Jungyo (巡業)

Short Jungyo News – Day 2

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , ,

Today’s event took place at Habikino, Osaka. By the way, the English language tour schedule on the NSK website is wrong. It’s actually last year’s schedule.

This is the height at which you’re supposed to hit me, youngster.

So, as expected, Hakuho keeps giving kawaigari to youngsters. This time, no genetics – he just picked up Ichiyamamoto, from Nishonoseki beya. You can see him in the photo above, observed by Okinoumi, Shohozan (his senior heya mate), and Tochiozan. Coincidentally, I’ll be talking more about both Okinoumi and Tochiozan further down.

Back to the victim himself, he got five minutes of kawaigari, which is a considerable time (though Hakuho has been known to give 8 minutes or more in the past. I guess not to beginners). Hakuho said he was hitting him too high, which makes sense, because Ichiyamamoto’s sumo style is very close to Abi’s and as you can see, he has rather long legs as well. Hakuho added that there was something fragile about him, but that he does have a “core” and “if there was nothing good about him, he wouldn’t be a sekitori”. Well, I guess that’s the sort of compliments you get when you don’t have yokozuna DNA.

Ichiyamamoto is an odd bird in the world of Sumo. He graduated from Chuo university and became a government worker up in his home area of Hokkaido. But then he decided to switch to professional Sumo, taking advantage of the extended age limit working wrestlers may enjoy, as he was just past his 23rd birthday.

So now he is a sekitori, and he said the practice with Hakuho “gave his status as a sekitori a sense of reality”.

The reporters asked Hakuho if he intended to do Kizakiumi and Ryuko next. He just gave them a big grin. He said “maybe tomorrow the young ones will say there is a devil on the dohyo”. I guess that means he will keep the kawaigari flowing.

Moving on to the next figure in the photo, it was Okinoumi’s 34th birthday today. Mazel tov. His ototo-deshi (younger heya mate), Hokutofuji, gave him a cake.

(From Hokutofuji’s Instagram)

Okinoumi was a bit embarrassed at the attention, and said he prefers to stand out on the dohyo, and off it he would like to be just an old-fashioned man.

So what about Tochiozan? Well, the day before this Jungyo event, this was aired on TBS. It’s from an episode in a serialized drama called “No-side game”.

The guys practicing at Kasugano beya are supposedly some sort of Rugby club. I’m not sure what that skinny dude is supposed to do in a Rugby club, or what the plot is in general. But anyway, this having aired the day before caused a swarm of reporters to land on Tochiozan today (Tochinoshin being kyujo, he missed the 15 minutes of glory).

Tochiozan was mighty pleased with all the attention. As it turns out, this was filmed some time in June, before the Nagoya basho, for two and a half hours – after morning keiko. Tochiozan recalls “it was quite tiring, since it was after keiko and all, and some of these guys are pro wrestlers and hit rather hard”. There were also former National Team members (in Rugby, I assume) among the group. And he was doing most of the butsukari. Tochinoshin just stepped in for the “star moment”. It’s good to be an Ozeki. Tochiozan recalls he kept getting instructions to assume a more fierce expression and to avoid laughing.

All that attention must have done the veteran some good, because in today’s Jungyo practice, he had 11 rounds of moshi-ai with Tamawashi, Abi, and others, and won 9 of them. Dosukoi!

Short Jungyo News – Day 1

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , ,

Hello readers. This Jungyo I am going to adopt a different format for my Jungyo reports.

Hakuho in his educational mode

The truth is, posting a full Jungyo report every day is beyond my capabilities at the moment. Curating the various photos and tweets takes hours. So I will only be able to do the full ones on weekends (by which I mean Friday and Saturday, possibly Thursday as well). I’ll try to bring some news every day as and if they surface, but it will be in short format.

Today was the first day. The event took place at Gifu city, Gifu prefecture. The tour left Nagoya yesterday, and arrived at Gifu today.

The rikishi were briefed by the Jungyo master, Kasugano, who warned them to be careful what they do in their time off – because they might get caught on some fan’s camera in a compromising situation. As usual, it’s “make sure you’re not caught”, rather than “make sure you don’t do idiotic stuff”.

Bruce has already mentioned the absences from the Jungyo, but here is the full list again: Goeido, Tochinoshin, Takayasu, Takakeisho, Yoshikaze, Kaisei, Takagenji and Mitoryu.

Ikioi, despite his troubles, is not absent. The Hakkaku and Isenoumi sekitori, with the full staff of their heyas, actually had a short training camp at Okinoshima in Shimane prefecture, Okinoumi’s home town. Okinoumi, Hokutofuji, Nishikigi and Ikioi, together with their designated tsukebito had an early departure back to Nagoya to join the Jungyo.

