Author: pinkmawashi

Aki 2018 day 13 highlights

pinkmawashi Aki Basho 2018

 

Kise-Hak 2
Photo courtesy of the Japan Times

The end of a fantastic basho draws near. As the day starts, the yusho is not yet decided for certain, although Hakuho is the clear front-runner. Tochinoshin still lacks the kachi-koshi he needs to escape from kadoban, Mitakeumi’s Ozeki bid is shot down in flames and he simply struggles to stay Sekiwake, most of the juryo promotions and demotions are as yet undecided, the bulk of Makuuchi still has neither eight wins nor eight losses, and there’s everything to fight for. Most amazingly of all, and an immensely refreshing change from the last year of sumo: the three Yokozuna and three Ozeki are still fighting every day and they’re all looking pretty genki!

Since Bruce – the lucky git – is watching this in person, I’ll be giving you my Youtube-eye view of today’s bouts with the benefit of slow-motion replay but the detriment of not being able to feel the roar of the crowd or eat delicious bento boxes.

Yago – Chiyomaru. As much as I like Chiyomaru, I’m really rooting for the Juryo newcomer! At 8-4 and J2w, he stands a decent chance of securing a promotion to Makuuchi for the first time. Sadly, he can’t manage it, but this is a fun, spirited bout. Although Chiyomaru is usually considered an oshi-zumo specialist, Yago is able to drive him back with pushes and thrusts, twice resisting being slapped down, and then goes chest-to-chest, gets the belt grip, drives forward… and is thrown down. Chiyomaru avoids make-koshi for another day, and it looks like he’ll be able to stay in Makuuchi.

Sadanoumi – Ishiura. With nine losses already, Ishiura was going back to Juryo regardless of the outcome of this match. Ishiura’s low sumo is spirited, but a slap-down attempt sees him stagger almost all the way across the dohyo, and while recovering he’s levered upright and driven out.

Yoshikaze – Daishomaru. A head-cracker tachiai followed by a brief struggle, with Daishomaru staggering out from remarkably little contact. The secret is in the slow-motion replay: when Daishomaru tries to pull away, his foot slips and his head collides firmly with Yoshikaze’s next hand thrust, which seems to knock him silly for a moment. Daishomaru is now make-koshi.

Hokutofuji – Nishikigi. Wow. Match of the day material right here! This is the first meeting between these two (the 0-1 record is actually the result of a fusen), and they seem remarkably well-matched! Nishikigi’s tachiai is shodai-like in its slothfulness, and he spends the first half of the match in frantic retreat – but then he establishes a good, strong right-overarm left-underarm grip and Hokutofuji just cannot manage the grip change. Lifted onto tiptoes and driven back to the bales, Hokutofuji attempts a risky utchari throw, and appears to prevail! However, the slow-motion replay footage shows Hokutofuji’s heel touching down outside the tawara during his throw, the gyoji’s verdict is overturned by the shimpan, and Nishikigi gets a very hard-fought kachi-koshi.

Ryuden – Kotoshogiku. This one should be interesting, given Ryuden’s skill at getting a moro-zashi and Kotoshogiku’s skill at keeping his opponent’s arms bound high while his belly does the work. My prediction? This will be decided on the tachi-ai. If Ryuden gets a good belt grip, he’s won; if he gets his arms locked up he’s lost.

My prediction turns out to be entirely accurate – Ryuden gets a solid grip with both hands, left-inside right-outside, and while Kotoshogiku does manage to dislodge that left hand he can’t keep it off. Ryuden all the way.

Takarafuji – Chiyoshoma. Showing shades of Hokutofuji’s style, Chiyoshoma launches directly into a nodowa right from the tachiai. Takarafuji seems to be completely unable to deal with it right up to the point where Chiyoshoma lets it drop, sidesteps, and slaps him into a stagger that ends with him doing the splits.

Kotoyuki – Tochiozan. Nine-rank difference. The schedulers are not feeling kind to Kotoyuki. He launches into a strong offense with thrusts and nodowa, and just as I think he might be winning, Tochiozan isn’t there any more and Kotoyuki goes bowling into the crowd. Kotoyuki is make-koshi and unless he wins out, he’ll be going to Juryo for sure. A 7-8 record might just see him demoted to M16w.

Kagayaki – Takanoiwa. A tricky match to follow, since the critical thing is the way they control each others arms. You’ll want to watch the slow-motion replay a few times, I think. Takanoiwa takes entirely too long to realize he’s losing, and by the time he starts a throw attempt he’s already going out.

