mikawa

A short documentary about two Hiroshima rikishi at Nittaidai - Takuma Terao and Kengo Furuta, both lightweight wrestlers. The have been great friends and rivals ever since a young age, and joined Nittaidai together. Two months ago, at the National Weight Class Championships, Takuma won the under-75kg category, and later that day, Kengo won the under-85kg category. This was the first time in the tournament's history that two rikishi from Hiroshima both won Yusho. They are later shown competing at the National Student Championships last week:

The Wanpaku National Championships will be returning in two weeks' time in the Kokugikan Arena, this time with 97 teams from across Japan and also Mongolia (up from 63 teams last year). For the first time ever, there will be TWO Mongolian teams participating (instead of one). This year's tournament motto is "New Challenge", and the whole event will be livestreamed on YouTube on the Tokyo JCI's channel from 8am JST: https://www.youtube.com/user/jciTokyo One thing which is noticeable from the tournament schedule is that, not including Team Mongolia, there are as many as 7 participants who have Katakana names, from Ryan to Joshua to Julian. Amateur sumo in Japan definitely has more of an international presence nowadays, and at all levels of the sport, which is good to see. Notable Rikishi - Grade 4 #36 - Ren Hoshiba (星場 蓮) Winner of this year's Hakuho Cup and also of the Technique Prize, Ren is fast and tricky in the ring. His preferred move is the ashitori leg grab. #53 - Rikuto Matsuoka (松岡 陸翔) Rikuto has been practicing sumo for many years now at Tachikawa Renseikan Sumo Dojo. His stature might be shorter than average, but he has tons of determination. #54 - Asuka Sasahara (笹原 吾守嘉) When the sumo YouTuber Amita made his recent video about Irumo Junior Sumo Club, one of the members he focussed on was Asuka. It also happened to be his birthday on that day. #87 - Kohei Abe (安部 航平) A team-mate of Rikuto's at Tachikawa Renseikan Sumo Dojo. Notable Rikishi - Grade 5 #7 - Tobushinborudo Nyamuchiru (ニャムオチル トゥブシンボルド) Semi-finalist at last year's Wanpaku Tournament.翔 #14 - Ryuto Sasaki (佐々木 琉翔) Semi-finalist at this year's Hakuho Cup. #22 - Konosuke Kishida (岸田 幸之輔) Winner of the Osaka qualifiers, and long-time rival of Raizo Taniyama (#81 below). #29 - Yushin Hayashi (林 優芯) The defending champion, he is huge. #39 - Juito Hirano (平野 純勇斗) Small but skilful, Juito is the Enho of this year group. He was part of the Komatsuryu Dojo team that won the team competition at this year's Hakuho Cup. #72 - Mahiro Yamashiro (山城 真優) Runner-up at last year's Wanpaku Tournament. #73 - Jin Kishima (木島 稔) Rikuto and Kohei's team-mate at Tachikawa Renseikan Sumo Dojo. Jin's mum maintains a blog (https://ameblo.jp/jurimam19760608/) that documents his sumo journey. #74 - Takemoto Toki (竹本 都輝) A Hakuho Cup semi-finalist. #80 - Natsuhi Onuki (竹本 都輝) A Hakuho Cup semi-finalist. #81 - Raizo Taniyama (谷山 雷蔵) Winner of the first event national sumo kata tournament during the pandemic, the rap-lover Raizo has made multiple appearances on Kansai TV. Results-wise, he reached the round of 16 at last year's Wanpaku Tournament, quarter-finals at last year's Primary School Championships, and came second at this year's Hakuho Cup. It should be noted that the Hakuho Cup winner from this year group won't appear at this tournament, and neither will anyone else from traditional powerhouse Aomori Prefecture for some reason. It's strange because there will be teams from Hokkaido and other Tohoku prefectures. #87 - Haruki Sasaki (佐々木 陽希) Runner-up at last year's Primary School Championships, he is also huge. Notable Rikishi - Grade 6 #2 - Muti Palu (パル ム ティ) Muti is the son of former professional Australian rugby player Wycliff Palu. He was a quarter-finalist at last year's Wanpaku Tournament, and a semi-finalist at last year's Primary School Championships. #20 - Hayate Kawarai (河原井 颯) A semi-finalist at last year's Wanpaku Tournament, Hayate trains in both sumo and judo. #53 - Kyuta Kumagai (熊谷 毬太) The defending champion of both the Wanpaku Tournament and the Hakuho Cup, as well as a semi-finalist at last year's Primary School Championships. The Reuters star Kyuta is the favorite for this tournament. Along with Juito, he helped Komatsuryu Dojo win the team competition at this year's Hakuho Cup. #79 - Junki Tamiya (田宮 純喜) He is the younger son of ex-Kotomitsuki. #90 - Kota Utagawa (宇田川 康太) One of the Utagawa brothers at Kashiwa Junior Sumo Club, whose alumni include Kotonowaka and Kotoshoho. #94 - Sera Ota (大手 星来) Former Hakuho Cup winner and a runner-up at last year's Wanpaku Tournament AND Primary School Championships. The Shodai kohai will want to go one better this time. #97 - Hisatsugu Sasaki (佐々木 久継) The huge Hisatsugu is the defending Primary School Yokozuna. His potential second round bout against Sera should be interesting.

