No kyujo to report in the top two divisions. At makushita 11, Enho won his first bout of the tournament against Toseiryu. He is within range to earn promotion with a zensho-yusho. That is a tall order but a winning record will advance him closer to the regular promotion zone.
Your NHK videos are here. Click, “yes, I understand,” then find “続きを読む”. I don’t know why they make these videos so difficult to hunt for. They’re great. Today’s bonus video gives us the Meisei/Asasuiryu bout from Juryo. I’ll keep asking them to go back and post the whole division. It was awesome when they were doing that. Will we see Meisei back in Makunouchi?
Makuuchi Action
Asanoyama (1-1) defeated Hatsuyama (0-2). Asanoyama advanced steadily and cut off Hatsuyama’s escape as the former Ozeki steered the rookie to the tawara. At the edge, Hatsuyama dug in so Asanoyama pressed forward with all of his might and crushed Hatsuyama, falling off the dohyo backwards. Long term fans breathe some relief as the big man gets a win in the top division. Yoritaoshi.
Asahakuryu (2-0) defeated Oshoumi (1-1). Asahakuryu locked up Oshoumi and overpowered him. He pulled up with his right-hand overarm grip and ushered Oshoumi back over the bales. Yorikiri.
Shishi (2-0) defeated Asakoryu (0-2). Shishi enveloped Asakoryu’s arms and dragged him back to the edge. His first heave failed but with his left arm hooked under Asakoryu’s right arm, he twisted and tossed Asakoryu down. Kotenage.
Mitakeumi (1-1) defeated Ryuden (1-1). Ryuden tried to bulldoze Mitakeumi, which is not an easy feat. He was not making much progress but neither was Mitakeumi. Mitakeumi shuffled right suddenly, trying to catch Ryuden off-guard. Ryuden reacted well to his first shift but Mitakeumi forced him to stumble to the bales with a second shift. Ryuden resisted with all of his might so Mitakeumi had to press with all of his might to shove Ryuden out. Oshitaoshi.
Tomokaze (1-1) defeated Midorifuji (0-2). Tomokaze pulled backward, slapping Midorifuji down at the edge as he stepped out. Gunbai Tomokaze. Mono-ii. Video review confirmed the gyoji’s initial call as Midorifuji’s arm touched the tawara before Tomokaze stepped out. In the hanamichi, Tomokaze slipped and landed hard on his butt. Hatakikomi.
Abi (2-0) defeated Tobizaru (1-1). Abi blasted away at Tobizaru with his patented tsuppari. Tobizaru tried to find an opening but Abi shifted right and Tobizaru stumbled forward. Abi grabbed Tobizaru’s mawashi and flung him across the ring and off the dohyo. Hatakikomi.
Nishikifuji (2-0) defeated Tokihayate (1-1). Tokihayate spun Nishikifuji close to the bales with his left-hand inside grip but Nishikifuji maintained excellent footing. He used his right-hand over arm grip to drive Tokihayate backward and out. Yorikiri.
Chiyoshoma (1-1) defeated Kotoshoho (0-2). Kotoshoho lost his footing as he stepped forward. Chiyoshoma shifted right and shoved Kotoshoho forward. Kotoshoho bumbled his way out. Tsukiotoshi.
Shodai (2-0) defeated Roga (1-1). Shodai keeps his perfect winning record against Roga. Roga pulled and tried to catch Shodai off-balance. Shodai was ready for it and immediately executed his own mini-pull and slapdown. I haven’t been seeing many pivots lately with these pulls. I might need to prepare a new rant. Hikiotoshi.
Kinbozan (1-1) defeated Gonoyama (0-2). Gonoyama shoved Kinbozan to the edge and pressed hard with a right hand nodowa. With Kinbozan’s weight pressing forward to counter the nodowa, Gonoyama tried to slip to his right and slip he did, aided by Kinbozan’s left-hand overarm hold. Gonoyama fell forward and Kinbozan landed on top of him. Oof! Uwatenage.
Fujinokawa (1-1) defeated Hiradoumi (1-1). Solid tachiai from both men followed by steady tsuppari. Hiradoumi’s left foot seemed to get out ahead of him and when Fujinokawa hit him, Hiradoumi fell backward. Oshitaoshi.
Halftime
Oshoma (2-0) defeated Onokatsu (0-2). Onokatsu fired forward aimlessly and Oshoma shifted right, deflecting Onokatsu to the left and bringing a quick, unsatisfying end to the bout. We’re seeing quite a bit of poor footwork today, it seems. Tsukiotoshi.
