Tamawashi "ready to fight" in July + do wrestlers REALLY have it easy? (Sumo News, Jun 6th)

追加: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]at going on 41 years and 7 months now.

[00:00:04]Tamawashi's official line is bring July on.

[00:00:09]He told Horty Sports after core exercises on June the 5th. I want to stay positive as I go on training with all my might and with a view to bouncing back to the top flight at the first attempt.

[00:00:22]It would seem though he's done no full training regime for around the past three months.

[00:00:29]Of course, my right calf was killing me in May. He finally let on, but only really for the first half of the meet.

[00:00:37]In the second half, I only have my poor sumo to blame. Having rested up post tournament, I have less physical pain, but a bigger amount of nervousness around using the injured muscle. I will just try to forget about that as I up the tempo in training and gradually try to build some kind of fighting style.

[00:00:58]I'm fully aware Division 2 will be no cakewalk and view next month as a challenge.

[00:01:06]A reason not to retire just now is his keenness to visit Paris and hopefully Michelin starred restaurants, but the mere fact this interview is being done suggests plenty of rumors are doing the rounds.

[00:01:21]Hi also reports that Kittishima forewent practice bouts in favor of weight training on June the 5th.

[00:01:29]I worked on lower body yesterday so it was upper body stuff today. He said after carrying a 90 kilo sandbag around his stables practice do with no domestic tour this month. It's the perfect time to muscle build and I love it even more when all my stablemates join in. He went on having broken the 150 kilo body weight barrier for the first time last month.

[00:01:54]He added, "Another challenge of mine will be to maintain this weight."

[00:02:00]He faces the heat of Nagagoya with the sobering knowledge he has not gone beyond eight winds in that city since 2021.

[00:02:10]With sumo chiefs deep in prayer for nothing to derail their French excursion, we aren't really allowed to have any nonpr sumo news right now.

[00:02:20]The only real surprise of late has been the sudden exit of Shikimi Koskeare at the age of 26.

[00:02:28]The young referee had joined Ethanomi stable just before turning 16 and had only recently put up his decade of service.

[00:02:38]Both he and his stable have posted to say that he now returns to his native Kyushu to join the family business.

[00:02:46]As the lad have been nicely working his way up the ranks and even landed some comic sumo shifts, he will be quite widely missed.

[00:02:55]Meanwhile, with the notable exception of Ikazuchi, who have opted to cancel theirs, for many stables, June is summer camp season.

[00:03:05]Wakadak and his Arashio team went to his native Fukushima for an initial camp starting Thursday 4th. And we'll now move on to the cities of Aizu and Sua, the latter in Nagono.

[00:03:20]At the first camp, the May champion said, "I just hope our being here can get more local kids into sumo and that I can look like the wrestler they all aspire to be."

[00:03:32]Elsewhere, Kasugano stable have made their annual pilgrimage to Iduma Saitama for a 9-day retreat. Lead wrestler Tochai, of course, not ranked high enough for Paris.

[00:03:46]Thursday for saw Iduma Kids take to the ring with the wrestlers for some light-hearted charging practice.

[00:03:53]Hometown hero Taikai claimed that their chirpy characters had inspired him to do better.

[00:04:01]Ibanaki's Dao Shrine welcomed Takasagago men for at least the 20th time since 2001.

[00:04:09]Shrine Preservation Society chairman Yusuke Yamuchi stressed, "It's so different to the Sumo Hall." "Everything seems so close up."

[00:04:19]Nishanoseki stable, meanwhile, is gearing up for a single day camp in Ibaraki, not so far from their main base on June 21st.

[00:04:31]Every ticket for the event to be held at a local sports ground has already been swallowed up with locals enthralled by the prospect of shaking hands with Orno Sado.

[00:04:42]Elsewhere, Oshioawa stable are preparing to jet to the master's native Akita for a 4-day camp which will feature a special entrance ceremony with wrestlers clutching babies.

[00:04:55]A good portion of Ajigawa stable, we understand, will head to Kurihara Miyagi on June the 20th for a meet the locals event to be headlined with a sumo lecture from the ex Aminishki.

[00:05:10]But while lots of Chango will be present on the day, star wrestler Aishki alas will not.

[00:05:18]Dewanomi stable will return to Mitakeumi's Nagago roots later this month to offer some precious instruction to his successors at Kiso Junior Sumo Club.

[00:05:30]And four lower ranked men from Dewanomi group outfit Kiss Stable, including Brainiac Suyama have already finished their mini tour of Iwaki City Fukushima, where they play fort with local kids and adults and serve them all chanko afterwards.

[00:05:50]Finally, as promised, a mini fact check of Master Takadagawa's speech on the theme of touring wrestlers have it easy these days.

[00:06:00]Now he seems to be comparing the current schedule with the absolute peak of 94 tour dates in 1992.

[00:06:10]However, it really wasn't like that every year back then. In fact, through their own ineptitude, Sumo Chiefs mismanaged that number down until at the end of Takadagawa's career, he'd have been lucky to be doing 30 per year.

[00:06:26]And 2 years after he quit the ring, Tor dates bottomed out at 15. And I don't recall wrestlers of the time sobbing and screaming, "Why can't we do 80 more?"

[00:06:39]Obsession with his own era makes for statements suggesting crowded tour schedules are time old Sumo tradition.

[00:06:46]Of course, they are not and are actually a product of the modern era post 1958, having nothing to do with Sumo's distant past.

[00:06:57]Of particular disappointment now is that we had the enforced suspension of the tour during the pandemic with 2020 and 2021 seeing no tour dates whatsoever.

[00:07:09]The perfect chance for a big rethink and a strategic reset.

[00:07:15]Instead, all we've seen since then is the exact opposite. Sumo chiefs throwing tour dates into the calendar willy-nilly, as if to emphasize how little they've thought about change.

[00:07:26]Now, the sumo writing community, based on many conversations with wrestlers, has come up with several important suggestions to help ease the load. For example, only target the modern bigger venues and ditch the smaller griier ones with portable lues on the outside and main toilets shared by wrestlers and fans.

[00:07:52]Charge each venue double the current rate for the privilege of hosting a tour egg. That would make half of them drop out in a flash.

[00:08:00]Build on what Hakuhore tried to do and give wrestlers proper cooked meals instead of cold nice stale bento boxes.

[00:08:08]and ensure a team of physios travels wherever Sumo goes so that wrestlers don't need to withdraw on mass merely to get basic treatment back home.