Yubinhaad

Reports of Takanoiwa being kyujo for Day 12. I did wonder about that possibility, he seemed to be moving awkwardly after his loss to Kagayaki yesterday. Harumafuji will get a very handy free win.

The full schedule for this jungyo has been released, and the rikishi will be on the road for a while again. 21 locations with two of them hosting two-day events. At least there are six non-event days liberally sprinkled throughout the tour. Second year in a row that an event has been held on a university campus (last year the Higashi-Matsuyama event took place in a gymnasium on the Daito Bunka campus, if I recall correctly). This time Aoyama Gakuin's Memorial Hall will play host. July 30th - Gifu, Gifu prefecture July 31st - Kusatsu, Shiga August 1st - Toyota, Aichi August 2nd - Toyama, Toyama August 3rd - Shibata, Niigata August 5th - Sado, Niigata August 6th - Nagaoka, Niigata August 7th - Honjo, Saitama August 8th - Aoyama Gakuin (Shibuya), Tokyo August 10th - Hitachi, Ibaraki August 11th - Kaminoyama, Yamagata August 12th/13th - Sendai, Miyagi August 15th - Aomori, Aomori August 16th - Itayanagi, Aomori August 18th - Eniwa, Hokkaido August 19th - Sapporo, Hokkaido August 20th - Asahikawa, Hokkaido August 23rd/24th - Odaiba, Tokyo August 25th - Odawara, Kanagawa August 26th - Tokorozawa, Saitama August 27th - KITTE Basho, Tokyo And the artistic version:

Tsugaruumi was listed on the Kyokai's shikona change page though, which doesn't happen for those subtle error corrections. There was further discussion about it in the banzuke thread of the time, starting here.

I bet Tokitenku used to look up such statistics when plotting a ketaguri... If nothing else it tells us that Sokokurai is able to lead with either leg first. I've never done sumo of course, but thinking back to days on the school athletics track, my first step out of the sprint blocks was always with the right foot. I never even considered leading with the left, but I'm sure I would've fallen flat on my face.

If Kotoyuki does participate tomorrow after his fusenpai, he'll be the first sekitori to do that twice (the list of previous cases was posted last year after Kagamio joined the club). And if he's unable to compete tomorrow, he'll be the 7th sekitori to get two consecutive fusenpai in the 15-day era. Of course, he could make history twice in one fell swoop by getting the second fusenpai tomorrow and then competing on Day 11...

Endo's victory over Kisenosato the other day made him the 4th rikishi to win the maiden kinboshi from two Yokozuna, having previously done the same to Kakuryu. He follows Masuiyama 1 (defeated Haguroyama and Maedayama), Kairyuyama (Taiho and Kashiwado, in the same basho) and Akinoshima (Asahifuji and Musashimaru). As for Kisenosato, he was the 9th Yokozuna to reach double-digit wins against Maegashira before giving up his first kinboshi. The record is held by Wajima, who won his first 29 Maegashira bouts (interrupted after 21 by a fusenpai). 1) Wajima 29 2) Hokutoumi 17 3) Takanohana 16 4) Futabayama 14 =) Kitanofuji 14 =) Hakuho 14 7) Terukuni 13 8) Chiyonoyama 10 =) Kisenosato 10 10) Takanosato 9 =) Asahifuji 9

Shikoroyama-oyakata (former Sekiwake Terao) was suffering from arrhythmia, which has bothered him since his active days and which has happened before to interrupt his shimpan duty. I don't know about the earlier shift on Day 5, but it was Urakaze-oyakata (former Maegashira Shikishima) who stood in for him in the second half of Makuuchi.

Former sanyaku gyoji Kimura Tamamitsu died on May 12th at the age of 67, following a battle with stomach cancer. He entered the sumo world in 1965 and reached the mandatory retirement age in February 2015. He suffered a stroke and other health problems in the last few years of his career which held him at the sanyaku rank. To me he was notable for not saying 'hakkeyoi' at the start of a bout, instead going straight to 'nokotta'. I don't think there are any other gyoji at the moment who do that.

My favourite bout of the day was between two former Juryo, Keitenkai-Higonojo. Also good was this lengthy yotsu battle between Ohata and Oazuma. Looks like the shimpan were just starting to discuss calling a halt when the rikishi saved them the trouble.

Interestingly, the Kyokai site has him placed above the other oyakata who are borrowing myoseki. An error? A perk for being a former Sekiwake (the others are all ex-Maegashira)? Or maybe he really does own the Nishikijima myoseki? Anyway, Nishikijima-oyakata's intai press conference was held earlier today. His most memorable basho was 2004 Haru, in which he won his first 12 bouts to stay in the leading group with stablemate Asashoryu. The Yokozuna went on to claim a zensho yusho, while Asasekiryu finished with a 13-2 jun-yusho and was awarded two sansho for his efforts. A few pictures in the box.

35 Kainowaka (jd35) 0-0 Isenohana (jd34) 0-0 38 Terunosato (jd29) 0-0 Hanakaze (jd28) 0-0 A couple of veteran bouts here. Hanakaze and Terunosato meet on Shonichi for the second basho in a row, this time with a combined age of 86 years, 3 months and some odd days. Hanakaze is now older than Ichinoya was when he fought his final bout. Isenohana and Kainowaka have a combined age of 80 years, 5 months. After the Haru basho I started looking into this and managed to find 15 torikumi (including the two today) during the last five years in which the combined age of the rikishi was over 80. Oh, and Momochizakura brought his 17-bout losing streak to an end with a win against Wakainoue.

And for this one, Jd72e Okunisato.

I'll try Mk58w Ikeru for this one, please.

Akiseyama is neither kyujo nor intai, as far as I know. Kotoseigo can't catch a break, he suffered a right knee injury in February and then re-injured it in the Haru basho. He has since had surgery, I think with a second op still planned. In the past he suffered left knee injuries and had three surgeries to fix that. Teraoumi suffered a foot or leg injury during keiko last month and had surgery, spending two weeks in hospital for that. Rikiyushi retired between basho for personal reasons (danpatsu-shiki picture in the box below). For the immediate future he will live with his sister and work in his cousin's restaurant in Okayama, hometown of his father. Hokuyozakura also retired for personal reasons.

Press are reporting that former Sekiwake Asasekiryu, who was granted Japanese citizenship just recently, has retired and is now Nishikijima-oyakata. Unless there's been a stealthy change of ownership, he's borrowing that myoseki from Toyonoshima.