Chiyoshoma

Final Jungyo Newsreel – October 29th

Herouth Hana-zumo, Jungyo (巡業) , , , ,

🌐 Location: Fukuyama

Today we bid farewell to the 2017 Aki Jungyo!

Aminishiki's Akeni
Aminishiki’s Akeni. It has seen some history, and will see more.

The event at Fukuyama has been the last of the Aki Jungyo, and now the (about) 160 participating rikishi are heading straight to Fukuoka, where they’ll join the waiting low division rikishi who were busy preparing lodgings and equipment for the past week or so.

The Jungyo day itself started with heavy rain, carried over by the most recent typhoon. Despite the rain, the local fans filled the venue:

(NHK)

They got to see some very energetic practices, including Hakuho doing both reverse and straight butsukari (and getting pushed off the dohyo, much to his embarrassment).

All Yokozuna were eager to leave a strong impression, and made statements to the press either yesterday or today.

Harumafuji

In yesterday’s practice session, Harumafuji was working on his Tachiai with Chiyoshoma, launching himself at his fellow Mongolian partner 11 times. The next one was so powerful, Chiyoshoma was blown away and nearly fell off the dohyo.

haruma-saves-chiyoshoma
Typical Harumafuji reaction

But Harumafuji doesn’t like to see people hurt, so he grabbed Chiyoshoma by the arm before he started to take off, and made sure he stayed put.

“Just practicing the basics,” said the Yokozuna.

Nobody can overlook the fact that the Yusho winner, although he clocked in every day, did not participate in the bouts and did very little on-dohyo practice during the Jungyo. “I’m concentrating on the Kyushu basho,” was the Yokozuna’s response.

Kakuryu

“Yes, of course I’ll fully participate,” answered Kakuryu decisively when asked about the Kyushu basho.

kakuryu-butsukari
Kakuryu doing butsukari

The Yokozuna who has been vigorously practicing since the beginning of the Jungyo says he is feeling positive about the state of his health. He intends to engage in degeiko with some of his potential rivals before the honbasho. “I’ll do what I have to do. The important thing is to get into the right flow in the basho”.

Kisenosato

“I’ll be in the basho from day 1. That’s obvious,” was Kisenosato’s statement.

kise-no-practice

The newest Yokozuna did not practice on the dohyo every day of the Jungyo, but on the days he did, he showed signs of improvement both to his upper left side and to his left ankle. But his own statement was (as usually, I must say) somewhat vague: “A lot has happened in the past month. There were typhoons. And I got called to do dohyo-iri in various places, which is something I can’t always do. It was very different from the previous Jungyos I participated in.” More specifically about his health and participation in the basho: “I have been able to work my entire body patiently. As a rikishi, it’s obvious I have to participate in the basho, and I want to get results.”

Hakuho

hakuho-salting
Sodium Chloride Galore

“Be sure to remind me every 50 days!” reacted the dai-yokozuna when told yesterday that the Olympic games start in 1000 days. He reasserted his wish to perform a dohyo-iri in the Tokyo games. When asked about the next basho and his chances for his 40th yusho, he replied brightly “I’m doing swimmingly”.

Today he toned down his replies a little bit. “I joined the jungyo in the middle, and gradually improved my body and my dohyo-sense. My wish was to end the Jungyo in the best shape. I’d like to mark myself a 100, but I can only give myself 50.”

“As the senior yokozuna, I felt sometimes that I was able to lead and pull my convalescent junior fellow yokozuna forward,” he added with satisfaction.

Regarding his recent sodium habit, watch Goeido cover his head as Hakuho rains fire and brimstone – OK, just salt – all over the place:

Bouts

As they have done before in Tokyo, today the Jonidan, Sandanme and Makushita rikishi wrestled in elimination format rather than the usual torikumi.

In Jonidan, Teraoumi (Of Shikoroyama beya) won, beating Motokiyama (Tamanoi) in the final.

For Sandanme, the winner was Takatenshu (Takanohana), who beat Kotodairyu (Sadogatake) in the final.

And the Makushita winner was Akinohana (Takadagawa), who beat Terao (Shikoroyama) in the final.

Of the sekitori bouts, all I have is, as usual, the musubi:

Hakuho 10 – Kisenosato 4. Trust Hakuho to reach double figures in two weeks.

Jungyo Newsreel – October 13th

Herouth Hana-zumo, Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Nagano

Kisenosato reprimands youngsters, disciplines Asanoyama

This story actually starts yesterday, at Ichinomiya. Kisenosato came to the stadium in the morning with the intention of engaging Asanoyama in some practice, and was dismayed to find only six sekitori around the dohyo – all of them veterans. None of the young talents (Onosho, Takakeisho, Asanoyama etc.) were to be seen.

