According to Kyodo News, The 40 year old Uncle Sumo will be hanging up his silk mawashi for the last time.
With his kyujo he faced demotion from the salaried sekitori ranks into Makushita. More tributes to come.
According to Kyodo News, The 40 year old Uncle Sumo will be hanging up his silk mawashi for the last time.
With his kyujo he faced demotion from the salaried sekitori ranks into Makushita. More tributes to come.
Bugger
Well this really sucks. Not the way I’d have wanted it to go down.
We will sadly miss The Wiley One, but I think he will be a great teacher. His kids’ team beat Hakaho’s team in the last tournament as I recall.
Aminishiki is a legend, the only current sekitori with a kinboshi against Takanohana! Very sad to see him go.
He has been a sekitori this entire century.
Entire century.
Wow.
That stinks! his retirement is well deserved.
at least the hair cut wont take too long :)
It’s going to take very long, but it’s going to include a lot of faux snaps, as the hundreds of guests in the ceremony will struggle to find a single hair to cut and still leave enough for Isegahama oyakata to do the final cut.
He will probably end up with the Hakkaku look.
Making it to 40 should get him some kind of special award IMO.
Aminishiki is indeed a legend !- Lets all wish long and joyful retirement !
utmost respect. legend of Sumo both on and off the dohyo. legacy will be long lasting as he has much to offer and teach the youth coming through. Not how you’d wish to bow out however, brave to face the facts of his own condition and make the best possible decision for himself, his family, and the Sumo he dedicated the majority of his life to date to. Once fully recovered he’ll forge a wonderful new Sumo pathway. thank you for the wonderful memories Uncle
Precisely this. I wish him excellent health and much success — all that and an excellent color-commentary spot on NHK or Abema, please!
Very nicely said.
Gonna miss the wily one! I always enjoyed watching his matches and found him very inspiring. Congratulations, Sir!
😿 but I had suspected this announcement was coming since he was due to drop off from the salaried ranks 😕 I can’t wait to see what kind of rikishi he produces!
Wiley ones I hope!
Very happy for him. It was hard to watch him drag that old body out there again and again. I think most would have retired long since. Total respect for a great one.
He has a kabu, and amply meets the performance requirements, so he can stay in the sumo world if he wants to!
Of course he will. He is slated to replace Isegahama oyakata once Asahifuji hits the retirement age.
Please do keep following Uncle Sumo for us into his new Oyakata role!
I will try to, but it’s not going to be easy. Isegahama is a pretty secretive heya, they do not allow fans to photograph or film inside the heya, and they don’t have their own social media feed. Materials are scarce.
Even That is more than I knew a minute ago! ;D
I’ve only been following sumo for about 3 years. Would love to hear impressions from back in the day, when he was wining special prizes and collecting gold stars. Is there a tribute/compilation video?
The sumo records page on wikipedia has him on five all time lists. Plus his 8 kinboshi, is only one off the list.
This NNN network news report doesn’t have the tribute/compilation video you’re looking, but it’s nice none the less.
http://www.news24.jp/nnn/news16383429.html
NHK had more highlights, just a couple. I am sure a more substantial tribute will surface. I will post it when it does.
https://youtu.be/Y1PPi8jqSY8
The end of an era. I started watching Sumo way back in late 2002…and this feisty, willy guy was just a couple of years in. I like Aminishiki. Always have. Always will! In the words of a certain pointed ear, green-skin, alien Science Office from Vulcan, “May He Lived Long and Prosper.”
Looks like his Oyakata name is now Ajigawa – and here I was hoping they would formalize things and grant him the “Ojisan Oyakata”.
what are the kanjis = meaning for his name? my first guess at it is “flavor river” >.<
安治川, “River of Peaceful Reign”, supposedly. That 安 is actually where he got his own “A” (安美錦) – at the time, the Ajigawa name belonged to Asahifuji, who only became Isegahama later on. So Aminishiki got the traditional character from the oyakata’s name (Ama also got the same character), with “Minishiki” meaning “Beautiful Brocade”.