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    Day 7 now and this is a proper sumo tournament. Nobody of note kyujo, the top dogs all (mostly) winning, and the top Megas getting the shit properly kicked out of them every single day. And we're now almost to the second half of the tournament where the top dogs have to face each other every day. Really looking forward to this week.

    At 7-0, we ave Hakuho, Kakuryu, Takayasu and - form the lower ranks - Hokutofuji. It;s just about possible you could see Hokutofuji sneak in this time because the way the schedule is going to shake out there isn't really room to bring a lower-ranked guy into the schedule of the top dogs in the final days. Could be interesting.

    At 6-1 - Goeido, Mitakaeumi, Kisenosato (who has not been brilliant by any means, but he has been entertaining, very good to see him back)

    At 5-2 - Tochinoshin, Abi, Yoshikaze, Takanoiwa, Asanoyama

    This last week is going to be lit, as the kids say. BTW - I have found a good livestream for the Makuuchi bouts at least if youwant to get a flavour of what the whole ritual looks like (as opposed to just check out the hilights). The NHK-Globlal stream is here (in Japanese) - https://aqstream.com/jp/nhk/NHK-G. The san'yaku bouts run from about 9-10AM UK time.

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      Day 8. Down to just Hakuho and Karkuryu in the undefeated ranks. Tochinoshin was handed his third loss (to Goeido) and he is yet to fight the three yokozuna - demotion now looking at least possible.

      Sorry not to be posting video, have been travelling.

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        Thanks as ever AG for the updates here, really looking forward to seeing your verdict on the subsequent days!

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          OK, things are getting a bit insane. Will try to post video a bit later, but key points:

          Hakuho 10-0, Kakuryu 10-0. This is proper sumo - these two will hopefully take it down to the final day.
          The two 8-1 Ozeki squared off today. Takayasu beat Goeido: he is now the lone rikishi at 9-1
          Amazingly, Kisenosato hit his kachikoshi today. 8-2. He can now go kyujo for another year if he likes.
          Mitakaeumi and Tochinoshin are both 6-4. The former now needs to run the table to make Ozeki this tournament. The latter, to keep status, need two wins from matches against Hakuho, Kakuryu, Takayasu, and two megashira TBD (most likely Endo and Shodai). Still tight.

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            Originally posted by Anton Gramscescu View Post
            Amazingly, Kisenosato hit his kachikoshi today. 8-2. He can now go kyujo for another year if he likes.
            Jesus wept, I hope he doesn't.

            Bizarre how Tochinoshin has slipped so rapidly from the heights he was scaling a couple of months back. He looked unbeatable in May until he got, erm, beaten, and again looked great in July until he got injured.

            I've just caught up with what happened in July and watched that incredible Takayasu v Chiyonokuni bout, won by Chiyonokuni by the narrowest margin after taking them both out of the ring simultaneously with an overarm throw, shortly after his remarkable 'splits' defence kept him in it. Amazing match.

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              Well, Kisenosato lost today to Ichinojo, and his remaining four matches are, i believe, all against Ozeki or Yokozunas, so it;s possible he ends up at 8-7 which might still spell retirement. Ichinojo for once came out all guns firing and it was devastating.

              Two other big-name fights today: Tochinoshin handed Kakuryu his first loss. This was amazing stuff. Tochinoshin had been getting beat all tournament by opponents getting underneath him and preventing him from getting an inside grip. kakuryu did that today but Tochinoshin just reached over him and lifted him up from over the top of his (K's) shoulder, atomic-wedgie style. Ubelievable strength and skill required. (starts at 13:15 here)

              The last fight was Hakuho - Takayasu. I'm pretty sure Hakuho should have been called for a matta (false start) - pretty sure T's hands weren't actually set before H bulldozed him (same clip above, starts at 16:00). Still, he's now alone at 11-0. In very good shape approaching the last weekend

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                Here's the Hakuho match - to my eye Takayasu has one hand down; is that acceptable?

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                  Nope. not supposed to start until both men have both hands on the ground.

