My apologies for bringing you an abbreviated, and late, Match Day 3 summary. I was at a school event so, unfortunately, it couldn’t be helped. The sad thing is, there wasn’t a whole lot of action worthy of the term, “highlight” either.
In today’s video I’ve got one Jonokuchi bout for the yusho race, the one between Hanafusa and Kotokenryu. Kotokenryu is a Sadogatake stablemate of Kototebakari, thus those two will not face each other during regulation. With this nice win over Hanafusa, he jumps into the yusho picture. Kotokenryu had not faced very stiff competition in previous match days so this was his first real action.
In the other yusho bouts, Kototebakari steamrolled his opponent, Shishimaru. And Mihonoumi improved to 3-0 against the steadily improving Daitenshin, who looks good to escape Jonidan in this, his fifth basho.
Among the one-loss chase group, Daiseizan shoved the much lighter Matsuzawa clear off the dohyo while Wakanosho got in a lot of tsuppari practice against Satsumasho. With an odd number of 3-0 wrestlers in the lower divisions, Mihonoumi will likely face an undefeated wrestler from Jonidan.
As I mentioned, the video has the Hanafusa/Kotokenryu bout and I also included a couple of Match Day 3 bouts from wrestlers who had been mentioned here when they were in Jonokuchi. Raiho faced off against Shunrai while Shikihide’s Mogamizakura looks to move on up from Jonidan.
Well, of the four lads who I had tipped as yusho contenders, one remains unbeaten after two matches. This will be a very interesting yusho race, especially as we’ve got a fifth contender to add to the mix, Hanafusa from Nishonoseki-beya. I owe a tip of the hat to Charlie for pointing him out in the comments of my previous article.
So, let’s get to the action. First up, let’s take a look at the big highlight from yesterday. While Daiseizan and Toseiryu both lost in their debuts, they have shown that they’re not pushovers. They locked horns immediately at the tachiai and Toseiryu immediately pitched right and left to try for a quick throw. Daiseizan demonstrated great balance and strength as he countered Toseiryu’s attempts, worked his opponent to the edge, and pitched him over the bales. That was an impressive uwatenage. Sadly, Toseiryu is effectively out of the race, falling to 0-2. But Daiseizan can keep his hopes alive if he wins out.
I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share this with you. Daiseizan is ex-Sokokurai's nephew. Both he and Toseiryu are fresh recruits, doing battle in Jonokuchi. Despite Day 1 losses, watch for both of these men to make it to the salaried ranks. pic.twitter.com/l4P90OQNxr
Most of the winners’ bracket fights were today. The schedulers did not pit Wakanosho against Kototebakari. Instead, they put Hanafusa with Wakanosho and Takatsukasa versus Kototebakari. Wakanosho and the Abema cameraman were very confident in Wakanosho’s chances. I must admit, I thought this would be a quick one. Wakanosho pulled early after the tachiai, trying for a quick slapdown. Hanafusa was having none of it, though, and kept his balance. His body seemed a bit too upright during the ensuing slapfest. Kisenosato’s disciple had one attempted throw but mostly seemed to be parrying Wakanosho’s thrusts. However, his footwork allowed him to maintain position in the center of the ring, working Wakanosho outside, and eventually over the edge.
Next up, the cameraman and I focus in on Kototebakari. Takatsukasa is surely outmatched, giving up some 30kg to the more experienced “legacy” recruit from the powerhouse Sadogatake-beya. Right? Well, he put everything he had into this. The stronger Kototebakari forced him back to the bales with tsuppari but Takatsukasa latched on to Kototebakari’s mawashi and threw all of his strength into a shitatenage. It just wasn’t enough as Kototebakari recovered and wrangled the colt, winning with an uwatenage.
And in honor of Uwatenage Day here at Tachiai, Shishi got off to a great start with his own excellent implementation of the classic kimarite. He had quite the reach to get Yutakasho’s mawashi like that and pull him from practically the center of the ring all the way to the edge like that.
Hoo boy. We get right to it today. I think there are four prospects with any shot for the Jonokuchi yusho in this basho and the Kyokai paired them up on the first match day. If they have the winners of these two bouts fight together on Match Day 2, we may end up with the decisive bout on early in Week 1, or end up late in Week 2 with a heated race and no undefeated wrestlers. The video starts with a nice little establishing shot from inside the arena there in Osaka. Ain’t it great to be back?
First up, I’ve got Sadogatake beya’s Kototebakari against Toseiryu. As I noted on Twitter, Kototebakari is Kotoshoho’s younger brother. Josh reminded me that Kotoshoho also used the same shikona early in his career (derived from their last name, Tebakari). There is just a wee family resemblance here, don’t you think?
