Following his brutal injury in March of 2017, the then-freshly-minted Yokozuna Kisenosato faced a difficult choice. Nursing a torn pectoral muscle and a host of other secondary injuries, he looked a possibly career-ending surgery in the face and blinked. Instead, hoping to “heal naturally”, he contributed weakly to the remaining four tournaments of the year. Though he had been repeatedly urged by the Yokozuna Deliberation Council to take his time and recover to full strength, time and again Kisenosato returned to the dohyo and languished.
During the Kyushu basho, he allowed his record to drop to 4-5 before he faced the facts and withdrew, but not before giving up an alarming five kinboshi. Even Maegashira 5 Takarafuji was able to defeat the first Japanese Yokozuna in a generation. Clearly, Kisenosato was still significantly impacted by his injuries, and in no condition to return.
At the time of his injury, the Tachiai crew remarked that Kisenosato would never be considered “ready” until we once again saw him sparring against Takayasu and able to hold the upper hand. Truth be told, the endless, relentless training sessions with Takayasu is what drove both of them to higher performance. Since Kisenosato’s injury, Takayasu’s performance has plateaued or even declined.
Now, reports from training leading up to January’s Hatsu Basho state that Kisenosato is back to battling Takayasu in bout after bout, sometimes for an hour or more at a time, and winning a comfortable majority. While it may be too optimistic to hope for the return of Kisenosato, we believe he may be able to execute Ozeki level sumo for the upcoming tournament.
Like Kakuryu, Kisenosato has been warned that the next time he steps onto the dohyo, he must compete at Yokozuna level, or retire. While I was not originally a fan of “The Great Pumpkin”, his fighting spirit and his commitment to his sumo have earned my respect. In my heart, I am eager to see him once again fight with vigor and purpose.
The 2018 Hastu basho is less than a week away, and there are a number of important stories that the team at Tachiai will be following throughout the 15 days. For many, the highlight story of this tournament is Yokozuna Kakuryu. After nearly a year of solid injury and kyujo, he faces a career-ending ultimatum: He completes the Hatsu basho, and does so with Yokozuna level performance, or he retires.
2017 was a disastrous year for Kakuryu. He completed only a single tournament: the March basho in Osaka, finishing 10-5, which is a weak performance for a Grand Champion. For September and November, he did not participate at all. During the entirety of 2017, he only managed 18 wins. In a recent meeting, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council declared that their patience had ended with this dismal performance, and that as a result, Kakuryu faced his make-or-break basho.
Kakuryu is suffering from a number of chronic injuries to his feet and his lower back, which have prevented him from executing his trademark reactive sumo. His approach on the dohyo requires flexibility, mobility, and fast reflexes. But since his elevation to Yokozuna, he has been plagued time and again with problems that either kept him from the dohyo or had him under-achieving.
Reports from pre-basho training are a mixed bag. Clearly, he has applied himself with vigor, striving to ensure that he survives this crucial tournament. But as with Kisenosato, it will all be determined by whatever injuries are troublesome on each day. The Tachiai crew will be watching “Big K” with rapt interest, as we love to see him confound and dismantle his opponents. But it seems that, sadly, his time to go may soon be at hand.
Before every Tokyo basho, a special training session takes place at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, called the YDC “Keiko-Soken” (Group observation of keiko). Members of the YDC and the NSK board watch the sekitori practice. This allows the YDC to assess the situation of the Yokozuna, potential Yokozuna, and Grand Sumo in general.
This month’s Keiko-Soken took place earlier today.
Kakuryu vs. Kisenosato
The one who drew the most positive attention was Yokozuna Kakuryu. He first took up Onosho and Mitakeumi. Out of 10 bouts with these lower san-yaku, he won 9. After a bit of rest outside the dohyo, he called upon Kisenosato and Takayasu for four bouts, all won by the Izutsu Yokozuna. He was pleased: “Not bad. One worry less”.
Kisenosato and Goeido
Kisenosato, on the other hand, was lacklustre. Despite practicing with Takayasu like he was on fire for the past few days, he ended up with a miserable 2-6 balance in his bouts with Kakuryu and Goeido. His stance was too high and he couldn’t force his opponents to retreat. As Goeido shook off his left arm and threw him with a kotenage, the Yokozuna sighed.
