Some nice sumo today, the Asanoyama vs Mitakeumi match did not disappoint, Takakeisho boxed Enho in and gave him nothing to grab, and Tokushoryu showed us some great sumo, breaking Yokozuna Kakuryu’s left hand grip.

As we head into the middle weekend of this basho, we are going to start tracking the leader board, but we can tell you now, Yokozuna Hakuho is the man to catch for any rikishi who wants to try to take the cup.

Highlight Matches

Chiyomaru defeats Kotonowaka – Chiyomaru bounces back from 2 consecutive losses. He was able to get the inside position at the tachiai, and was relentless driving blows against Kotonowaka’s chest. Simple but very effective sumo. Chiyomaru improves to 4-2.

Kaisei defeats Azumaryu – Kaisei seems to have found his sumo again, and is fighting like he means it now. Azumaryu got the better of the tachiai, and set up for offense, but quickly found out that there is just too much to Kaisei to move forward. With his stance wide, and his hips low, Kaisei powered forward and made short work of Azumaryu. Both end the match at 3-3.

Nishikigi defeats Shimanoumi – Nishikigi finally gets his first win, escaping the quarantine group. Nishikigi’s tachiai had no forward motion, he simply received Shimanoumi charge. That’s not to say it was poorly executed, Nishikigi sacrificed forward motion to have his feet set for defense, and his hands ready to attack. Immediately, Shimanoumi realized his mistake, and struggled to block Nishikigi’s drive to get a left hand inside grip. He managed to shut that down, but at the cost of letting Nishikigi drive forward and force him from the ring.

Kotoshogiku defeats Daiamami – Very happy to see Kotoshogiku rack up another win, and doing it using “his brand of sumo”. Impressed to see Daiamami work up a rescue throw at the bales, but the Kyushu Bulldozer was not going to be denied.

Aoiyama defeats Meisei – If anything, Big Dan Aoiyama is becoming more potent and more aggressive as this tournament grinds toward the middle weekend. In picking up his 6th consecutive win of the tournament, he seemed content to just continue bludgeoning hapless Meisei into a pulp, but Meisei lost his footing and hit the clay.

Ikioi defeats Terutsuyoshi – Terutsuyoshi, planning a henka, started with a matta, which probably tipped his hand. The henka went off correctly, but Ikioi maintained his footing, and stopped short of the tawara. Terutsuyoshi lunged with poor body and foot placement, and Ikioi took him to school. I found the resulting sukuinage most satisfying.

Chiyotairyu defeats Sadanoumi – Chiyotairyu continues to dominate, regardless of whatever he did to his ankle a few days ago. Sadanoumi’s speed and low hips were no help today, Chiyotairyu was just too strong and too on his game. He improves to 5-1.

Takanosho defeats Tochiozan – Tochiozan is now the last competing rikishi with zero wins. I am going to continue to believe that its down to some injury. Takanosho made fairly quick work of him today, and we saw Tochiozan unable to push back against Takanosho’s forward rush for more than just a moment. Takanosho now at 5-1.

Ishiura defeats Tochinoshin – Beautifully executed henka today for Ishiura. He sold it for full price, and Tochinoshin bought that lemon, no questions asked.

Kiribayama defeats Shohozan – Shohozan continues to struggle, as Kiribayama ignores Shohozan’s face slap, his better body position and his energetic forward advance to lift and swing him out with an uwatenage. Now at 1-5, Shohozan is officially having a dud of a tournament.

Kagayaki defeats Myogiryu – At the tachiai, Myogiryu went for Kagayaki’s throat, and Kagayaki attacked his opponents armpits. While I am sure it was uncomfortable to endure that neck grip, the hazu-oshi payed Kagayaki handsomely. Unable to phase Mr Fundamentals, Myogiryu found himself off balance thanks to the hazu-oshi, then slapped around, then shoved out. Kagayaki improves to 4-2.

Ryuden defeats Tamawashi – Joining Shohozan in “high energy veteran having a crummy basho” group is Tamawashi. That’s not to say that Tamawashi has suddenly become a push over, he gave Ryuden a vigorous fight. But for whatever reason, Tamawashi is just not generating that much forward pressure.

Takarafuji defeats Onosho – A master class on the extend and defend approach to sumo today. Time and again Onosho rushed ahead to clash with Takarafuji, and Takarafuji gave ground carefully and deliberately. It was a good bet that Onosho would soon over-commit an fall flat on his face, but Onosho seems to have greatly improved his balance since January. Eventually laying hands on Onosho, it was still fairly easy to take him off balance and trigger a forward fall, giving Takarafuji the win. Both leave the match with 4-2 records.

Okinoumi defeats Abi – Okinoumi once again shows off his recipe for blunting the effects of Abi-zumo. Keep thrusting upwards at his elbows to disrupt his frontal force transfer, and lean into it just a bit. Abi quickly runs out of stamina, grab his body and just toss him about until his sumo crumbles.

