Refreshingly Aloof Glimpse at Onomatsu Beya

Andy Interview

So, this video came across my feed via the good ole social medias and I thought you all may enjoy it. It’s one of those “newbie meets sumo world” videos that’s brilliant and cringe at the same time. After all, it basically ends up being an ad for T-shirts. But it had me absolutely green with envy because it would be awesome to do practice “bouts” with Onosho…and red with second-hand embarrassment as they had no idea who Onosho is, or have the foggiest idea what butsukari is or what the hell was going on. I mean, it’s like not only do the foreigners not know what’s going on, it’s like their Japanese translator/guide has no idea, either. Hilarious. “Oh, you’re the coach, does that mean you used to do sumo, too?” Cue deadpan, “Yes…” The catharsis I felt watching the video was amazing since it presented a view from the perspective of the uninitiated and really made me want to ask my own dumb-ass questions, wondering if I’d get actual answers.

Off on a Tangent

Like, does the practice dohyo here feel different than at other heya, or at Kokugikan? We’ve seen during honbasho how the surface can seem unusually slippery or crumbly. Is that grip one of the multitude of variables that you calculate as a rikishi, in the way that a pitcher or basketball player would consider the grip on a ball, or a golfer would consider their grip on a club? Can you tell if the clay is sourced from a different place, or if too much (or too little) water was added? Or is the dohyo constructed and re-constructed and maintained with such care that the feel is uniform and such tactical considerations are irrelevant? These are the things that keep me up at night.

Bring it Back to Earth, Andy.

Ah, yes, sorry. Back to the video. At one point in the video the bloke named Steffan asks if they can stay the night. After checking with okamisan, they say, “sure.” This is a fantastic opportunity which our aloof tour guide uses to work out with the boys. For one I think Steffan made the right choice and I’m glad Onomatsu beya allowed it to happen. I’d actually prefer working out with the guys at the stable to another night at yet another pub as the rest of his crew did. But Dude, if you were really “one of the sumos,” you wouldn’t have had a room to yourself. You were a paying guest with one hell of an experience to share with us. You know that. Even Choijilsuren probably isn’t “one of them,” yet. He will be this fall, though, when he debuts at Makushita 15. After seeing the quality of the University debutants so far this year, that “University #1” boast is a big boast.

The fact that he’s interviewing a recruit while Onosho is there, calmly working out in the background…probably waiting for his turn to be interviewed…is absolutely hilarious. It makes me wonder if they did chat with him and that conversation ended up on the editing room floor (which is funny), or if Onosho wasn’t in the mood and enjoyed sitting back, watching the lower-rankers get attention from the camera (which is endearing), or if he’s still like, “Dude, I’m right here!” (Hahaha!) I mean, he’s even staring at you in the still image for this video while Choijilsuren is hiding in the back! My sides are splitting. Do you not wonder, at all, why everyone else is wearing black/grey mawashi and this one dude has a white one? I mean…I just can’t.

“I Would Have Done This Differently.”

We’re all watching this video and likely feeling the tug of being an “armchair producer.” If I had done this, I would have done this differently. Like when they’re eating chanko, I probably would have taken a bit more time to explain what was in this particular version, and beyond the meat and veggies, from the recipes I’ve see, they seem to be particularly proud of the stock and many of the more subtle flavors. Or, when interviewing each wrestler, like Nihonyanagi, I would have put his shikona on the screen. I would have asked each wrestler (if willing) to show me their name plate on the wall and ask if that’s the highest position they’ve reached so far in their career, and what is their goal for 2023. The name plates are nothing more than background in this video, certainly not a conversation starter.

Anyway, rather than feelings of “how dare they desecrate my beloved,” I came away from this engaged, laughing at parts, and I enjoyed it. It certainly gave me some reason to want to head out to Chiba and see if I could be lucky enough to watch keiko some day. But I would be very interested to hear from my fellow sumo fans, what would you have done? If you woke up in Chiba, told that you’re going to hand out at Onomatsu-beya for the day, what would you have done? Obviously, Andy would have chatted about inane stuff like, “how do you source your clay?” or “why don’t you have tawara, is it just a pain in the ass to replace all the time, or do you want to avoid injury?” Feel free to pose your own thoughts in the comments.

