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 the smaller rikishi, but rallied halfway through and did his best to force Tokihayate out. Tokihayate had his hand on the belt, however, and Atamifuji ended up thrown down by shitatenage. What a bout. What good form Tokihayate is in! He’s now 9-3 and eyeing that Fighting Spirit Prize.
KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Ryuden, surprisingly, had a creative uwatehineri early on. Just as the crowd was waking up and preparing for Makuuchi, Ryuden took on injured Meisei and the crowd was into it! Meisei got his hand on Ryuden’s belt early but Ryuden did the same to Meisei, throwing him down neatly. It was a very good bout from an older rikishi and an injured one, which restored some of my lost faith in Ryuden. His win by uwatehineri means something like outer grip belt twist down, and though Ryuden’s throw looked a little more like an uwatenage to me, the JSA decided to give it to him. Congratulations, Ryuden!
PINK MAWASHI DAY TWELVE: Ura fought the treacherous Wakatakakage, who is doing everything he can to make me hate him this basho. Ura tried a pull but it didn’t work and Wakatakakage bulldozed him out with an oshidashi. Ura backwards-cartwheeled into the crowd and remained frozen in that position for about two seconds while a woman got out of his way, then apologized to everyone around him and jogged back onto the dohyo. This was a classic Ura loss. He moves to 6-6 and will be fighting Hakuoho tomorrow. Hakuoho isn’t in great form, but he’s a big, strong guy… we’ll see how that goes.
OVERALL SUMMARY: Kotozakura and Yoshinofuji had a very good bout today that I think Yoshinofuji should have won for sheer style points. Also, it was very close and there was no mono-ii, which would have been nice just to confirm. But they’ve been very bad about the timing this basho. Yoshinofuji did seem to be down first in the replay, so it’s not a call I disagree with in particular, but Hakkaku needs to be looking more of these over. With poor Yoshinofuji’s loss, Miracle Maegashira Tokihayate is the only chaser, as Hoshoryu, Onosato, and Aonishiki all won. Onosato’s win was very quick, and Aonishiki had a back-and-forth before destroying Oshoma with an abisetaoshi. And Hoshoryu had a hilarious bout against Takayasu where he did not seem best pleased by Takayasu’s tsuppari and gave him a little extra shove at the end. Not exactly the nicest move, but he’s a Yokozuna; meanness is his perogative. I don’t mind this from him; he needs to get his head in the game, and if this is his way of doing it… when push comes to shove comes to tsuppari, I’m on Team Hosh.
The favorite going into Day 13 is… very debatable. Aonishiki has the techniques, Onosato has the power, and Hoshoryu has a little bit of both. Onosato is just so strong; we saw his immovability in action today against Oho. Onosato doesn’t like to throw as much as these other two, but he’s probably the best rikishi active in terms of sheer strength, even after his loss to Yoshinofuji. Aonishiki is the youngest of them at twenty-one, and certainly lacks the experience that the two Yokozuna have. However, he’s incredibly powerful, he’s great with throws and, for some reason, he likes grabbing the thigh for a fun push-out. Hoshoryu is harder to pin down, since he sometimes goes for the solid tsuppari and sometimes throws his opponents miles off the dohyo. I think all three of them could plausibly walk away with a yusho; I’m rooting against another Onosato yusho and I don’t have a strong preference between the other two. Aonishiki is still pretty new, so I feel somewhat like he just needs to be up longer before he gets his yusho. And I’d like for him to get it along with Ozeki, so it would be better timed in January. And I really like Hoshoryu, so I would pick him as my personal favorite to win, but he literally can’t lose his rank, whereas Aonishiki is looking for his next one… so I would be happy seeing either of them win. We’ll have to see.
Fujiryoga still has two wins on his chasers and looks to be in very good shape for the Juryo yusho. The Makushita finalists, Ryusho and Kise’s Kazuma, will fight each other tomorrow for the yusho. I have no idea what Sandamne, Jonidan, or Jonokuchi is doing. That will be a fun discovery on Day 15!
Today’s fun fact is another photo from London: I couldn’t find it in time, but in honor of Takanosho’s defeat of the Yokozuna yesterday, here’s a picture of him having some bro time with Shodai. They appear to be purchasing Paddingtons. Shodai looks immensely pleased with himself, and Takanosho is clearly delighted with the Paddington he selected. I wonder if he actually bought it–that would be an interesting thing to show to the rest of the heya back in Japan. He can probably get quite a few Paddingtons with his prize money from taking down Onosato!
