Sadly, Audio Only…
I must confess that your humble associate editor fouled up the podcast recording, and failed to set the system to capture Andy’s lovely face. So you would have had 43 minutes of my mug, reacting to everything you could not see Andy saying. So the podcast for the Aki banzuke is audio only.
It’s on the long side, but we finish with discussing a possible match between Wakaichro and objects in excess of 600 pounds….
The podcast is also on YouTube, but it is audio only as well. I will gamberize for our next session.
Appreciate the shoutout and the kind words, guys! I needed that.
Hello!
Thanks for a great blog and podcast! Keep up the good work.
btw, what is the name of the song in the beginning?
Hey, thanks for listening. That is from Kitaro’s Kojiki album. That bumper is an excerpt for track 6 – Matsuri.
https://youtu.be/eCHexPbDhDU
Finally got some time to listen to the whole podcast. So here are my thoughts:
Kakuryu Definitely will not be participating in Aki. I will be shocked if he will. His stable master explicitly said that the next time he makes a honbasho appearance, he will either go the whole distance or “do the man thing” (apparently, nobody says the word “intai” out loud). He himself said that he is only just started to walk normally again. He came out to the end of the summer basho mainly to do the dohyo iri and fansa obligations, and to get an assessment on his own progress. I think he is going to be full kyujo, full stop.
Hakuho I’m willing to swear that he’s lost several kilograms. He seems to be working on outdoing Chiyonofuji in yet another parameter – the shape of his abs. I think the break he took was to kill a little pain while it was still in the bud. He said that his goal is to perform a dohyo iri in 2020, so I think he will not be taking any health risks (even if it costs him a zensho).
Harumafuji not as injured as one of you made him (was that Bruce?), by far. That man has been working out his arms pretty hard during the entire tour and seems to be in a good physical shape, all things considered. Yes, none of his four limb joints is in mint condition. But nobody is putting him on any stretchers by any stretch of the imagination. He’ll probably continue his tactic of trying to win each torikumi as fast as possible to minimize the exposure to injury. It would be a sad day for Sumo when he has to finally retire, not just because of his own performances, but also because he seems to be free with his advice and help to all the lower ranked rikishi.
Kisenosato injured, injured, very injured. I’ve seen dozens of photos of him in the past few days, feeling up his arm and his chest and looking more and more unhappy every day. I wouldn’t make much of his latest san-ban-geiko with Daieisho, maegashira #11. If he was a maegashira he could be said to be in a good shape to survive and get a kachi-koshi. He isn’t. He has to play the f-ing cream of the banzuke, not the likes of daieisho or shodai (Did you guys watch his reverse butsukari with shodai? It was pretty hillarious).
Now the whole question is – was there a tear or was there not a tear? If there was a tear, then it doesn’t matter how many basho he will miss, it will not heal. He might as well go into the basho, try to see if a half yokozuna is still better than eight of the top 15 in the makuuchi. Then go intai when he realizes it’s not. If there is no tear, he should sit, and get lots of rest followed by lots of practice, and maybe become a full Yokozuna sometime in the future. By the way, he also mentioned some weight loss, which I think will be good for him – provided he loses it out of those layers of fat he has been accumulating, not what remains of his muscles.
The whole thing is tricky to judge from the outside, because it seems that he can put some power into a push with the left arm (even in Nagoya he did once!). But he seems to have no sideways-power in it. He can’t do his famous left-hand block, and his rivals can access his mawashi easily. Daieisho may not be much of a tactician, but Hakuho and harumafuji will tear him to bits, and so will anybody with enough years of experience.
Terunofuji – a real question mark here. Other than a fan tweet quoting him as saying that his knee “doesn’t hurt anymore” – a tweet that soon disappeared off the face of the net – there is nothing from his direction. He wasn’t in the summer jungyo, he wasn’t even photographed in the semi-annual health check (other injured sekitori were).
Goeido – I think he intends to get out of kadoban very decisively. He’s been very active in the summer jungyo, and beat Takayasu twice that I saw (near the end of the tour), and judging by Takayasu’s face, it wasn’t because Takayasu was holding back.
