No question about it – today’s local boy is Ryuden
We have a short, goofless report for you today. By this time, Typhoon #19 wraps its rolling arms around the Japanese main island of Honshu, and heavy rain falls on the Tokai and Kanto regions, where the Jungyo takes place.
A Jungyo event has not been canceled because of weather conditions since the Jungyo has gone indoor in the ’90s. And the NSK bravely tries to keep it that way, bringing its caravan of buses to Yamanashi prefecture, where some of the heaviest rains are predicted.
In days 1-4, we have been traveling around the coast of the Sea Of Japan. Today, we cross the island of honshu eastwards, almost all the way to the ocean side, to the Tochigi prefecture.
The Jungyo is nearly over. In a few hours, the last event – after a few days of hiatus – is going to take place at Tokyo’s KITTE mall, to be shortly followed by the banzuke announcement and all that come with them.
I’ll keep on writing a few Jungyo reports as my time allows, though, because the basho is still a long way away, and because some of you like reading them, it seems. But I can’t in honesty call them “Newsreels” anymore, because, well, the news are a bit old.
Today I’ll cover the two events that took place on August 14 and 15 at Aomori prefecture. These are days 16 and 17 of the Jungyo. The events at Aomori marked a departure of the Juryo rikishi – with the exception of Kyokutaisei and Ichiyamamoto, who are Hokkaido men and expected in the Hokkaido events. Also, Takagenji, the upper-ranking Taka Twin, has joined the Jungyo after being kyujo for its first part, just as his twin brother in Juryo has left it.
Before we go on with the description of the day, here is an update on the state of injuries and returns.
First, on this, day 12, Tochiozan got a nasty cut above his eye and was off the listings for four days, with Aoiyama filling in for him day 12 (it’s customary to have a rikishi do two bouts when something like that happens in Jungyo – there is no fusensho). He was back Day 16.
Other than that, we have two men returning from kyujo. One is Ozeki Tochinoshin, back since day 14, whose state is not really clear. His oyakata says his shoulder is fine, but his knee is still bad, but he is participating in the bouts and even winning them convincingly.
The other is Takagenji – a bit lower profile, admittedly – who joined the Jungyo day 16. That is, just as his big brother Takanofuji-yoshitoshi left it, together with the rest of Juryo.
Indeed, for the Juryo rikishi (and their tsukebito), the Jungyo is over after just 15 days of activity. That is, with the exception of Kyokutaisei and Ichiyamamoto, who are sticking around, because there is an odd number of Makuuchi rikishi at the moment. And of course, the two are Hokkaido men, and the Jungyo is heading up north.
So at least for the Juryo men, the Jungyo workload has been eased considerably. Those of us who wished the Jungyo to be shortened may want to follow up and see if this has any beneficial health effects compared to Makuuchi rikishi.
