Wakamotoharu

Hatsu 2024: Day 3 Highlights

Andy Hatsu 2024, Hatsu Basho , , , ,

Day Two was rather eventful. Wakamotoharu picked up the biggest win of the night but there were several great bouts and, with the exception of a rusty Terunofuji, it was great to see a strong collective performance from the sanyaku.

Makuuchi Highlights

Bushozan (1-2) defeated Aoiyama (0-3). Aoiyama glided straight back and stepped out under Bushozan’s tsuppari. Oshidashi.

Shimazuumi (3-0) defeated Takarafuji (2-1). Shimazuumi fought hard to get his lefthand inside grip. Failing that, he wrapped Takarafuji up in a bear hug and drove forward with all his might. Impressive start for the rookie. Yorikiri.

Onosho (2-1) defeated Onosato (2-1). Onosho charged forward too early, matta. Reset. At the tachiai, Onosho blasted Onosato, drove him straight back and out. This is Onosato’s first loss in the top division. Oshidashi.

Kotoshoho (2-1) defeated (0-3) Tomokaze. Kachiage from Tomokaze at the tachiai but Kotoshoho was able to shove Tomokaze back, almost to the straw bales. Both men blasted their opponent with powerful tsuppari. Tomokaze generated some forward motion under the power of his slaps. As the pair started to move across the ring, Kotoshoho grabbed Tomokaze by the armpit and yanked him forward over the bales. Hikkake.

Myogiryu (1-2) defeated Endo (1-2). Just as Endo drove Myogiryu to the edge, Myogiryu stepped to the side and shoved Endo down, hard. Tsukiotoshi.

Takanosho (2-1) defeated Churanoumi (2-1). Another powerful oshi contest. Takanosho demonstrated the most powerful shoving ability, pushing Churanoumi out. Oshidashi.

Oho (2-1) defeated Sadanoumi (1-2). Oho yanked Sadanoumi around and shoved him out. Another oshidashi.

Tamawashi (2-1) defeated Tsurugisho (1-2). What the hell is this? Tsurugisho forced Tamawashi into a belt battle? Tsurugisho wrapped up Tamawashi with his left-hand inside. He drove Tamawashi across the ring but Tamawashi used his own grip to counter, guiding Tsurugisho over the bales – and over the edge! Impressive power from Tamawashi. He fought Tsurugisho at Tsurugisho’s game and won. Nice. Thank you, Tamawashi. Yorikiri.

Meisei (1-2) defeated Hiradoumi (2-1). Back to the oshi-tsuki battles. Meisei won this one with powerful thrusts, shoving Hiradoumi off the dohyo and into the crowd. Oshidashi.

Mitakeumi (2-1) defeated Hokuseiho (1-2). Mitakeumi denied Hokuseiho a grip by crushing him, driving forward powerfully, and quickly out. Oshidashi.

Asanoyama (3-0) defeated Shonannoumi (1-2). Asanoyama is strong. He drove forcefully into Shonannoumi, forcing him back. Shonannoumi tried to slip to the side at the edge but Asanoyama had him wrapped up, kept his opponent in front of him and drove him out. Yorikiri.

Halftime

Kinbozan (2-1) defeated Ichiyamamoto (0-3). Ichiyamamoto hit Kinbozan with a strong tachiai but Kinbozan was far too powerful for Ichiyamamoto. Kinbozan drove forward and thrust Ichi out. Tsukidashi.

Nishikigi (2-1) defeated Shodai (2-1). Nishikigi did not allow Shodai to escape. The winning formula was simple: Move forward, push out. Yorikiri.

Tobizaru (2-1) defeated Ryuden (0-3). Tobizaru fought hard for that morozashi. Once he got that right hand grip in there, he yanked Ryuden around, powerfully. He nearly got the shitatenage but Ryuden kept his balance and resisted with all his might at the edge. Tobizaru drove forward and finished him by shoving him over the bales. Excellent effort from both men but Tobizaru was the stronger man today.

Sanyaku

Gonoyama (1-2) fusensho. Takayasu (1-2) kyujo.

Hokutofuji (2-1) defeated Daieisho (2-1). Daieisho, what the hell was that? “I’m going to use my powerful tsuppari to blast Hokutofuji…and then give up and let him run me out the other side of the dohyo.” Seriously, he hit Hokutofuji hard, blasts him with tsuppari and drove him back to the tawara. Then he completely gave up and Hokutofuji chased him out. Yes, Daieisho tried to slip to the side and tried to catch him with a hatakikomi. But Hokutofuji maintained his balance this time, kept his sights on Daieisho, and shoved him out. Oshidashi.

Kotonowaka (3-0) defeated Midorifuji (0-3). Kotonowaka was in total control. Impressive. Katasukashi. That’s usually Midorifuji’s thing but in the center of the ring, Kotonowaka yanked Midorifuji down by the shoulder, almost crushing him with that weight.

