Hana-zumo

Final Jungyo Newsreel – October 29th

Herouth Hana-zumo, Jungyo (巡業) , , , ,

🌐 Location: Fukuyama

Today we bid farewell to the 2017 Aki Jungyo!

Aminishiki's Akeni
Aminishiki’s Akeni. It has seen some history, and will see more.

The event at Fukuyama has been the last of the Aki Jungyo, and now the (about) 160 participating rikishi are heading straight to Fukuoka, where they’ll join the waiting low division rikishi who were busy preparing lodgings and equipment for the past week or so.

The Jungyo day itself started with heavy rain, carried over by the most recent typhoon. Despite the rain, the local fans filled the venue:

(NHK)

They got to see some very energetic practices, including Hakuho doing both reverse and straight butsukari (and getting pushed off the dohyo, much to his embarrassment).

All Yokozuna were eager to leave a strong impression, and made statements to the press either yesterday or today.

Harumafuji

In yesterday’s practice session, Harumafuji was working on his Tachiai with Chiyoshoma, launching himself at his fellow Mongolian partner 11 times. The next one was so powerful, Chiyoshoma was blown away and nearly fell off the dohyo.

haruma-saves-chiyoshoma
Typical Harumafuji reaction

But Harumafuji doesn’t like to see people hurt, so he grabbed Chiyoshoma by the arm before he started to take off, and made sure he stayed put.

“Just practicing the basics,” said the Yokozuna.

Nobody can overlook the fact that the Yusho winner, although he clocked in every day, did not participate in the bouts and did very little on-dohyo practice during the Jungyo. “I’m concentrating on the Kyushu basho,” was the Yokozuna’s response.

Kakuryu

“Yes, of course I’ll fully participate,” answered Kakuryu decisively when asked about the Kyushu basho.

kakuryu-butsukari
Kakuryu doing butsukari

The Yokozuna who has been vigorously practicing since the beginning of the Jungyo says he is feeling positive about the state of his health. He intends to engage in degeiko with some of his potential rivals before the honbasho. “I’ll do what I have to do. The important thing is to get into the right flow in the basho”.

Kisenosato

“I’ll be in the basho from day 1. That’s obvious,” was Kisenosato’s statement.

kise-no-practice

The newest Yokozuna did not practice on the dohyo every day of the Jungyo, but on the days he did, he showed signs of improvement both to his upper left side and to his left ankle. But his own statement was (as usually, I must say) somewhat vague: “A lot has happened in the past month. There were typhoons. And I got called to do dohyo-iri in various places, which is something I can’t always do. It was very different from the previous Jungyos I participated in.” More specifically about his health and participation in the basho: “I have been able to work my entire body patiently. As a rikishi, it’s obvious I have to participate in the basho, and I want to get results.”

Hakuho

hakuho-salting
Sodium Chloride Galore

“Be sure to remind me every 50 days!” reacted the dai-yokozuna when told yesterday that the Olympic games start in 1000 days. He reasserted his wish to perform a dohyo-iri in the Tokyo games. When asked about the next basho and his chances for his 40th yusho, he replied brightly “I’m doing swimmingly”.

Today he toned down his replies a little bit. “I joined the jungyo in the middle, and gradually improved my body and my dohyo-sense. My wish was to end the Jungyo in the best shape. I’d like to mark myself a 100, but I can only give myself 50.”

“As the senior yokozuna, I felt sometimes that I was able to lead and pull my convalescent junior fellow yokozuna forward,” he added with satisfaction.

Regarding his recent sodium habit, watch Goeido cover his head as Hakuho rains fire and brimstone – OK, just salt – all over the place:

Bouts

As they have done before in Tokyo, today the Jonidan, Sandanme and Makushita rikishi wrestled in elimination format rather than the usual torikumi.

In Jonidan, Teraoumi (Of Shikoroyama beya) won, beating Motokiyama (Tamanoi) in the final.

For Sandanme, the winner was Takatenshu (Takanohana), who beat Kotodairyu (Sadogatake) in the final.

And the Makushita winner was Akinohana (Takadagawa), who beat Terao (Shikoroyama) in the final.

Of the sekitori bouts, all I have is, as usual, the musubi:

Hakuho 10 – Kisenosato 4. Trust Hakuho to reach double figures in two weeks.

