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Natsu Basho Senshuraku Comments
At the end of Day 14, all of the headlines were touting Onosato's pending yusho and pointing out how he would set a new record with the yusho for just seven basho as a professional rikishi. Like most decorated college rikishi who enter professional sumo, Onosato began his career in the Makushita Jo'i ranks. He spent two basho in Makushita, two basho in Juryo, and this is/was his third basho in the Makuuchi division. The previous record was set only two months ago by Takerufuji, who was awarded his first yusho at just 10 basho in the sport.

Takerufuji's route was different, however, in that he had to start his career in mae-zumo and work his way through each of the five sub divisions until he entered the Makuuchi division in March and was gifted the yusho as a rookie.

The previous record holders were Takanohana (who fought as Takahanada when he took his first yusho) and Asashoryu who both required 24 basho in order to yusho.

Other notable rikishi in the top 10 fastest rikishi to yusho are Terunofuji (25 basho), Akebono (26 basho), Musashimaru (30 basho), and Hakuho (32 basho).

I watched everyone of those rikishi take their first yusho and subsequently achieve the Yokozuna rank. Except for Terunofuji, those were some of the greatest Yokozuna of the modern era, and to be fair to Terunofuji, if he was allowed to fight his hardest each basho, he'd already have yusho numbers that rival Akebono and Musashimaru.

If you take the average number of basho it took for the dudes I mentioned to gain their first yusho, the average turns out to be 26.83, or a little over four years from the time they entered mae-zumo.

And you're telling me with a straight face that Takerufuji achieved the feat in just 10 basho? I mean, on paper, yes, he was awarded the Makuuchi yusho in March, but really?

I liken that number to the percentage of Japanese rikishi who took the yusho after Tochiazuma won at the 2006 Hatsu Basho. Between that tournament and the 2016 Hatsu Basho, exactly 0% of the yusho rikishi were Japanese. Then, all of a sudden Kotoshogiku was gifted the yusho on the 10 year anniversary of Tochiazuma's championship, and since that time, the percentage of Japanese rikishi taking the yusho went from 10 years of 0% to a clip of 38% the eight years since.

And it's not like the percentage gradually rose to 15% the first few years after Kotoshogiku, and then to 25% in years four through six after Kotoshogiku. The number went from 0% to somewhere in between 30% - 40% consistently and has hovered at that level ever since.

How can such a phenomenon be explained?

Likewise, how can a record of 24 total basho to the first Makuuchi yusho suddenly be shattered by a dude who just took 10 basho?

By way of comparison, I think one of the greatest feats in sports during my lifetime was Boris Becker winning Wimbledon at the age of 17. The previous record-holder in the modern era of tennis was Bjorn Borg who won Wimbledon at the age of 20.

If you compare Boris Becker's feat of winning Wimbledon at 17 to the rate at which Takerufuji took his first yusho, the previous record-holder for youngest to yusho at Wimbledon (for the men) would have done it at the age of 40.8 years old.

And that is literally how ridiculous sumo wrestling has become.

With that, let's review really the only bout that mattered on senshuraku, the Sekiwake Abi - Komusubi Onosato matchup. From the tachi-ai, this happened:



Yes, that is Onosato looking at the rafters, and yes, those are Onosato's arms so high and wide Abi could have gotten moro-zashi or planted his left palm into Onosato's chest. But what happened next? Abi backed out of the ring in about a second giving Onosato the cheap win and the yusho to boot.

They showed slow motion replay after slow motion replay of this bout from all angles, and there was no contact that came from Onosato to cause Abi's retreat or his stepping across the straw. The entire bout lasted two seconds, so you have that tachi-ai where Onosato got his ass kicked, and then you have Abi backing out of the ring all in under two seconds.

And that's what sumo wrestling has become: completely fixed.

This bout was not that different from most of Onosato's bouts this basho. He lost the tachi-ai, and then his opponents magically backed up and out of the ring in mere seconds. I'm trying to remember if there was an Onosato bout that lasted more than five seconds??  Maybe the one against Kotozakura because it was straight up, but there was not any other bout that was a prolonged, battle. Even his three losses all occurred in just a few seconds, which shows you just how vulnerable this guy is.

But, we are now supposed to believe that Onosato is a legit rikishi who only required seven basho in the sport to capture his first yusho.

I just shake my head as to how gullible people are or how dishonest they can be to themselves, and it's such a let-down to watch what sumo wrestling has become.

But...there's a lot to look forward to this summer to compensate. I can't wait for the Olympics where the winner of the 100 meter dash will set a new world record somewhere between 4 and 5 seconds.

We'll also get to see the men's marathon winner come across the tape at roughly 45 minutes.

Oh, and just you watch. There's a 10 year-old phenom out there who is going to win Wimbledon.

And don't take your eyes off of major league baseball where the home run king this year is going to hit 168 home runs shattering Barry Bonds' old record of 70.

I know some of you are saying that those feats are not humanly possible, and all I can say to that is: that's my point.

It's going to be a great year of sport!

Natsu Basho Day 14 Comments
After having lost access to the ability to DVR the live matches in Japanese and then also watch the NHK news programs, I've lost my pulse on the momentum sumo may or may not have. I miss knowing the top three bouts streamed from the previous day, and the Japanese analysis is just vital because that tells me what the Association's PR department wants out there. Judging strictly on the sumo this basho, things have been just awful. I mean, outside of the leaders today, I just fast-forwarded through all the other bouts as there are zero storylines remaining besides the yusho race.

The Association has managed to position the rikishi they most need at the top of the leaderboard, and the fans are still buying tickets, so you'd have to say it's been a success.

Speaking of the leaderboard, this it how it shaped up at the beginning of the day:

10-3: Kotozakura, Onosato
9-4: Hoshoryu, Abi, Daieisho, Shonannoumi, Ohshohma

The majority of those dudes were fighting each other, so let's go in chronological order, which means we start with M1 Daieisho against M3 Takayasu.

Daieisho actually put two hands towards Takayasu's chest and then skirted right in a bit of a henka, but Takayasu is so old and slow and battered, he can't come out of his crouch blazing forward, and so he didn't. The result was Daieisho's forfeiting any momentum he could have gained from the tachi-ai, and so he was forced to move right again as the two traded places on the dohyo, and then the thrust battle began. Takayasu's thrusts were largely defensive, and Daieisho lost any initial momentum, and so it was a fiddy-fiddy battle for a few seconds until Daieisho began connecting on his jabs that forced Takayasu back, to the side a bit, and then finally across.

Daieisho moves to 10-4 with the win, but that was a stupid tachi-ai. If you're fighting a guy with a historically bad back, don't skirt him at the tachi-ai. Blow him off the lines. He didn't, and so the bout was close, but it was real and a good bout of sumo. As for Takayasu, his comeback effort fails in terms of earning kachi-koshi as he falls to an official 6-8.

Up next was M10 Shonannoumi paired against Komusubi Onosato, and if you were to ask random sumo fans on the street what Onosato's style was, they'd all say oshi-zumo. And that answer is correct, I guess, but there was no oshi whatsoever going on from Onosato at the tachi-ai. It was all Shonannoumi who immediately forced the bout to the belt in a migi-yotsu contest, and Onosato was so vulnerable at the tachi-ai, that Shonannoumi's left hand was right there on Onosato's belt in the prime position to grab an outer grip. But, of course, he balled his fist instead, and not only didn't grab the outer grip, but he just began backpedaling pretending to go for a maki-kae with that left arm.  Near the edge, Shonannoumi lifted up his left leg further taking away all of his momentum. Onosato, knowing that his opponent was mukiryoku, just moved forward in kind, and it was another bout that lasted three seconds...after Onosato lost the tachi-ai of course.

As they showed the replay, Hirota Mori used the phrase "sheer power" to describe Onosato's sumo, and I'm like, "Where? How?" I'm sure that phrase was written down on Mori-san's script, so he had to say it, but if you watch the slow motion replays, where is the sheer power from Onosato? He got beat at the tachi-ai after getting knocked upright and back half a step. He didn't dictate the style of the bout. Shonannoumi was groping an outer grip on Onosato's belt but purposefully didn't take it. And then it was Shonannoumi who instigated his own backwards movement going for a maki-kae.

If you look at the pic at right, Shonannoumi is on the brink of grabbing a left outer grip.  As for Onosato, his left foot is off the ground, so he has no ability to stand his ground, so if Shonannoumi wanted the left outer, he could have taken it.

I would point out Onosato's sheer power if it was manifest during the bout, but this was all SNNU start to finish. And I don't bring this up to take shots at Mori-san. It's not his fault. He has to deliver the company line just as the guys surely did on the Japanese broadcast as well, and this is a perfect example of the media planting it in the brains of the viewers what they want everyone to think is going on when the complete opposite is true.

Imagine that Malik Scott and Thierry Henry (pronounced HEN-REE) were breaking down this bout. Is it possible to watch it from all angles and not talk about how Shonannoumi failed to grab the left outer grip? Even if Shonannoumi was really trying to grab it and he came up just short, it's such a key moment of the bout, and yet, it's not discussed in the post-bout analysis. The sumo is scripted, and the media commentary is scripted.

I guarantee you on the Japanese side, they did catch the failed maki-kae attempt by Shonannoumi, but they too were chalking it up to Onosato's sheer power, or bariki. It's just interesting to me how you watch one thing with your eyes and then get a completely different explanation from the media.

Regardless of all that, Onosato skates to 11-3, and I don't think I've called a single win of his legit this basho. Maybe he's got one, but I know at least 10 of those wins were due to yaocho. As for Shonannoumi, he falls out of the race altogether in dropping to 9-5.

Ozeki Hoshoryu moved to his right against M14 Ohshohma grabbing the cheap outer grip and using it to dashi-nage the rookie over and aross without argument. I guarantee you that Hoshoryu did this today to cover for Kotozakura using a henka yesterday against Shonannoumi. I read a headline yesterday that said of Kotozakura after that henka something along the lines of, "And we're suppose to consider this guy as a future Yokozuna?" The fact that a fake Ozeki had to henka in that situation did not go unnoticed, and so Hoshoryu was simply covering here today for Kotozakura. The only difference with this bout is that Hoshoryu won it legitimately; whereas, Kotozakura needed Shonannoumi to take a dive yesterday. Anyway, Hoshoryu moves to a harmless 10-4 while Ohshohma is knocked out of contention officially at 9-5.

In the day's final but, Kotozakura was paired against Sekiwake Abi, and the bout was straight up...thankfully. Abi came with his usual fire hose tsuppari that caught Kotozakura early on, but he couldn't drive the blob known as Kotozakura all the way back, and Kotozakura did well to just use his girth and drive straightforward into his opponent. That forced Abi to retreat near the straw, but Kotozakura didn't have him pinned in or on his heels, and so Abi had enough room to move left and yank at Kotozakura's extended right arm, and he pulled the faux-zeki to the brink with Kotozakura's back facing the center of the ring. Zak tried to square back up, but it was painfully slow, and before he could fully recover, Abi had him pushed back and across.

This was by far Kotozakura's best sumo of the basho, but it was one of the few bouts he knew wasn't fixed coming in, and so he had to show some desperation. His sumo skills were lacking greatly, and his only weapon was his size, but he still kept it close. If this dude has a good work ethic (you can tell by his body he doesn't) and actually refused to take part in yaocho, he'd be a pretty good rikishi. These days, however, he's just a sloth, and he finds himself one off the pace now at 10-4. As for Abi, he improves to that same 10-4 mark with the decent victory.

The results of the previous four bouts is the following leaderboard heading into senshuraku:

11-3: Onosato
10-4: Hoshoryu, Kotozakura, Abi, Daieisho

Onosato draws Abi tomorrow, and we'll see a carbon copy of the Abi - Kotozakura bout today if it's straight up. If the bout it fixed, Onosato will lose the tachi-ai and then win in under three seconds <strike>somehow</strike> with sheer power.

Hoshoryu and Kotozakura square off, and that one goes without saying. I mean, regardless of what happens tomorrow, this is still the statement bout of the basho:



Daieisho gets Kotoshoho, and Daieisho is the heavy favorite there.

It all comes down to the Abi camp tomorrow to see whether or not Onosato gets the yusho outright at 12-3 or this thing goes to a playoff involving at least three rikishi and likely four.

I don't really have a gut feeling either way. I can see the value of a four-man playoff on senshuraku to try and salvage something from this basho whose sumo has been anemic. And that's the reason why we'll tune in tomorrow. Not to see great sumo, but to see which bouts are real and which bouts are fake.

Natsu Basho Day 13 Comments
It's been strange not having access to the full Japanese broadcast and the usual Japanese news shows during my waking hours. I haven't heard any analysis from the Japanese oyakata and thus any spin on the fake bouts in the ring, but even without all that, you can see that the results are still very predictable. You have the Japanese rikishi touted as sumo's "Next," and everything is being done in the Association's power to make them the focus of the basho. Today was a very vanilla day because all of the rikishi who were supposed to win did, and all of the deadwood rikishi lost in order to de-clutter the leaderboard.

Speaking of the leaderboard, this is what it looked like at the start of the day:

9-3: Kotozakura, Onosato, Shonannoumi, Ohshohma
8-4: Hoshoryu, Abi, Daieisho, Meisei, Mitakeumi, Kotoshoho, Takarafuji

There's no point going through all the bouts today, so let's just highlight the leaderboard and anything else that might be of interest.

Going in chronological order, M16 Takarafuji was up first, and he was paired against M10 Kinbohzan, and Kinbohzan easily won the tachi-ai using a half kachi-age and nice tsuppari to knock Takarafuji upright and send him on his heels. Takarafuji fished at times for any inside position, but his only real hope was to move around the ring to his left. Kinbohzan used perfect suri-ashi to follow Takarafuji around the dohyo pummeling his foe as he went, and this was a lopsided victory in favor Kinbohzan.

When they show newbies how they should execute the sumo basics, this bout would be perfect to demonstrate sound suri-ashi and the way you want to keep your butt low. You'll note that you never see such technique for oshi-dashi wins by Onosato or Kotozakura. Kinbohzan moves to 8-5 with the beautiful win while Takarafuji falls to the same mark and outta the yusho race for good.

The next hopeful was M8 Kotoshoho who was paired against M13 Churanoumi, and Kotoshoho reached for and got a nice right grip at the front of Churanoumi's belt, but Churanoumi was already shading left grabbing a left outer grip and using it to dashi-nage Kotoshoho around the ring a full turn. Kotoshoho never could reel in his gal, and Churanoumi's tactic was good enough to keep Kotoshoho upright and off balance with his footwork, and so Churanoumi knocked Kotoshoho out of the yusho race with a nice oshi-dashi in the end. On one hand, I like to see guys win in linear fashion, but on the other hand, due to the size difference, this was the only way Churanoumi had a chance, and he executed his sumo to perfection. Both dudes are stationed at 8-5.

This bout had no yusho implications, but it's worth noting what real yotsu-zumo looks like. M2 Gonoyama stood M7 Nishikigi upright from the tachi-ai with some thrusts as NG looked for a right frontal grip, and while Gonoyama denied that grip, Nishikigi was able to use his girth to withstand Gonoyama's blows and force the bout to migi-yotsu. Once the chest to chest contest was established, Nishikigi demanded the left outer grip, and once obtained, the footwork was perfect as he pinned Gonoyama in place and drove him back and across. The footwork, the sumo, and the counter sumo was all correct as Nishikigi inches forward to 4-9 while Gonoyama suffers kachi-koshi at 5-8.

You will never see Kotozakura or Onosato execute such sound, yotsu-zumo. Ever.

Two rikishi from the four-loss line were paired today in M7 Mitakeumi and M1 Daieisho, and Daieisho caught Mitakeumi with perfect tsuki from the tachi-ai and simply pulverized the weaker Mitakeumi back and across in under three seconds. Mitakeumi's record this basho has been so farcical as he falls to 8-5, and this is what happens when a Mitakeumi opponent decides to bring the guns. Great stuff from Daieisho whose not gonna yusho, but he'll stay on the board another day at 9-4.

