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Senshuraku Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
On day three I talked about throwing all of the technical analysis aside, ignoring the actual results, and just taking a step back to analyze what we see atop the dohyo. What do we feel as we watch the bouts? For example, there are bouts scattered throughout the basho that are straight-up o-zumo bouts where you can actually see and feel the excitement, but there are far too many bouts--especially the last 35 minutes or so of the broadcast--that just lack substance, so it's as if we're stuck in this endless grind where we see similar results basho after basho, and we watch rikishi post good records, but what do we actually see?

I thought the conversation at the end of day 14 perfectly illustrated what I was trying to express when Kariya Announcer and Oguruma-oyakata were breaking down the replay of the Hakuho - Kisenosato bout. The bout was quite simple where Kisenosato was so late at the tachi-ai that I think a lot of people thought it'd be called back. And if you didn't see the live broadcast, it was actually the second time the pair did their tachi-ai as the first go-around was called a false start. Kisenosato obviously wasn't up for the match, and as he stood up from his stance, Hakuho just ran by him and dove to the dirt. Nothing these days surprises me in sumo when it comes to results atop the dohyo, but I was a bit surprised by the post match banter between Kariya Announcer and Oguruma-oyakata. Normally the guys in the booth try and cover what just happened, but I think those two have become as weary as I am, and they gave frank, honest analysis as follows:

(While watching the two replays that were shown)

Kariya: The positioning of Kisenosato's feet don't change at all.

Oguruma-oyakata: He was late at the tachi-ai wasn't he.

Kariya: Yes, his start was extremely late.

Oguruma-oyakata: The Yokozuna fell for it well, but that tsuki-otoshi...

Kariya: Yes?

Oguruma-oyakata: (After a long hmmm and a few "ano" as he collected his thoughts) Regarding the Yokozuna, it felt like he was just caught in a trap door.

Kariya: I agree. Kisenosato moved to his left and just pushed down with his right as if going for a pull.

Oguruma-oyakata: Right, but in regards to Kisenosato's sumo, there wasn't a single element to it that was good.

Kariya: That's right, he did win, but...it was unfortunately not a bout that just took your breath away.

Oguruma-oyakata: I mean, I guess it's a good thing that he won and stayed in contention, and those were the merits to today's bout, but he was late in his charge and there wasn't anything good bout his sumo.

Kariya: Yes, I agree.

The Japanese words thrown around were words like "mattaku" or "kanzen ni," which denote extremes, and in this sense, in the negative due to the verb endings the pair used. Oguruma-oyakata also used the word "otoshi-ana," or trap door, which is used when a rikishi falls to the dirt for no explicable reason.

The pair couldn't come right out and say that Hakuho took a dive, but they did provide honest analysis of Kisenosato's sumo saying he didn't do anything positive. And they were correct. The problem is that everyone of Kisenosato's bouts are like this. There's absolutely no substance there, and there are no positive elements to it to break down. Sometimes the guys in the booth or the mukou-joumen chair will talk out of their arses and try and explain away the bout-fixing, but the gist of the day 14 conversation was 1) there were no good elements to Kisenosato's sumo, and 2) the only positive thing you can say is that he won.

We all know that the only way to truly defeat the greatest rikishi of all time is with a good tachi-ai and with solid sumo, and I think the pair in the booth for day 14 just grew weary of it all and honestly conveyed what was on their minds because they definitely couldn't see anything positive about Kisenosato's sumo.

And so that brings us to senshuraku where three rikishi are still alive in the yusho hunt as follows:

12-2: Harumafuji
11-3: Kisenosato, Takanoiwa

Let's just go in chronological order today starting from the bottom up, which means we kick things off with M16 Tamawashi vs. M14 Nishikigi. Tamawashi used a few tsuppari to halt Nishikigi's lame charge, and Nishikigi could do nothing but expose his left side to the outer grip, and so Tamawashi grabbed it and escorted Nishikigi back and across without even needing the inside position. It's quite a contrast when Nishikigi isn't gifted the bout, and he was able to do absolutely nothing as Tamawashi went through the motions here schooling the kid and finishing his basho at 9-6. Nishikigi falls to the same mark, and you can bet that this bout will all but be forgotten as they hype the exhibition tournament coming in up Morioka.

M16 Arawashi halted M11 Daieisho's tsuppari charge by yanking his extended right arm and assuming the left inside position forcing the bout to yotsu-zumo. Daieisho isn't a yotsu guy in the least, and so Arawashi fished a bit for the right outer grip before shifting gears and unleashing a mammoth left inside belt throw sending to Arawashi to 9-6 while Daieisho falls to 5-10.

M9 Sokokurai fished for the left inside from the tachi-ai while M15 Kitaharima looked to defend that move rather than employ offensive sumo of his own. So the two went back and forth with Sokokurai extending that left arm while Kitaharim tried to fight it off, and after about 15 seconds of the scuffle, Sokokurai went for a quick pull that sent Kitaharima to the dirt, a 6-9 record, and a trip back down to Juryo. Sokokurai ends his lukewarm basho at 6-9.

The M15 Sadanofuji - M8 Takekaze bout was ugly from the start with both guys looking for pulls, and when the momentum stopped in the middle of the ring, Sadanofuji grabbed the left outer grip, and while Takekaze had moro-zashi, he had no momentum, and so Sadanofuji powered him up and over leading with that left outer that turned into a left sccop throw. Sadanofuji ekes his way to 4-11 while Takekaze falls to 6-9.

M14 Kagayaki beat M7 Daishomaru with a nice moro-te-zuki that sent Daishomaru upright, and when Daishomaru went for the counter pull, Kagayaki just continued his forward momentum sending Daishomaru to his make-koshi fate at 7-8. Kagayaki moves to 7-8 likely keeping himself in the division for Aki.

M10 Sadanoumi easily beat M6 Endoh at the tachi-ai getting both arms to the inside with moro-zashi, and as Sadanoumi began his force-out charge, Endoh managed a feeble maki-kae with the left arm, but he was two far gone as Sadanoumi was able to dump him across the bales without a right grip anywhere. The difference in power and ability was on display here as Sadanoumi moves to 7-8 while Endoh falls to 3-12. Endoh should barely survive at the bottom rungs of the division in September, but he is largely uselss in this division. Don't know how else to say it.

Our first leader on the day was M10 Takanoiwa, who entered the day one back of Harumafuji but who earned a Kantosho for his efforts this basho. Today against M5 Yoshikaze, who also won a special prize in the Shukunsho, Takanoiwa looked to get the right inside forcing the bout to yotsu, but Cafe executed a quick maki-kae turning the bout to hidari-yotsu only to have Takanoiwa maki-kae back grabbing the right inside again as Yoshikaze pressed him to the edge. Yoshikaze had the momentum, but he was too upright, so Takanoiwa persisted grabbing the left outer grip in the process turning the tables and forfcing Yoshikaze across the dohyo and out. The difference here was that Takanoiwa looked for his brand of sumo (yotsu) while Yoshikaze didn't really have a plan. Yoshikaze falls to 10-5 with the loss, so we'll see if it's good enough to vault him into the sanyaku. Worst case scenario is that he has that badass black eye and cut over his right eye. He's one tough customer, which is a helluva lot more than you can say for the three JPN Ozeki. As for Takanoiwa, he moves to 12-3 and waits to see if Harumafuji is defeated by Hakuho.

M4 Shohozan jumped the gun a bit firing a hari-te into M13 Toyohibiki's face even though it was a false start, and I think that pissed Toyohibiki off enough to where he slammed his foe at the tachi-ai for reals and used his signature tsuppari attack to drive PantyHozan back once, twice, three times a lady. Toyohibiki falls just short at 7-8 while Shohozan drops to 5-10.

M3 Myogiryu was able to knock M8 Chiyootori upright at the tachi-ai and get the right arm so deep to the inside that he grasped the back of Chiyootori's belt, and Chiyootori could only answer with a left kubi-nage hold, which is a meaningless move, and so Myogiryu was able to secure the easy force-out win. Myogiryu recovers from a disastrous start to finish 7-8 while Chiyootori falls to a decent 9-6.

There have been very few guys worth watching in the division this tournament, but one dude that I have enjoyed has been M2 Okinoumi. Today against M6 Aoiyama he picked up kachi-koshi easily fighting off the Bulgarian's tsuppari, lifting Aoiyama off right, and then forcing him back and across the straw in mere seconds oshi-dashi style.

M2 Takarafuji picked up his first ever special prize in the form of a Kantosho, but he soiled that award against M1 Tochiohzan with a classless tachi-ai henka to his right. Dirty pool that tarnishes Takarafuji's 10-5 finish in my opinion. The tough-luck Tochiohzan falls to 8-7 after the grease job.

M1 Mitakeumi had to have been relieved to see M12 Tokushoryu across the starting lines today, and he greeted him with a right hand to the neck and left inside. As Mitakeumi mounted his charge, Tokushoryu was able to maki-kae with the left, and that set up a counter tsuki-otoshi with the right that looked to me as if he didn't finish it off, and so the result was the force-out win in favor of Mitakeumi. We'll give Mitakeumi the benefit of the doubt here as he moves to 5-10 while Tokushoryu falls to 6-9.

Komusubi Takayasu garnered the Ginosho this basho, and remember how we talked earlier that only 5 Ginosho had been awarded in the last 20 basho?? I suppose Takayasu earned his stripes getting to this point, and today against M7 9-6 Ichinojo, the two traded girl slaps for a bit before hooking up in the solid migi-yotsu position, but Ichinojo allowed Takayasu to grab the left outer grip without a fight, and Takayasu must have sensed the lack of pressure because he threw the Slug down in the middle of the ring with that left outer. Ichinojo just dove to the dirt in the missionary position, and the Mongolian applied zero pressure in this bout letting Takayasu do as he pleased. It really bugs me that Ichinojo and Terunofuji are forced to look like weak rikishi here at the expense of the Japanese rikishi. Ichinojo finishes 9-6, and I think he was beaten legitimately maybe twice. As for Takayasu, he finishes at 11-4 with a couple of gifts thrown in for good measure.

Komusubi Kotoyuki attempted his usual tsuppari attack, but this basho, you can't have your pudding if you don't eat your meat, and so Ikioi easily dosey doed to his right and shoved Kotoyuki forward and eventually out using his momentum against him. Ikioi is a meager 5-10 while Kotoyuki falls to a disastrous 2-13. Um, I think it's safe to say that Kotoyuki has fallen out of my top five Japanese rikishi list.

Sekiwake Tochinoshin blasted M5 Shodai back from the tachi-ai looking for something to the inside, but Shodai got the hell outta there mawari-komu'ing around the ring in an attempt to throw Tochinoshin off balance, but the Georgian simply has too much reach and kept Shodai far away with his tsuppari until he caught Shodai leaning a bit to much forward where Shin executed the powerful hataki-komi win. It's so fun to watch Tochinoshin when he's allowed to fight straight up, and he dominated here moving to 6-9. As for Shodai, he falls to 9-6, and if he was really all he's made up to be, he should have shown better in this one. He frankly was able to do nothing of his own volition here and was completely dominated.

Ozeki Terunofuji entered the day a precarious 7-7 and needed to solve Sekiwake Kaisei--who was also 7-7--in order to hold onto his Ozeki rank. Unfortunately, we didn't get a straight up fight here as Kaisei turned his right hip and right arm a bit inwards allowing Terunofuji to grab the ridiculously easy left outer grip, which he used to spin the defenseless Kaisei around before grabbing his leg and tripping him down komata-sukui style. Kaisei will be back as he falls to 7-8 while you gotta defer to the Ozeki here as Terunofuji finishes 8-7. Look, Terunofuji and Ichinojo could finish with 11-12 wins per basho when they wanna, and Kaisei's probably a double-digit guy as well.

And that brings us to Ozeki Kisenosato who was paired against Ozeki Goeido, who also entered the day at 7-7. What to do? Fight all out and try and stave off kadoban status? Or play it safe and let Kisenosato skate through and wait for Harumafuji? Goeido easily won the tachi-ai coming in low and getting the left arm ridiculously deep, and on the other side Goeido had the opening to the front of the belt, but after a second he just turned his right shoulder sideways similarly to Kaisei in the previous bout allowing Kisenosato to push him out from behind with ease. They ruled this oshi-dashi to make it look better in the books, but this was a gift of an okuri-dashi if I've ever seen one. Like the bout yesterday, Kitanofuji and Fujii Announcer in the booth couldn't find a single positive thing to say about Kisenosato's sumo. And that's because there wasn't anything. He lost the tachi-ai, he gave up the left arm inside way too easily, and he did nothing to counter Goeido's tachi-ai. He stood there like a bump on a log until Goeido just turned 90 degrees for him. The only comments were on how well Goeido's tachi-ai was and how he looked to be in control. Fujii did point out that Kisenosato was upright at the tachi-ai to which Kitanofuji speculated, "Maybe he was expecting a henka." The point is...they had zero to say about Kisenosato's sumo. Zero. There's nothing there to say and hasn't been all basho. The result of this ugly bout was Goeido taking one for team Kisenosato and falling to 7-8 while Kisenosato finishes the festivities at 12-3 tied with Takanoiwa.

And that brings us to the grand poobah bout of the tournament, which unfortunately wouldn't be fought straight up just like the two preceding bouts. Yokozuna Harumafuji shaded to his left grabbing the cheap outer grip on that side while hunkering low with the right inside as well. Hakuho complied in the migi-yotsu contest and reached for his own left outer grip a few times in the center of the ring as the two dug in. Hakuho coulda easily had the grip if he wanted, but he was just waiting for Harumafuji to make is move, and so HowDo eventually executed an uncontested maki-kae with the left giving him moro-zashi, and he had Hakuho forced back and across from there with little argument.

And just like that, Harumafuji wins the Nagoya basho with a 13-2 record denying Kisenosato a chance for a playoff and leaving him with yet another meaningless jun-yusho at 12-3.

As I alluded to in the intro, I think everyone is getting kind of sick of this same ole song and dance. Neither Fujii Announcer nor Kitanofuji wanted to talk about Kisenosato today just like their two predecessors yesterday. How is it possible for an Ozeki to topple the greatest Yokozuna of all time and a fellow Ozeki on the last two days of the tournament and not have a single positive thing to say about his sumo? How is it possible for that same Ozeki to lose both tachi-ai badly yet still win despite performing a counter move of his own? The easy answer is that it's not possible, and this is all a game, and everyone in the know is aware of it.

Allow me to collect my thought for a few days and watch the headlines, and I should be back to wrap it all up in a post-basho report.

Day 14 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
For all four tournaments this year the story has been "will they? Won't they?" In January, with Kotoshogiku, it was "they will," so wow, I thought, it's on, leading to clammy, heart-stopping tension in March, May, and now July as I wondered if Kisenosato would be allowed to step over the golden rope. However, yesterday was an indication that no, as in March and May, probably not. Thank goodness! Was the opening there? Yes (and it still is). But as has happened to him so often in the past, Kisenosato is proving not worthy, whether for in-ring reasons (obvious) or out-of-ring reasons (opaque).

It ain't over. We have an interesting last two days on our hands. Takanoiwa we can safely ignore (as well as the mathematical possibility that any currently 9-4 rikishi could take it). Harumafuji, Hakuho, and Kisenosato all have paths to victory, and that involves only the four bouts they are in, plus any potential playoff. If it were pure random math--and there are 32 possible permutations even without counting various the possible playoff matchings--Kisensato's chances of yusho'ing would be fair. If it were pure skill, his chances would be near nil. But it isn't either. Somewhere along the continuum of between math and skill, a dark sea of murky political waters, the outcome lies. So I was reasonably intrigued for Day 14.

Though they have no chance, we'll let the 9-4 guys into today's "leaderboard" chronology anyway. It's Day 14, and what are we here for, anyway?

LEADERS

M7 Ichinojo (9-4) vs. M15 Kitaharima (5-8)
Like Ichinojo's tournament? Fine. But his last three wins are against Nishikigi, Toyohibiki, and Kagayaki--and look who he gets today. Who he was terrible against. Kitaharima henka'ed, which of course he did, because the size mismatch is just too big. Ichinojo survived it, which of course he did, because he had to expect it. He then slowly, lumberingly, sloppily pursued Kitaharima around the ring, while Kitaharima jumped out of his way like some cowardly and uninspiring clone of the great Mainoumi. Ichinojo's advance was so slow and tentative--he should have just grabbed this guy and smothered him back--that I have my doubts, and in the end Ichinojo was also careless, going right by the genki little leprechaun who'd sprung to his right, and Ichinojo stood dully at the tawara, staring at loss number five, which Kitaharima quickly gave him, oshi-dashi. Ichinojo eliminated.

M10 Sadanoumi (6-7) vs. M5 Yoshikaze (9-4)
If you're going to slip back into the sanyaku, M5 is a good place to do it from, and Yoshikaze is a rikishi with enough left in the tank to legitimately get there, though Takarafuji, Tochiohzan, or even Shodai may block him out of the two spots being opened up by Tochinoshin and Kotoyuki. Unfortunately, he didn't look it here, as he could think of nothing better to do than shade left and pull (against Sadanoumi???). It worked, hataki-komi, but just barely, as Yoshikaze looked to me like one or both feet were already in the loose dirt when Sadanoumi went down. I'd rather have any of the other three guys I named in the sanyaku than Yoshikaze if he is is going to fight like this. Yoshikaze alive.

M10 Takanoiwa (10-3) vs. M2 Takarafuji (9-4)
Yes, 10-3 from M10 is good, but 9-4 from M2 is better, and Takarafuji is the one having the notable tournament, with a kinboshi in his pocket, while Takanoiwa's win against Aoiyama is his only win against a wrestler of significance. However, Takarafuji kept his arms slack here, playing defense only, and let himself get battered hard, chiefly in the face. His forward movement was minimal, his square-ups were slow, and he was passive not as a cautious measure, waiting for an opening, but looking like he was waiting to lose. Takanoiwa did fight hard, hammering away at him until he picked up the tsuki-dashi victory, but I didn't like this. Takarafuji eliminated, Takanoiwa alive. Takanoiwa draws Yoshikaze tomorrow early, who almost certainly will promptly eliminate him then.

M5 Shodai (9-4) vs. M1 Tochiohzan (7-6)
I like Shodai; he wants to get on your belt and beat you yori-kiri. At 160 kg, he has the size to do it, and he has proven to be patient and potent. I hate to say this, but the guy he reminds me most of is a young Kisenosato. I'm happy to say Tochiohzan can smell the sanyaku, and so went for it here, pushing hard even without moro-zashi at first, with just a left inside. Under pressure from a driving Tochiohzan, Shodai tried a pull at the tawara; it did create separation, but Tochiohzan was the one who took advantage of it, slapping Shodai smartly in the face twice, then grabbing that moro-zashi and forcing Shodai out, yori-kiri. Tochiohzan is still the better rikishi here, and will likely get to prove it in the sanyaku next time. Shodai eliminated.

K Takayasu (9-4) vs. O Terunofuji (7-6)
Of all the second tier guys, Takayasu has had the best tournament. His destruction of Goeido and Kotoshogiku on days 2 and 3 signaled he was serious this time around, and the next two opponents he beat in the ring were powerhouses Kaisei and Tochinoshin. Losses to Yoshikaze and Aoiyama over the last two days have tarnished that a bit, and I've never been jazzed about his sumo (too much slapping and pulling), but remember, a few years back this guy, along with the now forgotten Masunoyama, became the first wrestler born in the Heisei Era (reign of the current Emperor of Japan) to make Makuuchi. He's big, strong, still just 26, and with five years of Makuuchi schooling under his belt, he may just now be hitting his peak. Don't get me wrong: this is no future star. But I'd love to see a year or two of Sekiwake/Komusubi tough lovin' from Takayasu. As for the match, he's not that different in size from Terunofuji, and chose to go after him chest to chest. He got an inner and outer grip, and stuck with that. Terunofuji, meanwhile, decided to try to improve his position, moving off an outer left hand on the body and slithering it through for an inner left on the belt, actually giving him moro-zashi. But he lost in that moment, as Takayasu was flush to him in front and had him stood upright. Consequently he had no leverage, and Takayasu just drove him out, finishing him off with an oshi-dashi shove that sent him running sheepishly half-way up the hana-michi. Takayasu alive.

O Goeido (7-6) vs. Y Harumafuji (11-2)
The crowd sure does like them some Goeido. I think there is some humor on it--they too can see how hapless he often is--but there was rhythmic clapping in this one as the announcers talked up his need for kachi-koshi. First go was a false start; too bad because Harumafuji was driving hard and low with huge de-ashi forward steps. However, he did nearly the same thing on the second try, with that fantastic popping sound as they hit each other hard. They soon locked up in identical positions, right inside, left out. Goeido drove the pace early, trying force-outs, giving a massive throw attempt. However, as it settled back in to stalemate, just at the moment I thought, "is Harumafuji toying with him?," Harumafuji unleashed his considerable power and slung Goeido to the clay, whipping him around 180 degrees and letting him go like a sack of heavy garbage at the rim of the dump pit. This, people is a Yokozuna kimari-te, overhand throw, uwate-nage, and it was beautiful. This kept Harumafuji solely in the lead and eliminated Yoshikaze and Takayasu.

Y Hakuho (10-3) vs. O Kisenosato (10-3)
With Harumafuji's win, the loser of this one would be eliminated. After a false start, on the real go Hakuho hit Kisenosato very hard with his right shoulder and looked to have a two-second win in his pocket, as Kisenosato was helplessly being driven straight back. However, at the tawara, as Kisenosato twisted the sole of his foot on the straw, Hakuho let go with his left hand, flung it out in the air, and, while being driven down by Kisenosato on a pivot-pull, put that hand on the ground moments before Kisenosato stepped out, a surprise tsuki-otoshi win tucked neatly into his chamber-of-who-knows-what. Hakuho eliminated; Kisenosato needs Hakuho to beat Harumafuji tomorrow, to himself give Goeido his make-koshi, and to win a playoff (possibly a three-way with Takanoiwa).

OTHER PARTICIPANTS

M14 Nishikigi (8-5) vs. M12 Tokushoryu (6-7)
Now that Nishikigi has his kachi-koshi, this was anyone's match, and they settled in chest to chest, mostly off the belt. Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) went for the force out, but didn't have enough grip, and this brought him in close enough that Nishikigi was able to get a fold or two of mawashi, and back the other direction they went. Some cool stuff at the edge, both facing the void, both popping out a throw, Tokushoryu underneath with his left and Nishikigi using that same left arm from above to lever Tokushoryu down. And down they both went, Saucy showing some good agility to get in an extra push down on Nishikigi's back even after he threw him. However, Tokushoryu's foot touched out just before Nishikigi flopped to the dirt, giving Nishikigi the win, kote-nage.

M12 Tamawashi (7-6) vs. M11 Daieisho (5-8)
Once I put my hand into a slowly rotating (or so it looked) ceiling fan, just to see what would happen (ah, youth). I thought the motor would be weak and it would just stop. It certainly did not, and nearly broke my hand. I can't help it, I really like Tamawashi. No one is better with facial blows and upper body thrusts. He looked absolutely huge in comparison to Daieisho, and destroyed him after a lot of ceiling fan action and neck strangling, knocking him over backwards oshi-taoshi. Aoiyama has more powerful thrusts, but Tamawashi's are faster and seem to connect more.

M16 Arawashi (8-5) vs. M8 Takekaze (5-8)
They both really went for it on the tachi-ai, a surprise for these guys, and Takekaze was the big winner, smacking Arawashi back a meter or two. He then chased Arawashi around the ring. Arawashi ultimately thought he might try a pull, but you don't pull the pull-meister: when Arawashi whiffed, Takekaze instantly pulled him down in turn, hataki-komi, because only Takekaze can simultaneously advance and pull (hop forward with your legs now, children, and swipe down with your arms!).

M6 Aoiyama (7-6) vs. M14 Kagayaki (6-7)
Major, major mismatch, and whereas I'd have liked to see Aoiyama just meathammer Kagayaki into breadcrumbs, after a few thrusts he pulled him instead for the easy hataki-komi win. Yes, pulls are usually stupid, but Kagayaki had ducked blindly in underneath, and Aoiyama had plenty of room. Aoiyama has looked underwhelming at best this tournament, and got his kachi-koshi here in a way that is indicative of that.

M13 Toyohibiki (6-7) vs. M6 Endo (2-11)
Toyohibiki of course drove Endo back; Endo had one arm stuck up in Toyohibiki's armpit, and that was the same arm Toyohibiki was using to drive him with. However, I've never noticed this before, but Endo must have long arms, because he had that same arm extended all the way down Toyohibiki's back and onto his belt. Toyohibiki couldn't quite get Endo out on the first push, and slung him around 180 degrees using the trapped arm, but we all knew it was now curtains for Toyohibiki then, as he can't finish anything non-linear off. Endo followed the momentum shift by getting another belt grip on the other side, and drove Toyohibiki out, yori-taoshi. Toyohibiki rolled over on his head in a slow, ungainly fashion like a Weeble-Wobble thrown down the stairs.

M4 Shohozan (4-9) vs. M15 Sadanofuji (3-10)
For such a big guy, Sadanofuji has absolutely no power, and after a few moments of set-up chest to chest, Darth Hozan just pulled hard, uwate-nage, with his overhand grip, while pulling down on Sadanofuji's head with other hand, flipping him deftly to the soil.

Annoying Judge
As an aside, the very loud gyoji in the red kimono, Konosuke, is a terror on the false starts, and called another in the Shohozan/Sadanofuji bout. I believe in being strict on this, and want to enjoy his no-nonsense performance, but I often disagree with his calls, and I'm not sure he's not just showboating and enjoying himself quite a bit. This tournament I realized that I've stopped thinking, "oh, it's Konosuke, this will be fun," and that my actual reaction is, "oh no, not this distraction again." Instead of thinking about the match, I found myself staring at the rikishi's hands on the dirt, trying to determine if they were down. Anytime the referee or umpire is the one making the news, you have a problem. He needs to cool it.

