After Hokuseiho’s sudden kyujo in January, the rumor mill began churning that the absence had been punitive and based on bullying allegations, not injury. This week, we have learned the rumors were true, and the Kyokai has acted decisively. Hokuseiho has resigned and is coach, Miyagino-oyakata, has been handed a severe punishment for basically ignoring the allegations when they were brought to him and obstructing the Kyokai’s investigation, but he stays in the Kyokai — for now.
The Japan Sumo Association’s Compliance Committee found that Hokuseiho had been inflicting on-going, regular, casual abuse upon two lower-ranking wrestlers. He would assault them with his hands, sticks and strips of mawashi and even burn them with burners and cans of bug spray. He was also stealing from fellow wrestlers. In light of these facts, the Kyokai has accepted Hokuseiho’s resignation. I would expect to see a blank spot in Juryo when the Haru-basho banzuke.
Though Miyagino-oyakata was alerted to the abuse during the Nagoya basho in July 2022, for which there was photos but he didn’t look at the pictures. He did not report it to the Kyokai, nor did he work with the wrestlers to end it. He just seemingly ignored it and then blocked Kyokai inquiries. He will be demoted two ranks, from iin to toshiyori, which is the lowest rank among the oyakata. He will also be hit with a 20% pay cut for three months.
This has been a relatively quiet week on the sumo news front. During times like this when there is a lengthy break in sumo action, this quiet voice joins the multitude of others in my head with a soothing but longing refrain, “No basho, no jungyo, no degeiko, no….”
Regardless, many of the top wrestlers are visiting their hometowns and holding promotional events with local supporters. The sumo world exists for its fans and it is during times like these that those fans are able to see their heroes up-close and personal. It is also a chance for guys like Asanoyama and Endo to demonstrate their own support for their communities, struck hard by the earthquake at the beginning of the year.
Hakuho hosted more than a thousand boys, the next generation of Grand Sumo, at the 14th Annual Hakuho Cup. He even donned a mawashi and faced Kotoshogiku’s young son as the sumo world hopes to encourage young men and women to take up the sport…if not professionally but at least to put the keitai down, get up off the couch (or futon) and get some activity into their lives. Nine foreign countries also fielded teams for this years event. There was a total of 160 teams. Third Year middle-schooler Ibata Yuki, claimed the top yusho.
You get the sense from Hakuho that, like Tokushoryu, he still wants to be out there. He seems to wear that white mawashi frequently, in keiko at Miyagino-beya, at the Hakuho Cup, while out getting coffee, taking a stroll in Tokyo… I get the sense that it is included in his rider when taking on a new gig.
“Pictures? It’s time for pictures? Just let me get changed real quick…”
Nearly 10 hours of footage from the tournament…everything at “Dohyo A,” is right here. For those of you with amateur sumo experience, I am interested in the difference between the dohyo on the left and the one on the right. The one on the left looks like what Konishiki had at the Sumo+Sushi event. It seemed to be padded and made for quite the comfortable landing when I got thrown. Did I mention that I got thrown by Tooyama? Yes? Several times? Oh. Well, it was fun. But back to my point, does anyone have experience with the set up on the right? What is the “best” amateur dohyo? What is “best practice?” Anyway, I have heard that the real thing feels hard, almost like concrete.
Kokugikan Concert
For the first time in five years, Kokugikan and Sumida ward were able to host its 5000-person “Dai 9” choral and orchestra concert, which features youth talents from junior orchestras among the musicians. There is a great video about the concert below. When they belt out the famous Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, you can see that it brought tears to the eyes of several in the audience. This video is “pre-pandemic” so I hope there will be another one from this weekend’s performance. I will keep an eye out.
Haru Banzuke One Week Countdown
One week from today, the Kyokai will release the ranking list for Haru Basho. We already know that Kotonowaka will be the fourth Ozeki and we have our list of Juryo promotions. Big questions remain about that makuuchi/juryo boundary. There will be surprises and a good deal of banuke luck. That makuuchi joi will be interesting.
