Koorifuu

I overlooked this bit earlier, but yes, that revelation would've raised an entirely different kind of drama in ozumo. That was the reasoning behind my first comment. Looking at how banged up rikishi generally look and after watching some keiko sessions on the internet, I get the feeling disinfecting wounds is low on their priority list. Adding that to severely compromised immune systems due to the weight and lifestyle... I'm rather surprised major issues don't come up more often.

Typically, the infection enters the body through a break in the skin such as a cut or burn.[3] Risk factors include recent trauma or surgery and a weakened immune system due to diabetes or cancer, obesity, alcoholism, intravenous drug use, and peripheral artery disease. From the Wikipedia article. Sadly it sounds like there's multiple reasons as to why rikishi are especially vulnerable to this. Skin injuries, trauma, diabetes, alcoholism. Too late for poor Wakatozakura and his close ones, but I sure hope this raises awareness amongst the others. Go to the hospital immediately if you notice early signs.

Is there a chance these moves could indicate unannounced and/or upcoming ownership changes?

The quirks involving juryo/makushita exchanges mean that the guy ranked ms1e is often not the first one to miss out. Like now. We'll probably have Akua in ms1e, but Kitanowaka would be the #1 contender for the extra spot.

Saidaiji and Goshimaru leave on a high. They both performed well in Haru, with no indication that they were calling it a day. At least one of jonidan and jonokuchi is going to be jam packed.

Aw. As much as I like Daiamami, I had to let out a resentful chuckle at that. It's not exactly defamation, is it. To be fair he'd been looking out of place in juryo for a looong time, I thought he'd be demoted two basho earlier but eventually found enough wins near the end. We can at least commend his fortitude in ensuring he won 3 in a row when he absolutely had to.

Also... I'd hardly call his yusho as fortuitous! All of his wins came against quality opposition, including four former sekitori who (for the most part) don't really appear to be horribly far off their best, plus two former collegiate stalwarts who have settled in upper/mid makushita, and... one yumitorishiki I guess, who's also a proven quality makushita. Additionally, all seven of his opponents got kachikoshi, most of those emphatic. Ms27w Yuma 4-3 Ms27e Toseiryu 5-2 Ms25e Matsui 4-3 Ms23e Hananoumi 5-2 Ms30w Enho 6-1 Ms6w Akua 6-1 Ms39e Kawazoe 6-1

Oshoryu first, and then Fukai. Poor guy has the odd basho here and there where he pummels makushita journeymen for fun, but everything always crashes down on him at some point. I don't think he was ever quite the same after his Hatsu '22 injury...

Funny thing is Takayasu was ranked high enough & had the correct schedule for this to kickstart another ozeki run. How... interesting would it be for him to make ozeki again without a yusho?

So, barring any extreme surprises, we'll hear of the three shinjuryo (Miyagi, Mudoho, Mita - barring shikona changes) and one returnee (Daiamami) very soon.

Ura's deceptively strong. I'm fairly sure he could steamroll 95% of the banzuke on a frontal bout if that was what he was going for.

I've only caught up up to the first two juryo bouts so bear with me here. Dang, Ishizaki chokes sekitori status away at the very last minute for the second consecutive basho. That's got to leave a psychological dent. I hope he recovers. I wasn't too sold on Miyagi, admittedly, but his emotional reaction won me over. I hope he does well as a sekitori. Aaand I guess that's really it for Hokutofuji as a competitor. Very respectable career.

Shocked I was. Not so much by the fact his valiant effort was a bit of a waste of everyone's time, though.

Tomorrow (Day 14): Nabatame (J5e 2-7-4) vs Mitoryu (J6e 3-10) Hokutofuji (J8e 3-10) vs Miyagi (ms1e 3-3) Ishizaki (ms1w 3-3) vs Kazekeno (J13w 6-7) - Kyokukaiyu (ms9e 4-2) vs Mudoho (ms3w 4-2) ---- One incumbent is guaranteed to be safe after the first bout of the list above. The loser will need a win on senshuraku, but depending on the promotion scenario, could be safe despite demotable numbers. Hokutofuji v Miyagi is a quasi exchange bout: Hokutofuji is demotable if he loses, Miyagi promotable if he wins. Ishizaki is promotable if he wins. Kazekeno is safe if he wins. Mudoho is already a candidate to fill in a gap, but will become promotable by the numbers if he wins.

Juryo <-> Makushita Day 13 updates in red below. None of the makushita remotely in contention were in action.