M2 Okinoumi (7-6) vs. M8 Chiyootori (8-5)
Bad tachi-ai by Okinoumi, who after the first hit had a chance to advance but instead stood looking lovingly into Chiyootori's eyes, so Chiyootori reached inside with a long, long left and grabbed himself some belt. He held onto this while spinning himself around a full 270 degrees, dumping Okinoumi to the hardened clay at the 180 degree point, shitate--nage.

M1 Mitakeumi (4-9) vs. M9 Sokokurai (4-9)
This was very manful stuff, long and effortful, with both guys on the belt and straining hard. As with his lengthy win vs. Shohozan two days ago, in this loss Mitakeumi showed he ain't bad, but also that he has a way to go: he is going to need to dominate guys like this, rather than just be competitive, to live up to the promise imagined for him. The match started with a few ineffectual shoves by Sokokurai, and Mitakeumi moved in low and got an inside left he would keep; Sokokurai was on top of that with the outer right. Then we spent a couple of minutes watching them dig into each other and battle--good stuff. Mitakeumi had Sokokurai on the bales and hopping on one foot at one point, but after Sokokurai survived that, Mitakeumi was spent, and the final yori-kiri force came soon for Sokokurai, who's had a poor basho but who I respect as a perpetual sneaky underdog capable of threatening most anyone he fights. More of this, please, from both guys. Sokokurai looked very happy while taking the money envelopes, and had earned it.

K Kotoyuki (2-11) vs. M7 Daishomaru (6-7)
Mike is right about Kotoyuki quitting on us the last few days; I just can't stand this guy's alternately prideful and pouty attitude. He brought it here to a degree, but off of a little face hold at the tachi-ai he tried a pull, which set the tone against him: pulls are Daishomaru's game. Yes, Kotoyuki then drove his man back to the tawara with powerful tsuppari, but Daishomaru had his bearings at this point and easily evaded at the tawara, then turned to push Kotoyuki out, oshi-dashi. Go away.

S Kaisei (7-6) vs. M3 Myogiryu (5-8)
Ugly bout. Myogiryu evaded three times, shading left at the tachi-ai (didn't work), evading at the tawara and swiping down (worked, as it saved him from losing and got Kaisei out of rhythm), and pulling while retreating after that (worked, as it got Kaisei turned to the side). Myogiryu then finally advanced, and Kaisei, looking tired of it all, unimpressively gave up at the edge, standing there looking listless, so Myogiryu gave him a wicked, undignified shove in the throat and knocked him off the dohyo, oshi-dashi. Kaisei has had a good tournament, but with two of his wins coming by default, I'm glad he'll have to earn kachi-koshi with a real win against fellow 7-7'er Terunofuji tomorrow. My bet is against him, as if Terunofuji loses he gets demoted.

M4 Ikioi (4-9) vs. S Tochinoshin (4-9)
Two reporting days in a row I've ended with Tochinoshin, as he's fought last of the guys whose matches are inconsequential. Too bad, as he'd been very consequential the last year or so. At least he's still The Best of the Worst. He showed his old form here, first grabbing Ikioi by two short hands on the front of the belt and driving him back, then switching for a more conventional inside left way on the back of the belt, which worked fine, yori-kiri.

That's it for me. I liked this tournament through Day 8 but it has withered day by day since then. I'm happy if Harumafuji wins, over it if Kisenosato does, and if Takanoiwa wins, hey, he and Kyokutenho can have a party and turn lead into gold.

Mike wraps things up tomorrow. See you in September.

Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
It always amuses me the excuses that people come up with to try and explain away bout-fixing in sumo. I suppose I've heard them all and been called them all, but I've never once seen any actual sumo analysis that contradicts my takes. People will throw around terms like "conspiracy theory" or "law of averages" or whatever else, but no one ever offers a legitimate analytic take of the sumo itself to contradict my analysis.

A good example is the Hakuho - Ikioi bout from day 9. I read down in the comments section where someone reported that Murray Johnson (a reporter for the NHK English broadcast) said that the reason for Hakuho's loss was because he stubbed his toe. What amazes me is that someone can hear that and go, "Yep, he stubbed his toe. That proves the bout was real!" It's as if Hakuho and Ikioi were engaged in this fierce battle with the pressure on, and the stubbed toe provided the slight momentum shift that Ikioi needed to clinch the bout. What's completely ignored are the other elements to the bout that were obviously fishy: Hakuho's gay tachi-ai (don't worry, some of my best friends are gay) where he attempted to do absolutely nothing; Hakuho's refusal to use his right arm, something we'd see again in the Terunofuji bout; Hakuho's laughable tsuppari and slaps as he feigned an attempt to get back towards his foe; and Ikioi's standing there with his arms extended in "don't hurt me mode" with his eyes actually closed and head down. None of the aforementioned elements matter let alone the politics of sumo in general because all of the aforementioned aspects of the bout are explained away merely by a stubbed toe. Except they aren't.

At 46 years-old, I'd guess that I've stubbed my toe probably three dozen times in my life. And you know what? I've never fallen down once. It usually hurts like hell, and sometimes it makes me hop forward a step, but I've never fallen to the ground. Now, maybe some of you with bad coordination have been floored by a stubbed toe, but have you ever twisted to the ground and fallen on your right shoulder due to a stubbed toe? And yet, we're to believe that the greatest sumo wrestler of all time was beaten because he stubbed his big toe in the dirt while his opponent had his eyes closed and head down?

Clancy briefly introduced the Dunning - Kruger Effect in a previous report, but I think it's worth bringing up again and expounding upon. Stealing from Wikipedia:

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which relatively unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than it really is. The bias was first experimentally observed by David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University in 1999. Dunning and Kruger attributed this bias to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their own ineptitude and evaluate their own ability accurately. Their research also suggests corollaries: highly skilled individuals may underestimate their relative competence and may erroneously assume that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.

Dunning and Kruger have postulated that the effect is the result of internal illusion in the unskilled, and external misperception in the skilled: "The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."

This pattern of over-estimating competence was seen in studies of skills as diverse as reading comprehension, practicing medicine, operating a motor vehicle, and playing games such as chess or tennis. Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

- fail to recognize their own lack of skill
- fail to recognize the extent of their inadequacy
- fail to accurately gauge skill in others
- recognize and acknowledge their own lack of skill only after they are exposed to training for that skill

The skill I'm focusing on here in this intro is of course analyzing sumo wrestling bouts, and so I'd like to apologize to many of you for erroneously assuming that expert sumo analysis, which is easy for me, is also easy for you.

Now let's get to the training!!

I'm going to put the leaderboard nonsense on hold for a bit and start again with a subtle yaocho low in the ranks that 99% of anyone watching would have just glossed over and accepted. In our first bout of the day, J2 Hidenoumi came for a visit with M14 Nishikigi in a migi-yotsu bout where Hidenoumi struck his foe well immediately driving Nishikigi to the edge leading with the right inside and a left hand at Nishikigi's belt but not actually grabbing it. Curiously, the action in the ring stopped at that point with Hidenoumi failing to attempt to finish off his gal. And not only did Hidenoumi just halt his own momentum, but he let Nishikigi shore up his left outer grip, and once the youngster was ready, the force-out charge from Nishikigi was swift with Hidenoumi spending more time kicking his right leg around than actually countering with a right belt throw, scoop throw, or tsuki-otoshi. Any of the three were available as Nishikigi didn't have Hidenoumi locked in, but Hidenoumi was mukiryoku giving Nishikigi the win.

I took video of the slow motion replay with my trusty iPhone so you could see the elements of this bout that weren't correct.



First, Hidenoumi wins the tachi-ai and is in prime position to force Nishikigi back and across without argument, but he stops short at the edge for no reason. Second, Hidenoumi never grabs the left outer grip even though his hand and fingers are right there groping the cloth. Third, there's no move from Nishikigi that would explain the sudden stop of momentum at the edge. He's doesn't even get the right arm to the inside until Hidenoumi relents at the edge, and he doesn't lift up with the left in kote-nage fashion on the other side either. There's nothing there to explain how Nishikigi stopped his foe's momentum. Fourth, Hidenoumi lets go of his right inside belt grip and slides his hand up Nishikigi's back needlessly spending more time uselessly kicking his right leg instead of attempting a counter move.

Now, when I watched this bout, it didn't hit me that I also featured Nishikigi's bout on day 11 against Chiyootori as also being fixed until Sanbe Announcer in the booth for NHK immediately announced upon the win today that, "Nishikigi picks up kachi-koshi!  And...there will even be an exhibition this summer in Morioka, Nishikigi's hometown!"  At that moment, I put two and two together and figured out why they're boosting Nishikigi to kachi-koshi and possibly double-digit win status. Nothing like selling tickets in a small town to an exhibition by shamelessly bolstering the hometown kid the basho that precedes the jungyo. They did this with Yoshikaze last year as well. Remember when Yoshikaze all of a sudden rose to Sekiwake and maintained the rank for a few basho? Well, it all made sense when I saw the headline after the Kyushu basho that the exhibition in Yoshikaze's hometown of Saiki, Oita Prefecture actually sold out both days!! Curiously, after the jungyo, Yoshikaze hasn't regained the Sekiwake rank since. It's just shameless what a huge sell-out the Sumo Association has become, and it pervades all levels of the Makuuchi division.

On that note, let's turn our attention to this fake yusho race that shaped up as follows as we entered the day:

10-2: Harumafuji, Kisenosato
9-3: Hakuho, Takayasu, Takarafuji, Takanoiwa

How did Takanoiwa get on the leaderboard? I don't really know, but he's gonna stay there another day because his opponent today, M9 Chiyonokuni, withdrew after re-aggravating that right knee that caused him to fall way down in the ranks to begin with. They estimate that Chiyonokuni needs about a month of rest, and then he should be good to go. Kuni will finish the festivities at 8-7, and he was the brightest spot of this basho. Takanoiwa lucks his way to 10-3 with the freebie.

Next up was Komusubi Takayasu vs. M6 Aoiyama in a bout where Aoiyama came at Takayasu with a moro-te-zuki and his usual bruising tsuppari, and so Takayasu decided to dig in and go toe to toe in the tsuppari affair, but it just wasn't meant to be as Aoiyama is the bigger and better rikishi, and it showed today as Aoiyama pushed his foe once, twice, three times a lady sending Takayasu off of the dohyo altogether with little argument. We all knew that Takayasu wasn't a real contender here anyway as he gets knocked down to 9-4 while Aoiyama moves to 7-6 with the win. Aoiyama is 7-6? It feels like he's had a terrible basho, and yet there he is checking in at 7-6.

Moving right along, Sekiwake Kaisei looked to get the left arm to the inside against M2 Takarafuji, but Takarafuji was shading left avoiding the chest to chest clash, and after a brief melee, the two finally hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and after some wrenching this way and that, Takarafuji got the righter outer grip near the edge, but Kaisei countered with a right maki-kae just as quick giving him moro-zashi, and so he was able to lift Takarafuji upright stopping that outer belt charge and then turn the tables with a full on moro-zashi force-out. Takarafuji also gets whittled off the leader board falling to 9-4 while Kaisei improves to 7-6. Along with Chiyonokuni, Kaisei has been another bright spot this tournament for me.

Our final three-loss rikishi on the day was Yokozuna Hakuho who needed to solve Ozeki Goeido to stay in the hunt (I can't believe I just typed that with a straight face). NHK dutifully panned in close to the Yokozuna's big right toe prior to the bout, which was properly bandaged after his digit malfunction against Ikioi a few days before. Hakuho put his right hand at the face of Goeido at the tachi-ai as he moved left in order to grab the left outer grip I presume, but Goeido moved to his right in what looked to set up quite the collision with both rikishi moving in the same direction, but Goeido wanted no part of this fight and just slumped to the dohyo in fear drawing the koshi-kudake kimari-te. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. However, I do want to reiterate that Goeido is a legitimate Ozeki, and he earned the rank without any help from others. I know this because Hakuho stubbed his toe on day 9. The Yokozuna moves to 10-3 with the win while Goeido falls to 7-6, and I think...no, I hope...that the Mongolians are so disgusted with this fool, Goeido, that they will refuse to let him beat Harumafuji tomorrow.

And that brings us to the marquee matchup on the day: both two-loss rikishi going head to head in the day's final bout with Yokozuna Harumafuji set to do battle with Ozeki Kisenosato. There was no chance that Kisenosato could actually beat the Yokozuna in a straight up fight, so it was all up to Harumafuji, who easily got the left arm to the inside of the Ozeki at the tachi-ai with the right frontal belt grip, and he could have easily driven the Kiddie back and out in a second and a half, but he hunkered down in an attempt to at least make it look like a contest. Kisenosato was in a major pickle from the get-go and could do nothing, and so with Harumafuji just daring him to make a move, he brought his left arm from the inside out giving the Yokozuna moro-zashi!  Wrong move as Harumafuji pounced at the momentum shift forcing the Ozeki back and out so hard that Kisenosato slid off of the side of the dohyo on his back.  How many times do we have to see Kisenosato in the fetal position at the base of the dohyo after a loss?  Maybe this is why they always henka Kotoshogiku.

After the ass-kicking, Harumafuji stood there a bit staring into the crowd over his opponent as if to say, "Yeah, I just gave your boy the business,"  and with the win, Harumafuji now stands alone at the top at 11-2 while Kisenosato slides (urp) down a notch to 10-3 joining Hakuho in second place.

I know many of the unskilled according to Dunning and Kruger will say, "See, Kisenosato lost this bout, and so that proves sumo is real" all the while discounting everything else they've seen this basho and for the last few years with their own two eyes. And whoever said here on this website that they were setting up Kisenosato for the yusho or Yokozuna promotion? I don't recall Harvye or myself ever once positing this basho that they were setting Kisenosato up for anything, and I still stand by my pre-basho statements that 1) Harumafuji would take the yusho, and 2) "I don't anticipate Kisenosato's taking the yusho this basho."

People should be glad that Kisenosato will be denied the yusho. Why soil the sport further by giving somebody something that they don't deserve? They did that already with Kotoshogiku, and they still keep that clown Goeido at the Ozeki rank. Enough is enough already.

Now, I hope I'm not speaking too soon because we have some very interesting matchups the next few days. Tomorrow, Hakuho faces Kisenosato while Harumafuji gets Goeido (who still needs that eighth win), so never say never, but it looks as if Harumafuji is in prime position to take his 8th career yusho.

In other bouts of interest, Ozeki Terunofuji reached for the left belt grip from the tachi-ai against M5 Shodai, but he quickly pulled that back as Shodai moved to his left getting the right arm to the inside, and as Terunofuji squared back up, he let Shodai get the right inside as well giving him moro-zashi, and so Shodai forced the Ozeki upright and used a few gaburi belly shoves towards the edge. Terunofuji played along for about five seconds, but in the end, his right arm "slipped" off his opponent's left as Shodai scored the easy yori-kiri win. I'll be impressed when Shodai goes chest to chest with Terunofuji and beats him in a legitimate bout where there's some grunting and sweating involved. Terunofuji falls to 7-6 with the loss, and it shows just how big that gift yesterday from Hakuho was. For his part, Shodai moves to 9-5 meaning the hype will continue.

And I don't intend to demean guys like Shodai or Mitakeumi. I'm just saying that they're being handled with kid gloves, and we don't really know how good they are. Look, they created this virtual superstar named Endoh who has proven zero in the ring, and they're doing the same thing here with Shodai and Mitakeumi. I can't even describe their styles because we can't get enough straight up bouts. Take someone like Sadanoumi. Remember when he first entered the division two years ago? He was purely a yotsu guy, and he tended to rush his charges without actually having his opponents pinned in place, and there were a lot of bouts the ended up with both guys off of the dohyo. We could pinpoint his sumo and his style the same as we can do with guys like Okinoumi, Tochiohzan, or Kotoyuki. But Shodai and Mitakeumi? They're still all over the map because they haven't been given the chance to establish themselves.

M4 Shohozan kept both arms to the inside and rushed into moro-zashi against Sekiwake Tochinoshin, and then Darth Hozan did the unthinkable lifting Tochinoshin clear off of his feet as if he was going to tsuri-dashi him. The problem was there was way too much real estate to cover to get Shin across the edge, and the instant Tochinoshin landed, he returned the tsuri-dashi favor lifting Shohozan up and over to the edge where the force out came easily from there. Pretty entertaining bout as both guys end the day at 4-9.

Komusubi Kotoyuki has all but given up this basho as the dude barely fired a single tsuppari against M2 Okinoumi, who just absorbed his opponent's charge, backed up a bit to his left, and dragged Kotoyuki down by the back of the head and the shoulder. QuitterYuki falls to 2-11 while Okinoumi needs one more win to return to the sanyaku at 7-6.

In a downright sloppy affair, M1 Mitakeumi avoided a head-on clash with M4 Ikioi striking and then shading left looking for a pull as Ikioi looked to keep pace and knock his opponent off balance, but Mitakeumi just focused on the pull shading left, and with Ikioi near the edge, it was Ikioi who committed on a pull and then right kote-nage, a series of moves that sent Mitakeumi to the dirt but not before Ikioi stepped beyond the bales. Is it too much to ask for a few grunts or something? This was terrible sumo thanks to Mitakeumi's not wanting to fight his opponent straight up. Both fellas end the day at 4-9.

M5 Yoshikaze caught M1 Tochiohzan with some good tsuppari at the tachi-ai forcing Oh to respond in kind, but Tochiohzan is uncomfortable unless he has moro-zashi, and so Yoshikaze lurched into the hidari-yotsu position and just kept up the energy driving Tochiohzan back and out with ease. Yoshikaze is a stellar 9-4 while Tochiohzan falls to 7-6.

M9 Sokokurai executed his usual right kachi-age at the tachi-ai against M3 Myogiryu while moving to his left, but that's just a great way to deny yourself any momentum, and so Myogiryu easily squared up with his foe getting the right arm to the inside and working his way into yori-kiri position from there. Myogiryu limps to 5-8 while Sokokurai has been soft at 4-9.

M15 Sadanofuji came with a moro-te-zuki, which M6 Endoh fought off with ease getting the righter frontal belt grip to the outside, but he had nothing set up with the right inside, and so Sadanofuji just hunkered down forcing a stalemate. And there two stood for nearly a minute until Endoh went for a dashi-nage that lifted Sadanofuji upright just enough to where Endoh rushed in and scored the yori-kiri win. Sadanofuji was mukiryoku here easily allowing that dashi-nage and doing nothing to counter it at the edge. I mean, Endoh is ranked at M6, but he's in severe danger of being demoted to Juryo with just that one win coming in, so you gotta give him a few more to keep him around for September. He ekes forward to 2-11 while Sadanofuji will eat well tonight at 3-10.

M14 Kagayaki sort of bounced off of M7 Ichinojo at the tachi-ai as he looked to set up a left ottsuke, but with the youngster just standing there in the center of the ring spinning his wheels, Ichinojo just pulled his elbow out of harms way and pushed Kagayaki down by the gut a few seconds in. Kagayaki's legs are so long that it's hard for him to fight from a necessary lower stance, and so that's why his sumo looks so awkward at times. The youngster falls to 6-7 with the loss while Ichinojo is just picking and still 9-4.

With kachi-koshi in the bag, M16 Arawashi basically just stood there at the tachi-ai and let M7 Daishomaru position his left hand in perfect ottsuke form at the base of Arawashi's right armpit as Daishomaru scored the two second push-out win. Arawashi made no effort whatsoever at the tachi-ai or at the edge in order to counter as he falls to 8-5 with Daishomaru staying alive at 6-7.

M8 Chiyootori looked to get to the inside against against M10 Sadanoumi, but Umi was thinking more pull the entire way, and so Chiyootori kept pressing forward, and when the two guys were near the edge, Sadanoumi went for a desperate left tug at the side of Chiyootori's belt, but he couldn't keep his feet in the dohyo before pulling Chiyootori out. This was an ugly bout thanks to Sadanoumi and credit Chiyootori for persisting as Otori picks up kachi-koshi at 8-5. Sadanoumi hasn't trusted his sumo the entire basho falling to 6-7.

M8 Takekaze was looking more pull against M13 Toyohibiki than push, and so Toyohibiki just stormed forward pounding Takekaze back not letting him escape to his left in the two-second affair. Good stuff here as Toyohibiki stays alive at 6-7 while Takekaze suffers is MK fate at 5-8.

M12 Tokushoryu's tsuppari were focused too high, so M11 Daieisho was able to get up and under shoving Tokushoryu upright and off balance just a bit to where he stream rolled him off from there. Tokushoryu is in danger at 6-7 while Daieisho moves to 5-8.

And finally, M15 Kitaharima henka'd to his left against M12 Tamawashi scoring the quick and dirty win. The guys in this division are not dumb, and they watch tape on each other, and have you noticed that Kitaharima has seemingly hit the wall in terms of his ability to win straight up in the division? Unimpressed as Kitaharima moves to 5-8 in a desperate attempt to stay in the division while Tamawashi falls to 7-6.

I fully expect both Mongolians to win tomorrow, which would eliminate Kisenosato from the yusho race and narrow things down to just Hakuho and Harumafuji. If Hakuho beats Harumafuji on senshuraku, it'd set up a playoff for the yusho, and I think chances are good that happens.

My partner in crime is back tomorrow.

Day 12 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
With four leaders at 9-2 and just four days to go, and the first Japanese Yokozuna-hood in a decade on the line, in theory the excitement is thick. Why this curious feeling of malaise, then?

LEADERBOARD

M5 Yoshikaze (7-4) vs. K Takayasu (9-2)
Someone put in the order and Takayasu complied. He made this one look real good with lots of hard slaps to the face that the mics picked up and amplified and wore a mean and determined look on his face, but he had several chances to match his fisticuffs-aggression with forward movement and didn't. Meanwhile, this played great for Yoshikaze, as it let him do the same in return, feature his hyperactive style, and look like he was the guy causing Takayasu to fall back. Eventually Takayasu's retreat got reckless and he fell on his bum, oshi-taoshi, in this lively piece of nonsense.

O Kisenosato (9-2) vs. M5 Shodai (8-3)
All right, I'm genuinely interested. What will they do? Brass tacks are on the tracks. Well, I'm afraid Shodai looked like a half-animated clay golem, as he was lazy and didn't move forward much on the tachi-ai. He did gaburu manfully after that and drove a weak-looking Kisenosato back, but he then fell off Kisenosato's body sloppily to the right, then let Kisenosato lift him all the way up and over to the left, where he was half falling down so that Kisenosato could tug on his brain-nugget a bit. Then Shodai walked along the tawara a bit, so disoriented was he, and was there waiting when Kisenosato, who was facing rather a different direction, turned and tapped him on the chest. Shodai said "yeah, that's enough for me, boy oh boy!" and stepped the rest of the way out, tsuki-dashi (what a disrespectful use of this definitively powerful kimari-te). How's the saying go, "until morale improves, the beatings will continue?"

S Kaisei (6-5) vs. Y Harumafuji (9-2)
Sumo is mysterious. Kaisei gave this one to Harumafuji. Harumafuji shaded to the left and grabbed his belt, then ushered him forward, yes, but Kaisei just let his arms hang forward and leapt nimbly forward to roll across the dirt, just like they do it in practice, uwate-dashi-nage. When a man the size of Sugarloaf Mountain is leaping nimbly forward, well, that's odd.

Y Hakuho (9-2) vs. O Terunofuji (6-5)
Henka and linear force-outs often signal mukiryoku, so when Terunofuji henka'ed Hakuho on the first go-round here, it spelled u-g-l-e-e. However, as they squared up (Hakuho survived the henka), the gyoji was desperately calling out "wait, wait, wait, wait!" because of a false start. In a preview of things to come, rehearsal style, Hakuho heard him and let up and was walked out by Terunofuji. Except they had to do over, of course. Didn't count. The do over was terrible, another really bad performance by Hakuho. If he is auditioning for my play I'm not even letting him in the chorus. On the tachi-ai, Hakuho was not square to Terunofuji, and did not grab anything. Terunofuji grabbed the belt on Hakuho's right hip, as it was presented to him. Then, Hakuho turned pointlessly AWAY from Terunofuji, removing any chance of Hakuho grabbing any grip or getting in position for resistance, and Terunofuji of course responded as anyone would with a yori-kiri force-out win. Hakuho's performance in his losses seems calculated to be so bad as to make a mockery of the sport. This tournament went over a rough spot on Day 5, and has deteriorated steadily since Day 9. None of the four matches I've covered thus far bear discussion. They left Harumafuji and Kisenosato alone at 10-2, but it's a race for the bottom now, folks.

SEVEN-UP

M9 Chiyonokuni (8-3) vs. M16 Arawashi (7-4)
Yeah, Chiyonokuni has been the most fun rikishi this go round. But Arawashi is another under-the-radar fave of mine, and he made it look like he's the wicked-gumption-guy of the week. They hit each other hard off the tachi-ai, but then, greased to roll, Arawashi jumped to the side and grabbed Chiyonokuni's left arm. Playing a little game of bully-holds-your-arm-behind-your-back-and-yeah-it's-totally-incapacitating, Arawashi had his way with Chiyonokuni, slinging him away to a loss in most convincing fashion, tottari. Standing on the floor afterwards, Chiyo looked up at him as if to say, "hey, what are you doing with my Comeback Rikishi Of The Year gig tournament?" Arawashi just said, "same record, dude."

M7 Ichinojo (7-4) vs. M13 Toyohibiki (5-6)
You know you're big when Toyohibiki is scared of you. Kerosene Burp (Toyohibiki) has essentially one trick, a blast-'em tachi-ai and quick force out, and he didn't try it against Ichinojo, opting instead for the delayed-action henka, then slapping at Ichinojo with weak roundhouses like those soap covered cloth hanging things at the automatic car wash that jerk around and lather your car. Ichinojo was unmoved, and grabbed Toyohibiki and pulled him unceremoniously down, kata-sukashi. As Toyohibiki lost this one by touching the ground with his hands and fought in a style unnatural and unfavorable to himself, I'm putting a marker on it, but whatever. As for Ichinojo, next tournament you'll get a chance to try it against the big boys, Big Boy. Try it against the big boys.

