Happy Mothers’ Day to all of the SuJo Mothers out there.

No Juryo visitors today because Asanoyama is joining Takerufuji sitting at home. Hopefully, both men are resting those legs properly and will be able to rejoin us in July. Until then, we have a yusho that’s up for grabs and a host of guys in sanyaku ready to fight for it. It’s a busy day today, so, let’s get to the action.

Highlights

Takarafuji defeated Tsurugisho. Oof, Tsurugisho’s first tachiai of the tournament and he already looks to be in too much pain to back out. Takarafuji gingerly ushered him back for the quick yorikiri win.

Roga defeated Tomokaze. Tomokaze moved forward well and drove Roga to the edge. However, Roga shifted back inside and dumped Tomokaze in a heap. Uwatenage.

Oshoma defeated Tokihayate. Solid tachiai. Oshoma yanked hard on Tokihayate, pivoting to the side. Tokihayate stayed upright but he was now fighting right at the edge. No real estate to do anything and Oshoma pressed him hard so he was standing far too high to counter. Yorikiri.

Ryuden defeated Churanoumi. Ryuden got that right hand deep down Churanoumi’s back and walked him out. Yorikiri.

Nishikifuji defeated Mitoryu. Mitoryu didn’t seem to have a great plan. Nishikifuji hit him hard at the tachiai and it looked like Mitoryu wanted to pivot and try to slip out of the way. Instead, he got caught off balance and pushed forward by Nishikifuji. Oshitaoshi.

Hokutofuji defeated Ichiyamamoto. Hokutofuji attacked Ichiyamamoto as if he had been preparing for this day since March. Calm, collected, dominant. He charged forward at the tachiai and blasted Ichiyamamoto back and over the edge. Oshidashi.

Kinbozan defeated Sadanoumi. Solid tachiai. Kinbozan gunned straight for Sadanoumi’s head and Sadanoumi swatted Kinbozan’s arm away. But he didn’t follow up with a counter-attack quick enough. Kinbozan thrust forward and shoved Sadanoumi into the spectators. Oshidashi.

Shonannoumi defeated Shodai. Shodai backed away, trying to force Shonannoumi down but Shonannoumi turned the tables and drove Shodai to the ground. Hatakikomi.

Tamawashi defeated Kotoshoho. If anyone forgot why Tamawashi is still around and how he won two yusho, they were reminded of it today. He gave Kotoshoho no quarter. That fierce oshi game is hard to stop. Oshidashi.

Mitakeumi defeated Takanosho. Takanosho seemed to want to bait Mitakeumi into driving forward too hard. Instead, Mitakeumi pulled, Takanosho’s momentum carrying him into the middle of the ring. Takanosho tried his own slapdown but was rewarded with Mitakeumi thrusting his left arm into his face. Takanosho probably could have escaped but thought he was done and tapped out rather lamely. Oshidashi.

Halftime

Midorifuji defeated Nishikigi. Midorifuji drove Nishikigi to the edge after the tachiai. Although Nishikigi wrapped up both of Midorifuji’s arms, he could not generate any forward progress. Maybe he was hyper-vigilant for the katasukashi and didn’t want to eat clay? That is not a good sign for this basho, much less this particular bout with a much smaller opponent. Anyway, Midorifuji wriggled his arm out and drove Nishikigi over the bales. Yorikiri.

Meisei defeated Onosho. Onosho drove forward into Meisei, facing a torrent of tsuppari and thrust-down attempts. As he tried to slip inside and grab hold of Meisei’s mawashi, Meisei kicked his offense into overdrive and pulled Onosho down. Katasukashi.

Ura defeated Oho. One imagines Ura practices sumo by carrying massive bales of rice around the dohyo. He’ll hoist them onto his back, stagger around the keiko-ba, and then yeet said bale into the wall. Oho was yeeted thusly. Yorikiri.

Sanyaku. Let the bloodbath commence.

Tobizaru defeated Abi. “Abi move forward. Abi not stop. Abi fall forward.” Hikiotoshi.

Takayasu defeated Wakamotoharu. Did Takayasu have this blue mawashi last tournament? I think Raja mentioned liking this shade of blue on him but I may be mixing up my bouts. Regardless, I like this blue mawashi especially if it gives Takayasu superpowers. After a great back-and-forth, Takayasu decided he’d had enough and attempted to pry Wakamotoharu’s head from his shoulders. Wakamotoharu preserved the position of his melon by stepping out. Oshidashi.

Gonoyama defeated Kirishima. There’s nothing to say here. Kirishima went straight back and started looking for places to land. This may be an early indication of a similar performance to Osaka, which means we will have three Ozeki in Nagoya. If that’s the case, he should have been kyujo weeks ago, preparing to barnstorm Nagoya for 10 wins. That’s the example set by Takakeisho upon his initial Ozeki promotion and kyujo. The current trajectory seems to be the rapid orbital decay we saw with Covid-addled Mitakeumi. Let’s hope this was a one off and he can pull things together. Oshidashi.

Hiradoumi defeated Takakeisho. Raja said that Hiradoumi* likes to be in front of the shikirisen at the tachiai. His feet made it there and he laid into Takakeisho as if T-Rex had stolen all the purple Skittles. Such abuse of your superiors should not be tolerated but Takakeisho landed in a heap off the dohyo. Oshidashi. *Thank you for the correction, kukufuji.

Daieisho defeated Kotozakura. Daieisho just stayed on his feet this bout. That’s half of the battle. The other half is getting forward momentum. As he drove Kotozakura out, sumo fans around the world started to freak out about the state of their Ozeki cohort. Oshidashi.

Atamifuji defeated Hoshoryu. Atamifuji locked on with a left-hand outside at the word “jump.” From there, Hoshoryu did his best to pry himself away from Atamifuji’s right. But Atamifuji stayed with him and kept coming back with that right hand under Hoshoryu’s shoulder. Then at the edge, Hoshoryu tried to slip away one more time but spun himself down to the ground. Code Blue. Code Blue. We have a code Blue. Uwatenage.

Onosato defeated Terunofuji. Terunofuji tried to hoist Onosato and yank him over his shoulder. But Onosato is a big boi and not some zambara-wearing rookie now. Onosato pressed forward and let Terunofuji fall to the ground. Sukuinage.

Wrap-up.

To all of the Mothers out there, I hope you had chaos top of your list today because that’s what you got. Who knows where this yusho will go? The good thing is that we have such a huge crop of exciting youngsters…and apparently Takayasu and Tamawashi…rip-roaring and raring to go. The bad news is once they get somewhere, they get broke.