Heya Peek - Kasugano-beya

by Chris Gould

Chris Gould checks to see how his childhood hero is faring as coach of several white-belted sekitori.

For the past sixteen years, I have held a lasting fondness for Kasugano-beya, which nestles some ten minutes from the Kokugikan in the Ryogoku backstreets. When my fondness began, Kasugano’s star rikishi was sekiwake Tochinowaka, a man whose perfect sumo build was undermined by a fast-tracking from college sumo and a consequent unwillingness to be roughed up. During the London basho of 1991, Tochinowaka became the first sumotori to have his photograph taken with me; an experience I shall understandably Kasugano-beya never forget. Since that momentous day, despite the poking his thick head and bulging platform for the oyakata. To the hundreds of Japanese people who lips through a sliding door at left of the visitors’ platform, three have cooed over the photograph, 6.45am. He notices the gaijin portraits of the stable’s most Tochi has never seen it himself. onlooker immediately, but not in famous wrestler, former yokozuna the way which suggests that he Tochinishiki, hang in slanted Tochi is 44 now, and has long recalls our previous meeting. (I am fashion from the wall. On the wall since purchased the Kasugano three times as old now, after all!) to the right of the visitors’ elder stock. Although he takes a Nevertheless, he looks pleased that platform is pinned the stable’s while to digest his morning paper, I greet his entrance with a bow banzuke’s progress chart, with he goes on to pay more attention before shuffling towards his maegashira 3 Tochinonada to mid-tournament keiko than treasured newspaper – seemingly currently the highest-ranked most oyakata, never shy to offer a bible for the oyakata. rikishi. Behind the oyakata’s seat stern coaching tips in-between lies a mini shrine, bordered by two sips of coffee and countless The entrance to the heya would tree-shaped wooden pillars, and cigarettes. A small bald patch is very much resemble that of a adorned with the very gohei which developing in the area previously Shinto shrine but for the Starship- hang from all four corners of the covered by his mage, while the Enterprise-style sliding doors ceiling above the dohyo. Behind sideburns which graced his which are activated at the push of the shrine lies some bizarre photograph with yours truly have a button. Upon removing shoes in abstract act dominated by pink since presumably been leant to his the marble-panelled genkan, a and white paint. star deshi, Tochiozan. His white carpeted step – replete with green T-shirt and red shorts and red flower designs – leads you It is a lazy morning in the Ryogoku misleadingly suggest a casual air; to the unusually spacious viewing backstreets. The thwacks of heavy an image which is dispelled as area, fenced off from the genkan hands on blubbery thighs easily keiko progresses. via an ornate bamboo gate. The drown out the isolated car and viewing area is divided into two motorcycle which passes by the Tochi does not enter training until right-angled chunks: the genkan- open front doors. The rumblings of the session is 20 minutes old, side for visitors, and the main the motorway are distant in tone

