As usual, I will start with kyujo news. Takerufuji and Tobizaru will be kyujo today. Fujinokawa and Churanoumi will get the fusen wins. With a number of fewer bouts and a slower pace of action, I will have more time to write. So, you can expect fewer typos, some longer descriptions, random rants and musings in today’s coverage.
But the best part is, Takerufuji will finally get some rest and will be able to properly address that bicep injury. Tobizaru does not go kyujo often but he seems to be a bit smarter about it than what we’ve seen from Isegahama in the past.
To recap our yusho race, Kotoshoho and Aonishiki lead with two losses. Onosato, Ichiyamamoto, Atamifuji and Kusano are chasing with three. The bouts for today were decided after I wrote my highlights. The bout makers decided Kotoshoho will fight Onosato and Aonishiki will fight Ichiyamamoto. Kotozakura will fight Atamifuji and Kusano will fight Kirishima.
For the rest of our sanyaku pairings, we will have Wakatakakage fight Ura, Oshoma take on Meisei, and Tamawashi fight Takayasu.
In Juryo, Daiseizan threw Tochitaikai over the bales and Mita overpowered Shiden to improve to 10-3. Daiseizan and Mita lead that yusho race with Kotokuzan and Shonannoumi chasing. Nishikigi and Ryuden have 7 wins each from the top rung of the Juryo ladder.
Your NHK videos are here: Juryo, Makuuchi Part I and Part II.
Top Division Action
Shishi (5-8) defeated Tamashoho (5-8). Tamashoho henka but Shishi was moving slow enough to catch it and resist the subsequent slapdown attempt. Tamashoho’s usual impotent tsuppari did not phase Shishi as the Ukrainian advanced, wrapped up Tamashoho’s belt and forced him from the dohyo. Yorikiri.
Asakoryu (5-8) defeated Kotoeiho (4-9). Asakoryu charged into Kotoeiho, driving him to the edge but Kotoeiho used the leverage from the bales to resist. So, Asakoryu reared back and tried a slapdown but Kotoeiho’s balance was solid. Asakoryu then tried an armbar/kotenage but that didn’t work, spun around and got another grip of Kotoeiho’s belt. Finally pulled Kotoeiho down with his underarm throw. Kotoeiho’s lesson here should be that effective resistance must be accompanied by some sort of offense, otherwise, you’re just hoping the other guy finds a way to lose and delaying your own defeat. Shitatenage.
Tokihayate (6-7) defeated Kayo (2-11). Kayo reversed his way to the edge and Tokihayate helped push him out. If it were possible to demote someone mid-tournament, I would nominate Kayo to be the first. Remember what I was saying about effective resistance? Well, it’s occasionally always helpful to show SOME SORT OF RESISTANCE. Kayo has even proven that with his two wins. He is capable of aggression and he needs to bring that if he wants to stay in the division. In all of these losses, he’s backing away so fast that he is basically hoping his opponent gets tripped by a stray zabuton or grain of salt. Oshidashi.
Mitakeumi (9-4) defeated Roga (7-6). Mitakeumi nearly caught Roga early with a change of direction but Roga adjusted and drove forward into the former Ozeki. Mitakeumi got a hold of Roga’s belt, pivoted and pulled Roga down with a beautiful overarm throw with that left hand. Uwatenage.
Shodai (8-5) defeated Chiyoshoma (1-12). Shodai just overpowered Chiyoshoma, wrapped him up and drove him out. Oshidashi.
Sadanoumi defeated Hidenoumi (1-10-2). Hidenoumi offered token resistance as Sadanoumi wrapped him up and ushered him out. Yorikiri.
Churanoumi (8-5) default win versus Tobizaru (3-10).
Gonoyama (8-5) defeated Midorifuji (8-5). Gonoyama chased Midorifuji and roughly shoved him to the ground. Tsukiotoshi.
Fujinokawa (8-5) default win versus Takerufuji (5-8). Fujinokawa, in his top division debut, will remain in the top division for September.
Hiradoumi (7-6) defeated Onokatsu (5-8). Hiradoumi hit Onokatsu with a solid tachiai but followed up by shifting left and slapping Onokatsu down. Hatakikomi.
Halftime
Abi (8-5) defeated Takanosho (8-5). Abi resisted Takanosho’s early charge but withheld his usual volleys of tsuppari. With the bales at his heels, Abi finally launched out with a forceful nodowa and then quickly yanked Takanosho down. I think we are seeing Abi adapt his sumo style to avoid some of the repetitive pounding of his elbows. He doesn’t seem to launch out with guns blazing very often anymore. Hikiotoshi.
Oho (5-8) defeated Kinbozan (3-10). Oho moved forward and forced Kinbozan out. Kinbozan was halfway out before he tried a slapdown. Oshidashi.
