1 post tagged “keiki sumo”

The Hawaii Koen was held on June 9 and 10 at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii.  

When it was first announced, there seemed to be much enthusiasm for the tour, which had not been to since 1993. Musashimaru and Azumazeki Oyakata, formerly Sekiwake Takamiyama/Jesse Kuhaulua,

journeyed to a few times to generate publicity and excitement for the event. After all, the stadium could accommodate a crowd of  8,800 with the in-the-round set-up that a dohyo offers, and everyone was optimistic. The actual initial sponsor was a man named Shigemitsu Inohana, who had journeyed to about eight years ago and who missed his sumo, which he had attended avidly as a resident of his native . His vision was to see an arena full of both first-timers and dedicated fans occupying seats ranging from $35 to $350. Alas, despite “sold out” reports of many of the tiers of seats, this was not to be as the arena proved to be less than half-full on both days of the exhibition, despite several public autograph signings by Musashimaru and Azumazeki Oyakata, some local TV talk show appearances by both, and daily articles in the local press beginning a week before “opening night”. 

The problem was lack of promotion. Hawaii is my third home (after New York and Tokyo) and when the koen dates were set late last year, and reported in the papers and TV in Honolulu – never heard anything on the radio – almost everyone I knew, despite expressing keen interest in attending, despaired that the prices might be too high and difficult to get, what with all the Japanese tourists and the potential for scalping.  That was in January.

Returning to at the beginning of June for some sun and fun as bookends to the tour, I again had the opportunity to speak to a number of people about the sumo. The responses ranged from “sumo? when? where?” to “I didn’t see anything about it” to “too expensive” to “are there any Hawaiians in the tournament?”.. Now, mind you, the first two responses included every taxi driver I spoke to, for heaven’s sake! The website for the koen showed various press releases and appearances, and even a poster on one of the hundreds of trolleys that roam . But I never saw one poster, except for the one that was sent to me by a very generous eBayer who purchased something from me and, discovering my interest in sumo, just happened to have a couple.  During the week I was in before the tournament, I saw maybe one TV commercial – and again, nothing on my favorite Hawaiian music station. But that’s all past now and I hope the promoters for will take their cues from the experience and start their publicity blitz NOW.

Nevertheless, a very good time was had by all who attended, as was evident by the many ooohs and aaahs from the crowd.

Now, I’m going to share some of my experiences, impressions and thoughts with you. No results - you can find them

all over the net - and not a whole lot of good photos (some good video, though). I was too busy watching everything! 

The sumotori arrived on June 7 and ensconced themselves in the Prince Hotel and Golf Club. Some of the Mongolians, i.e., Asashoryu, Asasekiryu, Hakuho and Ama, notably, brought their mothers and/or fathers (and in some cases, siblings) with them. It was nice to see Ama’s beautiful Mom again (who speaks quite good English) after the untimely death of her husband last December. The boys pretty much spent the first day at leisure enabling them to cope with relieving jet lag. The second day saw them off to a lunch buffet at a Chinese restaurant – in full kimono regalia. Arriving back at the hotel, most of them quickly changed into shorts and tee-shirts, ready to take a shopping shuttle to a nearby shopping mall – or, to find some more substantial food before the welcoming dinner that night. Asasekiryu was very keen on having some “meat” and I directed him to one or two steakhouses in the area. Some rikishi just chose to lounge around in the hotel lobby with family and/or friends. Oyakata and other rikishi were off to the links for a couple of rounds of golf. Asashoryu and Matsugane Oyakata, among others, had their own golf clubs with them, Asa, having taken up the sport before the koen in 2005. The tsukebito, scurrying around the lobby, just seemed happy to be there!

On Friday night, a welcoming party was given at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort complex, where the three trophies were on display – the Mayor’s Cup for Friday’s winner, the Governor’s Cup – a beautiful trophy made of the native koa wood – for Saturday’s winner, and the giant 4-foot Sakura Cup for the champion of the overall tournament, presented by Sakura USA, a maker of the “SumoGrip” pens and pencils as well as electronic and other household goods.

I should  note here that another sponsor was the ever-entertaining Nagatanien,

which provides kensho for Takamisakari during the regular basho in all five of its rice-topping flavors, and which always gets quite a few chuckles from the sudience as all five flavors are announced. Kensho were also provided during this Koen, but not in the numbers as are in  honbasho.

