To learn about which special prizes were given out, click below:
special prizes
Nagoya 2015, Day 15: Hakuho Yusho! (35th)
Kakuryu gave an amazing effort. It was certainly worth the top billing. After a straight forward tachiai, both wrestlers secured double-barrel grips. Hakuho had the first chance at a yorikiri but Kakuryu countered and slid the superzuna out to the straw bales. However, Hakuho was just biding his time and got the yorikiri force-out victory for his 35th Yusho.
In other news, Kotoshogiku henka’d his way to a sketchy kachi-koshi (after the last few days of lackluster, creampuff effort from his opponents). He can’t hang with the big boys so on this website, next tournament I will refer to him as sekiwake. It was Terunofuji’s first show at the rank and he picked up 11 wins! If Kotoshogiku needs to pick up 8 wins in this way, he’s not worthy of the rank. Goeido at least picked up a ninth win against Kisenosato, who finishes on 10-5.
Tochinoshin picked up his 8th win and will likely be komusubi next basho – but he needs to prove that he can win against higher ranked opponents, other than Harumafuji. His first week in the Fall tournament will be rough. He beat Kyokutenho who is likely going to retire. I’m still hoping he’ll compete next tournament because I think he turns 41 in September.
Tochiozan was awarded the Outstanding Performance special prize and Yoshikaze got the Fighting Spirit special prize. He finished with 12 wins, tied with Kakuryu for jun-yusho. The bout with Tochiozan left something to be desired, however. It didn’t seem like a straight up match and should have been redone because Yoshikaze clearly had a false start and Tochiozan just kinda had to go with it.
Osunaarashi (11-4) and Endo (10-5) had very strong tournaments and I’m very happy to see Amuru with 8 wins. Toyohibiki, Seiro, and Satoyama will fall back into Juryo and Hidenoumi may join them.
My battery is running low so I’ll publish now but update later.
Hakuho’s 34th Emperor’s Cup!
It’s good to have a tournament be decided on the last day during the last match between the yokozuna. Today, Terunofuji did his part. After the big win yesterday against Ichinojo to keep the pressure on, he was able to throw Goeido, setting up Harumafuji. Harumafuji needed to beat Hakuho to force a play-off between Terunofuji and Hakuho but he couldn’t seal the deal. With a yorikiri pushout victory over his yokozuna compatriot, Hakuho notched another tournament victory.
For the outstanding efforts of the tournament, during his sanyaku debut, Terunofuji secured two special prizes: Outstanding Performance and Fighting Spirit. It is his first Outstanding Performance award but his second Fighting Spirit prize. I’m just still a bit sad that Aminishiki couldn’t get the Technique prize as he’d had to pull out of the tournament with injury.
Hatsubasho 2015 – Day 15
Hakuho’s victory over Kakuryu sealed his perfect record in this first tournament of 2015. It was a tight battle but Hakuho prevailed with a powerful force-out win. In the previous bout, Harumafuji destroyed Kisenosato, perhaps a little bitter that his championship hopes were extinguished so early and with such a disappointing loss to Jokoryu.
Goeido will remain ozeki as Kotoshogiku rolled over like a lap-dog for the second day in a row to hand Goeido his eighth win and kachi-koshi on the final day. This bout was disappointingly uncompetitive but perhaps my least favorite was Ichinojo’s performance against Toyonoshima. Both had assured losing records and neither really demonstrated much effort as the 200 kg Mongolian basically let himself be slid to the side of the ring and sluggishly flopped over like a rag-doll. Even Ikioi didn’t seem to want to win today. He started out strong but his slip-up just seemed unnecessary. I mean a loss to Sokokurai? Really? Ikioi will surely fall into the lower third of the maegashira for the March tournament.
In perhaps today’s best match, Terunofuji forced out his Mongolian compatriot, Tamawashi, to secure not only an eighth win and a winning record but also a fighting spirit prize. It was the only special prize awarded after this tournament and rightfully so. The lower sanyaku and upper maegashira wrestlers were so bad Kitataiki will probably be sekiwake w/ Gagamaru as komusubi, fresh from Juryo, and leapfrogging over these maegashira.
All I can say is that in March, all of this drama around #33 will be over, Ikioi, Ichinojo, Aminishiki, Tochinoshin and Endo will all be back in the low-to-mid maegashira ranks with Oosunaarashi, joined by Gagamaru and Kitataiki from Juryo. These will bring some exciting bouts and a few will sweep up 10+ wins. We can finally get back a bit of normalcy.