Aminishiki

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 24

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

🌐 Location: Odawara, Kanagawa

nobori

The Jungyo is nearing its end, but this doesn’t mean that all troubles are over. Hakuho started the day in Kanagawa, but didn’t finish it there. His left ankle – an injury that accompanied his knee injury – started aching again, and he left the event for Tokyo, to have fluid drawn from it, and hopefully be able to return to action.

Even if he does return for the two remaining days, this is a worrying situation for him. Two days ago, he cranked up his training regime a little, adding some on-dohyo workout and a bout. And immediately, that ankle started acting up. The basho is approaching fast, and he needs to get himself in shape or be kyujo yet again.

He did notify the jungyo masters in time, so his name did not appear in today’s torikumi list.

So let’s go on with the event. First, a reminder that the Jungyo consists not only of rikishi, but also of many others – yobidashi, gyoji, tokoyama, shimpan, . So here is gyoji Kimura Kindayu:

In his street cloths
In full regalia

Much fan attention was given to this foursome:

four-muscle-men

The calisthenics trio from a couple of days ago recruited a fourth member – Chiyonoumi. Here trying to strike a pose. The newcomer is still getting to know the ropes, but the others know the drill. Hokutofuji shows off his ginormous traps. And biceps. And pecs. Whoa. Enho also has nice shoulders but is a little more bashful about striking poses. And Tobizaru doesn’t miss an opportunity to show off.

And I do mean – doesn’t miss an opportunity:

The four continued their synchronized exercises with a form of fast shiko which I’m sure got all the demons and evil spirits in Kanagawa soil to pack up and seek asylum in some other prefecture:

I’m amused by the lonely tsukebito just ignoring them and doing his slow, standard shiko at his own pace.

The four also exercised in turns with a rubber band:

Hokutofuji supported by his tsukebito:

Tobizaru supported by Hokutofuji. I shuddered to think what would have happened if this was not Hokutofuji but Hakuho:

Which may explain why Enho looked so apprehensive when he tried it:

apprehensive-enho

Though I must say that he then trusted Tobizaru with the straps, which is something I wouldn’t do:

enho-trusting-tobizaru

Then again, if I were standing next to a stall selling Tendon, I wouldn’t be pulling any rubber band at all (unless they were preventing me from approaching the stall).

This troop was not the only combo exercising at the edges of the arena. Here are Takakeisho and Daieisho. Takakeisho seems to be in high spirits. Perhaps because he doesn’t have his stablemaster getting intimate with his mawashi knot anymore.

Things get serious (well, as serious as things can get when accompanied by a high school band playing “YMCA”) once Takakeisho slips Daieisho a slap to the face. Takakeisho also thinks it’s a good idea to smash his opponent against the door. Daieisho, however, seems to be enjoying himself immensely.

On the dohyo, Onosho is consulting with Aminishiki about something:

Takanosho got a really lengthy butsukari session from Goeido today. Not sure how he earned all that love:

It didn’t end there. At some point Goeido takes a break and gets a sip of water, and Akiseyama and Yago hurriedly wipe and tidy the exhausted Takanosho:

Kakuryu practiced with Shodai. Shodai looks pretty frustrated:

Here is a bit of today’s shokkiri. I’ve shown you a lot of shokkiri already, but I find it amusing when the gyoji gets deeply into “character”. Here you see the standard lead up to the “fists are forbidden”, and Kimura Satoshi starts to fan himself with his gunbai and turns his back to the pair as the fight breaks. They then start yelling at him to do his job already.

Let’s move on to some torikumi. Starting with the lower ranks:

Jonidan – Arikawa vs. Adachi. These two are amazingly tenacious for a Jungyo bout:

Here is Shinohara vs. Chiyootori at Makushita. Shinohara tries a hassotobi (a flying leap). Chiyootori makes him take a flying leap alright:

Two can play this game…

And this was not the last hassotobi of the day. You know who does it again… and again… and again… And by coincidence, it’s attempted against the other one of the Kinoshita brothers. This bout between Ishiura and Chiyomaru really needs the Yaketi Sax accompaniment. If it didn’t involve two sekitori in their shimekomi I’d have sworn this was shokkiri:

But it isn’t. Chiyomaru sees he is becoming the butt of a joke, so he uses his very formidable pair of glutei maximi. The joke is now on Ishiura. The kimarite, by the way, is ushiromotare – “Lean backwards”. It’s a fairly recent kimarite, which was introduced into the top division by Takamisakari (“Robocop”), though I don’t think he did it quite as comically.

