Sorry for the delay since my last post; my far-from-home camp has started and the full day of travel yesterday did not result in productive sumo writing.

MATCH OF THE DAY: Wakanosho vs Mitakeumi was not the matchup I wanted on the torikumi; Mitakeumi can only seem to lose this tournament, and, while I like Wakanosho, I kind of hoped Mitakeumi would turn it around. Wakanosho turned him around and shoved him out for a tsukidashi, the first non-yorikiri kimarite of the day. Wakanosho and Shishi are the Maegashira leaders of this tournament, while sanyaku threats fall back to the 1 loss group. It’s Wakanosho’s tournament to lose. It in fact is not, but yay for Wakanosho!

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: This is an execution kimarite rather than a weird name/rare kimarite, because I don’t know what the hell Yoshinofuji was thinking against Aonishiki. I’m actually not sure Yoshinofuji knew either, since he seemed just as astonished as Aonishiki when he ended up throwing the Ukrainian in the best uwatenage I’ve seen. What beautiful sumo. Aonishiki, I know it sucks to lose, but that is not a bad way to go down.

PINK MAWASHI DAY FOUR: Ura Ura Ura!!!!! This was worth the wait, and Ura took down Oshoma for a fifth time with a beautiful uwatedashinage. I don’t even know where on this banzuke Ura belongs anymore; he used to be a Maegashira 4 kind of guy but now he’s like a Maegashira 8 guy, or something. Still, he won, and that’s what matters.

OVERALL SUMMARY: This is what I’ve heard eloquently described as a “weirdass basho”. Our current tournament leaders are Wakanosho, freakin Shishi, and Kirishima. This is a very interesting group of rikishi and I’m excited to see how this shapes up in the future; obviously, Hoshoryu and Aonishiki lead a great chase pack.

Poor Onosato experienced what it’s like to be Mongolian when the weird “dead body rule” was used against him for the first time. I don’t know who Gonoyama bribed but I’m sure he’s satisfied with the kinboshi, and obviously Onosato is still not in the best of shape. It will be interesting to see how his participation looks as we continue through the basho; I don’t think he’s beaten yet, but we’ll see how it goes.