Daiesho – Asanoyama. Another fun match! Daiesho has a clear power advantage, but the number of times Asanoyama makes a miraculous recovery is truly impressive. Sadly, he can’t keep it up forever and is forced out.

Chiyonokuni – Kaisei. Chiyonokuni’s offence is good but he just can’t move that much weight. In the end, his tsuppari is deflected, giving Kaisei a perfect opportunity to seize a left overarm mawashi grip, and it’s all over.

Tamawashi – Takakeisho. Takakeisho’s wave-action tsuppari just blows his opponent away. Next!

Chiyotairyu – Ichinojo. Can Chiyotairyu’s power-tachiai and tsuppari barrage move 500 lbs of wrestler? Ahahaha. No. Not even close. Ichinojo avoids make-koshi for another day, and Chiyotairyu looks so lacklustre I worry he’s injured rather than just demoralized.

Mitakeumi – Myogiryu. After a blistering start, Mitakeumi is at a woeful 6-6 and people are saying his Ozeki bid might have to start over from scratch rather than being just delayed by another tournament. Myogiryu, being just outside the joi-jin, has his kachi-koshi already, although it looks like the schedulers are eager to have him fight lower san’yaku opponents now. Mitakeumi wins it – as he really should do – but his sumo looks slothful and underpowered compared to the first few days of the basho. Injury? Unlikely. Morale problems? Maybe. Plain lack of stamina? That would be my guess.

Shodai – Tochinoshin. Amazing bout. It’s definitely Nodowa Day – even Tochinoshin is getting in on the throat-pushing action before the battle goes chest-to-chest. The Ozeki has the strength and he has the reach, but he just can’t seem to get the grip he wants. He manages to force Shodai back to the bales anyway, and then he lunges, gets the grip for the barest moment, loses it, lunges again with the other hand and gets the right inside grip… and is thrown down beautifully. Had the bout gone the other way, Shodai would be MK and Tochinoshin would be KK. Tochinoshin will get Abi tomorrow, and Takayasu the day after. There are worse situations than “your last chance to clear your kadoban status is against a very genki-looking Takayasu”, but not many.

Speaking of Tochinoshin’s future opponents…

Abi – Takayasu. We’ve seen lots of answers and attempted answers to Abi’s long-limbed tsuppari barrage. This might be a new one. Takayasu spends the entire bout leaning to the right. I don’t really understand the mechanics of this – I assume he’s trying to deflect the tsuppari so he can reach in and get a belt grip on one side or the other, but he never manages it. Eventually, after maneuvering around the ring, he launches into a tsuppari barrage of his own and sends Abi out – pausing to catch him and avoid an injurious fall.

Kisenosato – Hakuho. Kisenosato already has a good enough record to stop worrying about intai for now, and while he undoubtedly wants more, Hakuho is undefeated and two bouts away from a certain yusho. It’s pretty clear who’s going to be the most motivated to succeed. And while Kisenosato does put up a very strong defense, he doesn’t manage to outlast Hakuho’s stamina or find a weakness, and is ultimately forced out. With a win over Goeido tomorrow, Hakuho will clinch yet another yusho.

Kakuryu – Goeido. I’m not sure what quirk of scheduling caused the two-Yokozuna match-up to be before the musubi-no-ichiban, but here we are. Until his two defeats against the other Ozeki, Kakuryu was looking unbeatable. After an unexpected matta from Kakuryu, the bout is over in the blink of an eye – Goeido is clearly on the ball and eager to do his own style of forward-moving sumo, the Yokozuna retreats, and Goeido is so fast that there’s simply no time for the attempted pull-down. Kakuryu is now out of the yusho race regardless of what happens to Hakuho.

Aki Basho day 11 – Lower Makuuchi results

pinkmawashi Aki Basho 2018, Chiyoshoma, Daieisho (大栄翔), Hokutōfuji (北勝富士), Ishiura (石浦), Kotoshogiku (琴奨菊), Kotoyuki, Myogiryu (妙義龍), Nishikigi, Okinoumi (隠岐の海), Ryuden (竜電), Sadanoumi (佐田の海), Shohozan, Takanoiwa (貴ノ岩), Takarafuji (宝富士), Yoshikaze (嘉風)

All eyes might be on Mitakeumi, Tochinoshin, Hakuho and Kakuryu, but I’m going to keep my spotlight aimed at mid and lower Makuuchi for a bit longer, because some of these bouts were very good sumo, and because I’m eagerly watching to see who can and can’t avoid demotion.

