Benevolance

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.

*slips Yamanashi his $20* That's right. Nothing to see here. There is no controversy but the controversy itself.

I'm rooting for Kotozakura, and I've spent millions influencing the judging department to assure his rise to yokozuna, but I was hoping they wouldn't make it so flagrant. I should have splurged on the 'subtle promotion' package after all.

Why didn't anyone tell me the basho had already started? SHEESH!!

Will his arms grow back if he quits sumo?

Bah. He needs, what, three words for sumo? He's got to recognize hakkeyoi, matamatamata, and be able to mumble gambarimasu. BAM! Japanese covered. I think he'll do great. In fact, I'm already putting some wheels on the ol' ozeki bandwagon.

So if I understand this correctly...when the sumo association hosts the next kids sumo event, they should serve complimentary oden to ensure the quail egg prizes keep coming.

Both are doubtlessly factors, but I suspect it's also to do with the large Indian population who use the Vancouver /Tokyo route as a stopover on the way to and from India. Lots of consistent traffic.

I still regularly see tickets for 1100 to 1300 out of Vancouver. But that said, I can also see prices in the 1600-2500, depending on how close it is to departure.

That makes a lot more sense, thanks!

Is he really likely to drop that far?

I finally managed to catch up the matches for days 11-14. I'm kind of disappointed with Kotozakura's results, but not his effort. I think those matches probably could have gone either way. I still have hopes that he'll make it to yokozuna.

[pauses reading sumo script] Terunofuji has been so awesome this tournament, that it will be EPIC when Kotozakura steals the yusho.

The Ura vs Terunofuji match up is my favorite bout of the tournament so far.

Aside from day 1, Terunofuji's matchups mostly looked like helpful wrestlers lending their chest to the yokozuna for warm up. Are they worried about injuring him with any rough movements? Do they know he is done, and this is a friendly send off? Did Terunofuji finally perfect the "Sumo Moth" technique, which mesmerizes rikishi and draws them in to a double-hand belt grip?