Over the years at Tachiai, we’ve been privileged to speak with a number of people who are inside of or adjacent to the sumo world. We love being a part of the journey that international sumo fans make when they connect to sumo and learn more about it. Other content creators are an increasing part of that ecosystem, and it’s always enlightening to hear about their journey into the sport and what they are doing to share it with other international fans.

It was somewhat of a surprise when I discovered Priyanka Yoshikawa on the Live in Tokyo podcast. A former (and historic) Miss World Japan and star of Love is Blind: Japan, the businesswoman is enthusiastic in her sumo fandom and is embarking on a journey to share it with others. Recently, we met for coffee in Tokyo to chat about it, and this is the result of that conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Tachiai: We always want to talk to interesting and notable people in the sumo community, so thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us. For our audience who might become aware of you and your work for the the first time through this interview, how would you introduce yourself?

Priyanka Yoshikawa: I’m part Indian and part Japanese. I was born in Tokyo, but I was raised in Sacramento, California. I lived in India for a bit, and then I came back [to Japan] when I was 11. Since then, I’ve been living in Tokyo. People know me the most from Miss World Japan in 2016. It was a little controversial because I was the first biracial person to win Miss Japan. And then they know me from Love Is Blind: Japan which was two years ago. It was a Netflix Original, a spinoff of the US version. Those two are the main things that people recognise me from or how they know me. Sumo’s not work, so nobody really recognises me from sumo, but people are catching on and saying “oh, she’s really into sumo these days!”

I think there are a lot of people who are interested in sumo around the world, but they don’t really know how to get into it. It’s very niche and unique: everybody knows sumo but not a lot of people talk about it. You don’t see an English language influencer that only talks about sumo. One of my friends, who I used to be in the same agency with, started her career in her teens and her job as a tarento is all about sumo. So she does tv shows and reports all about sumo, but she only speaks Japanese. She encouraged me to do stuff in English, and that way we won’t be competing with each other. Maybe it will extend to something more [in the future].

Let’s talk about your origin story in sumo. Most people have an “a-ha” moment when they discover or get into the sport, or they were introduced by an older family member or friend. Did you go to basho when you were younger? What was the moment that really got you excited?

I had never gone to a sumo match [in person] until last year (2023). I’m still very new to the sumo world, but I really love it. I’m so into it. I’ve always been interested. I used to go to my grandparents’ home during the weekends, and the sumo matches were on. Obviously it’s 15 days in a row and happens during the weekdays as well, but it covers multiple weekends and I would see it, because we’d watch NHK, and I was like “oh my god this is interesting!” This is after I came back to Japan, so I was in middle school. I told my grandpa that I was so interested and I wanted to see it, and one day he said  “let’s go together when you’re a little bit older.” He passed away, so I couldn’t go see it with him. That stuck with me, and I said “I want to see a sumo match, I want to see a sumo match,” and I kept saying it, and then last year (2023) finally I got the chance to go.

I was so fascinated. You think you know how it’s going to go, but some matches are less than ten seconds. It’s hard to describe why I love it so much, but it just got me hooked. On that day, I saw my favourite sumo wrestler now for the first time, Tobizaru. And I said “that sumo wrestler is cute!” My friend told me that he’s actually known for being cute. So I was like, “oh… interesting.”

You are quite the fan of the flying monkey, Tobizaru, and you post him from time to time on your SNS.

I only post about him!

I actually like Ura as well. I wanted to pick my top favourite, but now I have three or four favourites because of how short the matches are! If I only cheer for one wrestler the whole day, the match could be over in seconds, so I needed more people to cheer for! Then I can enjoy it for a bit longer. Although, even if they’re not my favourites, watching all of the matches is incredible because when you learn a bit about the techniques, you realise what a good torikumi really is. So, Tobizaru became my favourite, and then I started to look up rules and got into it more.

Many of our readers are big fans of Tobizaru, actually.

Oh! I’m so happy.

And he’s apparently made an effort to learn English! So what is it for you about him that makes him your favourite rikishi?

Yeah, he has! He’s a very social rikishi to start off with. Ura and Tobizaru both have similarities. They’re small – if you don’t know sumo wrestlers, they’re big – but for us, they’re small. Small sumo wrestlers have a different approach. I actually like Midorifuji as well – these three are my top favourites. Then Atamifuji – he’s huge but he just looks like a mochi! Everybody should like him, he’s just so cute.

With The Flying Monkey and Ura’s techniques and how they do the torikumi, even if they lose, it’s still a good match that everybody enjoys. You don’t know what’s going to happen that day. They come with a strategy, sometimes it doesn’t work, but still the opponent [needs to figure out] what’s going to happen, what are the tactics are going to be that day? That’s very exciting. Tobizaru has also been stable for the past two years, he came down from Komusubi but he’s even won against Terunofuji twice. His matches are always fun to watch. And he’s cute! [laughs]

Is there a particular style that you enjoy the most, is it kind of the crazy guys who get your attention? Or do you appreciate different styles as well?

