Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 19

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Obihiro, Hokkaido

dohyo
Preparing the dohyo

As I mentioned in my previous post, on August 17, there was a short intermission in the Jungyo as the gigantic traveling show made its way off the main island of Honshu and on to Hokkaido. While a few Isegahama men had duties with their heya and remained in Aomori, the bulk of the ensemble had some time to relax in the relative coolness of the northernmost prefecture.

And everybody who is anybody had to be seen at the BBQ hosted by Yago:

That is to say, Yago himself, Tobizaru, Takanosho, Wakatakakage, Chiyonoumi, Daieisho and Asanoyama.

Yago’s family is from Memuro, about 11km from the Jungyo’s host town of Obihiro. And so he had time to let loose at home and get charged for an eventful day the next day.

There are 20 active rikishi coming from Hokkaido, in addition to three active Oyakata from the Tokachi region, where Obihiro is located, two of whom are former Yokozuna – Hakkaku (Yokozuna Hokutoumi), Shibatayama (Yokozuna Onokuni) and Isenoumi (former Kitakachidoki) – who is from the Obihiro itself.

The two most prominent active Hokkaido rikishi are Kyokutaisei and Yago. While Kyokutaisei did get attention enough to be loved by a Yokozuna:

(Yes, this Youtuber found himself a seat I would personally kill for), the real star of the event was the even more local Yago:

Yago got loved by a mere Ozeki, but got a whole news story to himself. “I have special feelings for my home area… The gates to Makuuchi are right before me, so I’ll strive to get through them”, he says in the interview.

Moving on from the local boys, here is Takanohana working with Takakeisho:

Here is the Makuuchi dohyo-iri, west side (the one where there are actual adults). The youtuber got really personal with Takayasu:

Here is Kisenosato getting his rope tied:

The announcer tells us that the squat is an essential part of the tying process, as it ensures that the Yokozuna can perform his dohyo Iri which includes Shiko and whatnot, without anything falling off.

We have bouts today. Lots of bouts. First, Makushita had an interesting exhibition today. It’s something called “kessho gonin nuki”, and it seems that the winner is whoever beats 5 men from the opposite side in a row. The video is spread over three tweets:

Pretty impressive performance from Ichiyamamoto there.

I believe in addition to that there were also regular Makushita bouts, as I have this image of Enho vs. Nakazono:

enho-bout

Enho won this one.

We have, of course, Yago vs. Takanoiwa:

And we have rare footage from the two oldest sekitori’s bout – Takekaze vs. Uncle Sumo:

Endo again has to face a local boy (Kyokutaisei):

Daieisho vs. Takakeisho:

Ikioi vs. Chiyotairyu. A bit of a miss here at the end but I suppose it just ended there:

Here we have the sanyaku soroi-bumi (synchronized shiko), followed by Mitakeumi vs. Ichinojo:

Dammit, Ichinojo. :-(

Finally, the highlight of the evening, Kakuryu vs. Kisenosato, in which one of the Yokozuna has a wardrobe malfunction so severe that the gyoji can’t let them stay in the same position but has to separate them to rearrange the unruly mawashi. Oopsie!

I really hollered through that one. You don’t see something like that every day.

So here is your daily Enho. You missed him, right? :-)

enho

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 18

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Hachinohe, Aomori

sanyaku-soroi-bumi

August 16 saw the rikishi reach Aomori. There are no less than 18 active rikishi from Aomori – six of them from Isegahama beya. Why? Because Isegahama oyakata is from Aomori. Aminishiki, Takarafuji and Homarefuji hail from Aomori. Unfortunately, Takarafuji is kyujo this jungyo. So only Aminishiki and Homarefuji represented the heya in this day’s event.

Aminishiki wished to have his photograph taken with his son in his home prefecture. He couldn’t do dohyo-iri with him (I have seen no babies or toddlers in this Jungyo’s dohyo-iri). But he did get that photo taken:

Note the matching kesho-mawashi.

In the event itself, Aminishiki and Homarefuji chose to kill two birds with one stone, and practice together to the cheers of the local crowd:

aminishiki-homarefuji

The Isegahama men were not the only ones celebrated this day. There were also the Sasayama brothers, Daiseido and his older brother, who maintains his original surname:

sasayama-brothers
Daiseido and Sasayama of Kise beya

Of course, the most prominent Aomori-born rikishi is Onosho, currently the only Makuuchi wrestler from that prefecture. Takayasu, who does san-ban with him almost every day, gave him butsukari today instead:

This meant that the Ozeki had to look elsewhere for his san-ban. And Mitakeumi was his partner of choice:

In non-Aomori news, Hakuho kept messing with his tsukebito. That rubber band. Somebody aught to take it away from him.

