It’s Rosh-Hashanah here in the land of the Jews, so I’d like to extend happy new year wishes to all readers. May the coming year be free of injuries and premature ends to brilliant careers. May the Sumo Kyokai embrace some Japanese innovative spirit to find ways to protect and improve the care of its rikishi (and shimpan. Sitting by the dohyo side marks them as a health insurance risk). May the year be full of positive, exciting sumo, and may all the rikishi who need polish and improvement receive guidance from the excellent elders, like the one in the photo above. Happy new year, Aminishiki. Glad to see you are heading up to Makuuchi again, and glad to know that you own a kabu for the sake of generations of rikishi to come.

Day 12 sees many more rikishi win their kachi or make koshi. Here is a quick list:

Yes, this table also shows the interesting state of the Yusho-arasoi. Every single kachi-koshi winner below Goeido is also in the chaser group and still has a theoretical chance at winning the yusho. What, the Yokozuna can still win it? Theoretically, yes. But really, if Goeido actually drops two games, it’s a free-for-all. Even [shudder] Kotoshogiku!

So, how is our suffering Yokozuna doing? Actually, not that badly. Many fans in Japan and around the world let out a sigh of relief as the Yokozuna secured a kachi-koshi. But Harumafuji himself is not dancing in the streets of Tokyo just yet. “A Yokozuna’s kachi-koshi is 10 wins… This is no time to be tired.” He said. His quote on the Isegahama website also implies that he is still eyeing the yusho now that it’s somewhat opened up. Yep. The body may not be working like a Yokozuna, but the spirit most certainly is.

About the torikumi itself, well, there was some hesitation before the tachiai. Not exactly a false start. Was Tamawashi trying to apply some psychological pressure? Perhaps. Totally legitimate. But it didn’t work. Once the Yokozuna committed to the tachiai, he shot himself as usual at Tamawashi. Quick slap. Pull with the right, push with the left, a short morozashi and out goes the eagle. Straight up Yokozuna stuff.

Here is a link to the full Japanese-language version of the bout. I’m embedding it here for those of you who understand Japanese, as the commentator for the day was none other than Isegahama oyakata, the Yokozuna’s shisho.

Now on to the obligatory Aminishiki win of the day. Today he went against the shin-Juryo, a member of the Kise planetarium, Daiseido. Actually, of the two shin-Juryo, Daiseido is doing much better than Yago at the moment. It seems that experience in the pros does play a part once you get yourself into the salaried ranks. Unlike Yago, Daiseido spent no less than 5 years in Makushita before earning the toilet-paper training mawashi. And although when dressed in kimono he looks big enough to fit right in with the likes of Gagamaru, he weighs only 137kg, with formidable thigh muscle and shoulders. Worth keeping an eye on, that guy, but Aminishiki denied him his kachi-koshi today.

He did make Aminishiki work for it, though, keeping Uncle away from his mawashi, and releasing himself from the first force-down.

On to the random thoughts and comments part:

• Shohozan beats Goeido by side-stepping. 🤔
• Déjà vu in Chiyoshoma’s bout vs. Nishikigi. Once again he takes his rival to the edge for an uwatenage, and falls together with him. Again a Monoii is called. And although this time the replay seems to show Nishikigi touching down first, the shimpan don’t see it, and call a torinaoshi. But this time the W goes Chiyoshoma’s way. His slap just below Nishikigi’s ear seems to have stunned Nishikigi, who became disoriented for a moment there.
• Another déjà vu with Takarafuji. He still hasn’t regained his genki after the Benny Hill show. I’m getting worried about the man. And like yesterday, again, all the other Isegahama members win, with only Takarafuji and Terutsuyoshi still to secure their kachi-koshi.
• A day of celebration at Kasugano beya – all three sekitori won today. Aoiyama seemed to be all fired up, even too fired up, as he really didn’t need to push Kagayaki there at the end. Boob envy? Tochinoshin again shows the kind of sumo that brought him back to the top of the maegashira list in the first place.
• Chiyomaru on the roll, and doing yotsu-zumo again, and rather well. He is likely to be kachi-koshi, though not yet there.
• Ishiura wins! Yes, he wins! No mawashi knot tricks this time, just plain, basic sumo – grab the mawashi, plant your head in the opponent’s chest, and push him like a little locomotive. More of that, Ishiura, please. And poor Daishomaru has faded completely after his brilliant start.
• And so has Takanoiwa. Okinoumi seems to be gambarizing to stay in Makuuchi.
• Onosho, however, seems to have somewhat recovered from his slump. A quick morozashi on Chiyonokuni, and there was no way for the latter to even start his tsuppari attack. And Moti’s remark is worth repeating: the only previous rikishi to get three kachi-koshi in a row after advancing to Makuuchi is Hakuho.
• If the game is slap-attack, then retreat, slap-attack, then retreat, then Yoshikaze sure plays it better than Takakeisho. Yoshikaze stays at sekiwake for Kyushu. At this rate he can seriously get a double-digit win and start an Ozeki run. Wait, what?

