No news from the infirmary, though both Wakatakakage and Abi staggered around in agony after their match. Great work, boys. You look soooooo healthy. Pretty short post today due to a long analysis at the end.

MATCH OF THE DAY: Two excellent pusher-thrusers met today: youngstar Hakunofuji and old star Tamawashi. Despite the rude insinuations by the NHK commentator, Tamawashi is not in terrible form and managed to beat the obviously injured, but much younger, rikishi from Isegahama-beya in a strong thrusting battle. Tamawashi has got his genki pants on again!

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Stupid Kotoeiho definitely got the kimarite of the day, but we aren’t covering that because it was against Ura. So instead, we’ll give it to a rare-ish and very well executed kimarite: Yoshinofuji, who isn’t the most throw-inclined of rikishi, had a beautiful sukuinage on the tawara against the much smaller Hiradoumi.

PINK MAWASHI DAY THIRTEEN: I like Kotoeiho, I really do, but come on, kid. Couldn’t you have just thrown this one? Ura got his makekoshi, though much later than he did last time, so it’s improvement, I guess. Ugh. A good fight, but Kotoeiho threw him in a very Ura style.

OVERALL SUMMARY: Oho put up a hell of a fight against Kirishima and seemed to almost collapse of exhaustion afterward. Beautiful, beautiful sumo, Oho, but Kirishima gets the W. Poor Oho always looks so genki when he loses and so bad when he wins. It looks like our favorite Ozeki is back! Aonishiki, thank the maker, beat Kotozakura in a very near but successful win. And Hoshoryu annihilated Kotoshoho. Sooooo, Kiri could decide the yusho tomorrow against poor, poor Aonishiki at 6-7. A yusho vs a make-koshi. They both have so much to fight for, and it breaks my heart… good luck, guys. If only they could both win!

Dewanoryu looks in pretty good shape to win the Juryo yusho, though Wakanosho may well have other ideas. Congratulations to Wakanofuji, who advanced to 7-0 and claimed the Makushita yusho today in his second tournament. In Sadanme, we’ll have a playoff on Day 15 (senshuraku) between ex-Juryo Nabatame and Hogasho, who I know basically nothing about! Down in Jonidan, we have yet another senshuraku playoff between The Greatest Rookie Ever, Asahifuji, and injured ex-sekitori Kiryuko. I’m honestly kind of rooting for Kiryuko just because it would add some flavor to Asahifuji’s stellar resume. I genuinely have no clue what’s going to go on in Jonokuchi with three guys at 6-1, but I might be misreading that and I’m very tired, so… I don’t know. But two playoffs ain’t bad.

Tomorrow, Hoshoryu will take on Kotozakura in the musubi-no-ichiban. Aonishiki will fight to avoid kadoban against Kirishima, who is fighting for his yusho and Ozeki promotion. I’d say it’s a changing of the guard, but I don’t really believe Aonishiki is going down. The poor kid! But still, he had to get worse sometime. Kotoshoho and Hoshoryu, as the last people mathematically in the yusho race, will take on Atamifuji and, as I already said, Kotozakura respectively. Ura will fight Mitakeumi for the latter’s kachi-koshi. Good luck to all our favorite rikishi going into tomorrow.

I mean, good luck Kiri, mostly. But the rest of y’all too.