Ozeki Tochinoshin will be absent from today’s sumo action, due to the injury he suffered in his right thigh.
Unless he returns within a few days, he will be kadoban in Haru.
Shohozan, his opponent of the day, will get the fusen-sho.
Source: Nikkan Sports
We close out act 1 with a tight group of our “ones to watch”. The Makushita Waka* brothers are in action today, and that includes a throw down between Akua and Wakamotoharu! Act 1 is where we found out who is hot, and who is not, and try to figure out who might have a chance at the yusho. The first 5 days of action has been full of fun matches in the lower divisions, and we can expect an exciting ride for the next 10 days.
Naya vs Kirinofuji – A 2-0 bracket match, Naya has been very dominant so far, and shown some great sumo. His match against Kirinofuji has him against a rikishi who seems more comfortable in Sandanme rather than Makushita, so I give Naya a moderate edge.
Wakatakamoto vs Masutoo – In the 1-1 bracket, Wakatakamoto takes on 32 year old veteran Masutoo from Chiganoura heya. Masutoo has struggled with injuries, but is a dependable mid to upper Makushita rikishi. This is a good even match.
Midorifuji vs Tenkaiho – Midorifuji finds himself 0-2 to start Hatsu, and is up against winless Tenkaiho. Tenkaiho may sound familiar, because he is a former Maegashira and Juryo rikishi who has been fighting much lower down the banzuke since mid 2016. Could be a rough match.
Hoshoryu vs Higonojo – After a rough first match, Hoshoryu came back with energy and fighting spirit on day 4, and elevated himself to the 1-1 bracket. Today he faces 34 year old Kise heya veteran Higonojo. It’s going to be a wild match.
Akua vs Wakamotoharu – The “Ones to Watch” match of the night, Near the top of the 2-0 bracket, and likely slugging it out for a possibility to move to Juryo for March are these two. Who is more likely to win? No clue, but can’t wait to see them battle it out.
After four days, 6 undefeated rikishi remain, with two of them facing off on Day 5. I’ll quickly run through the bouts involving the other four, as well as a few other matches of note, before moving on to the main event.
M15e Chiyonokuni, the lowest-ranked of the 4-0 group, is having a strong bounce-back tournament after managing a combined total of only 9 victories in the previous two. He takes on M13e Yago (3-1), who is off to a great start in his top-division debut.
M8e Kaisei (4-0) seems to be fully recovered from the injury that hampered him in Kyushu, looking more like the rikishi whose previous two tournaments earned him a sanyaku rank. In an intriguing contrast of body types and fighting styles, he takes on M10w Abi (3-1), who’s prevailed in 3 of their prior 4 meetings.
M6w Onosho shouldn’t really be in the undefeated group after being completely dominated by Aoiyama today, but he lucked out by a finger entwined in his hair. He’ll look to do better against the ghost of M5w Yoshikaze (0-4). Aoiyama, whose DQ dropped him out of the undefeated ranks, will look to take out his frustration on Ryuden (2-2).
Moving up the banzuke, M2w Hokutofuji (3-1) will look to bounce back from his first narrow loss today against M4e Kotoshogiku (2-2). Kisenosato’s intai should pull Kotoshogiku up into the joi rotation later in the tournament.
Undefeated West Komusubi Mitakeumi has looked like the class of the field in the opening days. He will seek to continue his strong performance against West Sekiwake Tamawashi (3-1), whom he has owned to the tune of a 14-2 career advantage, including victories the last 6 times they’ve faced off.
Ozeki Takayasu (2-2) came out strong and determined today following his senpai’s retirement. Tomorrow he faces struggling Shodai (1-3), with the career record favoring the Ozeki 7-3. The hapless and winless Ozeki duo of Tochinoshin and Goeido take on what have historically been difficult opponents for them—Shohozan and Tochiozan, respectively.
And in a really fascinating bout, Yokozuna Kakuryu (2-2) faces M1w Ichinojo (3-1). They have met twelve times in the ring, and Kakuryu won the last eleven. The lone victory for Ichinojo came in his breakthrough top-division debut, at Aki 2014, when, ranked M10, he went 13-2, defeating two Ozeki and a Yokozuna and claiming the jun-yusho. This performance earned him two special prizes, a promotion all the way up to Sekiwake, and the mantle of “future Yokozuna.” Ichinojo has not remotely lived up to it since, but this Ichinojo is starting to look like that Ichinojo, and if he can pick up his second-ever victory over Kakuryu, we can start to believe that his turnaround is for real. Kakuryu, on the other hand, can’t afford a third loss this early in the tournament.
Finally, and I honestly can’t believe I’m writing this, we have the highlight match of the day when the undefeated Dai-Yokozuna Hakuho, winner of 41 yusho, faces the likewise undefeated [checks notes] M2e Nishikigi in the musubi no ichiban, with at least a share of the tournament lead on the line. The two, unsurprisingly, have not met before.
Let’s review just how unlikely Nishikigi’s recent rise has been. He entered sumo in 2006, and took a full two years to work his way up through Jonidan. Two years in Sandanme followed (with a brief visit to Makushita), followed by 27 tournaments in the third-highest division before he finally made it into the sekitori ranks in 2015. After a year in Juryo, Nishikigi made his Makuuchi debut in May of 2016. He rose as far as M6 before dropping to Juryo in May of 2017, where he immediately won the yusho and returned to the top division. He spent the next 8 tournaments ranked near the bottom of the banzuke, with multiple narrow escapes from demotion. Most notably, just last March, he went 5-10 at M14, a record that led to demotion to Juryo in every one of the previous 40 instances since 1960. Nishikigi survived, hanging on to the final M17e slot, only because there were no plausible promotion candidates in Juryo to take his place.