Chapter 1, in which we congratulate Kachi-Koshi winners

Especially this one. Hello Asanoyama! Welcome to Makuuchi! It’s not easy to get your feet planted in this division, especially when you still don’t have your Oichomage. And in this crazy tournament, in which on day 11 only four wrestlers have a kachi-koshi, even more so. But sunny obachan-favorite Asanoyama quietly ascended the dohyo on each day, and delivered. He still has a lot to polish in his sumo, but he definitely has his sea legs. Today Kaisei wasn’t really much of a challenge for Takasago’s sole Sekitori.

Another kachi-koshi winner, joining the Ozeki and Chiyotairyu, is Takanoiwa, beating Daishomaru. Only a few days ago, Daishomaru was in the Yusho race… but he faded completely in the second half.

And another one who faded, with three straight losses, is the mighty Yokozuna slayer, Ozeki queller, Onosho. He will secure his kachi koshi for sure, and I still believe he can win double-digits. But something there has faded. This time it wasn’t even overcommitment. He just pulled a bit after the tachiai, and let Tochiozan take the initiative from there.

Chapter 2, in which we acknowledge the inevitable

Yep. Go-away-do has all but ordered the movers to pick up the Emperor’s Cup for him this Sunday. Chiyotairyu drops one (in case you are wondering, he is the one the title refers to), and the Ozeki now leads by those two infamous henka. If he had shown the same kind of sumo that he showed today throughout the tournament, I’d be cheering for him with all the enthusiasm I have left after the rain of torn tissue and kinboshi this basho has been. But for now, all I can do is sigh and shake my head. Please, young aspiring rikishi, don’t take the Aki 2017 champion as your role model. And yes, Mitakeumi, where is your sumo? Are you saving it up for the Yokozuna?

Chapter 3, in which we dissect our surviving yokozuna

So the Yokozuna faced Ichinojo today, and it was not as easy as some would think. On the one hand, Ichinojo is hard to beat on the mawashi, and on the other, he weighs too much to be moved easily. Eventually Harumafuji gave up on the mawashi grip on one side, sacrificed his pained left elbow, and pulled the 200kg Ichinojo around the dohyo and out. I’m not sure if the grimace at the end of the bout was because of the pain or because he managed a straight bullzeye at Shiranui oyakata – which, I believe, is his second time padding a rikishi’s fall this bout. If the kyokai comes to vote on padding around the dohyo, I’m sure Shiranui will be among the enthusiastic “yea” sayers.

His own Shiranui knot safe for the moment, tomorrow the Yokozuna of Pain gets to meet a rather genki Tamawashi. Rock, paper, or scissors?

Chapter 4, in which we engage in random thoughts and comments

I’ll drop for a second into Sandanme, to inform you that Enho won his 6th bout. Still lossless in his short career, he beat his chief rival, Honda, dealing him his first loss. The Sandanme Yusho race now has only three contenders left with perfect records, and the two others, Matsuda(#82) and Tanabe (#71) are ranked way below Enho. One more bout for Sandanme to complete, and we may expect another Yusho interview from this young one.

I have been musing about Ishiura. Could it be that he is getting a lot less Hakuho love now that the master has a new shiny toy? Both of them are Hakuho’s uchi-deshi (personal disciples, who, if he drops his nationality and takes on a kabu, will leave Miyagino and follow him to his new heya).

