No changes in attendance today but we have news that Takerufuji will show up on Day 8. He will fight Onokatsu on Day 1. Geez, no relief for the weary!
Down in Juryo, Onokatsu and Shishi lead the pack at 6-1. So, Takerufuji is being immediately injected into the second division yusho race by fighting one of the leaders.
In retirement news, we do have an announcement that Asabenkei, a former Juryo-level wrestler from Takasago-beya, is throwing in the towel. He has battled injury over the past few years. We wish him well in his next career.
On to the action. NHK videos available here.
Day 7 Makuuchi Action
Chiyoshoma(2-0-5) defeated Mitoryu (3-4). Chiyoshoma slammed into Mitoryu and dictated the pace of action. He grabbed Mitoryu’s right arm and rolled the big man down to the floor. Tottari.
Wakatakakage (5-2) defeated Nishikifuji (3-4). Wakatakakage hit Nishikifuji hard and drove him back to the bales. Nishikifuji tried to lose Wakatakakage by shifting left along the bales but Wakatakakage was not fooled and rotated with him. Yorikiri.
Kagayaki (4-3) defeated Takarafuji (2-5). Kagayaki planted his big paw in Takarafuji’s chest and shoved him backwards to the tawara. He followed up with another shove to send Takarafuji over. Oshidashi.
Bushozan (4-3) defeated Hokutofuji (3-4). Hokutofuji brought both arms up behind Bushozan’s head and tried to shove him down. Bushozan kept his balance and moved forward, forcing Hokutofuji from the dohyo. Oshidashi.
Bushozan will face Takarafuji. At this stage, Takarafuji appears to be the one who should have stayed in Juryo.
Endo (3-4) defeated Nishikigi (0-7). Endo executed the slowest shift ever at the tachiai, popping Nishikigi right in the head with his head. Nishikigi shifted with him and pressed forward. Endo shoved down on Nishikigi’s arms and brought him down. Hikiotoshi.
Asakoryu will visit from Juryo to face Endo. Nishikigi will face Chiyoshoma. If Chiyonoshoma has any sense of mercy, he might want to dust off his henka-ing boots.
Roga (4-3) defeated Ichiyamamoto (3-4). Roga shifted left at the tachiai and grabbed at Ichiyamamoto’s upper body as Ichi ran past. Roga then twisted and yanked Ichi down by his shoulder. Sukuinage.
Roga will fight Hokutofuji. Ichiyamamoto will square up against Kagayaki.
Churanoumi (5-2) defeated Midorifuji (4-3). A wild brawl. Churanoumi pulled Midorifuji down. Hatakikomi.
Churanoumi will face Nishikifuji on Nakabi.
Shodai (5-2) defeated Sadanoumi (2-5). Shodai got inside Sadanoumi and pursued well as Sadanoumi rotated and retreated. Sadanoumi ran out of space and Shodai forced him over the bales and off the dohyo. Yorikiri.
Shodai will fight Wakatakakage as the Kyokai seek to whittle down the challenger group.
Kotoshoho (5-2) defeated Ryuden (2-5). Ryuden’s power has been absent this basho and he has not been able to find his usual belt grip. Today, Kotoshoho grabbed the front of Ryuden’s belt with his right hand and rotated, dragging Ryuden to the floor. Shitatedashinage.
Ryuden will fight Midorifuji.
Oho (4-3) defeated Tamawashi (4-3). Oho got his hand into Tamawashi’s armpit and shoved upward. Moving forward, Oho drove Tamawashi from the ring. Oshidashi.
Tamawashi will fight Sadanoumi.
Halftime
Kinbozan (2-5) defeated Takanosho (4-3). This bout had three phases. In the first phase, both men tussled for a belt grip. Kinbozan drove forward during the tussle, forcingin Takanosho to the edge. At the edge, Takanosho planted his foot and seized Kinbozan’s belt, stopping Kinobozan’s forward progress and starting Phase Two. In Phase Two, Takanosho asserted more pressure and both men were locked in a Yotsu position. Takanosho pulled up and drove Kinbozan backwards. Kinbozan was able to stop Takanosho at the edge and shift toward Phase Three. In Phase Three, Kinbozan reasserted his control and pressed forward, forcing Takanosho out. Yorikiri.
Kinbozan will fight Kotoshoho.
Shonannoumi (5-2) defeated Oshoma (4-3). Shonannoumi punished Oshoma for his henka by grabbing him and driving him into the ground. Hatakikomi.
Oshoma will face Oho.
