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. I can’t imagine anything less than a serious injury would make him pull out against Hoshoryu. Or maybe it’s the opposite and he wanted a reason to pull out anyway. I can’t imagine him throwing away his shot at the yusho for anything minor, though. Best of the best of luck to him; it’s terrible to just be out of the yusho race like that. Still, he’s won 3 out of 6 basho this year, and the great thing about being a Yokozuna is that he can take a basho off next time if he feels the need. I doubt he will, but the option is there.

MATCH OF THE DAY: The context of this bout is even more amazing than the bout itself. I have been hoping for this fight since Day One, so getting it on Day Fifteen was both lucky and exciting. Prior to this bout, Tamawashi held the record for the largest age difference (over nineteen years) in a Makuuchi bout by fighting Aonishiki on Day 10… a record that he broke by fighting Fujinokawa today. There is a twenty year age gap between these two. 20! Incredible. Tamawashi’s tsuppari today was brilliant and, despite exerting all his effort, Fujinokawa ended up spending most of the bout jogging away backwards. Tamawashi joined the top ten (passing Takanohana) for Makuuchi victories, the only rikishi besides a Yokozuna or Ozeki who’s in the top ten. He’s at 702 now. Congratulations to both of these men for this excellent bout; Tamawashi ended up with an unfortunate 7-8 on his first basho as a 41-year-old, while Fujinokawa finished at 9-6 after a great first week.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: I’m always happy when a great kimarite is earned by one of my favorite rikishi, and that happened today. Churanoumi, one of my favorite rikishi, pulled off a shitatahineri against Ryuden today to earn his kachi-koshi. My fascination with Chu-Chu began just because he was in Ura’s stable but quickly progressed to more than that; he’s a very fun rikishi and today was a very fun performance! He got a strong belt grip on hapless Ryuden, who was bleeding again today, and threw him down with a shitatahineri, a sort of twisting underarm throw. What a great way to finish off the basho.

PINK MAWASHI DAY FIFTEEN: Speaking of fun rikishi from Kise-beya, everyone’s favorite rikishi fought the also-popular Kirishima. For the second basho in a row, Ura has faced very strong opponents on Day 15 who, if they beat him, earn conditional prizes. Unfortunately, in both cases those rikishi won; and today, Kirishima secured a Fighting Spirit prize with an oshitaoshi victory, and Ura secured a strange cartwheel-adjacent roll. Whatever floats your boat, Ura. It’s been a pretty good basho, and I almost forgive Kirishima for beating Ura because he deserves this prize. Still… better luck next time, right, Ura? 9-6? 9-6!?!?

THE YUSHO REPORT: And here we are. The yusho! The news that Onosato was kyujo meant that Hoshoryu hurriedly collected his fusen victory and got off the dohyo in time for a Yokozuna-free koreyori-sanyaku performance, which was pretty funny. Yoshinofuji barely lost (but did, regrettably, lose) to Takayasu in a highlight match that left both rikishi with their kachi-koshi. The JSA followed it up with the unbelievably anticlimactic bout of Oho vs Takanosho, where Baby Taiho got the bundle of arrows for his victory and made room for a fantastic bout. Aonishiki and Kotozakura shared a powerful tachiai that morphed quickly into a grapple-hug. Aonishiki, as he loves to do, got the knee and then the thigh and won by a decisive uchimuso. I am proud of Kotozakura, eternally 8-7, for holding his own quite well against these incredible rikishi, and even beating Onosato. I was also very proud of Aonishiki, who progressed to his playoff bout with Hoshoryu. They blasted one another with incredible tsuppari and Aonishiki grabbed Hoshoryu, spinning and bear-hugging the Yokozuna to the clay by okurinage. Aonishiki got a gigantic stack of envelopes as Hoshoryu gave one of the deepest bows I’ve seen in a while and hurried down the hanamichi.

A tribute to Aonishiki: This kid is fantastic. Not only on the dohyo–I’d also like to call out his form after the win. He held in his excitement very well on the dohyo, probably out of respect for the tradition of stoicism and for his defeated opponent, but once he walked down the hanamichi, he went straight in for the hug from his tsukebito, Kaiyuma. That, I must say, was among the sweetest things I’ve ever seen. Kotodaishin’s spot as King of the Tsukebito is now threatened. What made it even sweeter is that Kaiyuma was crying, not just Aonishiki, and that they asked Aonishiki about it in his speech. He got a full laugh from the crowd by commenting about the weight of the Emperor’s Cup, as well as a chorus of “ooh”s after his remark that, as much as he hopes to get the rank of Ozeki, there’s another one higher than that. I’ve never seen the crowd so into it before–he’s a very popular rikishi and today, we saw why. Wonderful job, Aonishiki; I was Team Hoshoryu going into today, but I can’t find it in my heart to be anything but happy for him. What a yusho!

OVERALL SUMMARY: While I’ve read other people saying that Onosato pulling out made this yusho less exciting, I disagree. I think losing the bout between the two Yokozuna was a disappointment, of course, but I’m choosing to view Onosato’s kyujo as a chance for two other rikishi to take center stage. With the exception of Kotoshoho’s yusho in July, all the spotlights have been on him for the last few tournaments, and I’m okay with the spotlight finally moving on to someone else. Even Hoshoryu seemed almost relieved that Aonishiki won his bout–I wonder if he felt bad about winning the yusho off a fusensho. I suspect he did, since he was in a similar situation last basho with Onosato’s fusen victory against Kotozakura. And, of course, he lost the yusho in a playoff for two consecutive basho, which he definitely isn’t thrilled with. But Onosato pulling out didn’t change the number of people in the playoff, so I’m fine with him not being here. If he had come, he might have gotten more hurt, which we don’t want, and he might have won the yusho, which I don’t want. Onosato has had half the top division yusho this year; he’s proved himself. It was time for Aonishiki to get the Emperor’s Cup. And I’m just happy that he did.

Notably, he has no sekitori stablemates, so his ichimon-mates stepped in and took all the customary pictures with him. All of those guys were from Isegahama-beya: Nishikifuji, Hakuoho, Midorifuji, Takerufuji, Atamifuji, and Yoshinofuji. Interestingly, Yoshinofuji is not the highest-ranked wrestler in Isegahama-beya but went on the car parade with Aonishiki anyway; I wonder if that was a personal choice. Pictures below!

As this basho comes to a close, thank you to all the rikishi for an astonishing basho, and to Ura for getting that critical 8-7. And even more importantly, thank you to everyone who’s started reading my blog. It means so much to me that people from 19 countries are not only loyal sumo fans but also take the time to read my posts. The online sumo community is amazing! Thank you in particular to Amy and Dave of Sumo Mainichi, who did me the honor of giving me a shoutout on their fantastic podcast. They have, without a doubt, some of the funniest and most interesting commentary every day of the tournament, and listening to their podcast is the highlight of my day.

I will, at some point in the next few days, update the Pink Mawashi Hall of Fame and put up a summary of the basho. I’ll post it when Aonishiki gets that promotion announcement, as I hope he will–and if not, probably at some point over Thanksgiving weekend. Once more, thank you so much for reading this… I can’t wait for January!