Comment Box is loading comments...

Day 13 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
A direct pattern we are seeing in sumo these days, especially with these rikishi who are buying their way to the top of the leaderboard, is that when we near the end of the basho and the stakes are high, these rikishi can't resort to solid sumo in order to survive in bouts that are straight up. A few basho ago when Mitakeumi was promoted to Ozeki (what a presence he hasn't been since then), he would lose the tachi-ai in every single bout, and then his opponent would do a majority of the work and attacking only to have Mitakeumi magically pull it out in the end. We are seeing that trend this basho as well where dudes who bought their way onto the leaderboard are not able to produce good sumo when the pressure mounts.

As promised, let's cover every bout on the day noting that the leaderboard heading into Day 13 was as follows:

10-2: Takanosho
9-3: Terunofuji, Ura, Sadanoumi

M17 Kagayaki kept his arms high and wide at the tachi-ai against J1 Hidenoumi, and even though Hidenoumi's hips were way too high for his own good, Kagayaki did not press with an oshi charge. Still, Hidenoumi couldn't get anything going, and so he went for a dumb pull, and that's usually when the oshi guys swoops in and takes over, but Kagayaki refrained, turning his own back to the straw and allowing Hidenoumi to assume moro-zashi, and of course Kagayaki didn't bother countering before being forced across.

Kagayaki falls to 5-8 in defeat meaning he will fall to Juryo for next basho, but what does he care? He can sell bouts there just as easily as he does in Makuuchi. The dude's gotta be loaded by now. As for the Gambler, he moves to 8-5, which mean we'll see him in Makuuchi in Nagoya. Can't wait!

M12 Myogiryu had the path to the inside right against M14 Ohho, but he stayed limp from the tachi-ai and allowed a weak left tsuki from Ohho to turn him sideways. As the two switched places in the ring, Myogiryu next walked right into a mediocre pull attempt from Ohho, and Ryu dutifully put both palms to the dirt with nothing else touching. This was yaocho start to finish as Ohho still looks weak in moving to 6-7 while Myogiryu takes the money and runs at 5-8.

Speaking of fixed bouts, M10 Nishikigi was lethargic against M16 Midorifuji from the tachi-ai keeping his arms low while waiting for Midorifuji to make a move. Midori's tachi-ai was awful of course, but with no pressure coming from Nishikigi, he easily moved right, hooked his arm up and under Nishikigi's left, and with Nishikigi still standing there like a mannequin, he went for the glorious kata-sukashi. Nishikigi just went with it start to finish and gave his stop, drop, and roll a bit of exaggeration as they proudly declared Midorifuji the winner by another kata-sukashi! Midorifuji buys his way to 7-6 while Nishikigi, the merchant, rakes in more cash in falling to 6-7.

M10 Okinoumi came with a cautious kachi-age against M17 Kohtokuzan, and with the M17 clearly out of cash this basho, his only reaction was to go for a bad pull. Okinoumi was all over the move and rushed forward pushing the hapless Kohtokuzan back and across easy as you please. Okinoumi moves to 7-6 with the win while Kohtokuzan falls to 2-11. Yikes!

M13 Meisei attacked hard and fast against M9 Kotoshoho who was looking to shade a bit right from the tachi-ai, but he was caught off guard and forced to spin back the other way as Meisei assumed moro-zashi a few seconds in. Meisei attempted to force his foe back and out from there, but Kotoshoho used his size advantage to dig in well threatening a few kote-nage to keep Meisei at bay. After a wild six or seven seconds, the two dug in across the other side of the dohyo and dug in for a bit, and it was Kotoshoho who attacked first with another right kote-nage, but he just didn't have the oomph on the throw, and Meisei was finally able to use that momentum shift to force Kotoshoho back and across. You gotta love it when we get these real bouts. The contrast between real and fake is so obvious as Meisei moves to 7-6 with Kotoshoho falling to 6-7.

M11 Chiyoshoma used a methodic tsuppari attack against M8 Terutsuyoshi firing shoves into T-Yoshi's shoulders, and as Terutsuyoshi tried to duck under the shoves, Chiyoshoma went for the immediate pull that sent Terutsuyoshi down and out in about three seconds. Chiyoshoma moves to 6-7 with the easy win while Terutsuyoshi falls to 4-9.

M11 Aoiyama put a right paw into M8 Shimanoumi's chest from the tachi-ai and began driving the legs hard forcing Shimanoumi back to the straw in an instant, and as Shimanoumi looked to escape right along the perimeter of the dohyo, Aoiyama stayed snug and pushed him across for the dominant win. Aoiyama moves to 9-4 with the nice display of sumo while Shimanoumi was completely overmatched in falling to 7-6.

M14 Yutakayama rushed forward into M7 Kotoeko who simply stood upright from the tachi-ai like a practice dummy, and so Yutakayama fired a shove and then went for a left tsuki and Kotoeko dutifully put both palms to the dirt and cart wheeled himself off the dohyo landing on both feet onto the venue floor below. No doubt this bout was orchestrated all the way to Kotoeko's perfect dismount from the dohyo as Yutakayama moves to 6-7 while Kotoeko falls to 5-8.

M15 Azumaryu and M6 Wakamotoharu clashed well at the tachi-ai going chest to chest, which is what I love to see, but it was Wakamotoharu coming away with moro-zashi, and before Azumaryu could really dig in, WMH had him forced back and across without argument. Nice sumo here from Wakamotoharu who moves to 8-5 while Azumaryu falls to 5-8.

M13 Chiyotairyu struck M3 Tamawashi very well at the tachi-ai knocking him back a half step, but The Mawashi dug in at that point causing Chiyotairyu to think pull, and before he could even try, Tamawashi had him pushed back and across in just a few seconds. Easy win for Tamawashi as he moves to 7-6 while Chiyotairyu falls to the same mark.

M3 Hokutofuji caught M7 Takarafuji with a left paw to the throat as he tried to push Takarafuji back with the right hand, but he couldn't budge Takara Boom Day Ay, and so Takarafuji went for a quick pull slapping Hokutofuji down to the dirt an instant before Takarafuji touched out. They ruled in favor of Hokutofuji and none of the judges could be arsed enough to get off of their cushions, so they let it stand. As they watched the replays, the NHK offered a quick "D'oh!" when he saw that Hokutofuji touched down first, but whatever. Sucks for Takarafuji who falls to 2-11 while Hokutofuji moves to just 4-9. Takarafuji better fish one more win the final two days to keep himself in the division.

M5 Tobizaru and M2 Kotonowaka both traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai with each moving the other around, and you could see that Kotonowaka was looking to pull. Fortunately for him, Tobizaru couldn't break down Baby Waka's defenses, and so as Tobizaru got close, Kotonowaka grabbed him by the back of the belt with the left and slung him around 180 degrees, and before Tobizaru could square back up, Kotonowaka rushed in and pushed him down to the clay floor. Kotonowaka moves to 7-6 with the nice win although I would have liked to have seen him with by a straight forward oshi attack. As for Tobizaru, he falls to make-koshi at 5-8.

M2 Kiribayama stayed low at the tachi-ai against M9 Tochinoshin grabbing the front of Shin's belt, and that gave him the leverage to get in close and secure moro-zashi. Shin countered well with his size advantage and tested the tsuri-dashi waters, but Kiribayama is too strong to be lifted up like that against his will, and so Kiribayama stayed on the move just enough and used his hips beautifully to always keep Tochinoshin guessing, and after a brief stalemate in the center of the ring, Kiribayama executed the perfect force-out charge keeping Tochinoshin too upright to counter. I loved watching the chess match here as Kiribayama is likely the third best guy on the banzuke in moving to 9-4 while Tochinoshin falls to 8-5.

M1 Takayasu's tachi-ai was decent as he tried a tsuppari attack against M4 Endoh, but Takayasu was too high for his own good enabling Endoh to sneak the left arm inside, and once Endoh was inside, he moved laterally just enough to grab the right outer, and he used that to swing Takayasu over and down dashi-nage style as easy as you please. Endoh stays alive at 6-7 with the good win while Takayasu falls to 4-9.

M15 Ichiyamamoto didn't stand a chance against Komusubi Daieisho (assuming a straight up bout), and this one was legit. Credit IYM for at least attempting a tsuppari charge, but Daieisho easily neutralized it by simply coming out of the gate faster and harder, and after driving IYM back quickly two steps, Daieisho reversed gears on a dime and pulled Ichiyamamoto forward and down faster than he knew what hit him. Gotta love Daieisho who moves to 9-4 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 8-5.

And that brings us to our first leaderboard dude, M12 Sadanoumi, who was paired against Komusubi Hoshoryu. Hoshoryu charged well latching onto the right frontal belt grip straightway, and with that position, he was able to dictate the entire pace of the bout. And that he did by quickly using that outer grip to once again pull his opponent straight into his body while faking an outer belt throw. Sadanoumi countered with a left scoop throw creating the wild nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge, but Hoshoryu made sure he touched down first as both dudes toppled clear off the dohyo.

This was obviously thrown in Sadanoumi's favor, and the way you can tell is by looking at how quickly Hoshoryu let go of the belt mid-throw. Instead of trying to throw Sadanoumi over by the belt, his focus now turned to twisting his bodily wildly and ensuring his right foot touched down first. When you think about it, that right foot should have been engaged to the inside of Umi's left in an effort to aid Sadanoumi's fall, but Hoshoryu just spun wildly touching down with the right to create the fantastic finish in Sadanoumi's favor. You gotta hand it to Hoshoryu. He can orchestrate these wild finishes at the edge, but he was in full control here as he threw the bout in Sadanoumi's favor. The end result is Hoshoryu's falling to 7-6 while Sadanoumi is gifted another win at 10-3.

Our next leaderboard guy followed straight after in M6 Ura taking on Suckiwake Abi, and as predicted, Abi watched Ura's movements well at the tachi-ai firing tsuppari into his shoulders before catching Ura in a nice chokehold, and from there, all Ura could do was try and duck out of it to the right. As he did, Abi was right there to send his compromised opponent off of the dohyo in a flash. Good win for Abi (7-6) who uses the proper blueprint when facing Ura. As for Ura, he will finish the festivities 9-6 after withdrawing due to a left ankle sprain.

Said next bout was M4 Takanosho taking on Sekiwake Wakatakakage, and as dull as Wakatakakage has been this basho (except for his bouts against the Ozeki), he had nothing to lose here, and it showed as he executed his best tachi-ai of the tournament catching Takanosho in the chest with tsuppari as the latter looked to set up a pull by moving to his right. It didn't fool WTK, and he stayed square going for a pull of his own that caused Takanosho to put a right palm to the dirt. I didn't see any effort here from Takanosho not to mention good sumo, so this was either fixed from the get-go or Takanosho's nerves got the best of him. Regardless, we're at Day 13 and we have a sole leader whose fighting a struggling Sekiwake and all we get is that. It's lose-lose either way as Takanosho falls to 10-3 while Wakatakakage now sees the kachi-koshi light at 7-6.

With make-koshi on the line, Mitakeumi struck Shodai well establishing the migi-yotsu position, and despite Shodai's grabbing a left outer grip, he was purely hapless as Mitakeumi used his entire body nicely to nudge Shodai back and across in four or five seconds. I mean, Mitakeumi wasn't kicking ass here and taking names, but he didn't need to be...Shodai is that lame. With the loss, Shodai falls to 5-8 and must buy eight...er...win eight bouts in Nagoya to keep his rank. Forgive me if I root against that. As for Mitakeumi, he still needs major charity the final two days at 6-7 following the rare, legit win in his favor.

The final bout of the day featured Yokozuna Terunofuji against Takakeisho, and the Yokozuna came out soft giving Takakeisho a chance. In fact, Terunofuji didn't do anything the first five seconds or so of the bout just standing there as Takakeisho tried a weak inashi move that repositioned the two 90 degrees to the side. With both dudes socially distanced, Takakeisho went for that ever effective Ozeki move of clapping both hands together in front of your opponent's face, but Terunofuji laughed that off and still allowed Takakeisho to dance around and try a few pulls before the Yokozuna finally bore down going chest to chest and getting the right arm inside. Takakeisho retreated from that doing a maki-kae with the left in the process, but Terunofuji was bearing down hard at that point, and as Takakeisho lamely attempted to twist away at the edge, Terunofuji just bodied him across and down.

It wasn't a bout they're going to play 20 years from now, but Terunofuji easily won in moving to 10-3 while Takakeisho falls to 6-7. He draws Mitakeumi tomorrow meaning the loser of that bout will also be make-koshi and kadoban for Nagoya. It goes without saying that there's a path for all three Ozeki to make-koshi, and I'd by lying if I said I wasn't rooting for that to happen. Yusho? Who cares? All three Ozeki going make-koshi? Game on baby!!

I think it's worthless at this point to take the leaderboard down to four losses, so this is what we're dealing with heading into the weekend:

10-3: Terunofuji, Takanosho, Sadanoumi

Terunofuji draws Shodai, and I don't see what the point of letting up for the faux-zeki would accomplish at this point. To suggest Shodai could score a possible upset is just plain ludicrous.

Takanosho gets Kiribayama, and Takanosho has as much chance in a legitimate bout as Shodai (i.e. zero).

As for Sadanoumi, he must solve Daieisho, and that's a tall task for sure.

If all sumo was legit tomorrow, Terunofuji would find himself alone in the lead, but the drama is solely based on what the favorites decide to do.

Day 12 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
As I was scanning the headlines and wires this morning prior to even watching the bouts, I came across a picture from the Takakeisho - Ura contest that totally encapsulates what sumo wrestling has become. On one hand we have a supposed Ozeki whose duty it is to either anchor a yusho race or act as a roadblock for other yusho contenders, and on the other hand we have a gimmick rikishi in Ura who has no business occupying a place on the leaderboard. So you can imagine how unsurprised I was when I saw this picture on the wires.

I mean, is that a bout of sumo between a supposed elite rikishi and a yusho contender, or is it one guy giving the other a visual rectal exam? Maybe it's all in my head, but I seem to remember a day when the yusho would be decided by bouts fought chest to chest or where one guy came with a solid shove attack requiring his opponent to counter it with his own solid sumo. We still see glimpses of this with Terunofuji when he fights straight up, but it just feels as if we used to have five or six guys who could fight like Terunofuji, and it was enjoyable to see them all vy for the yusho.

But...we must take what we are given, so let's cover the day moving our way up the leaderboard in chronological order. Here's is how things stood at the start of the day:

9-2: Takanosho
8-3: Terunofuji, Kiribayama, Ura, Sadanoumi, Ichiyamamoto

Up first was M12 Sadanoumi who needed to solve M8 Shimanoumi, and Shimanoumi made it easy for him leaving his arms open at the tachi-ai and allowing Sadanoumi to get the left arm in early with the right arm also near the front of the belt. Before Sadanoumi could get moro-zashi, Shimanoumi just backed up and to his left as if to pull, but such a move never came as he was just leaving himself completely vulnerable to a Sadanoumi push-out. Just love it when bouts with yusho implications aren't even contested by one party as that's what makes sport so great! Or not. Sadanoumi is gifted this win in moving to 9-3 while Shimanoumi is well aware of the game in falling to 7-5.

Our leader, M4 Takanosho, was paired against a fellow contender in M15 Ichiyamamoto. Just like the picture above, this was not a sound bout of sumo that saw Ichiyamamoto come with two hands near Takanosho's neck at the tachi-ai, but without even trying to tsuppari, he quickly backed up and to his right attempting a bad pull. Takanosho read the move easily and had IYM pushed back and across in two seconds. With the win, Takanosho moves to 10-2 and maintains sole possession of the lead while Ichiyamamoto at 8-4 is knocked off of the leaderboard altogether just like that.

You can tell when a rikishi buys the majority of his bouts that put him in the yusho discussion. When he's finally faced with a bout that isn't arranged beforehand, he panics and gets his ass kicked in two seconds. IYM's charge was promising. Takanosho didn't blow him off the starting lines, and the youngster had two hands to the throat to go along with his height advantage, but Ichiyamamoto didn't get here with sound sumo, so he was unable to execute sound sumo in this bout, and that's what is so disappointing about this yusho race.

Let's next address M2 Kiribayama, who was paired against M6 Wakamotoharu. Kiribayama attempted a horrible--and intentional--henka where instead of moving to the side, he just jumped straight up leaving himself completely vulnerable to an oshi-dashi charge. The dude may have overestimated his foe, however, because Wakamotoharu was not primed to take advantage, and so near the edge, the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Kiribayama stayed largely upright giving WMH the right outer grip. Now in yotsu, the flow moved back to the center of the ring where the two largely dug in for close to two minutes. During this process, Kiribayama had WMH's left arm moved inwards and completely neutralized, and this provided the clear path to the front of WMH's belt, but Kiribayama never took it. He also had no intention to win the bout, which was evident from the tachi-ai, and so we waited nearly two minutes for Wakamotoharu to make a force out move, and when he did, Kiribayama went straight back and across not even bothering to counter. The end result here is Kiribayama's removing himself from the leaderboard now at 8-4 while Wakamotoharu moves to 7-5.

