Asashosakari

Day 15 (results, text-only results): 10-5 Kakuryu Y1 Hakuho 15-0 10-5 Kisenosato Y2 12-3 Goeido O1 Takayasu 11-4 O2 Tochinoshin 9-6 A yusho decision before the final day always threatens to take a bit of the air out of the senshuraku proceedings on the dohyo, at least among the high ranks, but the last three bouts of the basho were arguably still worth the price of admission. Tochinoshin and Goeido delivered emphatic victories over Tagonoura-beya duo Takayasu and Kisenosato, before Hakuho and fellow yokozuna Kakuryu closed the tournament with a classic yotsu battle, eventually won by the champion for his 14th zensho yusho. Goeido takes the sole jun-yusho at 12-3, the first time since his own yusho two years ago that he's posted at least this many wins. The sanyaku ranks were settled in what was arguably the most expected order. Mitakeumi, already secure at S1e, did add a 9th win to his tally, which may or may not be enough to have another shot at the ozeki promotion next time. The fate of the Sw slot was up to Ichinojo for the second straight tournament, and just like last time he managed to come through after all, defeating Myogiryu to clinch his kachikoshi. Takakeisho was also victorious and sent Asanoyama to makekoshi in the process, but his 9-6 final record will now only be good enough to move over to the East side at komusubi. Lastly even Tamawashi earned a senshuraku win, giving us the only day of the basho on which all 4 lower sanyaku were successful. In a somewhat strange situation Myogiryu's defeat won't matter for his banzuke prospects at all - the potential sanyaku promotion was already impossible at the time of his match, thanks to Kaisei keeping his spotless record over Shodai (now H2H 7-0) to get his kachikoshi, and with no competition at all it was going to be Myogiryu moving to M1e with 8-7 or 9-6 either way. Kaisei for his part will be returning to sanyaku for the first time in two years, taking over the Komusubi West slot. As has been widely remarked upon already, we're likely in for some unexpected faces in the joi next time courtesy of the nearly complete wipeout up there and not much better results by the maegashira just below the meatgrinder ranks. Even Yoshikaze might find himself straight back in the top 16 spots from all the way down at M15w. The general lack of impressive performances by the rank-and-file extended to the sansho nomination process, which resulted in no prizes being awarded for the first time since they were introduced in 1947. 9-6 Mitakeumi S Ichinojo 8-7 (x) 4-11 Tamawashi K Takakeisho 9-6 M1 Kaisei 8-7 (o) M2 M3 M4 8-7 Myogiryu M5 The promotion/demotion race in the lower maegashira ranks took an unexpected turn even before the action started, as Chiyomaru had to withdraw from his scheduled bout with a foot injury. That has clinched a demotable record for him, but he may yet survive: Kotoyuki lost to Aoiyama and was not able to capitalize on this gift offer, falling to a clearly juryo-bound record of 6-9, and down in juryo only Arawashi was able to make sure of his promotion while Yago was defeated to finish just 8-7, quite possibly not enough to be exchanged for Chiyomaru. That should be the only questionable decision to make here, the rest is obvious: Kyokutaisei, Kotoyuki and Ishiura are headed down, and Arawashi, Meisei and Daiamami are all returning to the top flight. If Yago has to stay down, it'll be the first time in four tournaments without a makuuchi-debuting rikishi. The juryo yusho race came down to the two Day 14 leaders after all. Daiamami was first to pick up his 11th win, eliminating the 9-5's from contention, and Tokushoryu proceeded to join him to set up the ketteisen between them. This was already Daiamami's second juryo yusho opportunity in his just seven tournaments in the division, but unlike Nagoya 2017 he wasn't able to come through the playoff this time, and had to yield to the veteran. It's the first juryo yusho for 32-year-old Tokushoryu, whose career had looked rather moribund for the last year or so. It remains to be seen if it's the start of a career revival or just the last hurrah. For all the first-week hooplah about the crushing mediocrity in juryo, it's somewhat surprising that two rikishi managed to get to 11 wins after all. And not only that - the final hoshitori also shows no less than 7 KK rikishi in the top 5 ranks, which is not exactly an everyday occurrence (about once a year on average). M11 Kyokutaisei 1-6-8 (x) M12 M13 M14 Chiyomaru 6-9 (?) M15 (x) 6-9 Kotoyuki M16 Ishiura 4-11 (x) (o) 8-7 Arawashi J1 (o) 9-6 Meisei J2 Yago 8-7 (?) 8-7 Daishoho J3 (o) 11-4 Daiamami J4 9-6 Kotoeko J5 Takagenji 8-7 The victim of Daiamami's playoff clincher win was Gagamaru who should be finding himself ticketed down to makushita with his 6-9 record, ending nine years as sekitori. He will almost certainly be ranked Ms1e if he decides to continue, from which it would take just the minimum kachikoshi to return to the paid ranks, and I for one expect him to try to do that in Kyushu, and to succeed. However, even if he does, it's rather more doubtful that it would lead to any further sustained presence in juryo - the downward trend in his performances over the last couple of years arguably speaks for itself, and the next demotion would/will likely only be a matter of time. Still, there's probably a bit more money to be made for him before it's all over, if he wants to. Gagamaru's plight was Daiseido's fortune; the 25-year-old former top prospect should be on the way to his second juryo stint. The first one a year ago consisted of a rather puzzling combination of a credible 8-7 debut followed by an absolute disaster at 2-13 where he looked outclassed in every possible way (without showing outward signs of injury, IIRC). He'll be joined on the promotion elevator by former sekiwake Toyonoshima and 22-year-old debutant Gokushindo. Alongside Gagamaru in the other direction it'll be Seiro, out of the sekitori ranks after more than five years, and Akua whose second trip to juryo unfortunately ended even worse than the first one back in January. J9 Seiro 1-11-3 (x) J10 J11 (x) 6-9 Gagamaru J12 J13 J14 Akua 3-9-3 (x) Ms1 Toyonoshima 6-1 (o) (o) 4-3 Daiseido Ms2 4-3 Toyohibiki Ms3 Irodori 4-3 4-3 Tamaki Ms4 Tomokaze 5-2 (o) 7-0 Gokushindo Ms5 And last not least, senshuraku also saw the decision in the sandanme yusho race, where youngster Tochikodai contested his second sandanme playoff in 10 months, but came up short once again, so the title and winner's cheque went to veteran Asakoki. The 27-year-old former Ms13-ranked rikishi might even secure a new career-high rank if the banzuke committee plays along, but one would suspect that he's in for tough times on the dohyo in November either way. Tochikodai will also return to makushita, and likely just hope to do better than last time, which saw him forced to delay his entry into the basho to the middle weekend, only to pick up four straight losses for a 0-4-3 record and trip right back to sandanme. That's it for this basho, which most fans seem to agree was a pretty good one, not least for having all the top-rankers actually present for once. Let's hope we'll get more of the same - or even better - when the action moves to Fukuoka in seven weeks.