Wakatakakage ACL Surgery Complete: Begins 8+ Months Rehab

Andy Injuries, Wakatakakage ,

Thanks to Herouth for Tweeting out this good/bad news about Wakatakakage. Readers may recall that he was injured entering the final weekend of Haru basho when his knee hit the tawara resulting in an ACL tear. He has had surgery and begins the long road to recovery. He’ll likely drop only to Komusubi for May, but deep into Makuuchi for Nagoya, Juryo for Aki, and Makushita by Kyushu. If he comes back in January, he’ll likely still be in Makushita but maybe Sandanme if recovery takes until Spring. There’s the bad news.

The good news here is in the sentiment expressed by Arashio-oyakata (moto-Sokokurai). “He says he does not want to come back before he is fully healed, and I’m not going to make him.”

Obviously, Terunofuji and his storybook comeback stands as a reference point. His rise culminated in not only multiple yusho but promotion to Yokozuna. Tochinoshin and Ura were also able to come back from serious injuries which resulted in substantial demotions. More recent comeback stories have been of a disciplinary nature as Abi and Ryuden successfully re-established themselves in Makuuchi and Asanoyama is on his way back up. We see here multiple recent examples of rapid, successful comebacks and wonder if there’s been a change in the calculus of how to manage serious injury.

That said, along with Terunofuji’s comeback we have to remember, and question, the wisdom of his slow fall. He was obviously hurt as Ozeki but continued to try to compete, basho after basho. Always the competitor, it’s got to be hard to admit that you have to sit on the sidelines — especially when it’s for multiple tournaments. Even now, with the fact that he is safe from demotion, is a May return too soon? We can’t question Isegahama’s commitment to Terunofuji as he stuck with him through that comeback. But with the statements from Wakatakakage and Arashio-oyakata, we see a stark contrast with the actions of Terunofuji and Isegahama-oyakata and can’t help but wonder whether Terunofuji’s rise may have been faster, and if his Yokozuna reign would have been longer, if they’d shared a similar point-of-view.

There’s certainly risks, though, and we cannot downplay them. Hokuozan’s injury in Naruto-beya was re-aggravated in training and he has fallen completely off the banzuke. Hokuozan, however, never reached the heights of Makuuchi. The real contrast is in Ishiura’s neck injury has taken him from heyagashira and likely ended his career. A neck, though, is not exactly a knee-ligament, though. So there is the chance that Wakatakakage will not be back but it is refreshing to see a commitment from both the wrestler and the oyakata to give this route a try, rather than to tough it out and witness the alternative of another slow, painful decline.

Haru Basho Contest Winner

Andy Haru Basho 2023

We have a winner for the BuySumoTickets contest! We actually had five entrants who correctly guessed BOTH Osaka-native Ura’s wins (9) AND that of the tie-breaker, Ochiai (10). Kirk, aka Shussekiyama, was also eligible for the tickets since he will be in Japan. But I still want to give recognition to the full list of correct entries:

  • Kirk (Shussekiyama)
  • Jonathan Wagner
  • Daniel Hazelrigg
  • Aric Wu
  • Boris Cardinale

I must say, I was way off with my own pick. But pretty much everyone thought both men would secure kachi-koshi, winning records. There were only a handful of more pessimistic entries, including mine. I know Ura had fallen down the banzuke but I didn’t think he would be that successful. I’d possibly underestimated the home crowd boost in Ura’s favor.

Juryo is also far from a cake walk, so Ochiai’s impressive 10-win debut will lift him into the meat of the division. How many tournaments do you think it will take for him to make it to Makuuchi? Nakamura, now known as Onosato, will be nipping at his heels this year as both try to rocket into the top division.

Thank you to the winners, and thank you to all of the participants. I will need to come up with something a little more difficult for the tie breaker next time. Maybe guess the number of wins by yorikiri?

Haru 2023 Winners & Losers

Josh K Daieisho (大栄翔), Enho, Hakuho (白鵬), Haru Basho 2023, Hokuseiho (北青鵬), Hokutōfuji (北勝富士), Hoshoryu, Ichinojo (逸ノ城), Kakuryu (鶴竜), Kinbozan (金峰山), Kiribayama (霧馬山), Kisenosato (稀勢の里), Midorifuji, Mitakeumi(御嶽海), Ryuden (竜電), Takakeishō (貴景勝), Takayasu (高安), Ura (宇良), Wakamotoharu (若元春), Wakatakakage

In the past, I’ve chanced my arm at a rundown of all of the 42 rikishi in the top division and their performance in the preceding tournament. The problem with doing these kinds of posts is that there are an awful of lot of guys whose performance doesn’t really bear writing about. If you’re a rikishi that was swirling around the Darwin Funnel™ going into the final weekend, then there are good chances I’m talking about you.

