[sumo] A Tochisakae History

[Joe Kuroda <joe_kuroda@yahoo.com>]

Tochisakae Atsushi - Kasugano Beya 
(Real name: Atsushi Okamoto)
Born: June 27, 1974 (a moon child like me )  
Height: 185cm Weight: 155 kg
From: Saga-gun, Saga Prefecture 
(Actually this is a Kyokai version, as far as I know
he was born and grew up in Nakano-ward in Tokyo. In
fact he participated in kids sumo tournaments
representing the Nakano-ward, there is even a picture
of him and Kouji Hanada (Yokozuna Takanohana) taken
together at one of the tournaments.)
Dohyo debut: Januray 1993 
Juryo debut: March 1998
Makuuchi debut: September 2000
Shikona:
Okamoto-Tochinoiwa-Okamoto-Tochinoiwa-Tochisakae
Favorite technique: Tsuki, oshi.

Tochisakae is my favorite rikishi. I admire his
courage and will to continue despite so much obstacles
that have lesser men to throw in a towel and say I've
done my best.

Not Tochisakae. His tenacity to stick to what he has
started, overcoming whatever difficulties lay ahead of
him is legendary.

Of course I like him for another reason. When I first
saw him long before he became a sekitori, I thought
here was a man from the moon of Endor, Ewok of Star
Wars fame. He is definitely a great Ewok warrior.

And another thing is I am pretty certain he is the
only sekitori who has a Maple Leafs Hockey jersey. I
gave it to him last year. Through his older brother
who is a network engineer for a major bank, Tochisakae
arranged to get us Masu seats just behind the
Sunakaburi section. For the jersey, I got his tegata
and few other goodies.

Since Atsushi Okamoto was a little kid, he was big. He
started taking Kendo lessons when he was a Grade 3
student at Yamato Elementary School. He entered a
Nakano-ward Sumo Tournament and placed third when he
was in Grade 4. He strictly focused on taking sumo
lessons after finding he could no longer fit into his
Kendo gear as he was getting too big. 

At the time there was no kids sumo dojo in Nakano, he
went to practice at Fujishima Beya, Futagoyama Beya
and Dewanoumi Beya several times a month. While he was
a student at Nakano Fourth Middle School, he trained
at Nihon University Sumo Club Dojo where he met
someone who eventually introduced him to go to Saitama
Sakae High School, a well known sports high school. At
the Sakae he became the High School Yokozuna in 1992.

When he went to file an application for university
entrance exam, he heard about Ozumo and decided to
join Ozumo. Through his uncle who also had a talk with
him after his Middle School graduation, he joined
Kasugano Beya. He became the first High School
Yokozuna in Ozumo history to join Ozumo right after
the graduation from high school rather than going to
an university.

As expected he progressed through the ranks rather
impressively winning Jonidan, Sandanme and Makushita
Yushos. People expected great things from him.

But the path was never that smooth. An illness struck
him a year or so after he joined and a grave
consequence followed. Just prior to the September
1994, he had a surgery for empyema. Due to an error
during the surgery, he suffered an aftereffect from
anesthesia. He became paralyzed in the right half of
his body. He could not even walk straight and had even
hard time standing up.

Other men may have quit then and pursued a gentler
life. Not Tochisakae. He never got down on himself. He
never blamed anyone. He never cursed his fate. He kept
his spirits up every day to get treated, so he could
rehabilitate himself and recover fully. And he did.

Then in 1998 he was promoted to Juryo twice but never
able to stay in the rank again due to a variety of
injuries. This time he fell all the way down to
Sandanme. But by this time everyone knew this was
Tochisakae and they had faith in him that he would
crawl up again and become a sekitori once again. And
just as everyone expected he did. Then in the
September 2000, he was finally promoted to Makuuchi. 

Tochisakae learned to live with his illness and
injuries throughout his career. This has not changed
after his promotion to Makkuchi. He had a broken heel
bones in the 2001 Nagoya and had a kosho kyujo the
next basho. Two straight bashos in 2002, he suffered
from a severe case of phlegmon (severe skin rashes
resulting from an infection) and went on kyujo. 

In the 2002 Nagoya, he went on kyujo but only after
three days, he came back and finished with 9 wins and
3 losses and 3 kyujos. He was not as fortunate the
next basho as he finished with 2 wins 9 losses and
four kyujos. Despite a strain in his left leg joint,
he completed the following basho with six wins and
nine losses.

Tochisakae also suffers from a sleep disorder which
makes him stop breathing while asleep. He attachs
himself to a device that supplies oxygen to him while
he sleeps. 

Every time I see him on the dohyo, I see what he is
off the dohyo. Quiet and in a very unassuming manner,
simply putting his head down and moving forward
towards his target. He does not pull a cheap shot. He
does not resort to some finicky moves. 

He just pushes and he just moves forward. He has
persevered and endured while overcoming all kinds of
trials. He faced his lows straight on, never
complaining never bitching about his predicament. He
just stood up and kept on pushing till he achieved his
goal. I aspire to be a man Tochisakae is. 
++++++++++++++++

This interview took place prior to his Makuuchi debut
at the 2000 Aki Basho.?@?@

I wrote most of this information (obtained elsewhere)
in my other post but this one is from his mother's
point of view with more detail to what I wrote
previously. 

