Today’s report is going to be a little anticlimactic, compared to Day 7’s rich content. But let’s gambarize!
🌐 Location: Nishio, Aichi prefecture
Early morning, and groggy-eyed sekitori start arriving. Here we have Takarafuji in a drab kimono, a night-crumpled chon-mage, and eyes half-closed:
…which all stand in stark contrast with his spiffy fashionable orange Hermes bag.
Abi looks pretty surprised by half-asleep Enho.
My guess is it’s the first time he noticed Enho’s cauliflower ear.
The only one who seems to be a morning person is Kaisei:
So let’s get inside the venue. Kotoeko forces his knees together with rubber bands:
This seems to be quite an effort for him. In the hana-michi, Ishiura practices his tachiai:
What, no henka?
Hakuho practices his sonkyo:
Sonkyo is this crouching position which is performed during the shikiri (and also to accept the gunbai and possible kensho envelopes). It’s also quite useful to have a talk with someone sitting on the ground:
In this case a rather good-humored Kasugano oyakata. Hakuho also practices his shiko, as always:
And like a good Hitchhiker, he does it equipped with a towel. Which reminds me, here is Kakuryu again:
Silly though he may look, Kakuryu is very popular with the fans:
Kyokusoten, behind him, looks a bit taken aback by all the clamor.
Oyakata can be popular, too!
You have to admit Tomozuna oyakata looks quite nice in a mon-tsuki kimono.
There is a sekitori from Aichi prefecture – Akiseyama. Here he is practicing with Kyokutaisei:
But for some reason, he is not that popular in this event. This may be because there is a real home boy – one from the very city of Nishio: Kaisho, from Asakayama beya (Kaio’s heya).
The thing is, Kaisho is not a sekitori. He is in Makushita. And the only reason he is wearing an oicho-mage in this picture is that the torikumi guys arranged a Juryo bout for him to please the spectators.
Being a member of Isegahama ichimon earns him the privilege of getting kawaigari from Aminishiki. The spectators really love this – Aminishiki seems to be popular all over Japan. And with their home boy, oh boy!
Even this little sliver of video is a good demonstration of Aminishiki’s showmanship.
Some Makuuchi practice bouts: Onosho vs. Kagayaki, Okinoumi vs. Ryuden:
And here are Kaisei vs. Mitakeumi, and Tochinoshin vs. Kaisei:
One gets the impression that winning 10 bouts might not be beyond Tochinoshin’s capabilities the next basho.
Practice over, and lower-ranked rikishi get their hair redone:
Imagine if these tokoyama could sing in harmony. They would be a real… wait for it… barbershop quartet! [crickets]
And here comes the big news of the day. Our big ice-cream man has joined the Jungyo, as his herniated disc improved. And he got teased quite a lot for cleverly joining it on his birthday, because that means he gets lots of free cake!
The cakes are from the reporters. And Ichinojo is a good boy. He blows away the candles, and then does it again just to please a cameraman who didn’t get a good shot the first take.
I suppose he was then given an instruction to eat his cake like a good hungry boulder:
Um… is he really going to eat it with the plastic collar still on? And the candles? But well, the reporters said “do it”, so…
Although he participated in the dohyo-iri this day, he did not participate in the bouts and apparently not in any keiko, either.
Here is the West Juryo dohyo-iri for you.
Note how much more popular Aminishiki and Enho are, compared to local-born Akiseyama.
Enho and Yoshikaze still don’t participate in any bouts.
Time for Makuuchi dohyo-iri, and someone asks Tamawashi to hold a baby. The baby is not very happy about this.
As the kid starts an air-raid siren going, Abi decides to match him note for note. Mwaaaaaa!
Takarafuji, if you note, is all like “I was hoping I’ll get a little peace and quiet from baby cries in the Jungyo. Sheesh…”
Hakuho is on his way to do his own dohyo-iri. He does that without that supporter on his arm – for aesthetic reasons, I guess. But this fan caught him feeling up his injured arm:
That torn muscle, it is not going away.
Finally, it’s time for the bouts… but I don’t have any bout footage, sorry. Instead, here is Aoiyama, who found a back room with basketball equipment:
And here is Takakeisho, who is way too happy about this ladle his giving to Tamawashi.
Could it possibly be… the shin-ozeki… is doing the salt trick? He must know that revenge will come – and rather swiftly, as they are doing their matches in the same order every day.
Here is the yumi-tori shiki from this day:
And for our pin-up corner, how about a rather puzzled Yoshoyama?
Kindly explain “salt trick”
It seems a common ploy is to drop salt in the ladle of water before serving it up.
Adding salt to the ladle of power-water when you hand it to the rikishi on the dohyo. It’s a common gag.
Since we’re explaining, it’s worth mentioning that antics like the salt prank are for jungyo only, never honbasho.
Why does tochinoshin’s butt looks so..!! Did he get surgery? I hope its not something serious.
There is no official explanation, but some time ago he had cellulitis in that area and that may have lingered.
As a former cellulitis sufferer I have to point out that the area of skin affected can remain badly discoloured for a very long time after the really gross-looking stage has passed. I had the Ikioi version (on my lower legs) a few years back and I still wouldn’t venture outside wearing shorts. Mind you, I think that most middle-aged men tend to look silly in shorts so the cellulitis marks are probably moot.
I love how we can tell “Yep, that’s Kakuryu in there”.
Thank you Herouth for the great reporting. It’s never anti-climatic! When the rikishi arrive why are they carrying my Mom’s purse?
Thieves! Scoundrels! Your mom is a Hermes fan?
Ha ha, no – that would be me. More like the style the guys getting off the bus Day 1 have. What do they carry? Their official rikishi card? A little bag of salt? Bus money?
I would imagine mostly taping and similar stuff, possibly a snack or two. A wallet, maybe stuff like rubber bands for training.
Aoiyama’s got skills! He must have picked them up from the Mongolians.
It looks more like Takakeisho is on the receiving end of the salt trick, having just noticed the laddle’s rim puts any margarita glass to shame. I base this on the gyoji being elevated with Takakeisho and a yobidashi next to Tamawashi.
Good point. I forgot to take his own height (or lack of it) into account.
Akiseyama has to be the ugliest rikishi I have ever laid eyes on.
Yes, I think that’s his superpower. Too bad this makes people ignore the fact that he is a decent wrestler who should be appreciated at least as much of the pretty twins.