🌐 Location: Hachinohe, Aomori

August 16 saw the rikishi reach Aomori. There are no less than 18 active rikishi from Aomori – six of them from Isegahama beya. Why? Because Isegahama oyakata is from Aomori. Aminishiki, Takarafuji and Homarefuji hail from Aomori. Unfortunately, Takarafuji is kyujo this jungyo. So only Aminishiki and Homarefuji represented the heya in this day’s event.

Aminishiki wished to have his photograph taken with his son in his home prefecture. He couldn’t do dohyo-iri with him (I have seen no babies or toddlers in this Jungyo’s dohyo-iri). But he did get that photo taken:

Note the matching kesho-mawashi.

In the event itself, Aminishiki and Homarefuji chose to kill two birds with one stone, and practice together to the cheers of the local crowd:

The Isegahama men were not the only ones celebrated this day. There were also the Sasayama brothers, Daiseido and his older brother, who maintains his original surname:

Of course, the most prominent Aomori-born rikishi is Onosho, currently the only Makuuchi wrestler from that prefecture. Takayasu, who does san-ban with him almost every day, gave him butsukari today instead:

＜夏巡業@八戸市＞髙安と阿武咲のぶつかり稽古。次は１８日に帯広市で巡業が行われます。https://t.co/c1UXpx8lDP #sumo #相撲 pic.twitter.com/7LWqSLdQp6

— 日本相撲協会公式 (@sumokyokai) August 16, 2018

This meant that the Ozeki had to look elsewhere for his san-ban. And Mitakeumi was his partner of choice:

＜夏巡業@八戸市＞髙安と御嶽海の稽古。#sumo #相撲 pic.twitter.com/uMB5bLARPa

— 日本相撲協会公式 (@sumokyokai) August 16, 2018

In non-Aomori news, Hakuho kept messing with his tsukebito. That rubber band. Somebody aught to take it away from him.

白鵬、弟子をかわいがり事件。
(トレーニング中にわざとゴムを手から離して、弟子にパチン！こういう先輩いたいたw)#大相撲 #地方巡業 #八戸場所 #白鵬 #応援してる pic.twitter.com/sW20lYUwob

— えりんご★LINEスタンプ作成中 (@eringopanda) August 16, 2018

Of course, the Yokozuna also performed his dohyo-iri with the rest of the Yokozuna.

Nice wolf-themed kesho-mawashi. The writing at the bottom says “Hakuho’s Hokkaido Support Group”. The Yokozuna doesn’t have just one support group, it appears.

Here is a video with the events of the day and lots of bouts:

• Daiseido-Tobizaru
• Homarefuji-Chiyonoumi
• Aminishiki-Daishoho
• Onosho-Arawashi
• Nishikigi-Daieisho
• Kakuryu-Kisenosato

You may notice the spectators shouting “keppare” to Onosho. “Keppare” is the Aomori version of the word “Gambare” used in central Japan. The word is used generally in Tohoku and also in Hokkaido. So instead of gambarizing, the northern folk kepparize. :-)

All the local boys win… (Nishikigi seems to be considered local due to being from Tohoku). Daiseido’s brother, Sasayama, also won his bout vs. Kyokusoten earlier.

While the Jungyo is taking place, the rikishi who are not in the Jungyo are either in their Tokyo heya practicing, or going around doing various training camps. Isegahama beya had its traditional training camp at Aomori (mostly) – together with Tatsunami beya. The day after the Aomori Jungyo event was a rest day for the Jungyo, and this coincided with Isegahama’s conclusion of aforesaid training camp. They had a pep rally to celebrate that conclusion and cheer on their rikishi – and conveniently, the Isegahama sekitori and tsukebito were still at Aomori and could join their heya for the day:

And with this little side trip away from the Jungyo, I conclude today’s report. And there is absolutely no Enho today. Nor Tobizaru, nor Arawashi. The ladies of Aomori simply refused to share the pretty faces of the sumo world with the rest of us.

All I can give you is Hoshoryu, who – for some reason – participated in the Isegahama event:

(Yeah, it was a joint training camp, but it doesn’t seem to be a joint rally)