Personally, I was worried that once again the special prize committee would rule that “no one deserves a special prize” as they did at Aki. That decision was not popular in my circle of sumo fans, but as an outsider (which I assure you I am), you just shrug and go about your business. For Kyushu, the special prizes were a tadpole sweep:
Takakeisho: Shukun-sho & Kanto-sho
Onosho: Kanto-sho
I do wonder about consideration for Aoiyama and Okinoumi, who performed very well indeed. Then there is Nishikigi, who defied expectations and actually was able to put together 8 wins at a rank far above anything he has ever held before. Some additional information if you want to pick through he kanji here.
The final result is quite the signal for the road ahead. With Takakeisho winning the Kyushu yusho, we have 2 tadpole yusho this year (Mitakeumi and Takakeisho). Interestingly enough, it was Mitakeumi who sealed the deal with his win over Takayasu in the final match of the tournament. For Takayasu, he is forming a record surprisingly like his senpai, consistent good scores, but no Yusho to show for it. This is his 4th Jun-Yusho, all with a 12-3 finish.
At 22 years old, yusho winner Takakeisho continues on his meteoric rise. Over the past 3 basho he has racked 32 wins, over the past 4 that number goes to 42. In the past year he has honed his trademark attack, that we have taken to calling “Wave Action Tsuppari”. Where most rikishi land blows and thrusts in an alternating left / right arm cycle, Takakeisho works to set up a period group of double arm thrusts that arrive in waves. The net result is visually obvious, his opponent has just enough time to react just a bit before the next wave arrives. In many cases that reaction is to either escape or counter attack, and almost always leaves the opponent on less than excellent footing. If he can stay healthy, young Takakeisho has a lot to offer the sumo world.
Notable Matches
Onosho defeats Yutakayama – Onosho picks up the Kanto-sho, and blasts Yutakayama out directly. Yutakayama finishes 5-10, and is in dire need of repair to his body. At one time a promising member of the Freshmen cohort, he has suffered greatly since posting to Maegashira 2 at Aki.
Kotoshogiku defeats Meisei – No special prize here, but it’s great to see Kotoshogiku shine again. Meisei’s hopes of double digits bit the clay with his first trip on the hug-n-chug Kyushu Bulldozer. Kotoshogiku is probably looking at a big lift in rank for January, and I am curious to see what he can do with it.
Chiyoshoma defeats Abi – Is it reasonable to consider the dominance of Abi-zumo is past its peak? Chiyoshoma dismantles the obligatory double arm attack and makes fairly easy work of Abi. Fans know Abi has a lot of potential, and are wondering when the next evolutionary stage will hit. Not that I think he will (or should) abandon the double arm attack, just as Tochinoshin will never abandon the lift and shift when he can get there. But we know Abi has more in his sumo book.
Aoiyama defeats Yoshikaze – Aoiyama has really gotten his sumo together this basho. He typically does quite well in the Maegashira 12-9 rank, but seems to falter more the closer he gets to the top. With a 11-4 finish, he’s headed for the joi-jin, and he will have another chance to demonstrate if his sumo is effective against the top rikishi. Yoshikaze make-koshi on the final day, he could not get close enough to the man-mountain to produce an effective offense.
Ryuden defeats Daieisho – Deeply make-koshi, Ryuden never the less continues to work on his sumo, and battles for every win. The guy’s work ethic seems solid, and at Maegashira 3, he was out-matched, even in a nokazuna tournament like Kyushu. All of the freshmen were make-koshi this time out, so it’s time for them to heal up and get ready for 2019. They are about 18-24 months behind the tadpoles in their evolution, so we should see them start to contend in a serious way late next year, early into 2020.
Okinoumi defeats Tamawashi – Matching his 11-4 from Kyushu last year (at about the same rank), Okinoumi seems to really improve in the western basho, and then pays for it in January. While I am sure Tamawashi would have rather closed with 10 wins, he is still in solid shape to return to the San’yaku for the New Years basho.
Shodai defeats Tochiozan – Tochiozan ends Kyushu with a kachi-koshi, but he certainly faded after a blistering start. Tochiozan opened the match in good position, but Shodai was able to break contact and recover, gaining the inside pushing position and focusing his force center-mass. Solid defense-offense change up combo from Shodai to pull a kachi-koshi out at the last minute.
Hokutofuji defeats Takanosho – I kind of feel for Takanosho, he got his head handed to him this basho, but kept his positive outlook. He’s going back to Juryo for January, but first he had the honor of being Takakeisho’s standard bearer for the yusho parade. I am going to guess that Takakesiho will have a happy, willing new Kouhai for his future career at Chiganoura. Hokutofuji finishes 7-8, and may get a chance to face more named ranked rikishi in January.