Takayasu – if he can’t train without Kisenosato, he’ll be sekiwake again soon. Maybe he should borrow that idea of a reverse butsukari and try to push the 288kg Russian refrigerator, sorry, rikishi, out of the ring. Anyway, he seems to be in good shape despite his complaints, very good control of his feet. Won’t be kadoban, but won’t be Yokozuna any time soon, either.
Mitakeumi – Watch out for his bout with Hakuho this tournament. And bring the popcorn. I think Mr. Fish-mouth is going to be tasting certain parts of Hakuho’s mawashi. Or find himself in the third row of the VIP seats in the kokugikan, preferably producing the most ridiculous photograph ever. Or get a sagari up his nose. Hakuho will think of something. After all, his son tried to exact revenge already. So I’m sure papa will show him how it’s done.
Other than that, I don’t expect too stable a performance from him, nor a yusho, nor a double-digit record that will start him dreaming of the letter “O”.
Onosho – somebody here is underestimating the guy. I think he is hell-bent on getting a kachi-koshi out of this visit in the joi. He has been practicing at the highest possible level throughout the jungyo, with butsukari from both Hakuho and Takayasu, and three days of san-ban with Takayasu. He is one ambitious tadpole.
Any word on Takakeisho? His record in makuuchi looks remarkably like Mitakeumi’s, just a year out of date…
Mitakeumi 2016 / Takakeisho 2017
Jan: M10e, 5-8-2 / M12e, 7-8
Mar: M13w, 10-5 / M13e, 11-4(F)
May: M8w, 11-4(F) / M7w, 11-4
Jul: M1e, 5-10 / M1w, 5-10
Takakeisho ended up at Maegashira 5 after going 5-10 as Maegashira 1 in Nagoya. This is actually a rather gentle demotion given what happened to Endo. I think he is going to get a chance to battle back towards the top end of the banzuke during Aki. At M5, he will likely be out of the joi doom for most of the tournament, and will have a chance to get a fairly strong winning record if he can stay focused and apply himself.
Make no mistake, Takakeisho has a lot of potential. He is going through the results of being smacked around by the San’yaku battle fleet that every up and coming rikishi has to endure.
Mitakeumi was also at M5w after going 5-10 a year ago; it’ll be interesting to see if Takakeisho can match Mitakeumi’s 10-5 record from Aki 2016.
I will state that I did declare that Harumafuji is hurt, and it’s both arms. I also said I favor him for the yusho this tournament. He’s going to compete through the pain, we all know that, but it will limit his performance.
Yes, agreed with Kisenosato. We will know he is ready to return when he is sparring with Takayasu again and able to hold his own against the Ozeki. That will be some time from now, I would imagine. Hopefully he will try it out in private this week and figure out just how far he has to go.
On Goeido – it’s all mental with him. Last year at Aki he was committing everything to his attacks, and he powered through every opponent. He is capable of bringing that level of sumo again, but will he?
Mitakeumi has a way to go before he can think of any Ozeki, and I would guess he will have to leave san’yaku at least once before he can stage a proper campaign. But he is capable, and if he continues to improve it will happen as the existing Yokozuna and Ozeki succumb to age and or injury.
Onosho continues to be somewhat below the radar, and I really love it. He won’t be able to hide much his basho, as he is solid in the rotation for the top guys. I am sure he will get tossed about quite a bit, but I am going to bet that he has a handful of solid matches against higher ranked men.
Good comments as always!
Hi, how did Kisenosato get a “reverse butsukari” from Shodai?
Did Shodai throw him down as he was pushing?
I do think that Onosho is the real deal and will get at least eight wins. This angry tadpole is going to grow into a Hypnotoad. And if you are looking for a sleeper how about Chiyoshoma. I’ve banged on about this lad in the past but if he doesn’t get big numbers from M8 I will be very disappointed.
Do you guys need help getting this on itunes? You should really make these accessible from the podcast app.
Well, we have all the parts set up and connected. I need to see why iTunes might not be picking it up.