RE: Yokozuna Dejima?

["Joshua A. Reyer" <jreyer@grn.mmtr.or.jp>]

>>Takanohana was as healthy as he's been the past few years.  He
>>broke his finger during his match with Dejima, not before.  He was a
>>contender until he was knocked out of the race by... who was it? ah, yes.
>>Dejima.

>Surely you josh, Josh.  Taka had 3 layers of ring rust from his lay-out,
plus he had to breathe through his mouth and his color was pasty.  You ask
me, I think Taka is still >not a healthy man.  I'm not talking bones and
bruises.  I mean SICK, as in an incipient liver ailment.  It's possible
we'll never see the real Taka again but, if we do, he'll >handle big-D
4-sure.

His ring rust wasn't so bad; he'd only been out for one basho, not three
like Akebono in May.  Exhaling through the mouth is normal procedure in
sumo, especially tachiai.  And, while we might have to disagree on this, I
don't think Taka was as unhealthy in this tournament as he was in the Hatsu
and Haru bashos.

>>I'm sure Waka can beat him.  He's beaten him before.  I'm not saying that
>>Dejima's invincible.  I'm simply saying that his level is past anybody's
>>ability to "solve".  Dejima's not a puzzle.  It's very simple to see how
he
>>wins: he pushes, pushes, and pushes, and his opponents go out.

>If pushing were truly and uniquely the ultimate sumo weapon, then you would
be correct.  But is it?  I don't think so.

But it is.  Why do you think so many matches are won by yorikiri?  Why does
the Kyokai frown on henkas?  Why does every rikishi talk about "mae ni
deru"- moving forward?  I've heard sumo compared to judo thusly: in Judo,
you push when your opponent pulls, and pull when your opponent pushes.  But
in sumo you push when your opponent pulls and push when your opponent
pushes.

At any rate, let me try to distill the discussion to date.  My
interpretation of your messages is that because Dejima's style is simply
pushing sumo, then there is a tactic that can be used to hand him successive
defeats.  In other words, Dejima is a one-trick pony, and if his opponents
find a way to neutralize his one trick, then Dejima will certainly lose.

My response to that is, very simply, that Dejima's sumo is much complicated
than that.  He has a fast, heavy, good tachiai.  Dejima win's many of his
bouts at the tachiai because he is able to generate more strength and
momentum.  If he has not won at tachiai, Dejima is still difficult to beat
because he has good balance, and good footwork.  He watches his opponents
well.  When they try to dodge, he follows their movement well, and continues
to apply pressure.  If they turn and try to over power his momentum, he is
able to shift his angle and apply pressure.  In other words, Dejima's sumo
is advanced pushing sumo.  My position is that his ability is beyond a
"counterpunch".  To defeat him, his opponents have defeat him in varying
aspects of the bout.

Let's look at Dejima's two losses in the Natsu basho to see what one has to
do to defeat Dejima.

On Day 4, Dejima lost to Kotonishiki.  Dejima had Kotonishiki on the ropes,
but Kotonishiki kept his balance, kept his right hand grip on the belt, and
was able to win by shitate-nage.  Dejima's comments on the match?  "I have
to burst out more on the tachiai.  At the end, I got a little confused, and
came out too far, I was skillfully circled and thrown."  What happened here?
Well, Kotonishiki's style is F-1 sumo.  He was faster on the tachiai, and
was able to beat Dejima there.  Even so, Dejima was able to power him to the
tawara.  Dejima made a mistake; zigging when he should have zagged,
Kotonishiki, with an excellent sense of balance, was able to exploit the
mistake, moved away from the tawara and threw Dejima.  Was there a simple
trick to beating him?  No, Kotonishiki did it by being faster at the
tachiai, and having a good sense of balance, enabling him to keep from being
pushed out.

On Day 11, Kaio defeated Dejima by pulling a henka to the left and pulling
him down.  Dejima came in low and strong, as usual, but this time he could
not keep his balance.  Kaio's comments on the match?  "Going in straight
(against him), even yokozunas get pushed out.  I thought if I could stop him
at the tachiai, something would work out.  On the last shikiri his head was
unusually low, so I moved to the left."  Dejima, expecting to need a lot of
momentum to overpower Kaio's big body, came in too low, and Kaio capitalized
on that.