Wakamotoharu (5-8) defeated Hakuoho (7-6). Hakuoho lacked some of his forward power, I think because of that ankle. He held on to Wakamotoharu and tried to throw him as he backed around the ring. Wakamotoharu cornered him and walked him over the edge. Remember what I said about Isegahama folks powering through injuries? Yeah. Yorikiri.
Aonishiki (11-2) defeated Ichiyamamoto (9-4). Aonishiki patiently absorbed Ichiyamamoto’s usual thrusting attack, stayed low and pressed his way inside. He wrapped up Ichiyamamoto with his left arm and used his right to shove Ichiyamamoto back. Yorikiri.
Sanyaku
Tamawashi (9-4) defeated Takayasu (8-5). Tamawashi blasted Takayasu and overpowered him, driving him back with an effective right arm nodowa which simultaneously seemed to function as ottsuke, blocking Takayasu’s left arm from reaching in. Oshidashi.
Oshoma (3-10) defeated Meisei (3-10). After a brawl, Oshoma pulled and slapped Meisei down. Oh, no, Meisei might have pulled a hammy. He reached back immediately after falling forward and could barely walk back up the hanamichi. Maybe he can “walk it off,” though, as he seemed to wave off the big wheelchair. Hatakikomi.
Wakatakakage (9-4) defeated Ura (8-5). Wakatakakage attacked Ura and yanked him toward the tawara. Watch this space for news of Ura’s left knee. As he resisted Wakatakakage’s nodowa, he seemed to hyper-extend it and immediately moved laterally and rolled down. He then had difficulty getting back up onto the dohyo. Ura will rub some keiko on that knee in the morning and be fine. Oshitaoshi.
Kusano (10-3) defeated Kirishima (8-5). What a beautiful move by Kusano! He is not intimidated by these high-rankers at all. After a flurry of tsuppari, the two wrapped each other up with a right hand inside. As Kusano lifted up and drove forward, Kirishima pivoted on his left and started to rotate, initiating an uwatenage. At that instant, Kusano wrapped his right leg around Kirishima’s left and the Sekiwake crumpled. OMG. That was nice. The rotation meant Kirishima’s left leg would be in range for the trip. This is the kid’s first tournament in the top division but that insight came from experience. Sotogake.
Atamifuiji (10-3) defeated Kotozakura (7-6). Atamifuji just muscled the Ozeki over the bales with a left hand over arm grip and his right arm in Kotozakura’s armpit. Yorikiri.
Kotoshoho (11-2) defeated Onosato (9-3). The good news: Onosato did not go backward today. He hit Kotoshoho square at the tachiai and moved forward. Kotoshoho grabbed Onosato’s belt with a left hand over arm grip, pulled and dragged the Yokozuna to the edge before dropping him over the bales and out of the yusho race. Alright, Nikkan Sports, where is your Densetsu now? Oh, that’s right, he’s in the lap of some geezer in the front row, again. Kinboshi #4. Uwatenage.
Wrap-up
Well, this debut tournament for Yokozuna Onosato has gone completely sideways. Maybe he will eventually live up to the hype and maybe he needed a bit of a humbling. Remember, he still has yet to have a losing record. He has nine wins while Kotozakura is still searching for kachi-koshi. But when the hype is this great, a 9-4 start and four defeats to rank-and-filers does not make for the birth of a legend as anticipated…unless the legend was someone else.
It has become a breakout moment for Aonishiki, Kusano, and checks notes…Kotoshoho?!?! Where did he come from? He has not exactly had a stellar year. He may have been a bit sheepish after his slick little win against Takayasu yesterday but he went right at the Yokozuna today. Maybe the sharks smell blood?
Tomorrow’s bout list is still not out. Again, I will try to update later this evening. We’ll see. I’ve eaten too much of the kids’ cereal this morning so I’ve got a bit of a sugar high. I might be able to check back in a bit.
As we turn Andy’s attention back to the present, we have four maegashira at the top of the leaderboard. Aonishiki and Kotoshoho lead and might face each other tomorrow. Atamifuji and Kusano are just behind with three losses. If they pair off Aonishiki and Kotoshoho, we will have at least a 12-win yusho and all of the sanyaku veterans are completely out of the race with two days remaining.
***Breaking News***
They just published the bout list, right after I published my post. Aonishiki will fight Kusano and Kotoshoho will fight Kirishima. Atamifuji will take on Takayasu.
For our sanyaku bouts, Onosato will battle Wakatakakage, Kotozakura will fight Hiradoumi as both men seek kachi-koshi. Oshoma will fight Sadanoumi as both men are having a terrible tournament with 3-10 records, so far.
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What a day! Interesting match ups tomorrow. Kusano is great, but he could be winning a yusho facing only 2 sekiwake among the top rankers. Not great. Similar stuff with Atamifuji. At least Kotoshoho earned his kinboshi. At this point I’m hoping that Aonishiki goes all the way.
