Day 5 already! The dollar broke through 155 yen. I might need to start planning a trip. If I get there for Hatsu, I might be able to see the nephews debut. Thanks to OneLoveLulit on Twitter, I got an update on their status. Though they passed the new recruit exams, as foreigners, they still need to wait on finalized visas. So, they will mount the dohyo in January. Higohikari can breathe a sigh of relief.
Your NHK videos are here: Juryo Part I and Part II, Makuuchi Part I and Part II.
Aonishiki was handed his first loss today. Like Shishi’s losses this tournament, he looked impressive in defeat.
Makuuchi Action
Shirokuma (1-4) defeated Tokihayate (2-3). Tokihayate secured a quick grip on Shirokuma’s belt but Shirokuma got his left paw under Tokihayate’s armpit and turned the tables. Shirokuma tried to topple Tokihayate over the tawara and then followed up by driving Tokihayate back over the bales. Yorikiri.
Onokatsu (5-0) defeated Bushozan (0-5). Bushozan did not have the strength to make any effective attack on Onokatsu. Onokatsu found Bushozan’s belt and steadily pressed Bushozan back over the tawara and half-way back to Juryo. Yorikiri.
Nishikifuji (1-4) defeated Asakoryu (2-3). Nishikifuji calmly used his size advantage to force Asakoryu to the edge. Asakoryu tried to slip to the side and pull Nishikifuji over the bales but Nishikifuji remained on his feet and thrust Asakoryu off the dohyo. Tsukidashi.
Shonannoumi (3-2) defeated Takerufuji (3-2). Takerufuji (also known as Takarafuji Jr.) lowered his head to charge forward. Shonannoumi brought down the hammer with the perfect timing sending Takerufuji to the floor under the white tassel. Hatakikomi.
Ryuden (2-3) defeated Shishi (2-3). Another great yotsu grapple here. This pairing was really strength-to-strength. Ryuden wore down Shishi and worked him to the edge and over. Yorikiri.
Sadanoumi (3-2) defeated Chiyoshoma (3-2). Powerful throw from Sadanoumi to finish off Chiyoshoma! Chiyoshoma had the edge at the tachiai, got a good grip, drove forward…but Sadanoumi dug deep and heaved Chiyoshoma to the floor at the tawara. Sukuinage.
Meisei (3-2) defeated Tamawashi (2-3). Meisei got his left hand inside and quickly forced the action toward the bales. Tamawashi tried his arm breaker to get Meisei to release but Meisei was unaffected as he led with his topknot and drove Tamawashi out. Yorikiri.
Takarafuji (3-2) defeated Hokutofuji (1-4). Hokutofuji pressed hard with his hazuoshi, desperately trying to keep Takarafuji off his belt. The two settled into a stalemate. Takarafuji suddenly backed up and Hokutofuji fell forward. Hikiotoshi.
Midorifuji (2-3) defeated Takayasu (2-3). Midorifuji backed up, shifted right and pulled Takayasu down with his patented Katasukashi.
Gonoyama (4-1) defeated Ichiyamamoto (3-2). Gonoyama tried a pull at the start. That failed and he shifted into “Drive.” Things were looking bleak for Ichiyamamoto as Gonoyama drove forward. So, Ichiyamamoto countered with a pull which just increased his backward momentum as Gonoyama shoved him out. Oshidashi.
Mitakeumi (4-1) defeated Endo (3-2). Endo slapped Mitakeumi at the tachiai. But Mitakeumi charged forward while Endo fumbled around down below. Mitakeumi worked his right hand under Endo’s arm and pressed Endo to the bales and over. Oshidashi.
Halftime
Roga (2-3) defeated Nishikigi (0-5). Roga hit Nishikigi, pivoted and drove Nishikigi over the bales. Yorikiri.
Tobizaru (3-2) defeated Kotoshoho (1-4). A bit of an oshi brawl to start before settling into a grapple near the edge. Kotoshoho’s nose had been bloodied early in the bout and he now dripped blood onto Tobizaru’s shoulder. Don’t you just love contact sports? Kotoshoho pivoted to pull Tobizaru over but Tobizaru used his left hand inside belt grip to throw Kotoshoho hard to the floor. Shitatenage.
Takanosho (5-0) defeated Oshoma (1-4). Takanosho started hot with a great tachiai and thrusting attack. He drove Oshoma to the edge but Oshoma resisted. Oshoma reached over and grabbed Takanosho’s belt deep. That forced Takanosho to retreat and once he released himself from Oshoma’s grip, he pulled slapped the Naruto-beya wrestler down. Hatakikomi.
Abi (4-1) defeated Churanoumi (1-4). Churanoumi was Abi-literated. That kachi-age tachiai did not connect with Churanoumi’s head but his shoulder instead. It was still very effective and knocked Churanoumi back. Sensing weakness, Abi pounced and thrust Churanoumi hard. I didn’t detect a pull from Abi today. Tsukidashi.
