We had a number of rikishi pick up their 8th win today, including injured Ozeki Takayasu. Will he now finally go kyujo and get that arm worked on?
Highlight Matches
Terutsuyoshi defeats Chiyomaru – Terutsuyoshi picks up his first ever Makuuchi kachi-koshi, and will not need banzuke luck to be ranked as a Maegashira in September. This match was won by Terutsuyoshi’s ability to outmaneuver Chiyomaru.
Tochiozan defeats Kaisei – As an indicator on how poorly Tochiozan is doing, he struggled a bit too defeat 1 armed Kaisei. Kaisei at 9 losses and increasing.
Toyonoshima defeats Kagayaki – Kagayaki found himself dancing to Toyonoshima’s tune. Try as he could, Kagayaki could not get into an offensive posture, and flailed around quite a bit as Toyonoshima marched him out.
Enho defeats Nishikigi – Nishikigi gets his arm lock on Enho as Enho goes to submarine and get to work. Enho looks a bit worried, and starts to improvise. This is, of course, where the magic happens. He breaks the arm-lock, gets a morozashi double inside grip, and starts moving Nishikigi back. Nishikigi is almost on the bales when he tries to throw Enho, but collapses before Enho can touch down.
Kotoyuki defeats Daishoho – Is this actually Kotoyuki? His sumo is focused, strong, and bold. He gets the inside position at the tachiai, and never gives Daishoho a chance, just relentlessly drives forward.
Onosho defeats Sadanoumi – Onosho’s over-extended forward posture works to his advantage today, as Sadanoumi is unable to move to the side and let him fall before he himself is forced from the dohyo.
Myogiryu defeats Shohozan – Myogiryu picks up his kachi-koshi over an ever less genki Shohozan. I am not sure what is plaguing Shohozan, but he’s looking less vigorous each day.
Tomokaze defeats Takagenji – Takagenji opened with an attack to Tomokaze’s face, which left him wide open for Tomokaze to get whatever grip he wanted, which he was happy to do. Takagenji realizes that no only does Tomokaze have him in a hold, but his hips are far too high just about the time Tomokaze rolls to his right and send Takagenji to the clay. Takagenji has lost a few matches due to lack of experience, but that will come. This is Tomokaze’s 13th straight kachi-koshi since he started his sumo career. Wow.
Kotoeko defeats Chiyotairyu – Kotoeko runs a hit-and-shift as the Chiyotairyu cannon ball tachiai goes rumbling through. Chiyotairyu falls for this at least once per basho, its a risk of his style of sumo.
Shimanoumi defeats Yago – Yago continues to struggle, and today Shimanoumi was able to beat him for the first time ever. Once again Yago looked off-balance, and he allowed Shimanoumi to own the center of the ring.
Takarafuji defeats Okinoumi – Takarafuji scores a much needed win in this battle of the veterans. Okinoumi struggled for traction the entire time, and that protective bootie on his left foot made matters much worse.
Aoiyama defeats Shodai – Shodai decides he wants to get into a shoving match with Aoiyama, which shows incredibly poor judgement. Or maybe he saw what happened to Endo and wanted no part of motor boating Aoiyama. While Shodai kept trying not to lose, Aoiyama just relentlessly pounded away, and kept Shodai in retreat.
Endo defeats Kotoshogiku – The poor traction once again played a huge role in match with Kotoshogiku. Endo got that preferred shallow left hand grip at the tachiai again, but could not convert it into a throw as Kotoshogiku turned on the hug-n-chug. Endo showed fantastic sumo by staying in the fight, and working to set up a throw that went off brilliantly.
Abi defeats Asanoyama – Back to Abi-zumo 1.0, and Asanoyama swallows it hook, line and sinker. Asanoyama rushed forward to land a grip, and Abi was ready to help him keep moving, and falling to the clay.
Hokutofuji defeats Ryuden – I will declare that I have not seen Hokutofuji look this genki sense he took a concussion on day 10 of Natsu 2018. His fans all hope that he can carry on this level of sumo from here on out.
Daieisho defeats Mitakeumi – Mitakeumi continues his traditional week 2 fade. Daieisho owned this match, moving ahead strongly and thrusting with great power and accuracy. Mitakeumi could only react and try to get an opening.
Takayasu defeats Meisei – Takayasu reaches the safety of his 8th win, and damn well better go kyujo. He could barely move the left arm, and I am going to assume it desperately needs medical attention. I feel a bit bad for Meisei in that he lost a match with a one arm man.
Kakuryu defeats Ichinojo – Ichinojo gave him a really good fight, but he once again went soft the moment Kakuryu began backing him to the tawara. While many of us want to see sumotori fight to the last moment, I see Ichinojo’s “Give Up” strategy as one of self-preservation. Kakuryu remains undefeated, and in sole possession of the lead.
Hakuho defeats Tamawashi – For the second time in as many days, Tamawashi gets ejected from the dohyo at high speed. The Boss still looks hurt.
Hakuho vs Tamawashi looked more a brawl then sumo. I think is a clever strategy from Ichinojo, back then Musahimaru had the same attitude. better avoid injury and fight another day. Specially if one is 227 kg :)
It looked very peculiar how Tamawashi went flying out from across the ring from a glancing slap. I know he’s been struggling to find his sumo, but why commit so much momentum forward against a rikishi (albeit The Boss) who can hardly use his arms?
I think that Tama-stumble was because his left foot was soo… far back. Left him unbalanced, and vulnerable to the swat. Not sure whether that was good reaction from Hakuho, or just plain luck.