Completely agree.
I agree about hoping Aonishiki wins, but I don’t care how many high rankers a winner has fought. The Makuuichi championship has to be the strangest structure in all of sports, For 10 days it’s three separate round-robins based on ranking. On day 11. it switches to s free-form elimination contest in which players with the best scores are matched against each other. Ideally, high scoring lower rankers are matched against high scoring high-rankers, But if the high-rankers are not high scoring, that isn’t going to work. Criticize the poor performing high rankers, not the high performing lower rankers. Do you really think Kusano’s performance is diminished because he didn’t face a scrambling to avoid kadoban ozeki and two kinboshi dispensing Yokozuna?
I think the issue is that it’s not supposed to switch on Day 11. Your sanyaku wrestlers are supposed to be great champions where facing them head-to-head is not a coin flip and they are expected to be the yusho race. What you are saying is exactly the issue. The sanyaku are underperforming. Regardless, this is why people discount Abi’s yusho, for example. It points at weakness of the division and thus a weak yusho. And the issue isn’t Aonishiki in the race, it’s guys like Kusano.
I think we have to ask ourselves why Makuuichi is structured this way. Juryo is pretty close to a single round robin. Makushita is a straightforward elimination contest. Why is it only Makuuichi that allows this possibility? I’ve thought about it for a while and come to the conclusion that it was intentional. I think it ties in with kinboshi too. Maegashire aren’t supposed to beat the Great Men of sumo, but they do, and are recognized for it. Low ranking maegashira aren’t supposed to win the yusho. But the structure of the contest seems to give them a boost towards doing that, by fattening up their totals against other low rankers.
If this wasn’t desired, it could be prevented by changing the structiure to make it similar to Juryo,which is essentially a round robin with extra rikishi to allow for absences, impermissible matchups and divisional exchanges.
In other words, I see an intentional mechanism to allow for disruption in the later shages of a basho, a deiberate sabotage of the orderly world of the banzuke. I like it.
I never ask about the structure of the competition. It is what it is. I presume they wanted the champion to fight the best of the best. If it was different, it wouldn’t be Grand Sumo. If the structure gave lower Maegashira a boost, we would have seen many in the past. We don’t. It’s a weird era of parity, which is interesting.
I agree the structure is what it is, and I’m happy with that. But I can’t ignore that it’s very unusual, and I think, very Japanese. Somehow, I think of the deliberate imperfection in a tea bowl.
I would not prefer an alternative. I like the idea that the best fight the best. It would be like the Tom Brady Patriots playing only against Playoff teams and not playing the Browns or Jets. Why are good teams forced to play teams which aren’t on their level? It’s worse in college football where good teams seek out terrible teams so they can run up the score.
I just want to point out that it has not been this imperfect for decades. Looking at bouts between Yokozuna and rikishi at M15 and below:
https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query_bout.aspx?show_form=0&rank1=Y&rank2=M15,M16,M17,M18
If we expand it to M11 and below, we get more freqency but relative dominance by the Yokozuna and often huge gaps of many years between cases. Also, the low-ranked rikishi are often big names. It’s just that I think the structure worked for decades but we have been in a recent spell of parity which is unprecedented in its duration.
https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query_bout.aspx?show_form=0&rank1=Y&rank2=M11,M12,M13,M14,M15,M16,M17,M18
Yes, I do. At least when we‘re talking yusho.
He‘s had a great basho, but because of his low rank he didn’t have the possibility to earn a legitimate place in the yusho race.
I wish there would be a non-joi yusho like that in juryo.
Then I could really enjoy the great finale with Kotoshoho, Ichiyamamoto and Kusano!
What a tournament! It’s got us (me anyway) counting the hours until the boys file back in. Last Yusho, it took a Yokozuna to beat Onosato. This time he’s a Yokozuna himself and the qualifications to beat him seem to be knowing how to shiko at some level of competence.
All the former ozeki are kachikoshi; may the current ozeki join them!
I’m still hopeful Kirishima and Wakatakakage get 10.
Wow, that‘s true! Even Shodai, Mitakeumi and Asanoyama are definitively over the 50% mark.
Well, I could split hairs and mention that Hoshoryu is a former ozeki, too, but I won’t rub salt into that wound…
Lol I knew someone was going to mention Hoshoryu, but yokozuna don’t count, to me.
I hadn’t thought of Asanoyama either, so there you go: the whole moto-ozeki corps looking good.
As fierce as the competition has been for the yusho, I think the one for the Juryo barge captain has been better. Kayo is really giving it his all
Just imagine the things sumo elders are shouting at their televisions when Kayo does his full on retreats.
Any chance at all for Wakatakakage ozeki with two more wins?
