Kotogouryuu

Many seem to wonder why Onosato lunged at Hakuoho so recklessly, but I'm going to give him a bit of a break here. His style is very much power, and he needs his feet planted for that. He tried several times during the match, but Hakuoho just wouldn't let him get this bearings. When Onosato got Hakuoho on the edge, I can understand he didn't stop to stabilize himself but just pushed.

Have to keep an eye on this. We're planning on visiting Japan next May, and the goal is to attend a day of sumo. Sounds like it might be tricky to get tickets.

"There is no way Tobizaru is going to fly out of the doyho... Oh, Tobizaru has flown out of the dohyo!"

I general I'm not in favor of armchair psychologist, making guesses about the mental state of people they see glimpses of on TV. But when it comes to Kisenosato, I think the case is quite well founded. He was so superior early in bashos, and then time and time again would lose matches he should have just walked over. And then interrupt Hakuho's winning streaks. Man, those Hakuho-Kisenosato matches sure were something. I hope Onosato will find himself a rival like that. I am truly glad Kisenosato got the rope, even if his reign was cut way too short. He is retired as a former yokozuna, a title which is rightfully his.

I started in 2012 as well. I watched some matches, and the first full basho I watched all of makuuchi was Aki 2012. 6 ozeki, many rising stars, and the GOAT. Those were good times, indeed. Not many guys left from that banzuke, these days.

Oh I do enjoy it. I love me some power sumo.

That was a thunderous slam, but not even the rhine that Takerufuji is could shake Onosato. The top guys are going to have to dig into their bag of tricks, because trying to match power with Onosato is not a good tactic.

I do feel I have to counterpoint this with Onosato's ability to stop at will. Surely that threw Gonoyama off, when his advance just stopped making progress. We've seen this in recent basho; Onosato is powerful, and it feels like his opponents haven't quite realized the extent of it just yet.

Onosato is in win mode. He took a shot from Tamawashi and just started advancing. Tamawashi could have brought a gun and still wouldn't have stopped Onosato. He just has to maintain it to end of the basho, which has been the tricky part for some -satos in the past...

He had such potential, but it is a cruel sport. I remember being excited when he turned up in makuuchi with never having had a losing record. He continued that momentum, but never really managed to get a grip on sanyaku. Then the knees went. Oh well, time to get on the bandwagon of another promising newcomer, and go through this again...

With videos being annihilated and all things sumo in these part awry: Does anyone have good clips of exceptional feats of strength in sumo matches? Utchari, a really heavy shitatinage, or maybe one of Barutor's polite pick-up-from-the-waist-and-just-move-them-outside -moves?

Well that was fun. For some basho now, I've found myself drifting off a bit. I'd catch up days of matches because I just forgot to watch them. But this time I was glued to the screen, especially on the last day. I do like the emotion of Hoshoryu's face at the end. He worked hard for that yusho.

I liked the fact that he posted the matches separately, and pukulu added valuable comments to each video. I could really take it in, and I learned a lot about the sport that way.

Definitely. There was such a clear level difference between the two, and Tobizaru is no pushover. If Hoshoryu keeps this up, he certainly has a chance of getting the rope.

Well, I hope so. It did really look like he just couldn't move those very heavily armored knees to put his leg forward, but we'll see...