Merry Christmas, Komusubi Ura!
Yay for the Pink Prince of the dohyo!
The banzuke for Hatsu 2024, the January tournament, was released as a Christmas present to all of us sumo fans (I mean, released on time as per usual), and as expected, Ura got promoted to his career-high rank (so far): komusubi!!!
I love the tradition of the pics of rikishi with the banzuke, pointing to where they are… because, Lord knows, I can’t read those things (yet).
But I did just take in a haul…
I can read Ura’s name in kanji now:
But banzuke writing is very stylized, because this is what “Ura” looks like without all the fancy calligraphy:
宇良
The characters are pretty simple, and Ura is one of the few of the rikishi who is using his actual given name as his shikona.
For right now, I will link back to my Ura post:
I have a Ura-Midorifuji link coming up in a post this week, and I assume there will be a weigh-in before the January basho, so I can update my stats once more.
Looking forward to new graphs!
So I know he’ll go up in rank, and we’ll see if he’s gained any weight…
Sumo Kaboom with Robert from Big Sumo Fan on how to read a banzuke
New Merch from BigSUMOfan!
You know, I got a wad of Christmas cash burning a hole in my pocket, so I should drop some of it at BigSUMOfan:
I know Stu doesn’t read my blogs, so I can disclose I bought him a bunch of sumo stuff for his birthday (Dec 27). We’ll see how he likes it…
Merry Christmas!
Some handbells and keyboard with holiday music from Nishiiwa beya…
….they tried.
HO HO HAKKEYOI!
And so I will leave you with my sumo carol from last year:
God Rest Ye Merry Rikishi
[to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”]
[written by both Meep (Mary Pat) & Stu]
God rest ye merry rikishi
Let nothing ye dismay
For ye shall bulk up heartily
Eating chanko–nabe
Make bad basho days
Oooo tidings of ganbatte; hakkeyoi!
Ooo tidings of ganbatte; hakkeyoi!