So instead, this time, I’m going to give my thoughts on who won and didn’t win in this basho. It will be controversial and some people will be angry! I can’t wait. We’ll save the best for last, and start with the…

Losers

Sumo – But for some final day drama, this was a forgettable makuuchi tournament. It will not be referenced among the all time greats. Sumo is the loser when its top rankers do not challenge. The way the sport is set up requires big performances from big names or other guys dethroning big names. The title race changed hands twice in 15 days. Yikes.

Takakeisho – As Andy remarked, he went from rope run to kadoban in a matter of days. There’s no way to spin that positively.

Daieisho – He will move up to Sekiwake and posted a very strong basho, but he lost the yusho in horrific fashion: two virtually identical losses on the final day to the same opponent, having only needed to win one. Then, in the second defeat, he was given the hope of redemption by a monoii, only for that hope to be cruelly dashed upon confirmation of the final result. Woof.

Takayasu – His confident, assured, 6-0 start raised the idea that this might finally be his basho, but an awful fade took the dream away. Again. A couple of extremely convincing wins towards the end signalled what could have been. 10-5 is in no way a bad result, but finishing 4-5 in yet another basho that was his for the taking was extremely disappointing. When people reference Takayasu being the bridesmaid, they often reference his mighty collection of Jun-Yusho scorelines – but there are just as many of these tournaments that don’t show up in any Sumo Reference box score and where Takayasu had it all to lose and then did just that. As fans, we cannot alter fate, so the best we can do is just cheer him on whole-heartedly and hope that one day it will change.

Hoshoryu – You might think I’m crazy putting a couple ten-win guys and a twelve-win guy in the loser category. To be fair, you could put 41 guys in the loser category and you’d have a case for all of them. That’s how sports works. This is another case of “what could have been?” I firmly agreed with Herouth’s tweet early in the basho that Hoshoryu needs to shelve his niramiai until he’s got a couple Emperor’s Cups in the bag. Staring down a former Ozeki in Takayasu as if he’s the top dog, only to get embarrassingly dropped on the chief shimpan – and a cocky approach to a Nishikigi match that ended in defeat – showed a rikishi who’s simply not ready for the top two ranks.

He could have won this yusho outright with a more professional approach to his sumo. It may seem like we’re being hard on a rikishi who once again displayed some fabulous sumo, but whatever, if anything, is between his ears continues to let him down. The best thing he can take from this basho is that he’ll probably be S1E and he’s potentially just put down the first basho of an ozeki run. But I’ll come right out and say it: he’s frittered away losses in the last two tournaments which would have had him at the rank already. While he’s still young, more top prospects are coming and he will not want to look back on this period as the golden opportunity that he missed.

Hokutofuji – He’s been the master of come-from-behind kachikoshi in the past, and looked to be well on his way with 7 straight wins after digging himself an 0-4 hole. Alas, he couldn’t find the one win in his last four days to get the job done, and continues a slide that will leave him outside the joi for an entire calendar year.

Wakatakakage – I left a stat in the comments here this week that since his sekiwake promotion, he’s been 15-20 over days 1-5 of tournaments, and 31-11 over days 6-11 (before the final, most difficult matches for a sekiwake). If he could start better when his schedule was lightest, he’d have already been an Ozeki. When you consistently start so poorly, the issue is either preparation or mental or both. This tournament proved to be one escape act too far, with an 0-5 hole proving too much to overcome. His 7-1 rescue attempt over days 6 to 13 looked to have him on solid ground until the injury that led to a late kyujo. One early win and this all would have been a non issue with kachikoshi in hand, but instead he’ll have to completely rebuild from komusubi next basho – if indeed he’s able to return (reports are that he may not).

Mitakeumi – His body hasn’t looked right since the injuries that zapped his chance at an Ozeki career upon his promotion to the rank. This tournament was ghastly to watch, a 4-11 that left me wondering at the end where the 4 wins could ever have come from.

Ryuden – I think this was just a basho too far on the meteoric comeback trail for one of sumo’s latest bad boys. It’s a credit to him that he mostly looked very genki en route to his 13 loss campaign. Every rikishi fights hurt, some more than others, but Ryuden’s performances were vastly superior to the results that he got (the eye test would credit him with a 6-9 or 5-10 at worst). But nevertheless, he will take a massive demotion after this basho. You have to call that what it is.