Yusho favorite, Komusubi Onosato, was paired against M4 Ura, and the reason Onosato is getting these softies so late is because Komusubi fought all the higher-ranked rikishi the first week. In this bout, Ura was able to duck under Onosato's out-stretched arms at the tachi-ai, but then Ura turned his left shoulder to the inside and just stood there like a target for an Onosato oshi attack. Onosato absolutely whiffed at the tachi-ai, and he was vulnerable had Ura wanted to grab his leg or belt, but this bout was fixed going in, and so Onosato easily got his oshi act in gear and sent the mukiryoku Ura into the first row in a matter of seconds.  Speaking of suri-ashi, Onosato's scissor-kick pose there at right isn't even close to the way sound footwork should look as part of oshi-zumo.

For the record, in a straight up bout, I think Onosato wins eight out of 10 times against Ura, but they weren't taking any chances here. This was yaocho all the way, and once again, Onosato wasn't able to win the tachi-ai even in a fixed bout. He moves to 10-3 and is the favorite due to his light schedule the rest of the way. As for Ura, he knows his place in the sport as he falls to 6-7, but he was definitely the useful idiot the first six days as he bought his way to a 6-0 start to keep the sheep entertained until this basho could gain some traction.

The next bout featured two more four-loss dudes going head to head in M5 Meisei and Sekiwake Abi. Abi offered two hands to the neck of Meisei at the tachi-ai, but Meisei's got more beef behind his thrusts, and he easily came back to drive Abi back and around the ring with some very nice tsuki. Meisei was able to set up moro-zashi about four seconds in, but instead of using it to drive Abi back and across, he just went limp and straightened his knees waiting for an Abi counter move. It came in the form of a desperate right tsuki-otoshi to the side of Meisei, and the M5 dutifully crashed onto his back and out of the ring giving Abi the compromised win. Abi stays on the second tier of the leaderboard at 9-4 while Meisei falls out of the race at 8-5, and there's no way Meisei lands on his back like that based on any move from Abi.

M14 Ohshohma was paired against Suckiwake Wakamotoharu, and Ohshohma moved forward a bit at the tachi-ai, but his hands were in a totally defensive position signaling that he was not trying to win the bout. WMH's tachi-ai was poor, but he eventually worked the bout to hidari-yotsu thanks to the rookie keeping his right arm up high and out of harm's way. Wakamotoharu never came close to a right outer grip, but it didn't matter. This was all for show as Ohshohma willingly allowed himself to be forced back and across without even thinking about a counter move. It's just not in the cards for Ohshohma to take the yusho, and so he dutifully bows to 9-4 while Wakamotoharu ekes forward to 4-9 noting that he did sit out four bouts midway through.

Perhaps the marquee matchup on the day on paper was Kotozakura taking on M10 Shonannoumi, two rikishi coming into the day with just three losses. From the tachi-ai, Kotozakura henka'd a bit to his right, and it wasn't a great move, but Shonannoumi purposefully bit into it hook, line, and sinker as he threw himself over to the edge and down before rolling off the dohyo altogether in a very controlled dismount. If you watch the replays here, there was nothing that came from Kotozakura that caused that fall, but whatever. We all knew that Shonannoumi was not going to even try and win this.

I mean, they may as well go the henka route. There's no reason to have Kotozakura's inability to do sumo exposed in a high-profile bout like this, so why not script the henka? It does say volumes that a supposed Ozeki has to do this kind of sumo against an M10, and once again, Kotozakura is unable to display any chikara-zumo whatsoever. He's gifted 10-3 while Shonannoumi falls outta the race for all intents and purposes at 9-4.

The final bout of the day featured a real Ozeki, Hoshoryu, taking on M6 Midorifuji, and Hoshoryu answered Midorifuji's moro-zashi quest by threatening a kubi-nage with the right and then grabbing the smaller rikishi in the kote grip with the left arm dumping him over and down in less than two seconds. Midorifuji was roughed up here in falling to a make-koshi 5-8 while Hoshoryu sorta stays on the leaderboard at 9-4.

All of the bouts involving leaders went just as planned, and it was a fruitful day in terms of eliminating the deadwood from the yusho race.

The leaderboard looks like this heading into the weekend:

10-3: Kotozakura, Onosato
9-4: Hoshoryu, Abi, Daieisho, Shonannoumi, Ohshohma

Analyzing the matchups tomorrow, Kotozakura is paired against Abi, and Kotozakura has no chance in a straight up bout. If it is straight up, Abi should pummel Zak upright with some thrusts and then slap him down. I expect yaocho tomorrow in this one, but we'll see.

Onosato draws Shonannoumi, and in a straight up bout, I'd think we'd see a pretty good oshi contest between the two where Shonannoumi's experience in the division would let him prevail. I of course expect yaocho here as well, which would give Onosato the easy, two-second win...without winning the tachi-ai of course.

Hoshoryu gets Ohshohma, and there's no chance that the rookie can beat the Ozeki in a straight-up bout. I think it's best to have Hoshoryu go all out here to keep some legit eye candy on the leaderboard.

Finally, Daieisho draws Takayasu, and he'll kick Takayasu ass via tsuki-dashi if it's a straight up bout.

I expect the leaderboard heading into senshuraku to be this:

11-3: Kotozakura, Onosato
10-4: Hoshoryu, Daieisho

Kotozakura will be paired against Hoshoryu on senshuraku, and Onosato will get another scrub, which is why Onosato is the favorite to take the yusho...as illegitimate as it'd be.

Natsu Basho Day 12 Comments
At the end of Day 11, M10 Shonannoumi accidentally found himself in sole possession of the lead. I say it that way because there is no way that Shonannoumi is going to take the yusho for the simple reason that it doesn't benefit the Sumo Association for him in anyway to win the whole thing. That the elite Mongolians are going to take the yusho 33% of the time is a given, so in the tournaments where the Mongolians let up early or simply withdraw in the case of two of them this basho, the Sumo Association has to maximize the benefit in letting a Japanese rikishi take the yusho.

In March, it made sense to have Takerufuji win because it created the sensational headline of the first rookie yusho in 110 years, but it also made sense because everyone knew who Takerufuji was even before he reached Makuuchi. When you watch the dudes being hyped incessantly in Juryo, you can tell whose being primed as the future Japanese stars in Makuuchi. Both Takerufuji and Onosato are great examples of rikishi with no proven game in this division being shoved down our throats, and chances are great that both guys are going to have a Makuuchi yusho at the halfway point of the year.

Shonannoumi is not one of those guys. He has zero name recognition, and it doesn't improve ratings to have him yusho, and so unless Akinoshima goes completely rogue, Shonannoumi is not going to yusho. I know people don't like to hear such talk, but it's just the way sumo is constructed. You cannot possibly watch the Day 12 action and not recognize all of the fake bouts and mukiryoku sumo, and so the question then becomes "Why are they doing it?" The answer is they're simply doing it for survival.

With that let's move to the Day 12 bouts going in chronological order.

M14 Ryuden kept his hands high and tight from the tachi-ai against M12 Ichiyamamoto, which makes zero sense because Ryuden's a belt guy. When I saw him not even attempt to go for the mawashi, I knew the outcome here, and Ryuden literally stood there as Ichiyamamoto fired methodic tsuppari into Ryuden's chest driving him back, over, and down. At 7-5, Ryuden is easily going to pick up that last win at some point, so why not make a little cash along the way? That's exactly what happened here as IYM buys his way to 6-6.

In another puff bout, M15 Roga kept his arms in a defensive kachi-age position at the tachi-ai welcoming M12 Nishikifuji who moved forward fast but was flailing away with shoves that were entirely bark and no bite. The two danced around the ring a bit with Nishikifuji looking busy and Roga playing defense, and then NFJ for no reason whatsoever did this slow 360 move, and from that point, Roga grabbed his belt with the right hand and lightly dragged his foe down. This is just circus sumo as Roga moves to 5-7 while Nishikifuji's make-koshi becomes official at 4-8. Before we move on, it appeared that Nishikifuji dislocated a finger or two on his left hand during the bout.

M11 Sadanoumi put a soft hand against M13 Churanoumi's jaw at the tachi-ai, and he left his entire right side open to an outer grip, but Churanoumi didn't take it. From there, Sadanoumi backed up flirting with the right inside, and Churanoumi gave chase although he wasn't committed to anything either. The two finally hooked up in hidari-yotsu where the Sadamight had the right outer grip, and after a bit more wrangling and instability, Sadanoumi was trying to set up an outer belt throw, but instead of a nage-no-uchi-ai, Churanoumi just drifted across the straw of his own volition as Sadanoumi tripped over him across the way. They ruled it uwate-nage for Sadanoumi, but this was not a throw (think Hoshoryu's real throw from yesterday) for sure. If stable footwork is key to sumo, this bout had none of it as both rikishi finish the day at 7-5.

M11 Hokutofuji came with his usual tachi-ai of one hand to the throat and the left inside against M17 Tsurugisho, and the latter readily agreed to go to hidari-yotsu. Hokutofuji nudged TS back mildly towards the edge, but then Tsurugisho began a solid left scoop throw that would have done HTFJ in, but Tsurugisho let up on it and waited for Hokutofuji to counter with a very weak left tsuki-otoshi and Tsurugisho just plopped over from there. Hokutofuji needed help here in moving to 6-6 while Tsurugisho falls to 3-9.

M9 Tamawashi came with light tsuppari towards M16 Tomokaze from the tachi-ai as he shaded left and Tomokaze's response was to lightly go for a dumb pull, and so Tamawashi moved forward from that point and thrust Tomokaze back, across, and down. Yet another lightly contested bout as Tamawashi moves to 5-7 with Tomokaze falling down to 2-10.

Our first leader on the day was M14 Ohshohma who was very defensive against M9 Shodai at the tachi-ai, and whatever happened to a guy on the leaderboard shooting out of his stance like a rocket in an attempt to take it to his opponent? Doesn't happen in today's brand of sumo, and Shodai gained the upper hand quickly striking nicely and then going for a tsuki with the left hand into Ohshohma's right side that had the rookie turned off balance. Shodai didn't follow up on the move and let Ohshohma square back up, but as they did, Shodai had the path to moro-zashi. He once again refused to take it, and as Ohshohma went for a desperate light pull at the back of Shodai's head, Shodai flopped around, pretended to lose his balance, and then eventually dropped to the dohyo putting both palms down. My goodness, what fake sumo this was as Ohshohma is gifted 9-3 with Shodai falling to 5-7. This was a great example of the victor getting his ass handed to him at every turn and still coming away with the W.

Our other rookie, M15 Tokihayate, also bought his win today against M7 Nishikigi as the two hooked up in migi-yotsu whereupon NG immediately drove the rookie back to the brink, but he suddenly let up giving Tokihayate enough room to execute a light counter scoop throw with the right. It didn't put a dent in Nishikigi, and so the rookie backed all the way up to the other side of the dohyo out of sorts with his right arm high and inside and Nishikigi gripping him with a firm left kote-nage, but instead of instigating a nage-no-uchi-ai, Nishikigi just turned his back to the straw and graciously walked across. Oh brother. Yet another obviously fake bout in favor of Tokihayate who certainly doesn't deserve that 5-7 record. As for Nishikigi, the merchant is just doing what he does in falling to 3-9.

M10 Kinbohzan delivered hesitant tsuppari towards M6 Midorifuji at the tachi-ai making sure Midorifuji wasn't going to henka, and when he didn't, Kinbohzan ramped up his tsuppari attack against a very busy Midorifuji who ended up darting to this right and attempting a hurried kata-sukashi, but the bout wasn't compromised, and so the kata-sukashi was frivolous and only put Midorifuji in a worse position, and Kinbohzan stayed square from there stiff arming Midorifuji back and across for the tsuki-dashi win. This was the first bout on the day where both dudes were trying to win as Kinbohzan breezes his way to 7-5 while Midorifuji gave it his best shot in falling to 5-7.

M8 Takanosho caught M5 Onosho with a nice paw to the neck from the tachi-ai, but then he just let up from there keeping his arms non-committed as Onosho worked to his left and offered a very light pull at the back of Takanosho's right shoulder. Takanosho pretended to teeter a bit but then he just dutifully put both palms to the dirt and stood right back up. Both dudes finish 5-7 here after the obviously fixed bout.

M8 Kotoshoho softly henka'd to his right against M4 Ura not really even going for a pull and as Ura looked to square up, Kotoshoho hurriedly offered a few girl slaps to the top of the head, but KSH was in a terrible position. No matter, however, as the outcome was arranged, and with Kotoshoho on his heels, Ura rushed forward near the edge and sloppily stepped his right foot out before Kotoshoho executed a right kote-nage that sent both dudes flying over to the edge. This is definitely not how rikishi practice sumo from the start of their careers, but Kotoshoho moved to 8-4 with the sloppy win while Ura falls to 6-6.

M3 Takayasu exhibited a rather weak tachi-ai as M3 Tobizaru moved to his right, and just as Takayasu looked to square up and go for a pull, Tobizaru just hit the deck before Takayasu knew what happened. Is it too much to ask for more than one real bout of sumo up to this point? Unfortunately, yes. Anyone who believes Takayasu (6-6) is earning these wins legitimately is obtuse. As for Tobizaru, he's always happy to play the class clown in falling to 4-8.

M2 Gonoyama meant well from the tachi-ai looking to charge hard and offer an oshi attack towards M2 Hiradoumi, but the latter immediately struck and then skirted to his left dancing along the straw and going for some desperate pulls. Gonoyama stayed square at first, but after a quarter turn around the ring giving chase, he suddenly stopped and stood upright at the tawara turning his back to the outside of the ring instead of staying square with his foe. As he pretended to keep his balance there at the straw, Hiradoumi rushed forward and crushed him down with a shove to the chest. Gonoyama took a hard spill, but that's what happens when one dude is mukiryoku and the other one is coming full bore. Yet another yaocho here as Hiradoumi moves to 6-6 while Gonoyama falls to 5-7.

M1 Atamifuji and M4 Ohho exhibited a nice tachi-ai where Ohho seemed to abandon his push attack in favor of going chest to chest. The two ended up in hidari-yotsu where Atamifuji had a really nice grip with the left at the front of Ohho's belt, and Ohho could sense he was in trouble, and so he shifted gears going for a pull, but Atami the Hutt read it perfectly and drove Ohho across the straw before pushing him down as Ohho persisted. There was some nice force here as Atamifuji moves to 5-7 while Ohho falls to 4-8.

In a scrappy affair, M5 Meisei and M1 Daieisho went toe to toe from the tachi-ai with each dude using thrusts to keep the other at bay. The tachi-ai was fiddy-fiddy, but it was Meisei who backtracked first looking for a pull. I suppose it worked just enough that Daieisho wasn't able to make him pay for it, and so the bout quickly became two guys darting here and darting there trying to set up a pull. Meisei briefly lost his balance midway, but he caught Daieisho with his back to the tawara and arms extended allowing Meisei to finally rush in and send Daieisho back and across tsuki-dashi style. It wasn't epic by any means, but the quality was much higher than all the yaocho we've seen today. Both dudes end the day at 8-4 and will likely flirt with the leaderboard the rest of the way.

The first real marquee matchup on the day (on paper at least) was M16 Takarafuji taking on Komusubi Onosato as both dudes occupied the three-loss tier coming in, but the bout wasn't even contested. After a decent tachi-ai where Onosato at least made contact with tsuppari, Takarafuji just stood upright from there with the C3P0 arms and his sides exposed and that allowed Onosato to easily get the right arm inside and force Takarafuji back and across without incident. At the edge, Takarafuji willingly walked back and Onosato made sure to keep the dude from falling off the dohyo making it the last thing you want to see in sumo: a cordial finish. Onosato picked up the cheap, uncontested win to no one's surprise and maintains a 9-3 record while Takarafuji is bumped down a tier at 8-4.

