The Osaka basho that takes place in March
In the Saturday morning action, American sumotori Wakaichiro won his fourth match against Suzuki via frontal push out (oshidashi). This brings Wakaichiro’s record to 3-1 for the Haru basho, one win away from a majority winning record (kachi-koshi).
It was a decent bout with some good action, wiht Wakaichiro clearly in control, and he seems genuinely very happy with his win.
Texas sumotori Wakaichiro (2-1) has his fourth bout early Saturday against another veteran of the Jonokuchi and Jonidan ranks. As is sometimes the case, a rikishi starts out in Jonokuchi, gets promoted up one division to Jonidan, but can never quote secure promotion to Sandanme. These rikishi bounce around the lower two divisions, often for several years. This is the case with Wakaichiro’s opponent Suzuki. He joined sumo in 2014, and has yet to rise to Sandanme. This means he has a great amount of experience and may present some challenges to Wakaichiro, who is only fighting in his second tournament.
Tachiai expected Suzuki to come off the line quickly and open up a fierce thrusting attack. As always, we will bring you news and video of Wakaichiro’s bout as soon as it becomes available.
After the awesome that constituted day 6, the schedulers have a tough time given the injuries and some key rikishi being kyujo. The challenge is to keep the schedule interesting, and the matches compelling. At the moment the basho is in the hands of Kisenosato, and to a lesser degree his stable mate Takayasu. While Tochiozan’s matching flawless record is impressive, the schedulers will take care of him in the next few days.
Leaders – Kisenosato, Takayasu, Tochiozan
Hunt Group – Terunofuji, Takarafuji, Chiyoshoma
Chasers – Kakuryu, Harumafuji, Tamawashi, Kotoshogiku, Chiyonokuni, Okinoumi, Daishomaru, Tokushoryu
9 Matches Remain
As noted earlier, the lower San’yaku ranks continue to out-perform their historic trends. It is the job of the Ozeki and the Yokozuna to defeat them daily for the first week, and it has not really happened to the extent it normally does. Now with one Ozeki and one Yokozuna out, the chances of this trend reversing are small. In my opinion, this signals that these lower San’yaku rikishi are competitive with the upper San’yaku, and that means promotions this year. It may also mean retirements soon.
Tokushoryu vs Daishomaru – Meeting of what I am calling the “Smash Bros”, these two are likely to throw a lot of slaps, jabs and thrusts. Tokushoryu has yet to defeat Daishomaru, but there is always a first time…
Takakeisho vs Ura – Ura is still struggling to deal with the size, speed and strength of Makuuchi class rikishi. It was always going to be a learning experience for him, and a challenge to boot. Takakeisho came up from Juryo in January, and seems to have settled in quite well. Ura has never won against Takakeisho (formerly Sato in Juryo).
Tochiozan vs Okinoumi – Not sure what has enlivened Tochiozan this basho, but I am really enjoying it. Okinoumi seems to have his painful medical problems contained for the moment, and is fighting quite well. This will probably be a very good match, with a slight edge to Okinoumi. Their career record is 11-10, so very evenly matched.
Endo vs Chiyoshoma – Chiyoshoma has only one loss, and is fighting well this basho. Endo seems to be struggling, but has shown moments of excellence. It will be up to Endo to keep Chiyoshoma from establishing a throwing hold, which Chiyoshoma will try for right at the tachiai.
Yoshikaze vs Chiyonokuni – A pair of high-intensity rikishi means this may be a fast moving battle of jabs and thrusts. Both of them are small, strong and maneuverable. Yoshikaze has the edge on experience, and leads their career match set 6-1.
Aoiyama vs Takarafuji – Aoiyama leads the series 13-2, believe it or not. Takarafuji has been doing great this basho, so it will be interesting to see if he can overcome the giant Belgian’s punishing reach. Look for Aoiyama to keep thrusting Takarafuji away.
Kotoshogiku vs Shohozan – Shohozan is fresh off of a very nice gold star win against Yokozuna Kakuryu. Kotoshogiku refuses to give in until he regains his Ozeki title. Shohozan needs to stay mobile and don’t let Kotoshogiku get his inside grip.
Sokokurai vs Takayasu – Interestingly enough, Takayasu is 3-2 against Sokokurai, so this is not a sure thing. Takayasu has been presenting the best sumo of his career, but he has also had persistence problems in past basho. Namely that by the second half his vigor and energy start to fade. Sokokurai is no slouch, having taken both the Jun-Yusho and Gino-sho in January.
Mitakeumi vs Kisenosato – On day 6, Mitakeumi made a huge mistake of thinking if he went chest-to-chest with Kotoshogiku, he could show the washed up Ozeki it was time to move on. Give ‘ku his chest meant a fast hug-n-chug parade across the tawara. Let’s hope that Mitakeumi’s hubris is contained, and he takes his bout with Kisenosato seriously.
Shohozan had not won a single bout this tournament, but turned on the power in the final match of the day to win against Yokozuna Kakuryu.
Meanwhile, Kisenosato and Takayasu finished an exciting day of sumo undefeated. This is actually a remarkable achievement by two men who are executing a really solid form of sumo. It should be noted that both of them train their brains out daily, and for the last 6 months or so have totally devoted their lives to achieving greatness in the sport. Heading up to the half way point, they are the ones to beat
In my greatly anticipated match of the pocket warriors, Ura prevailed over Ishiura. Interesting to see both of them try to come in super low at the tachiai. Ura established an arm lock on Ishiura and scored a frontal push out win (oshidashi).
Tochiozan dispatched Sadanoumi to remain undefeated. I might add that Tochiozan is looking very solid, in control and executing well. He is not getting the attention that the Tagonoura Heya rikishi are, but his record is fairly impressive after several basho of of uninspiring performance.
In Okinoumi’s win over Ichinojo, Okinoumi was clearly in control the entire time. While Ichinojo has greatly improved as of late, he needs to develop more by matching against veterans like Okinoumi.
Chiyonokuni has also been fighting very well, currently at 4-2. He blasted Endo off the dohyo to score his latest win. Endo has his followers, but matches like this should give his fans pause. Also in the “fighting really well” category, Chiyoshoma. He went to 5-1 today with a win over Hokotofuji, who will likely have his first career make-koshi.
Would you believe that Kotoshogiku won again? Yes indeed! Mitakeumi gave it a lot of effort, but made the mistake of going chest-to-chest with Kotoshogiku. With the hard part done, Kotoshogiku began the hug-n-chug process, and Mitakeumi learned you should never open the door for him to do that.
The match of the day, Takayasu vs Terunofuji, turned out to follow the theme for this basho thus far. Terunofuji launched out of the tachiai with intensity and action, Takayasu focused on moving forward strongly and with purpose. It was over in seconds with Terunofuji picking up his first loss.
Takarafuji fared no better against Kisenosato, but he put in a more valiant effort and gave Kisenosato a good struggle. There is more than a week to go, but fans may want to begin to fantasize about a final day playoff between Kisenosato and Takayasu for the yusho. That, dear readers, would possibly be legendary.
The Harumfuji vs Yoshikaze match was in fact the street brawl their bouts typically are. Harumafuji picked up the win by what can best be described as a slippiotoshi, when Yoshikaze face-planted into the clay after losing his footing. Like in Kyushu, there have been a large number of traction control problems on the Osaka dohyo this basho. Perhaps it should be addressed.
And in the final match of the day, Shohozan surprised Kakuryu, in a nice convincing win. I am very happy that Shohozan picked up a kinboshi. It’s clear that Kakuryu was not in top form today.
A great weekend of sumo lies ahead, as we head to the half way point of the Osaka tournament.