Basho Talk - Haru Basho 2016 +++ Spoiler Alert! +++

[Pandaazuma 1,310]

Sumo's a funny old game because lads look absolutely awful when they lose and fine when they win. A loss can easily come about from some daft move mid-bout, but it doesn't mean much overall. The only valid view in sumo is a long-term one...years and years. To write someone off on the basis of one loss is insane. Let's see how Hakuho looks over the year and then decide whether he's ready for the knackers yard.

Even with an injury, he's capable of going 6-2 over the first week minimum. I am hoping he stays in it to keep things interesting for the fans. Hoping Kotoshogiku and his fellow ozeki can keep it real for the first week...we will have some real buzz then.

[Atenzan 1,074]

Truth be told though my money is on Ama this time around. Surprisingly, he seems to be the most match-fit at the moment, with Giku and Kisenosaato standing a chance too.

With the knee bandaged like Aminishiki?

Doesn't seem to restrict him in any way. Probably precautionary. And look at his genkiness and speed.

[taresu 38]

Ura looked fine today, even been slapped around the dohyo. Guess Hak didn't liked Kotoyuuki barking in his face, ended the bout very quickly. Happy for Koto but not so happy about Yoshikaze, really liked how well he was doing in the last bashos.
Really nice day of sumo, great to watch.

[Jyuunomori 226]

Ura destroyed his fellow Makushita 2 Abi. Ura looks good as always, what else can you expect from a WCB gold medalist? I hope he destroys the two people over him and gets into Juryo next basho. It would be much more interesting to see him in sekitori, where he can dedicate all his time to training instread of heya maintenance. Here is Ura in semi-finals winning by a extremely rare kimarite called Tsutae-zori.

On other news:

Oosunaarashi keeps destroying Juryo as we expected. Kotokamatani starts of with a win also and has never lost in his official career.

[hamcornheinz 839]

I know Terunofuji had the collarbone thing, then the knee thing, then the 40 degree temperature thing, and the loss over 10 kilos thing, but damn he looks solid... I'm calling it. 8 would be cheesecake this basho. I'm thinking 10 sounds about right.

[Masumasumasu 902]

Hakuho let Takarafuji win.

[Katooshu 3,135]

-Teru is looking solid, but he has 15 wins out of 16 matches with Aoiyama and Tochinoshin (9-0; 6-1), so he's only been in with opponents he's dominated (admittedly the loss came last basho). I suspect that he's in better form and will KK, but still a ways to go.

-For some reason I keep imagining a wild scenario in which Kisenosato beats Kotoshogiku in a 14-1 playoff, Geek is promoted to yokozuna, Kisenosato wins next basho as well and bam, we have back to back Japanese yokozuna.

-At first I thought Hak threw a Myogiryu KO style elbow to the head, but on second look the elbow didn't go as high as I initially thought.

-Amuuru-Hidenoumi was my favorite day 2 bout..good start for the gritty Russian.

-Sadanoumi lost his opening matches to opponents he was 6-1 and 7-1 against...where has his form gone?

-I look forward to Ishiura and Chiyonokuni's faced paced bouts in juryo and their head to head didn't disappoint:

-Ura in another entertaining match and inches closer to juryo...he seems to be getting stronger and more capable of driving opponents straight out. I was excited about Sato-Daiki and favored the latter, but Sato (who seems to have hit the wall a bit) had a strong tachi ai and won fairly easily. Daiki doesn't appear to have the best balance.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Katooshu

[Kaioshoryu 62]

I have to say, and this is probably a totally incorrect observation on my part, but the sumo presented so far this basho reminds me of the sumo that first got me hooked back in the day around the year 2000. Really exciting stuff, with a lot of epic power sumo, all that is missing is a really powerful tsuridashi from someone to really make my day.

Terunofuji is my guess for the yusho, but this basho really feels like anything can happen. Really refreshing. Man, I love sumo!

[Asameshimae 220]

Along with others I am sure, I was waiting for Kotoyuki's bark - I never really gave it that much thought but last year in Osaka the guy behind me in line just happened to be Kotoyuki's brother (no special considerations in many cases for tickets for relatives) and he obviously loved his brother so much, telling me how Yuki's family and his heya were behind him; and his bark.

Anyway, I listened to the commentary for Kotoyuki's bout in both English and Japanese. As I suspected, Ross spoke of the bark and Hakuho's open condemnation of it. The Japanese announcers didn't breathe a word of it - it's just not palatable commentary from their perspective. I was both disappointed they didn't share this tidbit with fans who don't live and breathe sumo and pleasantly reassured that Japan announcers still have a degree of restraint (too much sometimes of course).

Edited March 18, 2016 by Asameshimae

[kuroimori 1,634]

Takanoiwa wins by, er, ballet?

He is the Tazmanian devil disguised as a rikishi! ;-)

Tazmanoiwa

[Senkoho 552]

Ishiura was robbed, wasn't he? Chiyonokuni's calf obviously touched the tawara before any part of Ishiura was out or down.

[Suwihuto 125]

I have to say, and this is probably a totally incorrect observation on my part, but the sumo presented so far this basho reminds me of the sumo that first got me hooked back in the day around the year 2000. Really exciting stuff, with a lot of epic power sumo, all that is missing is a really powerful tsuridashi from someone to really make my day.

