MATCH OF THE DAY: It’s always fun when the low Maegashira have a fun match, and I must say, Oshoumi made a great start to the day today. He took to the dohyo opposite old veteran Ryuden. Ryuden had a much better tachiai and almost, almost forced Oshoumi over the tawara, but just couldn’t get the younger rikishi over. Oshoumi somehow pivoted and threw Ryuden with a beautiful utchari throw–the kid has great ring sense! Oshoumi is very promising, and if we can see more bouts like this, he’ll rocket up the banzuke.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Takayasu does not respect my wish to avoid san’yaku in these kinds of things, but I can’t ignore a sakatottari! I was thrilled with the utchari early on, but Takayasu definitely takes the prize for a second consecutive day with a reverse arm bar throw. Sometimes I feel like they throw the extra-fun kimarite in their to spice up a basho, but this one pretty much exactly matched what Takayasu was doing. With all due respect to Takayasu, I feel like his win today was more accidental than anything. He seemed to just reach out, find Hakunofuji, and try the first throw that came to mind. But it was a great win and, intentional or not, it was a great kimarite.

PINK MAWASHI DAY FOUR: The Curse of the Joi is very real and very evident this basho, especially in a few special cases, mostly those of Ura, Ichiyamamoto, and Yoshinofuji, who have all run the Yokozuna-Ozeki gauntlet. But the latter two are, unfortunately, doing a bit better than Ura. Hoshoryu took one look at Ura and decided he didn’t have time for hyjinks. He threw Ura out in about 0.5 seconds and Ura tumbled into the crowd. He’ll take on fellow giant baby Atamifuji tomorrow.

OVERALL SUMMARY: Five people fell out of the yusho race, leaving us with Oshoma and Abi, two of the most disreputable rikishi in the top division, and ever-popular Kirishima. So my current favorite is without a doubt Kirishima. Asahakuryu and Shishi both lost today, but I’m proud of them both for starting off so strong. Ichiyamamoto beat Kotozakura at the last minute with superior ring sense, and Yoshinofuji had a brilliant takedown of Onosato, and back-to-back kinboshi. Both of these rikishi have improved so much and are so sweet in their interviews–I couldn’t have picked two rikishi more deserving of those wins, except Ura, obviously. These two, regrettably, have earned their breaks, but will follow it up by fighting one another. Just such great sumo from them both.

Down in Juryo, the crowd of leaders has thinned out to Fujiseuin (who I think is the current favorite, but we’ll see), veterans Sadanoumi and Meisei, and nonentities Wakanosho and Dewanoryu. No, just kidding, they’re both good; more on them upon kachi-koshi.

So much improvement from these rikishi, and such an interesting pack!