Tsurugisho

Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 12 (Oct 14)

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

this-year-kanazawa

🌐 Location: Kanazawa, Ishikawa
🚫 Scandal level: 0

The reason I decided to use the NSK’s official Yokozuna photo as my header is that last year, the 2017 Aki Jungyo passed through exactly the same city and the same venue, and I used that same photo as my header:

Four Of A Kind
K♣️ • K♥️ • K♠️ • K♦️

Alas, what a difference a year makes. It’s the same place and the same season, but the King of Hearts has broken our hearts, and the King of Spades is spading bone fragments out of his knee. They had to substitute Hiyonoyama for them this year.

But at least Kisenosato seems happier.

In fact, I think Kisenosato has a thing with Hiyonoyama, the lead mascot. Here he is leading him down the aisle:

kisenosato-leads-hiyonoyama-to-the-altar
Is the yokozuna… skipping…?

Well, there’s no accounting for taste. And it’s about time the Yokozuna settled down, isn’t it?

Last year, Hakuho joined the Jungyo at Kanazawa, having been kyujo when it started. The reason he chose Kanazawa as his point of rendezvous is probably that there was a special request for Enho, who at the time wasn’t a sekitori, so he arrived as Hakuho’s tsukebito (Chief Holder of Threads, later promoted to #5 VP of Rope Pulling).

You see, Ishikawa is blessed with no less than three popular rikishi who call it home:

three-stars-of-the-day
Slash, Slash and Backslash

It seems the lesson has been learned. This time they provided the rikishi with rikishi-sized sashes. Ones big enough to wrap even around Kagayaki’s big… tracts of land.

And while Endo merely came from a small town in Ishikawa, Enho and Kagayaki are both from Kanazawa itself. So they had their traditional photo together:

enho-with-kagayaki
\ & \

And when I say “traditional”, I mean these two are always photographed together. They are from the same town, have been doing sumo in the same competitions.

enho-kagayaki-2005
Enho and Kagayaki, that is, Nakamura and Tatsu, 2005

And Kagayaki is only 4 months older than Enho. They were even team mates in middle school, until Kagayaki decided to join the world of professional sumo:

enho-kagayaki-2010
Enho participating in Kagayaki’s “Nyumon” (joining a heya) announcement event.

Enho didn’t have plans to be a professional sumo wrestler, until Hakuho convinced him to do so despite his obvious height disadvantage. And thus, they find themselves in that same pose once again. And Again. And again.

All three Ishikawa men had a very busy day. In fact, Enho had an especially busy day, as he had no less than three bouts in the official part of the evening. The torikumi today had extra bouts that were specifically added to feature the local boys: Enho vs. Jokoryu before the official Juryo matches, then (for some reason) Yutakayama-Asanoyama, Abi-Kagayaki, Mitakeumi-Endo – preceding the official Makuuchi bouts.

So Enho had this bout with Jokoryu, then the “official” bout vs. Daiamami, and then he had to fill in for Aminishiki, as the veteran’s knee’s condition has worsened.

Yes, I’m sorry to say that Aminishiki has left the Jungyo as of the next day, to try to nurse his knee back to health.

So, as I said, busy day. Enho also helped Kototsurugy promote his Enho goods:

enho-promoting-enho-goods

Kagayaki was busy outside promoting Ishikawa’s new rice crop:

kagayaki-promotes-ishikawa-rice

And Endo was doing the oicho-mage tying demonstration:

endo-oicho-demonstration
Mmm… I love it when my hair is pulled taut. Give it to me, tokoyama!

They were also attacked from all sides by fans demanding that their baby be held or that their hand fan be signed:

enho-fansa
No resting when you’re about to have a match
kagayaki-right-off-the-dohyo
No resting after a hard session of keiko
endo-fansa
And certainly no rest for Endo

But hey, there are also other rikishi in this Jungyo. And they seem to be enjoying themselves:

chiyonokuni-and-shodai
Shodai and Chiyonokuni seem to be happy. Maybe because Tamawashi is far away.

Kotoshogiku also seems to be in a good mood:

kotoshogiku-enjoying-himself

Goeido seems to be having an especially good time:

goeido-enjoying-himself

It’s not really clear from this photo, but with Kyokusoten laughing behing him, this may be related to his recent running gag: he makes his tsukebito heckle Tamawashi during his bouts.

