Just the guess this time, no commentary, but let me know what you think in the comments. The banzuke comes out a week from today, a day later than usual due to the Emperor’s birthday.
Haru Banzuke Crystal Ball
The Konishiki Tapes: On The Dohyo and Off
This is the second instalment of the raw interview footage. More background, and all of the raw interview videos and Narō masters will be found here. I’ve obviously only have a few up there at the moment with a plan to get a good chunk up in time for Haru Basho.
In this video, the production team starts with Konishiki’s first action on the dohyo. We learn about his early training, rise, and a bit of the life at the Top. We also learn, quite candidly, about his motivation. What it takes to be a champion. The killer instinct. Where others gave up, quit, dropped out — Konishiki pushed himself harder to go further. But did he have a choice?
This is one of the key differences that I find between “The Sumo World” and these exhibitions, like Sumo+Sushi, even jungyo and amateur sumo at-large. If you expect a prize bout — UFC blood and guts or WWE drama — when you go to any of these, you will not find it. You’re not going to get the brutal kotenage, “kachin” tachiai, decapitating kachiage. But that was exactly what Konishiki had bought into. It’s what separates “the sport” with Olympic aspirations from “the life,” unique to Japan.
Narō Masters: Introduction
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.
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. As an active sumo wrestler, he was known by the shikona Tōōyama (東桜山). (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
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.