#tsukiotoshi

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.

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.

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.

Kotoshogiku looks really good, you guys. He leads with his face into Harumafuji’s chest, winning the hand fight on his left side by getting his left arm under and denying Harumafuji’s attempts at a belt grip on that side. The harder he pushes, the harder Harumafuji has to push back to stay in the ring. He can feel Harumafuji continue to reach with his right arm for the overhand grip, so he capitalizes on Harumafuji leaning that direction with a quick shift of his hips and a push from high on the right side to send the Yokozuna into the dirt. ‘Giku’s so confident, he turns and starts to walk away before Harumafuji hits the ground. You go, big boy. Kotoshogiku is 12-0.

Hakuho might have been going backwards, but he was never in danger. He gets two hands on Goeido’s shoulders, keeping him at a distance, first pushing the Ozeki’s head one way and then pushing into his ribs from the other side. Goeido falls like a rag doll to his eighth loss and kadoban status. His Ozeki rank protects him from the instant demotion that would normally befall a wrestler with a losing record, and he’ll have one shot next tournament to save his rank with a winning record.

If even the tippiest of your tippy-toes touches the dirt outside the ring, you lose. Moments before Chiyootori pushes Shodai out, he stepped half an inch too far after Shodai’s tsuki to his right side. You can see the mark left in the soft dirt at the ring’s edge, and you can see the ring judge seated at the far right of the screen raise his hand when he notices. Ref makes the right call.

Really long one, but interesting for a couple of reasons. Without going into too much detail, the referee called this one for Goeido, but the ring judge called for a conference. I've edited out much of it, but wanted to show you what that looks like. The five ring judges and the referee gather in the middle to discuss the outcome. They can confirm or reverse the referee's decision, or call for a rematch in the case of both wrestlers touching down or going out simultaneously. In this case, they call for a rematch. So then you get to see a little bit of the salt-throwing, dirt-stamping, glowering, glaring, tension-building ritual that starts every bout. It's part of what I love about watching sumo live or on TV, you get much more of an insight into the wrestler's mental state when you see them get psyched up to fight. In the end, Ozeki Goeido has some work to do, as he currently stands at 6-5 with some tough bouts ahead.

Great tsuppari battle. Toyohibiki brings the pain with a consistent, relentless, meaty attack on Homarefuji's face and throat. Homarefuji tries to respond in like measure, but I think Toyohibiki's big right hand to his head stuns him a little there at the end, and he can't keep his balance when Toyohibiki pushes him down and to the side for the tsukiotoshi (thrust down) victory.