So we have two different defeats by two very different opponents.  And they
didn't win by any special trick except to capitalize on Dejima's mistakes,
and (especially in Kotonishiki's case) utilize their own strengths (speed,
agility) to defeat him.  This is the same way to defeat any other rikishi.
It is the same way Dejima defeated almost everyone else in the tournament;
by making fewer mistakes, and simply being faster, stronger and better.

>>Akebono is 3-5 against Dejima (3-6 if you count the playoff).  He beat
>>Dejima their first 3 meetings, and has lost their lost five(six) straight.
>>He was as strong in this basho as he's ever been in his whole career.  He
>>couldn't defeat Dejima. His only loss going into Day 15 was against
Dejima.
>>Akebono will probably defeat him at least one time before he retires, but
I
>>don't think one could say that he WILL beat him next basho.

>In their first bout of the last basho, big-D TRULY defeated Akebono for the
very first time.  Mano-a-mano, I mean.  All the other times, he simply
out-generaled Akebono.  >But mano-a-mano, a healthy Akebono will defeat
big-D 3 out of 4 times -- IF and only if Akebono doesn't let himself get
psyched out or consistently out-generaled, as he >did with Takatoriki.
Granted, those are very big if's.

I think I disagree here, but I'm not entirely sure what you mean by
"out-generaled".

In the Natsu Basho, Akebono was still rusty, and it was no surprise to me
that Dejima beat him.  But there were a couple come from behind victories
Dejima won against Akebono last year.  Even with a healthy Akebono, I'd give
Dejima the odds.

>>I wouldn't pick Takatoriki as a Dejima killer.  Too much past his prime.

>Yes, Takatoriki looks to be past his prime.  But big-D is now ozeki, and
Taka always gets up for the main guys.  If he gets over his gout (or
whatever), Taka is smart >enough and fast enough to give big-D lots of
trouble.  Taka is a fellow I "love to hate."  I used to love it when he
lost, especially when he lost to Akebono.  But now that he's >fading,
strangely I miss him.  I want him healthy, strong, full of piss and vinegar.
When and if he gets that way again, THEN I want to again enjoy seeing him
lose.  But for >now, I pull for the guy.

One problem with that is that he went 4-11 this last basho.  He'll be
somewhere around West Maegashira 6 the next basho.  If all the upper level
guys are healthy, he might not even meet Dejima...

>>... if anybody could beat Dejima in the next basho, it'd be Taka, Waka,
Kaio
>>or Tochiazuma.  Toki has a better chance of beating Dejima than
Takatoriki,
>>I think.

>Tochiazuma, you say? That choice surprises me.  Why him?  All he has is
SKILL.  I agree with Toki as an outside possibility.  Perhaps an agile,
reasonably powerful >"wham-bam" technique is "the" answer to big-D.

Tochiazuma was 4-4 with Dejima until the last basho.  Now he's 4-5.  He's
fast, he's strong, and he's got good balance.  "The" answer to Dejima is
simply to train very hard and improve in all aspects of the sport.  Then, a
bit of luck, and some mistakes on Dejima's part, one can win.

>>> I predict big-D to have at LEAST 3 losses next basho.  So there!
>>
>>With four yokozuna and three ozeki, plus a whole troop of hungy sanyaku
>>guys, anyone will be lucky to survive with less than three losses.
>>Predicting three losses for Dejima is like saying Musashimaru will get his
>>kachi-koshi.

>Ouch.  Okay then, 4 losses, but that's my final offer.

I've already said that Dejima won't take the next basho.  But there's no
wall for him to run into.  There's no easy answer except hard work to defeat
him.  Dejima's been on the dohyo for quite some time.  He's been in the
upper ranks since coming back from his ankle injury.  He's a fixture.  The
only way I could see him racking up a string of losses like Chiyotaikai was
if he didn't train (like Chiyotaikai didn't).  But since he'll be in the
jungyou from now until September, that's highly unlikely.  I predict 11 wins
for Dejima, and wins over 3 of the five Yokozuna/Ozeki he will face.

>In closing, will SOMEBODY please tell me what the hell happened to Kaio
last basho?  Is he a certifiable choke-out guy or what?

He was busy with his wedding, his honeymoon, and dealing with the pressure
of the basho.  His head wasn't totally focused.  He'll make it, though.  If
Musashimaru can become Yokozuna, Kaio can become Ozeki.

Josh Reyer