The autumn tourney of the Grand Sumo has reached the half-way mark in Tokyo with a number of surprises already. The basho began without ozeki Takazasu and yokozuna Hakuho withdrew with an injury shortly after the commencement. Georgian ozeki Tochinoshin is clearly carrying an injury and seems uncompetitive at the moment. If he fails to win 8 out of 15 matches, he will face demotion to sekiwake, again. (And in late-breaking news just in from Tokyo, the remaining yokozuna Kakuryu has just withdrawn from the rest of the tournament. He had suffered three defeats in a row, so something was up with his body, evidently.)

Size obviously matters to a large extent in sumo, but two much smaller rikishi are challenging this notion, at least at the present. Both Enho and Ishiura are giving away dozens of kilos to their opponents every match and yet they both have winning records at the time of writing. Speed, skill and cunning seem to be their stocks-in-trade and audiences delight in their victories. If you stand Enho at 98kg up against the heaviest rikishi, Ichinojo, at a (slimmed down) 224kg, you have some idea of what the little people are up against. Yet compete they do.

Yesterday one of the bouts ended dramatically with the gyoji (referee) nowhere to be seen. The poor fellow had taken a tumble at a critical moment, falling from the dohyo into the first row of the audience. He emerged somewhat dishevelled, the bout having ended. Never mind, there is a reserve gyoji at the ready and at least five other judges(shimpan) at ringside! If the match is ever in dispute, they all emerge for a mono-ii (discussion), something which happens more often than you might imagine.

Enho and Ishiura