Akinomaki 34,911 Posted February 7, 2019 On Feb. 11th in the kokugikan, 8-18h JST http://hakuho-cup.com/ Scheduled live stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1PKLBvdMM 2 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Asterix 4 Posted February 10, 2019 (edited) The live stream will start in less than 30 minutes. Edit: live right now Edited February 10, 2019 by Asterix Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikawa 1,760 Posted February 11, 2019 (edited) Tournament Report The bouts have just concluded, so let's take a look at the main results from the tournament. However, before we dive into the winners and near winners...... The Big Takeaway When former Wanpaku Yokozuna Kodama Hayato stepped onto the dohyo today, there was something strange about him - the label on the front of his mawashi. Instead of the label reading "Mitaka Sumo Club", which is the club he belongs to, it actually read "平尾小" (Hirao Elementary School). From this, we can deduce that Kodama Hayato is no longer part of Mitaka, which is a very rare thing to say the least. From what I can understand from the commentators, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the reason for this might be that Kodama's parents felt that there weren't any good training partners there for Kodama Hayato. How this change would affect this bright young prospect is anyone's guess, we'll see what happens over the next year. Grade 3 - A Throwback to Kinboshi Kinboshi Sumo Club introduced us to the Kanazawa siblings. Sorato has already made his mark during his elementary school days, and now it's Towa's turn to shine. Kanazawa Towa, currently in Grade 3, reached the semi-finals today, where he was involved in a bout that required not one but TWO mono-iis. Now THAT's something you don't see everyday. There's a 95% chance that we'll see Towa at the Wanpaku Tournament this summer, so watch this space. Grade 4 - Still Improving, But Still A Ways To Go Former Ozeki Kotomitsuki has a strong and talented son called Tamiya Aiki (photo), whose sumo has been steadily improving over the past couple of years. Aiki reached the quarter-finals today, where he tried a bit too many techniques in the bout and got pushed out, where a more straightforward sumo would probably have been better. He'll learn from this, and keep getting better and better. The Mongolian representative in this year group (Grade 4) is very good at timing his throws, so much so that he nage'd his way through Shigemura Konosuke AND Ogasawara Kosuke, the Wanpaku champion and runner-up from last year. A deserved win indeed. Grade 5 - No Longer the Champion When the quarter-finals began, I was surprised and very happy to see my Renseikan kohai Miyazaki Keijiro step onto the dohyo. He put up a real fight against the 3-time Hakuho Cup champion Kodama Hayato, but Kodama's incredible arm strength prevailed in the end. This is Keijiro's best ever result in a major tournament, and is a reward for such dedication that he has shown to sumo, travelling to the club even when he was injured, just to see his club-mates practise. Kodama Hayato would go on to lose his semi-final bout against Kuraoka Yuta, last year's Primary School Yokozuna, and Yuta would go on to beat his Kawakami Dojo club-mate for the title. This is Yuta's first ever Hakuho Cup victory, which means that the Wanpaku Tournament is the only one he hasn't won, yet. The difference between Kodama Hayato and Kuraoka Yuta, is that Yuta has an abundance of strong opponents he could face during keiko. I can't find a photo of Yuta, so here's Miyazaki Keijiro (left in photo), sitting next to his good friend and Renseikan club-mate Hirano Noato. Grade 6 - The Moro-zashi Expert Does It Again When we talk about the 2-time Wanpaku Yokozuna and defending Hakuho Cup champion Fukuhara Joichiro, the first thing that comes to mind is his amazing ability to get a moro-zashi grip against strong opponents. This is exactly how he beat the former Primary School Yokozuna Nishide Daiki in the semi-final today, on his way to winning his second successive Hakuho Cup. The runner-up was, for the umpteenth time, the short but technically gifted Nakanishi Kaishin. There must be a curse on Kaishin, because he always seems to be able to reach the final at the Hakuho Cup, but always falls one step short. I've been watching League of Legends videos recently, and Kaishin's