Climb up a little, of course I will not skip Aminishiki’s short and sweet hatakikomi:

Aminishiki is one win short of a Kachi-Koshi and return to Makuuchi, where he will depose Takekaze of his position as the eldest of the clan. Gambare, sly old fox!

Tochinoshin managed to grab a second white star off of the poor Kagayaki, and show a little of the stuff that brought him up to the joi this tournament. His stablemate, Aoiyama, tries to do the same as yesterday, stand up and fight, but Yoshikaze is having none of that. Between them, the two Kasugano guys can perhaps form a single, healthy Bulgeorgian rikishi, complete with hairy moobs, who will actually be a challenge at maegashira #1½.

Chiyomaru regains his enthusiasm, not that Sadanoumi is much of a challenge at this stage. In a slow day for the Kokonoe guys, Chiyomaru’s genki is a ray of sunshine. Which brings me to Chiyonokuni, who seemed to have been, out-tachiai’ed by, er, Shodai? How do you do that? Shodai just got up as he is used to, and Chiyonokuni leaped at him, bet somehow Shodai just swept him out of the dohyo like he was a fistful of salt.

To sum up the Kokonoe luckluster day (their two Juryo men also lost), Chiyoshoma does nicely against Takekaze, but they fall together. Monoii. Torinaoshi. And now the Takekazaur pulls Chiyoshoma down. Then there is Chiyotairyu, who starts enthusiastically, but Tamawashi seems unfazed and shows him what Sanyaku is all about.

Which leads me to Kotoshogiku, who is intent on getting back to Sanyaku, now that he has made the most of being a maegashira (hey, you can’t get kinboshi in sanyaku). Only one win to secure his first kachi-koshi in I don’t know how many basho.

Takarafuji seems to have run out of ATP in his romp with Ishiura yesterday. I’ll embed the video here again because some of the crowd that requested it may have missed it:

Courtesy of Kintamayama,  blessed be he.

Anyway, Takarafuji was out of breath, and was unable to avenge his yokozuna. His kachi-koshi will have to wait a little more, and I hope that the injury in his elbow will not limit him. He does not deserve a demotion with the sumo he did this basho. He is the only Isegahama sekitori to lose today, with both Homarefuji and Legless Terutsuyoshi grabbing white stars.

In Japan’s national holiday calendar, the third Monday in September is “Respect For The Aged Day”. This happened to fall on day 9 of the Aki Basho. And indeed, most of  the elders of the Makuuchi got respect.

Yeah, I couldn’t leave Aminishiki out. Respect the aged!

In fact, the best bout in Makuuchi today was served up by its eldest member, Takekaze, going against a very feisty Chiyonokuni whose energy dial is at 12 at the moment. Takekaze starts by attempting a pull-down, but not a very strong one, and Chiyonokuni quickly rallies and starts his tsuppari attack. Takekaze is unfazed, circles and circles, and gets a lovely morozashi. Chiyonokuni doesn’t really know what to do about it, and then Takekaze tries for a sotogake, and at the same time gets his hands on the back of Chiyonokuni’s mawashi. Chiyonokuni manages to slip away from one of the hands and attempts to throw Takekaze, but Takekaze still has his mawashi, and throws him neatly to the ground. Chiyonokuni very frustrated, hits the dohyo with his fist, and the Takekazaurus wins.

Sweet.

The elderly Yokozuna has also gotten up on his best side today, and well he should, because it seems the torikumi guys are leveling up his fodder. He was rather pleased with his sumo today, against a guy who picked a kinboshi off of him in July. Harumafuji, of course, shot at him at the tachiai, pushed him to the tawara, kept low, even tried to go for an ashitori, then decided there’s no point in being too spectacular when his rival is already at the edge, and just helped him out decisively. Keep that up, old lion. I want to see you eating Goeido at the end of this basho. Help me, Obi Wan Harumafuji, you are my only hope!

