Among the yusho prizes is this giant macaroon (macaron) which is awarded to the victor. On this auspicious occasion, it is green. I imagine you saying “But Bruce, surely that is just a plastic model!”. But I have it on good authority, that the ones awarded to Kisenosato were eaten before the yusho parade.
Maybe a stupid question, but where do all these random extra yusho prizes go? The endless parade of mostly gaijin businessmen handing random things to Harumafuji was hard for me to comprehend at 2AM. Does he have a big room in his house full of cups, animal statues, rice bales and mushrooms, or are they purely on loan?
When I was in Nagoya, I actually saw Hakuho’s attendants helping his wife load some of the prizes into her car, so they must at least go home/to the heya for a little while.
Most of the prizes are given to the heya and shared there. There are some of them that are kept by the yusho winner and taken home.
Shiitake sighting in this tweet:
Looks like something that would be eaten by an average sumo beya in about a day.
One of the other prizes is a cow’s weight in steaks. Also something that’s probably consumed by a sumo beya in a day.
Did Saudi Arabia give a year’s worth of gas this time? I’ve been there when Mexico and Czech Republic gave beer.
I do hope they don’t do that simultaneously, because that’s a DUI waiting to happen. :-)
Also, if the Saudi Arabia contributes a years’ worth of gas every basho, it means that Hakuho has to keep at least four cars.