7-7 and keeps kachi-koshi hopes alive while Asanoyama falls off the leaderboard at 9-5.

Finally, M12 Abi caught Sekiwake Takayasu with two hands to the throat, and while Abi's tsuppari rarely stick, he knocked Takayasu back enough with a good nodowa to where the Suckiwake was on the run and fishing for a pull. As Takayasu tried to mawari-komu around the ring in front of the chief judge, Abi turned him around 180 degrees and then sent him across the dohyo and out from behind. This was vintage Abi sumo, and he thoroughly dominated Takayasu here making me ask again, "Wait, which one is the Sekiwake?" Abi keeps himself on the leaderboard at 10-4 while Takayasu falls to 8-6.

With that, here is the leaderboard as we head into senshuraku:

11-3: Aonishiki, Atamifuji
10-4: Onosato, Kirishima, Abi, Ohshoumi

I think it's gotta come down to someone on that three-loss tier. Yesterday, I thought it would be Kirishima instead of Atamifuji, but I get why they want a Japanese guy there instead. If they somehow finagle the yusho in favor of Atamifuji, it will be one of those tournaments where nobody even mentioned Atamifuji the entire way until the last day. The biggest reason is the dude started off 0-2, and nobody in the history of the current yusho system has ever won a tournament when going 0-2. The Japanese people love their useless trivia, so an Atamifuji yusho wouldn't surprise me.

Aonishiki gets Kotozakura tomorrow, and that's an extremely easy win for the Ukrainian if he chooses to take it.

Atamifuji faces Ohshoumi, and Atamifuji is the heavy favorite in that one, and I'm not just talking about girth. I'd favor Atamifuji 70-30 in a straight up bout, and if Atamifuji wins, I think the chances go up that Aonishiki throws his bout against Kotozakura.

If both of those yayhoos lose, it's anybody's guess. You'd have Aonishiki, Atamifuji, Ohshoumi, and winner of Kirishima vs. Abi at four losses, and then if Hoshoryu lets Onosato win, throw Yoko Ono into the mix for a five-dude playoff.

If all five make it, they'd draw straws, one dude would get a bye, the other four would pair off two and two and whoever loses is out. The remaining three would then participate in a tomoe-sen...a three way play off where the winner stays on and the first guy to win two in a row is the winner. So many scenarios are possible, and I think the Association will get what it wants with plenty of drama on the final day. Well played NSK.

Hatsu Basho Day 13 Comments
The dominant story the last half year has been the rise of Aonishiki from his promotion to Ozeki to his first yusho in Kyushu, and now here in January, he seems like a shoe-in to become a candidate for Yokozuna pending his results in March. Speed-wise, his climb up the Makuuchi division and into the elite ranks of the banzuke has taken about a year and equals that of Onosato's climb. So, in looking back at the content of sumo exhibited by these two rikishi during their first year or so in Makuuchi, what stands out? How do both perform at the tachi-ai? How do they compare in employing techniques to set up their opponents to be defeated? Who do you think other rikishi fear fighting the most...Aonishiki or Onosato?

One could come up with twice as many questions as these, but the point is obvious:  the only legitimate comparison that can be made between these two rikishi is the time it took them to rise up. When it comes to the "how" part of the equation, there is no comparison. One has obviously risen up the ranks due to his own strength, and the other has risen up based solely on bout fixing. It's such an interesting comparison because both of these dudes show how two worlds can simultaneously exist in sumo even though the abilities between the two rikishi are worlds apart.

With that, the yusho race at the Hatsu basho is tightening up, so let's get right to it. The leaderboard at the start of the day was as follows:

10-2: Aonishiki
9-3: Kirishima, Atamifuji, Abi, Shishi, Asanoyama, Ohshoumi

Let's go in chronological order again as we determine the leaderboard heading into the weekend.

First up were two rikishi checking in from the 9-3 tier in M4 Atamifuji vs. M12 Abi. Atamifuji reached for a left frontal grip from the tachi-ai while Abi offered a half-assed kachi-age with the right. The move was half-assed because Abi immediately moved to his right as if to go for a pull, but he conveniently lost his footing and fell to the dirt before Atamifuji could even make contact. Atamifuji slid his arm across Abi's back mid-fall as if he was the cause of the slapdown, but this was all Abi bowing to the God of Yaocho and Atamifuji trying to catch up.

What this wasn't was straight up sumo unfortunately, so the yusho race today starts off with a fixed bout that saw Atamifuji move to 10-3 with Abi getting knocked out of the race at 9-4.

Next up was M16 Ohshoumi vs. Komusubi Wakamotoharu, and I think I have been overestimating Ohshoumi's ability a bit this basho. The two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai with Wakamotoharu grabbing the quick right outer grip. Ohshoumi actually got a right hand on Wakamotoharu's belt, but before he could grab it, WMH stepped his left foot back denying that outer grip, and before Ohshoumi could think of Plan B, Wakamotoharu scooped Ohshoumi to the side and off balance with the left arm setting up the textbook yori-kiri where he held fast with the right hand (the outer grip) while using the inside position to force Ohshoumi across. This was beautiful sumo from my new favorite rikishi, Wakamotoharu, who keeps his kachi-koshi hopes alive at 6-7 while Ohshoumi is thankfully knocked out of the yusho race in falling to 9-4.

M16 Asanoyama's only hope against Sekiwake Takayasu was a fixed bout, but he didn't get it. Takayasu bounced his foe back at the tachi-ai using a left kachi-age, and that was enough of a momentum shift to let Takayasu secure the left arm to the inside and a right outer grip on the other side. Asanoyama had the left inside position himself, but Takayasu had him upright enough to where Asanoyama wasn't even close to a right outer grip. As a result, Asanoyama quickly went for a counter move maki-kae'ing with the right arm, and while he did get that right arm inside giving him moro-zashi, he couldn't recover from the momentum shift fast enough, and Takayasu was able to hoist Asanoyama over and down with that original right outside grip. Takayasu isn't exactly all that these days, but he's so much better than Asanoyama, and it showed here as Takayasu bullied his way to kachi-koshi at 8-5 while Asanoyama is knocked out of the race at 9-4.

Next up was another pair of 9-3'ers in Sekiwake Kirishima and M14 Shishi. From the tachi-ai, Kirishima easily got the right arm inside deep, and he immediately began to press Shishi upright with the right arm position. Kirishima also had the left arm inside although Shishi looked to cut that arm off a bit as his left side was being rendered useless, and Kirishima sensed that Shishi was off balance enough to where the Sekiwake executed a quick force-out charge leading with the right inside, and Shishi had no answer.

Both of these Ukrainians are actually very susceptible to giving up the inside position, but only the Mongolians can seem to exploit their weakness at the tachi-ai. Kirishima certainly did it here as he stays in the race moving to 10-3 while Shishi falls out of contention at 9-4.

With four of the six three-loss rikishi being knocked off the board, the final bout with yusho implications was between Ozeki Aonishiki and Yokozuna Hoshoryu. Aonishiki came with a nice throat push with the right at the tachi-ai keeping Hoshoryu away from instant moro-zashi, but the Yokozuna was able to shake that paw off easily enough, and that left him with both arms to the inside and Aonishiki's heels near the back of the straw. Instead of digging in and demanding moro-zashi, however, Hoshoryu backed up a half step and then moved to his left causing the two rikishi to trade places in the dohyo. From there, Hoshoryu went into pull mode without actually trying for a pull; rather, it was more of an excuse to leave himself vulnerable and allow Aonishiki to set up an attack. Because Aonishiki hadn't caused any of the Yokozuna's movements to that point, he wasn't ready to capitalize on them, and so the two grappled a bit more with Aonishiki getting another paw to Hoshoryu's throat, but there was little force behind it, and Hoshoryu could have brushed it aside and gotten inside again. Instead of doing that, Hoshoryu turned his right side just a bit giving Aonishiki the left outer grip, and when the Yokozuna sensed the throw was coming, he just dove down and put his left palm to the sand.

Yes, it was ruled uwate-nage, but there really wasn't a throw involved. Aonishiki's footwork was so wild that he didn't have time to even plant his feet, and so it was more of a sideways drag down. Just prior to the throw, Hoshoryu had the right arm to the inside, and in a real bout, he would have countered Aonishiki's left uwate with a right scoop throw or a right inside belt throw, but no nage-no-uchi-ai formed here because Hoshoryu's MO was to throw the bout. And that he did giving the Ukrainian another cheap win coming off of the heels of their playoff bout in November.

The fans were going crazy throughout, and the yaocho wasn't obvious here to the sheeple, but it was obvious to me. I mean, you have to ask yourself..."what did Aonishiki do today to defeat Hoshoryu?" The only noticeable moves were the two throat pushes, but those throat touches didn't result in a single momentum shift nor did they knock the Yokozuna off balance. Hoshoryu dictated start to finish, and whenever a rikishi quickly touches his palm to the dirt, you know he's taking a dive.

With the victory, Aonishiki takes firm control of the yusho race moving to 11-2 while Hoshoryu now has a worse record than Onosato at 8-5. Onosato's three-bout skid mid-basho is all forgotten now, and isn't it neat and tidy how Hoshoryu is covering for his fellow banzuke mate?

The result of today's bouts puts the leaderboard at just three rikishi heading into the weekend as follows:

11-2: Aonishiki
10-3: Kirishima, Atamifuji

How did that old Sesame Street song go?

♪ One of these rikishi is not like the others
One of these rikishi doesn't belong
Can you tell which rikishi is not like the others
By the time I finish this song? ♫

Not only is Aonishiki in firm control of the yusho race as the sole leader, but he's also fought both Mongolians now, and so he's a true Storyteller. He draws Onosato tomorrow, and that one goes with out saying. In a real bout, Aonishiki will destroy the faux-ko-zuna, and Onosato's only chance--literally--is if the bout is fixed. It really is Aminishiki's call, so we'll see what they decide to do.

As for Kirishima and Atamifuji, they square off as well, and I think it just makes sense to have Kirishima win that one to give more strength to the leaderboard.

If the Association and/or Aminishiki feels as if it's in the best interest to have Onosato win tomorrow, it brings the four-loss rikishi back into play, but there's no way the yusho line is going down to 11-4, so you'd have to say it's down to Kirishima and Aonishiki.

In other bouts of interest, Onosato and Kotozakura squared off, and it was Kotozakura latching onto the front of Onosato's belt with the left, and he reeled his gal in nice and snug. One second in, this was the scene:



First and foremost, observe the footwork of the two rikishi. Onosato's feet are of course aligned (when are they not aligned?) while Kotozakura's left foot forward matches his left inside position. From the lower half, Kotozakura is in full control, but now observe from the waist up. Kotozakura has cut off Onosato's right arm entirely with the left inside, and Kotozakura's right arm has Onosato's left arm pinched up high with the elbow extended.

