Do you want $100 worth of Tachiai merch? If you wear one of these new Tachiai Jungyo map T-shirts at a jungyo event and share pics of yourself there during the event with our accounts on Twitter or Instagram, I’ll buy you $100 of Tachiai swag. This is open to Team Tachiai, too! So far, I think Josh is the only person I know who has been to one. Re-read his account of his visit to the Koshigaya jungyo event. More new designs to come but I’ve wanted a map of Japan on a shirt for a while…and just couldn’t wait for the Kyokai to announce its winter jungyo schedule. So, I really want to try to encourage readers to go to either the Aki or Fuyu tours. (I’m leaving this open to the first 10 readers so I don’t broke if 1000 of y’all somehow show up at jungyo events.)

I am massive fan of Herouth’s coverage of sumo jungyo. I find it to be a fascinating side of the sport. These promotional tours provide a more intimate look at some of the ceremony and symbolism, some light-hearted moments, a glimpse into rikishi conditioning and health, and has also provided the scene for a few unfortunate scandals over the past year. They also offer a chance for sumo fans from outside Japan’s major cities an opportunity to heap praise on local sekitori.

Tachiai encourages fans to visit these outlying sites and tour events, especially as it becomes more difficult to find tickets to honbasho events. As we saw in Nagoya, many places in Japan can be uncomfortably hot during the summer. So these tours also allow sumo fans a chance to enjoy sumo in these off-the-beaten-path locations and with more favorable seasons…like Kyushu, which will host several jungyo events this winter.

Why no jungyo in Kyushu? Of course the full schedule has not been published, yet, but Kyushu will most certainly be included in the fuyu jungyo.

— ヘルット (@SumoFollower) September 7, 2018