Hatsu Basho is long over and Haru Basho is still a month away (March 10) but there is still plenty of sumo news to report this weekend. And nothing else beyond these few news items. There is absolutely nothing else in the World of Sports going on this weekend. I am sure you all will be at work tomorrow, well-rested and fresh as daisies.
On Saturday, Kokugikan hosted the NHK’s annual charity sumo event. Along with the usual Jungyo-style sumo bouts, rikishi interviews and question corner, Yokozuna belt-tying, as well as taiko drum, jinku and shokkiri performances, the NHK has celebrities sing with rikishi in a star-studded affair. The NHK sets up a stage behind the dohyo for the rikishi to join the celebrities in singing pop and enka songs, like having a giant karaoke box.
On Sunday, Kokugikan hosted the 48th edition of Fuji TV’s annual sumo tournament. There are really two tournaments: Juryo first, then Makuuchi. It is a one-day, single-elimination-style tournament. One of the special things about this tournament is that we can often see bouts between stablemates and brothers, which are only possible in yusho playoffs during hon-basho.
For instance, a few years ago we saw Hakuho take on Enho. At this year’s tournament, in Juryo we saw Isegahama stablemates, Nishikifuji and Takerufuji go head-to-head. In Makuuchi, Endo faced stabemate and last year’s champion, Daieisho, in the third round and Tobizaru in the fourth.
The run-of-show begins, as I mentioned, with Juryo. There’s the Juryo dohyo-iri, followed by their tournament. Next up, as a bit of an intermission, we get “OB” exhibition bouts. This was followed by the makuuchi dohyo-iri and Terunofuji’s Yokozuna dohyo-iri and then the top division tournament. Full brackets are available here.
Aside
Before getting to the tournament action, I wanted to bring up the OB bouts, in particular. This year we had two fights between recently retired sekitori: Ishiura defeated Chiyonokuni and Tokushoryu forced out Tochiozan. I was especially happy that Tokushoryu was able to take part — and that he won his bout. I hope he stays in it for the long haul.
Many of you likely saw “Sad Toku” during Hatsu Basho. This clip of Tokushoryu in the blue-jacket brigade is yet another one of those great endearing sumo moments. As the Makuuchi wrestlers silently file past for the dohyo-iri, you just get this powerful sense that he misses being one of them and wants to get back out there. The subtle acknowledgement from the rikishi as they pass, hit him hard. And that in turn hit me, the viewer, hard.
Obviously, he was the famous maku-jiri yusho but he could not really establish himself as a top-division regular and slowly sank into Juryo, and then Makushita, before hanging up his mawashi for good in 2023. So for two years, he was a world away from “Prime Time” sumo but still hungry. And he has probably been fighting off some of the talk that his yusho was an accident, or somehow unworthy. There might even be lingering desire to prove them wrong. Or maybe he just dropped his churro…I don’t know.
Tournament Brief
Juryo Playoff
In Juryo, Chiyoshoma prevailed in the three-way playoff with Oshoma and Daishoho. Keep this in mind: Chiyoshoma won the Juryo yusho. And he did it without a henka. So, let’s see what the action was like in Makuuchi.
Hoshoryu beat Hiradoumi for the top division yusho with a bit of a henka, which seemed to be his strategy this tournament. His quick sidestep at the tachiai gave him access to Hiradoumi’s belt and he yanked him forward for the win. He had henka’d Takayasu in the fourth round.
Abi had also henka’d Ura in the fourth round to set up a semifinal bout with Hoshoryu. Hoshoryu side-stepped Abi to make it to the final. Hiradoumi defeated Endo in the other semifinal via yorikiri but may not have been watching Hoshoryu’s bouts to see just how henka-happy Hoshoryu had been. Though he missed out on the yusho, Hiradoumi did get to claim a Fighting Spirit Prize, though.
