Benevolance

They should stage a brawl at Takitoriki's bar and grill.

They'll get you if you blink.

I'd like to see him show more emotion and intensity, honestly. I wasn't a big Kise fan until the NHK started showing more photos of him off the dohyo, where he looked a lot more relaxed and a lot more like he enjoyed being in sumo.

Clearly, they all recognize Baraki will be the next dominant yokozuna, and are changing their game plan to follow suit.

I figure the whole thing went down something like this: Kise: He hit me! YDC: Did you hit Kise? Haru: Yes. I hit him really hard. YDC: You can't hit people in sumo. Haru: Ex-Terao hit people. Ex-Terao: I'm ex-Terao! YDC: Well, Yokozuna don't hit people. Haru: Asashoryu hit people all the time! YDC: That's sort of our point... Kise: My eye is swollen! YDC: And that frog thing has to go. It's taunting people. Haru: Takamisakari does something like that. YDC: But he's Japanese. And he barely wins. Haru: What about Kotoshogiku's back bit? YDC: Japanese! And you can't be so fast, either. Haru: What? But Chiyonofuji was fast! YDC: Exactly. We don't... Chiyonofuji: Hey, I forgot my bento at home. Give me your lunch money. YDC: Here you go, sir! Haru: That was awesome!

Except for the smart ones. As I understand it, they got caught in their own "2 yushos = a yokozuna" trap, that they set after they made a bad call on prematurely promoting a previous yokozuna. And really, back-to-back zensho yusho with wins over Omega Force Hakuho is impressive, and undeniably yokozuna-like.

Kakuryu is the type of ozeki I expect Goeido will become. He's better than the rank and filers and puts them away regularly and he put together a good run to reach ozeki. But there is otherwise little to recommend him. He's never in contention for the yusho. Nobody will ever be talking about his yokozuna run. And he manages to fight just well enough to keep his rank. But I will commend him on his exemplary acting. When Kotoshu was 7-7 last tournament (or was it July?) he managed to make his pirouette-of-defeat look semi-believable. That's gotta count for something. But when he went up against Harumafuji this tournament, he didn't look like a man who wanted to win, let alone expected to win.

Seconded. The finale was a little anti-climatic after the drama leading up to it, but it was nice to see Harumafuji win again. He should probably retire. Anyway, I'll admit, I was pretty drunk by the time the award ceremonies happened, because we had three fewer guests than expected and yet those bottles of Hakutsuru weren't going to drink themselves, but it looked like Hakuho won an award. Can anyone tell me what that was about?

Heh. I was going to start a cheeky poll at the beginning of the basho regarding which day Hakuho would clinch the yuusho, and only give options for days 9-12. I'm glad I never got around to it, because I'd have looked awfully silly. Still, this is Hak's basho to lose.

That was an epic fight. Watching the replays, I like how Kise did such a good job of preventing Hakuho from getting his double-grip. And then had the wherewithal to know that if Hakuho didn't get his preferred grip, the yok would immediately switch to something else. A year ago, Kise could have managed the first step, only to be surprised and thrown down by the second. Meanwhile Hak...I love that guy. Grab, grab...no second hand? Okay, we'll switch to a one-handed belt throw. It's...his technical repetoire is so impressive. The first technique gets stymied, he doesn't wait around trying to get it. Not like the lower maegashira that basically have a solitary winning technique and they're going to do it, come hell or high water! Hak just switches so quickly, so smoothly and effortlessly to something else. If Kise can become this solid for 15 days, the yuusho competition is going to be a beautiful thing.

Man, the build up to the Hakuho and Kise fight is intense! Edit: Wooooooo! Kise! That's the spirit!

You keep mentioning makushita debut for Baraki. He's sd80. That would be an huge frickin' jump. Is that really conceivable?

Let's get to what's really important this basho: despite the 70 ranks between them, Baraki totally stuffed Shineiyama with a good throw and moved to 7-0 in Sandanme. Booyah, little guy! That's fighting spirit!

It's just not a proper tournament without at least one chiyowithdrawal.

I take the blame for Jokoryu's performance. I dropped Ikioi from my office pool after the last two basho and switched to Jokoryu for Kyushuu and...yeah, clearly my fault. Any bets on whether Chiyotairyu keeps up his strong performance to finish the basho, now that the possibility of komusubi and marriage has arisen?

I think 4 might keep him out of Juryo.

Man. Kintamaya is good. Okay, let's try this one: "Goeido isn't ozeki material." Fix that! I dare you!

And really, as much as I love Urotura or however he writes it, he's got a Takanoyama's chance in Makuuchi of even reaching Makushita. They might tolerate the gimmick for a perpetual jonidan wrestler in photoshoots after matches, but I think he'd get a very different reaction if he tried that pose in the upper divisions or on the dohyo...

It's the unstable red clay of Kyushu.

Kagamio wins the lemming award for charging head first Gagamaru. I was going to complement Homasho on his nice resistance vs Hakuho on the ropes, but I suspect that Hakuho was simply being gentle to the most earnestly bowing person in sumo.

I found that a lot of younger Japanese in the general admission section couldn't identify any of the wrestlers, ozeki included. On more than one day I would hand off my English program because, with the romaji, they could at least identify who was wrestling.

This new Kisenosato is impressing me. Kinta forgot to include the first part of chiyotairyu's interview. It actual translation went something like, " There is no way to reach komusubi from my position on the banzuke right? Then I'm amazed how well I'm doing in spite of the eye problems."

Maybe Japanese fans just want to be entertained and so they cheer for the entertaining wrestlers? I know that's what I like, and I don't much care where they come from. Maybe this will at least put to rest the notion that bigger/stronger foreign wrestlers can come in and dominate sumo with size alone? There is more to athleticisim in the sport than simply size alone, and most seem to struggle against equally-strong and better skilled opponents with lower centers of gravity. But hey, I'm preaching to the choir. You guys already know how awesome sumo is.

Hockey. Man-games lost is a regularly-reported team stat. Endo really should have withdrawn. He hasn't looked very good. I really don't know whether he'll piece together 4 wins before aggravating his injury further.

The day that Goeido can get a 14-1 or 15-0 result at sekiwake is the day his sumo becomes interesting to watch.