Another one who is injured and yet present at the Jungyo is Enho – both his shoulder and his ankle are still far from great. He says he will give priority to healing them – but still, he showed up today, including having a (rather entertaining) bout with Toyonoshima. I’ll have that in my weekend collection for sure.

Kakuryu spent a few days in Mongolia following his yusho. He has been away from home for two years – in part because foreign rikishi who are kyujo are not allowed to travel, and he had long periods of kyujo in those two years. He went there accompanied by his… okami san. Yes, that’s his heya-master’s wife. He came back two days ago, refreshed, and said he ate too much mutton and needed some light Japanese summer food.

Carrying his own luggage. What is this world coming to.

Regarding all the absences, Hakuho announced he will be pulling everybody behind him. He said in general he wants to do more coaching this Jungyo. Which means, of course, lots of kawaigari. I will, of course, keep you posted if he actually does anything that’s actually educational, the way Harumafuji used to do. In the meantime, he already latched on to poor Kotonowaka, and gave him five minutes of kawaigari. By the way, if you are new here or don’t remember what kawaigari is, I refer you to a previous post where I described it at length. Look for the part starting with “Butsukari is a drill…”

Kotonowaka is the son of the former Kotonowaka, currently Sadogatake oyakata, and the grandson of Yokozuna Kotozakura, the former owner of the same heya. Hakuho picked him because “He has Yokozuna DNA”. Which should signal to Hoshoryu and Naya that they may want to consider postponing becoming sekitori, at least until Hakuho retires.

Kotonowaka was actually very thankful for the experience. The victims usually are. But he was using words like “It was like being in a different dimension” and so on, and “He just absorbed my body slams like a sponge” (he’s not the first one to notice this about Hakuho).

So untypically for Hakuho, he is on the dohyo from day 1 of the Jungyo (usually, at least in recent times, he has been starting the Jungyo on the sidelines, only starting on-dohyo activities after a couple of weeks). He is also on the torikumi list, though I’m sure neither he nor Kakuryu are going to take the “official” bouts too seriously.

Kakuryu, on the other hand, sticks to his usual plan. He has a very exact training regime and I expect he will stick to it through this Jungyo as he always does.

That’s it for today, and I hope to have some news for you tomorrow.

Sumo News Round Up – July 28th

Bruce H Gōeidō (豪栄道), Hakuho (白鵬), Ikioi (勢), Jungyo (巡業), Kaisei (魁聖), Nagoya Basho 2019, Takagenji, Takakeishō (貴景勝), Tochinoshin (栃ノ心), Yoshikaze (嘉風)

First up, the Aki banzuke will be released 4 weeks from today. Lksumo has already presented an idea of where the banzuke will end up, and we expect a high-resolution prognostication in a few weeks. While it might seem like an eternity to sumo fans, there are some actions in the world of sumo worth noting.

Fans may recall Ikioi, a popular, long time veteran of the top division (41 basho!) who suffered injuries and maladies aplenty in Osaka. His 2-13 record was enough to punt him to Juryo 1w, but he has not really recovered. His 5-10 performance in Nagoya from Juryo 8w have many worried that at 32 years old, he is too banged up to compete, and may soon find himself demoted back into the mosh pit that is Makushita, a rank he has not seen since 2011. Naturally, thoughts turn to intai.

Now word that the person (the former Shotenro) who has been using Ikioi’s kabu (elder position) has vacated that position and taken up another. This is a fairly good signal that Ikioi is starting to prepare for a post competition career, should Aki continue his poor performance.

The summer Jungyo is starting today, with any luck Herouth will bring us video clips and reports scavenged from the web and from twitter. There are a host of rikishi who are not on jungyo: Takayasu, Goeido, Tochinoshin, Takakeisho, Yoshikaze, Kaisei and Takagenji. With many of these rikishi being part of the “over 30” club, fans are right to be concerned about the long term health of sumo’s stars. Goeido and Tochinoshin will both be kadoban in September, Takakeisho will be fighting for 10 from Ozekiwake, Yoshikaze may still be in dry dock, but should be dropped to Juryo.

For some more sunny news, Yokozuna Hakuho was active on the first day of the jungyo, so whatever problems he still has with his elbows are not keeping him from the dohyo.

Jungyo Newsreel – Final Day

Herouth Jungyo (巡業)

🌐 Location: Mito, Ibaraki prefecture

Yes, friends and readers, this is the last – and relatively short – report of the Haru Jungyo! It’s day 25, and the rikishi are finally at the end of their long, long journey. The next day, the banzuke is to be published, the era is going to end, and then it’s intensive practice all the way to Natsu basho.