Ryuden – Kotoyuki. As I said before, Kotoyuki really needed this win, and I didn’t expect it to be easy for him. However, he pulled it off, a fine display of oshi-zumo keeping Ryuden at arms’ length and stopping him getting anything resembling a mawashi grip. It was really more Ryuden’s loss than Kotoyuki’s win, since the Takadagawa-beya man misjudged his place in the ring and stepped outside while retreating, but Kotoyuki definitely deserves credit for clearly winning the tachiai and preventing Ryuden from ever getting a touch of the belt.

Ishiura – Nishikigi. Another “must-win”, and although Ishiura’s sumo looked solid yesterday, he can’t pull it off again. Nishikigi’s rising arms prevent the low tachiai, and Ishiura finds himself entangled, controlled, and forced out. He can’t disengage, he can’t get low enough to lever Nishikigi upright, and with only a right outside grip he can’t manage a throw. Ishiura is now make-koshi and his return to Juryo is all but assured.

Okinoumi – Takanosho. Both come in to their first ever meeting with 5-5 scores. Takanosho puts on an excellent display of no-tricks, chest-to-chest sumo without a mawashi grip, and is able to drive Okinoumi (ten years his senior) out with pure force.

Kyokutaisei has apparently decided that if he tries to wrestle on that leg again, it will just come off at the knee. Chiyomaru gets the fusensho and avoids make-koshi for one more day.

Sadanoumi – Chiyoshoma. The Villain of Kokonoe-Beya has no interest in moving forwards, and after his hatakikomi attempt fails, his arm-pull fails, and Sadanoumi goes chest-to-chest with arms high, he’s able to perform a Sukuinage (beltless overarm throw) right at the bales and secure a win. I’m still not sure how he manages to find the leverage for that throw and end up on top, although he faceplants down the side of the dohyo for his trouble.

Yoshikaze – Daieisho. Daiesho looked almost like a shorter, rounder Abi in this, with an absolutely unceasing windmill of tsuppari and thrusts that slowly drove Yoshikaze back to the tawara and out.

Takanoiwa – Kotoshogiku. Takanoiwa has a plan here. In the first few seconds of the bout, he’s able to get a good firm belt grip first on the right outside and then the left inside, which does wonders to neutralize the gaburi-yori attack. After Takanoiwa makes two failed attempts to lift him, Kotoshogiki struggles mightily to get the bulldozer into first gear, but Takanoiwa is able to rotate and throw him down with that underarm grip (shitatenage).

Shohozan – Hokutofuji. This bout seems to be all Hokutofuji. With a firm nodawa, an excellent ability to deflect Shohozan’s thrusting attacks, and enough stability to withstand slap-down attempts, Hokutofuji drives Shohozan on two complete laps of the dohyo before finally shoving him out. With this win, Hokutofuji is kachi-koshi.

No-one is going to call Aoiyama – Onosho a highlight with a straight face. Onosho is now disappointingly make-koshi. It was at least better sumo than Daishomaru‘s henka win over Asanoyama.

Myogiryu – Takarafuji. Myogiryu gets both hands inside from the tachiai, and when Takarafuji tries to retreat to avoid being caught in a full moro-zashi, he’s able to follow, withstand the kotenage attempt, and drive him out.

Since the rest of the torikumi involves rikishi from the joi-jin (the upper 16), I’m going to leave that to Herouth to cover.

Aki lower Makuuchi, Day 10

pinkmawashi Aki Basho 2018, Juryo (十両)

Iksumo has already done a stellar job of reviewing the top of Makuuchi, where all eyes are probably firmly glued to Tochinoshin and Mitakeumi’s struggle and to the Yusho race. Here, though, I’d like to take a moment to discuss the bottom of Makuuchi.

Who’s struggling to avoid demotion? Well, starting from the bottom of the Banzuke and working up, we immediately find M16w Ishiura in the very lowest spot, with a 3-7 record. Compounding his problems is the fact that, at the bottom of the division, his opponents generally come from higher and higher in Makuuchi as the basho goes on. If he doesn’t win every single one of his remaining matches, he’ll very likely be dropping back to Juryo just in time to meet his stable-mate Enho on the way up. He fights a fairly genki Nishikigi tomorrow, an opponent against whom he has a decent winning record of 7-5.