The Yokozuna liked this not at all, and made his opinions clear to the press: “Keiko is part of their job. When I was young, I never missed keiko. If you want to become strong, you have to be diligent. And there are spectators present who came today especially to see Asanoyama, the freshman who won ten bouts in the Aki Basho. The Yokozuna and Ozeki are present, but where are the young sekitori?”

The message apparently got through and today at Nagano the mean age around the dohyo dropped significantly. But Kisenosato didn’t let it go at that.

kisenosato-asanoyama-butsukari

The Yokozuna summoned Asanoyama to a session of disciplinary butsukari, which extended to five minutes of tough TLC, apparently accompanied by some talking-to. “The words were rough, too”, said Kisenosato. “Do I have expectations of him? Yes, though saying this to someone who doesn’t give a hoot is worthless.”

Edit: I originally translated from this article in Sponichi, but now they published another version, which makes the statements clearer. Bakanofuji’s translation of Kisenosato’s statement about Takakeisho and Onosho in the comments makes sense now that it is in the context of Hakuho’s return rather than the message to Asanoyama.

Mitakeumi welcomed as a hero on his home turf

Today was Mitakeumi’s day. He hails from Nagano prefecture, and the Jungyo today comes two years after the previous visit. The local police honored him (and Onosho, I have no idea why, as he comes from Aomori) as “police chief for a day”, which mainly consisted of Mitakeumi keeping his face straight, warning the elderly not to fall victim to phone solicitations.

Sumo-wise, almost 7000 people gathered in the stadium to see the local hero, and during the customary handshake part of the day, a long line formed waiting for Mitakeumi to shake their hand. On the dohyo, the sekiwake took some low-rankers for butsukari, and put some extra effort into the wanpaku-keiko goofiness. He even got his oicho-mage done in front of the spectators:

mitakeumi-oicho

He finished up with a torikumi vs. Goeido, ending with a tsuridashi in favor of the local celebrity, to the delight of the spectators. View it all here:

(This is taken from NHK)

“I’m glad I could come back here as sanyaku”, said the sekiwake.

Torikumi of the day

Lots of torikumi today! Thank you, sumo lovers of Nagano!

For Taka-twin lovers, let’s start with Takayoshitoshi vs. Terao:

And complete that with Takagenji vs. Yago.

Uch, Yago should not have tried that grip change. Very clumsy.

Edit: The YouTube videos were removed by their owner, so I can only describe the Kotoyuki vs. Asanoyama bout: Kotoyuki hoots, knocks the air out of Asanoyama twice, then when Asanoyama goes low and tries to headbutt his chest, he sidesteps. Asanoyama recovers and turns around, but Kotoyuki adds a rapid tsuppari and sends Asanoyama out by oshidashi.

The Takarafuji-Chiyoshoma starts with Chiyoshoma gaining a slight advantage. Takarafuji backs down, but gets a good grip, picks up Chiyoshoma and throws him off the dohyo and onto poor Nishikigi. This is followed by a bout between Ishiura and Chiyonokuni, in which Ishiura does the most flagrant Henka in the world, and then you get this:

Chiyonokuni flies out and… falls on Nishikigi on the sidelines. End of edit.

Poor, poor Nishikigi! And poor granny behind Nishikigi! Well, now we know why he puts his glasses somewhere safe and far away from the dohyo every time. :-)

Actually, he didn’t suffer too much from that. In fact, it seems that he did two Torikumi today and won both (first one not really well filmed):

The one vs. Ichinojo (right after the granny incident):

As far as I understand, he did this one while covering for Arawashi. No word on what happened to Arawashi, though.

If I get a video of the musubi-no-ichiban I’ll be sure to post it. The result was yori-kiri for Kakuryu (vs. Kisenosato, obviously).

Tomorrow Hakuho is back, so maybe there will be some variation in the musubi from now on!

Aki Day 15 Preview

Bruce H Aki Basho 2017, Arawashi (荒鷲), Endo (遠藤), Harumafuji (日馬富士), Ichinojo (逸ノ城), Mitakeumi(御嶽海), Shōdai (正代直也), Takakeishō (貴景勝), Takanoiwa (貴ノ岩), Tamawashi (玉鷲), Tochiozan (栃煌山), Yoshikaze (嘉風) , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

9

After many twists and turns, we have reached the final day of the 2017 Aki basho. I would like to thank our readers for joining us for the ride, and we are grateful for each of you taking the time to read our musings for the past 15 days. The fall out from Aki is likely to be quite dramatic. The old guard re-asserted their dominance in the second week, but the trend is clear that the younger rikishi are coming into their own. But first day 15 – it comes down to the rikishi still struggling for kachi-koshi, and the final act of the yusho race.