I don’t have the video, but I’m informed that Aoiyama has beaten Ryuden by a very decisive tsuridashi. He’s immitating his heya mate?

Here is Shodai vs. Kaisei:

Now, when they pair Tamawashi with Shohozan, you know you’re not going to get any comedy. What you get is a saloon brawl, including defiant stares and whatnot:

Ooh, there’s some fight club action going on there. And it ends in a monoii. It’s not clear who got out first, and the shimpan do not have the benefit of a video room in the Jungyo. So it’s a torinaoshi:

Ooh, the brawl continues! By this time, the Yokozuna and Ozeki arrive for the kore-yori-sanyaku, and you can see they, too, are being well entertained by this bout:

amused-tochinoshin

Apropos Tochinoshin, he got into the news coverage of this event.

You can see him doing fansa for the children on summer vacation who came to the event (instead of doing their homework). He says that his toe is improving, but still hurts, and adds that he is full of spirits for the coming basho. He later adds that because of his kadoban his first aim is a kachi-koshi, of course, but then he aims at reaching double figures again.

In this same video you can also see his bout with Goeido. Yet another tsuridashi.

Finally, here is your musubi-no-ichiban, and Kakuryu seems to have shifted his gear into Yokozuna drive:

OK, just in case you didn’t get your fill of Enho with those earlier exercises:

enho

 

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 21

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Akita, Akita

Today’s report is going to be relatively short, as the usual information (such as bouts and rikishi videos) about this Jungyo event was scarce.

nobori

There are two main reasons for that. One is that the local high school, Kanaashi Agricultural High School, has reached the high-school baseball finals for the first time in 117 years, and this event sort of outshined any minor sporting events in the area. Both local fans and local papers produced less sumo news.

The second reason was that around 10AM, while he was working with his low-ranking deshi outside the venue, Takanohana oyakata collapsed, had spasms, and lost his consciousness. By the time the ambulance arrived, he has regained his consciousness, but he was admitted to hospital for checkups and will be kyujo from the rest of the Jungyo.

He was released from the Akita hospital fairly quickly, returned to Tokyo, and will undergo further examinations at a hospital in the capital.

This further filled my Twitter feed, at the expense of actual sumo. We wish Takanohana good health (despite the fact that many of us foreign sumo fans feel that the man is either delusional or megalomaniac, he is a very popular sumo personality, and seems to be a skilled coach. And anyway, none of the above is a reason to wish ill health on anybody).

But the Jungyo event did proceed more or less as planned. So let’s start with a short video showing the building and dedication of the Akita dohyo:

On the day itself, as usual, some wrestlers were doing keiko while others were shaking hands:

aminishiki

Kakuryu has increased the level of his practice. Up until today he did not do any sumo on the dohyo, only offered his chest for butsukari. Today he had practice bouts vs. Shodai and Yutakayama, and overwhelemed them easily:

Hakuho finally started practicing on-dohyo. His practice was not as intensive as Kakuryu’s. He practiced with Ishiura – mostly tachiai practices etc.:

He also had four bouts with his uchi-deshi, but really, for Hakuho, that’s like taking a candy from a baby. He won them all (yorikiri, tsuri-dashi… poor Ishiura).

Also for the first time he joined the Torikumi. Unfortunately, I do not have the slightest information about either the order of the bouts or the results, let alone videos.

And as we have already come to expect – there was a star of the day. In fact, there are many rikishi who hail from Akita prefecture. But only one sekitori – Takekaze. He also happens to be a graduate of the same high school that got the locals so excited – Kanaashi Agricultural. He made sure to wear his Kanaashi kesho-mawashi.

You can hear him wishing the high school team to do their best and to be “without regrets” after the final occurring on the same day. Unfortunately they did not win the title.

When he finished his torikumi he also unfurled a “Thank you for the Jungyo” sign he prepared in advanced and walked with it down the hanamichi:

takekaze-thanks-audience

He did win that bout – he was elevated from Juryo to Makuuchi and matched with Okinoumi. All the other Akita rikishi (in the low ranks, of course) also apparently won their torikumi.

Here is your portion of Enho of the day, and I hope my report tomorrow will be richer, as the Jungyo hits Tokyo again.

enho
Don’t worry, little one. You’ll soon be done with this stinky duty.

 

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)