Churanoumi (2-0) defeated Daieisho (1-1). Count on Churanoumi to get his footing right. He weathered a torrent of abuse from Daieisho. When Daieisho pulled, Churanoumi advanced and kept his footing long enough to force Daieisho over the bales. Yorikiri.
Tamawashi (1-1) defeated Atamifuji (0-2). Again, Atamifuji launched ahead. Tamawashi stepped to his right and then hit Atamifuji with a nodowa, blasting him to the edge. Under assault, Atamifuji tried to shift left but Tamawashi stuck with him and shoved him out. Oshidashi.
Sanyaku
Hakunofuji (2-0) defeated Wakamotoharu (0-2). Hakunofuji powered ahead with his left-hand inside. Wakamotoharu braced his feet at the edge and tried to slip his own left hand inside for a belt grip. Hakunofuji suddenly sidestepped to his right and pulled Wakamotoharu forward. Tsukiotoshi.
Kirishima (2-0) defeated Takanosho (0-2). Kirishima’s tsuppari was more forceful as he avoided Takanosho’s big opening nodowa, wrapped up Takanosho’s left arm and drove him back with mighty shoves. Oshidashi.
Wakatakakage (1-1) defeated Takayasu (1-1). This was a great battle of strength, patience, and timing. Takayasu pressured Wakatakakage well but couldn’t quite get a hold on Wakatakakage’s belt. Wakatakakage charged forward with Takayasu’s right arm jammed up awkwardly. As Takayasu struggled to liberate his arm and stop his backward movement, Wakatakakage pivoted and pulled Takayasu forward by his shoulder. Katasukashi.
Kotozakura (2-0) defeated Ura (0-2). Kotozakura pressed forward into Ura and threw him off the dohyo as if he was a toy. More of this, please. And against guys bigger than Ura. Oshitaoshi.
Aonishiki (2-0) defeated Yoshinofuji (0-2). Yoshinofuji plowed ahead so at the edge, Aonishiki wrapped his right arm around Yoshinofuji’s head, twisted and thrust Yoshinofuji down, while hoisting Yoshinofuji’s left leg with his own right. Gunbai Aonishiki. Mono-ii. A bit of a long one, but let’s get it right. Aonishiki’s hand touched first but Yoshinofuji’s entire body was in the air, dead. Aonishiki’s hand was down to cushion his fall, kabaite. Good call. Kubinage.
Hoshoryu (2-0) defeated Ichiyamamoto (0-2). Ichiyamamoto seemed to get the jump on this tachiai. He thrust forward into the Yokozuna. Hoshoryu resisted so Ichiyamamoto locked up Hoshoryu’s belt. Ichiyamamoto tried a pull but Hoshoryu countered. Once Hoshoryu got his double-inside grip, he pressed ahead and forced Ichiyamamoto out. Great work from the rank-and-filer, though. Yorikiri.
Onosato (2-0) defeated Oho (0-2). Oho hit Onosato hard at the tachiai, staggering the Yokozuna and forcing him back. Onosato tried a quick slapdown. Thankfully he didn’t jam his gears completely into reverse, though. Instead, he charged ahead into Oho, got under both arms and drove him back over the edge. Yorikiri.
Wrap-up
Another strong day for the guys at the top of the banzuke. Aonishiki likely scraped by but it was a deserved win. Excellent to see how he was able to adjust to Yoshinofuji’s power and quickly spring the kubinage when he was on the back foot, so to speak.
Hoshoryu and Onosato both looked very strong, though we know both are walking wounded. Ichiyamamoto threw everything he had at Hoshoryu but even with his bad knee, Hoshoryu contained him and ushered him out. I like seeing Ichiyamamoto at this level. It’s funny to see the Abi-clone ranked so far ahead of Abi. But Abi’s had his own injury problems of late. Abi will face Nishikifuji tomorrow.
Before we look at tomorrow’s sanyaku bouts, Asanoyama will meet Mitakeumi in an interesting bout of the two former Ozeki. And another former Ozeki, Shodai, will take on Oshoma.
Oho will fight Wakatakakage. Takayasu will fight Daieisho. Kirishima will fight Hakunofuji with both men undefeated. That seems like a real momentum bout…who can keep this early run going? Might one of them challenge for the leaderboard next week?
