It is now the one-year anniversary of the retirement of Dai-Yokozuna Terunofuji. Thanks for the memories, big guy… much smaller guy now. His danpatsu-shiki will be on January 31, and he’ll probably start truly losing weight soon after. Luck & love to Kaiju as he begins his oyakata career in earnest.

MATCH OF THE DAY: Who could it be but Midorifuji and Asahakuryu? Midorifuji does have a reputation for the occasional long bout, but this one was extremely impressive. I feel like we haven’t had a bout this long in ages, which made this one seem even cooler. Asahakuryu seemed to be reaching for Midorifuji’s hand for most of the bout, but Midori did not want to snuggle, and Asahakuryu eventually forced an exhausted Midorifuji out by yorikiri after a very, very lengthy bout. Well played, youngster.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Asanoyama vs Abi (Takasago beya one-two between Asanoyama and Asahakuryu today!) was without a doubt one of the matches of the day today, and the winner of Kimarite of the Day because nobody really did anything. Abi, being Abi, went all in on the tsuppari while the cleverer Asanoyama defended himself, then pulled and sent Abi to the clay with a hikiotoshi hand pull down victory. Well played, old man.

PINK MAWASHI DAY SEVEN: The fated day! But of course, he had to fight Ichiyamamoto, one of his best friends (and the subject of many, many r/SumoMemes posts). Ura spent the beginning of the bout running away, as he is wont to do, but when Ichiyamamoto tried an awkward kind of belt pull, Ura shoved him down. Unfortunately, Ichiyamamoto seemed to get up a little gingerly and was limping off the dohyo, which is… concerning. In much better news, Ura is now on the road to kachi-koshi with 1 win.

OVERALL SUMMARY: Tobizaru accidentally rifled through the belongings of an older woman in the second row, landed on top of her purse and a shimpan. Asanoyama, finally, took Abi off his high horse, so we now have a group of six guys with one loss: the Yokozuna, Aonishiki, Kirishima, Abi, and Oshoumi. Hang in there, Oshoumi! What a great group of rikishi: the defending champion (Aonishiki), technically three ex-Ozeki (Kirishima, and if you count Yokozuna, then Hosh and Onosato as well), a past yusho winner (Abi), and also Oshoumi. He seems like a nice kid. And he is, obviously, the champion of the underdogs so far, though that might change if he loses and someone else emerges from the pack tomorrow.

Asanoyama and Abi will take on mediocre Maegashira tomorrow, but san’yaku is set up with a fantastic slate of bouts for the Emperor to see as he makes a Nakabi visit to the Kokugikan tomorrow. In my opinion, the last seven bouts are all of interest, with Ura and Wakatakakage finishing off the Maegashira ranks. The hopefully-not-injured Ichiyamamoto will lead off san’yaku against Takayasu, followed by Kotozakura vs Oho, the depressing match-up of the two comparatively disappointing grandsons of two great Yokozuna. Oho’s grandpappy was better, but I’m not sure Oho is…

I’m not sure if there’s going to be a sort of koreyori-san’yaku thing for the Emperor, though I know there has been something extra special in the past. Guess I’m in for the surprise! If there is, which I don’t think there will be, the bouts afterwards are sure to be interesting. Kirishima and Aonishiki will face off, which is definitely the JSA telling them, “If Onosato is going to win, one of you needs to get out of the chase group, so why don’t you make it a good bout for the Emperor?” Hoshoryu will take on Daieisho, who’s having a rough go of it but is usually exciting, and Onosato will take on Hakunofuji in a bout of two powerful ex-Tsukedashi. If the JSA wanted to make this exciting… they did a great job.

I will be getting up a little past midnight on the East Coast to watch Juryo and Makuuchi live… the things I do for love of sumo. Well, happy early Nakabi, and be sure to sleep significantly more than I will!