Daily Review
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Kyushu 2025: SENSHURAKU
The shocking news out of the infirmary is that Onosato is kyujo. Apparently, he dislocated his shoulder in his bout against Aonishiki. He did look to be in a little bit of pain in his bout yestereday but I took it as embarrassment and didn’t think much of it; evidently that was a poor decision.
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Kyushu 2025: Day Fourteen
MATCH OF THE DAY: Two of my favorite boys, Ichiyamamoto and Yoshinofuji, fought each other today–Ichiyamamoto pulled and slapped Yoshinofuji down to the clay with a variety of techniques. Poor Yoshinofuji’s nose was spurting blood, and when he blew out after the match, he basically blew blood over his nose. It was extremely disgusting. But
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Kyushu 2025: Day Thirteen
MATCH OF THE DAY: Ichiyamamoto! What a joy to be talking up his bouts. He makes a point to stare deeply into the eyes of every rikishi he can at any given time, which often results in a comment by Murray Johnson on the NHK broadcast. He went in with strong tsuppari against Roga but
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Kyushu 2025: Day Twelve
MATCH OF THE DAY: Atamifuji takes the prize for the second day in a row. Shoutout to the clear second-place bout of Roga and Shonannoumi, which was also a great bout. Back to the winners, though: the young man from Isegahama took on Tokihayate, who’s been on fire this tournament. Atamifuji was effectively grappled by
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Kyushu 2025: Day Eleven
Down in Juryo, Kise-beya’s Shiden went up against Kayo and seems to have hurt his hurt knees on the way down. It doesn’t look great–he pulled out of the tournament and was taken to the hospital. This might be the end of his career–more updates when there are any from Kise-oyakata. Wishing him luck… MATCH
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Kyushu 2025: Day Ten
MATCH OF THE DAY: For once, there were several great bouts to choose from, due to the slew of mono-iis from our Maegashira today. Good to see them all stirring it up in the last week. Midorifuji vs Ryuden, Roga vs Churanoumi, and Shodai vs Tobizaru were all mono-ii, with the first two both ending
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Kyushu 2025: Day Nine
The news from the infirmary is that, surprisingly, Meisei is back! I don’t have any updates on his health, so clearly his back is okay. Or maybe he’s just trying to hold on to Juryo. He will fight Nishikifuji, who is, by the way, in great form. MATCH OF THE DAY: Oh, Fujinokawa, where did
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Kyushu 2025: NAKABI
Short again… yet another prior commitment! MATCH OF THE DAY: Asakoryu and Tokihayate pranced around the dohyo together for quite some time. They’re both pretty small and low-ranked, so it could have been a survival match-up–but both are doing very well. Tokihayate wasn’t baited by Asakoryu’s attacks and dragged him to the tawara. They grappled
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Kyushu 2025: Day Seven
Short one today… prior commitment. Sorry! MATCH OF THE DAY: Asanoyama and Tokihayate went early on but ultimately won the award for the best match. Asanoyama is an injured ex-Ozeki once exiled for some COVID scandals, and is now fighting his way back up after right knee trouble. He’s in Juryo and looking to come
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Kyushu 2025: Day Six
MATCH OF THE DAY: I don’t usually make this about sanyaku, but I’m making it about our sanyaku henka-er today… Wakamotoharu! I’m concerned for Arashio-beya. I’m a supporter of both Onami brothers and have always been more of a Wakamotoharu fan, and clearly, I was a little upset with Wakatakakage yesterday. But today was just
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Kyushu 2025: Day Five
MATCH OF THE DAY: Churanoumi and Midorifuji took to the clay for an incredibly long bout today, where Midorifuji eventually emerged the victor. As the president of the “Chu-Chu” fan club, I was not happy with this arrangement, but the Chu-Chu train ran out of steam faster than the little Green Monster. There’s a lot
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Kyushu 2025: Day Four
There’s no fresh news about Mita, though some photos were released, including this one. His oyakata clarified that he had shaved his head after seeing how “depressed” Mita was after his injury. No other sekitori are kyujo as of yet, except Meisei, who (as we knew prior to the basho) is extremely unlikely to be
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Kyushu 2025: Day Three
Critically, due to Meisei’s kyujo, Ura took up the spot of dewsweeper in Hoshoryu’s dohyo-iri today. He did a wonderful job alongside Hiradoumi in his second tournament dohyo-iri for the Yokozuna. I respect Meisei greatly, but some things are for a greater good… MATCH OF THE DAY: Ichiyamamoto, for some reason, decided to randomly jump
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Kyushu 2025: Day Two
MATCH OF THE DAY: Ichiyamamoto and Midorifuji were both well out of their comfort zones, with Ichiyamamoto adjusting his tsuppari into a belt-forward approach that ended in what was almost a hatakikomi slap down. However, Ichi reached up and over and ended up tossing the smaller Midorifuji down by the belt. Well played, well played.
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Kyushu 2025: SHONICHI
And we are back! The only kyujo absence from the top division is Meisei, who had surgery on a herniated disc in his back October 17. The JSA says he’ll be back next basho, and he will fall into Juryo from the rank of Maegashira 18. Best of wishes to him. MATCH OF THE DAY: