2025 Haru Basho: Day 9 results, replays and analysis
Here be spoilers.
We are barreling towards the home stretch now and… honestly… this basho has been a little underwhelming. I think a lot of that is down to some very high profile struggles at the top of our banzuke, but we also don’t have a very exciting race for the yusho (in my opinion). That could all change in the coming days, though.
Day 9 in particular was a little dull, I’m afraid. We mostly had low intensity yorikiri finishes until we got to the latter stages of the night. Tobizaru vs. Wakamotoharu, Chiyoshoma vs. Wakatakakage, Onosato vs. Abi and Hoshoryu vs. Ichiyamamoto gave us lots of action.
Other great bouts were Endo vs. Tamawashi and Aonishiki vs. juryo call-up Nabatame (watch out for him). Those guys all put on a show.
Scroll down for the results, highlights and analysis.
Bonus gif today is this fine specimen.
SPOILERS BELOW
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Results
Aonishiki (6-3) def. Nabatame (1-4-4) via kirikaeshi (twisting backward knee trip)*
Tokihayate (5-4) def. Churanomi (7-2) via yorikiri (frontal force out)*
Ryuden (4-5) def. Mitakeumi (4-5) via yorikiri
Shishi (6-3) def. Asakoryu (5-4) via yorikiri
Kotoshoho (4-5) def. Onokatsu (5-4) via yorikiri
Sadanoumi (5-4) def. Takarafuji (3-6) via tsukiotoshi (thrust down)
Midorifuji (6-3) def. Shirokuma (3-6) via katasukashi (under shoulder swing down)*
Oshoma (4-5) def. Shonannoumi (1-8) via yorikiri
Atamifuji (5-4) def. Meisei (6-3) via yorikiri
Endo (5-4) def. Tamawashi (6-3) via sukuinage (beltless arm throw)*
Hakuoho (6-3) def. Shodai (3-6) via yorikiri
Takerufuji (7-2) def. Nishikigi (1-8) via yorikiri
Hiradoumi (5-4) def. Takanosho (2-7) via hatakikomi (slap down)*
Tobizaru (3-6) def. Wakamotoharu (5-4) via yorikiri after mono-ii (judges review)*
Wakatakakage (4-5) def. Chiyoshoma (3-6) via yoritasohi (frontal crush out) after torinaoshi (rematch)*
Gonoyama (3-6) def. Kirishima (4-5) via oshidashi (frontal push out)*
Oho (4-5) def. Kinbozan (4-5) via oshidashi*
Daieisho (6-3) def. Ura (3-6) via tsukiotoshi*
Takayasu (8-1) def. Kotozakura (5-6) via shitatedashinage (pulling underarm throw)*
Onosato (8-1) def. Abi (4-5) via yorikiri*
Ichiyamamoto (5-4) def. Hoshoryu (5-4) via sukuinage*
*Must see bouts!
Leaderboard
O1e Onosato, M4e Takayasu: 8-1
M6w Takerufuji, M14w Churanoumi: 7-2
S1e Daieisho, M7w Tamawashi, M9e Hakuoho, four others: 6-3
Analysis
Oh dear.
Hoshoryu has gone from having a bad debut basho as yokozuna to a positively terrible one. Our main man is now just 5-4 and miles behind our leaders. On Day 9 he gave out the third gold star of the tournament.
Ichiyamamoto picked it up and gave himself a 3-0 record against Hoshoryu.
Hoshoryu’s game-plan for this bout seemed to be something along the lines of, grab Ichiyamoto’s arm, pull him through, grab the side of his belt and then probably go for an okuridashi (rear push out).
He did something similar to that against Oho in the last tournament (see that here).
In the Oho bout, he started with thrusts, though, and then executed the pull through.
Against Ichiyamamoto he went for the pull through immediately off the tachiai.
He succeeded in pulling Ichyamamoto a little forwards, but not much. Hoshoryu may have been assuming that Ichiyamamoto would launch himself forwards with more force off the tachiai. Perhaps Ichiyamamoto was banking on Hoshoryu doing something like this (or a throw) and thus didn’t fully commit to his charge. Either way, Hoshoryu’s pull through did not have the desired effect.
Below shows the extent of where Hoshoryu could reach on Ichiyamamoto’s belt after that failed pull through. Ideally, he wanted to grab past the knot on the belt and then be able to pull himself behind Ichiyamamoto while also rotating Ichiyamoto and putting him off balance. Because Ichiyamamoto was not pulled far forwards, and because Ichiyamamoto was able to square his feet quickly, the deep belt grab was not an option for Hoshoryu.
In response, Hoshoryu went to his old bag of tricks — his arsenal of throws.
