Unfortunately, I slept through the matches (streamed live, so that means waking up around 2am - or 3am East Coast time, if only to catch the upper-tier makuuchi bouts)…

… so I’ll probably follow up later today and expand on these entries after I get a chance to see any recorded Day 3 matches.

According to the scorecard at the Japan Sumo Association web site, the key matches I’m interested in seeing are:

Kotooshu (EO/3-0) beats Goeido (EM2/1-2) with an overarm throw (uwatenage)

Harumafuji (WO/3-0) trounces the “Graceful Mountain”, (WM2/1-2) Miyabiyama with a frontal push-out (oshidashi)

The Baltic Warrior (Baruto, ES/2-1) gives Kakuryu (WK/1-2) the old yorikiri heave-ho.

The battle of the two ancients… sees Kaio (WO/2-1) handing Chiyotaikai (WS/0-3) yet another loss and push out of the ring and toward retirement … to say nothing of an increasingly likely makekoshi for this basho. This footage should hopefully make for priceless sumo: the victory was by okurinage push-out… where the loser is outmaneuvered and pushed out from behind by the victor. This (or its related rear-push-out, okuridashi) happened to the gigantic maegashira Yamamotoyama more than a few times in last year’s Kyushu-basho — his sheer bulk not helping him to be able to get out of his own way, and ultimately leading to his demotion back to the Juryo ranks.

In times past, a rikishi could seldom expect to see Chiyotaikai’s backside, with most of his wins determined very briefly after the tachi-ai by either oshidashi (frontal push-out) or hatakikomi (slap-down on the charge)…. perhaps SumoTalk blogger Mike Wesemann’s comment about Chiyofuji-oyakata having Chiyotaikai’s retirement papers in the mail would be a stroke of mercy for this quickly fading star.

Kotomitsuki (EO/0-3) seems to be having an equally bad run this early in the basho… taking a rear-pushout from Hokutoriki (EM3/2-1) whose fortunes seem to be improving.

The two Yokozuna look like they aren’t going to give anyone a kinboshi, keeping unblemished 3-0 records thus far:

Asashoryu sent the top-ranked, Georgian West Maegashira (WM1) Tochinoshin packing with a (0-3) loss… he might not keep that rank for long if he doesn’t pick up a few wins in the next few days.

Hakuho delivered the goods - or rather, delivered poor Toyonoshima (EM1/0-3) a fresh serving of a fisherman’s throw to the dirt. Interestingly, Toyonoshima comes from Kochi, which was also once the seat of the Tosa Domain, and also the home of this year’s NHK taiga drama personality, Sakamoto Ryouma. Perhaps Toyonoshima can draw some inspiration from his legendary countryman, and pick up a few wins to keep his maegashira-1 billet, or perhaps pick up a komusubi ranking.