Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 12 (Oct 14)

Herouth Jungyo (巡業), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

this-year-kanazawa

🌐 Location: Kanazawa, Ishikawa
🚫 Scandal level: 0

The reason I decided to use the NSK’s official Yokozuna photo as my header is that last year, the 2017 Aki Jungyo passed through exactly the same city and the same venue, and I used that same photo as my header:

Four Of A Kind
K♣️ • K♥️ • K♠️ • K♦️

Alas, what a difference a year makes. It’s the same place and the same season, but the King of Hearts has broken our hearts, and the King of Spades is spading bone fragments out of his knee. They had to substitute Hiyonoyama for them this year.

But at least Kisenosato seems happier.

In fact, I think Kisenosato has a thing with Hiyonoyama, the lead mascot. Here he is leading him down the aisle:

kisenosato-leads-hiyonoyama-to-the-altar
Is the yokozuna… skipping…?

Well, there’s no accounting for taste. And it’s about time the Yokozuna settled down, isn’t it?

Last year, Hakuho joined the Jungyo at Kanazawa, having been kyujo when it started. The reason he chose Kanazawa as his point of rendezvous is probably that there was a special request for Enho, who at the time wasn’t a sekitori, so he arrived as Hakuho’s tsukebito (Chief Holder of Threads, later promoted to #5 VP of Rope Pulling).

You see, Ishikawa is blessed with no less than three popular rikishi who call it home:

three-stars-of-the-day
Slash, Slash and Backslash

It seems the lesson has been learned. This time they provided the rikishi with rikishi-sized sashes. Ones big enough to wrap even around Kagayaki’s big… tracts of land.

And while Endo merely came from a small town in Ishikawa, Enho and Kagayaki are both from Kanazawa itself. So they had their traditional photo together:

enho-with-kagayaki
\ & \

And when I say “traditional”, I mean these two are always photographed together. They are from the same town, have been doing sumo in the same competitions.

enho-kagayaki-2005
Enho and Kagayaki, that is, Nakamura and Tatsu, 2005

And Kagayaki is only 4 months older than Enho. They were even team mates in middle school, until Kagayaki decided to join the world of professional sumo:

enho-kagayaki-2010
Enho participating in Kagayaki’s “Nyumon” (joining a heya) announcement event.

Enho didn’t have plans to be a professional sumo wrestler, until Hakuho convinced him to do so despite his obvious height disadvantage. And thus, they find themselves in that same pose once again. And Again. And again.

All three Ishikawa men had a very busy day. In fact, Enho had an especially busy day, as he had no less than three bouts in the official part of the evening. The torikumi today had extra bouts that were specifically added to feature the local boys: Enho vs. Jokoryu before the official Juryo matches, then (for some reason) Yutakayama-Asanoyama, Abi-Kagayaki, Mitakeumi-Endo – preceding the official Makuuchi bouts.

So Enho had this bout with Jokoryu, then the “official” bout vs. Daiamami, and then he had to fill in for Aminishiki, as the veteran’s knee’s condition has worsened.

Yes, I’m sorry to say that Aminishiki has left the Jungyo as of the next day, to try to nurse his knee back to health.

So, as I said, busy day. Enho also helped Kototsurugy promote his Enho goods:

enho-promoting-enho-goods

Kagayaki was busy outside promoting Ishikawa’s new rice crop:

kagayaki-promotes-ishikawa-rice

And Endo was doing the oicho-mage tying demonstration:

endo-oicho-demonstration
Mmm… I love it when my hair is pulled taut. Give it to me, tokoyama!

They were also attacked from all sides by fans demanding that their baby be held or that their hand fan be signed:

enho-fansa
No resting when you’re about to have a match
kagayaki-right-off-the-dohyo
No resting after a hard session of keiko
endo-fansa
And certainly no rest for Endo

But hey, there are also other rikishi in this Jungyo. And they seem to be enjoying themselves:

chiyonokuni-and-shodai
Shodai and Chiyonokuni seem to be happy. Maybe because Tamawashi is far away.

Kotoshogiku also seems to be in a good mood:

kotoshogiku-enjoying-himself

Goeido seems to be having an especially good time:

goeido-enjoying-himself

It’s not really clear from this photo, but with Kyokusoten laughing behing him, this may be related to his recent running gag: he makes his tsukebito heckle Tamawashi during his bouts.

Abi was having a good time with a little friend:

abi-with-baby

Which is remarkable, because usually those tykes scream their heads off when held by even the most charming rikishi.

Abi was also having his photo taken in a sexy pose:

abi-and-mystery-bump

Ah, erm, er… OK, I declare a competition in the comments: who can come up with the most hilarious explanation for that bulge in Abi’s towel, but keeping it strictly family-safe?

