We can list many signs of the historic weakness of the top division this tournament, but one has to be that after eight days, the Juryo leaderboard looks more impressive than the Makuuchi one, and that many of us would back the eventual second-division champion to win a fantasy bout for top sekitori against the winner of the Emperor’s Cup.
The Juryo yusho race is a 4-way tie between rikishi with one loss. The four are former Ozeki J1e Asanoyama, J3e Ichinojo, the July Makuuchi champion, J6e Gonoyama, who might be on the verge of a breakthrough in his 5th sekitori basho, and J14w Ochiai, a white-hot prospect who is fighting in only his second professional basho and has lost just once in 15 bouts. Asanoyama’s only loss is to Ichinojo, and Ichinojo’s only loss is to Gonoyama. Two rikishi trail at 6-2, and six more are in striking distance at 5-3, the most notable being J3w Shonannoumi (who was 5-1 before facing Asanoyama and Ichinojo) and J5w Enho.
Asanoyama needs one more win to secure Makuuchi re-promotion, while Ichinojo needs two to make a strong case. Gonoyama, Shonannoumi, and J1w Tohakuryu (4-4) need four wins to stake a claim, while Enho is more of a long shot, needing five.
At the other end of the standings, several rikishi find themselves in danger of dropping out of the salaried ranks. At the head of that queue is J12e Tochimusashi (1-7), who’s looked progressively worse each basho after his yusho in his Juryo debut, and who deserves to drop because of his reliance on dangerous techniques, including the arm bar that injured Ochiai’s left elbow. Others who need more wins than losses to reach safety are J14e Tokushoryu (3-5), J10e Kotokuzan (1-7), and J11e Shimanoumi (2-6). We’ll keep an eye on the division exchange picture as the action continues in Juryo and in Makushita.
Excellent matches in Juryo on day 7, worth watching Churanoumi, Tohakuryu, Asanoyama and Tamashoho fights.
In addition, I think Tochinoshin is a coward. He well knew that Enho had an eye socket injury and yet he did a tachiai with his forearm into Enho’s face. Not to mention that he is about 60kg heavier and taller. Just a dirty act.
Tochi’s never been a favorite of mine anyway but that was a REALLY cheap shot
Coward???!! He always, ALWAYS uses that maneuver at the tacho-ai.
He is more than 60…he is like 80k heavier and 25cm taller. So what? There are no weight or height categories in sumo. Should Tochi or any rikishi be less agresiva because Enho is small?
Tochimusashi is not just a sneak employing dangerous techniques, he is also an opportunist, employing henka against injured and weak Kaisei, when Kaisei was in danger of demotion and Tochimusashi (Kanno at the time) was looking at a promotion to Juryo. Kaisei retired shortly after. I can’t wait to see Tochimusashi out of salaried ranks forever.
Not because he is small but because he just recovered from a fairly serious face injury
Thank U very much for that helpful juryo overview.
I totally agree with your comment on Tochimusashi and those damned arm barring techniques.
And I‘m very much looking forward to Ochiai vs Asanoyama and Ichinojo. Is he already strong enough to compete with those yusho winners? That would be spectacular!
I’m guessing he’s not quite there yet, but just having the opportunity will be huge for his growth; I just wish he got to do it fully fit, even if he was able to work around his injury today.