Kesho-mawashi

[Heitaikai 0]

First of all I hope that I chose the right place for my question.

In another thread Tony wrote:

Generally, Musoyama's kesho-mawashi are beautiful.

I absolutely agree and in this connexion a question crossed my mind (maybe it is a stupid one, but I will put it even though

[Manekineko 200]

There are masters who specialise in designing and then making the kesho-mawashi. Of course, you can tell them what you want on it, or bring a picture you want reproduced... but I think they do most of the design. Sponsors just say ie. "a big green dragon holding a can of Kirin beer" or something like that. ;)

I don't know how many kesho-mawashi makers there are, and whether they do anything else for living. This little snippet I glimpsed from a reportage about making Takanowaka's kesho, on a tape sent to me by Hahanoyama-zeki (thanks again, Haha!)

[Tony 16]

How do kesho-mawashi sew? Artisan or in factory?

[Heitaikai 0]

Thank you very much for the explanation, Manekineko!

Sponsors just say ie. "a big green dragon holding a can of Kirin beer" or something like that.

Do the rikishi have a voice in deciding how their future kesho-mawashi will look like?

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

How do kesho-mawashi sew? Artisan or in factory?

Very likely an artisan as they are more or less unique. Some universities might preorder several kesho for their future sekitori (see the earlier picture in the Some more pictures thread where four guys shared the same design).

Right now I can think of only two more factoids related to the kesho-mawashi. Only ozeki and yokozuna are allowed to wear a kesho with imperial purple (see Maru & Muso in that thread) bottom part. (I don't know how I would call those things hanging from the kesho.) Second factoid concerns gender equality. I'm not sure about the design process but the actual kesho production is always done by a man or men. No woman can step onto the dohyo even indirectly by creating a kesho. (Regular readers know why I'm tempted to add a certain emoticon here...)

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

This is an excellent opportunity to display three new keshomawashi.

First shin-sekiwake Takanowaka in his sea themed kesho:

Then Komahikari's somewhat usual motif:

And finally Korean Kasugao in his Korean-Japanese kesho with a very nice shade of blue (I think) and a bit of French:

[Tony 16]

Yes, it is french. R

[Yubiquitoyama 4]

Btw, Kotoseiya, do you still have the original kesho-mawashi photos form the NSK site? I know for sure Mitoizumi had a yellow one and Tochiazuma a black/red or so. Probably quite a few others had different ones too (although I don't remember), but I didn't start to collect the photos until 1998 or so and they never seem to have saved duplicates (at least where I could find them...)

Note that there is a new photo of Takanotsuru, but with the same kesho-mawashi. The only difference is that he isn't smiling any longer...

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

Btw, Kotoseiya, do you still have the original kesho-mawashi photos form the NSK site?

(...)

Note that there is a new photo of Takanotsuru, but with the same kesho-mawashi. The only difference is that he isn't smiling any longer...

Unfortunately not. I didn't realize at the time they wouldn't be available for years to come. ;-) There are preciously few high-resolution photos available about sumo anyway in the net. I might try Photoshopping something if I had good enough quality source material to start composing collages or something like that. Actually I should try it out anyway...

Oh, gotta check that one.

[Doitsuyama 1,259]

Then Komahikari's somewhat usual motif:

Well, the motif seems to be inspired directly by his shikona. koma (the top kanji on the left of the kesho) meens (young) horse, and hikari (the bottom kanji) meens light, shine. And this is surely a shining horse on his kesho. Do you know of other kesho displaying the meaning of the bearer's shikona?

[Yubiquitoyama 4]

Well, the motif seems to be inspired directly by his shikona. koma (the top kanji on the left of the kesho) meens (young) horse, and hikari (the bottom kanji) meens light, shine. And this is surely a shining horse on his kesho. Do you know of other kesho displaying the meaning of the bearer's shikona?

I looked through an old sumo program (from 1982) and in that only two rikishi with rather generic and easily illustrated shikona had kesho-mawashi which illustrated the shikona. I have scanned the pictures, but I am temporarily locked out of my own homepage (yes, I'm stupid... (Blush...) ) so I can't give the pictures right now... Anyway, the first one is Ofuji (who had a kesho with a big mountain...) and the other one Oshio (a kesho with a big wave...).

I suppose most shikona are rather hard to illustrate anyway, so it's probably not that common. I'm trying to picture the koto's youth for example... Not easy ;-)

[Kintamayama 47,124]

I suppose most shikona are rather hard to illustrate anyway, so it's probably not that common. I'm trying to picture the koto's youth for example... Not easy ;-)

Yeah..Imagine mine..

[Yoavoshimaru 0]

Hi,

"a big green dragon holding a can of Kirin beer"

That would be an entertaining keshomawashi  :-(

All the ones I've seen are fairly respectable, for obvious reasons.  Has anyone seen a keshomawashi that they found objectionable?

[Zenjimoto 40]

All the ones I've seen are fairly respectable, for obvious reasons.  Has anyone seen a keshomawashi that they found objectionable?

Well, to the culturally unversed, Takamisakari's swastika motif might be offensive (see previous discussion in another thread), but in reality there's nothing offensive about it when understood in the correct context. :)

Cheers

Zenjimoto