Before we move on, Kiribayama was the hottest rikishi in the division coming into the day having won seven straight, and when you consider he's thrown bouts against Takakeisho, Mitakeumi, and now Wakamotoharu, it puts the banzuke more into perspective. This dude should be 11-1, not 8-4.

With Kiribayama self-eliminating, we next move to the aforementioned M6 Ura - Takakeisho matchup, the penultimate match of the day. Both dudes were quite social distanced at the starting lines leading to a very awkward tachi-ai that saw Takakeisho hop forward with his feet aligned, but Ura was standing there awaiting his foe instead of moving forward, and so Takakeisho was able to connect with a nice paw to the throat to send Ura back to the edge but not across. The faux-zeki simply didn't have the strength, and so Ura fought off those nodowa before moving left around the perimeter of the ring, and as Takakeisho looked to square back up, Ura kept moving left. Takakeisho caught him with a right knee to the inside of Ura's right knee spinning Ura around and eventually down towards the center of the ring, but Ura kept his balance on one leg with his body virtually parallel to the dohyo as the hapless Takakeisho stepped beyond the straw.

They called for a mono-ii here to try and salvage something for the faux-zeki, but it was nothing doing. It wasn't even close as Ura scored the haphazard win typical of something you'd expect from these two in this situation. Not something you'd would have expected 20 years ago in a bout with yusho implications, but it's completely the norm this day and age. The end result is Ura's picking up a legitimate win in moving to 9-3 while Takakeisho should be ashamed of himself at 6-6. His failure to maintain his balance at the edge was a slight problem, but the larger problem was his inability to push Ura back after getting that nodowa from the start. What a farce this dude's entire Ozeki career has been.

The final bout of the day featured Yokozuna Terunofuji against Sekiwake Wakatakakage, and would we finally get a bout that was straight up and that also contained sound sumo? We would as Terunofuji briefly flirted with the right arm inside, but Wakatakakage lowered both arms and came away from the tachi-ai with moro-zashi. Normally it's prime position for any rikishi but not when your opponent is Terunofuji. Now chest to chest, Terunofuji gathered his wits for a few seconds before lifting Wakatakakage clear off the dohyo and walking him out and across kime-dashi style. The strength and the content exhibited here by Terunofuji is simply unmatched by any of the Japanese rikishi, and the contrast is as stark as ever. Terunofuji stays one off the pace now at 9-3 while Wakatakakage gets a dose of reality at 6-6 after sweeping the Ozeki the previous three days.

At the end of the day, the leaderboard lost two more rikishi, and so now we're down to this:

10-2: Takanosho
9-3: Terunofuji, Ura, Sadanoumi

I don't see how the Sumo Association can afford not to have Terunofuji on that leaderboard, so I expect him to keep winning. He'll face Takakeisho tomorrow and then likely the other two Ozeki over the weekend, so it goes without saying that the only way he can lose will be if he chooses to.

As for Takanosho, he draws Wakatakakage in a compelling matchup, and I favor Takanosho in that bout about 70-30. Wakatakakage hasn't henka'd in awhile, and he may very well do that tomorrow. If he can catch Takanosho off guard at the tachi-ai he can win, but I expect Wakatakakage to get a bit weak in the knees and lose. Who knows? There's so much yaocho going on you really don't know who's hot and who's not.

Ura draws Abi, and he cannot beat Abi straight up. Doesn't mean it won't be fixed, but I expect Abi to destroy Ura tomorrow.

And that leaves us with Sadanoumi who faces Hoshoryu. Sadanoumi can't win that one straight up, but Hoshoryu can be bought, so we'll see what happens there. If I had to guess, Ura will be defeated tomorrow and the other three will carry the leaderboard into the weekend. If Wakatakakage wins, things really get interesting the last two days.

In the remaining Sanyaku/Ozeki bouts, Komusubi Hoshoryu caught M2 Kotonowaka with a paw to the throat from the tachi-ai standing Kotonowaka upright, and Hoshoryu showed his diversity from there using a purely oshi attack to knock Kotonowaka back once, twice, three times a lady. Kotonowaka could do nothing here simply because Hoshoryu didn't let him. The Komusubi moves to a nice 7-5 while Kotonowaka falls to 6-6.

Komusubi Daieisho and M3 Tamawashi both came out of their stances looking to tsuppari, and after the first volley, Daieisho went for a quick pull, and Tamawashi just went with it putting both palms to the dirt before walking over to the edge of the dohyo. Typical yaocho when Tamawashi is on the giving end as he now drops to 6-6 while Daieisho picks up kachi-koshi at 8-4.

M5 Tobizaru used the ole neko-damashi tachi-ai before ducking low and grabbing Shodai's left leg, and he lifted his foe over to the edge in a flash. Shodai responded by grabbing the back of Tobizaru's belt with the right hand, and Shodai tugged while trying to move right as Tobizaru tried to watashi-komi first and then drag Shodai down by the neck. This all happened in less than two seconds, and Shodai's right knee touched down barely before Tobizaru crashed out. The ref ruled in favor of Tobizaru, but they called a mono-ii and went to the tape.

Replays showed that Shodai clearly touched down first, and it wasn't even close, but they unsurprisingly gave the faux-zeki a second life by declaring a do-over. What a crock that was. Tobizaru won this one start to finish, but oh well. Politics pervades in sumo and don't we all know it.

In the second go-around, Tobizaru went straight forward towards Shodai with arms extended, but it was more in a fashion of waiting there to react to Shodai's first move and not to attack. Shodai was doing nothing, however, and so Tobizaru began backing up as if to set up a pull, but one never came of course, and so Tobizaru just backed quickly out of the dohyo with Shodai in tow. What an uneventful finish this was as both rikishi end the day at 5-7, and all you can do is roll your eyes at the second chance they gave Shodai.

Suckiwake Abi struck Mitakeumi with his usual firehose tsuppari, and it took him a second to get his footing, but once he did, Mitakeumi had no answer for Abi who knocked Mitakeumi upright and had him pushed back before Mitakeumi could even think about going for a counter pull. Abi moves to 6-6 with the rare legitimate win, and Mitakeumi was completely dismantled in falling to 5-7. Mitakeumi's opponent tomorrow is none other than Shodai, and with both dudes entering the day at 5-7, someone's going kadoban by Day 13. I think the easy favorite in that bout is Mitakeumi.

I'll cover all of the Makuuchi bouts tomorrow and set up what should be an interesting weekend.

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Once again, NHK News 9 did not lead off their sports segment at the end of Day 11 with sumo. They'll always save Japanese pro baseball until the end to keep people watching, but sumo was sandwiched in between pro baseball on the back end and major league baseball on the front end. When they did get to sumo, they showed a large graphic with the two rikishi in the lead heading into the day: Takanosho and Ichiyamamoto. I'm pretty sure 80% of the people watching the news broadcast thought to themselves, "Who the hell are those guys?"

It wasn't a great moment, and nobody that saw that is going to think, "Wow, seems like we got a barn burner on our hands." A barn burner it ain't, and it's not just because two dudes who lack name recognition are the sole leaders but because the sumo has not been strong. When someone like Takanosho (or even Shodai trying to kachi-koshi) loses the tachi-ai day after day and then can't dictate the pace of his bout, it lacks any indication of strength and momentum, so essentially what we have going into each day is "will he win?" instead of, "I can't wait to see what he brings today.

Enough of that. Let's review the leaderboard at the start of the day:

8-2: Takanosho, Ichiyamamoto
7-3: Terunofuji, Kiribayama, Ura, Aoiyama, Sadanoumi

We'll just go in chronological order of all the leaders regardless of their two-loss or three-loss status.

Up first was M15 Ichiyamamoto vs. M8 Shimanoumi, and this bout was a perfect example of how yaocho harms sumo, especially when it's the foundation of the yusho race. Ichiyamamoto won the tachi-ai here easily standing Shimanoumi upright with his initial shoves, but instead of that spastic tsuppari attack we usually see, IYM began backing up as if to wait for Shimanoumi to do something...anything, but Shimanoumi was clueless, and so Ichiyamamoto moved right as if to pull, but he purposefully whiffed on the move and flipped over onto his back as if he was forced down by a tsuki from Shimanoumi.

Problem was that Shimanoumi didn't do anything here, and even Mainoumi said those exact words as he watched the replay. The two announcers finally deducted that Ichiyamamoto's left leg slipped out from beneath him. If you trip or your leg slips, you fall forward; you don't fall onto your back. I don't know what the politics were behind this one, but Ichiyamamoto clearly took a dive here, and that fact is indisputable. My opinion as to why he took the loss was because sumo can't afford to have a complete no-name take the yusho in a basho where the three Ozeki suck so badly, but who knows? The end result is Ichiyamamoto's falling to 8-3 while Shimanoumi backs his way into 7-4.

Next in line was M11 Sadanoumi who was paired against M6 Wakamotoharu, and the two struck well at the tachi-ai coming away in the hidari-yotsu position. Sadanoumi got the early right outer, but Wakamotoharu used his size well to keep the Sadamight at bay until he could grab a right outer of his own, and once obtained, the bout was on. I'm not sure what was going through Sadanoumi's mind, but I think he realized the danger he was in against a younger, larger foe, and so he immediately went for a do-or-die force out lifting WMH upright just a bit and then leading with the outer grip. At the edge, Wakamotoharu had two choices: go left or go right, and the youngster chose to move right using his outer grip in a nage-no-uchi-ai against Sadanoumi's right inside position. Both rikishi crashed down to the dohyo across the edge and then fell off the mound altogether, but Wakamotoharu touched down an instant before Umi crashed down himself. This is exactly the kind of sumo I expect to see from the "leaders," and big props to Sadanoumi for winning this one straight up. He moves to 8-3 with the nice win while Wakamotoharu falls one back at 6-5.

The very next bout featured M6 Ura vs. M11 Aoiyama, and wouldn't the outcome of this be telling? With Ura a full meter behind the starting lines, Aoiyama came out of his crouch with his arms robotically stretched forward as he sauntered to the front of Ura as if to go for a pull, but such a move never came. After gifting Ura moro-zashi, Aoiyama still had multiple options open had he wanted them: kime-dashi, kote-nage, etc. Instead of those he just went with the flow of Ura's force out charge and backpedaled straight outta the dohyo not even bothering to move laterally and attempt a last-ditch tsuki-otoshi. I don't think anyone was buying this one as Aoiyama was limp start to finish in not only keeping Ura alive at 8-3 but also removing himself completely from the yusho race in falling to 7-4. Remember when Aoiyama was alone at the top at 6-0? Since then he's gone 1-4 losing to the likes of Ura and Midorifuji. Yeah, sure.

M2 Kiribayama followed the previous debacle, and the Mongolian was paired today against M5 Tobizaru who came with two outstretched arms in a defensive posture from the tachi-ai, and so Kiribayama tested the early pull and kata-sukashi waters before burrowing his left arm to the inside. Tobizaru jammed his head into Kiribayama's torso to help keep him at bay, but Kiribayama pulled Tobizaru forward and off balance setting up the left outer grip, and from there, Kiribayama had a host of options open for him. Instead of a dashi-nage, he just pulled his gal in snug and scored the easy force-out victory moving to an easy peasy 8-3 while Tobizaru falls to 5-6.

And that brings us to M4 Takanosho who was paired against Komusubi Hoshoryu, a rikishi that Takanosho cannot beat straight up. Hoshoryu avoided a straight up clash at the tachi-ai shading left and grabbing the early outer grip on that side while getting the right arm inside as well, and that's all the youngster needed to take control of the bout. Instead of attacking ,however, Hoshoryu backed up a few steps hoping that Takanosho would seize the momentum shift, but he wasn't ready for it because he didn't instigate it, and so the two hunkered back down still in the migi-yotsu position. After resting for about 10 seconds, Hoshoryu began another attack lifting Takanosho upright with the outer left and placing his left leg directly to Takanosho's right, a move that is used to pin an opponent in close, but instead of going in the natural force-out direction, Hoshoryu drifted right and over to the edge waiting for a move from Takanosho. No move came, however, as Takanosho only had the feeble right inside position, and he didn't go for a tsuki with the left, and so Hoshoryu just pulled Takanosho into his own body falling backwards to the clay and bringing Takanosho down on top of him.

After buying yet another win, Takanosho moved to 9-2 and became the sole leader of the basho while Hoshoryu more than knows his place in falling to 6-5. Takanosho draws Ichiyamamoto tomorrow, and T-Sho has at least an 80% chance of winning. He can easily get to the inside of IYM and force him out in mere seconds, so look for Takanosho to skate to a 10-2 record heading into the final three days.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, our final leader on the day was Yokozuna Terunofuji who absorbed Suckiwake Abi's tachi-ai well brushing aside his tsuppari and plowing forward feeling for the right frontal grip while using a very effective tsuki with the left into Abi's armpit, and before the Yokozuna could really get firmly to the inside, he had Abi straight up, on his heels, and pushed out of the ring in short order. Fuji's Terrible when he wants to be and expect him to keep winning in concert with Takanosho. For now, he positions himself at 8-3 while Abi falls to 5-6.

The leaderboard is whittled down a bit, but we're still just a loss from Takanosho away from doubling things up again. Here's how we stand at the end of Day 11:

9-2: Takanosho
8-3: Terunofuji, Kiribayama, Ura, Sadanoumi, Ichiyamamoto

As stated previously, Takanosho is the favorite tomorrow against Ichiyamamoto, so Butthead could go from tied for the lead to off the leaderboard altogether in just two days. Uh, huh, huh, huh. I think Takanosho is the favorite to yusho as long as he's got enough money the final three days and as long as his opponents agree to sell.

Terunofuji should keep pace as another Terunofuji loss the next few days would be disastrous. Not because the Japanese fans are rooting for him, but who else on that leaderboard has name recognition? Just Ura, but that would be a too much of a stretch even for the most gullible fans. They need the yusho to go into the final day to look legit, and right now I'd say it's about 50-50 between Takanosho and Terunofuji.

Speaking of Ura, he draws Takakeisho tomorrow, and the dude should be ecstatic over that matchup. I favor Ura there as Takakeisho can't beat anyone from the tachi-ai, and his lateral movement is terrible.

Moving to the sanyaku and Ozeki bouts we haven't touched previously, Komusubi Daieisho went on the offensive early against M2 Kotonowaka keeping Baby Waka upright, but Daieisho could not definitively drive him back and across, so credit Kotonowaka for standing in there well. The problem for Kotonowaka was that he was largely on defense today, and when he did get a chance to attack, he aimed for Daieisho's neck and head with a few tsuppari instead of connecting to the chest. In the end, Daieisho frustrated Kotonowaka enough to where he went for a pull, and Daieisho caught him at that point scoring the nice oshi-dashi win. Daieisho moves to 7-4 while Kotonowaka falls to 6-5.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage took full advantage of his schedule again today charging with a bit of confidence against Mitakeumi and getting his hands to the front of the belt early. As the dust settled, the two came away in migi-yotsu, and Mitakeumi hurried a force-out charge without a solid grip of his opponent, and so WTK was able to survive and force the action back to the center of the ring where Mitakeumi grabbed a right outer but didn't have much to the inside with the left. With Wakatakakage hunkered low, the two drew a stalemate for nearly a minute until Mitakeumi tried to lift WTK up and force him back, but once again, he didn't have a solid grip of his opponent, and Mitakeumi was gassed after that second force out attempt. Taking just a few more seconds to gather his wits, the Sekiwake must have sensed that Mitakeumi was done because when he went for his own force-out attempt, Mitakeumi had no answer.

It's obvious that this bout was real, and this gives some hints as to the false nature of the banzuke. Mitakeumi, who falls to 5-6 in defeat, is clearly not an Ozeki, and WTK, who moves to 6-5, is clearly not a true Sekiwake. It's easy to see that he bought that yusho in March.

The next bout featured Takakeisho, and I guess they need at least one Ozeki to kachi-koshi because M4 Endoh came forward flat footed with feet aligned and arms wide open saying do me now, and Takakeisho did. This silly bout lasted maybe three seconds, and Takakeisho may as well have been pushing around a blow up doll Endoh was that listless. Takakeisho moves to 6-5 with the gift while Endoh graciously falls to 4-7.