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                    For what it's worth, Tochinoshin never got his right hand down before that bout started, either. Hell of a fight, though.
                    Originally posted by Anton Gramscescu View Post
                    Two other big-name fights today: Tochinoshin handed Kakuryu his first loss. This was amazing stuff. Tochinoshin had been getting beat all tournament by opponents getting underneath him and preventing him from getting an inside grip. kakuryu did that today but Tochinoshin just reached over him and lifted him up from over the top of his (K's) shoulder, atomic-wedgie style. Unbelievable strength and skill required. (starts at 13:15 here)
                    Holy shit, did you hear the impact when they collided?! That woke the crowd up and then some. That incredible "atomic wedgie" manoeuvre by Tochinoshin is a carbon copy of what he did to Shohozan in July, as you yourself flagged up:
                    Originally posted by Anton Gramscescu View Post
                    Highlight of day 3 is the absolutely ludicrous Chyonokuni - Takayasu match (11:15). Takayasu battles back twice, throws 'kuni who *somehow* manages not to touch the ground, recovers, and then grapples Takayasu into a mutual overarm throw - both hit the deck but Takayasu's knee was marginally faster, so 'kuni gets the win. Shohozan's flailing legs as Tochinoshin crane-lifts him out of the ring is good for a laugh as well.
                    As I said above, I'd just watched that video last night, so the move was immediately familiar when I saw it again just now. I can't work out if he has extremely long arms, or if it's just an optical illusion due to his different physiognomy compared to the Japanese/Mongolian rikishi, or because when he's reaching over an opponent's shoulders to lift them by the back of their belt it's such an implausible-looking hold to be able to grab.
                    Last edited by Various Artist; 19-09-2018, 15:54.

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                      There does I think need to be a certain size ratio to be respected here. Kakuryuu's relatively small. Tochinoshin's not going to pull that shit off against Kisenosato or Takayasu, for instance. Even Goeido is too big for that.

                      Tomorrow's (well, tomorrow my time, I guess it;s already morning in Tokyo) another great slate: Abi-Goeido, Hakuho-Kisenosato, Kakuryu-Takayasu, Kisenosato-Mitakaeumi. After that it's day 13 and the intra-yokozuna matches start.

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                        Disappointing.

                        Tochinoshin Hakuho was over in a flash. Takayasu beat Kakuryuu. all of a sudden, Hakuho has a two match lead with three days to go. Of the name matches at the end, only the Kisenosato - Mtakaeumi match was much good.

                        Ichinojo has well and truly woken up though. 5-7 and it's almost conceivable now he might pull out his kachi-koshi.

                        Video when it comes.

                        Edit: Video is here
                        Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 20-09-2018, 13:42.

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                          Day 13:


                          Ichinojo v. Chiotaryu. The big man is well and truly awake. From a nearly impossible 2-7 position, today's win means he is now 6-7 and may actually keep his Sekiwake status.

                          Shodai beats Tochinoshin. Slightly longer replay of what happened in May. he kept Tochinoshin's left hand off his belt and just kept plugging away. It looked like Tochinoshin had him for a second, but with his feet on the bales, Shodai turned and threw him. Sukuinage. Tochinoshin 7-6, still needs a win to keep status with Goeido and Abi to go. Tochinoshin is going to need to find some way to deal with this tactic of people getting both arms inside because literally everyone is using it on him.

                          Abi v. Takayasu. Abi was game, and lasted longer than most rikishi have, but Takayasu was too solid for Abi's windmill tactics to work. Tsukidashi. Takayasu's slim yusho hopes still alive, at 11-2.

                          Hakuho v. Kisenosato. MAIN EVENT! Hakuho seems to have decided that the sumo association (technically the Yokozuna Deliberation Council) can go fuck themselves, he's going to keep slapping people at the tachiai until the cows come home. Does it again. The much larger Kisenosato briefly pulled Hakuho off-balance but he recovered for the push out. Yorikiri and Sumo Gretzky is one win away from yusho #41

                          Goeido v. Kakuryuu. Jesus. Goeido runs at Kakuryu like a bull out of a gate and runs him out of the ring in under a second. Goeido at 11-2, Kakuryu falls to 10-3. Goeido fights Hakuho tomorrow.
                          Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 21-09-2018, 09:05.

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                            AG, could you do me a favor: whenever you put up a link to the video, could you put it in a new post instead of editing the old one? Edited old posts don't show up in the "New posts" list of this forum, so I miss the updates.

                            Beyond that feature request: thanks for keeping updating here. It's most interesting.

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                              Particularly satisfying win for Goeido after Kakuryuu makes a false start.

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                                Incidentally there was a round on Question of Sport this week where they played Call My Bluff. In that round, one team would have a sporting word or phrase and each of the three of them would read out a possible definition, two of which were bluffs; the other team had to guess which was the true one.

                                One of them was 'stacking the brooms' and the other, pleasingly, was 'tokoyama'.

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                                  Will do, Wouter. Full video for today is here

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                                    "Sumo Gretsky", heh.

                                    Great work with the videos chaps, and thanks for the latest reports AG.

