Here are a few bouts I collected for day 3.
Down in Jonokuchi, Toma, Hakuho’s gigantic uchi-deshi, had his second bout for this basho, vs. Ito, and his first monoii.
Ow, ow, ow. Poor Ito. He looks completely out of it. Well, 206kg falling on top of you is no small matter (see what I did there?). He is lucky the shimpan did not decide on a torinaoshi.
First loss for Toma, then.
Edit: This bout from the TV angle. The Isamiashi is much clearer:
Edit: I found Kitanowaka’s bout vs. Tokisakae – here it is:
Mmm. That man belongs at least in Sandanme at the moment, if not Makushita.
The rest of the videos I found are from Makushita. Let’s start with Tomisakae, who faces Tanabe.
Yeah, the video doesn’t include the tachiai. But Tomisakae, Isegahama’s back-flipping rikishi, seems to be serious this basho.
The famous Naya vs. Koba:
This bout reminds me of a Takakeisho bout. Could it be he is influencing his tsukebito already? Naya does well to maintain his balance as Koba tries to dispatch him near the edge there, and then actually wins by pulling wildly – which will not always work for him.
The match between Hoshoryu and Jokoryu today was all over the Japanese press. “Hoshoryu’s first bout with a former san-yaku wrestler”, the titles shouted. Let’s see how this went, in NattoSumo’s excellent clip:
Hoshoryu said, in an interview after this bout: “I guessed that he will go for a slap, and slap he did. By the time I had reacted he already had his arms well inside. I am glad I was still able to push forward”.
Yes, it wasn’t a bout Hoshoryu should be too proud of. His Tachiai was, indeed, not quite fast enough for a good opponent.
As for that monoii – NattoSumo says he doesn’t understand exactly what happened. Well, the sportscaster is saying “It seems Hoshoryu’s leg was out first… but by then, Jokoryu was already out of balance. The commentator agrees: “He had no body” (that’s like saying his body was dead). But says the word “bimyo” – which means this is not clear-cut. The kyogi (discussion of a monoii) proceeds, and Onomatsu oyakata announces – surprisingly clearly – that they were discussing the leg, but decided with the judge. So it seems that they indeed judged Jokoryu’s body to be dead.
Hoshoryu is 2-0, and fans expect him to be matched next with Takanofuji (the former Takayoshitoshi, you know), who is also 2-0 and looking very aggressive.
Ichiyamamoto vs. Fujiazuma:
Compared to all the above drops and falls, this bout looks positively serene.
We venture into Juryo, where Kotokamatani is visiting to balance the odd number of sekitori in this basho. For this reason, he gets a fine-looking oicho-mage. He goes against our friend Akiseyama:
Akiseyama uses every bit of his experience, but Kotokamatani plants his head and exhibits a lot of patience. He is rewarded by becoming todays blob on the NSK’s “Fan-chosen Fighting Spirit Rikishi” list (Makushita rikishi don’t have a photo in the NSK app, so they are shown as a rikishi-shaped blob if they get elected for that list).
Let’s finish with Aminishiki, who is facing Irodori, the newbie. Aminishiki tends to win first encounters:
And indeed he does, in his usual style. Your opponent gets too enthusiastic about his tsuppari? Move a little sideways and let him enjoy the view from below the dohyo.
Great stuff as usual, Herouth.
I’ve looked everywhere for Kitanowaka’s bout today, but no luck on either YouTube or Twitter. Very strange, given the level of hype surrounding Kitanowaka and the fact that the opponent was a college experienced rikishi expected to contend for the Jonokuchi yusho. Oh well, maybe it’ surface sometime later after youtubers in Japan get out of bed.
Yeah, I combed the net for it as well, to no avail.
I found a Twitter video of that bout – I edited it into the post.
Oof. I’m now a bit more worried that Ito got a concussion than anything else. Wow that was a hard fall.
My first thought as well. The fall was bad, then you have 465 lbs of rikishi falling on top of you…. he looked wrecked trying to even get back on the dohyo. Hope the schedulers throw him a couple days off or given that it’s jonokuchi he takes a few days kyujo since really you probably only need at most 3 wins to get up to jonidan anyway.
He’s on the torikumi today.
D i’s youtube channel livestreamed the day 4 bouts. Just before the juryo parade of rikishi he showed highlights from the previous day. I think the very last one before the parade might have been Kitanowaka.
About 1:08 into the broadcast.
That’s nice. But it’s going to disappear as soon as the live broadcast is over.
I don’t get it? How did Toma lose?
His foot was out (he stepped over the tawara) before Ito went out
I had to watch it three times as well, I was surprised there was even a monoii at first! Probably because I was so focused on the epic fall
Ok cheers, i’ll have to go watch it yet again.
Seems like it was almost exactly the same sort of ending as the Hoshoryu bout, except that Hoshoryu got the benefit of this ‘dead body’ rule whereas Toma didn’t.
In hoshoryu’s case, the question was whether Jokoryu died or didn’t die, and the judges decided that he died. In Ito’s case, it seems that Toma’s toe touched the janome when Ito was very much alive (both feet on the tawara). I’ll try to see if I have any footage from another angle.
I found some Twitter footage (Source: Abema) showing it from the TV angle. Edited it into the post.
Thanks Herouth! That angle makes it much clearer.