Hatsu 2023 Day 1 Torikumi

Andy Aki Basho 2022

The Kyokai has released the list of sekitori bouts for Day 1. Any notion of Terunofuji’s appearance is gone. He is kyujo. Lone Ozeki, Takakeisho, will take on Wakamotoharu in the musubi-no-ichiban whose brother, Wakatakakage, will seek to get his Ozeki-run off on the right foot with Meisei. The Hoshoryu vs Tobizaru bout, though, will be fire (as the kids say).

Takayasu versus Daieisho will be a challenging return to Sanyaku for the grizzled veteran. Remember, one of these men has won a yusho. Mitakeumi will face Shodai in probably the least anticipated bout of the tournament. Kiribayama will have his hands full with Tamawashi… Well, okay, it may be more appropriate to say Tamawashi will have his hands full of Kiribayama’s face. I do think his tsuppari will rule the day. And for our final sanyaku bout, I guess the first one, chronologically, Kotonowaka will welcome yusho winner, Abi.

Hatsu 2023 Contest

Andy Aki Basho 2022

ENTRIES ARE CLOSED!!

Hatsu basho is nearly upon us! Tachiai is teaming up again with BuySumoTickets to bring readers the chance to win two tickets to the May basho for those of you who will be there in May. This time, the theme is Asanoyama and his return to Juryo. How many wins will Asanoyama have at Hatsu? As a tie-breaker, how many wins will the Makuuchi winner have?

I set up a separate page here on Tachiai for the contest, with form and details, so click the link below to go to the contest page. I don’t want this to get lost in the “infinite scroll” as time goes by. I’ll update that page with entries and status during the tournament. It won’t be a big deal for this tournament but I plan to have a dedicated page for contest entries. I need to see how this one goes, first.

Anyway, have your entries in by the start of Hatsu’s Day 1 action, January 8 — Japan time. We can’t have people guessing through the whole tournament, can we?

Contest details and form are here.

Isegahama Bullying Incident Leads Oyakata to Resign from Board

Andy Scandal , ,

It’s Two-Fer-One Tuesday, I mean Monday, here at Tachiai! The holidays have offered up a real backlog of scandals! We’re practically giving them away!

From Jalopnik

Andy, you’d make a terrible pitch man. Just say you don’t have a picture of Isegahama and get on with the news, buddy.

While the Ichinojo thing has actually been stewing for a few months and has found some resolution (for now), another revelation has taken us by surprise today. There’s been a bullying situation at Isegahama-beya involving three wrestlers from the lower-ranks.

We do not know the identities of the wrestlers officially, yet, but two wrestlers were apparently bullying a third. The bullying included the victim being physically punched and stomped, as well as burned with chanko. One of the bullies has been forced to retire while the other is suspended for two tournaments. Isegahama has resigned from his post on the Board of Directors.

This is certainly a sad situation which has cost at least one wrestler his career. Isegahama-beya has had several recent new recruits and a few banzuke-gai, so it’s certainly not clear at this point what impact it will have on the stable. Sadly, there will be more to come on this story.

Ichinojo Suspended for Hatsu 2023

Andy Controversy, Ichinojo (逸ノ城), Scandal ,

The Kyokai held a board meeting on Monday to address a conflict between Ichinojo and his stable. The conflict involved allegations of Ichinojo’s excessive drinking on numerous occasions which had escalated to the point where he had assaulted Minato-oyakata’s wife and not only moved out of the stable but skipped keiko, wouldn’t eat with the stable, etc. Minato-oyakata attempted to correct Ichinojo’s behavior but the situation has become increasingly strained leading up to Ichinojo’s championship win in July, and it has continued afterwards. Over the course of the investigation, the board learned that Ichinojo had gone out in contravention of covid protocols, thus the suspension. His suspension is not as severe as Asanoyama’s and Abi’s because he had gone to restaurants instead of “cabaret” clubs, or hostess clubs and he also did not lie to the board.

Ichinojo is ranked Maegashira 7 East for the upcoming tournament but it’s not clear whether his suspension will drop him out of the top division. He will be just at the cusp of demotion so it’s conceivable that the collective performance of the four Sekiwake and four Komusubi might be the deciding factor of whether he hangs onto the bottom rung or lands at the top of Juryo. If there is a 6-man sanyaku in March, there could be 18 rungs on the Hiramaku ladder. Hidenoumi’s suspension from Maegashira 8 resulted in a fall to Juryo 2 with 17 Maegashira ranks.