Narō Masters: Introduction

Andy The Konishiki Tapes ,

Two updates to mention here. I’m going to go ahead and start posting the master cuts that were the actual sumo course. I’m not going to wait until I finish posting the raw videos. Second, I’ve uploaded the first episodes to this page which I will use to consolidate all of these “raw footage” and “masters”. There’s now a direct link to that consolidated page on the Tachiai homepage if you want to bookmark it. Just click on Konishiki’s image to get there.

Sumo Course Introduction

Here’s the Introduction video to the course. It gives just enough of a glimpse of what’s to come to be really enticing. If you are just getting into sumo, these videos are a great start to sumo fandom. If you already know a lot about sumo, you will still learn a lot about the sumo lifestyle and the man, Konishiki. I hope you will enjoy these videos.

Feel free to leave comments on these blog posts. That main page will be just for the videos. Doing it this way will make it easier to keep track of which comments are for which videos. It also allows me to provide a bit of an introduction or explanation for some of the content.

Many of you might recognize Tashiro Yoshinori as “Big Poppa,” the guy whose sukuinage ended my first amateur bout. (For action shots of the throw, scroll through the Instagram pics below.) He also was in John Wick 4, the Bollywood movie “Sumo”, and he beat Asashoryu. Lately, he’s been heading up a talent agency helping former sumo wrestlers find work. In these videos, though, he and his team help Konishiki demonstrate the techniques that I need to hone up on for my rematch.

Just after the 2:00-minute mark, you see Konishiki’s first maezumo bout. The poor kid headed straight at Konishiki and got flattened. The highlights are great, and frankly, even better for those of you who have been sumo fans for a long time. You’ll know Chiyonofuji, for example, when you see this Goliath crush him out of the dohyo. Then you see video clips from Hawaii and his childhood. These videos are awesome. Enjoy! More to come!

I think I’ll drop one every week or so. That way you all have a chance to watch and leave comments and such. But if you just want to come back in a while, that consolidated page will be helpful. (It will also have links to these posts so you can leave comments.) Anyway, that’s the plan.

The Konishiki Tapes: Arrival in Japan

Andy The Konishiki Tapes ,

A couple of years ago, there was a great learning application called Naro. One of the courses they offered was about sumo, featuring Konishiki. Unfortunately, Naro is not around anymore and as a part of the liquidation, I acquired the sumo footage. Basically, they sat down with Konishiki for a series of interviews over three days. The interviews are peppered with explanations and anecdotes about the life and his experience. They had a series of topical “Arcs” which they followed through the interviews, much of which didn’t make it into the final videos.

Also as a part of the interviews, they include some live action demonstrations featuring former wrestlers…including former Tooyama. You might recognize Tooyama from one of the John Wick movies. I recognize Tooyama as the guy who threw me onto my butt at Sumo + Sushi.

Anyway, my grand plans involved creating these great super-cuts on various topics, like “Shikona,” “Oshi-zumo vs Yotsu-zumo” and “Being Ozeki” or “Becoming Ozeki.” I have used a couple of the pictures and videos in drips and drabs already in some random posts, when they were relevant. My lower division coverage, for example, I use a picture from that session.

Well, this editing process is taking a long time. Too long. It’s time to get some of this out to you all, so here is the first installment: “Arrival in Japan.” I’ll still work on the topical super-cuts, but let’s just get some of this raw footage out. In these videos, Konishiki speaks casually and off-the-cuff about his life in the Sumo Association. It’s quite interesting to hear his perspective looking back on how things were 40 years ago and it gives a lot of context.

Sometimes he touches on issues which are rather sensitive topics in the sport, like bullying and abuse. In this video, around the 16-minute mark the Naro team ask him about why he stayed. He quickly and quite frankly talks about how leaving wasn’t an option. They took his passport away. Well, that definitely got my attention. That’s one of the signs we’re trained to look for in Human Trafficking.

More of these videos will follow. I’m eager to get these out, even if it’s not going to be quite the polished product that I had hoped. As always, I’m interested to hear what you all think. More to come.

Sumo News Update, Feb 2026

Andy Fuji TV Tournament, Hakuho (白鵬), NHK , ,

This is the second sumo news update between the Hatsu and Haru tournaments. Catch up on the earlier update here. There was a full slate of sumo activity this weekend, so let’s get to it.

NHK Charity Event

The 58th Interation of the NHK’s Annual charity sumo event (福祉大相撲) took place this Saturday at Kokugikan. It’s always an interesting event, half Variety Show, half sumo jungyo event. Past coverage of this event include informative posts from Herouth, Bruce, and myself. There’s shokkiri, and jinku, and bouts…but there is also a slate of celebrities joining the wrestlers on stage, including pop groups and enka singers.

This year’s talents included 18-year-old enka star, Umetani Kokoro. Interestingly, she is from the Hakata district of Fukuoka, which hosts the November sumo tournament each year — and is also home of the makers of the hakata-ori belts (obi) you often see worn with kimono “off-dohyo,” like those in the image below. She performed a duet with Hakunofuji. Atamifuji performed with pop group STU48 and Hiradoumi did his duet with Arai Maju.

