Kaninoyama

I believe Chinzorig is the Mongolian wrestler recently featured on the Japanese TV show "You ha Nani Shi ni Nippon e?" (Why Did you Come to Japan?). Seems like the typical lumbering, serious, hard-working Mongolian with dreams of making a better life for himself and his family in Japan through sumo. He appears to have the size and work ethic to succeed. Hope he does.

What makes both of them so effective is how, despite completely different body types, they combine relentless oshi-zumo and tsuppari with superb ring movement and impeccable timing to know just when to shift to get their opponents off balance. Neither seems to get much love on this forum but I'm a fan of both, and believe they will be Joi mainstays for some time to come.

Ouch. Kisenosato with his fourth loss on a mono-ii. Could this be the beginning of the end, or at least a kyujo for Kyushu?

Takakeisho continues to impress with a decisive win over Shodai.

Count me in on the Takakeisho bandwagon. It's hard to predict if he's Ozeki material, but I'd argue that his body-type is the very thing that makes him such a tough match-up. His short stature and stocky, low center of gravity means that it's almost impossible to push up on him, while instead he's always the one naturally pushing upward on his opponent. Further, his style of sumo is well grounded so long-term he's less likely to suffer a major injury compared to high-flying counterparts like Ura or Chiyonokuni. Combine those attributes with surprising agility, above average ring sense, and an a feisty attitude of not backing down from anyone, Yokozuna included, and I believe that minimally he'll be a Sanyaku regular for years to come with at least a shot at some point of making an Ozeki run. Of course, know one really knows how it will all pan out, which is part of what makes following the career arcs of promising rikishi so fascinating.

Nice to see Terutsuyoshi climbing stealthily up the Juryo ranks, one 8-7 kachikoshi at a time. I predict he eventually makes it to Makuuchi. Also love seeing Toyonoshima finally making it back to the sekitori ranks. Would love for him to also make it back to Makuuchi as well. Can't wait for a throwback Toyonoshima - Aminishiki match!

Well he hasn't retired so one assumes that it is intention, otherwise why keep at it?

And to further connect the dots of information already provided above, his admittance that his accusations were false was made a requirement for him to be allowed to attach himself to an Ichimon. His unwillingness to do so put him in a no-win situation, and so he decided to leave sumo and have his deshi be absorbed by Chiganoura-beya, as already noted.

At the conclusion of the final day's telecast Kitanofuji remarked that while this basho was quite satisfying in terms of the quality of sumo, it left something to be desired in terms of the performance of the gyoji and shimpan. He noted that the current crop of shimpan are mostly inexperienced, and would benefit from a good training session between now and Kyushu to improve their ability to judge whether to call a monoii and establish more consistency with regard to what constitutes a "both hands down position" at tachi-ai. Personally, I concur!

I live ten minutes from here, but due to work and other conflicts won't be able to attend for the first time in three years. Was really looking forward to seeing "coach" Harumafuji in action, but with him retired, Terunofuji's career in jeopardy, and Aminishiki on his last legs, it's been a tough year for the Isegahama stable to say the least.

According to the linked article his opponent for his debut match is still undermined, but perhaps negotiations with Sapp have been proceeding behind the scenes.

Sorry to see Noborifuji go but it's probably for the best. Watched him train last year at Isegahama's training camp in Niigata. Worked his tail off, but he weighed maybe 70K soaking wet and was rail thin. Probably a better future for him elsewhere.

Actually, the announcers indicated that he needed a win today in order to remain in Makuuchi, which he was able to pull off in true Yoshikaze fashion. Glad to see him stick around in the top division where he belongs.

Ichinojo seems to pull that stop-and-completely-give-up move at least once per basho.

Got to be very disappointing for those fans at Nagoya who were looking forward to seeing a live Yokozuna ring entrance ceremony.