I would say no but all bets are off if Kotozakura goes 7-8. Hoshoryu felled by a toe, Onosato felled by…a whole host of Maegashira… it’s an interesting question but I am thinking no.
Not without the yusho, I‘d say, and that would even with two wins be very unlikely.
I noticed today that Aonishiki is staying in a freestyle wrestling stance when he moves around his opponent. This allows him to stay low, but unlike Ura for example, remain upright with more options to attack. The other rikishi don’t know how to counter this style because they’ve never dealt with it before so it provides a large advantage on the dohyo.
I expected the banzuke to be “upended” to a degree, but my goodness this is a wild basho! Kudos to Kotoshoho for stepping up and grabbing his opportunity! I figured Kirishima was in trouble once Kusano grabbed his belt and I was unfortunately correct. Being in that situation against bigger opponents causes him trouble just like Ichiyamamoto. I do think they’ll both improve, though.
I’m guessing we’re not going to hear any news about Endo and his plans until after the basho, but I’m wondering if he’s going to go intai at this point. It’s a coinflip from where I’m sitting and I don’t know how much the chaos of this basho will influence his decision.
Onosato had a meteoric rise, but he does take a basho or two to adjust to a new rank, getting 9-6 his first as sekiwake, 9-6 in his first as ozeki, and whatever he’ll get this time. His future is undeniably bright, but he’s not a veteran like Terunofuji was when he got his rope and won two straight after getting the rank. Onosato’s ceiling is higher but it will take a little time.
Regardless of the yusho race, I would say a Technique Prize (his first) would have to be in the works for Aonishiki, right?
I think so too
Kotoshoho had a stellar performance in Jan 2023 where he ended up with a jun-yusho losing to Takakeisho on day 15, but he has been pretty bland ever since due to a bunch of injuries.
Kusano’s win was pretty exceptional, and the guy shows a lot of promise (he was just insanely dominant in his two tournaments in Juryo) but it was disappointing to see Kirishima lose his chance for 11 wins to make a November re-promotion easier to achieve.
Aonishiki and Kotoshoho will definitely face off on Sunday. The question will be if they are still tied for the lead with just each other, one is sole leader, or if they are in a 3+ way tie with Kusano and/or Atamifuji.
Regardless, there have been some good bouts this tournament and it does seem like the crowds are finally starting to get their zabuton tossing mojo back with all the practice they have gotten this tournament.
There has been a lot of purple flying around. I do like it. I will have to go back to Hatsu 2023 to see Kotoshoho’s great tournament. I don’t recall it.
I remember it pretty vividly because it was the first time I had been to see sumo live in Japan. :)
You got to see flying purple in person?!?! Lucky!!! Did you throw?
Not at that particular tournament. Terunofuji pulled out of every tournament I went to that he was on the banzuke before the day I had tickets. I even thought I was finally going to get a chance to see a Yokozuna dohyo-iri last September when I went on Day 2 (to see Tamawashi tie the ironman record) and he pulled out of the tournament like 4 days prior to the start.
I did get to see a few zabuton flying when we went to Day 4 in May and Abi beat Hoshoryu. But there weren’t very many, the crowds were out of practice I think. If we had a box I definitely would have entertained the idea of pitching the zabuton, but alas I wasn’t able to secure box seats.
3-4
So in this single tournament we have seen the oldest (Tamawashi) Kinboshi and the lowest rank (Kotoshoho) kinboshi.
Perhaps we will soon see a new rule that require Yokozuna to fund the lifetime Kinboshi payments…
Finally, I still think the Koto guys are disadvantaged by their common hairstyle. It’s too … well, it’s too whatever and they something stronger to propel them forward.
Great basho + great narration .. Thanks, Andy .. Hakuho may be injured .. but it looked like his short arms limited him v WMH .. WMH had two hands on the belt + Hakuho could not stretch out + grab some silk .. Lets hope Kayo is injured .. i’d hate to think this is the best he can do .. He was a fun new addition to Makuuchi last basho .. a greased bowling ball .. I replayed Aonishiki’s bout in slo-mo to see what he was doing w his hands .. Ichiyamamoto launched his normal volley’s of tsuppari .. Aonisihiki kept his arms inside + repeatedly swept his hands up + deflected the thrusts .. a tango .. til Ichiyamamote leaned too far foraward + Anoshiki his grabbed belt .. His leg work + core strength are keys, but those fast hands are also threats ..
It looks like Onosato is getting lazy with his foot/leg work .. that is a key to his success .. He is too upright + walking into trouble .. Kotoshoho has a 3-2 record v Onosato .. Previously, he looked to me like he would start matches well then lose focus .. Maybe it was injuries .. Now he looks confident, healthy and focussed .. Perhaps part of the problem upper ranked rikishi have is an infusion of good young talent + maturation of young ones trying to figure it out .