Back on the dohyo, he squared up with Toseiryu and won with solid, fundamental sumo. He stayed low and met his opponent head-on. After establishing a grip on Toseiryu’s belt, he tried to spin while forcing him down but Toseiryu maintained his balance and wrapped Kototebakari up. Unfortunately, his grip was tenuous and far too high, up around Tebakari’s shoulders. The Sadogatake disciple had a Kotoshogiku-like grip on the mawashi, backed him to the bales and dropped Toseiryu with a thud.
Next, Daiseizan faces Wakanosho. Daiseizan is Arashio-oyakata’s nephew. His debut is just one of a number of storylines from the stable. His opponent, Wakanosho, was a successful high-school sumo wrestler and a finalist in the high-school championships. Daiseizan had a bit of a size advantage but Wakanosho’s competitive sumo experience showed in today’s bout. He stayed low and forced Daiseizan back with a blitz of tsuppari, before a clever side-step allowed him to get in behind his opponent and finish him with a shove.
Both Toseiryu and Daiseizan certainly have the build for sumo and while they were outmatched today, I’m sure they’re well on their way to eventual promotion to Jonidan after this tournament is over.
Later tonight in Makushita, Shishi will take on Yutakasho. A few bouts later, Roga will face off against Shiden, back from his non-suspension. I’ll try to include video of those bouts tomorrow.
In the end, the Jonokuchi title came down to one bout: undefeated Inoue against Tsukubayama, a Jonidan-ranked wrestler with one-loss. I was a bit puzzled by the pairing, frankly. Inoue had faced both Chiyoshishi and Goseiryu on his path to the yusho, so I had assumed he would face Raiho. Instead, Inoue faced Tsukubayama, a young man from…you guessed it…Tsukuba city in Ibaraki prefecture. He’s another young’un who started his sumo career last summer and has remained in Jonidan but at Jonidan 91, even a 6th win would likely not be enough to secure a promotion to Sandanme.
Inoue pressed forward and defeated Tsukubayama, without breaking a sweat. Tsukabayama half-heartedly tried a henka, shifting to his right at the tachiai. Inoue’s coming off an injury, so he’s not going to be charging headlong into the crowd. Inoue just pivoted left and bulled forward, shoving Tsukubayama out. Congratulations, Inoue, on the yusho!
Chiyoshishi tossed Takabaho for a dominant ouchie-ta-ouchie win. And lastly, Raiho defeated Goseiryu. Raiho latched on quickly to Goseiryu’s belt with his left-hand, and then came down hard with his right, throwing Goseiryu to the ground.
Jonidan
The Jonidan yusho race came down to three wrestlers with 6 wins; Chiyoyamato, Yurikisho, and Kaiho. Higher-ranked Kaiho was paired against Sandanme yusho contender, Taiyo. Chiyoyamato faced Yurikisho in the bout from the tweet below.
With Yurikisho’s victory assured, he still had to wait for the Kaiho bout to know whether he won outright or would need to fight in a playoff. Kaiho won, meaning there would be a Jonidan playoff.
Sandanme
In Sandanme, the Kaiho victory meant Taiyo was out of the race and the winner would be one of two men. You’ll remember Arauma as the Jonokuchi yusho contender from January, who beat Atamifuji on their first meeting but then lost in their playoff rematch. This tournament, he faced the Kinbozan, who debuts in sandanme because of his success at the university level. Kinbozan was 10cm taller, and 30kg heavier and used all of that mass to overpower Arauma. Atamifuji awaits both, as they will be promoted to Makushita but Atamifuji is already nearing the precipice to Juryo.
Makushita
Ryuden won the Makushita yusho with straight-forward oshi-zumo against former Juryo wrestler, Chiyonoumi. This victory marks his return to action after serving a suspension. Along the way he did face several former sekitori, including Chiyonoumi, so his path to yusho was not easy.
He will need to do it again in January for promotion to Juryo, but that will be even more difficult with many wrestlers, including Atamifuji, fighting for the few slots which open up.
Juryo
Lastly, Ichiyamamoto claimed the Juryo yusho with an impressive 13-2 record. He’s virtually assured a slot in Makuuchi with Hakuho’s retirement, Asanoyama’s suspension, Shohozan’s demotion, and possible demotions for Kaisei and Kagayaki.
I couldn’t get all of the bouts into the video, so I supplemented with some of these clips from YouTube. I did manage to get the yusho ceremony so that’s tacked onto the end of the video at the top.