Myogiryu defeats Chiyotairyu – The Darwin match, where only one survives. After Chiyotairyu launches early and a matta is called, his primary offensive gambit, the cannon ball Tachiai, is defused and Myogiryu makes quick work of him.
Takakeisho defeats Nishikigi – For a brief moment, Takakeisho found himself perilously off balance as he yet again lost his footing near the edge. Nishikigi was not fast enough to put him away, and Takakeisho showed why he’s a force in sumo by rallying and taking the fight back to Nishikigi.
Kagayaki defeats Ichinojo – What should have been a gimme match for Ichinojo turns into a one-sided battle, with Kagayaki taking control and making surprisingly easy work of the ex-Sekiwake. A healthy Ichinojo is to be feared, sadly this Ichinojo needs recuperation.
Shohozan defeats Tochinoshin – One of the poorest run matches in memory, I have to wonder if the NSK is really going to promote Kandayu in 2019 after that mess. Tochinoshin spent his stamina in the first match, and maybe a bit more in the second. Shohozan had something left in reserve, and battled through a cut lip to win the 3rd and final attempt. Tough to describe the level of nonsense here, so please watch it via NHK, Jason or Kintamayama.
Mitakeumi defeats Takayasu – After some lackluster matches out of the future Ozeki, he rallies and brings his “A” sumo to Takayasu for the final match of the basho. When the match went to a leading contest, I thought it was Takayasu’s for sure, as he seems to have an almost inhuman endurance and can carry out a contest like this for a good long time. But Mitakeumi wore him down, and was able to find his time and make his move. My heart goes out to Takayasu, as a win at Kyushu would have been an important step towards supplanting Kisenosato, who may not be in sumo much longer. But that is for another day.
Thank to all our readers who spent part of their time enjoying the Kyushu basho with us. These nokazuna tournaments make for interesting contests, and November delivered an excellent fortnight of sumo. We count down the 49 days to Hatsu, and hope you will join us again when you think of sumo.
Thanks to all the team for an excellent round of coverage this basho, tachiai going from strength to strength!
Kisenosato’s luck with the board must be on fumes… i wonder if we have already seen his last bouts. Congratulations to Takakeisho and many thanks to all Tachiai staff for the effort!
i thought sure we’d hear the important thing
what color was the macaron?
Thank you for the reminder, I did not know until just a bit ago.
It seems it has reverted to the disappointing golden cheeseburger macaron
Is it an actual, edible giant macaron, or is it a fake one representing many many little macarons?
(And thanks for the great coverage! Poor Takayasu really did look heartbroken.)
Sadly it is 100% foam with no edible elements.
Alas. Well, many little ones would probably taste better – I had visions of them carving the giant one up at a big party and serving out pieces, though.
I know rikishi can’t drive, but I’d make that my hood ornament on my car for my chauffeur to drive me around in.
Is there coverage in english of all the prizes at the end? I would love to know the backstory on them.
Indeed there is!
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/sumopedia/16/
Many thanks to the Tachiai team for your continuing hard work. Fantastic as ever. Special prizes & fish awarded to you all.
I am going to award Bruce a state of the art set of prosthetic butt cheeks.
Through the renerative power of chanko, I magically grew a new set by day 15.
I wish that would work for knees.
Me too!
Awesome coverage everyone many thanks.
I hope Takakeisho can push on and continue to combine his incredible confidence with his phenomenal strength
I finally stayed up for a full showing of Grand Sumo Live coverage and am glad I did! Happy to see Takakeisho win it though disappointed we didn’t get to have a playoff between him and Takayasu for all the marbles. That would’ve been epic. Instead we got that heartbreaking grimace on Yasu’s face after he hit the clay, which was tough to watch. NHK really zoomed in for maximum pathos on that one. Yasu seemed especially pumped before the match too. He didn’t have his usual look of calm
Any shots or footage of Takakeisho finally smiling?
Thanks to the Tachiai crew for the excellent coverage!
Yes. The man has smiled!
What a sad day. Everything was set up for a 4 way Juryo playoff and then everyone but good ol Toyonoshima fumbles. Then we are waiting for a Makuuchi playoff and then Takayasu loses patience. Only time Mitakeumi actually showed up this basho.
Most dissapointing match was Shohozan vs Tochinoshin. I was wondering if I was having a weird dream;) How can a gyoji mess up that badly. Pretty sure he got confused in the final bout and accidently called it right .. why would he let it run so long otherwise?