I mean, it's checkmate right there. Kotozakura can either grab a right outer grip or secure moro-zashi. Kotozakura did neither of course, and that was the tell. After holding this pose for three or four seconds, Onosato tried to press forward and lowered his arm to the outside giving Kotozakura moro-zashi, but Kotozakura had already aligned his feet further signaling that he was throwing the bout:



If you want to lose a sumo bout on purpose, align your feet or put your hands up high and pretend to pull. If you do both, it's a guaranteed loss, and that's exactly what Kotozakura did here. He pretended to pull and backed over to the side waiting for Onosato to get a right outer grip, and once obtained, the two went across the straw in concert giving Onosato the cheap, yori-kiri win. It was the same old tired story here as Onosato moves to 9-4 while Kotozakura falls to 8-5. Before we move on, whatever happened to Onosato's left shoulder injury??

Komusubi Ohho needs to add some lower body to his tsuppari attack. Today against M6 Hiradoumi, Ohho connected with Hiradoumi's face, but there was no power behind the blows, and so Hiradoumi easily got moro-zashi and forced Ohho a full turn around the ring and out. Hiradoumi moves to a stellar 9-4 while Ohho falls to 4-9.

It's not looking good for M1 Yoshinofuji. Today against M4 Daieisho, Yoshinofuji couldn't handle gramps at the tachi-ai, and after a few swift thrusts to the chest from Daieisho (6-7), he surprised Yoshinofuji with a quick slapdown. Yoshinofuji is now 6-7 and that even counts the gift he got from Hoshoryu earlier in the basho.

It was also announced today that Hakunofuji has withdrawn with a big toe injury, so he'll finish the festivities at 5-10.  The two rikishi they're trying to hype so badly in Yoshinofuji and Hakunofuji are akin to starting a car right before the fuel pump goes out.

Finally, if you want to see the fakest fall of the basho, watch M7 Ohshoumi's dive against M15 Asakoryu. They ruled it tsuki-te because Asakoryu was tumbling off balance himself when Ohshoumi just put his hand to the dirt, and the three kimari-te they have for obviously thrown bouts when they can't come up with anything else are:

tsuki-te (put your hand to the dirt)
koshi-kudake (fall to the dirt because your lower back gave out)
isami-ashi (intentional step out...although some will sugarcoat it and say "accidental" step out)

The fake sumo from M8 Kinbohzan was also pretty blatant as he gave M17 Hatsuyama his second win of the tournament, and that charity from Kinbohzan just today will surely buy a few acres back home in Kazakhstan.

Hatsu Basho Day 12 Comments
I think this is the first basho ever where I get up every morning and have to look up who is actually on the leaderboard. I know there is a yusho race going on, but it's not making an impression on me, and I'm sure the fans feel a bit like that as well. There were quite a few gaps in the seating again today, which has been rare this late in the basho. After reconfirming the "leaders," I next went to YouTube and noticed that Ohshoumi's bout was left out of the lineup. I mean, is he on the leaderboard or isn't he? By failing to add his bout, the Sumo Association is admitting that the yusho race is not their top priority.

Speaking of the yusho race, this is how the motley crew looked heading into Day 12:

9-2: Aonishiki, Atamifuji, Abi
8-3: Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Shishi, Ohshoumi, Asanoyama

Let's go in chronological order starting with M16 Asanoyama vs. M7 Fujinokawa. The previous two days, Fujinokawa has been obliterated by two actual leaders, so would Asanoyama rough him up for the third day in a row? Hardly. Fujinokawa easily halted Asanoyama in his tracks at the tachi-ai and started to get the left arm inside, but then he suddenly backed up near the edge not even bothering to go for a pull. As Asanoyama advanced, his insides were exposed, and Fujinokawa thought about getting moro-zashi but chose to secure only the left arm inside. With that inside position, he sent Asanoyama to the other side of the dohyo and could have executed a kata-sukashi, but he stopped short of even trying. As Fujinokawa stood there, Asanoyama's only hold the entire way was a right kote-nage, but he couldn't even start a throw, and so Fujinokawa finally just backed to the straw and leaned backwards as far as he could, and even Asanoyama couldn't miss on that easy push out.

If you watch the bout in slow motion, there's not a single thing that Asanoyama did to cause any of Fujinokawa's movement or set anything up. This was all FNK start to finish as he gave in to the politics of sumo and let Asanoyama win, and is this really all the Sumo Association has? Apparently so as Asanoyama begs his way to 9-3 while Fujinokawa falls to 7-5 with a little cash in his pocket.

M16 Ohshoumi was paired against M5 Churanoumi, and this was yaocho at its finest. Ohshoumi's tachi-ai was half-assed with his hand up high, and that allowed Churanoumi to get the left arm easily to the inside. Churanoumi is usually a very scrappy rikishi who you don't want to let get established, but as soon as he had Ohshoumi dead to rights with moro-zashi gained from a maki-kae, he backed out of the ring to the side stepping across the straw wildly as Ohshoumi tried to keep up. Sheesh, now I know why the Sumo Association didn't want anyone to see this on YouTube it was that blatant. Ohshoumi survives I guess at 9-3 while Churanoumi takes the payout in falling to 7-5.

Moving up to the sanyaku ranks, M14 Shishi was paired against Komusubi Ohho, and this was not a well-fought bout. Ohho started well from the tachi-ai knocking Shishi back a half step with a few tsuppari, but his lower body wasn't into it, and so as Ohho advanced, Shishi swiped at his left side with the right hand throwing Ohho off balance. That move must have been stuck in Ohho's mind because he was timid from that point only looking for a pull. Shishi was playing it safe as the two slapped for a few more seconds before Shishi went for another wild swipe to Ohho's left side causing the Komusubi to stumble to his knees. This was such a sloppy bout of sumo and not worthy of the yusho race in my opinion, but we usually never get o-zumo bouts as part of the yusho race down the stretch as Shishi stays on the board in moving to 9-3 while Ohho falls to 4-8 suffering make-koshi in the process.

M12 Abi was dealt Kotozakura, and from the tachi-ai, Abi came with the C3P0 arms and just launched himself into a bear hug by the faux-zeki. Kotozakura used a strong right arm position and took advantage of Asanoyama's perfect upright stance to quickly drive him to the edge where Kotozakura flexed a bit at the straw and moved Abi across via tsuri-dashi. Abi threw this bout from the start, and it was obvious as he voluntarily steps down a rung to the 9-3 tier while Kotozakura picks up a very ill-gotten kachi-koshi at 8-4.

I suppose the marquee matchup of the day was M4 Atamifuji visiting Ozeki Aonishiki, and Atamifuji failed to make a dent in the Ozeki at the tachi-ai, and so Aonishiki was in full control one second in as he kept his head ducked low and forced his way to the inside. It took him less than two seconds to establish the left inside position, and the Ukrainian was also able to finagle his right arm to the inside giving him moro-zashi. Atamifuji wasn't standing completely upright, and the two weren't pressed chest to chest, and so Atamifuji was able to move laterally and fish for pulls here and there, but Aonishiki stayed calm and finally chased Atamifuji over to the West side of the dohyo where he forced him across in the end.

Aonishiki dissected his foe here second by second, and it was very good sumo. This guy is not flashy as he prefers to fight from a defensive posture, but it was nice to see such perfect execution from an actual leader. Focus on his footwork start to finish compared to Onosato's footwork start to finish, and the contrast is stark. Aonishiki deserves his current perch at 10-2 while Atamifuji falls down a notch on the leaderboard to the 9-3 slot.

The penultimate bout featured Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Sekiwake Kirishima, but we never get a straight up affair from these two and that held true today. From the tachi-ai, Hoshoryu kept his arms low and wide and just leaned into Kirishima's waiting arms (pictured at right)giving the Sekiwake moro-zashi. Kirishima didn't immediately press with the hold, however, and so after a second or two, Hoshoryu went for a slow maki-kae with the right, and that was Kirishima's cue to force the Yokozuna back and across with a mild tussle at the edge when Hoshoryu faked a counter inside belt throw. This was all theater where Hoshoryu was just making sure not to show up the Japanese Yokozuna in removing himself from the leaderboard now at 8-4 while Kirishima keeps his leaderboard status at 9-3.

With the dust settled, we have all of the same yayhoos on the leaderboard at the start of the day except for Hoshoryu:

10-2: Aonishiki
9-3: Kirishima, Atamifuji, Abi, Shishi, Asanoyama, Ohshoumi

Aonishiki is very compelling because regardless of whether or not he takes the yusho here, his performance has been "yusho worthy" from the Ozeki rank, and so he's likely a Yokozuna candidate come March unless he just forfeits his remaining bouts.

Another interesting angle to this dude is his stablemaster Aminishiki. Pre-2016 when yaocho didn't play as prominent of a role as it does today, you had guys that were referred to as gachinko. A gachinko is a dude historically who refused to take part in bout fixing, and Aminishiki was a well-known gachinko. I think these days, the majority of the oyakata have just submitted to the political needs of the Association, but it could be that Aminishiki is still refraining from taking part unless someone really gets to him.

Aonishiki did give up a loss on Day 4 to Ohho and he was legitimately beaten by Kirishima on Day 8, so I'd be interested to know Aminishiki's thought process in all of this. The Mongolians are constantly dinking around and throwing bouts, but Aonishiki has been very even keel his entire Makuuchi career...as short as it's been.

Speaking of Aonishiki and yaocho, the dude draws Hoshoryu tomorrow, and I can promise you that Aonishiki will come full bore tomorrow, but what will Hoshoryu choose to do? The Yokozuna can easily get inside of Aonishiki's defenses, so it will be interesting to watch that one. Hoshoryu is the heavy favorite to the tune of 90-10 if the bout is straight up.

Kirishima and Shishi are paired up tomorrow as are Atamifuji and Abi, so it will be nice to clear some of the deadwood off of the leaderboard by Day 13. I would think you'd rather have a Sekiwake on the board who has yusho experience in Kirishima to add a bit of strength, so I think he's going to win tomorrow. Shishi cannot beat Kirishima straight up, so we'll see what happens.

I'd favor Atamifuji over Abi 60-40. Atamifuji's sumo isn't reckless enough to fall for an Abi henka, and I don't think Abi has the strength any more to bully Atamifuji straight back, so I'm giving Atamifuji the nod, and if Abi wins, it will be as a result of cat and mouse sumo.

Asanoyama has zero chance of beating Takayasu, and I really love the Ohshoumi - Wakamotoharu matchup. This one has the potential to be the best bout of the day tomorrow if it's fought straight up, and it should be.

In other bouts of interest, Sekiwake Takayasu was paired against Onosato, and this was comedy at its best. After a nice clash of chests at the tachi-ai, the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu with Takayasu's right hand fumbling all around the side of Onosato's belt, but he refused to grab the outer grip as seen at right. I mean, you can refuse to grab that uwate, but one damning fact remained: Onosato couldn't force Takayasu back by himself. I think Takayasu realized that he was going to have to dictate everything, and so he finally grabbed a frontal belt grip with the right and lifted Onosato all the way to the straw. And then he completely let him off the hook by suddenly stopping his charge while waiting for a counter move. For Onosato's part, he had his right arm positioned for a kubi-nage, but his body was not ready for the throw, and his left arm was touching Takayasu's right side. I guess that soft touch was enough for the Sekiwake to exaggeratedly move over to the side waiting for the kill move from Yoko Ono, but because Onosato didn't cause Takayasu's movements, he wasn't prepared to capitalize. I mean, after that light tsuki, Onosato was just standing there lost, and so Takayasu moved back in grabbing a left outer grip, and while pretending to set up a dashi-nage or belt throw, he purposefully planted his right foot across the straw giving Onosato the cheaper than cheap win.

