Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 21 (Oct 25)

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

The Jungyo is over. All the rikishi are gathered at Kyushu at their respective heya’s lodgings. The banzuke is out, some of the people you saw in the reports wearing a white sekitori’s mawashi have dropped to Makushita. And some of those you saw serving sekitori are now getting their own tsukebito. But I want to keep posting my Jungyo reports, and complete the journey – unless, of course, you think it’s a waste of bandwidth and sleep. Let me know in the comments!

gyoji-making-signs
Gyoji hard at work preparing signs

🌐 Location: Matsuyama, Ehime
🚫 Scandal level: 0

We have a lot of video action today. But first, take a look at Umizaru (“Sea Monkey”):

umizaru

He is from Miyagino beya, and serves as Enho’s tsukebito for this Jungyo (Enho’s regular tsukebito are Takemaru and Kenyu, but Umizaru is a native of Kyoto, one of this Jungyo’s locations, so he was assigned temporarily).

Umizaru’s main claim to fame is the gag that has been doing the rounds in the sumo world: he is said to be the third brother to Hidenoumi and Tobizaru, and thus his Shikona is a melding of theirs.

Even I fell for this story – mostly because Tobizaru is always happy to endorse it. In fact, it fooled even Abema TV, who put that little piece of fake news on their trivia blurb on Hidenoumi. Hidenoumi wasn’t impressed.

It’s a lie. The Iwasaki brothers – Hidenoumi and Tobizaru – come from Tokyo, and Umizaru, as we know, from Kyoto.

But don’t you think his eyes look a bit like Tobizaru’s?

Anyway, on to the action of the day:

On the side lines, Nishikigi uses Yutakayama for a teppo pole:

Yutakayama has really been abused this Jungyo. He should consider some breastplates.

Mitakeumi is having a mock bout with Enho in the hana-michi.

On the dohyo, Endo vs. Shohozan:

Ryuden surprises Kisenosato:

He’ll have a chance to try that in honbasho soon…

Fast forward to the Juryo bouts, and we have Enho vs. Gokushindo.

Whoa. Enho is trying to channel Tochinoshin.

Gagamaru is goofing around excessively. He interferes with Rikishi going down the hana-michi. He leans on Tobizaru – waiting to give him his water – as he goes up the dohyo, and then instead of throwing the salt on the dohyo, throws it at Tobizaru. Also does a tachiai in jikan-mae. Then he has this exchange with his opponent, Wakatakakage:

“How dare you win! I was supposed to win that. Why, you…”

:-)

Time for the Makuuchi dohyo-iri. Where are Nishikigi’s glasses?

Aha! Kesho-mawashi are convenient like that. Though interestingly he doesn’t do the same when he participates in the yokozuna dohyo-iri. Probably squatting puts some strain on the frame.

Now take a look at Mitakeumi and Tamawashi throughout this video.

First Mitakeumi kisses Tamawashi’s back, no less. Then proceeds to caress it, then gets down to Tamawashi’s tush. At some point Tamawashi warns him off, but he still messes with the Eagle’s mawashi knot, and so on, and so forth.

Nishikigi awaits his turn, and… stretches?

No, he doesn’t. It’s a Nishikigi sock puppet. Somebody is operating him from behind!

And as he comes back from his bout, fans ask for attention. Signs the first one an autograph. Waves to the second. Signs for the third… and only then he gets his glasses back.

That is, he did all of the above without actually seeing anything.

Myogiryu shows why he is at the top of the new banzuke:

Poor Shohozan…

Endo once again matches Abi’s shiko:

endo-matches-abi-shiko

And here is the bout itself:

Once again, Abi is doing Mawashi sumo, although I feel like diving through my screen, going through the Intertubes, and getting to that dohyo only to shout at Abi to get his freaking ass down. It looks like he is trying to keep it as high as possible. Why?

Shodai vs. Asanoyama:

Shodai drops on top of Onosho. Helps him up – but still gets slapped on the tush on his way back up. Yeah, things you won’t see in honbasho.

Here is the san-yaku soroi-bumi:

And a rather entertaining bout between Mitakeumi and Tochinoshin:

Signing off with both Tobizaru and Enho together:

tobizaru-enho

Tobizaru: “Have you seen? Somebody at Tachiai decided to make me a pin-up boy!”

Enho: “You? Hahahahaha… that’s rich…”

Tobizaru: “Hey!”

 

 

27 thoughts on “Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 21 (Oct 25)”

  3. Of course we want to finish the journey! Herouth, thank you so much for your coverage of the jungyo. As has already been stated, it’s insightful, enriching, and you do such a wonderful job explaining the minutiae of both the sport and the culture. It’s a real gift you give us, and we are all so grateful.

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