Tiny Jungyo Newsreel – October 29th

Herouth Hana-zumo, Jungyo (巡業) , , , ,

🌐 Location: Hiroshima

hakuho-kisenosato-28

Today I found nothing but the Hakuho-Kise daily bout. At least it’s a good one. Again, if anything turns up, I’ll update.

Hakuho 9 – Kisenosato 4

So for the time being enjoy Shodai being harassed by Yoshikaze and Tamawashi as they get ready to shake fans’ hands:

Tomorrow is the last day of the Jungyo!

Jungyo Newsreel – October 27th

Herouth Hana-zumo, Jungyo (巡業) ,

🌐 Location: Matsue

Terunofuji hits a snag

teru-runs-into-a-snag

Today, the Ozekiwake decided to make use of the Yokozuna’s self-assessment tool. Namely, ask Asanoyama for san-ban.

Unfortunately, the results of the test weren’t too good. It started out well enough:

But out of 7 bouts, Asanoyama won four, and Terunofuji only three. Terunofuji’s technique must have been seriously lacking, as Takanohana, sitting as always by the side of the dohyo, felt compelled to interfere and offer advice. Terunofuji was duly thankful, but the lesson did not continue long. The kaiju’s damaged left knee started sending out alarms, and eventually Takanohana ordered him to stop the session, telling him “not to overdo it”.

The session was over, but we have a very headstrong kaiju on our hands. He stayed around and continued to perform Shiko. “I have to overdo it!” he said to the reporters.

Me? I’m strongly reminded of the Black Knight of Monty Python fame. “Just a flesh wound!”.

By evening time, however, the kaiju was back on the dohyo and able to hold up at least for the few seconds it took to beat Mitakeumi:

It remains to be seen, then, if this was just a bump in the road, or the beginning of a spectacular road accident.

(Based mostly on Nikkan Sports, but I strongly advise against looking at the original photo accompanying the article. That is, unless a clear view of a 187kg rikishi’s crotch, complete with jock itch, is your thing. The photographer must be a Kotoshogiku fan.)

Kakuryu continues to scale up

Kakuryu seems to have an organized and itemized practice plan for the entire Jungyo. He completed the yotsu practices, continued to oshi practices, and now he is increasing the level of competition.

The other Yokozuna and Ozeki have been avoiding any bouts with joi members, probably for tactical reasons. Kakuryu, however, decided to take up soon-to-be Komusubi Onosho today:

He fought nine bouts with the special prize winner, of which he won 8 and lost 1. There’s certainly room for optimism about the recovering yokozuna here. “Of course I’ll participate. There is no pressure. I’ll just go out there and do what I always do”, he said despite the fact that his Shisho designated his next basho as “make or break”. “My ankle is fine even when I apply maximum load to it.”

Bouts

Shunba-Takatenshu

Heroic tsuppari from Shunba, but to no avail.

Aminishiki-Gagamaru

Aminishiki doesn’t notice Gagamaru’s Isamiashi, prepares to leave the dohyo. Surprised to find that he is the winner.

Onosho-Takakeisho

Onosho lands on Hokutofuji…

Musubi-no-ichiban

Another angle but missing tachiai:

Can’t believe Kisenosato lost his footing like that. Completely untypical. Hakuho 8 – Kisenosato 4.

Jungyo Newsreel – October 26th

Herouth Hana-zumo, Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Tottori

Limelight bathing Ishiura and Terunofuji

Today the Jungyo landed in the one prefecture in Japan where nobody is going to tell Terunofuji to “Go back to Mongolia”.

The true Tottori Shushin is, of course, Ishiura. And the official news sources (such as there were) gave him preference, as you can see in this video:

(Asahi shimbun)

Ishiura: “The last time I was on a Jungyo in the Tottory prefecture, I was in the Juryo division. I’m happy to be here now as a Makuuchi wrestler. I felt invigorated here today, and I repaid by doing good sumo”.

As you can see in this video, there are some serious wanpaku wrestlers (child wrestlers – these were all primary or secondary school children, so no more than 15 years old!) in Tottori. I think it actually wasn’t fair to counter by tsuppari to the face, because that’s forbidden in wanpaku sumo (only allowed to professionals).

Ishiura wasn’t taking any risks wrestling with those kids himself, and left the hard work to a sekiwake, opting to play the gyoji:

ishiura-not-taking-risks

Whoa.

But he did win his bout with Takekaze today by Okuridashi.

Edit: A video with some bouts materialized! Ishiura cleared of henka charges!