Has anyone ever seen a pic of Onosato where his feet are aligned?  In that pic above, you can see he has no leverage for a throw or a tug, and it was all Takayasu stepping across by himself.

When you need Takayasu to let up for you like that, you've hit rock bottom, and can you imagine what must be going through Onosato's head on a daily basis being at the complete mercy of everyone? The storyline is of course that Onosato is hanging in there despite his injured left shoulder (although he curiously chose his left arm as his position of strength to Takayasu's inside from the tachi-ai) and he's now 8-4. What a comeback!! As for Takayasu, he fully knows his place in the sport, and I'm sure the majority of the kensho from this bout were delivered to his tsuke-bito in the back halls as he falls to 7-5.

The whole experiment of trying to force feed M1 Yoshinofuji and M3 Hakunofuji down our throats has been interesting, especially because these two are such big duds. Hakunofuji couldn't fend off M2 Ura of all rikishi today, and Ura managed to get to the inside and force Hakunofuji around the ring and out.

As for Yoshinofuji, the same thing happened to him at the hands of M2 Wakatakakage leaving Yoshinofuji at a precarious 6-6 while Hakunofuji is on the brink at 5-7. These guys just can't stick, and when you're obligated to throw yaocho around to higher ranked guys, people aren't going to want to cooperate as much against these two Maegashira rikishi.

The bout of the day was fought between M6 Hiradoumi and Komusubi Wakamotoharu. Hiradoumi was able to finagle moro-zashi during the bout and push WMH to the brink only to have Wakamotoharu unleash a right kote-nage at the edge sending Hiradoumi down into the first row. Problem for WMH (5-7) was that his left foot glanced outside the ring in between the toku-dawara and the straw that makes up the conventional ring, so the win was awarded to Hiradoumi (8-4). Wakamotoharu has by far been my favorite rikishi this basho, and I'm really interested to see him fight Ohshoumi tomorrow.

Expect more of the same tomorrow...hotly contested bouts here and there in Maegashira and then sleeper yaocho once we get to the final 20 minutes on the day.

Hatsu Basho Day 11 Comments
My morning routine as soon as I sit down in front of my laptop is to pull up the Sumo Association's YouTube channel and start watching the bouts. The Association will only post 12 bouts a day, and of course they are strategically picked. Towards the end of the tournament they'll start posting the Makushita Jo'i bouts as one of the videos, and I would highly recommend watching those bouts. There's also one or two Juryo bouts, and then the remainder are Makuuchi bouts. Of the bouts they posted today, the Abi - Shishi matchup was not one of them. On the surface, one might question why they didn't post that bout; after all, the NHK leaderboard at the end of the day showed only five two-loss rikishi and Abi and Shishi were among that group.

They did, however, post the Takerufuji bout from Juryo where he faced Daiseizan in a meaningless clash of 5-5 rikishi coming into the day. The fact that they skipped a key bout in the Makuuchi yusho race in favor of a scrub Juryo bout shows you that the priority of the Sumo Association does not lie with an organic yusho race; rather, the focus is building up certain Japanese rikishi who belong to prestigious stables and telegraph to the fans who they should be rooting for.

The success of foreign rikishi means nothing to the popularity of sumo in Japan; the success of Japanese rikishi, however, means survival of the Sumo Association itself. Abi is also not going to sell any more tickets, and so the Abi - Shishi matchup was of no consequence.

I actually saw a news article on the wires today saying that Enho was doing well at the Makushita Jo'i level and could return to Juryo.  I know, you're like En-who?  That dude is such a has-been, but he was a former hyped rikishi (similarly to how they're hyping Fujinokawa now or the Midorifuji kata-sukashi nonsense) and they're trying anything to get the fans to stay interested in the sport.

And to re-iterate, I'm not saying that the Sumo Association shouldn't be doing what they're doing. I am simply pointing out what they are doing and the why.

With that in mind, let's get to the yusho race and riff off of the leaderboard. I said yesterday after NHK posted a leaderboard with just the two-loss rikishi that I'd give up my left nut if they didn't drop the board down to three losses by the start of Day 11. My wife was waiting with a large pair of shears as the NHK World broadcast began, and fortunately, I can still sing bass in the choir:



The second match of the day was the forgotten match between M14 Shishi and M12 Abi, so let's start there first. The Japanese-first policy was in play here as Abi henka'd wildly to his left at the tachi-ai reaching for an outer grip, but his hand slipped off leaving him entirely vulnerable. As for Shishi, he recovered quite well and coulda rushed the compromised Abi out in a flash, but instead of diving straight into Abi and pushing him across the straw, he dove a few degrees to Abi's right conveniently flopping across the straw and giving Abi the cheap win. No surprise here as Abi is elevated to 9-2 while Shishi falls to 8-3.

M16 Ohshoumi found himself back on the leaderboard as a three-loss rikishi, so let's go there next as he was dealt M11 Nishikifuji. The two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai with Nishikifuji gaining the right outer grip. As the two settled in at the center of the dohyo, Nishikifuji made no effort to capitalize on his right outer grip. In fact, it was Ohshoumi doing some wrenching with the inside belt grip, and so with NFJ just standing there, Ohshoumi spun him around and tripped him over soto-gake style. Nishikifuji let up here giving Ohshoumi the cheap win, and so Ohshoumi stays alive at 8-3 while Nishikifuji falls to 6-5.

Okay, two bouts with yusho implications and two yaocho. What could we expect from the next bout, M6 Hiradoumi vs. M16 Asanoyama, two rikishi coming in with identical 7-3 marks? This one goes without saying. The two hooked up in migi-yotsu, and Hiradoumi's muscle memory immediately kicked in, and he had Asanoyama completely upright with feet aligned not mention the left frontal belt grip that rendered Asanoyama's right arm useless (see pic at right). That's checkmate in a real bout, but instead of digging in and mounting a force out charge, Hiradoumi let go of the left frontal and then circled around the dohyo trading places with his foe. He also made sure to stay upright enough to give Asanoyama the left outer, and then once that was obtained, Hiradoumi just let himself get forced back and across without even thinking about a counter move.

At least one person in that pic at left is trying.  It's all getting tired if you ask me, but there Asanoyama is...still on the leaderboard. What a story!! Or not. His 8-3 record is nothing but garbage while Hiradoumi gratefully takes the money in falling to 7-4.

A few bouts later, M4 Atamifuji took on M7 Fujinokawa, and talk about an easy matchup. The two hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Atamifuji focused on keeping his gal in snug by wrapping his left arm tightly around the outside of FNK's right. The last thing Fujinokawa wanted here was a chest to chest bout against a Hutt, and so he quickly moved to his right trying to set up a throw, but Atamifuji just kote-nage'd him to the edge and then pushed him down to the floor with a paw to the back. Fujinokawa is knocked off the dohyo yet again and the leaderboard he never should have been on in the first place at 7-4 while Atamifuji skates to 9-2.

Moving up to the Ozeki ranks, Aonishiki welcomed M3 Hakunofuji, and the tachi-ai here was straight-up with both dudes assuming hidari-yotsu. As the Ukrainian began reeling his gal in tight, he looked to set up an inside belt throw or at least wrench Hakunofuji off balance, and Hakunofuji's footwork was so loose that the wrenching motion from the Ozeki caused Hakunofuji's right knee to collide with Aonishiki's left leg, and that crash threw Hakunofuji off balance causing him to collapse to the dohyo and land on his arse. The bout was legit, and the real issue here is that you need to ground yourself to the dohyo. Aonishiki did just that; Hakunofuji did not resulting in an easy win for the Ozeki. Aonishiki is in charge now at 9-2 while Hakunofuji falls to 5-6.

M3 Takanosho destroyed Kotozakura because Takanosho actually tried today. He showed how easy it is to get to the inside of Zak grabbing moro-zashi and forcing Kotozakura to evade laterally. As Kotozakura moved left, Takanosho stayed snug using his right arm to easily force Kotozakura back and across without argument. Took three seconds for Kotozakura to thankfully be knocked off the leaderboard at 7-4 while Takanosho picks up his second win at 2-9. The ironic thing is...I think Takanosho is a top three Japanese rikishi, so his performance here is a great example of just how compromised sumo is these days.

Sekiwake Kirishima faced Onosato today, and the Mongolian struck his foe and nudged him a bit sideways with the left arm turning Yoko Ono just a bit and opening up the clear path to a left outer grip and the right arm inside.



Furthermore, with Onosato's feet aligned from the tachi-ai, he was a sitting duck, and so of course Kirishima decided to abandon a real sumo hold and back up  a full step instead, and he pulled his arms in tight with elbows extended as if he was ready to dance the Chicken:



As Onosato advanced, Kirishima got the right arm inside only to back up quickly to the straw and step way behind the bales with Onosato in tow, and this was over quick with very little contact made by either party. It's no surprise that Kirishima deferred to the Japanese rikishi here helping Yoko Ono (7-4) save a bit of face after his three-bout losing streak while also taking himself down a rung on the leaderboard to 8-3.

In the final bout of the day, Yokozuna Hoshoryu met Sekiwake Takayasu, and this was a similar bout to the previous one that saw Hoshoryu get the left arm inside with the clear path to the right outer grip. Instead of grabbing that grip, however, Hoshoryu positioned his hands as if to pull and backed sideways to his left only instead of letting Takayasu push him out at the edge, Hoshoryu kept moving laterally to his left and escorted Takayasu out with a light of Takayasu's right arm. This was a ho-hum bout where Hoshoryu couldn't be arsed to actually hunker down, but why expend energy forcing a lug like Takayasu back and across when you can beat him with minimal contact? Hoshoryu stays on the leaderboard at 8-3 while Takayasu is knocked off of the leaderboard now at 7-4.

It felt like every bout that involved a leader was bland today, and it was disappointing to see both Mongolians let up the final two bouts of the day. With the leaderboard reshuffled, here's how things look heading into tomorrow:

9-2: Aonishiki, Atamifuji, Abi
8-3: Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Shishi, Ohshoumi, Asanoyama

If the Aonishiki camp keeps having their guy fight straight up, you'd have to say that he's the favorite, but it just feels like a messy yusho race with four days to go, and it's not worth prognosticate anything at this point.  Yaocho is just too hard to predict.

Hatsu Basho Day 10 Comments
The Hatsu Basho is usually sumo's chance to really shine because it doesn't share the spotlight with any other sports, at least domestically. With the World Baseball Championships coming up again this March, baseball is going to suck all of the oxygen out of the room during that month, but maybe at this rate, that will be a good thing. Sumo has been making all the correct marketing moves by pushing newbies like Yoshinofuji and Hakunofuji while still maintaining the facade of Onosato and Kotozakura, but ultimately, fan interest is going to be heightened or lessened by what occurs atop the dohyo.

