Leader (8-1): M8w Ichiyamamoto.
Chasers (7-2): Y1w Onosato, S1w Kirishima, M1e Aonishiki, M4w Tamawashi, M14e Kusano, M15e Kotoshoho, M16w Mitakeumi.
There is also a five-man group of 6-3 rikishi, headed by K1w Takayasu. Given who the leader is, this quintet is certainly not out of the yusho race.
Raise your hand if you had Ichiyamamoto as the sole leader on Day 9, with the only kachi-koshi in the top division, as well as 3 rikishi ranked M14 or lower on the leaderboard. The leader pulled down Gonoyama and will face struggling M5w Meisei (3-6) tomorrow. Meisei does lead the head-to-head 3-0. I expect the caliber of Ichiyamamoto’s opposition to escalate substantially starting on Day 11.
Onosato got his favorite right-hand grip and bulldozed out Takayasu with only token resistance to stay one win off the lead. Kirishima fell victim to a second-straight upset by Hakuoho and dropped into the chase pack. Aonishiki surprised yet another opponent, Wakamotoharu, with a quick twist-down. It’s interesting that most of Aonishiki’s wins in the lower divisions came via straightforward oshidashi or yorikiri, but as the level and size of his opposition has increased, he’s been able to reach into a deep bag of tricks. Tamawashi allowed Onokatsu to get on the belt, which spelled trouble for the veteran. Kusano had no answer for Takanosho’s pushing attack. Kotoshoho extended his best start in years with a yorikiri win over Sadanoumi, and Mitakeumi rebounded from consecutive losses to power out Midorifuji.
The headline bout tomorrow pits Tamawashi against Onosato, who has not lost to the veteran in 3 tries. Tamawashi would love to add to his career total of 7 kinboshi. Kirishima fights Hiradoumi, Aonishiki will face his nemesis Kinbozan, Kusano will try to figure out Ura, Kotoshoho is matched with Churanoumi, and Mitakeumi takes on Juryo visitor Shonannoumi. It’ll be interesting to see what the schedulers cook up for the final stretch of the basho.
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Kusano vs ura will be interesting
Gonoyama might be struggling, but I have a feeling that he is a Sanyaku level rikishi
Looking at Sanyaku status, looks like there will be at least one komusubi slot for Aonishiki. Yet another rikishi, reaching Sanyaku in less than 5 bashos.
He should’ve been komusubi this basho, of course, which he is amply demonstrating to the banzuke committee!
I hope it won’t affect his ozeki run!
But as U maybe remember, I‘d have put Takayasu to K1w, too. The idea being that if there is nobody forcing the promotion, there is no demotion. (Aonishiki was mathematically only M2.) Were we talking about the makuuchi/juryo border that would exactly be your argumentation. Maybe that’s now also the rule for sanyaku/maegashira?
It’s never been that way before, 6 wins at komusubi and even sekiwake has always been a guaranteed demotion to maegashira, and we’re talking 190 instances since 1958, so not a small sample size. In a number of cases, the demotion happened when a replacement candidate had even less of a case than Aonishiki. Not sure why they did something different this time, but my argument was based on a lot of precedent.
Yes, of course, but isn’t there a recent trend to favor the higher divisions?
Take sanyaku as a (sub-)division and the Takayasu decision gets a bit more coherent though it’s undeniably breaking with tradition.
Yes, the current banzuke committee has certainly been doing things differently for the past year or so.
Of course I wouldn’t have predicted the 8-1 of Ichiamamoto, but in hindsight it isn’t really THAT surprising, because his highest ranked opponent has been M5 Hiradoumi (and he lost that bout). But I hadn’t expected all three other leaders to lose, especially Kirishima. Wow, Hakuoho! Maybe he has sanyaku or even ozeki potential after all?
Hakuoho might get there and that would be great to see.
Looks like we already had at least 10 kinboshi this year. I was trying to search sumodb to find the most number of kinboshi awarded in one year, but I couldn’t find a way the formulate the query for this. Does anyone know what is the most kinboshis in one year?
I count 11 so far this year. I don’t know the record, but 2017 had 30!
There were 4 Yokozuna in 2017, weren’t there? Seems like that would give more opportunities for getting one.
