Eikokurai

Great effort from Takakeisho but that was over the second Hak got his fingers on the mawashi.

A photo finish in the Tamawashi-Kakuryu bout! Looked closer in real-time than the replays showed.

Oh dear. I thought Takayasu was likely to be one of the 'easier' opponents that Tochinoshin had left to pick up his two wins. He's running out of bouts now. Hakuho tomorrow.

And that's one komusubi slot open for May.

Ikioi needs to go home. Thought: If it can't be impressed upon a rikishi what damage is being done to his health when he fights seriously injured, perhaps he should be made aware of how it harms the integrity of the tournament to be mere cannon fodder. Anyone scheduled against Ikioi this basho is getting a free win. At best, that's unfair on those who don't get to 'fight' him, and at worst, it's only a degree above match fixing.

I've seen them given for less. Yago's right fist seemed to clench on the hair.

No kachikoshi on his makuuchi return for Toyonoshima. Yago survives the mono-ii after what looked like a hairpull and so it's a fourth consecutive makekoshi for Yutakayama. That should see him Juryo bound. He started off so brightly in the top division but has hit a wall. (Also, was that the first mono-ii this basho?)

Rugby union, mostly. I watch a game a day at times from just about anywhere in the world. I even watched the Japanese university final this year. I can’t get enough of it. Fortunately there’s a tiny but dedicated group of rugby fans in China who upload match videos online, and because it’s so small, nobody notices and takes the videos down like on YouTube. I will also watch rugby league, though to less of an extent, and my hometown football (soccer) team, though my interest in that has gone down in recent years. I don’t pay much attention to the league table and never watch other teams, so I rarely have any sense of context. That actually makes it more enjoyable though. I just take each game as it comes and don’t worry about relegation battles or whether my team is being cheated out of its best players by ‘big clubs’. Outside of that, I’ll actually watch just about any sport if it comes on, except perhaps basketball which I find dull.

My two-year-old sometimes watches sumo highlights with me and yesterday said “zumo!” when I put on the day 10 digest. He can’t even say ‘cat’ properly yet! He also says “ruby” when I watch rugby.

He's been very fortunate that the joi above him are having pretty poor tournaments, so a big promotion looks likely. Kaisei, Nishikigi, Shodai and Tochiozan are all MK already, Endo is one loss from it, and Myogiryu and Daieisho are still vulnerable. It's also possible that three of the four sanyaku could makekoshi too. Ichinojo is well placed to reap the benefits.

Kotoshogiku gets his kachikoshi and is having a very solid basho. 10-11 wins is a realistic target for him. Shodai gets his first win against a surprisingly lacklustre Nishikigi, who is now makekoshi himself. I hope Tochinoshin didn't aggravate the knee going down there. It looked like a possible twist. Ichinojo is in beast mode this basho. And Hakuho yet again escapes from a vulnerable position. How many times this basho has he found himself with his back to his aite? Takakeisho secures his kachikoshi by beating a Yokozuna and is well on his way to Ozeki now.

Someone started a thread over in the Ozumo Discussions forum: http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/topic/38782-olympic-ojisan-passed-away/

Tamawashi isn’t doing that well this basho, so that’s one to target, and he can beat any of the others on his day. He’s on a good run so I think he can manage two more.

Well, Tochinoshin is doing his best to prove me wrong about his kachikoshi chances. He's not finding it easy (I mean, Shodai? Really?) but at 6-3 he's nicely poised to make the eight. I think now that he will scrape over the line.

Great bout between Ichinojo and Goeido. Ichinhojo is looking veeery good this basho.