Sumo!

[Tamura]

34 minutes ago, neil said:

I don't really care about the whole Yokozuna doing henkas thing anyway, but given Hosh was also injured and this would allow him to actually fight Onosato I see it as a win for everyone.

At least it wasn't as bad as Hakuho in his final basho.

 

[westlondonmist]

My son saw some of the Sumo on BBC last night. He thought it was great, although a bit annoyed I wasn't taking him to see it.

[Tamura]

5 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

My son saw some of the Sumo on BBC last night. He thought it was great, although a bit annoyed I wasn't taking him to see it.

I was there! Sat front row on the little stage behind the <10 front rows, some of which were the cushions, right opposite the hard camera. Didn't realise it was going to be on the BBC, I'll have a watch on iPlayer later. Hopefully I'll be visible at some point.

[Cousin Jim Bob]

I am a very casual viewer but the BBC did a good job with the presentation. James Richardson and Hiro Morita doing the introductions and explaining the traditions. Then Hiro on commentary quickly getting over who everyone is and their fighting styles.

Would love to have gone @Tamura . You could see people in the crowd going "fucking hell" when some of them slammed into each other.

[Tamura]

I can't be bothered to look for shots of me on the BBC all night, but the arrow is pointing to my shaven head. So I was super close to the action, and didn't have any heads in front of me blocking my view since the stage is a bit higher than the other rows in front of me. I think the only downside was James Richardson calling saying "Tobirazu" instead of Tobizaru. It can't be that hard to get a name right can it? But since Michael Buffer regularly screwed up in WCW, perhaps I can forgive a foreign language name mishap a bit more...

[Zebra Kid Mark]

How much was your ticket? I tried looking online a few weeks ago and the only seats left were £300. I am not sure if that's because all the cheaper ones were gone or if that was the standard price.

[Tamura]

6 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

How much was your ticket? I tried looking online a few weeks ago and the only seats left were £300. I am not sure if that's because all the cheaper ones were gone or if that was the standard price.

Including fees and everything it came to £252. I figured it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity so didn't mind paying that much. I got it n the second release of tickets, missed the initial one as the time wasn't convenient with my night shift sleeping pattern for that day.

Edited October 18, 2025 by Tamura

[Gus Mears]

That was bloody great. I will definitely be watching more sumo going forward. Flying Monkey for BBCSPOTY.

[Tamura]

To save people going back through the thread to find ways to watch, it's quite simple and not remotely illegal. Next basho starts on November 9. You can watch NHK World live here or on channel 272 on Freeview if you have a TV that connects to the internet. At 4:30pm and 11:30pm (plus another showing in the small hours) on November 9 and each subsequent day there's a daily "highlights" (since it's not really highlights, but all the top division bouts) show with English commentary hosted by a revolving cast of people, including Hiro Morita. Or if you don't want to watch live there's an on-demand section on their website here, the highlights show gets added some time after the second showing at 11:30pm. It used to be that the on-demand shows were up for 14 days, that might still be the case but I'm not 100% sure. But to save me and neil spoiling things, it's better to keep reasonably up to date rather than waiting to binge it all in one sitting. As well as the daily highights show there's usually live broadcasts om NHK World at ~7-8am on days 1, 7 or 8 and 15, I can only speak for the day 15 one but it usually joins the action about half way through the top division bouts.

Edited October 21, 2025 by Tamura

[Gus Mears]

You are a gem and I'll definitely be doing that.

[neil]

There are a couple of useful youtube channels as well. For top 5 bouts "Don Don Sumo" is very helpful. If you are interested in watching literally everything then "Leo Dickinson Sumo" has live streams with english commentary for top division. But as Tamura said, if you're casual then you can't beat the NHK highlights

[Lebreles]

I just got into sumo recently, and it’s way more fascinating than I expected! The combination of tradition, power, and ceremony makes it totally different from any other combat sport. I love how even a short match can tell a story. I’m still learning the ranks and rules, but I’m definitely hooked now.

[neil]

9 days in to the Kyushu basho and Onosato is just beast mode right now, perfect 9-0 record, handling tough matches with ease too.

[Tamura]

3 hours ago, neil said:

9 days in to the Kyushu basho and Onosato is just beast mode right now, perfect 9-0 record, handling tough matches with ease too.

Definitely looking like a showdown between him and Aonishiki, I'd expect them to be fighting on either day 12, 13 or 14 and for Hoshoryu to also be facing Aonishiki on day 12, 13 or 14 (the yokozuna will fight the two sekiwake, ozeki Kotonowaka then each other over the last four days). Once we get to day 14 we'll have a better idea of what the final day has in store, whether it's Hoshoryu needing to beat Onosato to win the championship outright, force a playoff, or just fighting for pride and to potentially let Aonishiki win his first championship. Onosato has looked super strong throughout, but Aonishiki is no walkover in his current form so it's going to be an exciting last few days.

Edited November 17, 2025 by Tamura

[neil]

Well the last 48 hours have made this very interesting...spoilers below

 

 

 

 

Yoshinofuji started it off by beating Onosato. That made Onosato at 9-1 which tied with Aonishiki and Big Hosh just behind at 8-2. That made things pretty interesting as we now had more of a tournament battle on our hands. Assuming Aonishiki could keep winning...

Which of course Yoshinofuji ruined the the next day when fighting and, pretty easily, beating Aonishiki. At this point I thought we'd lost the battle as there is no way Onosato loses to 2-8 Takanosho. Welp...Onosato took a vicious throat thrust and then slipped. So now we have a three way battle of Onosato, Aonishiki and Big Hosh!! Exciting stuff going into these final days as those three will all be fighting each other...assuming they don't lose to some weak competition coming up!