This also allows us to keep up the tally: Hakuho 7 : Kisenosato 4!

Edit2: A full video of the Kisenosato/Hakuho bout, full version including chikara-mizu and full shikiri, plus yumitori at the end:

The chikara-mizu also tells us that Kakuryu has beaten Goeido (and that Terunofuji also won, but we knew that from the previous video).

Ishiura-Takekaze including tachiai (different angle):

So why did I open with Terunofuji? While the official channels celebrated Ishiura, most tweets I found were more around the theme of “Terunofuji is back! And he’s genki!”. “It was great to see Teru again!” and so on.

The Tottori crowd considers Terunofuji to be a local, as he started his career in the famous sumo program of the Tottori Johoku high school, headed by none other than Ishiura’s father. It was Ishiura senior who noticed the young kaiju’s unbelievable strength, and advised him “If your opponents get a grip on your mawashi, bear-hug them”.

Terunofuji was in a bright mood, and practiced with Shodai and Daieisho. Here you can see him in a reverse butsukari:

terunofuji-reverse-butsukari

And here, in what seems to be a rather painful (for Daieisho) uwatenage. Notice the rapt attention on the faces of Takarafuji and Onosho:

terunofuji-uwatenage

His bout of the day is also included in the second video above, as is Takanoiwa’s, who was also in the same school (Ichinojo, too, but he is currently off the Jungyo).

Interviews

To compensate for the complete lack of bout information (in the first version of this post), here are some Jungyo interviews (these are from the beginning of the Jungyo, but surfaced on Twitter only today):

Kisenosato

Q: Do you feel pride for being the only Japanese-born Yokozuna?

A: Being a Yokozuna, one usually has both self-awareness and self-confidence to wrestle steadfastly and produce results.

Q: You won the All-Japan Rikishi Championship tournament on October 2nd. What is your response?

A: It was only hana-zumo, but I am happy I produced a good result. I want to steadily develop a winning habit.

Q: You had to go kyujo in the middle of the Nagoya basho, and did not participate in the Aki basho at all. What are your feeling as you head towards the Kyushu basho?

A: I want to take the challenge of the honbasho by working on tuning my condition and my rhythm, and increasing my power during the Jungyo.

Harumafuji

haruma-interview
There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is!

(I think he’s the only Yokozuna ever to have his interview accompanied by a picture with a towel on his head. To compare, Kisenosato’s picture was one with his oicho-mage)

Q: You were the only Yokozuna to ascend the dohyo in the Aki basho. Did you feel any pressure?

A: I concentrated on doing my bouts one at a time. During the playoff bout I felt nothing but fighting spirit.

Q: Tell us about about your readiness for the Kyushu basho

A: There is still some time before the basho, and my wish is to work slowly and diligently, listening to my body, towards the basho.

Q: Do you enjoy anything about the Jungyo?

A: It’s a good opportunity to raise the knowledge of sumo among the fans. I would like everybody to enjoy the atmosphere of the Jungyo where, unlike honbasho, you can take pictures and get in contact with the wrestlers.

Asanoyama

Q: The Aki basho was your 10th straight kachi-koshi. What were your feelings as you faced it?

A: As always, I faced is as a challenger. I think that may have brought me the special prize.

Q: Aren’t you under pressure to improve your kachi-koshi record in the kyushu basho?

A: I intend to face the challenge with all my heart, not giving up regardless of the results.

Endo

Q: After having undergone surgery in July in your left ankle, you ended up with a double-figure winning record in the Aki basho. How did you control your feelings?

A: I did not recover completely before the basho. I am glad that I could relax well enough to be able to wrestle without worsening my condition.

Q: Are you aware of the common opinion that you have a beautiful shiko?

A: I don’t try to perform it in an especially pretty way. My shiko now is the same as I was taught when I was a boy.

Chiyomaru

Q: Your little brother is also an active rikishi. What kind of an influence does that have on you?

A: I want to be better than my little brother, so I regard him as a rival.

Q: Do you feel the weight of the “Chiyo” in your shikona?

A: I was very happy when I was given my shikona. I finally felt that I was truly a member of the Kokonoe beya, and this motivated me.

Onosho

Q: How do you feel about having the Jungyo in Chiba, where your heya is located?

A: I feel stimulated by the support of the local people.

Q: Many people don’t know how to pronounce your shikona. What do you feel about that name?

A: I feel I was given a good name. I’ll gambarize to make more people remember my name.