Sanyaku
Hiradoumi (1-4) defeated Wakamotoharu (3-2). Jesus. What a tachiai! Hiradoumi hit Wakamotoharu hard at the tachiai and did not give his opponent an opening to counter. Oshidashi.
Daieisho (3-2) defeated Shodai (1-4). Shodai didn’t get the tachiai he liked so he backed out when Daieisho blasted him to the edge. The fans let out a disappointed groan. “Come on, dude. Wake up!” Serious letdown after the genki bouts we have seen tonight. Oshidashi.
Oho (2-3) defeated Kirishima (0-5). Slap-happy, sloppy sumo from Kirishima. A lot of slaps to the face from Kirishima but other than that, not a lot of offense. He lunged at Oho’s belt once but Oho thrust him away. A pissed off Oho pulled and Kirishima stumbled forward and fell to the floor. Hikiotoshi.
Kotozakura (4-1) defeated Ura (1-4). Kotozakura kept Ura contained and offered no quarter, no chance to counter. Oshidashi.
Onosato (4-1) defeated Atamifuji (4-1). Atamifuji had a good initial charge but Onosato took control from the solid right hand grip. As Atamifuji retreated, Onosato finished him off with a thrust to the armpit. Oshidashi.
Hoshoryu (5-0) defeated Wakatakakage (3-2) Holy, Moly! What a fine throw from Hoshoryu! Hoshoryu tried an il-advised pull at the tachiai. But while holding Wakatakakage’s hand away with his left, Hoshoryu got his right arm under WTK’s shoulder. Hoshoryu drove Wakatakakage back and used his right arm grip to heft the youngest Onami off-balance. With his right leg, Hoshoryu caught WTK’s leg and finished WTK in spectacular fashion. Kotenage.
Wrap-up
Wow, this is an exciting basho! Hoshoryu heads the shrinking list of undefeated, accompanied by Takanosho and Onokatsu with perfect records so far. Kotozakura and Onosato remain one loss back. There was a lot of exciting sumo again today. Hiradoumi certainly made up for his earlier losses with a spectacular effort today.
Kirishima’s poor performances are disconcerting. If he is injured, he should probably take time off to recuperate. His Ozeki run is DOA but he will also struggle to make kachi-koshi without a major retool in his fighting style. I mean, slapping Oho in the face a few times is not “mounting an offense.”
As we look at tomorrow’s schedule, the final three bouts look like critical bouts in this early yusho race. Hoshoryu (5-0) will face Atamifuji (4-1), Kotozakura (4-1) will take on Abi (4-1) and that leads into Wakatakakage (3-2) against Onosato (4-1) in the musubi-no-ichiban. Further down the banzuke, Takanosho (5-0) will face Gonoyama (4-1) and Onokatsu (5-0) will fight Kayo, visiting from Juryo with a 4-1 record so far.
Down in Juryo, Oshomi’s superlative win over Aonishiki means he is the only undefeated wrestler in the second division. But it is still early with several top guys still within reach (including Aonishiki).
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Good morning! After reading your splendid summation Andy, I can hardly wait to watch it all later on. So exciting. Did I read that correctly? Your nephews are entering the world of sumo? Wow!
Names to look out for soon then.
No! Not my nephews. Asashoryu and Musashimaru’s nephews. I should have been more explicit.
Another shoryu nephew!
Laughs, no worries! Thanks 🙂
Takarafuji Jr. doesn’t seem to be as strong as he was in March yet.
But at least he has the same amount of wins as Takarafuji Sr.
Who is that Abi? There suddenly is a warrior inside the shell of the clown. Great sumo so far.
Even greater: Hoshoryu‘s throw against Wakatakakage, who now has to beat Onosato again, if he wants to stay in the yusho race.
And U are very right about the Ukrainians too, Andy, they both lost, but they lost beautifully.
Shishi (not Sushi as my text system always suggests) is really only beaten when he is beaten.
Can‘t say the same about Shodai unfortunately.
all rikishi are stronger than youkozunas, all giving 100% , the best basho i have ever seen from the collective of all rikishi battles day by day so far , just nishikigi and shodai battles turn into strong battles but still its just 2 of 15 battles, the rest was like top show and top performance.
this is why we like sumo so much , isnt it ?, i am glad for all sumo players
Exactly. I definitely wanted to see more fire from Shodai.
I don’t usually promote like this, and I know you’ve got your reasons for not visiting, Andy, but for shindeshi/maezumo stuff you really should give the aggregated threads at the Sumoforum a whirl rather than rely on the unconnected bits and pieces that happen to show up on NotTwitter.
http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/topic/44064-new-recruits-kyushu-2024/
Feel free to promote. I have nothing but love for SumoForum. It’s “The OG.” I visit SumoDB frequently and talk about it often because it’s structured data and I can get into it easy. SumoForum is unstructured and my mind hasn’t adapted to the NoSQL world, yet. (Seriously. I like structured data.) I also don’t have as much time as I would like to maintain a presense at the Forum plus the various communities on the YouTube, Twitch, Discord and Telegram platforms. Add in the plethora of podcasts out there and it’s been overwhelming growth over the past decade. When I look stuff up, I usually have a specific purpose and try to find it on sumo.or.jp or a Japanese news source.