Speaking of no surprises, was there any doubt that M10 Shonannoumi's status as sole leader was going to last as long as a 14 year-old doing it for the first time? The crazy thing was that Shonannoumi beat Sekiwake Abi at the tachi-ai and proved to be a load to handle, especially for Abi's finesse tsuppari charge. After getting knocked back a step and a half, Abi moved right going for a shaky pull, but Shonannoumi let him survive as the two traded pulls. Shonannoumi made sure to throw himself off balance similar to Gonoyama a few bouts before, and after Shonannoumi's fake pull attempt, he stood there at the tawara on one leg (who does that?) inviting Abi to fire the kill shot that sent Shonannoumi two rows deep. Dangerous ending there, but the bout was obviously fixed in favor of Abi to right the leaderboard ship. Shonannoumi still occupies the top tier on the leaderboard at 9-3, but now he has company. As for Abi, I suppose he's still on the leaderboard too at 8-4.

Ozeki Hoshoryu easily got the left arm inside and immediate right outer grip against the listless M7 Mitakeumi, and the Mongolian twisted Mitakeumi's weight onto one foot brilliantly and then forced him across from there. This one was completely academic as Mitakeumi is unable to defend himself. The result is both of these dudes turning in at 8-4, so I guess they're both still in contention on paper.

In the final bout of the day, Kotozakura was paired against Suckiwake Wakamotoharu, and the latter came in way too high gifting Kotozakura the left arm inside. Still, it was Kotozakura who was driven a step or two back from his starting lines because he can't win a tachi-ai, and now that we're on the subject, Zak can't defend himself either and so Wakamotoharu grabbed an easy right outer grip a few seconds in. Near the edge, the next logical step for both of these guys was to go into a nage-no-uchi-ai, and so Wakamotoharu threw with the right (lightly I might add), and Kotozakura attempted a counter left scoop throw but it was Wakamotoharu who was sending the faux-zeki to the clay.

If you look at this picture, who won the nage-no-uchi-ai noting Kotozakura is the guy on the left?



But wait...there's more!! Instead of finishing his throw, Wakamotoharu let go of the belt (as you can see from above) and hurriedly put his left knee down before Kotozakura went crashing down from the effects of the WMH's initial throw attempt. I mean, how does Wakamotoharu go from the left leg above to the left leg pictured at right? This was shull bit if I've ever stepped in in, and even Murray Johnson on the call correctly said, "Wakamotoharu puts his knee down." He just left out the word "intentionally," but anyone who saw this could clearly tell the fix was in. Kotozakura lost the tachi-ai, he gave up the easy outer grip, and he was forced to react from his opponent's throw instead of instigating any of the movement on the dohyo. And as called by Murray, Wakamotoharu put the knee down stealing defeat from the certain jaws of victory.

The Sumo Association just can't help themselves. They have to maintain the farce that we have Japanese Ozeki on the banzuke when nothing further could be from the truth skill-wise. But oh well. It's their sport to ruin, and ruin it slowly they are as Kotozakura is allowed to move to 9-3 while Wakamotoharu takes the knee at 3-9.

With that, the revamped leaderboard is as follows:

9-3: Kotozakura, Onosato, Shonannoumi, Ohshohma
8-4: Hoshoryu, Abi, Daieisho, Meisei, Mitakeumi, Kotoshoho, Takarafuji

Fortunately for the Sumo Association, Kotozakura and Onosato have already met, and so it's possible that they can preserve the yusho at 12-3. It's gonna take yaocho everyday to do it, but we'll see what comes of things.

It's not worth going over the matchups tomorrow with so many dudes on the leaderboard. Shonannoumi and/or Ohshohma are not going to yusho, so we'll save the head to head predictions until tomorrow noting that Onosato is still the favorite to be rewarded the yusho.

Natsu Basho Day 11 Comments
Every so often you get a huge jolt in sumo that reminds you why you became interested in the sport in the first place. We've literally been lulled to sleep this basho with a myriad of kyujo, incessant yaocho, and horrible sumo in general. Over the years, the fans have been groomed to accept inferior sumo as the new normal, but we got a glimpse near the end of today of what sumo used to be or what it could be. Of course the dose of reality was delivered by a Mongolian rikishi, and it was a statement for sure. These guys may be letting up to allow a Japanese rikishi to yusho, but every now and then they like to remind everyone of who really is boss.

Before we get to that bout, we've got some slop to clean up, so let's start with a review of the generous leaderboard extending down the three losses:

8-2: Onosato, Shonannoumi, Takarafuji,
7-3: Kotozakura, Daieisho, Meisei, Mitakeumi, Kotoshoho, Churanoumi, Ohshohma

M17 Tsurugisho welcomed Chiyoshoma up from Juryo today, and Chiyoshoma came in low getting the left inside and right outer grip. As has been seemingly the case the entire basho, Tsurugisho was limp and offered no resistance as Chiyoshoma forced him back and across in seconds. Tsurugisho's make-koshi is official at 3-8 while we should see Chiyoshoma (9-2) back in the dance next basho so he can continue to peddle bouts.

M16 Tomokaze shook off his utter lethargy today against M15 Tokihayate catching him with effective tsuppari from the tachi-ai and coupling that with great de-ashi, and the rookie had no answer as Tomokaze pushed him back once, twice, three times a lady. Tomokaze moves to 2-9 with the impressive display of sound sumo while Tokihayate falls to 4-7.

M12 Ichiyamamoto (5-6) picked up the freebie after M13 Mitoryu (2-9) withdrew with an injury that I'm too lazy to look up.

M10 Kinbohzan looked to offer a few shoves at the tachi-ai against M14 Ryuden, but all he really did was keep those arms extended as he walked into the stifling migi-yotsu position in favor of Ryuden who grabbed the solid left outer grip. With Kinbohzan not even trying to stand his ground, Ryuden easily hoisted him over near the edge and then dumped him with an outer belt throw. A guy whose trying to win would have countered with a right scoop throw or right inside belt throw, but Kinbohzan (6-5) was just looking for a soft landing here in the fixed contest that saw Ryuden move to 7-4.

NHK News World touted the M10 Shonannoumi - M16 Takarafuji matchup as "Bout of the Day," but then they'll turn right around and call a subsequent bout on the same day "Bout of the Day."  I've seen in one broadcast as many as three separate bouts all receive the title "Bout of the Day."  Memo to NHK News World:  there can only be one "Bout of the Day."  And this surely wasn't it.

The bout received scrutiny because both of these dudes entered the day on the two-loss line, but it was anything but the bout of the day. Shonannoumi stood straight up at the tachi-ai as Takarafuji moved forward getting the left arm inside, but there was no determination from either dude here. Two seconds into the bout, Shonannoumi backed up and sorta dragged Takarafuji down by the left arm, and they ruled it a kote-nage throw due to the positioning of SNNU's hands. Uh, that was not a throw.  It was a slight tug and Takarafuji putting his right elbow down, but whatever. It was a nice fixed bout of sumo that gave Shonannoumi the cheap win at 9-2 while Takarafuji falls to 8-3.

Before we move on, you have three dudes at the top of the leaderboard and two of them are fighting each other, and this is the sumo content we get??  Speaks volumes about the state of sumo these days.

M15 Roga and M9 Shodai hooked up in the shallow hidari-yotsu position, and I say shallow because it was clear Roga wasn't trying to halt his opponent's momentum or grab a right outer grip that was there for the taking. Shodai's hands were positioned so badly, and you can see from that pic at right that Roga's right hand is at the base of Shodai's belt, but he conveniently never grabs it and instead just backs around the ring and out with Shodai in tow. Roga graciously bows to 4-7 after throwing the bout while Shodai begs his way to 5-6.

M9 Tamawashi dusted off the best tsuppari attack in sumo today against M12 Nishikifuji and had his gal stood upright from the tachi-ai, and then The Mawashi's footwork was perfect as he thrust Nishikifuji back and across without argument. This was borderline tsuki-dashi but they downgraded it to oshi-dashi as both rikishi finish the day at 4-7.

Two dudes coming into the day on the three-loss line met in (hold on, I'm stifling a yawn...) M14 Ohshohma and M8 Kotoshoho. M8 Kotoshoho beat the rookie back easily from the tachi-ai using a nice shove attack, but he stopped short of finishing off his foe and then just stood around with his arms high and exposed, and eventually Ohshohma was able to sneak in and grab a left outer grip. Kotoshoho had been mukiryoku for five seconds at this point, and so he played along and just stood there for a long time waiting for the rookie to make his move. The problem was that Ohshohma was lost and couldn't do anything, and so after a long pause, Kotoshoho pretended to wrench with the right inside grip, but it was just an excuse to move over to the edge where a tired Ohshohma finally nudged him across. If an opening for a slick counter move ever existed, this was the bout, but Kotoshoho was paid off and walked back the final uneventful half step. Ohshohma buys this one at 8-3 along with kachi-koshi while Kotoshoho falls to 7-4.

M11 Hokutofuji was quick out of the gate but didn't necessarily slam into M8 Takanosho. He still won the tachi-ai, however, but didn't follow up with good de-ashi, so both rikishi pushed into each other with extended arms and the action flowed in favor of Takanosho who stiffed armed a willing Hokutofuji back and across. There were very few shoves in this bout, and it was more like stiff-arm-dashi in favor of Takanosho as both dudes stand at 5-6 after the affair.

Two more dudes from the three-loss line met today in M13 Churanoumi vs. M7 Mitakeumi, and you could see that Churanoumi was throwing this one from the start as he stood upright and put both hands forward and then just let Mitakeumi execute somewhat of an oshi attack that was more Churanoumi backing up and out than it was Mitakeumi's pushing him out. Mitakeumi has bad wheels right now, and the dude can barely get down from the dohyo, but what a difference it makes when your foe does all the work for you. What a boring bout as Mitakeumi is gifted 8-3 while Churanoumi knows his place among the hierarchy in falling to 7-4.

M11 Sadanoumi charged into M7 Nishikigi's welcome arms getting the easy right inside and uncontested left outer grip, and Nishikigi promptly complied by backing up near the straw. At one point NG actually grabbed a left outer of his own because his reach was so long, but he let it go and didn't even bother to counter at the edge even though Sadanoumi was vulnerable and on his tip toes. Sadanoumi picks up the cheap win at 6-5 while Nishikigi stepped back into a loss in falling to 3-8.

M3 Tobizaru put both hands forward into M6 Midorifuji and then started to swipe down for no reason whatsoever other than to keep himself ducked low and vulnerable to a slap down, and Midorifuji complied shortly thereafter going through the pull motions as Tobizaru exaggeratedly flopped to the dirt, rolled over, and stepped off the dohyo altogether. Easy yaocho call here as Midorifuji oils his way to 5-6 while Tobizaru falls to 4-7.

M2 Gonoyama conveniently remembered how to do good, forward-moving sumo today after giving up yesterday against Onosato. His opponent today was M4 Ohho, and the tachi-ai was good from both parties who looked to shove each other back, but it was Gonoyama who was attacking from the lower stance trying to get his opponent upright, and when it was clear that Gonoyama was taking charge, Ohho began to retreat left and skirt around the ring, but Gonoyama stayed square and ultimately pushed Ohho (4-7) back and across for the very good win at 5-6 record to boot.

M1 Daieisho stood straight up at the tachi-ai against M4 Ura looking for any shenanigans, but Ura didn't bring any and so Daieisho focused on defensive tsuppari as he looked for an opening to get close. Ura moved right and made Daieisho give chase, and just when Daieisho decided to move right to grab Ura's belt, Ura went for a do-or-die pull into Daieisho making it close, but Daieisho was just able to latch onto the belt and pull Ura down before Daieisho was pushed out of the ring. This ended up to be a pretty good bout as Daieisho picks up kachi-koshi (and stays on the three-loss line) while Ura falls to 6-5.

The tachi-ai between M1 Atamifuji and M3 Takayasu was solid, and Takayasu muscled his way to the left inside position shortly after the charge. As for Atamifuji, he had his own left arm inside and a very good path to the right outer as Takayasu is one of the worst defenders in the league, but he refused to take it. Here are a few shots within three seconds of the tachi-ai showing how vulnerable the left side of Takayasu's belt was and how Atamifuji did everything but grab the free right outer grip.



Takayasu tested the early force-out waters, but the charge was weak and Atamifuji could have easily turned the tables with a tsuki-otoshi moving to his right, but he kept refraining from taking advantage, so you knew the course the bout would take in the end. After moving back to the center of the ring, Takayasu's back was facing the straw on the East, and he was in prime position to be forced back if Atamifuji had the right outer, but he of course didn't, so they fooled around for about 20 more seconds where it was evident that Takayasu didn't have the strength to force Atami the Hutt back even though the latter was willing, and so finally Atamifuji just faked a pull and used that as an excuse to retreat out of the ring as he dragged a listless Takayasu to the dirt. Because there was no force here, Takayasu also ended up on the venue floor, and dude's going to get hurt again even in victory due to mukiryoku sumo.

When Atamifuji backed himself off of the ring, he landed on a tiny gal sitting ringside, but fortunately Atamifuji was in full control and so the woman didn't have to bear the brunt of his weight.



Man, can you imagine the smell of that dude on top of you??

Moving right along, Sekiwake Abi caught M5 Onosho with some stiff thrusts to the neck standing Onosho upright, and Onosho's only chance was to grab at Abi's extended right arm and try and tug him off balance, but Abi's momentum from the tachi-ai was too strong, and the momentum shift from Onosho only left him more vulnerable to a forceful push out at the hands of Abi. It maybe lasted four seconds as Abi cruises to 7-4 while Onosho got roughed up here at 4-7.

You'll note that because this bout was real and you had two forces pushing against each other, Abi was not pushing into a vacuum and thus was able to stay up on the dohyo while Onosho crumpled down to the venue floor.

Suckiwake Wakamotoharu made his return today after sitting a few days out with a toe injury, and M2 Hiradoumi showed him no mercy easily securing moro-zashi from the tachi-ai and driving WMH back to the edge in a flash. As Wakamotoharu tried to dart right and escape, Hiradoumi held onto a left scoop throw long enough to hoist Wakamotoharu over and down right in front of the chief judge. This was a great performance from Hiradoumi who moves to 5-6 while Wakamotoharu inflated rank gets exposed as he falls to 3-8.

Kotozakura was flat at the tachi-ai keeping his arms pointed mostly down while M5 Meisei charged forward nicely getting the left arm inside, and he had Kotozakura so upright that Meisei could have easily grabbed a right frontal grip as well. He refused it, however, and refused to press charges whatsoever letting Kotozakura out of the hold as the two danced back to the center of the ring. After more clowning around, the two ended up in migi-yotsu this time, and once again, Meisei voluntarily kept his left arm as far away from an outer grip as possible with his left fingers extended.



It was clear that Kotozakura had no energy left to defeat his opponent, and so after another brief stalemate, Meisei just ducked down and said, "Do me already ya dumbass," and Kotozakura sorta gave a tug with his left hand at the side of Meisei's belt, but this was all Meisei's doing. What's ironic is this thing will go down in the books as an uwate-nage, but it was anything of the sort. It was clear yaocho as Meisei (7-4) refused to stand in the way of Kotozakura's frail existence on the leaderboard at 8-3.

In the final bout of the day, Ozeki Hoshoryu insured that Kotozakura would reoccupy the top rung on the leaderboard as the Ozeki easily got the right arm inside and a left outer grip against the defenseless blob known as Komusubi Onosato, and before Onosato could even think to counter, Hoshoryu planted his left leg, set the right leg to the inside of Onosato's left, and then threw the Komusubi over and down with some oomph using an inside belt grip.

