News out of Oitekaze beya that Endo will retire. Though the Sumo Association has not made the official announcement, multiple media reports are confirming the decision citing sources close to the wrestler, including Nikkan Sports, Mainichi, Chunichi, Sports Hochi. I would still have held out for the official announcement but for the confirmed news that Kitajin-oyakata retired on 10/26. This was significant news because the kabu is owned by Endo and needed to be vacated so Endo could assume the name.
When the Kyushu banzuke was revealed yesterday, former Komusubi Endo had fallen from the sekitori ranks into Makushita. I anticipate the official announcement in a few hours but I will be at another family event so I wanted to get this out there. Frankly, we knew this day was coming several months ago when Endo underwent surgery on both knees. It is the end of an era.
Endo helped lead a resurgence in popularity for the sport after its nadir during the yaocho scandal of 2011. Here, we see Bruce taking a snap at one of the famous cutouts at Kokugikan. Endo was a successful rikishi at Nihon University and earned privileged debut at the rank of Ms10, like Mitakeumi and Onosato.
By virtue of that head start, Endo rose into the top division after only three tournaments, including a yusho in Juryo. He quickly rose to the Maegashira 1 rank in March 2014, his seventh professional tournament. However, injuries piled up and he wouldn’t reach Komusubi until 2018. In all, he claimed seven kinboshi in his career, including two against Hakuho.
Due to his popularity, he featured in TV commercials for sponsors like Nagatanien. He’s got that deep, gavelly voice that the ladies swoon for, amirite? Anyway, you can’t really tell because he never gets that many lines. He was rather notorious for seemingly giving the shortest answers to interview questions.
I am sure that all eight of his Shibaraku-kumadori inspired kesho mawashi will be on display at his retirement ceremony. The kabuki-themed image will likely be familiar for many of you. Unfortunately, the Instagram images that I featured in that article are gone but you may recognize this design It’s a brand of Nagatanien ochazuke toppings; a play on the word for “in a little while”. You can see it on his yukata in this ad and on Bruce’s picture, above. He actually has eight of these, each of a different color.
This takes me back to when I was first starting the blog back in 2014. I was consuming sumo any way I could. Thankfully these Araibira videos are still up. He had been chased from YouTube to Vimeo. (The struggle never ends but at least there is a lot more content out there now, including legit sources from the Sumo Association, the stables themselves, and even a bit from NHK and Abema.)
But, I digress. That year, Endo still had a zambara hair-style because it was too short for a top-knot. Above, we see him against Kotooshu — now Naruto-oyakata. We might think of that bout as Kotooshu handing over his role as the “ladies man” to the heart-throb of the new generation. And another video with a beautiful escape against his rival, Osunaarashi.
Good luck, Endo, in your second career! We are eager to see you churn out another generation of rikishi.
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Thank u for bringing this to us posthaste – and Endo thank u for all the wonderful memories お疲れ様でした！ 🙇🏻♀️
He was a technician and still is a true scholar-warrior in the Japanese tradition. His kanji calligraphy are very stylish. There’s a great Dukusoi episode about dashinage in which Enho was featured and he was very poetic in his speech. I’m a bit sad I won’t see him on dohyo again, but he did have a history of head injuries as well as litany of other serious injuries so in that sense I’m glad that he won’t be getting beat up anymore. Thanks to Enhozeki, scholar-warrior and rightly a fan favorite.
I love Dukusoi; it’s a great program!
I accidentally typed Enhozeki, wrong rikishi/seki! Thanks Endozeki!!!
I only got to see him the last 5 years or so I’ve been paying attention, and he was certainly fun to watch.
This last year has been scary not just for the knees, but he seemed like he was getting concussions. Wishing him good health in his next chapters
I sure will miss the sound of the annoncer for the doyho-iri: ‚EN!-dou!‘. Always some special respect for this persistent rikishi with his touch of grace.
Amiright? Yes, you are. Didn’t hurt that he was quite lovely to look at (-;
Quite lovely? That‘s a huge understatement. Take a look at the picture above: he‘s almost as attractive as our Andy!
Am I imagining it or are there no wrestlers with names starting with L, P or V. Are these letters not in the Japanese alphabet?
There is the equivalent of a P sound. L is tricky because it’s usually written as an R. There’s a sound that’s like a mix between the two and is usually written with R…thus “English” becomes Engrish…well, “ingurishu”.
Their writing system isn’t really an alphabet. V is not really in Japanese but they kind of use it in English loan words, like V for victory. ✌️ It sounds more like Bi but I think it’s usually written like UI with “dots” making it a harder sound.
TLDR; easy answer is those sounds don’t really exist in Japanese. Long answer is that it gets complicated but for shikona it makes sense that those English letters are not used to start shikona.
The first two days of the Kyūshū Basho schedule has been published! Hope Hakuoho gets another kinboshi to make JSA pay for not promoting him to sanyaku.