I made the possibly terrible decision to get up at 12:40 am today and log onto the Sumo Mainichi livestream to watch Juryo, the second-highest division, in real time.

MATCH OF THE DAY: Midorifuji has really been showing his stamina and had another bout on the long side today, though far less so than yesterday’s. He and Roga both tried a variety of poses while trying to set up throws on each other, with Midorifuji looking for a katasukashi victory as always. Roga trapped his arm and tried to throw Midorifuji, but as soon as he got off balance, Midorifuji charged and forced him out. A yorikiri, but a fun one. There were no interesting kimarite today.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Our Maegashira were not high-performing on Nakabi, though boy, was san’yaku exciting… for all the wrong reasons. Tamawashi vs Fujinokawa would’ve set a record for largest age difference had they not already done that. So I guess they tied their own record. They also had the honor of sharing the first match the Emperor has seen in six years. It was a fiery match, with Fujinokawa taking a couple of Tamawashi’s tsuppari attacks then saying, “You wanna go, old man?” Tamawashi went for a throw, but, as the kids say, Fujinokawa was “locked in” and sent a regretful Tamawashi to the floor with a clean shitatenage victory. He did not, might I add, help the Iron Man up, but I guess you don’t have to do that when you’re a tiny ripped badass. (I might be showing it a little too much, but I love Fujinokawa.)

PINK MAWASHI DAY EIGHT: Ura did not have a response to Wakatakakage today. I was hoping he’d try something crazy and Ura-y, but he hasn’t really… not even in front of the Emperor. They both went flying into the crowd, and Waka-T won by oshidashi. The worst part was that they fought right in front of Ichiyamamoto, who must’ve been pretty thrown off by watching his role models fight. Then he was thrown off (the dohyo) by Takayasu. It was a hatakikomi, actually, but I can’t resist a dad joke!

OVERALL SUMMARY: Rookie bow-twirler Kamito did a lovely job in front of the Emperor and his family, who arrived right before Shodai’s bout and entered before Fujinokawa’s. It might have been Nakabi nerves, it might have been the Emperor’s presence, but something was in the air during the san’yaku matches! Kirishima and Aonishiki had a beautiful bout, so really, I don’t think he did anything wrong. But Kotozakura losing to Baby Taiho, AKA Oho, when he seemed to have the dominant position–yeah, he screwed up. And Hoshoryu got outmaneuvered by Daieisho. I like Daieisho, but his sumo isn’t that… smart. And then, worst of all, Onosato got blown out of the water by Hakunofuji. It was a good bout, but Onosato’s face was contorted in pain as he went over the edge, and he didn’t get up for a second. It looked like a back spasm or another issue with that dislocated shoulder. So… that isn’t good! Our poor Yokozuna.

Abi annihilated junior tsuppari man Tokihayate today, and with Kirishima taking down the young Ozeki, we now have these two as the sole leaders at 7-1–and boy, does Kirishima’s Ozeki run look good. The chase group is both Yokozuna, Aonishiki, Takayasu, and a crazy group of Atamifuji, Fujinokawa, Shishi, and Oshoumi. Obviously, I want Fujinokawa to run away with the yusho, however unlikely it might be. What an interesting basho! Hoshoryu will fight Atamifuji (rude), while Onosato gets the more challenging opponent in Komusubi Wakamotoharu. Kotozakura fights Takayasu, Wakatakakage fights Aonishiki, and, rudest of all, Ura will face Kirishima. Oho vs Ichiyamamoto and Yoshinofuji vs Takanosho might also be pretty interesting.

We met the maezumo recruits today! There are eight of them, and unfortunately, most of them pale in comparison to Asahifuji, who showed up last basho and has been wiping the floor with the bottom of Jonokuchi. Kyokugosei used to be a baseball player and is now a sumo wrestler, so that’s cute. One of them is sick and didn’t fight, but the others did. This isn’t an extremely remarkable group of rikishi, but they have yet to prove themselves.

I hope the Emperor enjoyed that unfortunate set of san’yaku matches!