M16e Kotoyuki‘s 4-6 record puts him in nearly as much trouble, but it’s worth noting that he had a run of three losses at the start of the basho during which his sumo was, to put it frankly, terrible. He’s since sorted that out, and although he’s picked up another three losses, it’s possible that he’ll be able to scrape together a bare kachi-koshi. His opponent tomorrow is Ryuden, though, who is in good fighting form and against whom Kotoyuki has two losses and no wins. It’s not looking great for the owl.

M14w Chiyomaru‘s cuteness won’t save him, but the small buffer between his current position and the bottom of the division might. A 3-7 record isn’t good, but if he finishes at, say, 6-9, he might just about stay in Makuuchi. Worse than that, though, and he’ll be rolling back to Juryo.

The other thing that might save Chiyomaru is some minor disasters from higher up the banzuke. M11w Kyokutaisei is the eternally round one’s opponent tomorrow, he has only managed one win so far, and he is pretty obviously injured. If he can’t make a near-miraculous recovery, he’ll be back out of Makuuchi after holding on for three tournaments.

Glancing a little higher we have Aoiyama, who I would normally consider as safe as houses at M10e, but his 2-8 record and obvious knee injury put him in real peril. His opponent tomorrow is Onosho, which isn’t quite as bad for the Bulgarian as it sounds because Onosho hasn’t been fighting particularly well either this basho.

Juryo Yusho Arasoi

Out of these five in-trouble rikishi – plus new Makuuchi entrant Takanosho, who at 5-5 and M14e could go either way in the last few days – how many are likely to fall to Juryo? Well, frankly, your guess is as good as mine because seriously look at this nonsense.

To the right is the Juryo leaderboard for day 10. Basically everyone is either 6-4 or 5-5. There could be six or more prospective promotees, or there could be zero. Arawashi seems likely to make a Makuuchi comeback, since from his J1e position, he’ll now mostly be facing opponents from mid- rather than upper-Juryo, and Meisei and Yago seem well placed to accompany him. Although, of the three, only Arawashi has faced a Makuuchi opponent so far.

This would be Yago’s Makuuchi debut, and I know Herouth at least is very much looking forward to it. Plus, he’ll finally be allowed a shikona.

Natsu Banzuke – Some more commentary

pinkmawashi Natsu Basho 2018

The results for Haru can be seen here, and the newly-released banzuke here.

The San’yaku and Joi

As said in Bruce’s post, Tochinoshin is looking at the last leg of an Ozeki run (ten wins should be enough), and Takayasu could – in theory – be considered for Yokozuna with a particularly strong Yusho (and would finally have to take a shikona). These two are both very popular wrestlers in the English-speaking sumo community, so I’d expect all eyes to be on them for the first part of the tournament.

Mitakeumi got off very lightly. Not only did he luck out of having to face Yokozuna Kakuryu in March (he got Hokutofuji instead, and pulled out a win where an additional loss would almost certainly have resulted in him being demoted out of San’yaku altogether), the banzuke committee decided to let him keep the East side which gives him an edge in re-promotion.

Whether the torikumi will shake out in his favour is a question of which San’yaku show up. If everyone starts the basho, Mitakeumi gets treated to a day one bout against Hakuho. But if someone (probably Kisenosato) goes kyujo from the beginning, there will be not be enough combinations to have two intra-san’yaku bouts every day, and Mitakeumi’s first match will probably be against M3w Yutakayama. Regardless, his fellow Komusubi (and San’yaku newcomer) Endo gets to start off with the top-ranked Yokozuna. This is a career-high rank for Endo, and I for one wish him the absolute best. He had a difficult year clawing his way back up the banzuke following an ankle injury, and his efforts very much deserve the prestigious rank he now holds.

It’s a good bet that at least one of the Yokozuna will either not start the tournament or will drop out early, so the Joi – the group of upper-Maegashira who have to face San’yaku opponents – goes down to M4w Shodai. Most of these rikishi have been here before and frequently put in strong performances at their rank, but two stand out as likely to have a rough time of it: Daieisho was over-promoted from M8w to M3e with a 9-6 record. His previous visit to upper Maegashira, in Natsu 2017, was a 4-11 catastrophe in which he didn’t manage to beat a single San’yaku opponent. Yutakayama is at a career-high rank of M3w, leaping from M11w with a 10-5 record that would normally only get him to around M6. This is only his fourteenth ever Honbasho, and this time last year, he was getting pasted 4-11 at M16 before regrouping in Juryo. We’re all familiar with seeing a young rikishi go on a tear up the banzuke before hitting the San’yaku and bouncing off, and I fully expect it to happen again here.