Comments This year, the organisers decided to separate the tournament into two days, with the majority of the Grade 4 and Grade 5 bouts taking placing on Saturday. This allows the tournament to finish at midday on Sunday, giving participants more time than previous years to return to their home prefectures. However, with no video for the first day of competition, we have no idea what happened in Grade 4 and Grade 5 prior to the quarter-finals. Overall, Team Mongolia did well, but they might have wanted more than one quarter-finalist, given that they had a second team this year. However, it was probably fitting that their only rikishi to get that far was called Temujin (a fan of Genghis Khan maybe?) A bit of history was made today as Takumi Norimoto from Gifu reached the quarter-finals in Grade 6. The commentators referred to him as "YouTuber Rikishi", as he has a channel on YouTube called "Dosukoi Takumi". A study in Japan asking Japanese students about what they want to be when they grow up has shown that "YouTuber" is now the most popular profession amongst every age group. A sign of the times? The rikishi I was most impressed with today was Osaka's Konosuke Kishida. In all three bouts that were shown of him, Konosuke was up against a taller and larger opponent. All three bouts went the distance, with Konosuke determinedly using his low stance and lateral movement to stay with his opponents. He was eventually able to find a way to win the first two, and came so so close to winning the third (in the semi-final against the eventual winner). Kudos to him for the huge amounts of fighting spirit that he'd shown today. A month after his club senpai Shodai finished with an abysmal 4-11 at the Aki Basho, Sera Ote goes back to Kumamoto with yet another silver medal. That's the third final in a year that he has lost. Watching his bouts today, I think the problem lies with Sera being a bit too upright at the tachi-ai. Most of the time he's able to get a force out or slap down from that position, but he was not given that opportunity in the final today against Soshin. Sera still has two more tournaments before he moves on to middle school, let's see if he can win at least one of them.

Full Results Grade 4 Winner - Itsuki Nagata (永田 逸樹), Yamaguchi Runner-Up - Haru Yamaguchi (山口 隼瑠), Kumamoto Semi-Finals - Yuma Hayashi (林 祐磨), Kumamoto Semi-Finals - Yamato Iwamoto (岩本 大和), Hyogo Quarter-Finals - Shinnosuke Fujigaki (藤垣 心之介), Aichi Quarter-Finals - Naosuke Koga (古賀 尚輔), Tokyo Quarter-Finals - Ryunosuke Hyodo (兵頭 竜ノ助), Ehime Quarter-Finals - Soshi Takahashi (高橋 奏吉), Miyazaki Grade 5 Winner - Shotaro Takeshima (竹嶋 章太朗), Osaka Runner-Up - Natsuhi Onuki (大貫 夏陽), Chiba Semi-Finals - Konosuke Kishida (岸田 幸之輔), Osaka Semi-Finals - Mahiro Yamashiro (山城 真優), Okinawa Quarter-Finals - Tobushinborudo Nyamuchiru (ニャムオチル トゥブシンボルド), Niigata Quarter-Finals - Yushin Hayashi (林 優芯), Kumamoto Quarter-Finals - Temujin Chirugun (チルグン テムジン), Mongolia Quarter-Finals - Haruki Sasaki (佐々木 陽希), Akita Grade 6 Winner - Soshin Sugama (菅間 奏心), Kagoshima Runner-Up - Sera Ote (大手 星来), Kumamoto Semi-Finals - Haruhi Watanabe (渡辺 暖日), Chiba Semi-Finals - Koki Saito (斎藤 煌生), Iwate Quarter-Finals - Daigo Takemika (武甕 大悟), Kyoto Quarter-Finals - Takumi Norimoto (乘本 匠), Gifu Quarter-Finals - Daichi Mizuno (水野 大地), Kanagawa Quarter-Finals - Keisuke Nakamura (中村 圭佑), Nagano Sansho (Unofficial) Outstanding Performance - Shotaro Takeshima (竹嶋 章太朗), Osaka (Grade 5) Fighting Spirit - Konosuke Kishida (岸田 幸之輔), Osaka (Grade 5) Technique - Haru Yamaguchi (山口 隼瑠), Kumamoto (Grade 4)

2-time High School Yokozuna and amateur sumo superstar Tetsuya Ochiai has become this year's Corporate Yokozuna. He won today's corporate championships in Ehime, beating ex-corporate yokozuna Soichiro Kurokawa in the final. He represented his dad's company Noda-gumi, and now has a Makushita 15 tsukedashi if he chooses to use it. He is only the second high school graduate in history to win this tournament on his first attempt (after Ichinojo).