As I mentioned during my wrap-up of the weekend, Sumo was in a great place in terms of the yusho race heading into the weekend with all of the heavy-hitters on the board, but now as we wrap up the Chubansen, it feels like we're on fumes...with five days still to go after today!

By way of review, the leaderboard at the start of the day was as follows:



You know they're not going to let Kirishima run away with this thing, but none of the other dudes below him are much to write home about. I don't think people really remember that Abi actually has a career yusho, and I don't see a lot of excitement surrounding the two Ukrainians. If they want a Yokozuna back on the leaderboard, they're going to have to dip the yusho line even further, so there's really not an ideal way out of this mess.

Let's focus on the leaderboard today going in chronological order meaning we start with M12 Abi taking on M16 Ohsho-who-me? Abi came with a right kachi-age from the tachi-ai and then quickly morphed that into a decent tsuppari attack raising Ohshoumi upright and putting him on defense. The two traded thrusts from there with Abi agreeing to give up some ground in order to set up a pull (of course). With Abi's back near the edge, Ohshoumi looked to pounce, but his footwork wasn't solid and his thrusts seemed to be wafting up high, and so Abi was able to move quickly to his right and send Ohshoumi down with a tsuki-otoshi move. O-zumo this wasn't as Abi stays on the leaderboard at 8-2 while Ohshoumi falls out of contention for the moment at 7-3 (as if they're going to let this guy win).

Two more of our so-called leaders, M7 Fujinokawa and M14 Shishi, stepped atop the dohyo, and Shishi barely moved at the tachi-ai lifting his fists off of the dohyo but doing little else. That allowed Fujinokawa to rush forward and look to set something up, and FNK decided on a quick pull that he tried to morph into a kata-sukashi with the right arm hooked up and under Shishi's left shoulder, but Shishi easily survived and grappled his way into the right inside position. Before that could truly form, Fujinokawa evaded away from Shishi towards the edge, and Shishi was able to catch Fujinokawa with a right forearm to the chest and send the pint-sized rikishi flying off of the dohyo. I mean, if you lose like that in sumo, you don't belong in the division let alone on the leaderboard. I don't know how anyone can watch that and still take Fujinokawa seriously again as he falls to 7-3 while Shishi is still in the race...I guess...at 8-2.

If they keep pairing all of the scrub leaders together, they're going to halve the leaderboard day by day until they're down to next to nothing.

Our sole leader heading into the day, Sekiwake Kirishima, was paired against Kotozakura, and you could see from the tachi-ai that Kirishima had the clear path to hidari-yotsu, but he didn't want to take it. The problem was that Kotozakura wasn't applying any pressure and was totally on defense, so Kirishima eventually got the half-assed hidari-yotsu position. Kotozakura was already upright mostly of his own volition, and Kirishima's right hand was at the front of Kotozakura's belt, but he conveniently kept fumbling away any opportunity to grab it. I mean, it was so obvious what Kirishima was trying to do (or not trying to do), and I already knew the outcome of the bout a few seconds in. This stillshot basically sums up the first half of the bout:



With Kirishima refusing to grab the right frontal belt grip or apply pressure with the left, Kotozakura went for this feeble little pull, and Kirishima's reaction was to immediately pull out of everything and reset. The problem was that Kotozakura was going nowhere, so back to migi-yotsu they went with Kirishima groping all around the side of Kotozakura's belt but conveniently failing to grab a left outer grip. I mean look at this stillshot right here:



Kotozakura is actually leaning backwards a bit. His feet are perfectly aligned while Kirishima's posture is perfect. If something doesn't look right about Kirishima here it's because he too has his feet aligned...on purpose. You can also see his left arm at the side of Kotozakura's belt, but he did everything possible except GRAB THE DAMN BELT!

The reason Kirishima kept his feet aligned was so that Kotozakura could grab a left outer of his own, and once he got it, Kotozakura began a yori charge, and Kirishima totally played along as he backed his way outta the ring without even thinking about a counter move.

If you have eyes to see, the yaocho here was obvious, and the Sumo Association just can't help themselves can they? Kirishima voluntarily steps down to the two-los tier now at 8-2 while Kotozakura is 7-3.

Thing is...this was the widest shot of the crowd I got from the Sumo Association's YouTube channel from the Day 10 bouts, and there are definitely cracks in the attendance seams beginning to form:



That's just prior to the M3 Hakunofuji - M2 Wakatakakage bout, so this is from around 5:15 PM Japan time. Speaking of that matchup, it was the best fought bout of the day by far as Wakatakakage grabbed the right outer in the hidari-yotsu contest and used it to bully Hakunofuji around and out leaving both gentlemen at 5-5.

One of the final bouts on the day that featured a leader was M3 Takanosho taking on Ozeki Aonishiki, and Takanosho connected on some sharp tsuppari into Aonishiki at the tachi-ai keeping the Ozeki on his heels from the start. Still, Aonishiki is entirely comfortable fighting from a defensive posture, and you could see that Takanosho was hesitant about going for an all-out forward moving oshi attack. Takanosho won the tachi-ai and was effective enough that when he went for a pull against the Ozeki, it threw Aonishiki out of sorts to where Takanosho had the wide open path to get the left arm deep inside, but you could see Takanosho hesitate again not trusting in his ability to mount a forward attack. With Takanosho standing there second guessing himself, Aonishiki yanked him a bit to the side by that left arm and that was enough of a momentum shift to allow the Ozeki to push Takanosho back from there.

This was actually a very good bout of sumo. Aonishiki was fine fighting on defense and why not? These Japanese rikishi seem too scared to try and beat him with straight up sumo, and the result here is Aonishiki's staying in contention as he moves to 8-2 while Takanosho falls to 1-9.

The final bout of the day also contained a leader with M4 Atamifuji paired against Onosato. Coming off of his two but skid, you have to give Onosato credit for stepping into the ring against Atamifuji instead of using the injury card to simply withdraw, and the two put up a very good fight. From the tachi-ai, the bout went to migi-yotsu where Atamifuji was able to easily grab the left outer grip, but Onosato didn't want to stay put and let Atamifuji use his bulk after grabbing that left outer, and so Onosato tested the right scoop throw waters as he move around the ring to his right, and the result was a decent nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge with Atamifuji tugging on that left outer grip and Onosato going for the force down with the inside right. Both rikishi crashed down at the same time, and Atamifuji looked like the winner live (and that's the direction the ref pointed), but they called a mono-ii and made them fight again.

Luckily for Onosato, Atamifuji wasn't throwing his weight around in round two. The Hutt was passive at the tachi-ai failing to use any tsuppari that would have worked against Onosato, who kept his arms in tight playing defense from the get-go. With Atamifuji holding back, Onosato moved forward getting the shallow inside left position, but these guys didn't go chest to chest this time around either. Instead, Atamifuji began retreating towards the edge and then dodged to his left putting his right hand at the top of Onosato's shoulder, but he didn't really pull or thrust downwards. I guess he didn't need to because Onosato wasn't ready for Atamifuji's lateral movement, and Yoko Ono just hopped out of the dohyo like a toad.

Atamifuji offered a quick shove that really didn't connect as he fell down, and Onosato tried a desperate pull while hopping, but Onosato was already across the straw when Atamifuji touched both hands down. This was a rather strange ending to the bout, but it looked like Onosato was gassed and Atamifuji didn't do anything to try and really damage his opponent. He refrained from using any shoves, and he retreated one second into the rematch even though Onosato wasn't applying any force into him. For what it's worth, Onosato's shoulder didn't look injured to me, but how do you really know?? When was the last time Onosato actually employed a waza to defeat an opponent?

Atamifuji picks up another kin-boshi with the win and stays on the leaderboard moving to 8-2 while Onosato falls to 6-4. I'm sure he's going to withdraw after this one, but we'll see. Let's cover a few more bouts of interest before reviewing the new leaderboard since the three-loss rikishi at the end of the day are now in play.

In the penultimate bout on the day, Yokozuna Hoshoryu left himself vulnerable at the tachi-ai by standing upright and aligning his feet against Komusubi Ohho, but Ohho blew the chance by choosing to skirt to his left and change places in the dohyo with his opponent instead of mounting a forward thrust attack. The two ended up in a shallow migi-yotsu pose after the lane change, but they were both standing so upright that they couldn't hunker down and go chest to chest. After the soft start, it was the Yokozuna who had the left outer grip while Ohho still kept his left hand high as if to push into the Yokozuna's side, but that push never came and so Hoshoryu just dragged Ohho forward and down with that left outer belt grip. This was such a lackluster display of sumo from both parties, and you could tell that something was off here as Hoshoryu moves to 7-3 (and back into yusho contention) while Ohho falls to 4-6.

The Sumo Association has included M16 Asanoyama's bout as part of their YouTube lineup every single day this tournament, and every day it's ranked about five or six in terms of popularity. If they're going to get that kind of attention, why not continue to have this guy succeed?

Today he was paired against M8 Kinbohzan, and talk about a matchup where Asanoyama could really get hurt if Kinbohzan went all out. And as much as I despise yaocho, thankfully Kinbohzan was not out to hurt Asanoyama here. Instead of going for his usual tsuppari attack, Kinbohzan stood completely upright and reached for a left outer grip giving Asanoyama the right inside position. With the bout now at migi-yotsu (and gappuri migi-yotsu no less), Kinbohzan arched his back and aligned his feet determined to go with the flow as dictated by the former Ozeki. Asanoyama easily worked Kinbohzan to the edge, and the ending here was utter slow motion as Kinbohzan wasn't looking to counter and Asanoyama couldn't actually force the Kazakhstani back, and so Kinbohzan finally stepped his left foot across and that was that.

This bout reminded me of the bouts they were showing as "fixed" 15 years ago when the whole yaocho scandal came about and they were forced to show examples of excommunicated rikishi and how they let up in their bouts. I mean, the ending here was no different from those, but of course no one dares to bring this fact up. The gift puts Asanoyama back on the leaderboard at 7-3 while Kinbohzan laughs all the way to the bank at 3-7.

Sekiwake Takayasu and M1 Yoshinofuji traded quick yet useless tsuppari from the tachi-ai where both guys were standing up straight. I know Yoshinofuji's sumo, and I know the dude doesn't hesitate to move laterally when he thinks he's in a pinch. He didn't do that here and just lazily backed up reaching for a useless right grip in the process as Takayasu pushed him back and across without argument. This one was fixed, and it puts Takayasu back on the board at 7-3 while Yoshinofuji is a harmless 5-5.

And finally, M6 Hiradoumi crushed M10 Tokihayate (5-5) back and across despite not having anything to the inside. Hiradoumi's charge was so good that he backed his foe up to the brink in a flash and then pushed him across by the face. I'll take it as Hiradoumi finds his way onto the leaderboard at 7-3.

