Benevolance

Yeah, but Shodai only shows up for matches against good opponents, so that's actually a point in Hoshoryu's favour. Shodai's long term goal is to become a yokozuna-killer, lollygag in the upper rank and file, and earn sweet, sweet kinboshi.

I think Hoshoryu did well to stay in the yusho competition after his mid tournament blip. But I don't see them giving him a promotion even if he wins the yusho. At best, he extends his yusho run, and they might look favorably upon the results of next tournament.

Kirishima just needs five more wins this tournament to get back to ozeki.

Pffft. Leading on the leaderboard is for losers. Ozeki are too cool for that.

Forget about his being ozeki material, I couldn't even identify Kotozakura as Kotozakura until some time in September. Stupid name changes.

Just popped by to say, "Wow, Hoshoryu!" And Kirishima's face afterwards was like, "Seriously? That did not just happen!" I think this has been a really good tournament. Not much to complain about, the top ozeki are wrestling like ozeki, and we've got a final day, yusho-decision bout to decide the tournament that won't be a 12-3 yusho.

My favorite example of this was years ago in Sandanme when Orora picked up this little kid, carried him to the edge but lost track of the tawara, and stepped out before putting the fellow down.

I kept seeing Shodai at Komusubi and had to remind myself whether he's on his way up, or on his way down. Thankfully, after three days, it's very much clear he's on his way down. Major hat tip to the rikishi for helping clear things up for an international fan. Edit: I also really like how Kirishima quickly ended speculation as to whether 13 wins might promote him back to ozeki by efficiently eliminating the mathematical possibility of it happening.

Onosato was merely dusting off a spot of the tawara that the yobisdashi had missed, and if the NSK called him out on it, they'd undoubtedly be honour bound to kill the yobidashi and/or the gyoji. Onosato was simply saving lives. He's a hero. With a brand new car and a trophy and a bunch of macarons. In very related news, is Kirishima going to be on an ozeki run next tournament?

Onosato had more trouble handling the giant stack of kensho afterwards than he did his opponent.

Wow. I didn't realize he's completed 30 tournaments at Ozeki.

Kirishima clearly follows me on the forum, read my previous post, and drew the natural inference that the only way to prevent an Onosato win was to not get hit.

HIs opponents...

Okay, this Onosato kid is good. I had (wrongly) thought that his early rise was because of 'new-guy luck' while everyone is figuring out who the new guy is, and his 9-6 last tournament was an expected regression towards the mean. But dang. Watching him win is fun.

Hiradoumi vs Oho was probably my favorite match of day 4. Hiradoumi got under and up so quick off the start and then that semi-toss once Oho lost his balance. Beautiful. Kind of a shame that Kotozakura already has this tournament in the bank.