After the fairly modest event we had up north in Ibaraki, the Jungyo returns to Tokyo for one of its permanent events – the dedication sumo event at Yasukuni Shrine.
As John Gunning mentioned in his recent article about Jungyo, this event is free of charge, and allows about 6000 spectators to enjoy a day of sumo right at the heart of the big city.
The upshot of all this is that there were a lot of visuals on the ‘net, and you are in for one long post. Clear up a couple of hours of your time, folks. Prepare a bento box, visit the toilet, tuck in the kids.
After a day of hiatus spent in their homes or heyas, the rikishi get back together for an event at Kawasaki. The locals have used that day to prepare the dohyo:
Interestingly, this video shows the venue with normal lighting, but for some reason, on the day itself, the lighting was changed such that most of the stadium was shrouded in darkness, with spotlights on the dohyo. Although perfectly normal for performances, this is a bit unusual for a Jungyo event, and it caused sideline photos to come out… not exactly pleasing:
Hey Wilt, pass me the ball, I’m open!
On the other hand, photos taken on or around the dohyo tended to be artistic or dramatic, like this Abi shot, showing him preparing for Showdown:
Draw!
Still, there was action both near and away from the dohyo. Shohozan was trying to do suri-ashi, and got a bit flustered by the presence of the NSK camera:
But it seems like this drove Onosho to stop doing seiza and do something to the poor suddenly alarmed pixie. I’m not sure whatever follows is fit for the consumption of children.
Off to the side Nishikigi is doing Nishikigi things to a low-ranked rikishi.
I would feel a lot more sympathy for his victim, if that victim wasn’t Hikarugenji, Arawashi’s tsukebito, who has beaten up a younger rikishi in his heya last year, who left the world of sumo because of that. So go right ahead, yay Nishikigi!
Not far away from them, Ichinojo is practicing with Chiyoshoma (and yes, it’s the lighting again):
Quite brave of Chiyoshoma to attempt that.
Gagamaru was wrapping himself up:
Every sekitori has a taping kit. Some of them need quite a lot.
Kakuryu… is upgrading from the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy to Alien:
Still a little low on the fangs, though.
At the dohyo, Toyonoshima and Goeido are enjoying each other’s company:
Tomokaze is preparing for a big day. He is the local boy here at Kawasaki. And this means lots of butsukari, and a special extra bout (we’ll get to that).
Though he seems a bit puzzled as to what he is supposed to do on it. We’ll, he’ll remember eventually. Oh yes, Ichinojo and Takakeisho both resumed on-dohyo practice.
In fact, both Ichinojo and Yoshikaze are back on the torikumi as of today. On the other hand, Chiyonoumi is off the Torikumi. I don’t know what the nature of his injury is, though.
Let’s take a look at some practice bouts. Here are Mitoryu and Takanosho:
Enho is getting groped and rubbed against so much in this Jungyo, I heard that JR East is preparing a specially designated “Enho Car” on applicable train lines, as part of its harassment prevention efforts.
Chiyomaru is using his belly to great effect, also to get attention from the ladies as he awaits his bout:
“I’m due around August. Ooh, did she just kick? Did you feel that?”
With the Juryo bouts in the background, a Yokozuna prepares for his rope-tying demonstration, just like yesterday. Today it’s Hakuho’s turn:
Note that a Yokozuna wears his kesho-mawashi differently than other rikishi – the top of the apron is tucked into the mawashi rather than covering the Yokozuna’s belly.
By the way, Hakuho was asked what he thought about the US President’s plan to come watch sumo on Senshuraku of the Natsu basho. He said “I’m grateful. It’s still not clear if it will happen or not, but I plan to do my best”.
Time for the Makuuchi dohyo-iri, and Yago is using Ryuden as a sock-puppet:
“See, Ryuden is happily waving at you, dear fans”
Terutsuyoshi and Shohozan are practicing their nirami-ai. That is, the dreaded stare-down. And those two are really good at it. You’d think they are actually angry at each other:
Following the dohyo-iri, but before the regular Makuuchi matches, a very special match took place – one that you’re probably never going to see in honbasho.
Yoshikaze vs. Tomokaze.
The two are holding a gift of snacks from the city. Tomokaze was born is Kawasaki, as I mentioned. The reason that you are not going to see this in honbasho is that they are from the same heya (and very unlikely to be in a yusho playoff together). In fact, Tomokaze served as Yoshikaze’s tsukebito, and out of respect, continued to do so even when he became sekitori, only quitting once he reached Makuuchi.
So these two are very tight, in a mentor-apprentice kind of way. And they also swore they will do this bout completely “gachinko” (“honest”).
