Yokozuna Onosato

[Bunbukuchagama 961]

11 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

Now we know why Onosato is mainly doing the basics and no training bouts, he's still not doing them correctly.

The sanspo sumo column points out that he made it to yokozuna, although he can't do proper suriashi. The shisho does it perfectly, but he in his forward moves has the toes circling way lead to the power vanishing to the inside, instead of directing forward.

https://www.sanspo.com/article/20250705-2CY2F4YZHZPQBBAQUR6CFVJ4ZY/

I have my own rule of thumb: the quality of a rikishi's shiko is inversely proportional to the quality of his sumo.

Perhaps, I should add suriashi to this rule. 

[ouflak 5]

14 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

Now we know why Onosato is mainly doing the basics and no training bouts, he's still not doing them correctly.

The sanspo sumo column points out that he made it to yokozuna, although he can't do proper suriashi. The shisho does it perfectly, but he in his forward moves has the toes circling way lead to the power vanishing to the inside, instead of directing forward.

https://www.sanspo.com/article/20250705-2CY2F4YZHZPQBBAQUR6CFVJ4ZY/

I'd be careful. I remember the great 200 meter runner Michael Johnson telling an anecdote about all of the people commenting on why he runs so oddly and why doesn't he try to run with the same ideal form as everybody. He always replied, "Sure, I could train to run with the same form as everybody else, but then I would be running back there with everybody else!"

I mean certainly there's always room for improvement. But if he's banging out 14-1 yushos, maybe he doesn't need to have everything perfectly fixed?

Edited July 5 by ouflak

[Akinomaki 41,723]

Onosato is celebrated in the XXL decorations at this year's Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata matsuri in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, with parade on the 4th

o

also  slightly smaller ones with photos and his promotion motto

 

[Steve 11]

That would scare the kids

[Akinomaki 41,723]

On 17/06/2025 at 12:19, Akinomaki said:

On 29/09/2024 at 10:36, Akinomaki said:

one wagon of this Echigo-Tokimeki Railway train  is vinyl wrapped in Kaiyo high design, on it the four sekitori who graduated there, one for each door - everywhere only the one with Onosato is shown. The train will be in use like this for 2 years.

oo

Intended to be used for 2 years, but with his speedy promotion the vinyl wrapping will be changed from sekiwake Onosato to yokozuna Onosato within less than a year

The yokozuna Onosato wrapped train consisting of only this one wagon started to operate today, like this planned till September next year

o o

The papers as usual only show the Onosato door, the homepage of Itoigawa city has more details, including the train schedule and a photo from the inside with a tegata  https://www.city.itoigawa.lg.jp/page/8582.html

- but they show the old version, so it's not visible if Shirokuma is still on the other door at this side. The sekitori on this train all were shown with the local Kaiyo high kesho mawashi, but now Onosato is fix in the design with a Kisenosato kesho mawashi of the Tagonoura-beya koenkai. They should have waited at least till they could show him with one of his own set

Edited July 9 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 41,723]

The unique yokozuna is everywhere, with his motto "unique" - yuitsu mu-ni: a rare 4K video by basho promoter Chunichi shimbun, Onosato heading towards the basho and towards the one and only kind of yokozuna 

 

[Akinomaki 41,723]

And also in his CMs his motto is used: today one for Marugame Seimen appeared (bilingual), his favourite shop in Ushiku, Ibaraki, is for that

with also a 30s version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSwYLop6Q9w

press release https://pdf.irpocket.com/C3397/WzNT/N23G/WD9E.pdf

Kensho and maybe also kesho mawashi set to come

Edited July 10 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 41,723]

On 09/12/2023 at 13:10, Akinomaki said:

Oshoumi, with Naruto, returned to Tsubata town a day later, on the 7th, to his parents house and to receive congratulations from the locals at the  onsen facility Yata no Yu run by his parents

dad receiving 10kg local rice for him after the jonidan yusho  - Hokunosato brand http://www.kahoku.is-ja.jp/news/detail.php?id=1614140588

they sent 100kg in all to the heya then

On 27/10/2013 at 17:27, Akinomaki said:

JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives) Kahoku, Ishikawa pref. mascot Hokunosato: carrying rice bags, (no) hair like an amateur rikishi but a green mawashi (rather just a fundoshi) like an ozumo sekitori and trousers like a non-rikishi, 180cm, 100kg.

