With a pair of Yokozuna climbing onto the dohyo in Nagoya, I thought I would provide a little background and a few notes on what you may want to watch out for tonight.

Sekitori are the wrestlers in the top two divisions, Juryo (second division) and Makuuchi (top division). They have many privileges and responsibilities that are not given to or required of lower-ranked wrestlers. For example, they have to fight each of the fifteen days of the tournament while low rankers only fight seven days.

Each day before they fight, Juryo and Makuuchi wrestlers parade around the dohyo in special kesho mawashi in ceremony called, dohyo-iri (photo below), in banzuke rank order alternating with the group of the East together and the West wresters together. The Juryo wrestlers perform their dohyo-iri together before the Juryo bouts begin. Then prior to the top division action, Makuuchi wrestlers of Ozeki rank and below participate in their collective dohyo-iri.

These special “kesho mawashi” are notable for the long apron which often features the wrestler’s shikona and hand-made, embroidered artwork, heavy on symbolism. I write about them here on occasion, particularly when they feature symbols of cultural or historical importance or if they’re just cool. They’re provided by sponsors and kept by the wrestlers after they retire. Shohozan’s are on display in his restaurant. You can see him wearing one of them in Nicola’s picture at the top of this post and then up close in his restaurant. There’s another purple one over on the left side, outside of frame.

Mitsuzoroi

Yokozuna, though, have a special dohyo-iri where each Yokozuna is accompanied by two attendants, a sword-bearer (tachimochi) and a dew-sweeper (tsuyuharai). You can tell them apart because the sword-bearer bears a sword; the dew-sweeper does not. The Yokozuna then does a special set of movements determined by the style they chose when they earned promotion: either Unryū or Shiranui. Both of our current Yokozuna have chosen the Unryū style which is customarily thought of as “defensive” style while Shiranui is an “attacking” style.

Yokozuna get triptych kesho mawashi, a set of three (mitsuzoroi). One is for the Yokozuna to wear and then one for each of his attendants. Hoshoryu had a pretty cool set when he was first promoted. He was just presented with a new set by “Full Time System,” a diversified corporation with a variety of businesses which has been a long-time sponsor. A few notable items about this set is that it features a purple fringe which only Ozeki and Yokozuna can use. The one which will be worn by Hoshoryu is in the center and features a mythical Chinese bird called a ran. The animal featured on the sword-bearer’s mawashi is a guardian dog, known as komainu, while the dew-sweeper’s mawashi is a lion.

Onosato has two new sets of three kesho mawashi. One is from long time real estate sponsor, Ai-Komuten of Osaka. The triptych of kesho mawashi features Mount Fuji and the gods of Wind and Thunder on a dark blue background. Onosato will wear the one with Mount Fuji and a rising sun coming up behind it. This is called “Diamond Fuji” because of the brilliant sun, shining above the mountain.

If you live in Japan or you want to plan your trip to Japan around when you can best see this “Diamond Fuji” view, there are several cool websites that purport to track when and where these views will be seen. This one is provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism. This one, picture above, has a really cool map. Apparently, you might get a really cool view from the tip of Chiba prefecture, with the sea in the front and Fuji in the background.

Onosato also unveiled the design of another mitsuzoroi set sponsored by the owner of a race horse who is also the head of Onosato’s Tokyo fan club. The picture of the design is above as the actual set has yet to be made. It will apparently be ready for Aki Basho and the London tour event. The sword bearer is to wear the kesho mawashi with the horse, inspired by the sponsor’s champion horse called, Panja Tower. Onosato would wear the one in the center which features a statue of Fudo Myoo, a Buddhist diety known as Acala which is on display at Erinji in Koshushi city, Yamanashi prefecture. So, this set will not be on display for this tournament but I will keep an eye out for it at Aki.

Followers on Twitter will remember that we are smack in the middle of somenuki season, too. Top division wrestlers are allowed to wear these special stylish yukata when going to the tournament venue. They often have very cool designs on the back but they’re noted for the fact that they have the wrestlers’ shikona on it — usually in white but sometimes in gold. I am sure the new Yokozuna will have some new threads and I will keep my eye out for great designs throughout the tournament.