Jungyo Newsreel – December 9th

Herouth Hana-zumo, Jungyo (巡業), , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Kumamoto, Kumamoto

Today an Ozeki and a Yokozuna started practicing in earnest. Takayasu, who has been practicing mostly with rikishi of Makushita and below, selected Nishikigi for san-ban practice, which consisted of five bouts, all won by Takayasu. He then followed that by naming Tochinoshin as his next opponent.

takayasu-with-tochinoshin

Now, this was a whole different power level, and the san-ban started with 3 consecutive losses for the Ozeki. He rallied and won 3 times, but then he started favoring his damaged leg, and lost the next three bouts.

“Not enough practice. It’s not real sumo yet”, commented the Ozeki. “My leg takes its time recovering, but if I do nothing at all, my entire body will lose its power. I have to work my body back into its normal condition.”

Yokozuna Kakuryu also chose this day to step up his practice, after doing mostly dohyo-side workouts. He – unsurprisingly – picked Shodai as his san-ban opponent. This consisted of 10 bouts, all of which the Yokozuna won.

kakuryu-butsukari-shodai

Kakuryu demonstrated various dashi-nage, yori and sukui-nage techniques in that series of bouts. However, this Jungyo event took place in Kumamoto, which is Shodai’s home territory, and Kakuryu seemed to consider his total dominance over the maegashira to be perhaps unsatisfactory for the fans. So he followed the san-ban with some butsukari.

When interviewed, the Yokozuna talked to the press about the state of his health. He said that favoring his injured foot has over-strained his back, and a few days before the Kyushu basho, after he went to sleep, he could not get up in the morning. “I was agonizing over the decision to go kyujo again”, he said.

He has consulted a specialist, and has taken special care of the affected area. “I have many injuries, but I do not want to give in to them. I want to overcome this. I will overcome this.”

Now let’s turn to the entertainment part of this event. As I told you, Shodai was the man of the day, and was supposed to be the center of attention in the kiddie sumo event. Only… Ikioi decided to steal his thunder.

You know how boring it is to wait in your kesho-mawashi until you are called up to the dohyo to do your dohyo-iri? Well, I don’t suppose any of the readers here has ever worn a kesho-mawashi, so you probably don’t know how boring it is. But Daieisho and Takakeisho found a way to pass the time.

This is called “Teoshi-zumo”. The rules are simple – you can only hit or touch the opponent’s hands. You lose if you move a foot.

Amakaze was in a specially sunny mood today as he waited for his torikumi. He helped the television crews with their work:

And offered “help” undressing:

So, speaking of torikumi, let’s start with a few at Makushita. But first, it appears that Enho and Tobizaru decided to have their own unofficial bout:

They then proceeded each to his own official one. Here is a – rather odd – bout between Terao and Enho:

It’s a bit hard to use tsuppari when your opponent is, like, a meter below you.

Then came the bout between Tobizaru and Akua:

Akua is a patient fellow.

Moving up to Makuuchi, we have the bout of the geriatrics, Aminishiki vs. Takekaze.

I keep fearing that one of Aminishiki’s limbs will simply come off and roll down the dohyo. But he somehow manages to keep them intact, with duct tape and spit.

You can see Shodai’s bout in this video from NHK (as well as some of Kakuryu’s san-ban mentioned above):

Onosho once again tries to win without his red mawashi? Tsk, tsk…

And I’m getting a bit tired of NHK opening every one of its reports of the Jungyo with “The Jungyo, which has been shaken by the Harumafuji incident, took place today at…”.

And the musubi-no-ichiban:

Hakuho 3 – Kakuryu 3

[cough, cough]

BTW, Takayasu is back on the torikumi, but Terunofuji [sigh] is no longer on it.

Finally, Osunaarashi shared this image of today’s shitakubeya (preparation room)… Lovely, but the rikishi were not allowed to use the pool. 😢

shitaku-beya

 

9 thoughts on “Jungyo Newsreel – December 9th”

  3. Here’s hoping Osunaarashi can continue his winning ways in the next basho! Thank you for this coverage! it’s great!

    Reply

  5. I can’t get enough of Amakaze; the guy just seems to love life! Here’s hoping we see him back in Makuuchi one day!

    Reply

  6. Kakurywho?
    Seriously though, it would be excellent to have another healthy Yokozuna back in the fray. A healthy Ozeki wouldn’t go amiss either, let’s hope the Pinoy panda is in fine wrasslin’ form when next he enters the circled square.
    Enjoyed today’s slightly goofy coverage, good stuff.

    Reply

  7. Wow, Sumo can’t catch a break this year. Now there has been a massacre in the Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, which also carries some importance for Sumo, where a former head priest killed his sister, the current highest ranking priest and then his wife and himself on shrine grounds.

    Reply

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