Going into day 15, there are 5 rikishi who will decide their kachi-koshi in their final match. Two of them are San’yaku! The list is: Mitakeumi, Tamawashi, Ichinojo, Chiyoshoma, Okinoumi. Mitakeumi in particular is a tight spot, as he faces Yoshikaze. But the 3 Maegashira who are on the bubble all have relatively easy draws for the final day.

The yusho race was narrowed to a simple contest between Yokozuna Harumafuji and Ozeki Goeido. The final match, of the final day. If Goeido wins, he is champion. If he loses, there is an immediate tie-breaker match between them again to determine the winner. For the scheduling team, this is a remarkable triumph in the face of absolutely miserable conditions. Ideally the yusho will come down to a high-stakes match on the final day. This draws viewers and fans, and creates overwhelming excitement. So my congratulations to that team for succeeding in spite of a difficult situation.

Please note, the Tachiai Yusho Drinking Game is still valid for day 15, if readers choose to participate.

What We Are Watching Day 15

Okinoumi vs. Sadanoumi – Okinoumi is battling for kachi-koshi but lksumo has him safe at the bottom of Makuuchi regardless. Sadanoumi seem to have found his sumo, and has won the two prior days. He is certainly returning to Juryo, but with any luck his injuries will be healed enough that he won’t be there long.

Kaisei vs. Arawashi – Kaisei test match, going up against the higher ranked Arawashi. Kaisei looks lighter, faster and generally in much better condition than any prior 2017 appearance, and I am delighted to see him back in form. With any luck he will continue his improvements and be fordable in Kyushu. Arawashi has been eating his Wheaties, and is generally doing awesomely this basho.

Chiyoshoma vs. Yutakayama – Scheduling throws Maegashira 8 Chiyoshoma a bone by making him face Maegashira 15 Yutakayama for his kachi-koshi on the final day.

Ichinojo vs. Daieisho – Another gift from scheduling, Maegashira 6 Ichinojo faces Maegashira 11 Daieisho for his kachi-koshi deciding match. A win will likely put Ichinojo in the joi-jin for Kyushu. We hope he can find some of his old energy and vigor.

Shodai vs. Endo – Another Endo test match, these are likely helping the banzuke team figure out just how healed up Endo is, and how high they can safely rank him for Kyushu. With Ura and possibly a few others out for a while, they need more kanban rikishi in the public eye to keep sumo compelling.

Asanoyama vs. Chiyotairyu – Likely a test match for Asanoyama, to help judge where to rank him for Kyushu. I am sure sumo-Elvis Chiyotairyu will dismantle him, but it’s important to see how Asanoyama holds up.

Tamawashi vs. Takakeisho – Komusubi Tamawashi needs a win to keep his San’yaku rank alive, and he’s going to have a tough time taking a win from Takakeisho. I have no doubt that Takakeisho is eager to rejoin the joi-jin and revisit his experience with Yokozuna Hakuho.

Mitakeumi vs. Yoshikaze – Yoshikaze has been very docile the past two days, and one has to wonder if he is injured or just throttled back for now. Mitakeumi needs to hope that he’s off his sumo on day 15, or the future Ozeki will lose his coveted Sekiwake rank. Yoshikaze holds a 3-1 advantage in their career statistics.

Goeido vs. Harumafuji – The ultimate match to end the basho, the yusho is on the line, and it’s Japan vs Mongolia. It’s the unreliable Ozeki against a battle scared war machine Yokozuna who never gives up. Harumafuji holds a 31-11 career advantage. If the same Goeido shows up that was on the dohyo day 14, this will be one for the highlight reels.

Aki Day 12 Highlights

Bruce H Aki Basho 2017, Arawashi (荒鷲), Chiyonokuni (千代の国), Endo (遠藤), Gōeidō (豪栄道), Harumafuji (日馬富士), Hokutōfuji (北勝富士), Kotoshogiku (琴奨菊), Mitakeumi(御嶽海), San'yaku (三役), Shōdai (正代直也), Takakeishō (貴景勝), Takanoiwa (貴ノ岩), Takarafuji (宝富士), Tamawashi (玉鷲), Yoshikaze (嘉風) , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Goeido-Pissed

The Makuuchi yusho race changed subtly today, in that tournament leader Goeido lost his match to Shohozan, but the nearest competitor, Chiyotairyu, lost as well. But now there is an enormous group of rikishi at 8 wins that are two behind the leader. This has opened the tiniest of chances that something wild could happen in the final three days of this basho. The odds of that are still remote. There are 10 rikishi, including Yokozuna Harumafuji and Sekiwake Yoshikaze, who are 8-4 as of today. Goeido will face Harumafuji on the final day, and the outcome of that bout is not predictable.

