Welcome to Day 8 live blog! No need to refresh your page, new content will appear automatically. We will get started Saturday evening, with the heart of the action starting at 3:00 AM Eastern US time.
Natsu Day 8 Preview
Time To Go Live
Overnight US time, NHK World will be broadcasting the last 50 minutes of Makuuchi live, and we will be live blogging during the event. Now, you may think it’s crazy to be awake in the middle of the night for sumo, but we sumo fans are an odd, dedicated lot. Our sport is televised some 8-11 hours different, and so Japan’s afternoon is the middle of the night for us. I will caution that all manner of calamities may take place that cause things to go poorly or not happen at all, but to the best of our ability, we will be adding our own brand of commentary, insight and inappropriate humor.
With Endo’s shocking withdrawal from the tournament, a gap has opened in the torikumi. Until someone else goes kyujo or Endo returns, we will be seeing daily visitors from Juryo to fill the open slot in the fight card. Today it’s long term veteran Sokokurai. Yes, the guy with the cat. But we are likely to see Onosho as well later this week.
Natsu Leaderboard
Leader – Tochinoshin
Chasers – Kakuryu, Hakuho, Daishomaru, Chiyonokuni
Hunt Group – Shodai, Kotoshogiku, Ikioi, Kagayaki, Asanoyama, Kyokutaisei, Myogiryu
8 Matches Remain.
What We Are Watching Day 8
No, let’s be honest here – we are live blogging this beast, we are watching the whole thing. But here are some comments.
Nishikigi vs Sokokurai – Will the “Mole Boss” show up and attack Nishikigi while his glasses are off? I doubt it, but should that happen look for Hakuho to task one of his tsukebito to chase the beast away before he comes out for his match. Nishikigi holds a 3-1 career lead, making the “Mole Boss Gambit” more credible. In our records, the Mole Boss holds an 8-0 or better advantage over all opponents.
Arawashi vs Kyokutaisei – Kyokutaisei hit a speed bump day 7, but is still just 3 wins away from a kachi-koshi in his first posting to the top divisions. Arawashi has a mirror record and needs to start putting white stars on the board today.
Ishiura vs Chiyonokuni – Ishiura has shown some fire in the the last few days, and Chiyonokuni is always ready for a brawl. If Ishiura brings his real sumo to the dohyo, this match could be a frantic recreation of the battle of Sekigahara.
Yoshikaze vs Takakeisho – If day 8 did not support my “Takakeisho is a poorly constructed Mandroid” theory, I don’t know what does. The real Takakeisho would be a complete handful for the somewhat un-genki berskerer, but this one… who can tell? They are tied 2-2 over their career, but both are quite a bit off their par performances.
Chiyoshoma vs Hokutofuji – Hokutofuji is starting to rally, and his day 8 match against Chiyoshoma might allow him to pull even. Chiyoshoma’s record for Natsu is nearly a lost cause now, and it’s probably down to injuries.
Kagayaki vs Ikioi – What keeps Ikioi going? Electric shocks? Really good chanko? Fear of being chased down and cuddled to death by a legion of sumo grannies? It matter not, as I predict his day 8 match with Kagayaki will be a great display of sumo fundamentals executed with strength and determination. No matter who wins, they are probably going to look good doing it. Then again Kagayaki has never won against Ikioi, so let’s say it’s probably Ikioi’s to lose.
Kotoshogiku vs Abi – What’s going to happen here? Abi seems to have borrowed Ura’s improbability module, and its causing all kinds of havoc among the top end of the banzuke. They have split their prior 2 matches, but I would point out that Kotoshogiku is having his best tournament since Aki of last year.
Mitakeumi vs Shohozan – Shohozan showed surprising versatility on day 7, and hopefully Mitakeumi was taking notes. Mitakeumi likes to open fast and endure any punishment to either get an inside tsuppari position, or get his opponent on the move. Shohozan holds a slight 3-4 career lead.
Tochinoshin vs Ichinojo – Look big man, we need you to rally here. Tochinoshin needs some dirt to really make this basho exciting. I know you have doubts now because you racked up a string of losses, but you are the biggest man on the dohyo this afternoon. He can in fact lift you, but you can use that to open a weakness in his attack. While this would be fun, Tochinoshin holds an 11-5 advantage over the Boulder, so I think we know where this is headed.
Daieisho vs Goeido – This had better be an easy win for Goeido.
Kakuryu vs Chiyotairyu – Big K holds an 8-0 advantage over the man with a kami in his sideburns. But given Chiyotairyu’s proclivity to cannonball tachiai, I am going to put money on Kakuryu pulling.
Yutakayama vs Hakuho – Winless Yutakayama goes up against the dai-Yokozuna. Sucks to be Yutakayama today.
Wakaichro Day 8 Match
As if day 8 could get any more awesome… Well Wakaichro has a match day 8 as well. It’s against Shinyashiki from Otake beta. He’s been in sumo for 28 tournaments, so he brings some experience to the dohyo. He’s much lighter than our Texas rikishi, but I am sure he makes up for that in skill. His highest ever rank is Sandanme 60.