Endo defeats Hokutofuji – Hokutofuji’s sumo is typically quite frantic, and on good day’s, Endo’s is calm and controlled. Today was a great clash of styles, as we could see Hokutofuji throwing a lot of energy into Endo’s body, and Endo carefully working to get grip, position and finally leverage to carry the match. Where Hokutofuji was focusing his effort side to side, Endo was focusing his force center-mass.

Mitakeumi defeats Asanoyama – What a match! Asanoyama worked hard to get his preferred body position and grip. Rather than worry about preventing that, Mitakeumi just blasted forward, putting maximum force into Asanoyama’s chest. Mitakeumi was rewarded with a double inside grip, and Asanoyama knew he was in trouble. Very impressed by Asanoyama’s rally to nearly unleash a rescue uwatenage, but Mitakeumi was too close, his sumo too heavy and his grip was unrelenting. This match really deserved to have a roaring crowd of rabid Nagoya Mitakeumi fans.

Daieisho defeats Shodai – Daieisho completely dominated this match. Shodai has lost 3 of his last 4, and is sometimes the case, once he starts losing, his confidence erodes, and he gets into a losing streak. Shame, too – he had a strong start.

Takakeisho defeats Enho – Points to the Ozeki for keeping Enho away from his mawashi, and preventing the power pixie from grabbing a firm hold on an arm or hand. While Takakeisho made a point of controlling the form of the match, he let Enho set the tempo. The result was pauses and gaps in the fighting. Typically Enho uses these gaps to rapidly make unexpected moves that turn the match to his advantage. In contrast, it was great to see Takakeisho let him pause, wait him out, and re-engage. It shut down one of Enho’s best techniques.

Hakuho defeats Yutakayama – Yokozuna Hakuho was fast, efficient and ruthless. I had to watch it a few times to recognize just how little motion he expended in his rapid win over Yutakayama. Hakuho remains undefeated, and is the man to beat if you want to contend for the Emperors Cup.

Tokushoryu defeats Kakuryu – In the surprise conclusion of day 6, the Hatsu yusho winner surprised Yokozuna Kakuryu with a really nice combination move to put Big K against the bales. Considering his options, Kakuryu gave up the kinboshi in exchange for risking injury in a bad fall. The key was the moment that Tokushoryu broke the Yokozuna’s deep left hand grip, and pivoted to attempt a throw. Really nice sumo today from Tokushoryu.

It’s the end of act 1 of the Haru basho. Act 1 is where we try to knock the ring rust off of the competitors, and we see who is hot, and who is not.

Hot List: Hakuho, Asanoyama, Mitakeumi, Takanosho, Ishiura ,Aoiyama
Not List: Takayasu, Tokushoryu, Myogiryu, Tochiozan, Nishikigi

The hot list contains names you might expect, with Takakeisho (whom I thought would compete for the yusho) sadly nowhere to be found, and Ishiura and Aoiyama making most welcome guest star appearances.

The not list has at least one tragic outcome, the now badly injured Takayasu. Word is that he damaged one of the ligaments in his knee in that failed throw attempt against Yokozuna Kakuryu on day 4. As a fan of Takayasu, I am deeply saddened to recognize that a grave injury, like this, at age 30, likely ends his sumo career. But given that he is a Tagonoura deshi, damn near anything could happen with his medical treatment, including being fed grubs and left in an open field to “heal naturally”. Take some advice from a yankee gaijin, go find yourself a real doctor, most honored former Ozeki.

What We Are Watching Day 5

Azumaryu vs Kotonowaka – Azumaryu won their only prior match, and they come in with matching 3-1 scores, they are evenly matched in size and weight, so its tough to tell if the advantage goes to the veteran (Azumaryu) or the shin-maku (Kotonowaka) rikishi.

Daiamami vs Chiyomaru – Daiamami is off to a terrible start this March, but perhaps he can take advantage of his career dominance of Chiyomaru (5-2) to pick up his second win. Chiyomaru was a bit too eager with the pull down on day 4. Hopefully he’s not going to repeat that.

Meisei vs Nishikigi – One of the few rikishi fighting worse than Meisei right now is none other than Nishikigi. With a monumentally bad 0-4 start, the optically challenged man from Iwate remains stubbornly in the zero win quarantine club.

Kaisei vs Shimanoumi – Shimanoumi won their only prior match, so maybe I would give him some advantage today. But on day 3 we finally saw Kaisei muster some fighting spirit. When he’s engaged, there is just far too much of him to defeat without extreme effort.

Tsurugisho vs Aoiyama – Well, Tsurugisho is a poorly consolidated bundle of aches, pains, and poorly functioning joints. He’s never won against Aoiyama, and Big Dan is undefeated, fighting like a bear. Good luck!

