Hakuho was in the familiar position of being alone at top as the yokozuna beat Myogiryu on Wednesday to hold the only perfect record through four days at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
Hakuho had lost to the second-ranked maegashira in January, but the Mongolian made sure to avoid another slip-up, ushering his opponent out of the ring to improve to 6-1 for his career against Myogiryu (2-2).
The other yokozuna in the field, Harumafuji (2-2), wasn't so hot, losing for the second day in a row in his first meeting with No. 2 Chiyotairyu (3-1), who slapped the Mongolian down after the faceoff.
Sekiwake Baruto was the other unbeaten wrestler going into the day but the Estonian behemoth was tripped up by ozeki Kakuryu (3-1), who propped back on the winning track by yoritaoshi.
Kakuryu laid into Baruto from the tachiai, lowering himself into his chest. The 198-cm Baruto, who had been 13-10 for his career against Kakuryu, tried to ward off his man but backpedaled out of the circle as the Izutsu stable juggernaut kept plowing to victory.
With Harumafuji and the ozeki trio of Kakuryu, Kotoshogiku and Kotooshu all going down a day earlier, the spring basho has become a bit of a lottery.
On Wednesday, Bulgarian Kotooshu (1-3) was as soft as yogurt, falling to his third straight defeat against top-ranked maegashira Tochinoshin, who won for the first time here by yorikiri.
Kotoshogiku evened his record to 2-2 with a shitatenage win against No. 1 maegashira Takayasu (1-3), and ozeki Kisenosato was upset by komusubi Tochiozan (3-1), who rolled to his third consecutive win.
