Wait, what? Day 7? Did I skip days 4-6? Um, yes I did. I skipped Asanoyama Day, and Mitakeumi Day. Maybe I’ll get back to them later. Who said I have to do this chronologically anyway? But day 7 had some fun materials I just couldn’t skip. So let’s get to it.
🌐 Location: Tokorozawa, Saitama
The Jungyo is reaching the environs of Tokyo, stopping at Tokorozawa. And you know who was born and raised in Tokorozawa?
Continue readingCan I possibly post another report before I drop? Let’s see…
🌐 Location: Habikino, Osaka
Continue readingHello readers. This Jungyo I am going to adopt a different format for my Jungyo reports.
The truth is, posting a full Jungyo report every day is beyond my capabilities at the moment. Curating the various photos and tweets takes hours. So I will only be able to do the full ones on weekends (by which I mean Friday and Saturday, possibly Thursday as well). I’ll try to bring some news every day as and if they surface, but it will be in short format.
Today was the first day. The event took place at Gifu city, Gifu prefecture. The tour left Nagoya yesterday, and arrived at Gifu today.
The rikishi were briefed by the Jungyo master, Kasugano, who warned them to be careful what they do in their time off – because they might get caught on some fan’s camera in a compromising situation. As usual, it’s “make sure you’re not caught”, rather than “make sure you don’t do idiotic stuff”.
Bruce has already mentioned the absences from the Jungyo, but here is the full list again: Goeido, Tochinoshin, Takayasu, Takakeisho, Yoshikaze, Kaisei, Takagenji and Mitoryu.
Ikioi, despite his troubles, is not absent. The Hakkaku and Isenoumi sekitori, with the full staff of their heyas, actually had a short training camp at Okinoshima in Shimane prefecture, Okinoumi’s home town. Okinoumi, Hokutofuji, Nishikigi and Ikioi, together with their designated tsukebito had an early departure back to Nagoya to join the Jungyo.
Another one who is injured and yet present at the Jungyo is Enho – both his shoulder and his ankle are still far from great. He says he will give priority to healing them – but still, he showed up today, including having a (rather entertaining) bout with Toyonoshima. I’ll have that in my weekend collection for sure.
Kakuryu spent a few days in Mongolia following his yusho. He has been away from home for two years – in part because foreign rikishi who are kyujo are not allowed to travel, and he had long periods of kyujo in those two years. He went there accompanied by his… okami san. Yes, that’s his heya-master’s wife. He came back two days ago, refreshed, and said he ate too much mutton and needed some light Japanese summer food.
Regarding all the absences, Hakuho announced he will be pulling everybody behind him. He said in general he wants to do more coaching this Jungyo. Which means, of course, lots of kawaigari. I will, of course, keep you posted if he actually does anything that’s actually educational, the way Harumafuji used to do. In the meantime, he already latched on to poor Kotonowaka, and gave him five minutes of kawaigari. By the way, if you are new here or don’t remember what kawaigari is, I refer you to a previous post where I described it at length. Look for the part starting with “Butsukari is a drill…”
Kotonowaka is the son of the former Kotonowaka, currently Sadogatake oyakata, and the grandson of Yokozuna Kotozakura, the former owner of the same heya. Hakuho picked him because “He has Yokozuna DNA”. Which should signal to Hoshoryu and Naya that they may want to consider postponing becoming sekitori, at least until Hakuho retires.
Kotonowaka was actually very thankful for the experience. The victims usually are. But he was using words like “It was like being in a different dimension” and so on, and “He just absorbed my body slams like a sponge” (he’s not the first one to notice this about Hakuho).
So untypically for Hakuho, he is on the dohyo from day 1 of the Jungyo (usually, at least in recent times, he has been starting the Jungyo on the sidelines, only starting on-dohyo activities after a couple of weeks). He is also on the torikumi list, though I’m sure neither he nor Kakuryu are going to take the “official” bouts too seriously.
Kakuryu, on the other hand, sticks to his usual plan. He has a very exact training regime and I expect he will stick to it through this Jungyo as he always does.