On another note, after missing an ozeki promotion in Oracle by one point last basho, I've missed it by one win in Toto this time around.

For reference, I ended up receiving Toto entries from 4 players, 3 of whom ended up able to enter them on their own later. I've forwarded the remaining entry (by Jejima) to Doitsuyama. It's a loss, but the addition of his entry will bring Exidrono into the fold, whose drone picks are also a loss, so Gurowake will find himself moving from first loser to last winner, if I haven't made any mental mistake along the way. @Randomitsuki - if the above is correct, Gurowake finishes 12-3 rather than the currently displayed 11-4, and thus in a different Masters position.

Turned out to be - barely - winnable, those 13 rikishi went 3-10, including the guy I had actually picked as a winner. Needless to say, my Quad picks went 1-3 anyway, not 3-1.

As predicted by Kinta, 11 wins for Aoiyama and Onosho. Kaisei!

Gotta love Day 15 in Quad: 13 rikishi available, one projected winner. On another note, I was surprised to see that I was the only one to pick Kakuryu as loser for TTT yesterday. Kinboshi's kinboshi?

Or rather: No sansho for Aki 2018, according to Nikkan. First time in history.

https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/201809230000452.html Chiyomaru: Metatarsal bone fracture in his left foot, suffered yesterday against Tochiozan. Mitoryu: Damaged MCL in his left knee. One and a half months recovery time stated for both, oddly enough. Maybe they've actually got a long vacation trip planned, "Eat Around The World" or something.