He stepped his right leg forwards, putting his right knee inside Ichiyamamoto’s left knee. He then went for a kotenage (armlock throw). That’s not one of his best throws. He’s far more effective when he throws while having a grip on the belt (watch this excellent highlight reel from my buddy Miguel Class and note how often Hoshoryu has a hand on the belt when he executes a throw).
Because he didn’t have a grip on Ichiyamamoto’s belt, Hoshoryu did not have a tight lock on Ichiyamamoto’s arm. When Hoshoryu turned for the throw, he wasn’t able to drag Ichiyamamoto over his hip.
This allowed Ichiyamamoto to step his right leg out to the side, to create a wide base. From there, Ichiyamoto was able to untangle his left leg from Hoshoryu’s right leg (doing almost a standing split in the process) and firmly land on two feet (this is a reason why hip flexibility is so important to rikishi).
From this above position, Ichiyamamoto was able to push a ton of pressure down through Hoshoryu’s upper body, which was being held up by just one leg (which was at risk of hyper extension). Hoshoryu quickly switched feet, but it wasn’t enough to steady himself and prevent being pushed down.
This was like a ‘broken play’ in American football for Hoshoryu. The throw attempt looked rushed and panicked. I think he really should have tried to soften Ichiyamamoto up with thrusts first. The fact he didn’t suggests that maybe he didn’t like his chances in a tsuppari brawl with Ichiyamamoto (who is good at that, but no Abi, not yet).
Onosato continues to benefit from Hoshoryu’s struggles. He’s now 8-1 after a tough win over Abi. Abi has won their last three meetings and he gave Onosato a scare early in this bout.
Abi approached this bout the same way Hoshoryu approached his with Ichiyamamoto. Abi came closer to making it work, though.
Abi used a slap off the tachiai to put Onosato off centre…
Before reaching as far as he could around the back of Onosato’s belt.
He got a decent position out of this and came very close to forcing Onosato out.
Onosato was too strong, though. He managed to get himself upright from this position and then turn to get chest-to-chest with Abi. When Abi’s side-on angle was taken away Onosato was able to dominate the action and get the yorikiri.
Onosato is joined at the top by Takayasu. Takayasu beat Kotozakura on Day 9. Officially his win goes down as a shitatedashinage. However, kinda looked like Kotozakura slipped. Kudos to Takayasu for contributing to that, though.
Takerufuji is just behind those two, with a 7-2 record. He beat Nishikigi without much fuss on Day 9. He’s looked good this month (and extra tough thanks to his shiner), but he’s yet to notch a win over a big name,
Churanoumi could have gone 8-1 this day, but he was pegged back by the plucky Tokihayate. Churanoumi was unable to prevent Tokihayate from grappling with him and paid the price.
One of the best bouts of the day was Endo vs. Tamawashi. The Iron Man did his best to throttle Endo, but Endo showed a lot of toughness is fighting through the nodowa to land a mae-mitsu (front grip) on the mawashi. That grip helped him stay upright when Tamawashi tried thrashing him around. Endo then put both hands on the belt to hold Tamawashi still long enough to transition to asukuinage. Endo looked exhausted immediately afterwards. That was great effort from both vets.
Tobizaru vs. Wakamotoharu was a fun one, too. Tobizaru got a good hit in off the tachiai and then stepped back to lure Wakamotoharu out of position. The Flying Monkey then went double underhooks on Wakamotoharu (avoiding Wakamotoharu’s favourite grip) and was able to shuffle him out and onto the ground.
The worst bout of the day was Daieisho vs. Ura. And that’s because the gyoji missed a pretty obvious false start. A replay shows that one of Ura’s sagari (tassels) dropped onto the ground during his squat and that this might have prompted Daieisho to launch himself forwards. Even so, this felt like a blatant opportunity for the ref to call matta (false start) and have them go again.
Tomorrow Ura will face Hoshoryu in what has become yokozuna hunting season for the maegashira ranks.
Day 10 will also have Onosato vs. Takayasu to determine a sole leader as we head down the stretch for this tournament. They’ve only met once before and Takayasu was the victor. That bout was in May, 2024, which was a tournament that Onosato would eventually win (his first).
Takerufuji will have a great chance to keep pace just behind those two. He’s been matched with Shonannoumi, who has looked terrible thus far and is 1-8.
Churanoumi has a tougher match-up. He’s got the 6-3 Hakuoho.
See you tomorrow!
Feeling bad for Hosh, but I really do think he was hurt by getting the Yokozuna promotion. He clearly has more mental and physical developing to do. He can be Yokozuna material someday, but the JSA did him dirty for their own short term gain.
Rumor is he was hurt by Atamifuji cranking his arm on something.
As for belt slapping, I couldn’t tell you exactly who had the loudest but jeez those guys smack the shit out of those things. And then some of them are really gentle lol!