Kisenosato

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Days 6 and 7

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

Today I’m wrapping two Jungyo days into one post, because frankly, materials about the visit to Yuzawa were scarce. Both events took place in Niigata prefecture, so they fit together anyway.

Edit:

  • Turns out Gagamaru and Takekaze have joined the Jungyo at Niigata
  • The full bout between Yutakayama and Endo turned up. See below.

🌐 Location: Yuzawa-machi, Uonuma-gun, Niigata

In a small, sleepy ski resort, Churanoumi, who is soon to lose his sekitori status, is nevertheless diligently working out. The surprising aspect of this is the guy he is using for weight lifting:

We have seen several sekitori lifting their tsukebito or their trainer. Or in the case of the Taka twins, their brother. But in this case, Churanoumi is lifting a man who outranks him a whole division. Yes, that’s Ishiura on his back.

And we have good news – a second Yokozuna mounts the dohyo for practice. This involves giving Yutakayama, the local boy, some TLC, Yokozuna-style:

Hakuho was practicing with a rubber band. And the Yokozuna can’t finish this rubber band practice without targeting his tsukebito’s sensitive parts:

He does it every single time. This time he was even a little merciful, letting it loosen a bit before letting go. I suspect his partner had a stiff insert inside his mawashi in anticipation of this. Here is Enho (who, you may recall, is also one of the Yokozuna’s tsukebito, so he has to do this thing from time to time) in the training camp before the Nagoya basho. His face tells of anticipated pain.

enho-waiting-for-the-inevitable
Enho knows what’s coming. And that towel won’t help a bit.

🌐 Location: Niigata city, Niigata prefecture

Now, this was a whole different thing as far as coverage is concerned. As I said, Yutakayama hails from this city, and he was the star of the day:

The second lady there wants Yutakayama to become Yokozuna. Well, time will tell. In the meantime, Kakuryu again gave him a butsukari session:

A slightly longer video of this is here:

Yutakayama at least fared better than Daiamami did two Jungyos ago – he finished up on his own two feet. You can also see that as usual, Kakuryu does away with much of the Alpha Male bravado part of the butsukari. The usual way to complete a butsukari session is with the receiver knocking on the giver’s chest, who in turn rolls him one last time in the dirt. Kakuryu here is all like – “OK, we’re done. I get it, I got a knock on my chest. But really, do you like rolling in the dirt? Just go…”

That bout between Yutakayama and Endo of which you saw a glimpse in the video, in fact included a wardrobe malfunction. Konosuke did not let it go this time, and had a mawashi-matta:

wardrobe-malfunction-1

Endo seems to have lost both front and back there. And something about this amuses him very much. Maybe the prolonged hug with Yutakayama:

wardrobe-malfunction-2

That’s not an expression you’re likely to see on anybody’s face during honbasho – even in the middle of a wardrobe malfunction.

And here is the full bout:

Anyway, Yutakayama may have been the main course in this meal, but there were many other activities going on around the venue. For example, Kotoeko joined a calisthenics class:

The sekitori were doing moshi-ai. Here we have Endo and Myogiryu:

endo-myogiryu

And Shohozan vs. Okinoumi:

shohozan-okinoumi

Tochiozan was trying to hide from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal:

tochiozan-bugblatter-beast-of-traal

You see, knowing where your towel is is very important!

Tamawashi shook off his murderous ways and instead taught Kyokushuho a resistance training drill:

tamawashi-kyokushuho-1
You wrap the rubber band around your arms like so…
tamawashi-kyokushuho-2
And then pull those arms together.

As the sekitori were getting ready for the dohyo-iri… OK, we interrupt our programming for the following message. This is Yago:

introduction-to-yago

Kintamayama claims that only 3 out of 10 fans would recognize this man. I’m here to rectify this. I have a soft spot for Yago, as my very first post on Tachiai was about Yago. He was amateur Yokozuna, got a Makushita tsuke-dashi position, and struggled a bit to find his place in Juryo at first. He is now one of the mainstays with a good chance of making it to Makuuchi soon. Yago is his real name – his stablemaster said he will not give him a shikona until he matures from a “yago” (different spelling, a dragonfly nymph) to a full-fledged dragonfly. Dragonflies, by the way, are symbolic in sumo – they can only fly forward, so they are a symbol for forward-moving, no-retreat attitude.

Oh, and Osunaarashi in his day nicknamed Yago “Ago”. Which is Japanese for “chin” or “jaw”. Yago is very highly recognizable by his substantial jawline. No, he is not a pretty boy like Enho or Tobizaru, but he is a friendly guy with great potential.

