SUMO ARCHAEOLOGY CLUB
RESEARCH JOURNAL #008
The men beside the yokozuna caught my eye.
Once I’d cleared away dinner, I opened the photos from today’s ceremonial ring-entering at Meiji Jingu.
Takayasu was Onosato’s tachimochi, or sword bearer; Ichiyamamoto was his tsuyuharai, or dew sweeper. For Hoshoryu, those roles went to Hiradoumi and Ura.
I’d been looking at the yokozuna, but today I was curious about the two men beside each of them, too. So these are the three who stand together.
Takayasu is at Tagonoura stable, and Ichiyamamoto is at Hanaregoma. Neither is at Onosato’s Nishonoseki stable. Right, they share an ichimon, a group of affiliated stables. I might as well write down Hoshoryu’s trio beside them.
Oh, all three are from different stables—in both groups!
Onosato’s group belongs to the Nishonoseki ichimon; Hoshoryu’s to the Dewanoumi ichimon. Now I wanted to draw lines between the three names in each group.
“Higher-ranked”—but higher than who?
The sword bearer ranks above the dew sweeper. I wanted to check that against today’s pairings, too.
Adding their September ranks, I had Takayasu at East Maegashira 2 and Ichiyamamoto at West Maegashira 6. In the other pair, Hiradoumi was West Maegashira 8 and Ura was East Maegashira 9.
Yes, the sword bearer is the higher-ranked one in both pairs.
I started to write “The top two in the ichimon?” in my notebook, then stopped.
…Wait. Churanoumi’s at Kise stable too, isn’t he?
Back to the rankings: West Maegashira 3. Above both Hiradoumi and Ura. So simply taking the first two names from the top of the ichimon’s rankings wouldn’t give me today’s pair.
“Of the two chosen, the higher-ranked one is the sword bearer.” I’d mixed that up with the question of who gets chosen in the first place. I only meant to add their ranks beside their names. I hadn’t expected that little detour!
The Association’s explanation is that the attendants are top-division wrestlers from the yokozuna’s stable or ichimon, with the sword bearer ranked above the dew sweeper. That doesn’t tell me how today’s pairs were chosen. I wonder what conversations went into it. I’m curious about that, too, but I don’t have an answer tonight.
I drew a line through “The top two?” and wrote underneath: “With these two, which one is the sword bearer?”
Nearly forty minutes had gone by. I put down my pen, thinking that would do for tonight—and then opened the photos of the trios one more time.
Takayasu and Ichiyamamoto. Over here, Hiradoumi and Ura.
The same photos I’d just been looking at, but this time I paused over the two men beside each yokozuna. Oh, now I’ve got even more to look at.