The ratio of kinboshis to the total number of opportunities to get kinboshi i.e. the number of Yokozuna vs. Maegashira matches is the thing one should really consider if one wants to make comparisons between different bashos.
Right, when the sanyaku went deeper, there were fewer maegashira in the joi who got opportunities. But those comparisons probably require analysis beyond what’s possible with just sumodb queries…
Kirishima looked to let off the gas and Hakuoho took the initiative .. hope he rebounds .. Ichiyamamoto is growing more versatile than just a Abi Jr in his style ..his slap down today was impeccably timed .. I expect higher ranked rikishi will be a problem ., I kept watching Aonishiki WMH replays to see when he got the left hand on the belt .. it must have happened fast ., Kinbozan will be a great test of his ability to learn vs troublesome styles ., expect Kinbozan to try to blast him upright at the tachiai ., Kusano got rocked by Takanosho ., he withstood shots from lower ranked rikishi well ., obviously it gets tougher as they move up the banzuke ., Takayasu also was rocked off his front foot at the tachai .. Kotoshoho may qualify for most improved rikishi .. if Onosato loses again it’ll be cuz somebody got him moving in circles ., he’s a freight train head on .. get off the tracks .,
U‘re right, Kinbozan is a great test for Aonishiki. But even if the Ukrainian reaches a first win against the Kazakh there will still be some dangerous opponents waiting for him: Abi, Onokatsu, Hakuoho, Tamawashi, Takerufuji, Ichiyamamoto and Kusano spring to mind.
I have enjoyed watching Ichiyamamoto develop. He hits a wall but comes back with more and more confidence on the belt.
Aonishiki is showing an excellent variety of kimarite. Is such a talent based on his stablemaster’s teaching and experience? Or his own drive to expand his abilities to counter an opponent’s moves?
Great question.
His freestyle wrestling background also plays into it; he just seems to be an extremely gifted grappler.
“It’s interesting that most of Aonishiki’s wins in the lower divisions came via straightforward oshidashi or yorikiri, but as the level and size of his opposition has increased, he’s been able to reach into a deep bag of tricks.”
I remember when we admired Hoshoryu for the same trait. I hope Aonishiki keeps it up!
Ichiyamamoto was so cute in his interview! These glances to the camara :)
I liked the interview a lot, too. He was so lively.
I expect very few people have “Ichyamamoto Yusho” on their sumo bingo card! Good for him!
There is definitely going to be a lot of tussling for rank in San’yaku from now on. Hakuoho seems to have regained confidence (less distractions off the dohyo now, perhaps?), Aonishiki continues to be a revelation, and Kusano continues to move up.
Looks like Aonishiki’s yotz makes every opponents shaking. No wonder after how he handled yots masters so handily. Kirishima gave so many slaps (harite) on his face just to keep him from grap him. Never seen Kirishima refusing yots match. Oho? he tried to block Ao’s grap so hard, he forgot to push the opponent’s body and got swept away.
I cannot wait to see him dealing with Kinbozan power.
This basho just reinforces what we’ve all seen over the last three years, which is these are some of the weakest ozeki ever. Kotozakura looks adrift and unfocused now that the yusho race is out of reach… where is his fighting spirit? It’s quite startling to see Ichiyamamoto, of all rikishi, adjust his sumo to be better on the mawashi while Kotozakura tries nothing new to address his own sumo.
Well, the numbers tell something different: of all the 69 ozeki who have had their debut since 1957, Hoshoryu is in the first half, Kotozakura in the second third, and even Kirishima left more than a dozen rikishi behind.
I forgot to mention that I compared the first eight basho of these rikishi. That’s because Kotozakura is only in his 9th tournament in the rank. And here’s the query:
http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query.aspx?show_form=0&columns=8&n_basho=1&show_total=on&form1_rank=O&form1_year=%3E1956&form1_debutr=on&sort_by=sum_total
I have a question about the Hakuoho and Kirishima bout. It sure looked to me like Hakuoho’s foot turned over at about the same time as both of Kirishima’s feet went in the air. I was expecting a rematch. Was Kirishima a Deadman before Hakuoho foot turned over?
The foot turning over rarely gets called…