The Ghost Of Terunofuji

Bouts From the Lower Divisions – Day 4

Herouth Maezumo, Nagoya Basho 2019 , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Not-quite-kaiju

Usually, Nagoya basho is a hot and slippery mess. But this one is full of lovely sumo and good fights. But first, let’s take a look at today’s maezumo, to follow up on the newcomers, before continuing with the ranked matches.

In the following video, we have:

  • Kotoomura (veteran) – Hokutenkai (new)
  • Omura (veteran) – Konno (new)
  • Urutora (veteran) – Bariki (veteran)
  • Hisasue (new) – Kochikara (veteran, sort of)
  • Kotoomura (again) – Senho (new)

Kotoomura got a fundamental yori-kiri from Hokutenkai. That man is not taking any prisoners. While Konno from Naruto and Hisasue from Kokonoe will have no good news to report to their oyakata, Hakuho’s Senho, despite looking as green as a fresh leaf, shows that he has some signs of sumo in him, not just henka. He can’t do a tachiai properly, but he is 2-0 in maezumo.

Jonidan

From Senho we move to Hakuho’s next youngest uchi-deshi, Toma, who is not quite as gangly as Senho (but on the other hand, he doesn’t have a cool shikona). Toma here attacks from the left, and Asanoshima from Takasago, from the right:

Toma is 2-0, keeping himself in the race for the Jonidan yusho. But the main contender for that is our next contestant, the dreamy Kitanowaka. Here he is on the right, with Chiyooga from Kokonoe beya on the left:

This one proved to be quite a challenge for Prince Charming, as Chiyooga is quite a sticky wrestler. But the Hakkaku man prevails.

Sandanme

So here is our friend Narutaki – the friendly guy from Isenoumi beya, who is rumored to be a good English speaker, by the way – on the left, vs. Izumigawa of Minezaki beya on the right.

Narutaki leaves the “nice” off the dohyo, and goes straight at Izumigawa. He is now 2-0.

Then there is Shoji, from Musashigawa beya. Here on the left, with Tsugaruumi from Tamanoi beya on the right.

The smaller guy does not pose much of a problem for Shoji. Oshidashi.

Makushita

We open Makushita with Shiraishi who, if you recall, is Natsu’s Sandanme yusho winner and a generally strong guy. But I’m not really happy with his sumo today (right, facing Keitenkai on the left):

He starts with a failed henka attempt, and then after engaging he does some backwards sumo. Ummm.

The highlight match of the lower Makushita was slated to be Terunofuji vs. Onojo (Takadagawa beya). Onojo is a regular Sandanme wrestler, with a few peeks into Makushita. Shouldn’t be a problem for a former Ozeki. But don’t place your bets yet:

Terunofuji allows Onojo to morozashi him. Morozashi – having both arms inside. The morozashi itself is danger. Having a morozashi with a firm grip on your opponent’s mawashi is usually a winning position. There are a couple of ways to get out of it – a double outside grip on the mawashi, which we have seen Tochinoshin perform in the past – gives good leverage for a lift. A double kime, which is what Terunofuji is attempting here, may be able to choke your opponent’s grip – if this was Nishikigi – or a lift, if you are the original Terunofuji who had knees.

But this Terunofuji doesn’t have them. And while he attempts his power sumo again and again, eventually the stubborn Onojo, who doesn’t let go of that mawashi grip throughout the dance, prevails. Terunofuji will not have the Makushita yusho this tournament.

Following the bout, he told the press the reason why the bout went the way it went. “I was planning to grab his mawashi, but my finger got loose”.

Finger? So as it turns out, the former Ozeki was practicing with Shodai. Yes, a Makuuchi guy and a favorite practice toy for Yokozuna and the like. And while he did this, he managed to damage his finger. Thank you, Shodai. We appreciate your vast contribution to Sumo. 🙄

So now we have a kaiju with no knees and no grip. Lovely.

We move on to Kototebakari, here on the left, facing Nishikifuji, one of Isegahama’s sekitori hopefuls, on the right:

Kototebakari is not here to cater to the hopes of anybody but himself.

This post is getting too depressing on the Isegahama front (Tomisakae also lost his bout. So let’s hope Midorifuji (right) can do something against Asabenkei, the Takasago guy who has sekitori experience, on the left:

Yes! Thank you, pixie. You made an Isegahama fan happy.

