Takanohana

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 21

Herouth Jungyo (巡業) , , , , , , , , ,

🌐 Location: Akita, Akita

Today’s report is going to be relatively short, as the usual information (such as bouts and rikishi videos) about this Jungyo event was scarce.

nobori

There are two main reasons for that. One is that the local high school, Kanaashi Agricultural High School, has reached the high-school baseball finals for the first time in 117 years, and this event sort of outshined any minor sporting events in the area. Both local fans and local papers produced less sumo news.

The second reason was that around 10AM, while he was working with his low-ranking deshi outside the venue, Takanohana oyakata collapsed, had spasms, and lost his consciousness. By the time the ambulance arrived, he has regained his consciousness, but he was admitted to hospital for checkups and will be kyujo from the rest of the Jungyo.

He was released from the Akita hospital fairly quickly, returned to Tokyo, and will undergo further examinations at a hospital in the capital.

This further filled my Twitter feed, at the expense of actual sumo. We wish Takanohana good health (despite the fact that many of us foreign sumo fans feel that the man is either delusional or megalomaniac, he is a very popular sumo personality, and seems to be a skilled coach. And anyway, none of the above is a reason to wish ill health on anybody).

But the Jungyo event did proceed more or less as planned. So let’s start with a short video showing the building and dedication of the Akita dohyo:

On the day itself, as usual, some wrestlers were doing keiko while others were shaking hands:

aminishiki

Kakuryu has increased the level of his practice. Up until today he did not do any sumo on the dohyo, only offered his chest for butsukari. Today he had practice bouts vs. Shodai and Yutakayama, and overwhelemed them easily:

Hakuho finally started practicing on-dohyo. His practice was not as intensive as Kakuryu’s. He practiced with Ishiura – mostly tachiai practices etc.:

He also had four bouts with his uchi-deshi, but really, for Hakuho, that’s like taking a candy from a baby. He won them all (yorikiri, tsuri-dashi… poor Ishiura).

Also for the first time he joined the Torikumi. Unfortunately, I do not have the slightest information about either the order of the bouts or the results, let alone videos.

And as we have already come to expect – there was a star of the day. In fact, there are many rikishi who hail from Akita prefecture. But only one sekitori – Takekaze. He also happens to be a graduate of the same high school that got the locals so excited – Kanaashi Agricultural. He made sure to wear his Kanaashi kesho-mawashi.

You can hear him wishing the high school team to do their best and to be “without regrets” after the final occurring on the same day. Unfortunately they did not win the title.

When he finished his torikumi he also unfurled a “Thank you for the Jungyo” sign he prepared in advanced and walked with it down the hanamichi:

takekaze-thanks-audience

He did win that bout – he was elevated from Juryo to Makuuchi and matched with Okinoumi. All the other Akita rikishi (in the low ranks, of course) also apparently won their torikumi.

Here is your portion of Enho of the day, and I hope my report tomorrow will be richer, as the Jungyo hits Tokyo again.

enho
Don’t worry, little one. You’ll soon be done with this stinky duty.

 

Heya Power Rankings: Nagoya-Aki 18

Josh K Aki Basho 2018, Mitakeumi(御嶽海), Tochinoshin (栃ノ心) , , , , , , , , , ,

mitakeumi-preparing

Two thousand eighteen. The year that the underclassmen upset the balance of the hallowed Tachiai Heya Power Rankings. Well, almost. After Tochinoshin’s toe-bustin’ adventures in sansho and yusho, Ice Cold Kakuryu came back to restore the natural order of Yokozuna dominance.

But what’s this? A newcomer has etched his names in the annals of time with a heroic championship win, and you know what happens when that happens: he gets loaded up with special prizes. And in our rankings system, titles and prizes are a good way to load up your stable with points. Step forward Sekiwake Mitakeumi of Dewanoumi-beya, for you, king of tadpoles have arrived.