NHK World threw me a nice curveball at the end of Day 10 showing this leaderboard:



I'd bet my left nut that for the Day 11 NHK World broadcast, they're going to drop that leaderboard to three losses, and if that's the case, here's the list of dudes sitting on 7-3 records:

Hoshoryu
Kotozakura
Takayasu
Hiradoumi
Fujinokawa
Ohshoumi
Asanoyama

Hatsu Basho Day 7, 8, 9 Digest
Sheesh, I go away for a three-day weekend and come back only to find the landscape completely changed in terms of the yusho race. Saturday (Day 7) was not a good look at all for Onosato.  His inability to really do anything of his own volition stood out like a sore thumb, the result of which sent negative ripples throughout the landscape for the next three days. Heading into the weekend, I was like, "Sumo's got 'em right where they want 'em" because the rikishi occupying the elite ranks of the banzuke were all in the yusho hunt, and then three days later, it's a completely different world.

Touching briefly on the last five bouts on Saturday, you had two consecutive bouts with alpha male sumo in Kirishima vs. Yoshinofuji and then Wakamotoharu vs. Aonishiki.

It's unfortunate that we rarely get to see the real Kirishima, but we saw him on Saturday as he completely manhandled the manufactured Yoshinofuji at the belt. The very next bout featured an outstanding ending with Wakamotoharu trying to kote-nage Aonishiki at the edge. Aonishiki barely survived the nage-no-uchi-ai winning by yori-taoshi, but there was so much power and strength exerted there at the end by both rikishi that it created a fantastic finish to a real bout of sumo.

The final bout of the day featured Hoshoryu who really manhandled Hakunofuji at the belt similarly to how Kirishima won a few bouts earlier. Then, sandwiched in between all that testosterone, you had Kotozakura meekly pull down Wakatakakage in a fixed bout, and then Daieisho had Onosato on the ropes twice only to dive head first into the straw and bail Yoko Ono out. That dive from the floundering Daieisho was so obvious, especially after he had Onosato stumbling and bumbling all over the ring after easily winning the tachi-ai.

The biggest problem by the end of Day 7 is that you had three alphas in Hoshoryu, Aonishiki, and Kirishima tied at 6-1 along with a beta in Onosato.

Day 8 was what they call Tenran-zumo, and that refers to a day when the Emperor shows up to watch the bouts. The protocol is slightly different, but just the fact that the Emperor was there shines a brighter spotlight on the day. And the finish was not good. It wasn't the taste that you want to leave in people's mouths coming out of the middle weekend.

Onosato was crushed by Hakunofuji in about two seconds. The defenseless faux-ko-zuna was driven back in linear fashion and then pushed across without argument. That was a horrible look to end the day. Then, in the penultimate bout, Hoshoryu felt as if he should (or was ordered?) to compensate for Onosato's failure against Daieisho the previous day, and so he just flopped forward and down as if the victim of a weak hataki-komi from Daieisho. His entire career as Yokozuna, Hoshoryu has been covering for Onosato to give the impression that all Yokozuna go through struggles, and I saw in the headlines after Day 8 that former Kotokaze said that the ending to the day was an insult to the fans.  And it was.  That ending was completely brought on by the fact that Onosato is a fake Yokozuna, and the alpha male of the two has to cover for him consistently. And all of that with the Emperor watching and drawing extra media scrutiny.

I think the biggest bout of the basho through the first eight days was the Kirishima - Aonishiki contest. The bout was straight up, and Kirishima completely dismantled Aonishiki by yori-taoshi. He denied the Ukrainian any significant inside position, and he won in linear fashion, and it was a statement bout that showed how the banzuke really should be organized. Compared to his Japanese counterparts, Aonishiki is indeed an Ozeki, but compared to the Mongolians, Aonishiki can't really compete. So...the real banzuke has Tamawashi, Hoshoryu, and Kirishima at the top. You could also throw Onokatsu and Chiyoshoma in that group, but those two are only focused on making money at the expense of their rank.

Kinbohzan and Aonishiki are in the next tier along with the non-Mongolian foreigners like Roga, and then the Japanese rikishi are all under them. As an aside, I think you'd have to rank Wakamotoharu at the top of the Japanese rikishi based on his performance this basho.

Coming out of the weekend, you had the following leaderboard at the end of Day 8:



Abi is not going anywhere this basho, and so you essentially have Kirishima leading the basho. Speaking of Kirishima, he was paired against Ura on Day 9 and beat him via another saka-tottari. Ura was trying an ippon-ze-oi that essentially set up the saka-tottari, but whatever. At least Kirishima didn't throw the bout.

Onosato was blistered for the second day in a row this time losing to Wakamotoharu, and it wasn't even close. Onosato was completely exposed over the three-day span calling on those in the media to bring up the "injured left shoulder" garbage.  No, he was involved in three straight up bouts, and those results didn't have anything to do because of an injury.

Perhaps you should frame it in a question this way:  Because Onosato has an injured left shoulder, he was unable to perform what move that he usually excels at?

Because Onosato got beat yet again, Hoshoryu was obligated to lose to Atamifuji, and so the Yokozuna didn't even try, and it was obvious that he was throwing another bout for the second time in as many days. There is no doubt that Uncle Asa explained the way it works to Hoshoryu. You can kick everyone's ass and be maligned on a daily basis in the media like Uncle Asa was, or you can play along and keep the peace...and make a ton of money along the way. It's easy to see which path Hoshoryu has chosen, and I don't blame him.

I really liked the Wakamotoharu - Aonishiki bout on Day 9. It ended up as a kiri-kaeshi win (I thought it was actually soto-gake) in favor of the Ukrainian, and Aonishiki was in control the entire way, but Wakamotoharu put up a pretty good fight, and I think it solidified my thoughts on the real banzuke that I mentioned earlier.

An inconsequential Abi lost on Day 9 to Kotoshoho, and with the two losses coming from the Yokozuna ranks, this was the leaderboard at the end of Day 9:



That is not good. You have two foreigners on top and then a bunch of no-names after that. I thought these three days were a perfect example of how bout fixing and banzuke fixing in sumo ruins everything.

Hatsu Basho Day 6 Comments
I talked about the click bait news articles I'm seeing all over the wires, and yesterday as I was searching for pictures, I saw an article with quotes from social media about female funs gushing over this gorgeous oyakata on the NHK broadcast. It turns out that it was Endoh, and when I clicked on the article, I read that Endoh retired after the Kyushu basho. The Sumo Association is wisely putting him on the broadcasts, and he debuted yesterday sitting in the mukou-joumen chair. The article snipped quotes from social media that described Endoh as too beautiful, and the gals were even gushing over his voice. Maybe I should get in on the action and pose as a chick and fawn all over Endoh too.



The Sumo Association is smart to plaster Endoh's face all over television (and then ask a news outlet to write about it), but once again, it's a great example where Sumo is trying to increase its fan base by advertising everything except for the actual sumo.

There weren't a whole lot of changes today, so let's just cover the rikishi that the sheeple care about.

Onosato stayed put at the tachi-ai allowing M2 Wakatakakage to come to him, and Wakatakakage got the easy right arm inside with the path to the left outer or even a left frontal grip, but instead of pressing in tight, Wakatakakage opted to back up all the way to the starting lines. Because Yoko Ono didn't cause that retreat, he wasn't able to capitalize, and so WTK dug in with that right arm inside and the easy path to the left.



In that pic above you can see Onosato's right arm completely rendered useless and his right hip exposed to an outer grip from Wakatakakage, but the M2 never took advantage and stayed burrowed in waiting for a counter move. Said counter was a pull where Onosato backed up and shaded to his left, and Wakatakakage's response was to keep moving forward and softly dive to the dirt instead of pivoting and going for a damaging push of his opponent.

I'm trying to find positive aspects to Onosato's sumo, but I didn't see anything here. Wakatakakage easily dictated early on and then simply stopped competing. Onosato moves to 5-1 with another gift while WTK falls to an even steven 3-3.

Yokozuna Hoshoryu came with a quick hari-zashi tachi-ai slapping with the left and looking to get the right arm inside, but M3 Takanosho quickly moved to his left almost to the other side of the dohyo. Hoshoryu briefly touched Takanosho's mawashi with the left, but the lateral movement was so fast he couldn't latch on, so with Takanosho now against the edge, Hoshoryu squared back up and went for a quick pull as Takanosho leaned forward, and the M3 walked right into it stumbling across the diameter of the dohyo and down. Takanosho was fighting scared from the start, so this was easy pickins for the Yokozuna who moves to 5-1 while Takanosho falls to 0-6.

Suckiwake Takayasu's tsuppari attack was defensive from the start against Ozeki Aonishiki, and so the Ukrainian was able to work his left arm inside and body Takayasu back enough to where he grabbed a right outer as well, and Takayasu could do nothing here giving Aonishiki the easy peasy force out win. Aonishiki keeps pace at 5-1 while Takayasu is knocked down a notch to 4-2.

These days M4 Daieisho is pretty much a lame horse that needs to be put down. Today against Kotozakura, he shaded right from the tachi-ai not wanting to fight straight on, and how can you blame him? As Kotozakura looked to recover from the mild henka, Daieisho continued to mawari-komu to his right, but he was stumbling and bumbling and so out of balance, so when Kotozakura pinned him into a corner (yes that's possible in a round ring) directly in front of the chief judge, Daieisho just gave up and walked back. For the record, this bout was straight up. Daieisho simply didn't have the means or the will to try and defeat such a large foe. He falls to 1-5 and will be happy to be demoted far down the charts while Kotozakura will take the easy win in moving to 4-2.

The Sekiwake Kirishima - M1 Ichiyamamoto bout was a sloppy affair with Kirishima frequently lifting a leg off the ground and putting it forward just begging IYM to take advantage, but Ichiyamamoto's thrusts only served one purpose: to set up a pull. The problem was, he didn't have Kirishima on his heels whatsoever, so back and forth they went for about five seconds (and three knee lifts by Kirishima) until Kirishima sorta grabbed Ichiyamamoto's left arm with the right, but it wasn't really a kote grip, and as Kirishima sloppily moved forward, Ichiyamamoto went for a sloppy pull stepping out before Kirishima could step out himself.

The gyoji was just as confused as the rest of us, and he pointed in IYM's direction, but Kirishima had clearly kept his footing, so they correctly overturned the call and gave it to the Sekiwake...who was more than willing to lose this one. He came out on top, however, and now finds himself at 5-1 while Ichiyamamoto is floundering at 1-5.

By far the best bout of the day featured the two Komusubi, Ohho and Wakamotoharu, squaring off, and why can't all bouts of sumo be as hotly contested as this one was? When both rikishi are trying to win, we get fantastic sumo, and that's what happened here as Ohho fought off an early frontal grip by WMH to get moro-zashi, and with Ohho pressing his foe back towards the straw, Wakamotoharu used the tawara perfectly for leverage as he used a right outer grip to utchari Ohho sideways and down forcing Ohho's knee to scrape the edge of the dohyo as both dudes toppled down to the floor below. This was not only the best bout of the day, but it's been the best bout of the tournament and likely will not be topped. You watch stuff like this and you remember why you like(d) sumo in the first place. Once again, that every bout every day can't be like this is a shame. I mean, it doesn't have to end in utchari; I just want both rikishi to try and win. Wakamotoharu was a beast here as he picks up his first win at 1-5 while Ohho falls to 2-4.

