I’m pretty excited to see how Ichiro Kendrick Young will do in his first proper basho. Bruce laid out the groundwork on this site following Wakaichiro. I just wanted to bump the discussion up for the first tournament of 2017. He’s on the banzuke in Jonokuchi division #17. (Number 17 in 2017…good omen?)
Before going crazy and predicting the kid’s rise to Juryo by year’s end, let’s see how he does in this first proper tournament. Personally, I’m hoping he is still in sumo at this time in 2018. It’s not been the top career choice for many Westerners. He’s 18 and must love the sport as we all do. But how many of us have had to be low-man on a sumo totem pole?
What I do find encouraging is he’s in ex-Musashimaru’s “Musashigawa” beya. But there are more than a dozen other wrestlers senior to him in that stable. Imagine it’s your freshman year at college, you’re pledging Sigma Delta Maru and you’re the only pledge cleaning up after all the keggers while trying to maintain a 4.0; and rather than hosting sororities for social events, your house brings over other fraternities with more senior wrestlers to throw you around a room. The life is surely not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination but it is good to be in a stable headed by an American Yokozuna.
I am hoping someone smuggles some early morning video of Wakaichiro matches. Given his size, the fact he is an athlete, played football and liked it – he will probably enjoy smashing into some of the other youngsters in Jonokuchi. Hopefully he does not get promoted out too quickly, as I would guess he will benefit from slow seasoning at first.
Go Texas Sumo!
I’m still trying to find other NHK options because they dropped our local channel, so I’ll be struggling to watch the big boys…much less Jonokuchi. I hope he does well but it may be good to spend an extended period in Sandanme. Bulk up, learn to protect himself and prevent injury, etc.