Welcome to the Makushita yusho race! The format will be familiar to fans of USA college basketball or other sports with single-elimination tournaments. At the start of the basho, the 120 or so third-division rikishi are paired up in rank order. The winners continue on in the yusho bracket. Each round unfolds over two days, with the 7-0 champion usually crowned on Day 13. Disallowed pairings of rikishi from the same heya and other complications can occasionally lead to a playoff, potentially letting one-loss rikishi back into the race. A 6-1 wrestler took the yusho 14 times in the 150 basho since the start of 2000. All 14 were playoffs, with 6 to 9 rikishi taking part. Four additional playoffs during this period paired 7-0 wrestlers.
After 4 days of action, two rounds have been completed, and we have 29 undefeated rikishi. They will be paired up in rank order for round 3, with most bouts already scheduled for Day 5 and a few projected to take place on Day 6. The bracket is below; it is filled out to 32 rikishi by the 3 highest-ranked undefeated Sandanme wrestlers.
There are quite a few notable names in the 2-0 group. Surprisingly, former Ozeki Asanoyama is not one of them after Toseiryu handed him his first loss since his latest comeback started. Also out is Kawazoe, who sadly looked to be severely injured in his Day 3 loss. His heya-mate and fan favorite Enho is still in the running for the 7-0 record that would elevate him to Juryo; he is not on the Day 5 fight card, but his next opponent should be Nishinoryu. Both March Ms60TD debutants, Goshima and Fukuzaki, are still undefeated, as are two of the three May debutants, Gyotoku and Hanaoka (the third Ms60TD, Uruyama, was handed his only loss so far by Hanaoka). We also have former sekitori Takakento, Tenshoho, Daishomaru, and Yago, as well as interesting prospects such as Matsui, Anosho, Tanji, Ikarigata and Ienoshima. I’ll be back with a report on who makes in to the round of 16 in a couple of days!
Discover more from Tachiai (立合い)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Thanks for filling the brackets for us. I activated my crystal ball (my favorite before the basho was Saturofuji btw) and played out the bouts in advance. I‘m therefore now expecting Kyokukaiyu vs Goshima and Fukuzaki vs Hanaoka in the semifinals with the only non-TD and non-japanese rikishi taking the yusho. Sorry, Enho!
Administrative danger in the middle of the bracket with three consecutive matches featuring a Fujishima-beya rikishi… Also Daikosho and Daishomaru back-to-back from Oitekaze, but they’ve already been split across the two halves by the need to avoid their matchup this time, and would stay there.
At least Fukuzaki is on the other side of the bracket. There’s 3 Isegahama men in the top half, though they can’t meet until the rounds of 16 and 8, plus a bunch of other potential do-beya conflicts that I’ll pay more attention to when we’re down to 16.
Yeah, Fukuzaki was split off from Fujitoshi by the Oitekaze switcheroo as well. He could still be relevant though if both Goshima and Fujitoshi both win – those two would necessarily cause distortions, but Fukuzaki could make them worse if he’s also still in.
Fujitoshi had the good grace to bow out 😆
Ikarigata is such a pleasure to watch! So agile and determined and with a really big toolkit! I hope he makes it forward for a long time in the brackets.
He really took a lot of punishment today but fought through it!