In watching the sumo from M3 Tamawashi and Shodai this basho, it has been clear that Shodai cannot beat The Mawashi straight up. He can't even come close. But bout fixing is prevalent and it obviously occurred here as Tamawashi came with the C3P0 arms while Shodai looked to get his left arm to the inside. Just when it looked like a yotsu-zumo bout would form, Shodai backed up not really going for a pull, and Tamawashi took that as a hint to just fall forward catching himself with both palms. As for Shodai, he did what usually happens when someone when by tsuki-otoshi...he rolled all the way to the other side of the dohyo and beyond the straw. This is just nonsense, and not even the sheeple in attendance thought this was real. Shodai is still at 4-7 needing mercy the rest of the way while Tamawashi falls to 6-5.

We'll see what tomorrow brings and either Thursday or Friday I'll cover every bout just to comment on the entire division one more time.

Day 10 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
So far there have been seven weekdays of this tournament, and on only one of those days has sumo led the sports broadcast on the popular NHK News 9 program. Japanese pro baseball is taking precedent as well as the Japanese baseball players overseas, and the issue the Sumo Association is facing this basho in terms of fighting for headlines is that there is no star power on the leaderboard. Think of any other sports leagues, and think of the effect the stars have on the games and the overall fan interest. In this version of sumo, the stars are the Ozeki, and they simply suck, and so sumo is like this paradox where you have the sport functioning, but the rikishi who are painted as stars can't carry a basho, and their sumo lacks any star power whatsoever.

The venue is less than half full on weekdays, so the fans who bought seats pre-basho are coming, but the other seats are not filling in until the weekend.

Today, lets just focus on the leaderboard which will still cover about half of the bouts on the day. Refreshing everyone's memories, here is where we stood at the start of the day:

7-2: Takanosho, Aoiyama, Sadanoumi, Ichiyamamoto
6-3: Terunofuji, Hoshoryu, Kiribayama, Tamawashi, Ura

Because so many of the two-loss rikishi are scrubs, let's start there and go through their bouts first in chronological order. Up first was M11 Aoiyama who was paired against M16 Midorifuji, and I nearly blew a snot bubble as this one unfolded. Aoiyama's arms were completely wide open at the tachi-ai as he made no effort to tsuppari or latch onto his smaller foe from the outside. As for Midorifuji, he got his right arm inside and went for the lightest "kata-sukashi" you've ever seen, and Aoiyama just complied by diving forward and down in a controlled fashion. It took maybe two seconds, and Aoiyama knows his place in falling to 7-3. As for Midorifuji, he moves to 6-4 with his so-called signature move, but this was about as sloppy of a kata-sukashi as you'd care to see.

With Aoiyama knocked down a rung, next up was M15 Ichiyamamoto fighting M9 Kotoshoho, and this bout provided likely the worst tachi-ai of the entire basho. Kotoshoho henka'd a bit to his right, and IYM wasn't prepared for it, but Kotoshoho wasn't looking to do any damage. As Ichiyamamoto recovered, Kotoshoho allowed himself to be turned 90 degrees by a move so light I don't dare call it an inashi, and with Kotoshoho voluntarily flopping over to the edge, he turned and executed that ever so effective move in sumo where you put one leg forward way off the dohyo and balance on the other leg because it's such a stable stance. Somehow, though, Ichiyamamoto was able to break down Kotoshoho's superior defense system and score the tsuki-dashi win. Incredible!!

Ichiyamamoto becomes the first rikishi this basho to buy..er..uh..pick up kachi-koshi, and his interview afterwards was classic. I don't ever remember hearing him interviewed before, but he was just like Butthead after every answer laughing to himself, "Uh, huh, huh, huh. Uh, huh, huh, huh." I never really liked this guy until I saw that, and now he just may be my favorite rikishi. Cool. As for Kotoshoho, he falls to 5-5 and will be paid handsomely for his participation.

After two horrible bouts from the first two-loss leaders that lasted a combined five seconds, up next was M12 Sadanoumi fighting M9 Tochinoshin, and the two treated us to a very good bout of sumo. From the tachi-ai, the two connected in migi-yotsu where Sadanoumi had the left outer grip, but Tochinoshin is too much of a load, and so Sadanoumi dug in instead of attack. Knowing he had the size and strength advantage, Shin went for an early inside belt throw with the right, but Sadanoumi hung on well and immediately countered with a left outer that had Tochinoshin backed to the brink, but the Private stood tall at the edge and grabbed his own left outer against the now vulnerable Sadamight, and from there he was able to hoist Sadanoumi over and across leading with that outer grip.

Now, this is the kind of sumo you'd expect see among the leaders, so it was a refreshing bout of sumo, but unfortunately for Sadanoumi (7-3), he's knocked down to the three-loss tier. They actually called a mono-ii here for who knows what reason, and I think it was to chastise the two for actually engaging in a real bout of sumo, which resulted in a victory for the foreigner, Tochinoshin, who moves to 6-4.

The final two-loss rikishi was M4 Takanosho paired against M4 Endoh, and Endoh easily won the tachi-ai here knocking Takanosho back a full step and then getting his right arm to the inside. Instead of pressing the forward action, however, Endoh backed up and to the side for no other reason than to throw the bout. And that he did by moving to his left as if to go for a pull, but he made sure to step out before Takanosho hit the dirt. Takanosho was out of control start to finish here, and Endoh did all the work, but as we so often see in fixed bouts, the dude who loses the tachi-ai and does nothing to dictate his opponent's movements comes away the winner. They had to call a mono-ii here because it was that close, but Endoh was well aware of the timing needed to step out first. I mean, Endoh was in full control and could have kept his foot off of the clay as we see so many rikishi do at the edge, but here he stamped that foot down hard and fast as if trying to kill a roach. Takanosho is gifted his 8-2 record, and money can buy you a lot in sumo. As for Endoh, he falls to 4-6 and takes the cash in return.

Moving onto the three loss tier, M6 Ura was up first against M10 Nishikigi, and the latter opened himself way up at the tachi-ai to Ura's bidding. As for Ura, he came out of his stance as if he was having a seizure, but he eventually righted the ship moving to his right and getting his hand up and under Nishikigi's left shoulder, and Nishikigi anticipated the kata-sukashi, and just flipped over onto his back so hard, he took Ura along for the ride. In a proper kata-sukashi, the victor keeps his feet as he moves to the side and the loser does not end up on his back, but this bout was fixed from the get-go and so both dudes crashed down to the dirt in unorthodox fashion. It's sad that they need to pimp a guy like Ura in order to try and keep the fans happy. He moves to 7-3 while Nishikigi falls to 4-6.

M3 Tamawashi was paired against M2 Kotonowaka, and only in sumo could you have the chief judge of the bout the father and coach of one of the participants. There's no such thing as conflict of interest in sumo, however, because so much of it these days is theater. And that was the case here as Tamawashi dictated the pace with his arms moving in tsuppari fashion, but he was shuffling his feet so wildly it created nothing but a foundation of sand. The problem was that Kotonowaka couldn't get a word in edgewise, and so Tamawashi was going left and right as if Kotonowaka was side swiping, but Baby Waka wasn't instigating any contact. After a wild five or six seconds, Tamawashi moved to the center of the ring and put his left hand against Kotonowaka's side as if to tsuki, and you could see him flinch out of instinct, but then he just stopped and waited for Kotonowaka to make a move. Kotonowaka finally got a clue and eventually offered a slow-forming left tsuki of his own, and Tamawashi just dove forward and down causing Yoda to declare from the grave, "The Force is strong in that one." And that it was as Tamawashi voluntarily takes himself back off the leaderboard as both rikishi end the day 6-4.

Sometimes you just have to laugh at how fake these bouts are.

M2 Kiribayama faced Suckiwake Abi, and Abi came out of the gate hot catching Kiribayama squarely in the throat, but Kiribayama was able to move back and right a bit turning the tables by throwing Abi off balance enough to where Abi's back was now to the edge. As Abi looked to tsuppari his way back into the bout, Kiribayama barely touched him with a left tsuki to the side, and Abi just dutifully hit the dirt. I should be clear here when I say that Abi cannot hold Kiribayama's jock, but this bout was fixed, and Abi took an obvious dive. I don't know the politics behind it, but Kiribayama called a favor in here as he moves to 7-3 while Abi falls to 5-5.

The day's final bout contained our final three-loss rikishi with Yokozuna Terunofuji taking on Komusubi Hoshoryu, and Hoshoryu reached for and got a left frontal grip from the tachi-ai, but as Fuji pressed in close, the two came away in the gappuri migi-yotsu position. Terunofuji wasted no time in executing a force-out charge, but Hoshoryu dug in well making Terunofuji work for it a bit and wrench Hoshoryu this way and that near the edge before finally knocking him down to the dirt yori-taoshi style. This was a nice way to end the day with a little chikara-zumo, especially when so many of the bouts lacked any power. Terunofuji moves to 7-3 with the nice win while Hoshoryu falls off the board at 6-4.

With the leaderboard reshuffled, we head into Day 11 as follows:

8-2: Takanosho, Ichiyamamoto
7-3: Terunofuji, Kiribayama, Ura, Aoiyama, Sadanoumi

This is looking more like a normal leaderboard at the end of the Chubansen, but there are eight more rikishi lurking at 6-4. Both Takanosho and Ichiyamamoto are buying their wins here, so as long as the money keeps flowing in, these guys are going to keep winning.

Before we close, let's just touch on Sekiwake Wakatakakage who has been struggling all basho. He's been taking one step forward and two steps back the entire way, but now that they have paired him with two Ozeki in as many days, he's got his first two-bout win streak. He easily dispatched Shodai today moving to 5-5 while Shodai is now on the brink at 3-7. Wakatakakage draws Mitakeumi tomorrow, and if he wants to win the bout, he will. Isn't it interesting that the dude can't win two in a row the entire way until he gets to the Ozeki? Being paired against the Ozeki is a treat. It's a free win with kensho if you want it, and it's also a payout if you want to sell the bout. Just ask Kotonowaka.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The Sunday broadcast of the sumos was toned back down after the extravaganza on Saturday. I'm guessing the reason was because the NHK Cup Men's Gymnastics competition pre-empted the NHK general broadcast again on Sunday for 30 minutes, and so there wasn't that time in between the Juryo bouts and Makuuchi bouts to hype anything. I don't have time to break down any of the bouts from Sunday, but the key points we can take away from the first eight days are: 1) Terunofuji has lowered the bar of his sumo in order to align himself with the struggling Ozeki, and 2) Nobody else has stepped up to take command of the basho, and so we have this hot mess on our hands in terms of the yusho race where over 40% of the division is within one-loss of each other heading into week 2.

I mean, Juryo gets ridiculous at times with leaderboards that include 8 guys or so, but we have double that here in Makuuchi to start Day 9. A full 16 rikishi are either tied for the lead or just one bout off the pace, and I have never seen such a situation in my 30 odd years of watching sumo. Kitanofuji has never seen this either, so when he was asked about it, his reply was, "Warau shika nai," or all you can do is just laugh.

16 "leaders" at the start of Day 9 suggests major parity, but the real issue is that the foreign rikishi are pulling back in tandem with their Japanese counterparts, and with no single Japanese rikishi able to distinguish himself from the others, it leads to this:

6-2: Takanosho, Tamawashi, Aoiyama, Sadanoumi, Ichiyamamoto
5-3: Terunofuji, Takakeisho, Abi, Daieisho, Hoshoryu, Kiribayama, Tobizaru, Ura, Wakamotoharu, Kotoshoho, Chiyotairyu

Strangely enough, only two sets of rikishi from that leaderboard where paired against each other on the day, so let's just work our way through the whole Makuuchi shebang.

Chiyonokuni visited from Juryo to take on M16 Midorifuji, and Kuni kept Midorifuji at bay with some tsuppari to the neck before relenting a bit and taking the bout to migi yotsu-zumo where he was in complete command with a left outer grip. Kuni tested the force-out waters first, and when Midorifuji resisted, he went for a hasty outer belt throw, but he didn't have Midorifuji pinned in place, and so the latter was able to pivot left and counter with a left scoop throw of his own that sent Kuni down fast enough to where he put his left hand down to break his fall, and that hand touched down before Midorifuji was slung out of the ring. Chiyonokuni's lack of yotsu skill was on display here as he blew this one in falling to 2-7 while Midorifuji (5-4) showed that any desperate counter move at the edge is better than nothing.

M14 Ohho and M17 Kohtokuzan bounced off of each other at the starting lines before engaging in a mutual tsuppari affair. Kohtokuzan's feet were aligned and he was standing up straight, however, and so it was easy pickings for Ohho who moved forward with nice de-ashi scoring the tsuki-dashi win in four or five seconds. I don't think Kohtokuzan intentionally assumed that bad posture, but it was a good example of how susceptible a rikishi is with his feet aligned and his hips up high as they say. Ohho moves to 4-5 with the win while Kohtokuzan falls to 1-8.

M13 Chiyotairyu struck M13 Meisei well for a brief moment before pretending to go for a pull when he was really just opening himself up for Meisei to get to the inside. As Tairyu retreated with hands up way too high, he invited Meisei to get the right arm inside, and the former Suckiwake easily pressed forward scoring the yori-taoshi win against a very willing opponent. Both rikishi end the day at 5-4, which means they are just two back from the lead!!

M17 Kagayaki won the tachi-ai against M12 Sadanoumi blowing him back with some nice tsuki, and as Sadanoumi moved left, he lightly touched Kagayaki's outstretched arm, and they called it an inashi move, but it was really just an excuse for Kagayaki to open up his arms, back up as if to go for a pull, and let Sadanoumi push him swiftly back and across for the "comeback" win. Sadanoumi stays on the top rung of the leaderboard with the gift at 7-2, and how often do we see this where a supposed leader gets blown away at the tachi-ai but then magically turns the tables in an instant? Kagayaki obviously sold one here in falling to 3-6.

M15 Ichiyamamoto also found himself on the top rung of the leaderboard at the start of the day, and he was paired against M11 Chiyoshoma, so it was little surprise to see Chiyoshoma open with the C3P0 arms and just go with it as Ichiyamamoto attempted some awkward tsuppari that were way too high for his own good, but with Chiyoshoma backing up in tow, the bout was over in less than three seconds. If you watch the slow motion replays, it's hard to find a significant blow coming from Ichiyamamoto. His insides were completely exposed, and it was a very awkward attack, but when the bout is fixed, even IYM can win by tsuki-dashi. Ichiyamamoto joins Sadanoumi at 7-2 while Chiyoshoma laughs all the way to the bank now at 4-5.

M9 Kotoshoho looked to push M15 Azumaryu back in short order, but Ryu evaded at the edge going for a pull that sent Kotoshoho off balance, but Azumaryu didn't go for the easy kill. The two hooked back up in migi-yotsu with Kotoshoho maintaining a commanding left outer grip, but he couldn't work his foe over and across with it. After a failed dashi-nage, Azumaryu had Kotoshoho by the front of the belt, but he didn't go for the yori-kiri straight way, and so back and forth the two went for about a minute even social distancing at one point before Kotoshoho was completely gassed succumbing to a very weak Azumaryu pull attempt in the end. Both rikishi end the day at 5-4 and are still in yusho contention!!

M14 Yutakayama's tachi-ai was weak with half-assed kachi-age, but M8 Terutsuyoshi was even less driven. After the bad tachi-ai, Terutsuyoshi floated left a bit and then just turned his right shoulder 90 degrees allowing Yutakayama to latch onto the back of T-Yoshi's belt and then okuri-dashi him across in ridiculously easy fashion. Both dudes knew coming in that this was going in favor of YY, and so there was very little effort or action in this thrown bout that saw Yutakayama improve to 4-5 with Terutsuyoshi falling to 2-7.

M12 Myogiryu knocked M8 Shimanoumi back a step from the tachi-ai, but he didn't look to capitalize by thrusting or grabbing the belt, and so the two sorta looked to go to yotsu-zumo, but they weren't chest to chest, and so they ended right back in the center of the ring in the grapplin' position with arms pushing against shoulders and elbows. After a few seconds, Myogiryu came away with a right inside belt grip and then a left frontal grip while Shimanoumi didn't have a pot to piss in...basically his circumstance the entire bout. And yet, Myogiryu made no effort to defeat his opponnet relinquishing his inside left and then choosing to stand there as Shimanoumi finally executed the weakest left tsuki-otoshi you'd care to see, but Myogiryu just toppled over and down. What a lousy bout with no substance as Shimanoumi buys his way to 5-4 while Myogiryu is the inverse at 4-5.