Any Onosato resemblance?

looked a bit different in 2013, unfortunately I hadn't saved the article, definitely more than 100kg now

Onosato in 2018

o o

 

Now the daily Onosato column in the local paper really connects the local Tsubata town JA mascot Hokunosato with Onosato - maybe they changed the design around 2018 to have him look a bit more like Onosato. Hokunosato remained a shindeshi though, without hair - it was planned to have him grow some later and have a design change like the rise up the banzuke, but the mascot popularity in the present form prevented a change.

The mascot was created in 2013, when Onosato was no longer in Tsubata, but already in sumo stronghold Itoigawa middle school, Niigata.

Now it is said that the creator was a visionary - nobody could have predicted a similar shikona for him then.

[Akinomaki 41,723]

On 05/07/2025 at 23:47, Akinomaki said:

Onosato is celebrated in the XXL decorations at this year's Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata matsuri in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, with parade on the 4th

Tanabata matsuri are still starting at some locations, another one that celebrates Onosato is the 68th Endo-ji Tanabata Festival at a shopping district in Nagoya, from the 31st till the 3rd

the artistic value is way below Hiratsuka though

o

someone made a walk along the decorations, unfortunately from the other side, where there is no shikona at the butt youtube.com/watch?v=iclYxovFkAk&t=7m15s

Edited August 1 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 41,723]

Onosato had another party to celebrate yokozuna promotion, with about 150 supporters: 

On 19/08/2025 at 22:41, Akinomaki said:

a party to celebrate yokozuna promotion today in Fujisaki, Aomori, the day before the Aomori basho

and returned the kesho mawashi to the town mayor

he got a present and the oyakata some goodies for the heya

 

Asahi the next day hints that the returned apple kesho mawashi will be put on display, so a new set may be created - to reuse it, the name has to be removed - a kesho mawashi set has no shikona on it, a single one nearly always has

o o o o o o oo

kampai with apple juice

o o

o

The local sweets store Entremets Sato for over 70 years has as a speciality Onosato I 大ノ里 apple sweets (from the start with の)

recently they created a version with Onosato II 大の里 added on the packing

  o

monument for Onosato I at the local Kashima shrine

o

Edited August 21 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 41,723]

36 minutes ago, Akinomaki said:

On 27/08/2025 at 22:51, Akinomaki said:

The day before the dohyo matsuri a dohyo-iri by Onosato at the kokugikan's NomiNo-Sukune shrine, where his name is engraved then at the yokozuna stone 

fits into 3 threads, yokozuna Onosato, ceremonial dohyo-iri - I pick this, because I first mentioned it here - at the start, the new name on the stone is shown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFXdiAVLPjY

Too many pics for the event - I'll split them to the appropriate threads - the fresh name on the NomiNo-Sukune shrine yokozuna stone (the Tomioka Hachimangu one later, with the rikishi doing the last chisel)

o

o o o

[rokudenashi 340]

The engravings are inconsistent; some include the prefecture suffix, others don’t. For example Takanosato’s has Aomori, but Wakanohana II’s has Aomori-ken. Whoops

I also notice that shusshin are marked with the historical province e.g. Hizen for Sadanoyama, up until Tamanoumi, whose engraving is the first to include the -ken

Pointless observations, but I’m making them anyway… 

[dingo 1,473]

17 hours ago, rokudenashi said:

The engravings are inconsistent; some include the prefecture suffix, others don’t. For example Takanosato’s has Aomori, but Wakanohana II’s has Aomori-ken. Whoops

I also notice that shusshin are marked with the historical province e.g. Hizen for Sadanoyama, up until Tamanoumi, whose engraving is the first to include the -ken

Pointless observations, but I’m making them anyway… 

Exactly what I wanted to say! Doesn't seem it's a recent change either as Onosato's is Ishikawa but his stablemaster is Ibaraki-ken. Maybe it's the yokozuna's preference, though I find it a stretch to think they'll bother to ask a yokozuna about it.