Back to the welcoming reception: The party was “sold out” for a full house of 350 people including the complimentary seats. At each table were at least one sekitori and an oyakata, gyoji or other sumo official. Several tsukebito sat at a couple of tables reserved for the media.An “omiyage” bag, containing a tournament program, some sumo stickers and pens, and a souvenir pin

was given to everyone attending. Needless to say, the rikishi were busy signing their photos in the programs and taking pictures with fans for a good part of the sit-down reception. Entertainment was provided by a Tsugaru Shamisen performance featuring Fumiyoshi Kobayashi and three players from 's Niigata Takahashi Chikuzan Ensemble, and by several hula dances by a local hula learning center.

Our table was directly behind the two Yokozunas’ tables and we were able to get some decent photos of them

and the performances. Hakuho was resplendent in a white kimono, wearing this gorgeous open-ended lei made of red and white carnations and other exotic flowers. Asashoryu was the last to arrive, but he preferred to wear an

elegant black kimono that I had never seen before. The meal was good with soup, salad, bread rolls, and dessert, and a steak filet and fish mousse-type dish for the main course. Tokitenku was seated at our table, and seeing his look of dismay at the tiny portion of meat, I offered him my piece, which he accepted and dispatched very swiftlyJ. Minezaki Oyakata, the coordinator for the NSK, was also at our table – a very nice man, I

might add.

The first day of the tournament arrived and each of the ticket holders, irrespective of price paid for the seat, was pleasantly surprised with omiyage

bags, which held a bottle of sauce for okonomiyaki (a kind of Japanese omelet-pancake), a packet of miso soup, some rice topping, a fan, packages of tissues and pens from JapanTV, bottled water and other goodies. Free programs were available to all, but a more detailed program with rikishi vital statistics and general sumo information was available for $20 (!). Outside the arena itself were taiko-drumming performances by yobidashi Hiroyuki (Minezaki-beya) and Kunio (Takasago-beya).  Inside, hula entertainment was provided before the matches, with the shamisen company performing during “half-time” – a feature not experienced during hon-basho.

The first three rows of the floor seats – the most expensive – also held omiyage bags, basically with the same items as given to everyone, plus a mug with the Koen logo. There were several left over, most of which were promptly claimed by tour and koen operators.  On the second day, the remaining three or four rows of the floor seats also had a souvenir pin placed on each seat – the ones remaining were claimed by whomever got there first. A collectible item, indeed.

Before the actual bouts, there were the usual introductions of government officials, sponsors, etc. But Jesse,

Azumazeki Oyakata, formerly Takamiyama, received the largest and loudest ovation as everyone in the stadium stood to greet him. He certainly is a legend in his own time in and obviously loved by all. Then there were demonstrations of various sumo exercises done during regular practice, with the popular matawari (splits) drawing gasps from the spectators; comic sumo; and, of course, “keiki”, or children’s sumo, with Chiyotaikai,

Wakanosato, and Kasugao, among others sparring with the kids, including a six-year-old girl, who soundly beat her “opponent”.  The comic sumo fell a little flat on the first day, since, although there were a lot of funny moves, some of the prohibited moves were not announced in English as such, but rather in Japanese. This was taken care of the second day, when the comic performance was then punctuated with shouts from the sumotori of “not-allowed”,  “no good”, “bad”, not to mention certain audience members yelling “no hair-pulling”, for instance. There are two videos of this, one on this page and the continuation in the Hawaiian Koen folder.

We had good seats right up front on the hanamichi – East, the first day, and West, the second, but the seats could have been arranged a little better. Not only that, the carpet runner from the hanamichi to the dohyo kept going slightly awry, and there was even a piece sticking out from the seats. Since we feared that the rikishi might trip on the excess carpeting, I called a gentleman with a “Staff” badge over to move it. Imagine my embarrassment when the Nagatanien prize was given that day and Katrina pointed out that the man I asked to move the carpet earlier was none other than the CEO of Nagatanien!

