Some of you all noticed that I cheated and posted this “Origins” video on the main page last week, with no description. I’ll be posting the next video this evening in the same way.

This video is great at providing us a glimpse into Konishiki’s childhood and upbringing. Most of you might not know much of anything about Konishiki’s sumo career, much less his background. Frankly, I was still just a kid when he was in the prime of his career. I wasn’t paying attention to anything but Garbage Pail Kids and ExciteBike. It wasn’t until high school and the Akebono era that ESPN began to have its sumo highlights program and I learned who Konishiki was for the first time. So, for me all of this background from the Narō footage was new.

One of the themes that he stressed was how “giving” was a sentiment fostered in his household. I think that fits well with many of the outgoing projects that he has going on — from Sumo+Sushi to his frequent barbecuing in Japan. The first time I happened upon him in person was at a Hawaii-themed festival in Yokohama, where he was dressed in the sun costume from the children’s show that he used to have. He always seems to be out there, sharing his experiences.

We learned about his recruitment in this video, though you will have heard some of the quotes from the “raw footage” that I’ve shared on YouTube. I’m excited to get more of that out to you this weekend, too. We actually see pictures of him getting on the shinkansen, some videos of keiko and butsukari. The Zatoichi comparison is interesting and reminds me of some of those long “leanfest” bouts.

Next Episode coming up soon.

Two updates to mention here. I’m going to go ahead and start posting the master cuts that were the actual sumo course. I’m not going to wait until I finish posting the raw videos. Second, I’ve uploaded the first episodes to this page which I will use to consolidate all of these “raw footage” and “masters”. There’s now a direct link to that consolidated page on the Tachiai homepage if you want to bookmark it. Just click on Konishiki’s image to get there.

Here’s the Introduction video to the course. It gives just enough of a glimpse of what’s to come to be really enticing. If you are just getting into sumo, these videos are a great start to sumo fandom. If you already know a lot about sumo, you will still learn a lot about the sumo lifestyle and the man, Konishiki. I hope you will enjoy these videos.

Feel free to leave comments on these blog posts. That main page will be just for the videos. Doing it this way will make it easier to keep track of which comments are for which videos. It also allows me to provide a bit of an introduction or explanation for some of the content.

Many of you might recognize Tashiro Yoshinori as “Big Poppa,” the guy whose sukuinage ended my first amateur bout. As an active sumo wrestler, he was known by the shikona Tōōyama (東桜山). (For action shots of the throw, scroll through the Instagram pics below.) He also was in John Wick 4, the Bollywood movie “Sumo”, and he beat Asashoryu. Lately, he’s been heading up a talent agency helping former sumo wrestlers find work. In these videos, though, he and his team help Konishiki demonstrate the techniques that I need to hone up on for my rematch.

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Just after the 2:00-minute mark, you see Konishiki’s first maezumo bout. The poor kid headed straight at Konishiki and got flattened. The highlights are great, and frankly, even better for those of you who have been sumo fans for a long time. You’ll know Chiyonofuji, for example, when you see this Goliath crush him out of the dohyo. Then you see video clips from Hawaii and his childhood. These videos are awesome. Enjoy! More to come!

I think I’ll drop one every week or so. That way you all have a chance to watch and leave comments and such. But if you just want to come back in a while, that consolidated page will be helpful. (It will also have links to these posts so you can leave comments.) Anyway, that’s the plan.