tournament record reminds me a lot of KT Rolster. Middle School - He Finally Delivers Today's third-year middle schoolers is a year group where quite a lot of contenders have won a national tournament somewhere along the line. The notable exception to this is the very strong and spirited Ochiai Tetsuya, who has always looked like he could win a major tournament sometime somewhere, but it's just never happened. But now he can return to Tottori with the Hakuho Cup trophy firmly in his hands, as Tetsuya finally delivers on the big stage. The stand-out performance however has to be Tebakari Taiki, younger brother of Kototebakari, the opponent whom Tetsuya beat in the final today. Taiki is a thin wrestler, but he is very strong and incredibly skilled. That kirikaeshi he pulled off in the semi-final to knock out last year's Middle School Yokozuna, and the much bigger Yoshii Ko was just splendid to see. Taiki fully deserves to get a Gino-Sho today. And in other news, Tachikawa Renseikan's strong and very tall Ichikawa Taiyo narrowly missed out on a semi-final place via a mono-ii loss. Team Competition - Still The Best In Japan The team competition at the Hakuho Cup requires every team to have 5 members - a Grade 4, a Grade 5, a Grade 6 and TWO Middle Schoolers. Grade 4's are allowed to compete in the Grade 5 slot, but not the other way round. What normally happens is that teams would send out their best wrestler last, to give them the best chance during the decider if a match would ever go to 2-2. However, a lot of teams today did things differently - they sent out their ace member in the second-to-last bout. This is an interesting strategy to say the least, but it also meant that many penultimate bouts were the highlight of the match. Last year's National Club Champions Yaizu Junior Sumo Club had a very tight semi-final match against Sumiyo Sumo Club from Kagoshima. The teams' best wrestlers, Yoshii Ko and Nishika Haruka (the winners of the 2 middle school tournaments last year), met "in the penultimate bout", which Yoshii Ko won by hatakikomi. That sent the match to a decider, which Sumiyo's Hamaguchi Hayato, former Wanpaku Yokozuna, won. The other semi-final was between Team Mongolia and the 2-time defending champions, Kawakami Dojo of Kumamoto. Kawakami Dojo just about managed to survive a 3-2 in their quarter-final match, needing a last gasp utchari to pull through, but they won this semi-final comfortably by a score of 4-1, and would go on to sweep past Sumiyo Sumo Club with a perfect 5-0 result. Once upon a time, Kawakami Dojo, despite being the best sumo club in Japan year after year, would always fall short in major finals (I still can't quite understand how they managed to find a way to lose that final in 2015, having cruised through the rest of the tournament). But not any more. With today's victory, Kawakami Dojo have their third successive Hakuho Cup title, and they are still the team to beat. Edited February 11, 2019 by mikawa 1 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akinomaki 34,911 Posted February 11, 2019 (edited) On 07/02/2019 at 09:23, Akinomaki said: On Feb. 11th in the kokugikan, 8-18h JST http://hakuho-cup.com/ Scheduled live stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1PKLBvdMM The link is now an 11:27h, 8.76GB 720p video - likely it will be replaced by shortened versions later. Mongol team A was unlucky to meet Kawakami-dojo team A in the SF - I'm sure they'd got to the final otherwise - 1-4 is misleading, at one loss the Mongolian overwhelmed his opponent but lost by isami-ashi. Hakuho told that the Mongolian 4th grade champion came just for the day 1000km from Ulaanbaatar - he was impressive, but lost in the team sf to the Kawakami-dojo opponent. Team Kotoshogiku made it to the team final, there was a team Aminishiki and I guess also Toyonoshima and Yoshikaze who have their -cups had one. It was funny to see among the shimpan always 2 from ozumo, eg. Gagamaru with Enho; Ishiura, Mitakeumi with Sanoyama/Satoyama mainly Hakuho's twitter vid o o o o vid o o o o vid vid o o o o o o o other Twitter oo o o o o o o o o o his son as usual lost in the first round - the papers o o o oo 3rd today Ko Yoshii is a new recruit for Haru On 11/02/2019 at 18:15, Akinomaki said: Middle school yokozuna Ko Yoshii 吉井虹 (176cm, 145kg) from Minami-middle school, Shizuoka, will enter Nakagawa-beya: "I wanted