Kaisei‘s impressive 12-3 Jun-yusho earned him one of the famously tough M1 spots. After a disastrous late 2016-early 2017 saw him slide back down into Juryo, he seems to have regained what made him great. It would not surprise me to see him regain his career-high Sekiwake rank later this year, but at the moment the top ranks have no shortage of very big and very strong rikishi, and Kaisei has never done well against the contingent of Yokozuna and Ozeki (of his five ever wins over Ozeki, one was against the ghost of Terunofuji and one against a fading Baruto. The other three were all against Goeido, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything but is somewhat amusing).

Abi‘s presence at M2w has been remarked upon. I don’t expect it to go very well for him, personally. The top ranks will know exactly what to look out for and will punish that over-commitment problem of his with a quick hatakikomi, just as they did with Onosho last year.

Mid-Maegashira

Kotoshogiku is just outside the likely joi. He may be a long way from his former Ozeki self, but I expect him to put in a good tournament at this rank. He won’t be facing the San’yaku who are familiar with his straightforward but effective sumo, and will instead get to employ the belly-bump on a group of mid-rankers who don’t know how to deal with it.

Also narrowly outside the joi: Ikioi! He put in a stellar effort last basho despite being obviously in considerable discomfort, turning in an 11-4 record, and while his final day loss may have caused him to miss out on a special prize, the nine-rank promotion is probably welcome compensation. Avoiding a battering from the San’yaku might well work out in his favour where a 12-3 would have almost certainly seen him in the joi.

Chiyoshoma really seemed to find his sumo in the second half of Haru, and his 9-6 record has left him at the M6e spot. I’m really hoping he can be just as strong – and as entertaining – at the start of this basho as he was at the end of the last!

Hokutofuji is one of those who hit the Joi and bounced off. Hopefully he’ll be able to arrest his slide down the banzuke at M9e. He has no shortage of talent but he’s had a rough time of it in the last couple of bashos. I’m looking forward to seeing him challenging the upper ranks again.

Takakeisho‘s unfortunate and injury-affected record dropped him to M10w. Takakeisho is far more than a mid-Maegashira talent, and if he is free from injury, there’s a good chance he will simply demolish all around him.

Arawashi‘s shambolic 2-13 record sees him drop to M12e, where I’m actually quite happy to see him. His judo-like throws don’t seem to work too well on the most experienced guys at the top of the banzuke, but in the middle, he’s a very entertaining wildcard.

Aoiyama goes up a slightly silly four ranks from a bare-minimum kachi-koshi, but we’ve already seen he can do just fine at higher ranks.

The Juryo-Makuuchi promotion line

The Tachiai.org team noticed that lower Makuuchi had a lot of demotion candidates while upper Juryo was short on people to promote into their vacated spaces. Since the sizes of the upper two divisions are fixed, this led to some tough decisions for the banzuke committee.

Those we thought were likely demotion candidates:

  • Hidenoumi, 3-12 from M16w.
  • Myogiryu, 6-9 from M15w. (Spared at M16w)
  • Sokokurai, 5-7-3 from M15e.
  • Nishikigi, 5-10 from M14w. (Spared at a skin-of-his-teeth M17e)
  • Kotoyuki, 1-13-1 M12w .
  • Onosho, held the respectable rank of M5w but was Kyujo all tournament.

Sokokurai and Onosho fell to the J1 spots, which really feels like Sokokurai got off very lightly, and gives me hope to see them both back in Makuuchi sooner rather than later. Sometimes it feels like Nishikigi is attached to the bottom of Makuuchi with duct tape, but it seems very unlikely that the banzuke committee will let him get away with another make-koshi this time.

The hard-working promotees:

  • Kyokutaisei, from J1e to M15w with 8-7, his first time ranked in Makuuchi. Let’s see if he can make it last!
  • Takekaze, from J1w to M14w with 9-6. A long way from his career-high rank of Sekiwake, but at the age of 38 he’s the second-oldest rikishi still competing above sandanme.
  • …and here’s the oldest. Aminishiki, Uncle Sumo, Isegahama-beya’s lone victorious Sekitori, most likely rikishi to be described as “wily”, oldest rikishi ever to return to Makuuchi from Juryo… and now he’s done it a second time. From J2e to M16w with an 8-7 record, and while I don’t exactly expect him to do great things, he should be very happy to be back in the top division.
  • A third veteran, Sadanoumi, took the Juryo Yusho with an 11-4 record from J4e, and has been rewarded with a jump to M14e. He’s a good deal younger than Takekaze and Aminishiki, though, and he may well be hoping to start climbing back towards his career-high M1 rank.