Koorifuu

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.

I thought he had the wind knocked out of him both yesterday and today, except this time he powered though it.

The analysis below presumes the analysis that makushita joi's movement is a de facto extension of the juryo ranks, i.e. ms1 = J15 and a +1 score puts them in J14, to be correct. The virtual ranks within brackets correspond to what rank they compute to, they might be non-existent. Sekitori Barrier Certainly demotable Juryo (definitely compute to >J14) Kiryuko J12w 2-5 (J23) Kitanowaka J2 0-0 (J17) Otsuji J14 4-8 (J15~J21) Possibly demotable Juryo (could go either >J14 or <J14) Mitoryu J6e 3-9 (J9~J15, needs 1 win) Nabatame J5e 2-6-4 (J10~J16, needs 1 win) Tsurugisho J11e 5-7 (J10~J16, needs 1 win) Wakanosho J11w 5-7 (J10~J16, needs 1 win) Kazekeno J13w 6-6 (J10~J16, needs 1 win) Hokutofuji J8e 3-9 (J11~J17, needs 2 wins) Certainly promotable makushita (definitely compute to >J14) N/A Possibly promotable makushita (could go either >J14 or <J14) Mudoho ms3w 4-2 (J14~J16) Miyagi ms1e 3-3 (J14 or bust) Ishizaki ms1w 3-3 (J14 or bust) Daiamami ms2e 3-3 (J15 or bust) Mita ms4w 4-2 (J15~J17) --------------------------- The situation looks pretty dire, so they might have go down to those virtual J16/J17 in order to fill in the last few spots. I can see Kitanowaka surviving.

Random thought. I guess Akua and Kotokuzan took over Chiyonoumi's and Chiyoarashi's former roles at the Sekitori Border Patrol department.

Tenshoho being the most glaring example of someone going the other way. Juryo to barely looking like he belongs in makushita. Unless there's a niggling, invisible injury.

Happy to see Hitoshi righting the wrong that was his juryo debut, something Keitenkai never had the opportunity to do, and Asashiyu probably never will.

Somehow I see poor Kazeken'o getting the stick again.

I'll be shocked if Osanai shows up for his 7th bout. He was already struggling to adhere to pre and post bout rituals, such was his incapability of squatting... and then his good leg ate a sotogake from Haruyama today. His bad leg immediately hoisted the white flag when confronted with his full weight, and soon he was hopping down the hanamichi on one leg. Haruyama himself struggled to stand up and limped back home, but it didn't seem as critical.

The following went through my head within 10 seconds today: - Oh, Mishima is next, nice! Let's go. - Oh... he's facing a tsukedashi. - Well f#(=, it's Goshima. - Yeah, figures.

Oh boy, the wheelchair rolled out with good old Fujiazuma on it. Not sure if that guy can afford a bad injury at this stage in his career.

New entry today. Haru '25 thus joins Haru '19 in being the only basho where this happened more than once.

Going on a wild punt here... Ikarigata might be as strong as his brother already. He fell out of the sandanme yusho pathway late on due to an uncharacteristic loss back in Hatsu, and he's lost to Asanoyama this basho after 1) badly fumbling his tachiai, he slipped and nearly fell down on the spot before Asanoyama even got to him 2) actually giving Asanoyama a scare. Other than that, he's absolutely steamrolled everyone within seconds. I know that makushita should bring a much tougher test on his skills, but it's still not common to see someone treat the sandanme ranks to one-sided demolitions so consistently.

That's either overly ambitions for a knee ligament injury, or a sign it wasn't worst case scenario after all. Hoping for the latter.

Kumanishiki became a persona non grata in some internet circles by appearing to injure cult hero Moriurara after an utterly needless late shove.