M6 Aoiyama (6-5) vs. M10 Takanoiwa (8-3)
The bloom is off Aoiyama for me this tournament, as he's looked bad in some relatively easy matches, and was terrible here. First he tried to go with his signature full-arm shoves, but was up too high and whiffed, leaving Takanoiwa with a path to the inside. Then he remained was up too high; he tried to shake out of this with some grunting, fat-shimmying action, and it worked, but then he tried a two-handed swipe pull and whiffed on that too, leaving him exposed again and off balance, and this went uwate-dashi-nage for Takanoiwa, but essentially all he had to do was give Aoiyama a little push on the belt as he went by and rolled heavily out. Takanoiwa has constructed a 9-3 tournament and I didn't notice.

M8 Chiyootori (7-4) vs. M2 Takarafuji (8-3)
Strange tachi-ai here, as Takarafuji stood up in place, leaned forward, then let Chiyootori hit him down low. Takarafuji then spent the bout retreating; it was another example of the passive, overly-cautious Takarafuji who drives me crazy. However, he's better, and Chiyootori was tentative in response and couldn't get anything going, so Takarafuji waited for a moment when they were near the bales and then shifted the angle of contact by retreating and pulling so that it was Chiyootori with his back to the straw, not him, and finished him off very easily from there, yori-kiri. I have mild respect for both of these guys but form like this is not going to get you anywhere worth going.

M2 Okinoumi (5-6) vs. M1 Tochiohzan (7-4)
Mike was spot-on yesterday in putting a mukiryoku bout at the top of his report and focusing on how it happens all the time at the lower ranks in addition to the higher ranks, and that we don't know why but can see it. That is often the dominant flavor of the last five days of the tournament, as guys wrap up the storylines they've set up in the first ten days, and today was very, very bad. Okinoumi hit Tochiohzan at the tachi-ai but was already moving left, and didn't have to do much as Tochiohzan hopped forward, aligned his feet, then put his two palms forward on the dirt and dragged his knees after, a new yoga position he invented. Tsuki-otoshi was the call, but just put a "t" on the end of that, please.

CLASH OF THE TITANS!!!

K Kotoyuki (1-10) vs. M6 Endo (1-10)
Kotoyuki grabbed 'im by the head, grabbed 'im by the neck. Pushed 'im and shoved 'im and sent waves of kill-kill-kill-thrill-kill pheromones coursing into Endo's receptive pores. Endo gathered his wits after a few seconds of being thus caressed by the dragon's teeth, and tried the only thing available to him: pull, pull, pull; pulled himself right out of the ring he did, too far gone, tsuki-dashi (a real one this time), and when Kotoyuki stepped out, oops, Endo was already standing by the salt bucket. If I were him I'd just open my eyes and mouth wide, jam that thing upside down on top of my face, and think about eternity.

THE EDUCATION OF MITAKEUMI

M1 Mitakeumi (2-9) vs. M4 Shohozan (4-7)
There have been more important things on the agenda this tournament than protecting the ego and hype of Mitakeumi, so he has been left out on the porch to get devoured by the dogs, which has been fun. I do think he is promising, but even in losing Darth Hozan gave him a challenge-match that showed he has a ways to go. Mitakeumi had both fists on the ground waiting, so Hozer gave him a sassy little slap in the face on the way to going chest to chest. t'Hoz isn't real big, and Mitakeumi should have dominated, but it was The Hoz who controlled this one most of the way. He spun Mitakeumi around 360 degrees once and tested the force out waters, but couldn't get it, and then it was Mitakeumi, who had inside and outside grips, who spun his opponent, and his yori-kiri force out off of that worked. As it should, as Mitakeumi is bigger and better. But if it is this hard to beat Shohozan, what is he going to do when he's snuggling up to Ichinojo next tournament? Bears watching, though we may have to avert our eyes.

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL, AND TRYING NOT TO GET DUMPED OUT

M15 Kitaharima (4-7) vs. J1 Azumaryu (5-6)
The reality is Kitaharima is too small and underpowered. To his credit, he has not resorted to a bunch of Henka Hijinks to make up for this, but as a result he is getting creamed. Here a nothing, Azumaryu, just had to wait for him to mess up. Kitaharima was running about, slapping and looking for an opening, and Azumaryu didn't give him one and waited patiently. On one of his charges Kitaharima vroomed past him into the wrong direction, and Azumaryu caught him by the butt button and okuri-dashi'ed him out. It seems pretty conclusive that Kitaharima does not belong in the upper division.

M12 Tamawashi (6-5) vs. M14 Kagayaki (6-5)
I have a soft spot for Fried Mosquito (Kagayaki), but not because of his sumo. Somehow, by taking advantage of weak opponents (like Endo yesterday), he is within shooting range of a winning record. However, Tamawashi showed why that's surprising. This was another patience-fest for the winner. Tamawashi never overcommitted, knowing his opponent was weak, and pushed and shoved until he won, oshi-dashi. Kagayaki was trying to do the same, push and shove, but it had no effect, didn't move his opponent back, he ignored numerous chances at evasion, and, importantly, he might as well have had his eyes closed, because he was blindly and desperately (and yet somehow lethargically, as is his wont) just shoving away at the pressure he felt in front of him without doing anything effectual. Experienced mid-Makuuchi guys like Tamawashi are going to make mince-meat of Kagayaki every time.

M14 Nishikigi (6-5) vs. M11 Daieisho (4-7)
Hard to get a good read on Nishikigi, as for the second day his opponent didn't seem to be trying very hard. Daieisho had both fists on the ground waiting, yet seemed slow off the tachi-ai. Then, despite bending over and getting good extension on his arms, Daieisho couldn't seem to get a belt grip. Then, Daieisho let himself be forced straight back and out without any throws or evasion. Or I'm wrong and Nishikigi is big enough and calm enough and strong enough to just get regular linear oshi-dashi force out wins.

BECAUSE HE IS AN OZEKI, IT IS SLIGHTLY INTERESTING TO MONITOR WHETHER HE WILL GET KACHI-KOSHI

O Goeido (6-5) vs. M4 Ikioi (4-7)
Ikioi: "Oops, I forgot that the match is starting. Let me fling my right arm in the air, whee! Ooh, this Goeido Ozeki fellow is driving me back! I'm so helpless! I will go straight back and out, because what, oh what, else can I do? I will step lightly out, to avoid being utterly destroyed by his amazing Ozeki Power! Ooh, darn it, I have lost, yori-kiri! I will put my head on Goeido's shoulder and look like I'm going to cry. To show how sad I am, how frustrated with myself! I am hungry, let's go eat."

BECAUSE WE LOVE SUMO

M15 Sadanofuji (3-8) vs. M12 Tokushoryu (5-6)
Sadanofuji tried a slight evade-and-pull twice, but it was too mild, and after that Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) got smart and bodied up. When it was his turn to pull Sadanofuji, it worked against the lesser rikishi, getting him off balance and out of rhythm and set up for the easy yori-kiri force out. Get thee back to Juryo, ye blob Sada-ain't-got-no-fuji.

M10 Sadanoumi (6-5) vs. M8 Takekaze (4-7)
Push, then back-up, pull, hataki-komi win. Takekaze is a master at this and did it here; we'll see him do it another few Makuuchi tournaments as well, as it keeps getting wins.

M9 Sokokurai (3-8) vs. M7 Daishomaru (5-6)
It's Dark There (Sokokurai) whacked the distasteful Daishomaru (pulls, bland sumo) pretty hard in the face on the tachi-ai by whipping his right forearm up; Daishomaru's left knee sank to within a centimeter of the ground or so and I actually thought he'd lost right there. Probably slightly stunned, he recovered, but then seemed to walk back and out willingly, yori-kiri. Maybe Sokokurai should try dynamite fishing more often.

M3 Myogiryu (3-8) vs. S Tochinoshin (3-8)
Tochinoshin sloppily let Myogiryu get dual inside position early on, but by sheer manful aggression and size still looked like the winner as he growled grizzly-bear-like and forced his little-panda-bear cousin back. However, moro-zashi is a pretty good position to have, and as Tochinoshin was standing up straight and only had over-the-shoulder holds, Myogiryu was able to stop his momentum and press the match in the opposite direction. Oh, and because Tochinoshin could have pulled on Myogiryu's belt but let go and bent over backwards to pull on him armpit. Oh, and because Tochinoshin had two hands on the belt again after that but let go to try instead a meaty tear-off-head-and-neck-throw—as he went out, too little too late. Myogiryu got the good looking but-yeah-there's-that-other-thing yori-kiri win.

RESULTS

At the end of the day your leaderboard is Kisenosato and Harumafuji, both at 10-2 and facing each other tomorrow, with Hakuho still in it at 9-3 but lazily holding a white handkerchief, while Takayasu, Takarafuji, and Takanoiwa line up next to him also at 9-3, looking a bit sheepish. And if you're counting, my thumbnail sketch indicates today's results as reality 10, reality TV 9.

Mike will continue to decline to take dictation on Day 13.

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The last two days of drama (can't quite call it sumo) was about as bizarre as it gets, and it's unfortunate that the only way to generate interest in the sport right now is through bout fixing. I agree with Harvye's assessment yesterday that the Kisenosato - Shohozan bout was orchestrated. Harvye already broke the bout down, so I won't revisit that here, but I think what happened is that a good chunk of fans became irate after day 9 and called the Sumo Association as well as the various media outlets to complain. In my Haru pre-basho report, I highlighted an article that appeared in the Sponichi Annex newspaper on Feb. 12th where a female reader sent a post card to the newspaper agency saying that she knew that Hakuho let up at the end of tournaments. I'm sure it was reworded softly by the reporter and his editor, but basically the fan was saying we're not stupid, and we don't appreciate that brand of sumo.

The ending to day 9 was so obvious, especially to the viewing audience who had slow motion replays from different angles, and my guess is the backlash from that day was so severe that the Association mandated the events of day 10 as if to say, "See, there's no fix here. If we're dictating that Kisenosato should take the yusho, why would we allow that henka by Shohozan?" As Harvye pointed out yesterday, Shohozan is simply not that stupid. He's just not, and so I completely agree that the henka was setup as a way to quell the Japanese fans who are complaining about all the shenanigans (trust me, they're out there). Then you had Ikioi's victory over Terunofuji. That had to happen to somehow justify his victory over Hakuho the day before. "See, Ikioi beat a Yokozuna and a strong Ozeki on consecutive days. There's no funny business going on."  Except there is, and it's rampant up and down the banzuke, and a lot of the fans know it.

Before I get to the leaderboard, I want to start off with the M8 Chiyootori - M14 Nishikigi bout as a good illustration of yaocho. We've all seen plenty of Chiyootori, and we've all seen what Nishikigi brings to the table (very little), and so to watch Nishikigi defeat Chiyootori in linear fashion in about three seconds was not right. Can you name one other bout in his Makuuchi career where Nishikigi has beaten his foe in perfect linear fashion? The instant I saw that happen, I knew it wasn't right, and when they showed the slow motion replays, my instincts were confirmed.

First, watch Chiyootori's tachi-ai. Why would anyone in their right mind put a hand up around their opponent's neck as if to pull only to stay directly in front of them and not actually execute the pull? Second, at about the :10 - :11 second mark, Chiyootori's right arm actually slips to the inside, which would have given him moro-zashi, but he immediately pulls that arm back to the outside. Third, Nishikigi never has the left arm inside, so how can you keep an opponent directly in front of you when you can't even shore him up? Fourth, Chiyootori's supposed counter left scoop throw is so weak that even the girls in the crowd were laughing at it. Both rikishi have feet aligned, and it was an overall terrible bout of sumo.

I wanted to bring this insignificant bout up just because it exemplifies the kind of fixed sumo we are seeing all over the place. Watching it live, it would be harder to pick up, but when you have the slow motion replays and rational analysis on your side, it's easy to spot. And then, if you understand the Japanese, you have Onomatsu-oyakata in the background breaking it all down by saying, "Chiyootori was going for moro-zashi blah blah blah" (listen for the phrase "moro-zashi-nerai"). He's saying that while we can clearly see in the replays right in front of our face that Chiyootori was NOT going for moro-zashi keeping that right arm away and high at the tachi-ai, and then when he had the clear path to moro-zashi, he took that right arm back outside. It's just a good example of people believing something because they're told so when reality right in front of their face shows something different.

There was nothing here to explain such an ass-kicking at the hands of Nishikigi including any pertinent sumo moves by the youngster or his sumo history. There's no way that the savvy Chiyootori gets done like that in a straight up bout, but you have the announcers talking out of their arses and people just kind of accept it all. I have no idea why this bout was fixed, I just know it was as Nishikigi moves to 6-5 while Chiyootori falls to 7-4.

Okay, enough of that nonsense. Let's get to more important nonsense like the leaderboard, which shapes up as follows entering the day:

2 losses: Hakuho, Harumafuji, Kisenosato, Takayasu, Takarafuji

For the first time in 17 years we have five rikishi tied for the yusho this late in the basho, and I only bring that fun fact up due to the lack of any quality sumo to keep us on the edge of our seats.

Okay, let's start with the leaders going in chronological order, which means we start with M2 Takarafuji vs. Komusubi Takayasu. Takayasu greeted his foe with a nice right paw to the neck, which kept Takarafuji completely upright, and it allowed Takayasu to slip his right arm to the inside forcing the bout to migi-yotsu. Not allowing his pardner any momentum from the tachi-ai, Takayasu was able to reach for and grab the left outer grip, and Takarafuji knew he was in trouble at this point. T-Fuji went for a maki-kae with the left arm, but Takayasu used the momentum shift to throw his foe down with the left outer grip. Takayasu was simply better at the tachi-ai, and Takarafuji couldn't counter. With the win, Takayasu moves to 9-2 and temporarily is the sole leader. Takarafuji falls to 8-3 but needs to keep his chin up.

Next up was Ozeki Kisenosato vs. M4 Ikioi, and there was no doubt who would win this one. After a horrible tachi-ai from both parties, the two ended up in hidari-yotsu where Ikioi just let the Ozeki get the right outer grip, and as we've seen nearly every day, Kisenosato really has trouble finishing his guys off even with the stronger hold. I mean we are talking about an M4 guy here. Still, Kisenosato couldn't force Ikioi back that last step, and Ikioi actually began to execute a right tsuki-otoshi move that would have worked, but he stopped short causing the rikishi to spin around once where Kisenosato finally forced his foe back and across for good thanks to Ikioi's just standing there and letting him do it. I seriously wonder what goes through Kisenosato's mind. He knows he's a farce, and so I'm wondering if he really wants to be promoted to Yokozuna and continue this charade for the rest of his career. Kisenosato moves to 9-2 thanks to the gift while Ikioi falls to 4-7.

Yokozuna Hakuho faced Sekiwake Kaisei today in a bout that saw the Yokozuna hop into the right inside position only to have Kaisei counter with the left outer grip, but Kaisei didn't set that grip up with a hard tachi-ai, the right inside, or chest to chest sumo, and so Hakuho was able grab a left outer of his own sending the bout to gappuri migi-yotsu, and from there, the Yokozuna kept his gal up high and scored the nice force-out win. It was refreshing to see a solid bout of sumo so late in the basho as Hakuho keeps pace at 9-2 while Kaisei falls to 6-5.

Our final leader, Yokozuna Harumafuji, closed the festivities against M7 Ichinojo by stepping out to his left, grabbing the cheap outer grip, and spinning the Mongolith around and down nearly as quickly as the bout had begun. Ichinojo likes to stab for the right inside early, and the Yokozuna played off of that avoiding the inside position from his foe and using his speed to just topple the larger Ichinojo. Pretty good stuff from Harumafuji who obviously watches tape as he moves to 9-2 while Ichinojo continues to plod along at 7-4.

As the dust settled, the leaderboard was whittled down to four rikishi as follows:

9-2: Hakuho, Harumafuji, Kisenosato, Takayasu

With four days left, it will be interesting because you have two Ozeki in Goeido and Terunofuji who sit at 6-5 (or set at 6-5 as we say in Utah), and that provides the perfect opportunity for the Yokozuna to donate a win or two down the stretch. We'll just have to see how it all plays out, but as I like to say, the only drama here is will the Yokozuna or won't they? Kisenosato has clearly demonstrated that he doesn't have the sumo skills worthy of a yusho rikishi or the Yokozuna rank (or even the Ozeki rank for that matter), and so the only drama is: are they going to let him take the yusho?

In other bouts of interest, Ozeki Terunofuji henka'd to his right against M5 Yoshikaze getting his in one second and moving to 6-5 in the process. Look, if they're gonna make you lose to Ikioi, you may as well not fool around with Yoshikaze. Terunofuji moves to 6-5 with the easy win while Yoshikaze falls to 7-4.

Ozeki Goeido used a quick left hari-te against M5 Shodai that glanced off of Shodai's face, but it obviously didn't have effect as Shodai simply grabbed the left outer grip, pivoted to that side, and swung the Ozeki in name only over and out using just the outer belt grip. When you can beat a guy without the inside position, it shows just how weak the opponent is, and that was the case today as Shodai clinches kachi-koshi at 8-3 while Goeido falls to 6-5. Shodai will find himself next basho in the same boat that Mitakeumi is in this basho, so it will be interesting to see how he fares. He sure kicked the Ozeki's ass today, and it was nice to see.

Sekiwake Tochinoshin grabbed the early left frontal belt grip against M1 Mitakeumi, but he didn't have anything to the inside with the right, and so Mitakeumi was able to move laterally and pull out of the hold. Still, Mitakeumi is no match for the Georgian, who used a series of shoves and slaps to work his way back into the right inside position coupled with the left outer grip. Mitakeumi ducked low so as to not align chests, but all that did was prolong the inevitable as Tochinoshin slowly wrenched his gal into position before scoring the powerful yori-kiri win. Tochinoshin is only 3-8 with the win while Mitakeumi is one short of that checking in at 2-9. You could really see the difference in power and ability here.

Komusubi Kotoyuki is trying to hard, and the result is reckless, terrible sumo. Today against M4 Shohozan, Darth Hozan connected with a right hari-te that seemed to throw Kotoyuki off balance to where none of his tsuppari attempts really connected. Kotoyuki briefly looked to have a paw to Shohozan's neck, but Shohozan was already moving right executing a nice pull that spun Kotoyuki around 180 degrees, and things really got perky when Shohozan embraced his lover from behind and pushed him out brokeback style. Shohozan is still alive at 4-7 while Kotoyuki falls to 1-10.

M1 Tochiohzan caught M10 Sadanoumi with a nice right paw to the neck which set up the left arm to the inside and right outer grip as easy as you please, and normally Tochiohzan doesn't like to attack unless he has moro-zashi, but against Sadanoumi, he had no problem keeping his foe upright and driving him back and out. Good win here for Oh who moves to 7-4 while Sadanoumi falls to 6-5.

M11 Daieisho went for M2 Okinoumi's neck at the tachi-ai, but the taller Okinoumi easily fought that off with a left upwards shove beneath Daieisho's extended right arm, and with the right hand, Okinoumi grabbed Daieisho by the wrist pulling him over to the edge where a final shove to the face sent Daieisho packing. Total ass kicking here as Okinoumi moves to 5-6 while Daieisho is on the brink at 4-7.

M3 Myogiryu caught M8 Takekaze with a moro-te-zuki from the tachi-ai that completely halted Takekaze's momentum, and from there Myogiryu was able to move to his right and pull Takekaze forward and off balance setting up the ultimate yori-kiri win. Myogiryu's only 3-8 while Takekaze falls to 4-7.

M6 Aoiyama was way too high in his tsuppari attack against M12 Tamawashi, and so The Mawashi was able to work his way to the inside with counter tsuppari of his own that set up the right inner position. From there, Tamawashi just shifted gears and executed a scoop throw that sent Aoiyama flying over and down. Both rikishi end the day at 6-5.

There's still a noticeable buzz in the arena when M6 Endoh enters the ring, and my question is why? The easy answer is because the crowd has been told as much the last few years even though the evidence right in front of our eyes has illustrated something completely different. Today against M14 Kagayaki, Endoh opened with a right hari-te that was ineffective, and then his left arm was too high and wide, and so Kagayaki forced his way to the inside and simply drove Endoh back and outta the dohyo so hard and fast, he sent Elvis to the venue floor as he walked back to his side leaving Endoh in his wake. Dayum, getting done in like this at the hands of Kagayaki (6-5) is not good as Endoh falls to 1-10. They're using the excuse that he's got a bum leg, but when has Endoh ever been good? I'm actually rooting for Endoh this basho, but I am a realist.

After a bad tachi-ai from both parties, M13 Toyohibiki worked his right arm into a nice push into M7 Daishomaru's neck that knocked the kid all but back and out allowing Toyohibiki to get the left arm to the inside and polish Daishomaru off with another right tsuki to the torso. This one wasn't even close, which makes me wonder if Daishomaru's bad sumo here was intentional or not. Both rikishi close the day at 5-6.

The most interesting story by far this basho has been M9 Chiyonokuni, and it's been fun to watch him struggle early and then regain his confidence leading him to seven wins so far. Today against M15 Kitaharima, Kuni caught him with a left tsuki from the tachi-ai to stand the rookie up, and then he used perfect de-ashi to set up a left tsuki into Kitaharima's neck that sent the rookie flying back on his ass. Beautiful tsuki-otoshi win here as Chiyonokuni picks up kachi-koshi at 8-3 while Kitaharima is overmatched in this division at 4-7.

M16 Arawashi shaded a bit left at the tachi-ai grabbing the early left outer grip against M9 Sokokurai, who did absolutely nothing to adjust. I mean, Sokokurai just stood there like a bump on a log while Arawashi dashi-nage'd him over to the edge and then tripped him down from there. I've remember stoners from high school who were more lucid that Sokokurai has been this basho as he falls to 3-8 while Arawashi is one step closer at 7-4.

M10 Takanoiwa stayed low and struck hard at the tachi-ai against M12 Tokushoryu getting the left arm to the front of his opponent's belt, and with Tokushoryu befuddled early, Takanoiwa grabbed the right outer grip and just dashi-nage'd Tokushoryu around, around, and out for th nice win. I really loved Takanoiwa's sumo today, and it all started with a stellar tachi-ai as he moves to 8-3 while Tokushoryu falls to 5-6.

And finally, J1 Gagamaru executed the exact same tachi-ai against M15 Sadanofuji that Chiyootori did against Nishikigi, only in this bout Gagamaru did go for the pull scoring the ugly win in about two seconds. We'll likely see Gagamaru back here in September as he moves to 6-5 while Sadanofuji will fall back to Juryo at 3-8.

Harvye keeps you on your toes tomorrow.

Day 10 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Soooo... now that the tournament has gone off the rails and careened into the dark side... I was enjoying this one; there seemed to be less cheating than usual. And then there was day 9. Oh, boy. Yesterday during it I felt derisive and annoyed: "and you give us this?" Today, watching the replay in slow motion of Hakuho flinging himself on the dirt and then sitting up with a mischievous little smile, I chuckled mirthlessly, all emotion gone out of it. Grim. Yeah, you got 'em buddy! But whaddya got? I don't like it.

So what would Day 10 produce? Let's find out. Since this tournament has been all about Hakuho and Kisenosato since before it started, let's start with them.

O Kisenosato (8-1) vs. M4 Shohozan (2-7)
This tournament is all about Kisenosato. Right? Right!?!  Well, this match was some of the dumbest crap you'll see on a dohyo. Shohozan moved out hard to the right, and Kisenosato ran straight forward and planted both palms on the ground, tsuki-otoshi. Speaking completely frankly, whether it was or not, it looked orchestrated, as the henka by Shohozan was so huge he was telegraphing it, and Kisenosato made no attempt to recover. He was looking right at Shohozan, eyes up, but neglected to turn. Moreover, Shohozan barely touched him: despite the tsuki-otoshi kimari-te, there was little contact to make this happen, and none from up top. Just a perfunctory, brief tap on the side as he went by. We're to believe that Kisenosato ran stupidly forward and couldn't stop his momentum. Plausible? Yes. Probable? It didn't look probable to me, folks. And always be suspicious when the first thing to touch the ground is a hand or especially two.

Who tells narratives like this, where a 2-7 nothing like Shohozan pulls a bit of cheap nonsense to get to 3-7? Where the Great Local Hope is done in by something underhanded you can't defend against? Where thousands of people pay a hundred dollars to see wrestling and find themselves at bullfighting, minus the bull but plus the bull****? It was demoralizing, bad sumo. The old people in the crowd looked confused and indignant. Me too. Is the tournament more exciting if guys go into the end tied? Yes. But like this? This made no sense. By god, let's have some wrasslin'! I'll give a point to the blue skiers: the most rational explanation for this would be that Shohozan simply really wanted to win, didn't care, and thought this was the easiest way to do it. (And was later beaten with a beer bottle by his stable master for being a dumbass? Wait, no, because in the blue sky scenario the stable master is happy: "we won!")

I would love to give you The Inside Scoop as to what happened here, so here it is: this was awful sumo, awful timing for it, anti-climactic, dumb, and infuriating.

Y Hakuho (7-2) vs. S Tochinoshin (2-7)
Hakuho started out by retreating, then got a left outer grip while Tochinoshin got a right inner; then there was stalemate from there for a while as the wrestlers bodied up. Hakuho tried a wicked looking head pull, but after that Tochinoshin was able to get an outside left to match Hakuho's. Briefly, Tochinoshin had Hakuho off his feet once or twice with tsuri-dashi attempts. Trouble for the Yokozuna? Nothing doing. He's simply too strong and too good. The key move here was a little wrench and hip movement to get Tochinoshin off his belt on the left, then reaching over that hand to get a second outer grip. It was over for Tochinoshin; yeah, he had both hands inside, but they were up high and pinched into nowhere good, and he was tired, and the yori-kiri came soon.