Ahem. Here’s the full chart for this period:

Heya Power Rankings - Aki 2018

Largely, you’ll note drop-offs in points across the board. This is what happens when everyone is injured. Here’s the top 20-formatted chart:

  1. (+16) Dewanoumi. 95 points (+75)
  2. (+1) Tagonoura. 65 points (+15)
  3. (+4) Sakaigawa. 58 points (+13)
  4. (+5) Tokitsukaze. 58 points (+33)
  5. (-3) Kasugano. 45 points (-45)
  6. (-1) Oitekaze. 44 points (-4)
  7. (-1) Kokonoe. 42 points (-5)
  8. (-4) Miyagino. 40 points (-10)
  9. (+7) Takanohana. 37 points (+16)
  10. (-9) Izutsu. 35 points (-60)
  11. (-3) Tomozuna. 28 points (-4)
  12. (-2) Minato. 25 points (even)
  13. (-2) Isenoumi. 23 points (-2)
  14. (+-) Takadagawa. 20 points (-2)
  15. (**) Kataonami. 20 points (+5)
  16. (**) Hakkaku. 20 points (+9)
  17. (**) Takasago. 20 points (+15)
  18. (+1) Isegahama. 18 points (even)
  19. (-4) Oguruma. 16 points (-6)
  20. (-8) Nishonoseki. 15 points (-10)

(legend: ** = new entry, +- = no movement, tiebreaker 1: higher position in the previous chart, tiebreaker 2: highest ranked rikishi on the banzuke. Nishonoseki and Sadogatake both had an even score after Natsu as well as Nagoya, so Nishonoseki grabs 20th position by virtue of Shohozan outranking Kotoshogiku.)

Movers

After a 38 year title drought, Mitakeumi’s sansho-laden yusho-winning tournament gives Dewanoumi-beya the top spot on our chart. Elsewhere, a 100% kachi-koshi rate for Sakaigawa-beya meant Goeido’s stable returned to the top 3. The impressive veteran Myogiryu (along with Sadanoumi) has succeeded so far in his bounceback to the top division to add to the returning Ozeki’s success in the Nagoya basho. As to whether this ageing crew behind the underachieving Ozeki can continue this improvement at the Aki basho, time will tell.

Yutakayama’s jun-yusho performance vaults Tokitsukaze-beya back into the upper echelons of our chart as well. The stable grabs fourth slot in spite of Shodai’s disappointing tournament. Both Shodai and Yutakayama should return to the joi for September’s forthcoming basho, and after a spirited but underwhelming tilt at the level in May, it will be intriguing to see if Yutakayama can ride the wave of his more recent success to greater achievement in the coming weeks.

Finally, a word for Takanohana-beya, whose beleaguered oyakata guided positive results from resurgent tadpole Takakeisho and Juryo-yusho winner Takanoiwa. When faced with a similar promotion push, Takanoiwa’s fellow Juryo man Takagenji stumbled to a 6 win make-koshi, otherwise the former dai-yokozuna turned stablemaster would be sporting 3 rikishi in the makuuchi ranks for Aki. That said, both Takakeisho and Takanoiwa may be well placed for continued improvement, and Takagenji’s twin Takayoshitoshi probably has a 2019 ETA on a hopefully more humble return to the professional ranks after a dominant 6-1 return to competitive sumo in July.

Losers

By far the most disappointing performance for me this time out has to be the stable that couldn’t even crack the chart, despite an astonishing seven sekitori: Kise-beya. The stable has an incredible number of rikishi in the upper tiers of the third, Makushita tier, as well as the Juryo ranks (and fan favorite Ura still to come back from injury), yet none of those rikishi have been able to make consistent progress. Remarkably, all seven members of the stable’s pro ranks fell to make-koshi losing records, so it’s possible that they were hindered rather than helped by not having to fight each other. Most notably, when faced with the possibility of promotion to the top division amidst a stunning late career comeback at Juryo 1, inelegant veteran Akiseyama fluffed his lines, unable to muster a single win until day 8 against a mostly steady stream of grizzled vets. Newcomer Churanoumi-nee-Kizaki meanwhile will return to the unsalaried ranks following a disappointing 5-10 debut at Juryo.

There’s no great shame in Kasugano-beya’s drop from the top 2 ranks after a series of strong chart positions this year, fuelled by the success of shin-Ozeki Tochinoshin. However, we probably wouldn’t have foreseen the man being docked points for going kyujo. Hopefully his return to competition as a kadoban Ozeki consolidates the stable’s position at the peak of our chart, and stablemates Tochiozan and Aoiyama will be fighting at advanced ranks as well next time out, following winning tournaments in Nagoya.

Izutsu-beya meanwhile takes a tumble following sole sekitori and back-to-back yusho winner Yokozuna Kakuryu returning to the place he occupied most of 2017: the kyujo list.

What’s Next

I’m looking for bouncebacks from Kasugano and Sadogatake beya. In the latter’s case, Kotoshogiku has been mostly competitive in the joi, but his kyujo status midway through Nagoya means he will be fighting at a much lower rank in September and if recovered, should be formidable. The stable will also have Kotoyuki also returning to the top flight.

