“Ura, Mitakeumi, and Takarafuji walk into a bar…”
I would not have picked these three to be in the lead one-third of the way through this tournament. Ura and Mitakeumi will face off today so we will likely have rather unlikely leader(s) heading into the middle weekend. This was supposed to be the easy part of the schedule for our Sanyaku wrestlers. Instead, they’re being picked off by wrestlers from the joi. Day Five bout videos are here.
The bottom third of the maegashira does seem to be very weak. We’ve seen this in earlier tournaments, as well where a handful of guys down at the bottom are obviously on their way out of the division and it leaves a lot of easy wins for some of the more solid competitors. Tomokaze, Mitoryu, and likely Tokihayate will be heading back to Juryo, handing Ryuden, Oshoma, and Takarafuji some extra soft competition, thus, low-rankers among the leaders.
For Juryo videos, you may like to check this page for the action from NHK. Endo leads with six wins.
The Action
Makuuchi bout videos are here.
Bushozan (4-2) defeated Tomokaze (0-6). Tomokaze nearly caught Bushozan with quick misdirection after the tachiai. Bushozan recovered and kept up effective forward pressure and eventually worked Tomokaze over the edge. Oshidashi.
Ryuden (5-1) defeated Tsurugisho (2-4). Tsurugisho attempted a quick pull and slapdown but Ryuden stayed with him and walked him out. Yorikiri.
Oshoma (5-1) defeated Takarafuji (5-1). Oshoma caught Takarafuji too far forward while in pursuit and slapped him down. Hatakikomi.
Churanoumi (4-2) defeated Roga (3-3). This was a thrilling, up-tempo back and forth bout. Seems perfect for some “Yaketty Sax.” Churanoumi hung in there with a belt grip at the back of Roga’s mawashi. He eventually caught Roga while spinning and pushed him out from behind. Okuridashi.
Tokihayate (2-4) defeated Ichiyamamoto (3-3). An off-balance Ichiyamamoto stumbled while retreating. Tokihayate survived for his second win. Tsukiotoshi.
Hokutofuji (3-3) defeated Mitoryu (1-5). Mitoryu tried a slapdown attempt but Hokutofuji kept his balance and drove Mitoryu backwards and out. Oshidashi.
Shonannoumi (5-1) defeated Nishikifuji (1-5). Shonannoumi effectively leveraged his size advantage to hoist Nishikifuji toward the bales, several times. I’m not sure why there is not a more exotic kimarite on this because the winning move was Shonannoumi’s kick. He deftly kicked Nishikifuji’s leg out of the ring. “Yorikiri.”
Kinbozan (4-2) defeated Tamawashi (2-4). Kinbozan assaulted a defenseless old man and battered him until he backed out of the ring. Oshidashi.
Takanosho (2-4) defeated Shodai (2-4). Takanosho walked a listless and defenseless blocking sled, nicknamed Masayo, over the bales. One hand to the face and Shodai just did not want to play anymore. Oshidashi.
Kotoshoho (3-3) defeated Sadanoumi (3-3). An aggressive Kotoshoho yanked Sadanoumi around to the bales and threw him to the ground. Sadanoumi was slow to get up and limped away gingerly on that ankle. Uwatenage.
Halftime.
Onosho (3-3) defeated Nishikigi (1-5). Onosho bear-hugged Nishikigi and ushered him out. Yorikiri.
Meisei (4-2) defeated Midorifuji (2-4). The bout started with the two locking horns at the center of the ring. Then Meisei backed-pedaled, again and again, and eventually brought Midorifuji down. Hatakikomi.
Ura (6-0) defeated Mitakeumi (5-1). Ura timed his pull perfectly. Ura powered into Mitakeumi and Mitakeumi powered right back. Mitakeumi As soon as Mitakeumi pressed Ura back to his shikirisen, Ura shifted direction and Mitakeumi flew past. Ura grabbed the back of Mitakeumi’s belt and forced him out from behind. Uwatedashinage? Not Okuridashi? Someone (other than me) got into the plum wine tonight.
Gonoyama (3-3) defeated Atamifuji (2-4). What a surprise. Gonoyama caught Atamifuji off-balance and slapped him down. After a long grapple, Atamifuji attempted to change his grip, slipping his right-hand inside. Gonoyama then grabbed Atamifuji by the shoulder and yanked him forward. Tsukiotoshi…maybe with a heaping side of katasukashi.
Sanyaku
Daieisho (5-1) defeated Wakamotoharu (3-3). As Daieisho pressed forward, Wakamotoharu’s right leg stretched back to meet the bales…but he wasn’t back far enough and stumbled. Tsukiotoshi.
Hiradoumi (2-4) defeated Abi (3-3). Hiradoumi was ready for this. His left hand came up and deflected Abi’s right arm, allowing Abi’s momentum to carry him forward to the floor. Tsukiotoshi.