Following a good but unremarkable 10-5 record at M12w in September, Nishikigi benefited from one of the greatest pieces of banzuke luck on record, vaulting to M3e for Kyushu. Everyone anticipated that he’d be completely overmatched at by far his highest career rank, but the rise to the joi seems to have transformed him. After opening the basho with four losses, he recovered to post an 8-7 winning record, defeating Ozeki Goeido along the way. This led to a promotion to M2e for Hatsu, where Nishikigi started things off by defeating two Ozeki and a Yokozuna before picking up a freebie when Kisenosato, his scheduled Day 4 opponent, retired, probably depriving Nishikigi of his second kinboshi. Now he takes on the greatest rikishi of all time. Will the fairy tale continue, or will the clock strike midnight? Tune in to find out!
It looks like it was hair-pull Wednesday. None of it seemed like a deliberate tactic, but it took at least one clear win from a rikishi on a no-loss streak. There are an impressive number of rank-and-file rikishi who are still 4-0, and sadly two Ozeki who are in real trouble with injuries, and might want to consider kyujo and immediate medical attention.
Chiyonokuni defeats Aminishiki – A couple of false starts, Chiyonokuni was worried about an Aminishiki henka, and who would not be? Aminishiki took the tachiai, but Chiyonokuni was able to overwhelm uncle sumo’s offense.
Yutakayama defeats Daiamami – Yutakayama picks up his third win, in this evenly balanced oshi/tsuki match. Yutakayama was consistently in better position, and kept Daiamami moving to his tune. My favorite part comes when Daiamami has a solid nodowa, and Yutakayama applies a vigorous slap to his attacker’s face.
Kotoyuki defeats Chiyoshoma – Kotoyuki got into his favorite mode of sumo, and after trading a short series of thrusts, he had Chiyoshoma off balance, and spinning toward the East side.
Yago defeats Kagayaki – Excellent fundamentals as usual from Kagayaki, and he controlled the early part of the match, moving Yago backward, keeping Yago higher and reacting to his sumo. Yago worked to bring Kagayaki to his chest, and when he got Kagayaki wrapped up, he went to work. Although Kagayaki struggled, Yago kept his opponent centered and marched him out. More evidence that Yago is probably going to be a big deal in the next few years.
Abi defeats Endo – It was a cloud of flailing arms immediately from the tachiai, and Abi put himself at risk by attempting an early pull down. Respect to Endo for doing a better job than most at repelling the Abi-zumo attack, but Abi continued to apply pressure, and Endo landed in a heap.
Ryuden defeats Asanoyama – A solid, protracted mawashi battle. Asanoyama was in control for a good portion of the match, but failed to pick up his first win. It looked like Asanoyama got tired, and Ryuden exploited his opponents exhaustion. Good sumo from both.
Kaisei defeats Daieisho – Kaisei seems to have his sumo at full power for the first time in a while, and he remains undefeated. Daieisho gave it everything he had, but there is just too much Kaisei to toss around.
Onosho defeats Aoiyama – This match was all Aoiyama, and Onosho could not overcome the Man-Mountain’s superior reach, and was bodily thrown to the clay. But a Monoii was called, and it was determined that Aoiyama had contact with Onosho’s hair during the throw, and was disqualified.
Chiyotairyu defeats Yoshikaze – I hate to say it, but it’s painful to watch Yoshikaze right now. He seems completely out of energy and drive, and he presents little offense in any of his matches. Injury? We don’t get to know.
Shohozan defeats Kotoshogiku – Shohozan scores his first win by shutting down Kotoshogiku’s hug-n-chug attack, and getting to Kotoshogiku’s side.
Mitakeumi defeats Takakeisho – A critical tadpole battle, this match did much to shape the second act, and it’s a fair question to wonder if Takakeisho needs to work out a mechanism to defend against this kind of attack. Mitakeumi was able to shut down the “wave-action” by never letting Takakeisho get enough distance to effective push against him. At close range, Mitakeumi’s bulk and grip carried the match. Excellent strategy from Mitakeumi, and he moves to 4-0. I can point to Takakeisho’s early attempt at a pull-down as the fatal flaw that allowed Mitakeumi to close the gap and back Takakeisho to the bales as the moment he lost the match.
Tamawashi defeats Tochinoshin – Ozeki Tochinoshin needs to just go kyujo, and work to get his injury treated. He is going to be kadoban either way, and he may as well save himself from any potential damage that might arise.
Ichinojo defeats Goeido – A wide range of thoughts about this, firstly a lot of credit to Ichinojo for outstanding, aggressive sumo two days in a row. He looked like a real champion, and I can’t get enough of this when he is fighting well. Goeido gave it everything he had, and we saw some fantastic attempts to overcome Ichinojo’s size and mass advantage. But with Goeido pressed tightly to his chest, Ichinojo expertly wore him down, and then tossed him aside like a spent ice cream bucket. Fantastic sumo from both, but Goeido likewise needs to own up to his injury and seek treatment before it becomes permanent.
Takayasu defeats Tochiozan – Influenza patient Takayasu blasts through his fever to drop Tochiozan. As the scion of Tagonoura now, I expect Takayasu to further harden his already grim determination to win every time he mounts the dohyo. On a related note, it seems the flu is ripping through Japan right now, and there may be several more rikishi who end up sick before this tournament is complete.
Kakuryu defeats Myogiryu – It was not pretty, but it was a much needed win.
Hakuho defeats Hokutofuji – Hokutofuji lost this match because Hakuho used anything he could think of to delay the moment he touched out. It was a masterful act of agility and poise, but it was really a toss up who was the dead body in this match. Although Hakuho won, this is a great barometer of just how far Hokutofuji’s sumo has come. The boss remains undefeated.