Hoshoryu (3-0) defeated Ura (0-3). Ura locked on to Hoshoryu’s belt and drove forward with purpose. Hoshoryu tried to trip him but completely whiffed, sending him, off balance toward the edge. At the last moment, Hoshoryu summoned all of the strength he had to twist and throw Ura to the ground. Wow. Where did that come from? He was off-balance and about to go out. Sukuinage.

Kirishima (3-0) defeated Atamifuji (0-3). Kirishima’s hatakikomi didn’t work, so he tried to topple Atamifuji with a throw. Atamifuji resisted and grabbed on to Kirishima’s belt but his back was on the ropes. Kirishima grabbed him and drove forward, dumping Atamifuji into the crowd below. Yorikiri.

Wakamotoharu (2-1) defeated Takakeisho (2-1). Takakeisho tried to use his tsuppari and was able to force Wakamotoharu to the edge. But he tired quickly and Wakamotoharu thrust him through the ring and out for his second consecutive scalp. Tsukidashi.

Terunofuji (2-1) defeated Abi (0-3). Terunofuji grabbed Abi by the arm and yanked him forward to the floor. Tottari.

Wrap-up

Takayasu’s kyujo was a bit of a surprise to me so I will report on any updates I find about the length of his absence. If he is out for the whole tournament, he will basically have until March to recover and will fall into the midst of the rank-and-file.

Some rather wintery weather here means this summary will be a bit brief while we dig out. Wakamotoharu has now scored two great upset victories, prepping him for special prizes and a return to sanyaku if his performance holds out.

Other than some rather “blah” hiramaku bouts, we did get some humdingers in sanyaku, especially that Ura/Hoshoryu bout. That was a thrill and I still don’t know how Hoshoryu not only recovered but slammed Ura so hard after throwing himself off-balance after whiffing on that trip — all while being shoved by Ura. That was impressive. The Ozeki were definitely tested, with only Takakeisho falling to WMH. Kotonowaka was the most in control and dominant against Midorifuji, defeating him by Midori’s own signature katasukashi. Kotonowaka’s size difference gave a bit of a katasu-crushy flavor.

Day 8’s “Musubi no WTF”

Herouth Nagoya Basho 2022 , , , , ,
Terunofuji turning appealing eyes to Inosuke (Photo from Nikkan Sports, by Ozawa Hitoshi)

Just when you think that this basho can’t get any crazier, Shikimori Inosuke tells us all to hold his beer.

I’m talking, of course, of what happened in the musubi-no-ichiban on day 8.

This starts out as an exciting match, with Wakamotoharu showing that his win over an Ozeki was not a fluke. The match gets complicated, and two minutes pass. Wakamotoharu gets the Yokozuna pretty close to the edge, shuffles for a position, while the Yokozuna also improves his own hold with a deep left hand grip.

Then Wakamotoharu goes on the attack and the Yokozuna is out! A zabuton flies in. The audience goes “oh!”. But… wait… the gyoji doesn’t point the gunbai. There’s a commotion. A monoii? What is going on?

Here is what is going on.

At exactly 2:54 in the video above, Wakamotoharu’s back knot gives in and gets untied. Shikimori Inosuke, who is standing far away on the other side of the dohyo, notices this, and runs in to call a mawashi matta. He shouts “matta, matta”, and attempts to tap both rikishi’s backs. Terunofuji complies and relaxes his hold, at which point Wakamotoharu, who was already starting an attack, completes it and the Yokozuna is out.

To understand what a mawashi-matta is, you can refer to my older article about gyoji calls (scroll down a bit). If the back knot is untied, the whole mawashi can get unraveled, at which point the front part may also loosen enough to show the rikishi’s family jewels – and that’s a “shameful disqualification”, and definitely not considered a good thing to watch on prime time TV.

So a gyoji has to stop the match, re-tie the knot, and start it from the position where it was stopped. It was unfortunate, though, that Wakamotoharu did not stop when the gyoji called it.

The shimpan discussion was not your usual monoii discussion, therefore, but a discussion about a rare if not unprecedented situation. A mawashi matta itself is not a problem, but continuing to move after that is, and there was also the issue of the Yokozuna going out.

The rules say that after the time limit (when the rikishi throw their last salt and enter the ring), exiting it is a loss. There was a famous case in a 1968 match between Katsuhikari and Asaarashi, in which Asaarashi picked a bit of trash that somehow got into the dohyo, and left the ring to throw it away. The shimpan stopped the match and a foul was called (loss by hansoku). So you are not supposed to leave the dohyo. But clearly the Yokozuna should not be punished for complying with the gyoji’s instruction, nor should Wakamotoharu be rewarded for not complying.

The shimpan had a consultation, and decided to proceed as if he never left the dohyo. That is, from the point of the mawashi-matta. The problem was getting the two rikishi back into their positions. So more than a mawashi-matta, this resembled a mizu-iri situation (see the same article!). But this turned out to be a bit difficult.

