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Kintamayama

Masunoyama story

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Today-a focus on Juryo west 2 Masunoyama. He was the first Heisei-era born rikishi to become a sekitori (together with Takayasu), but this last year he has been plagued by injuries. First, he injured his right ankle last January. Just as he was getting over that injury, he hurt his left ankle, causing him to drop to Juryo and to go up and down on the banzuke. If you watched his bouts last basho, you could see he could hardly hold up his 180-kilo body, let alone fight, yet he managed a 7-8 which won't drop him too much down the banzuke for January 2012. A bout to note was on day 7 when he had an epic battle against Bushuuyama. They both fell out together and a monoii (his first sekitori mono-ii) was called. "I was praying that it would be anything but a torinaoshi..anything.." A torinaoshi was called, which he won. If you watch the video, you can see he can hardly breathe during the monoii. "I was trying to hide my pain the best I could.. As I sat ringside after the win I felt a terrible tingling in my leg. My oyakata keeps telling me to not do anything unreasonable (Oyakata code for "you can go kyujo if you want..") but I just keep wanting to win.."

He has difficulties doing long bouts or torinaoshis. The reason is that he has another problem. He also has small lungs. Not a metaphor-he really has small lungs.

During keiko he is always out of breath. So much so that last May he went to a hospital to see what's wrong, where it was established that he has lungs half the normal size. That's why after every bout, it looks like he is about to die. That seems like something very dangerous for any professional athlete. "In sumo the action is short- lived so as long as I stick to that I'll get by.." he explained. His main problem in training is doing butsugari, which is done repeatedly and intensely. His Oyakata lets him do as much as he can and doesn't force the issue. "When he's breathing heavily he has no power so there's no use forcing him." explained the oyakata. He trains in a swimming pool by walking in the water to strengthen his cardio-pulmonary function and lower body strength.

He is half Filipino and grew up in Japan, doing kid sumo and even winning third place in a national tournament. Then, at age 14 he had to leave for the Philippines, where his life was very difficult. He couldn't adjust to the local food. When it rained his house was flooded and he had to work to help support his family. After a year and a few months he returned to Japan and joined Chiganoura. He sends money to his grandparents in the Philippines and hopes to improve their life.

His Oyakata regrets one thing. "When he was injured in January in his Juryo debut basho after starting 6-0, he went kyujo. Then, he came back a few days later for the KK and got it. I should have not allowed it. He has been suffering ever since and his injury deteriorated. Watching him still drag his feet even now fills me with remorse," said the Oyakata. Masunoyama's left foot injury happened in his Makuuchi debut basho in September on day 4 against Tochinowaka. He couldn't walk on his own for a while after that.

At present, he is afraid to get injured every time he gets on the dohyo. Still, he was injured again on day 3 of Kyushu in his bout against Nionoumi. Yet he continued, and to top it all off he caught a cold on day 11 and had a fever till the end of the basho.

"I hope to gambarize and get well soon. If I cure my injuries I'm pretty sure I can go far," he summed.

He's only 21, so he still has time.

Watch all his November bouts on Araibara's excellent youtube channel (day 7 especially..):

Edited by Kintamayama
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I keep hoping we'll see him back in makuuchi soon!

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I keep hoping we'll see him back in makuuchi soon!

9 wins and and a leg to stand on should do it this basho..

Edited by Kintamayama

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Had to post here even though i am digging up a rather old topic.

Masunoyama is my girlfriend's favourite rikishi (she has only watched a few matches here and there) and she is the one that discovered this topic while googling his name.

damn ... how did i miss this story? He sounds like a great guy and a rikishi of true essence.

he has a fan (and a half ... that's me) in Greece.

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I recently had a variant of bronchitis called "asthmatic bronchitis". My doctor's layman description was that it is when your "air pipes" restrict and you cannot get enough air (as if you have asthma (which you don't) - or small lungs). As part of diagnosing me, my doctor had me blow into the spirometer - my result was that I was getting half the air of a normal person. I could not walk very far at all without feeling light-headed, and not much beyond that without gasping for air. Fortunately, medical science has helped my case, although I'm told it will take a few more weeks to completely get over it.

I just don't know how Masunoyama has been able to do sumo with all his problems, but especially with his lung issues. I'm sure his body has adapted to some extent (this isn't something that happened to him overnight), but it would have kept others off the dohyo. I hope things work out for him.

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Wait I'm getting confused. Wasn't his lung condition a heart condition after all?

In my own defense, I responded to the original post and never noticed it was over a year old. aderechelsea's comment that he had dug up an old topic never even registered...

(I was stupid...)

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I'm not sure if it's ok to dig up old topics and post something a bit dated, but may as well add this video clip to archive it here. That is if it's still around on youtube. It's a short 5 minute NHK Masunoyama story available in English. Recently posted on another thread, Kyushu '15 Rikishi Status I was surprised, and sort of not, to see how he's just really fallen from M4 to Sd40 in the past 3 years.

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