M11 Aoiyama knocked M7 Kotoeko back from the tachi-ai, but instead of using his beefy tsuppari, Aoiyama chose to get the right arm inside and take the bout to yotsu. Kotoeko wasn't big enough to really stand his ground, but Aoiyama refused the left outer grip and instead let Eko work his way back towards the center of the ring, but in the end, Aoiyama went for a very awkward left kote-nage that sent Kotoeko down rather easily while Aoiyama himself tumbled over and off the dohyo in front of the chief judge. What an awkward bout of sumo this was where Aoiyama was maybe fighting at 60%. He still won and moved to 7-2 staying at the top run of the l-board while Kotoeko drops to 4-5.

Hey, hey, don't look now but M7 Takarafuji picked up his first winna the basho!! Against M10 Nishikigi, the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Takarafuji pressed in tightly with his chest nudging Nishikigi back little by little as both dudes considered a right outer grip. Nishikigi was far enough away from it and on his heels, so he determined his only chance was to maki-kae with the right, but as he did, Takarafuji seized on the momentum shift and forced his opponent back and across in short order. Takarafuji moves to 1-8 and can do this sumo any time he wanna. As for Nishikigi, he falls to 4-5 in defeat, but hey...that's just three off the leaders!

With the first half in the books and just two guys whittled away from the leaderboard (Chiyotairyu and Kotoshoho), NHK finally posted the updated version as follows:



During the break, they were discussing the updated leaderboard and the pending yusho race, and Kitanofuji stated the obvious in that all of the rikishi in elite ranks were virtually the same record:



He then pointed out that these dudes have yet to fight each other for the most part, and so the yusho line is going to fall to at least 12-3 and likely 11-4 now. When asked who he thought could emerge from this list, he pretended to be deep in thought and then touted Takakeisho again. He specifically said that it wasn't necessarily Takakeisho's sumo to this point, which hasn't been great, but he just looks as if he's got some "genki" in him.

Now, that's just made up analysis, but Kitanofuji was in a tough spot there. He has to say a Japanese rikishi for the fans, and so he went with the Ozeki with the best record.

Moving right along, the second half began with M9 Tochinoshin delivering a kachi-age into M6 Wakamotoharu, and then as WMH pressed a bit, Shin agreed to back up a step in exchange for the right inside position. Wakamotoharu grabbed a left outer grip, but it was on one fold of the belt that was starting to unravel, and Shin had him up higher than he wanted to be. As the two grappled nicely in the center of the ring, Tochinoshin secured his own left outer grip upon which he began his force out charge. At the edge, Wakamotoharu tried to move laterally and attempt a counter tsuki-otoshi, but Shin had him in too snug, and the Private forced Wakamotoharu backwards and down yori-taoshi style. This was a very good bout of chikara-zumo from both parties, and none of the Ozeki could have hung in there as WMH did today. Both dudes end the day at 5-4 and Wakamotoharu is (sigh) knocked off of the leaderboard for now.

With a lack of a true positive storyline this basho, M6 Ura has been getting some run just because he's marketable to the gullible fans. Today he was paired against M10 Okinoumi and the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Okinoumi refused to get his left in deep and instead opted to just backpedal his way out of the dohyo with Ura in tow. This was effectively a bout of butsukari-geiko with Okinoumi on the receiving end. The only word they could use to describe this one afterwards was "mezurashii," or rare. How about "fixed"? Regardless, Ura is obviously gifted his 6-3 record while you couldn't have asked a dude to fight more mukiryoku than Okinoumi did today in falling to 4-5. Unbelievable.

Speaking of unbelievable, M4 Endoh defeated M3 Tamawashi in about four seconds after losing the tachi-ai badly. Tamawashi stood Endoh upright with two hands to the throat but then quickly relented and began shading backwards inviting the oshi charge from Endoh. Endoh's shoves had no effect, however, and so at the tawara, Tamawashi squatted as if he was using one of those old washiki toilets, and Endoh finally knocked him off of the dohyo altogether. As if. Tamawashi is willingly knocked down to 6-3 while Endoh moves to 4-5.

M3 Hokutofuji caught M2 Kotonowaka by the neck at the tachi-ai with a left paw and immediately drove Baby Waka back to the edge. As Hokutofuji went to make that final push, Kotonowaka moved right going for a desperate counter tsuki to Hokutofuji's left side, and Kotonowaka somehow kept from stepping back and across before Hokutofuji hit the dirt. I can't believe they didn't call a mono-ii as it looked like a methodic win for Hokutofuji live, but slow motion replays did not show Kotonowaka's touching out despite his body being well beyond the plane of the dohyo. I suppose they couldn't be arsed to double check a meaningless bout, so gunbai to Kotonowaka who moves to 5-4 and who hasn't had to spend a dime yet this tourney to buy those wins. As for Hokutofuji, he was burned here in falling to 2-7.

Komusubi Daieisho looked to take charge against M2 Kiribayama from the tachi-ai firing away with tsuppari, and Kiribayama agreed to play defensively the first second or two sliding back a step until he could time a move to get up and under Daieisho's outstretched arms. With Daieisho unable to really bully Kiribayama around, the latter finally pushed up into Daieisho's right arm causing the Komusubi to turn just a bit, and Kiribayama helped him turn even more with a shove to the side, and before Daieisho could square back up, Kiribayama had his foe pushed across in oshi-dashi fashion. I don't think Kitanofuji is intentionally doing this, but he has given Kiribayama's sumo more legitimate praise than any other rikishi this basho. You can tell when Kitanofuji is trying to build up the Japanese dudes, and that's why they pay him, but with his analysis on Kiribayama and how sharp he's looked the last little while, the comments have been genuine. Kiribayama moves to 6-3 with another nice win while Daieisho falls to 5-4.

Komusubi Hoshoryu charged hard into M1 Takayasu and simply ran into a brick wall. The problem for Takayasu was that he didn't react quickly enough to take advantage. He tried to tsuppari his way towards Hoshoryu after the tachi-ai, but the Komusubi held him off with defensive tsuppari of his own while retreating and then near the edge, Hoshoryu moved right and tugged Takayasu forward and down by the right arm. Takayasu's definitely got some girth working for him, but his speed and balance (or lack thereof) hurt him here as Hoshoryu adjusts well in moving to 6-3 while Takayasu falls to 2-7.

Suckiwake Abi caught Shodai with two hands to the neck standing him straight up, but instead of moving forward with nice de-ashi, Abi decided to retreat and did one of those phantom swipes down the front of Shodai's body, and with Abi doing all the work backing himself up and leaving his body vulnerable at the edge, Shodai was able to move forward and nudge him across that last step. That a retreating Abi was not knocked to the venue floor is indicative of just how puff the sumo was here, but Shodai is gifted his third winna the basho at 3-6 while Abi is back off the leaderboard for now at 5-4.

M4 Takanosho caught Mitakeumi with a right paw to the neck from the tachi-ai and used that to stand his foe upright, and before Mitakeumi could adjust, Takanosho plowed forward and forced the faux-zeki back and across in maybe two seconds. All Mitakeumi could muster was a reach for Takanosho's belt with the left, but he was too far gone by the time he got it. This was what they call a "kansho," or an ass-kicking, and I think Takanosho (7-2) is the favorite to take the yusho among the Japanese rikishi. He's already fought the dudes above him on the banzuke, and he's also got the Takanohana money in his favor.

I know Takanohana is long gone from sumo, but there are still supporters who are funding the Makuuchi careers of Takakeisho and Takanosho...two of Takanohana's recruits. Takanosho can NOT run the table on his own, and I think he's an underdog against Endoh tomorrow, but he's got some momentum, and there are plenty of other guys above him who are going to keep losing. As for Mitakeumi, he falls to 4-5 and needs to start making some phone calls just to kachi-koshi.

Oh snap! Just when Kitanofuji starts hyping Takakeisho again, he enters the ring against Sekiwake Wakatakakage and forgets to pay his foe off. Takakeisho's tachi-ai was passive, and that's a huge waste against a dude like Wakatakakage whose got perhaps the worst tachi-ai in the upper half of the ranks. With no one taking advantage from the initial charge, WTK agreed to play defense as Takakeisho sorta engaged in a tsuppari attack, but he was really looking to set up a pull. He gave WTK his best shots, but the youngster's balance is just too good, and he easily survived the pulls and swipes. About eight seconds into the bout, Takakeisho was gassed after attempting his signature move, the wild left roundhouse, and so as the faux-zeki looked to recover, Wakatakakage baited him into a pull and sent him down to the dirt hataki-komi style.

If you have access to the slow motion replays here, watch them and observe just how little is going on in the ring. I mean the dudes are moving and flailing, but there is nothing connecting or applying force against the other person until that final swipe from Takakeisho and the final pull from WTK. So much bark but no bite here as Wakatakakage moves to 4-5 with a rare legit win while Takakeisho falls to 5-4.

At two back now, if they still want an Ozeki to remain part of the yusho race, the line has gotta come down to 11-4.

In the final bout of the day, Yokozuna Terunofuji welcomed M5 Tobizaru by latching on around the outside of Tobizaru's arm with the right hand from the tachi-ai, but Tobizaru slipped away as the two traded places in the dohyo. The Yokozuna next fished with the left hand low looking for something to the inside or front of the belt against the slippery Tobizaru. Ultimately, Tobizaru stuck his right arm inside and that allowed the Yokozuna to latch on around both of TZ's upper arms, and after a few kime yanks, Terunofuji hoisted Tobizaru off of the dohyo with the dual kime grips and walked him beyond the straw for the kime-dashi win. Terunofuji was cautious throughout but came away with the easy win and 6-3 record. As for Tobizaru, he is erased from the leaderboard for now at 5-4.

With the leaderboard reshuffled, this is what it looks like heading into Day 10:

7-2: Takanosho, Aoiyama, Sadanoumi, Ichiyamamoto
6-3: Terunofuji, Hoshoryu, Kiribayama, Tamawashi, Ura

The only dude from that two-loss line who has a political chance to yusho is Takanosho. Other than that, look at all of the foreigners lurking.

Day 7 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
My Day 7 broadcast was pre-empted by the NHK Cup Women's Gymnastics competition, and by the time my feed started, they were showing replays of the M11 Aoiyama - M12 Sadanoumi matchup. At the tachi-ai, Aoiyama put both hands at the tops of Sadanoumi's shoulders, which was a useless move, but it still knocked Sadanoumi back a half step. Instead of moving forward and taking advantage, Aoiyama next positioned his hands high and wide as if to set up a pull, but the only purpose of that was to give Aoiyama an excuse to back his way over to the edge and across as Sadanoumi assisted by pushing upwards into Aoiyama's teets.

It is absolutely no surprise that Aoiyama chose to lose today. I mean, you watch the replays to try and identify anything that Sadanoumi did to warrant Aoiyama's movements, and there's zero there. This was all Aoiyama's doing since it would not do to have a foreigner from the M11 ranks take command of the yusho race. The result of this bout is both rikishi standing now at 6-1.

As they set up the next bout, NHK was showing vertical graphics down the right side of the screen, and it was clear that they had multiple guests on the broadcast. I'm not sure if the general feed in Japan was also pre-empted by gymnastics, but the intent for the Day 7 broadcast was to make it an interactive forum for the viewers, and so after a few more bouts, I got my first glimpse of the makeshift booth.

In the studio they had Ota Announcer from NHK at left, and then he was joined by the actor, Matsushige Yutaka, and the daughter of former Ozeki, Wakashimazu, who goes by the stage name of Airi. A television screen was also set up that showed Hakuho and the yellow sumo bird mascot as part of the guest panel, and it turns out that after select bouts, they would pan over to Hakuho who was in his own mini studio with that bird mascot, and Hakuho and the bird would re-enact the bout that just played out on the dohyo.

Uhh, okay. I mean, I didn't have a problem with the production, but the question I ask is what demographic of fans are they playing to with this setup? Definitely not the 18-54 beer drinking male demographic, which primarily makes up the core of sports fans.  It was nice though to see Hakuho go 10-0 against the bird in the studio keiko ring.

Highlights from the guest commentary included Airi saying that had she been born a boy, she would have become a sumo rikishi just like her father. She revealed that she actually tried sumo once at a local chibi sumo contest, and she was beaten badly, so she surmised, "I guess it was good that I was born a girl."

Stop me if this is all too deep to digest.

As for Matsushige-san, he said that he tried his hand at sumo as well when he was younger, and he favored the kata-sukashi technique. And then of course he added, "That's why I'm such a big fan of Midorifuji." Who isn't Mr. Matsushige? Who isn't?

I suppose the guests in the booth provided a nice distraction for the realities that have plagued the basho up to this point, namely the terrible Ozeki and Wakatakakage's poor start. They knew the audience today and fully played to it.

Back to the bouts, with Aoiyama having suffered his first loss and rejoining the one-loss pack, let's touch on other bouts of interest from the day. I personally don't give a crap about M6 Ura, but the viewing audience obviously does, and so let's review his bout against M8 Terutsuyoshi.

Terutsuyoshi failed to advanced across his starting lines ducking low and keeping his hands wide as if to ward off a pending attack. Ura took the cue and moved forward sorta pushing a willing Terutsuyoshi back, but it wasn't forceful, and so T-Yoshi went for a weak pull that actually threw Ura off balance, but Teru didn't follow up on it and instead kept those arms wide and ready as Ura moved in again for round two and pushed the mukiryoku Terutsuyoshi back and across. Ura's attack was quite weak, and Terutsuyoshi had a lot of counter options, but that wasn't in the script today as Ura picks up the silly oshi-dashi win.

After the bout, they called Ura into the interview studio with Hakuho and the yellow bird, and they watched replays of the bout and analyzed it together. As much as I loved Hakuho in the ring, a good interviewer he ain't, and this was quite an awkward moment. Ura stood there with a gunbai over his head that was hiding a mic, and Hakuho went on and on saying really nothing, and then he looked at Ura for comments without asking an actual question, and Ura was like....you didn't ask me a question. Ura just said, "I'll do my best tomorrow," and then Airi deducted that Ura must have been really nervous. A made for TV moment if there ever was one.

Since the following bout involved a one-loss rikishi, let's go there next. M4 Takanosho offered tsuppari into M5 Tobizaru's neck area, but he backed up while doing so. That's dangerous against most rikishi but not Tobizaru, and so Tobizaru's response was to go for a dumb pull that wasn't set up properly, and so Takanosho took advantage and just rushed the now compromised Tobizaru back and across without incident. Both dudes now rest at 5-2, and this was just terrible sumo from Tobizaru.

M2 Kotonowaka and M1 Takayasu struck well at the tachi-ai, and as Takayasu looked to force the action, Kotonowaka's only answer was a cheap pull, and Takayasu's seen enough of those over the years that he knew exactly what to do, which was to push his compromised opponent back and across without argument. The only reason I bring this up is because Kotonowaka provides the perfect baseline for our skewed banzuke. All seven of Kotonowaka's bouts have been straight up. His three wins have come against the Ozeki, and then he's been soundly beaten by everyone else. He fell to 3-4 after today's loss while Takayasu improved to just 2-5.

I've already mentioned the makeshift studio for today's broadcast, and one detail that I failed to mention where banners and handheld fans with rikishi names adorning each of the masu-seki type seats. Since there were four total seats in the studio you had four banners that listed the three Ozeki and Terunofuji (it was obligatory to list the Yokozuna). On either side of the seats was a fan, and once again you had the three Japanese Ozeki and then Ura. Only Airi's seat had a fan with a foreign-born rikishi, and that was Hoshoryu.

The Komusubi was next up taking on Suckiwake Abi, and Hoshoryu easily got the right arm inside against Abi's fire hose tsuppari, and when Abi realized this bout was going to the belt, he grabbed a left outer grip and tried to dashi-nage Hoshoryu around in a circle, but it was the Mongolian who had all the momentum, and he went with that flow working his way into moro-zashi and then forcing Abi back and across in a wild affair. Wild because Abi was out of control. Hoshoryu knew what was going on at all times and won this easily moving to 5-2 while Abi falls to 4-3. I think Hoshoryu is the most marketable guy in sumo right now. If only he wasn't a foreigner...

Up next, Suckiwake Wakatakakage henka'd to his right against M2 Kiribayama, but the Mongolian was not fooled, and as he squared back up waiting for Wakatakakage's next move, it was Kiribayama's turn to sidestep his foe pulling WTK forward and down about two seconds into the bout. I think we all like Wakatakakage, but his tachi-ai is terrible. He falls now to 3-4 while Kiribayama moves to 4-3.

With all of the fanfare today, you just knew that Takakeisho was going to restore order a bit against M3 Tamawashi, and sure enough, Tamawashi stood straight up going through the tsuppari motions, but he just stood there waiting for Takakeisho's charge, and as it came, Tamawashi backed up to his right a bit and just went with the flow as Takakeisho had him dispatched in less than three seconds. After the hometown victory, Airi let out a relieved if not pleasurable moan that was almost as if...well, let's not go there. After Ota Announcer called the victory for Takakeisho, he turned to Airi and said, "Sasuga no Ozeki desu ne," or that's an Ozeki fulfilling his duty. They couldn't have scripted this bout any better because it was scripted. Takakeisho (4-3) knew exactly what was going to happen thus no panic from him in the ring. All is well in sumo land at least for now as the mighty Tamawashi has fallen to 5-2 thanks to the Ozeki!!