Onosato (5-1) defeated Kotozakura (4-2). Kotozakura used his left-hand overarm grip to drag Onosato over toward the bales. But rather than try to pitch the Ozeki forward, Onosato drove his body into Kotozakura’s side, forcing him over the bales. Brilliant move by the youngster. You often see this where two guys have their arms behind their opponents and they’re both pitched forward over the tawara, desperately trying to throw the other. From now on, I want to see guys attempt this lateral move. Yorikiri.
Hoshoryu (4-2) defeated Tobizaru (2-4). Fundamentals. Hoshoryu went for Tobizaru’s arm at first but Tobizaru spun away. Then Hoshoryu secured Tobizaru with a left-hand inside, right-hand outside, and walked Tobizaru out.
Oho (2-4) defeated Kirishima (1-5). This big guy here is named Oho. His thing, his brand of sumo is to back away and slap down his opponents. And he just did it to a soon to be former Ozeki. Hikiotoshi.
Wrap-up
It’s only Day Six and the Ozeki appear to be effectively out of contention. There is such a pile-up of rank-and-filers (plus Onosato) one loss behind the undefeated Ura that it will take a lot of help to get either Kotozakura or Hoshoryu back in this contest. I’m sure there will be a lot of fans happy to see Ura doing well and eager to see how far he can take this – especially given some of the beatings he had been taking in the past few tournaments. I’m eager to see how far he rides this.
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Don’t underestimate the Prince of Pinkness! Go Ura!!!
I think Ura might just pull it off. Must have been ultra serious in training. He is staying very low this basho and his footwork has been impeccable (feet barely left the ground against Mitakeumi). Usually we look at Ura as an entertainer like the sumo comedian in a diaper because of the flying, somersaulting or crazy faces. But I read that he has the highest grip strength of all rikishi (262 pounds). Tonight he faces Kotozakura who he has beaten 2 of the last 3 times. Also Ura tends to improve the second week. Will I end looking foolish predicting 13-2 and a yusho for Ura? When is the last time someone won a top division tournament using their birth name? I’m buying myself a hot pink Ura t-shirt if he does. Let’s go Ura!
Yeah, his grip strength is legendary.
But then he rarely goes for the belt! Shodai is the same, I think he went off the scale at one of the grip strength competitions
It’s a tad early. Ura hasn’t fought anyone above him yet and he has really bad matchups into Abi, Daieisho, Wakamotoharu and Tobizaru. I also believe Onosato will become a bad matchup for him, but since they never fought, he might be able to surprise him in a first fight. If Kirishima was in fighting form, that would be another bad matchup. He is trading wins and losses with the other two Ozeki though.
He might have done better in week 2 recently, but that’s because from Komusubi or M1 week 2 was the weaker part of his schedule. This time it’s the other way around.
That being said, I like Ura, but I still think the winner will emerge among the two a Ozeki, Onosato and Daieisho with an outside chance for Mitakeumi, who will have an easier schedule due to the loss yesterday and is just that bit down further down the banzuke. I think Ura goes 10-5 or so and might reclaim that Komusubi slot from Asanoyama.
Tamawashi, lol. He should go for Living National Treasure status, and then no one would dare pull anything like that
Wow, thanks for the link to the NHK page with Juryo bouts! Do they have those every day? (Also thanks for the one for yesterday’s Makuuchi bouts – the other links you embedded for today’s don’t play for me, maybe they have a one day delay for non-subscribers?)
Fun day! (Aside from poor Kirishima.)
Yes. Every day. I might have just copied the paths wrong. I’ll debug tonight.
Check out the official Grand Sumo phone app, you can watch all Makuuchi and Juryo plus the last 5 Makushita bouts every day. The app is free with 50% ads or $4.19 per basho without ads. Sumo Stream on Youtube was shut down by Akema last night before the final bout so this might be how I watch everything tonight. The replays on the Grand Sumo app are available seconds after the live bout ends.
I’m not logged in on my phone so that can’t be it. I’ll fix the links. Maybe some of the parameters in the url should be taken off?
Turns out the NHK won’t let you watch the videos from other sites. So I can’t put a direct link to each video…but I can link to the page with the videos. So I added the link to the page with the videos. It’s available within minutes of the action, so I will have the link to Day 7 action in my next post, as well. I think I will do this moving forward.
URA!!!
I’ll miss Kotoeko! Such an impressive rikishi, given his size! Herouth posted a picture of him when he first started – boy was he handsome!
Ura Yusho?
Thanks so much for posting the Juryo link – loved seeing Wakatakakage and all the rest! Awesome!
Time for Kirishima to stop torturing himself – and us fans – and go kyujo. I’m really sorry he didn’t do that in March but kept soldiering on when it was clear as day that something was not right – he could have rested and maybe gotten over his injury by now, but as it is, he must hope that he can come back healthy for 10 wins in July. We’ve all seen the version of the man for whom that would be no problem – just worried that this neck thing might be the kind of injury that never really goes away, as with Takakeisho…
As for the yusho, I wouldn’t rule the other ozeki out just yet. An Onosato win does look the most likely to me at this point, but one can usually count on Hoshoryu to show guys like him that they still need more experience :)
kirishima kyujo.. no-show basho.. sigh
Wakamotoharu, too.