A wild Chris Gould spotted:

Rest In Peace.

Surprised to hear this but understandable I guess, he's a big loss for sumo for sure.

SumoTuber Amita's sumo club series starts off in Iruma, Saitama, as he attends and films their training session:

English and Mandarin at a native level, Japanese at around N4 though not actually taken any JLPT tests (yet). Saw a video on YouTube a while back where there's a street interviewer who would give out cash prizes to passers-by who could count to 10 in three different languages, in which case I could have "yat, yi, san" (Cantonese), "eins, zwei, drei" and "un, deux, trois"d my way to $5 lol

A ritual sumo event was held in Suwa Shrine in Tachikawa, Tokyo yesterday as part of the Summer Matsuri celebrations. A Shinto priest was there to start off the event, followed by warm-up activities such as shiko and suriashi. The ritual sumo itself comprised of "Beat 3 opponents in a row" (with prizes being given to those who achieved this), "Beat 5 opponents in a row", "Blindfolded Sumo", "Sanyaku Soroibumi", "Sanyaku Bouts" and "God Sending Ceremony" (神送りの儀式). Here's a video I made from the event, any improvement suggestions for future videos would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a short documentary from a few years ago featuring our new middle school yokozuna Kazuma Nishimura. He started sumo when he was only 7 years old, after losing to a smaller kid in a local tournament. Kazuma loves his mum's curry, and wants to become a yokozuna as strong as Hakuho.

Interesting to see Kumamoto's Yuta Kuraoka finally getting one over his long time rival Hayato Kodama. Seeing how well both Shigemura and Toyoda did this year, it really hypes up their rivalry for next year. Imagine these two buddies facing off in another national final, just like in the Hakuho Cup 2 years ago. That would be lit. Also, can we appreciated what a great job Coach Nagai has done at Kashiwa? He set up a dormitory on the second floor of his own home, which currently hosts 10 junior high school rikishi from around the country. Those same rikishi won both of the team championships this year.

The Class of 2006 is a list of rikishi taken from my amateur sumo database, ranked according to their results at major tournaments during elementary and junior high school. The wrestlers on this list graduated from junior high school in March 2006, after which they could choose to enter Ozumo. Otherwise, they would have graduated from high school in 2009 and then from college in 2013.#1 Shogo Kawabata (川端 翔伍), Osaka, Daishomaru, Oitekaze (March 2014 - )#2 Shota Minami (南 翔太), Chiba #3 Minoru Ikejiri (池尻 実), Hyogo #4 Shuji Higashi (東 秀次), Nagasaki #5 Daisuke Sasaki (佐々木 大輔), Aomori, Sasakiyama, Kise (Jan 2010 - ) #6 Shin Takita (滝田 真), Mie #7 Koichi Kataoka (片岡 孝一), Chiba #8 Ryuta Takagi (高木 立太), Ishikawa, Takaryu, Kise (March 2014 - May 2021) #9 Keisuke Yoshida (吉田 圭佑), Aichi #10 Shoma Haga (芳賀 翔真), Fukushima #11 Tomohiro Akutsu (阿久津 智洋), Tochigi #12 Fumiya Nakagawa (中川 結哉), Osaka #13 Tomohiko Iwashita (岩下 智彦), Saitama #14 Kyohei Takahashi (高橋 京平), Kanagawa #15 Kentaro Abiko (安彦 剣太郎), Tokyo, Tsurugisho, Oitekaze (Jan 2014 - )#16 Mitsutaka Kashiwatani (柏谷 充隆), Miyazaki, Kotoeko, Sadogatake (March 2007 - )#17 Yuki Enomoto (榎本 勇起), Kagawa, Kotoyuki, Sadogatake (March 2008 - May 2021) #18 Kazusa Ishiara (石新 一早), Okinawa #19 Akitoshi Ishida (石田 晃敏), Chiba #20 Kohei Takahashi (高橋 光平), Saitama #21 Daikichi Kasai (笠井 大吉), Kanagawa

#20 Kohei Takahashi (高橋 光平), Saitama

#19 Akitoshi Ishida (石田 晃敏), Chiba

#18 Kazusa Ishiara (石新 一早), Okinawa

#17 Yuki Enomoto (榎本 勇起), Kagawa, Kotoyuki, Sadogatake (March 2008 - May 2021)

#16 Mitsutaka Kashiwatani (柏谷 充隆), Miyazaki, Kotoeko, Sadogatake (March 2007 - )

#15 Kentaro Abiko (安彦 剣太郎), Tokyo, Tsurugisho, Oitekaze (Jan 2014 - )

#14 Kyohei Takahashi (高橋 京平), Kanagawa

#13 Tomohiko Iwashita (岩下 智彦), Saitama

#12 Fumiya Nakagawa (中川 結哉), Osaka

#11 Tomohiro Akutsu (阿久津 智洋), Tochigi

#10 Shoma Haga (芳賀 翔真), Fukushima