Unfortunately, they forgot to script anything for Shodai who was paired against M3 Hokutofuji meaning you had two dudes facing each other who were both 1-5 coming in. Hokutofuji caught Shodai with a paw to the neck standing him upright, and Hokutofuji persisted with a tsuppari charge keeping Shodai at bay until he connected on a nice shove with the right into Shodai's left side, and that sent Shodai haplessly over to the edge of the ring where Hokutofuji put a fork into him straight way. Goodness gracious, I can't believe Shodai has yet to withdraw. At 1-6, don't be surprised if they pull out the handbook of fake injuries tonight back at the stable. As for Hokutofuji, he moves to just 2-5 after dominating the Ozeki.

I was happy to see that the Mitakeumi - Komusubi Daieisho bout was not fixed either, and Mitakeumi actually put up a decent defensive fight against Daieisho's tsuppari charge, but in a real world, those roles are reversed where the Komusubi needs to defend himself against the Ozeki's charge. Mitakeumi's defense was not good enough, and his only offensive maneuver was this terrible swipe down with both arms that completely whiffed, and that was the final nail in the coffin as Daieisho rushed in and finished off his bidness from there. Nice oshi-dashi win for Daieisho who moves to 5-2 while Mitakeumi falls to 3-4.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Terunofuji gave up moro-zashi to M4 Endoh, but the Yokozuna is completely comfortable with that, and he showed why by using a couple of kime yanks to send Endoh over near the edge. Endoh actually abandoned moro-zashi as he knew it wouldn't serve him well here, and as he looked to claw his way back into the bout, Terunofuji just slapped him down for the easy hataki-komi win. Fuji moves to 5-2 with the nice display of sumo while Endoh falls to 3-4.

At the end of Day 7, you can already see where this basho is going. It's likely going to be won by Terunofuji, but they're going to inflate the leaderboard to the extent that the fans won't notice that the Japanese Ozeki are missing. As sorta prophesied by Kitanofuji a few days ago, Takakeisho will stay close enough to keep his name on the leaderboard, but at three losses already, I don't see him running the table, and so a Takakeisho yusho would mean 11-4.

For context and what we (don't) have to look forward to in week two, here's how the leaderboard would stand if posted today:

6-1: Aoiyama, Sadanoumi
5-2: Terunofuji, Daieisho, Tamawashi, Hoshoryu, Takanosho, Tobizaru, Ichiyamamoto

You know those top two aren't going to be there for long, so once we're down to the two-loss rikishi, that opens things back up for Takakeisho.

Day 6 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The theme this basho and seemingly the underlying theme every basho is the inability of the Ozeki to anchor a basho. Even when Mitakeumi was gifted the yusho a few tourneys ago, his sumo was weak and unimpressive, and so sumo is constantly battling this dilemma of supposedly having three Japanese guys in the Ozeki rank; yet, all of them are as useless as tits on a boar. When none of the surrounding cast like Wakatakakage or Daieisho can get off to a hot start, there is just nothing to hype during the fortnight. The deeper we get into this basho, the more the media is going to scramble for headlines because they've already burned up the Suyama card (the Todai guy) after his 3-0 performance in the mae-zumo ranks.

Day 6 began with M14 Ohho drawing M16 Midorifuji, and Midorifuji led with a rare hari-te connecting on the side of Ohho's face, and with Ohho just standing there with arms extended, Midorifuji quickly went for a pull shading right. Ohho seemed to know it was coming and just flopped forward to the dirt. Not sure of the politics behind this one, but Ohho made no effort to win in falling to 2-4. As for Midorifuji, he's wormed his way to 3-3.

In a similar bout, M13 Chiyotairyu struck M14 Yutakayama with a few tsuppari at the tachi-ai, but Chiyotairyu wasn't driving with the legs, and so with Yutakayama standing there with arms extended, Chiyotairyu also moved right going for a mediocre pull, and Yutakayama just went with it. Two bouts of sumo that required less than four seconds for both of them as Chiyotairyu moves to 3-3 while YY falls to 2-4.

M15 Azumaryu vs. M13 Meisei was an interesting contest because you have a fairly recent Sekiwake with a "win" over Terunofuji in Meisei battling a guy whose spent most of his career in Juryo. And yet, Meisei's best shots had no effect against Azumaryu. Meisei struck well at the tachi-ai, but he couldn't penetrate Azumaryu's defense, which was methodical jabs and occasional movements to the left. Meisei was frustrated five seconds in and went for an inashi move to the side trying to hook the back of Azumaryu's left arm and throw him off balance, but Ryu easily survived and sensed his opponent was gassed, and so he made his first offensive move of the bout which was to go for a pull, and with Meisei ducked over, he grabbed the back of his belt and pulled him forward and down dashi-nage style. Meisei falls now to 2-4 while Azumaryu was in complete control in moving to 3-3.

M12 Myogiryu easily got the right arm inside against M17 Kagayaki who conveniently forgot his tsuppari attack from the tachi-ai. As Myogiryu burrowed in close looking for a left outer, he faced a literal tall task as Kagayaki seemed to smother him. It was similar to a Takayasu bout where Takayasu was supposed to win, but he didn't have a decent offensive position from which to attack. After a bit of a stalemate, Myogiryu darted back fishing for a pull, but it barely connected leaving him vulnerable. Instead of taking advantage, however, Kagayaki just went with it as the two hooked up again, and this time when Myogiryu went for an unstable kata-sukashi, Kagayaki just stopped, dropped, and rolled right off the dohyo. The fix was in here as Myogiryu buys his way to 4-2 while Kagayaki falls to 3-3.

M17 Kohtokuzan was proactive from the tachi-ai firing away on all tsuppari cylinders, but M12 Sadanoumi methodically moved to his left making Kohtokuzan circle with him and suspect a pull. The effort was there for Kohtokuzan, but it shoves just had no bite, and so the Sadamight played defensive for about eight seconds before finding an opportunity to pounce to the inside. As he did, Kohtokuzan began thinking pull, and that did him in as the veteran scored the comeback win in moving to 5-1. As for Kohtokuzan, he falls to 0-6 and there simply isn't the money funding him this basho, especially when his stable mates Wakatakakage and Wakamotoharu are also in the mix.

In a battle of two 5-0 rikishi coming into the day, M15 Ichiyamamoto came with a moro-te-zuki (two hands to the throat) against M11 Aoiyama, but it was defensive in nature, and so as Aoiyama drove forward with tsuppari of his own, IYM began thinking pull. Before he could even attempt it fully , Aoiyama had him pushed back to the straw, and just as Ichiyamamoto put his heel against the straw, Aoiyama reversed gears and pulled him forward and down. Ichiyamamoto never had a chance here and stood up with a big patch of dirt on his torso in falling to 5-1 while Aoiyama takes sole possession of the lead at 6-0.

In a silly affair, M10 Okinoumi came with the lightest of tsuppari against M9 Kotoshoho keeping his arms wide and open in the process, and Kotoshoho clued in quickly rushing forward and pushing the willing Okinoumi back and across in a second or two after he got going. Okinoumi clearly sold this one in dropping to 2-4 while Kotoshoho is a non-factor at 3-3.

M9 Tochinoshin came with dual kachi-age against M11 Chiyoshoma allowing Shoma to easily get moro-zashi, and so Shin countered with two outer grips. Chiyoshoma broke off the right outer by pushing into Tochinoshin's body and resumed his nice inside position, but curiously, Chiyoshoma never once tried to take advantage of the sport's most advantageous position...moro-zashi. With Chiyoshoma stalling in the center of the ring, Tochinoshin went for a rather weak kote-nage with the right, and Chiyoshoma just bit the dirt. At least counter with a left scoop throw or inside belt throw, but Chiyoshoma did neither even though he was the one dictating the pace in this bout. Tochinoshin moves to 3-3 with the gift while Chiyoshoma falls to 2-4.

M10 Nishikigi got the right arm inside of M8 Terutsuyoshi at the tachi-ai which prevent T-Yoshi from ducking down to the inside, and Nishikigi wisely just exerted blunt force against his opponent forcing him back quickly to the straw. In the process, Terutsuyoshi tried to duck under the move, but his head was locked up with T-Yoshi turned around. Instead of trying something improbably and stupid, Terutsuyoshi wisely took his medicine in the end and allowed a straight up yori-kiri. Nishikigi dominated with his size here and that early right to the inside in moving to 3-3 while Terutsuyoshi falls to 2-4.

M7 Takarafuji kept his arm locked with elbows wide at the tachi-ai denying M8 Shimanoumi any sort of oshi attack, and Takarafuji had the clear path to the inside with either arm, but he refused to take it. Shimanoumi still hadn't applied any pressure to his foe, and so Takarafuji opened up completely allowing Shimanoumi to get moro-zashi and score the quick and dirty force out from there. This was one of those yori-kiri bouts that never went chest to chest. Takarafuji falls to 0-6 and has been hoarding cash this basho like crazy. At M7, he only needs about four wins to comfortable stay in the division, and he'll get 'em. As for Shimanoumi, he moves to a sheepish 3-3.

The tachi-ai between M7 Kotoeko and M6 Wakamotoharu was neutral as WMH's shove attempts were limp while Kotoeko flirted with the left inside. After a bit of grabbling, Wakamotoharu got his own arm to the inside, but he did not look comfortable in going for the force out. As he wavered, Kotoeko moved to his right and went for a full on tottari against Wakamotoharu's right arm sending him over and down with some force. WMH got up gingerly favoring that left arm, but when the man on the hana-michi caught up with him in the back halls, he said he was fine. Both rikishi end the day at 4-2.

As mentioned yesterday, somebody got injured in a bout that contained mukiryoku sumo, and the victim was M5 Onosho who was forced to withdraw with a cracked rib. M5 Tobizaru was the benefactor today picking up the freebie and moving to 5-1.

M4 Endoh was cautious at the tachi-ai against M6 Ura indicating that the bout was real. In a fake bout, Ura would have rushed in for the easy leg grab or whatever, but Endoh took his time here focusing on defensive shoves to Ura's neck and shoulders while keeping him at bay. With Ura locked out of any attack position, the two traded places in the dohyo as Ura fished for an opening, but Endoh was finally able to secure the left arm inside and use that to force Ura back and across without argument leaving both guys at 3-3.

M2 Kiribayama shoved M2 Kotonowaka upright at the tachi-ai setting up the right arm inside and left outer grip, and Kotonowaka did well to hang in there with his own right paw to the inside. After some tussling and Kiribayama's testing the early force-out waters, Kotonowaka was able to work his way into a semi moro-zashi; semi because it wasn't even elbow deep as Kiribayama cut the insides off well. With Kotonowaka having nowhere to go, Kiribayama was able to dashi-nage him over to the edge twisting him around and then pushing him across for good. What a well fought bout from both parties where the superior rikishi, Kiribayama, came out on top moving to 3-3 in the process. Kotonowaka also falls to 3-3 and that's six straight up bouts for the kid. I like him like this when everything is on the level.

Komusubi Daieisho's tsuppari attack against Komusubi Hoshoryu was way to high allowing Hoshoryu to work his way into a high moro-zashi, and as Daieisho looked to escape to his right, Hoshoryu stayed snug and forced his fellow Komusubi across in mere seconds. This one was lopsided, and Daieisho blew it at the tachi-ai. Both Komusubi are still in prime position at 4-2 despite Daieisho's loss here.

In a bout with a similar start, M1 Takayasu struck Sekiwake Wakatakakage well at the tachi-ai, but he was too high and extended allowing Wakatakakage to get the left arm inside and force the bout the yotsu-zumo. Takayasu is terrible at defending himself chest to chest, and in a rare move for a Takayasu bout (because this one was real), Wakatakakage showed how easy it is to grab an outer grip near the front of the belt. WTK attempted a series of dashi-nage throws, but Takayasu fought them off well. After the two rikishi paused a bit in the ring, Wakatakakage went for another belt twist this time threatening to grab Takayasu leg, and that spelled curtains for the former Ozeki as Wakatakakage dispatched him in fine form. This was a rare legit win for Wakatakakage this basho as he moves to 3-3 while Takayasu falls to 1-5.

M4 Takanosho struck Shodai well at the tachi-ai knocking the Oldzeki upright and setting up hidari-yotsu where Shodai was unable to fend off the outer belt grip from Takanosho. As Takanosho looked to bear down, Shodai went for a very ill-advised scoop throw with the left; ill-advised because he wasn't in position to anchor the throw with his legs, and so with Shodai off balance and out of position, Takanosho rushed in and sent Shodai across with ease. Shodai simply can't defend himself and needs to be put out of his misery as he falls to 1-5. As for Takanosho, it doesn't get any easier than this as he moves to 4-2.

In an obviously scripted bout, M3 Hokutofuji blindly charged forward with his head lowered instead of his usual strike with the right to the throat and shade left, and as if on cue, Mitakeumi moved left and went for a tiny dashi-nage at the side of Hokutofuji's belt, and the M3 just plopped forward putting both palms down with no other part of his body touching...a clear sign of yaocho. What a pathetic display here is gifted 3-3 while Hokutofuji dutifully falls to 1-5.

Suckiwake Abi met Takakeisho with a moro-te-zuki, but instead of trying to knock Takakeisho upright, Abi just shaded back and to his left, and the oblivious Takakeisho just rushed forward into no man's land as Abi swiped him forward and down in less than two seconds. Beautiful sumo this wasn't as Abi picks up a rare legitimate win in moving to 4-2 while Takakeisho falls now to 3-3.

In the day's final affair, M3 Tamawashi caught Yokozuna Terunofuji with a left paw to the throat and a right hand to the side pushing Terunofuji back, across, and off the dohyo in another bout that took less than three seconds. Terunofuji didn't even put up a fight, but Tamawashi is the only guy that can legitimately beat him anyway. That Tamawashi hasn't been ranked in the sanyaku for the last year tells you how fake sumo is as the iron man moves to a cool 5-1. The sumo today is why I frequently point out that the best dude on the banzuke is Tamawashi, and it's been that way since Hakuho's retirement. As for Terunofuji, he falls to 4-2 in defeat and controls his own destiny from here.

What's important about this loss for Terunofuji is that it has just lowered the yusho line to 13-2 only six days in. I know that Aoiyama is 6-0 and a few other dudes are 5-1 including Tamawashi, but the foreigners are not going to run the table here on out. Tamawashi could if he wanted to, but Aoiyama would ultimately be paired against Tamawashi and Terunofuji the last few days, and he can't beat those dudes. Tamawashi faces Takakeisho tomorrow and you'd think Shodai soon after if Shodai doesn't withdraw, and remember how The Mawashi gave Mitakeumi a chance to win.

I think we're in for a 12-3 finish, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the yusho line drop to four losses. I hope it doesn't, but there is still a ton of sumo to go with none of the Japanese darlings close.

We'll see if the Association can generate any interest over the weekend.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The media is really searching for headlines this basho in the absence of any Japanese hopefuls doing well. Heading into Day 5, all of the talk focused on M3 Tamawashi, who was on the brink of surpassing Takamiyama's mark of most consecutive career bouts without going kyujo. At the start of the day, both Tamawashi and Takamiyama were tied for fourth place (yes, all this ballyhoo is about 4th place) with 1,425 consecutive bouts participated in since their professional debut (called hatsu-dohyo).

Tamawashi was paired today against Mitakeumi, and all the M3 had to do in order to surpass Takamiyama's mark for fourth place was to show up, and so the question was...would Tamawashi choose to celebrate the feat with a win? From the tachi-ai, Tamawashi didn't even bother with tsuppari leaving himself completely exposed to moro-zashi should Mitakeumi have cared to take it.

This pic at right is a few seconds after the tachi-ai, and that's Mitakeumi's back you can see. Tamawashi is clearly leaving his arms wide and exposed in order to give the Oldzeki moro-zashi, but Mitakeumi was too hapless to take it. The Mawashi waited for three or four seconds before finally taking charge moving to the side a bit and executing a tsuki to Mitakeumi's side, and then the real tsuppari that should have come from the tachi-ai happened. Mitakeumi's only answer was to go for a weak pull, and as he did, Tamawashi ducked his head and freight trained Mitakeumi clear off the dohyo altogether.