Sumo Fan Magazine 1 Issue 15 © SFM October 2007 and, unlike at nearby Michinoku own mawashi out of reach while Beya, the clangs and screeches of driving his shoulders into the subway trains are impossible to bodily folds of his foe. His foot hear. movement seems decidedly more stiff and laboured than that of When I arrive at 6.30am, the Japanese sumotori during the sumotori are deep into their shiko exercises which involve skirting warm-up. A brief cessation in the tawara, but suddenly explodes note-taking reveals that the shiko into life during torikumi. A stamp is already at 70; eventually, succession of impressive wins in after 27 gruelling minutes, the training, coupled with the fact that count stops at 200. Shiko is he was praised in a rival heya the supervised not by Kasugano following day, suggests that his Oyakata but by a junior oyakata, progress will not stop at juryo. whose portly frame threatens to burst out of his tight-fitting white As Tochinoshin rises, so the old shirt. His short sleeves are soon stalwart Tochisakae stalls. My pointing in my direction as his laptop contains videos of the hands firstly beckon me in and stocky Tochisakae briefly holding then direct me to a suitable seating his own with the legendary position, safely behind the yokozuna Takanohana. Those collection of rikishi towels strewn days are sadly long gone. about the nearby tatami mats. The Although he spent the earlier part Tochiozan rikishi are divided into five rows of of 2007 in juryo, like too many four for their warm-up; with each rikishi before him, he will find comment, his score stood at 7-4. row emitting lengthy and deep demotion to the unsalaried ranks Four days later, he was make- exhalations (and frighteningly at a late age too difficult to koshi. I should either be flattered unhealthy coughs) as the count overcome. Gone now is his white at his becoming complacent nears its end. training belt; or at least confined because of something I said, or to the realms of misty-eyed petrified that he now views me as a Although many of the rikishi share reflections. The only white upon bringer of misfortune. the build and soft-skinned him takes the form of two appearance of their stable master, unpromising knee bandages. His Tochiozan shared his post-keiko a notable exception is the belt is as black as his future warm-down with Tochinonada, precocious Georgian talent of prospects, and his mournful face the veteran maegashira who had Tochinoshin. Ranked at suggests he knows it. found himself rather higher up the makushita 2, Tochinoshin has high banzuke than he wanted to be, hopes of progressing to the The shining light of the heya is consequently posting only two salaried ranks with the requisite undoubtedly Tochiozan, the wins in 11 days. His seniority was score in this tournament. Alas, the handsome lower maegashira marked by a personal greeting number of kachikoshi in the lower- whose tender skin gleams in the from the oyakata when entering ranks of juryo suggests he will be morning sun. His physique is the training room. Ominously, disappointed but he ploughs on awesomely developed for that of a though, his first act upon entering with the utmost motivation 20-year-old, and his beefy wrists was to dump a mountain of tape nonetheless. Like his makunouchi leave no doubt as to the source of on the tatami before me. The tape compatriot Kokkai, the black- his thrusting power. When was ultimately used to tightly belted Tochinoshin appears shy of Tochiozan practiced shiko before restrain both his elbows, which he razors, and trains with a healthy me, it was reassuring to have his later informed me were ‘useless.’ amount of stubble which can formidable frame between me and He had spent several minutes of presumably be used to scratch the falling rikishi. He was very the training session specifically opponent’s shoulders in a belt affable when warming down in the trying to strengthen them, tussle. His belt-tussling skills are street afterwards, responding to stamping on one end of a black formidable, not least his rapid questions about his physical piece of elastic and pulling on the hand movements which allow him wellbeing and readily posing for a other with first the right hand and to change grip before his opponent close-range photograph. However, then the left. (Despite such can react. When wrestling on the my comment about his ‘possibly concern over his arms, he was able belt, the muscular Tochinoshin being a future yokozuna’ seemed to win his day’s bout with a resembles Kotooshu; using his ill-advised come the end of the spectacular scoop throw). When considerable height to keep his basho. On the morning of the asked – in preparation for another

Sumo Fan Magazine 2 Issue 15 © SFM October 2007 article I penned in this issue – shying his head away from blows). Tochinowaka and I had both about the ideal qualities of a Kasugano’s second notable become our own men now. yokozuna, Tochinonada guardedly interjection was to growl Shortly after lighting the candles replied that: ‘all the opponents are encouragement at a mage-less of the shrine to his rear, Tochi so difficult once you reach the deshi who was perhaps not retired to the oyakata quarters, higher levels.’ When pressed a thrusting to his full potential. The leaving his white-belted deshi to little further, he added that a growls had the intended effect, complete their winner-stays-on variety of techniques was with the deshi dramatically torikumi after an unusually long important for success. He himself hammering his opponent into the mid-tournament practice. had certainly perfected sukuinage. oak-panelled wall, as if in a feel- good movie of the Rocky genre. The torikumi were dominated by However, belated victory was not Tochiozan and Tochinonada, who enough to save the deshi from a relished tackling each other and lecture. His opponent was finished their bouts with even criticised even more severely. records. Before each match, the ‘What are your hands doing tsukebito provided towels for their clasped behind your body?’ makunouchi masters, and the rub- Kasugano growled, with down process served as a mini illustrative hand gestures. shikirinaoshi, with both sumotori

