Shobushi

Fuyu Jungyo 2018 – Day 4 (Dec 5)

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

🌐 Location: Yukuhashi, Fukuoka
😛 Goofometer: ◾️◾️◽️◽️◽️

At this point in the Jungyo journey, all hell breaks loose as hitherto fairly unknown Sandanme rikishi Takataisho fails to arrive in the morning, and when his friends convince him to come, the chaperones notice, start questioning him, and… Takanoiwa exits the world of sumo, stage left.

Maybe that is the reason why social media coverage of this day is limited. Or maybe the fact that Yukuhashi is a fairly small town, but today’s event coverage will mostly be in photos rather than videos.

So, rikishi practice along the walls. Here is Ichinojo making a rubber strap wish it has never been born:

On day 3, we had ryuden princess-lifting Shobushi. Now the portable weight is utilized by Kagayaki – who prefers piggyback.

“Relax, will you? I’m just a 193cm tall rikishi, not the Tokyo Skytree!”

Well, riding piggyback on the back of one of the tallest rikishi seems to give Shobushi a serious fear of heights.

The previous day, we learned that Asakayama oyakata only accepts greetings from rikishi after they do some squatting with his favorite sack of salt. But apparently, some rikishi get a free pass:

“I’m sure I had a bag of salt here somewhere”
“I’m going to regard that as a joke… oyakata”

Gee, I wonder why that is.

Another person who exchanged greetings with the brass was Gokushindo.

If you’re wondering why Gokushindo would be all chummy with Izutsu oyakata, it’s probably to do with the fact that he was a longtime tsukebito of Kakuryu’s.

By the way, Izutsu is the only oyakata who sits in a chair in Jungyo. My guess is that this has to do with that hip he fractured after Hakuho dame-oshied Yoshikaze on top of him in 2016.

Speaking of Gokushindo, he, Nishikigi and Wakatakakage were all checking the torikumi plan for the day in peace and harmony…

…when all of a sudden Abi burst onto the scene.

Hey guys! Wassup? Whatcha’ll looking at? I wanna see!

Abi merely laid his dainty bear paws hands on Nishikigi’s back, and Gokushindo suddenly found himself splat against the wall.

Meanwhile, in the shitakubeya:

Kyonosato: “There is no possible way you can make me look more ridiculous after that silly ‘Wiggle the Wattle’ routine yesterday”

Narutaki: “Hold my beer”

“No, I mean literally, hold my beer. Now, you were saying?”

Here are some moshi-ai bouts:

And two Ozeki engaging in san-ban:

Hakuho keeps practicing below the dohyo. A middle-aged man in the crowd calls out “Hakuho, Gambare!…”

The Yokozuna turns around and shoots a smile at him. And that’s how you become a fansa-kami-sama (“God of fan service”).

As the sekitori get ready for their bouts, Enho seems to be deeply cogitating:

“So, this proves that f is differentiable at every point in this domain, so to calculate ∇f, let’s first do the partial derivative w.r.t. x₁. Good, now…”

In the previous report, I received complaints about the dearth of Abi. So, here you go. One high shiko coming up:

This preceded Abi’s bout with Nishikigi, a bout from which I only have this tantalizing photo:

From which we can draw two conclusions

  • Kimura Konosuke is diligent even in Jungyo events.
  • Abi is trying up Yotsu again.

Another tantalizing glimpse of a bout:

Tochinoshin is doing the Tochinoshin. Man, this is the musubi-no-ichiban. That’s a full sized bear Ozeki you have there, not a five-year-old playing Upsy-daisy!

So, let’s say our goodbyes to Yukuhashi. Our pinup rikishi is, once again, Wakatakakage:

Because even when he covers his freezing nipples, he manages to look totally cool.

Tachiai’s Sumo Career Tracker

Andy Ryuden (竜電) , , ,

I get a lot of information and inspiration from Herouth’s jungyo coverage. She gives so much insight into a side of the sport that non-Japanese rarely see reported. Frankly, even Japanese don’t see much of this reported outside of local newspapers or Twitter, so much of this side of sumo is completely new to my friends and my wife’s friends. I often find myself doing more research into a topic she’s raised, a lesser-known wrestler she’s featured, or sumo-specific vocabulary.

Her post yesterday featured the homecoming of rank-and-file maegashira Ryuden, alongside mention of fellow Yamanashi export Shobushi. She also shone a light on Shodai’s tsukebito, Asakura, and the former Kototsurugi. Frankly, even Ryuden is a bit of a mystery to me. The last couple of years he seemed to pop up from nowhere and turn into a solid maegashira with the potential to crack into sanyaku.

From his page on the SumoDB, we can see Ryuden’s career actually started back in 2006 and he seemed to have been grinding it out, steadily progressing until he reached Juryo and suffered a major set-back, resulting in multiple consecutive kyujo tournaments. I hate to cite Wikipedia but English-language reporting on sumo wrestlers is difficult to find. So, according to Wikipedia, he fractured his hip, reinjuring it twice and falling way back to Jonokuchi (hat tip to Herouth for catching my error).

When I read this story, I think of how Tochinoshin and Jokoryu clawed their way back into the paid ranks after bad injuries. This also gives a glimpse into the challenges that lie ahead of Ura and Terunofuji. But how well do their stories really compare? It’s quite difficult to see just what Ryuden has overcome in that table.

Effect of Ryuden’s Injury

My day job is data management so I thought I’d put together a simple visualization to give a better visual reference for Ryuden’s career. Time (number of tournaments) is along the horizontal axis. Rank is along the vertical axis. We see his rank crater after he reaches Juryo. Interestingly, for four tournaments in a row, the DB shows that he picks up 1 win, perhaps keeping him from going completely off the banzuke while recuperating. Once healthy, he roared back into the top flights with consecutive yusho in the lower divisions. This should give hope for the young Ura and Terunofuji.

Along with Ryuden, though, this type of visualization also helps give us a glimpse into the careers of the other, even less-well-known rikishi. Shobushi has been a fixture in the Sandanme division for much of the past ten years, though he recently dipped back down into Jonidan. Can he put together a run and make it into Makushita?

Ready for a bounce. Asakura’s yusho will bring him higher, perhaps sandanme?

Asakura is coming fresh off his lower-division yusho, so this graph will need to be updated. He may find himself back in Sandanme. The youngster has started off well but it is challenging to get into the third division.

Lastly, I want to take a look at Kototsurugi, whom Herouth also introduced, alongside Ryuden.

Kototsurugi: Perhaps he has some advice for Shobushi and Asakura?