This performance caused considerable worry among the members of the YDC. Kitamura, the head of the YDC, said that “I have the impression that his strength has not come back. He had some good tachiai, but when pushed, his ability to return the push has not come back. At this rate, he should take another basho off”. When asked whether his “life or death” basho can still be put off he said “Well, five consecutive kyujo is not unprecedented”. Indeed, Takanohana in his day took seven consecutive full kyujo.
Kisenosato was not happy, either: “Oh, that was not good. I have less than two weeks to correct what needs to be corrected”.
Hakkaku, chairman of the NSK board, commented: “He is still too light. If he doesn’t do more bouts, this will not improve. But if he does too many bouts, he may injure himself. There is also a problem of age. If he overdoes things, he will injure some other part. It’s hard to adjust around all that”. [In this context, “light” doesn’t refer to physical mass; rather it’s a description of how easy it is for the other rikishi to push him around. –PinkMawashi]
The third Yokozuna, Hakuho, seems unable to go through an interaction with the YDC without friction.
Hakuho stretching. In the background, his favorite towel rack, Enho.
This public practice was, in fact, Hakuho’s first keiko since the beginning of the year. Actually, the first since the banzuke was announced on December 26th. He started the day doing stretches, shiko, and suri-ashi, while the other Yokozuna and Ozeki were doing actual sumo inside the dohyo. That appeared to be his plan for the day, but Hakkaku was having none of that. “Hakuho!” he snapped at the dai-yokozuna, and instructed him to mount the dohyo. The yokozuna entered the dohyo without even taping himself up, and named Shodai as his partner. Unsurprisingly, he won all seven bouts with the Maegashira.
Shodai was not the partner Hakkaku wanted him to engage, though. “I meant for him to engage an Ozeki if he can. He must have misunderstood.” said Hakkaku.
Furthermore, one of those bouts with Shodai included his now-infamous harite. This caused Kitanofuji, the commentator, to say with a bitter smile: “That man is a scoundrel. He was warned about that by the YDC. Is he trying to start a fight with them?” The members of the YDC, however, avoided criticizing Hakuho for this, perhaps because it was only a single one in a series of 7 bouts. Nevertheless, they did say that “His performance was uninteresting. He just drove Shodai to exhaustion”.
Takayasu vs. Goeido
Goeido was performing well in this keiko-soken. In his engagement with Kisenosato, he won three and lost two bouts, and against Takayasu he won three and lost 1. He was showing his Goeido 2.0 power-tachiai and relentless forward motion.
While Takayasu had a less than brilliant tally of wins vs. losses, he was showing no signs of favoring his right thigh, and was performing his usual powerful rushes. Hakkaku commented: “I have a good feeling about Goeido, and Takayasu is back. I have high hopes from both Ozeki.” Takayasu himself was not too happy, but still hopes to be in the yusho run in Hatsu.
Finally, here is a short video from NHK where you can see some of the aforementioned action:
On Friday the Yokozuna Deliberation Council held one of their periodic reviews of up and coming sekitori. These training sessions are called “Soken” and in the past have been fascinating looks at the state of the wrestlers, and the opinions of the council.
The headline coming from the Soken today is that all 4 Yokozuna appeared, but only Harumafuji did any sumo. This should give sumo fans globally some pause. Out of the 4 top men in sumo, only one was healthy enough to actually engage in any matches. For Kakuryu and Kisenosato, they were present but did not face off against any opponents, they simply performed training exercises. Hakuho arrived in the final minutes, and did not even join in training.
The Council chief, Masatoshi Kitamura, remarked that the situation was “Not satisfactory”, and expressed his disappointment that 3 of the Yokozuna did no sumo.
At this point fans are beginning to worry about the Aki tournament, and with good cause. With few headliners likely to appear and fewer still to make it to day 15, the upcoming Aki basho likely represents a turning point for the current crop of sumo’s best.
Some specifics
Hakuho – Knee problems, fans may recall that last year he missed Aki for surgery on his toe, but they also did work on his knee. That the knee is once again bothering him is troublesome
Kisenosato – Has not been healthy enough to train up for Aki. As always everyone is being very vague about his actual condition and holding out phony hope for some miraculous improvement over the course of a few hours that will allow him to compete.
Kakuryu – Still barely able to walk, has practiced no sumo, faced no opponents in test matches. He is benched for Aki, as it has been made clear he must be fully healthy and highly competitive in his next basho or he is done.
Harumafuji – He continues to have problems with his knees and elbows, but he is one tough rikishi. He will give it his best shot, and I expect him to at least start Aki.