Does Hakuho choose to lose again going down the stretch, or does he say, "Kisenosato just doesn't have it; I'm going for it"? Time will tell, and so will The Storyteller.

As Takayasu is technically on the leaderboard and has had a good tournament, let's cover him next.

K Takayasu (8-1) vs. Y Harumafuji (7-2)
Harumafuji took care of business in this one. He was giving Takayasu some nice chokes, but Takayasu was slapping at him and moving him backwards, so Harumafuji ducked in below it, put his hands on Takayasu's waist, and drove him all the way back and out, even giving a nice thigh tug near the end to take Takayasu's legs out from under him so that he fell over backwards on the tawara, watashi-komi, and toppled upside down off the ring like a toy soldier pinged with a superball. After Shohozan's big middle-finger-to-the-skies against Kisenosato, Harumafuji remains a good darkhorse to take the whole thing.

Your four leaders at the end of the day, all 8-2: Kisenosato, Hakuho, Harumafuji, Takayasu (wait!... and Takarafuji; see below). And five days to go is a long, long time. I have no idea what's going to happen. Let's be excited!

SECOND TIER

Or, let's cover some of the other guys having good tournaments.

O Goeido (5-4) vs. M1 Tochiohzan (6-3)
Hoo, boy. Or maybe we shouldn't. Tochiohzan is the better wrestler and had decent position here, with a left inside from early on, but neglected to move forward. Eventually he twisted the match around and had Goeido dead on the straw, with his favored two-hands-inside grip and momentum. He decided to retreat back towards the center of the ring, though, where he let Goeido drag him down by the head, uwate-nage, and put his left hand down on the dirt to stop his fall. Oops! So much for his good tournament, in more ways than one.

M7 Daishomaru (5-4) vs. M2 Takarafuji (7-2)
Mismatch. Takarafuji waited until Daishomaru had overcommitted to forward momentum, then pulled out with easy body control, stepping just aside and tossing Daishomaru lightly in the other direction. He squared back out and pushed him out, oshi-dashi. And I totally didn't realize this put him tied for the lead when the dust settled until after the day ended. But, um, no.

M7 Ichinojo (6-3) vs. M14 Nishikigi (5-4)
I continue to be unimpressed with Ichinojo as I look at his string of opponents. Nishikigi? And he had a very hard time putting him away. This one lasted 100 seconds, and featured a bunch of different holds, but the basics was Ichinojo leaning on Nishikigi to tire him out and trying various force outs. It eventually devolved into dual over-the-shoulder grips by Ichinojo on Nishikigi's unraveling belt, with two arms inside but unable to do anything for Nishikigi. Finally, one of the force-outs worked for Ichinojo, yori-kiri. Now do it to the big boys, Big Boy. Do it to the big boys.

M8 Chiyonokuni (6-3) vs. M5 Yoshikaze (7-2)
Chiyonokuni looked at the ceiling as if to take a moment to remind himself "I can do this." Yes you can. This one featured a whole lot of wiggling about like two fresh trout in a bucket, but as Yoshikaze came forward he only put his hands on Chiyonokuni's hips, like a guy embarrassed to hug his aunt, rather than grabbing hold of anything, and it was a matter of Chiyonokuni untangling himself from the collapsing flotsam and jetsam or Yoshikaze's crumbling attack rather than doing anything to win. Yoshikaze probably had a mandate to get off the leaderboard. Give it to Chiyonokuni hataki-komi; he's been fun this tournament but I still say he is too small and gets annihilated next tournament.

THIRD TIER

Some other things we've been paying attention to.

M4 Ikioi (3-6) vs. O Terunofuji (5-4)
Terunofuji had a nice overhand left arm grip on the belt and looked about to bull his man out; Ikioi was fumbling about underneath and inside with his arms, but was stood up tall and couldn't see what he was doing in there, and there was nothing to be had. So he pulled out, cleverly grabbed Terunofuji's left arm, and used it as a lever to dump Fuji the Terrible over the edge, kote-nage. If he's going to show us sumo like this, Terunofuji might as well scoop up that losing record quick and start over with different expectations as a non-Ozeki. Remember "Stop the Terunofuji?" I'm ready for the light to turn because I want to cross the street.

S Kaisei (5-4) vs. M2 Okinoumi (4-5)
This match was a good demonstration of the relative worth of these two guys, both of whom could be pretty good if unleashed. Okinoumi opted for a straight up tachi-ai and a test of strength, and Kaisei brought along good de-ashi to a low-driving position, and slid Okinoumi straight back to the tawara. Winner in Test of Strength Category: Kaisei. He also won the match, yori-kiri. He's well positioned at 6-4 to keep his rank as Sekiwake going away.

OTHER MATCHES THAT EXISTED

M16 Arawashi (5-4) vs. J3 Chiyoshoma (6-3)
This was a near carbon copy of the later Shohozan-Kisenosato debacle, as Arawashi pulled a quick, thorough, huge henka and Chiyoshoma ran forward and put both hands on the ground (proceeding to then scamper forward on all fours like a skittish monkey getting chased by the alpha). The difference between this and the later match is that Arawashi followed-up, putting his hands on Chiyoshoma's head, hataki-komi, to make sure he couldn't get up again. I've wasted too much space on this one already, but though this henka also stunk, this "who cares" region of the banzuke is the place for this if it must be done. Boo, Shohozan, BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

M15 Sadanofuji (3-6) vs. M11 Daieisho (3-6)
As he was advised in yesterday's report, Daieisho stayed off the belt, and found that with simple choke holds and solid forward pressure, he was able to push Sadanofuji right out, oshi-dashi. This one was a bit suspicious, as Sadanofuji never tried any evasion and let himself get pushed straight out, but let's optimistically imagine that he thought he was just so much bigger than Daieisho he was in no danger of a linear force-out. He was wrong.

M10 Takanoiwa (6-3) vs. M12 Tamawashi (5-4)
What happened here? Tamawashi dominated with choke holds, lower position, and a late right outside grip, but as he was putting Takanoiwa over the straw, lo!, Takanoiwa it turns out had a left inside and pivoted, standing on one foot and twirling at the tawara, and sprang it, putting Takanoiwa, who was moving forward too fast, face first in the soil, shitate-nage.

M10 Sadanoumi (6-3) vs. M9 Sokokurai (2-7)
Sokokurai was all arms and Sadanoumi was all body. You'd think body would be better, but if you're just pushing forward with your chest without any grips and your opponent has a firm hold at your nethers, you're toast. I think Sokokurai is much the better wrestler here, with lots of good chops in a variety of styles, and he made Sadanoumi look a bit silly, wriggling about on him, as he held fast and quickly and easily polished him off, oshi-dashi.

M8 Chiyootori (6-3) vs. M15 Kitaharima (4-5)
Chiyootori was far from consistent, pulling, grasping for the belt, thrusting, but he also controlled the match throughout: he's too big for Kitaharima to handle, and Chiyootori had his choice of how to finish his opponent, who never got close to him and played only desperate defense. He chose oshi-dashi.

M14 Kagayaki (4-5) vs. M8 Takekaze (4-5)
This looked like a mismatch to me, except if so the wrong guy won. Takekaze tried to take Kagayaki on straight up, and why not for all this guy offers, but after one hit Takekaze slipped when he tried to bring his feet, which he'd forgotten behind, and fell down, tsuki-otoshi. This one was sloppy as Kagayaki fell down on top of him. The old people in the crowd had a good chuckle.

M6 Aoiyama (5-4) vs. M13 Toyohibiki (4-5)
Toyohibiki glimpsed Aoiyama's pendulant udders and lurched forward, hungry for whole milk, into a false start, twice. On the actual go, he blindly went forward again, slapping and thrusting, trying to tease some mild from the udders, but so focused on cream was he that the udder-holder, Aoiyama, knocked him down, hiki-otoshi. Don't touch the udders.

M12 Tokushoryu (5-4) vs. M6 Endo (0-9)
I do look forward to Endo's matches. "In what humiliating way will he lose today!" Today ol' Special Sauce, Tokushoryu, out best butterball turkey, was bashing away at Endo's face and neck, and it was looking promising, but Saucy threw in a pull try there in the middle, and all Endo had to do was maintain and move forward, and got the oshi-dashi win. Tokushoryu needs to bull inside and use his size like a dozer, not try to show you how tough he is.

M1 Mitakeumi (2-7) vs. M5 Shodai (6-3)
This battle between the two young hopes was a long one at nearly two minutes, and a good one, as both wanted it and neither gave in. I think the better wrestler won. Shodai got a left overhand early, but was up top, and to avoid Mitakeumi making hay of a right inside, Shodai immediately slung him around 180 degrees and, in the shift, maki-kae'd to get his own arm inside on the right. He spent most of the next 90 seconds fishing to actually get a grip with that hand, but he didn't need it, as the left he had was dominant and tight, latching Mitakeumi in close and half-immobilizing him. In the end Shodai drove forward with that, and yori-kiri'ed Mitakeumi out just as Mitakeumi made a last ditch effort to take advantage of his own inside right, using Shodai's momentum to throw him to the clay bellyfirst as Mitakeumi twisted. Too little, too late, though, as Shodai had already forced him out.

K Kotoyuki (0-9) vs. M3 Myogiryu (2-7)
Kotoyuki looked to have given up in this one, henka'ing weakly and then backpedaling forlornly when it didn't work. However, Myogiryu was way too low, and as he followed Kotoyuki out of the ring, pulling on the calves wasn't really a winning strategy: Kotoyuki pushed Myogiryu down, sukui-nage, on the way to mutual oblivion.

And that's a fitting note to end today's murky festivities on. Mike checks if there are any embers amidst dead gray coals tomorrow.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The start of the broadcast focused on the leaderboard with the majority of attention directed of course at Kisenosato. As part of the discussion, NHK replayed Kisenosato's bout with Kotoyuki yesterday in slow motion, and I thought the slow motion replay was worth showing here because it really exemplifies what I don't see in Kisenosato's sumo. And it's not just me either. Fujii Announcer, Kitanofuji riding shotgun, and the former Oginishiki in the mukou-joumen chair were also kind of ho hum while watching the bout trying to find anything to praise, but there's just nothing there. Watch the bout and focus on Kisenosato's sumo and point out what he did well:

The first thing that I notice is his tachi-ai. Both hands are high and on Kotoyuki's shoulders, which is a perfect example of leaving yourself wide open at the tachi-ai. Even guys like Kitaharima and Nishikigi could take advantage of this, and so when Kisenosato opponents don't, that's the first red flag.

The second thing I notice occurs around the :04 - :05 second mark, and that's where Kisenosato executes his signature move: the upwards shove into his opponent's arm using the left hand. The Ozeki employs this move all the time, and other than that, he has nothing. And that's not to say that the upper arm push is effective because how many times does Kisenosato defeat his opponents due to that move? (The answer is zero).

At the :10 - :11 second mark, Kisenosato goes for a dumb pull, and Kotoyuki isn't fooled a bit, and he's actually moving forward towards the Ozeki. Normally, that translates into a blow-out win against the guy who executed the pull, but Kotoyuki's strategy yesterday was not to win.

Kotoyuki next has the Ozeki dead to rights at the :15 second mark, but there's no pressure to his attack, and after this is when Kisenosato moves to his left and begins a weak pull that of course causes Kotoyuki to flop to the deck like a fish out of water.

There's no question that Kotoyuki was mukiryoku here, but even if you want to argue that he wasn't, what do you see in this replay when it comes to Kisenosato's sumo that exemplifies 1) a rikishi worthy of the yusho, and 2) a Yokozuna?

And it's not just this bout. Everyday is like this for the Ozeki. Every damn day his tachi-ai is awful, his sumo is mistake-ridden, and his opponents are mukiryoku. I'd praise the guy if he gave me something to gush over, but it's just not there. The threesome on the broadcast backed that up as well as they watched the replay. They were hemming and hawing just to find anything positive to say, but they couldn't come with anything other than: he won.

There's also one other disturbing image to me from this basho, and that one came on day 5 when Kisenosato lost to Tochiohzan:



Is it possible for a Yokozuna to end up in the fetal position on the arena floor while his opponent is already standing on his side of the dohyo after the bout? The only time a Yokozuna lays on the arena floor after a legitimate bout is when both guys fly off the dohyo after a hotly contested match. To see Kisenosato lying there on his back like a turtle overturned on his shell is just embarrassing to me, and not only is that a posture that any Ozeki should never assume, it definitely doesn't happen during a normal yusho run, and such a result is unfathomable for a Yokozuna.

Enough said on that front. Let's review the leaderboard as we enter day 9:

1 loss: Hakuho, Harumafuji, Kisenosato, Takayasu
2 losses: Takarafuji, Yoshikaze, Ichinojo, Sadanoumi

The good thing is that most of those guys come from the upper echelons of the banzuke, so we don't have to monkey around with pretenders lower on the banzuke.

Talk about a red-letter day in sumo. For the first time and only time when reporting in leaderboard format, I'm going to start off the festivities with M10 Sadanoumi and M14 Nishikigi. The two rikishi clashed hard aligning chests straightway and coming out in the hidari-yotsu position where neither enjoyed an outer grip. With both dudes pressing in tight, the advantage goes to the bigger guy, and that would be Nishikigi (5-4) who used his long paw to wrestle the right outer grip, and once obtained, it was curtains for Sadanoumi who was forced back and across without argument. Sadanoumi falls to 6-3 and off the leaderboard darn the luck!

M7 Ichinojo and M2 Takarafuji looked to hook up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but before the dust could really settle, Takarafuji executed a maki-kae with the left giving him moro-zashi. The problem was that he retreated a step in the process, so he had no momentum. This allowed Ichinojo to keep up the pressure and maki-kae back sending the bout to migi-yotsu where Ichinojo had the left outer grip. The Mongolith just stood there, however, and let Takarafuji maki-kae again, and then as the bout flowed towrds the edge, Ichinojo maki-kae'd for a finl time leaving both dudes in gappuri migi yotsu. Ichinojo is normally insurmountable with and inside and right outer grip, but he just stood there and waited for Takarafuji to knock his belly into him and then send him packing with the left outer grip. Ichinojo was completely mukiryoku here giving Takarafuji the win in order to leave the Japanese rikishi on the leaderboard. I mean, you give Ichinojo or Terunofuji the solid inside position like that AND an outer grip, they only lose to the Yokozuna. Furthermore, in a real bout where both dudes have gappuri-yotsu at the edge, that sucker's going to a nage-no-uchi-ai, not a soft force-out from the lesser rikishi. Nonetheless, Takarafuji moves to 7-2 while Ichinojo falls off the leaderboard at 6-3.

Komusubi Takayasu and M2 Okinoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu at the tachi-ai with neither dude coming away with the coveted right outer grip, and so they dug in tightly with Takayasu testing the pull waters here and there while Okinoumi toyed with the idea of a maki-kae. At about the 40 second mark, Takayasu sprung the pull trap for reals quickly moving left and yanking Okinoumi's belt with the left inside grip while slapping at Okinoumi's shoulder with the right. Call it shitatedashinage (which they did) or call it katasukashi. The result was a nice win by Takayasu who stays on the leaderboard at 8-1 while Okinoumi falls to 4-5.

Ozeki Kisenoato and Ozeki Terunofuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but their chests weren't aligned causing the action to move around Kisenosato's half of the dohyo a bit haphazardly. When the dust settled, Kisenosato had the right outer grip while Terunofuji hunkered down low at one point even putting his right hand at the back of Kisenosato's left leg pretending as if he was testing the ashi-tori waters. At this point there was a brief stalemate and you could tell that Terunofuji had no interest in raising his fellow Ozeki upright.  Normally when I a guy has an outer grip, his opponent counters with the inside pressing up and into the outer.  Terunofuji just lamely kept his left hand at the front of Kisenosato's belt doing nothing. From this stance, Kisenosato executed a dashi-nage, but couldn't sill the dill and so around and around they went with Kisenosato only maintaining a weak outer grip with Terunofuji still staying low and refusing the obvious ploy: raising Kisenosato upright. And so the two dug in for upwards of a minute twenty when Kisenosato finally made his move and scored the predictable yori-kiri win.

This was a ridiculous bout to the trained eye. And to the untrained eye...can you call this a bout of o-zumo?? Absolutely not. There was no power here on display from either rikishi. They never aligned chests, there weren't any counter moves, and Terunofuji didn't once try and raise his opponent up. This was a joke of a bout, but it gave the fans something to scream about, and that's what sumo has become these days. Kisenosato miraculously stays in the lead at 8-1 while Terunofuji falls to 5-4.

Oh my holy gawd. Are they actually going to do it? Are they actually going to promote Kisenosato to Yokozuna?? Proceeding the previous bout, Yokozuna Hakuho faced M4 Ikioi, and from the awkward tachi-ai, I knew where this bout was headed. Hakuho kept his right arm in tight with elbow extended as if to kachi-age, but that never came, and then on the left side the Yokozuna just kept that arm wide open to the outside. No de-ashi and a retarded start signaled danger here, and the funny thing was, as bad as Hakuho's tachi-ai was, Ikioi's tachi-ai was even worse! And so there they stood with Ikioi having been gifted the right inside and Hakuho standing there literally doing nothing. Ikioi was so lost here that he did nothing with that right arm, and so Hakuho faked a pull creating full separation. And then things got even uglier. Ikioi stood there with arms extended and this scared look on his face as if to say, "Don't hurt me" because the normal Yokozuna would have rushed in and slapped him silly, but it definitely wasn't normal today as Hakuho faked a few slaps and then literally just dove to the dirt. And the funny thing was, Ikioi had his eyes closed and was looking down the last few moments of the bout, a normal reaction when the Yokozuna is upon you ready to kick your ass, but Hakuho's intentions were clear, and this bout was even worse than that day 14 abomination at the Hatsu basho where Hakuho was defeated by Kisenosato when they gave Kotoshogiku the yusho. I really am incredulous as to how anyone...anyone can watch this shullbit and think it's real. For everyone's entertainment, I've posted a replay of the bout here, and just watch Ikioi's scared face, especially towards the end as he's already looking down before Hakuho just falls to the dirt. Hakuho takes one step back at 7-2 while the hapless Ikioi moves to 3-6.

With Hakuho now one back, all that was needed was for Yokozuna Harumafuji to take a dive, and you just knew he was going to do it. Against M5 Yoshikaze, the two bumped heads at the tachi-ai where Yoshikaze didn't look like he wanted a piece of the Yokozuna, but Harumafuji maintained separation largely throughout firing and missing on slaps and half-hearted elbows thrown in for good measure, but with Yoshikaze hesitant to really charge in and make it a bout, Harumafuji executed on a few useless pulls essentially just hopping back towards the edge three steps while keeping his feet perfectly aligned and just squatting there as if he was going to pinch a loaf right there on the dohyo as he waited for Yoshikaze to pull him over already. In watching the replay, Yoshikaze didn't execute a single offensive maneuver; he was just sitting there the entire time prepared to ward off the blows from the Yokozuna...which curiously never came just like the previous bout. If you ever want a lesson on how to align your feet in sumo (the worst move possible), just watch Harumafuji's act today as both of these rikishi remain on the leaderboard at 7-2.

After the day was over, they pulled Ikioi and then Yoshikaze into the interview booth, and curiously, both claimed that they couldn't really remember anything. How convenient?!

With that said, your leaderboard heading into day 10 is as follows:

1 loss: Kisenosato, Takayasu
2 losses: Hakuho, Harumafuji, Takarafuji, Yoshikaze

There's still a lot of sumo left to go, but the remaining Mongolians will prolly hand each other losses, so as long as Kisenosato's opponents keep letting him win...

In other bouts of interest, Ozeki Goeido and Sekiwake Tochinoshin hooked up in migi-yotsu, and after both guys did a full dance turn towards the edge, they came away with left outer grips leaving them in gappuri-yotsu. Goeido dug in well attempting to counter with the right inside grip, but Tochinoshin is just too powerful and was able to bully the Ozeki across for good. Goeido falls to 5-4, and as he'll surely need help getting to eight wins the rest of the way, I can't think of better guys to give them to him than the Mongolians. Tochinoshin improves to just 2-7 with the win.

Sekiwake Kaisei kept his arms wide at the tachi-ai giving M1 Tochiohzan the easy moro-zashi, and from there Kaisei never really dug in or attempted to counter allowing Tochiohzan to score the methodical yori-kiri that looked impressive to most, but Kaise was mukiryoku in this one I'm sorry to say. You can just see it...or in this case, you can't see any effort from Kaisei. Not an ounce. Oh's still hot at 6-3 while Kaisei is 5-4 despite throwing a couple of bouts so far.

Komusubi Kotoyuki and M1 Mitakeumi bumped heads at the tachi-ai with Kotoyuki looking to take control using his tsuppari attack, but that lasted for a second or two before Kotoyuki monkeyed with a quick pull attempt, and that's all the momentum shift Mitakeumi needed to wrap up Kotoyuki's right arm and just force him back and across. Kotoyuki was quite mukiryoku here, but I'm not sure if it was intentionl or just another bad day of mistake-riddled sumo. Mitakeumi doesn't care as he limps to 2-7 while Kotoyuki is still winless. Didn't this guy post 12-3 record from these parts just two basho ago?

M3 Myogiryu threatened the left inside against M7 Daishomaru from the tachi-ai, but quickly changed gears going for a pull instead. The move was executed horribly, however, allowing Daishomaru to solidify his footing and catching Myogiryu with a left tsuki to the side that sent Myogiryu off balance and turned 90 degrees, and from there, Daishomaru went full throttle blasting Myogiryu out of the ring and off the dohyo altogether. Pretty good stuff from Daishomaru who picks up a win in his first ever bout in the second half of the division moving to 5-4 while Myogiryu is ailing at 2-7.

M4 Shohozan pressed the action early against M8 Takekaze shoving him back to the brink, but they don't get much slipperyer than Takekaze, and at the edge he pulled his way out of harm's way and turned the tables on Shohozan and reloading to score the ugly okuri-dashi win that isn't worth consuming anymore bandwidth. Takekaze moves to 4-5 while Shohozan falls to 2-7.

M6 Aoiyama came at M5 Shodai with tsuppari up high and no de-ashi, and so Shodai fired a left elbow into Aoiyama's body knocking him upright and off balance, and Shodai turned on the gas from there driving Aoiyama straight back and outta the dohyo in maybe two seconds. This was a horrible tachi-ai from Aoiyama, and whether it was intentional or not, credit Shodai for dismantling his foe in seconds. If that had been Kisenosato against Aoiyama, the bout would have lasted 12 more seconds as Shodai moves to 6-3 while Aoiyama falls to 5-4.

M12 Tamawashi struck M6 Endoh in the neck and face at the tachi-ai and used perfect de-ashi to slap Endoh silly, and there was nothing Elvis could do but take those face slaps and neck shoves as he was driven straight back and off the dohyo in linear fashion. Endoh's not gonna stand there toe to toe in a tsuppari fest and came away smelling like a rose against a tall guy like Tamawashi, who moves to 5-4 with the win. They can't pair Endoh up with Kotoyuki fast enough as both guys are still winless.

M8 Chiyootori and M11 Daieisho hooked up in hidari-yotsu after a brief melee at the tachi-ai, and Daieisho actually came away with the right outer grip, but Daieisho is not a belt guy, and it showed tody as Chiyootori dictated the pace by leading with that left inside knocking Daieisho completely off balance and then pulling him down from there. Sheesh, to have the solid inside position and outer grip only to get done like that? Stay away from the belt, bro. Chiyootori moves to 6-3 while Daieisho is the opposite 3-6.

It's been fun to see M9 Chiyonokuni get his bearings again in the division, and today against M15 Sadanofuji, the two bumped heads at the tachi-ai where Chiyonokuni came away with the right inside position, but he didn't stop there demanding the left inside as well against the lethargic Sadanofuji, and from there Kuni easily scored the force-out win moving to 6-3 himself while the Sadamight is the opposite 3-6.

M9 Sokokurai leaned right at the tachi-ai I presume to grab the cheap outer belt, but M13 Toyohibiki caught him with a left choke hold akin to Homer Simpson's choking Bart, and from there, Toyohibiki just drove him straight back and out with that neck push moving to 4-5. Sokokurai's been ghastly as 2-7...as opposed to my being gassy after eating a jalapeno bacon burger with all the toppings.

M16 Arawashi reached for the left belt grip at the tachi-ai only to be rebuffed by M10 Takanoiwa with a nice shove, and as Arawashi looked to regroup, Takanoiwa pulled him into the hidari-yotsu position. When Takanoiwa couldn't grab the right outer, he immediately went for a maki-kae and got it and immediately went for the force out kill from there. Arawashi attempted a maki-kae with his right arm and got it as well, but he was too far gone at that point getting thrown to the clay with what was a nice solid left outer grip from TakanoEwok who moves to 6-3 while Arawashi falls to 5-4.

M15 Kitaharima tried his best to burrow inside of M12 Tokushoryu looking for anything, but Tokushoryu wasn't knocked off balance, so even though he was technically driven back, he had more than enough room to scoot right, grab the back of the rookie's belt, and then send him packing with a nice uwate-nage. Shooting fish in a barrel here as Tokushoryu moves to 5-4 while Kitaharima falls to 4-5.

Last and probably least, M14 Kagayaki got the right arm deep to the inside of J3 Seiro at the tachi-ai, and even though Seiro blocked the left inside position, Kagayaki more than had enough going with that huge body and right arm, and so he drove Seiro back a complete step and lifted him upright breaking off Seiro's left outer grip rendering the force-out from there academic. Good stuff from Kagayaki who moves to 4-5.