Then there’s the cesspool at Reddit. And that gets me to my second reason: control. I feel like I moderate content here pretty fairly and I do my best to be accurate and dependable and to source everything. But, I also have a sense of humor and got banned from the sumo subreddit because of it. I created this little website back in 2014 so I could meet people who like sumo and it’s worked better than I could have ever hoped. Honestly, I didn’t know that SumoForum existed back then. I think when you and others started posting here, that’s when I learned. Now, I kind of feel like it’s bigger than me and I need to keep it up and going…which leads to less time for diving around in other places in the Sumo Fan Universe. I mean, Akebono followed me on Twitter back when I was just getting started. That made my year. I’m still gutted that I never had the chance to meet him.
Anyway, I moderate links but as long as it’s not spam or suspicious, I let it go. I really just don’t want someone to inject a virus or something into my comment section. I was in grad school learning about IT security when I set this site up.
As for promoting stuff, I’m really only hesitant to promote the illicit streams and profiteers but even they serve a purpose which I completely acknowledge and understand, especially since I sometimes use them. It just makes me wish the money would go to the legit sources because I think they’d create more content for us…which is slowly starting to happen. But I want my policy to be that fans should go to the legit content creators first. Now I’m getting off topic but I did want you to know I hold SumoForum in high regard. Time keeps me away, with the added wrinkle that I enjoy the amount of control I have here.
I also have a vision for some big changes here at the site…but again, not enough time to implement them. The infinte scroll is a terrible way to organize content so I have been working on a better way of organizing things here. So much good stuff gets lost in the menu bar…anyway, now I’m rambling.
Right, I can totally empathize with the lack of time for everything one might want to do with one’s various sumo fandom interests. I was mainly suggesting that thread specifically (and its eventual successors for future tournaments) because it appeared to me that the life and times of new recruits are an interest of yours that isn’t adequately being served by the other places you’re frequenting, and in all likelihood never will be. Though perhaps I was reading too much into your comments in this and the earlier daily updates. :)
Nope. I think you are spot on and that thread is now bookmarked.
My theory about Hoshoryu’s form this basho – all the talk about Onosato as the next Yokozuna has woken him up. “Hey! That’s supposed to be me!” We’ve a lot to look forward to.
Agree 100% plus I think he’s also grown into and adjusted to the 7 kilo weight gain he supposedly had between the July and September basho.
I’m super impressed by Onokatsu this basho. It’s not so much about him being 5-0, but the way he is fighting compared to last basho. Calm and collected and with confidence. I hope he will stick to that once he loses too. Looking forward to him meeting Takerufuji. So far he fought mostly guys looking for the belt.
Not sure what is wrong with Kirishima, but his sumo looks awkward. Didn’t look the slightest like he could win. Happy for an Oho win though.
Onosato isn’t a quick learner, but Atamifuji’s sumo is very straight forward, so he had no trouble today. Still Atamifuji is looking a lot more focused this basho.
Hoshoryu’s throws are just a thing of beauty. Had to watch the replay to confirm this was actually a kotenage. Everything went so fast and powerful that I was sure it was an uwatenage, but he really just wraps up his opponents arm near the shoulder without any belt.
Down in Juryo I’m a bit worried for Waikari. He only has a Fusen to his name so far. Hope he can turn things around.
My man Hoshoryu is spectacular so far this basho!
Looked like Aonishki slipped on the sagari, too bad after a long hard-fought bout.
Kirishima, I’m concerned about you….
winning or loosing Aonishiki and Shishi are pure joy! As for Hoshoryu….pretty please, with sugar on top, don’t wake me up….
What a delicious leader board – onigiri and two types of katsu
WOW Hoshoryu!!! Nice! My brother is a Sandan(3rd degree) Blackbelt in Judo. He told me the key to that throw was that he hooked his leg to give him the leverage – and what a beautiful throw! It is Great to see him using his throws again!
I hope Takanosho keeps going too – he’s looking good! All of today’s bouts were great!!!
My rally towels are opposing each other tomorrow, so it is Onasato’s turn to win in spectacular fashion, according to towel theory.
Yes, Hoshoryu’s legwork definitely helps him with throws. I think that’s how he got Onosato, too.
As for towel theory, Shodai threw in the towel despite my holding it aloft. So whatever cosmic connection existed on Day 4 had been severed by last night.
I have to get myself some merchandise! Roll on the trip to Japan next year….autumn. I wonder, if we’re quick off the mark, whether we can get tickets for the basho 😀 This tournament is absolutely cracking so far, I agree 💯 I’m not going to mention our man Hoshoryu, but good also to see Atamifuji focusing. Maybe that extra rank demotion has fired him up?