Octofuji

For the first 14 days of this basho he was sole leader of this chart with 3 yusho, maybe an all-time (low) record.

Takayasu sadness aside, it was a great day of sumo. Nice to see another kirikaeshi from Aonishiki, it's now his joint fourth most common kimarite (admittedly still a small sample).

Quote from Takayasu: I'd be lying if I said I had no regrets

Looking back at his bouts, he's looked out of control when falling/trying to get up since Day 2. (Day 1 against Nishikigi he won without having to exert himself). So possibly concussed even before entering.

I thought it was pretty much every time he fell over this basho (win or lose)? Probably my memory though...

Endo is taking so long to get up after falling. Similar to Ikioi when he had cellulitis but he was visibly in a lot of pain. Endo just looks shell-shocked, it's really strange.

There was a funny moment in the Kusano v Tsurugisho bout in juryo. Tsurugisho gave up at the edge but either out of kindness or misjudgement, Kusano stopped his bumpety-bump at the exact same time, leaving the big man standing there like a lemon inside the doyho. He had no option but to smoothly take one more step back and surrender the bout for the second time.

Takayasu! I haven't yelled so much since he lost to Wakatakakage. I'd forgotten how much I want him to win the yusho. I know he's unlikely to actually do it, and it doesn't mean much historically etc... but it would be such a lovely ending.

Interesting, and makes sense given he has a reputation for losing to opponents he should really beat. So if he stays true to form he should still get his Yokozuna kachikoshi after all. Here's hoping! Days 9-15 losses Days 10-15 losses

I think you've answered your own question ;)

In my early days of following sumo I was mystified by a tweet from Herouth saying that Hakuho dipped his supporters in tea. I'd never heard that term for bandage before, and the only way I could interpret it was that he somehow had little biscuit models of his fans and dunked them in his tea!

I remember with fondness Takakeisho trying an uwatenage on Terunofuji :) He's got a great tachiai like his shisho (and others from the same stable like Myogiryu and Sadanoumi), if he could add some belt skills then he could be a san'yaku regular rather than plateauing in the joi like Onosho. It's unlikely he'll be able to beat the likes of Hoshoryu on the mawashi, but it could really help him if he ends up in a clinch with another oshi wrestler. A lot of his losses seem to be when attacking at the edge, because he's so reluctant to get any sort of grip. (I'm not sure it can be just down to his height either since the shorter rikishi are often good on the belt)

Is he too old to change his spots then? We've seen some surprising belt performances from Tamawashi and even Ichiyamamoto lately, but I guess that facing the top rankers is a bit different.

Thanks, I worded that badly. What I was trying to say is for 33+ Ozeki runs starting from outside san'yaku, I had thought most of them would be denied. But Spiffy's explanation makes sense, the ones who did get promoted made themselves hard to ignore. Looking at all M1-M4s who got 33+ wins, 7 out of 12 became Ozeki. Starting from san'yaku, it's almost guaranteed (42 out of 46, the exceptions being Miyabiyama (X2), Baruto and Takakeisho.

Yes saying "he also loves children" does seem a bit desperate.