Love it or hate it, the Jungyo tour is back. The topic is a particularly polarizing one for fans, especially so many wrestlers were unable to compete at their former level, or even finish the tournament, due to injury. From Hoshoryu’s early withdrawal through Meisei, Hidenoumi, and on down the banzuke to Enho, we often wonder how these guys can stitch themselves together for a grueling, month-long promotional tour.
After a week of partying and packing, most wrestlers will be arriving back in Tokyo to get down to training for the Aki Tournament in September. Most sekitori and their tsukebito, though, will head off on the tour and meet with fans from more distant regions who come out to support their favorite wrestlers and homegrown talents. It also serves as a way to encourage and feature many young, local amateurs. Sumo wrestlers from local schools often come and some even get to strap on their mawashi and participate.
This summer’s tour began today in Osaka. The route will wind its way up into Hokkaido then back south into the Kanto region with another stop at Tachihi, which Andy saw in-person last year, as well as Shizuoka, Chiba, and Saitama.
Tangent
As with most sumo events, it can be a bit tricky to get tickets. I went through the offical process last year, which required a trip to a 7-Eleven and a local telephone number. For folks who wonder why BuySumoTickets exists, that’s why. I don’t imagine many of you have a steady supply of in-laws living in Japan and a Japanese-speaking spouse to help make these things happen.
When you want to get tickets or join a fan club, they often require a local phone number or address. That’s why Tatsunami-beya’s proposed fan club access for foreigners is perking up a lot of ears. I am eager to see more details. Would they actually send banzuke to foreign addresses? Member-only streams and YouTube content would be nice but I bet many folks want tangible merch direct from the heya. But back to the topic at hand, the summer tour.
/Tangent
As many might already know, Osaka is hosting a World Expo this year. It started in mid-April and runs through mid-October. Holup. Judging by the blank stares, I gather you didn’t know. Well, yes, since we last paid attention to Osaka (back in March) they’ve been hosting a World Expo and today they invited the sumo wrestlers back to kick-off their summer tour.
You will be relieved to learn that a dozen wrestlers are kyujo from this particular tour, Hoshoryu, Daieisho, Meisei, Takerufuji, Tobizaru, Endo, Ura, Chiyoshoma, Hidenoumi, Kayo, Shishi, and Tomokaze. In their place are Hakuozan and Kagayaki. Oh, and by the way, Kazenosuke retired.
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Thank you for mentioning the Jungyo, Andy! Of course I knew about the Expo n Osaka! It‘s a pity that I can‘t leave for a visit…
Many rikishi with injuries, indeed. You could Imagine that there was something wrong with Kayo. Hope he‘s able to show a better performance next basho.
I heard that jungyo is especially exhausting for the tsukebito. The sekitori theirselves seem to have a quite nice and funny time, or moments of it… At least they are trying their best :)
Yeah, I have been very interested in what the participants actually think of the tours. Some guys seem to make names for themselves in the shokkiri or jinku.
Six 15-day tournaments evenly spaced throughout the year makes training and recovery from injury challenging enough, but filling the space in between with the mandatory tour dates which requires nearly daily travel mixed with (mock) practice sessions and (mock) bouts makes building strength and working on injury prevention nearly impossible.
Yes, I agree. Fortunately, those who were injured during Nagoya appear to be prioritizing recovery by going kyujo. It’s not unheard of for a wrestler to travel and participate in the fansa but not bouts, and/or keiko sessions. It is important to point out that wrestlers rely on the fans, financially. These tours are a way for them to make and maintain those connections, especially with hometown fans.
Jungyos were a lot shorter when we started running BuySumoTickets in 2008, maybe 10-15 dates per tour, if we recall correctly. They’ve added lots more jungyo events per year, and typically run about 90 per year now, which is the same as the number of honbasho dates in a year. The story that we’ve been told is that it’s demand from the towns/cities, that they get so many applications now to host jungyos and they’re trying to accommodate as many as possible. Another consequence of sumo’s rising popularity.
A few scandal-rich years onwards from 2008, they were even down to less than 20 tour dates total for the year at one point – not sure when exactly, maybe in 2012. It was a remarkable rebound afterwards, basically just half a decade until we reached the current state of things (temporarily interrupted by Covid since then, but bounced straight back again).
Admittedly, if I were a tourist and I was traveling on a cross-country tour to 24 sites in a month, I would think it a busy, grueling schedule. If I were a musician with a month-long tour, same thing.
But neither group goes home to asageiko, every day as their regular schedule. Presumably Ochirusaihan has been living the life and doing the daily grind for four years. Obviously, there have been breaks and vacations.
But I do wonder whose schedule is the most rigorous, a sekitori on tour, his tsukebito, or a low ranker who goes back to the stable and back to the grind, like Ochirusaihan or Enho, etc.
I am sure wrestlers complain about Jungyo and this pace but I wonder what’s the real word on the street? Do they wish they could go back to the grind? Or do they enjoy the break? Meet with new fans and supporters and make good money/connections?
On Futagoyama beya’s channel we saw Soga(?) absolutely exhausted on his return from the tour. My sense is that it is extremely gruelling for the tsukebito but considered a good learning experience. But then I’ve also seen wrestlers barely able to stand whilst trying to cook lunch after morning practice. No one goes into Sumo for an easy life.
Even if the regular grind at the home stable may be physically more exhausting, they probably eat better and rest better and feel more comfortable in that environment. It is also most likely easier to maintain a training program (especially if you are lifting weights, etc.) in a stable environment.
One thing JSA could do to improve the situation is take only half of the sekitori on tour after each tournament and let the other half have a break. A third would be even better (i.e. two tours per year per sekitori) but JSA will surely not go that far unless the frequency of injuries go up even more.
No blank stares here, we actually managed to squeeze in the first 2 days of EXPO at the end of our 7 week Taiwan&Japan tour this spring. On the other hand, no sumo fit the timeline (apart from staying in Ryogoku).
The opening day was frantic, but the Monday after was sufficiently relaxed, you could still get same-day entry to some pavillons. Biggest drawback was the heavy rains that battered us both days from around 4-5pm. They thought of many places to shade you from the summer heat with the sun high up in the sky, but nobody thought of almost horizontal rainstorms…
If you have a trip planned to Japan while the Expo is going on it is definitely worth it. We went in May and it was super cool. I highly recommend the “globe at night” exhibit which is nestled between a couple of pavilions where they describe the production process and display a giant globe made with traditional lacquer techniques. (It also doesn’t require a reservation like a lot of the country pavilions do).