With us live blogging and possibly having folks inside the Kokugikan, I am sure there will be no shortage of coverage of this match.
Natsu Day 7 Highlights
I’m going to start here because I’m hungry and will fill in gaps later.
Takakeisho has been looking rather putrid as Mr. Green and Daishomaru has made a stronger case to star in the role. In their head-to-head today, Takakeisho came out swinging, and put Daishomaru into a pulling, defensive mode. With a strong thrust from close to the edge, Daishomaru spun Takakeisho around and moved swiftly for the finishing move. Oshidashi. Daishomaru stays in the yusho race with one loss while Takakeisho picks up his fifth. At M10W, Takakeisho will need to relight that fire quickly if he doesn’t want to stumble further down the banzuke in July. (Wow, we’re already talking about July? Where has this year gone?)
Chiyomaru got elbowed by the falling Takakeisho while waiting for his own match against Hokutofuji. Perhaps unsurprisingly he was unable to overcome the pressure from Hokutofuji. After a really long stare-down where the crowd began to wonder when they’d go at each other, the two finally attacked. Hokutofuji quickly had Chiyomaru back to the tawara but Chiyomaru danced along for quite some time. Hokutofuji sustained pressure, briefly getting a hold of Chiyomaru’s belt, before eventually working him off the dohyo on the other side.
Kotoshogiku faced the struggling Ryuden. You’ve got one guess: quick hippity-hop yorikiri win for the veteran. Kotoshogiku seems to have finally found his stride at M5E. With only an outside threat of needing to face the meat grinder, perhaps he can return to winning form. Admittedly, I’d written off this former kadoban twin, thinking, “he’s done; he’ll retire.” I’m glad to see him doing well. He’s become the bit of good news when thinking about his ozeki brethren.
Ikioi bounced back from yesterday’s setback against Chiyomaru with a bit of an easy one against Yoshikaze. The berserker was nowhere to be found as his more passive twin brother mounted the dohyo, tussled around a bit to get Ikioi’s belt. But Ikioi was having none of it and walked the man in purple over the salt box.
Shodai absorbed Takarafuji’s strong tachiai and tried for a throw. The funny thing is, as Shodai tipped over for the throw, he lost his balance while Uncle Takara stayed up and pressed forward, forcing Shodai to step out. Daieisho picked up his first win of the tournament with a quick demonstration of HOW TO EXECUTE A PULL. Take notes, Goeido-chan. Tamawashi brought a strong tachiai and committed to driving Daieisho backwards. But Daieisho didn’t want to go backwards. He went sideways, upending Tamawashi who thankfully saved himself from a nasty tumble and possible saltbox enema.
Kaisei disrupted Mitakeumi’s momentum…which seems rather natural come to think of it. Mitakeumi had been on a bit of a roll with his wins the last couple of days. As Kaisei charged, I got a feeling Mitakeumi was going for a pull but right when I thought he’d execute it, Kaisei’s massive left arm grabbed a firm hold of that purple mawashi. With a few more seconds of hug-and-chug, Kaisei picked up his second win of the tournament. Mitakeumi falls to 4-3.
Shohozan v Ichinojo was a beautiful bout. Rather than coming out swinging with fierce butsukari, the bruiser holstered his weapons in Ichinojo’s armpits. A grappling bout? Interesting, and a bit unexpected. When the monster reached out with his right arm to grab Shohozan’s mawashi, Shohozan moved for a brilliantly executed throw, leaving Ichinojo in a heap. Third straight loss for the Mongolian.
As we found out last night, Endo injured his bicep and withdrew from the tournament. This handed Tochinoshin his seventh victory. Does this mean Ozeki talk doesn’t start until 11 now? I am glad to see the quick decision to have Endo pull out and recover from his injury. We wish him a full, successful recovery. Another unfortunate implication, no one gets to win that fat stack of kensho.
Abi’s been eating his Wheaties. Goeido charged, full on at the tachiai, committed to moving forward. We should like this. This is a good sign. However, rather than meet him with his chest, Abi raised those long arms, stepped to the side, and deflected the Ozeki into the dirt. No henka here, just solid sumo from a rising star.
Chiyotairyu’s been having a great tournament. He may continue to have a great tournament after today but Mr. Brown is back. None of the wild, out of control Hakuho from the first few days. This was a calm, collected, strong dismantling of the younger rikishi. A firmly met tachiai, a quick tussle as the yokozuna’s quickly found a left-handed grip, and while his opponent flailed around to find a grip, he gave up searching for a right-hand grip in favor of a straight drive forward. Today, the yokozuna was back in control.
In the musubi-no-ichiban, Kakuryu faced the “Sometimes Y” of Yutakayama. Today was not one of those times. Actually, so far this tournament has not been one of those times. Yutakayama’s been struggling but did look strong against the yokozuna. This was no belt-battle or slug-fest. It was more like repeated tachiais as the two billy-goats would drive into each other, Kakuryu would then try to pull, it would fail, rinse and repeat…until Yutakayama’s knee over extended and he tumbled out onto the head shimpan. Both yokozuna stay in the hunt with Daishomaru and Chiyonokuni.