This is the second sumo news update between the Hatsu and Haru tournaments. Catch up on the earlier update here. There was a full slate of sumo activity this weekend, so let’s get to it.
NHK Charity Event
The 58th Interation of the NHK’s Annual charity sumo event (福祉大相撲) took place this Saturday at Kokugikan. It’s always an interesting event, half Variety Show, half sumo jungyo event. Past coverage of this event include informative posts from Herouth, Bruce, and myself. There’s shokkiri, and jinku, and bouts…but there is also a slate of celebrities joining the wrestlers on stage, including pop groups and enka singers.
This year’s talents included 18-year-old enka star, Umetani Kokoro. Interestingly, she is from the Hakata district of Fukuoka, which hosts the November sumo tournament each year — and is also home of the makers of the hakata-ori belts (obi) you often see worn with kimono “off-dohyo,” like those in the image below. She performed a duet with Hakunofuji. Atamifuji performed with pop group STU48 and Hiradoumi did his duet with Arai Maju.
On Sunday, Kokugikan again hosted the Annual FujiTV sumo tournament. This features two bracket-style tournaments — one for Juryo and one for Makuuchi. The Makuuchi bracket is below.
The winner of the Makuuchi division competition was Hoshoryu, who defeated Abi for the title and the 2500000-yen purse. Hiradoumi was awarded a fighting spirit prize.
I always like seeing the intermission bouts. The Sumo Association gets some of the retirees to dust off the old sagari and strap on the old shimekomi for some exhibition bouts. This year, Aoiyama took on Hokutofuji and Kotoyuki battled Kotoeko.
At the same time as the two Kokugikan events, the Toyota Arena in Odaiba hosted the Sixteenth Hakuho Cup. The Hakuho Cup is an amateur sumo tournament for boys and girls with the goal of fostering the sport of sumo among the next generation. 1,700 kids from 20 countries participated this year and former deshi Hakunofuji and Yoshinofuji came by to say, “Hi” to their former master.
Full results and videos of the action are available at the Hakuho Cup website. I’m eager to hear from any viewers or participants in the Hakuho Cup (or the other tournaments). They seem like a great way to spend a winter day in Tokyo.
Andy’s lightning fast, 2-week vacation to Japan is in the books. It was an amazing trip and I am already nagging my wife about when we can go back. I have proposed this coming winter but she’s pushing for next winter. We shall see. Tokyo is the same old Tokyo I fell in love with in 2003 but much has changed in the seven years since my last trip. That means new places to discover or new reasons to re-discover familiar old haunts.
This series of posts will deal with our trip to Japan. Not all of it will be strictly sumo related as a large chunk of it will be about traveling to Tokyo and hopefully suggestions for how newbies can get around, and particularly the non-Japanese-speaking newbies. I’ve got 10 pages of content so far and I can’t stop typing. There are plans of maps, data visualizations and loads of pictures. We will see what makes the final edits. But I will make this first quick post about a very simple question:
Why Go Now?
The primary reason for the visit was personal. We had not seen my in-laws, Teams and Zoom excepted, since before the pandemic shut Japan’s borders. When the borders reopened there was a boom in tourism which has been boosted by the absurd yen-dollar exchange rate. That has made flights expensive and available seats difficult to find for the past couple of years. Add in the fact that inflation has been very low in Japan over the past twenty years and it becomes a bigger draw — even with the recent 2.5-3.5% post-pandemic inflation prices over there are remarkably similar to, but just a little higher than, what I remember from the early 2000s. So, it seemed the entire planet has spent the last couple of years booking flights to Japan.
I don’t like to throw out an argument without showing a bit of data to support it. This data is taken from the World Bank and shows consumer prices in the US and Japan, based at 2010. On the lefthand side of the graph, the dramatic uphill climb for Japan illustrates the rapid inflation of the 1970s and bursting of the bubble economy but look at the remarkably flat prices from the 1990s to the late 2010s. Ultimately, I look at this and see that I can spend a little bit more on yakiniku and yakitori that I was spending 20 years ago while making with a higher salary to boot.
Anyway, the low prices may not be around for much longer, as you see that uptick over the last several years. The comparison is not meant to illustrate $1 of ice cream equals $100 yen of ice cream. It is to simply contrast overall trends in consumer prices, especially since inflation has been such a big topic everywhere. This graph gives us a look at those trends in the US versus the trend in Japan. I could add more countries but most readers seem to be Americans and that is what I know but I can definitely try to add more countries to the graph if others are interested in seeing it. The World Bank’s website has great data like this.
If you have not gone to Japan yet, and you’re still on the fence, you might want to hop off that fence soon and take the plunge. Economically speaking, your dollar will go pretty far and ticket prices for flights are starting to come back to Earth. Inflation is starting to kick in a bit over there so the time to party appears to be now, while the exchange rate is massively in our favor. It has already swung from over 160 to 147 in the past few weeks.
On the other hand…
Why Not Go Now?
We very nearly passed up this opportunity because we knew that summer in Tokyo would be hot. We had heard temperatures were regularly in the upper 90s to up over 100. That sounded similar to what I had experienced 20 years ago but friends had been telling us, “this year’s worse.” As it turned out, our entire trip featured highs above 90°F with lows around 80°F. Scorching!!
