Day 11 in Tokyo. No new kyujo to report. However, due to a record number of kensho banners, Sasaki Ichiro reports that the text size for the sheet listing the bouts used the smallest text ever for one of these sheets. This had to be scaled to 65% for the sponsor list and 80% for the actual bouts.
In Juryo, Kazekeno took on Enho head-to-head. With the push down victory, Kazekeno improved to 10-1 and now has a two-win lead over Kazuma, who lost to Onokatsu. As Leonid mentioned in his Day 9 post, they pitted Asahifuji against tsukedashi Omori; Asahifuji won. Enho will fight Hatsuyama tomorrow as he still seeks that all important kachi-koshi to seal his status as sekitori for Nagoya.
Makuuchi Action
Mitakeumi (6-5) defeated Hatsuyama (3-8). After a failed slapdown attempt, Mitakeumi overpowered Hatsuyama and drove him back over the bales. Oshidashi.
Oshoumi (3-8) defeated Shishi (3-8). Shishi hauled Oshoumi around using his right arm tucked under Oshoumi’s left. Oshoumi resisted at the bales and grabbed Shishi in a bear hug. He held Shishi high and drove him back through the ring and over the edge. Yorikiri.
Tamawashi (2-9) defeated Kinbozan. Both men took turns charging forward behind their tsuppari and nodowa. Tamawashi shifted his weight to the side and thrust Kinbozan down. With the win, Tamawashi is now tied with Kisenosato for 7th on the all-time top division wins list on 714 Makuuchi wins. Tsukiotoshi.
Ura (8-3) defeated Wakanosho (6-5). Ura resisted at the bales and used the leverage to grab Wakanosho in a bear hug. He then rotated and pulled Wakanosho down by his shoulder. Katasukashi.
Hakanofuji (8-3) defeated Fujiryoga (8-3). Hakanofuji grabbed Fujiryoga inder the right shoulder with his left arm. Once he secured an overarm belt grip with his right hand, he rotated and dragged Fujiryoga down. Uwatenage.
Tobizaru (9-2) defeated Asanoyama (7-4). Asanoyama drove forward with his right hand inside. At the bales, Tobizaru spun, slipped his grasp and pulled him down. Hikiotoshi.
Ryuden (4-7) defeated Nishikifuji (3-8). Ryuden used his right hand uwate to turn Nishikifuji around and then chased him out from behind. Nishikifuji locks in his make-koshi while Ryuden staves it off. Okuridashi.
Roga (6-5) defeated Abi (4-7). Roga quickly forced his way forward, immediately getting inside any of Abi’s tsuppari. Roga drove him all the way back over the edge. Yorikiri.
Tokihayate (4-7) defeated Asahakuryu (3-8). In an excellent and exciting grapple, Tokihayate used his right hand inside to pull Asahakuryu around the ring. Once he got his left hand inside, too, he was able to rotate and topple Asahakuryu to the ground. Shitatenage.
Kotoeiho defeated Oshoma. Both men dragged each other to the bales and teetered over the edge. Kotoeiho seemed to push Oshoma forward as he was falling out backwards. Gunbai Kotoeiho. Mono-ii. Video review confirmed Motoki’s call that Oshoma fell out just before Kotoeiho. We saw that Kotoeiho’s foot had not stepped out prior to the throw but rested on the bales. Okurinage.
Halftime
Wakamotoharu (3-8) defeated Chiyoshoma (4-7). Chiyoshoma pulled so Wakamotoharu drove forward through him and shoved him backward, out of the ring. Oshitaoshi.
Ichiyamamoto (5-6) defeated Gonoyama (8-3). Ichiyamamoto caught Gonoyama too far forward, shifted right and slapped Gonoyama down. Hikiotoshi.
Yoshinofuji (8-3) defeated Hiradoumi (4-7). Yoshinofuji really wanted his left hand overarm grip but Hiradoumi continued to deny access. Yoshinofuji had to rely on his right hand inside to haul Hiradoumi over onto his head. Ouch! Shitatenage.
Daieisho (5-6) defeated Takanosho (4-7). Daieisho quickly thrust Takanosho back and over the bales. Oshidashi.
Oho (5-6) defeated Fujinokawa (5-6). Oho offered no quarter today as he hugged Fujinokawa and charged forward, crushing Fujinokawa out at the edge. Yoritaoshi.