Before we move on, I bag on these guys all the time especially when bout fixing happens, but you have to respect two dudes willing to crash off of a nearly 1-meter high clay mound and not break their fall to the venue floor below. Alpha male stuff here for sure.

M1 Yoshinofuji and M2 Ura hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Ura actually had Yoshinofuji's left arm cut off and rendered useless. Instead of grabbing a right outer grip, Ura stood pat and waited for Yoshinofuji to make a move, and the M1 finally went for a useless kubi-nage. That gave Ura the path to moro-zashi, but instead of hunkering down and trying to win the bout, Ura went for an ill-advised pull across most of the dohyo setting himself for a pushout from Yoshinofuji.

The way you know that Yoshinofuji did not cause Ura's retreat and was applying no pressure was because he ran off the dohyo and stumbled into the first row. If a dude is in control and there is proper force and counter force in the dohyo, the winner can keep himself in the ring or at least keep himself atop the dohyo as he looks over his roadkill down below. In this bout, Yoshinofuji had no control, which tells you that Ura was mukiryoku. I mean, I really couldn't see any positives for Yoshinofuji here as he moves to a shallow 4-2 while Ura falls to 0-6.

M5 Tamawashi was passive at the tachi-ai keeping his hands high and wide allowing M3 Hakunofuji to dictate the pace, and so Hakunofuji took the bout to hidari-yotsu where Tamawashi flinched on a few counter moves like a kote-nage and a tsuki-otoshi, but he just went with the flow and allowed Hakunofuji to force him to the side and out. At least Tamawashi made the youngster work for it, but the Mongolian did nothing to win this bout and made sure it was fought entirely on his half of the dohyo. The bout was fixed, but the sumo was still decent as Hakunofuji moves to 4-2 while Tamawashi couldn't care less at 2-4.

And finally, M16 Asanoyama looked to take his bout to migi-yotsu against M13 Tomokaze, and Tomokaze didn't even bother getting anything inside or really hunkering down. Instead he drifted over to his left and pulled the hapless Asanoyama down a few seconds in. Wait a minute...I thought Asanoyama was on fire this basho. Uh, turns out that the dude is completely useless when his opponent is not letting him win, and this bout was Exhibit A. Asanoyama falls to 4-2 while Tomokaze evens things up at 3-3.

It was a pretty vanilla day of sumo, so let's end here. We should emerge from the weekend with a solid yusho board in place, and that's exactly what the Sumo Association wants at this point.

We'll see if there's anything worth commenting on over the weekend.

Hatsu Basho Day 5 Comments
At the end of Day 4 as I was scanning the wires for pictures of the action, prominently displayed near the top of the queue was another one of those "headlines" from a major sports organization, Sports Hochi, that read as follows: "Famous actor spotted in the prime seating during the NHK live broadcast." The headline then listed supposed quotes they were seeing all over social media like, "He really stands out", "I laughed in excitement", "You can see him every time a rikishi walks by", and "It's Katsumi Takahashi"!



You can see above the picture they used is a stock photo of the NHK logo on the side of one of its buildings, and I've been noticing these click bait articles pop up for about a year now. At first they were from organizations I had never heard of, but I've been ripping off photos from Sports Hochi for decades now, and I'd call them one of the top three Sports rags in the nation.

There is clearly a campaign going on where the Sumo Association is asking major media outlets to run these clickbait articles for them, and this particular article was an attempt to get more people to watch the NHK live broadcast. I haven't seen viewership numbers posted since Kisenosato was a Yokozuna, so you know the numbers are floundering or else they'd reveal them.

I get it that any sport needs to market itself, but have you ever heard of marketing your athletes or marketing your actual product? Sumo can't market either, and so they're using celebrities and news organizations to create these social media friendly blurbs in an attempt to get people to pay attention to sumo. It would be really great if Japanese rikishi could produce the type of sumo that could be marketed, but it simply doesn't exist.

The best illustration of that was the penultimate bout on the day featuring Onosato vs. M3 Takanosho. The tachi-ai was actually pretty good where Takanosho caught Onosato with a right paw to the neck, but just as quickly, Onosato brought his left arm up and swiped that paw away.

Here's the tachi-ai and you can see the footing from both rikishi is good:



Onosato's footing gave him the leverage to withstand that chokehold and swipe Takanosho's arm away, so it's worth pointing out that the tachi-ai was clean, and the counter move from Onosato was legit. Of course, you'd think it'd be the Yokozuna doing the choking against a winless opponent, and the scrub fighting him off, but whatever.

From that point, Takanosho looked to square back up with Yoko Ono, and he established the right arm inside and had the clear path to anything with the left. With Onosato unable to apply any counter pressure, Takanosho went for a quick tug/swipe that left Onosato in this position:



In sumo, you're always trying to get your opponent into a position from which they can't recover, and that was certainly the case here. All that was needed was a final push to the arse with Takanosho's left hand, and it was curtains. Of course, Takanosho conveniently forgot to push his foe out from behind and ran in a slightly different direction instead of straight into his opponent's body, and as Takanosho ran by, he put a right arm high towards Onosato while Onosato sorta swiped at that arm, and Takanosho conveniently put both palms to the dirt before Yoko Ono stepped across.

This was the scene one second after the bout:



Yes, the dude who won is in the front row with his back to the dohyo while the dude who lost has already picked himself back up from his "fall." The only reason I start with this bout in this manner is to say, "What you can you market from this?" I guess the two positives you can point out from Onosato's sumo were 1) He countered well at the tachi-ai, and 2) He dodged well at the edge. Are those the traits you want from a Yokozuna? He's good at dodging people? He recovers well? He counters well?

Here's something novel:  how about, "He goes out there every day and just kicks his opponent's ass?"

Curiously, that part of Onosato's sumo is missing, and so the Association needs to market guys like Katsumi Takahashi and not their own Yokozuna. Oh, and yes, this bout was fixed in favor of Yoko Ono who sheepishly moves to 4-1 with the gift barely escaping a dude who is 0-5.

When that shiz happens day after day after day, the sheeple do eventually notice.

Let's actually try and go wire to wire from here starting with the first bout of the day, M15 Ryuden vs. M16 Asanoyama. The two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Ryuden grabbed the easy belt grip while Asanoyama positioned his left hand into Ryuden's armpit, but he didn't have any leverage. This was the scene one second into the bout:



Most noticeably, Ryuden has the clear path to the right outer grip, and Asanoyama's head is pointing upwards completely out of position. Instead of grabbing a right outer, however, Ryuden simply retreated letting the action occur on his side of the dohyo. As Ryuden backed up and to his right, he slyly let go of his inside life position bringing that arm to the outside, and before you knew it, Asanoyama had moro-zashi against a self-retreating opponent. Of course Ryuden (1-4) pit up no resistance at the edge gifting Asanoyama a laughable 4-1 start. It's no surprise they're trying to resurrect this guy because they have little else.

M17 Hatsuyama got the right arm inside at the tachi-ai against a defenseless M14 Mitakeumi, but he pulled it back immediately while moving himself over to his left. He sorta fished for a left outer grip in the process, but he essentially set himself up at the edge and waited for Mitakeumi to push him across. I haven't watched Hatsuyama enough to know if that was intentional or hapless sumo, but I'm inclined to say it was the former. Regardless, the end result is Mitakeumi's moving to a soft 3-2 with Hatsuyama falling to 0-5.

M14 Shishi held up at the tachi-ai against M16 Ohshoumi, but when Ohshoumi didn't really press from the start, Shishi easily got the right arm inside and lifted his foe upright. Shishi had the clear path to a left outer grip but intentionally did not grab it, and he stayed upright drifting over the edge so that when Ohshoumi finally went for a tepid scoop throw with he right, Shishi just flopped over and down.



In this scene, as the scoop throw was forming, Shishi's left arm was actually positioned perfectly to counter with a tsuki-otoshi, but instead of pushing into Ohshoumi's side, he balled his left fist (a useless move) and conveniently let go of the belt altogether with the right leading to the soft, harmless throw by Ohshoumi who buys one here in moving to 4-1 while Shishi had room to sell at 3-2.

M17 Asahakuryu stutter stepped at the tachi-ai awkwardly putting his right hand forward against M13 Tomokaze, but he aligned his feet taking away any moment, and so Tomokaze was able to take charge with a right paw planted in the rookie's throat. Neither dude was driving with the lower body, so it was a very soft bout with Asahakuryu being slowly nudged back near the straw. Near the end, Asahakuryu got his own right paw pressing into Tomokaze's neck, but the latter swiped that away easily and used his own right paw to the neck again to push the rookie across for good. Definitely no grunting or hissing or spitting in this one as Tomokaze methodically pushes Asahakuryu back and out in moving to 2-3 while the rookie falls to 3-2.

Two of my least favorite guys met up in M12 Midorifuji vs. M15 Asakoryu, and Asakoryu henka'd to his left wrapping his left arm around Midorifuji's right as he also pushed into Midorifuji's jaw with his own right hand, but it just didn't feel like there was much force here (same as the previous bout), and so Midorifuji was able to swipe at AKR's side and move him to the other side of the dohyo. As Midorifuji pressed forward quickly, Asakoryu pivoted and then tried to spin away, but the result was Midorifuji's catching him in the light Brokeback position and sending him out from behind.

The last two bouts really felt like exhibition sumo where the two combatants were simply trying not to get hurt as both these dudes finish the day at 2-3.

M13 Tobizaru could never keep his footing against M11 Nishikifuji as the two engaged in a straight-up tsuppari affair, and as the two went back and forth, NFJ connected on the more significant blows resulting in his ability to drive Tobizaru to the edge, and when Tobizaru went for a final desperation pull, Nishikifuji pushed him back and across. I suppose this was entertaining even though the sumo content wasn't great as Nishikifuji moves to 3-2 while Tobizaru falls to 1-4.

M12 Abi kept his arms high and wide at the tachi-ai and even shaded backwards without executing an effective pull, and that enabled Chiyoshoma to rush in and get the right inside with a left outer grip. Abi was dead to rights at this point, but Chiyoshoma willingly put his back against the straw and waited for a move that came in the form of a weak Abi tsuki-otoshi with the left, and that was Chiyoshoma's cue to just flop forward and down giving Abi the cheap, cheap win. This one was just silly, and maybe this is why I haven't been paying attention to the bottom third of the division as Abi moves to an ugly 5-0 while Chiyoshoma picks up more cash in dropping to 2-3.

M9 Roga reached for and got a left outer grip at the tachi-ai against M10 Tokihayate, but Roga wasn't established with the right arm inside, and so he had to give up two full steps in order to reposition himself. Tokihayate did well to move Roga back to the straw, but Roger dug in from there and forced the action back to the center of the ring. As Roga retooled that left outer grip to all folds of the belt, you could see he was in full control. Instead of a strong finish, however, Roga stealthily shaded back to the edge, let go of his positioning, and allowed Tokihayate to "force" him back and across. There was actually some good sumo and counter sumo early on, but the result was fixed in Tokihayate's favor...unfortunately. Tokihayate moves to 3-2 with the ill-gotten win while Roga settles for 2-3.