Middle Onami brother, Wakamotoharu, is facing Akua. Both former sekitori and wanting to get back there as fast as possible, thank you very much. Akua on the left, Wakamotoharu on the right:

Alas, the man from Fukushima fails, and only little brother Wakatakakage is left to save the family pride today.

Finally, Fujiazuma from Tamanoi beya is facing Prince Naya. Naya was rather devastated by yesterday’s matta-that-wasn’t-a-matta. He seems totally out of confidence, and of course causes a matta, which causes him to really lose his bearings. Let’s see how it goes from there (Fujiazuma left, Naya right):

The oshi specialist Naya gets himself entangled in a sloppy yotsu match. But somehow, he manages to survive and throw Fujiazuma with a sukuinage, to even his score. 1-1. Get a hold of yourself, kid.

Jungyo Newsreel – Catching up at Kanagawa

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

Hello again, Jungyo enthusiasts. I have strayed off the trail after day 6. Let’s try to do some catching up and join the sekitori again at Kanagawa, where they have been spending days 13 and 14.

So what happened during that interval?

Little girls can no longer participate in kiddie sumo

Despite public outcry, the NSK is asking each hosting town not to send little girls to the kiddie sumo events of the Jungyo. The reason given “Safety first”. When various outlets pointed out that boys and girls are equally susceptible to injury on the dohyo, the answer was “We don’t want to risk girls sustaining permanent injuries to the face”.

Hakuho’s father passed away

On April 9th, Hakuho’s father, Mönkhbat, the former Olympic medalist in wrestling, and the equivalent of Dai-Yokozuna in Mongolian Wrestling, passed away at the age of 76 of liver cancer.

Hakuho fully participated in the event in Ina, Nagano prefecture, but asked for – and received – a leave of absence to attend his father’s funeral in Mongolia starting from April 11th. He will re-join the Jungyo for the Honozumo event at Yasukuni shrine on April 16th.

hakuho-funeral

The late Mönkhbat has been a national hero in Mongolia, and his funeral drew much attention and included military escort.

hakuho-funeral-son

Hakuho has always been very strongly connected to his father and looked up to him. When the father was diagnosed with liver cancer, Hakuho had him flown to Japan for treatment, then back to the comfort of his own home in Mongolia. Of course, even the best modern medical intervention has its limitations.

Kisenosato joins the Jungyo

Kisenosato announced that he will re-join the Jungyo. His return was planned for the 13th, but he joined one day earlier – may be to avoid Friday the 13th, or maybe to cover up for Hakuho’s absence.

kisenosato-tsuna-shime

In the couple of days he’s been participating he has been showing mixed results. I’d warn you against developing high hopes hearing reports that he wins his Jungyo bouts. We’ve been here before – Kisenosato managing to win bouts and elimination tournaments in Jungyo, getting breathless coverage from the press, then hitting a wall in honbasho. That injury is not going away any time soon.

Terunofuji and Aminishiki absent

I reported in my Day 6 coverage that Terunofuji was absent from the torikumi. The next day he was joined by his stablemate, Aminishiki. Terunofuji was reportedly back on duty today (April 14th) at the Fujisawa event, but Aminishiki is still out.

Birthdays

Goeido had a birthday on April  6th – day 6 of the Jungyo – and is now 32. The following day, Ichinojo celebrated his 25th birthday.

ichinojo-25

Today, although he is never again going to be on any Jungyo, many sumo fans celebrated Harumafuji’s 34th birthday.

So let’s now proceed to the daily coverage.

Day 13

🌐 Location: Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture

Here is Chiyomaru’s version of kiddie sumo:

Ahaha… poor kids.

Tochinoshin offered his chest for some butsukari to Tobizaru and Takanosho. Bigger men have failed to move the Georgian Cliff:

Things look a little different when it’s reverse butsukari (the higher ranking guy is the pusher). You just let the Wookiee win:

Endo is getting a lot of high-rank attention this Jungyo. Apparently that’s because he is going to make san-yaku in the Natsu basho. Previously he got juiced by Takayasu. This time, Kakuryu invited him to san-ban (practice form in which the same two wrestlers go through full bouts repeatedly until the higher ranking one calls it off).

kakuryu-vs-endo

This one consisted of 13 bouts, all won by the Yokozuna. Rather than counting wins, the Yokozuna concentrated on adjusting his own movement and building up his body.

After practice, the Yokozuna was seen having a talk with Endo. It turned out that they were exchanging injury-related experience.

Kakuryu’s finger injury lingers on. He seems able to use his grip, but says that after applying sudden force, when he lets go of the opponent’s mawashi, the pain hits. “But it’s not preventing me from doing sumo”.

