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SFM’s historian, JK, wraps his two-part article on the greatest of the tsuna wearers
What exactly is it and furthermore, what does it do? The ISF explain themselves and their purpose in existing
Man or myth? Sumo's first yokozuna comes under the spotlight
Tokitsukaze-beya and its famous find themselves the target of Barbara's peek into life inside the heya
Featuring interviews with amateur sumo's European Sumo Union General Secretary and the President of the newly founded Irish Sumo Federation
Would chanko exist without sumo? What is chanko anyway? Find out in Sumo 101
Basho through the eyes of the fans in the seats as SFM gives the mantle of photographer(s) for this basho to Barbara & Gerald Patten. And don't miss our all-Mongolian Bonanza supplied by our Editor, Barbara Ann Klein
Lon gives us his Haru Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results
Mikko Mattila covers the lower division goings on like nobody else around
Mark Buckton glances back to look forward in his ones to look out for come May
Our man Mikko takes us on a tour of his chosen kimarite
Our gaming thread takes a break for April so we can look at the Spanish language book on the sport not long since released
Todd’s bimonthly focus on 3 of the WWW's best sumo sites today
April's man VS monkey debate covers the issue of reducing the number of honbasho
Sit back and enjoy the offerings
made you a sumo fan? Thierry Perran lets us in on his reasons for loving this sport
See what our featured letter is for this issue
Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.
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Heya Peek – A couple of hours at Tokitsukaze-beya
by Barbara Ann Klein
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oyakata to speak to us during keiko. How taken aback we were when he turned to us and said “Dochira?” – “Where are you from?” Meike and I looked at each other until I said “America, to, Doitsu”. (Germany.) I can't even remember if anything else was said after that, I was so flabbergasted that the oyakata SPOKE to us!
After a while, the former Rijicho started to do crunches – you know, when you're in a sitting position and then you lift your legs and upper body to meet each other with your hands behind your head. We counted at least 100. This from a man in his 60s already, who, over the years had obviously lost a good
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And when I say “a couple of hours”, I mean on aggregate. Here's why:
Every basho, Meike and I go to Tokitsukaze-beya. We have a routine. We go to the same selected heya for asageiko (morning practice) during the first week of hon-basho – a week which is now stretching to about 12 days – then, we wing it. We did our “winging” last time with Kitanoumi-beya, which was covered in the previous issue of SFM. But we always go to Tokitsukaze. We have followed Tokitenku since he first entered sumo and one of our group has a “thing” for Tokitsuumi. I'll never te-ell. We followed the career of height-challenged Toyonoshima and were delighted when he reached sekitori. We always liked Aogiyama, now Edagawa oyakata, and Shimotori has always been pleasant and accommodating with us. Now there is another young up-and-comer, Takahashi, whom we have our eye on.
The problem is, it's getting more and more difficult to watch
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asageiko at Tokitsukaze-beya. Part of the problem is the current Tokitsukaze oyakata, former komusubi Futatsuryu. When the previous Tokitsukaze oyakata, who was also Rijicho, was heya master, the doors were pretty much open to spectators and Tokitsukaze Rijicho himself was very hospitable to foreigners. When we entered the heya the first time he was actually there, he got up and put zabuton down in the viewing area for us. He was the first
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Tokitsuumi and Toyohikari
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