Asojima

It's Mitsutaka Tatsu, Taiho's 41 year old goodies supplier, who was known to sample a lot of his merchandise.

There is a rumor that Takagenji was involved in a pot smoking incident. Maybe we should start a topic on that.

How long will we go before someone mentions the subject of this topic?

十文字 may a bit of a visual pun. It is sometimes translated as a crucifix which makes it a cross (十) shaped word (字).

Hakuho is probably set for life financially. He might be content to open his own heya, bring up some new superstars and flip the bird to the NSK for the next 30 years. He may have learned some life lessons from Miyagino.

Shonanzakura did a lot of them. Check his videos.

Oh yeah. Shodai The last 16 career-high Ozekis have averaged 7.5 wins per ozeki basho. (Baruto was high at 8.9) Shodai at 7.6 is not looking all that bad. Just your standard 8-7 ozeki.

Bump. Updates in red.

It has been doing its yo-yo thing for the last few days. Up for about 10 minutes and down for about 5.

The peaceful artists - Many shikona start with Aki ( 安芸) which means something like peaceful art. Almost all of these rikishi are from Hiroshima prefecture which was formed by combining Bingo and Aki (安芸) Provinces. There is still an Aki District within the prefecture. More hometown pride.

How long will this one drag on? Mods?

Mods?!?!

Matsu/Sho (松) (Pine Tree) appears in a lot of shikona. It is usually part of the rikishi's real name.

Well done. It's nice to have the expert join our little party. Amuru was a great mixture of phonetics for the Amur River and Russia, but it also included the Heya reference and the kanji for Dream. One of the most imaginative shikona that we will find.

The only other candidate that I see for the pass down is Asanoyama.

Ozeki Asashio Taro held the Wakamatsu kabu from 1990 - 2002 when he acquired the Takasago kabu from his old home. He merged Wakamatsu Heya into Takasago. Asashoryu moved to Takasago as part of that merge, so good old Asashio had a lot of opportunity to make the switch. Moto Asanowaka obtained the Wakamatsu kabu in 2002. Wakamatsu was also loaded with Asa... shikona.

The hometown boys. Many shikona end in nosato (の里 ). The sato (里) means village or home. If you check the shusshin of a rikishi, you will often find that the part before the の里 is connected go a city, district or village included in the shusshin. So, a shikona XXXXnosato may well mean Hometown of XXXX.

Octogenarians need something to occupy their time.

The provincials – Back in the Asuka period, about 550-650 ce, a lot of northern Honshu was occupied by two provinces, Dewa (出羽) and Mutsu ( 陸奥). In 1923, Komusubi Ryogoku founded Dewanoumi Heya. Since then, there have been 95 Dewa (出羽 ) related shikona almost all of which have been associated with the Dewanoumi Heya. In 1976, one of my all-time favorites, Mutsuarashi (陸奥嵐 ), took over the Ajigawa Heya and started a group of about 30 Mutsus. Two of them made it to Juryo. The names of the provinces pre-date the use of Kanji in Japan. Kanji were phonetically connected to the existing names. The meaning of the characters used was largely irrelevant.

Much ado about Musashi. Musashi ( 武蔵) was the old province that covered the area around Tokyo. There have been 98 shikona containing Musashi including about 50 which were part of Musashigawa (武蔵川 ) Heya. Seven of the 10 Musashino made it to sekitorihood. None of the 8 Wakamusashi earned anything. Three of the 98 made it to Sanyaku, but Musashimaru (武蔵丸) was the only Yokozuna. Musashi was also known as Bushu (武州), but only 3 rikishi have used that in their shikona.

From 1890-2020, Takasago Heya has had four Asashio Taro (朝潮　太郎), three Ozekis and one Yokozuna, all of whom also acquired the Takasago kabu. As shishos, the first three passed their shikona on to the next in line. The final one (so far) gave most of the rikishi in the Heya shikona starting with Asa (朝). Somehow, Asashoryu missed out on becoming the fifth consecutive Asashio Taro. The first exchange was made after the oyakata had retired. There is still a chance that the string will continue. There have been at least 244 shikona that have used 朝. About 100 of them have been in Takasago Heya. Asa is another character that means Dawn or Morning.

Good Morning. Oshima heya has had a lot of shikona containing the character 旭 which means Dawn and is usually pronounced as Asahi or Kyoku. This all started with Ozeki Asahikuni (旭 国) who took over Oshima in 1979. Asahikuni hailed from Aibetsu-cho, Kamikawa-gun, Hokkaido. Kamikawa-gun is home to Mt. Asahidake, aka Mt. Asahi, which is the largest mountain in Hokkaido. The Kamikawa area is a major tourist trap. It appears we now know where all of those 旭's came from.

or Tiddlywinks?

or "the saw ripped your house to shreds."

Playing the Koto. A Koto (琴) is a Japanese Zither (Harp). Sadagotake Heya is loaded with Kotos. Komusubi Kotonishiki probably started it all as Sadogotake Oyakata. Why? Kotonishiki was from Kanonji City in Kagawa Prefecture. Kanonji is the home of Mount Kotohiki and Kotohiki(琴弾) Park . Kotonishiki may have been homesick.