Aonishiki will get his turn against Ichiyamamoto. Kotozakura will fight Wakamotoharu. Onosato takes on Ura and Hoshoryu will end the day against Yoshinofuji. There is definitely some upset potential in those bouts.
See you tomorrow!
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I’m convinced Onokatsu concussed himself for a brief moment at the tachiai as he collapsed immediately upon his head slammed into the shoulder of Oshima,
That’s a good catch. If it’s a concussion, that might impact him in the coming days, too. In this sport I am frequently reminded of Homer and Bart crashing into each other like rams — but with pots on their heads — staggering back, laughing, and doing it again.
Oh gosh that is one of our households’ favourite Simpsons scenes!
In anycase, professional sport is rarely a healthy endeavour but geez, sumo really reminds you of it. Hope my reading of it was wrong and Onokatsu is fine.
Beautiful write-ups here, thanks Andy. Glad Aonishiki has (just about) worked out a way to defeat Yoshinofuji. Talking of Fujis, Hakunofuji looks ready to make a title charge under his new name. Loved seeing Kotozakura take your advice, too!
Seems like there’s a bunch of winter holiday ring rust in the top division based on the footwork today. Ay carumba!
Quite a few rikishi are looking spry after dealing with injuries and/or not looking great: Shodai, Takayasu, Wakatakakage, Hakunofuji, etc. It’s good to see.
I think the reason Ichiyamamoto is higher on the banzuke is because his tsuppari didn’t serve him as well as Abi’s did. He found out that he needed to learn more by losing, so he started improving his belt skills. Abi’s tsuppari was so good for so long that he just focused on that instead of rounding out his skills. It’s highly possible that’s why Abi has relied on henkas so much in comparison to Ichiyamamoto. He doesn’t have other tools in his toolbox he can rely on to win him matches. Maybe we’ll see more of that from him now?
I realized I was holding my breath during each of the Yokozuna bouts today. I really hope one or both of them don’t have to pull out because they’ve made their injuries worse.
In the lower divisions, Nabatame had his first match back and was immediately in form, blowing Gonowaka back like a freight train.
Hoshoryu had me nearly screaming when he tried to brace on his bad knee to lift Ichiyamamoto. If he gets through day 8 and goes kyujo to get knee surgery scheduled I will be so relieved.
The NHK video thing really is hard to navigate, for sure. So, thanks much for posting the direct link. One of the problems in searching through the website for those videos is that you frequently stumble onto the place where they list their current records (after the current day’s bouts) and so you can see who won or lost on the videos you’re looking for… Luckily I’ve learned to avert my eyes immediately once I see a record that has to include the day’s bouts. (but with your link I can avoid that spoiler danger!)
Hope they don’t beat Enho about the head, neck, and shoulders to make him change his shikona to Enhofuji if and when he advances to juryo.
He’s an OG recruit from the pre-Hakuho Miyagino beya so hopefully he gets a pass.
I think another part of it is a lot of these guys have already spent more time at Isegahama than Miyagino, Enho is very unlikely to reach that point. Enho will end up a Miyagino wrestler that ended his career at Isegahama, the younger guys are really Isegahama wrestlers that were first recruited by Miyagino.
They’ll want him to change it to Enfuego, if he goes 7-0.
“Aonishiki’s hand touched first but Yoshinofuji’s entire body was in the air, dead.”
Hope I’m not alone in thinking these sort of rules are a bit vague. Are they consistently applied? “Dead” to me means there was no way the rikishi could remain upright and/or within bounds. That was true for Aonishiki here as well. I’m certain the judges are better at this stuff than I am but I’m a lot more comfortable with calls based solely on a sequence of events.
They’re pretty good at it but some head scratchers do arise. I think they did the right thing last night. Whose move determined the outcome? I think that’s Aonishiki, in the dohyo, with a kubinage. That sent Yoshinofuji into the air, helpless — dead. Aonishiki essentially won when Yoshinofuji left the dohyo, before he touched with his hand. Also, his hand touched to protect himself from harm, so-called “kabaite.”
I prefer sequence here. Part of winning a 100m sprint is to not fall over, no matter how far ahead you may be. I think the same logic should apply in sumo.
The call made sense to me, but I don’t think they help themselves with the explanations.
If Aonishiki had already won at the point Yoshinofuji became airborne, whether he put his hand down to cushion his fall is neither here nor there.
Some great bouts today, Hakunofuji looking really strong (metaphorically and physically), although it’s hard to see past Aonishiki.