Akinomaki 41,900 Posted January 18, 2020 (edited) The chief coach of the Kindai sumo club, ex-amateur yokozuna Katsuhito Ito has suddenly died 0:30a.m. today at age 55. He was the coach of Takarafuji, Tokushoryu, Asanoyama, Asagyokusei, Shimanoumi, Motobayashi - ex-Asanowaka, ex-Homarefuji - and of last month's zennihon champion Tanioka. To Kindai from Goshogawara high in Aomori, like Isegahama-oyakata. vid yusho in the open-weight category at the 1985 national weight category student championships o o Mainichi reports him as having been a model for a character in the film shiko funjatta amateur yokozuna 1991 as Kindai coach - win by izori after tori-naoshi o as Kindai coach - in 1995 o chief coach since 2001 o with Motobayashi, as he entered Naruto-beya o celebrating the yusho of Asanoyama (on the right of his waving arm) o at the zennihon Dec.2019, with Tanioka and with the club o o o Edited January 20, 2020 by Akinomaki 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Katooshu 3,485 Posted January 19, 2020 (edited) Rather shocking! I noticed him in the background at most of the college events, and he was always smiling, even when his guys lost. He had a good rivalry with Nittaidai's Dr. Saito, with them facing off in back-to-back All Japan yusho matches and each winning once. In the mid-80s he was also thorn in the side of the biggest amateur star of the time, Kushima/Kushimaumi. Some of his matches are on YouTube but I can't search at the moment...a small but very skillful competitor. Edited January 19, 2020 by Katooshu 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akinomaki 41,900 Posted January 19, 2020 (edited) A now very sad scene in the press today - Ito holding the photo of Asanoyama's late high school mentor Urayama at Asanoyama's first yusho. He also coached Urayama at Kindai, but before he became main coach (kantoku). o o o Ura's fond memory of Ito: Ito as fuku-shin made a mono-ii (igi-moushi-tate) at a 2013 world combat games light weight semi-final bout, and because of that Ura won it by izori and went on to win the title. http://hochi.news/articles/20200119-OHT1T50039.html Edited January 20, 2020 by Akinomaki 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johnofuji 232 Posted January 20, 2020 Very sad news. He as a really nice guy. I think I saw a bout yesterday of him doing a beautiful izori on Dr Saito who was the first World Openweight Champion and the first to have the displeasure of tying my first proper mawashi. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
code_number3 711 Posted May 7, 2020 Just seen episode 5 of James May: Our Man in Japan documentary. In this episode, he visited Kinki University sumo club, watching his translator mate got lifted by students. Saw a bit of Ito-san in this part, James was introduced by the translator to Ito-san. Quite a tribute for me 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
