Black Mawashi

Moving sumo commentary and highlights to wordpress. I like the interface better. Day one is up.

Last bout of the New Years Tournament, Yokozuna versus Yokozuna. Kotoshogiku already clinched the tournament a few bouts earlier, finishing with a 14-1 record, so there’s only pride resting on the result of this match-up. Hakuho isn’t ready for Harumafuji’s tachiai, so he apologizes to everyone involved and the referee resets them. The actual bout takes less than a second, with Harumafuji grabbing Hakuho’s belt with his left hand and pulling him down to his third loss. Both Yokozuna finish as runners up (along with Toyonoshima) with 12-3 records.

I love Kotoshogiku’s pre-bout ritual. He slaps his thighs and backside, readjusts his mawashi, and stretches waaaay back one last time before throwing a huge handful of salt to the ceiling. Once he comes into the ring to face Goeido, you can almost see in his posture that he’s trying to calm himself before the biggest bout of his life. Once it starts, he pushes Goeido right to the edge, gets him leaning over the tawara, and when Goeido pushes back ‘Giku shoves his right hand into Goeido’s ribs and rolls him. Kotoshogiku wins his first ever Grand Championship.

Shodai brings his favorite tachiai, throwing a strong right shoulder into Gagamaru’s chest. From that point on he’s forced into defending against Gagamaru’s nodowa (throat push) attack, and manages to survive until he can slip inside and maneuver Gagamaru out to his eighth loss and make-koshi. Shodai finishes with a most excellent 10-5 record, and should see a good promotion next tournament.

Takanoiwa, you had to see this coming. You’re sitting there across the shikiri-sen from Kotoyuki, and you can see the man is fired up. He slaps his hands together, he lets loose with some kind of guttural “ho!” and the look in his eyes is totally focused. So what makes you think you can beat this man at his own tsuppari game? The big left hand that you think is going to stun him just leaves you out of position. He walks right through it and now you’re eating dirt.

If you’re going to beat Yokozuna Harumafuji, it’s best to do it before he gets a hold of your belt. He may be small, but he’s ridiculously strong and notoriously hard to shake once you’re in his grip. Yokozuna Kakuryu feels this pressure - Harumafuji gets the deep left-hand underhand grip all the way around the back of Kakuryu’s mawashi, and comes within a hair’s breadth of getting the right-hand overhand grip before Kakuryu strikes. He shifts his hips and applies all his strength to an armlock on Harumafuji’s left arm, crushing Harumafuji into the dohyo. Harumafuji loses for only the third time this tournament, but on Day 14 this puts him out of contention for the championship.

Kisenosato plays spoiler today, pushing Hakuho out with shocking ease and knocking the Yokozuna off the top of the leader board. Not sure if Hakuho issn’t expecting Kisenosato to bring it or what, but his tachiai is tentative, his feet slide backwards, and he’s out in under two seconds. Kisenosato breaths a sigh of relief with his crucial eighth win.

Kotoshogiku, ladies and gentlemen. Massive slap with his left hand to Tochiozan’s face at the tachiai. Fast, powerful step-hops to the edge, staying low, moving forward, feet keeping up with his upper body. A final mighty shove to seal the deal. He sits alone atop the leader board with a record of 13-1. One more win tomorrow against the floundering Goeido and all his dreams come true.

Goeido’s woes continue. He’s already got a losing record. He continues to bounce around from kadoban to kachi-koshi to kadoban and back again. And today against Takarafuji he gets his fingers caught up in Takarafuji’s hair and automatically loses due to the foul. You can pull on the back of the head, but you can’t pull the hair. Doesn’t matter if it’s intentional or not. Goeido drops to 4-10.

Aminishiki sidesteps at the tachiai and uses a hand to the neck of Tochinoshin to get in position and secure a good migi-yotsu grip (right hand under, left hand over). But Aminishiki would prefer to stay mobile against the larger opponent, and sure enough, even without a belt grip Tochinoshin uses an arm bar on Aminishiki’s left arm to lift him up and take him right to the edge of the dohyo. Now with an overhand grip of his own, Tochinoshin leans forward and applies his considerable weight towards crushing out Aminishiki. Ami-chan’s only chance is the classic utchari move, the backward pivot throw, but he can’t quite make the turn with his hips and Tochinoshin lands right on top of him. But if you’ve been reading along, you’ll know today’s theme is “sacrifice the body,” which Tochinoshin does not do. All he has to do is land on Aminishiki for the win, but he puts out his left hand to brace his fall and ends up touching the dirt before Aminishiki’s body. Ami-chan gets the utchari win after all.