Kisenosato engaged Meisei from Juryo for a 9-bout sanban, and won them all. Also watch for the bout vs. Kakuryu at the musubi-no-ichiban. Just remember my warning above.

Day 14

🌐 Location: Fujisawa, Kanagawa prefecture

Help, a group of fierce robbers has taken to the streets of Fujisawa!

fierce-robbers

(A word of advice to Kyokushuho: your highwayman career is going to be very short if you wear kimono with your name (and those of current and former stable mates) splashed all over it).

The spectators got to enjoy double bills, both in the oicho construction performance:

And in the tsuna-shime performance, where the two Yokozuna present showed off their ropes. I think this was originally planned to include Hakuho, which would have given the spectators both Shiranui and Unryu style rope tying, but unfortunately Hakuho is in Mongolia, and so they got a double Unryu.

The top 16 members of Makuuchi participated in an elimination tournament. So here is Kisenosato vs. Tamawashi:

Kisenosato vs. Shodai (who has beaten Tochinoshin in the first round):

Kisenosato vs. Kaisei:

And finally, the final, Kisenosato vs. Takayasu. When playing in elimination format, the restriction against matching rikishi from the same stable does not apply:

Kisenosato wins today’s yusho.

Day 6 – The Lower Divisions

Herouth Haru Basho 2018 (Osaka) , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Once again, Kintamayama has been in a generous mood and provided us with a Day 6 Juryo digest. Head over there and watch the whole thing.

Now, quickly repeat this sentence five times in a row: Takayoshitoshi beats Terutsuyoshi by okuritaoshi. The winner gets a free Acme Tongue Straightener.

Terutsuyoshi tried to reverse the charges and perform an ipponzeoi, but this time it didn’t work – his toe eventually touched the soft earth around the tawara and the gunbai pointed to Takayoshitoshi.

Why “this time”? Because he did something very similar with Takayoshitoshi’s twin brother back in November.

Takanoiwa got to do the splits, courtesy of Tochihiryu, a guy coming up from Makushita to fill in the gaps. Ouch.

Akiseyama is back to being a blob in a mawashi. He starts by launching a convincing tsuppari on Takagenji, but an attempt to switch to the mawashi gives Takagenji the initiative, and Akiseyama somehow manages to waddle his way out of the mess, and keep his place on the leaderboard.

Enho said in an interview on NHK yesterday that he wants to be a rikishi who gives the spectators an interesting match to watch. And he is certainly doing that. Only… he is already 1-5, has the worst balance in the three bottom ranks, and looks well on his way to lose the “zeki” suffix from his name and his newly assigned tsukebito.

mitoryu-helps-enho-up
Mitoryu lends Enho a hand up

Amakaze grabs his first win of the basho. I like Amakaze, I wish he may get a kachi-koshi, but winning his first white star on the sixth day means this is somewhat unlikely.

Homarefuji sends Gagamaru out under his own inertia, and is the only sekitori from Isegahama to win a bout today. By which I’m spoiling the next bout, which is Kotoeko vs. Terunofuji who is back to haunting the dohyo rather than dominating it. Kotoeko gets inside and lifts Terunofuji up, and the ex-Ozeki sums it in his own words: “My worst executed loss so far. If I don’t move forward I’m toast”.

(Well, my free translation of his own words, that is. He never mentioned any actual toasts in the Japanese version on the Isegahama website).

Tsurugisho can open a school to teach henka technique. That was the hennest henka in Kawashiland. Excuse the Japlish.

Aminishiki continues to suffer. He tries a heroic throw at the edge but can’t keep himself in balance long enough.

Sadanoumi loses for the first time in this tournament, and now nobody has a lossless record in Juryo.

Finally, Azumaryu meets Takekaze, who seems to be the genkiest we have seen him in months. Unless he gets very tired by the second half, the bullfrog is leaping back to Makuuchi.

Makushita

Midorifuji continues his winning streak, this time facing Ichiki:

Midorifuji is yet another rikishi in the “angry pixie” class – 169cm including his chon-mage. Ichiki here is slightly taller and heavier, but the more explosive Midorifuji wins the day.

Toyonoshima faces Asahiryu, the Mongolian from Asahiyama beya, and pretty much overwhelms him:

That boy is already two years in Sumo. He should put on some more weight.