to quickly go to the pros. I want to become yokozuna." Nakagawa: "The character is good, with effective wit. I will guide him with all my effort." o o the middle school winners with Hakuho o o o o Tebakari's loss in the final o Tamiya after the loss o Edited February 12, 2019 by Akinomaki 1 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Katooshu 2,397 Posted February 11, 2019 (edited) If Yoshi Ko is really 176cm/145kg then just how big is Ochai I noticed on Youtube Ochai also won an Osaka tournament the other week (well, at least the video was posted the other week), beating Rikido Narita in the finals. Aside from being big he can really explode at the tachai and has definitely stood out to me during the limited middle school action I've seen. I'm interested to see how fast he can make an impact on the high school scene...I assume he'll be a Tottori Johoku. Edited February 11, 2019 by Katooshu 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikawa 1,760 Posted February 12, 2019 (edited) This, has GOT to be, the bout of the tournament. How on EARTH did he manage to pull THAT off?!!! Edited March 1, 2020 by mikawa 5 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bumpkin 438 Posted February 13, 2019 Wow! Ura lives! Kimarite? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikawa 1,760 Posted February 13, 2019 14 hours ago, Bumpkin said: Wow! Ura lives! Kimarite? I couldn't hear which kimarite the announcer said, but one of the commentators (Marvin Junior) suggested Kakezori. The description for this kimarite is "Putting one's head under the opponent's extended arm and body, and forcing the opponent backwards over one's legs (hooking backwards body drop)", which does match how the bout ended Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mt fuji 968 Posted February 13, 2019 1 hour ago, mikawa said: I couldn't hear which kimarite the announcer said, but one of the commentators (Marvin Junior) suggested Kakezori. The description for this kimarite is "Putting one's head under the opponent's extended arm and body, and forcing the opponent backwards over one's legs (hooking backwards body drop)", which does match how the bout ended Dang, SumoDB doesn't show any bouts won in any division in ozumo by Kakezori... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikawa 1,760 Posted February 14, 2019 Some highlights from the tournament, including Tamiya Aiki (Kotomitsuki's son), Wada Mahato (Hakuho's son) and a more close-up view of that Kakezori-esque technique: 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akinomaki 34,911 Posted February 14, 2019 (edited) On 11/02/2019 at 11:54, mikawa said: Grade 4 The Mongolian representative in this year group (Grade 4) is very good at timing his throws, so much so that he nage'd his way through Shigemura Konosuke AND Ogasawara Kosuke, the Wanpaku champion and runner-up from last year. A deserved win indeed. バドナイニャンブー Badonainyambuu (hopefully the Mongolian site mentions the proper writing somewhere later, the proper pronunciation is in the podcast from today - at 10:40min, but that doesn't help me to find the exact spell), 6th grader as 10 year old?, is the youngest of 4 kids from the Tosontsengel district , Khövsgöl province, and has experience in Mongol-zumo bökh since early childhood - both his father and his brother are famous wrestlers in the region. http://www.vom.mn/ja/p/42175 The 4th grade winners with Hakuho hopefully we'll see more of him in the next years Edited February 14, 2019 by Akinomaki 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joaoiyama 281 Posted February 14, 2019 On 11/02/2019 at 17:58, Akinomaki said: Tamiya after the loss o he looks like Kisenosato's son Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
