Yamanashi

Tokushoryu, you old dog!

When you view a basho with 10-12 members of San'yaku (Y-O-S-K) -- even if only half of them are healthy, how is an outsider going to get enough wins for a Yusho?

You can see bandages under his suit pants, too. I meant the spring loaded harness that won't let his knee joints torsion. Even in the "suit" pictures, he's walking stiff-legged.

Looking VERY good. I did a double-take when I saw no" knee hardware."

New Juryo for [Basho], the Purgatory of threads. I'd leave it with Honbasho Talk, since it is directly after the previous basho.

Over the last year, the current Ozeki had the following # of wins: Onosato 64, Kotozakura 58, Hoshoryu 63 [in 4 of those basho, Onosato was sub-Ozeki in rank]. I think the dream in Kyushu 2024 was that Onosato was going to clean everyone's clock and rush to the tsuna, solving the tricky situation with Terunofuji's health. Then he gets only 9 wins, but Kotozakura gets the 14-win Yusho and Hoshoryu gets the 13-win J. OK, it's Kotozakura who will power through with another Yusho and be the Next Japanese Yokozuna. But Hoshoryu got a Jun Yusho, so it wouldn't be right to ignore his chances to make the grade in Hatsu 2025. The dream scenario was Kotozakura Yusho = Yokozuna, or Hoshoryu Yusho, Kotozakura Jun Yusho = 2 Yokozuna! Then Kotozakura struggles to get 5 wins. But the scenario included a Hoshoryu Yusho, so what can they do? Wait, Hoshoryu lost three times to rank-and-filers with losing records, so a 12-3 Yusho clearly isn't enough. But he wins a three-way playoff! So, he gets the rope. Easy, wasn't it?

Do you think it might help if eligibility for the YDC included having placed high up in GTB at least twice?

Shunkaku from Ibaraki started at 15 yo in 2018, only missing one bout before this basho, and reaching Sandanme for one tournament in 2023. I guess the NHK World guys would call him a "pusher-thruster."

Honma (he of the droopy right eye) had a serious foot injury in 2019 that had to be worked on by specialists, but he came back and reached a top rank of Sandanme 52. There is a farewell video from the senshuraku party at the Naruto Instagram page. He's planning to work overseas (I think).

I really like him, too. Skinny but strong, and really fast. I saw his hikkake against ex-M16 Nionoumi on day 13 -- no muss, no fuss. On day 9, he tried three different approaches against Ienoshima before getting him with a nice katasukashi. The only thing he's vulnerable to is a straight-ahead blowout oshitaoshi.

Hatsu 2025 performances – Predicted Haru rankings By division -- Shikona, incoming rank, Hatsu result, Predicted Haru rank (* = career high) Makuuchi Oshoma, M9W, 8-7, M8. Looks like he’s at his equilibrium rank. Juryo Oshoumi, J9W, 9-6, J7*. Solid performance. Makushita Gyokuozan, Ms20W, 2-5, Ms37. Hit the wall. Oshoryu, Ms48E, 5-2, Ms31. Still returning from injury. Oyamada, Ms50W, 5-2, Ms32. Moving forward again. Hoshuzan, Ms52W, 3-4, Sd3. Back over the line. Sandanme Murayama, Sd9E, 3-4, Sd21. Marusho, Sd15E, 3-4, Sd32. Mishima, Sd16W, 5-2, Ms53. Karino, Sd30E, 3-2-2, Sd45. The Wall hits, but he bounced. Mukaida, Sd41W, 4-3, Sd27. Kawamura, Sd52E, 5-2, Sd23. Oshozan, Sd54W, 3-4, Sd68. Jonidan Yamane, Jd6W, 4-3, Sd78*. After an 8 basho kyujo streak, he's come back to make Sandanme for the first time. Honma, Jd57E, 4-3, Jd30. Predicted Haru basho: 1 Makuuchi, 1 Juryo, 4 Makushita, 8 Sandanme, 1 Jonidan.

No. We still love you!

Belief in the Uniad nature of Abi was found heretical and was condemned by the Third Council of Constantinople.

Or a look at the leaderboard. "Guess who in the top ten are the Ozeki?"

"A meticulous and sympathetic biography of Omar Khayyam" -- Middle Eastern Quarterly

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women -- and give them a little extra shove."

That stuck out to me, too. His tachiai looked like he was getting up to shut off the TV. Then I swear he almost walked himself out once and Shishi didn't push him, so he had to do it again.

IIRC, Hoshoryu and Oshoma came over on the same plane from Mongolia. Oshoma took the college route and did well, but hasn't reached the same level as Hoshoryu.

Not to jinx anybody, but the three Ozeki at least have the advantage that they are uninjured. Terunofuji had a heart of gold, but he was in disastrous physical condition even when he was dominant. On the positive side, getting one or two of these guys up to Yokozuna might preclude the "will he go kyujo after day 3" worry. On the negative side, it's much more embarrassing (to the Yokozuna and to Ozumo) if one of them pulls a 1-5 and has to make up some sort of injury ("neuralgia, yeah, that's it, neuralgia!") instead of going 3-12 and turning into a kinboshi-mill.

Everyone here complains about Hoshoryu always wanting to -nage everyone, so today against Shodai he does an all-shoving match against a big guy. Did Shodai have hot sauce spread over his mawashi, or was there some other reason why Hoshoryu didn't want to touch it?

Marvelous, colorful tour of Holland. The little Dutch girls in costume are so kawaii. Was that the Roman baths at Nijmegen?

The color makes a big difference -- the blue makes me think of a mailman or construction manager (though it may be different for other countries).

Anyway, thanks for the news, John. I know you can't reveal embargoed news if you want to keep getting tips.

I must say, your lecture was eye-opening. I never knew there were that many rabbits in Brittany!

"These will be six world-famous sumo champions competing in head-to-head competition." "We haven’t settled on the six competitors yet, but we’ll have that lineup soon." Gosh, I had no idea there was such a huge reservoir of world-famous sumo champions to draw upon!