The lesson for today is “sacrifice the body.” Ichinojo and Shohozan throw each other at the same time, and appear to hit the ground at the same instant, but watch again (and pause at just the right time) and you’ll see Ichinojo extend both his arms to catch himself. His hands hit the dirt before Shohozan, who tucks his arms up close to his body to stay airborne as long as possible.

Two of my favorite round mounds of fury, Takekaze and Kotoyuki, bounce around and use the entire real estate of the dohyo in their bout today. Takekaze executes a great bullfighter move on Kotoyuki, but the tsuppari specialist can’t be pulled down so easily and regains his footing. They get a second chance to clash, but as Kotoyuki closes the distance Takekaze deflects his charging opponent to the side with his right hand, sending Kotoyuki to the other side of the ring. Takekaze follows close behind to usher him out. Nice double-digit win record of 10-4 for Takekaze on Day 14, and Kotoyuki already has his kachi-koshi at 8-6.

Tamawashi channels E. Honda today and completely dominates his opponent with a barrage of tsuppari slaps. Classic sumo.

Lot of things to watch in this great match-up near the middle of the banzuke. Kitataiki dives low at the tachiai, but gives up a belt grip to Takayasu’s left arm. Meanwhile, there’s a desperate fight on the other side of their bodies for opposing belt grips - Kitataiki wants left-under, Takayasu wants right-over. But in this position, reaching too aggressively for your opponent’s belt means giving up your own, so there’s a delicate balance of defense and offense happening with hips and arms and hands. Finally, they both just go for it and simultaneously secure solid belt grips, which Takayasu immediately uses for a throw attempt. But Kitataiki stays upright and sees his chance to push out Takayasu, so he releases his hold on the belt, puts a hand under Takayasu’s chin, and attempts with all his might to remove Takayasu’s head from his shoulders. This doesn’t work for two reasons. One, it’s really hard to push someone’s head off of their shoulders. Two, Takayasu has defended by getting both hands on the front of Kitataiki’s belt, and he uses this grip to slip to the side and push Kitataiki down and out, while balancing with one heel on the tawara. Look at Kitataiki’s face when he sees which way the referee’s fan is pointing! It’s a display of emotion rarely seen in sumo. Kitataiki drops to 7-7, needing to win on the last day to avoid demotion, and Takayasu improves to 10-4, a nice double-digit result that should see him promoted near the top of the Maegashira ranks.

Long video to wrap up Day 13. It’s nice to see a little bit of the pre-bout ritual, where the wrestlers settle themselves, throw some salt, stare each other down, and get psyched up. The bout itself takes all of two seconds, with Harumafuji blasting Kisenosato out the other side of the dohyo. But a ring judge calls for a conference, and all five judges join the referee in the center. They talk for about two and a half minutes (cut out of the video) before announcing the result: Harumafuji and Kisenotaso hit the ground simultaneously - it’s a rematch! The wrestlers perform an abbreviated version of the pre-bout ritual, and clash again. It’s a repeat of the first bout, with Harumafuji blasting Kisenosato out the other side of the dohyo. The only difference is Harumafuji keeps his feet underneath him, leaving no doubt as to the winner. Harumafuji stays in the title picture with two losses.

Great Yokozuna matchup today, with Kakuryu stepping up his game against Hakuho. Kakuryu is unusually aggressive, and puts Hakuho on his heels before Hakuho secures the underhand grip on the right side. Hakuho uses this grip to move Kakuryu back to the center of the dohyo, and sling him around a little, but Kakuryu manages to get a right-hand underhand grip on Hakuho’s belt as well. Things look even for half a second before Hakuho switches his attack, using the left-hand overhand grip to push Kakuryu from the other side. The strength of Hakuho’s throw completely destroys Kakuryu’s grip, and Hakuho puts a hand on Kakuryu’s thigh to keep him from resetting his balance. Kakuryu ends up facing the wrong way and tries vainly to spin around to face Hakuho again, but Hakuho gets his right hand on Kakuryu’s belt and prevents him from completing the turn. Kakuryu is marched out to his fourth loss. Hakuho stays in the championship hunt, staying even with Kotoshogiku at one loss.

Toyonoshima is always a threat to topple the guys at the top of the division. He’s deceptively agile, with a ton of experience. He’s unpredictable, equally as likely to push you out as pull you down (with quite a few wins by throw as well). Today Kotoshogiku brings his full-force tachiai, as expected, and after absorbing the blow Toyonoshima responds by stepping to the left, wrapping up Kotoshogiku’s right arm with both his arms, and swinging the Ozeki down to his first loss of the tournament. With two days left, there are now four wrestlers with a chance at the championship. Kotoshogiku and Hakuho each have one loss, and Toyonoshima and Harumafuji each have two losses. Kotoshogiku has the easiest remaining schedule, but I’m predicting a playoff on the last day. (fingers crossed)