The Makushita yusho race is coming down to the wire! After day 9, we had the following semifinal bracket:

• Ms1w Wakatakakage vs. Ms18e Dewanoryu
• Ms41w Haruyama vs. Sd1e Tanji

Former Sekiwake Wakatakakage didn’t have much trouble dispatching Dewanoryu, so all the excitement was in the undercard bout. Haruyama decided to deploy a henka against his lower-ranked (but more experienced) opponent. It nearly worked, with both of Tanji’s hands almost brushing the dohyo, but he recovered and pulled down Haruyama. A monoii ensued. Were they checking whether Tanji touched the dirt? No; the replay showed him grabbing a handful of Haruyama’s hair, and so he was disqualified for a hansoku hairpull, the first time I’ve seen this call when the wrestler whose hair got pulled didn’t yet have a chonmage! Tanji just misses knocking off his 5th (!!) Makushita opponent this basho, which would have put him in rare company. Haruyama has a date with Wakatakakage for the title decider on Day 13, in which he has to be a huge underdog.

In the Juryo promotion race, we are down to 5 candidates. Ms1w Wakatakakage (6-0) is a lock to go up. The others are Ms2e Tsushimanada (4-2), who has probably done enough already but could use a 5th win, Ms2w Kitaharima (3-3), who must win his final bout, Ms5w Hakuoho (5-1), who may need 6 wins to ensure re-promotion, and Ms5e Kiryuko (3-3), who can finish no better than 4th in the promotion queue. There’s no relevant action on Day 12, so we’ll have to wait until Day 13 at the earliest to see how the torikumi committee tries to sort this out. Kitaharima and Kiryuko have already met, so presumably all/most of the contenders will visit Juryo to try to open up some spots.

Whose salaried slots might they take? J14w Tochimusashi’s somewhat fortunate Juryo return will be short after he picked up his 8th loss, opening up a spot for Wakatakakage. At the moment, that’s the only demotion, but J13e Yuma (3-8) has no room for error, J14e Chiyosakae (5-6) can only afford one more loss, and J13w Oshoumi (5-6), J12w Tenshoho (5-6), J12e Chiyomaru (5-6), and J11e Akua (4-7) all need 2 wins for safety. J8w Shiden (4-7) is not quite safe. And as Andy mentioned, J4w Kotoeko (1-8-2) returns on Day 12 to try to pick up the win or two he needs to stay. Wrestlers are extremely reluctant to give up their salary and so will risk almost anything to avoid the drop to Makushita.