Several rikishi secured their kachi-koshi today, including Endo, Arawashi, Daieisho, Onosho, Kotoshogiku and Yokozuna Harumafuji. Hokutofuji and Yutakayama both reached 8 losses, locking in a make-koshi and demotion of some sort for November’s Kyushu basho. In the case of Yutakayama, his second trip to Makuuchi did not pan out, and he will likely return to Juryo to try again.

In Juryo, there are 4 rikishi with 8 wins as of the end of day 12, and an additional 8 rikishi one win off the pace at 7. As has been the case in the past few tournaments, the Juryo squad seems to be very evenly balanced, and most of the scores cluster closely around the 7-8 / 8-7 median. Many fans are delighted that Aminishiki aka “Uncle Sumo”, is one of the co-leaders for the yusho. Ranked at Juryo 2, he has a very good shot of being on the promotion train for Makuuchi.

Highlight Matches

Endo defeats Sadanoumi – Watching this match, it’s clear that Endo is still a bit tender on the ankle that has been repaired. He picks up his kachi-koshi and has another couple of months to get more strength in that ankle. Sadanoumi really has not been able to generate much offense, and we can attribute that to the injury that had him kyujo for the first week.

Yutakayama defeated by Chiyomaru – Chiyomaru owned this match the entire way, and is fighting well for a mid-level Maegashira. Yutakayama is make-koshi and headed down to Juryo after his second attempt to land in Makuuchi seems to have failed.

Okinoumi defeats Takanoiwa – Out of the tachiai, Takanoiwa landed but could not hold a shallow left hand grip. Okinoumi, who seems to be feeling well enough to put some effort into his sumo, took control and delivered the win via tsukiotoshi.

Arawashi defeats Asanoyama – This was a great match, and both rikishi put a huge effort into their sumo today, and this battle raged on for a good amount of time. Probably one of the better matches today.

Chiyoshoma defeats Nishikigi – A close ending to their first attempt resulted in a monoii, and a rematch. The rematch resulted in Nishikigi being stunned for a few seconds after a tsuppari knocked him to the clay. It makes me wonder if someone checks these guys afterwards to see if they have a concussion that needs to be addressed.

Kaisei defeats Takarafuji – I really must compliment Kaisei for a vast improvement to his sumo this year. I think the weight loss has helped him quite a bit, and he took care of Takarafuji today.

Onosho defeats Chiyonokuni – When Chiyonokuni is in good health, he really delivers some exciting sumo. The match was quick, but intense, with Onosho taking command straight at the tachiai and driving Chiyonokuni back. Onosho now kachi-koshi and will be back in the joi for November.

Aoiyama defeats Kagayaki – The man-mountain Aoiyama is getting into his groove finally, and really delivers a massive pounding to Kagayaki, who desperately needs to regroup.

Kotoshogiku defeats Chiyotairyu – Blink and you will miss it! Kotoshogiku deftly tossed Chiyotairyu like he was taking out the trash. Kotoshogiku kachi-koshi with this win, and it will be quite awesome to see if he can re-ascend to San’yaku for November.

Mitakeumi defeats Shodai – Mitakeumi has been dangerously close to a make-koshi trajectory, but today’s win over Shodai helps his cause quite a bit. If both Mitakeumi and Yoshikaze end up with winning records, we will see another banzuke with significant contention for the San’yaku slots.

Yoshikaze defeats Takakeisho – Great to see Yoshikaze overcome Takakeisho’s “Wave Action Tsuppari” attack. With Yoshikaze now safely in winning record territory, we know at least one Sekiwake will be staying put for Kyushu. Takakeisho needs to mix things up a bit, as his single dominant attack form will be decoded, and the countermeasure to it adopted by all.

Shohozan defeats Goeido – This would have been a massive shift in the yusho race if it had not been that every chaser lost as well. Goeido remains two ahead of everyone. They had a tough time getting started, with “Big Guns” Shohozan jumping the tachiai twice. The Ozeki’s two attempt at pulling Shohozan down left him off balance, and Shohozan exploited that mistake in a blink of an eye. Great effort by both today.

Harumafuji defeats Tamawashi – Straightforward bout, but it’s clear that Harumafuji is in pain with every step. With this win Harumafuji is kachi-koshi, and can make a strong case for keeping the scissors in the drawer.