Ichinojo Danpatsushiki
Ichinojo had his self-organized danpatsushiki last night. You may remember that due to his estrangement from Minato-oyakata and the testy relationship with the Kyokai, the former sekiwake and top division yusho winner was not going to have his retirement ceremony at Kokugikan. Instead, he organized his own ceremony at a local hotel.
Many Mongolian rikishi did show up to pay their respects and help take a snip of Ichiko’s topknot. Ishiura’s father, his high school sumo coach at the infamous Tottori Johoku HS, took the final snips instead of Minato-oyakata. I would say that this moment symbolically severed his ties to the sumo world but that would not be accurate. Clearly, his ties to the Kyokai and his stable had been severed long ago. But he will always have his fans and there are clearly still some friends among current and former rikishi. As we learn more about his second career, we will post it here.
A Pair of Hakuho-Championed, Kids’ Sumo Events
On Sunday, Hakuho hosted the Dream Girls sumo tournament. You are able to watch it on YouTube, Dohyo A and Dohyo B. The competition is broken down by age group and the senior divisions have weight classes. There are some great competitors here, and some wild throws. Mostly, it was great to see so many young girls out there with obvious sumo talent and passion for the sport. My favorite bouts inevitably involved a come-from-behind win and some tawara magic.
Hakuho’s daughter competed in the first grade division, coming in second place. Oh, man. What a way to start the day, with a controversial ending to her first bout there. Honestly, there were three or four bouts there in that first grade division which could have easily been called torinaoshi. No mistake in the final, there. Her opponent had a great mae-mitsu grip, there in the front, and pulled Mayuha down.
My favorite wrestler didn’t even make it to the quarter finals but it was so close each time. The scenario was generally the same each time, one competitor forces the other to the tawara, the dohyo giwa. The competitor with inside position tries to force the other out, while the one on the outside just hangs on for dear life. Several times, including at least twice with the young Hakuho Mayuha, they appear to step out first before the opponent steps back.
Tomorrow, junior sumo is back with the boys fighting at Kokugikan in the Hakuho Cup. I will have an update later in the week with results from Monday’s wanpaku action as well as any other sumo news.
Recently, the folks from Buy Sumo Tickets started selling tegata on their website. Tegata are the stylized hand print autographs offered by the top sumo wrestlers. They’re usually done in either the vermilion (red/orange), or black with black calligraphy.
Obviously, they still sell tickets to sumo tournaments and other sumo-related events, like retirement celebrations, Fall tour events, Amateur sumo tournaments and such. It will be a while until I get a chance to go back to Japan, so I jumped at the opportunity to get a tegata.
For full disclosure, Tachiai is an affiliate of Buy Sumo Tickets. That means if you make your purchase through through our links or mention Tachiai in the comments at checkout, we get a portion of the proceeds to help the site.
I picked the red Hakuho tegata you see here. I was a bit apprehensive about getting it through the mail, especially rather fragile items. I’m the type who still likes going to physical stores and buying stuff there because I know what I’m getting. But I was very impressed by how well the tegata was packed. It was definitely packed with care, with stiff cardboard on front and back to brace it. It wasn’t just loose in an envelope. I also had to sign for it and it seemed to be from a different delivery service than I’m used to. I’m not sure if it’s a special contractor used by the Japan Post or not but it wasn’t any of the usual folks.
Anyway, I tweeted about my tegata when I received it and I meant to write about it then, too, but the tournament distracted me. I had set the packing aside and was just very impressed with the quality of the shipping, so I wanted to share my experience since this is how they ship all of the tegata. I know I’m not special but I wanted to make sure that they know that too and that I got the same shipment option as a customer who isn’t an “affiliate.” It seems to have come through the EMS service offered by Japan Post, with red bilingual stickers saying “Keep Dry” and “Do Not Bend,” which the delivery people apparently actually paid attention to. My wife mentioned that her mom uses it to send us stuff and she’s been happy with it.