I dare say that there are maybe three rikishi in the Makuuchi division who can execute an inside belt throw like that one. It's good to see some real sumo from time to time as Hoshoryu's makes a statement in moving to 7-4 while Onosato is thrown down to an 8-3 mark.  Before we move on, I wonder how many fans consider just how badly Onosato got his ass kicked here.  The dude's already being touted as a future Yokozuna; yet, he just got worked by a smaller rikishi.  It's also worth noting the lower bodies of both Hoshoryu and Kotozakura in the pics above.  Both are supposedly executing belt throws, but only one of them is a correct throw.

As the leaderboard is reshuffled, hold on everyone...we have a new leader! It's Shonannoumi!!

Here's the leaderboard with four days to go:

9-2: Shonannoumi
8-3: Kotozakura, Onosato, Daieisho, Mitakeumi, Ohshohma, Takarafuji

Natsu Basho Day 10 Comments
The NHK News World daily digest program posted a leaderboard today of just the two-loss rikishi. The leaderboard should fluctuate based on Kotozakura's results. There are a lot of old time fans who do not want to see a leaderboard without an Ozeki on it, and so the goal down the stretch here is to try and create an interesting-looking leaderboard that also includes Kotozakura. As I stated on Day 3, I just felt as early on Day 2 that Onosato was the one being primed to take the yusho here in May, and I can't see anyone else besides Onosato or Kotozakura with a chance even though we have six days to go.

The headlines have been rather bland the last few days. You'll see things like "Onosato is doing his brand of sumo" (they're using the term mochi-aji), but when you drill into the details, they don't exactly explain what that brand of sumo is. But that's the point. Stay away from the details like who won the tachi-ai and what the winner did to set up the bout, and use words like "Onosato, oshi-dashi, strong." It's working for now in terms of lowering the man-in-on-rei banners everyday, but I don't see people clamoring for sumo outside of the arena.

Said leaderboard as we entered the day was as follows:

7-2: Kotozakura, Onosato, Mitakeumi, Shonannoumi, Takarafuji

The JV leaderboard of three-loss rikishi includes one rikishi with name recognition in Ura, but he can't be sustained to the end, so the yusho rikishi is coming from the two-loss line, and it's not gonna be Mitakeumi, Shonannoumi, or Takarafuji. Before we get to the bouts, here's the list of the three-loss rikishi:

6-3: Daieisho, Ura, Meisei, Kotoshoho, Ryuden, Ohshohma, Churanoumi

The day led off with M14 Ryuden taking on rookie, M14 Ohshohma, and the two charged lightly into each other not going chest to chest. Instead, they both offered defensive pushes at times into each other's lower jaws, and after about eight seconds of soft sumo, Ohshohma went for a light tap at the back of Ryuden's right shoulder, and Ryuden flopped to the dirt putting two palms down to catch his delicate fall. Ohshohma is gifted 7-3 here while Ryuden drops to 6-4.

M15 Roga was denied a left frontal belt grip at the tachi-ai by M13 Mitoryu, and then the two stayed largely separated from there using a few shoves briefly getting to hidari-yotsu and then more cat and mouse shoves. After a few turns around the dohyo, Mitoryu positioned his hands at the back of Roga's dome as if to pull, but the move never really came, and so Roga used the opportunity to push Mitoryu back across the dohyo and out in a rather lackluster affair. Roga moves to 4-6 with the win while Mitoryu falls to 2-8.

M13 Churanoumi looked to grab the front of M16 Tomokaze's belt from the tachi-ai, but the larger Kaze bodied Churanoumi back quickly and used some high shoves near the edge. Churanoumi was on his heels at the tawara in two seconds with Tomokaze bearing down, but Tomokaze never did anything to finish his foe off. Instead, he stood upright and simply waited for Churanoumi to escape left and dump Tomokaze over with a light tug at the belt. I mean, Churanoumi's chest was a huge target there at the edge, but Tomokaze stopped any attack and just waited for the counter move. He graciously falls to 1-9 while Churanoumi gets the win at 7-3 without doing anything to earn it.

M12 Ichiyamamoto looked to gain the upper hand against M16 Takarafuji using a few shoves from the tachi-ai, but IYM was not going balls to the wall, and so this was yet another bout where the two dudes had a bit of separation where neither wanted to take charge. After winning the tachi-ai and dictating most of the pace, Ichiyamamoto just stopped and leaned forward into Takarafuji waiting for him to make a move. When Takarafuji finally went in to set up the force-out win, Ichiyamamoto instinctively thought about a counter tsuki-otoshi with the left, and in that pic at right you can see him shading that way, but then he remembered the bout was fixed, and he dutifully walked back and across instead. Takarafuji picks up kachi-koshi at 8-2 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 4-6.

M17 Tsurugisho was his ole lazy self just standing upright from the tachi-ai and absorbing a few M12 Nishikifuji shoves. This was more of Tsurugisho's agreeing to move back to the edge than it was real pressure being applied by NFJ, and at the edge, Tsurugisho turned his body just a bit and waited for Nishikifuji to shove him across that last half step (yawn). Nishikifuji moves to 4-6 after the light affair while Tsurugisho falls to 3-7.

M9 Tamawashi went a bit easy on rookie, M15 Tokihayate, at the tachi-ai refraining from using tsuppari and allowing Tokihayate to nudge The Mawashi back a few steps looking to get the left inside. Once Tamawashi's heel touched the tawara, he turned the tables straightway bodying the rookie back and across the entire diameter of the ring where he easily sent him across with a final shove. Tamawashi's moves to 3-7 here, and I'm not sure why he went so light from the tachi-ai. As for Tokihayate, he falls to 4-6 and definitely did not body Tamawashi back those first few seconds against Tamawashi's will.

M11 Hokutofuji caught M9 Shodai by the neck and drove him back to the edge in a flash, but then Hokutofuji just stood there keeping his arms high, which left his body quite vulnerable. Shodai's reaction was to move left, and he sorta attempted this push to the side of Hokutofuji's right shoulder, but it wasn't enough to move Hokutofuji around, and so the latter dutifully just walked across the straw of his own volition. I mean, really? I shouldn't be surprised by this lack of effort as Hokutofuji drops to 5-5 while Shodai doesn't deserve his 4-6.

M8 Takanosho caught M11 Sadanoumi with two hands to the neck at the tachi-ai lifting him clear upright, and then as Sadanoumi looked to duck back into the bout, Takanosho retreated back and to his right timing a perfect pull that ended this one in seconds. At least there was sufficient force to justify the fall here unlike seemingly every other bout on the day. Takanosho moves to 4-6 while Sadanoumi falls to 5-5.

The light sumo would continue as M10 Kinbohzan fired a few shoves up high into M7 Nishikigi and looked for the right inside, but NG's retreat to the left made Kinbohzan give chase. Nishikigi was actually in the prime position to go for a counter pull down, but he never attempted it, and you could see that these guys were not going all out. After more cat and mouse sumo with Kinbohzan trying to get inside and Nishikigi denying him at every turn, NG finally let the Kazakhstani grab a left inside belt grip, and as the bout tried to go to a nage-no-uchi-ai at the edge, Nishikigi forgot to throw with his right outer grip and instead just slid his body down and out. This was another compromised farce as Nishikigi took a dive in falling to 3-7 while Kinbohzan is gifted 6-4.

Before we move on, I'm not sure of the politics behind this one, but the only thing these two were trying to do is not get hurt.

In a bout between two dudes sniffing the leaderboard, M8 Kotoshoho did nothing from the tachi-ai but stand upright while M7 Mitakeumi attempted to push him back, but there was no mustard whatsoever from Mitakeumi's attack, and so Kotoshoho moved right near the edge, waited for Mitakeumi to come forward and thrust, and then Kotoshoho moved left catching Mitakeumi by surprise and by the side of the shoulder easily escorting him over and out in a bout that contained little force from either party. Both dudes end the day at 7-3, and Mitakeumi cannot move out there.

M10 Shonannoumi's arms were a bit wide at the tachi-ai, but M6 Midorifuji did not want to go chest to chest. He thought about it briefly before moving right in an attempt to spring the pull trap, but Shonannoumi wasn't buying any of it, and he easily pivoted on a dime and shoved Midorifuji across with one fell swoop. This was a rare, legit win for Shonannoumi who moves to 8-2 while Midorifuji falls to 4-6.

M5 Meisei looked to take charge from the tachi-ai with a thrust attack, but M2 Hiradoumi was looking for the immediate pull. Meisei read it and wasn't going to walk into the trap, and so when Hiradoumi moved forward again looking to thrust, Meisei went for a few pulls of his own that slapped Hiradoumi down with little effort. And this is the guy that beat Onosato so handily yesterday? It's a great illustration of how useless Onosato is as Hiradoumi falls to 4-6 while Meisei creeps up on kachi-koshi at 7-3.

M1 Atamifuji stood straight up at the tachi-ai as M3 Tobizaru rushed forward and made contact, but then Tobizaru went for a quick pull, which was largely meaningless because Atamifuji wasn't really moving forward. With Tobizaru in retreat mode, Atamifuji chased his foe around the ring before lightly getting a left kote grip, but because he hadn't set it up with precision sumo, he wasn't in a position to fire off a throw. As for Tobizaru, he had a buffet of options before him not the least of which was moro-zashi, but instead of making any sound moves, he faked a kick with the right leg that was really an excuse to back up near the edge, and finally Atamifuji was able to offer a final nudge to send the willing Tobizaru across. Ho hum, what a boring, fixed bout this was as both dudes end the day at 4-6.

M4 Ohho and M1 Daieisho traded tsuppari from the tachi-ai, and while Ohho meant well, Daieisho is simply the better thruster, and so he began to move Ohho back and around, and as Ohho looked to escape, Daieisho was able to side swipe him over to the edge and finish him off before he could fully square back up. Good stuff here from Daieisho who moves to 7-3 while Ohho falls to 4-6.

M2 Gonoyama advanced forward from the tachi-ai putting two hands to Komusubi Onosato's chest, but Gonoyama wasn't driving with the lower body. As for Onosato, his arms were rather wide leaving himself exposed, but Gonoyama quickly just backed out of the clinch for no other reason than to throw the bout, and with Gonoyama sacrificing himself at the edge, Onosato was able to finally advance and get his shiz together before pushing Gonoyama off the dohyo itself and into the first row. Gonoyama got up slowly afterwards which happens when someone lets up, and that was clearly the case here. Once again, Onosato did not win the tachi-ai, and neither palm touched Gonoyama's chest until Gonoyama had moved himself all the way back to the straw where he graciously waited for the kill shot. I suppose it looked good to the sheep as Onosato moves to 8-2 while Gonoyama falls to 4-6.

M4 Ura ducked low against Sekiwake Abi who wisely fired thrust after thrust into Ura's head and neck area, and Ura never could get to the inside despite some lateral movements. After about six seconds of constant abuse from Abi, Ura was spent at the edge allowing Abi to fire that final thrust. Ura knew he was going down, and so he gaily put two hands to the dirt and tumbled over in somersault fashion to the delight of the crowd. Both rikishi finish the day at 6-4.

In a lackluster affair, Ozeki Hoshoryu moved to his right against M5 Onosho grabbing the cheap outer grip, and Onosho didn't even try and recover as he simply put both palms to the dirt a second in. What a useless bout this was as Hoshoryu moves to 6-4 with Onosho falling to 4-6.

In the day's final bout, M3 Takayasu charged well against Kotozakura, but the tachi-ai wasn't effective to the extent that Takayasu was able to establish anything to the inside. Still, Kotozakura's charges are useless and so the two hemmed and hawed around the ring for a bit before finally settling into migi-yotsu where Takayasu had the left outer grip. After settling in a bit, Kotozakura tried to force his way into an outer grip of his own, but he wouldn't get it as Takayasu forced the action with an outer left belt throw. Kotozakura had to try and counter using a right scoop throw, but the nage-no-uchi-ai was weak withTakayasu's outer grip prevailing as he easily dumped Kotozakura to the dirt near the edge.

Neither of these two are capable of executing a true throw, and that's why the nage-no-uchi-ai looked like a tire that suddenly lost its air. The two key points from the bout were 1) Kotozakura failed to win the tachi-ai...again, and 2) Kotozakura failed to ever gain the upper hand or put Takayasu in a difficult position. The reason I'm picking on Kotozakura is because of his rank, and if you're gonna rank a guy at Ozeki, I want to see Ozeki-esque sumo...something I know I'll never see from this goofball. And just like that, Kotozakura falls back off the leaderboard at 7-3, but I'm sure they're going to extend it down to three losses so they can say there's an Ozeki on the board. As for Takayasu, he moves to 4-6, and it says quite a bit about how false this banzuke is when a dude with an injured, bad back can easily beat another guy who weighs in at 175 Kg.

And so we let out another big sigh after a drab day of sumo, and the leaderboard heading into the Shubansen, or final five days, is as follows:

8-2: Onosato, Shonannoumi, Takarafuji,
7-3: Kotozakura, Daieisho, Meisei, Mitakeumi, Kotoshoho, Churanoumi, Ohshohma

Natsu Basho Day 9 Comments
Day 9 is one of my favorite days of the basho. Normally. You come out of the weekend, and you have a good idea of who the players are the rest of the way. The problem with this basho is I look at the dudes on the leaderboard, and I think Daieisho's the only guy who has won a tachi-ai let alone won a legitimate bout. It's just pure malaise out there every day, and it's amazing how each successive day can outdo the previous day in terms of awful sumo. Can anyone think of a legitimate storyline going on this tournament that involves real sumo? Tokihayate's start was intriguing, but even that has been compromised and faded into the background.

There's just nothing left to get excited about this basho, and so we'll simply tune in to see who can manage to buy the most bouts and take the yusho. The two leaders who come from stables with the most money are Kotozakura and Onosato, so it's gotta be one of those two in the end since Hoshoryu is taking himself out of the running.

As we entered the day, the leaderboard looked like this:

7-1: Onosato, Takarafuji
6-2: Kotozakura, Daieisho, Ura, Mitakeumi, Shonannoumi

Let's just go in chronological order touching on all the bouts. The day began with M16 Takarafuji taking on M13 Churanoumi, and the two struck well at the tachi-ai, but Takarafuji wasn't trying to get inside or to the belt. Rather, he extended his arms outwardly and waited for Churanoumi to move right and pull Takarafuji forward by the left arm. Takarafuji's reaction was to do a slow 360 near the edge, and by the time he squared back up, he kept his arms wide open and allowed Churanoumi to move in and push him over and down.

Wow, this certainly didn't look like a bout that involved a dude at the top of the leaderboard, but that's only if you assume the leaderboard was legitimate. It's obviously not, and this was good evidence of that fact. I of course have know idea why Takarafuji threw the bout, but he did in falling to 7-2 while Churanoumi is rewarded with 6-3.

M13 Mitoryu and M17 Tsurugisho hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and TS just stood straight up and allowed Mitoryu to force him back in two seconds. Tsurugisho (3-6) made zero effort here in giving Mitoryu the win and a 2-7 record.

M15 Tokihayate and M12 Nishikifuji traded thrusts from the tachi-ai, and it was the rookie playing a bit of defense early on. As Nishikifuji pressed forward, Tokihayate was able to dart left and fire an inashi thrust in the side of Nishikifuji's right shoulder that spun NFJ sideways, and he too tried a useless 360 move before Tokihayate pushed him across. I suspect Nishikifuji was not going all out here, but who knows as Tokihayate moves to 4-5 with Nishikifuji falling to 3-6.

M14 Ohshohma henka'd M12 Ichiyamamoto from the tachi-ai moving left and offering a light slap, and Ichiyamamoto dutifully put both palms to the dirt with no other part of his body touching down suggesting this was all scripted. Regardless, it was ugly sumo as Ohshohma oils his way to 6-3 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 4-5.

