Aki Basho 2021 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers!)

[Amamaniac 2,078]

NHK shows Terunofuji in the hanamichi waiting hall.  He can be seen drinking a liquid from an orange plastic bottle/cup.  Given how dark that liquid appears, I'm of the opinion that it is not simply water.  My two best guesses are (1) ice coffee, and (2) some traditional Asian medical brew (i.e., TCM).  Not sure If John G is in a position to clarify.  What do other forum members think Terunofuji is drinking just prior to his bouts?

[Benihana 1,916]

1 hour ago, Amamaniac said:

NHK shows Terunofuji in the hanamichi waiting hall.  He can be seen drinking a liquid from an orange plastic bottle/cup.  Given how dark that liquid appears, I'm of the opinion that it is not simply water.  My two best guesses are (1) ice coffee, and (2) some traditional Asian medical brew (i.e., TCM).  Not sure If John G is in a position to clarify.  What do other forum members think Terunofuji is drinking just prior to his bouts?

Miraculix/Panoramix/Getafix/Ashafix's magic potion?

Edited September 20, 2021 by Benihana

[Seregost 130]

For sure it's not Zenshoyushoix anymore...

Edited September 21, 2021 by Seregost

[Sakura 1,480]

3 hours ago, Benihana said:

Miraculix/Panoramix/Getafix/Ashafix's magic potion?

I thought he wasn't allowed because he fell into a cauldron of the stuff when he was a baby. 

[Eikokurai 3,437]

6 hours ago, Kaminariyuki said:

I'd be surprised if there is anyone in the joi-jin who he has not defeated

Remembering of course that in Daieisho’s yusho-winning basho he defeated literally the entire sanyaku minus the two absent Yokozuna: three Ozeki, two sekiwake and two komusubi.

[Seiyashi 4,072]

7 minutes ago, Eikokurai said:

Remembering of course that in Daieisho’s yusho-winning basho he defeated literally the entire sanyaku minus the two absent Yokozuna: three Ozeki, two sekiwake and two komusubi.

And in a nice clean 7-0 streak from shonichi, too. 

[Jesinofuji 11]

What an IPPONZEOI by Hoshoryu!

[Benihana 1,916]

3 hours ago, Sakura said:

I thought he wasn't allowed because he fell into a cauldron of the stuff when he was a baby. 

In that particular case i think it was only GOATIX's bathtub 

[Eikokurai 3,437]

10 hours ago, Katooshu said:

The guys who go all out moving forward give Teru problems. Onosho is another troublemaker for him.

Specifically, I’d say it’s the combination of moving forward while keeping/having a low centre of gravity. Terunofuji struggles only against aite who keep him at arms length with their waist bent so he can’t reach their belts. That’s how Daieisho beat him. He spent most of the bout at 90°.

[Kaninoyama 1,713]

Down goes Chiyonokuni. 

[Kaninoyama 1,713]

Followed by Okinoumi, while Myogiryu remains in the hunt.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Kaninoyama

[Seiyashi 4,072]

21 minutes ago, Kaninoyama said:

Followed by Okinoumi, while Myogiryu remains in the hunt.

See, basho wide open my foot. 

[Eikokurai 3,437]

Lame from Kiribayama. He should be docked his day’s wages for denying us a proper belt battle with his Mongolian peer, and not for the first time I think. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Eikokurai

[Eikokurai 3,437]

Powerful stuff from Mitakeumi. Wakatakakage has struggled against the sanyaku this basho. Hopefully he can get back to winning ways against the hiramaku the rest of the week.

[Eikokurai 3,437]

Well, Takakeisho may yet escape the noose. He’s winning the bouts he absolutely can’t afford to drop before he faces Terunofuji and Shodai. Just two wins needed now from the last five. 

[Eikokurai 3,437]

What was Ura doing? Of all the times to abandon your usual submarine tachi-ai, against the kime master isn’t it. He went upright almost immediately, though he did well to wriggle out of it, only to go right back. It was a valiant effort but not tactically well thought through.

[Kaninoyama 1,713]

1 hour ago, Seiyashi said:

See, basho wide open my foot. 

A little less wide open after today Didn't realize they were going to weed out the challengers by pitting the two-loss rikish against each other that quickly 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Kaninoyama

[robnplunder 975]

20 minutes ago, Eikokurai said:

What was Ura doing? Of all the times to abandon your usual submarine tachi-ai, against the kime master isn’t it. He went upright almost immediately, though he did well to wriggle out of it, only to go right back. It was a valiant effort but not tactically well thought through.

It sure was entertaining.  I was surprised Ura gave Terunofuji a run for the money.   I assumed it would be a walk-over by Terunofuji. 

No other bouts stood out. 

[Amamaniac 2,078]

12 hours ago, Eikokurai said:

Lame from Kiribayama. He should be docked his day’s wages for denying us a proper belt battle with his Mongolian peer, and not for the first time I think.

As hankas go, that was sheer perfection imho.  Awesome speed and execution.  Even Hakuho has resorted to that iirc.