Time for the regular bouts. I do not have much in the way of video, but here is Hokutofuji who adopted Nishikigi and Shohozan’s idea of becoming a spectator:
With the lighting in the venue being what it is, you’d think somebody would take an artistic photo of Terutsuyoshi’s salt throw… ah… here it is:
Ryuden seems to enjoy his match with Shohozan, the other starer, quite a lot:
Also, it appears that Abi’s watch has made it to 5 minutes to 6!
But as for his bout itself… he must be the world’s worst yotsu wrestler. Get that ass down, Abi-long-legs!
Well, that’s Tomokaze he is engaging there. So maybe he knows he shouldn’t beat the local boy. Tomokaze wins this one, and marks his victory to all as he goes back to the dressing room:
Here is some news footage from this event, showing mostly Takakeisho – including his daily Tochinoshin bluff match.
The Jungyo doubles back to Mie prefecture where it began. This time to the beautiful city named Tsu. And I was very excited to receive a treasure of photos and videos from this event courtesy of Simon Davies and Blanca Bolea, who got up at 4:55 in Hasunuma and took no less 4 trains and a local bus to get to Tsu. Simon says it was worth it.
There were also many Japanese Twitter users who posted about this particular event, so this may turn out to be quite a long post. Brace yourselves, here we go!
Here we are back with the Jungyo reports, where we will be trying to quench some of your thirst for sumo while we are all waiting for the next tournament.
As a reminder, the Jungyo is a regional tour the sekitori – accompanied by tsukebito and support crews – go on during four of the even-numbered months, bringing sumo to small towns and giving the locals an opportunity to see some keiko and some sumo and interact with favorites.
The Haru Jungyo traditionally begins with a dedication at Ise Grand Shrine – the holiest shrine – located in and around Ise city, Mie prefecture.
As this was a day of dedication ceremonies, it did not include the usual “shake hands with your favorite rikishi” part. The brass had to go perform ceremonies at the main shrines. The Ise Grand Shrine is actually a cluster of shrines. The two main ones are called Naiku and Geku. Ceremonies took place in both locations – about 6km apart.
The tail of the procession – current Ozeki, followed by a tiny shin-Ozeki
The rikishi and NSK brass offered prayers. The rikishi – including some additional san-yaku – were then purified by the priests
The Yokozuna performed dohyo-iri, and the top six san-yaku rikishi then performed synchronized shiko – “sanyaku-soroi-bumi”, similar to that which is performed on senshuraku.
Heading back to more secular activities, perhaps I should start with a list of kyujo. Five rikishi are absent from the Jungyo altogether: Takayasu (lower back issues), Ichinojo (herniated disk), Ikioi (general wreck), Chiyonokuni (Still recovering from operation), and Juryo’s Hakuyozan (who broke a bone during the basho if I’m not mistaken).
In addition, some rikishi are present but not participating in torikumi. Hakuho is basically doing only dohyo-iri and ceremonial functions. Enho had issues with his shoulder through most of the basho and is not on the torikumi list, and Yoshikaze is also not on it.
Enho. Present but not fighting.
Some of the above will be back in action at some point in the Jungyo, and I’ll try to keep you posted when they are.
Back at the venue – which, as you can see in the photo above, is an open facility, but very nicely set up – keiko started out early in the morning. Here is Kiribayama’s practice with Shimanoumi:
This is the only practice video the NSK Twitter account offers – probably because its subject, Shimanoumi, was the star of the day, being a native of Shima city, Mie prefecture.
Following practice, the lower rank bouts, as well as the usual performances of Shokkiri, Jinku, and drum demonstrations took place, giving the sekitori time to have lunch and wear their kesho mawashi. Some kids got their photos taken with ozeki:
Ozeki are like quarks. Here we have a down ozeki, a strange ozeki, and an up ozeki.
This photo-op is what replaces kiddie sumo these days.
Waiting for dohyo-iri back in the venue was no mean feat. The venue, as already mentioned, is an open facility. And it was cold.
Even cold-blooded Mongolians suffered, never mind the poor, suffering Brazilian.
Some fans took the opportunity to ask for autographs and the like. Sadanoumi impressed the fans as he signed an autograph with a proper calligraphy brush:
While the lower divisions’ – including Juryo – bouts took place in the usual fashion, Makuuchi was split into two sets of competitions. The bottom to middle rikishi were in normal, one bout per rikishi fashion. The top, however, participated in an elimination tournament called the “Senshiken”.
In the previous Haru Jungyo, Hakuho won the senshiken, and so he had to hand back the yusho flag:
As top yokuzuna, he also led the senshi vow (“senshi” (選士) here is a word that means “chosen”, but I suspect it’s used as a combination of “athlete” (選手, “senshu”) and “rikishi” (力士)).
I think Kotoyuki’s bout with Chiyomaru is funnier than Shokkiri. Of course, Shimanoumi stars in this summary, but there are several other torikumi for your pleasure.