You see this sort of situation in Snooker sometimes. A foul and a miss is called, and the opponent requests a reset. The referee then consults with an overlay of the video and the table, and adjusts the balls until they are back to their original position.

But this is sumo, and what followed was a farcical adjustment of positions, arms and feet, with the spectators having a commotion in the background. You can see it in the video above from 4:24, when Shikimori Inosuke calls Sadogatake up to adjust the rikishi, as he is the only one with a video link. Only, of course, he can’t see the video, just hear instructions from the Fujishima oyakata, who was at the video room, and serve as a proxy.

I really hope the NSK will learn from this situation and equip the shimpan-cho with a tablet through which he’ll be able to see the overlay (or other video situations) with his own eyes rather than go through the “tell him to tell them that I was told that…” hoops.

Going back to the point of the call, though, there is argument that Inosuke’s call came at a bad timing. Sadogatake oyakata, in an interview, said the consultation was mainly to establish that it really was a mawashi-matta situation, but he wasn’t very clear about whether it was made at an appropriate time. Usually a mawashi-matta is only called when the rikishi are at an impasse. However, some shifting and shuffling do not prevent a mawashi-matta from being called. Inosuke clearly believed this was an impasse, as he stopped calling “nokotta” shortly before the incident.

His positioning can also be questioned, as if he stood closer to the pair, he’d probably have been able to react more quickly.

Another point for argument is whether it would have been better to call a yarinaoshi (redo, not a torinaoshi (rematch), which is the call made when two rikishi lose a match at the exact same time). Bear in mind there was also the question of time, because this was past 6 O’Clock Japan time and a yarinaoshi would have required the whole shikiri process again. It’s also debatable whether or not it would be fairer.

Kudos to Wakamotoharu for giving the yokozuna an excellent fight. Next time, though, make sure your mawashi is tied properly. Also, a nod to Shodai who fixed the knot for him though it’s clearly not his duty.

Arashio-beya Corona Cluster

Andy COVID-19 , , ,

We open the New Year with an expanding cluster of positive Covid tests at Arashio-beya. News of Wakatakakage falling ill hit yesterday, leading to testing of those around him, in his family, and at the stable. Those additional tests have come back with a total of eleven more positive tests. Arashio-oyakata and Wakatakakage’s Juryo-ranked brother, Wakamotoharu, are among the positive cases. Eight more wrestlers ranked makushita and below, as well as a hair dresser have also tested positive. Of the twelve, three are symptomatic with things like fever but are so far mild cases. Tachiai wishes all twelve full and quick recoveries.

Happy Birthday, Wakamotoharu!

Timothée Heinz Aki Basho 2020 , , , , , ,

Today is Wakamotoharu’s 27th birthday. Happy birthday, Wakamotoharu!

He was born in Fukushima, and belongs to Arashio stable.

For the record, the juryo rikishi is one of the Onami brothers – his real name is Onami Minato.

Last basho left me quite disappointed, as I wished him to break through makuuchi. After several years spent in makushita, Wakamotoharu finally reached the sekitori ranks, got relegated twice, and eventually looked to establish himself for good in sumo’s second highest division. He actually got his highest rank in Aki 2020, namely juryo 3. Unfortunately, he could not make it – for now – to the highest division, failing to reach makuuchi with a 6-9 make koshi.

Wakamotoharu Minato

Hopefully, he’ll do it in 2021!

I spoke about the Onami brothers – Wakamotoharu actually has one older brother, and one younger bro.

The oldest Onami brother is argubly the least known of the three, namely Wakatakamoto – Onami Wataru is his real name, and will turn 29 in December the 29th. The family’s oldest bro couldn’t reach the sekitori ranks, even if he came quite close in 2018: then ranked at his best, makushita 7, Wakatakamoto couldn’t follow with a kachi koshi, and ended up 2-5 instead. He is currently ranked makushita 22, from where he will slightly slide down the banzuke, following a 3-4 make koshi.

The youngest Onami brother is also the most successful one, and the most famous: Wakatakakage Atsushi!

Establishing himself as a new makuuchi force? Wakatakakage Atsushi

Wakatakakage is notably known for his paradoxical makuuchi debut, back in November 2019. The youngest Onami brother was actually the only rikishi to compete in makuuchi and not to lose one single bout on the dohyo! Sadly, an injury prevented him from competing from day 5, and he ended 4-1-10 – after having won his four first bouts.

He showed glimpses of his talent during the first days, and it was clear it was not the only time we would see him causing headhaches in sumo’s first division. Indeed, he came back in makuuchi after two basho, and got back to back double digit wins: 10-5 in July, 11-4 in September! He’ll turn 26 also in December, the 6th.

But today’s attention is focused on the family’s second born child: once again, happy birthday, Onami Minato!