This year I went to all of the basho, not 15 days in a row, but all of them – and then I realised what I personally liked. Obviously these were smaller wrestlers. Atamifuji is just a huge mochi teddy bear, you want him to win. He’s everybody’s neighbourhood child. But Ura, Tobizaru, Midorifuji, they’re smaller sizes and you don’t know what to expect. Sometimes you feel they’re going to lose and in the last minute it just goes all the way around.

As for the bigger guys, like Onosato, he’s so strong! Kotozakura and Hoshoryu, these guys are great wrestlers… but when it came to these two [against each other] I was cheering for Kotozakura. It’s not like I never cheer for Hoshoryu. I do like the bigger rikishi too, but they’re just not the ones that I cheer the most for.

Do you have an OG favourite as well, someone who you were watching on your grandparents TV in the old days?

Hakuho. Before I became this much of a SuJo (Sumo Joshi), I was a fan of Hakuho. I got to meet him this year. I also met him 5 years ago, when I was an MC for an event where he was appearing as a guest, and I took a photo with him and another MC. Obviously he doesn’t remember me, but this year I saw him at the Fukuoka basho and we took a picture, and he was so nice. Hakuho used to be my favourite even before I got to know so much about sumo.

Do you have a favourite yusho or just even like an iconic moment from the last few years that sort of really stands out for you?

Well, I didn’t get to see it live [in person], but when Tobizaru won against Terunofuji and everybody was throwing the zabuton, I liked that. This year [2024], the last musubi-no-ichiban. The two of them (Kotozakura and Hoshoryu) are doing so well, mentally as well. Hoshoryu, when he loses, he loses in a second, but he also wins in a second. But this last musubi-no-ichiban, he didn’t lose in a second and nobody could tell who was going to win. Also, the Kyushu basho itself sold out for all 15 days after 28 years. Sumo is back!

Obviously you’ve been to all six basho this past year. For people who are new to the sport and just discovering it for the first time, what’s the one thing you wish that new fans to the sport will get out of the live sumo experience?

I didn’t know anything [at first], but I was like “I love this!” It happens so fast, that if you’re new to it maybe you wouldn’t know what just happened, or understand how to enjoy it. Even if you don’t have experience of sumo from the beginning, I think if you are interested, go again, stick with it.

I want people to like it more. When you think about it, it’s a little bizarre. A lot of people don’t know, but they can’t wear anything besides a kimono and yukata in their daily lives. They always have the hairstyle, it’s not like they can wash their hair every day. There are so many meanings to it, the salt being for purification… it just carries so much of the Japanese culture. When you think about Japan, you think of the kimono, or the tea ceremony, the samurais and all. None of my generation who are not a sumo wrestler who would dress up like that, right? Some people wear kimono, but not the hair!

They’re fat, but they actually have a ton of muscle. They train, and when you think about how fat they are, just them being not sick and being able to do this sport is a miracle! Apparently it’s a very lucky sport just because of that.

There are so many things to enjoy about it, but in the beginning you just don’t know as much. One tip is you could find a sumo wrestler to follow that’s makushita or below and fights in the mornings. If you’re that into sumo, that amount of dedication, that’s a different way to enjoy it. But if you’re a beginner, I don’t really recommend to go to the basho in the AM. I go in around 2pm, then I take photos, I eat, and then by makuuchi I’m there.

I think that’s really good advice, because you wouldn’t believe there are so many people – and maybe there are those in the gaikokujin sumo community who have a tendency to dunk on people who are going for the first time or whatever, that’s not what I’m saying here – but you do see a lot of people who are there, maybe on vacation, who are just looking for something to do. They go and don’t really know what they’re seeing, they come to Kokugikan having never seen it before, and they come at 11am and then by 3pm they’re like “I’m done, I’ve seen enough, I don’t know what this is,” and then they don’t see all the top guys. So it’s like, “come later, it’s ok!”

No, it’s too early! Obviously you can watch from Juryo. [It’s only] if I’ve ever heard any rumours or stories of a rikishi having a bad personality that I can’t become a fan of them.

So that begs the question: “Love Is Blind: the Rikishi Edition.” Would that work?

Yeah, that would work!! Oh, maybe it wouldn’t work! I don’t know [laughs]. I’m into sumo. Some people are like, “you’re into plus sizes” and I’m like “dude, no, I just like the sport.” You know, some people like baseball, you find your favourite athlete right? It’s just like that. If it’s a sumo wrestler, I’m ok.

So if five rikishi went on TV, on a reality show, do you think people would watch? Would you watch?

