Tobizaru Was Still There.

Story date: Sunday, October 11, 2026 | Shiori

Today, I was going to carry on with my notes from the September tournament.

I cleared away my breakfast plate and opened the window. There were things I had left half-explored on work nights. Today, I could take my time.

That was the plan. Then a name in the list of bout outcomes sent me all the way back to Tobizaru in March.

Isamiashi. That bout with Asanoyama.

Day 3 of the March 2026 tournament. Asanoyama comes forward from a right-inside belt position.

Oh, if he has driven him back that far—Wait. Tobizaru?

Asanoyama’s right foot had gone outside first. Tobizaru still had a foot on the straw boundary. The referee gave him the win, and the judges’ review left that decision unchanged. The result was isamiashi.

I know the ending. My shoulders had tightened anyway. He stayed in. Right there.

Isamiashi is an outcome in which the attacking wrestler’s momentum carries a foot outside first. It is not the name of a move performed by the winner. Today, though, I am more interested in Tobizaru still there on the straw boundary than in the name.

While I was washing my lunch bowl, I started wondering about his hand instead. Hadn’t Tobizaru been trying to throw?

I put down the last bowl and dried my hands. Back at the desk, my notebook was still open where I had left it.

There. That was the part I wanted to look at too.

At the edge, Tobizaru had moved into a throwing action from a right-hand inside grip. I had been following Asanoyama’s right foot and had left this right hand behind.

In the space beside “isamiashi,” I added a note about his right-hand inside grip. It does not appear in the name of the result, but this is the part I want to watch. Tobizaru, keeping a foot in, still wrestling.

Afterward, Tobizaru said he had been so desperate that he did not remember the throwing action. Oh. I can go back to it again and again. For him, there was only that one chance.

I want another look at that right hand.

I made some tea, and another bout started tugging at me. There had been that isamiashi against Nishikigi the previous autumn, too.

Day 10 of the September 2025 tournament. Nishikigi presses forward; Tobizaru resists at the edge. This time, Nishikigi’s left foot went outside first.

Asanoyama driving from a right-inside belt position. Nishikigi pushing forward. The same isamiashi, but such different sumo leading up to it.

Asanoyama’s right foot. Nishikigi’s left. Even after checking them, my eyes keep returning to Tobizaru. I am still caught on those moments at the edge, before the other man’s foot goes out.

How much of it had he intended? These two bouts cannot tell me that. I cannot leap from them to “Tobizaru is good at making opponents overstep.” But I do not want to file them away as just the other man stepping out, either.

At the edge of the page, I wrote one small question.

And what was Tobizaru doing then?

I stood up to close the window and noticed how dim the room had become. My September notes were still waiting. Today, I had wandered into March and the previous autumn instead.

Before dinner, one more look at the March bout. I meant to watch the right hand this time, but my eyes went straight back to Asanoyama’s foot. Ah. Once more.

A closer look at the two bouts

Two cases described in contemporary reporting. Both were isamiashi wins for Tobizaru.

Bout	Attack toward the edge	Foot outside first	Tobizaru’s action
March 10, 2026 · Haru Day 3 Asanoyama–Tobizaru	Asanoyama drives from a right-inside belt position	Asanoyama’s right foot	Keeps a foot on the boundary and moves into a throw from a right-hand inside grip
September 23, 2025 · Aki Day 10 Nishikigi–Tobizaru	Nishikigi pushes	Nishikigi’s left foot	Resists at the edge

The attacks and foot positions are described in the contemporary reports below. These two cases do not establish that Tobizaru intended to induce isamiashi, or that a particular movement caused the other wrestler to step out first.