Wakamotoharu (4-3) defeated Gonoyama (2-5). Wakamotoharu fought aggressively today. Hi hit Gonoyama with a kachiage at the tachiai and pressed forward with a fierce nodowa and tsuppari. Gonoyama resisted at the bales but Wakamotoharu reset by seizing Gonoyama’s belt. He hoisted upward, pivoted, and drove Gonoyama from the ring. Yorikiri.
Sanyaku
Daieisho (5-2) defeated Meisei (2-5). Blast and pivot, blast and pivot. Meisei tried a slapdown but missed. Daieisho drove forward and caught Meisei with a finishing blast as he was changing direction. Oshitaoshi.
Onosato (4-3) defeated Atamifuji (2-5). Onosato tried hard to keep Atamifuji’s right arm off his belt but to no avail. Atamifuji was able to lock on with both hands. However, he was not able to use the grip to generate offense. Instead, Onosato churned forward with his right arm inside and left arm shoving hard into Atamifuji. It was almost a half-yotsu, half-oshi attack as he pressed forward and drove Atamifuji from the ring. Yorikiri.
Atamifuji will fight Wakamotoharu on Nakabi.
Abi (3-4) defeated Mitakeumi (3-4). Brutal nodowa from Abi and he put all of his weight and drive into it. At the edge, Mitakeumi twisted and threw him to the side but the counter attack was too late as both tumbled into the crowd. Abi had won. Oshidashi.
Abi will fight Gonoyama and Mitakeumi will take on Takanosho.
Hiradoumi (4-3) defeated Takakeisho (2-5). Takakeisho opened with his Old Faithful: the wave action. It was completely without power. As if Takakeisho was playing patty-cake, Hiradoumi generated forward pressure and drove into Takakeisho. The Ozeki switched things up, swinging with wild haymakers, then turning in retreat. He tried to lose Hiradoumi but Hiradoumi followed well. As Takakeisho tired at the edge, Hiradoumi wrapped him up and drove the Ozeki from the ring. Yorikiri.
Hiradoumi versus Meisei could be a great brawl.
Kirishima (4-3) defeated Hoshoryu (4-3). A quick shift and pulldown from Kirishima and Hoshoryu fell forward. Hikiotoshi.
Kirishima will fight Takakeisho. WOW. Must win for each. Hoshoryu will face Daieisho.
Kotozakura (5-2) defeated Tobizaru (4-3). Tobizaru pulled and Kotozakura pressed forward. Both fell and the gunbai went to the forward-moving rikishi. No mono-ii. Meanwhile Tobizaru fell into and destroyed the Yobidashi station, knocking his bucket over and chair away. My old “Office of Safety”-hat comes out of me as I am reminded of the tripping hazards everywhere. Oshidashi.
Kotozakura will face Ura. Tobizaru gets Onosato.
Terunofuji (7-0) defeated Ura (3-4). The crowd applauded and gave an appreciative “ooh” as yobidashi bring more and more banners onto the dohyo. The crowd applauded and yelled much louder after the action on the dohyo. What a bout! Ura took it to the Yokozuna. He had one of those fancy things called, “a game plan.” That plan was to grab Terunofuji’s arm and drag him down. It nearly worked, too! Ura had Terunofuji on the edge but the Yokozuna kept his balance. As he regrouped, Ura launched another attack, and another. Each attack was progressively less powerful and Terunofuji began to assert his size advantage, eventually succeeding in wrapping up Ura at the edge. One can imagine a quiet plea from the condemned, “I’m tired. Be gentle,” as Terunofuji eased Ura over the bales. Yorikiri.
Terunofuji will fight…checks notes…Shonannoumi. Interesting. This bout should not be interesting, though. Should be one-sided. We’ll see how it works out.
Wrap-up
It is always a good day when the musubi-no-ichiban brings us the bout-of-the-day. Terunofuji showed both his vulnerability and his strength in that bout as he remains undefeated. Pretty much the entire field is in a small band between 2 and 5 wins; Terunofuji alone on top and Nishikigi on the other end with no wins. Tomorrow, on Nakabi, Terunofuji can be the first in the division to secure kachi-koshi while Nishikigi is heading for Juryo with Asanoyama. If he keeps up this pace, he will be at the front of the line. I put together a quick little graphic to show just how tightly distributed the field is here, with a ton of guys on 4 wins. This is sumo, so that might actually be a couple of tons of guys at 4 wins, to be honest.
