The "world's oldest active rikishi" is how one of my fellow sumo enthusiasts refers to Ichinoya, the wrestler from
Takasago-beya who will celebrate his 47th birthday this December and his 24th year in sumo with the Kyushu basho this November. Now Jonidan E83, he achieved his highest rank at Sandanme 6.
I know I have been promising photos and video from morning practice, or asageiko, for some time, but yesterday, a wonderful article about Ichinoya on the Asahi.com website, http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200709150071.html, inspired me to finally, at least put up one video - a rare, albeit somewhat shaky-hand video of Ichinoya going through one of his morning routines this past May. I say "rare", because just over a year ago, Takasago generally closed its doors to spectators- with some exceptions, of course - and because Ichinoya is usually the first man to arrive on the dohyo - at a pretty early time, and way before the usual visitor would appear at the heya door.
Just a little explanatory text: The ambient light in most heya is somewhat short of being even remotely satisfactory for a decent amateur attempt at video or photography. Viewers are mostly facing a dohyo backed by a large window with the light streaming in.Tripods are not permitted, unless one
has a press pass, so the action is hard (for me) to catch with my unsteady camera grip.
The first clip has Ichinoya starting his practice sessions in the foreground. His training partner is Asakubo, a 24-year-old Jonidan W54 man. After his combat session, Ichinoya did do quite a bit of "shiko", i.e., leg-raising and stomping, but the light in that corner was just way too poor to capture this exercise, although you can, at times, hear his grunts in the background.. After Ichinoya finishes his own training, and his stablemates begin practice, Ichinoya leaves the dohyo and the "public" practice area to either go to the Kokugikan for his bout, if he is on the schedule that particular day, or attend to his duties of overseeing the meal preparations and performing other general managerial duties for the heya.
Since I was already working with the videos for Takasago, I extracted another clip that
will show some of the other wrestlers, including Asadoryu (formerly Asahanada)
Hananostao, Minanosato (now yumitori, or, bow-twirler), Asanotosa and Asahimaru (the really big guy who is as gentle as can be). In the white mawashi, in the split postion on the floor is Mongolian
Asasekiryu, west Sekiwake, who is another favorite of mine (aren't they all?) - always with the ready smile and always inquisitive.
If I have more time later this week, I will finish documenting the Takasago practice, but in the meantime, please enjoy these two videos.
© Barbara Ann Klein 2007 Please do not reproduce text or images from this blog, without permission in writing from me, which I usually give. Links to this blog are permitted as a matter of course. All rights reserved.