🌐 Location: Kanazawa
Before going into today’s stories, here is one that still belongs to Nagano, but was published very early today.
Takanohana performs a miracle
Wait, Takanohana? Didn’t he retire ages ago, and open his own stable?
Yes. Takanohana Oyakata is currently the head of the Jungyo department in the Kyokai. And he spends the days of the Jungyo sitting on one side of the dohyo, and receiving bows from wrestlers, together with his second-in-command, Tamanoi oyakata.
Yesterday, after the Asanoyama affair, Yokozuna Kisenosato proceeded to do sanban with Shodai, taking him for 11 bouts, when the former Dai-Yokozuna decided that being a Yokozuna does not mean that you can’t get an education.
He started by criticizing Kisenosato’s bowed-back, arms-in Shikiri. That same Shikiri the Yokozuna said he was practicing when he picked up his wooden sword the other day. Adding gestures to words, Takanohana invoked previous generations of his own family as well as Kisenosato’s own previous shisho, telling him that they both performed a wide, commanding shikiri.
The relative he invoked was, in fact, the first Wakanohana, also known as “The Demon of The Dohyo”.
But the coaching didn’t end with just an improved shikiri posture. Takanohana proceeded to shower the lone Japanese Yokozuna with advice for seven of the 11 bouts. In response to this guidance, Kisenosato’s signature left ottsuke, which has been AWOL since his injury, made a reappearance!
And if that’s not a miracle, I don’t know what is.
(Based on article in Sanspo)
The return of the King
Hakuho joined the jungyo today, as you could see in the opening photo. He concentrated mostly on doing dohyo-side workouts:
白鵬今日から復帰＠金沢 pic.twitter.com/0Lj0gVIYPh
— スモートフォン (@azechiazechi) October 14, 2017
Heh. Even his nail-gazing is more impressive than Kisenosato’s. :-)
He didn’t do any san-ban, but he did offer butsukari to Kagayaki. Today it was Kagayaki’s turn in the spotlight, as he hails from Ishikawa prefecture. So like Mitakeumi yesterday, he got various honors, including having his oicho done in public, and of course, butsukari with Hakuho is definitely an honor (if a painful one):
The crowd cheered for the local. Following that first training with a sekitori since his kyujo he remarked: “Kagayaki was hitting me as hard as he could, being on his home turf. It was a good feeling”. Following the butsukari, his chest remained red (as can be seen in the four Yokozuna picture above!), and he remarked: “I have been undergoing rehabilitation and preparing my body for this sort of exertion as much as the circumstances allowed. The red spot? That’s a man’s decoration.”
The musubi-no-ichiban was Hakuho vs. Kisenosato. “Am I the only Yokozuna who has not engaged with him yet?” he asked. In the Haru basho, when Kisenosato made his debut as a Yokozuna, Hakuho was kyujo, then Kisenosato was kyujo, and then both of them.
The result, unsurprisingly, was Hakuho winning by uwatenage. And as you can see in this picture, this was despite Kisenosato prevailing in the grip war.
Enho bathes in adoration
As promised, there was another arrival from Miyagino beya – Hakuho’s uchi-deshi and three zensho-yusho winner, Enho, who also hails from Kanazawa. And he found himself the center of attention, surrounded by clicking phones from every side.
The Sandanme rikishi did morning keiko with all the Makushita-and-below rikishi, but admitted he was too nervous “what with all the sekitori around to bow to”. The sekitori, however, were determined to put him in the limelight, and he was invited to butsukari by both komusubi Tamawashi, and our favorite Uncle Sumo:
This is a 17 year age gap butsukari that you see here. What was Aminishiki doing when he was Enho’s age? Probably offering his chest to a young Ama…
As the sekitori started their own training, Enho remained and worked out below the dohyo. Yoshikaze took notice of him and said “Right now I’m at my prime. I’d really like to take you on, so hurry up and get yourself advanced.” Enho is working with Hakuho on improving his physique, but Yoshikaze told him “don’t put on too much weight. Your ideal should probably be 105kg”.
Enho later commented: “Until last year, I was just a spectator in Jungyo events. Now I find myself as a participant! I’m glad I could do it in such a good form” (referring to his 21 consecutive wins).
And of course, he did his torikumi in his usual style:
炎鵬さん〜💕✨
かわいいしかっこいいし、いい！！今日は七尾市中島町の👵👴とその娘さん👩とお話ししながら見てます！
👴「炎鵬は、きつい」とのことです。※きついとは、粘り強いみたいな意味の能登の方言です。 pic.twitter.com/j6zs8eEeiP
— レッサー (@ressaapan) October 14, 2017
Fantastic caption.
When I hear Yoshikaze excited to face Enho, this image comes to mind:
“I felt like destroying something beautiful.”
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DIWV7aYsEhg/maxresdefault.jpg
Ouch. Though who knows, by the time Enho gets to Makuuchi, he may actually be the one to rearrange Yoshikaze’s features. In Yoshikaze’s case, though, there is room only for improvement.
Re: caption, seeing the four Yokozuna lined up always makes me want to goof around a bit, like in this post I made on Google+ during the summer Jungyo.
Thank you man, amazing reporting!
The picture of Hakuho and Kisenosato wrestling is one of the most beautiful pictures I have seen of Sumo. Just the happy faces of the crowd glad to see their two Yokozuna going at it, is kind of poetic.
The expressions on the faces of the two wrestlers are also golden. Hakuho has just exposed the hellish demon hidden behind his big smiling baby face, and Kisenosato is all like “Daaaamn”.
I have been following this series closely and have been fascinated: I have never seen this kind of coverage on an English language site before. Some of the terminology however has been a bit beyond me. I always watch the tournament coverage, so I know a hikiotoshi from a hatakikomi, but I would welcome some explanation of words like “sanban” and “butsukari”.
OK, maybe I’ll make a glossary page and ask Andy to add it to the site menu… though I’m far from an expert myself.
The reason those terms may not be familiar is that these are both forms of keiko – practice.
“san-ban geiko” (“geiko” is to “keiko” the same as “zumo” is to “sumo” – the japanese way of combining words sometimes changes the appended word’s consonant from unvoiced to voiced) is where the same two wrestlers do practice bouts repeatedly. It literally means “Three-bout practice”, but can extend to however many bouts as the (higher ranking) wrestler decides. When each single bout is decided, the two wrestlers simply go back to the shikiri lines and start again.
“butsukari geiko” is a form of practice in which a high-ranking wrestler invites a lower-ranked one to tackle him. The rules of engagements are: The high-ranker stands in front of the lower-ranker in a position that exposes one side of his chest. This is usually close to the tawara facing outside, with the lower-ranker standing outside and facing inside. The lower ranker then needs to throw himself at the exposed chest, and push the high-ranker all the way to the other side of the dohyo. If he fails to do so, he is thrown to the ground. Additionally the high ranker may decide to take him for a walk – a type of suri-ashi, I think – around the dohyo. If you remember, we had this thread about it (including additional links to videos in one of my comments there). Some butsukaris end pretty quickly, though – if the low ranker succeeds every time, the high-ranker may decide not to waste everybody’s time. The ceremony ends with the low ranker lightly punching the exposed chest, getting thrown one last time and leaving the dohyo.
Thanks for that, most helpful. Now I know what you mean when you say x offered his chest to y.