TBS Documentary - Vanished Prodigy

[mikawa 1,794]

Tokyo Broadcasting System Television have an ongoing series called "Vanished Prodigy" (消えた天才), which features sporting prodigies who, for one reason or another, failed to fulfil the potentials that they had when they were young.

One of the prodigies that was featured on their program from 3rd January was Hata Mitsuhide (秦 光秀), a 3-time national champion in sumo during his primary school days, and an opponent whom Wakanohana III, back then, just couldn't beat.

As sporting prospects, both Hata and Hanada (Wakanohana) joined Nakano Junior High School, but instead of joining the sumo club at their school, Hata decided to join the judo club. A couple of years later, Hata became a national middle school champion in judo, beating future world champion Nakamura Yoshio in the final.

When asked about why he decided to join the judo club at middle school instead of the sumo club, Hata revealed that he didn't actually have an interest in sumo (but won three national championships anyway).

During high School, Hanada chose to enter Ozumo to be protect his younger brother (Takanohana), while Hata aimed to win a medal at the Olympics someday.

However, at the end of his first year at University, Hata injured his meniscus, and wasn't able to recover from that. For the next few years, his life reached a new low, even comtemplating killing himself, until, at the age of 22, he saw his childhood rival Wakanohana winning his first Makuuchi Yusho.

This helped him realise that it's okay to retire from judo and find another job to do, as long as you work hard on it. Hata is now a TV personality in Nagano, and is doing very well at it.

 

Here's a video of the program, Hata's documentary starts from 1:11:21:

 

And here's a photo of the program being produced, with the club members of Tachikawa Renseikan Sumo Dojo:

Edited January 4, 2018 by mikawa

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Thanks for sharing. Really like this show, and stumbled on it quite by accident a while back. I talked about that experience in another topic, and inhashi was kind enough to find the video and share it on the forum. It was about young Takanohana II.

 

[mikawa 1,794]

50 minutes ago, Otokonoyama said:

Thanks for sharing. Really like this show, and stumbled on it quite by accident a while back. I talked about that experience in another topic, and inhashi was kind enough to find the video and share it on the forum. It was about young Takanohana II.

 

So Kanazawa Sorato is actually a young Takanohana in disguise?

Many thanks for sharing the post, it was nice to see that Kato was able to return to sumo and achieve the success that his potential deserved.

Interesting that they chose Kashiwa Junior Sumo Club as the venue for the re-enactment of the bout between young Kato and young Hanada. Even more interesting was when Hanada's mum commented "is that really a primary school kid?" when Kato appeared on the dohyo, when in fact his actor, Sakamoto Hirokazu, is actually in his final year at junior high school. It also confirmed that Sakamoto Hirokazu was indeed a member of Kashiwa when they became national club champions a month after the program.