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                                      Hakuho wins his 1000th ever Makuuchi bout (top-division), and thus wins his 41st yusho. Tomorrow he fights Kakuryuu to see if he can make a zensho yusho (a 15-0 tournament). There hasn't been one of those since...well last May, when Hakuho did it.

                                      Video here.

                                      (Hakuho has 1094 wins lifetime - he picked up 94 wins on his three-year rise to the top division).

                                      In less important news, Tochinoshin beat Abi to go kachi-koshi and Ichinojo won again, leaving him only a victory against a very mediocre Myogiryu away from safety.
                                      Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 22-09-2018, 10:57.

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                                        Here's the video for Day 15. Zensho Yusho for the Boss. And Ichinojo pulled through. That means successful komusbi Takakeisho, who did very well this basho and is definitely one to watch, is stuck at his present rank (actually, I think he will move from West komusubi to east komusubi, which is technically a promotion but meh). He will almost certainly be joined by the Brazilian Kaisei, who finished kachi-koshi from the M1 spot.

                                        That's all she wrote, folks. See you in November!

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                                          Thanks as always Anton.

                                          A question for you, is Hakuho one of the best ever? How is he thought in Japan? I've only been following for a couple of years so don't know the context to his seeming domination during that time.

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                                            Seconded, awesome work with all the coverage here Anton.

                                            stu, I can't pretend to know a fraction as much as AG but I do know Hakuho's certainly one of the best ever. Doubtless some purists will disagree; of course, he is Mongolian, which is not a completely insignificant hurdle to overcome in his reception in Japan, and he's not exactly been operating in a vintage era of late for sumo. But his record at least speaks for itself: he's blitzed just about every significant record in the history of the sport. 1000 top-level wins for instance is a breathtaking statistic. As was alluded to just upthread, his dominance is stretching out to Gretskyesque levels by this stage, if not Bradmanesque.

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                                              Yeah, it is tough for Japanese fans to look past Chiyonofuji as the Greatest of All Time because he is Japanese. (I mean,I can't imagine how Canadians would react if the next Gretzky or Gordie Howe were from the US). But all the stats would point to Hakuho as being Gretzky, Jordan and Bradman rolled into one huge pile of Mongolian muscle.

                                              Total yushos: Hakuho 41, Taiho 32, Chiyonofuji 31
                                              Total wins: Hakuho 1095, Kaio 1047, Chiyonofuji 1045 (Kaio never made it past Ozeki, he just had a really long career)
                                              Makuuchi wins: Hakuho 1001, Kaio 879, Chiyonofuji 807
                                              Most tournaments as Yokozuna: Hakuho 67, Kitanoumi 63, Chiyonofuji 59

                                              How is he thought of in Japan is a little tougher. I don't read Japanese so I have a hard time getting a read on it. He is I think seen as a bit of a rascal (which he is), but mostly a likable rascal.

                                              Meanwhile Takanohana has resigned as head of his own stable. Mixed reports about what is causing this - whether it is left over from his fight with the sumo assocation over Haramafuji or related to his health (he was in hospital last month after collapsing at a training session).
                                              Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 25-09-2018, 09:40.

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                                                Like Takayasu at the Tachiai, I am furiously bumping this thread skyward as the basho is now underway in Fukuoka (Makuuchi division set to start in a couple of hours, this link to NHK should work as of about 9AM London time if you want to watch live).

                                                Let me just re-cap last basho for a second, because this basho is going to be very different. Back in Tokyo, all three Yokozuna and all three Ozeki were healthy and went the full 15. They and the two Sekiwake plus one of the komusubi (Takakeisho) all went kachikoshi. Simple logic tells you that means the next 7-8 guys down the banzuke all got *crushed*. In fact, there was only one kinboshi (a rank-and-filer defeating a Yokozuna) the whole tournament, and for the first time in something like 50 years, no special prizes were awarded because the top ranks were so dominant.

                                                Because of the squash-ladder-like nature of the banzuke, when the top end of the maegashira ranks (known as "the joi" - which includes everyone high-ranked enough they have to fight the Ozekis and Yokozunas - M3 and up if everyone is present but can go down to M5 if there are kyujos at the top) get pounded that means they are all heading down. And it means some previously fairly low-ranked sekitori are going up. Let's take a quick look at the final standings from Komusubi on down from last time:

