Here we are, in the second day of round 6. The yusho eliminations for this round have all been played yesterday. Round 7 spans the last three days of the basho, with all yusho deciders taking place on day 13, and playoffs, if any, taking place on senshuraku.
But despite not having any yusho matches today, we still have plenty of familiar faces and some nice sumo. Let’s go.
We are down to 3 co-leaders with 10-2 records: Ozeki Takakeisho, Sekiwake Shodai, and surprise of the tournament, maegashira 14 Tobizaru, who is certain to receive a special prize in his top-division debut. Three additional wrestlers—pre-tournament favorite Asanoyama and high-performing maegashira Wakatakakage and Onosho, who were both dropped from the lead group by Tobizaru—are one off the pace at 9-3.
The schedulers are not messing around, with the top-ranked co-leaders meeting tomorrow in what has to be the match of the tournament so far. Takakeisho leads the head-to-head 7-4, but Shodai has taken the last two. The next roadblock for Tobizaru is M1 Takanosho, who has taken all 5 of their lower-division meetings. Asanoyama takes on struggling Mitakeumi, who does hold a 5-2 career edge in their rivalry. Wakatakakage takes on Terunofuji, while Onosho is matched with Takarafuji.
Takakeisho is in the lead group, and a second career title would be the start of a Yokozuna challenge for him. Fellow Ozeki Asanoyama trails by one and still controls his fate, unless Tobizaru were to somehow win out without facing him. Co-leader Shodai has successfully defended his rank, can still hope for an Ozeki promotion and, barring that, will carry a 2-basho run forward into the November tournament. West Sekiwake Mitakeumi (7-5) will remain in san’yaku but still needs one win in the final 3 days to maintain his rank and three to continue an Ozeki run.
Shin-Sekiwake Daieisho (4-8) will drop from his career-high rank, and one more loss will drop him out of san’yaku altogether. Both Komusubi, Okinoumi and Endo, are make-koshi, and will be back in the rank-and-file on the next banzuke. The most likely number of open san’yaku slots is 2, but it could be as few as 1 if Daieisho wins out and limits his drop to Komusubi and as many as 3 if Shodai earns promotion. M1e Terunofuji (8-4) leads the promotion queue, closely followed by M1w Takanosho (8-4). If only one slot were to open, and Takanosho were to finish with a better record than Terunofuji, the banzuke committee would have a difficult decision to make.
Lots of losses by the demotion contenders on day 12; only Shimanoumi moved closer to safety, and Enho and Kaisei removed themselves from any danger entirely.
Certain to drop to Juryo: Abi and Kyokutaisei.
Likely to drop, barring favorable banzuke luck due to a lack of promotion contenders in Juryo and/or even worse performances by other demotion candidates: Shohozan, Ishiura.
3 wins needed: Kotoshogiku.
2 wins needed: Shimanoumi, Ichinojo, Hoshoryu*. *3 if everything breaks against him.
Not many wins among the Juryo promotion hopefuls. J2w Kotonowaka (9-3) remains the only man certain to rise to the top division. Fellow Sadagotake beya J2e Kotoyuki, 7-4, still needs a win to secure his kachi-koshi, which would almost certainly to see him promoted. J11w Chiyonokuni, 11-1, now leads the yusho race by 2 wins, and 2 more will not only clinch the championship but should return him to Makuuchi. Several other Juryo rikishi remain in the running for a lucky ticket to the top division.
As noted previously, the Makushita-Juryo exchange picture is complicated by the mandated absences and uncertain banzuke fates of J7 Azumaryu and J14 Fujiazuma. There are already two certain openings in Juryo, one created by Kizakiumi’s retirement and the other by Oki’s 0-10 sekitori debut. J14 Kitaharima (5-7) needs to win out to survive, and J12 Daishoho (5-7) needs 2. Everyone else has done enough to stay, so anywhere between 2 and 6 slots could be open.
Of the 7 rikishi still in contention in the Makushita promotion zone, only one was in action today: Ms1w Jokoryu (4-3), who got his kachi-koshi while handing Kitaharima his 7th loss, and will likely return to the salaried ranks for the first time since January 2019. Another promotion should be decided tomorrow in a Darwin match between Ms1e Takagenji and Ms3w Sakigake, both 3-3. The other 3-3 man, Ms5e Kotodaigo, will be last in the promotion queue even if he wins his final bout, and would need 6 slots to open. Ms2e Chiyonoumi and Ms4w Naya, both 4-2, and Ms5w Ura (5-1), are not on tomorrow’s torikumi, and will have to wait until the final weekend to have their fates decided.
The big news in this snoozer of a basho day is that Endo went kyujo, giving Takakeisho a much needed day off. The report cites ongoing trouble with a knee, requiring fluid to be drained from it repeatedly, and advising 4 weeks treatment. Takakeisho will face co-leader Shodai on day 13 for a match that may decide the Aki yusho. We saw Takakeisho struggle with his right arm / shoulder following his day 11 match against Takarafuji, so the time to recover was quite the gift from Endo (send him a couple of those Yoshinoya coupons).
With day 12 done, we can look ahead to the final 3 days of this basho. Should Shodai prevail on day 13, the subsequent match against Asanoyama will represent a narrow but real chance for the man that most sumo fans expected to be the yusho favorite to wedge himself back into the race. Should Takakeisho win the day 13 match against Shodai, the pivotal match will be the final, where Asanoyama and Takakeisho will face off at the end of day 15. Solid schedule building, and match making this Aki. My compliments to the NSK!