Oitekaze-beya is another stable whose rikishi could be placed for success next time out. The heya features seven sekitori and despite setbacks for Daishomaru and Daieisho in Nagoya, both should be well placed for success. Oitekaze’s fan favorite Endo, meanwhile, should return to the joi and Juryo man Daishoho may well be positioned to compete for his makuuchi promotion.

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 19

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

🌐 Location: Obihiro, Hokkaido

dohyo
Preparing the dohyo

As I mentioned in my previous post, on August 17, there was a short intermission in the Jungyo as the gigantic traveling show made its way off the main island of Honshu and on to Hokkaido. While a few Isegahama men had duties with their heya and remained in Aomori, the bulk of the ensemble had some time to relax in the relative coolness of the northernmost prefecture.

And everybody who is anybody had to be seen at the BBQ hosted by Yago:

That is to say, Yago himself, Tobizaru, Takanosho, Wakatakakage, Chiyonoumi, Daieisho and Asanoyama.

Yago’s family is from Memuro, about 11km from the Jungyo’s host town of Obihiro. And so he had time to let loose at home and get charged for an eventful day the next day.

There are 20 active rikishi coming from Hokkaido, in addition to three active Oyakata from the Tokachi region, where Obihiro is located, two of whom are former Yokozuna – Hakkaku (Yokozuna Hokutoumi), Shibatayama (Yokozuna Onokuni) and Isenoumi (former Kitakachidoki) – who is from the Obihiro itself.

The two most prominent active Hokkaido rikishi are Kyokutaisei and Yago. While Kyokutaisei did get attention enough to be loved by a Yokozuna:

(Yes, this Youtuber found himself a seat I would personally kill for), the real star of the event was the even more local Yago:

Yago got loved by a mere Ozeki, but got a whole news story to himself. “I have special feelings for my home area… The gates to Makuuchi are right before me, so I’ll strive to get through them”, he says in the interview.

Moving on from the local boys, here is Takanohana working with Takakeisho:

Here is the Makuuchi dohyo-iri, west side (the one where there are actual adults). The youtuber got really personal with Takayasu:

Here is Kisenosato getting his rope tied:

The announcer tells us that the squat is an essential part of the tying process, as it ensures that the Yokozuna can perform his dohyo Iri which includes Shiko and whatnot, without anything falling off.

We have bouts today. Lots of bouts. First, Makushita had an interesting exhibition today. It’s something called “kessho gonin nuki”, and it seems that the winner is whoever beats 5 men from the opposite side in a row. The video is spread over three tweets:

Pretty impressive performance from Ichiyamamoto there.

I believe in addition to that there were also regular Makushita bouts, as I have this image of Enho vs. Nakazono:

enho-bout

Enho won this one.

We have, of course, Yago vs. Takanoiwa:

And we have rare footage from the two oldest sekitori’s bout – Takekaze vs. Uncle Sumo:

Endo again has to face a local boy (Kyokutaisei):

Daieisho vs. Takakeisho:

Ikioi vs. Chiyotairyu. A bit of a miss here at the end but I suppose it just ended there:

Here we have the sanyaku soroi-bumi (synchronized shiko), followed by Mitakeumi vs. Ichinojo:

Dammit, Ichinojo. :-(

Finally, the highlight of the evening, Kakuryu vs. Kisenosato, in which one of the Yokozuna has a wardrobe malfunction so severe that the gyoji can’t let them stay in the same position but has to separate them to rearrange the unruly mawashi. Oopsie!

I really hollered through that one. You don’t see something like that every day.

So here is your daily Enho. You missed him, right? :-)

enho

Natsu 2018 Jungyo Newsreel – Day 12

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

🌐 Location: Ryugasaki, Ibaraki

dohyo-neat-and-ready
Even prefabricated, temporary dohyo are dedicated

On day 12, the Jungyo hit Ibaraki, the prefecture that proudly boasts a Yokozuna and an Ozeki. Almost every nobori in the venue had “Kisenosato” on it, with the occasional “Takayasu” and very few others. This was the first time a jungyo event takes place in the town of Ryugasaki.

Takayasu started his day practicing his tachiai with his tsukebito:

This may have done him good, because later, he went on-dohyo to re-do his practice bouts from yesterday. If you recall, yesterday he went 7 wins and 13 losses, especially facing Onosho.

Today,  the picture was completely different.

takayasu-onosho

He had sanban with Asanoyama and Tochiozan, three matches and three wins against each of them. And he had 10 bouts with Onosho, and won 8 of them. That’s what playing at your home court does!