M14 Ryuden and M11 Hokutofuji traded barbs from the tachi-ai, but Hokutofuji wasn't going all out with his thrusts, and Ryuden seemed casual about getting to the inside. With Hokutofuji doing most of the work, he began going for light pulls about three seconds in, and then all of a sudden he purposefully just whiffed on a pull and crumpled to the dirt. I mean, Ryuden didn't even touch him, and I have no idea where they got the uwate-dashi-nage winning technique. This was yet another completely uncontested bout that saw Ryuden waltz to 6-3 with Hokutofuji falling to 5-4.

If I may interject, none of the bouts to this point have even resembled a bout of morning keiko. This stuff is just unwatchable in my opinion.

M16 Tomokaze put a right paw forward at the tachi-ai against M11 Sadanoumi keeping the latter upright, but Tomokaze wasn't driving with his legs. With that right arm just hanging out there extended, Sadanoumi was able to tug on it and twist Tomokaze to the side, rush in for the left inside position and right outer grip, and then force a defenseless TK back from there. Still waiting for a bout of o-zumo as Sadanoumi moves to 5-4 with Tomokaze falling to make-koshi at 1-8.

M10 Shonannoumi and M15 Roga hooked up in hidari-yotsu at the tachi-ai, and Roga (the dude on the right) actually had the clear path to moro-zashi, but instead of inserting his right arm inside against a defenseless SNNU, he just put his right palm towards his foe and let the right arm dangle as seen in the pic at left. I knew what was going on at that point, but the problem was that Shonannoumi had no attacking momentum, and so the two stalled in the center of the ring for about 20 seconds before Shonannoumi sorta mounted a force-out charge. As he did, Roga instinctively countered with a left scoop throw that sent Shonannoumi to the brink with one heel dangerously on the tawara, but instead of finishing his opponent off, Roga just backed up with his hands to his side and allowed Shonannoumi to barrel forward and push him out. Roga was applying such little force, he had to jump off the dohyo and over the little white stool the yobi-dashi sit on in the corner, but this was a planned dismount, and Roga executed it perfectly. This was yaocho all the way as Roga (3-6) dictated everything start to finish in keeping Shonannoumi at pretender status at 7-2.

The way the day was going, I couldn't wait for M10 Kinbohzan to go all out against M7 Mitakeumi. Or not. From the tachi-ai, Mitakeumi executed a very slow henka to his left grabbing at Kinbohzan's belt, and the foreigner just went with it plopping forward and down in what you'd call a yard sale pose if you were skiing. Good grief. What a horrible day of sumo to this point as Mitakeumi buys his way to 7-2 with Kinbohzan selling all the way at 5-4. They showed Mitakeumi trying to step off of the dohyo, and I think Joe Biden could have actually beat him down to the venue floor. And I'm supposed to believe that Mitakeumi won that one straight up?

M8 Kotoshoho offered tsuppari towards M7 Nishikigi at the tachi-ai, but KSH was actually retreating as he thrusted. It didn't matter as Nishikigi wasn't trying to win, and so he plodded forward and let Kotoshoho skirt to the right over to the other side of the ring, and as Nishikigi pretended to care, Kotoshoho went for a light pull and Nishikigi just dove down and out. Kotoshoho oils his way to 6-3 while Nishikigi falls to 3-6.

M6 Midorifuji came with a strange hop at the tachi-ai as he looked to get inside, but M9 Shodai was threatening a left inside position himself. With Midorifuji flailing away here and there, Shodai was calm and collected, and it looked to me as if he was mukiryoku. He could have easily demanded the left inside, but he remained upright and nonchalant. The two finally settled into a semi-clinch in the center of the ring for an eternity before Midorifuji resumed a pesky oshi charge that Shodai went along with. The former Ozeki sorta offered a meek shove as he backpedaled, but he did not contest this bout in falling to 3-6. As for Midorifuji, he did a whole lotta nothing but still came away with the win at 4-5.

M9 Tamawashi and M5 Meisei traded deflated shoves a second or two from the tachi-ai before Tamawashi locked up Meisei's extended right arm and used it to lift him upright and over to the brink. When Tamawashi let Meisei out of that hold, you knew he was going to throw the bout, and that he did keeping his arms open and forgetting to throw a single thrust from that point as Meisei eventually turned the mukiryoku Tamawashi sideways and ushered him out rather forcefully. These hard falls happen as a result of mukiryoku sumo, and the thirty-something Tamawashi was slow to get up at 2-7. As for Meisei, he received full charity here in moving to 6-3.

M4 Ura tried to duck in low against M8 Takanosho, but the latter's defensive tsuppari were enough to keep Ura at bay. Takanosho was still backed up a bit, but he never let Ura get too close, and all he needed was to connect on one tsuki to the side of Ura's shoulder, and that sent him sprawling backwards to where Takanosho pushed him down and out from there. This was an obvious real bout as Takanosho moves to 3-6 and Ura's fake start is exposed a bit here as he falls to 6-3.

M2 Gonoyama came with solid thrusts from the start against M3 Tobizaru, and all the Flying Monkey could do was try and fish for a few pulls as he shaded right. Gonoyama was onto his every move, however, and caught Tobizaru in the chest sending him back and across in about four seconds. Great execution here from Gonoyama as both dudes end the day at 4-5.

In an absolute silly affair, M1 Daieisho threw a few tsuppari M1 Atamifuji's way from the tachi-ai, but Daieisho was actually shading backwards as he did so. As Atamifuji approached, Daieisho whiffed on a one-handed inashi attempt and then just pulled Atamifuji right into his body. The result was another hard fall by by the losing rikishi as Atamifuji crashed into Daieisho sending him down hard across the straw, and it's so dangerous when you have one guy coming full bore and the other letting up. Daieisho threw this one obviously for whatever reason in falling to 6-3 while Atamifuji limps forward to 3-6.

The Komusubi Onosato camp apparently bought into their own hype thinking their dude could beat M2 Hiradoumi straight up, but as happens every day, Onosato's tachi-ai was non-existent allowing Hiradoumi to threaten the right arm inside, and you'd think the larger Onosato would welcome a chest to chest contest against a much smaller rikishi, but his answer was to retreat like a scared girl and offer a forearm pull attempt with the right as Hiradoumi ushered him back and across in under three seconds. The only difference in this bout from Onosato's other bouts is that Hiradoumi didn't let him win. Onosato failed at the tachi-ai; he couldn't muster any sumo; and his opponent dictated the pace start to finish. In this case, Onosato got his ass handed to him as he falls to 7-2. Hiradoumi will take the easy win in moving to 4-5.

Before we move on, Onosato draws Gonoyama tomorrow, and if Gonoyama chooses to win that bout, it's going to be an even worse defeat for Onosato tomorrow.

Sekiwake Abi caught M4 Ohho with two hands to the neck at the tachi-ai standing the fruit of Taiho's loins straight up, and in a flash Abi had Ohho pushed back near the brink. He didn't finish what he started, however, and Ohho was able to grab Abi's right arm and twist him sideways. From there, Abi retreated backwards towards the chief judge and stayed square as Ohho advanced and pushed him across. Ohho moves to 4-5 with the win while Abi falls to 5-4.

M5 Onosho easily won the tachi-ai against Kotozakura and had him straight up and retreating a step or two in a flash. Kotozakura wildly reached his left arm over the top, and he was had at this point (see the pic there at right), but instead of continuing his forward momentum, Onosho suddenly went limp, and as soon as he felt contact come from Kotozakura's right hand in the form a balled fist, he just dipped his right shoulder and collapsed across the straw giving Kotozakura the cheap win. You could tell that fall from Onosho was planned because he hit the dirt just as they practice every morning, rolled over, and then landed on the venue floor on both feet with perfect balance.  As for Kotozakura, look at his feet at the point of the "throw" as pictured there at left.  He has no leverage from his lower body whatsoever, especially not enough mustard to send Onosho off the dohyo against his will.


On one hand I want to say, "Is it too much to ask that Kotozakura win at least one tachi-ai this entire basho?" but then I know the answer. He moves to a ridiculous 7-2 for doing nothing while Onosho earns some extra cash in falling to 4-5.

M3 Takayasu made his return to the basho after defeating Onosato on Day 2 and then promptly withdrawing, and he was paired against Ozeki Hoshoryu. After a brief stare down, Hoshoryu charged forward getting the left arm sorta inside while reaching for the right outer grip, but you could see him pull that right arm back just as fast, and then he just stood there with arms out wide letting Takayasu force him back two steps before going for an average scoop throw with the left. Instead of countering with a right kote-nage, Hoshoryu just slid down Takayasu's body and put that left elbow to the dirt giving Takayasu the cheap win in under four seconds. Hoshoryu throws yet another one in falling to 5-4 while Takayasu advances to 3-6.

This basho is a complete mess, and hopefully we can get through the full 15 days with the yusho at four losses or above. As both one-loss rikishi were defeated today, the leaderboard is reshuffled as follows:

7-2: Kotozakura, Onosato, Mitakeumi, Shonannoumi, Takarafuji

If you want to ugly the board up even more, go ahead and go down to three losses as follows:

6-3: Daieisho, Ura, Meisei, Kotoshoho, Ryuden, Ohshohma, Churanoumi

As long as the Association has a so-called Ozeki occupying that first rank on the leaderboard, they save a bit of face, but this basho is getting more ridiculous by the day.

Natsu Basho Day 7, 8 Comments
The Sumo Association should be embarrassed about what it's letting transpire this basho. The early Day 7 headlines announced the expected withdrawal of Ozeki Kirishima, but then at some point during the morning, they also announced the withdrawal of Suckiwake Wakamotoharu due to a sprained big toe on his right foot. That's two more rikishi to add to the list, and what's worse is that they both come from the upper echelons of the banzuke further weakening the remaining field. I don't see how the yusho race doesn't come down to a two-pony race between Onosato and Kotozakura, but it's worth examining how those two rikishi have gotten to the points they are at the end of the first weekend.

On the morning of Day 8, NHK World flashed the following leaderboard at the start of the 27-minute digest broadcast they do each day:



That leaderboard reads as follows:

一負： 大の里、大栄翔、宇良、湘南乃海、宝富士

It just feels as if Onosato is being groomed here to take the yusho, so let's review his Day 7 bout against M1 Atamifuji. As is usually the case, Onosato was unable to win the tachi-ai, and Atamifuji was able to work the Komusubi back near the straw in a hidari-yotsu contest. What was notable was that Atamifuji was able to easily put Onosato in that position...without even using the right hand. I snapped this pic that shows Onosato against the edge with his back arched and Atamifuji in the perfect yori-kiri position, but note Atamifuji's right hand. Instead of grabbing the right outer grip, he kept that hand in no-man's land with the fingers spread. I mean, why anyone would do that if their intent was not to throw the bout is beyond logic, but Atamifuji's intent of course was to throw the bout, so a few seconds later when Onosato moved right going for this little mouse tug with the right hand, Atamifuji just belly flopped to the dirt with his legs spread while Onosato himself flopped over and down across the way.

It was such a fake bout with a terrible finish, but it's worth noting how Atamifuji keeps that right hand completely out of harm's way even though Onosato has done nothing to defend against it. This bout followed the typical pattern of Onosato losing the tachi-ai, getting backed up to the edge, but then magically pulling the rabbit out of his hat to pick up the "win." The result of that bout kept Onosato on the Sunday leaderboard above at 6-1.

Just a few bouts later, we saw the exact same thing transpire with the Kotozakura - Ura bout only this time it was on the opposite side of the ring. In this bout, Kotozakura was unable to win the tachi-ai, and his foe was able to drive him back to the edge where Ura also had the clear path the left outer grip. So what did he do? He kept his left hand spread and the palm facing upright next to Kotozakura's belt, but he never grabbed it. It's also worth noting how dangerous Kotozakura was in that position. Ura is completely burrowed under and has Zak's right' arm neutralized, and Kotozakura literally does not have a pot to piss in. So what does Ura do? Retreats softly back across the dohyo and waits for Kotozakura to push him over on his weedle bum. Kotozakura has been so inept this basho (check that...his entire Makuuchi career) that he's needed help like this from Ura of all rikishi just to stay close.

We are seeing fake sumo like that all over the place, and I thought those two screenshots from Day 7 were quite revealing.

As for Day 8, we saw yet another rikishi refuse to grab an outer grip or even use his hand against a leader, and this happened early in the day when Ryuden took on Takarafuji. This bout also went to hidari-yotsu where Ryuden was in prime position to grab a right outer grip, but instead of taking it, he kept his right hand up high and out of the way with fingers spread. I mean, at least grab a kote grip, but that's only if the intention is to win. That of course wasn't Ryuden's intention, and in that pic at right, his left hand is also not gripping anything on the inside. This bout went to a nage-no-uchi-ai where Ryuden literally had Takarafuji up and going over with just his right leg, but then he scraped his left toe across the straw before Takarafuji crashed down first.

I'm just incredulous as I watch these bouts because the fake tactics are so obvious, but there Takarafuji was on the top rung of the leaderboard after yet another fake bout of sumo.

Near the end of Day 8, two one-loss rikishi met up in Onosato and Daieisho, and once again, Daieisho dominated the tachi-ai and drove Onosato back quickly, but with Onosato's back against the straw, Daieisho aligned both feet and simply dove forward and down as Onosato skirted to his right wildly on one leg. Daieisho's anticipation here was perfect, but what made this ending so comical is that who dives like that if their intent is to connect on a torso shove and win the bout?

If you've ever watched morning keiko, you see the young rikishi go through the sumo basics, two of which are tsuppari against the teppo pole and then a foot exercise called suri-ashi where a rikishi will squat and then move forward dragging one foot in the dirt after the other. Teamed up, these two exercises are exactly how a tsuppari rikishi should execute his thrusts, and that's exactly what Daieisho did the first few moments of the bout, but then with Onosato and his back against the edge, Daieisho aligned his feet and went into complete dive mode. It defies logic that these guys would practice suri-ashi their entire career and then all of a sudden hope to dive into an opponent with feet aligned and fire an effective thrust.

Of course that was not Daieisho's intention here. His MO was simply to take a dive and give Onosato the win, and that's what happened. It's so phony and so obvious, I'm still amazed at how many people buy tickets to come and watch this shiz. Of course, professional wrestling is also very popular in Japan, and maybe the Japanese need a little bit of theater as a distraction from their lives. The only difference is NHK and the mainstream sports media do not cover profession wrestling. They do, however, cover sumo as if it was all real.

The result of all these shenanigans is the following leaderboard as we head into Week 2:

7-1: Onosato, Takarafuji
6-2: Kotozakura, Daieisho, Ura, Mitakeumi, Shonannoumi

They got what they wanted with Kotozakura on the leaderboard, but the big story this bash continues to be yaocho and kyujo.

Natsu Basho Day 6 Comments
The basho has been rather quiet in terms of headlines that are out of the ordinary, and so I haven't detected a certain spin on things from the media. I really miss the full NHK broadcasts, and I found out I have access to them if I want to watch them live, but that's a hard pass as they start at 1:00 AM for me. I should also mention that I mistakenly said that Kirishima was in danger of going kadoban yesterday. As my sumo buddy, Matthias, pointed out to me this morning, Kirishima came into the basho as kadoban, and they way things are heading, he's going to be fighting as a Sekiwake in July.

The day began with M16 Tomokaze welcoming Bushozan up from Juryo, and Bushozan stayed low from the tachi-ai focusing on a shove attack while Tomokaze was focused on nothing but pulls, so it took about six seconds and a few trips around the ring for Bushozan to easily score the oshi-dashi win leaving Tomokaze at 0-6.

M14 Ryuden and M17 Tsurugisho struck at the tachi-ai whereupon Tsurugisho immediately put his left arm up around Ryuden's neck. In the meantime, Ryuden had the right arm deep inside, and so he ushered TS to the side and across in a moment's notice. Ryuden moves to 5-1 with the easy win while Tsurugisho falls to 2-4.