Short notes

• Chiyomaru the Ever-Round somehow left his energy in the locker room. Perhaps it was Asanoyama’s jinxed west entrance.
• Yutakayama showed excellent footwork today.
• Old reliable, Takarafuji, plays a part in an excellent Isegahama day (all sekitori wins, including the suffering Terutsuyoshi, who was out of sumo when his rival, Kotoeko, performs an isami-ashi, a hiwaza (non-technique) and hands him a white star).
• Yago manages to string together three consecutive wins, and may have gotten his sea legs, but he is still far from kachi-koshi at 4-5.
• Chiyotairyu caught on to Onosho’s overcommitment issue. Onosho should hope that others don’t watch the footage, and start working on his footwork. By the way, when Onosho dropped back to Makushita, he asked Kisenosato for guidance, which the then-Ozeki generously gave him. Perhaps he should pay the recuperating Yokozuna a visit. The man is a great balance artist.
• Goeido secures his Henkachi-koshi.
• For someone with a bad ankle, I was impressed with the way Tamawashi was hanging on to the tawara with his toes.

Thankfully, we seem to be past hurricane season in this basho (or maybe we’re just in the eye), so all the news from the dohyo are small, quiet news while the wrestlers arrange themselves for half-time.

Let’s start from Asanoyama, a Tachiai favorite. He finally managed to break out of the yo-yo, and win two days in a row. At 5-3, he only needs to pick three more wins to plant his feet firmly in the Makuuchi. But he is worried. He believes he is jinxed by the west entrance to the dohyo. His 5 wins were gathered when he entered from the east, and his three losses, when he entered from the west. Well, tomorrow he faces Chiyomaru coming from the east, and I predict the jinx is going to stick to both entrances. Just do sumo, Asa-chan!

Daieisho drops from the yusho race, losing to Okinoumi, who seems to be back on the rise, and not going for intai any time soon. Now we have three contenders on the leaderboard – one Henka artist and two brilliant tadpoles. You all know who I’m rooting for.

In other tadpole news, Hokutofuji finally recovers from his kinboshi poisoning, beating the deposed king of the tadpoles, see-saw Mitakeumi. In fact, neither Hokutofuji nor Mitakeumi show any stability. They have a lot to prove in the second half of the basho, as has Takakeisho. Actually, looking a bit at the big picture, we don’t yet have a tadpole revolution, but rather an Onosho revolution, with most of the other young bowling-balls-in-mawashi pretty much spending half their time in the gutter. Indeed, almost the whole lower-to-middle makuuchi is a big mess where you can’t predict anything, not regarding the young and not regarding the old.

But hey, Ichinojo wins again. So maybe sumo is not a bad career after all.

Tochinoshin seems to be on the verge of winning in each bout, but still manages to gather almost a full set of black stars. Onosho was not happy with himself today, failing to complete his push. But he did manage to release his left hand trapped by the Bulgarian and pull him down.

Goeido performs Ozeki sumo for the second day in a row! No grip? No worries. Just push forward. Step-step-step, the eagle flies away. Whether he’ll do positive or negative sumo tomorrow, he is going to be kachi-koshi and get out of kadoban about 12 hours from now.

Now we come to the Yokozuna dissection of the day. And things are not looking too encouraging. I mean, Aoiyama hurt the muscles on the back of his leg and couldn’t walk 100m. Only two days ago he started doing keiko again. And yet the Yokozuna somehow assessed his position incorrectly and only succeeded in executing his uwatedashinage when he himself was balancing on the tawara. He said in an interview that he was worried about Aoiyama’s condition, as he clearly had problems even performing the sonkyo (ceremonial squat), and that led him to thinking how to go easy on the guy. “A contest is no place for compassion” he berated himself. Though, of course, compassion towards his rivals is why we love our Yokozuna (never mind his huge bag of tricks). I’m not sure if it’s that, or again, his instincts betraying him. Final Harumafuji quote (on the Isegahama web site): “Sheesh, that was close, but I somehow won”.

The torikumi guys seem to be offering their lion some well-butchered meat rather than wild deer. They are a lot less kind to Aoiyama, serving him up to Goeido next. I imagine that kyujo rikishi have doctor’s certificates like we all do, and if the doctor says their injury requires 7 days of rest, they probably have to return after those 7 days and can’t just opt to stay at home. At least, not if they are not Yokozuna.