Well, there's certainly going to be a lot of drama down the stretch. Unfortunately it's all going to evolve around the "will they or won't" they scenario instead of just letting the guys go fight and execute solid sumo. I may be back for day 9 if I haven't bled out by then because after watching the final three bouts of the day, I had no choice but to slit my wrists.

Good luck tomorrow, Harvye.

Day 8 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Today is Nakabi, the middle day. While that sounds cool, it often isn't the tensest part of the tournament. In the jobansen, or first five days, story lines set themselves up and you see where wrestlers are at--there is the excitement of the new. In the shubansen, or last five days, those story lines resolve themselves, and that of course is compelling. However, in these middle five days, the chubansen, there are still too many leaders (six tied with six wins coming into today, and another eight guys theoretically in the mix with five wins) to clearly focus on the yusho race, and the freshness of the early days has faded. Often, on Day 8 it's a bit of a slog.

Of course, that is where the serious begin to separate from the pretenders. If you can't get through the slog, you don't deserve the stretch. And for fans with a bit of deeper interest (and if you're reading this you've passed the casual stage), you're eager to parse the grain and the chaff. So, as a thumbnail sketch, we can see themes developing (but with lots of time for them to go away):

First tier: The true yusho race is between Hakuho, Kisenosato, and Harumafuji. As Mike said yesterday, it is Hakuho's to lose. The only way Kisenosato wins is with orchestrated assistance, but we saw that in January and so that flavor still feels current. Harumafuji would also need help, but from Hakuho, and Hakuho has won a lot lately and may want to distribute to a Yokozuna colleague who has gone four basho without snagging a championship.

The second tier narrative doesn't include all the six or five win guys (Sadanoumi, Arawashi, and Chiyootori are absolute non-factors, for example), but a handful of guys are building compelling tournaments. Takarafuji has for a long time felt like a competent rikishi being held back, but whose time may eventually come. Has it? Is this the tournament he advances to Sekiwake and begins to stick? Or does Takayasu, a less likely but also worthy candidate, do it instead? Ichinojo has had an uninspiring year or so, and has never won in double digits when ranked above M10: however, is the world finally ready for him, and him for it? Is there room at the top? Shodai has clearly been marked for hype and advancement; to what degree does it start now? Does he get a second week similar to his first, or is it time for "whoa Nelly!" a bit? Tochiohzan and Yoshikaze have both been buzzy at times in past years, but had seemed to come down off their highs. They have set themselves up a chance to say "I'm still here." Or, do they fade in week two?

Third tier: there are points of interest with guys with lesser records, too. Will Terunofuji lose eight and get demoted? At 4-3 and with the higher ranked wrestlers to go, his depressing saga remains very much up in the air. I'd actually like to see him lose and get a fresh start. 0-7 Endo is always a guy who gets attention: to what degree does he continue to get slaughtered in week two? Yesterday's bout with Chiyonokuni was exactly what we need to see from him--but it came against a Makuuchi/Juryo bubble guy, which is where Endo too belongs. I look forward to more horrifying Endo destruction. I'm also glad to see young gun Mitakeumi, at 1-6, getting creamed. I hope to see his senior colleagues round out his lesson with a second week of thrashing. On the positive side, at 4-3 Kaisei has a chance to stick at Sekiwake; however, two of those wins were forfeits by injured opponents. So, we shall see. Finally, perhaps nobody else cares, but I'm intrigued by the on-again, off-again efforts of youngish relegation candidates Nishikigi, Kitaharima, and Kagayaki: can any of these guys turn on their "konjo" motor, step it consistently up, and stick in this division? If so, they're very welcome to stay as long as they maintain it. If not, go away and don't come back.

Let's get to it.

J2 Chiyotairyu (3-4) vs. M14 Nishikigi (3-4)
If you want to be a Makuuchi guy, you have to beat the juryo guy. Nishikigi did well to stop Chiyotairyu's initial charge, and usually that is enough. However, he had a lot of trouble putting him away, and briefly gave up moro-zashi following a maki-kae from Chiyotairyu, but as he was being driven backwards Nishikigi did a maki-kae of his own to get the left inside back, and deftly twisted Chiyotairyu out at the end, yori-kiri. Good enough.

M12 Tamawashi (3-4) vs. M16 Arawashi (5-2)
Arawashi was more aggressive, staying in close and pushing to keep Tamawashi's hard slaps away, but he's not big enough, and Tamawashi is tough. Tamawashi put an end to Arawashi's momentum by sticking his right arm in low onto Arawashi's belt, and very easily wrenched him out by the body, yori-kiri. Mismatch.

M15 Kitaharima (4-3) vs. M11 Daieisho (2-5)
Another mismatch. Daieisho doesn't look like much, but he is tenacious. He was going to try to slap the undersized Kitaharima back and out, not a bad idea, but when it wasn't working--because Kitaharima had committed to reckless forward momentum in return--Daieisho easily slipped to his left and pulled Katharina down, hataki-komi.

M10 Takanoiwa (5-2) vs. M13 Toyohibiki (2-5)
My feeling was Takanoiwa absolutely could not give this one up, facing a faded guy who may be on his last Makuuchi tournament. But Takanoiwa went ahead and lost, pretty much proving he's ranked as high as he'll ever deserve. Yes, Toyohibiki's initial charge is fierce, but Takanoiwa resisted it and stopped it. From there, he should have been able to construct a victory. Instead, he let Toyohibiki square back up, charge again, and easily push him out, oshi-dashi. (As an aside, it is very hot in there, and maybe Takanoiwa isn't in the best condition; he was shining with sweat after this one like a guy in a greased pig catching contest.)

M14 Kagayaki (3-4) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (5-2)
Mismatch. Sadanoumi gave Fried Mosquito (Kagayaki) a chance by letting this be a tsuppari-fest: Kagayaki is a much bigger man, and this gave him an advantage. However, Sadanoumi just stepped out of the fray and let Kagayaki run past him, leaving him easy oshi-dashi fodder.

M15 Sadanofuji (2-5) vs. M9 Sokokurai (2-5)
I've been feeling impatient with Sadanofuji, who has looked like nothing but a slidable, clueless ball of fat this tourney, but he did well here to hold and push Sokokurai by the face and keep him off his belt. He also survived getting out of position, squaring back up and continuing the face-pushing. If the loss was eventually because Sokokurai's foot slipped in the middle of the dohyo, that was created by the pressure Sadanofuji put on him. Oshi-taoshi. Banner day for fatty.

M12 Tokushoryu (3-4) vs. M8 Takekaze (3-4)
Wow; Takekaze went for it, surging inside. However, he got covered with Special Sauce, literally: Tokushoryu was way too big for him. As Tokushoryu leaned on him, Takekaze was bent like a bow, and his arms were too short to get anything more than the shallowest pick of one fold of belt. The yori-kiri win for Tokushoryu came swiftly.

M7 Ichinojo (6-1) vs. M9 Chiyonokuni (4-3)
Guess what? I'm still not impressed by Ichinojo. 6-1, yeah, but he's at M7, and look who he's fighting. We're only ľ through the first hour, and here he is. Let's say he goes 14-1 this basho. We'd still be able to say, "Ichinojo has never won in double digits when ranked above M7." As for the match, great stuff by Chiyonokuni, who had a plan and stuck with it. The plan's elements were: part one, strike hard, fast, and furious. Part two, evade quickly when Ichinojo advances (he did this at least three times). Soon enough with this hyperactive workout he had Ichinojo thoroughly discombobulated, and there was fun stuff at the tawara where Chiyonokuni bashed away at the visibly rippling flesh of an off balance Ichinojo, trying to actually push this massive thing over the tawara. It worked, though just barely, oshi-dashi, as Ichinojo grabbed at Chiyonokuni and managed to also drag him to the ground in a last ditch effort to save himself. Fun stuff, and a demonstration of what fighting spirit will do for you.

M8 Chiyootori (5-2) vs. M5 Yoshikaze (5-2)
Nice match. Nice head butt resounding through the arena at the tachi-ai, then a bit of tsuppari. However, I thought Yoshikaze made a mistake when he bodied up and pulled Chiyootori in tight; Chiyootori is much the bigger man. Indeed, from there Chiyootori relentlessly drove Yoshikaze back, little by little. But Yoshikaze is the more experienced and better wrestler, and when Chiyootori got too high up on him at the edge and didn't maki-kae, Yoshikaze slipped out to the side, grabbed hold of Chiyootori from behind lightning quick, and dumped him face-first and bitter onto the tawara, shita-te-nage.

M7 Daishomaru (3-4) vs. M4 Ikioi (2-5)
Ikioi needs to do better than 2-5 at M4 if he wants to matter, and needs to beat guys like Daishomaru if he wants to be taken seriously. However, it was Daishomaru, though he is primarily a puller, who dictated the pace, staying inside and low and pushing with alternating hands. Then finally, a little pull that put Ikioi in position to be finished off, which Daishomaru did with a desperate effort, oshi-taoshi, that left him lurching out of the ring in a different direction; fortunately for him Ikioi stepped out first nearby.

M6 Endo (0-7) vs. M3 Myogiryu (1-6)
Poor, poor Endo. He had this one. He was doing neck shoves, got a little momentum, and even got in about three forearm strikes that looked Aoiyama-esque in their placement and power. However, as he drove Myogiryu to the edge off of this, Myogiryu was able to grab him, and it was curtains from there, as Myogiryu had his choice (pull? throw? right? left?) against this underpowered foe. He selected pulling Myogiryu through underneath him for an emphatic hataki-komi win. And when a hataki-komi looks emphatic, that's pretty bad.

M6 Aoiyama (4-3) vs. M2 Takarafuji (6-1)
Yay! For the first part we had the good Aoiyama, as he showed Endo how it is done with stiff, smacking full-arm-length shoves to Takarafuji's face and suffocating neck holds. Unfortunately, he followed that up with some pulls, and I thought he was going to lose. Nevertheless, he managed to keep Takarafuji at deadly arm's length during this phase too, and Takarafuji was sufficiently out of rhythm that when Aoiyama went back on offense Takarafuji essentially gave up and stepped out, with a little bit of a dame-oshi from Aoiyama earning Aoiyama the tsuki-dashi decision. When Aoiyama means business, don't go in his shop.

M1 Tochiohzan (5-2) vs. K Takayasu (6-1)
This was a key one for Takayasu to keep the momentum of his good first week going and show he's a guy to rise out of the second tier rather than Tochiohzan. He probably made the right choice in going for hard, fast slapping, as it kept Tochiohzan away from his favored moro-zashi, though I don't like the style. Also, he may have made the right choice to win backing up, as eventually it was a well-timed hataki-komi pull that finished this thing for him against Tochiohzan. But in that way, he didn't look like a first tier guy in winning, and made Tochiohzan look like the scarier wrestler. I'm sure he'll take it.

S Kaisei (4-3) vs. M1 Mitakeumi (1-6)
Rhythmic clapping and a fired up crowd for this one. Hmmm. This Mitakeumi/Shodai hype thing may be getting out of hand; the exciting wrestler at present in this one is Kaisei, not Mitakeumi. Guy came in 1-6, folks. Kaisei had a little trouble with him--maybe he was slippery with sweat, as Kaisei kept pawing at the belt but not getting it. But once those fingers stuck in the fabric, it was an easy, dominant yori-kiri win for Kaisei. Yep: Kaisei now at 5-3 as debut Sekiwake. Surprising, but gratifying and fun.

M2 Okinoumi (3-4) vs. S Tochinoshin (1-6)
A very uninspiring tournament from Tochinoshin thus far, and a dreary bout. Both guys evaded left on the tachi-ai, a sort of mild double-henka. It did become a belt battle, which I like. Okinoumi controlled it with an outer grip that led to a yori-kiri win. However, it seemed tepid, as either Tochinoshin is letting up or he's hurt, as he just isn't in these in the ferocious-roaring-bear way he usually is.

O Kisenosato (6-1) vs. K Kotoyuki (0-7)
Kisenosato was into it, slapping his hands together so hard in the prep phase it looked like he was trying to knock them off his wrists. He knows it is close now. The crowd oohed and aahed as the dozen kensho banners paraded by. This was a cheerful Sunday crowd: happy-go-lucky weekend day-trippers, out for some fun at the sumos. Interestingly, these two guys have nearly identical bodies (187cm/175kg for Kisenosato, a little shorter 176/172 for Kotoyuki), with stick-outy-shelf-guts, though very different styles. During the prep, I wanted to be intrigued, but with Kotoyuki already down the drain and Kisenosato on the verge of something very big, I was not particularly hopeful for wholesomeness. How wrong I was. Kotoyuki went berserker on Kisenosato, head butting him then staying low and mangling Kisenosato's face and neck with vengeful force. However, Kisenosato is no little boy, and with a combination of weighty resistance and mild evasion, was able to put himself in position to pull Kotoyuki down by the head, hataki-komi, while dancing on the tawara. No, this wasn't a good looking win for him, but it is indicative of why I take him more seriously than the other Japanese Ozeki: Kotoyuki has some pretty good chops, and clearly wanted this one, but Kisenosato had enough to beat him. Is he a Yokozuna? Absolutely not. Does he get freebie wins? Yes. But is he a real Ozeki? Yes. I'd love him to have to fend off stiff challenges like this more often. Now I hope he gets righteously destroyed three or four times down the stretch, because that's where I peg him.

O Goeido (5-2) vs. O Terunofuji (4-3)
We entered the danger zone here. Consider: we know guys let up to make sure Goeido and Kotoshogiku get their eight. And I think guys--primarily Mongolians--have let up to make sure Terunofuji gets his eight once or twice since he got hurt. Would these two wrestlers already be thinking about final records, and would we see the ugly spectacle of Goeido giving a win to Terunofuji? We did not; this was good stuff, and Goeido continues to fight meaner and better this tournament than I've seen him do in a long time. He worked hard on Terunofuji, grabbing his belt and spinning him around and around, keeping him off balance. Terunofuji had a lot of difficulty slowing things down, stopping the momentum, bringing the match back to pace more suitable to his style. However, the key for Terunofuji was keeping diagonal to Goeido, putting his shoulder against him while holding on for dear life with a long inside left, (which, however, was too shallow). Once he finally brought the merry-go-round to a stop, Terunofuji squared up, get a better grip, and took care of Goeido yori-kiri. But it took all he had. Terunofuji is one very shaky looking Ozeki right now.

M5 Shodai (5-2) vs. Y Harumafuji (6-1)
Man, is Harumafuji sloppy. He wanted to win this, and I think he wanted to destroy Shodai, but in his lust for a decisive throw or shove, was frequently out of control. He started with a vicious, very effective left throat choke, and followed that with a bash on the face by his right hand. However, when he charged to finish it off, Shodai evaded, and Harumafuji almost went out. Shodai charged in turn, and it was Harumafuji's turn to survive with desperation tawara-evasion. After that, Harumafuji surged in like a bull trying to upend the dining room table, horns down, grabbing Shodai around the belly and pushing him bodily out, yori-kiri, but even at this he stepped out forwards; luckily for him, Shodai had already gone over the edge. This guy is fun to watch with all this wild aggression, but I'd hate to be his big fan: reel it in, man! Fortunately, he doesn't seem to mind losing once in a while, so this style suits him fine. Another five or so of these wild but powerful wins and Hakuho says "good enough" and lets him take the whole thing.

Y Hakuho (6-1) vs. M4 Shohozan (2-5)
Hakuho toyed with Darth Hozan here, first bodying up to him but declining to grab the belt, then holding him by the neck at arm's length but declining to advance. Then, for the third straight day, he won moving backwards, letting t'Hoz advance and chase him, but ultimately stepping out of the path of the chase, letting Hozan get past him, and mildly pushing him out from behind, okuri-dashi. Are we back to "bored Hakuho sees how many odd ways he can win by?" Hope not. Here's hoping he cranks it back up and takes the yusho, but at the moment the boiling, resentful anger of the last two tournaments is absent and he doesn't look so into this one. We shall see.

Mike tags in tomorrow.

Day 7 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The biggest news of the day was of course Ozeki Kotoshogiku's withdrawal due to an apparent knee injury. I learned early on as I began watching sumo that Ozeki and Yokozuna are quick to withdraw in order to save face, so it's no surprise that Kotoshogiku is bowing out. The only suspense surrounding the Geeku on any given day is: will his opponent let up for him? Anyway, they quoted Kotoshogiku as saying, "The knee was bothering me prior to the basho, and so I withdrew to save my body from further beatings." My reaction to that is why didn't Terunofuji do the same thing last basho? I mean, if you're an Ozeki or a Yokozuna, you withdraw the instant you go make-koshi or at least when you know that it's inevitable as it was for the Geeku this basho, so why make Terunofuji go 2-13? My answer to that is because it makes him look more on par with the Japanese rikishi. Both Terunofuji and Ichinojo have had 2-13 records, which were completely bogus, but it's all in an effort to create that semblance of parity.

Kotoshogiku's only win of the tournament was against Mitakeumi, and Yoshida Announcer was in the booth for NHK, and after the win, he said, "Yappari, mada oi-chou ga nuenai rikishi ha Ozeki ni katte ha ikemasen," or you can't have a rikishi who doesn't even have his formal top know yet beat an Ozeki. I mean, why can't you have a rikishi young like that beat an Ozeki? What's the point of even saying that? The reason Yoshida Announcer said it is because he knows that politics exists in sumo just as it pervades all of Japanese society, and if politics exists in sumo, there is going to be yaocho. Simple as that. Unfortunately for Kotoshogiku, nobody gave him the wins this tournament save one, and so he had no choice but to withdraw. Can't wait for the Aki basho to see if he'll win his eight. The suspense is already killing me.

Speaking of killing, there was a certain reverence in the arena today because today was the day when Don Sato assumed the mukou-jomen chair. It's rare that a gangster of his caliber will show up in public like this, but sure enough, the current Nishiiwa-oyakata graced us with his presence, so you knew we had least had that going for us.

Due to the news in Turkey going on, I missed the first bout on the day where M15 Kitaharima (4-3) dumped M13 Toyohibiki (2-5) via tsuki-otoshi, so the NHK broadcast started with M14 Kagayaki greeting M11 Daieisho with a right paw to the neck and then shading left catching his foe with a left arm behind Daieisho's shoulder, and that set the pace right there as Kagayaki continued to focus shoves to Daieisho's face. As Daieisho looked to square back up, Kagayaki pivoted again and this time scored the win with a nice kote-nage with the left that set up the ultimate push out from behind. Kagayaki breathes a bit easier at 3-4 while Daieisho falls to 2-5.

M10 Sadanoumi kept his arms in tight against M16 Arawashi looking for moro-zashi, but the Mongolian was too quickly getting his right arm to the inside forcing the bout to migi-yotsu. Sadanoumi actually had the left outer grip, but Arawashi is a bitch with the inside belt grip, and he showed why squaring Sadanoumi up and then dumping him off the dohyo with some oomph. Both rikishi end the day at a positive 5-2.

M15 Sadanofuji shaded to his left at the tachi-ai against M10 Takanoiwa, but that was a dumb move because Sadanofuji took away his own momentum. After separation was created, Takanoiwa dove in tight looking for a frontal belt grip, and he came away with the right frontal. That grip eventually became an outer, but it was still in tight, so Takanoiwa used it to dashi-nage Sadanofuji around and out. The real key here was tht dumb tachi-ai from Sadanofuji who falls to 2-5. The Mongolians are just too quick, so you need to knock them off their game from the start. Takanoiwa moves to 5-2 with the nice win.

M14 Nishikigi was passive at the tachi-ai just plodding forward right into an M8
Takekaze double-handed pull from the back of the neck that sent Nishikigi sprawling forward and down in a second and a half. Both rikishi end the day at 3-4.

M12 Tokushoryu's hands were way to high at the tachi-ai against M7 Daishomaru allowing the latter to completely dictate the pace with his oshi attack. With Daishomaru on the charge, Tokushoryu retreated going for a series of pulls, but Daishomaru was able to keep his balance and this time go for a pull of his own that sent Tokushoryu packing as both rikishi end the day at 3-4.

The lowlight of day 5 was of course Kisenosato's losing in that fashion to Tochiohzan and then Hakuho taking an obvious dive right after that so as to not pull ahead. Well, it's worth noting that M7 Ichinojo promptly gave up his bout as well. That it came on day 6 was simply a result Ichinojo's having already fought on day 5. The Mongolith came into day 6 in the lead with little chance of facing any elite rikishi until maybe late in week two, so he was a legitimate yusho threat at that point. As a result, he threw that bout against Sadanoumi yesterday to allow Kisenosato to keep pace. Just because his bout came on day 6, he still reacted to the Kisenosato loss just as Hakuho did on day 5.

Today against M 12 Tamawashi, he absorbed The Mawashi's tsuppari attack well and didn't panic as he was driven back a step or two, and in the vicinity of the edge, he got the right arm to the inside and left outer grip, and it was curtains at that point as Ichinojo forced Tamawashi back across the ring and out soaring to 6-1 in the process. As for Tamawashi, he falls to 3-4.

M9 Chiyonokuni looked to take advantage against M6 Endoh firing a few slaps into his face, but Endoh survived well and forced the bout to yotsu-zumo getting the left arm to the inside coupled with the right outer grip. Chiyonokuni complied grapping his own right outer grip sending the bout to gappuri-yotsu, but Endoh had the advantage and pressed Chiyonokuni to the edge. The mistake, however, was that he let Chiyonokuni escape to Endoh's shitate-side, and so Kuni was able to counter with a right kote-nage that broke of Endoh's outer grip, and the beautiful nage-no-uchi-ai was on as Chiyonokuni fired with the right outer while Endoh countered with the left inside. This one was close, and both rikishi showed their toughness by refusing to touch down with nothing but their heads, but unfortunately it was Endoh's face that barely touched down first giving Chiyonokuni the hard-fought win.

I loved this bout of sumo, and you have to give Endoh props for absorbing his fall with his face, but he suffered a tough luck loss falling to 0-7. I actually wanted him to win this one as Chiyonokuni moves to 4-3. Before we move on, you could see the sumo on display here, and when both rikishi are going all out, the bout usually ends at the edge in this fashion. Okay, maybe both guys don't fall on their faces, but you can see the determination from both parties. Loved it.

M8 Chiyootori was late in putting his right hand down, but M6 Aoiyama went at that instant, and I think Chiyootori's subconscious reacted by causing his right hand to flinch and touch down, so the bout was on. Consciously, he thought it was a matta (false start), and he said as much afterwards in the hana-mich, and he was apparently saying it as well during the bout! But the tachi-ai was clean and so Aoiyama just plowed through Chiyootori as the latter stared at the ref as if to say, "No false start?". Nope as Aoiyama moves to 4-3 while Chiyootori falls to 5-2. Someone in the Chiyootori camp needs to the let the dude know that he's not the one that calls false starts.

M5 Shodai and M9 Sokokurai hooked up immediately in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where both combatants grabbed right outer grips, but neither dude looked to really take charge. After a few seconds, Sokokurai mounted a force-out attempt, but he struggled budging the larger Shodai, and just when you thought Sokokurai would figure something out at the edge, Shodai unleashed a beautiful utchari move leading with the left inside and just slinging Sokokurai over and out. Pretty nifty move from Shodai who moves to 5-2 while Sokokurai falls to 2-5.

It's hard to describe the M5 Yoshikaze - M2 Takarafuji bout other than to say Takarafuji wanted to get to the belt while Yoshikaze wanted to employ finesse sumo. Every time the bout looked to hook up in hidari-yotsu, Yoshikaze would pull out (he-heh-hun), but there was never enough room to really execute a counter move or pull, so Takarafuji persisted and ultimately latched onto the left inside position and right outer grip scoring the yori-kiri win from there. Takarafuji is 6-1 if you need him while Yoshikaze falls to 5-2.

M2 Okinoumi led with his left shoulder against M4 Shohozan who completely whiffed on his initial right tsuki attempt, so with Shohozan having already lost his balance at the starting lines, Okinoumi just pushed him over and down in about two seconds moving to 3-4 in the process. Darth Hozan succumbs to the force here falling to 2-5.

Our two Komusubi hooked up today in Kotoyuki and Takayasu, and Kotoyuki blasted out of his stance catching Takayasu with some effective tsuppari to the neck and face, but Kotoyuki has the stamina of a dude without his Viagra, and so Takayasu only had to withstand the blows for about four seconds, and sure enough, he timed a slight pull that threw Kotoyuki off balance enough, and when he reloaded and came at Takayasu again, this time Takayasu had the room to zip to to his left and slap Kotoyuki down by the shoulder using two hands. These two are heading in two totally different directions as Takayasu improves to 6-1 while Kotoyuki is 0-7.

Sekiwake Kaisei was supposed to fight Kotoshogiku today, so he picks up the freebie due to the Ozeki's kyujo moving to 4-3.

Sekiwake Tochinoshin gave Ozeki Kisenosato a light tachi-ai keeping his arms high and wide allowing the Ozeki to ottsuke the Sekiwake with both hands, and that's when Tochinoshin executed that super effective move where you go for a pull standing straight up directly in front of your opponent, so of course Kisenosato was able to drive the Private back and across in mere seconds. Obvious yaocho here as Kisenosato moves to 6-1 while Tochinoshin does his job falling to 1-6.  Why is it that pictures of Kisenosato's wins always shows his opponent completely upright, walking bckwards, and looking down to check for his footing beyond the straw?

Ozeki Terunofuji had the front of M2 Tochiohzan's belt with the left hand, but he let it go for whatever reason giving Tochiohzan moro-zashi. Still, Tochiohzan wasn't driving forward, and so the two jockeyed around and around in the middle of the ring, and I counted seven separate times where Terunofuji had his hands on Tochiohzan's belt, but he failed to grab them each time. Ultimately, Tochiohzan was able to keep the Ozeki up high, and then when Terunofuji was close to the edge, he went for that effective counter move where you wrap your arm around your opponent's neck and just stand in front of him. At that point, Tochiohzan made it official. You'll have to trust me on this one. Terunofuji was totally mukiryoku in this bout as he falls to 4-3. Tochiohzan one-ups him at 5-2, and the media can't stop hyping Tochiohzan and his wins now over 1 Yokozuna and 3 Ozeki. You knew that they were gonna let at least one guy have a great basho, and it looks as if it's gonna be Oh. My guess pre-basho (Kotoyuki) is sure to come in a close second. Or not.