M14 Ohshohma executed a weak tachi-ai moving to his right and going for what looked like a kote-nage, but M16 Takarafuji wasn't pressing hard, so when Ohshohma went back to his left going for a bad pull, Takarafuji didn't make him pay. It was pretty evident that Takarafuji wasn't trying here, so when Ohshohma went for yet another pull, Takarafuji just belly flopped to the dirt. The result is both rikishi finishing the day at 5-1.

The tachi-ai between M15 Roga and M13 Churanoumi was solid with Roga grabbing a right frontal belt grip and Churanoumi countering with a left outer grip. Normally when a capable dude like Roga grabs a mae-mitsu, he moves forward and lifts his opponent up high, but here Roga just backpedaled and then let go of his grip altogether. There was no force coming from Churanoumi to cause any of that movement from Roga, and the next 10 seconds were some of the most farcical and nonsensical sumo I've ever seen. With Churanoumi doing nothing, Roga kept backing up waiting for his foe to push him out, and then at one point, Roga executed the slowest 360 you'd ever care to see, but Churanoumi was too clueless. Churanoumi also went for a few dumb pulls where Roga could have rushed him back in a flash, but in the end, Churanoumi was so hapless that Roga finally just turned around and said, "Push me out from behind already ya dumbass." And Churanoumi did in moving to 4-2 while Roga falls to 3-3. What an unbelievably fake bout of sumo.

M15 Tokihayate moved in hard at the tachi-ai against M12 Ichiyamamoto who was focused on backpedaling, but his movements where half-assed at best, and so after darting to the other side of the ring, Ichiyamamoto anticipated a pull from Tokihayate that never came, but IYM was already committed to this crazy, exaggerated fall that was more fake than the previous bout. I was sorry to see Tokihayate soil himself like this because this was yaocho all the way as the rookie moves to 2-4 with Ichiyamamoto falling to 3-3.

M11 Hokutofuji caught M13 Mitoryu with a nice palm to the face, but it was more bark than bite because he wasn't able to move Mitoryu back with the move. The two traded some nice barbs for the next second or two before Mitoryu went for a dumb pull, and Hokutofuji was right there to rush Mitoryu back and across. Hokutofuji evens things up at 3-3 while the hapless Mitoryu falls to 1-5.

M12 Nishikifuji moved forward well at the tachi-ai against M10 Shonannoumi, but he forgot to do anything just leaving himself exposed. As for SNNU, he grabbed a meager left belt grip, but Nishikifuji rebounded with a solid right inside position and left outer grip. He began to dashi-nage his foe over but stopped short, and you could see he was letting up already. Shonannoumi still didn't have any momentum as the two scrapped further with Nishikifuji holding the upper hand, but near the edge as Shonannoumi went for the tiniest of inside belt throws, Nishikifuji just stepped one foot out and stopped on a dime. That's one way to throw it I guess as Shonannoumi is a horrible 5-1 while Nishikifuji is banking some cash here at 1-5.

M9 Tamawashi was extremely nonchalant at the tachi-ai not bothering to do anything, and so M10 Kinbohzan struck him with a few shoves, and as Tamawashi showed he was willing to go straight back, Kinbohzan followed him with a perfect oshi attack. Tamawashi was definitely mukiryoku here, but Kinbohzan oshi form and technique was still solid as he improves to 4-2 while The Mawashi falls to 2-4.

In a similar bout, M8 Takanosho caught M9 Shodai with a stiff thrust from the tachi-ai lifting him upright, and Takanosho pounced from there shoving Shodai back and across once, twice, three times a lady. This one was legit as Takanosho easily moves to 2-4 while Shodai has to rethink a few things at the same 2-4 mark.

M8 Kotoshoho came with a nice kachi-age against and intentionally listless M11 Sadanoumi, and with Sadanoumi playing no defense whatsoever, KSH was able to skirt to the side and grab a cheap right outer grip. A nage-no-uchi-ai sorta formed near the edge, but Sadanoumi's left arm was limp and out of any harm's way with his fist in a ball, and so Kotoshoho easily threw his willing opponent over and then stumbled over the top of him because there was no force coming from Sadanoumi. Sadanoumi was injured in this unorthodox bout, and that's why they say, "Let up in the ring, and someone will get hurt." This was Exhibit A as both dudes end the day at 3-3, and it wouldn't surprise me if Sadanoumi has to withdraw.

M7 Nishikigi continues to dole out wins, and today's benefactor was M5 Onosho. Nishikigi stayed upright and nonchalant at the tachi-ai giving Onosho the easy moro-zashi, and NG made no effort to fight it off or counter. I mean, when you're a beast like Nishikigi, you can easily clamp down from the outside as Terunofuji often does in his kime-dashi wins, but all Nishikigi did here was stay upright and back outta the ring with Onosho in tow. Fake sumo here as Onosho is gifted 3-3 while Nishikigi falls to 1-5.

M5 Meisei moved forward well at the tachi-ai looking to get the left arm inside, but M6 Midorifuji did well to deny him. In the process of denying Meisei, however, Midorifuji wasn't in a good position to attack, and so Meisei turned to Plan B, which was to move around the ring and go for a pull. Midorifuji didn't cause that retreat, and so he couldn't take advantage and ultimately walked into a pull after a trip around the ring. This was ugly sumo, but Meisei won rather easily in moving to 4-2 while Midorifuji fell to 2-4.

I guess you have to say the marquee matchup on Day 6 was the M7 Mitakeumi - M4 Ura contest, and I think that sums up this basho so far in a nutshell. The bout was straight up and saw Ura charge low with Mitakeumi keeping him away from the belt, but like the bout before with Midorifuji, Mitakeumi wasn't in a position--and frankly not good enough--to attack. They stood their ground for about five seconds with Ura ducked low and Mitakeumi pushing into Ura enough to keep him away from the belt, but Ura suddenly switched gears, grabbed Mitakeumi's extended left arm, and then easily tugged him to the edge and across. This was legit here as Ura moves to 6-0 while Mitakeumi falls to 5-1, and anyone who loses to Ura in a straight up bout should be ashamed of themselves.

M2 Gonoyama struck M1 Atamifuji well keeping him upright, and that allowed Gonoyama to get the solid right inside position. Atamifuji used his size to grab a left outer, but he was already on his heels, and Gonoyama was able to push Atamifuji's right arm out of the way, which set up moro-zashi for Gonoyama. Atamifuji leaned into him well, however, and the dude is obviously not on Weight Watchers, and so Gonoyama really struggled to bully the Hutt around. This was a great chess match as the two grappled in the center of the ring, but as Atamifuji began to tire, Gonoyama finally moved him back a full step and then switched gears felling him with a surprise kote-nage. What a great bout of sumo here as Gonoyama moves to 3-3 while Atamifuji falls to 2-4. Before we move on, I never thought I'd see the day when Atamifuji was involved in the bout of the day.

Suckiwake Wakamotoharu is no match for M1 Daieisho in a straight up fight simply because WMH can't establish himself at the best rikishi from the tachi-ai. Today, Daieisho rocked him back from the initial charge and didn't let up until Wakamotoharu tripped over into a heap near the edge. It took about two seconds, and this was a very nice win for Daieisho who moves to 5-1. As for Wakamotoharu, he falls to 3-3.

M2 Hiradoumi and Sekiwake Abi struck at the tachi-ai whereupon Hiradoumi moved left going for a wild tsuki. He completely whiffed on the move, however, but no matter...Abi just fell forward and down in a bout that lasted a second. In watching the slow motion replays, you can see Hiradoumi whiffing badly, but Abi still goes down anticipating the blow that never came. It's not that uncommon to see dives like this as Hiradoumi limps to 2-4 while Abi falls to 3-3.

Komusubi Onosato and Kotozakura crashed into each other well bouncing off of each other before Onosato established the right arm to the inside. Kotozakura countered with a left outer and began moving that way, but he is so slow and didn't have anything going with the right arm, and so Onosato pivoted perfectly into his lateral-moving opponent and knocked Kotozakura back and across easy as you please. Kotozakura's haplessness was on display here as he falls to 4-2, and Onosato's potential was also visible as he moves to 5-1.

The Ozeki Hoshoryu - M3 Tobizaru affair was wild as Tobizaru didn't want to stick in close at the tachi-ai, and I can't blame him. The result was an ugly bout at first where Tobizaru darted this way and that with Hoshoryu trying to reel him in, and after a few seconds, Hoshoryu finally got the left arm inside and a right outer grip, and he forced Tobizaru back and across in textbook fashion. Hoshoryu moves to 4-2 while Tobizaru falls to 2-4.

In the day's final affair, Ozeki Kirishima had the clear path to moro-zashi against M4 Ohho, but the Ozeki only got the left inside and then moved left for no reason whatsoever. Well, no reason whatsoever other than to throw the bout. After the two traded places in the ring, Ohho was still upright and exposed, but as Kirishima inched close, Ohho went for a mediocre pull and Kirishima's response was to just put both palms to the dirt. Ohho is gifted 2-4 here while Kirishima falls to 1-5.

The early headlines on Day 7 are reporting Kirishima's withdrawal due to a made-up neck injury...hey, the same wound as Takakeisho wouldn't ya know. As noted in the intro, Kirishima came into the basho as kadoban, so he is going to get demoted from the Ozeki rank, and hardly anyone will notice.

It should be clearly stated that Kirishima is not injured. Ohho was as exposed as you could get today, and there's no way that Kirishima couldn't have taken advantage had he wanna even if his neck did have an owie. None of the Japanese fans will miss Kirishima, and his mission was accomplished in giving up some strategic wins to Japanese rikishi.

The lack of effort here and the lack of respect for the fans is quite galling, but people keep shelling out money to attend for who knows what reason?

I should check in at least once on the weekend, so stay tuned.

Natsu Basho Day 5 Comments
Without access to the Japanese broadcast or NHK News 9, I'm not sure what the spin of the day is this basho. I'm sure there is some focus on the four hiramaku rikishi who entered the day undefeated. Those dudes consist of Takarafuji, Shonannoumi, Mitakeumi, and Ura. I highly doubt one of those dudes are going to take the yusho, so the favorites at this early stage are Kotozakura, Onosato, and Hoshoryu in that order. I don't really see the yusho coming from anyone else, but the last thing the Association cares about these days is its integrity.

The day began with M16 Takarafuji welcoming Daiamami up from Juryo, and Daiamami had the path to moro-zashi from the tachi-ai, but he refused to grab it and instead allowed Takarafuji to grab a left frontal belt grip without making a single effort to fight it off. With Daiamami literally just standing there, Takarafuji began a force-out charge, and Daiamami just went with it backing across and out in kind without attempting a single move to win or counter. Takarafuji is gifted another one here in moving to 5-0.

M17 Tsurugisho and M15 Roga hooked up in migi-yotsu from the get-go, and the two grappled chest to chest for maybe two seconds before Roga grabbed a real left frontal belt grip, and he used it to lift Tsurugi the Hutt completely upright, which made the force out from there easy peasy. Tsurugisho's bum left knee isn't helping his cause for sure as he falls to 2-3 while Roga improves to a nifty 3-2.

M14 Ryuden struck M16 Tomokaze lightly from the tachi-ai and was able to nudge him back a step, but then Ryuden began a slow retreat as Tomokaze moved forward. Throughout, neither guy wanted to go chest to chest, and neither dude was trying to pummel the either. Instead, we got this largely uncontested puff bout of sumo where the rikishi went this way and then back the other way where Ryuden lightly pushed Tomokaze across in the end. Ryuden moves to an easy 4-1 while Tomokaze falls to a useless 0-5.

M15 Tokihayate was quick out of the gate against M13 Churanoumi striking him well and forcing Churanoumi to fight defensively, and when Churanoumi moved left thinking about a pull, the rookie was able to grab a solid left belt grip. He attempted a quick dashi-nage, but Churanoumi held up at the edge forcing the contest to hidari-yotsu, but it was Tokihayate who had the momentum from the start, and he used his body nicely to keep Churanoumi upright until he could finally grab a right outer, and once secured, he executed the textbook yori-kiri.

And there you have it. A dude fighting all of his bouts straight up in Tokihayate, and a dude who has bought all of his wins to this point, and you can see who is the better rikishi in a straight up fight. That 1-4 record by Tokihayate is far more honorable than the records of most guys in the division. As for Churanoumi, it was nice to see him get his candy ass kicked here in falling to 3-2.

M13 Mitoryu and M14 Ohshohma traded stiff arms from the tachi-ai before trading places in the dohyo as Mitoryu came out of the fray with the right inside. Ohshohma was not defending himself on the other side, and Mitoryu could have grabbed the easy left outer grip and won by force-out from there, but he wasn't even thinking about it. You could see that he was mukiryoku at that point, so after a lot of standing around where Mitoryu didn't attempt a thing, Ohshohma finally went for an uncontested force-out, and Mitoryu just complied by stepping back and out. A real win this wasn't as Ohshohma buys his way to 4-1 while Mitoryu couldn't care less at 1-4.

M11 Hokutofuji has thrown a few bouts already this tournament, so when he executed his normal tachi-ai against M12 Nishikifuji today, you knew he meant business. The key here was Hokutofuji's driving with the lower body, and NFJ sorta thought about setting up a pull, but he was dispatched back and across too fast for him to get anything going. Hokutofuji moves to 2-3 with the dominating win while Nishikifuji falls to 1-4.

M12 Ichiyamamoto exposed M10 Shonannoumi's fake start today by catching the latter with two nice paws to the upper chest, and all Shonannoumi could do was think about setting up a pull. Before he could even get that started, Ichiyamamoto drove him back once, twice, three times a lady. That had to have felt good from Ichiyamamoto who moves to 3-2 after the strong performance while Shonannoumi gets his ass handed to him in falling to 4-1.

M11 Sadanoumi easily got moro-zashi from the tachi-ai against M9 Shodai, and the Sadamight wasn't going to dick around here as he drove Shodai sideway and across with some oomph. This was a good example of what really anyone can do when they go all out against Shodai, so it was nice to see Sadanoumi improve to 3-2 while Shodai fell to 2-3.

You could see M10 Kinbohzan stand up straight and leave himself exposed at the tachi-ai against M8 Kotoshoho, and so I knew at that point Kinbohzan was going to stay limp. And he did...over exaggerating a stumble forward after a really meager pull attempt from KSH, and then as he squared up across the way, he just clumsily stepped his right foot out as Kotoshoho looked to finish him off with a few shoves. It was easy to read the tea leaves here as Kotoshoho buys one in moving to 2-3 while Kinbohzan falls to a harmless 3-2.

M9 Tamawashi came with a very light tsuppari start against M8 Takanosho, but you could see that The Mawashi was not focused on actual thrusts, so after the two traded places in the dohyo, Tamawashi put his right hand at the base of Takanosho, but he was not driving forward or applying any pressure. I mean, Takanosho was in no position to defend himself, and so this would have been easy pickings for Tamawashi, but he wasn't trying to win. After about 10 seconds of inaction, Tamawashi moved Takanosho back near the edge and then waited for a counter move to come. Said counter was Takanosho lifting his forearm up into Tamawashi's extended right arm, and that was supposedly enough force to knock Tamawashi clear off the dohyo. Either that or Tamawashi just dove down in exaggerated fashion. What a silly bout here as Takanosho didn't have a pot to piss in the entire way, but his Jedi powers at the edge proved the difference. Takanosho mercifully picks up his first win at 1-4 while Tamawashi redefines the term "falls" to 2-3.