I would watch! I would raise my hand to be on it! I was auditioning for and got called in for a casting for another dating show. And they were asking, “what kind of guy do you want us to cast?” And I said “these are the kinds of people in my past relationships, I guess I have a tendency to fall for these characters, but if you can cast the Flying Monkey, I’m so down!” [laughs]

Here’s why I think it’s an interesting idea: if you said, “I’m really into this kind of a Tobizaru kind of character” but then they match you on the show with someone like Chiyomaru (no offence to Chiyomaru)…

No, no… that wouldn’t work.

But it would make for good TV!

Yeah, true! I would be like “whoa!”

As someone who has been an ambassador for the country and the culture on the world stage, can you relate at all to the sense of curiosity that the world has towards the national sport? Is there anything in your experience that allows you to empathise with how people look at other aspects of the culture? These guys obviously represent Japan by virtue of what they do, and you have obviously been out there representing Japan through the work that you’ve done.

Their world is very unique and they technically live in a different world from the rest of us normal Japanese people. Tobizaru or Ura, those guys are 2 years older than me, but the lifestyle that they have is completely different to the lifestyle that I have. Being fat, the hair and stuff too, it’s just a different world. If they were to wear normal clothes or whatever, without the hair, they would stick out, whatever they do. Even though it’s very niche, they stand out. In western culture, the look of a sumo wrestler is also an image of Japan. But they’re just bigger, that’s all.

In the lives they live, there are so many rules, the Sumo Kyokai is like their agency. They’re kind of isolated in this sumo world. I’m not a sumo wrestler so I can’t relate, but they have their own unique experiences that we can never have. I don’t think they are given enough opportunity to go outside of Japan, but maybe they can go have a jungyo outside of Japan and that’s a way that they can take the culture outside of Japan.

Apparently they were trying to do (the London trip) before COVID. Tobizaru told me he had never gone outside of Japan. Just listening to that I thought, “you’ve never gone outside of Japan!?” And he said “No, I haven’t.” For me it was a little sad to know that, because they have a good life if you’re above a certain level. Still, I wish people would know more about sumo and have more opportunities to meet sumo wrestlers.

You mentioned the Kyokai being like their “agency.” When you were doing Miss World – and you mentioned there’s someone you go to create content with and she’s still represented by an agency – are there ways that you can almost relate in the sense of having an agency represent you, these guys have the Kyokai that manages their time and what they’re able to do. Like you said it’s different to what the experience is for the average woman growing up in Japan…

From the experience of being in the public eye – as fans I think it’s important to remember that these wrestlers are athletes who deserve our respect. While they may be famous and even have a charming presence, at the end of the day, they are men and human beings. We think that they’re so special and different – and they are different, but they’re normal humans as well. A K-Pop star is different, but still human, a little more relatable if much more famous. They live, they get married, they have kids. We can’t forget that.

Anyone who comes to a basho is aware of the large and diverse amounts of sumo merch that’s produced and sold by the Kyokai. On Max Capo’s Live In Tokyo podcast you said, “sumo is where I spend my money.” So, what are your can’t miss merch items, or some of the favourites in your personal collection?

Oh yeah! Definitely the towels. There are two towel [designs] the kyokai made, and then there’s another towel the Kyokai made that’s a little more creative – The Flying Monkey with his face drawn on it. I have a Midorifuji uchiwa (fan). I became a fan of Midorifuji when I went to go see sumo last May, and he had a really good match. One of the guys we were sitting with just bought a random Midorifuji uchiwa because he won and it was such a good match, that I was like “oh my god, I think I’m going to root for him.” So, [the other fan] gave me that uchiwa and I carry it with me. But the towels are a must-have. I have a Tobizaru pen, but I only need so many pens. The Tobizaru iPhone case is very random, I just bought that.

Do they sell that at the tournament?

No! It’s a CasePlay and Sumo Kyokai collaboration. They ran an ad on Instagram, and the algorithm targeted me [laughs]. And I was like, “OK… Instagram knows that about me!”

Because we’re having this conversation at the end of the year, do you have a sumo wish for 2025?

I especially want the ones that I root for to not get injured! Ura had that big massive injury, it was so bad. I don’t want them to get injured. Tobizaru is turning 33, not actually young for a sumo wrestler. Because I root for him the most, if he can get back to sanyaku, that would be amazing.

I saw you mention that you’re going to start a new sumo TikTok account – is there anything you’d like to tell us about that?

It is TokyoSumoGirl! It’s my [side project], I just want to post my short videos from sumo.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

To go see a sumo match right now is a little hard, tickets are selling out so fast. Don’t go from the early morning! Just go from 230, it finishes at 6pm sharp because they air it on NHK. And also, [pay attention to] the sumo wrestler’s routines before the bouts.

So who’s your favourite pre-match routine? Hokutofuji obviously gets really fired up.

Oh, Atamifuji. It’s so long, he has so many routines. When you know all of that, you know when the match is going to happen. Then when they receive the kensho, Onosato has a style that comes from his oyakata. Everybody has their little styles, I look at this. I never spent my money going to see concerts or anything, sumo is the only thing. So much dedication! Thank you so much.