Japan has its first native-born yokozuna for 19 years
January 27, 2017 4:41 PM   Subscribe

Kisenosato Yutaka has been officially named the 72nd yokozuna, the highest rank achievable in sumo. After logging several years of solid performances and second places at the second-highest rank of ozeki, Kisenosato finally won his first tournament last week, removing the last obstacle to his promotion.

Since the retirement of Takanohana II in 2003, sumo's top rank has been entirely populated by Mongolian wrestlers. Most notable among the four yokozuna active since then is the sumotori widely considered to be the greatest of all time, the 69th Yokozuna Hakuho.

Kisenosato performed his traditional first dohyo-iri (ring-entering ceremony) at the Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo earlier today. He will also perform the ceremony at the Tomioka Hachiman shrine (Japanese link), where his name will be carved onto the Yokozuna Stone.
posted by corvine (12 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
First Japanese yokozuna in 19 years! It's not technically true that all Yokozuna were Mongolian since Takanohana II retired. Musashimaru Koyo didn't retire until several months later and he's an Americam
posted by Lame_username at 5:12 PM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


How exciting!

I grew up in Hawaii while Akebono and Musashimaru were wrestling, and it was such a huge deal at the time to have these local guys achieve such a high honour in the sport. Their matches were on local TV all the time, and my family would usually make time to watch them.

I can only imagine how meaningful this is for sumo fans in Japan right now.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:44 PM on January 27, 2017


I was at the finale of the New Year Basho which was Kisenosato's first win and, although he had clinched the title the previous day, the crowd really went nuts when he stepped onto the dohyo.
posted by oheso at 6:45 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is majorly exciting! I really hope it leads to sumo getting more popular again especially amongst high-schoolers, and that there's no controversies while he's up top. The doyho iri video is Thrilling, woke my teen-sumo-geekery all over again.
Found English commentary of his hatsu basho win over Hakuho and the award ceremony: the MACAROON at the half-hour mark?
posted by runincircles at 7:39 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


oheso I'm so envious!
posted by runincircles at 7:39 PM on January 27, 2017


NHK World started showing the Grand Sumo Highlights sometime last year. At first I was like "meh, 15 days in a row of sumo is a bit much." Now by the time the New Year Basho came around I was a bit hooked.

If anybody's interested, NHK World has the entire New Year Basho highlights up in nicely pared down 30 minute episodes. There's also a series of short Sumopedia segments explaining some of the details of the sport. The Basho is available until Feb 6 so catch some soon.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:35 PM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


I started watching Grand Sumo Highlights a couple of tournaments ago, and I second zengargoyle's suggestion that people give it a go. The episodes are about 20 minutes if you skip the intro, which is a really manageable length.

It's really a great spectator sport, and some of the commentators (the Australian guy in particular, but maybe I'm biased) explain the mechanics and strategy really clearly. And the bouts last from 5 seconds to a few minutes, tops, so after a few days you start to see the personality and style of the different rikishi.

I found that following the Tachiai blog was also really interesting, with daily previews and summaries of the main bouts, as well as comments about news and trends. (I think this rant against Kisenosato's promotion probably has a grain of truth to it, but I don't care because he seems like just a really nice guy.)
posted by robcorr at 9:49 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


There are official Grand Sumo highlights now that I can reasonably watch and be entertained by? There's no ridiculously unreasonable embargo or paywall to prevent foreigners watching it? Aw heck, I missed the last tournament. Fortunately it's available for another week.
posted by doctorfrog at 11:15 AM on January 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


runincircles, the giant macaron is a French friendship prize! There are a huge number of prizes and (ridiculously huge) trophies that come with a tournament win, things like a year's supply of Czech beer, barrels of sake, bales of rice, a whole cow's worth of beef, a new car and a year's supply of gas. A lot of it is consumable stuff that goes to supply the winner's stable.
posted by corvine at 3:33 PM on January 29, 2017


Corvine, ta, I'd heard of some of the gifts in kind, but THAT just (!) takes the cake!
posted by runincircles at 4:32 PM on January 29, 2017


This is awesome. I've been watching sumo and following Kisenosato's career for about five years. I really wish he would have won one more basho before being promoted though, especially since there were so many high ranking pull-outs in this tournament. I think the final day's decisive victory over yokozuna Hakuho put him over the top.
posted by HumanComplex at 9:17 AM on January 30, 2017


Also, I generally turn to Jason's All Sumo channel for HD bouts and interesting/fun English commentary.
posted by HumanComplex at 9:48 AM on January 30, 2017


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