Terunofuji is my guess for the yusho, but this basho really feels like anything can happen. Really refreshing. Man, I love sumo!

It's the first time since I rediscovered Sumo about two years ago that there's a true excitement for me again, like in the old(ish) days of Chiyonofuji. With Hakuho past his best, we're at a point where the new upcoming youngsters will soon be challenging, and there are more rikishi in with a shout of the Yusho it seems.

Much as I appreciated the historic significance of the Yusho record, it's not great when it's clear who's going to win every time!

[Benevolance 2,478]

Goeidou is wrestling like a man who knows that he won't get any freebies from his fellow sanyaku. I'm pretty sure if he keeps this up, he can get to 5 or 7 wins easy.

[rzombie1988 157]

Hakuho... oh, Hakuho. End of an era?

What? No. Everybody loses from time to time. I don't remember wich, but is not long ago since hahuko started with a loss in the first day and all wins from there. What "era" are you talking about?

Last time he got a yusho after losing on the first day was 2008

I have to admit, that my first thought after watching him lose easily like that was that maybe, just maybe, the era of Hakuho invincibility is over...

Agreed. The one thing I always said about Hakuho was that he doesn't lose early. Oops.

Some thoughts so far:

- We seem to be getting matches closer in rank than usual on the first two days, or at least it seems like it. Nice refresher from the "squash matches" that we call them in wrestling - Matches with a higher ranked wrestler vs a lower ranked wrestler resulting in an easy win.

- Conspiracy theory time. Yep, day 2 and I'm gonna start it. Takayasu looked like he gave up a bit early there on Day 1. I'll be shocked if Koto doesn't get the nod. It's best for buisness if he does. 2 Yok's, with one being Hak, losing on the first day? I dunno man.

- Terunofuji does look good so far

- Ichinojo hasn't learned anything and might be in Juryo next basho. His stalling hasn't worked for the last how many bashos and it's not gonna work this time.

Edited March 15, 2016 by rzombie1988

[Dwale 419]

Goeidou is wrestling like a man who knows that he won't get any freebies from his fellow sanyaku. I'm pretty sure if he keeps this up, he can get to 5 or 7 wins easy.

He's fighting hard and I think he stands a good chance of erasing his kadoban status. What I would really like to see is him take names and challenge for the yusho, but every time I think this is the basho where he will finally transcend his limitations, he sputters out. T.T

EDIT: Finally saw the Osunaarashi match! I bet Nishigiki felt pretty bad about that loss. It was, ah...decisive. XP

Edited March 15, 2016 by Dwale

[Kuroyama 715]

The one thing I always said about Hakuho was that he doesn't lose early. Oops.

Depends on what you call early. I looked at Hakuho's record in the database and this is the 13th honbasho since he got the tsuna where he lost before Nakabi. Edited March 15, 2016 by Kuroyama

[ALAKTORN 346]

Someone gif the Takanoiwa pirouette please!!

[rhyen 1,809]

Looking at the Banzuke, Hakuho and Kakuryu will face 3 Isegahama sekitori (Harumafuji, Terunofuji & Takarafuji).

The lowest opponent they will pick is M3e Aoiyama, what are the conditions (other than someone going kyujo) for Aminishiki to meet the 2 Yokozunas?

[inhashi 2,363]

Someone gif the Takanoiwa pirouette please!!

Edited March 15, 2016 by inhashi

[Jakusotsu 5,815]

Ishiura was robbed, wasn't he?

As was Hidenoumi. The NHK replays on UBS clearly showed Amuru's hand touching down first.

[hamcornheinz 839]

Ikioi isn't what we would call a pusher-thruster but also don't seem to really fight that much on the belt. Has there been a yokozuna who fought basically in a "wrestling" style while at the same time largely focusing on controlling the upper bodies of their opponents and not the hips, like him?

[Jakusotsu 5,815]

It's high time to put the usual jinx on Kisenosato lest he gets the idea to fly under the radar.

[rhyen 1,809]

Truth be told though my money is on Ama this time around. Surprisingly, he seems to be the most match-fit at the moment, with Giku and Kisenosaato standing a chance too.

With the knee bandaged like Aminishiki?

Doesn't seem to restrict him in any way. Probably precautionary. And look at his genkiness and speed.

If Kotoyuki can push him back, I hate to see what Kotoshogiku would do to Harumafuji next week.

[word20 21]

Today was another surprise. We have seen Harumafuji win easily the two first days but today Kotoyuki did not

allow Harumafuji to grap the mawashi and Kotoyuki won in a fast taichi.

Now it is only the four ozeki in the lead with no losses close followed by the three yokozuna.

It seems that it does not go well for Yoshikaze. Today he did not count that Goedou would prevent his taichi

and falled to the ground instead of being ready to stop the fall and continue the match.

[Irakusamaru 77]

I really hope Kotoyuki remembered to say "arigatHO, HakuHO" when he received his chikara-mizu.

(I really like it when rikishi fail to be stoical on the dohyo. Surprised Kotoyuki managed to keep it together as much as he did.)

Takayasu is looking pretty fired-up this basho - while he got steamrolled by Hakuho, he came out pretty hard.