Today, two Sadogatake men got their hair cut: Kotonofuji and Kotohaguro. They are part of Sadogatake’s active channel and are both lovely souls and the tsukebito of Kotozakura and Kotoshoho respectively. We wish them both luck in their retirements, and I will sorely miss their cheer on the Sadogatake cooking videos.

Before I forget, a quick note that although Tamawashi lost today, he said that he does not intend to retire and wants to keep fighting through Juryo to come back up to Makuuchi. It does lift a certain weight from my heart, but I pity the fifteen Juryo men who are going to have to fight him in Juryo.

MATCH OF THE DAY: Churanoumi is a glorious king, as the kids say, but he is not usually the most expressive of rikishi. Today, he had a hilarious facial expression after battling the pusher-thruster extraordinaire, Gonoyama. Gonoyama had a great start but has escorted himself out of the yusho race; today he had a very close bout with the Chu-Chu train. Chu chugged straight to victory with a yoritaoshi crush out that in my opinion, he clearly won. They called a mono-ii and he looked downright befuddled; Gonoyama also seemed a bit confused as they announced that the initial call was right. Must have been a funny talk between the two of them in the hanamichi.

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: We’ll just do a yoritaoshi to talk about Kirishima. I have a lot of respect for Hakunofuji; I suspect that he would be a challenger to Onosato and Hoshoryu if he had experienced fewer injuries. But I did not expect him to win today. They had a great fight; the two men locked up and pranced about, before Hakunofuji powered Kirishima to the ground by frontal crush out. Oh, Kirishima.

PINK MAWASHI DAY FOURTEEN: And, oh, Ura, the gift you are. You, sir, are just a light. You are sparkles personified. And Fujinokawa, you, too, are a special snowflake and I love you, too. But Ura is the bestest! Fujinokawa the Muscle Hamster charged forward but Ura leapt about, as he is wont to do. In the end, Ura leapt aside and Fujinokawa charged out and down to the clay. Ura held his hands up his surrender, and Fujinokawa hopped back up to regretfully receive his make-koshi.

OVERALL SUMMARY: Okay. Wakatakakage won beat Kotoeiho; Hakunofuji, obviously, beat Kirishima; Fujiryoga beat Yoshinofuji; and Ura, obviously, beat Fujinokawa. That leaves Wakatakakage and Kirishima tied at 11-3, followed by Kotoeiho, Hakunofji, Fujiryoga, Ura, and Yoshinofuji. The JSA made some really interesting decisions in the torikumi tomorrow: Kirishima and Ura will face each other in the musubi-no-ichiban. Firstly, I’m really upset about that matchup because I don’t want either of them to lose, and I hate the fact that I have to root against either of them. Let’s look at the list one by one.

Kirishima is still, probably, the favorite candidate for this yusho. He is my favorite, except in the situation where Ura could win it, in which case, obviously my heart lies with Ura. But I am not sure… how this is going to play out. I wish him the best of luck. I want Yokozuna for him, so badly, but it’s probably true that a jun-yusho versus a yusho now won’t really play a huge role in his promotion case, should it be made.

Wakatakakage is definitely the second candidate. I have really complicated feelings about him: like anyone who’s come back from such a terrible injury, I have a very deep admiration and respect for him. However, he’s been topping henka with henka lately. I don’t want him to win this yusho, though that’s because I want Kirishima to win it and I don’t think that he has had good enough sumo on display this time for me to really feel that he deserves it. He has, however, fought well.

Kotoeiho and Fujiryoga have pretty similar reasons why I don’t want them to win: I do not feel like they’ve been through enough. Kotoeiho has been really impressive this time, and I love that for him. Fujiryoga has also been showing that he’s ready to fight at the level the rest of the tsukedashi are at, and I’m very happy for him. I’m proud of them both, but they have not suffered and they have not paid the price for the yusho in blood, sweat, and tears. But I like them both, so you know what, it would be pretty much fine.

Yoshinofuji is one of my favorite rikishi. He is a goofy and strange person off the dohyo, but on the dohyo, he is a beast. I really want this yusho for him not only because I think that he deserves it, but also because he has been in such a difficult situation with his transfer from Miyagino-beya to Isegahama-beya, a process that has been difficult for them. I would say I want him to win this yusho, but also, Ura. Hakunofuji, like I said above, I suspect would be in a similar situation to Onosato if he hadn’t been so badly hurt so early on in his career. My only issue with him is that I don’t vibe with him as well as several other rikishi in the race. Still, best of luck to both of the Miyagino-Isegahama boys: I know that they and their stable want this.

Makushita and Sandanme will each get at least one paragraph tomorrow, but just a quick update on Juryo: Kazekeno lost yet again, this time to Takerufuji, who will be most likely taking Tamawashi’s place in Juryo. Daiseizan fought up today to swap his own rank with Ryuden’s, joining Onokatsu, who will exchange with Oshoumi. Kazuma took out Asasuiryu, Asakoryu’s little brother, and is now in sole lead of the yusho race.

This is going to be an amazing yusho race in at least four of the six sumo divisions (sorry, Jonokuchi). Good luck to the following candidates for the yusho especially: Kiryuko, Ikarigata/Omori, Kazuma, and Kirishima/Ura.

Oh, my dear Ura.