Kotoshoho defeats Ishiura – Ishiura’s dive to grab Kotoshoho’s mawashi at the tachiai missed, leaving Ishiura wide open for counter attack. It came swiftly, and overpowered anything else Ishiura may have wanted to do. That damaged right ankle really can’t take much pressure at all. That’s Kotoshoho’s 8th win, and he is kachi-koshi for September.
Kaisei defeats Shohozan – Also in the group that can’t generate much forward pressure is Shohozan, who picks up his 9th loss. Aki is pretty miserable for him, but at least Kaisei found win number 6.
Meisei defeats Chiyotairyu – One big hit at the tachiai from Chiyotairyu, and his follow up met Meisei’s step to the side. Chiyotairyu hits the clay. No exciting sumo so far today….
Shimanoumi defeats Kotoshogiku – Shimanoumi concedes to go chest to chest with Kotoshogiku. In days past this was a sure route to a loss. But the Kyushu Bulldozer can’t really push ahead like he once could, and Shimanoumi is able to stalemate him. Kotoshogiku rallies and moves Shimanoumi with extra effort, but that big push left him unweighted. Shimanoumi reads it well and swings him down for a much needed win.
Enho defeats Hoshoryu – Hoshoryu had the better of the tachiai, but found himself on defense, trying to keep Enho’s hands from getting inside and grabbing whatever they could reach. Hoshoryu now one loss away from make-koshi and a risk of dropping out of the top division.
Tokushoryu defeats Ichinojo – Ichinojo tried a pull early, it was poorly timed, and he was not at all set up to do it properly. In response Tokushoryu drove ahead against little resistance to avoid make-koshi another day. Ichinojo drops to 6-6.
Tobizaru defeats Wakatakakage – Co leaders in an elimination match? Oh yes indeed. The two are quite even in size, style and came into this with matching 9-2 records. This was their 6th match head to head, and it looked to me that Tobizaru anticipated each of Wakatakakage’s offensive moves. As a fan of the “Flying Monkey” for some time, I am delighted to see him doing well in his first top division tournament.
Aoiyama defeats Sadanoumi – It really seems to my eye that Sadanoumi’s knee is really limiting his sumo right now. He used a low velocity tachiai, and caught multiple volleys of Big Dan’s V-Twin. Sadanoumi held his ground for a few moments, but once Aoiyama gets that thing revved up, it’s really tough to overcome.
Myogiryu defeats Kotoeko – The “nap-time sumo” theme continues, as these two fail to make much of a fight out of it. It was Myogiryu overpowering a possibly injured Kotoeko. Both end the day at 5-7.
Ryuden defeats Terutsuyoshi – I do like that Ryuden did not advance in the tachiai – too many stunts by Terutsuyoshi this basho. As a result, Terutsuyoshi arrives low and a bit off balance. Ryuden gets a right hand outside grip, and carefully pulls Terutsuyoshi forward and down. More snoozy sumo, but very nicely executed by the already make-koshi Ryuden.
Hokutofuji defeats Tamawashi – Seriously, are all these guys so banged up right now that they are mostly going through the motions? Tamawashi has a solid opening gambit, but Hokutofuji rallies and pushes him out of the ring. It’s good to see Hokutofuji win one, but that Tamawashi seemed to throw in his best attack, and then give up. Both end the day 5-7.
Onosho defeats Terunofuji – Time to wake up! Onosho had one of his better tachiai this basho, getting his hands inside of Terunofuji’s defense by the second step. Terunofuji focused on getting that right hand outside, but Onosho went for morozashi. With his hands well planted on the front of Terunofuji’s mawashi, he advanced and threw the former Ozeki to the clay. Win #9 for Onosho.
Takanosho defeats Kagayaki – Dear, another snoozer. Maybe Kagayaki is hurt as well. He gets one good forward move in against Takanosho, and then Takanosho just overpowers him. Win number 8 for Takanosho, and he will be a candidate for San’yaku in November.
Okinoumi defeats Tochinoshin – More sleepy sumo as Tochinoshin works for a left hand outside grip, can’t maintain it, can’t maintain any forward pressure against Okinoumi, goes soft and gets escorted over the bales.
Takayasu defeats Mitakeumi – A much needed tonic as these two well-rounded fellows decide they actually care to battle. It seems that now that he is less hurt, we can once again count on Takayasu to slam into things with a fierce grunt and maximum force. Today that was Mitakeumi, who took it fairly well. Mitakeumi looked like he changed his mind on attack strategy at least twice in the opening moments of the match, something that is tough to do while Takayasu is hitting you. The result was Mitakeumi losing his balance, and Takayasu swinging him down. Both men went twisting to the dohyo, but Mitakeumi rolled first. Both are now 7-5.
Shodai defeats Takarafuji – Back into snooze mode again, as even Takarafuji’s reactive / defense heavy sumo can do much against Shodai. Shodai looks focused but uninspired. But that’s win number 10 and he stays in the leader group.
Asanoyama defeats Daieisho – There was no chance that Daieisho was going to phone in a match, especially once against Asanoyama, whom he has a track record of beating, at least before Asanoyama entered the San’yaku. Daieisho had the offensive edge until he decided to try to pull the Ozeki down, and as we have seen too many times this September, that loss of forward pressure invited Asanoyama to overwhelm Daieisho, driving him back and eventually down. Win number 9 for Asanoyama, and he has to hope for an unusual series of events to take place over the final 3 days to give him any hope of still challenging for the cup.
The NSK website lists Endo as withdrawing on day 12. I haven’t seen any news reports as to the nature of his injury, but he picked up his 8th loss on day 11, and presumably decided there wasn’t enough at stake to keep fighting hurt. With only 3 wins, Endo will be ranked as a mid-maegashira on the next banzuke. Ozeki Takakeisho will pick up a much-needed freebie and stay on the leaderboard.