Five Quick Thoughts

With Bruce knocking it out of the park with his daily highlights, I thought I would write up five quick thoughts on a few things I noticed while watching today’s action. I’ll try and make these posts every day that my work schedule allows me to.

1. Aminishiki Returns

Right from the start, it was obvious that Aminishiki’s popularity from Aki had carried over into November, and he had one of the biggest crowd reactions of the day. The old veteran also attracted the attention of sponsors and had a fairly large kensho parade before his match. While I was expecting wile Aminishiki to make Kotoyuki pay for his multiple mata with a quick sidestep, Uncle Sumo surprised me with a beautiful throw to win his first bout. It was clear in his post-match interview just how much being back in Makuuchi means to Aminishiki.

2. Injury Woes Continue for Tochinoshin

Despite being the bigger, stronger rikishi in his bout today, Tochinoshin continues to suffer from a nagging lower-body injury. He was unable to overpower Chiyoshoma, who deftly threw the Georgian strongman down to the clay. Things may go from bad to worse for Tochinoshin, as he seemed to be limping as he made his way back to the dressing room.

3. Less of a Kaiju, More of a Kitty cat.

Any hope of Terunofuji returning to the Ozeki rank may have died today, as Hokutofuji easily manhandled everyone’s favorite Kaiju, and sent him flying off the dohyo into the crowd. As Bruce pointed out, Terunofuji barely had any fight in him, and he’s lucky he didn’t injure himself further when he landed on the floor.

4. A Heroes Welcome

Hometown boy Shohozan got the largest reaction of the day from the Fukuoka crowd, which erupted in cheers when he ascended the dohyo for his bout. Taking on Yoshikaze in a blistering brawl, the Fukuoka native sidestepped the veteran Yoshikaze at the tawara’s edge to get his first win. Despite prevailing in front of his hometown, Shohozan didn’t seem too happy with the way he won his match; a rikishi’s harshest critic is usually himself.

5. East Vs. West

Taking a look at the scorecard today, we see that the East and West sides of the banzuke are tied, taking ten wins each. Now I’ll admit, this is pretty much a pointless statistic and does not affect the basho nowadays. In the past, however, East and West were treated like teams and competed for an award called the Tozai-sei, which went to the side with the best overall record. For a bit of fun, I’ll be keeping track of each sides records throughout the tournament, and I’ll announce the unofficial Tozai-sei winners when the Kyushu basho comes to an end.