So now I hope you all know who Yago is and how to recognize him, and we shall now proceed with the our planned programming.

Speaking of Enho and Tobizaru, Enho was pulling the oldest prank in the book on Tobuzaru today:

This involve mixing a good amount of the dohyo salt in the ladle of chikara-mizu before handing it over to the awaiting wrestler. The yobidashi usually sees what’s happening but keeps his mouth shut. This is not something you ever do in honbasho, but there is not a single jungyo where this is not done – several times, if possible.

I won’t be surprised if revenge awaits Enho in tomorrow’s event. As Enho always fights first in the Juryo bouts, he will be receiving the water from the wrestler that follows him… which is very likely to be the same Tobizaru.

Goofing around in the Jungyo is not reserved just to Juryo. Take a look at Onosho in the Makuuchi dohyo-iri, as Mitakeumi ascends the dohyo:

So here is the musubi-no-ichiban. And finally, it seems that Kakuryu is able to produce some forward motion:

This is it for today. But I can’t finish without the obligatory Enho photo!

enho-shohozan

Ah yes, Shohozan is in it, too. 😀

And there is even a “the making of” version of this picture:

enho-shohozan-the-making-of

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 5

Herouth Aki Basho 2018, Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Uozu, Toyama

dohyo-iri-ouzu

Day 5 of the Jungyo was Asanoyama Appreciation Day. Asanoyama is the hero of Toyama Prefecture. In fact, a documentary about him is about to be aired in a few days in a local TV station. And this day, Asanoyama worship reached new heights. There was a large Asanoyama panel at the entrance:

asanoyama-panel

A few days ago the Toyama Post Office issued a special set of Asanoyama postcards an stamps, which the man himself presented this day:

asanoyama-stamps

The man was flooded with fan requests for autographs:

And Kisenosato gave him butsukari to the cheers of the 3000 fans who filled the Ariso Dome:

And a local news outlet’s summary of the Jungyo event was also rather Asanoyama-centered:

Asanoyama says there he will work hard and try to achieve double digits in the next basho as well, and that he wants to become a superstar.

However, there were other people in this Jungyo event, too. Hokutofuji was doing suri-ashi:

Watched over by… Asanoyama.

Tamawashi was lending his chest to the low rankers, in what looked like a combination of butsukari and moshi-ai:

By which I mean that he didn’t stick with one victim until exhaustion in a full-fledged “kawaigari”, but rather quickly finished with one and replaced him with one from a group of eager boys.

Hakuho did not ascend the dohyo as yet, and used one of his tsukebito as a Teppo pole:

And Kakuryu exercised Harumafuji-style, with weights on his wrists:

Nishikigi was stretching, and for some reason felt he needed to cushion his hands. And by “cushion” I mean use the fluffiest, softest cushion available: Chiyomaru!

nishikigi-chiyomaru
Practicing for the role of Sisyphus in a movie, perhaps?

Tamawashi was doing fansa and using Shodai for his writing desk:

shodai-writing-desk
“If you’re good and let me use your chest, I won’t break any of your arms in our next bout. Deal?”

Mitakeumi learned to clap the hyoshigi – those wooden clappers the Yobidashi use to punctuate the ceremonial parts of Grand Sumo events. There is a certain art to producing the right sound from these things. Hakuho learned that in the past from the now-retired Yobidashi Hideo.

mitakeumi-hyoshigi

We haven’t seen many Yokozuna dohyo-iri since this Jungyo started, right? So here are the three Yokozuna for you:

Kakuryu:

Hakuho:

And Kisenosato. Since it’s more or less the same angle, you can compare Kisenosato’s Unryu-style rope tie and dohyo-iri to Hakuho’s Shiranui-style above:

There was a bit of the Musubi-no-ichiban in the above “Asanoyama Appreciation Day” video, but here is the full thing:

Kakuryu is still drawing circles with his left food, but not as badly as in the first three days.

That’s it. Take a look at the Komatsu post, where I added the full opening drum roll which turned up in YouTube.

And instead of an Enho photo, I give you his “mystery rikishi” video by the NSK. Guys, the teleprompter should go above the camera!

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 3

Herouth Aki Basho 2018, Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Katsuyama, Fukui

Today, the sumo nobori flags were flapping in the wind in Katsuyama city.front-image-katsuyama

Those of you with sharp eyes (and Kanji skills) will note some flags that one doesn’t normally see in honbasho. For example, a flag for Kimura Ginjuro – the gyoji, and a flag for… Naruto beya, which is certainly not participating in the Jungyo due to having as yet no sekitori whatsoever.