Like others I’m concerned about Enho and his Ability to “survive” in the top division. His massive weight disadvantage puts a lot of strain on his body. He always has to put everything he got into the match, it just feels like sooner or later he will suffer a serious muscle injury. Because of his low weight he has to do a lot more than heavier rikishi to not be thrown around like a doll. His bouts against chiyomaru and kagayaki have shown what happens if that doesn’t work. Terutsuyoshi seems to suffer less in that regard but he also brings quite a bit more muscle and weight.
If you look closely at the slow motion replays, you can see that Tamawashi had just swung and missed Hakuho with his right arm when Hakuho’s slap struck him, sending Tamawashi reeling in the direction of his missed swing. Hakuho’s slap added impetus to the momentum generated by Tamawashi’s missed swing.
In addition to all the above, just remember that one of those slaps concussed Asanoyama to the point he couldn’t get up on his own when he came to practice at Miyagino beya. The yokozuna can’t really do any yotsu zumo, but he can still deliver murderous tsuppari.
That’s great input. Awkward stance, swing and miss, and a thunder clap of a helping followup… There goes 380 pounds of Tamawashi, running to keep his feet under his center of mass.
While sad to see Hakuho’s physical decline, It has been interesting to watch him deliver an oshi clinic. Makes me more appreciative of the variety of his talents.
I would even say that what Tamawashi is doing recently is becoming a bit ridiculous. First some cartoonish slip with Takayasu, then cannonball with Hokutofuji and now another one with Hakuho. It’s like “I cannot win anything this basho, but at least I’ll make the fall entertaining”…
Excellent report on a very entertaining day of sumo, Bruce. Thanks! A few observations:
1) We now have a hint about what’s ailing Yago. His back was covered with a wide swath of fresh cupping marks.
2) It’s a good thing that Nishikigi didn’t get his arm lock on Enho’s other arm or the pixie’s damaged shoulder would have been further damaged. The crowd gets practically rapturous for Enho’s wins.
3) After Chiyotairyu employed the hit and shift strategy two days in a row, Kotoeko must have assumed he wouldn’t use it yet again. Well played!
4) Mitakeumi twice in this bout forfeited his forward momentum, once with an attempted pull-down, second with an attempted swat-down of Daieisho’s arms. On the latter attempt, Mitakeumi took a step back and Daieisho seized the advantage.
5) I suspect that Ichinojo’s alleged ‘give up’ strategy primarily is a consequence of his massive weight being shifted back onto his heels. If his opponent is pressing the attack, then Ichinojo becomes essentially helpless when he’s no longer in a ‘cab forward’ position (‘cab forward’ being a Bruce-ism).
That and I’m assuming with his bad back that it must hurt enormously to try and fight from that position. Imagine how many lower and upper back muscles you have to engage to fight from a position like that.
Pixie-sama is going to get killed letting big guys like Nishikigi put him in a guillotine choke. He’d better stop sticking his head in there if he wants to hold off on that catastrophic injury that will end his Pixie-magic-zumo.
I’d be more worried about what Nishikigi can do to his arms (luckily, they were too low to fit in Nishikigi’s hellish armpits) than his head. He has been choked like that by baboons twice his size since he was 5 years old. I’d assume he has an alternative trachea.
Wow what a totally fantastic day of sumo! I thought yesterday was good but day 10 was even better!
One tiny pedantic correction: Toyonoshima did not ‘march out’ Kagayaki. He executed yet another rather tidy throw (an ‘under shoulder swing down’) to put Kagayaki down on the clay.
Endo v Kotoshogiku was the most titanic struggle I have witnessed so far this basho in the top division. I just love Endo’s expression as he has to weather 3 strong hug’n’chugs right at the edge on his tiptoes – but he survives! Once they ended up in a clinch, there was only going to be one winner.
Very pleased for Takayasu to get his KK. One-armed Samurai is a thing, right?
Tomokaze continues to look imperious at this mid-level rank. I don’t want to jinx him, but he really looks like future Ozeki material.
Hokutofuji also continuing to look awesome. I guess at the moment he is looking likely to take Tamawashi’s slot at sekiwake.
I am actually really appreciating this ‘late period’ Hakuho where he can no longer rely on being an inhumanly strong and fast athlete, so he is beating guys with guile and bluff and skill – and also perhaps trading on his aura and reputation to psych some opponents out.
Finally: GO ON ABI!! Just 3 more wins my son…
Assuming Mitakeumi can get to 8 and hold on to his rank, the other Sekiwake spot is spoken for by Takakeisho, so the ceiling for Hokutofuji is Komusubi unless he runs up the score enough for them to create an extra Sekiwake slot…
Ah yes! How stupid of me to forget Takakeisho – I was/am still mentally filing him under ‘Ozeki’….
One-armed Samurai. Why does this sound familiar? Ah yes. Kisenosato.
If Tamawashi at least had the decency to break Takayasu’s other arm, we could possibly tie Araiso oyakata to Takayasu’s back, spoon-like, and pretend that together they form one complete Ozekizuna.
LOL! But this is straying dangerously close to ‘Human Centipede’ territory…
Daieisho has excellent ballance, even on the slippery Nagoya dohyo. If he stays healthy, he has every chance to overtake Mitakeumi.
I wish Endo would fight like this more often. I know he had, and maybe still has, more than a couple injuries, but I often wonder if he’s suffering from depression. I really hope that’s not the case.