Sanyaku
Kotoshoho (7-4) defeated Fujiseiun (5-6). Kotoshoho used angles to beat Fujiseiun. He deflected Fujiseiun’s tachiai to the left and then attacked from the right to knock him down. Oshitaoshi.
Churanoumi (7-4) defeated Atamifuji (5-6). Churanoumi used his left-hand belt grip to pivot and haul Atamifuji to the edge. He then followed up by pressing forward to force Atamifuji to step back and out. Yorikiri.
Kirishima (9-2) defeated Wakatakakage (8-3). Kirishima’s morozashi won this bout. Wakatakakage kept trying to improve his own grip, never quite getting a great hold and never sneaking his arms inside. Kirishima pulled up and steadily pressed forward. Yorikiri.
I love seeing women with inflatable daikon radishes in the stands. I mean, step back for a second and appreciate the absolute WTF-ness of this sport.
Shodai (5-6) defeated Kotozakura (3-8). Was there ever any doubt? The Kyokai required a small army of yobidashi to display all of the kenho banners on this bout. In the end, Daikon-Power dominated as Shodai pulled Kotozakura forward from the bales, snuck around back as the Ozeki stumbled forward, and shoved Kotozakura out from behind. Okuridashi.
Wrap-Up
Our yusho race is still a bit of a cluster.
- 2-Losses: Kirishima, Kotoeiho, Tobizaru
- 3-Losses: Wakatakakage, Yoshinofuji, Gonoyama, Hakunofuji, Ura, Fujiryoga
Kotozakura is officially kadoban. Will he drop out of the tournament? I doubt it. There must be a bit of pressure to keep two Ozeki in the basho in order to close things out with some sort of High-Ranker Showdown on senshuraku.
As we turn to look at the schedule remaining, Kirishima will face Kotoshoho tomorrow. That leaves Atamifuji and Kotozakura as his only sanyaku competition remaining. Kotozakura kyujo would bring yet another rank-and-filer into play.
Kotozakura will fight Churanoumi tomorrow. Atamifuji will fight Fujiseiun and Wakatakakage will take on Gonoyama.
Down in the rank-and-file, Yoshinofuji will fight Tobizaru. They want to put the kibosh on the Monkey’s run soon. Hakunofuji will fight Oho. Kotoeiho will battle Asanoyama who fell out of the running today but is still seeking his kachi-koshi. And Ura will fight Fujiryoga.
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OMG, the daikons were so awesome! Incomparably so, given they made their august appearances specifically for The Wall of Daikon (Shodai) and The Slender Daikon (Tokihayate). They even talked about it in Shodai’s interview!?! Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better..
Amazing match! Wakatakakage is my favorite, but that was stellar from Kirishima. WKT has been getting people all basho with that inside left, and Kiri clearly did his homework. He really had to work to execute it though as WKT was fighting for that grip.
I see 4 sekiwake in July. Atami and Koto scrape together kachi koshis, Aonishiki drops, and WKT can still get 11 or 12 and force the promotion. If the dudes sitting out can get healthy, we will have a monster July Basho!
Your job is done here, Shodai, now you can return to your burrow.
Is there a link to today’s bouts? (Please!?)
https://www.web.nhk/tv/pl/series-tep-Z8WRRJ9K96/ep/PG99G9XP3Y
Thank you! (Just watched the Ura bout. Ha!)
I think this tournament shows what a deep bench Grand Sumo has right now. DEEEEEP bench. I don’t think it would have made much difference today/tonight if Onosato, Hoshoryu and Aonishiki were healthy and fighting. Some of these rikishi decided they weren’t going to lose and it didn’t matter who they were fighting. Further evidence we picked the right sport to be fans of, as if we needed any. There were so many exceptional sequences that “Ura resisted at the bales,” is a fully sufficient description for whatever that was. Tonight it was comparatively average.