M1 Mitakeumi stood straight up at the tachi-ai just gifting Ozeki Goeido the clear path to the right inside and left outer grip, and with Mitakeumi just standing there firm as a wet rag, Goeido moved out left and dashi-nage'd Mitakeumi down with zero resistance. Mitakeumi was obviously in pain as he lay there on the dohyo, but that's why they say, "If you let up in sumo, someone's gonna get hurt," and that was the case here. Prior to the basho, Mitakeumi injured his left knee during keiko with Hakuho, and today he said that it was his right leg that buckled on him. We'll see if Mitakeumi decides to withdraw at 1-6 while Goeido moves to 5-2. Before we move on, after the bout, Goeido stood in the ring with arms down to his sides and fists clenched looking out to the crowd as if to say, "Anyone else want a piece of me?" Dumbass.

Yokozuna Hakuho delivered a right kachi-age into M3 Myogiryu's jaw at the tachi-ai, but he wasn't able to demand the inside position against his feisty foe, and so the Yokozuna back pedaled quickly moving to his left where he grabbed Myogiryu's inside belt with the left hand and just threw him out of the dohyo from there. Hakuho keeps pace with Kisenosato at 6-1 while Myogiryu falls to a tough-luck 1-6.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Harumafuji welcomed M4 Ikioi by moving left at the tachi-ai, grabbing the cheap outer grip, and then just swinging Ikioi over and out in about a second and a half. The move is called "uwate wo tori ni iku," and I'm not a big fan of it, but we see it once or twice from Harumafuji each basho. The Yokozuna moves to 6-1 with the win while Ikioi falls to 2-5.

There is a huge logjam at the top, which should give NHK plenty of leader board fodder in week 2, but all you really need to remember is that Hakuho is the true Story Teller.  That's the only suspense this basho and every basho.

Right back to Harvye tomorrow.

Day 6 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Heh. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. I got day four, when it turned out Hakuho was putting the shimmering final day touches on a 30+ match winning streak, and got a chance to celebrate him a bit. Whereas Day 5 was a demoralizing bunch of nonsense. That's how the cheesecake is smashed. Let's smash today's cheesecake.

M15 Kitaharima (2-3) vs. M16 Arawashi (4-1)
Kathrina is a weensy little oofty with a pouty lip that says "duh." It's okay, because Arawashi is a wicked little leprechaun leaping about. Lots of jigging and zagging in this one, mayflies mating. Arawashi got a good arm pull in there, but neither man had the oomph to put his opponent across the terwaddle, and so it was left for Arawashi to dance too hard and fall down, hiki-otoshi.

M15 Sadanofuji (2-3) vs. M14 Nishikigi (2-3)
The announcers said Sadanofuji lost 20 kilos for this tournament and feels better. He oughta either retire and enjoy it or put ‘em back on, ‘cause Nishikigi planted his pumpkin on Sadanofuji's chest and ripped him straight back ‘n' out, oshi-dashi.

M13 Toyohibiki (1-4) vs. M11 Daieisho (2-3)
Kerosene Burp (Toyohibiki) had an ultra-quick tachi-ai that helped him push hard and fast, and Daieisho had no answer. Daieisho was driven out oshi-dashi so easily Toyohibiki was able to release him at the end and, in shoving him out, assume a jugendstil turn-of-the-century elegant pose, both arms in the air, one foot daintily raised behind, "La!"

M10 Takanoiwa (3-2) vs. M14 Kagayaki (2-3)
This one was all Takanoiwa, who grabbed Kagayaki, looking like a golden loaf of lightly baked bread in his dun-yellow belt, and steered him over to the tawara. There, Kagayaki woke to the glory of the light and tried to save himself, resisting so fiercely Takanoiwa had to grab him by the butt-button and belly-buckler and barrel-lift him out beerhall-style, yori-kiri.

M9 Chiyonokuni (2-3) vs. M12 Tokushoryu (3-2)
Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) is a useless clot of ambergris, and slipped on the tachi-ai, where Tiny Black Speck (Chiyonokuni) faked him out a bit by pumping his arms, so Little Speck was easily able to nail Saucy's wattles to the butcher board, oshi-dashi.

M8 Chiyootori (4-1) vs. M12 Tamawashi (3-2)
Slow motion tachi-ai for Chiyootori, but it didn't matter as they then engaged in a slow-motion battle of head-down arms-grappling, slapping and whapping at each other, trying head pulls, seeing if there was a watermelon the water barrel. This was interesting but not impressive, and was fittingly won not by some of this grapple-pap finally working, but by Chiyootori saying "screw this," backing up and to his left, and pulling Tamawashi down, tsuki-otoshi.

M9 Sokokurai (2-3) vs. M8 Takekaze (1-4)
Takekaze should be so easy to hate, with the pulls and henkas, but the honest truth is I like him, and perk up for his bouts: "what will he do today?" And more often then we give him credit for, he goes straight up. Here he went for the oshi-dashi try, and our determined little man had his wily opponent going backwards. But lo! Sokokurai is not deemed wily for nothing, and he just evaded and turned the whole table around, putting himself in the center of the ring and poor Takekaze, who'd worked so hard, at the tawara. No matter. In a game of one-upmanship, Takekaze reasoned, "well, I guess I'll have to pull after all." What he did masterfully of course, after which he grabbed Dark Warehouse (Sokokurai) by the head and the side of the belt and sent him home without any ice cream, uwate-nage.

M7 Ichinojo (5-0) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (4-1)
Shlllllorp! That is the sound of Sadanoumi being absorbed into Ichinojo's fleshy frontal parts, which is how this one started. However, when Ichinojo discovered an arm stuck in the blubber-gap between his arm and mammary, he chose to wrench on that rather than moving forward. That pulled Sadanoumi more firmly into the fleshy nest, but also gave him a path to easily grab Ichinojo's exposed belt. Sadanoumi rode forth on his horse, shot six buffalo on the prairie, and left their flesh to rot, yori-kiri.

M6 Aoiyama (2-3) vs. M6 Endo (0-5)
Oh ho! Ahoy! Avast, ye lubbers! Aoiyama pulled two blunderbusses out of his holsters and smashed their muzzles repeatedly into Endo's face. Endo was blown through the rigging and fell into the ocean, Splash! Tsuki-dashi. Ten thousand blistering barnacles in a thundering typhoons!

M7 Daishomaru (2-3) vs. M5 Yoshikaze (4-1)
Everyday there's a match or two where you're like "huh? What is this guy doing up here fighting that guy??" Yeah, I know they're only two ranks apart, but Daishomaru is probably ranked too high and Yoshikaze right now thinks he's been anointed by the holy lightning. So, mismatch. Daishomaru worked gamely on a low, driving position, but Yoshikaze just beat him up and literally knocked him down, oshi-taoshi. Don't jump into the blender when it's plugged in.

M5 Shodai (4-1) vs. M2 Takarafuji (4-1)
Although Takarafuji's win yesterday was shullbit, and Shodai has been babied a bit, Shodai is not bad, folks. Takarafuji is no easy mark, and Shodai had him legitimately on the run here. However, Takarafuji showed veteran poise, grabbing Shodai's arm and pulling him out of the rhythm of the chase, then getting around behind to grab the belt and okuri-dashi him out. Takarafuji wanted to win this, and almost couldn't. Shodai ain't "all that" yet, people, but he's no joke, either.

M4 Ikioi (2-3) vs. M1 Tochiohzan (3-2)
Engage, slappity, re-engage. That's your set-up, with Tochiohzan going backwards, digging frantically away for moro-zashi. However, when that wasn't working, he took advantage of the overzealous Ikioi charge and evaded to the side. Whoops! That's your belt in Tochiozan's hand, and there's your Tochiohzan uwate-dashi-nage win.

K Takayasu (4-1) vs. S Tochinoshin (1-4)
Remember that book, Flowers for Algernon, where the guy's mind is ill and dopey and gone, and they give him some drugs and he surges into a few brief weeks of brilliant lucidity, but then it slowly fades away, and he goes all dopey again and it's real sad? I wonder if Tochinoshin's knee is like that. He's a beasty bear, and grappled hard in this one, and you would think he had more power than Takayasu, who is good but whose belt grips aren't exactly Scylla and Charybdis, but nevertheless it was Takayasu throwing Tochinoshin out yori-kiri at the end of this one. Sigh. My knee hurts.

O Kisenosato (4-1) vs. M3 Myogiryu (1-4)
Kisenosato is a belt guy, with just over half of his wins coming yori-kiri, and another 20% by oshi-dashi, when he has to let go or work up high. He is very heavy at 175 kilograms, and at 187 centimeters is not particularly tall but not short. He uses his size to pressure guys, working with a simple attack of grabbing the belt, getting in tight, and moving forward. This is boring, partly because he is skilled and methodical at it. His weaknesses include leaving himself wide open at the tachi-ai, some of the worst in-bout strategizing you'll see at this level of the banzuke, and a tragic dearth of… of… of "it." But let him once get a tight hold on you, and you're in trouble. Here, he failed to get to the belt against an aggressive Myogiryu, and Myogiryu employed stiff neck-holds and drove him steadily backwards. However. Kisenosato did a great job in this one, at the tawara, of evading just along the straw while pushing down on the body of the driving, now spinning Myogiryu, piling him headfirst into the clay, tsuki-otoshi, just before Kisenosato stepped all the way down off the dohyo to the floor (though it took a mono-ii to reverse an original decision in Myogiryu's favor and give it to Kisenosato). Both men tried to win this, and both almost did, but give Kisenosato the slight edge over Myogiryu on any given day, including this one. Yes, that's about right.

M1 Mitakeumi (0-5) vs. O Terunofuji (4-1)
Ech. Silly. The Bully (Mitakeumi) was driving Terunofuji back, inside and under, with Terunofuji draped on him like a thawed steak tossed wetly onto the discarded vegetable cores in the sink. Terunofuji badly needed a maki-kae, but instead he let go and kind of turned his back to Mitakeumi, a pantomime of "escape." Mitakeumi knew what to do when he saw the wide expanse of defenseless flesh staring at him, and grabbed Terunofuji and removed him from the dohyo, yori-kiri. Mitakeumi then wandered about giving us silly tough-guy looks.

O Goeido (3-2) vs. S Kaisei (3-2)
Should I refuse to comment on this one? The spirit rebels. Oh, okay. Give Goeido credit for a solid tachi-ai that didn't really give Kaisei any chance for forward movement. However, when moving backwards, and holding Goeido with his right arm, Kaisei reached out with his left and put his palm on the dirt. Um, okay. They called it shitate-nage, but they should have just gone with the first four letters of that.

M2 Okinoumi (1-4) vs. O Kotoshogiku (1-4)
So, to be fair, sumo is hard to figure. Lake Placid (Okinoumi) got blown backwards by Kotoshogiku, then let Kotoshogiku gaburi him around about 270 degrees of the dohyo, evading but essentially dead to rights. So I was thinking "this is ridiculous," and waiting for the coup de grace, when it was Okinoumi who won, suddenly applying pressure with his right arm and forcing Kotoshogiku to the dirt with embarrassing ease, tsuki-otoshi, like the whole thing had been a joke, a bit of humoring of Kotoshogiku, or a set up for humiliation, the defeat looked so effortless. Quien sabe.

M4 Shohozan (2-3) vs. Y Harumafuji (4-1)
Harumafuji had no mojo in this one, getting driven back by Shohozan, then opting to hit him repeatedly in the face, probably thinking one of these blows would knock the smaller man down, but Darth Hozan is famously gritty and stuck with the pounding easily. So, Harumafuji opted to move back and swipe Shohozan down, uwate-dashi-nage. His foot swept the dirt outside the straw as he did this, and I thought he'd frittered himself into another sloppy loss, but I was wrong, as the first dirt that was kicked up was by one of Shohozan's feet shooting out between Harumafuji's legs as he lost his balance.

Y Hakuho (4-1) vs. K Kotoyuki (0-5)
Hakuho wants to destroy this prima donna, and was giving it to him in the face, whappity slap. However, to Kotoyuki's credit, this had no effect. So, Hakuho opted for a very risky Plan B: a hard pull, assisted by an armpit throw on the back-end. As Hakuho has masterful body control and ring sense, it worked, tsuki-otoshi, and even looked impressive, with Kotoyuki spinning like a goat carcass on a hand-hewn spit, but Hakuho won't start a new 30+ win streak this way. Kotoyuki rolled all the way to the bottom of the pyramid anyway.

Mike tapes the words "lucky seven" to the top of his screen tomorrow.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The important analysis will come at the end of this report, and with no new takes to give prior to the bouts, let's dive..er..uh..get right to the action! M16 Arawashi reached for the left outer at the tachi-ai, but M14 Kagayaki rebuffed him beautifully with a nice tsuppari attack, and as Arawashi tried to escape around the perimeter of the ring, Kagayaki was onto his every move shoving him out in less than three seconds. I wonder who was fighting today wearing the Kagayaki mask as he moves to 2-3 while Arawashi suffers his first loss at 4-1.

M13 Toyohibiki attempted to tsuppari M14 Nishikigi back from the tachi-ai, but the youngster wouldn't move and just bodied his way forward forcing Toyohibiki to retreat with a nice left paw to Toyohibiki's outer right boob. With Nishikigi pressing hard, the bout turned to hidari-yotsu, but Nishikigi had all the momentum, so even though Toyohibiki executed a maki-kae near the edge, he was too far gone. Great stuff today from Nishikigi who improves to 2-3 while Toyohibiki falls to 1-4. Who laced the chanko-nabe of Kagayaki and Nishikigi this morning with fighting spirit?

M12 Tamawashi looked for his usual tsuppari from the tachi-ai while M15 Sadanofuji drifted left hoping to do who knows what? With Sadanofuji not threatening anything to the inside, Tamawashi just lowered his head and shoved Sadanofuji back and across with little argument moving to 3-2 while the Sadamight falls to 2-3.

M10 Sadanoumi got the right inside early against M15 Katharina who tried to kote-nage that right arm only to whiff causing him to be turned to the side just about. Sadanoumi was still driving forward hard, and so with Kitaharima completely out of position, Sadanoumi didn't even need the belt as he rushed forward and knocked Kitaharima back and out before he could really even attempt to pull. Kitaharima had nothing working today as he falls to 1-4 while Sadanoumi breathtes a bit easier at 2-3.

M9 Sokokurai henka'd to his right against M12 Tokushoryu, but the ref immediately called it back. As the two reloaded, this time Sokokurai jumped to his left in another henka, but the ref called it back again. I don't care if Sokokurai's hands were touched down or not; this is exactly what I proposed long ago to remedy the sport from the tachi-ai henka. Just call it back as a false start and make them go again. When the two went for reals, Sokokurai next came with a weak right hari-te, but Tokushoryu answered that with the left inside and plenty of de-ashi disallowing Sokokurai any room to escape. He tried to run around the perimeter of the ring, but Tokushoryu had his gal and knew it forcing Sokokurai back and across in a few seconds moving to 3-2 in the process. Sokokurai falls back under .500 at 2-3.

M8 Takekaze put his hands at the back of M11 Daieisho's head immediately going for the pull. Thing was, Takekaze didn't move to either side, and so Daieisho just charged forward going for the do or die shove-out while Takekaze tried to keep his left foot in the ring. As Daieisho crashed down to the dirt, Takekaze's left heel barely hopped across the tawara touching out first giving Daieisho the win as he moves to 2-3. I never like to see a guy who does poor sumo rewarded, so I was glad to see Takekaze lose this one as he falls to 1-4. Daieisho limps ahead to 2-3 with the win.

M7 Daishomaru may have thought that his tachi-ai against M10 Takanoiwa was a false start because he stood straight up at the tachi-ai not really doing anything, but I didn't see anything funny as Takanoiwa charged forward and took advantage bulldozing Daishomaru back and across. Daishomaru offered a weak pull in the process, but this one was over in less than two seconds. As Daishomaru walked back to the dressing room, the man on the hana-michi caught up with him and reported that, "Daishomaru said that he knew he lost the tachi-ai, and so he just went for a pull." What? Dude, you can't give up just because of a bad tachi-ai. Takanoiwa improves to 3-2 while Daishomaru falls to 2-3.

M9 Chiyonokuni looked intimidated at the tachi-ai against M6 Aoiyama because the only thing he offered was a weak kote-nage attempt against Aoiyama's extended right arm that didn't even come to fruition. With Chiyonokuni basically just standing there, Aoiyama blew him back and across once, twice, three times a lady with beautiful tsuppari and de-ashi. You can just see that Chiyonokuni has lost his confidence in this division. He came into the day leading 3-0 head to head against Aoiyama, but he looked awful here falling to 2-3, the same mark held by Aoiyama.

M7 Ichinojo fished for the inside right grip as M5 Yoshikaze just bounced off of him at the tachi-ai, and with Yoshikaze shading to his left, Ichinojo caught him in the face with a right forearm chivvy drawing blood and clearly throwing Yoshikaze off of his game. After that blow, Ichinojo charged forward hard firing two tsuppari into Yoshikaze's chest that easily polished Cafe off. Ichinojo is undefeated at 5-0 while Yoshikaze falls to his first loss at 4-1.

At this point in the broadcast, they showed the results of the Makushita jo'i, and the most anticipated bout of the day featured Sakamoto vs. Oyanagi (I incorrectly called him Koyanagi on day 1) who both were decorated college dudes and came into the day undefeated. While they didn't show the bout, Oyanagi won pushing his career record so far to 17-0. Other rikishi have of course had hot starts as they've risen up the banzuke, but let's keep careful tabs on this Oyanagi.

M9 Chiyootori kept his arms wide open and armpits exposed at the tachi-ai against M5 Shodai, and Shodai wasted no time getting the left arm inside, raising Chiyootori upright, and then following up with the right inside giving him moro-zashi. From there Chiyootori just accepted his fate wrapping his left arm around Shodai's neck but not doing anything. My opinion here is that Chiyootori was mukiryoku, but I could be wrong. Dude came into the day undefeated but showed no effort here starting from the tachi-ai. Credit Shodai for taking what was given as he moves to 4-1 as well.

M4 Ikioi and M6 Endoh looked to hook up in hidari-yotsu from the start, but neither dude was going forward hard, and so the bout turned into a tsuppari-ai where Endoh never looked comfortable moving left and right trying to find anything, but all he found was Ikioi staying patient and using his size advantage to take advantage of an opening and tsuppari Endoh back and across without argument. Endoh falls to 0-5 while Ikioi moves to 2-3.

Komusubi Kotoyuki put both hands against Sekiwake Tochinoshin at the tachi-ai, but was looking to shade left more than he was to push forward, but Tochinoshin's just too good for that nonsense easily pushing Kotoyuki back to the brink. It was at this point that Kotoyuki woke up and tried to barrel his way back into the bout, but Tochinoshin using Kotoyuki's forward momentum against him going for a dangerous pull down that worked in the end. I really would have liked to have seen Tochinoshin win here moving forward, but he was never in trouble as he picks up his first win at 1-4 while Kotoyuki has yet to score at 0-5.

Sekiwake Kaisei and Komusubi Takayasu hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai with each guy looking for the right outer grip. Takayasu was more proactive wrenching at his opponent and threatening a maki-kae, and after about 10 seconds, he went for the outer grip and got it. As he forced Kaisei back, the Sekiwake went for a maki-kae and had moro-zashi, but it was too shallow allowing Takayasu to pivot to the side and dashi-nage Kaisei down with that right outer grip. Both of these rikishi are still fighting well with Takayasu at 4-1 and Kaisei 3-2.

Ozeki Terunofuji was lazy at the tachi-ai leaving himself wide open for moro-zashi, which M4 Shohozan assumed. From here, Terunofuji didn't really look to mount a counter attack as Shohozan tested the yori waters threatening leg trips and then finally using a big belly shove to gaburi Terunofuji back to the edge. With Terunofuji content to stay put instead of moving laterally, Shohozan did the same move again this time pushing Terunofuji back across. As Terunofuji went back and out, he attempted a half-assed right tsuki-otoshi, but it was too little too late. That tsuki-otoshi or any other kind of counter move needed to come much earlier in the bout, so it causes me to believe that Terunofuji was mukiryoku here. He's been in much larger pickles than this and still won, and I don't think Shohozan has the ability to gaburi-yoru the Ozeki like that. Just my opinion, but who knows? Terunofuji suffers his first loss at 4-1 while Shohozan improves to 2-3.

Ozeki Goeido and M2 Okinoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Okinoumi just plodded forward as Goeido stepped out right and executed a kote-nage on Okinoumi's left arm. Okinoumi just complied spinning his wheels and diving to the dohyo of his own accord. Going back to the theme from day 3, I didn't see anything from Goeido that would have caused Okinoumi to fall like that without even attempting to counter. Gift here as Goeido moves to 3-2 while Okinoumi is 1-4.

M1 Mitakeumi kept both arms in tight against Ozeki Kotoshogiku threatening moro-zashi, but he never assumed the position. It wasn't as if Kotoshogiku was threatening himself, but Mitakeumi went for a stupid pull and furthermore didn't even bother evading to either side, and so Kotoshogiku just went with the pull and pushed Mitakeumi back and across with ease. When they showed the reverse angle replay, Mitakeumi had the clear path to the left inside and right outer grip, but he just kept his left hand up in the Ozeki's pit not even applying pressure and his right hand in a useless ball when the path to the belt was there. What it really comes down to is this: a rikishi who can't even tie his hair in the proper oi-cho yet cannot be allowed to beat an Ozeki. Simple as that as Kotoshogiku is gifted his first win at 1-4 while Mitakeumi clearly takes one for team Japan falling to 0-5.

In the final Ozeki bout of the day, Kisenosato drew Tochiohzan, a helluva opponent for him if Oh was out to win. And the funny thing is, I don't think he was. Tochiohzan had the clear path to moro-zashi from the tachi-ai with Kisenosato's hands up high around Oh's shoulders, but he refrained from taking the position instead opting to stand upright completely at Kisenosato's bidding. If the Ozeki really had IT, he would have driven Tochiohzan out in two seconds with his standing there, but he couldn't do it. Oh never really put up a fight with chance after chance to get moro-zashi, and so Tochiohzan finally moved to his right when Kisenosato delivered a pretty stiff hari-te with the right hand into Tochiohzan's jaw. That seemed to change things and watching live, my first impression was that Tochiohzan felt the hari-te was uncalled for and retaliated stepping left and shoving Kisenosato down and off the dohyo into the fetal position, but when I watched the slow motion replays from various angles, Tochiohzan didn't make the type of contact that would send a dude clear down to the arena floor, especially a candidate for Yokozuna!!  I mean, look at Tochiohzan just standing there facing the center of the ring while Turtle-no-Sato finds himself on his back yet again.  What a strange bout this was, but the main point is that Kisenosato was entirely hapless today. I just don't see anything in his sumo. Nothing. His only move that can be effective is a counter tsuki with the left hand, but that's it. There is no substance to this guy whatsoever. It doesn't mean that there didn't used to be, but there's clearly nothing there now. Wow, what a telling bout this was if you know what to look for. Tochiohzan improves to 3-2 with the win while Kisenosato's tsuna hopes are crushed at 4-1. Are the remaining three Mongolians really going to all step aside for this Ozeki? I thought not at first.

With Yokozuna Hakuho stepping into the ring after that Kisenosato debacle, I really began to feel uneasy, and as soon as I saw Hakuho stand straight up at the tachi-ai against M2 Takarafuji, I was like "uh-oh." After delivering a hari-te that was more like a coochy coochy coo tickle of a baby, Hakuho stood straight up waiting for Takarafuji to move forward, but he never did, and so Hakuho instinctively got both arms to the inside giving him moro-zashi. If you didn't have the reverse angle, you couldn't see it, but Hakuho had his left arm to the inside of his opponent. We know he had his right arm to the inside as well because that's the arm that Takarafuji kote-nage'd him with, but the Yokozuna just stood there with both feet aligned (use the shikirisen to see that his feet are aligned), so when the light-weight kote-nage came, the Yokozuna just crashed to the dirt. This is so ridiculous it drives me crazy. What's worse is that there are people who actually believe that this nonsense is all real...and their vote counts as much as mine. That fact is going to haunt me to the grave as Hakuho "falls" (intentional double entendre) to 4-1 while Takarafuji improves to 4-1 and is on a clear path to the Shukunsho.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Harumafuji led with a right paw to M3 Myogiryu's throat driving his foe back a step or two, but he then changed gears going for a dumb pull. Still, Harumafuji dominated the tachi-ai to the extent that Myogiryu couldn't take advantage of the pull, so when he charged back forward, Harumafuji moved to his left hooking that left arm deep to the back of Myogiryu's belt easily dispatching him from there.

Hakuho had a 33 bout winning streak going only to be wasted today against Takarafuji. When they finally caught up to Takarafuji after the day's last bout, he kept saying, "I really don't remember what happened. I need to go back and watch it." That's usually the line when a rikishi knows he didn't deserve the win: "Amari oboete nai desu. Hai."

Whatever.

