[sumo] Fwd: [Sumo news] - Yobidashi story- very long but worth it..

[Jeff A]

Moti


Best regards,
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, Jul 24, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Subject: [Sumo news] - Yobidashi story- very long but worth it..
To: Sumo Newsletter2 <sumo-newsletter2 at googlegroups.com>


Makuuchi yobidashi Ryuji (Isegahama) celebrated his 56th birthday on the
23rd. "My goal is to maintain the status quo.." (laughs). My wife and
daughters contacted me to say 'Happy Birthday'." He said with a gentle
smile. When he was 15 and had been placed in a children's welfare facility,
he joined  Miyagino beya, run by former Komusubi Hirokawa. A classmate from
the facility was scouted to become a rikishi, and he was invited to join as
a yobidashi as well. He knew almost nothing about sumo. When he asked,
"What is a yobidashi?", he was pointed to a yobidashi below the dohyo that
was shown on television and told, "This is it." It was a yobidashi sitting
in front of a water tub, handing towels to the rikishi and being in charge
of watering them.

He is from Yokosuka City. His parents divorced when he was in the fourth
grade of elementary school. After that, his father raised him on his own,
but he disappeared when he was in the second year of junior high school.
One day, he went out and never came back. His mother had already become
estranged from him, and he had no contact with relatives, so he entered a
children's welfare facility in Hayama Town, Kanagawa Prefecture. "I
resented my parents. I wondered why I had to go to a place like this." He
transferred schools in junior high. If he had done well, he could have gone
to high school, but Ryuji chose to work. He didn't join the sumo world
because he loved sumo, but because it was a means to make a living.

About 10 years later, his mother suddenly showed up at a jungyo in
Yokohama. She knew that Ryuji had entered the sumo world. "What are you
doing here?" he blurted out. She apologized. They met a few more times
after that, but their relationship never returned to what it was when he
was a child.

A few more years later, he learned of his father's death. One day, Miyagino
beya received a phone call through the Kyokai. The heya manager who
answered the phone informed him of his father's death. His father had died
alone in his room in Yokosuka City, where he had been living by himself.
That night, he was asked to identify the body at the police station's
morgue. It had been about 20 years since he had seen his father's face,
since he was in the second year of junior high. There was no resemblance to
his father anymore, and he said he blurted out, "Huh?"

Around this time, former Makuuchi  Chikubayama had taken over Miyagino
beya. The heya held a funeral for his father. Ryuji served as the chief
mourner, but he couldn't feel any sympathy for his father. He didn't even
feel like giving a speech as the chief mourner. At that moment, the
previous okamisan said to him emphatically, "Ryuji, that's your father!"
Suddenly, tears welled up in his eyes. Ryuji gave his speech while crying.

More than 40 years had passed since he entered the sumo world. Perhaps his
mother came to visit him because his name had become known since he entered
the sumo world and worked as a yobidashi. Perhaps the Kyokai was contacted
based on something among his father's belongings. He wasn't sure, but
perhaps it was because he used his real name as his yobidashi name and
stood on the dohyo that he was able to reconnect with his parents. His
contemporary, who entered the sumo world with him from the facility and
became a rikishi, retired after two and a half years. His highest rank was
Jonidan. Ryuji, who became a Makuuchi yobidashi, says: "There were five or
six fellow rikishi of my age in my heya, and three of us were also
yobidashi. So I didn't feel stressed. I was helped by the people around me.
I'm glad I joined the sumo world. I'm married and have children."

When his eldest daughter got married and moved out, he sent her off with a
laugh, saying, "You know what to do, don't come back." Ryuji, who modestly
states his ambition as "maintaining the status quo," announces the names of
two rikishi in the first half of Makuuchi during the tournaments. His turn
is after 4:30 p.m. Nevertheless, he starts his vocal exercises in the
morning. Ryuji's tumultuous life was saved by the sumo world. He has no
regrets about the decision he made that day. He still sends the banzuke for
each tournament to the children's welfare facility in Hayama town that
guided him there. [Ichiro Sasaki]


[image: 呼び出しの隆二（撮影・森本幸一）]
<https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/column/sumo/photonews/photonews_nsInc_202607230001555-1.html>

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