Something fun: when Ura has these dynamic wins, during the slo mo replay, look at the faces of the spectators watching it happen. Pure joy. If you could bottle that…
If I ran one of those Top Ten or Top Five YouTube sumo channels I would still be swapping the magnetic tokens around on the white board 3.5 hours after the bow ceremony. One thing that stood out to me was the strikingly similar circumstances of the wins of Yusho leaders Tobizaru and Kotoeiho. The techniques had different names, Okurinage as opposed to Hikiotoshi, so maybe it was that both wins seemed to have waited until the last possible tenth of a second to develop, mid air, with everyone involved falling in one direction or another. I’m not going to go watch them again for fear the spacetime threads connecting everything would have evaporated.
I would say it’s quite the opposite – if yokozunas and Aonishiki were present most of these guys that are doing very well would have two or three victories less and would fight for kachi-koshi. For example Kirishima never defeated big yokozuna in many attempts.
I guess it would be a mix of both.
The first ten days or so the joi are having their own tournament and only then they mix with the successful middle and low maegashira. Therefore until yesterday only the joi benefitted from the absence of the three top men and only them (Wakatakakage, Yoshinofuji and Gonoyama of the leader groups) would have more losses.
For the ozeki (and the sekiwake) it is yet another story. They will only profit in the last days of the basho. Kirishima‘s schedule until now was quite normal, but will be much easier than normally from now on.
Big Yokozuna. You mean Onosato?
Kirishima is 0-10 vs Onosato and was even 0-13 vs Terunofuji!
(Against Hoshoryu the head to head is 12-13 btw.)
I did say it wouldn’t have made much difference just for this one night, not for the tournament. You can argue against that as well of course. Just my impression that on some days any of the top dozen or so rikishi can beat anyone else. That especially since the most recent performances by both Yokozuna and the missing Ozeki weren’t anything those guys themselves were proud of. Aonishiki was having a difficult time finding a win and seemed pretty worried about it, if memory serves. No one should feel confident about beating Tobizaru right now.
Ah, sure, today was really great sumo.
Mitakeumi is doing his best to be a barnacle on the edge of the top division. I have no idea how he keeps winning juuuuuust enough to avoid demotion. We’ll see if he can keep that up over the next 3 days.
Well, now we know why Shishi henkaed Tamawashi. Kudos to the Old Man for racking up a couple of wins. There’s no way for him to avoid the barge, is there? Oshoumi is, apparently, the Barge Captain at the moment. But, other rikishi will have to lose a lot for Tamawashi not to drop based on my, admittedly poor, banzuke math.
Ura has to be made of rubber. Good grief, his flexibility is ridiculous.
Quality match from Fujiryoga and Hakunofuji! I look forward to seeing them continue to fight in the future.
Tobizaru is doing his best to silence his doubters. Tomorrow is another big test for him.
I laughed out loud when Roga followed Abi’s sidestep directly and escorted him out of the ring. You can only go to the well so often, Abi!
Nice to see a win for Tokihayate. Both he and Hiradoumi have really been throwing themselves into their matches this basho.
Where has this Daiesho been for the rest of the tournament?! A little too late perhaps to really make an impact.
Churanoumi, like Ichiyamamoto, has quietly become a solid contender in the upper part of the division. Both of them need to develop a bit more, but they’re making steady progress and fighting well.
A “no doubt” win for Kirishima. Well done!
I literally said, “Go get your kensho, Shodai” before his match. I think going kadoban is going to save Katazakura from tumbling far down the banzuke. We’ll have to see what condition he’s in during the next basho. I do not have high hopes that he’ll maintain his rank.
Churanoumi is quite under the radar, isnt he? Personaly I believe Kotozakura will get his eight next basho, but that will just cement his hachinana status, at best. His knees are done? Too much bulk I suppose. Maybe he will need to try some different aproach? Because it seems he has little to loose now.
Indeed, Churanoumi is doing his work quietly and diligently. Kotoeiho has been doing something similar. It will be interesting to see how they perform in the future. I also have stated that Kotozakura needs to lose weight if only to take better care of his knees. It feels like he believes that’s what makes him “solid” and hard to move, unfortunately.
Strong “call an ambulance, but not for me” energy from Ura today.
First half was outstanding! Well except for Hatsuyama whom I would like to do well but seems too afraid of falling off the dohyo to fight to the bitter end like the other guys. He’s a bit like Ryden but at a premature age.
Meanwhile, Kotozakura could be dangerous now (aka spoiler) since he has nothing to lose.
Yeah, will be interesting to see if he does better now that the ‘pressure’ is slightly off..