Also smart tactics on Kiribayama's part.  He probably feared that Hoshoryu would have the advantage in a "proper belt battle", and so went for the quick win.  Also reveals Hoshoryu's failure to guard against that move.  Hakuho is pretty much immune to that kind of thing since he knows to always watch his opponent at the tachi-ai!

Hope that was a learning opportunity for Hoshoryu.  He is now on the verge of demotion.  Kiribayama moves one away from kachikoshi.  Kiribayama will probably move up ahead of Hoshoryu in November.

Long story short: I'm not going to dock Kiribayama's wages.  Fair game, I say.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Amamaniac

[Kaninoyama 1,713]

6 minutes ago, Amamaniac said:

As hankas go, that was sheer perfection imho.  Awesome speed and execution.  Even Hakuho has resorted to that iirc.

Also smart tactics on Kiribayama's part.  He probably feared that Kiribayama would have the advantage in a "proper belt battle", and so went for the quick win.  Also reveals Hoshoryu's failure to guard against that move.  Hakuho is pretty much immune to that kind of thing since he knows to always watch his opponent at the tachi-ai!

Hope that was a learning opportunity for Hoshoryu.  He is now on the verge of demotion.  Kiribayama moves one away from kachikoshi.  Kiribayama will probably move up ahead of Hoshoryu in November.

Long story short: I'm not going to dock Kiribayama's wages.  Fair game, I say.

Agreed. There are weak Chiyoshoma leap out of the way henkas, and then there are the old Harumafuji sidestep reach around and grab mawashi half-henkas.

Kiribayama has been channeling his inner-Harumafuji this basho, to good effect. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Kaninoyama

[Jakusotsu 5,876]

It seems to me that Kiribayama is an eclectic kind of rikishi, concentrating on whatever works at the moment. During the first days of the basho he went for prolonged bouts, and yesterday against Mitakeumi he discovered the Harumafuiji-no-henka, which he tried again today and succeeded - expect another one tomorrow!

Wasn't Kiribayama the guy who was keen on getting a tsuridashi(?) win several basho ago?

[Eikokurai 3,437]

13 minutes ago, Amamaniac said:

As hankas go, that was sheer perfection imho.  Awesome speed and execution.  Even Hakuho has resorted to that iirc.

Also smart tactics on Kiribayama's part.  He probably feared that Kiribayama would have the advantage in a "proper belt battle", and so went for the quick win.  Also reveals Hoshoryu's failure to guard against that move.  Hakuho is pretty much immune to that kind of thing since he knows to always watch his opponent at the tachi-ai!

Hope that was a learning opportunity for Hoshoryu.  He is now on the verge of demotion.  Kiribayama moves one away from kachikoshi.  Kiribayama will probably move up ahead of Hoshoryu in November.

Long story short: I'm not going to dock Kiribayama's wages.  Fair game, I say.

I’m not questioning how well he did it, I’m saying boo for doing it. We surely all want to see these two Mongolian hopefuls in a yotsu battle at least once.

[Seiyashi 4,072]

Shodai has the most "whatever..." tegatana of all the rikishi I've seen. Most of them at least have the hand vertical, he just sort of vaguely wafts his hand around.

I'll excuse Kiribayama the HNH too, considering he sent Hoshoryu in one nice straight line splat on the floor. As far as henkas go, that was fairly elegant.

Good to see Takakeisho holding his own in a fairly protracted oshi battle. Seems also he's mixed up his style a bit, with a bit more upright postures and more harite mixed in to disorient his opponent. Or it could just be defence against a fellow oshi practitioner, I don't know.

The musubi was long, but I also don't feel like Terunofuji was seriously troubled by the kitchen sinks - and then some - that got thrown his way. It felt almost as if Ura was trying to see how many different ways he could piss Terunofuji off. And the conclusion I think showed why Ura didn't stay submarine against Terunofuji: he didn't want to give the grip on the back of his mawashi to Terunofuji who could do a hundred and one nasty things with it.

This basho we've seen some very pretty kimarite, though. As in, not just rare stuff, but stuff that looks visually dynamic. Hoshoryu's ipponzeoi, Terunofuji's uwatenage against Ura, and at least one of Ura's and Akua's bouts each elsewhere.

[Amamaniac 2,078]

23 hours ago, Eikokurai said:

I’m not questioning how well he did it, I’m saying boo for doing it. We surely all want to see these two Mongolian hopefuls in a yotsu battle at least once.

I too would have liked to see a yotsu battle between the two rising Mongolian stars.  I suppose what I was trying to get at is that Hoshoryu is partly to blame for how that bout ended.  Whenever there is a successful henka straight out of the tachi-ai, it is as much a failure of the loser as it is a success of the winner.  

I'm certain that we will see many more bouts between them, and that we'll have plenty of opportunities to see them fight straight-up sumo in the tournaments to come.  Hakuho might be on the verge of retiring, but Hoshoryu and Kiribayama certainly are going to hang around in the Top Division for years to come! 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Amamaniac

[Seiyashi 4,072]

Interesting hypothetical: if Hoshoryu had had his "not bowing properly" incident today in response to the henka, do you think the gyoji would have made him come back and do it again? Or would he have gotten a free pass for being huffy?