🌐 Location: Adachi ward, Tokyo
Today’s event is really close to home – at Adachi ward, just north of Sumida, where the majority of sumo stables are located.
And yet, equipment still needs to be delivered and carried into the venue.
That is yobidashi Hiromasa, proving to us that yobidashi is physical work, not just singing and drumming.
Here is Chiyoraizan from Kokonoe beya. Whose baggage is he carrying?
This is Kimura Konosuke’s stuff. Gyoji need their outfits and paraphernalia, too.
The equipment comes from side-opening trucks like this one, which you can see is loaded with sekitori’s akeni:
Akeni are the green-red-black boxes that each sekitori receives upon promotion to Juryo, where he stores stuff like his kesho-mawashi, shimekomi (silk mawashi) and sagari. During transit, akeni are wrapped in plastic or tarp. I always amuse myself by trying to identify as many of the Akeni as I can. If you read kanji, or at least memorize shikona, try that yourself. I’ll give you two hints:
- The ones wrapped in gray are not rikishi’s, but rather gyoji’s.
- While the name on the Akeni itself matches the sekitori’s current shikona, they rarely replace the tarp. Thus, there are two akeni in the bottom row labeled “Takayoshitoshi” (now called Takanofuji), and “Oyanagi” (now called Yutakayama).
Good luck!
So let’s go inside the venue and see what everybody is doing. Kakuryu seems to be very tired:
Aw, Yokozuna. Why don’t you find something soft to rest your head against and get some shut-eye?
Um… not exactly what I had in mind. But if it works for you…
This early in the morning, Takakeisho is trying to find an out-of-the-way corner where he can work out properly without being disturbed.
It’s not working.
Nishikigi is working out his already formidable arms:
Wakamotoharu and Ishiura are doing their shiko.
Between the two of them, I’m sure there is not a single evil spirit in the ground anywhere in Adachi.
Ichinojo is working with hand weights:
And that’s just what I’ll do
One of these days these arms are gonna hatakikomi you!
Later, after he does some on-dohyo training, Hakuho calls him over and gives him a private lesson. “Insert your right arm deeper!” and the like:
When reporters ask the Yokozuna about this, he says “I felt I wanted to do some teaching this Jungyo. Every day I take one man and guide him”.
Perhaps it’s just me, but I am imagining a baton being passed here.
Here are the three top contenders for “kawaii rikishi of the late Heisei era”:
And by now Takakeisho arrives at the dohyo, and greets his beloved Daieisho:
The reason these two have been called a “couple” throughout this Jungyo is apparently because they were caught in the shitakubeya sleeping wrapped in one towel. If a photo ever turns up…
Hokutofuji, look behind you!
The bear, I mean, the Ozeki, started actual on-dohyo practice today:
This included, for example, this practice bout with Tochiozan:
Up on that same dohyo, Mitakeumi is giving butsukari to Wakatakakage:
This apparently gets carried beyond the standard end-of-moshiai-session butsukari and into the realm of kawaigari:
Goeido is doing the same for Takanosho:
This session is definitely kawaigari rather than plain butsukari:
Here are a couple of practice bouts: Gagamaru vs. Takanosho, a short interlude showing Tochinoshin working out, then Meisei vs. Kaisei.
This concludes the practice part of the Jungyo. Time for lunch! And Abi is looking for something nicer than a cold bento:
This looks like a mobile stall offering various types of “don” (a bowl of rice topped with something, like curry, chicken, pork, beef, etc.).
I don’t have much from the second part of the day. But here is Takanosho before his bout, having a smiling conversation with his heya-mate, young yobidashi Hiroshi:
And the important news of the day. Do you know what this photo means?
It means Enho is finally back on the torikumi list, doing sumo!
Unfortunately, it looks like he is being yori-kiried by Daiamami here.
No pin-up photo for you today. Instead, here is a video with some comments by Hakuho and Takakeisho. Hakuho responds to questions about his naturalization process. That is, he is not responding to questions about it:
Hakuho: “Nothing is decided yet. I was surprised this made such a splash in the news. There are many supporters, family, relatives I have yet to inform about this. For the time being, all there is to do is wait for the results”.
He says he wants to “Start Reiwa well, following the good closure of Heisei”. The reporters take it as a wish to win his 43rd yusho in May. Of course, there’s that pesky injury.
Takakeisho says he has all but gotten used to his new Ozeki status, and that he wants to work on the fundamentals, because “An Ozeki needs to have a body”.
I can understand that Hakuho doesn’t want to speak about this very delicate topic. While he seems to love japan deeply he is still a proud mongolian and perhaps some of his friends and relatives might not like his decision.
Re the photos you always see of rikishi outside venues (with their purses) by food trucks, is that how they all sustain themselves during days at juryo, or are heyas providing large meals behind-the-scenes to replace chanko at the event? You’ve mentioned before that the diet isn’t great while on the juryo, and that there’s a lot of junk food eaten on coaches.
And great work, as always, Herouth. I’ve learned quite a lot about the more obscure aspects of sumo culture from these absorbing juryo posts.
Well, first thing, the heyas have nothing to do with the Jungyo. It’s entirely an NSK event, organized centrally by the Jungyo department with logistics taken care of by the gyoji. Most heyas conduct business as usual, minus their sekitori and the one tsukebito going with them.
As for what exactly they eat, it’s hard to tell from my faraway position. I believe whatever they eat, they mostly eat it outside of the reach of fans (in the shitakubeya etc).
John Gunning once mentioned that they mostly get to eat cold bento, and I’ll take his word for it. There was a short news item yesterday about Terutsuyoshi, and he mentioned that he was tired of always eating cold stuff so he brought a kettle with him to the Jungyo and mixes stuff with hot water or green tea to have a warm meal. As we can see, occasionally the rikishi go out and get stuff from the stalls around the venue, but I assume that it’s just something done individually based on their time and money considerations. That can be junk food or good food.
Interesting. Thanks. I can’t imagine the volume of cold bento the NSK would need to be sustaining the whole jungyo!