Abi was having a good time with a little friend:

abi-with-baby

Which is remarkable, because usually those tykes scream their heads off when held by even the most charming rikishi.

Abi was also having his photo taken in a sexy pose:

abi-and-mystery-bump

Ah, erm, er… OK, I declare a competition in the comments: who can come up with the most hilarious explanation for that bulge in Abi’s towel, but keeping it strictly family-safe?

I’m sure you’re feeling an Enho overdose by now, but I just couldn’t skip this one of him returning from the bath. We know Kakuryu has a funny towel wrapped on his head, while Kisenosato prefers the lopsided Mickey-Mouse look. So here is what Enho does with his washed hair:

enho-the-teletubby
His real identity exposed: He is Po from the Teletubbies!

Chiyoshoma decided to apply for assistant announcer:

chiyoshoma-as-backup-announcer

But I think it won’t work well with a Mongolian accent.

And Kisenosato somehow lost the good mood he had earlier:

kisenosato-in-a-bad-mood

What is he so angry about? I hope he didn’t discover Arikawa’s little mime act.

OK, let’s watch some practice sessions:

Jokoryu vs. Chiyonoumi:

Azumaryu vs. Meisei:

Strange tachiai.

Shohozan vs. Tamawashi:

That looked like a continuation of the basho.

Kagayaki vs. Asanoyama:

The local boys don’t get any gifts in keiko sessions.

And I have a couple of official bouts:

Endo vs. Mitakeumi. OK, it’s an extra-curricular official bout:

And the end of the musubi-no-ichiban. The tweet author says the actual bout took about a minute:

So here is your daily Tobizaru. Accompanied by Enho, because of course he is, and Tsurugisho. What do you think about this outfit combo? Oicho-mage, hoodie, and towel?

everybody-wears-a-hoodie-with-an-oicho

Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 6 (Oct 8)

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

🌐 Location: Minamiashigara, Kanagawa
🚫 Scandal level: 1

The day dawns on Kanagawa. People gather in for some sumo.

Abi and Tsurugisho are still off the torikumi, but Tsurugisho participates in the fansa part of the event.

I suppose it’s a rarity for both sides: there aren’t many black kids in Japan, and I’m sure the kid hasn’t seen many people Tsurugisho’s size, either.

Kagayaki lifted some weights. I mean, lifted the weight of Shonannoumi.

Shonannoumi is a local boy, but I don’t think this activity was exactly front and center.

Hakuho, as usual, was at the foot of the dohyo, exercising:

And Kisenosato… was doing his “dance”:

I still don’t know what this is, really. An attempt to stretch the scar tissue in his chest?

Tochinoshin, being Tochinoshin, was on the dohyo, giving some love to Shodai:

I’m not sure the kawaigari was Shodai’s biggest torture this day, though. Here is a very suspicious game some of the rikishi invented. Do rock-paper-scissors. The loser gets one of his nipples busted. Serious ouch. The first victim is Yutakayama.

First, I would think this is the last game Kagayaki would want to get involved in. Second, from the way they arrange a barrier of rikishi when they do the deed, I think they know they are over the line.

Next victim is Shodai:

Now Yutakayama is doing the barrier thing – but that doesn’t stop him from signing an autograph while Shodai learns the meaning of pain.

In the next exchange, Yutakayama has a very worried face and very defensive stance. I wonder how many of those he lost. But this time, the head criminal, Tamawashi, is the one who loses. And he doesn’t take that very well.

Eventually, though, he straightens up and growls at Shodai: “Do it. Do it already!”, and Yutakayama turns around and guards the scene.

Mmm… I wouldn’t recommend showing any of this to your kindergarten kids. They may get ideas.

Rikishi abuse didn’t end at the dohyo-iri, though. Here is Ryuden pinning Arikawa to the wall. The other day I thought that Arikawa was Shohozan’s tsukebito, but as it turns out, he is Kisenosato’s. Hence the white gloves.

This must be right after or right before Kisenosato’s dohyo-iri. Ryuden is already in his fighting mawashi as his torikumi was the second. Kagayaki seems to be still in his kesho-mawashi (he is Kisenosato’s tachimochi).

The only bout I have is this rather low-quality video of Onosho vs. Shohozan.

The first time I watched it I thought I was watching a bit of shokkiri. Only after the announcer calls the kimarite and says it’s Onosho’s win that I became somewhat convinced that this was an actual match.

Here is your Tobizaru.

Tobizaru in a bona-fide sumo moment on the dohyo.

Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 5 (Oct 7)

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

🌐 Location: Chiba, Chiba
🚫 Scandal level: 0

venue

First, let’s all stop and bow as the king enters the building:

At Chiba, the Jungyo trail comes closer to Tokyo again. This was the opportunity for a few changes in kyujo status. I’m sad to tell you that Ikioi has left the Jungyo.

But the happier news is the return of this guy:

enho
Danger, measurements of Cute in Chiba are approaching critical level

The man most happy about this news seems to have been his fellow pixie, Terutsuyoshi:

Awwww… then, ewwww.

Anyway, it was really hard to peel Terutsuyoshi off Enho’s skin that entire day. Someone with an evil sense of humor decided to pit them against each other in the torikumi of the day. Terutsuyoshi won. And yes, he continued to hover around Enho even after they showered.

But we are still on the subject of kyujo. Tsurugisho continued off the torikumi (though still staying with the Jungyo), and Abi is also not in the wrestling list – although he did participate in the fan service:

abi-autographing

Aminishiki – not kyujo – was also giving autographs, though he looks very tired.

aminishiki-fansa

Inside the main hall, Shohozan was utilizing TRX to maintain his pythons:

Some moshi-ai sessions:

Yago-Wakatakakage, with Daishoho and Chiyonoumi:

Kaisei-Endo, with Asanoyama and Kagayaki:

Mitakeumi-Tochinoshin, with Shodai and Hokutofuji

Nice to see Mitakeumi practice. He also did some basics earlier on:

There was a series of quick butsukari on the dohyo:

While on the dohyo, Tochinoshin was offering his chest in butsukari to Takanosho (the high rankers love torturing the newcomers), some bored low-rankers engaged in arm wrestling. Well, kind of:

Here is part of the sumo jinku of the day:

This was followed by the Shokkiri (and yes, apparently they are alternating between the same two pairs of performers as in the previous Jungyo). Then came the Juryo dohyo-iri. With all the absences, this looked positively sad:

Many cheers for Aminishiki – who waves. It’s the Jungyo, after all.

Then there was taiko demonstration (only part is shown):

This was followed by the Juryo torikumi. Today, Nakazono was allowed to rest a bit, and Chiyoarashi joined the Juryo bouts instead, sporting an oicho for the first time in a long while (he last had an official one in 2013!):

chiyoarashi

This is, of course, because he is a local Chiba boy.

Daishoho tried to pull the old salt-in-the-ladle trick on Daiamami.

Crickets.

Nice display of self-control by Daiamami.

Here is Aminishiki vs. Meisei. Watch Meisei’s shiko, by the way. He doesn’t have Abi’s long legs but his shiko is top notch.

A lot of support for Uncle Sumo, but he still gets off the dohyo frustrated.

On the way to the Makuuchi dohyo-iri, Tamawashi continues to make Mitakeumi’s life hard:

tamawashi-badgering-mitakeumi

Here’s Daieisho vs. Nishikigi:

For some reason, this is the only Makuuchi torikumi I found.

The only thing I have from any of the top-level wrestlers is this picture of Hakuho, flirting with the Yobidashi, as he always does just before the kore-yori-san-yaku:

hakuho-flirting-with-yobidashi

I would comment about the size proportions between the Yokozuna and the average Japanese man. Only, with Ichinojo in the background, Hakuho kind of loses the “huge” effect.

Finally, here is Tobizaru. Though maybe now I should revert back to “daily Enho”.

tobizaru

 

Aki 2018 Jungyo – Day 4 (Oct 6)

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

🌐 Location: Saitama, Saitama
🚫 Scandal level: 0

venue-inside
Once again, full house

Many rikishi hail from Saitama, among them Hokutofuji, Daieisho, and Abi – but would you believe that the only decent photo I could find of Abi from this day is this one?

abi-what-no-fans
Where is my army of groupies?