Kirishima won today but still looks shaky and has a long road ahead. Takakeisho’s road seems even longer now and the pair will be pitted against each other tomorrow. If folks are scratching their heads about how Terunofuji got paired with Shonannoumi, this should be the lowest-ranked fighter to take on the Yokozuna this tournament. Takayasu and Onosho are kyujo and Atamifuji is from the same stable. From here in, the Yokozuna will start churning through sanyaku competition as the title race heats up in Week Two.
Discover more from Tachiai (立合い)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I do miss seeing Terunofuji impersonate a Monster Truck in combat with a Smart Car, but the new, more modest and fundamental approach is working, and will, hopefully, be sustainable.
In contrast, unfortunately, to Takakeisho. I respect how he’s found different ways to pull out some wins the last couple of tourneys, but the sad fact is that with the tsuki-oshi pistons on the fritz (permanently?), he’s just not an ozeki. And as fear of his main weapon fades, aite are going to keep getting harder to catch out with his alternate arsenal.
Takakeisho STILL panic whenever someone gets ahold of his belt. If he doesn’t just resign himself to losing at that point, he flails around ineffectually while in reverse (and resorts to pulling, the ultimate pitfall). You can see him try other things, but they’re rudimentary, slap-dash in the heat of the moment. It’s all down to his unfortunately short arms. He has to be close to his opponent to be at maximum effectiveness, but he also has one main attack pattern, and it can be read and predicted easily at this point. A healthy Takakeisho has the power and the one super-skill to maintain rank; this version will be lucky to be in the top division in a year once he loses the rank due to the chronic hindrance he’s suffering through. Takakeisho was once a Yokozuna presumptive; now, he’s one of the laundry list of new-age Ozeki failing to live up to the rank for one reason or another.
Takakeisho’s problem isn’t that his opponents are able to read his attack – that has literally been the case for his entire 5-year ozeki tenure – it’s that he no longer has sufficient oomph behind it to dispatch sanyaku-quality rikishi. That will look quite a bit different against lesser opponents even if his health doesn’t markedly improve, so I daresay the prediction that he’s going to freefall out of the division once he’s no longer ozeki is rather hyperbolic.
Do you think he will want to continue after he drops from the rank? Or will he plug away until he he fighting the Endo-Takarafuji level competition? Same question for Kirishima. I think Kirishima could easily skip Aki citing injury and clean up at the bottom of the Maegashira in Kyushu…if the three month break is sufficient to help that neck injury.
How many former Ozeki will we have in Makuuchi at once?
Even Terunofuji, I think, can appreciate the amount of tape on Ura’s knees. Great bout from two limping rikishi!
Super excited to see little Takerufuji tomorrow–and to see Asakoryu fight Endo. Asakoryu reminds me so much of a young Hoshoryu and it’ll be interesting to see if Takerufuji’s insane win was a bit of a fluke due to weak san’yaku or if he’s the greatest wrestler known to sumo.
This basho is really shaping up.
The Ura v. Kaiju and the Haru v. Gonoyama were highlights and the kind of sumo we’ve been missing and craving.
Atamifuji almost did it, that one was also exciting he needs a new dimension and should spend some time with Hakuho on some new moves.
Keisho needs the wave attack, we saw it briefly. Or he needs to drop a few kilos and pull a Hokuto and get on the mawashi more often.
In typical fashion with the field just the Yokozuna Hoshoryu goes to sleep.
And wtf Shodai?! Back to form likely until he’s KK then coasting. Maybe he misses the fat stacks like what we saw in that Ura fight,
Solid basho so far down in Juryo and even some bangers below that.
Thanks for the coverage as always, hoping we have a Dai Yokozuna after this, he deserves it.
Onosato is rather disappointing in this basho compared to what many experts expected from him.
That said with today’s win he entered the top ten of all times after their four first four tournaments in Makuuchi and he has still eight days to go!
Should he win out he would even be number one together with the great Yokozuna Terukuni.
And with a 9:6 he would equal a certain Hakuho…
Fun fact: with his 38th win since his Makuuchi debut Onosato drew level with the best rikishi in that department who is still active, namely and surprisingly Onosho (!).
http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query.aspx?show_form=0&columns=4&sum_wins=38&sum_range=4&show_sum=on&form1_m=on&form1_debutd=on&sort_by=sum_wins
I love Ura so much. So, so much.
What a fighter.
What a bout.
Altogether, what a guy!
I’m afraid Ura is gonna have nothing at all left in the tank after he battles Kotozakura tomorrow. Please, schedulers, give him a turn with Nishikigi soon.