The rikishi practiced. Not only on the dohyo, but all over the venue. Take a look at Ryuden lifting weights. Well, the sort of weights that are available in abundance in the Jungyo:

ryuden-lifting-weights

The towel, by the way, is a point of courtesy. Keeps your sweat away from your partner.

Ishiura was busy… nail gazing? I thought that was reserved only for yokozuna.

ishiura-nail-gazing

So… maybe this is not actually a practice photo. It seems there is a line forming (that’s Homarefuji behind him), which probably means they are waiting to greet one of the Yokozuna.

But here is some actual practice. Wakatakakage seems to be doing an off-dohyo reverse butsukari for Mitakeumi. Just a reminder – a butsukari practice is when a low-ranking rikishi has to push a high-ranking one again and again until he dies, or at least feels as if he did. A reverse butsukari is when a high ranking rikishi feels he needs the exercise, but only has someone ranked lower than himself available to push. It’s basically the same thing, but since the high ranking one calls the shots, it’s usually a lot less like a torture and a lot more like an actual practice.

wakatakakage-reverse-butsukari-mitakeumi

Mitakeumi later switched to the dohyo and gave straight butsukari to youngsters, much like yesterday:

mitakeumi-butsukari

And yes, that’s Kisenosato on the dohyo. This is the first time in this Jungyo a Yokozuna practiced on-dohyo, and that it should be Kisenosato only tells you how badly banged up the other Yokozuna are.

Kisenosato was giving butsukari as well – first to Nakazono, a low ranker (I’m not sure, but I think he is one of his tsukebito):

nakazono-butsukari-kisenosato
The Yokozuna has a lot of chest, but very little of it is muscle

Then he switched to Takanosho:

kisenosato-with-takanosho

And you can see a bit of this action here:

The Yokozuna doesn’t have to do anything, really. Just be heavy.

In addition to practicing, the various sekitori also did a lot of fansa. This included, for example, Shohozan volunteering as a photographer:

shohozan-assistant-photographer

And also Tamawashi signing autographs and having his photo taken with fans. Which for some reason, Kaisei was doing everything in his capability to prevent:

Relax, Kaisei! I’m sure Tamawashi has no intention of applying a kotenage to any of the fans!

Between the practice and the torikumi, the tokoyama re-arranged the hairdos for the rikishi:

tokoyama-working

Just before the Juryo dohyo-iri, the Shokkiri took place. Surprise – we have reverted back to the Shokkiri team from Takadagawa beya, rather than the Kasugano pair from yesterday. And just to show you that each pair has unique features in their act, they went and got what looks suspiciously like an Acme-branded hammer:

shokkiri-team-hammer

Moving on to the Torikumi, it seems that Enho is the regular fill-in in Juryo. That makes sense, but why not just let the guy wear his shimekomi, and be done with it?

enho-vs-tobizaru

Short stop here for beginners: Low ranking rikishi practice and compete in the same black cotton mawashi. When they compete, they insert loose sagari (those cords hanging down from it) into it. Sekitori, on the other hand, practice in a white cotton mawashi which is folded at the front like a roll of toilet paper. When they compete, however, they wear a silk mawashi in the color of their choice, with matching, stiffened sagari. This silk mawashi is called “shimekomi”.

So in the picture above Tobizaru is the sekitori wearing his off-white shimekomi and you can see the stiff sagari protruding to his sides. Enho is a Makushita fill-in, so he wears his black cotton mawashi and you can see his loose sagari hanging down his hips.

Enho has a shimekomi stored somewhere in his heya, from the Haru basho this year, in which he participated as a sekitori. Since he is going to be a sekitori again next basho, he will be putting it back into use.

So let’s move on.

Actually, again, there is not much information about the day’s torikumi, other than the fact that Kagayaki has beaten Ikioi by yori-kiri. And this was only mentioned because Ikioi was doing the duties of “local boy” today, on the premise that his… grandmother hails from a nearby town. 😀

But there is a video of the musubi-no-ichiban:

At this point I’m really getting worried about Kakuryu. Three wins in a row for Kisenosato against the man who won two yusho in a row only a couple of months back? What the heck is going on with Kakuryu’s foot? He looks like he is doing laundry with it, not sumo.

That’s it for today, and since, for some unknown reason, the sumo ladies did not take any Enho photos other than that one against Tobizaru, I’ll have to settle for Arawashi instead:

arawashi

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 1

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , ,

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to our series of Jungyo Newsreels, in which I’ll try to provide a taste of what is going on in the Jungyo and keep us all from getting Sumo Withdrawal Chills (a very dangerous symptom of Sumo addiction!)

kisenosato-kakuryu-ogaki

I can’t promise to be able to post every day, and sometimes I’ll have to wait at least a day for any news to turn up if any, especially in remote places where sumo ladies are not of the smartphone-bearing age.