This was an ass-kicking, and you could see it on Mitakeumi's face as he was walking down the hana-michi. It's just incredible that he could not take advantage of Tamawashi's gift early on, and we see this frequently from the Mongolians. They'll give their opponents an easy opening for 4 - 5 seconds, but if the opponent is too hapless to capitalize, the Mongolians will go ahead and win the bout. Twas the case here as Tamawashi soars to 4-1 while Mitakeumi is ashamed of himself at 2-3. Can you believe they were still saying "Mitakeumi" and "Yokozuna" in the same sentence last basho?

Before we move on, the dude Tamawashi passed today, Takamiyama, was the first Hawaiian to enter professional sumo back in the 70's. He ended up mentoring Akebono, and the pair used to visit the Takasago-beya for de-geiko back when I was a sumo groupie and hung out at the Takasago camp. Takamiyama was never afraid to use the bamboo kendo sword during keiko, which is why he was able to raise strong rikishi.

Jumping back down the charts, the day began with M15 Azumaryu looking to get his right arm inside against M16 Midorifuji, and that caused Fuji to back up a bit and defend himself. He was able to deny Azumaryu that right inside position, but Ryu just wrapped the smaller Midorifuji up from the outside of both arms. From that position, Azumaryu caught his breath and executed the flawless kime-dashi despite Midorifuji's desperate leg trip attempts from the outside. Both dudes finish the day at 2-3.

M15 Ichiyamamoto greeted M14 Ohho with a nice moro-te-zuki standing him upright whereupon IYM quickly reversed gears and scored the pull down win a second in. Ichiyamamoto's win today was legit as he moves to 5-0, and this was a good example of just how fragile the fruit of Taiho's loins really is in falling to 2-3.

M13 Meisei has been really struggling so why not pay off M17 Kagayaki and pick up a much-needed win? I mean, it was just six months ago when Meisei was a Suckiwake. Kagayaki made sure to keep his feet grounded to the dohyo as little as possible as he pranced forward with a weak tsuppari attack that was totally susceptible to a mediocre tsuki to the side from Meisei. Kagayaki overreacted to the move and just kept his arms out wide allowing Meisei to easily push him across the dohyo and out. As if. Meisei limps his way to 2-3 while Kagayaki had room to sell at 3-2.

M13 Chiyotairyu drove his meat hooks into M17 Kohtokuzan hard from the tachi-ai knocking Kohtokuzan back a full step, but you could see Chiyotairyu flinch at a quick pull. He repented and buffeted Kohtokuzan back with another shove before thinking pull again and losing his momentum, and on the third try or so, he was able to turn Kohtokuzan sideways and then push him out from behind in the end. Chiyotairyu moves to 2-3 with the easy win while Kohtokuzan falls to 0-5.

M14 Yutakayama put his hands high into M12 Sadanoumi from the tachi-ai but he wasn't thrusting instead leaving himself completely exposed, and Sadanoumi took full advantage getting the left arm inside and the right to the front of the belt, and he easily forced the defenseless Yutakayama across the straw and down. Sadanoumi himself ran down onto the arena floor into the first row indicative that he faced no counter resistance from his opponent. Fixed bout here as Sadanoumi moves to 4-1 while YY falls to 2-3.

M11 Aoiyama didn't blast M11 Chiyoshoma off of the starting lines with his initial tsuppari, but Chiyoshoma was not looking to get inside the exposed Aoiyama whatsoever. A few seconds in, Aoiyama went for a stupid pull leaving himself completely vulnerable, but Chiyoshoma purposefully didn't react allowing Aoiyama to retool. Aoiyama's sumo was a big mess at this point, but he managed a weak kote-nage with the left arm and Chiyoshoma just dove across the dohyo and down creating a silly ending to this fixed bout. Aoiyama buys one here as he moves to 5-0 while Chiyoshoma falls to 2-3.

M12 Myogiryu and M10 Nishikigi hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but there was no determination from either rikishi as they reached for obligatory left outers. After a few seconds, Myogiryu moved left going for a quick tsuki to Nishikigi's side, and Nishikigi (2-3) just dutifully dove forward and down to complete this uncontested bout. Myogiryu one ups his foe at 3-2.

M9 Tochinoshin came with a right kachi-age against M9 Kotoshoho while reaching for a left frontal belt grip, and when he didn't latch onto that, he went for a quick pull instead shading to his right. Kotoshoho was so befuddled from the start that he couldn't take advantage of Shin's pull, and the Private spun Kotoshoho around and out with relative ease. You could clearly see that Tochinoshin was trying to win this one as both dudes finish the day at 2-3.

M10 Okinoumi looked for moro-te-zuki from the tachi-ai against M8 Terutsuyoshi, but the latter attempted to duck under the shove and get in tight. Okinoumi was able to secure the left inside, however, and that was all he needed to lift Terutsuyoshi upright and over before securing the right outer grip and the easy yori-kiri win leaving both guys at 2-3.

M7 Takarafuji came with a left kachi-age knocking M7 Kotoeko back a full step from the tachi-ai, and Takarafuji had the clear path to the left inside. He briefly grabbed Eko's belt with the left but then let go, and while he maintained his left inside position, it was intentionally shallow. Still, Kotoeko was dominated so thoroughly the first few seconds, he really couldn't counter despite Takarafuji's letting up. After the two stood in the center of the ring for about 10 seconds, Takarafuji moved forward again shading to his right and inviting Kotoeko do go for a counter tsuki-otoshi with his own right hand. Eko finally attempted it and the move was poorly executed, but Takarafuji just stood there allowing himself to be spun around and then pushed out from behind. Another yaocho here as Takarafuji falls to 0-5 while Kotoeko limps forward to 3-2.

M6 Wakamotoharu rushed in quickly getting the left inside against M6 Ura, and that was all he needed to pull Ura in close and stay chest to chest. Ura dug in nicely, but the couldn't defend himself against Wakamotoharu's grabbing the right outer grip, and once obtained he attempted to force Ura back and across, but Ura kept drifting left and WMH wasn't able to pin him in tight, and so at the brink, Ura went for a very nice utchari move drawing the gunbai in his favor. It looked as if Ura's left elbow touched down first, and I thought they'd reverse it, but the judges ordered a redo instead.

In the do over, Ura was gassed although he still ducked in low and turned his back as if to attempt the ole fireman carry back throw, or izori, but he was in no position or condition to come close to executing the move, and so WMH dispatched him in two or three seconds. Wakamotoharu moves to 4-1 with the win, and Ura falls to 3-2 but gave it a great effort in the first bout.

M8 Shimanoumi wanted to come with an oshi attack against M5 Tobizaru, but the latter ducked down too low taking the pushes away. Although Tobizaru defended himself well keeping Shimanoumi befuddled a bit, Tobizaru wasn't in position to take control of the bout. He did attempt a few inashi swipes from the side that threw Shimanoumi off balance once, but by the second attempt, Shimanoumi had seen his best shot. The two finally squared up in the center of the ring where Tobizaru scored on a nice push to Shimanoumi's face, but that enabled Umi to get the right arm inside and finally lift Tobizaru upright to where he was able to force him back and off the dohyo altogether. Tobizaru suffers his first loss at 4-1 while Shimanoumi moves to just 2-3, but it was nice to have two back to back straight up contests.

M4 Takanosho's tachi-ai against M2 Kotonowaka was terrible as his feet were a mess, but it was telling when Baby Waka couldn't take advantage and get that left inside arm to stick. After screwing up the tachi-ai, Takanosho backed up a bit and to his right and was able to get his own right arm to the inside as Kotonowaka advanced, and once obtained, Takanosho moved his foe across the entire diameter of the dohyo and across. I suspect Kotonowaka was a bit mukiryoku here, but who knows? Takanosho's tachi-ai and sumo was too sloppy to have Kotonowaka score on nothing during the bout. Regardless, both rikishi end the day at 3-2.

M2 Kiribayama was all over the place against M1 Takayasu from the tachi-ai throwing a few hurried tsuppari before moving laterally, and the result was a very unstable start for both rikishi. They finally settled into hidari-yotsu in the center of the ring where Kiribayama had the clear path the right outer grip, but he failed to grab it instead locking that right arm around Takayasu's left. Takayasu was had at this point, but Kiribayama let the bout get to the minute ten mark before he finally made a move out of sheer boredom sending Takayasu over to the side and pushing him down from behind as Takayasu tried to evade. Kiribayama gave Takayasu some openings but every guy has a limit when their opponent does nothing. Kiribayama moves to 2-3 with the win while Takayasu falls to 1-4.

Komusubi Daieisho showed Suckiwake Abi what a real tsuppari attack looks like completely brushing off Abi's fire hose tsuppari and driving him back once, twice, three times a lady. At the edge, Daieisho connected on a wicked choke hold for good measure and had Abi pushed back and across before the dude knew what it him. I love to see Daieisho execute this brand of sumo as he moves to 4-1 while Abi falls to 3-2.

Komusubi Hoshoryu henka'd to his right from the tachi-ai against Sekiwake Wakatakakage getting the cheap right outer grip that he used to dashi-nage WTK forward and across before the Sekiwake really knew what hit him. I've never liked the henka, and I didn't like it here, but a good rikishi reacts better than Wakatakakage did today. This was over in a second as Hoshoryu one ups his foe 3-2 vs. 2-3 for WTK.

M5 Onosho kept his arms wide at the tachi-ai against Takakeisho, but the latter didn't blow Onosho back, and so Onosho went for a cheap pull purposefully whiffing in an effort to give Takakeisho and opening. The faux-zeki couldn't take advantage, however, and so the two moved to the other side of the ring where Onosho failed to attempt any offensive maneuver whatsoever. In the end, Onosho went for a horrible pull attempt while backing up, and Takakeisho was finally able to move in and push Onosho hard off the dohyo. When your opponent is letting up like that, you can't go that hard at the edge as that's how rikishi get injured in mukiryoku bouts, and that was absolutely the case today as Onosho broke a rib during his fall forcing him to withdraw from the basho. Takakeisho picks up the cheap win at 3-2 and owes Onosho a lot more than the hyaku-man he paid for the win today. It's disgusting that a dude has to withdraw in order to pad the record of a so-called Ozeki.

I'm not sure what Shodai was trying to accomplish at the tachi-ai against M4 Endoh, but it was awful. It also allowed Endoh to rush in and secure the left arm inside and eventual right outer grip, but he really didn't need that outer as he had Shodai forced back, upright, and across in about two seconds. Hooboy. Shodai is terrible as he falls now to 1-4 while Endoh picks up a very easy win moving to 2-3.

In the day's final affair, Yokozuna Terunofuji hit M3 Hokutofuji hard at the tachi-ai getting the right arm inside and securing his left up high around Hokutofuji's right. With the Yokozuna pressing hard, Hokutofuji attempted to move right at the edge, but Terunofuji had him in the half kime-dashi hold and half kote-nage hold with the left arm, and the sheer pressure caused Hokutofuji to buckle backwards and do the splits, and he finally fell over onto his can giving the Yokozuna the win. Sheer power here form Fuji the Terrible who moves to 4-1 while Hokutofuji falls to 1-4.

And that's a wrap on the first five days. At the end of the Takakeisho bout, Kitanofuji said with some hope in his voice of Takakeisho, "He's got just those two losses, so he still has a chance." With yaocho, anything is possible, so perhaps we'll see a yusho race "anchored" by Terunofuji and Takakeisho with a coupla other foreigners thrown into the mix for good measure.

Time will tell.

Day 4 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
It was a very quiet news cycle in between Days 3 and 4, but that will happen when you want to deflect attention away from the haplessness of the Ozeki. It's also obvious that Wakatakakage is not a legitimate rising star. He's young and good looking and more sprite than the Ozeki, but he can't compete with the likes of Daieisho. There's just not a lot of luster here this basho, and sumo news is getting swallowed up by other things like Japanese baseball, Shohei Otani, and world news in general.

The most enjoyment I've experienced so far this basho came early in the Day 4 broadcast when they were interviewing newly-promoted Juryo rikishi, Tochimaru. They showed a pic of what looked like one of the Sumo Association accountants who helps them evade paying taxes, but on closer examination of the caption, I learned that it was actually Tochimaru graduating from Elementary School. Sheesh, if I looked like that when I was in elementary school, I'd would have been making runs everyday to the Sev (the cool way to say 7-11) to buy Playboys for my classmates.

After the way the Ozeki were wrecked yesterday, I was pretty sure we were in for a tame Day 4, so let's get right to it.

Up first was M15 Azumaryu who had his way with M15 Kohtokuzan catching him with some nice tsuppari and bullying him around the ring and to the brink. Azumaryu used a left inside at the edge to make Kohtokuzan think pull and that allowed Azumaryu to score the easy win with a final pushout. He picks up his first win at 1-3 while Kohtokuzan (0-4) is still hapless.

In a similar bout, M17 Kagayaki caught M14 Yutakayama from the tachi-ai and stood him upright causing YY to go for a quick evasive move to throw Kagayaki off balance, but Kagayaki was having none of it and stayed low while driving with his feet knocking Yutakayama to the edge and then sending him across with moro-hazu shoves from up and under. Great sumo here from one of Japan's better rikishi who moved to 3-1 while Yutakayama settles for 2-2.

M13 Chiyotairyu bludgeoned M16 Midorifuji from the tachi-ai catching him with two hands to the sides of Fuji's neck whereupon he just yanked the smaller Midorifuji forward and down in maybe a second. It took 'em awhile to decide the kimari-te, but they finally went with the rarely seen tokuri-nage, or throw down by the neck. I just thought it was a simple ass kicking, and Chiyotairyu picked up his first win at 1-3 in the process. As for Midorifuji, perhaps he should consider buying his next win against Chiyotairyu as he falls to 2-2.

Before we move, Chiyotairyu's stablemaster, the former Chiyotaikai, was in the booth providing color. It was his first broadcast in 12 years, and as is usually the case in Japan come April, they (meaning the Sumo Association and companies in general) will transfer about 1/3 of the workforce to different departments and duties. Chiyotaikai goes from judge to spin master, and I saw earlier in the basho where some fans were upset that Kisenosato was moved out of the booth and over to judging duty. I wasn't. Kisenosato's broadcasts where unwatchable, and it almost made me switch over to the English feed. Almost.

M12 Myogiryu stood completely upright and was nonchalant against M15 Ichiyamamoto as he allowed the youngster to do what he wanna, and credit Ichiyamamoto for the nice tsuppari charge and uncontested tsuki-dashi win, but Myogiryu was mukiryoku here start to finish. Ichiyamamoto seems to have come into some serious cash backing him this basho as he buys his way to 4-0 while Myogiryu is a bit richer at 2-2.

M12 Sadanoumi latched onto the front of M14 Ohho's belt with the right hand at the tachi-ai, and Ohho couldn't push him away for the life of him. When you can't bully Sadanoumi around with that size advantage it says something. With Sadanoumi persisting at the front of the belt, Ohho panicked and moved laterally, and the Sadamight took advantage by forcing Ohho (2-2) over and out in mere seconds improving his tally to 3-1.

M11 Aoiyama came with kachi-age at the tachi-ai against M13 Meisei who moved forward well, but Aoiyama was just looking to bait him into a pull. With Aoiyama playing defense and retreating methodically, Meisei rushed forward too fast allowing Aoiyama to show him the trap door by moving right at the edge and scoring on a tsuki-otoshi easy as you please. Not sure what Aoiyama's MO is this basho, but he's chosen to start out 4-0. As for Meisei, he's struggling mightily at 1-3 now.

M11 Chiyoshoma kept M10 Nishikigi at bay with some shoves from the tachi-ai, but Shoma retreated signaling that he was throwing the bout. Nishikigi rushed forward but he hadn't done anything to set up Shoma's retreat, and so the Mongolian easily grabbed a right outer grip to the side of Nishikigi's belt, and he used the grip to dashi-nage Nishikigi all the way across the dohyo but not quite out. Instead of finishing off his lumbering opponent who was off balance, Chiyoshoma relinquished his outer grip and just stood there with knees locked waiting for Nishikigi to fell him with a rather weak kote-nage with the right. Obvious yaocho here as Chiyoshoma dictated everything in falling to 2-2 while Nishikigi "improves" to the same mark.

The instant M10 Okinoumi made no effort to force his bout against M8 Shimanoumi to yotsu-zumo, I knew his intentions. The two came close, but Okinoumi never looked to get anything inside monkeying around with tepid tsuppari before just putting both hands at the back of Shimanoumi's head as if to say "do me now." And Shimanoumi did picking up the laughable oshi-dashi win against an entirely mukiryoku Okinoumi. Both fellas end the day at 1-3.