Well, you're really helping Doitsuyama in the end. I can and will collate the emailed entries, but I don't have access to the system to actually input them these days so I can only forward them to him. Needless to say, the Toto results will probably have to remain provisional for a day or two.

Nope, same here, and for the same reason. (I've noted my relative lack of interest in Ura's approach before.) I've become a fan of Tobizaru over the last couple of basho as well, another lighter-weight guy who mostly goes right at it. Just in time for me personally , as the Kitaharima Era sadly seems to have reached its end.

Day 14 (results, text-only results): 10-4 Kakuryu Y1 Hakuho 14-0 10-4 Kisenosato Y2 11-3 Goeido O1 Takayasu 11-3 O2 Tochinoshin 8-6 The mind games at the shikiri-sen went longer than the bout ended up taking - following a strong tachiai and a big uwatenage to topple Goeido, Hakuho is the Aki 2018 champion for his 41st title, clinching his 1000th top division win along the way as well. Kyushu will see him ranked Y1e for the first time in five tournaments - and rather unexpectedly he may end up joined there by Kisenosato who pulled even with Kakuryu at 10-4 after a lengthy yotsu battle between the two. Day 15 bouts with the yusho already in the bag are always a bit tricky, but given his four-day slide it's somewhat hard to see Kakuryu preventing the zensho finish for Hakuho, while Kisenosato should have a decent shot against Goeido. Takayasu had fallen out of the yusho race even before the Hakuho-Goeido encounter, courtesy of his loss to Mitakeumi who is kachikoshi at last. Tochinoshin also secured his KK by throwing down Abi with authority and will continue to be ozeki into 2019. Three sanyaku slots are spoken for after today; Mitakeumi is set to retain the Sekiwake East position, and both Ichinojo and Takakeisho will be at least komusubi after Day 14 defeats of Shodai and Myogiryu. It's now up to Ichinojo's senshuraku bout to decide which of the two will be Sekiwake West for Kyushu. The race to replace Tamawashi as komusubi was thinned out considerably: Both Shodai and Abi fell to makekoshi, and Asanoyama's fourth loss in as many days means he can no longer finish top of the race. Kaisei is in the driver's seat after he improved to 7-7 - if he can do it once more against Shodai tomorrow he'll be a lock for promotion. If not, then Myogiryu is waiting in the wings for a lucky (if 9-6) or extremely lucky (if 8-7) promotion. (For completeness, Hokutofuji is 9-5 at M9e and could tie an 8-7 Myogiryu on the numbers, but it would be very unusual for them to reach down that far when a comparable candidate exists higher up.) 8-6 Mitakeumi S Ichinojo 7-7 (x) 3-11 Tamawashi K Takakeisho 8-6 M1 Kaisei 7-7 M2 (x) 6-8 Shodai M3 M4 Abi 6-8 (x) 8-6 Myogiryu M5 Asanoyama 7-7 (x) We could be in for as many as five rikishi sharing the jun-yusho record, but the more likely outcome is probably that at least one of Goeido (vs Kisenosato) and Takayasu (vs Tochinoshin) moves up to 12-3. Kakuryu, Kisenosato and low-ranked Yoshikaze are those who would be able to join them at 11-4 if they both don't. The maegashira demotion race is still far from done because Chiyomaru also wasn't able to defeat Tochiozan (though he got close), and Kotoyuki maintained his last bits of hope with victory over visiting Arawashi. I had some nonsense in yesterday's post about Meisei having secured at least the third-best promotion slot - today it's actually true after Yago dropped to 8-6 against yusho-leading Tokushoryu. Daiamami is also headed back to makuuchi with today's 10th win (which sent veteran Takekaze to his third straight MK) as he cannot finish lower than third now, either. As Gurowake already noted, things are rather complex beyond the Meisei/Daiamami for Kyokutaisei/Ishiura exchanges. Anything from Yago unluckily missing out with a promotable record to a very fortunate promotion for Daishoho or Kotoeko with normally insufficient wins is still possible depending on the senshuraku results and in some scenarios the whims of the banzuke committee. M11 Kyokutaisei 1-6-7 (x) M12 M13 M14 Chiyomaru 6-8 (1) M15 (~) 6-8 Kotoyuki M16 Ishiura 4-10 (x) (1) 7-7 Arawashi J1 Aminishiki 6-8 (x) (o) 9-5 Meisei J2 Yago 8-6 (1) (~) 7-7 Daishoho J3 (o) 10-4 Daiamami J4 (~) 8-6 Kotoeko J5 Takagenji 7-7 (x) The situation between juryo and makushita is a lot more clear-cut, and will go off without major banzuke luck involved. Daiseido made sure of that involuntarily by getting flung down in short order by Azumaryu today. He does still have a chance to get promoted despite missing out on a stronger-looking 5-2 record, thanks to Tomokaze's defeat of Gagamaru who thus wasn't able to escape the bubble for the third straight day. Furthermore, the Day 15 makushita action also saw shiroboshi for Toyonoshima, Irodori and Tamaki, the latter two clinching kachikoshi at the finish line. J9 Seiro 1-10-3 (x) J10 J11 (1) 6-8 Gagamaru J12 J13 J14 Akua 3-9-2 (x) Ms1 Toyonoshima 6-1 (o) 4-3 Daiseido Ms2 4-3 Toyohibiki Ms3 Irodori 4-3 4-3 Tamaki Ms4 Tomokaze 5-2 (o) 7-0 Gokushindo Ms5 First time in nearly two years with at least 7 KK in the promotion zone, and with the low number of promotions to come we'll be seeing a lot of the same faces up there again in November. But first, the question of Gagamaru's sekitori survival. There are no more makushita rikishi available to put against him, but they're not making it easy for him anyway - his Day 15 opponent is yusho-chasing Daiamami. (Coincidentally they faced off on senshuraku last basho, too, Gagamaru won that one.) And speaking of which, the penultimate look at the juryo yusho arasoi: 10-4 J4e Daiamami, J11e Tokushoryu 9-5 J2e Meisei, J12w Hakuyozan, J13w Enho As mentioned, Tokushoryu defeated Yago and Daiamami was successful against Takekaze, while Meisei fell back from the lead against Tsurugisho. The pursuers were halved with Hakuyozan and Enho winning, and Yago and Jokoryu leaving the race. Daiamami and Tokushoryu already met on Day 11 with the gumbai going Tokushoryu's way, so a straight head-to-head for the yusho is not possible this basho. Thus it's Daiamami-Gagamaru per the above, and Tokushoryu will have to deal with pursuer Meisei. That latter bout will be going second, so Meisei will already know if he can still clinch a playoff spot or merely play spoiler to Tokushoryu's chances. Tokushoryu likewise will either be in position only to get into an 11-4 playoff with Daiamami, or to win all the marbles directly. As for the other contenders, it's Hakuyozan against Wakatakakage (J7w 8-6) and Enho against Daishoho (J3e 7-7).