To combat the heat, many people would wear rings that you can put in the refrigerator or freezer and wear around your neck. You can find them easily in stores. The cheap, old-school, “ojichan” method that I saw in use was to wear rolled up tenugui around the neck. Tenugui are hand towels, basically what you wave around at sumo tournaments. They can be used to simply block the sun or to hold the ice/cooling packs. Or, as Daieisho demonstrated, you can use the tenugui to just look cool. I would not advise going out on the town in only a towel, though. As tempting as it may be.
Popular consumer electronics this year seriously include portable fans to wear around your neck. When we were at Disney, I saw some people walking around with full-blown desk fans. Recently there have been consumer warnings that damaged fan batteries might explode while the user is wearing them. I like to beat the heat in edible, and non-combustable, fashion. Many vending machines on train platforms were selling ice cream! Those out in the sticks near Nishonoseki-beya were unfortunately sold out.
I enjoyed this one on the Tachikawa monorail while heading to the Jungyo (more of which in later posts). As you can see from the picture of the vending machine below, it cost me 200 yen, or roughly $1.35. Most were 180. There were a bunch of good choices.
A buck-and-a-quarter for ice cream in the heat. It is not exactly a massive pint of Breyer’s but an acceptable option in the heat. A pint from the grocery store back home would set me back $5.50 so I could buy four of these. I should have bought four of these. Damn it. Ah, we have to live with the decisions we make. Anyway, I swear, this country is magical. Why can’t we have ice cream vending machines?
Bottom line, I have successfully turned one reason NOT to go to Japan into a reason to go. So, what’s next? As a sumo fan, there’s no sumo tournament in August…well, at least no hon-basho. Our trip would begin as the Nagoya tournament ended and only last for two weeks. So that’s another major strike against going in August.
There is the Jungyo, though, so I wanted to check that out for myself. I did that, and the proof is in these pictures. There was also amateur sumo to enjoy, in the form of a middle-school championship at Kokugikan and a women’s high school tournament in Tachikawa, which I unfortunately missed.
I wanted to actually discover as many of the heya as I possibly could, as well as possibly meet sumo wrestlers. Check! I was also determined to support Shohozan and his yakiniku restaurant – and support many other suppliers of delicious sustenance. Check!
Lastly, I had an interview set up with the head priest at Ekōin Temple. Check! And that was a very interesting conversation. Mr. Honda is a lovely fellow and I hope you all will enjoy learning what I did about the temple and its role in the history of Grand Sumo.
Summary
So, in spite of no hon-basho, I felt that I peppered my trip with enough sumo for a two-week visit. Much more on these in future posts. Clearly, for us the yays outnumbered the nays with regard to going to Japan. If more of you are there now, or planning to go, or have been recently, feel free to share your experiences in the comments…especially those that are along the lines of, “I wish I knew this before I went.” My lessons learned about Jungyo covers an entire post in and of itself.
Jme.TV (pronounced Jay-mee), the exclusive North American streaming provider of NHK content, will offer a fourth channel exclusively for sumo content just in time for the May tournament. Two hours of live sumo will be available via the NHK World Premium channel and repeats of that sumo action (with English audio) will be streamed four times daily on the new channel. The service is described the image to the right. Tachiai welcomes this development from NHK Cosmomedia and their NHK parent company, unreservedly.
In the past, JapanTV was the only legitimate source of live sumo coverage in North America. That service required a cable subscription. In my experience, if you wanted TV in High Definition, that required extra bundles beyond the basic cable. Ultimately, I would be left subsiziding 500 channels I’d never watch just for one show or one channel.
JME was launched this year to replace the old JapanTV option with a streaming capability, direct to consumers at $25/mo. This effectively shutdown JapanTV at the beginning of April 2024. I don’t use Roku or Amazon Fire and I don’t watch via apps on my phone but those options are available. I have heard some users have complained about the fact that the new service is streamed and is not their usual cable package. To those who complain, I ask how many of their three remote controls do they use? And do they hate it when luddites like myself come over to visit and push the wrong “ON” button on the wrong remote to turn on the TV? (My daughter usually has fix my parents’ cable set up after I destroy it.) All of those remotes and all of those buttons when you probably use five, max.
There are three streaming channels as well as an “on-demand” option for various Japanese television series. Two of the channels are in Japanese and the third is the “NHK World” service that we were most familiar with. Jme Select is NHK content shifted for North American timezones. NHK Premium is Japanese with some programming (including live sumo) having English audio available. NHK World is…well..NHK World, the NHK’s English language channel. Until recently that had been available via broadcast in the MHZ networks. The new, sumo only channel is a welcome development!
For cord-cutters like myself, this has been quite the encouraging development, especially since the content is AD-FREE. We will continue to advocate for more sumo coverage. That case will be made easier with rapid uptake of the new streaming service. Let’s face it, if they see impressive viewer numbers on the exclusive sumo channel it’s my hope that they expand viewership to Juryo and the lower divisions and maybe even “off-season” special events, like retirement ceremonies and Jungyo.
I encourage viewers to comment here with their unfiltered reviews of the service. I started watching on senshuraku in March. Senshuraku offers 2.5 hours of live coverage which is a bit more than the 2 hours of day-to-day coverage. That is enough to watch makuuchi, no VPN or illicit stream needed. I’ve been a casual viewer of the service in the off-season, mostly of the news. But I have definitely found a few Japanese dramas and comedies to watch as I try to improve my own language skills. There have been a few bugs and glitches, generally quickly resolved. Earlier this week, the schedule for one of the channels was unavailable in the usual location but that was fixed. What has been your experience so far?
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.