The main course in the Ryugasaki event, however, was Yokozuna Kisenosato. If you think Japan in general is swept by Kisenosato fever, Ibaraki is like the Vatican of the Kisenosato religion. And Ryugasaki in particular served as the Yokozuna-to-be’s home until his middle school days. An old teacher recalls his days as a child sumo wrestler in this video from NHK.

The man in the white shirt near the end of the clip is none other than Kisenosato’s father. I can’t see any family resemblance at all. He even speaks a lot more clearly than his son (I always suspect that if it weren’t for the subtitles, even Japanese natives wouldn’t understand half of what Kisenosato is saying. But maybe that’s just my horrible listening comprehension skills…)

Kisenosato, of course, featured in the okonomi of the day, having his rope tied:

kisenosato-tsuna-shime

And you already saw his bout with Kakuryu in the above video. Kakuryu’s left foot is still hovering 2 cm above dohyo level. At this rate, Kisenosato is going to be the sole Yokozuna in Aki.

But there were other rikishi visiting Ryugasaki as well. For example, Takakeisho was doing some heavy lifting. This time, no tsukebito – just a modest sack of dohyo salt:

takakeisho-salt

By the way, Takanohana is on this Jungyo as a shimpan. In the previous Jungyo, as three of his sekitori were kyujo and tsukebito-beating Takayoshitoshi was suspended, he was taken off the Jungyo shimpan list and told to keep an eye on his deshi at home. But this time he was back in the Jungyo – and incidentally exactly the same sekitori and TYT (aka TJT) are in the Jungyo anyway.

The NSK’s and Takanohana’s strained relationship aside, while he is at the Jungyo, he seems to fill the time he is not in the black shimpan kimono with actual coaching to aforesaid deshi:

takanohana-teaching

In some other corner of the venue, Takekaze, who is still off the torikumi (as is Goeido), used Chiyomaru as a teppo pole. And like a good pole, Chiyomaru wouldn’t budge. Eventually Takekaze decides to move the immovable, no matter what:

I hope he doesn’t do the same to the teppo pole back in his heya, because that would mean serious damage… to the pole… 😜

Now, while we’re in goof mode, try to guess what Chiyomaru and Daieisho are doing here:

This is actually a Japanese game called “atchi-muite-hoi”. It’s based on rock-paper-scissors. First, the two participants do rock-paper-scissors. Whoever wins moves his finger up, down, left or right, and the loser moves his face up-down, left or right. If the finger and the face go in different directions, nobody wins and the game starts again from rock-paper-scissors. But if the finger and the face go the same direction, the finger owner wins and the face owner loses.

Apparently, there was a penalty for the loser in this particular game: loser gets a dekopin. A dekopin is a finger snap to the forehead – usually quite painful. Rikishi get lots of those on the day they get their first chon-mage arranged. But as you see, that’s not exclusive. And Chiyomaru-tan seems to be quite merciful with his ‘pin.

Here is a (slightly off-focus) video showing the sanyaku soroi-bumi, the following three bouts, and the yumitori-shiki. Actually, the video starts with Kagayaki stepping off the dohyo as the winner of a bout. His rival of the day was Shodai.

The yobidashi couldn’t be more off-key. He could open an off-key opera with Gagamaru.

Shohozan scares me.

And Takayasu with a tsuppari show that wouldn’t have shamed Terao in his day.

As for the yumi-tori, you can see that Kasugaryu is still with us, despite Hakuho’s departure. But as it turns out, he is not the lone performer in this Jungyo as I thought at first. A new yumi-tori performer from Hakkaku beya has been trained. More about him in tomorrow’s instalment. So the “Always two there are” rule is still being kept.

Here is another, less unfocused, look at that musubi bout:

At the end of the day, the dohyo looked a lot less neat than in the image at the top of this post:

dohyo-after

By the way, I wonder why they had the nobori dangling down like that instead of properly stretched on poles. This caused some funny effects. For example, this one seems to be saying “Kagayaki-zeki, the man” (男 輝関):

strange-nobori

In fact, it’s a nobori for Kotoyuki-zeki (琴勇輝). Got to love Kanji. (Credit for this find goes to Azechi, the sumo camera man, aka Sumotophone).

Finally, here is your Enho for today. Yes, for some reason Enho was still on the tour at Ryugasaki. It’s not clear why, as he was taken off the torikumi, so it’s probably not a question of local popularity.

enho
Don’t feel down, little prince. You’ll soon be on the Jungyo on your own merit.