In case the Toto problem persists, picks to sekitoto (at) gmx (dot) net please.

Ryuden might get a sansho nomination and a couple of votes simply for his 8-1 start, too bad he fell off the pace of the yusho race too quickly afterwards to actually look a credible contender for a prize. Beyond that I agree with Gurowake that Takakeisho seems to be the only decent unconditional candidate. And a significant share of the journalists who are voting are probably still Takanohana supporters, which might help. Perhaps Myogiryu in recognition of his recent career revival if he gets to 9-6 against Ichinojo?

That's a pertinent point. Baruto made tsuridashi look downright easy, Tochinoshin "only" makes it look like a feat of amazing strength. (Admittedly the ~6 cm of extra height Baruto had probably play into it, greater leverage and such.)

At least the papers see it differently, and have included statements along the lines of "there are 5 ichimon making up the Kyokai, namely [insert names]" in the recent set of articles about this. Basically, the 6th ichimon ended when "Onomatsu group" came into existence after the election. I suspect the brass are actually happy to let Takanohana-beya linger in some sort of pariah status here for a while, especially as it looks as though all the other stables haven't put up any fuss about this rejoin mandate, even Minato and Shikoroyama who seemed fairly independent-minded for a long time. Takanohana as shimpan will be a bit of an oddity if it persists, since they're almost surely going to want to go back to splitting the 20 spots equally between the 5 groups. (That reminds me that there's a thread I've neglected...) --- A lot of stables have moved to other groups since, but in total numbers we're almost back to the 2010 status from before Takanohana's rebellion, with Dewanoumi and Nishonoseki nearly at parity with around 30 oyakata each.