In the evening before this Jungyo event, these two guys (and others) were spotted at a Mito restaurant:

This pair is always up to something. And unlike some, this does not mean pain to others necessarily. What are they up to? We shall see!

So the next morning, we have our rikishi shaking hands as usual. Nishkigi decides he is a great admirer of Ryuden, and stands in line to shake his hand:

Inside the main hall, rikishi are stretching and exercising along the walls. Here we have Tobizaru doing his mata-wari (splits):

This is not the last Tobizaru we have today.

Ichinojo wants to play with Enho (don’t we all). Just look at the size difference between Ichinojo’s hand and Enho’s.

This being nearly May, the weather is fine, thus exercise is not limited to the venue itself. Outside, under a great tree, Yutakayama makes sure no evil spirits haunt the grounds of the city of Mito:

Back inside – and on the dohyo – we have yet another practice bout between Takayasu and Tochinoshin. I think both benefit from these practices, and we may hope to see both in good form in Natsu:

Sekitori practice over, it’s time for all the activities like Jinku and Shokkiri, then low-ranking bouts. So first the low-ranking rikishi get their hair done:

Then they opt to wait in the customer seating section, as the venue is far from full. Actually, the smart ones keep the seats folded and just sit on the floor. Why smart? See that rikishi in the third tier wedged between the hand rests? That’s why.

Yoshoyama spotted the camera

It’s a known fact that rikishi have a problem going on dates, partly because common activities like cinema or theme park rides become rather awkward when you are twice as wide as anybody else.

But where are the sekitori? Now we come to what Kotoshogiku and Toyonoshima have been plotting. This day, April 29th, is Showa Day. It used to be the Showa Emperor’s birthday.

So Kotoshogiku and Toyonoshima decided to organize a photo shoot to celebrate the Showa-born sekitori (that means, anybody born before January 8th, 1989), and show that they are still alive and kicking and ready for the third era of their lives. This was the result:

“Men of Showa”

The “S” stands for “Showa” though they said it can stand for “Sumo” as well. Brilliant photo, isn’t it? It was taken using a Birdie:

It’s not the first time Toyonoshima and Kotoshogiku arrange a fun activity for the sekitori. Three years back, they were also behind the sekitori rendition of “Hiyonoyama Kazoe Uta”, better known among Sumo fans as the Hakkiyoi Song – reminder:

(“Sekitori rendition” – because the song was originally performed by the oyakata)

Toyonoshima and Kotoshogiku are cool guys.

So this ends the practice part of the day, and here are the Juryo wrestlers waiting for their dohyo-iri, just as their juniors did earlier:

But they don’t have as much sense as Yoshoyama and his mates.

Then they await their bouts. Tobizaru is doing fansa during the wait, and not just simply signing autographs with a bored face, either:

Gagamaru is all envy for all the attention the handsome monkey is getting. He then grabs a camera from one of the su-jo and photographs Tobizaru close up:

Sorry, Gagamaru, Tobizaru is still prettier than you. Tobizaru returns the favor:

But we are spared the resulting close-up of Gagamaru. Thank you, camera owner.

As Takanosho is interacting with a fan, or at least standing near her, waiting for the oicho demonstration to be over and the bouts to start, Hidenoumi nearly topples him over her:

(Sorry, I know you’re going to ask, but Hidenoumi first asks whether this is a photo or a video, she says video, and then… I can’t quite catch his reply).

For some reason, this is the only glimpse of a Juryo bout I managed to uncover – looks like Daishomaru beating Kyokutaisei:

Time for Makuuchi. But this is Ibaraki prefecture. So we have this guy coming as a guest star:

Now the bouts can begin. Again, sekitori waiting in customer seats, but this is really pushing the limits:

Shodai is doing some fansa, and he is a lot nicer to kids than he is to his tsukebito, let me tell you.

I don’t really have much in the way of videos. Again, only tantalizing photos. For example, who is winning this bout between Abi and Onosho? I’m sure it’s somebody whose name begins with a 阿.

Whichever it was, they seem to be having fun.

And here is Takarafuji with his tsukebito, Sakurafuji. His sagari says he lost this bout.

Mitakeumi is giving Hokutofuji a nodowa from hell. But is it a winning nodowa?

The musubi-no-ichiban is also not quite clear:

Sigh. Well. Here is at least the summary video of the day. Actually, a concatenation of two news reports:

At least it includes a bit of Takakeisho vs. Tamawashi. That’s it – the last bout of the Heisei era we are going to report!

And our pin-up boy of the day is – of course – Tobizaru!