The best bout of sumo to this point featured M9 Tochinoshin vs. M7 Takarafuji. The two ended up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but Takarafuji was applying enough pressure to keeping Shin away from a left outer grip. After gathering his wits, Tochinoshin showed what real gaburi were (not the fake humping motions exhibited by Kotoshogiku all those years) banging his torso into Takarafuji and knocking him back to the edge where the Private finally grabbed the left outer grip and worked Takarafuji across after a good struggle. I expect all yotsu bouts to be contested like this one, and if they're not, someone's mukiryoku. Tochinoshin picks up his first win at 1-3 while Takarafuji falls to 0-4.

M9 Kotoshoho made zero effort to grab ahold of M6 Ura at the tachi-ai, and he just watched Ura duck to his left and grab Shoho's right leg lifting him off balance and setting up the ridiculously easy yori-kiri in just a few seconds. As if. Looks like they need Ura to do well to generate some kind of excitement as he now finds himself at 3-1 while Kotoshoho takes one for the team in falling to 2-2.

M6 Wakamotoharu redefined slow at the tachi-ai against M8 Terutsuyoshi who got the left arm in early and deep, but instead of looking to take advantage of his slow foe, T-Yoshi pivoted to the side and tried to drag WMH into his own body by pulling at the right arm, but Wakamotoharu was so out of sorts that Terutsuyoshi was forced to move back left where he waited for Wakamotoharu to finally catch up and at the first sign of force form WMH, Terutsuyoshi just plopped backwards and onto his widdle bum What a fake bout this was that saw Terutsuyoshi dictate start to finish in falling to 2-2 while Wakamotoharu is gifted 3-1.

M7 Kotoeko was C3P0 start to finish against M5 Tobizaru keeping his arms extremely wide while allowing Tobizaru to nudge him back slowly. At one point, Kotoeko faked a weak pull, and that was Tobizaru's cue to pounce, and he did scoring the uncontested oshi-dashi win to move to 4-0. As for Kotoeko, he falls to 2-2, and I couldn't find a single pic of the undefeated Tobizaru on the wires, which means that nobody cares about him. Sorry bro.

M3 Hokutofuji and M5 Onosho struck chests at the tachi-ai with Hokutofuji shading back a bit as he is wont to do, and Onosho just put both palms to the dirt in the bout that lasted maybe a second. Not sure what the politics were behind this one, but this was yaocho all the way as Hokutofuji picks up his first win at 1-3 while Onosho falls to 2-2.

M3 Tamawashi dominated the tachi-ai against M4 Takanosho, but you could see that The Mawashi was obviously letting up. Still, he had his opponent befuddled with a right choke hold, but instead of driving with his legs, Tamawashi just stood there and let it go. Still, Takanosho hadn't caused any of Tamawashi's tactics, and so he wasn't able to take advantage with Tamawashi just standing there. In the end, Takanosho came away with the right belt grip inside, and he sorta motioned for a dashi-nage, and that was Tamawashi's cue to just hurl himself outta the ring. What a laugher this was as Takanosho moves to 2-2 while Tamawashi starts pulling back from the yusho race at 3-1.

Komusubi Daieisho blasted Sekiwake Wakatakakage back from the starting lines using three nice rounds of tsuppari to send WTK back so quickly he began fishing for the straw with his heel. As he did so, Daieisho reversed gears and went for an offensive pull, and Wakatakakage had no answer. This one was over fast and Daieisho dominated in moving to 3-1. As for Wakatakakage, he's exposed a bit more here in falling to 2-2.

Suckiwake Abi whiffed at the tachi-ai coming with his hands high against M4 Endoh and shading a bit to the right. That charge was so bad that Endoh had the clear path to moro-zashi, but the dude refrained and instead focused on Abi's outstretched arm. Abi was clueless from the start and could not work his way into anything, and so Endoh finally tugged him over to the edge and waited for Abi to gain moro-zashi of his own, and the M4 just went with it as Abi scored the improbable yori-kiri win. Abi and yori-kiri? Yeah, right. Abi buys his way to 3-1 while Endoh graciously bows to 1-3.

Komusubi Hoshoryu stood upright with feet aligned against Takakeisho presumably thinking the faux-zeki would come forward. When he didn't, Hoshoryu stayed upright going for a jump push and then keeping his hands up high and out of harm's way as he waited for Takakeisho to get anything going. Takakeisho finally went for that stupid left swipe, and it barely connected, and so instead of diving to the dirt, Hoshoryu just ran himself across the straw. What an unbelievably stupid bout this was as both dudes end the day at 2-2.

M1 Takayasu blew Shodai off of the starting lines and had him shoved back to the brink quickly, but then Takayasu let up allowing Shodai to get his right arm inside whereupon Takayasu just traded places with the dude in the ring. Shodai was still applying no pressure and so Takayasu went for an unnecessary maki-kae with the left that I guess enabled Shodai to "push" his foe across. In the process, Shodai hit the dirt his movements were that haphazard, and Takayasu was just standing there on the other side of the straw upright and cool as a cucumber. Can't say I've ever seen a dude win by oshi-dashi and then fall to the dirt while his opponent just stood there watching his foolishness. If you bought this bout, you're an idiot as both rikishi end the day at 1-3.

M2 Kiribayama kept his arms wide at the tachi-ai against Mitakeumi waiting for the dude to so something, but the Oldzeki couldn't, and so Kiribayama started backing up as the bout went to hidari-yotsu. Kiribayama grabbed a right outer grip as Mitakeumi was completely defenseless, and Mitakeumi was completely had at this juncture. The problem was that Kiribayama was obligated to throw the bout, and so he "mounted" a force out charge letting up at the edge and enabling Mitakeumi to counter with the weakest tsuki-otoshi you'd care to see. Another unbelievable bout, and these Ozeki are just terrible. Awful. Mitakeumi somehow finds himself at 2-2 by the graces of the gods while Kiribayama dutifully falls to 1-3.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Terunofuji was looking for blood at the tachi-ai, and M2 Kotonowaka knew it, and so the youngster began moving left in order to escape, but Fuji stayed snug with the right arm inside that led to the left outer grip, and Kotonowaka could do nothing as the Yokozuna scored the emphatic yori-kiri win moving to 3-1 in the process. As for Kotonowaka, he's fought four straight up bouts and he comes away 3-1 thanks to the terrible Ozeki.

The problem the Sumo Association faces here is that in order for the Ozeki to take part in the yusho race, they're going to have to get everyone down to two losses. That puts the yusho line at 13-2 at best, but there's no way any of the Ozeki are going to win out. I think you let Fuji just run free this basho and come away with another loss or two and try to have someone to keep it close in week 2 so they can make up a yusho race. As it stands now, however, I don't see where the drama is going to come in week 2.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The biggest news by far coming out of Day 3 focused on a mae-zumo rikishi named Suyama. Suyama is the first ever dude from Tokyo University (commonly referred to as Todai) to enter professional sumo, and so it's been a story that the media has glommed onto since the release of the banzuke. The reason we haven't seen anyone come out of Todai before is because Japan isn't exactly a meritocracy. If you can get into Todai, your future is set regardless of how useful you'd actually be to a future employer, and so the world of sumo hasn't been attractive to anyone smart enough to get into Todai...until now.

Suyama, who is 24 years old, won his first mae-zumo bout today against a 16 year-old kid sending the media into a frenzy. He won by yori-taoshi in three seconds, but the sumo wasn't that impressive. His tachi-ai reminded me of amateurs here in the States who wear underwear beneath their mawashi and stand straight up at the tachi-ai. Unless Suyama was holding back today, I don't see him making it out of Sandanme based on what I saw in that first bout.

Of the three bouts they showed on the NHK News 9 sports segment, one of them was Suyama's bout, and as an aside...if I was an Ozeki and they didn't show my bout (because I couldn't give them a reason to show it), but they did show a kid fight from mae-zumo, I'd be embarrassed. Just sayin'. Suyama's goal of course is to become a sekitori, and he's already announced his shikona if he makes it that far: Todai, or Todai-zeki. Clever!!

Once again, this is a great example of how such trivial stories trump actual sumo during a hon-basho because the content of the Makuuchi division's sumo is so lacking. As for Suyama, the real reason he's getting so much hype is because people are looking at him and saying, "Wait. This guy's from Todai, and he's NOT a nerd. What gives?"

The day began with M17 Kohtokuzan facing off against M16 Midorifuji, and Midorifuji latched on with a left frontal belt grip from the tachi-ai that Kohtokuzan attempted to counter by firing tsuppari up high. It was a useless move because Midorifuji had his foe lifted upright, and despite Kohtokuzan's effort to shove his way out of it, Midorifuji was able to lift him over to the side and force him across in fine fashion. Midorifuji moves to 2-1 with the nice win while Kohtokuzan falls to a hapless 0-3.

M15 Azumaryu connected on a quick left slap against M17 Kagayaki from the tachi-ai, but he wasn't able to complete the hari-zashi attempt by getting to the inside. Instead, Kagayaki caught him with a nice tsuppari attack that kept Ryu upright before Kagayaki methodically pushed him back and across from there. Kagayaki moves to 2-1 in another good bout to start the day while Azumaryu falls to 0-3.

M14 Yutakayama kept his hands high and wide at the tachi-ai allowing M15 Ichiyamamoto to score on some nice shoves, and when IYM went for a soft pull, Yutakayama oversold his reaction a bit moving over near the edge where Ichiyamamoto swooped in and finished of his oshi-dashi business against a mukiryoku opponent. This one was subtle, but YM was not trying to win this bout as Ichiyamamoto moves to 3-0. As for Yutakayama, he had room to sell in falling to 2-1.

M13 Chiyotairyu drove M14 Ohho back easily from the tachi-ai leading with a nice hari-te, but he let up in his charge near the edge allowing Ohho to skirt to the side and pull a willing Chiyotairyu down and out around two seconds into the bout. Chiyotairyu ain't that dumb. He was selling all the way here as Ohho buys his second win in as many days moving to 2-1 while Chiyotairyu can easily come back from 0-3.

Both M13 Meisei and M12 Sadanoumi had their feet aligned at the tachi-ai leading to an awkward beginning, and the sumo itself never did solidify as Meisei had chances to kote-nage his foe with the right and then dashi-nage him with the same right hand at the belt. Meisei never followed through, however, and allowed Sadanoumi to work him to the edge and score the yori-taoshi win with no counter attempt from Meisei. The former Sekiwake coulda moved left for a tsuki-otoshi attempt, or he could have moved right and continued a dashi-nage move, but he just stayed square in giving Sadanoumi (2-1) the cheap win. Meisei sells one here in falling to 1-2.

M11 Aoiyama and M12 Myogiryu hooked up in a curious migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Aoiyama slapped at the side of Myogiryu's belt without actually grabbing the left outer. With Myogiryu just standing there like a bump on a log, Aoiyama executed a mediocre kote-nage with the left, and Myogiryu just put his left palm to the dirt. I think this was just a matter of the two trading wins as Aoiyama breezes his way to 3-0 while Myogiryu (who won last basho) falls to 2-1.

M10 Okinoumi stood straight up from the tachi-ai stiff as a board as M11 Chiyoshoma kept him upright with a nice moro-te-zuki, and after driving Okinoumi back a bit, the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu where Chiyoshoma grabbed a left outer grip. After threatening with that left outer briefly, Chiyoshoma switched gears and felled Okinoumi (1-2) with a right inside belt throw in moving to 2-1. This was the same sumo we saw from as yesterday against the Sadamight.

M9 Kotoshoho's initial tsuppari attack against M10 Nishikigi was a bit haphazard, and so Nishikigi went with the flow a second or two frustrating Kotoshoho with his bulk and forcing Kotoshoho to move left in an attempt to throw Nishikigi off balance, but the latter was having none of it and had Kotoshoho dead to rights at the edge. Instead of firing that final shove and knocking Kotoshoho across, however, Nishikigi, agreed to a migi-yotsu affair where both dudes had outer lefts. Nishikigi had Kotoshoho with his back against the straw again on the other side of the dohyo, but he stayed up high and wasn't positioning himself for the force out. As a result, he let Kotoshoho survive a few scares, and then he just stood there allowing Kotoshoho to throw him over with an inside right. A real bout would have seen a nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge, but Nishikigi didn't even bother using the stronger left uwate to make some sorta throw. It looked good to the sheeple, however, as Kotoshoho buys his way to 2-1 while Nishikigi settles for 1-2 a richer dude.

As long as we're talking fake bouts, M8 Terutsuyoshi henka'd lightly to his left from the tachi-ai against M9 Tochinoshin, and the two spun around a bit before Tochinoshin grabbed a left outer over the top. T-Yoshi countered with the left inside and a brief nage-no-uchi-ai ensued, but Shin wasn't trying, Instead of following through with the outer belt throw, Shin squared back up and grabbed an awkward right outer grip over the top positioning himself to the right side of T-Yoshi's head. The two traded tsuri attempts as the crowed oohed and awed, and in the end, Tochinoshin just stepped to his left across the straw giving Terutsuyoshi the cheap win. There's no way Shin couldn't have dominated against the much smaller Terutsuyoshi had he wanna. He took the cash instead in dropping to 0-3 while Terutsuyoshi moved to 2-1. This bout actually made the News 9 broadcast which tells you nobody up high produced anything newsworthy.

The M8 Shimanoumi - M6 Wakamotoharu bout could never decide if it wanted to go to the belt or whether it was a push affair. Regardless of that, Shimanoumi was in control from the start, and Miwa Announcer also agreed as his mid-bout analysis always began with "Shimanoumi" doing this and "Shimanoumi" doing that. About five seconds into the bout, Shimanoumi caught WMH off balance and sent him over to the edge, but Shimanoumi refrained from easily pushing him back that last step. Instead, he let Wakamotoharu back into the bout, and WMH finally got a left outer grip. Still, he was not in position to do much with it and as he moved to his left a bit to set up a light throw, Shimanoumi just played along instead of countering with the inside right. Wakamotoharu was in a defensive position throughout, but Shimanoumi never tried to defeat him resulting in the cheap win for WMH who moves to 2-1 while Shimanoumi pockets some cash at 0-3.

M6 Ura started a full step behind his starting line against M7 Kotoeko, but it didn't matter as Kotoeko came forward lightly with arms extended inviting Ura to do what he wanna. Ura finally got going with a light oshi attack, and Kotoeko allowed himself to be nudged back to the edge where he turned and looked for a soft landing at the end. What a puff bout as Ura is gifted 2-1 with Kotoeko having room to sell at 2-1 himself.

Speaking of peddling, M7 Takarafuji stood completely upright with feet aligned against M5 Tobizaru, but the problem was Tobizaru retreated from the initial charge instead of moving forward. That meant Takarafuji had to move forward but he wasn't even attempting a shove. Instead he kept his hands high and wide waiting for Tobizaru to get moro-zashi, and after he did, the force-out was swift and uncontested. As they watched the replay in slow motion, Miwa Announcer asked the other guys, "Why didn't Takarafuji push when he was moving forward and Tobizaru was retreating?" The answer was a shullbit, "Tobizaru was attacking from down low, and so Takarafuju couldn't push." Except that Tobizaru was not attacking. He was retreating. Whatever. I could riff off of the spin analysis all day as Tobizaru buys his way to 3-0 while Takarafuji falls to 0-3.

In a battle of two undefeateds, M3 Tamawashi connected solidly with two hands to M5 Onosho's face, but the M5 did well to offer a left swipe to the side as he moved that direction. Instead of squaring back up, Tamawashi spun 360 degrees and waited for Onosho to come and get him. Onosho gave him his best oshi shot, but Tamawashi withstood it easily before returning some tsuppari fire before felling Onosho with a nice left tsuki-otoshi. Easy win for Tamawashi who was just toying with his foe in moving to 3-0. Onosho falls to 2-1 in defeat.

M3 Hokutofuji executed his usual tachi-ai thrusting and then moving left, and while that threw a wrench in Komusubi Hoshoryu's initial charge, the Komusubi was able to catch Hokutofuji by the neck and keep him in place from a defensive stance. As Hokutofuji tried to break through that wall, Hoshoryu easily moved right getting his arm up and under Hokutofuji's left side, and he showed Hokutofuji the trap door by executing a perfect tsuki-otoshi move. Wasn't pretty, but it was good sumo from the Mongolian who moves to 2-1 while Hokutofuji is still fishing for that first win at 0-3.