Day 4 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
Hakuho, The Storyteller, stood on the top of his golden pyramid and looked out at the dusky land of the decayed city of the future, laid out for miles around. This grinding city: where they all came from: climbing his pyramid. HIS pyramid. Oh, someone else owned the great city that stretched around him in aluminum and glass, and those dirty great vultures in black were fond of pointing out to him that it was their land they'd let him build the shining pyramid on, their loans he'd used to lay the first lustrous golden bricks, carried from the far-off mines on his own, when he was still poor, while they hardly paid attention. But it was his pyramid now. His city, really. Yes, sometimes he let the others climb the pyramid. Sometimes he let them stand on top of it, and bowed his own forehead to the cool golden floor of the lopped-top where he reigned. Smiling to himself, into the gold. Or grinding his teeth--and waiting for the morrow, like with that padded clown Kotoshogiku in January. But most he slung down the sides of the great pyramid at once, or toyed with for a few moments--offered them a drink in his crystal goblets, laughed with them at his mahogany tables--then grabbed them by their lives and tipped them sloppily over the edge. Struggle as they might. Watched them fall, slide, glide away, down into the depths, so that everyone knew who told the stories on the top of the pyramid, shining so pitilessly. The people of the city didn't like it, he knew: his golden glory was too stark and bright. Let them desire glass baubles and frilly trinkets: they averted their eyes, that was all: the only stories told in the city were still the stories he told. The massive undeniability of his leaden gold is what they'd get. Glass? He ground it between the callused surface of his bare foot and the pure smooth gold, and took no wound. Cold, cold, cold was his golden soul: he'd kept it that way always. Secretly. Privately. Politely. Proudly. Out of sight. As he'd built the pyramid brick by brick, until it was too high for the black vultures to best, too sleek sided for the others to climb unless he let them, too powerful to doubt: the blaring horn of Baalzebub himself couldn't crack it. Hakuho, Pharoah of the Golden Pyramid. He'd never say those words aloud, but he knew them by heart. He'd made them, written them, and his gob-besmitten pyramid was their proof and talisman.

Hakuho the Storyteller poured himself another glass of thick wine, crumbled more cheese from the blue-veined block, ate it by the fistful, walked to the edge. Another was climbing the pyramid. Tiny, far below. Day after day they climbed it. He stared at the miniscule figure far below, sweating in the humid night of the city, scaling the sheer gold.

Let him come, Hakuho thought. Maybe I'll choose to fall from the pyramid tonight. Maybe it is time. For the masses and the vultures.

Or maybe I'll sling him down.

The pyramid is mine.

M15 Kitaharima (2-1) vs. J2 Hidenoumi (1-2)
What I saw here was a bigger guy manhandling a littler guy. Kitaharima tried to stay inside and low, and wasn't afraid, but Country Bumpkin (Hidenoumi) wrapped one fleshy arm around him from above and pressured him to the dirt, tsuki-otoshi. This is how Kitaharima's career is going to go--Hidenoumi is a Juryo guy, for cryin' out loud.

M14 Kagayaki (1-2) vs. M15 Sadanofuji (1-2)
It's painful to watch Kagayaki; I want to like him (great name--Fried Mosquito! Also, was discovered by Mike as future potential like six years ago when he was but a young scamp named Tatsu. Good sumo body, nice color mawashi), but he is so droopy and terrible and depressed I want to look away. Just as Kitaharima made Hidenoumi look like Akebono, Kagayaki made Sadanofuji look like Kaio. Kagayaki was kind of crouching there, pushing at him, but couldn't move him, so eventually Sadanofuji spun him around and pushed him out, oshi-dashi. You wonder how Kagayaki ever made it out of Juryo. Yeeks.

M13 Toyohibiki (1-2) vs. M16 Arawashi (3-0)
Arawashi knew what he had to do. Serious size mismatch here, so after nice hard contact on the tachi-ai, Arawashi stepped to the side and Toyohibiki stumbled in his tracks, tsuki-otoshi, barely a meter into this one. Was Arawashi "honorable"? No. Was he smart? Yes.

M10 Takanoiwa (2-1) vs. M14 Nishikigi (0-3)
This bout was well fought by Nishikigi, and keyed by left arms. Takanoiwa had his left arm inside, and Nishikigi was in trouble, but he pulled that arm high up to his pit and kept it there, neutralizing his more experienced foe. Meanwhile, Nishikigi had his left inside on Takanoiwa's belt, and while he was too extended to get any leverage off of that, he never let go, and when Takanoiwa inevitably tried to change the balance and work out a better position, Nishikigi used the moment to hunker down and push Takanoiwa out, yori-kiri. Like many sophomores who survive a .500ish Makuuchi debut tourney on adrenalin and luck but are then figured out and slaughtered, I think Nishikigi gets bounced hard this tournament, but he looked good here.

M9 Chiyonokuni (1-2) vs. M11 Daieisho (1-2)
Chiyonokuni survived this one by luck, but he'll take it. He delivered a nice face slap to start the festivities, but then went for a pull, and Daieisho has some skills and was all over it, driving Chiyonokuni back. However, I'm sticking with "some" skills, not "mad" skills or anything like that, because at the tawara Daieisho's execution was terrible, pushing up too high and then dropping his arms off Chiyonokuni entirely, so that Chiyonokuni, even though he'd just been staring at the ceiling, was able to evade to his right and turn and push a clueless Daieisho out, oshi-dashi.

M12 Tamawashi (1-2) vs. M9 Sokokurai (2-1)
Two skillful veteran Mongolians with lots of subtle strength, so I expected a good match, and we got it. Tamawashi had the advantage from the beginning because of a bit of a slow-developing, side-moving tachi-ai by Sokokurai, and Tamawashi put two hands on Sokokurai's shoulders and pushed hard. He then used Sokokurai's shallow belt grip against him, wrenching on that arm and flipping Sokokurai out in front of him. Spun him full around once, and emphatically pushed him over and out, yori-taoshi.

M8 Chiyootori (3-0) vs. M12 Tokushoryu (2-1)
If Bouncy Butt (Chiyootori) keeps his butt completely still at the tachi-ai, does it mean he's concentrating and prepping to win? Mebbe, as he kept a low smothering pressure on his bloated-rubber-chicken of an opponent and quickly forced him out, yori-kiri.

M10 Sadanoumi (2-1) vs. M7 Daishomaru (2-1)
Two drab green mawashi, two drab older rikishi going nowhere. Sadanoumi is much better, and he kept in low and got on the belt in there, quite deeply, and had his way with Daishomaru; easy yori-kiri.

M6 Aoiyama (0-3) vs. M8 Takekaze (1-2)
I'm so tired of Aoiyama either holding back or looking tentative. If there's no henka here, this should be an annihilation so thorough there's not even dust left to breathe in. However, Aoiyama started out with tippity tap arm thrusts, and I was rolling my eyes. Get 'im, man! Fortunately for him, even tippy-tap was enough power against The Little Round Old Ball (Takekaze), and Aoiyama was able to gain confidence and hit a bit harder, then bodied up and (sloppily, almost letting him evade) pushed Takekaze out, oshi-dashi. Aoiyama gets a lot of good press from me (and a lot of criticism for what looks like charity), but bouts like this make me think I may be overselling him: if he can't thoroughly dominate this one, there is something in his head that will always hold him back.

M5 Shodai (2-1) vs. M6 Endo (0-3)
New Hope on the left, old hope on the right, and new obliterated old. Shodai scooped Endo up and slid him out, helpless and defeated looking, yori-kiri, like so much Saturday morning train station vomit.

M7 Ichinojo (3-0) vs. M4 Ikioi (1-2)
The Iron Blob of Gravity Grease (Ichinojo) tipped the dohyo 45 degrees forward and rolled down it, crushing Ikioi in his path, yori-kiri--or that's what it looked like. Ikioi ("Influence!") tried genki, which is the right tactic against the blob, but Ichinojo has looked much better this tournament, and Ikioi was no match for the simple offer Ichinojo had in stock: grab hold, step forward, don't stop. Now he should do this every day.

M5 Yoshikaze (3-0) vs. M3 Myogiryu (1-2)
Don't look now, but another ghast seems to have sprung from an old tomb for one last wild ride in the soul of The Possessed (Yoshikaze), because Yoshikaze is 4-0 and has that look again: instead of running around the dohyo like a lakefly on fire, he has been focusing his bust-out ghoulish-energy squarely on his opponent, and winning big. Granted, Myogiryu was pulling on his head, and since when does that ever work, but The Possessed stayed low and drove him out, out, and away in zero seconds flat, oshi-taoshi. Tomorrow's opponent ought to bring a crucifix, a stake, and garlic.

S Kaisei (2-1) vs. K Kotoyuki (0-3)
I agree with Mike that yesterday's Kaisei-Tochinoshin bout was a doozy of a good one. We hold onto bouts like that because sometimes chances to judge a rikishi's real worth are few and far between, and as Mike so rightly put it, when you can plainly "see" that real, hard, steak-and-eggs sumo is going on, well, it's balm for the tired writer. This was another pretty good one. I loves me some mekkin' fun o' Kotoyuki, but I also gave up on hoping he'd be bad several tournaments ago: he is quite good. Again, you can "see" it. Here he went for his trademark hard-charging blasto-matic "I'm gonna stove your facial bones in" thrust attack, and it was working; he had the momentum when Kaisei's neck was bent. However, Kaisei stuck with it, Kotoyuki's thrusts moved down lower, and Kaisei then blubbered him: leaned his upper body in heavy and close, neutralizing those arms, and forced him out, oshi-dashi. My two breakout long-suffering guys I want to see clean up this tournament are Kaisei and Takayasu. Add Takarafuji for good measure.

O Goeido (1-2) vs. M4 Shohozan (1-2)
Busy Bug (Goeido) worked on driving Shohozan's arms up and off him, then grabbed one of them and tried to pull it off, then went back to driving the arms up and back. Shohozan stayed too square to this business and was methodically and brutally forced out, oshi-dashi. Good match-up for Goeido and he did what he needed to here.

M2 Takarafuji (2-1) vs. O Kotoshogiku (0-3)
My Dad read a book on aging and told me look, we're all going to go downhill and die at some point. Also the age of death isn't affected much by your health. Rather, the goal should be to stay healthy so your decline is swift and final, and what should be avoided is taking care of yourself poorly so that your decline is many years long and full of suffering. Is Kotoshogiku coming off his January win into his swift, sudden, total decline? Here he lurched forward and actually had both arms inside, but Takarafuji didn't have to do any kime pinching or fight back much; he just moved politely to the side, easily removing himself from the old lady's clutches, and escorted her gallantly out with a hand on the back of her sash, okuri-dashi. And to answer my own question, no, Kotoshogiku's decline has been of the years-long-and-painful type, but he has covered it up with lots of rouge.

O Kisenosato (3-0) vs. M2 Okinoumi (1-2)
I've long been a Kisenosato supporter, and still maintain he could do lots of exciting winning if guys went at him hard, but they often seem not to, and that has gotten tiresome. This match was a good example. Kisenosato did the right things, hopping forward swiftly with his feet, getting an inside grip, staying low, and driving for the yori-kiri win (I disagree that we cannot "see" good sumo from Kisenosato; it is from his opponents that it is hard to see), but Okinoumi looked like a piece of Velveeta cheese draped on a lettuce leaf. There was no tension in his body or arms, no urgency in his movements; you could taste the processed-foods cloying limpness. Mike's theme from yesterday keeps running through my mind: what did I "see" here? Nothing to see. Compare it to the Tochinoshin-Kaisei yesterday, or any number of dynamic bouts we've seen today (Kotoyuki-Kaisei, for example), and this is a fat-free, sprayed-on, plastic sheathed Kraft Single.

S Tochinoshin (0-3) vs. O Terunofuji (3-0)
And then there was this. This was what Kisenosato-Okinoumi should have been. These two powerful dudes grabbed each other's belts and went for it. You could see the power. Hell, you could practically smell it. You could certainly hear it, with Tochinoshin grunting like that bear in The Revenant. They both had right inside, left outside, but Terunofuji when healthy is probably just better, and when he let go with the right and heaved with the left, out went Tochinoshin, yori-kiri. Sharp cheddar cheese, half an inch thick and crumbly, downed plain with a deep black ale and slice of unadorned rye bread.

Y Harumafuji (2-1) vs. M1 Mitakeumi (0-3)
I think the Yokozuna are making a statement on Mitakeumi, as there was no mercy in this one. Harumafuji meant bid'ness with a wicked face shove, then easily got both arms inside underneath on his helpless-looking foe and rushed him out, yori-kiri. Yes, sir.

K Takayasu (2-1) vs. Y Kakuryu (2-1)
Well, my my. Kakuryu slid off the pyramid of his own accord without ever reaching the top: lower back pain and ankle injury, withdrawal. Takayasu picks up the freebie and the stage clears a bit for Hakuho and Kisenosato.

Y Hakuho (3-0) vs. M1 Tochiohzan (2-1)
As Tochiohzan at last mounted the final step to the top of the Golden Pyramid, he already felt weak and tired. There stood The Storyteller, fresh and unruffled, burnished in the golden glow. Tochiohzan repressed a sigh, tried to forget the 31 times he'd tumbled down the hard golden sides at the hands of the man, reminded himself that he'd actually found himself still standing on the golden pinnacle at the end of the struggle twice. His bare feet slapped sweatily on the gold as he advanced to meet The Storyteller--who turned suddenly from the table where he had been slicing grapes neatly in two with too-sharp-a-knife, and, before Tochiohzan saw it coming, blasted him in the chin with a forearm that jolted his eyes like jelly up into their all-too-mortal sockets. Tochiohzan felt Hakuho on him below, grunting with Mammon's heavy breath of unleashed avarice, wrapping him and driving him straight back towards the edge of the pyramid. Tochiohzan hadn't wanted it to come this quick. Had hoped for better. Had tried to believe in himself. And then he was over the edge, yori-kiri, standing there hanging in mid air, the flat gold laid out before him, untouchable, unreachable--and The Storyteller had released him, and was already sauntering back to the grapes, to the knife, as if nothing had happened, while he himself, Tochiohzan, perched there in no man's land, in air. He gave in to gravity, went over the side. It was always hard, falling down. You forget how hard, how heavy, gold is, until you've lost, and you're sliding down. Again. Far away, above him, the image of The Storyteller's back retreated, grew smaller and smaller, bathed in golden light, still atop the pyramid, where it seemed like he'd always been, always would be. A single golden point, lost in the distance.

Mike visits the pyramid tomorrow.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Despite the results that get measured on paper each day, what does everyone actually "see" in sumo these days? Let's start with the example of the following five relatively new rikishi: Endoh, Terunofuji, Ichinojo, Mitakeumi, and Shodai. Going in that order, what do we actually "see" in Endoh's sumo? I see him as a guy who favors the belt; I see him as a guy who is not strong at the tachi-ai; I see him as a guy with a lot of heart; but unfortunately, I just don't see anything in his sumo that makes me want to scream and shout, "Did you see that?!"

In Terunofuji and Ichinojo, I see two lucky guys in terms of having great sumo bodies. I see two guys who are comfortable not getting to the inside straightway from the tachi-ai. I see two guys who only need an inside position to be lethal. I see two guys who have and who can legitimately win 13 bouts in a basho. With these two guys, you can actually "see" something.

Okay, now let's put Mitakeumi and Shodai in the same category. What does everyone "see" from these two guys? To be honest, I can't tell you anything about them. I don't know what style they favor; I don't know their behavior at the tachi-ai; I don't know their strengths; and I also don't know their weaknesses. And yet, both rikishi have risen up the ranks to become constant jo'i fighters.

Kotoyuki is another dude who recently rose to the jo'i getting as high as Sekiwake albeit not entirely on his own. But with Kotoyuki, you can actually see something in his sumo. He's a tsuppari or bust rikishi. He does well when he uses his de-ashi. He's not a comeback rikishi or could counter guy when he gets behind. He basically has to control the bout from the git-go as we say in Utah in order to win. Thing is...he can be an effective rikishi, and I've touted him as a legitimate top five Japanese rikishi.

I won't even get started on guys like Hakuho, Kakuryu and Harumafuji, and the three Japanese Ozeki. The point that I want to make is despite what the record books show at the end of a basho, I think we can all "see" with our own two eyes the substance (or lack thereof) of everyone's sumo. Despite what the record books say at the end.

On that note, the theme of the Nagoya basho so far...and the predominant theme since Terunofuji took the yusho...is: nothing new to see here.

Quickly then, J1 Azumaryu and M15 Sadanofuji hooked up in migi-yotsu where Sadanofuji went for a lame pull giving Azumaryu the right outer grip to the side of his foe, and from there, the Sadamight couldn't counter giving Azumryu (2-1) the easy force-out win. Sadanofuji falls to 1-2.

M16 Arawashi came with a quick hari-te and left inside to complete hari-zashi tachi-ai while M14 Nishikigi was just too slow to react. He countered with a left outside belt grip sending the bout to a weak nage-no-uchi-ai, but Arawashi's victory at the tachi-ai proved the difference in the end as he scores the shitate-nage win moving to 3-0. Nishikigi falls to 0-3.

We saw decent thrusts from M14 Kagayaki, but there was no lower body behind it, and so M15 Kitaharima was able to jump towards a moro-zashi position that was rebuffed the first time, but the second time was a charm as Kagayaki just couldn't get any momentum going in his thrust attack. Kitaharima's moro-zashi attempts were strange to say the least as he moves to 2-1, but they worked on a guy who is just lacking in ability in general as Kagayaki falls to 1-2.

Things got going for reals when M12 Tamawashi and M13 Toyohibiki engaged in a great tsuppari from the start, but about three seconds in, Tamawashi connected with a right paw into Toyohibiki's left armpit that sent him sailing across the bales. Both rikishi end the day at 1-2.

M12 Tokushoryu attempted to grab the right outer belt grip from the gun, but all that did was let M10 Sadanoumi get the firm left inside position and then burrow in chest to chest keeping Tokushoryu away from that right outer altogether. With Sadanoumi in low, he just mounted a force-out attack that Tokushoryu couldn't answer as both of these dudes finish the day 2-1.

M9 Sokokurai attempted some funky hari-zashi tachi-ai that never developed, and M11 Daieisho let him know by driving a stiff paw into Sokokurai's chest, but Sokokurai would prove too slippery for Daieisho to handle, and in the end, Sokokurai got the deep left inside position, stood Daieisho upright, and drove him out the rest'a the way moving to 2-1 in the process. Daieisho is down on his luck at 1-2.

M10 Takanoiwa looked to pull M8 Chiyootori as Otori ducked low fishing for the inside, and around the ring they sashayed for a bit until Chiyootori just demanded the left inside grip that set up the right outer as well near the edge, and it was curtains for Takanoiwa at that point. Good stuff all around from Chiyootori so far who moves to 3-0 while Takanoiwa suffers his first loss at 2-1.

M9 Chiyonokuni struck M7 Daishomaru and then went for the quick two-handed pull, but Daishomaru read it like a dirty manga on the subway and easily pushed Kuni back and out in about two seconds. Dumb mistake by Chiyonokuni who just needs to let his sumo come to him. He falls to 1-2 and is already seemingly fighting like a desperate rikishi. Daishomaru moves to 2-1 if ya need him.

M8 Takekaze knocked M6 Endoh back a step from the tachi-ai and kept up a pesky thrust attack where Endoh finally just had to oblige and fight Takekaze's way. Endoh's shaky even when he dictates the pace, so with Takekaze in charge, he caught Endoh with a right arm under the left pit knocking Endoh off balance and against the ropes where a final full-throttle shove from Takekaze sent Endoh down to the venue floor. You could easily see from this bout that 1) Takekaze did not let up, and 2) Endoh needs guys to let up for him to stay in the division. It's just that simple.

M7 Ichinojo methodically reached for the right inside grip at the tachi-ai, but M5 Shodai countered by backing up a step to the side throwing Ichinojo's rhythm off a bit. Ichinojo just covers too much of the dohyo, however, and he ended up demanding the left inside and righter grip, and at that point, Joe does what he does best: digs in and tires out his opponent. This one lasted an eternity with Ichinojo content to just stand there with the outer grip while Shodai had none, and ultimately, Ichinojo just smothered his foe back and across for the methodical yori-kiri win not to mention 3-0 start. Shodai never really came close to threatening here despite the length of the bout as he falls to 2-1.

After a hissing tsuppari tachi-ai from both parties, M6 Aoiyama kept his hands higher as if to fish for a pull attempt, but M4 Ikioi was onto the move in a flash forcing Aoiyama upright and then driving him back and across in about two seconds flat. Good stuff here from Ikioi who shows flashes at 1-2 while Aoiyama made a dumb mistake as he falls to 0-3.

M4 Shohozan attempted a useless hari-zashi with the right hand keeping himself up high and wide open to the left inside position from M6 Yoshikaze. From there, Cafe quickly threatened moro-zashi with the right arm, and while he never did get it, he didn't really need it as the left inside was just too good for Shohozan to handle. You can't be giving Yoshikaze (3-0) that kind of positioning from the start as Shohozan falls to 1-2.

Wow, we're rarely treated to the kind of o-zumo bout that we got from the two Sekiwake today. Tochinoshin looked to take charge from the tachi-ai getting the left outer first and then trying to figure something out with the right near the front of Kaisei's belt. In the process, he allowed Kaisei to latch onto a left outer of his own, and the gappuri migi-yotsu bout was on. And dayum was it on as both guys exerted their full power wrenching each other this way and that, but in the end, Kaisei stood true and was able to wear Tochinoshin out for the nifty yori-kiri win. Tochinoshin normally wins this bout, but that ribcage injury could have been hampering him. It was this bout that actually inspired my intro. You could just "see" the fine sumo on display...something I can never see from the three Japanese Ozeki. Kaisei moves to 2-1 with the win while Tochinoshin falls to 0-3.

Ozeki Kotoshogiku opened with a slow left hari-te attempt that only allowed M3 Myogiryu to get the left inside and body the Ozeki upright. Kotoshogiku was completely useless from there as Myogiryu went geeku on the Geeku bellying the Ozeki back against the straw and ultimately across in a pretty ugly bout from both parties. Myogiryu picks up his first win at 1-2 while it's easy to see that Kotoshogiku (0-3) needs help from everyone of his opponents...cept may his fellow JPN Ozeki.

Ozeki Kisenosato and M2 Takarafuji hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Takarafuji just stood there allowing the Ozeki to force him back. Notice how all of Kisenosato's opponents are just staying upright and walking back on their own. Boring stuff. A guy who can consistently win 13 a basho participates on a frequent basis in the kind of bout we saw from Tochinoshin and Kaisei today. Kisenosato's sumo is just drab and uneventful. When Ichinojo and Terunofuji made their 13 win runs, you could just see it. I haven't seen anything from Kisenosato (3-0) in years. Takarafuji falls to 2-1 and is hopefully compensated somehow.

Ozeki Terunofuji fished for the left inside against Komusubi Kotoyuki, but Yuki offered a pesky enough attack to cause the Ozeki to switch gears. Terunofuji seemed fine with that getting the right arm inside instead and doubling down with the left outer, and Kotoyuki was as useless as tits on a boar from this point. We have two guys going in opposite directions here as Terunofuji moves to 3-0 while Kotoyuki is still winless.

Komusubi Takayasu got the left inside easily against Ozeki Goeido, and the Ozeki's answer was a slow-developing maki-kae with the right hand that did nothing but cause the Ozeki to compromise his balance, and so Takayasu just rushed forward and dumped the Ozeki easily by the left belt grip. Ozeki Shmozeki as Goeido falls to 1-2 while Takayasu is dealing well at 2-1.

M1 Tochiohzan got the left inside from the tachi-ai and with Yokozuna Kakuryu fishing for the left outer, Tochiohzan got the moro-zashi that he always covets and charged forward hard dumping the Yokozuna off balance and across the straw in mere seconds. My opinion on this is that Kakuryu can beat Tochiohzan anytime he wanna as both guys end the day at 2-1.

Yokozuna Hakuho settled for hidari-yotsu against pretender M1 Mitakeumi, and the Yokozuna didn't even bother to change back up to his favored right inside outside left. Instead, he kept that left inside, grabbed the right outer grip, and bulldozed Mitakeumi back and across without argument. Hakuho just keeps piling on the wins at 3-0, and don't look now but he's got another 30+ bout win streak going. Mitakeumi falls to 0-3 with the loss.

And finally, Yokozuna Harumafuji stayed low at the tachi-ai against M2 Okinoumi and did nothing but just lean forward, and so Okinoumi moved to his left while Harumafuji just floated himself off of the dohyo. Okinoumi caught up with the Yokozuna and executed what would be ruled the final shove-out, but once again, we had another nonchalant Yokozuna giving another Japanese rikishi a win. Harumafuji falls to 2-1 with the loss while Okinoumi picks up his first win at 1-2.

Sorry for the tardiness of the report. I was literally Shanghai'd by China Eastern Airlines and had a helluva time getting back to Utah. Harvye's up again tomorrow.

Day 2 Comments (Harvye Hodja reporting)
The storylines are obvious ones, and have been covered by Mike: first, will Kisenosato win the tournament, and get crowned Yokozuna? The silly little smile on his lips throughout Day 1 would seem to say yes: he looked like someone who had been told what his birthday present is in advance and could not repress fatuous delight. Second, will Hakuho continue his recent dominance, and make Kotoshogiku's January triumph look more and more like a mirage? Hakuho started a baker's dozen away from 1,000 career wins, and with yesterday's butter-roll down the gullet, has just twelve to go.

There are other storylines, too, and they are for us, because lord knows most are not paying attention to these ones. But we like them. All the focus on The Storyteller (Hakuho) and Lord Kisenosato has me thinking Harumafuji or Kakuryu may insist on not being forgotten this tournament, and rise up and take the yusho. Harumafuji is due.

Terunofuji continues to be an enigma. Can he build on his strong Day 1 performance, and become a darkhorse contender for the yusho? Or at least win in double digits? Or will he lose 8 or more and actually be demoted, perhaps a good thing for him? He needs to shake the current doldrums in one way or another. The worst thing for him would be an 8-7.