Of course, the Yokozuna also performed his dohyo-iri with the rest of the Yokozuna.

hakuho-dohyo-iri

Nice wolf-themed kesho-mawashi. The writing at the bottom says “Hakuho’s Hokkaido Support Group”. The Yokozuna doesn’t have just one support group, it appears.

Here is a video with the events of the day and lots of bouts:

  • Daiseido-Tobizaru
  • Homarefuji-Chiyonoumi
  • Aminishiki-Daishoho
  • Onosho-Arawashi
  • Nishikigi-Daieisho
  • Kakuryu-Kisenosato

You may notice the spectators shouting “keppare” to Onosho. “Keppare” is the Aomori version of the word “Gambare” used in central Japan. The word is used generally in Tohoku and also in Hokkaido. So instead of gambarizing, the northern folk kepparize. :-)

All the local boys win… (Nishikigi seems to be considered local due to being from Tohoku). Daiseido’s brother, Sasayama, also won his bout vs. Kyokusoten earlier.

While the Jungyo is taking place, the rikishi who are not in the Jungyo are either in their Tokyo heya practicing, or going around doing various training camps. Isegahama beya had its traditional training camp at Aomori (mostly) – together with Tatsunami beya. The day after the Aomori Jungyo event was a rest day for the Jungyo, and this coincided with Isegahama’s conclusion of aforesaid training camp. They had a pep rally to celebrate that conclusion and cheer on their rikishi – and conveniently, the Isegahama sekitori and tsukebito were still at Aomori and could join their heya for the day:

isegahama-pep-rally

And with this little side trip away from the Jungyo, I conclude today’s report. And there is absolutely no Enho today. Nor Tobizaru, nor Arawashi. The ladies of Aomori simply refused to share the pretty faces of the sumo world with the rest of us.

All I can give you is Hoshoryu, who – for some reason – participated in the Isegahama event:

hoshoryu-with-isegahama

(Yeah, it was a joint training camp, but it doesn’t seem to be a joint rally)

 

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 17

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Rikuzentakata, Iwate

venue
Dream Arena Takata – spiffy new building, shiny parking lot

The Jungyo headed East on August 15th (yes, I’m late again), and landed in the coastal town of Rikuzentakata, holding the event at the brand new Dream Arena Takata which was opened this spring.

There is good reason both the building and everything around it is brand new. Rikuzentakata was virtually wiped off the face of the Earth in the tsunami of 2011. It was one of the hardest hit towns, with death toll nearing 2000 people – around 10% of its population. This is the first time in 63 years a Jungyo event takes place at this small town, but Hakuho is actually returning to it 7 years and 5 months after his previous visit – doing Yokozuna-dohyo-iri to encourage the survivors after that devastating natural disaster. “I was the sole yokozuna then”, he recalls. “I did a dohyo-iri twice a day”.

The memory of the disaster was not the only reason for solemnity, though. August 15th is the day Japan announced its surrender in WWII, and it’s designated as a memorial day for those who lost their lives in war. The Jungyo officials held a moment of silence:

moment-of-silence

As such, there were fewer goofs and frolics documented today.

The Makushita-and-below rikishi had their practice first as usual. Tamawashi was there as the head torturer, er, generously offered chest owner:

low-rank-practice-with-tamawashi

Tochinoshin started with light practice:

So light that he did it without his brace.

Hakuho still confined himself to basic drills:

As usual, when he showed up and started to warm up, everybody stood in line to greet him. But what’s this, is Terutsuyoshi sneaking away without a bow?

No, he is not. Quite the opposite – he goes and gets the ladle to offer water to the Yokozuna.

Takayasu has taken a shine to Onosho, and Onosho is making good use of his quality time with the Ozeki:

Attaboy. But Takayasu is not going to stay a loser for long:

Ah… Onosho’s typical overcommitment. Takayasu seems amused – and makes sure the audience is as well.

We are still in Iwate prefecture, so Nishikigi is still very much the center of attention. As such, he is getting some more love from Kakuryu:

He is lucky it’s Kakuryu rather than Hakuho. Hakuho doesn’t settle for slaps on the tush. He likes to kick.

Goeido started doing serious san-ban and upping his pace heading for Aki. At Oshu, he had 9 bouts with Yutakayama and won all. Today he continued with the same rival:

Here are some bouts for you. First – rather rarely for this Jungyo – we have a video for non-sekitori action. Well, former sekitori – Chiyootori vs. Ohata:

Moving up, we have Enho vs. Churanoumi:

Aaaagh… too bad. But rather entertaining for the spectators.