M5 Meisei ran circles around M7 Mitakeumi for about 15 second throwing a few shoves, faking a few pulls and swipes, etc. and then the two finally settled into hidari-yotsu where it was clear that Meisei was not attempting to win the bout. Meisei had Mitakeumi way upright, and Meisei's right hand was right there at the side of Mitakeumi's belt as pictured at right, but he refused to grab the outer grip for like eight seconds. I knew Meisei was throwing this from the start, so when Mitakeumi sorta went for a light scoop move with the left, Meisei took the cue and scurried over and across giving Mitakeumi yet another ill-gotten win. Mitakeumi was so hapless here, but there he is at 5-0. As for Meisei, he dominated start to finish in falling to 3-2 a richer dude.

Before we move on, during the bout I swear I saw Terao resurrected from the dead and sitting in the front row:


Moving right along, M5 Onosho won the tachi-ai against M6 Midorifuji but focused on yotsu-zumo instead of his normal thrust attack, and so both dudes ended up in the migi-yotsu position, which is where neither wanted to be. If the bout was fixed, this was the point where Midorifuji would have executed the kata-sukashi, but it was real, and so you can see that Midorifuji didn't even dare try it. After a stalemate and then some brief social distancing, Onosho went forward again this time with some nice shoves, and all Midorifuji could do was think about a bad pull. Before he could execute it, however, he was pushed down to the venue floor and a 2-3 record. As for Onosho, his forward momentum took him clear off the dohyo as well where he mounted Midorifuji on the lap of the chief judge. It excited a few of the suss fans in attendance as Onosho upped his mark to the same 2-3 mark.

M7 Nishikigi came with the C3P0 arms at the tachi-ai giving M4 Ura the easy moro-zashi, and Ura forced NG back near the edge, but Nishikigi decided to make it a bit more interesting, and so he stood his ground and then waited for Ura to pull him back to the center of the ring where Nishikigi complied by just falling onto all fours in the center of the ring. There is no doubt they want Ura (5-0) to win because he's the most popular rikishi left on the banzuke. As for Nishikigi, he's laughing all the way to the bank at 1-4.

M2 Hiradoumi tried to get to the inside of M4 Ohho at the tachi-ai, but the fruit of Taiho's loins leaned his bigger body in tight denying Hiradoumi an effective position. From there Hiradoumi retreated in desperation testing the kubi-nage waters with the right arm, but Ohho was positioned too well and bore down hard on his opponent. Hiradoumi's final act of desperation was to dart to his right and fish for a pull, but Ohho caught him with a nice shove ending the bout in fine oshi-dashi fashion. Ohho picks up his first win at 1-4 while Hiradoumi falls to the same mark. It was obvious that this bout was straight up.

Sekiwake Abi was quick outta the gate putting two hands towards M1 Daieisho's neck, but Abi doesn't use his lower body, and so there was little momentum behind his attack. As for Daieisho, he came back from the tachi-ai well and connected on enough shoves to the torso to where Abi went into retreat mode, and from there, Daieisho used his stronger oshi attack to defeat Abi in about 5 seconds. Daieisho moves to 4-1 while Abi falls to 3-2.

Suckiwake Wakamotoharu came in way too high against M1 Atamifuji at the tachi-ai, but Atamifuji has yet to show an ability to do much of anything from the initial charge, and so after a sputtering start from both parties, they went chest to chest in hidari-yotsu where Wakamotoharu grabbed a right outer grip. Atamifuji was way too far away from his own right outer, so after a brief stalemate, Atamifuji hurried a bad maki-kae attempt, and that momentum shift allowed Wakamotoharu to force him back and down with the right belt grip. Wakamotoharu inches ahead to 3-2 while Atamifuji falls to 2-3, and Atamifuji pulled the trigger way too fast on that maki-kae attempt.

In the Ozeki ranks, Hoshoryu faced off against M2 Gonoyama, and the Ozeki executed a lightning quick hari-zashi tachi-ai slapping with the right and getting the right arm inside as well, and with Hoshoryu driving with the lower body, Gonoyama didn't have time to counter resulting in Hoshoryu's forcing the dude back, off the dohyo, and into the second row. I mean, Hoshoryu can turn it on when he wanna, and he did today in moving to 3-2. As for Gonoyama, he didn't have a chance here in falling to 2-3.

Ozeki Kirishima welcomed Komusubi Onosato, and Kirishima showed just how useless and defenseless Onosato is at the tachi-ai by getting the right arm inside and grabbing a left frontal grip a second in. The question from this point was would Kirishima muscle a forward moving charge, or would he relent and pretend like Onosato was just too big to handle? Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter and literally dragged Onosato over to the edge as the Ozeki kept his body in harm's way, but Onosato wasn't applying any force with the right inside, and so the two hopped a bit at the edge, and Onosato actually stepped out before the Ozeki broke the plane of the dohyo (pictured at left). They called a mono-ii, and they could have really gone with any decision here. They could have ruled it a tie; they could have said that Onosato touched out first, which he did; or they could have said that the Ozeki's feet were both beyond the straw and too far gone when Onosato finally touched out. They ruled in Onosato's favor and why not? It was the Ozeki's intention to throw the bout anyway.

I mean, this was a great example of how Onosato loses the tachi-ai and does nothing to set his opponent up, but he still comes away with the magical win at the edge. He's gifted 4-1, and I'd have to say he's the favorite to yusho at this point...which was my gut feeling even after his Day 2 loss against Takayasu. As for Kirishima, he's going to make sure he's kadoban at the same time as Takakeisho next basho as the Ozeki chooses to fall to 1-4.

In the day's final bout, Kotozakura welcomed M3 Tobizaru, and Kotozakura's tachi-ai was extremely soft giving Tobizaru the option to get deep inside with moro-zashi or to fire shoves into Kotozakura's double-decker boobs. He chose neither of course and just ducked down waiting to be pulled over. Kotozakura couldn't even do that, but he did grab a right outer grip. Tobizaru actually had moro-zashi at this point, but he slyly pulled his left arm to the outside for no reason other than to throw the bout in Kotozakura's favor, and so Tobizaru stood straight up near the edge where Kotozakura was finally able to nudge him back and across. Like the previous bout, the "winner's" footwork was not solid, and like the previous bout, it looked as if Kotozakura stepped at first as well. 

Kotozakura himself ended up falling off the dohyo, and the only way that happens after winning by yori-kiri is when you don't get any counter force from your opponent. The end result was Kotozakura's moving to a cheap 4-1 while Tobizaru gives up the ghost at 2-3.

And that's a wrap on another ugly day of sumo highlighted by rookie Tokihayate's first win.

Natsu Basho Day 4 Comments
I'm really incredulous as to what the Association is trying pass off to us as a quality product, but their only hope at this point is to establish new, young rikishi who can stay healthy for 6-8 years. The only way they can establish these guys is to allow heavy bout fixing along with having the Mongolians lower the bar to a ridiculous level. One trend I'm noticing so far this basho is that fans are leaving the venue early, and how can you blame them? I'm really struggling to find anything positive going on right now, and the bouts I look forward to the most these days are the ones that involve Tokihayate.

It was great to hear Ross Mihara call the action today, and hearing Ross brings back memories of the good old days.

The good old days these certainly aren't, but let's get right to it as the day began with Myogiryu visiting from Juryo to take on M17 Tsurugisho. Tsurugi The Hutt showed the C3P0 arms at the tachi-ai gifting Myogiryu moro-zashi, and the force-out took maybe two seconds in Myogiryu's favor. Tsurugisho's left leg looked gimpy, so we'll see how long he can last this tournament as he falls to 2-2.

M16 Tomokaze and M16 Takarafuji both struck well at the tachi-ai but didn't stick in yotsu-zumo, and so they traded defensive tsuppari whose purpose was to set up a pull. After about three seconds of inaction, Takarafuji backed up and moved left going for a soft pull, and Tomokaze just hit the dirt. There definitely wasn't enough force coming from Takarafuji to cause that belly flop, but whatever. Takarafuji oils his way to 4-0 while Tomokaze falls to 0-4.

M15 Roga henka'd lamely to his left at the tachi-ai against M14 Ryuden looking to get a cheap left outer, but before he could really grab it, Ryuden just put both palms to the dirt a half second in. This looked orchestrated to me as Roga moves to 2-2 while Ryuden suffers his first loss at 3-1.

M13 Mitoryu and M15 Tokihayate hooked up in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai where Tokihayate grabbed an early left grip, but Mitoryu was just too big for him to maintain that grip consistently, and so both dudes showed great effort before Mitoryu simply bullied Tokihayate over and across kime-dashi style using a solid left kote grip. I don't care that Tokihayate is 0-4.  All of his bouts have been real, and I've loved his effort. As for Mitoryu, he picked up a nice win here in moving to 1-3.

Before we go on, here was the graphic they showed prior to the last bout.  You can see quite a few empty seats above Mitoryu, and then all those white shirts above Tokihayate are students.  I'm guessing they have a couple thousand students help fill the venue each weekday.

M14 Ohshohma was looking soft pull all the way against M13 Churanoumi, and when I say soft pull, I mean he kept his hands up high as he slowly retreated making it look like Churanoumi was attacking. He wasn't at all, and so after one trip around to the other side of the ring, Churanoumi sorta caught his foe with a soft touch to the left arm, and Ohshohma dutifully put both palms to the dirt. As if. Both dudes end the day at 3-1.

M12 Ichiyamamoto caught M12 Nishikifuji with two hands at the neck from the tachi-ai keeping NFJ away from the inside, and Ichiyamamoto used nice de-ashi to fuel a solid oshi attack knocking Nishikifuji back and across in wham bam thank you ma'am fashion. Good stuff here as IYM moves to 2-2 while Nishikifuji falls to 1-3.

In a silly affair, M11 Hokutofuji won the tachi-ai against M10 Shonannoumi knocking the latter back a step. When Shonannoumi went for a stupid pull and Hokutofuji didn't make him pay despite having the clear advantage, you knew the bout was compromised at that point. After Shonannoumi's lame pull attempt, Hokutofuji responded by moving towards the other side of the dohyo doing who knows what, but the end result was his lightly touching down to the dohyo as if Shonannoumi had pulled him down. Uh, no. Shonannoumi was clueless throughout, and this was bad acting on the part of Hokutofuji start to finish. Easy yaocho call here as Shonannoumi is gifted 4-0 while Hokutofuji falls to 1-3.

M9 Tamawashi lamely put two hands forward at the tachi-ai against M11 Sadanoumi before retreating to his left and leaving himself vulnerable. Problem was that Sadanoumi had no momentum, and so they headed to the East where Tamawashi was still in control if he wanted to execute his tsuppari attack, but he didn't. He instead left himself wide open giving Sadanoumi moro-zashi, and then Tamawashi literally retreated to the other side of the dohyo and out dragging the Sadamight into his own body as he went. Both rikishi end the day at 2-2 after this fixed bout.

In another fixed bout, M10 Kinbohzan had the clear path to the right inside position and then the left inside against M9 Shodai, and when the rikishi had no choice but to hook up in hidari-yotsu, Shodai reached for a right outer grip. He didn't come close and Kinbohzan had him at that point he had wanted it, but he didn't. Instead of plowing straight ahead and forcing Shodai back and across, Kinbohzan lamely moved to his right drawing a weak tsuki-otoshi attempt from Shodai who was actually shading back from the attempt, and Kinbohzan could have really squared up at this point and knocked Shodai off the dohyo, but he instead pretended as if he lost his balance and clumsily stepped out of the ring. What an awful display here as Kinbohzan went completely mukiryoku in falling to 3-1 while Shodai is gifted 2-2.

M8 Takanosho looked as if he'd use tsuppari at the tachi-ai against M8 Kotoshoho, but he kept his feet aligned and stayed back a bit. As for Kotoshoho, he was clueless himself even though Takanosho was slowly backing up for his foe. With Kotoshoho's sumo a complete mess, he went for a dumb pull and stumbled a bit putting himself onto his heels, and in a straight up bout, his foe would have crushed him down from there, but Takanosho relented allowing KSH back into the bout. From there, Takanosho found his left arm in the perfect inside position with Kotoshoho thinking pull, and once again, Kotoshoho was dead to rights, but Takanosho didn't drive into his opponent rather skirting to the side and putting his own back against the straw, and finally the hapless KSH was able to nudge him across. Wow, this was awful sumo as Kotoshoho buys his first win at 1-3 while Takanosho is hoarding cash at 0-4.

M5 Onosho easily won the tachi-ai against M7 Mitakeumi, and within a few seconds, Onosho had moro-zashi and all the momentum. The bout was fixed, however, in Mitakeumi's favor, and so Onosho failed to go for a yori attack and instead brought his left arm to the outside. He was still in the prime position to win with the right inside position and left outside grip, but instead of applying pressure against his foe, he faked a nage-no-uchi-ai and just plopped over and down. Mitakeumi had no idea what was going on, and he took a harder spill headfirst off of the dohyo, and the ending to this fake bout was a complete mess that looked nothing like a true nage-no-uchi-ai. Mitakeumi buys yet another win in moving to 4-0 while Onosho willingly takes the cash in falling to 1-3.

M5 Meisei and M7 Nishikigi looked to hook up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, but NG refused to establish any position, so you knew the bout was compromised at that point. After a three second stalemate where Meisei couldn't budge Nishikigi the Hutt, Meisei attempted a wild kata-sukashi, but because he didn't have the momentum, he wasn't able to pull Nishikigi down and so it ended up an ugly okuri-dashi as Nishikigi was mukiryoku start to finish in falling to 1-3. As for Meisei, he bought this one in moving to 3-1.

M6 Midorifuji hopped forward at the tachi-ai completely aligning his feet against M4 Ura, but Ura was so slow out of his stance, he couldn't take advantage. From there, Midorifuji moved forward as Ura retreated, and Midorifuji had the path to the right inside, but he kept both arms up high and simply pulled Ura into his own body allowing Ura to finally unleash a two handed shove that sent the mukiryoku Midorifuji flying off of the dohyo. Ura is 4-0, and is that what's next in store here? An Ura yusho? As for Midorifuji, he falls to 2-2.

M4 Ohho came in way too high at the tachi-ai against M3 Tobizaru, and so Tobizaru was able to duck under his foe a bit, tug at Ohho's left arm, and then pull him forward setting up the easy okuri-dashi win. I mean, I'll take it because it was real, but it wasn't great sumo as Tobizaru moves to 2-2 with Ohho falling to 0-4.

Komusubi Onosato connected on a nice right paw to Suckiwake Wakamotoharu's neck from the tachi-ai, but his lower body wasn't in sync, and so WMH was able to halt Onosato's momentum and force the bout into the hidari-yotsu clinch where Wakamotoharu grabbed a right outer grip. Still, you could just see that Wakamotoharu's grips were loose (note the index finger pointing out in the pic at left), and despite Onosato going for a stupid pull with his opponent in prime position to pounce, Wakamotoharu stayed limp and didn't take advantage of his opponent's backpedaling allowing Onosato to connect on a very light tsuki-otoshi with the left near that edge that caused both rikishi to tumble over and down. Wakamotoharu (2-2) made sure he dipped that left shoulder and dove down first giving Onosato another cheap win as he moves to 3-1.

If you note Wakamotoharu's lower stance in the pic above, imagine what would happen if Onosato went for a pull straight back at that point.  Onosato did, and Wakamotoharu simply bailed him out at ring's edge.

M1 Atamifuji obviously owed Sekiwake Abi a bout because the dude lowered his head from the tachi-ai and said to Abi, "Do me now!" And Abi did sorta grabbing at a right outer grip, but Atamifuji was already on his way down a second in making this an ugly, fixed bout. Abi moves to 3-1 with silly win while Atamifuji falls to 2-2.

Ozeki Kirishima came out blazing from the tachi-ai against M1 Daieisho and drove him back near the straw, but then Kirishima suddenly stopped his attack for no reason and backed up to the other side of the dohyo thinking that Daieisho would simply push him across. Problem was that Daieisho had no momentum, and so Kirishima had to make it up as he went along, and he went for a light tug that actually had Daieisho over to the edge with his back facing the middle of the ring. And Kirishima's reaction? He just stood there and watched as Daieisho squared himself back up. You knew Kirishima was trying to throw the bout, but Daieisho was not doing anything offensively, and so in the end, Kirishima simply turned his back to Daieisho and stepped out. I was like WTF? Kirishima is simply covering for Takakeisho here as he falls to 1-3 while Daieisho moves to an ugly 3-1 himself.