Tochinonada

Tochinonada has a surprisingly high voice for someone of his vast size, a voice which is frequently used to chastise underperforming deshi and to inform lower-rankers of where the dohyo should be swept. At one stage, after a hapless deshi had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory via a careless lunge towards the tawara, Tochinonada Tochinonada informed him that unless such forward lunges were I was amazed at how Tochinowaka possibly imagining Kokugikan avoided, his nose would continue had transformed himself from shy crowd members chanting their to crash against the surrounding sumotori to overbearing oyakata, name. The early torikumi were walls. so confident of his authority that easily won by Tochiozan, often he allowed a smirk to frequently with the aid of a nodowa. While Tochiozan threatened his creep over his face (which was However, Tochinonada own handsomeness by rarely 20 centimetres away from a subsequently rallied by more occasionally head-butting the rear cigarette, the smoke from which actively seeking to dictate the fight wall, Kasugano Oyakata began to billowed rightwards, poisoning the on his terms, neutralising offer more advice than his senior entire atmosphere of the room). Tochiozan’s thrusts before latching rikishi. His first comic The smirk grew into a hearty laugh onto his belt and destabilising him intervention was to criticise a when the mage-less rikishi from under the arm-pit. deshi whose nodowa had sent an collapsed to his knees while Tochinonada followed this opponent rather too close to the attempting a charge during commendable feat with the first oyakata’s newspaper. (A butsukarigeiko, and then ever false-start I had seen made by subsequent nodowa from the same sorrowfully nursed his big toe. As a white-belter in asageiko. wrestler spurred the arrogant- the breakfast crockery began to Pleasingly, both he and Tochiozan looking juryo rikishi Tochinohana rattle at 8.30am, I concluded that made short work of the cocksure into criticising the victim for since the photograph, Tochinohana, who laughed at the

Sumo Fan Magazine 3 Issue 15 © SFM October 2007 irony of his quick defeat to the sapping sunshine of the intensity former. There once was a time which made bicycle wheels gleam when Tochiozan was the naïve through the stable entrance. novice ripe for bullying at the hands of experienced pros like As Tochinonada and Tochiozan Tochinohana. That time is now seated themselves in the firmly in the past. tarmacked street outside, seemingly unnerved by the thought of cars driving towards them, and several juniors lingered by the side entrance to the training room, towels in hand, dirt being swept off exhausted bodies, a sturdy deshi politely told me to leave the heya as training had finished. Within a flash, I relinquished my camera in favour of the trusted photograph. One former Kasugano yokozuna - Tochinoumi ‘Look! This is me when I was eight years old!’ I cried. The rikishi the oyakata,’ the sturdy deshi dropped his broom, took the photo continued, after I had threatened in his grimy, stubby fingers and to strike up a broken Russian gradually shared my enthusiasm. conversation with Tochinoshin.

Tochiozan ‘Hey!’ he called to Tochinoshin. I was silent in an instant. Was the ‘This guy has a photograph of the sixteen year wait about to end? Besides the torikumi and oyakata from sixteen years ago!’ butsukarigeiko (in which ‘Misetai (I’d like to show it to Tochinoshin, in the role of chest- Tochinoshin’s unshaven face him),’ I murmured. lender, performed particularly promptly peeked round the right- impressively), the training session hand-side wall, surprisingly full of ‘Ho, ho. Misetai,’ the rikishi was filled with push-ups, alternate innocence. chuckled, remaining stationary. thigh-stretches, the drumming of thighs, matawari, gentle knee- ‘Where are you from?’ the sturdy ‘He’s probably busy though,’ I bends and tsuriashi. As the deshi asked, doubtless hoping that added. exercises were carried out, more I might be from Georgia. senior wrestlers practiced teppo ‘Probably busy,’ the response. and shiko, the junior oyakata ‘England,’ I said to his presumed briefly exited and re-emerged with disappointment. My long-awaited reunion with a cup of coffee for Kasugano, and a Tochi was destined to be further kitbag-carrying jonokuchi deshi ‘Tochinoshin from Georgia,’ the delayed. With a sigh and greeted the oyakata in his kimono rikishi continued. ‘He is very good utterances of ‘farewell’ and ‘good before heading to the Kokugikan makushita.’ luck’ to the black-belters encircling for his morning match. It was a me, I turned towards the sekitori busy day at the heya, in stark ‘I know,’ I said. The evidence was on the pavement outside, seeking contrast to the relaxed atmosphere incontrovertible. new Kasugano friends like the one of the street outside, which saw I made sixteen years ago. early rain give way to strength- ‘You’d probably like to show this to

Sumo Fan Magazine 4 Issue 15 © SFM October 2007