Welcome to Nagoya, everybody!!

As expected, our only kyujo (injury) going into day one is Wakatakakage, the defending holder of the Emperor’s Cup. See the Banzuke Preview for more details, but he’s having some severe ankle issues. It truly sucks to have him be severely injured at Sekiwake, most likely the hardest rank to keep in the whole sport, two separate times. Hopefully he can come back next time but it doesn’t look amazing.

MATCH OF THE DAY: Honestly, this was a great Day One torikumi (the list of matches that goes up so bloggers like me, and everyone else, can see who fights who the next day) and I was quite excited for this bout: the two top division debutants, Kazuma vs Daiseizan. Daiseizan seems pretty sweet and, of course, watching large and in charge Kazuma lumber around always brings me great joy. They had a very, very long snugglefest today, which unfortunately ended with Daiseizan doing a bit of Arashio-beya’s signature spin moves and Kazuma doing a bit of Kise-beya’s signature… stepping out before your opponent. But Daiseizan gave a cute interview and poor, sad Kazuma the Fridge walked away to do some deep thinking before taking on Asakoryu tomorrow.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Hosh came back hungry to win this category and I’ve got to give it to him–his watashikomi thigh-grabbing pushdown against Oho was, honestly, amazing. I am a Hoshoryu fan and this was really good to see, after less-than-inspiring wins from Aonishiki and Kotozakura and a loss from the Big O. Hosh is a fantastic rikishi and let’s just hope he continues to do well; his hamstring did not seem to be holding him back and I’m excited to see what he can do. Overall, I was quite impressed with the variety of kimarite today, with a few sotogake and a kotenage to boot.

PINK MAWASHI DAY ONE: I love me some Ura, but I also love me some Ichiyamamoto. Due to a hilarious screen capture that circulated the online sumo community, many people like to comment on the “love triangle” between Wakatakakage, Ichiyamamoto, and Ura, wherein Ichiyamamoto loves Wakatakakage who loves Ura who loves Ichiyamamoto. Is it real? No. Is it entertaining? Yes. Thus, I think it was just that Ura doesn’t want to beat his friend/potential love interest and that’s why he lost. Honestly, this wasn’t the best of Ura and I’m a little worried for what’s to come. But I have faith in the pink man!

OVERALL SUMMARY: Like I said above, I wasn’t too impressed by Zaku’s and Aonishiki’s wins today, but they did win, so kudos to them both for that. 1/8th and 1/10th of the way there respectively. Kirishima and the Sekiwake won as well, and the only losses in sanyaku came from people who fought within sanyaku, which is always nice for Chairman Hakkaku to see on day one. Should keep him from relentlessly criticizing and bullying Hoshoryu for at least another day. Asanoyama and Asakoryu, two big injury question marks heading into the basho, also won, so the only really worrisome loss today (besides, I guess, Kazu losing to Daiseizan, as a lot of people thought that one would go the other way) is Onosato.

It didn’t really look like a shoulder issue, and it almost didn’t even look like an injury issue. The odds that he’s hurt and just hasn’t mentioned it are, regrettably, pretty high, but I think that honestly this might have just been the stress getting to him. Yoshinofuji is no joke and to fight him looking for your first win in over 170 days is quite rough. I’m not sure Onosato is back to peak Onosato form, because peak Onosato doesn’t lose on day one, but every iteration of him we’ve gotten has not been able to beat Yoshinofuji, so maybe this doesn’t mean much. We’ll see how he progresses, but I think and hope that he’s okay…

Ah, settling back into the swing of sumo things. It’s that Shonichi feeling!