Another thing that has my attention is that the Japanese-top-five is in flux and needs a contender. If it is Tochiohzan, Takarafuji, Okinoumi, Kotoyuki, and one of, say, Ikioi, Yoshikaze, and Myogiryu, none of them has had any consistent run of success lately, and it is time for someone to emerge. Watch out for Shodai or Mitakeumi to leapfrog this group, as they're all spinning their wheels.

Finally, the bottom of the banzuke is in tatters at the moment. The Juryo escapees this time feature the likes of Kagayaki, one of the worst Makuuchi wrestlers I've seen, washed up Toyohibiki, Sadanofuji, who is in his fifth yo-yo promotion to Makuuchi, and Kitaharima, one of the ten slowest ever to rise to Makuuchi. Etc., etc. Injury withdrawals by under-ranked veterans Toyonoshima and Aminishiki further winnowed the grain for this thin gruel. Someone is going to clean up down here.

Preamble done. Fight!

M16 Arawashi (1-0) vs. J1 Gagamaru (1-0)
I've always liked Arawashi's dynamism in the ring, and thought it would serve him well against the behemothic Gagamaru. Interestingly, he scarcely needed it, opting for strength inside, working hard. Having miraculous survived the initial steamrolling from Gaga with a little evasion, Arawashi kept driving inside and tight until he had Gagamaru backpedaling, off balance, and vulnerable to the yori-taoshi that finished this one off, featuring a deep, deep inside right hold. Nice work, little man.

M15 Kitaharima (1-0) vs. M15 Sadanofuji (0-1)
Behold Kitaharima for a moment. Undersized, barely fat. An old rookie final ascended to the top division. How much chance does he have? Watching him gamely deek and spit and blat at the belly of the large but useless Sadanofuji, I was thinking, "he may last a tournament or two down here by working harder and being more flexible than the rest of the dross, before they figure him out," when Sadanofuji hit him, not very hard, and knocked him flat, tsuki-otoshi. Nah. They've figured him out. It is going to be a long tournament--and a brief Makuuchi career--for Mr. Harima.

M14 Kagayaki (0-1) vs. M14 Nishikigi (0-1)
Fried Mosquito (Kagayaki) has shown so little konjo (fighting spirit) in his previous appearances that when he drove forward insistently, worked hard for moro-zashi, and persisted gamely until he could drive Nishikigi out, yori-kiri, I felt like I was watching a different guy. He needs to do this, win or lose, 15 bouts per tournament. We'll see.

M13 Toyohibiki (1-0) vs. M12 Tokushoryu (1-0)
The rule with Kerosene Burp (Toyohibiki) is that he has to drive you back and out fast, and if he doesn't, he's dead. Rubric applied. He couldn't move Special Sauce (Tokushoryu) back at the tachi-ai--too big--and as they traded blows, he finally started to get momentum, but by this time Saucy had calibrated his mark, and as Toyohibiki drove forward, Sauce deftly retreated and evaded, letting Toyohibiki fall down off the momentum of the chase, aided by a dainty, odd little over-the-shoulder tottari arm-pull at the end by Tokushoryu that was academic to the Kerosene Train leaving the tracks and burning in the sagebrush in the gully.

M10 Takanoiwa (1-0) vs. M11 Daieisho (1-0)
Daieisho lost this one by being sloppy, and Takanoiwa won it by timing hard slaps. Daieisho had the momentum, and needed to stay low and keep his arms tight, but he was largely upright, and Takanoiwa, though retreating, took advantage by twice slapping Daieisho hard off to the side. The second slap discombobulated Daieisho, and Takanoiwa was able to get smothering, rock-solid dual holds, one hand all the way back on the butt-button of the belt, the other right on the front, like a dude lifting a beer barrel. Which he manfully did for the nice kegger-prep yori-kiri win: "put that one on the porch."

M12 Tamawashi (0-1) vs. M10 Sadanoumi (0-1)
My feeling has been that Sadanoumi is washed up, but maybe Tamawashi is too. Sadanoumi gamely ignored Tamawashi's trademark wicked face slaps, maintaining and trying to say inside and low. It worked, and he pushed Ol' Kucherla (Tamawashi) out, oshi-dashi.

M9 Chiyonokuni (1-0) vs. M9 Sokokurai (0-1)
Chiyonokuni must be feeling good to be back: he was lithely springing up and down like a jack-in-the-box during the prep. However, he has always been way too small for this division, and the best you can reasonably expect from him is guts and honor stuff. He looked very overmatched against Sokokurai, who evaded a bit in order to gauge him, then picked him right up off the dirt, high in the air and diagonal. This was not your standard, grunting tsuri-dashi win with both guys facing each other belly to belly and one guy strainingly getting the other guy's toes off the dirt; this was your fed-up-Dad picking up his screaming, flailing, tantrum-prone five year old at the playground and carrying him calmly to the car: play time over. I've never seem someone deposit a tsuri-dashi victim so easily outside the ring.

M8 Takekaze (0-1) vs. M7 Daishomaru (0-1)
Is Takekaze finally nearing the end? In the past, when he's used henkas or pulls, they have usually been textbook beautiful. (Check out his perennial bestseller, "How To Do Bad Sumo Well," by Takekaze.) Yesterday and today, they looked ridiculous. Here, he backed up and tried to pull Daishomaru down by the head, but he might as well have trying to stove in the hood of a moving pick-up truck with his bare hands for all the good it did. Daishomaru responded by grabbing him by the head in turn and flinging him to the ground; Takekaze landed upside down in an awkward position on the back of his shoulders, like a wet trout dropped sloppily on the rocks during de-hooking. Hataki-komi.

M6 Aoiyama (0-1) vs. M7 Ichinojo (1-0)
This was something to anticipate: two giant, fleshy foreigners with great potential who lose a lot more than they should, likely turned loose against each other. The meat-hook thunder of Aoiyama against the life-sucking immobility of Ichinojo. Would Ichinojo absorb and render Aoiyama? Or would Aoiyama tenderize Ichinojo's pork? However, the match was a bit of a disappointment, as it turned on a pull. Aoiyama did go for full-length arm-thrusts, probably my favorite signature technique in the division when it's on, but they were too slow, and he left his de-ashi largely behind. A subtle little pull after a few moments of this was all it took for Ichinojo to hiki-otoshi his way to victory. Better luck next time, gentlemen.

M8 Chiyootori (1-0) vs. M6 Endo (0-1)
Endo has still got it! Hype, that is: this featured six kensho "we love this match!" banners. "The popular Endo has entered the dohyo," the announcer added. I expected the usual here: either a lackluster performance by Chiyootori, or a few moments of solid technical set-up by Endo, followed by inability to follow through and subsequent awesome power destruction by opponent (okay, I admit it, I've missed Endo a little bit). But the bout featured neither of those things. Instead we saw slap-and-thrust trading, and advantage Endo with momentum and forward movement. However, Chiyootori (who added a side-to-side butt waggle just before the tachi-ai today to his usual up-and-down bouncy butt psyche-up prep) just pulled him down, hataki-komi.

M4 Shohozan (1-0) vs. M5 Shodai (1-0)
I get the skepticism on Shodai. He certainly has not looked dynamic. But I do think he shows some presence, patience, and ring sense. Here he fought a roughneck veteran, and had nothing off the tachi-ai, having foolishly stood up straight. However, he stuck his left arm in as far as he could just under the pit of Shohozan, and knocked Shohozan back with a couple of upward blows from the right arm, like the backstroke from driving nails into a board. This was enough, as he drove Shohozan back and toppled him, yori-taoshi. My jury's out.

M5 Yoshikaze (1-0) vs. M4 Ikioi (0-1)
As this match featured The Possessed (Yoshikaze), there was so much spinning, arm-grabbing, grappling, and dancing that I'm not going to try to list it all for you (that would be boring, whereas the match was not). What I think is important here is that for 9 moments out of 10, Yoshikaze's head was lower. He kept his eyes on Ikioi's midriff, and attacked down and in. Ikioi couldn't shift any gravity centers by working from above: it ain't easy to do. So, Yoshikaze had him consistently on the defensive. Eventually, he grabbed him near the bales and slaughtered him softly, yori-kiri. Mmm, mmm-- gimme some demon lovin'.

M2 Takarafuji (1-0) vs. S Tochinoshin (0-1)
Nice match up between two quietly effective wrestlers with good sumo bodies. This one had no belt grips for some time, as they worked on each other with ripple-muscled arms up high, but Tochinoshin made the first mistake, a brief head pull, and he might as well have pulled Takarafuji's right arm right onto his belt, too, because that's what the move let Takarafuji do. Quick curtains after that, yori-kiri.

O Kisenosato (1-0) vs. S Kaisei (1-0)
Nice work by Lord Kisenosato, and a test of strength. Kisenosato was driven back initially, but he got a left inside which he would use to key the bout. Yanking and driving, he caused Kaisei a little physical hiccup, and took advantage of that jog to get a right outside as well. Now in very dominant position, he actually picked Kaisei up off the ground--200 kilograms of prime beef--in driving him back on the way to yori-kiri victory. I liked this.

Match of the Day: M3 Myogiryu (0-1) vs. O Terunofuji (1-0)
Ooh, boy, I'm feeling a tremor of excitement. Myogiryu deserves respect, and take him lightly at your peril. He had Fuji the Terrible (Terunofuji) dead to rights, having wrenched him upright with an excellent head-bender to the chin, then surged in to dominant moro-zashi dual insides. Teru was dancing on the tawara with both feet, and I thought, "hoo, boy, another hapless tournament for him." But lo! Instead, Terunofuji, by main strength along, bore back down and forced the bout back to the center. This was kind of shocking, actually. Then, he threw Myogiryu off balance with a ghoul of an overhand haul, and forced him Myogiryu the edge in turn, where he hunkered down and flung him disdainfully out with a push from his free hand, yori-kiri.

O Goeido (0-1) vs. K Kotoyuki (0-1)
Has Kotoyuki been shorn of his mojo by losing his verbalization rights? Admittedly, I have loathed this guy, and his "huh!" bark, now gone, was one of the worst bits. But consider for a moment: what would have happened if, despite being scolded by the Association for it, he'd just kept doing it? He'd be a folk hero, and I suspect there would have been nothing anyone could have done to stop him. His confidence and chi would have raged rampant. Instead, he knuckled (good!) and is fading into the crowd. Today, he was a shorn Samson. He gave Goeido one start-off shove, then retreated in the face of similar shoves from Busy Bug (Goeido), who was carrying grains of sand for his nest. When he got near the tawara, Kotoyuki was very easily tossed to the side by a roundhouse right fling by Buggy for the tsuki-otoshi win.

K Takayasu (0-1) vs. O Kotoshogiku (0-1)
Kotoshogiku showed about the best he has here, and Takayasu, in a belt of the finest powder blue to celebrate his Komusubi promotion, showed how washed up Kotoshogiku is by beating him anyway. Kotoshogiku drove in hard and gaburi'ed his guts out. However, Takayasu held on tight and declined to be moved back more than a meter. Then, using rudimentary logic, he determined that by stepping to the side he would easily fell the overcommitted Kotoshogiku. This he summarily did, tsuki-otoshi. We should see results like this often against Kotoshogiku. Powder blue heaven; this made me very happy. Takayasu deserves to have a bit of a breakout and I hope he gets it this tournament.

Y Hakuho (1-0) vs. M2 Okinoumi (0-1)
Simple, easy dominance from the Yokozuna today. Straightforward tachi-ai, with Hakuho reaching in underneath, but he sensed that Okinoumi was pushing very hard, noted that he had no grip whatsoever, and so stepped easily to his left and let Big Easy (Okinoumi) hurtle past. From there it was easy to square back up and push him out, oshi-dashi. Eleven to go.

Y Harumafuji (1-0) vs. M1 Tochiohzan (1-0)
This wasn't very exciting to watch, but was actually dominant by Harumafuji, who never let Tochiohzan get close to any inside grips, using a combination of quick, partial retreats, slap-aways of hands, and watching and waiting. After a few moments of futility as Harumafuji denied him, Tochiohzan seemed befuddled about how to attack, and when he drove blindly forward, Harumafuji summarily dispatched him by slapping him down, hataki-komi.

M1 Mitakeumi (0-1) vs. Y Kakuryu (1-0)
Before the tournament, when I glanced at my Day 2 roster and saw this to be the top match of the day, I found myself in a strange place. Since when does this sound like the marquee matchup of any day, in any tournament? Aoiyama vs. Ichinojo was easily the more appealing match on paper, way down in hour one. But there they were, The Bully vs. The Invisible Yokozuna, Top! Billing! Like his other two Yokozuna brethren before him, Kakuryu was cautious, patient, and never in harm's way in this one, having a solid outer grip on the right, his head in low, and Mitakeumi cut off by holding his hand on the left. There was then quite a bit of driving the ice cream cart around the ring, and the yori-kiri force out was inevitable and looked very easy.

Mike levers a ferris wheel from its axle and sends it wheeling through town tomorrow.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
It's been a long time since I've been able to report while watching the bouts live, and I turned the television on about 2:20 PM so I could catch the bouts starting from the Makushita jo'i. The whole time I watched the final five Makushita bouts and the Juryo bouts, I was like whoa, Beavis...real sumo! It's so refreshing to see both parties go full throttle, and I really miss such contests the last 40 minutes of the Makuuchi broadcast. As for the Makushita jo'i and the Juryo ranks, I was impressed the most with a dude in Makushita named Koyanagi. He's got a great sumo body, and he's young enough to do some damage as long as he doesn't get weak in the knees once he reaches the big dance.

The focus prior to the Makuuchi bouts today focused on Kisenosato first and then Hakuho second. Kitanofuji was in the booth today, and he said that where ever he went in Nagoya, everyone was asking him about Kisenosato. He was never able to actually go and watch Kisenosato practice, but from what he's heard from others is that Kisenosato looked good but not great. Some thought that he may have appeared a bit tired although he did have a good keiko session against Harumafuji...allegedly. I really started getting worried a few years ago when bout fixing started to leak into pre-basho keiko, but the narrative has to be established.

As they showed clips of Kisenosato looking good against Harumafuji (and then Kotoshogiku later on), Mainoumi commented that he looked more than sufficient [to receive promotion] in the keiko ring, but regardless of how much he looks like a lion at keiko, he comes out and fights like a lamb during the hon-basho.

As for Hakuho, the dude is on the brink of becoming the third rikishi to reach one thousand career wins. Currently the standings are as follows:

1,047 wins: Kaio
1,045 wins: Chiyonofuji
987 wins: Hakuho

Hakuho is roughly four zensho yusho away from breaking that record, and while he could achieve that if he really wanted, he's going to let up in enough bouts to push it to five basho. Still, Hakuho has showed no signs of slowing down physically, and with no one else on the banzuke able to beat him, he should smash that record when it's all said and done. We all remember how painful it was to see Kaio be given eight wins the last year or so of his career, so when you compare Kaio then to Hakuho now, the difference is startling. That's not to detract from Kaio's career either; he was a great Ozeki. It does illustrate, however, just how good Hakuho is.

On that note, let's start from the bottom and work our way up as we kick off yet another basho.

Up first was M16 Arawashi vs. M15 Sadanofuji. Prior to the bout, Funaoka Announcer asked Mainoumi how Sadanofuji performed in pre-basho keiko, and Mainoumi was caught off guard a bit as if to say, "How the hell would I know that?" He recovered nicely, though, since he did attend a session of the Sakaigawa-beya keiko answering, "Er, uh, he wasn't able to beat Myogiryu or Goeido." Turning back to the ring, Arawashi slipped a bit at the tachi-ai causing some separation, and as the two hooked back up in hidari-yotsu, Sadanofuji gave his pal a vicious head butt where he slammed his forehead into Arawashi's face opening up a rather large cut above Arawashi's right eye. The head butt was unintentional, but credit Arawashi who persisted despite the blood getting the left arm established early and the right outer grip, and from there, he just wrenched Sadanofuji in tight and forced him over and out. Bout dudes were covered in a fair amount of blood after this one, but credit Arawashi for fighting through the cut.

M15 Kitaharima started off his Makuuchi career promptly with a false start against M14 Nishikigi, but he recovered well on the do-over staying low and looking to push his way to the inside. He finally got it by dragging Nishikigi forward with a left kote-nage before getting the left firmly inside, and while Nishikigi tried to counter with a right outer, it was only on one fold of the belt, so his counter outer belt throw failed in the end. With both rikishi at the edge and Kitaharima in the better position, the rookie focused on Nishikigi's right stump wrapping it up with his arm while setting up the beautiful kiri-kaeshi tripping Nishikigi back and over for the nice win. Dayum, two bouts in and two really good bouts of sumo.

Next up were two dudes making their return to the division in M13 Toyohibiki and M14 Kagayaki. For as big as Kagayaki is, he sure looked light as Toyohibiki dominated him from the tachi-ai pushing hard with both hands and sending Kagayaki over towards the chief judge before pushing him out altogether in maybe three seconds. Great stuff from Toyohibiki who picks up a big win on day 1 of his return.

M12 Tamawashi and M12 Tokushoryu both looked to push each other from the tachi-ai, but Tokushoryu's legs were driving harder, and with both hands focused toward Tamawashi's neck, the Mongolian wasn't able to deliver any thrusts, so as he attempted to move laterally and mix things up, Tokushoryu was onto him like white to race maintaining those neck pushes and thrusting Tamawashi over and down in about three seconds. Special sauce today from Tokushoryu who picks up the nice win.

M10 Sadanoumi seemed content today to battle M11 Daieisho in oshi-zumo, but that's not Sadanoumi's game, and Daieisho showed exactly why plowing forward and knocking Sadanoumi out of his stance causing him to sort of go for an arm pull and evade to his right, but Daieisho had all the momentum and bulldozed Sadanoumi back across the straw without argument.

M10 Takanoiwa and M9 Sokokurai took a long time before they actually charged, but they did it without a false start in the end. Problem was, the suspense prior to the bout was a lot thicker than the actual bout itself. Sokokurai lazily let Takanoiwa drive him back as if to look for an opening, but instead of trying to force things to the belt, Takanoiwa just slapped Sokokurai down with no resistance. Sokokurai was likely mukiryoku here because his sumo didn't make sense from the get-go, but who knows?

M9 Chiyonokuni made his return to the division for the first time in two years after suffering a wicked knee injury to his left leg, and fresh off of his yusho in Juryo last basho, he looked to solve the wily M8 Takekaze. And Takekaze was wily jumping to his left at the tachi-ai, but he really didn't connect on his henka attempt allowing Chiyonokuni to survive, and so Kuni chased him around the ring taking advantage of Takekaze's loss of momentum, and in the end, Chiyonokuni was able to push Takekaze back and out before a desperate pull attempt at the edge from Takekaze made it close. The ref actually pointed towards Takekaze's direction, but I didn't even need the replay to know this one would be overturned. Justice was served as Chiyonokuni picked up his first Makuuchi win in two years.

M8 Chiyootori rode the Kokonoe-beya momentum in the next bout against M7 Daishomaru playing the part of a brick wall at the tachi-ai and frustrating Daishomaru early to where the youngster went for an ill-advised pull giving Chiyootori the momentum shift he needed to polish Daishomaru off with once, twice, three shoves a lady.

Speaking of brick walls, M7 Ichinojo was lucky enough to draw M6 Endoh today, a rikishi who simply cannot beat Ichinojo straight up, so the only suspense here was whether or not Ichinojo would let up. Thankfully he didn't toying with Endoh at the tachi-ai and letting Elvis make the first move, which came in the form of the right arm to the inside, and Ichinojo promptly responded with his own right inside looking to settle in. Endoh wasn't so settled, however, and went for a quick maki-kae with the left arm actually giving him moro-zashi, but Ichinojo didn't sweat the move at all taking advantage of the momentum shift in forcing Endoh back and across with ease. This one wasn't close, and Ichinojo is primed for a big basho if the powers that be allow him to execute.

In the final bout of the first half, M6 Aoiyama focused a few lumbering tsuppari into M5 Yoshikaze, but the Bulgarian wasn't really driving with his legs, and the tactic allowed Yoshikaze to stand there blow for blow while waiting to get to the inside. After about four seconds, Yoshikaze finally got Aoiyama's arms up high enough to where he pounced in low driving Aoiyama back and out for the nice win. This bout was fought primarily in Aoiyama's half of the dohyo even though Yoshikaze really didn't make an offensive move until the last two seconds.

In a ridiculous bout, M4 Ikioi halted M5 Shodai's momentum at the tachi-ai as the two eventually hooked up in hidari-yotsu, and Ikioi was in full control of the bout, but his multiple kote-nage attempts with the right arm were all half-assed and arms only. Then, after about the third attempt at a kote-nage, Ikioi just spread his legs apart as if he was about to give birth and hit the dirt without a firm inside throw from Shodai. Easy yaocho call here as they continue to handle Shodai with the kid gloves.

M3 Myogiryu charged forward at the tachi-ai against M4 Shohozan, but he was all pull from there attempting to time several hiki attempts as Shohozan charged forward with his thrust attack. Shohozan doesn't exactly equal solid game, and so it took him a few rounds to secure the win, but he was finally able to shove Myogiryu back and out as Myogiryu's hands were seemingly glued to the back of Shohozan's dome the entire bout. Myogiryu's sumo choices here were so poor here, part of me wonders if he owed Shohozan something.

At this point of the broadcast, they announced Osunaarashi's withdrawal giving Sekiwake Kaisei the freebie.

That sends us to the Ozeki ranks where Ozeki Terunofuji was up first against M2 Okinoumi, and while Okinoumi is a formidable opponent, he couldn't keep the Ozeki from dictating the pace in the form of a hidari-yotsu bout. And while Fuji the Terrible had his left arm firmly inside, Okinoumi was a bit handcuffed with his left using it more to deny Terunofuji than to actually settle into a solid belt contest. With Okinoumi looking for any sort of opening, Terunofuji just dug in and was patient for about 10 seconds until he made a move for a maki-kae with the right hand that gave him the inside there as well. Okinoumi shifted his right arm to the inside as well, but Terunofuji already had a belt grip on that side, so before he knew it, the Ozeki had the right inside with left outer grip, and there was nothing that Okinoumi could do from there. The story is that Terunofuji's knees were giving him problems last basho, but it's just that...a story. Making him go through that 13 bout losing streak was uncalled for, so it was nice to see him get a win in the division again.

In a rather comical bout, M2 Takarafuji stood his ground well threatening the left arm to the inside against Ozeki Goeido, who charged forward looking lost as he is wont to do, and after a few seconds of no pressure from the Ozeki, Takarafuji just moved further to his left and pushed Goeido down and out by the arse with such ease you had to wonder who was the Ozeki here.

It was nice to see M1 Tochiohzan also not just roll over against his Japanese Ozeki opponent today in Kotoshogiku. The Geeku came with a weak and useless left hari-te that only allowed Tochiohzan to get the right arm firmly to the inside, and with the Ozeki playing no defense on the other side, Oh easily obtained moro-zashi lifting the Ozeki upright and then just twisting him around before setting up the feel good force out. I think in the case of both Takarafuji and Tochiohzan, they know they have to throw at least one bout against Kisenosato, so they're gettin' theirs early.

A noticeable roar rose from the crowd as Ozeki Kisenosato stepped into the ring to face M1 Mitakeumi, and just think about the cause for all the excitement. It definitely doesn't have to do with solid sumo; rather, it's Kisenosato's having been built up as this supposed Yokozuna candidate strictly through mukiryoku sumo. In my pre-basho report, I stated that I believed Kisenosato was better than Mitakeumi, but it was obvious today that Mitakeumi wasn't going to take any chances. The two methodically hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Mitakeumi just stood there like a bump on a log waiting for the Ozeki to grab the right outer grip. It came about four seconds in, and Mitakeumi did nothing to counter just staying upright and walking those last few steps backwards as Kisenosato scored the easy force-out win. To reiterate, I believe that Kisenosato is the better rikishi of the two, but Mitakeumi was taking zero chances today. With the win, the sheep in the crowd all bleated in unison as expected.

Sekiwake Tochinoshin showed no fear charging hard into Yokozuna Harumafuji setting up the migi-yotsu contest, but he got a little bit too close for comfort allowing Harumafuji to latch onto the outer left as Tochinoshin tried to reach for a left of his own. When it was clear he wouldn't get it, Tochinoshin still dug in tight testing the inside throw waters, and the Yokozuna knew he couldn't go chest to chest with the Georgian, and so Harumafuji resorted to plan B where he began to twirl Tochinoshin around and around in the middle of the ring using his left outer grip. After about three turns, you could see that the Sekiwake was losing his bearings, and so Harumafuji finally dragged him over and down with a nice dashi-nage throw.

Komusubi Kotoyuki looked to get anything started against Yokozuna Kakuryu coming out with his usual tsuppari attack, but Kotoyuki is a one-trick pony, and Kakuryu knew it perfectly timing a Kotoyuki thrust by moving to his right, lifting up on Kotoyuki's extended arm to turn him off balance, and then shove him over and out in a matter of seconds. Kakuryu's tachi-ai was straight up here, and it was simply a case of a Yokozuna out-thinking his one dimensional opponent.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Hakuho had little trouble against Komusubi Takayasu starting off with the left inside, and as Takayasu looked to back out of the charge, Hakuho switched gears gaining his favored right arm to the inside and shoring that up with the left outer grip on the other side. With perfect precision, Hakuho lifted Takayasu completely upright with the right inside while keeping him in place with the outer left, and there was nothing Takayasu could do as Hakuho dumped him across the straw in mere seconds. As he has been wont to do of late, Hakuho finished off his gal with an unnecessary dame-oshi sending Takayasu to the arena floor past the basket of salt in Takayasu's corner. The dame-oshi will give the press something else to talk about besides Kisenosato's boring run to Yokozuna.

T'was a pretty straight forward day of sumo in what looks to be another showdown between Hakuho and Kisenosato in the end. I'm traveling back to the States tomorrow, so Harvye's timing couldn't be any more perfect as he moves into the driver's seat for day 2.