M10 Kotoshoho reached for the left frontal grip against M9 Gonoyama, but Gonoyama easily brushed that aside and took charge leading with his own left inside position. Gonoyama had KSH on his way out, but instead of grabbing a wide open right uwate and silling the dill, Gonoyama dipped his right shoulder down and leaned that way as Kotoshoho went for a desperate kubi-nage. The neck throw had no effect other to act as camouflage for Gonoyama's dive, and this is why I haven't been commenting on every bout on the day. They're so fake as Kotoshoho moves to 3-2 while Gonoyama drops to 1-4.

How do you know so much of sumo is fake?  M8 Shodai came into the day at 3-1. Today against M7 Fujinokawa, FNK henka'd to his right with little effect because Shodai is too old to charge hard, and so Fujinokawa darted this way and that keeping Shodai off balance for a second or two. When the flow of the bout found Shodai near the edge, Fujinokawa pushed him lightly across and that was that. This really felt like a scenario where the two were simply trading wins. Shodai "won" their previous bout back in September, so it was Fujinokawa's turn today. FNK moves to 4-1 after the light in while Shodai falls to 3-2.

M8 Kinbohzan was poised to catch M7 Ohshoma with a nice paw to the throat at the tachi-ai, but he relented and moved his foot forward as if to throw himself off balance, so I knew the fix was in at that point. With Ohshoma not doing any measurable sumo move the first few seconds, Kinbohzan ducked this way and that and then and then just moved his right side into an easy left outer grip for Ohshoma, and before Ohshoma could really tug or throw with the hold, Kinbohzan anticipated the throw just a tad early and flopped forward and down providing for an awkward and unnatural finish. This one was obviously thrown in favor of Ohshoma who oils his way to 5-0 while Kinbohzan falls to 1-4.

I guess this goes back to my intro where I covered the Onosato - Takanosho matchup. Let's suppose the nightly news shows include this Ohshoma bout as part of their highlight reel. Is this type of bout and fake sumo what you want the general public to see?

M5 Churanoumi kept his feet aligned and hands out wide gifting M6 Hiradoumi the right inside position from the start, and while Hiradoumi didn't have the left outer grip, he didn't need it because Churanoumi was staying upright and showing a willingness to be forced back, so Hiradoumi went with the flow scoring the easy and uncontested win just like that. This was another example of exhibition sumo where it felt like the two were just trading wins as Hiradoumi moves to 3-2 while Churanoumi falls to 2-3.

M5 Tamawashi came with a few light tsuppari at the tachi-ai against M6 Onokatsu, but Tamawashi's head wasn't lowered and he wasn't driving with this legs, and so two seconds in, he allowed Onokatsu to get the firm left inside position. Once Onokatsu had the prime positioning (that he didn't set up), Tamawashi was all too willing to retreat with Onokatsu in tow. Tamawashi's muscle memory flinched at a few counter moves, but he just went straight back giving Onokatsu the cheap win, which left both dudes at 2-3.

Yes, so much of this feels like a complete waste of time.

We finally got a real bout between M2 Ura and M4 Atamifuji, but it wasn't much of a contest. Ura completely aligned his feet at the tachi-ai as the two hooked up in migi-yotsu, and Atamifuji seemed content to keep his gal in snug by wrapping his left arm around Ura's right. From this position, the two grappled this way and that a bit, and as Atamifuji began to mount his careful force-out charge, Ura went for a desperate pull at the edge leading to his sure demise. Pretty methodic stuff as Atamifuji takes what was given him in moving to 3-2 while Ura is still a goose egg.

M1 Ichiyamamoto stood upright at the tachi-ai with his arms outstretched, but he was merely waiting for M1 Yoshinofuji to come to him. Yoshinofuji eventually figured it out getting the right arm inside as Ichiyamamoto shaded backwards, and by the time they were at the straw, Yoshinofuji grabbed a left outer grip making it look more official, but this was simple, mukiryoku sumo from Ichiyamamoto giving Yoshinofuji the cheap, uncontested win. Despite everyone letting up for him, Yoshinofuji's 3-2 mark doesn't look great and it certainly doesn't feel great. As for Ichiyamamoto, he knows his place in sumo at 1-4.

Komusubi Wakamotoharu shaded to his left at the tachi-ai against Suckiwake Takayasu, but he just stood there like a bump on a log with his arms outstretched. Takayasu easily adjusted and began firing a few thrusts, but they were old guy tsuppari that had little effect, so the two danced this way and that trading tsuppari with no lower body involved. Midway through the bout, Wakamotoharu moved Takayasu back with a couple of nice shoves, but his reaction was to just stop and wait for Takayasu to regain his balance. Bottom line here was that Wakamotoharu was passive start to finish...on purpose, so it was no surprise to see Takayasu pick up the cheap win in the end. Tsuki-dashi my arse as Takayasu moves to 4-1 while Wakamotoharu is winless at 0-5.

In a similar bout, Sekiwake Kirishima and Komusubi Ohho traded shoves, but you could see that Kirishima was keeping himself upright in a largely defensive posture. When you examine these two guys, Ohho is a tsuppari guy while Kirishima excels at the belt. Kirishima was not, however, even looking to get to the belt here, so you knew he was just toying with his foe and looking for a chance to dive. As for Ohho, he had no lower body nor confidence in his thrusts, and so about six seconds into the fray, Kirishima really started giving Ohho the business driving him back near the straw. Kirishima let up, however, waiting for the counter move to come, and it was a very haphazard pull attempt from Ohho as he skirted left, and Kirishima anticipated the move a little bit too much and just dove across the straw and down. As for Ohho, he was so off balance, he stumbled into the center of the ring, and so this is what the end of the bout looked like:



Whenever you see that, you know somebody took a dive, and you know the victor had zero control over the flow of the bout, and that was definitely the case here as Kirishima removes himself from undefeated status at 4-1 while Ohho picks up the gimme at 2-3.

Ozeki Aonishiki stood guard over his starting line daring M4 Daieisho to come 'n get him, but Daieisho was quite hesitant barely bringing a tsuppari attack, and so Aonishiki simply took a step forward assuming moro-zashi, and once obtained, he respectfully forced the veteran back and across easy as you please. Aonishiki is a cool 4-1 while Daieisho falls to the opposite 1-4.

Easily the best bout of the day considering the circumstances was Kotozakura vs. M3 Hakunofuji. The two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and Hakunofuji was able maintain the lower stance and keep Kotozakura away from a coveted right grip. Because Kotozakura was upright and vulnerable, Hakunofuji latched onto a right outer grip, and so the M3 was in complete control at that point. Kotozakura is still a load to move around, however, and so Hakunofuji was looking to pick his spot. A few seconds after the stalemate, he went for a wild soto-gake with the right leg that created a momentum shift, and Kotozakura knew if he had a chance that it was now. He tried to force Hakunofuji out opposite of the chief judge, but Hakunofuji stood pat with right outer grip, and once Kotozakura had expended his fuel, Hakunofuji drove the lug all the way across the dohyo and out the side from where Kotozakura started. Very good stuff from Hakunofuji who moves to 3-2, and it was nice to see good sumo and counter sumo from both parties. Kotozakura also falls to 3-2 in defeat.

We already talked about the Onosato - Takanosho matchup, so let's move to the final bout of the day, Yokozuna Hoshoryu vs. M2 Wakatakakage. The Yokozuna came with a hari-zashi tachi-ai slapping with the left while getting the right arm inside. Hoshoryu didn't really connect on the face slap, but Wakatakakage was more focused on a left outer grip than he was establishing his own inside position. WTK did get the outer, but he didn't have anything on his right side, and so Hoshoryu hunkered down and shored up the right inside position, and after a brief pause, he escorted Wakatakakage all the way back to the edge before lightly nudging him across. That finish at right is textbook, and you never see an Onosato bout end like that.  None of the Japanese rikishi can come close to competing with Hoshoryu as he moves to a cool 4-1 while Wakatakakage is glad he didn't get hurt in falling to 3-2.

It's too early to really talk yusho at this point, and with all the real playuhs now at one loss, it's safe to say that the yusho line will fall to 13-2 or worse.

Also, here are the Top 10 bouts from Day 5 in terms of views on YouTube as of 7 AM Japan time Friday morning:

1. 74K Onosato vs. Takanosho
2. 57K Hoshoryu vs. Wakatakakage
3. 54K Aonishiki vs. Daieisho
4. 53K Kotozakura vs. Hakunofuji
5. 47K Asanoyama vs. Ryuden
6. 43K Yoshinofuji vs. Ichiyamamoto
7. 38K Kirishima vs. Ohho
8. 33K Takayasu vs. Wakamotoharu
9. 29K Ura vs. Atamifuji
10. 20K Shodai vs. Fujinokawa / 20K Takerufuji vs. Shonannoumi

Looks like from these numbers that upsets draw way more views than regular wins.

Hatsu Basho Day 4 Comments
I suppose the best way to start out my comments this year is to address the finish to the Kyushu basho last year where Aonishiki took his first career yusho earning him the Ozeki rank. His yusho reminded me of guys like Baruto and Harumafuji and Kakuryu when they won their first tournaments. They were good enough to win about 11 bouts on their own, and then they needed the elite foreign rikishi to step aside to put them over the top, and that's exactly what happened in Kyushu.

All of the aforementioned dudes went on to have nice careers, and Aonishiki should follow suit, but I thought senshuraku was really disappointing. First, Onosato withdrew due to some kind of phantom injury setting up a playoff between Aonishiki and Hoshoryu for the yusho, and less than two seconds into the bout, Hoshoryu just exposed his right side to the Ukrainian, allowed himself to get turned around 180 degrees, and then took a soft knee. This is never the way you want to see a bout end for all the marbles:



Of course, I don't even want to see the most mundane matchup end like that because a sumo bout can only end up like that if it's fixed...and that playoff was. For the record, Aonishiki is easily better than any Japanese rikishi on the banzuke, but he's not better than Tamawashi, Hoshoryu, and Kirishima. Kinbohzan is better than Aonishiki, and I think Chiyoshoma is as well, but the merchants will do their thing in order to exert minimal effort and be paid maximum yen. That's just what sumo wrestling is.

I noticed on the NHK World Day 1 broadcast that both rookies this basho, Asahakuryu and Hatsuyama, are 27 years old and 26 years old respectively. When sumo was better, rookies to the Makuuchi division were preferably in their late teens or early 20's. Because no one enters the sport anymore out of junior high school (and few enter out of high school), these guys have had seven extra years to go through Japan's strict senpai-kohai system in school, and so by the time they join professional sumo, they're more than ready to obey orders and just play their role.

The result is the brand of soft sumo we see today and the incessant bout fixing although I will say...the overall quality of sumo so far this basho had been much better than past basho.

It also seems like the crowd is a bit thinner than usual this basho at the Kokugikan. The online numbers have been better for the two Yokozuna bouts when there's an upset, but attendance is beginning to wane. It seems like a masu-seki with four people is rare these days and the sides and corners of the arena are noticeably empty.