Ishiura vs Kotoshogiku – Kotoshogiku has won all 3 of their prior matches, but the former Ozeki is fading fast. In fact he can only muster forward pressure for brief moments or bursts of effort tells me he’s just struggling to compete. He faces 4-0 Ishiura who is looking seriously genki right now. So maybe day 5 will mark Ishiura’s first win.

Sadanoumi vs Ikioi – Sadanoumi’s speed tends to win out over Ikioi’s more force / strength focused sumo. He olds a 5-3 lead over Ikioi, but Ikioi comes in with a 3-1 record vs Sadanoumi’s 1-3. Their last meeting was Osaka 2019, and Sadanoumi has one their last 2 matches.

Terutsuyoshi vs Tochinoshin – First time match between the compact powerhouse and the injured and barely functioning former Ozeki from Georgia. We have seen one day where Tochinoshin was able to muster enough genki spirit to attack, and maybe Terutsuyoshi’s small body will allow him to fight today.

Takanosho vs Chiyotairyu – I don’t expect this match to happen, given that Chiyotairyu damaged an ankle in his day 4 match against Ishiura. Most likely a fusen-sho win for Takanosho, boosting him to a 5-0 start for Haru.

Tochiozan vs Kiribayama – Tochiozan is part of the winless quarantine group, and to my eye he’s hurt and can’t move well at all. I expect Kiribayama will rout the veteran Tochiozan in short order, giving Tochiozan a 0-5 start.

Myogiryu vs Shohozan – Both of these rikishi are off to terrible starts, with Myogiryu winless at 0-4 and Shohozan just behind him a 1-3. The good news is that one of them is going to exit the dohyo with an additional win after day 5. They have a 24 match career record that favors Myogiryu 14-10.

Tamawashi vs Onosho – I think this could be one of the highlight matches of the day. Both are strong, fast oshi-zumo specialists, and I think that Tamawashi (1-3) is due to bounce back. Onosho has managed to bypass his typical basho cold-start losing streak, and has been winning matches consistently (3-1).

Ryuden vs Takarafuji – Both have a 2-2 record, and Takarafuji holds a 3-1 career lead, with their last match during Hatsu of 2019. Takarafuji’s patient, “defend and extend” sumo tends to frustrate Ryuden, who wants to attack vigorously at all times. This plays well into Takarafuji’s strategy, and likely accounts for his career match advantage.

Kagayaki vs Abi – I am actually quite excited for this match, as it pits Kagayaki’s slow, lumbering sumo style that is heavy on the fundamentals against Abi’s frantic thrusting volleys. They are tied up 4-4 over their career, and its really anyone’s guess which way this is going to go.

Okinoumi vs Enho – Both rikishi have had poor starts to Haru, coming in with matching 1-3 records, and a series of disappointing losses. Okinoumi won their only prior match, but Enho needs to bounce back and begin to rack some wins.

Hokutofuji vs Daieisho – I think I say this every tournament – Hokutofuji fights better than what his score indicates. I know it’s an opinion, but he has honestly been fighting hard this first 5 days, and he goes against Daieisho, who has only one win. That one win was over Ozeki Takakeisho, whom he completely dominated. Many fans are looking to Hokutofuji to begin to put together an Ozeki campaign this year, but that will hinge on him upping the consistency of his winning streaks.

Endo vs Shodai – Shodai seems to have a workable formula for beating Endo (4-2) that he can use about three quarters of the time. In addition Endo has not really been on a hot streak this March, and may be working just to make kachi-koshi. Shodai seems to have not let his one loss effect him mentally, and I expect him to continue strong until week 2.

Asanoyama vs Takayasu – I don’t expect this match to happen today, or really any time this year, if ever. Takayasu seems to have damaged or destroyed a knee ligament. At his age, that’s probably a career ender. The fusen-sho win will take Asanoyama to 5-0.

Takakeisho vs Mitakeumi – Tadpole fight! Its the Grand Tadpole (大蝌蚪) Takakeisho vs the Original Tadpole, Mitakeumi. Normally you would take the Ozeki, but Takakeisho is entering the dohyo today with a middling 2-2 record, including a complete weak-sauce pulling attempt day 4 that was nothing close to Ozeki sumo. He goes against 4-0 Mitakeumi, who is looking like his basho-winning form. They are split 7-7 over their 14 career matches.

Yutakayama vs Kakuryu – Its true that “Big Unit” Yutakayama has never beaten Yokozuna Kakuryu in their 2 prior matches, and I don’t expect that to change. But given how much energy Yutakayama puts into offense in any match, it’s going to be interesting to see how Kakuryu deflect and dismantles him.

Hakuho vs Tokushoryu – Hey, Hakuho. The old guy is on a joi-jin holiday. Please don’t hurt him too much.