2017 Hatsu & Haru Yusho Portraits - Kisenosato

[Yubinhaad 11,546]

Way late, sorry. The behind-the-scenes extras are on the small side this time, unfortunately.

 

With tsukebito Awajiumi and tokoyama Tokonaru.

Chatting to reporters.

An employee examines some of the souvenir prints of the portrait.

2017 Haru portrait can be seen HERE thanks to Akinomaki.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Yubinhaad

[PawnSums 59]

So if a ozeki is promoted with a yusho, when they get the portrait took, they don't wear tsuna?

[orandashoho 720]

This is not a promotion portrait. This is the yusho portrait. A big version is hung in the Kokikugan joining the line of past yusho winners. A smaller version goes to the winner. There will be an official presentation when the portrait is delivered at the Kokikugan. (I don't know when that is, can someone enlighten us?)

This is the first time I see the preparation of the souvenir prints.

[Orion 431]

4 hours ago, orandashoho said:

This is not a promotion portrait. This is the yusho portrait. A big version is hung in the Kokikugan joining the line of past yusho winners. A smaller version goes to the winner. There will be an official presentation when the portrait is delivered at the Kokikugan. (I don't know when that is, can someone enlighten us?)

This is the first time I see the preparation of the souvenir prints.

On the morning before each Tokyo basho starts, there is the dohyo-matsuri, in which the freshly-made Kokugikan dohyo is consecrated by the tate gyoji, assisted by one makunouchi-kaku and one juryo-kaku gyoji. The Kyokai top brass sit on chairs  at the front, plus (these days) the top-ranking rikishi; all the shimpan sit along the east and west sides of the dohyo, and all the remaining gyoji, in business  suits, sit in the floor seats at the rear. Members of the public can also watch from the seats outside the official ones.

When the short  (about 30 mins) ceremony is over, all those in the know rush outside to the main doorway where the large photographs of the last two yusho winners are propped upright, and they are presented one by one to the winners, who also receive the "real" small one that is their personal memento.  (Having smaller copies made to give away is a personal matter for the winners. I've never seen those before.) They are usually persuaded to shake hands and pose for the general public, while yobidashi and workmen lose no time in manhandling the two yusho-gaku up into the places under the rafters where the two oldest ones have already been removed and taken to the basement store-room.

Orion

[rhyen 1,809]

How big is the basement store-room, and how many ancient Yusho portraits are still there? (Especially for the dai - Yokozuna)

[orandashoho 720]

2 hours ago, Orion said:

the large photographs of the last two yusho winners [...] the two oldest ones ...

Two, because Tokyo hosts every other basho. Kisenosato having won boh, will he persuaded to shake his own hand? Hakuho would have done that a lot then. :)  
That basement room must be huge then. Unless the portrait tradition is relatively new. Are these old portraits ever taken out?

[Akinomaki 39,786]

5 hours ago, Orion said:

When the short  (about 30 mins) ceremony is over, all those in the know rush outside to the main doorway where the large photographs of the last two yusho winners are propped upright, and they are presented one by one to the winners, who also receive the "real" small one that is their personal memento.

They are usually persuaded to shake hands and pose for the general public, while yobidashi and workmen lose no time in manhandling the two yusho-gaku up into the places under the rafters where the two oldest ones have already been removed and taken to the basement store-room.

I have found a nice photo of me standing at the kokugikan door next to the one for Tochiazuma's first yusho and one for Musashimaru, nobody around - I thought they are covered outside at first, but if the yobidashi rush in at once, it has been taken before the presentation to the winners.

2 hours ago, orandashoho said:

That basement room must be huge then. Unless the portrait tradition is relatively new. Are these old portraits ever taken out?

Mostly given to the yusho winner himself, ending up donated somewhere or in his heya etc. The tradition is not new, but I have to check the data, around 100 years ago I think.

Edited April 28, 2017 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 39,786]

14 hours ago, Yubinhaad said:

An employee examines some of the souvenir prints of the portrait.

Mainichi shimbun sells the small ones for 9200Yen, the set for 18 000 yen.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o  o o o o  o

Older mini-yusho portraits can be made as well, to ask by phone

Edited April 28, 2017 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 39,786]

Wikipedia https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/優勝額 tells that at first (1909) the yusho portraits were by Jiji shimbun and not official pre-NSK - there was no individual yusho system till 1926 - and in 1916 and 1923 all so far were lost in fires. In 1936 Jiji merged with the predecessor of Mainichi shimbun and they do the portraits. In 2014 they started to use digital color printing by Fuji film (till then colored by hand) and for the yusho since then they have the same data with which they produce both the full size and the small ones - so I guess one can order for the same 9200 yen any small portrait since 2014 in the exact quality as the "original".

[Akinomaki 39,786]

On 28.4.2017 at 13:19, Akinomaki said:

On 28.4.2017 at 10:40, orandashoho said:

That basement room must be huge then. Unless the portrait tradition is relatively new. Are these old portraits ever taken out?

Mostly given to the yusho winner himself, ending up donated somewhere or in his heya etc.

Hakuho gets more and more old ones to donate. The zensho for Aki 2010 now decorates A-la-Date-na Michi-no-eki in Iwadeyama, Iwasaki-city, Miyagi. Miyagino-oyakata and Ishiura were there as well. Miyagino-beya originally was established in the Edo-period by Date-han employed rikishi and thus has close connections to Miyagi prefecture. http://mainichi.jp/articles/20170616/ddl/k04/050/087000c

[Akinomaki 39,786]

And we may see this after each basho now - only 32 portraits in the kokugikan, already 38 yusho by Hakuho - and others had some, too. About 5 1/2 years ago Hakuho was getting the yusho regularly, and those he gets now for where-ever he likes to put them.

Kyushu 2011 goes to the city hall of Higashi-Osaka-city - by connection with the head of the Miyagino-beya Kansai koenkai, who resides in the city as chairman of a local corporation.

with the mayor

o o o o o o $o

[Akinomaki 39,786]

6 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

Kyushu 2011 goes to the city hall of Higashi-Osaka-city - by connection with the head of the Miyagino-beya Kansai koenkai, who resides in the city as chairman of a local corporation.

As a present for 50 years since establishing the municipality and as PR and support for having some of the Rugby world cup 2019 at the Hanazono stadium   http://higashiosaka.keizai.biz/headline/520/

Hakuho got a certificate of gratitude - the koenkai top, president of Kinki Press (metal), and the mayor some other presents