🌐 Location: Ogaki, Gifu

Let’s start with the bad news: many wrestlers are absent from this Jungyo due to unspecified injuries and maladies. Some have already been absent during the Nagoya basho, and some not:

Makunouchi absentees:

  • Takayasu (left elbow injury)
  • Tochinoshin (Toe injury)
  • Ichinojo
  • Kotoshogiku
  • Chiyonokuni
  • Abi
  • Yoshikaze
  • Takarafuji
  • Chiyoshoma
  • Meisei

Juryo absentees:

  • Kotoyuki
  • (edit) Takagenji
  • Gagamaru
  • Sokokurai
  • Kizenryu

The good news is that all three Yokozuna participate. Well, kinda sorta. They all did their dohyo-iri, but they are all pretty banged up. None of them did any keiko on-dohyo, and Hakuho was not even in the torikumi (bouts of the day).

Kisenosato was sort of working out his left arm:

Hakuho was doing mostly shiko and suri-ashi etc.

Turns out that he hurt his ankle in addition to the knee we already knew about. He said the doctor drew four syringe-fulls of fluid from his ankle, and that he received shots to both his ankle and his knee, but now “there is no pain, just discomfort”.

As for Kakuryu, we’ll get to him later, at the musubi-no-ichiban.

In addition to the many injured and banged-up wrestlers, there was a bit of an incident with four sekitori arriving late. As it turns out, Takanoiwa, Kyokushuho, Azumaryu and Daishoho took advantage of the small gap between the basho and the Jungyo, and went home to Mongolia for a bit of a vacation. The problem is that due to Typhoon Jongdari, the flight back to Japan was delayed.

The four sought an alternative flight through either Beijing or Seoul, but it wasn’t clear that any flights would be leaving for Japan from those cities, either. They were delayed for over 20 hours at Ulaan Baatar, and instead of arriving properly at Narita at noontime on the 28th, they landed there at morning 29th. They made their way to Ogaki by their own means using Shinkansen and trains – and arrived just barely in time for the Juryo dohyo-iri.

azumaryu-dohyo-iri
Kyokushuho, Azumaryu – made it in the nick of time

Their bouts for the day have already been canceled, and Japan being Japan, they were reprimanded by Kasugano oyakata, the head of the Jungyo department. Because of course work is work and they should be at work on time!

Enho and Ichiyamamoto were called in to fill the gaps in the dwindling Juryo ranks. Of course, Enho is a legitimate Juryo wrestler – but on the Jungyo he is still ranked according to the previous banzuke.

enho-with-buddies
Enho still in his black Mawashi

This was not the only mishap of the day – it turns out that there was no air-conditioning at the venue. Or if it was, it wasn’t making much impression on anybody.

turkish-bathhouse
Glistening Yokozuna and Ozeki

The Shokkiri team for this Jungyo: Shobushi and Ebisumaru from Takadagawa. Here is a bit of the action:

But you are here for the bouts, right?

  • Hokutofuji ☆ – Takekaze ★
  • Ryuden ☆ – Okinoumi ★
  • Kotoeko ★ – Ishiura ☆ (Flying henka, what else?)
  • Tochiozan ☆ – Asanoyama ★
  • Sadanoumi ? – Arawashi ? (No word)
  • Aoiyama ☆ – Onosho ★
  • Nishikigi ★ – Yutakayama ☆
  • Myogiryu ★ – Chiyomaru ☆
  • Kyokutaisei ★ – Daieisho ☆
  • Endo ☆ – Chiyotairyu ★
  • Daishomaru ★ – Takakeisho ☆
  • Ikioi ★ – Kagayaki ☆
  • Shodai ☆ – Kaisei ★

Kore yori sanyaku!

Tamawashi vs. Shohozan:

Goeido vs. Mitakeumi (Sorry for the quality):

And the Musubi-no-ichiban, Kakuryu vs. Kisenosato:

Now… it looks normal. But as Andy noted on Twitter, something is up with Kakuryu’s foot:

First, what’s up with that? Kakuryu has been kyujo because of his elbow, not his foot.

Second, this video was taken from TV as you can see. The caption on the top right says “The Yokozuna, who faces his make-or-break basho, makes his first move at the summer Jungyo”. So, despite the YDC and NSK saying nothing about Kisenosato, he is in a “make-or-break” situation, or so NHK thinks.

That’s it for today. Or wait a moment. I can’t really do without yet another Enho picture.

enho-modeling
Yep, he’s definitely put on some additional kilos. Good for him.