🌐 Location: Tsuchiura/Ushiku, Ibaraki
😝 Goofometer: ◽️◽️◽️◽️◽
It’s the end of the winter Jungo. The two towns of Tsuchiura and Ushiku probably planned this event with the intention of celebrating the return of Kisenosato. Takayasu comes from Tsuchiura, while Kisenosato comes from Ushiku. However, since the event was planned, Kisenosato had the disastrous Kyushu basho, followed by a long kyujo.
And so, Takayasu had to be the star of the day, all on his own.
But there were other rikishi in the venue as well! There was Aminishiki, showing one of those rarer and rarer smiles:
I guess being around his heya’s yobidashi, Teruya, makes Uncle Sumo happy.
Ichinojo managed to convince Mitoryu to let him play a little
Mitoryu doesn’t seem to take this too seriously, though.
Kakuryu practiced with hand weights. In the past, this exercise was mostly associated with Harumafuji.
Shohoryu watches and learns.
Hakuho, on the other hand, was working mainly on his legs. He started with plain suri-ashi:
????????? pic.twitter.com/uTbkZqbRd0
— Naho (@sumo_naho) December 23, 2018
Then he did this… thing:
白鵬② #土浦・牛久巡業 #大相撲 pic.twitter.com/cYBxFBgW2i
— Naho (@sumo_naho) December 22, 2018
I’m rather amused by Nishikigi getting trapped in the hana-michi and not being able to escape. :-)
Then the Yokozuna did this:
白鵬⑥ 🦀 pic.twitter.com/UR62ukcCLK
— Naho (@sumo_naho) December 23, 2018
Hehe… Yokozuna, try the Abi shiko. It will do wonders for your thighs (and your dohyo-iri)!
I wonder if the reason they called this janitor was to clean up after him…
On the dohyo, the usual moshi-ai sessions took place, and there were several lengthy kawaigari sessions for the spectators to enjoy. Kakuryu decided to give his former tsukebito, Gokushindo, some love
Hey, even the gentle Kakuryu kicks!
Gokushindo took this as an encouragement to get himself back to sekitori status as soon as possible. He is going to drop back to Makushita tomorrow when the Banzuke is published. “Get back to the white mawashi quickly and you’ll be able to practice with me again!”, so to speak.
Goeido once again took on Chiyonoumi. I’m not sure why exactly, but hey, as long as somebody loves my man from Kochi!
Even Hakuho stops to watch, and nods his head approvingly!
Then, of course, the highlight of the keiko part of the day, was Hakuho’s kawaigari for Takayasu. There was six minutes of this:
This:
“[Get on your] feet! feet! feet! feet!”. Then finally, this:
Among the encouragement calls for Takayasu were also shouts of “Thank you, Hakuho!” coming from the Ozeki’s townspeople. Hearing this, the Yokozuna reacted: “The people of Ibaraki know their sumo”.
Which tells me the Yokozuna is well aware of the latest outrage campaign against his “evil kawaigari” going through the social media.
Poor Takayasu had to go through a lot of adoring fans when he got finished with that lovemaking session:
The people of Ibaraki may know their sumo, but they sure don’t know when to back off and let a man breath…
It’s time for shower, lunch and hairdos. And I have another behind-the-scenes revelation for you today!
Well, no controversial, um, reading material today. Just an amusing Asanoyama moment captured by Wakamotoharu:
In the afternoon part, Hakuho was doing the rope tying demo:
Here is the East side of the Makuuchi dohyo-iri:
Note Abi tugging at Kagayaki to get him to respond to some fans his eye caught. Kagayaki obliges. It seems he is softening a bit! He also had a lively chat with Abi while they were both at the side of the dohyo waiting for their respective bouts. Maybe it’s the effect of Tamawashi’s kiss! 😘
I have two bout clips today. Here is Endo vs. Chiyoshoma:
Endo quite happily allows himself to win for a change, as Chiyoshoma is not a local boy.
The local boy himself was matched with Hakuho. And there was a lot of kensho riding on this match!
That’s not exactly common for a Jungyo bout… So Hakuho made his salt throw:
本日の塩まき pic.twitter.com/e56U5Rl7pE
— Naho (@sumo_naho) December 22, 2018
And went on the attack!
How surprising! The local boy won!
And this is it. The last bout of the last Jungyo day of this year! Now let’s get on that banzuke!
Many thanks for all of the Jungyo highlights.
Eh, Hakuho doesn’t strike me as the type to just “let the local boy win.” Thank you for feeding our sumo addictions during what’s the “off-season” if you’re outside of Japan ^^
Usually, during Jungyo, when there are more than one Yokozuna, Hakuho does the musubi against a Yokozuna every day. Curiously, the scores are usually even. Much different than his balance against the same Yokozuna in “real” bouts.
He is an excellent performer – see those kawaigari.
Post-kawaigari autographs must be the least legible variety. I would’ve been happy to just take a dust handprint.
Thanks so much, Herouth, for yet another enlightening and entertaining Jungyo season.
On a sidenote, for me Hakuho has the most interesting dohyo-iri. He gets elements from others, he innovates, he makes the form advance. :-DDD I guess traditionalists don’t like this that much, but then you can always go back and watch a Harumafuji dohyo-iri. Those were awesome, radiating pure strength. Hakuho is more like an artist, experimenting with the form (and probably someone who is very bored of dohyo-iris at this point :) ). I also like Kakuryu’s straight form, too.
Asanoyama’s video clip qualifies as kawaii IMO!
Thank you all so much for the coverage, interesting comments, and links that helped pass the time between bashos.
Very good read. Thank you!
Hakuho also gave Takayasu a kawaigari (or butsukari?) before the decisive basho for Ozeki. I also see a lot of reverence from Takayasu when they fight in a Basho.
The Yokozuna is an amazing presence in Sumo. One who has the chance to experience this living legend in a Jungyo should take it.
Thank you for the coverage Herouth! Happy and healthy Christmas/Hanuka/New Year/Life to all you Sumo lovers!