Kotozakura was hapless at the tachi-ai giving M2 Gonoyama what he wanna, but Gonoyama was clearly refraining from taking advantage. Still, with Kotozakura doing nothing, Gonoyama had no choice but to move forward, and he was sorta in moro-zashi, but he wouldn't take it fully, and then with Kotozakura backpedaling while fishing for a pull, Gonoyama could have easily pushed him across, but instead he ducked his left shoulder down and just dove out of the ring as Kotozakura tried to catch up with a left grip of Gonoyama's belt. Uwate-nage this wasn't, and just look at Kotozakura's feet in that pic.  Is that the proper footwork for an uwate-nage?  This was clear yaocho as Kotozakura is as ugly a 3-1 as you'll ever see while Gonoyama knows his place in falling to 2-2.

At least we got a straight up ending with Ozeki Hoshoryu and M2 Hiradoumi coming away in migi-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and both dudes wrangled nicely in the center of the ring. At some point, Hiradoumi came away with a left outer grip, and so a brief nage-no-uchi-ai ensued, but it was from the center of the ring, so both rikishi wildly moved to the edge where Hoshoryu was eventually able to wrestle is foe back, across, and down for the nice win. Hoshoryu evens things up at 2-2 while Hiradoumi falls to 1-3. It was a nice way to end the day, but there were too many fixed bouts leading up to that point to even count.

Before we close, here is a shot that I took of this bout from a different angle:

Look at the empty seats there.  Not all of those seats were vacant the entire day, but you can see that a lot of fans are just giving up early on this crap, and I can't blame them.

I guess we're right back at it tomorrow to see if we can find some positives.

Natsu Basho Day 3 Comments
I've decided to give this basho the same amount of effort as the rikishi are giving it, so don't expect much. I got some really bad news in March when I learned that the NHK satellite feed I enjoyed for the last 24 years was being discontinued March 31st. I do have NHK News World, which gives me a daily digest version of the bouts, but the feed is in English meaning I've lost all access to the Japanese broadcast. That means I no longer get the spin from the main broadcast nor do I get the commentary from the Japanese oyakata. I also don't get any of the graphics they show during the broadcast, and my overall sumo viewing experience has taken a huge hit.

To clarify things, the sumo itself has sucked for years now, but I've really lost a lot of what I relied on to convey the spin that was going on during the basho. We'll just see how things go, but it's been a gut punch losing the two-hour Japanese feed not to mention the NHK news shows I watched on a daily basis.

The start of this basho has been a complete mess, and I'm amazed that people are still paying to watch this. Prior to the basho, it was announced that Asanoyama would go kyujo due to a persistent knee injury, and then it was also announced that Takerufuji would sit this one out due to that injured right foot.

You remember the injury right? It was bad enough to keep him out of this tournament two months after the fact, but it didn't stop him from demolishing Gonoyama in two seconds on senshuraku of the Haru basho 24 hours after the fact.

I am constantly shaking my head and not just at the poor quality of sumo displayed in the ring, but I'm also disappointed that the media just goes along with it hook, line, and sinker expecting us to believe it all. They say one thing while the complete opposite is going on in the dohyo.

On Day 1, the English Announcer for my feed was Raja Don't Call Me Buraja Pradhan, and while all of these English Announcers do a pretty good job, they are on a tight leash and have to feed us the corporate lines. Raja mentioned that all of the tickets for all 15 days of the basho were sold out, but then right before the Abi bout on Day 1, they gave us a view of the arena that showed two chunks of empty seats in the second tier to the upper right of Abi's graphic.

Then, at the end of the Terunofuji - Onosato farce on Day 1, they showed this view and you can see two chunks of empty seats right behind the dohyo and then over to the left side of the screen.

It may be that scalpers are coming in and scooping up the seats early so they can sell them to the huge influx of foreign tourists, but there are seats available all over the place. Just like the sumo in the ring, we're told one thing is happening while the complete opposite is what's really true.

Speaking of foreigners attending the sumos, they like to pan around the arena and focus on furries during the breaks to make it look as if sumo is popular internationally, and they showed this gaijin at far left knuckle deep.

They unfortunately cut away, so we didn't see if he put his finger in his mouth afterwards, but it was one of the true highlights of the day.

And we're going to need such highlights due to all of the withdrawals. Besides the two yayhoos who withdrew prior to the basho as previously mentioned, the following rikishi are also out as we enter Day 3:

Takakeisho: neck injury
Terunofuji: for the hell of it
Takayasu: lower back issues

Enough of that. Let's get to..um..the action in the ring.

Day 3 began with M16 Takarafuji taking on M15 Roga, and Roger got the left arm inside rather easily from the tachi-ai, but he purposefully didn't go chest to chest opting instead to stand there and let Takarafuji dictate things. Problem was that Takarafuji wasn't dictating anything, so despite the opening with the left inside for Roga, he simply walked backwards and out with Takarafuji in tow. A force-out this wasn't as Takarafuji flukes his way to 3-0 while Roga falls to 1-2.

M15 Tokihayate faced M17 Tsurugisho, and it's been clear that the Tokihayate camp hasn't been shelling out money for the rookie. That's a good thing, however, because it's forcing the rookie to fight hard, and that he has been doing. Today he got the left arm inside and right frontal grip against Tsurugisho, but Tokihayate is too small to bully around a Hutt in a straight up affair, so despite his nice force-out effort, Tsurugisho was able to pivot near the straw and hoist the rookie over and out with a nice scoop throw.

Murray Johnson, who was in the booth for the English broadcast, said it's not a great start for the rookie, but it is a good start because nothing's been fixed in his favor. Tsurugisho moves to 2-1 while Tokihayate falls to 0-3.

Contrast that to M14 Ohshohma, another rookie who has been buying all of his bouts so far, and he did that again today against M16 Tomokaze. Ohshohma connected on a light slap with the right as he then tried to move right to grab the cheap outer grip, but he totally whiffed on the move leaving himself vulnerable. No matter. Tomokaze did absolutely nothing but maybe put his arms forward out of harm's way, and he literally stood there and waited for Ohshohma to next grab a left outer belt grip, and that was Tomokaze's cue to just run outta the dohyo drawing the okuri-dashi kimari-te. How do you get okuri-dashi when the victor has an outer grip? The only way is with yaocho, and that's what we got here as Ohshoma's sumo has been soft the first three days as he moves to 3-0. As for Tomokaze, he falls to 0-3.

The ugliness would continue as M13 Mitoryu put a soft left paw towards M13 Churanoumi's neck from the tachi-ai, and Churanoumi did a wrist slap to supposedly knock the arm away, but lo and behold, there was so much force behind the move it caused Mitoryu to do a complete 180 and crumple down a second in. All of that from a slap on the wrist? Churanoumi is a fake 2-1 while Mitoryu falls to 0-3.

M12 Nishikifuji stayed low at the tachi-ai against M14 Ryuden denying the latter anything to the inside, but Nishikifuji did not want to go chest to chest and so he backed up near the straw getting a precarious left arm at the belt. Because he was in retreat mode, NFJ's only hope was to move around the ring and drag Ryuden with him, but the taller Ryuden got two outer grips and put the brakes on any momentum Nishikifuji was trying to muster. Ryuden wanted to throw with the right outer, but NFJ's belt was coming undone, so he had little momentum. In the end, the two found themselves at the edge where a mediocre nage-no-uchi-ai formed, and Ryuden was able to throw his smaller foe down at the edge. This turned out to be the best bout of the day as Ryuden move to 3-0 while Nishikifuji falls to 1-2.

M11 Hokutofuji struck M11 Sadanoumi well with a right paw to the throat and quick tug of the Sadamight's left arm, and Hokutofuji had his foe off balance a second in. Hokutofuji quickly drove Sadanoumi back to the edge with a nice choke hold and then promptly just stood there and relented. Sadanoumi was finally able to get the right arm inside and Hokutofuji quickly countered with a left outer, but he took his arm way because he was throwing the bout. Despite never having a pot to piss in, Sadanoumi was able to do this slick pull at Hokutofuji's belt at the edge, and Hokutofuji dropped to the dohyo, rolled over in a controlled fashion, and landed with two feet perfectly on the venue floor. That was as controlled a dive as you'd care to see as Sadanoumi is gifted his first win at 1-2 while Hokutofuji falls to 1-2.

M10 Kinbohzan knocked M12 Ichiyamamoto off of the starting lines with some nice tsuppari, but he halted that attack after driving IYM back a step or two. As Ichiyamamoto looked to thrust his way back into the bout, Kinbohzan absorbed a pretty good shot form his foe before moving right, hooking around Ichiyamamoto's extended left arm, and pulling him down from there. It wasn't o-zumo, but it's nice to see Kinbohzan's unleashed a bit at 3-0 while Ichiyamamoto falls to 1-2.

M9 Tamawashi caught M9 Shodai with some nice thrusts to the neck causing Shodai to shade left and fish for a pull, but Tamawashi stayed square enough that he was able to chase Shodai around the ring and eventually out with a methodic tsuppari attack. Tamawashi moves to 2-1 with the easy win while Shodai falls to 1-2.

The tachi-ai between M10 Shonannoumi and M8 Kotoshoho was extremely light with neither party looking to take charge, and that usually suggests a fixed bout. Both dudes traded places before Shonannoumi finally got a right arm inside, and Kotoshoho could have grabbed an easy left outer to counter (pictured at right), but darn the luck...he just couldn't seem to latch on. You knew where the bout was going from there, and as Shonannoumi executed a light charge, Kotoshoho went with it and did a self-inflicted 180 at the edge to walk across. Ho hum as Shonannoumi buys his way to 3-0 with Kotoshoho falling to 0-3.

M7 Nishikigi used the C3P0 arms at the tachi-ai against M7 Mitakeumi giving the latter moro-zashi, and as Mitakeumi looked to execute a force-out charge, Nishikigi complied by moving to his left and backing out of the ring with Mitakeumi in tow. It took about two seconds. As if. Mitakeumi buys his way to 3-0 while Nishikigi willingly falls to 1-2.

M8 Takanosho caught M6 Midorifuji with two hands to the neck at the tachi-ai but then promptly backed up leaving himself vulnerable. The problem was that Midorifuji had no momentum form the tachi-ai as he got his ass handed to him, and so Takanosho stayed upright slip sliding here and there, and when Midorifuji finally mounted a poor oshi-attack, Takanosho graciously stepped back and across carelessly gifting Midorifuji the cheap, ill-gotten win. What a farce as Takanosho falls to 0-3 with Midorifuji moving to a cheap 2-1.

M5 Onosho charged hard into M4 Ura winning the tachi-ai, and he easily knocked Ura back near the edge, but then Onosho visibly halted his charge and stood there waiting for an Ura kata-sukashi, and as Ura executed the move, Onosho flopped wildly over and out adding a ton more exaggeration than was needed. With all of the star power out of the basho, you gotta keep Ura hot just to keep the sheep interested thus his 3-0 start as Onosho graciously dives to 1-2.

M4 Ohho executed a very proactive oshi attack from the tachi-ai keeping M5 Meisei at bay for a bit, but there wasn't enough oomph behind the charge, and so Meisei was able to time a nice tug of Ohho's extended right arm and throw him off balance to where Meisei was able to get in deep and push his opponent across for the nice comeback win. Well played for the smaller Meisei who moves to 2-1 while Ohho falls to 0-3.

After Day 1, I thought Komusubi Onosato was the favorite to yusho, but then you had that awful performance on Day 2 against Takayasu where Onosato was completely exposed. Still, the yusho line here is going to flirt with 11-4, and so Onosato is well in the yusho hunt. Not that he deserves it or that he's capable of keeping himself in the race, but the politics are going to dictate that his name stays in the headlines.

Today against goofball M3 Tobizaru, the M3 ducked low at the tachi-ai and did nothing but let Onosato charge forward and push at him. I say push at him because Onosato didn't knock Tobizaru around whatsoever. In fact, two seconds in Tobizaru had the path to an easy moro-zashi, but instead of taking it, he just shifted over near the edge enabling Onosato to catch up and push him across for the cheap win. Onosato buys one here in moving to 2-1 while Tobizaru falls to 1-2.

Before we move on, a weekly tabloid, The Shincho Weekly, has published consecutive stories about Onosato alleging his bullying of lower-ranked rikishi and also encouraging underage drinking in the stable.  There are reports that he took a 20 year-old stablemate out for a night on the town that involved heavy drinking, and so on.  According to the tabloid, when they reached out to the Association for comment, they were completely ignored.

I've been around these tabloid situations long enough to know that they won't publish this kind of information without having proof.  The normal protocol for the Association is to ignore it until it goes away, and the mainstream media will never latch onto the allegations.  It's obvious that Onosato is being primed to become a star, so we'll see if anything comes of this.

Sekiwake Abi picked up the freebie at 2-1 due to M3 Takayasu's withdrawal. Takayasu will end the festivities at 2-13 after a nice start to the tournament.

M2 Gonoyama dominated Suckiwake Wakamotoharu winning the tachi-ai and knocking Wakamotoharu onto his heels in an instant, but instead of finishing off his upright foe in linear fashion, he let up just a bit. The momentum shift allowed Wakamotoharu to dart left in desperation going for a pull, but it was a bad move and left WMH with his back against the straw, but no matter. Instead of just plowing forward and hard into his opponent's chest, Gonoyama decided to drift to his left, and wouldn't ya know it...Wakamotoharu was able to push him out for the surprise win!! Such a fake bout as both dudes end the day at 2-1.

I swallowed a bit of throw-up when I read the news that Kotonowaka was going to assume his grandpa's fighting name of Kotozakura. Way to soil your ancestor's legacy dude. Today against M2 Hiradoumi, Koto "The Zock" Zakura lost the tachi-ai badly and was upright and on his heels seconds in, but Hiradoumi dipped his shoulder down and allowed Kotozakura to move let and grab a cheap outer grip, and once he got it, Hiradoumi went limp at the edge as Kotozakura sorta forced him out. You know, it's the yori-kiri technique where the winner spreads his legs as far apart as possible for momentum...  Hiradoumi had enough room to execute a counter tsuki-otoshi, but he went out quietly as Kotozakura moves to a cheap 2-1 with Hiradoumi falling to 1-2.

M1 Daieisho used decent tsuppari from the tachi-ai to keep Ozeki Hoshoryu from getting to the inside, but Daieisho wasn't looking to go balls to the wall with his thrust attack, and so Hoshoryu was able to eventually work his way into moro-zashi. As he got it, Daieisho positioned his arms for a pull attack, and so it was a cakewalk yori-kiri from there in favor of the Ozeki. Hoshoryu decides to win for the first time this basho at 1-2 while Daieisho suffers his first defeat at 2-1.

The day's final affair couldn't have been any uglier as Ozeki Kirishima pretended to thrust against M1 Atamifuji, but the Ozeki wasn't looking to move forward and instead kept his feet aligned. Atamifuji wasn't exactly kicking ass and taking names from the tachi-ai either, and so Kirishima just moved to his left turning his back towards his opponent first, and then he did a 360 over to the edge where he finally squared back up allowing Atamifuji to catch him with two hands to the chest. Because the Ozeki was in such a poor position, he did a virtual back flip off of the dohyo and kicked the judge sitting ringside East right in the head. That part was pretty cool I guess, but Kirishima's performance today was simple nonsense. The dude's purposefully falls to 1-2 today as Atamifuji moved to 2-1 picking up a large brick of kensho that probably just doubled his pay for the month.

It's so painful to observe what sumo has become, and this tournament has no continuity to it three days in.