If it weren't for sumo, I might have ended up

[madorosumaru]

Homasho is the man of the moment. By defeating the Creature from the Fjords, he remains the only one with one defeat--the closest pursuer of Asashoryu for the coveted Emperor's Cup. He is the object of media attention and the new darling of Kyushu fans who love his energetic style of sumo and his unfailingly repectful demeanor. He is also from the neighboring prefecture of Yamaguchi and his dark complexion reminds the locals of a former favorite, ozeki Kaiketsu.

His path to glory has been a winding one. He went to the powerhouse Saitama Sakae High School where he captained the sumo team. During his years there, he had the opportunity to meet young Asashoryu on the dohyo. Although he lost, he left a good impression. Ryu recalls: "I won our bout, but I knew he would become much stronger."

Homasho then went on to Nichidai with its vaunted sumo club. However, things didn't go well there. He suffered numerous injuries and he had "people problems" that forced him to drop out in his freshman year. Asashoryu remembers: "I heard he left the university. I thought what a pity. All that hard work wasted." Out of school and without sumo, he found himself wandering in life without any goals or prospects. "Those were dark days," he said. "I was becoming one of those unemployed bums." The term he used was "NEET" for "Not in Education, Employment or Training," a social problem in modern society.

He bounced around from one temporary job to another--such as security guard and construction worker. It was his boss at one of the construction jobs that introduced him to Terao/Shikoroyama Oyakata. The young man jumped at the chance to join the heya. He was then a few months shy of 23, the age limit for ozumo recruits.

Terao had a lot of hope for his deshi. For six months after he joined, he made the rookie do only suriashi and shiko to build a solid foundation. Later as Homasho rushed up the banzuke even quicker than Terao expected and ran out of suitable opponents at the heya, the shisho himself lent his chest. As some may recall from posts from last year, the young rikishi broke his master's ribs on three occasions. At the time, Terao could only smile weakly (and proudly), "The kid has learned his lessons well."

Homasho continues to surprise his oyakata. Before the Baruto bout, Shikoroyama had said, "It's doubtful that he can win." But, in beating Baruto, he was both powerful and smart. He didn't allow the Estonian a mawashi hold and with with his head down, waited for Bart's inevitable pull move. When it came, he rushed forward and forced his opponent out. "I knew that would be my only chance," he reflected with a satisfied look. Even Bart accepted the defeat: "[it got so bad for me] it almost looked like I wanted him to win."

Now, he may be the final obstacle for Asashoryu. If he continues to win, they may even set up a confrontation between the two towards the end of the basho. When asked by the press about being in the yusho race, he said, "I am going to concentrate on each and every bout. I'll try to go as far as I can. Gambarimasu!" Ryu has noticed his presence. "He has gotten so much stronger since he joined sumo. He's physically a lot bigger. I've always wanted to face him [again on the dohyo]."

[Phoenix]

From the time I was able to watch him do sumo, I've liked him. He just gets better and better each basho. I hope he can stay injury free! He should go far and I just enjoy watching his sumo! (Laughing...)

[Iwagakki]

Homasho rocks. On with the bandwagon!!!

[Naganoyama]

Homasho ... Kyushu fans who love his energetic style of sumo and his unfailingly repectful demeanor.

...

He has the most correct bow of anyone I've seen, win or lose. This can't just be training since he joined sumo, he must have been brought up well.

I can't believe he could have ended up a bum in any lifetime.

[Ryukaze]

Wow, thats a good story, makes you wonder why he didnt just go around and try to join a heya himself after quitting college. I like his story.......however I'm not at the moment a big fan of his sumo. He sort of has that "Tochiazuma'esq" style, likes to keeps his hands on his opponents and wait for them to make a move, get's driven back alot and isn't very aggressive. I cant imagine him giving the Yokozuna a very difficult time.......best of luck to him though.

[Jonosuke]

A bit more about Homasho.

He was in the same year as Shiraishi and Satoyama at Nichi-Dai sumo club. He had one of those skin problems - Dejima and Tochisakae suffered for a while which caused him to drop out from Nichi-dai (as he was on a sumo scholarship, he had to leave the university if he quit the sumo club).

Even before he was introduced to Shikoroyama oyakata, he wanted to get back into sumo as he heard both Shiraishi and Satoyama joining Ozumo. He also had a great admiration for Terao so when he heard he was founding his own heya, ht thought it was his destiny to join.

As he was away from competitve sumo, the first time Shikoroyama oyakata took his recruits including Yamamoto (Homasho) to Saitama Sakae High School Sumo Club for de-geiko, none of the recruits could compete with the high schoolers. For Yamamoto who was one time a member of the club, this came as a great shock. He couldn't do anything against neigther Sawai nor Marving Jr at the time.

This motivated him more than anything else to work hard and be as competitive as Shiraishi and Satoyama.

It's rather interesting to see he has now overtaken both Shiraishi and Satoyama and is showing more finess and skills as well as competitve spirits.

[Kotobaru]

This is just only one Honbasho with such a great result and it's too early to say, but I am happy to see new Japanese prospect coming up. The Banzuke upper side needs good deal of fresh blood and despite of Kise there are not any young locals.

Houmasho's stile is interesting and he certainly has his own approach to Ozumo, so he can develop out his stile something like Ama's where the fighting spirit have a big part of it. He can be one of them who can give some additional interest toward Japanese national sportart inside of Japanese society.

I wish him all well and keep gambarimasu! :-/