Looks like Miyogiryu will be a Sekiwake again. Feels so 2015. Too bad Tochiozan run out of steam and missed out on a Sanyaku promotion.
With tht top Juryo all more or less messing up today, I guess a lot of Makekochi in the lower Makuuchi sleep better tonight. Think we will only have the 3 obvious demotions and the 2 obvious promotions + either Kotoeko or Terutsuyoshi. One of the two will probably miss out.
I’m thinking Tamawashi will be West Sekiwake. And I think both Kotoeko and Terutsuyoshi go up, with Daishomaru last man out…
Toyonoshima actually won his bout. Did you mean Kotoyuki?
In the Tochinoshin-Shohozan match I don’t think the gyoji was confused and made the right call for the wrong reason. I suspect what happened was that he didn’t see or perhaps was simply not sure if Tochinoshin went out, so he didn’t call the match at that point. When Shohozan went out he may have seen hands go up for a monoii even before he made the call; in any event he went to check the sand and make sure he wouldn’t be reversed (gyoji promotions depend on not being reversed after monoii). You can see it at 5:54:
https://youtu.be/sL1q4He5Zh4?t=354
Takakeisho winning feels somewhat like a vindication for Takanohana as well.
Looking forward to what he will do next…
Congratulations to Takakeisho! I have watched his progress and it’s very exciting to see his success.I feel
very badly for poor Pooh Bear though, and was hoping he would win, and am curious what was ailing Tochinosin, because he was definitely not himself. Great job to all the Tachiai team!
Abi-zumo may be predictable and easy to prepare for but, as Mike Tyson once said, ‘everybody has a plan until they get a punch in the mouth’ (or words to that effect). Interesting to see if the style changes if/ when he piles on a few pounds.
At this point I think just the shock of him grabbing someone’s belt could win him a few matches. He has such good energy it’s frustrating to watch him fail to adapt when the slapping isnt working.
Many thanks to Team Tachiai for hugely entertaining and educational coverage, and thanks to the readers, too, for posting lots of insightful comments.
However, I am left with a question for Bruce: Chyotairyu showed up in Kyushu sporting truly awesome sideburns, yet not a single reference to them or to ‘Sumo Elvis.’ What gives?!? I feel short-changed! ;-)
As well you should! I did fail in that regard, and I do respect his sideburns.
By the way, I think only the late Jack Benny and I are such cheapskates that we could claim to be short-changed by a free service!
Relatively new sumo fan. Am puzzled by the mechanics of Takakeisho’s success. Low center of gravity, speed and balance and ability to capitalize on an opponents’ flash of instability. Input appreciated. Thanks Tachiai!
What a great question, I think that would make a lovely post.
Until someone writes one, there’s this: http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/topic/38380-kyushu-basho-2018-discussion-spoilers/?page=15&tab=comments#comment-377418
If you go by the look on his face, he always has the cool factor going for him. Nothing seems to bother him. But then again, nothing bothers Ichinojo, either, not even sumo.
Now that my favorite rikishi Takakeisho has won a yusho I start to worry that wave-wave-slip-n-slap might turn out a bit like Abi-zumo — a bit harder to decode but if the upper ranks come up with an answer to it Takakeisho might not have a lot of other options.
Takarafuji was Not Happy with Chiyonokuni’s haymaker slap to the face — gave him quite the egregious dame oshi. Disappointing — one of those was a legal move and the other is poor self-control.
I personally thought it was a totally reasonable response—while a slap is legal, it seems like rikishi view it as a sign of disrespect when on the receiving end. I was in fact looking for the dame oshi, and was satisfied when it came.
Given how high impact even a safe landing off the dohyo is, the only dame oshi I’m prepared to forgive is when Hakuho slaps Ichinojo for being a dope.
The risk of injury is a totally fair point, though I’m not sure how much risk dame oshi add (depending on the situation and the nature of the push, of course).
Lucky for Ichinojo Haku was not there this basho. He was pretty dopey.
I also meant to mention how graceful Takayasu was to Mitakeumi after the match — no hard feelings at 10:40:
https://youtu.be/oURWXZ3aXZc?t=640
Thank for posting this. We didn’t see it in either the live broadcast or the highlights. (may have looked away at the wrong time) Very nice to see considering how he had to be feeling right then.
Tochinoshin bout: what happened? The 1st match looked fine ? Tochinoshin won. Then “wth” with the gyoji doing a 2nd match ? Please ‘splain me, Lucy…
One of the shimpan called the matta and the gyoji didn’t see.
Here’s the video; the shimpan’s hand comes into view at the bottom of the frame right after the start of the match.
https://youtu.be/sL1q4He5Zh4?t=177