I think the biggest issue is that there is no variety right now. It's just the same guys going through the same motions, and nobody gets excited when a foreigner takes the yusho. As much as they're trying, dudes like Hakunofuji (former Hakuohho) and Yoshinofuji aren't generating any buzz, and I think people are somewhat onto Onosato as well. Onosato was actually beat straight up by Ura in their original bout yesterday, and this is the tachi-ai from Onosato against Ohho on Day 2:



If you know anything about sumo, you know that a guy can never afford to align his feet, and he can't afford to be vertical. When that happens at the same time, there is no way a dude can recover. As is often the case, Onosato is staring straight up in the air, and look at how you could draw a vertical line from the back of his head down his body and to his feet.

On the contrary, notice the beautiful diagonal line created from the top of Ohho's head down to the back of his right foot. Ohho's footing is textbook with one foot forward and one foot back, and he can do anything to the Yokozuna at this point. That he chose to suddenly back up and out of the ring is an obvious indication that he threw the bout, and Onosato's bouts are like this every day.

Then you had the mono-ii yesterday that clearly showed Onosato touching out before Ura's arse hit the straw, and I think over time that people are cluing in if only subconsciously that Onosato is not all that, and it lessens the anticipation for each new basho.

This is a view of the mukou-joumen side prior to Onosato's bout yesterday against Ura:



Most of the masu-seki have people in them, but they are not at capacity. In a packed house, you would see very little red and very little of those horizontal silver pipes that make up the masu-seki themselves.

This was the view on Day 4 prior to the Onosato - Yoshinofuji bout, and there are even more gaps:



I think that the typical Japanese fans are simply getting bored with the same old repetitions.

Probably the biggest indicator is that sumo needs some sort of stimulus is that fact that they had to bring Asanoyama back from the dead and get him promoted back to the Makuuchi division. Everyone is handling the former Ozeki not to mention fibber with kid gloves, and it's been that way since he was in the upper echelons of Makushita a few basho back.

With that, let's get to the Day 4 bouts that the Sumo Association deemed worthy enough to post on their YouTube channel going in order from most popular to least popular:

Onosato vs. M1 Yoshinofuji (87K views as of 7 AM Thursday morning Japan time)
The tachi-ai here was rather bland because Yoshinofuji did not come forward like a torpedo as Ohho did on Day 2, and so you had two guys standing straight up from the starting lines. As Onosato came forward completely exposed, Yoshinofuji shaded to his left planting his grubby right paw into Onosato's neck while grabbing a left outer grip. As Onosato looked to counter with the right arm inside, Yoshinofuji drifted further to his left going for an outer belt throw that swung Onosato across the straw and down in about three seconds.

Key takeaways from this bout where that neither dude established themselves at the tachi-ai. Onosato also doesn't know how to counter when he gives up the outer grip. Finally, that throw was more like a drag across the straw indicative of the low level of sumo skills employed by Japanese rikishi. I want to see a throw, not a drag across.

Onosato falls to 3-1 and has yet to win a legitimate bout. As for Yoshinofuji, he's now 2-2 after receiving a gift from Hoshoryu yesterday. I showed that pic of Hoshoryu and Aonishiki from the playoff bout in Kyushu, and this is the ending to the Hoshoryu - Yoshinofuji bout yesterday:



Totally implausible ending to a bout of sumo, and throwing that bout in favor of the M1 and letting him go straight up against Onosato today is/was a desperation to give this kid some name recognition. I wouldn't be surprised if people know the name Kusano more than they know the name Yoshinofuji.

Ozeki Aonishiki vs. Komusubi Ohho (72K views)
This is one of those bouts that if you watch it from the Association's official YouTube channel, you know that Aonishiki lost going in because of the high number of views. It's the same way with a Hoshoryu loss as well. People will only watch it if they know that the big dudes lost.

Aonishiki easily got the left inside belt grip from the tachi-ai, and right there I was like, "Wait, why isn't he in defensive mode?" Well, I knew the reason, but moving right along, Aonishiki also had the path to the right inside belt grip, but he let that go and drifted to his right in an effort to set up himself up against the straw. Both moves were completely uncharacteristic of Aonishiki's sumo, but Ohho's positioning was a useless left arm up high around the Ukrainian's neck and equally high grip with the right arm around Aonishiki's left arm, and so the Ozeki had to do all the work here. After putting his back against the edge of his own volition, he grabbed Ohho by the belt and just pulled him into his own body as Aonishiki toppled off of the dohyo with Ohho in tow.

Frankly, I can't believe anyone would have the mental toughness to drag a giant on top of you while falling backwards onto the arena floor below, but that's exactly what happened here as Ohho was awarded the cheap yori-taoshi win for doing absolutely nothing. Both dudes are even now at 3-1, and it will be interesting to see how high they let Aonishiki fly now that he's at an elite rank.

Sekiwake Takayasu vs. M3 Hakunofuji (47K views)
I haven't read any news articles yet the entire basho, but I'm sure the artist formerly known as Hakuohho changing his name to Hakunofuji is an indicator that the Hakuho-beya is no more and has officially been absorbed into the Isegahama-beya. I was actually surprised this bout came in third place, but here we go.

From the tachi-ai, the bout went to hidari-yotsu where Hakunofuji had the lower stance and seemed in control, but he gave up the inside position by going for a very light kote-nage with the right that had no mustard on it. After trading places in the ring and coming away in the same lame hidari-yotsu stance, Hakunofuji lamely hooked his right arm around Takayasu's left arm, but instead of faking another throw, he just kept the arm inserted awkwardly as Takayasu latched onto it twisting the willing M3 to the dirt. They called the move "saka-tottari," and the only reason you've never heard of that kimari-te before is because it's simply implausible in a real bout of sumo. This bout was fake start to finish as they gifted Takayasu a 3-1 start while Hakunofuji falls to 2-2.

Now I realize why this bout came in third place. Everyone wanted to see what the hell a saka-tottari was. I'm not even going to bother to see when the last time it was employed in a bout of sumo, but I'm guessing 30 years or so. I never knew such a move existed.

Yokozuna Hoshoryu vs. M2 Ura (42K views)
Ura ducked in low from the tachi-ai here as the Yokozuna reached over the top with the right hand grabbing the back of Ura's belt, and Hoshoryu used that to pull Ura forward and down one second in. In true Ura fashion, the M2 somersaulted over the edge and perfectly dismounted with both feet on the arena floor below. This was really a waste of a bout as Hoshoryu moves to 3-1 with Ura falling to 0-4.

Kotozakura vs. M1 Ichiyamamoto (36.8K views)
After a rather soft tachi-ai from both parties, Ichiyamamoto established the firm right inside position with a right inside grip and a left outer grip to boot. He failed to really hunker down and attack, however, waiting for Kotozakura to test the right scoop throw waters. Kotozakura's sukui-nage had nothing on it, and so Ichiyamamoto knew he was in charge. From there he executed a very mediocre force-out charge sending Kotozakura to the edge where the faux-zeki attempted to counter with a left tsuki-otoshi, but the action was so slow, I actually had to check my YouTube settings to make sure I wasn't watching in .5x mode.

And I wasn't. At the edge, Kotozakura lazily stepped across before he could thrust Ichiyamamoto down, and just like that, the yusho line if officially lowered to one-loss as Kotozakura ends the day at 3-1. As for IYM, he picks up his first win at 1-3, and overall, this was a very bland bout of sumo. I'd expect something like this from the Seniors division, not one of the final bouts on the day.

M14 Shishi vs. M16 Asanoyama (36.3K views)
That number of views is exactly why Asanoyama was brought back to the division. The number of views is gonna fall off sharply from here, and with bad numbers generally on the day, they need this guy to help generate excitement.

Shishi dominated the tachi-ai as follows:



You can see Shishi's forming a nice diagonal line while Asanoyama is completely vertical with his feet aligned. Shishi coulda done anything from the point, but he opted to stand there not inserting that right arm to the inside, and when Asanoyama went for a baby scoop throw, Shishi just put his right hand and right knee down to the dohyo giving Asanoyama the cheap win.

No surprises here as both rikishi end the day at 3-1.

Sekiwake Kirishima vs. Komusubi Wakamotoharu (24K views)
Kirishima got the left arm in quickly at the tachi-ai and immediately went for a scoop throw, but he didn't follow through on the move allowing WMH to regain his footing. Once settled, Kirishima went for another lame scoop throw and then another. I think I counted four in all as Kirishima let up on each throw keeping Wakamotoharu alive.

The tell throughout was that Kirishima refused to grab the right outer grip even though it was wide open the entire way. After the four lame scoop throw attempts, the two settled into the center of the ring, and after waiting a few seconds, Kirishima finally grabbed a right outer grip, and once he obtained that, the force out was academic.

This was a great example of a bout where the foreigner is willing to lose, but when the Japanese rikishi can't take advantage, the foreigner will win in the end. Notice how it's never the other way around?  Kirishima now finds himself alone at 4-0, but I'd be shocked if they let him yusho. As for Wakamotoharu, he falls to 0-4.

M2 Wakatakakage vs. M3 Takanosho (15K views)
Here's where the numbers really start dwindling, so you know that nobody is interested in either of these guys. Takanosho easily won the tachi-ai standing WTK upright with some paws to the neck, but Takanosho stopped his oshi charge short and let Wakatakakage back into the bout by faking a pull. As WTK looked to square back up after a wild start, Takanosho next had the clear path to a right inside position and a left outer grip, but he refused to really grab either, and so he whiffed on another move or two before finding himself upright at the edge, and finally Wakatakakage was able to clue in and push him across from there.

This was fake start to finish as Takanosho takes the cash in falling to 0-4 while Wakatakakage is a sheepish 3-1.

M4 Daieisho vs. M5 Tamawashi (11K views)
The final Makuuchi bout posted by the Association was between these two former yusho winners, and it was a complete dud. Daieisho came with hesitant tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and so Tamawashi shaded ever so slightly to his right going for a pull, and Daieisho flopped to the dirt one second in.

Hooboy as Tamawashi moves to 2-2 while Daieisho falls to 1-3.

I've been watching on YouTube for quite a few basho now, so I'm used to the trends and methods the Association uses to try and hype new guys, especially the so-called up-and-comers from the Juryo rank. The problem is that there are no current up-and-comers. Of the five Juryo bouts they posted, four of them are averaging about 4K hits each. One did come in with 17K hits:  J5 Takerufuji vs. J7 Tochitaikai.

This is such a good example of how they are trying to manufacture the popular rikishi instead of letting the fans organically root for them. Takerufuji was hyped incessantly and they even gave him a cheap yusho in his rookie debut, but the dude has done nothing since. I mean, he has zero to offer but they're still trying to prop him up even in the Juryo ranks.

As for the bout itself, Tochitaikai put two hands to Takerufuji's neck at the tachi-ai and then conveniently backed his way out of the dohyo with Takerufuji in tow. The problem was, Takerufuji was too hapless to connect on a decisive blow, and Tochitaikai's heel was still just inside of the toku-dawara when Takerufuji touched down. Oh snap!! This dude can't even win when his opponent just serves it up for him as both dudes find themselves at 2-2.

I'll just reiterate that the Sumo Association has nothing on their bench right now in terms of the next rikishi to be hyped, and so that's why they're trying to hang on desperately to guys like Asanoyama.