
Three rounds of bouts have been completed, leaving us with 14 undefeated rikishi. The next round will play out on day 7. Here are the matchups:

The top-ranked undefeated wrestlers, Ms2e Ishizaki and Ms3e Asahakuryu, both hail from Takasago beya and can’t meet outside of a playoff, so they’ve been given the next available undefeated opponents by rank. Both are good enough to keep winning, so we could yet see a title decider between the pair. The other 12 contenders represent 12 different heya (who knew there were so many?).
Other wrestlers to keep an eye on are Isegahama prospect Seihakuho, May Ms60TD debutant Gyotoku, and former maegashira Shimazuumi and Yago, who are on track to meet in the quarterfinals. And we have a bro battle: Fujinokawa’s sibling, Ikarigata, takes on Naya, who is actually the older brother of Oho and Mudoho.
Both Enho and Asanoyama won their third-round bouts, so both are 2-1. Tomorrow, Asanoyama fights Kitanowaka—another ex-Makuuchi man on the comeback trail from injury. Enho takes on Narutaki, who just exited the yusho bracket at the hands of Seihakuho. Come back tomorrow to see how everything plays out.
Discover more from Tachiai (立合い)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The main surprise for me is that not only Asanoyama, but also both Fujishima youngsters, Fukuzaki and especially Goshima are missing in the sweet fourteen.
Yeah, Fukuzaki lost to Tenshoho, who was (briefly) a sekitori, and Goshima lost to Kamito, who is no joke when he is on. It’s tough to go undefeated.
And also rather surprising is how badly the commanding Ms yusho winner of last basho, Otsuji performs in juryo: 1 to 5!
He was 5-10 in juryo before that, so maybe he’s one of those “elevator” guys…