A Tochisakae Story as told by his mother Katsuyo
Okamoto
----------------------------------------------------------------------

It's recorded that he is from Saga Prefecture but he
was actually born and raised in Tokyo. We moved
several times but until Atsushi (Tochisakae) joined
the heya, we've only lived in Nakono-ward. 

The reason the place was recorded as Saga Prefecture
was because both my husband and I were from Saga and
Atsushi himself really loved the place. He and his
brother used to go there often since they were kids
and they really enjoyed the place. We still have many
relatives there so every Kyushu Basho we get all
uncles and aunts come over to see and cheer for him.

When he was born, he weighed 4,100 grams. My neighbors
used to look at my tummy and told me I had a twin. His
other brothers were normal size (older brother
Shuichi, 32 years old, younger brother Hideki, 24
years old). Atsushi got bigger than his older brother
so instead of him getting his older brother's clothes,
it was the other way around with us, as his older
brother used to get Atsushi's. It was like, first, my
second son and then go to my oldest.

When he was in Grade 6, his foot size was already 28
cm. He used to forget things a lot those days and
whenever he forgot to take a pair of shoes he needed
to wear inside the school, his teacher used to lend
them to him but they were too small for him. (laughs)

Perhaps because he was so large, he used to eat a lot.
He was more into quantity than quality. (laughs) He
used to eat others' leftovers all the time . His older
brother had a small appetite so he'd wait till he
finished and asked if he could eat it as well. 

He was a funny kid and very gentle. He used to be good
at mimicking and get people to laugh. He was good at
almost any sports he tried. Before he started sumo, he
could run fast as well. Until he was around Grade 4,
he was not that heavy. He used to take Kendo lessons
at his school from Grade 3 to 6. 

He started taking sumo seriously when he placed the
third in a Nakano-ward Sumo Tournament. Then he
entered an All Japan tournament but he got beaten in
the first round. He entered several more All Japan
tournaments but he usually came home losing in his
first or second round. "I am coming to see you compete
on my day off so can't you just win one for me," my
husband used to complain. (laughs)

Once he started sumo, he started getting wide as well.
It sort of happened naturally as he wasn't trying to
put weight especially. I guess after a hard training,
he got more appetite and ate more. I remember when he
was in the third year of middle school (Grade 9), he
used to drink 3 liters of milk every day. He couldn't
fit into his kendo gear when he got to Grade 5 so he
just focused his attention more on sumo. 

Back then there was no sumo training dojo for kids in
Nakano-ward so he used to go to Fujishima Beya several
times a month to learn sumo techniques from the
oyakata (current Futagoyama oyakata) and their
rikishis. They let him eat their chanko and use their
bath as well. He was able to train at the old
Futagoyama Beya in Asagaya and Dewanoumi Beya as well
so he was able to gain all kinds of valuable
experience in his youth.

He started getting stronger once he started training
at the Nihon University Sumo Club. He was able to
train with the student rikishis who later went on to
join Ozumo like Kushimaumi san (current Tagonoura
oyakata), Hamanoshima san (current Onoe oyakata) and
Mainoumi san as well as the late Daishoufu san. He
trained there from Grade 6 to 9.

He went to Saitama Sakae High School. Kushima san
(Kushimaumi) and Sakae's Sumo Club Manager Michinori
Yamada were in the same year at Nihon University. Mr.
Yamada esepcially took care of Atsushi well and when
he went to work at Saitama Sakae, Atsushi said he
wanted to go to Sakae and join him. He never thought
of anywhere else to go at that time. At the high
school, Dewadaira san (now retired) joined in the same
year while Hayateumi san was one year junior.

He joined Ozumo in January of his graduation year. Up
to that time he was considering to go to a university.
On that morning he left home to pick up an application
for the entrance examination. When he came home, he
told us, "I decided to turn pro rather than going to
an university." I suspect he has been hearing about
turning professional from people connected to Ozumo. 

A younger brother of my husband knew someone at
Kasugano Beya well and when Atushi was graduating from
middle school, he was asked to join them. So if he was
to turn pro then we decided it might as well be with
Kasugano Beya. 

I believe Atsushi himself decided that he would be
joining Ozumo since he was in the middle school. His
High School sumo coach also trained him so that he
could turn pro when he graduated. And my husband and I
did not especially object him joining Ozumo either.

Once he joined, he progressed rather smoothly but
after his Makushita Yusho (July 1994), he had problems
with empyema treatment and that left him with severe
side effects. He lost almost all of the muscles in his
right side of body but he said he did not want to go
on kyujo and kept competing. We were starting to lose
hope that this was it, he started recovering. He got
better with acupuncture treatment. If he has not met
this acupuncture specialist, I believe he would not
have recovered enough to get back competing.

I was so happy to see him getting eight straight wins
in the Nagoya Basho (2000). His banzuke should go up
next basho. I just want to him to watch out for
illness and injuries. When he made Juryo debut, he got
injured and went on kyujo. When he returned to Juryo
(November 1998), he separated his calf muscles and
missed the whole basho.

At that time he came back home to stay with us for a
month but it must have been really difficult. When
eveyone else was competing, he alone was sitting at
home, not doing anything. I never ever want him to go
through that kind of experince again. 

=====
.....Jonosuke 
  <  Heart  Technique  Physique      &#24515;&#12288;&#25216;&#12288;&#20307;&#12288;>

______________________________________________________________________ 
Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
[EndPost by Joe Kuroda <joe_kuroda@yahoo.com>]