Aki Basho Day 11 Sumo Field Trip
Fight Prose from the Ryogoku Kokugikan
And indeed it could be said that once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of plague was ended.
― Albert Camus, The Plague
Good seats, good sumo, room to spread out. It was a good day!
Yesterday (Wednesday the 23rd) I attended Day 11 of the Aki (Fall) Basho at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. This was my third time to see sumo at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, sometimes called Sumo Hall, though I’ve also seen a ONE Championship MMA show there. With the pandemic things were run a little differently than my past experiences, but overall I’d say it was a very pleasant day of sumo.
“Everyone Push Out Corona!”
The main difference is they’re only letting in a quarter of the crowd, so this is quite noticeable in the hallways and restrooms, etc. But the biggest change is each person gets a four person “box” to themselves. These “boxes” are not seats mind you, just small boxed off areas to sit on the ground. Trust me when I say this box does not comfortably fit four people, even stereotypically small Asian people. When you add in large Westerners and the difficulty some people have with sitting on the ground, it makes matters worse. Well now it’s only one person per box and totally possible to comfortably stretch out. Big advantage to pandemic sumo 👍👍. You can about see the size here when I took a picture of all the ladies with their Enho towels. (Enho is a diminutive feisty rikishi near-everyone adores - people hold up towels of the rikishi they support.)
The seats upstairs are normal stadium seats, but as you can also see from the picture, there’s like nobody there. Those are certainly cheaper and often filled up with foreign tour groups and school kids, which leads us to another big difference: there are no tourists in Japan right now. While that obviously impacts the crowd size, it also impacts the atmosphere. One small thing, for example, is they normally have English programs and rental headsets with English commentary. None of that today. No need to cater to the gaijin tour groups. While normally the sumo crowd seems like all old people and tourists, Wednesday it was just the old people, or shall I say “a mature, knowledgeable sumo audience.”
Another cool thing about the uncrowded hallways was I got to take an unmolested gander at the “Trump Cup,” which Asanoyama won last year when the U.S. president came to the tournament. It’s kind of a tradition for visiting foreign heads of state to offer some sort of trophy for the winner, but it’s really hysterical how much bigger it is than all the other foreign dignitary cups. TRUMP SIZED!
As far as the sumo itself, I saw a little bit of Makushita (3rd division), including the very impressive Tochiseiryu v Ura match, and all of Juryo (2nd division) and Makuuchi (1st division) of course.
My man Chiyumaru has fallen to juryo this basho and he’s not exactly lighting it up at 5-6 so he may remain, but it was lovely to see him regardless.
He is the most kawaii rikishi - there are so many hysterical pictures I can’t pick one, so just google. Chiyonokuni is leading the juryo race right now and he was very impressive in victory as well, but let’s get to the top dogs.
Up first was the massive Brazilian Kasei against an extremely jacked (but injured) little man in Ishiura. It’s natural to support the gaijin, but he didn’t need any help. A couple of oldsters matched up next as Shohozon took out Kotoshogiku in a bit of a sad showing. I’ve always liked Kotoshogiku, mostly because I like to say his name, but he’s really starting to look his age (plus twenty years). My favorite fighter from the first basho I ever carefully watched, the gentle giant Ichinojo, has been on hard times recently but seems to be regaining some form and was victorious against Kotoeko in the next bout.
Tobizaru vs Onosho was for a piece of the basho lead and it was a furious fight with the demon Tobizaru emerging victorious. This guy is really something else. A rookie with a piece of the lead on Day 12 and he is fighting like a madman. Love it. Wakatakakage also has a share of the lead and a fun name to say and he won. The other enormous gaijin Aoiyama lost to Kotoshoho, which is unfortunate, as Kotoshoho strikes me as super arrogant and has very smooth skin which makes me slightly uncomfortable. The final (Western) gaijin of the evening is the gaijin-sama Tochinoshin who every non-Japanese sumo fan seems to adore (yes, I like him too), so I can spend more than a sentence on his victory. All this charging forward through results seems to miss the point of sumo anyhow.
One of my favorite parts of sumo is all the dead time. It’s something you can’t appreciate watching the highlight videos on youtube. It’s a lot like baseball that way; there’s always so much going on on the periphery. It’s really no surprise to me those are (arguably) the two most popular sports in Japan - they do have a similar vibe, as well as a similar (often geriatric) fanbase. Lots of old folks here in Japan, for sure. Here’s a taste of the atmosphere from the bout between Endo and Tochinoshin, which Tochinoshin won with a surprisingly straightforward hitakikomi slap down.
I actually stopped filming before the last towel off, which is always the best bit as a lot of rikishi do fun stuff like exaggerated slaps, grunts, etc. It’s a time to show some personality - I know the reason I am fond of Takayasu is his weird shoulder roll grunts.
Like Tochinoshin, his opponent Endo is an extremely popular wrestler, though he is ultimately viewed as a disappointment, while I think Tochi’s career is mostly gravy. Endo was like a sumo wunderkind, yet has never amounted to much in the professional ranks. It’s a damn shame too, because sometimes he is soooo good. Like amazing, wow, I can’t believe he just did that. His victory over Asanoyama on the first day was breathtaking, not only because holy shit Asanoyama lost, but damn did you see Endo!
He’s 2-8 since…. but typically one of those was this gem against Okinoumi.
(Video note: I’m a Natto Sumo man usually, but he just does full day digests that quickly disappear from the webs. The above video is from Jason’s All Sumo channel and he has a playlist for the whole basho including many matches from Day 11. Chris Sumo has a nice, and typically lyrical, take on Day 11 news - it seems like Takakeisho is okay - more later.)
Next up was a good scrap between Takayasu and Shodai, another co-leader, with Takayasu putting forth a solid effort at least, and reassuring us he’s on the mend after a bad spell in recent tournaments.
The final two Ozeki [second highest rank for rikishi - there are no Yokozuna (highest rank) in this tournament] bouts went as expected with easy victories, except for some worrisome post bout shoulder shakes from basho co-leader Takakeisho. I swear watching it in the venue it looked like he dislocated it and popped it back in, but I’ve heard nothing since I got home so I guess he’s okay. An injury would certainly ruin my prediction.
Right now, we’ve four men tied for the lead and a few more one loss back. If Takakeisho is healthy, he should take it by winning out from here. If he loses, things heat up and Shodai is the one who needs to take advantage. I think the newbies will likely fold in the final days, as they usually do.
It was a great day of sumo, pandemic or no, and I’m glad I got to take advantage of the great and spacious seats. I reckon these limits won’t last another basho. Looking forward, there’s a huge weekend of fist fights coming up, but also this tournament promises to be tight through the weekend. I’ll certainly be watching RIZIN 24, though possibly only the free bits. Until then I’ll leave you with the yumitori-shiki, or as we call it in English, “the bow thing." ✌️