That’s it for today, and I hope to have some news for you tomorrow.
🌐 Location: Sano, Tochigi
We have a small event today, with 1800 participants. Let’s start today with the consecration of the dohyo:
If you recall, at the Yasukuni event, the dohyo was consecrated with a full dohyo-matsuri, featuring high ranking gyoji and all that jazz. But since this is a temporary dohyo, it is consecrated by the local organizers. A bit of saké, and off we go.
Who are our home boys of today? Well, there are Dewanojo, Mitakeumi’s tsukebito, and the pretty Toshonishiki, Mitoryu’s tsukebito:
But the real pride and joy of the prefecture are the Taka twins:
Since I rarely write about the twins, this would be a good opportunity to remind you how to tell them apart. Little brother (by half an hour or so) Takagenji, when he smiles, has a gap between his front teeth. Big bully brother Takanofuji (formerly Takayoshitoshi) has a mole over his right lip. And he smiles a lot less than his little brother, probably because he knows that his days as a sekitori are numbered.
The twins were interviewed by the local papers and struggled to come up with memories of the prefecture, which they have left at a very young age – they grew up at Ibaraki. They did mention that their kindergarten teacher came to see them at the venue.
Turns out they are also a bit stung about the fact that their ototo-deshi (member of the same heya who joined more recently) has left them in the dust and made Ozeki. Takagenji says: “What’s important is what your rank is when your mage is shorn”. He has been told in the past that he is a future Yokozuna, and apparently believes he will be at that rank by the time he retires.
Meanwhile, though, Takakeisho is Ozeki, and they are not. Hence, kawaigari!
Yeah, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself. We were at the handshake stage, weren’t we? For some reason, it seems like they had the handshakes today in the toilets:
At least, for some reason, the outer corridors of this community hall are lined with sinks.
Takayasu enjoys the sunny day, and uses it for a bit of deep contemplation:
Nishikigi wants to change from Clark Kent to Superman… or maybe just get on the dohyo:
We only have one practice video from the NSK, but this one is significant: Kakuryu starts on-dohyo training. We are officially at the last leg of the Jungyo, then.
His chosen opponent – and butsukari victim – is Daieisho.
So we are done with the practice part. It’s time for some shokkiri. Ebisumaru and Shobushi keep refining small points of their routine:
Ebisumaru lets Shobushi do his high kicks alone, and goes around encouraging the audience to clap.
Juryo dohyo-iri. Gagamaru and Sokokurai fool around happily:
Aminishiki seems not to think much of the behavior of these two kiddies.
Arawashi is about a meter ahead of them, busying himself, as always, with being dreamy:
Then they all wait for their turn to wrestle, as the Juryo bouts start with Shonannoumi, who is today’s “filler”:
Filler or not, he beats Daiseido.
And now, where are the aforesaid Gagamaru and Sokokurai?
Ah, right in the middle of the crowd. More specifically, right in the middle of a bunch of primary school kids:
Gagamaru tries to camouflage himself. For some reason «cough»212kg«cough», this doesn’t work all too well.
But the man is sure enjoying himself:
And so do the kids. His tactic works – when he goes on the dohyo, he is accompanied by many little voices calling “Gagamaru! Ganbare!”
Oh, you think this sort of foolish antics is solely the realm of the likes of Gagamaru or Shodai? I give you:
Prince Charming himself! The funny thing is, it looks like the hat actually fits him.
The Juryo bouts end with local boy Takagenji vs. Chiyomaru. Chiyomaru is showing us his prize winning… lunar aspects.
And I swear that Kotoyuki is showing much interest in the full moon that rises on the other side as well.
Ahem… let’s take a look at the three Yokozuna:
Hakuho and Kakuryu do their duty to the local sponsors – and the local mascot, who became a Yokozuna for a day.
On to the Makuuchi bouts, and here is Kagayaki’s shimekomi, sans kagayaki:
Ah, the duties of a tsukebito.
Here is a summary video of today’s event, which includes a few bouts:
Note the “gaijin-cam” there…
Our pin-up boy of the day is the slightly blurry Ryuden:
