Saburo

I know, I watched (the original) Kirishima during his Heisei glory days, becoming the king of Izutsu-beya and possibly becoming the next Nishinoumi if he had advanced to Yokozuna. I'd rather Kiribayama hold onto his own legacy -- personal preference.

Eh, I'm not down with the new shikona. Unnecessary IMO... Nevertheless a grand day. Congrats to the shin Ozeki.

Checked out the YT link and completely whiffed on Dewanoumi Oyakata -- I was *there* for a good portion of Oginohana's career and can NOT believe how old he looks now. Even Kasugano looks younger than him.

Anyone in Japan get a sample of Kitanofuji curry? He's the best.

The great Chiba dead at 82. https://variety.com/2021/global/news/sonny-chiba-dead-dies-martial-arts-kill-bill-1235044575/ I understand Western media having to reference the likes of "Kill Bill" in any Chiba obituary but man, he didn't need any charity from Tarantino to bolster what was already a hall-of-fame list of credits. Like many kids in Hawaii I was introduced to Chiba as a star of TV detective shows like THE BODYGUARD and GORILLA 7, followed by a slew of jidai-geki: YAGYU CONSPIRACY and KAGE NO GUNDAN amongst others. I still envision Chiba doing battle with a katana more than his fists. (I didn't see any of the STREET FIGHTER movies until only a decade-plus ago.) I wonder who the more-famous COVID death in Japan is: Chiba or Shimura Ken? I assume Shimura had higher visibility for a longer period of time but Chiba was known overseas, if only for that niche.

So, is his first public dohyo-iri going to be in the honbasho next month?

Dumb question but... when's the tsuna-uchi? Used to be the day after the JSA reps came to visit. Is it postponed due to Olympic fever?

Memory is the smoothest of all liars but I recall reading that ex-Yokozuna Tochinishiki scored an ace in his oyakata days. Might have been an obit column in Sumo World magazine

The dean of yakitori chefs here in Honolulu was a ex-rikishi in Takasago Beya in the 1980s, Tsurumifuji. Never made it past Sandame but what a life in Hawaii. His omakase restaurant is still kicking it after all the pandemic shutdowns the last year and change. I read a quote from Konishiki years ago, saying he was small but tougher than nails. An old portrait at the restaurant:

I remember Hasegawa-Kitanofuji matches as a kid where the two of them would have these *great* niramiai at jikan-mae. Hasegawa had that ice-cold look. Would love to hear Kitanofuji reminisce about those torikumi.

I began watching sumo again in the mid-1980s but didn't get the full NHK Bilingual English audio telecasts until the early (?) 1990s. Each broadcast had a play-by-play announcer (Dave Wiggins, anyone?) and a color analyst (my friend *loves* to reminisce about Clyde "The Glide" Newton), along with a third person translating "hanamichi reports." Those days offered a more balanced voice for viewers and didn't feel obliged to cater to "Sumo 101" n00bs. Kinda tough for a solo voice for a couple hours. As has been intimated in previous posts here, the color analyst will make its return to NHK Bilingual soon.

No changes as of today. Just weird, quirky message board glitches. OTOH I can still fill in my AIM and MSN chat handles!

BTW good to know that the NHK English booths will have more than a single play-by-play voice in near-future basho. A single voice feels so lonely, unlike when I used to tune in decades (!) ago and it would sound just as engaging as the Nihongo audio.

Thanks everyone. I mostly lurk here during hon-basho. I belong to a slew of message boards and the first thing I always do is try to make my profile page snazzy. In lieu of actual content, that is...

Just checked again: still no Cover Photo option.