[sumo] Fwd: [Sumo news] - Aonishiki TV interview

[Jeff A]

Moti

Best regards,
Jeffrey Anderson
Gaijingai

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these:
It might have been.
- John Greenleaf Whittier


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Moti Dichne <niramiai at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 3:31 AM
Subject: [Sumo news] - Aonishiki TV interview
To: Sumo Newsletter2 <sumo-newsletter2 at googlegroups.com>


On the 6th,  Aonishiki appeared on Fuji TV's "Poka Poka".together with his
Oyakata Ajigawa. Said Oyakata revealed that "at first I thought about
turning him down." Only one foreign rikishi is allowed per heya, and the
newly established Ajigawa heya was no exception, but since there was only
one Japanese deshi at the time, he thought "having one Japanese and one
foreigner would be unbalanced." Former sekiwake Kyokutenhou,  Ooshima
Oyakata, who also appeared on the show, testified, "I offered him a deshi
from Mongolia, but he turned me down for that reason." However, after
actually meeting Aonishiki and talking, he apparently "decided to invite
him to the heya," and the studio erupted in laughter at his immediate
change of heart. "At the time, he couldn't speak Japanese, but I could tell
he was trying his best to convey his feelings," he said, adding, "When I
looked closely, his eyes were beautiful." He was dazzled by his eyes and
decided to invite Aonishiki to the sumo world. "At that time, he weighed
less than 100 kg, and I just hoped he would take sumo seriously, but I
didn't have any great expectations from him," he recalled.

Aonishiki talked about how he feels when he receives a powerful harite
slap. "It pisses me off.. I want to retaliate," he said, but then gave a
good-student response: "That was a long time ago. When I slap, my armpits
get exposed, so now I think I just want to retaliate by winning .." In
response, his Oyakata Ajigawa looked back on his active days and said, "I'm
also the type of person who thinks I'll retaliate by winning, but sometimes
I just wanted to hit back. When that happened, it disrupted my sumo and my
personal life," drawing laughter from the studio.

Aonishiki revealed that he had mastered his karaoke skills, thanks to
advice from Ajigawa Oyakata. During the program, Kawashima Eigo's "Jidai
Okure" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nohg5uEH6IY> was played, and was
introduced as a song Aonishiki sings at karaoke. The unexpected song choice
had some exclamations of "huh," but Aonishiki explained: "My Oyakata told
me, 'It would be great if you could memorize at least one song,' so I chose
one that he liked." Aonishiki also showed ad-lib qualities during the
program, and when a photo of the ceremony announcing his promotion to Ozeki
was shown, MC Kanda Aika asked a somewhat off-topic question, "Are they all
suddenly gathered together without any prior notice?", to which he replied,
though confused, "I guess so.."

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