Kinboshi #7 For Yoshikaze
A wild and wonderful day of Sumo at Osaka overnight saw no change to the leaderboard, as the top 4 rikishi all won their matches. But there was plenty of drama, and a healthy dose of the unexpected. Because both Kakuryu, Chiyoshoma lost on day 10, there is really no one outside of Terunofuji or Tochiozan who can hope to challenge the unbeaten leaders Kisenosato and Takayasu.
Ura continues to struggle, but has kept an even record and hopes of kachi-koshi alive.
Ishiura seems to be a step ahead of Ura in his adjustment to the world of Makuuchi. Today he showed some amazing strength and balance in overcoming Takakeisho. Every so often he pulls a move that betrays his uncommon power to size ratio, and fans are left wondering “did I just see that”?
Tochiozan’s win over Diashomaru was henka powered, and that’s rather sad given he is one of the leader group. But Diashomaru was off balance at the tachiai, and may have not survived long anyhow. Tochiozan is either having a great streak, or has revived is prior winning ways, we hope he can maintain this going forward into May.
There was a monii in the Aoiyama vs Okinoumi bout, where once again the “dead body” policy played a role. Aoiyama applied a powerful throw which sent Okinoumi flying head-first off the dohyo, but stepped out a fraction of a second before Okinoumi landed. The Shimpan awarded the bout to Okinoumi.
Kotoshogiku keeps hope alive by winning decisively over Takekaze. He needs 3 more wins to regain his Ozeki rank, and at this point I think he may actually be able to do it if the schedulers give him a chance.
Takanoiwa deployed a henka against Takayasu. As Takayasu charged ahead strongly at the tachiai, Takanoiwa leapt to the side. In one of the more impressive moves I have seen in sumo, many hundreds of pound of sumotori came to a screeching halt, maintained balance, pivoted and attacked. With a single blow to the side of Takanoiwa’s head put him on the clay.
Just when I think Shodai is all hype, he gave Terunofuji a big fight, and nearly won. He’s still too high on his tachiai, but yes, he has promise still. Terunofuji continues to impress, and you can scarcely believe it’s the same rikishi who has limped and hobbled throughout the last year of sumo.
Yoshikaze, in my favorite match of the day, completely and utterly overwhelmed Kakuryu. Yoshikaze had control of the bout front the tachiai, and kept pressing the attack. As is frequently the case, Kakuryu was waiting to exploit an off balance move or mistake by Yoshikaze. I just checked with the EDION arena, he’s still waiting. Kinboshi for the mobile combat platform, the berserker Yoshikaze.
It’s no surprise that Tamawashi failed to provide much of a challenge for the apparently unstoppable Kisenosato, who seems destined to close strong in Osaka. Fans are hoping for a pair of 15-0 combatants facing off on the final day for the gusto, but there are still many challenges to overcome before that is a real possiblity.
Endo was not too much work for Harumafuji, who seems to be back in his grove in spite of his ever increasing roster of physical injuries. Harumafuji shows up every day and gives it his all.
Too much ptessure last break because of promotion, made him practice like a possessed man with Takayasu. And so both men upgraded their wares to another level? Just wow.
More amazing is how Takayasu defeated the also possessed terunofuji
Takayasu is an absolute force this basho.
It’s not looking good at all for Kakuryu or Harumafuji. Harumafuji is clearly very injured, unsure about the physical state of Kakuryu but he doesn’t look like the rikishi we saw in November.
Just three more wins for Kotoshogiku, would be some achievement.
So I am going to mention something I am not quite ready to post in the continent stream. That Dohyo, it seems to be not quite right. There have been a lot of traction problems, and they are increasing as the basho goes on. Lots of slips and falls, such as Takekaze day 10, and countless others.
It impacts the highly mobile rikishi who stay light on their feet. This includes Kakuryu and Harumafuji. It does not impact the heavy foot rikishi such as Kisenosato, Takayasu and Mitakeumi. It’s one of the reasons Shodai and Ikioi are struggling.
There is little they can do about it now, but they have been trying to ram sand into the surface.
I have noticed some slippage. I wonder if they ever water it and how humidity affects it.
Very – Takekaze has been slipping all over the place all week! Which is fun to watch but probably not fun for him. It even affected Kotoshogiku the other day against Kisenosato – and he’s a heavy foot guy! Though maybe he was just off balance.
I think you’re right that it is affecting Harumafuji especially with all of his injuries and I think he’ll probably do well just to get to the end of the basho. I also think from watching Goeido early on that it may have been a significant factor in aggravating his injuries as he also had a few slips.
Also meant to add that Ikioi (who is my favourite rikisihi) has suffered partly from this but also he looks like he needs better composure. He is just so amped up that he goes flying all over the place and unlike the berserker Yoshikaze, at his size, if he’s flying all over the place and slippin’ and slidin’ it’s just not going to end well.