FujiTV Sumo Tournament

On Sunday, Kokugikan again hosted the Annual FujiTV sumo tournament. This features two bracket-style tournaments — one for Juryo and one for Makuuchi. The Makuuchi bracket is below.

The winner of the Makuuchi division competition was Hoshoryu, who defeated Abi for the title and the 2500000-yen purse. Hiradoumi was awarded a fighting spirit prize.

Shonannoumi won the Juryo competition in a playoff between Hakuyozan and Kagayaki.

I always like seeing the intermission bouts. The Sumo Association gets some of the retirees to dust off the old sagari and strap on the old shimekomi for some exhibition bouts. This year, Aoiyama took on Hokutofuji and Kotoyuki battled Kotoeko.

Hakuho Cup

At the same time as the two Kokugikan events, the Toyota Arena in Odaiba hosted the Sixteenth Hakuho Cup. The Hakuho Cup is an amateur sumo tournament for boys and girls with the goal of fostering the sport of sumo among the next generation. 1,700 kids from 20 countries participated this year and former deshi Hakunofuji and Yoshinofuji came by to say, “Hi” to their former master.

Full results and videos of the action are available at the Hakuho Cup website. I’m eager to hear from any viewers or participants in the Hakuho Cup (or the other tournaments). They seem like a great way to spend a winter day in Tokyo.

Terunofuji Retirement Ceremony

Andy Retirement, Sumo Topics, Terunofuji (照ノ富士) , ,

Sumo News is not over! There are a number of sumo-related events going on in-between tournaments. Kokugikan hosted the retirement ceremony of former Yokozuna, Terunofuji on Saturday, January 31.

The event was streamed live on Abema. I had a conflict with a previously scheduled engagement, so I missed it but it looks like Terunofuji put on a great show. There was shokkiri performed by Asaazuma and Suigafuji with Shikimori Kinosuke as the gyoji. Shokkiri is a sumo comedy routine that’s generally included in all of these exhibition events, like with jungyo. They explain the rules of sumo by basically breaking all of them.

There was a bracket-style tournament featuring eight of the lower-ranked Isegahama wrestlers. The bracket is in the Twitter post below. Let me know if any of these are not working and I’ll see if I can source them from elsewhere. Some of the Twitter embeds get blocked but others are visible to people without accounts. From the top left we have Mienofuji (Tenshoho/Mukainakano), Satorufuji, Hananofuji (Kiho/Kawazoe) and Suzunofuji. On the right side we have Asahifuji, Churafuji (Chura/Chikuba), Yumenofuji, and Arashifuji (Matsui).

The yusho was claimed by Asahifuji, fresh off his Jonokuchi division title. He is the much-hyped rookie who was given the shikona of the former Yokozuna (and former Isegahama-oyakata). The Japanese press seems to like calling him the strongest recruit ever. He has been living with and training with the heya for the last four years since he couldn’t officially join with Terunofuji on the books as the resident foreign wrestler. He is also Mongolian and we will keep an eye on his career, that’s for sure.

There were also exhibition bouts with sekitori, capped off with a bout between Hoshoryu and Onosato. Hoshoryu picked up Onosato (be careful with that knee!) and dropped him into Oshima-oyakata’s lap. Oshima-oyakata (former Kyokutenho) seemed to be a common target for falling rikishi but took it with a laugh. Seems like Kirishima was a target, too. One gem in particular from these bouts was the introduction of Takanosho as hailing from Minatogawa-beya, which you can hopefully hear in the tweet embedded below. See our previous news brief about Takakeisho becoming master.

Terunofuji performed his final dohyo-iri with Hoshoryu as sword-bearer and Onosato as dew-sweeper. As Josh pointed out in the comments, ex-Satonofuji was on hand to help get that rope ready. He’s not the only blast-from-the-past who attended the event.

Terunofuji’s 3-year-old son joined them on the dohyo wearing his own tsuna (Yokozuna rope belt) and kesho mawashi, held by Onosato. Check back in 20 years. That kid might have his own legit belt.

Now, the main event was obviously the haircut. A stream of supporters, celebrities, and sumo elite (including Hakuho) took their turns cutting Terunofuji’s topknot. Shunba, Terunofuji’s former tsukebito took his turn, as did Takarafuji, and the current crop of Isegahama sekitori. Here, though, we have Miyagino-oyakata taking the final snips.

When all was said and done, we got to see the obligatory picture of okamisan adjusting Terunofuji’s — excuse me — Isegahama-oyakata’s tie.

Then, they all partied like it was 1899.

That’s it for this weekend but join us next weekend for news about the NHK Charity Sumo event and the One Day Tournament. This one day tournament used to be known as the FUJI TV tournament but since last year’s Fuji TV scandal, it looks like Fuji TV is not aligned with it anymore. Nevertheless, if you’re in Japan and think you missed all of the sumo action after the end of Hatsu, take heart. You may still have an opportunity to attend these events or other sumo-related tours and events.