Sandanme

Let’s take a look at Hikarugenji – that’s the man I introduced in the Pearl of the Day a couple of days ago. He is Arawashi’s tsukebito, and like most tsukebito, seems to be a fixture at Sandanme:

Here he is facing Chiyodaigo, the 20-year-old from Kokonoe. Can’t say this was exactly a matta, but Chiyodaigo seems to be caught off-guard.

Jonidan

Yoshoyama faced Kotoharamoto. I don’t have an individual bout so again, here is the complete Jonidan recording, time stamped for Yoshoyama’s bout (25:36):

I’m still not loving his tachiai, but the guy has technique alright. By the way, as the wrestlers start doing their shikiri, the announcer and the guest are discussing Kotoharamoto’s good sumo body, when the guy turns and shows the camera his front side. The guest promptly says “Oh, he reminds me of Kagayaki”. Jee, I wonder why.

The announcer calls that an okuridashi, but the official kimarite is actually tottari. He first has that hand in an ottsuke, and then converts that into a tottai.

Jonokuchi

And finally, we can’t do without Hattorizakura and his continued Sisyphean sumo life:

Day 5 – Below the Curtain

Herouth Haru Basho 2018 (Osaka) , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Makuuchi, you may know, means “Inside the curtain”. This is a reference to days gone by, when the top level rikishi were curtained off from the mere mortals, named “makushita” (“below the curtain”). In those days, there was no separate “Juryo” division.

And so, let’s go below the curtain.

Juryo

Everybody’s favorite Uncle Sumo finally managed to pull his first win in this basho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, yes, he-e-e-enka. But it’s really not clear what Aminishiki tried to do there other than confuse Azumaryu. Then followed a short oshi battle which Aminishiki, much to his relief, won.

Another Isegahama beya man who finally got a win after three consecutive losses was Homarefuji.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both rikishi were patient and did a bit of leaning and thinking, but I think Takagenji should have reacted to Homarefuji’s grip change. He didn’t, and the circling continued, and eventually he found himself thrown.

On the other hand, Terunofuji and Terutsuyoshi, who were the leaders for Isegahama the previous day, had a bit of a reversal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terunofuji opened well, but Takanosho managed to turn and put him between himself and the Tawara. Unfortunately, the ex-kaiju still has no staying power on the bales.

Terutsuyoshi had to face the mawashi-wearing-spud, Akiseyama. Actually, today Akiseyama looked a bit more like a sumo wrestler and less like a lucky blob:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He doesn’t allow Hefty Smurf to get anywhere near the front of his mawashi, and eventually catches the little devil and throws him out unceremoniously.

Enho, the Less-Hefty Smurf, had to face Takanoiwa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was quite a match! Enho stuck to the front of Takanoiwa’s mawashi like bad reputation, and wouldn’t let go. Kudos to Takanoiwa for pulling Enho back from the edge of the dohyo after the yori-kiri.

The Juryo yusho arasoi looks like this at the moment:

5-0: Sadanoumi.

4-1: Takekaze, Gagamaru, Takanosho, Mitoryu, Akiseyama

If Takekaze keeps that up, we’ll see him back in Makuuchi by Natsu.

Makushita

Wakatakakage and Hakuyozan were both 2-0 before their bout today.

 

 

 

 

Hakuyozan denies Wakatakakage any access to his mawashi with a barrage of tsuppari. I think Wakatakakage was just a bit too slow today.

For those who were wondering how Chiyootori looks following his injury:

 

 

Well, there is a slight limp there at the end, but generally, despite losing this particular match, he seems to be in a reasonable state to do sumo. Whether he’ll be able to get his sekitori status back is another question. Rumor has it that he has been set as Chiyotairyu’s tsukebito, by the way. Former komusubi, I must remind you.

I’m skipping Sandanme, as I don’t have any quality video to share, noting only that finally Terunohana got his first win.

Down at Jonidan, Torakio continues his decisive race back to the next level. Yusho potential here.

By the way, Torakio may be the star of his heya, but the little smurf, Oshozan, is doing nicely this basho at Jonidan, despite being a rather self-effacing guy (based on his Twitter account, that is).

Finally, the great rivalry developing down at Jonokuchi: Naya, the grandson, vs. Hoshoryu, the nephew.

This is a bad angle for it, so you may want to watch the same bout at Miselet‘s channel, where the entire Jonokuchi broadcast is available. Naya has Hoshoryu in a firm grip and there is really no way for the lighter Mongolian to get away from that grip. I can well imagine these two in three years, throwing a spanner into each other’s Ozeki runs.