I’m sure you’re feeling an Enho overdose by now, but I just couldn’t skip this one of him returning from the bath. We know Kakuryu has a funny towel wrapped on his head, while Kisenosato prefers the lopsided Mickey-Mouse look. So here is what Enho does with his washed hair:

enho-the-teletubby
His real identity exposed: He is Po from the Teletubbies!

Chiyoshoma decided to apply for assistant announcer:

chiyoshoma-as-backup-announcer

But I think it won’t work well with a Mongolian accent.

And Kisenosato somehow lost the good mood he had earlier:

kisenosato-in-a-bad-mood

What is he so angry about? I hope he didn’t discover Arikawa’s little mime act.

OK, let’s watch some practice sessions:

Jokoryu vs. Chiyonoumi:

Azumaryu vs. Meisei:

Strange tachiai.

Shohozan vs. Tamawashi:

That looked like a continuation of the basho.

Kagayaki vs. Asanoyama:

The local boys don’t get any gifts in keiko sessions.

And I have a couple of official bouts:

Endo vs. Mitakeumi. OK, it’s an extra-curricular official bout:

And the end of the musubi-no-ichiban. The tweet author says the actual bout took about a minute:

So here is your daily Tobizaru. Accompanied by Enho, because of course he is, and Tsurugisho. What do you think about this outfit combo? Oicho-mage, hoodie, and towel?

everybody-wears-a-hoodie-with-an-oicho

16 thoughts on “Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 12 (Oct 14)”

  1. Abi always competes with his pet mongoose Rikitiki stuffed down the front of his mawashi, which explains his energetic style and why he always avoids belt-wrestling: harbouring an aggressive concealed mongoose is a recognised though rare kinjite. Sometimes he lets Rikitiki out to play but has to wear a drape to conceal the little fellow’s antics.

    Reply

    • Ichinojo also used to compete with his pet mongoose named Hakidashikobura but it got lost among his fat rolls and hasn’t been seen in over 2 years.

      Reply

  2. Wow. Two photos of Kisenosato actually smiling. Two! On the same day! Wonders never cease. He really should consider some sort of relationship with that mascot. It might improve his mood and persona a bit. Ai least it would provide him a dance partner. Watanabe Mayu, former AKB48 superstar, adored certain mascots, as well. Obviously, a Japanese thing which escapes my understanding..

    Reply

  3. Kanazawa is famous of its wagashi. Abi got himself a small bucket full of them, but as Ichinojo was passing by, he had to pretend he had no food and hid the bucket between his legs (hence that strange pose) and covered it with a towel. He hid it so well that Ichi didn’t notice anything suspicious and simply passed by – then Abi was captured on this photo thinking ‘Huh. Neat.’

    Also yay, that means the Goeido Thanksgiving Festival— I mean, jungyo’s Osaka prefecture leg reports are next. Neat.

    Reply

  4. Does anyone else think the manner in which the child’s face was obscured in that one photo is one the scariest things ever? It was like they decided to film a Japanese horror movie during the practice bouts. YEESCH!!

    Reply

    • OK, I’ll admit it, that was me. Since this photo came from a private person’s twitter account, I had the child pixelated, only what was supposed to be a random noise generator turned out to be less than random.

      Reply

  5. A fan encountered Abi when both went to, shall we say, answer a call of nature, and used the opportunity to ask him to take his picture. Unfortunately, a better environment for picture-taking could not be found in the little time available. Abi’s towel conceals a piece of lavatory equipment which just would not move away, despite being repeatedly asked in tones both polite and stern. Unfortunately I cannot comment on the identity or intentions of the aforementioned piece of equipment due to the also aforementioned concealment.

    Reply

  6. Herouth – my wife is growing ever more suspicious of my man-crush on Abi! These photos are not helping to allay her suspicions . . .
    Great to see Kise smiling like that.
    I hadn’t quite realised what a big unit Kagayaki is till now, seeing him standing next to Endo.
    Does anybody know if Endo is looking like he is recovering his mojo yet?

    Reply

  8. What sort of heckling would Goeido order to be done to Tamawashi? Insulting his Chanko Nabe recipe perhaps? :D

    Reply

    • Nah, nothing that severe. Goeido and his Tsukebito are Japanese, after all. All he does is cheer – loudly – for both sides at the same time.

      Reply

  9. Abi is modeling the new line of Yukaroo. It’s a yukata with a kangaroo pouch in the front. Perfect for bringing snacks on jungyo tour or placing small children to free up your hands for autographs. See how relaxed he is? He doesn’t have to worry because he’s wearing a yukaroo!

    Reply

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