Kotoshogiku is in a bad way. At 1-3 after the first few days of the tournament, his confidence must be seriously shaken. Hatakikomi is just embarrassing and it seems to be increasingly frequent. His one win, against Ikioi, wasn’t exactly a dominant display, either. All the other ozeki and both yokozuna won.

Hakuho was quick and dominant, surprise, surprise. Kakuryu, on the other hand, withstood Tochinoshin like a yokozuna should. Tochinoshin gave him his best. Kakuryu wore him down, kept his opponent on the edge, and forced him out. Terunofuji owned the center of the ring today. He basically let Takayasu wear himself down and got the yorikiri. Takarafuji reminds me of my uncle, but more muscular. The muscles weren’t enough today, though. Kisenosato, with his girth, was able to force the yorikiri.

Ichinojo is a long way away from his dominant debut. Myogiryu’s impressive performances, including this oshidashi win should keep him in the sanyaku. Aoiyama and Kaisei looked dominant in their matches. Gagamaru picked up his first win against Aminishiki while Oosunaarashi picked up a great belt win versus Kitataiki.

I have to mention the great bout between Sadanofuji and Amuru. Very long, evenly matched, Sadanofuji’s size seemed to win the day here. He wore Amuru down and handed the Russian his first loss. Kyokutenho just hasn’t had it this tournament. He’s struggled during the first and final thirds of each tournament this year. Endo came back off his loss with an over-eager matta against Tokitenku. At the restart, he was still able to gain great, low position and force the Mongolian back, advancing to 3-1.

Kagamio solidly defeated Kotoyuki to stay undefeated. He joins Toyohibiki as the only maegashira at 4-0. Seiro got his first career win against Hidenoumi. Good timing for it, too. Both are 2-2 so far. Satoyama was thoroughly dominated by Daieisho, from Juryo. Unless he finds his groove soon, I expect they’ll be trading places on the banzuke come September.