Twitter says he was very busy giving autographs. I guess people were busy handing in shikishi to sign, and forgot to take photos…

Hokutofuji received the attention of Tochinoshin, who gave him Butsukari.

tochinoshin-butsukari-hokutofuji

Tochinoshin, reports say, went all the way with butsukari and did this 38 times (not all of them with Hokutofuji). I’m going to assume this means he got pushed 38 times, because I don’t really think any human being would withstand 38 full butsukari sessions, even as the receiving chest.

Daieisho, in the mean time, didn’t seem to get much limelight – just kept hanging with Takakeisho.

takakeisho-daieisho

Of course, these are just fan shots. It could be that all three of the locals were engaged by the high rankers, as is usual for local boys, but for some reason, neither the NSK Twitter has been active nor have the local fans at Saitama recorded any of that.

Here is Kakuryu with his rubber strap:

kakuryu-rubber-band

That’s actually one of the best shots I’ve seen of him in a while. Kisenosato was also practicing off-dohyo, but I have to admit that… I’m not sure what I’m seeing here…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve already seen short videos of him doing this on several occasions. What is that? The fans call it “The Kise Dance”. Is Kisenosato considering exotic dancing as a second career?

Goofiness mostly concentrated around the dohyo-iri. For example, in the Juryo dohyo-iri, Wakatakakage was picking at Terutsuyoshi. But I must say the Isegahama pixie seemed to actually enjoy the attention:

wakatakakage-plays-with-terutsuyoshi

In the Makuuchi dohyo-iri, Tamawashi was looking for fun. In the past couple of days his trick has been to just stop dead and cause Mitakeumi to bump into him. Mitakeumi seems to be on the alert now, so disappointed Tamawashi starts pestering Ikioi instead:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The West dohyo-iri is not exactly a show of solemnity, either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time it’s right on the dohyo, too. But hey, it’s Abi.

The Yokozuna dohyo-iri was a bit more serious. But if you have ever wondered what Nishikigi does with his glasses when he has to accompany Kakuryu in his dohyo-iri, here is your answer:

 

 

 

 

 

The Yokozuna’s tsukebito are on the alert at the hana-michi to take the sword, clean the kesho-mawashi and whatnot. And one of them has the glasses, for an exchange that looks like a relay race, only the baton is passed to the arriving runner instead of the other way around.

In less happy news, Tsurugisho seems to be injured or ill, and was abruptly taken off the torikumi. Daishoho replaced him vs. Gagamaru (meaning Daishoho had two bouts this day):

daishoho-replaces-tsurugisho

At some point that same Daishoho took some time to relax together with Tobizaru… in the guest seats. I don’t think the spectators minded too much, though:

tobizaru-daishoho-in-the-crowd
Don’t mind us, we’re just here to make the place smell nice.

Further up the banzuke, here is the sanyaku-soroi-bumi (well, one side of it, anyway):

 

 

 

Nice synchronization, there!

Hakuho seems to have gotten over his rather embarrassing match yesterday:

hakuho-got-over-his-booboo

This picture, by the way, given that the last three bouts were Mitakeumi-Tochinoshin, Kisenosato-Goeido, Kakuryu-Hakuho, tells you that Tochinoshin lost. Otherwise there would be no need for the Yokozuna who wrestles last to hand the chikara-mizu to anybody.

Here is the Kisenosato-Goeido bout:

 

Oops. Shikimori Kandayu – who is to be promoted to Shikimori Inosuke after the Kyushu basho – loses his footing there. He then keeps a good distance from the still skirmishing Ozeki and Yokozuna.

Too bad the video doesn’t continue, because Goeido, again, is on Hakuho’s side, meaning there would be no kachi-nokori, and we would be treated to Hakuho’s tsukebito handing him the chikara-mizu with a bare shoulder. I wonder if Kasugaryu is qualified to do that, given that he is wearing a (kesho) mawashi anyway, and is on his way to the dohyo anyway for the yumi-tori ceremony.

Following which, everybody went home, and the dohyo was dismantled:

dohyo-destroyed

But I will not leave you without a Tobizaru for the day – accompanied by Yago, because I am still not sure all of you can recognize the man with the chin. Or is it the chin with the man?

tobizaru-with-yago
Watch out, Yago! There is a monkey eying your shoulder!