                                                K - Tamawashi 4-11
                                                K - Takakeisho 9-6
                                                M1 - Ikioi 3-12
                                                M1 - Kaisei 8-7
                                                M2 - Yutakayama 3-12
                                                M2 - Chiyotaryiu 5-10
                                                M3 - Shodai 6-9
                                                M3 - Endo 3-12
                                                M4 - Chiyonokuni 4-11
                                                M4 - Abi 6-9
                                                m5 - Myogiryu 8-8
                                                M5 - Asanoyama 7-8
                                                M6 - Kagayaki 7-8
                                                M6 - Onosho 4-11
                                                M7 - Shohozan 7-8
                                                M7 - Tochiozan 8-7
                                                M8 - Takarafuji 7-8
                                                M8 - Kotoshogiku 7-8
                                                M9 - Hokutofuji 9-6
                                                M9 - Daishomaru 5-10

                                                OK, I'm going to hold up here because this is actually pretty amazing. Takakeisho had a winning record but couldn't move up because Ichinojo and Mitakaeumi have the two Sekiwake spots filled (technically, he moves from Komusbi west to Komusubi east but this is a difference with almost no distinction in practice other than which changing room he uses). Kaisei at M1 had a winning record which means he moves up to the other Komusubi slot vacated by Tamawashi. Apart from Kaisei, there were only three other dudes in the top 18 spots who had winning records.

                                                Which means the banzuke selectors had an insane time trying to work out who would be in the joi this time. Myogiryu, as the next-highest ranked sekitori therefore somehow parlayed an 8-7 record at M5 into a promotion to the top Maegashira spot (M1e). Hokutofuji's 9-6 at M9 gets him all the way up to M1w, leap-frogging Tochiozan, whose 8-7 from M7 still gets him up to a ludicrously high M2e. You get the idea. Let me just fill out this basho's joi for you (previous basho's rank and record in brackets)

                                                M2w - Tamawashi (K, 4-11, in a normal basho he would have fallen a *lot* further)
                                                M3e - Nishikigi (M12 10-5)
                                                M3w - Ryuden (M13 10-5)
                                                M4e - Shodai (M3 6-9, again should have fallen further)
                                                M4w - Yoshikaze (M15 11-4 are you fucking kidding me)

                                                Why am I telling you all this? Because I need to explain how weak the top of the joi is this time around. Nishikigi, for instance. his first match - in about 3 hours from now - will be against Ichinojo and he is going to get *murdered*. With this many chumps in the rotation, there are going to be a lot of the guys in the San'yaku (the ranks above maegashira) who are going to be 7-0 come next weekend.

                                                Making things slightly more interesting at the top is the list of kyujos. We were spoiled in September with the whole San'yaku showing up. This time, Hakuho is out (he had surgery last month to clear bone fragments out of his knee), as is Kakuryuu (not clear why) and, sadly, the big Brazilian Kaisei, who had been set to make his debut at Komusubi. The rough justice of the banzuke being what it is, he can expect to show up around M10 in January.

                                                With that list of injuries, and the chump nature of the joi pretty much ruling out a surprise win from the Maegashira ranks, and assuming Kisenosato is still a bit on the rusty side, you have to figure one of the Ozekis is a favourite to win. Goeido looked very good in September - best he's looked in almost two years. But might Tochinoshin claim a second yusho in 2018? Might Takayasu finally get his shit together and put together 13 or more wins? Or - stay with me now - is this the tournament Ichinojo finally shows up for 15 straight matches?

                                                Anyways, the forecast for week 1 is "no surprises" because of the weak top Maegashira ranks, but a lot of drama to be played out in week two. I will try to keep you up to date as best I can, though I understand my usual source of videos may not be available this basho. We'll see.
                                                Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 11-11-2018, 13:01.

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                                                  Video is available. Whew.

                                                  May have been a bit hasty on the 7-0 calls. Kisenosato, Tochinoshin and Mitakaeumi all dropped their opening bouts. 'sato vs. the increasingly excellent Komusubi Takakeisho, 'shin vs. the reasonably good Tamawashi, and 'umi, clumsily, against Tochiozan.
                                                  Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 11-11-2018, 19:54.

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                                                    Day 2. Two things to note:

                                                    1) Kisenosato dropped another one. An 0-2 start is not Yokozuna material. Does he kyujo in the next day or two? In which case this basho becomes a no-kozuna tournament.

                                                    2) The first bout in the video is a juryo fight, with up-and-comer Enho as one of the combatants. Enho - who is from the same heya as Hakuho - is smaller than I am. Totally amazing to watch when he is up against the big guys. When I saw him in May I thought "this is a fun party trick but there is no way he is making it to the top division". No longer so sure. Crafty, crafty, crafty. Watch the video and you'll see.
                                                    Last edited by Anton Gramscescu; 12-11-2018, 17:49.

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