M4 Takanosho easily blew right through Abi's tachi-ai driving the Suckiwake back in an instant. Instead of finishing him off oshi-dashi style, however, he let Abi back into the bout, but all Abi could do was run to the other side of the dohyo and pull in the process. He was so ripe for defeat, but Takanosho just flailed up high never bothering to connect into Abi's torso, and so as Abi tried a desperate tsuki-otoshi at the edge, Takanosho just dutifully walked right into it. Easy yaocho call here as Abi buys his way to 2-1 while Takanosho falls to 1-2.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage's tachi-ai was weak giving M4 Endoh the upper hand with what looked to be a nice oshi attack. Endoh let up, however, and stood there leaning right just inviting WTK to swipe him that way. Wakatakakage sorta connected, and Endoh went into a useless 360 turn, but he wasn't looking to escape, and so WTK caught him with a left dashi-nage grip, and Endoh put his palms to the dirt before the Sekiwake really executed the throw. They are just treating Wakatakakage with kid gloves as he "improves" to 2-1. The reason people are buying this is because he's young and sprite and doesn't look just plain old like the three Oldzeki. Endoh assumes 1-2 for his troubles, but he's just socked away more cash towards that oyakata stock.

Komusubi Daieisho showed no mercy against Shodai, and so the oshi attack was swift and decisive. Nothing more to break down here. It was a straight up bout, and Shodai got his ass kicked as he now finds himself at 0-3. Daieisho picks up the easiest win he'll get this basho in moving to 2-1.

Mitakeumi and M2 Kotonowaka charged into a stalemate before Kotonowaka tested the kata-sukashi waters. He wasn't set up properly for the move, however, and so the result was both rikishi trading places in the ring. Neither dude could really get to the belt and so Kotonowaka started moving East around the edge of the tawara fishing for a wild tsuki-otoshi as Mitakeumi looked to shove his retreating foe across in desperation. They actually ruled in favor of Mitakeumi, but replays showed that Kotonowaka kept his right heel from touching on the back side of the tawara as Mitakeumi touched down, so they called a mono-ii and reversed the call. Gunbai to Kotonowaka.

My first reaction in watching this bout was, "I'd like to see Kotonowaka execute sounder sumo." And then it hit me. Why was I focusing on Kotonowaka? If you have an Ozeki fighting a relatively inexperienced M2, why isn't the Ozeki the one executing sound sumo and forcing the action? That Mitakeumi couldn't speaks volumes, and this guy is a hapless dude...just like his two counterparts. The result is a 1-2 record for MiFakeUmi while Kotonowaka scoots to 3-0...after fighting all three Ozeki. He must be looking around and thinking, "Can this get any easier??" Dude has a great 3-0 start and hasn't had to purchase a single bout.

M1 Takayasu and Takakeisho clashed well at the tachi-ai before Takayasu began churning the de-ashi and driving Takakeisho back step by step. As Takakeisho resisted at the edge, Takayasu pushed him down for good oshi-taoshi style, and this was very good sumo from Takayasu. Once again, we have an Oldzeki who can't dictate the terms of his bout and is easily defeated in the process. Hooboy. Takayasu picks up his first win at 1-2 while Takakeisho falls to the same mark.

If you're scoring at home, the Ozeki are now a combined 2-7 against guys from the Maegashira ranks...and that's because two of them managed to scrape together enough cash to buy those two bouts. Pathetic.

Yokozuna Terunofuji capped off the day fighting M2 Kiribayama, and the Yokozuna latched onto the outside of Kiribayama's left arm while fishing for a belt grip with the right. Kiribayama tried to wrench his way out of the hold, but Terunofuji kept him in close eventually getting the right hand to the front of the belt as well. Kiribayama was had at this point, and Terunofuji forced Kiribayama sideways tripping him over with his left leg planted to the side of Kiribayama's right. Pretty good stuff here as Terunofuji moves to 2-1 while Kiribayama falls to 1-2.

The Sumo Association better hope this Suyama character can run the table in mae-zumo because that's about all they've got going for them at the moment.

Day 2 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Not gonna lie, but this basho was a very difficult one to get up for. We're coming off of the semi-finals of the UEFA championships, and the NBA playoffs are in full swing, so the prospect of a hybrid sport that is half real and half theater wasn't high on my bucket list. The sumos had a great showing attendance-wise yesterday, which is to be expected coming at the tail end of the major Golden Week holiday, but the Day 1 sumo itself was well below average. Wakatakakage needed Hokutofuji to let up for him a bit; Takakeisho and Shodai stunk as usual; and then Terunofuji backed straight out of the dohyo again when facing Daieisho. Mitakeumi can't carry a basho with his sumo, and so I was curious to see if the holiday momentum would bleed into the Day 2 attendance.



Apparently not.

There is just a lot going on that will be competing against sumo for media coverage, and that was evident today as the NHK broadcast didn't even start until about 4:40 PM being pre-empted by a parade going on in Russia and a speech by Vlad.

The Day 1 broadcast focused on two rikishi: Wakatakakage and Ohho. Kitanofuji and Mainoumi talked about the prospect of WTK's Ozeki candidacy this basho. Nothing has been announced formally, but Kitanofuji said that if he repeats his yusho performance from last basho, they'll have no choice but to promote him. That's a long shot for sure, but what's important is that WTK is working with 12 wins from last basho. If he can win 10 or 11 here, he will be an official Ozeki candidate for July.

The sport doesn't need another Ozeki who relies on yaocho, and while WTK's youth and skills give him a leg up on the other tired Ozeki, I don't think his promotion to Ozeki puts more fannies in the seats.

As for Ohho, they are really trying to work the whole Taiho grandson angle hard, but this dude just doesn't have good sumo skills. He's big for sure, but he's so slow and is usually on the receiving end of the sumo. Hakuho was dutifully hyping this guy on the sports shows at the end of Day 1, but it didn't look good after Ohho's Day 1 loss to Meisei.

Other than that, the only news in between basho that NHK really touched on was the withdrawal of M1 Ichinojo due to his testing positive for the Rona and then M16 Ishiura's withdrawal due to a spine injury suffered last basho that should heal up in another three weeks, so let's get to the Day 2 action and pretend we're all excited to be here.

I groaned a bit at the prospect of having to watch M16 Midorifuji for another basho. After losing handily yesterday, I suspected M17 Kagayaki would let up for his shorter foe today and he did. Kagayaki suddenly forgot his tsuppari attack and stood fully upright from the tachi-ai and Midorifuji dinked around a bit before moving right, and wouldn't ya know it? He managed to get a right arm up and under the listless Kagayaki who just walked into the kata-sukashi diving forward and doing more work that Fuji did to pull his opponent down. When performed correctly, a kata-sukashi comes after a stalemate between the two parties, but this was all theater as both rikishi end the day at 1-1.

M17 Kohtokuzan and M15 Ichiyamamoto put up a decent tsuppari fight with both dudes getting in their licks, but neither had the solid de-ashi working, and so the action floated a bit this way and that. When Kohtokuzan went for a timid pull about eight seconds in, that provided the momentum shift that IYM needed to score the ultimate push-out win and advance to 2-0. Kohtokuzan is still winless at 0-2.

M15 Azumaryu got the nice left hand inside from the tachi-ai against M14 Ohho, but instead of forcing the bout chest to chest and making the youngster work, Azumaryu just began retreating with his opponent in tow. Ohho never did have the solid yotsu position of his own with the left inside, but he didn't need it with Azumaryu agreeing to just back up across the straw giving Ohho the cheap, ill-gotten win. Ohho moves to 1-1 with the freebie while Ryu falls to 0-2.

M14 Yutakayama and M13 Meisei engaged in a very good fight were Yutakayama held the upperhand start to finish with his larger frame and nice tsuppari attack. Meisei attempted to counter a few times with kote-nage, but he could never get fully in position before Yutakayama knocked him back again. Around and around the ring they went, and YY finally got Meisei to the edge of the ring where the former Sekiwake just collapsed down and out due to sheer exhaustion. This was a good fight as Yutakayama moves to 2-0 while Meisei falls to 1-1.

M13 Chiyotairyu kept both hands high from the tachi-ai against M12 Myogiryu and went for a half-assed pull where he backed out of the ring and pulled Myogiryu into his body gifting Myogiryu the cheap oshi-dashi win. This was all Chiyotairyu start to finish as he sells yet another bout in falling to 0-2. Myogiryu oiled his way to 2-0 by doing nothing here.

The tachi-ai between M12 Sadanoumi and M11 Chiyoshoma was good with the rikishi coming away in hidari-yotsu and the Sadamight gaining the early right outer grip, but Shoma moved right reaching for a right outer of his own, and the belt grip was there, but he sensed his opponent was off balance enough to where he quickly reversed course and threw Sadanoumi over and down with a beautiful shitate-nage. The Mongolian was dominant here as both rikishi end the day at 1-1.

M11 Aoiyama caught M10 Okinoumi with some nice tsuppari from the tachi-ai and began driving his legs forward. When he takes this posture, you know Aoiyama is looking to win, and after quickly driving Okinoumi to the edge, the latter countered well grabbing at Aoiyama's extended right hand as if to yank him forward and out, but Aoiyama kept his footing well and chased Okinoumi to the other side of the ring where he pushed him out with ease in the end. Aoiyama moves to 2-0 while Okinoumi suffers his first loss.

M9 Tochinoshin got the left frontal belt against M10 Nishikigi at the tachi-ai, but instead of using it to lift his foe upright and go chest to chest, Shin just backed up towards the straw instead. Nishikigi couldn't take advantage of that first gift, and so the two moved back towards the center of the ring, and this time Tochinoshin let go of that frontal grip altogether thanks to nothing that came from Nishikigi, and Tochinoshin just began backing up tripping over his own feet in the process. Nishikigi sorta connected with a shove to Shin's torso that sent him back and down on his widdle bum, but this was yaocho start to finish from Tochinoshin who fell to 0-2. Nishikigi buys his first win at 1-1.

M8 Shimanoumi looked to stand M9 Kotoshoho upright with tsuppari to the torso, but instead of trying to move forward and put Shoho on his heels, Shimanoumi just started backing up for no reason. Kotoshoho clued in quickly from there and rushed forward scoring the easy oshi-dashi against his compromised opponent, but that early retreat from Shimanoumi was of his own bidding and not the result of any pressure applied by Kotoshoho. Another yaocho here as Kotoshoho moves to 1-1 while Shimanoumi falls to 0-2.

M8 Terutsuyoshi came into M7 Kotoeko low with both hands braced against Eko's chest as if to say "pull me now," but instead of pulling, Kotoeko skirted right. Terutsuyoshi was committed to his dive, however, and so he just flopped forward and down a second in as Kotoeko looked to catch up with the action. He didn't and the result was an obvious fixed bout that saw Kotoeko buy his way to 2-0 while T-yoshi suffers his first loss.

It was a stunning tachi-ai from M7 Takarafuji against M6 Ura that saw Takarafuji do nothing but keep his hands low and wander forward as if he was lost in the woods. Ura moved right creating some awkward social distancing, but he recovered quickly and as the two looked to square back up, Takarafuji refused to grab his foe and pull him in tight instead opting to stay upright and listless as Ura finally pushed him back and across. Takarafuji definitely couldn't be arsed to bend his back or his knees in this one as Ura buys his first win while Takarafuji falls to 0-2.

M6 Wakamotoharu came with a weak kachi-age with the right against M5 Tobizaru, and then the taller Wakamotoharu just stood there waiting for Tobizaru's next move. Nothing really came, however, and so Wakamotoharu just tripped over his own twp feet and plopped forward and down to his right landing on his back with nothing doing from Tobizaru whatsoever. What a fake fall that was, and Wakamotoharu came up a bit lame afterwards limping down the hana-michi and favoring his right knee. He's 1-1 now after the poor acting job while Tobizaru obviously bought one here in moving to 2-0.

M4 Endoh made a half-assed effort to get his right arm at the belt of M5 Onosho from the tachi-ai not wanting to actually grab the silk. Onosho wasn't exactly blazing from the tachi-ai, and he wasn't firing tsuppari into his foe opting to keep his hands pressed against Endoh's torso in a defensive posture, and after a second or two of this nonsense, Endoh just backed his way up to the edge with Onosho in tow, and Onosho was able to push his compromised foe back that last step for the uneventful, fake win. Onosho buys his way to 2-0 while Endoh falls to 1-1.

Komusubi Daieisho came out blazing against M4 Takanosho driving his opponent back a few steps quickly and knocking him so upright that Sho's feet were perfectly aligned, but then the Komusubi just stopped in his tracks waiting for Takanosho to counter, and as Takanosho moved right, Daieisho just hit the dirt anticipating a pull that never really came. Doesn't matter these days as both rikishi end the day at 1-1.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage and M3 Tamawashi engaged in a tsuppari affair from the tachi-ai where The Mawashi seemed willing to go back, but WTK wasn't applying sufficient pressure and so after a few seconds of Wakatakakage spinning his wheels and Tamawashi standing in a defensive posture, Tamawashi quickly moved right and yanked WTK down in the process. Wakatakakage suffers his first loss here at 1-1, and a true Ozeki candidate he ain't. As for Tamawashi--the best rikishi on the banzuke, he moves to a cool 2-0 and can do what he wanna out there.

M3 Hokutofuji attempted nothing at the tachi-ai other than to grab Suckiwake Abi's sagari and yank them out for him. With Hokutofuji just standing there, Abi was able to awkwardly move forward and tsuppari a willing Hokutofuji back and across in mere seconds. At least one of the dudes here took this ugly bout seriously as Abi buys his first win at 1-1 while Hokutofuji falls to 0-2.

Komusubi Hoshoryu struck Mitakeumi hard at the tachi-ai keeping him upright, and as the faux-zeki looked to recover, all he could muster was a lame left kachi-age up high, and the Komusubi easily got his right arm up and under Mitakeumi's extended left and used that to force Mitakeumi over to the edge where a final shove from the Mongolian sent Mitakeumi across without argument and down into the lap of Takakeisho below. This one wasn't close, and this is a good example of how the Mongolians can work these faux-zeki in any manner that they wanna as both rikishi end the day 1-1.

Osaka Announcer revealed with a bit of excitement that this was the first time that Hoshoryu has defeated Mitakeumi. Not exactly how I would've worded it. I mean, he did leave out the phrase "first time he chose to win," but whatever.

M2 Kiribayama had a similar choice to make against Takakeisho, but instead of getting to the inside of a completely exposed faux-zeki, he chose to slap lightly if not wildly with hands coming from the outside and high instead of sound thrusts coming from the torso. Takakeisho was hapless regardless, and his belt was completely exposed, but Kiribayama decided to push lightly into Takakeisho's chin with the left and keep the right high and outside to Takakeisho's left side. From this stalemate, Takakeisho was finally able to work his right stub to the inside, and Kiribayama just went with the flow and danced across as Takakeisho went for the "force-out" charge. What a laugher that finish was as both rikishi end the day at 1-1.

The Shodai camp is obviously strapped for cash because they can't afford to buy the faux-zeki these early wins. In a bout against M2 Kotonowaka that begged to go to migi-yotsu from the start, neither rikishi displayed solid sumo, and so both rikishi hoped for pull attempts while still keeping arms somewhat in a yotsu position. After about five seconds of flailing and moving this way and that, they finally settled into migi-yotsu, but neither rikishi looked comfortable. As for Shodai, he had Kotonowaka's right arm cut off well and the path to a left outer grip, but he couldn't demand it, and so Baby Waka was able to counter scoop throw his way out of it while retreating near the edge. At the edge, Kotonowaka's footing was not good, and so Shodai went for the do or die shove, but since he hadn't set up Kotonowaka's retreat, the youngster was able to move right in desperation and knock Shodai down with a wild tsuki and tug to Shodai's extended left arm.

This one was close and begged for a mono-ll as Kotonowaka's foot looked to step out at the same time that Shodai crashed down, but the chief judge whose call it was (as the action was right in front of him) was more concerned about Kotonowaka crashing down into his lap, and so he put his hands in a defensive posture as if to ward off the coming blow instead of watching for both dudes' feet and bodies touching down. Osaka Announcer was begging for a mono-ll, but when none of the judges budged, the gunbai was official. Win for Kotonowaka who moves to 2-0 without buying a win while Shodai falls to a painful if not embarrassing 0-2.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Terunofuji knocked M1 Takayasu back with a nice right kachi-age before the two hooked up in migi-yotsu. Takayasu was further away from an outer grip, but Fuji the Terrible didn't press for a left outer of his own either. After a stalemate in the center of the ring for a few seconds, Takayasu went for a quick pull, but the momentum shift allowed Fuji to grab the left outer. As Takayasu darted to the other side of the dohyo, he was able to maki-kae and come away with both arms to the inside, but they were elbow deep at best. With Fuji bearing down and Takayasu on the brink, the Yokozuna looked to set up a right kote-nage, but then Takayasu just hit the dirt going down on both knees as if the Yokozuna had him in a submission hold. It was a curious ending for sure as Fuji moves to 1-1 while Takayasu falls to 0-2.

With the dust settled, all rikishi ranked at Yokozuna and Ozeki (and last basho's champ) all have at least one loss, so the yusho line is already inching down. We'll see what tomorrow brings.