🌐 Location: Koshi, Kumamoto
😛 Goofometer: ◾️◽️◽️◽️◽️
We continue our journey through the Kumamoto prefecture. As always, the day starts with the low-ranking wrestlers around the dohyo, while some of the sekitori are shaking hands, some exercise around the venue, and some around the dohyo. The Kokonoe sekitori seem to be very diligent. Earlier than everybody, they start exercising around the dohyo:
The reason for this is that Kokonoe oyakata is in the Jungyo, and watching his flock like a hawk. He is the one who took this picture, by the way.
Hmm… where is Chiyoshoma? I guess not everybody is that stressed out about the oyakata. Chiyoshoma, as usual, gravitates toward the Mongolian corner:
Mitoryu is not the only one doing resistance training. Takanosho is hard at work, simultaneously stretching his rubber strap and being cute.
Ishiura is busy stretching his tendons:
You can do better than that!
Takekaze was doing… something…
The tweet says suri-ashi, but it doesn’t really look like it.
Takayasu is busy lifting one of his tsukebito. Ozeki and Yokozuna get to bring more than one tsukebito to Jungyo. His other tsukebito is also by his side – Musashikuni.
Now let’s see Takayasu try that with Musashikuni…
The local boys are Sadanoumi and Shodai. Sadanoumi does a frog impression:
OK, OK, it’s another type of stretch. I get the impression that Sadanoumi tries to avoid the limelight, as opposed to Shodai who is in full fansa mode:
Shodai is accompanied by Asakura, who demonstrates the duties of a tsukebito to us.
Other rikishi take their time and chat a little. Here is a rare smile from Kagayaki:
Kagayaki once said the only rikishi he is on friendly terms with is Enho. But it seems he found some companionship in Onosho. Onosho seems to be a friendly guy in general:
Here he is with Midorifuji. Midorifuji seems to enjoy the same popularity Enho had when he was still in a black mawashi and doing the Jungyo as Hakuho’s tsukebito: he seems to hang out with many sekitori, not even from his own ichimon, which is a bit unusual for a low-ranker. I’ve seen him chatting with Chiyoshoma (who rarely chats with anybody other than his own heya-mates or the Mongolian rikishi), and even with some of the oyakata. It’s the pixie dust, I’m sure!
On the dohyo, we have some Juryo moshi-ai:
And some Makuuchi: Ryuden vs. Sadanoumi
Endo vs. Aoiyama:
I expect Aoiyama to cut through the ranks like a hot knife in butter next basho. Tamawashi vs. Shohozan:
I always like to watch these two going at it. I expect the bartender to dive under the counter any minute.
And here are Tochinoshin and Asanoyama:
No explicit information, but it seems Meisei has been through some kawaigari:
And so we get to the second part of the day. Not many photos from the actual bouts, but remember, Hakuho is back! Therefore, we have this familiar scene:
That’s Hakuho, leaning on the Yobidashi after the sanyaku-soroi-bumi, awaiting his bout. He invariably does that in Jungyo – and sometimes runs some pranks on the yobidashi while he’s at it.
Here’s a short video with some shokkiri and some bouts (alas, no complete ones):
Not a very convincing yori-kiri there.
So, pin-up time. Back to the classic Enho:
Where is the emoji for swoon?
You think Aoiyama will dominate even higher up the banzuke? I’ve got him projected at M5e…
Well, he just seems to have a lot of confidence. It may not be enough against Yokozuna, but all the rest?
A healthy and switched on Aoiyama is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
I remember he almost got into a playoff with Hakuho last year. He’s a dangerous customer if fully fit
I don’t want to burst this bubble, but Aoiyama had exactly 4 Sanyaku tournaments so far, of which he only managed a mere 8-7 kachikoshi(his last appearance was January 2015). A healthy Aoiyama is a stable rikishi in the upper half of Maegashira, but his one dimensional sumo usually gets picked apart by the top guys. His Jun-yusho came for M8 and he had only Kagayaki at M4 and Yoshikaze at Komusubi from M5+.
If he stays healthy, he will go kachikoshi I think, but double digits? only if he doesnt get called up.
This is probably a dumb question because i could probably figure the answer out while paying more attention to who is doing what in those Jungyo report, but i’m a goldfish for remembering and learning names….
Anyway, my question is…..are tsukebitos are also doing some training, match, fan metting and other Jungyo things like the sekitori in these event or are they mainly just there to do their “man servant” duty toward their senior mentor during these event and standing as “training tool” for them like we seem to see quite a lot of the time.
Because…if it’s the later, i wonder, with all their duty, when do they get the time to do their own training for the next basho ?
Practice is sacred. The tsukebito also practice. In fact, the image at the top of this post shows you the lower-raking wrestlers all practicing on or around the dohyo. Everybody wearing a black mawashi is a low-ranker. There are in fact more low-ranking wrestlers in the Jungyo than there are sekitori because ozeki and Yokozuna get to bring more than one, and oyakata also have tsukebito. So the dohyo is pretty crowded at this time. The tsukebito start practicing earlier, and at that time the sekitori are either outside in the corridors doing handshakes with the incoming spectators, or find themselves quiet spots near the wall to practice. We get fewer photos of low-rankers practicing because most fans go after the famous guys, and even those who follow the low-rankers tend to photograph them more when they are also around the walls than through the crowded bodies on the dohyo.