inhashi 2,363 Posted February 14, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, Joaoiyama said: he looks like Kisenosato's son I can see a resemblance with Kisenosato from afar, but undeniably Tamiya is the son of former Ozeki Kotomitsuki. SF link from last year http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/topic/38466-31st-national-primary-school-championships/ Hakuho's son, 10 y.o. Mahato, at the event on TV today [Viking] Hakuho asking Mahato if he was nervous as the two spoke after the bout. "Yes". Why have you practiced keiko just to be nervous? You can throw your opponent if you remain calm... Well done! Edited February 14, 2019 by inhashi 1 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikawa 1,760 Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) On 14/02/2019 at 22:54, inhashi said: Hakuho's son, 10 y.o. Mahato, at the event on TV today [Viking] Hakuho asking Mahato if he was nervous as the two spoke after the bout. "Yes". Why have you practiced keiko just to be nervous? You can throw your opponent if you remain calm... Well done! To be honest, I'm not sure why Mahato has not joined a local sumo club yet, even though he does train with his father just before the Hakuho Cup each year. He obviously wants to win more bouts, so why not? One thing I've seen time and again is that training with older guys is NOT the same as training with opponents your own age, you won't improve as much. Edited February 16, 2019 by mikawa Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikawa 1,760 Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) Chris Gould has uploaded videos of the semi-finals and the final in the team event. A lot of research were put into the making of these videos, he even went as far as to contact the Mongolian team coach directly to find out the Mongolian competitors' names. Now that's dedication! Edited February 16, 2019 by mikawa 1 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akinomaki 34,911 Posted February 21, 2019 (edited) On 11/02/2019 at 20:58, Akinomaki said: The link is now an 11:27h, 8.76GB 720p video - likely it will be replaced by shortened versions later. The full one is still there, but the 9th-Hakuho-cup channel started to post shorter videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB9GFkg_KyHXOXIQ065gfiQ/videos On 13/02/2019 at 00:31, mikawa said: This, has GOT to be, the bout of the tournament. How on EARTH did he manage to pull THAT off?!!! And that bout is all over the wideshows again Today as recap on AsaChan and Viking (11:55h) - as 5th in the news ranking of the week, yesterday long on Tokudane (8:56h-9:07h) and Goody (3:23h-3:33h) A longer report on the tournament was on Viking on the 10th, 1:21h-1:33h Edited February 21, 2019 by Akinomaki 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akinomaki 34,911 Posted March 6, 2019 (edited) 4th year ginou-sho Kousei Motomura from Team Kotoshogiku - the one http://www.saga-s.co.jp/articles/-/345646 the wide shows had continued to show his historical bout Yesterday NewsEvery (6:35h) had a special about the Hayashi twins at the Hakuho cup, today it's on the NNN news video pages vid posted on YT they met Mitakeumi there and got his sign on the t-shirts On 31/12/2018 at 22:05, mikawa said: Grade 6 Rikishi of the Year This was a toss up between Shizuoka's Takei Ginji, this year's Wanpaku Yokozuna; and Nagano's Hayashi Rei, this year's Primary School Yokozuna. In the end, Hayashi Rei just edged it, thanks to reaching the final at this summer's Friendly Examination Tournament. Rei, and his twin brother Ryu, are both members of Nagano's Kiso Sumo Club, where a certain Mitakeumi first learned the art of sumo. When Mitakeumi won his first Yusho at the Nagoya Basho back in July, this inspired the Hayashi twins to train harder to try and follow in their senpai's footsteps. Edited March 6, 2019 by Akinomaki 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akinomaki 34,911 Posted March 13, 2019 (edited) On 06/03/2019 at 09:38, Akinomaki said: 4th year ginou-sho Kousei Motomura from Team Kotoshogiku - the one Twitter and wide show celebrity Kousei Motomura with 2 others of team Kotoshogiku today reported to the mayor of their hometown Takeo-city their best 8 team result at the Hakuho cup. local NHK vid http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/saga/20190313/5080002594.html Motomura in the video (showing his ginou-sho certificate): "Like Kotoshogiku, I want to become a gentle at heart and strong rikishi" In the article, about the famous bout he won officially by kiri-kaeshi in the end: "It turned into a long bout and was hard, but I'm glad I persevered and won." Edited March 13, 2019 by Akinomaki 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikawa 1,760 Posted March 22, 2019 A Mongolian documentary about this year’s Hakuho Cup, with footage from their training camp / selection process, a keiko with Hakuho himself, and most of their bouts at the tournament: 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
