Jemuzu

Agree Kyokutaisei’s is very cool. Although he ditched it at the end of the basho

Great news for Terunofuji and great news for sumo given what has happened to the Yokozuna campaigns of Asanoyama and Takakeisho (I considered including Shodai in that statement, then thought better of it).

People complain about rikishi giving bland, boring interviews but then complain about a genuine show of emotion such as Hakuho’s celebration. The man’s career was under threat and he’s just gone and won a zensho yusho! I was really half expecting a retirement announcement in the yusho interview but I guess that would have invalidated him from participating in the Olympic dohyo iri. Little signs like the way he bowed down to the edge of the dohyo before the bout, and then Enho acting as his tsukebito made me wonder if this is the end (of course it could still be). I hope not because for me watching Hakuho is still something special and something I don’t want to end.

How is that even possible?

I can only guess he thinks he was impeded by the gyoji at the end but clearly didn’t make any difference to the result

How about Kiribayama?

On day 1, Gagamaru surprisingly turns up in a white van and takes to the dohyo wearing an ill fitting mawashi. Seemingly powered by some mystery force that takes him back to January 2012, he powers his way to a 7-0 sandanme yusho. Upon accepting the yusho certificate, as he bends to bow a small trinket is forced out of the mawashi and cracks on the dohyo floor, to reveal a small amount of grey dust. This finally solves what had become rab-bit of a mystery

The second time his knee went, I really thought he Ura was done. Going to be really interesting to see if Terunofuji can keep it going. He was destroying the opposition in Juryo and now makuuchi, the only limiting factor seems to be staying fit for the full 2 weeks

Par score is bound to be low though with the huge dollop of randomness thrown in this time

Ichinojo a big surprise, and I didn’t expect Terunofuji to go as high as M1E

Quite a difference when Takakeisho is calling it bad form to talk about winning the yusho, and then Asanoyama comes right out and declares he’s looking for two yusho and a Yokozuna promotion, no less

Didn’t get an email confirmation after I submitted, but am on the submitted entry list. Did anyone else get that?

I’ve never even considered the possibility of rice going off before!

I can definitely see that happening

But it puts the decision in Abi’s hands. He can pay the (high) price but potentially go back to having a successful, lucrative career, or quit if he’s truly done with it

I’m glad the NSK have found a way to severely punish without driving rikishi out of the sport. Let’s hope they will apply the same to others in the future

A friend of mine went to one of the Tokyo basho last year and was sat next to Enho’s mum. And he was in the cheap seats at the top!

Completely agree re Nishikigi. Seems I might have to start factoring in a “Nishikigi bonus” much like the Shodai bonus of old where he always seemed to stay in the joi no matter how many MKs he racked up

Sounds like buying themselves time, I doubt they want to sell a load of tickets only to have to refund them again

To be fair, Kakuryu had an easy one against struggling Takakeisho today with Hakuho having the tricky Asanoyama match up

This is going to be completely bizarre. I can only imagine the sunk costs (venue hire etc) were so high that they decided to go ahead and at least take the TV revenue At least Goeido decided against bowing out in front of nobody at his home basho

Thanks for the congrats. I hit a massive mid maegashira hot streak!