How about a sumo thread?

[Anton Gramscescu]

Day 6 - I enjoyed Chiyoshoma - Tokoshoryu. Terutsuyoshi needs to do better. Enho is still magic. Short of injury, Tochinoshin is now a lock for 10 wins, I think. And maybe even favourite for the yusho (though I have fantasize of he and Enho going 14-1 and meeting in a playoff). Takayasu's form is fucking terrible. If Kakuryu tries that backing up shit againt actual San'yaku he's going to lose.

[Wouter D]

Word of Day 7 is susoharai, but Enho was on the receiving end this time. His center of gravity is crazy low, but Terutsuyoshi handled himself well.

Kaisei looks sooooooo sluggish. He almost got away with dump truck style sumo, but Ryuden pulled off a nice escape.

Abi brought some exclusively face-directed sumo to ruin Enho's tournament further.

Ichinojo and Aoiyama look like they will make a free fall through the ranks. Hokutofuji OTOH is looking ready for a promotion, at 3-4 but having only fought higher-ranked rikishi so far.

Kotoshigiku looked like having the upper hand from the Tachiai, but Tochinoshin absorbed and turned it around very impressively. He's 7-0 now, on his way back to Ozeki, and surely a favorite to win this basho. Kakuryu is also at 7-0, but he hasn't really met any proper opposition yet.

Tomorrow, Takakeisho returns.

[Sporting]

Enho with another kimarite that's new to me.

No idea what a kimarate is but is there a more specific link?

I suspect I'm not the only sumo rookie here; we maybe need a thread like the baseball one to answer daft questions such as mine.

[ursus arctos]

Kimarite are the ways in which one can win a bout.

There are 82 in total, but only about a dozen are common

Videos here

[Sporting]

Thanks. Closer look later.

[Wouter D]

Day 8, in which Tamawashi gets his kinboshi, a zensho yusho is ruled out, and Takakeisho returns.

Day 9, in which Takakeisho drops out once more, Onosho has two false starts, and Myogiryu and Takayasu serve up a wonderful bout.

Kakuryu, Tochinoshin, and Asanoyama lead with an 8-1 record, followed by Enho and Kotoeko at 7-2.

[Anton Gramscescu]

I suspect I'm not the only sumo rookie here; we maybe need a thread like the baseball one to answer daft questions such as mine.

Noobs - there are no daft questions! Ask away (not sure I can answer, but happy to help as best I can)

[ursus arctos]

Speaking of kimarite, Terutsuyoshi's win over Chiyomaru today was the first time that particular technique (a type of trip only recognized in 2001) had ever been applied successfully in either of the top two divisions.

[Wouter D]

Day 10, in which a verdict is overturned, Aoiyama displays a textbook Hatakikomi, Tamawashi brings the unusual slapdown kimarite, and Shohozan-Meisei was all kinds of weird/epic.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Meisei-Shohozan was great. Tochinoshin just one win away from re-promotion. Looks like the final days' schedules are set now, though. Tochinoshion will have to fight Abi tomorrow, then he's got Aoiyama, Goeido, Takayasu and Kakuryu. Potential barrier to the yusho: Takayasu has, just possibly, woken up from his early-basho slumber and may play spoiler.

Sentence I did not expect to write: Daieisho is probably the leading contenter for the second Sekiwake spot in July.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Other sentence I did not expect to write: Asanoyama in the lead with one loss, followed by Kakuryu and Tochinoshin with two apiece (day 11)

[ursus arctos]

Do you know what the worse yusho-winning score in recent times is?

I had become used to a second loss being viewed as quite fatal.

I also assume that Asanoyama is going to be given some tougher opponents.

[Anton Gramscescu]

13-2 is a reasonably common title-winning score - last year three of the tournaments ended that way (March Kakuryu, July Mitakaeumi and November Takakeisho). Harumafuji's last win (Aki 2017) came from an 11-4 playoff win against Goeido, which is the lowest I know of. I am fairly sure no one was ever won a Makuuchi yusho with just 10 wins, though it has happened in juryo, I think.

There are some limits on how tough an opponent they can give A at this point since from Tochinoshin up they are all spoken for for the last four days. They are giving him Tamawashi tomorrow though, so that will probably even things up.

Tochinoshin;s last three fights are obv going to be Goeido, Takayasu and kakuryu (not in that order). Question was: who do they give him tomorrow? The obvious answer based on rank alone was Aoiyama. The less obvious answer, based on the banzuke gods deciding they *really* want him to get that tenth win, is to give him M7 Meisei. Meisei it is.

Ichinojo is back from injury tomorrow, in a probably vain attempt to stop himself crashing out of the joi altogether. With the kyujos he is 2-9.

First Makuchi bout of the day tomorrow involves Takagenji, who at 10-1 from J2 is clearly making the move up to the Show for July. Keep an eye on him, he looks good.

On present form, July's san'yaku lineup includes 4 ozekis, Mitakaeumi and Tamawashi at S and Abi and Ryuden at K.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Asanoyama lasted all of about 3 seconds with Tamawashi. 10-2.

OK, kust saw the torikumi for tomorrow and things are seriously weird. They have paired Tochinoshin against Asanaoyama, which means T will *not* fight everyone ahead of him on the banzuke. Not clear who he is going to skip although my guess would be Kakuryu. Not sure I have ever seen this (not that I;ve been doing this a long time or anything).

Tochinoshi loses again. Seems to have a bit of a thing about getting that tenth win. 9-3
Abi beat Takayasu in an embarassingly short match to go kachi-koshi. On track for a decent promotion
Kakuryu with the easy-ish win over Ryuden. 10-2

[Wouter D]

Kakuryu is matched up with Takayasu tomorrow. For his schedule it would make sense to fill the remaining two slots with Goeido and Tochinoshin, since he has fought all other top-rankers.

Tachiai also notices how Tochinoshin's missing out on an Ozeki or Yokozuna is weird.

[ursus arctos]

I think that Tochinoshin aggravated his injury a few days ago and that it is getting worse (the push off the dohyo from Abi didn't help). He isn't the same wrestler as he was in the first nine days.

[Wouter D]

I think it's fair to say that Day 13 was a bit controversial.

[ursus arctos]

"A travesty of justice"

[ursus arctos]

On the other hand . . .

[Wouter D]

I guess we could have seen coming what happened on Day 14. The audience loved it too.

[Anton Gramscescu]

What the actual fuck?

[Anton Gramscescu]

This morning when I saw the Tochinoshin henka I actually yelled OMG! My daughter camne running downstairs and asked what it was. I handed her the phone so she could watch the last couple of bouts. She yelled "oh my God!" at exactly the same place on the tape. Kind of amusing.

[Anton Gramscescu]

I don;t think it;s impossible that Hakuho could have won that basho with one arm.

[Wouter D]

I don;t think it;s impossible that Hakuho could have won that basho with one arm.

Quite possible, yes. I did quite enjoy this picture of the new yusho winner:



Yesterday when the gyoji was making his pronouncement, you could just see on Tochinoshin's face that he felt utterly robbed. In that light, I can agree with this reaction. Under normal circumstances, someone at the upper ranks shouldn't henka, but these circumstances are far from normal.

[ursus arctos]

The whole thing was a WWE-style "work" to ensure that the US President would see nothing but dead rubbers during his extraordinarily disruptive visit on Sunday.