As well as the exciting matches at the top of the Banzuke, we also had some interesting action below Makuuchi. Let’s start with Juryo, and this time I don’t need to embed a lot of videos, because Kintamayama has been extra generous and made a full Juryo summary of day 3. Head over there to watch it.

Enho, Hakuho’s Mini-Me, finally got his first win today, against the other shin-Juryo, Takayoshitoshi. “I am relieved. I have been watching videos of my best past sumo yesterday”, he said afterwards. Tomorrow, alas, he faces my main man, Terutsuyoshi, in a bout I want neither to lose. Can’t we all just be friends?

Speaking of Terutsuyoshi, he brought Takanoiwa’s race back to Makuuchi to a stop today, defeating him by a spirited yori-kiri. Of course, this was a piquant bout, as far as the press was concerned, between a member of Isegahama beya (specifically, they all called him “Harumafuji’s ototo-deshi”) and Takanoiwa. Terutsuyoshi responded to that with “On the dohyo, it’s man against man. If you start bringing other people’s affairs on the dohyo, you wouldn’t be able to do sumo”.

Of course, if you are looking for schadenfreude, you can always follow Asashoryu’s twitter account. He was laughing in Japanese again today. But of course, it was because of a funny video. Not Takanoiwa at all.

Yago continues to struggle. Tomorrow he goes against Takayoshitoshi. Both are 0-3 at the moment, so at least one of them will get his first shiro-boshi tomorrow. I prefer Yago, of course.

And Terunofuji got a second win in a row, vs. the hapless Amakaze. There were reports in the morning that the former Ozeki was in an improved mood following his first win – he came to morning practice, practiced with Midorifuji, and was all smiles. His good mood continued after this win, as he wrote on the Isegahama site: “Winning after a long dry spell yesterday made me remember the trick to winning! LOL”. So the former kaiju is in a good mood, but if you look at the bout, it was still far from the real Terunofuji. He got a mawashi grip quickly enough, but couldn’t do anything decisive with it.

Eventually he lost his grip and Amakaze tried to make that into a sloppy tottari, and Terunofuji simply used his bulk for a couple of side bumps to make sure Amakaze fell first. At this point, he really can’t afford any futile attempts at good technique with muscles he doesn’t have. If he drops down to Makushita, he’s going to lose not just his salary and private apartment, but also Shunba.

Let’s go down a step and visit Makushita. The bout between Kizenryu and Ichiyamamoto became the talk of the day today.

Here is the video:

The bout starts as usual, takes quite a while with nice Sumo on both sides, but it ends up with both rikishi diving head down and Kizenryu’s face meeting hard clay. Problem is, it’s really hard to tell who hit the ground first. A monoii is called, but Kizenryu is having a hard time getting up and off the dohyo. The first shimpan up (I believe it’s Shikihide oyakata) checks on him, and then the yobidashi.

With the help of the yobidashi he finally gets up, descends and awaits the referees decision. At this point all he has on his mind is probably going back to the shitakubeya and taking care of his bleeding face. But he is stunned (even further) when the shimpan call a torinaoshi.

By this time he has three yobidashi trying to wipe him off, and then Chiyonoumi, who is sitting down awaiting his own turn, gets up, fixes the stunned Kizenryu’s mawashi knot, proceeds to wipe the dirt off him, and then watches over him as he goes to the steps, in case he stumbles.

Ichiyamamoto adds matta to injury, but eventually Kizenryu manages to win by uwatenage. Dragging himself away from the dohyo, his face bleeding again, he doesn’t forget to turn around and bow. Wow.

(And yes, that’s a Maiko making her way to her seat right there at the end).

Kudos to Kizenryu for a heroic performance, and Chiyonoumi earned himself a new fan. What a mensch!

Chiyonoumi himself won his bout after that vs. Asabenkei:

Sotogake. And as one of the spectators mentioned, he looked like Chiyonokuni there for a moment.

Down at Sandanme, if anybody is interested to see what the new yumi-tori man’s sumo is like, here is Kasugaryu vs. Nakashima:

Kasugaryu is 0-2 so far. Perhaps it’s the bow ceremony that gets to him, because he certainly seems to have good technique.

And further down at Jonidan, while we are looking at bow twirlers’ sumo, Satonofuji went against Chura today:

Ah, yes. I think even an alien would recognize that this man is from Aminishiki’s stable.

Finally, at the very bottom, in Jonidan: remember I made a bit of fun of Urutora (Kanji aside, that seems to be the Japanese rendition of “Ultra”, and I think it’s intentional) and his huge gap from Naia? Well, he may be a poppy seed, but he is no Hattorizakura. Here he is against Azumayama:

I wonder what’s the story of this “Ultra” rikishi. He seems to spend a lot of his time kyujo and even banzuke-gai.

His rival from yesterday, the famous Naia, also competed today. This time his rival was Watatani.

Still no challenge whatsoever. Naya enjoys his new privilege (using nodowa – you’re not allowed to do that in amateur/youth sumo). We’re probably watching the Jonokuchi yusho winner here. Just sayin’.