MATCH OF THE DAY: Fujinokawa and Hiradoumi are examples of what rikishi should bring to the dohyo every day: vibes. No offense to Shodai, but these guys always show up with 100% effort and 100% awesomeness, rather than looking kind of sleepy. They’re both popular and on the little side, and they’re absolute firecrackers on the dohyo. They smashed each other with tsuppari until Hiradoumi’s knee seemed to give out and he fell to the clay, but he seemed fine as he got back up. Fujinokawa wins by oshitaoshi.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Giant Shishi fought “short king” Asakoryu today; Asakoryu put up a really good fight against the giant Ukrainian and they struggled on the tawara. Shishi, in a very un-Shishi move, swung Asakoryu over and out in a kotenage, an arm lock throw. It’s always good to see Shishi being creative, and he moves up to 2-0 now.

PINK MAWASHI DAY TWO: Ura is at that rank again; it seems the chosen Maegashira to run the gauntlet this time are Ura, Ichiyamamoto, and Yoshinofuji, a great slate of rikishi against a set of opponents that are, frankly, too hard. Kotozakura, for once, really looked like an Ozeki just in time to power Ura out. Ura went flying off the dohyo and stared deeply into Aonishiki’s eyes on the ringside before hopping back up and onto the dohyo.

OVERALL SUMMARY: Hatsuyama lost again today, this time to Asanoyama, but at least I get fantasy points from one of them. Aonishiki had a… displeasing bout against Yoshinofuji. In my opinion, Yoshinofuji was in better control of his limbs and didn’t touch down first, so he should have gotten the win; but Hakkaku and I do not often see eye to eye. At least on NHK, the rationale was that Yoshinofuji had entirely turned over before Aonishiki touched down, which is a justification for the dead body rule that I haven’t heard before. So I’ll be sure to apply it to literally every mono-ii for the rest of the tournament. Watch out, oyakata.

This has been a basho of a type we haven’t seen in a while: a normal basho. It’s been such a crazy banzuke basically since the Hakuho era, but our current san’yaku (insanely) is doing exactly what san’yaku should do. We just haven’t had a good san’yaku in the new era, with the makushita-tsukedashi upstarts and the old guard retiring. But the Yokozuna/Aonishiki Triumvirate is incredibly strong, and they’ve restored balance to the banzuke. So far, that’s served to make the first two days kind of boring: no one has been upset, not even by Oho, Yoshinofuji, and Ichiyamamoto. I have my reservations about Yoshi, but the other two lost fair and square. I will say that Oho and Ichi both started out stronger than they usually do and almost–almost–held up against the Yokozuna.

Down in Juryo, Kazuma lost again, and Fujiryoga won (barely). Younger, promotion-denied Fujiseuin and veteran Sadanoumi look like possible early candidates. In Makushita, Enho got his first win, as did Nabatame; great work from both rikishi.