Winners

Sumo – Sumo can be the loser and also be the winner. You can have grey areas in life, deal with it! With makuuchi being the equivalent of pulling a green turban out of your fishing net when you were expecting a sea urchin, Juryo emerged as a thrilling division. We also can’t overlook the top division’s final day drama, a new yusho winner whose rank and profile is good for sumo, and the fact that much of lower san’yaku managed to hang around the title race in its final days.

Kiribayama – He’s now one of the most technically proficient top rankers. Some could be forgiven for looking at an 8-11-12 Ozeki promotion after this basho as reasonable given the current state of the sport (and some Tachiai commenters have already posed it as an idea), but with two fusen-sho in there he’s always going to need another strong tournament. You’d think 9 next time could be enough to make things interesting, but 10 should bank it.

Small guys doing crazy stuff – Ura, Midorifuji, and Enho all had highly entertaining tournaments, even if it did fizzle a bit from Midorifuji after his first loss. Credit to these guys and their weird sumo for giving us box office entertainment.

Juryo – it was always going to be a good tournament with 4 former makuuchi yusho winners in the division plus a catalogue of top prospects, but strong performances from big names made this one of the marquee collections of second division talent in ages.

Ichinojo – Everyone expected another Asanoyama yusho, but the big man blasted his way to a 14-1, making his Juryo return brief.

Ura – He was king of the dohyo in his native Osaka, and highly entertaining and mostly successful in the ring. He received rapturous applause and a thunderous reception in the EDION arena. His comeback has firmly sealed his place as successor to Ikioi as Osaka’s hometown hero.

Nishonoseki-beya/Kisenosato – The mid-basho announcement of the recruitment of generational talent Nakamura stole all the headlines (more on that later), but his squad also grabbed the makushita yusho through journeyman Ryuo, had a handful of other good prospect results (Kayo, Takahashi, Miyagi) and a successful return to sekitori level for Tomokaze.

Kakuryu-oyakata – Much has been made of the close attentions the former Yokozuna has paid Kiribayama since his retirement, having taken his compatriot under his wing after moving from Izutsu to Michinoku beya. Kiribayama’s rise has corresponded with this tutelage, and it bodes well for Kakuryu’s future as shisho – be that in his own heya someday or a Michinoku-beya (including Kiribayama) that he could yet inherit upon the incumbent’s retirement.

Miyagino-beya/Hakuho – the top 8 rankers in the stable all scored winning records, with Enho starting to close in on a comeback to the top division and Ochiai putting out a very solid and entertaining sekitori debut. Hokuseiho’s 9 wins on his top flight debut were overshadowed by Kinbozan’s debut, and it’s clear that his ponderous sumo may lead him to struggle for consistency as he approaches the joi for the first time. I’d probably revise his ceiling to be a more technical version of Ichinojo. But for now, all good.

Isegahama-beya – Midorifuji took the headlines, but Nishikifuji put up another very solid basho. Meanwhile, an initially hopeless looking Takarafuji found his patented defend-and-extend technique late on to clinch a kachi-koshi when the conversation on nakabi was about whether he could really be demoted to Juryo. Plus, the heya boasted winning records for top prospects Hayatefuji and Takerufuji. As for the Yokozuna? Even he’s a bit of a winner in absentia, as Takakeisho’s rope-run collapsing amid the removal of Wakatakakage from the Ozeki conversation (for the time being) means that Terunofuji’s seat isn’t especially hot in spite of his lengthy absence.

Wakamotoharu – His 11 win basho will see him overtake his brother as heyagashira. He has grown gradually into the top division and looked at points to have an outside shot at the Haru yusho. It will be curious to now see whether he or Wakatakakage can mount an ozeki run soonest – if he’s able to get the yusho in May, one would think Wakamotoharu could even grab it in his next basho.

Kinbozan – In a tournament that boasted three fairly high(ish) profile debutants in the top division, some props should be due to Kinbozan for his excellent performance. While it’s not unusual to see talents who have blown through Juryo come up and grab double digits in their first top division tournament, Kinbozan did it with a minimum of fuss and some excellent sumo. He (and Juryo’s Gonoyama) still looks like a rikishi that has a lot of physical development until he finds his final competitive physique, and it will be interesting to see how he takes on higher challenges in the division. With Hokuseiho impressing but also lumbering at times to victory, and Bushozan being mostly overmatched, we should put some credit on Kise-beya’s Kazakhstani special prize winner.

Who are we forgetting? Who are you angry about me calling a loser? Let’s hear it in the comments!