As for the sumo itself? It began with the participants – oyakata, gyoji, yobidashi, and of course, the rikishi themselves,

parading in together to welcome and thank the audience. Dohyo-iri from East and West rikishi and the East and West yokozuna. Hakuho seemed a bit shaky during his first (after Meiji Shrine) public dohyo-iri, (see "Entrance" video for a "different" perpsective) but appeared more confident on the second day, although still a little unsure-footed.  During the second day East side sekitori dohyo-iri, there was some good natured joking between Asasekiryu and Kyokutenho. This is also a good capture of the Yojiya kesho mawashi which were used during Asashoryu's dohyoiri and wion in this video by Asashekoryu and Takamisakari.

Being an exhibition, rather than a true tournament, many results were to be expected, as an array of kimarite were executed. Rarely seen at the hon-basho these days, there were quite a few stare-downs, both at the tachi-ai and the returns to corners. A mono-ii, of course, as two men hit the dohyo at the same time. Ama received cheers as he executed a move previously favored by Kotonishiki and Kyokushuzan – he literally jumped over

his opponent, Kasugao, to win the match.

Takamisakari did his usual antics, but even more punctuated now as he added an additional  horse-like foot stomp to his self-face-slapping and chest-pounding. But the crowd really went wild when he was up against Yokozuna Asashoryu, who, glancing at Takamisakari from his East corner of the dohyo, replicated each of Takamisakari moves, down to the facial expressions and the salt-throwing. Quite a performance! In fact, Asashoryu seemed to be having the most fun of all the participants as he mugged and waved to audience members, and even threw his salt out to the spectators a number of times. A sign of reduced stress and responsibility at no longer being the sole yokozuna? I think and hope so.

Also unlike honbasho, the rikishi were basically relaxed walking to and away from the dohyo for their bouts – shaking hands, posing for photos and signing autographs in the hanamichi. Even Roho and Kotooshu were in good spirits and jovial with the autograph hounds after losing their respective bouts, as was Takamisakari, who usually ignores his fans in ! My friends and I did our chants for Wakanosato and Chiyotaikai, both of whom were really pleased, and at this time, able to show it. Chiyotaikai “tipped” his mage to us as he left the dohyo after a win. Wakanosato encouraged us to keep doing our “song” for him, and Roho very good-naturedly chastised Katrina for rooting for Wakanosato, who was his opponent at that bout.

Ross Mihara was his usual superb self doing the stadium announcing. Musashimaru was there beside him on the

second day, but spoke not a word. Ross had a script, I guess, from which he was probably not permitted to deviate very much – I know it would have been fun if he were able to express some of his own thoughts about the bouts, but there were still some light comments – calling Kasugao “Seoul Man” from Seoul, South Korea, and explaining to the crowd that Kokkai was from Georgia – but not the American southern state.

Notable was the fact that on the second day, the quarter-finals had only two Japanese rikishi in the field of eight, and the semi-finals and – of course- finals, were all non-Japanese rikishi. As would be expected, the Yokozuna

won both days, with Asashoryu the first, and Hakuho, the next. The play-off between the two saw Hakuho winning after a substantially credible fight. The two men left the dohyo in good spirits as the new yumitori, Mizakura, from Hakuho’s heya, performed the yumitori-shiki both days. Watching this demonstration, I could not help but

remember my comment in my blog about the new yumitori from Asashoryu’s side, Minanosato, who is lots faster than Oga was and would have pleased one of the former (and best) tate-gyojis. Well, Shonosuke would REALLY be cramped from squatting during Mizakura’s bow-twirling, which is incredibly slow!

After it was over, we made our way back to the Prince Hotel, to get the boys’ impressions. Sadly, many sekitori said that they did not have a very enjoyable time, and they were unhappy to have to leave the next day. One of the tokoyama (hairdressers) said that some had to be in the lobby at 5AM the next morning.  Asashoryu, magnanimous as always, paid for his tsukenbito to stay an additional five days with him.

Please also check out my photo album and other videos from this event in the collection folder on the right side of this screen.

Next stop? Honbasho in Tokyo in September, January and May, then on to Los Angeles next June, followed by London in 2009.

By the way, the Honolulu Advertiser has some really good photos and videos, which you can link to at  http://news.hawaii.com/article/2007/Jun/10/sp/sumo.html, http://news.hawaii.com/article/2007/Jun/11/sp/sumo.html  and  http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070610/VIDEO02/70609006

© 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.