Nishikigi, star of the day, vs. Yutakayama.

Yutakayama gets the upper had on the tachiai, but Nishikigi manages a makikae (change from overarm to underarm grip) and takes control of the bout.

As Kisenosato is back on the torikumi list, today we had the Ozeki facing each other (Tochinoshin not doing bouts as yet):

This one was all Goeido. Poor Mitakeumi who sits by the dohyo as kachi-nokori (winner staying around to give chikara-mizu if needed) is hit by an incoming bear, and it takes him a while to come around and get to the bucket.

Finally, the musubi-no-ichiban really looks like the battle of two Yokozuna.

Kakuryu’s foot seems to be much better.

Signing off with the not-too-happy Enho of the day:

enho
Totally photobombed by Emmet “Doc” Brown there

 

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 16

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Oshu, Iwate

oshu-preparing-dohyo
Preparing the dohyo at Oshu

Today, as the Jungyo hit the Iwate prefecture, two major comebacks have been accomplished.

First, the Ozeki ranks have been completed, with the return of Mr. Georgia, Tochinoshin:

tochinoshin

Tochinoshin said his injured toe still hurts somewhat. He noted that he lost about 10kg since he went kyujo, and wishes to put a few of those back on by banzuke day.

He didn’t get much practice other than basics at his heya, but made himself busy giving butsukari to low-rankers as well as Tobizaru and even Goeido. He did not participate in the torikumi as yet.

Goeido, by the way, was back in business. In addition to that butsukari with Tochinoshin, he was also on the torikumi. His ear is getting better, apparently.

The other comeback was the glacial sekiwake, Ichinojo:

ichinojo

He settled for off-dohyo workout, but was thrown into the torikumi anyway, as you’ll see in the video clips below. His injury was in the lower back – an existing injury that made a return as his weight jumped from 220 to 230 kg just before the Nagoya basho.

He did some physiotherapy back in his heya and it’s “mostly better” now, but he wants to get back down to 220kg. Nevertheless, he wants to have a Genghis Khan when the Jungyo hits Hokkaido, and he may not be able to resist the temptation.

A Genghis Khan, or Jengisukan in its Japanese rendition, is a Hokkaido specialty, the Japanese idea of what Mongolian food is supposed to be: Lamb grilled in metal helmets.

jingisukan

This thing is basically protein and veggies, much like Chanko, and is completely Japanese. I don’t think eating this will hurt Ichinojo much. He should just lay off the sweets and the white rice.

There are several rikishi in the sumo world who hail from Iwate. No less than three of them are members of Isenoumi beya:

sazanami-nishikigi-tokio
Nishikigi, with Sazanami and Tokio

Sazanami hails not just from the prefecture in general, but from the city of Oshu itself, so he got a lot of attention, given that he is merely a Sandanme rikishi. And by “attention” I mean he was tortured pampered by a sekitori:

ryuden-sazanami
Ryuden doing the honors

Kotorikisen of Sadogatake beya and Wagurayama from Musashigawa beya also got a share of the local boy limelight, but really, the star of the day was Nishikigi. This means he also got to wallow in dirt – but unlike his low-ranked ototo-deshi (rikishi from the same heya who joined later), he got to use the chest of a Yokozuna:

Kisenosato, like Goeido, got himself busy on the dohyo for the first time in about a week. He didn’t look too bad. Here is Kisenosato vs. Sadanoumi:

And some bouts vs. Mitakeumi:

All in all, he had 11 matches with these two: 9 wins, 2 losses.

Another comeback – at least to the torikumi – was Takekaze. He was hanging around the Jungyo, but didn’t get a chance to wear his shimekomi. Here he is waiting expectantly for his first performance in a while:

But let’s see some sumo action. Though I have to apologize in advance: some of these are low quality, others filmed from a mile away.

Star of the day Nishikigi, vs. Takakeisho:

 

Next came Ikioi vs. Kaisei:

Shodai vs. Daishomaru:

Kagayaki vs. Shohozan:

Unfortunately, no video of Mitakeumi vs. Tamawashi. But next is Takayasu vs. Ichinojo:

And the musubi, Kakuryu vs. Goeido:

That’s it. Kasugaryu got his bow back from Hokutoo, by the way.

Wait, no Enho? Don’t the sumo ladies in Iwate like Enho?

Sigh. You’ll have to settle for Tobizaru, then:

tobizaru