Russians talk about ozumo

[Kaikitsune Makoto 206]

There was couple of very interesting articles in Russian and translated by Ukrainian Maksyan onto German sumoforum. Interviews are quite long but here is something they said:

How is your usual day?

Hakurozan: Training starts 6am. We get up 5.20-5.30am. First train the jonokuchi rikishi, then jonidan. When finished they go to kitchen and sandanme+makushita train until 11am or so. Then lunchtime and "siesta" until 4pm. Then some rikishi cook while some clean up. At 6pm the evening meal after which free time until 10pm. If one comes back to heya too late, must one ring the doorbell so oyakata knows and without a good reason for being late, 500 shiko or push-ups must be done *(500 push-ups..hmm..interesting evening!)

Roho: Almost similar but we don't train at our heya but do de-geiko at Futagoyama-beya or Oguruma-beya, sometimes also Kitanoumi-beya.

[Manekineko 200]

I took the liberty of translating the complete interview from Russian. Since I was occasionaly to lazy to check the dictionary, it might not be 100% accurate, but I think I got the gist. For those of you who wish to try it for themselves, the direct link to the interview:

http://www.japan-sumo.ru/rh.html

Soslan and Batraz Boradzov, competing in Japan under the names Roho (Russian Phoenix) and Hakurozan (White Russian Mountain) kindly agreed to answer the questions of www.japan-sumo.ru.

Question: How did your way into sumo begin? How did you join first amateur, and then professional sumo?

Roho: We came to amatuer sumo from free-style (?) wrestling, where weight-limitations were introduced. In Moscow we used to train in the same gym with the sumoist. The senior coach of Russian team at that time was master of judo and sambo(?) of international standing, Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovlyev (my transliterations of Russian names are somewhat arbitrary :) ). He suggested to us to try out our strength in sumo, and we agreed. We first fought at championship of Moscow, then at championship of Russia, and so on. We fitted in.

Question: Which year was this?

Hakurozan: I started in 1999, my brother in 2000.

Question: Soslan, why did you start sumo after Batraz?

Roho: I had an injury. I got it in free-style wrestling. I tore a meniscus in my left leg, I had an operation... After that, as you know, I started sumo.

Question: And when did you start with free-style wrestling?

Hakurozan: I was 16.

Roho: And I 17. We started at the same time.

Question: And how did you come into professional sumo? Where did the suggestion come from?

Roho: We ourselves wanted to test our strength with professionals, but we never had the opportunity. Then appeared a man - Zorigto Ivanovich Sahanov (interviewer's remark: director general of Aurora management group), who has connections in Japan. And with blessings of Russian Sumo Federation, headed by Boris Mihaylovich Antonov, we crossed the ocean.

Question: And you immediately joined Taiho and Hatachiyama schools? (I'll keep translating heya as schools...)

Roho: Sahanov had contacts with Kitanoumi-oyakata, who is current president of Japanese Sumo Association. But, according to new rules, there cannot be more than one foreigner in one school at the same time. And Kitanoumi's school already had Orora (pioneer of russian professional sumo, Anatoly Mihahanov). So we had to look for other schools. But Kitanoumi-oyakata helped a lot. Hatachiyama school is related to Kitanoumi's, they belong to the same ichimon. And generaly, Hatachiyama-oyakata and Kitanoumi-oyakata knwo each other really well, in their time they were both learning in the same school. You could say they are like brothers. And Taiho school is situated very near by. Furthermore, father of Taiho-oyakata comes from Ukraine. That also, of course, played its role in his reasons for taking me. Batraz was immediately taken in by Hatachiyama school. And I started living in Kitanoumi. We came to Japan in february, and I immediately traveled to Osaka with that school. But I didn't take part in the basho. I only watched the competition as an observer. But I was already training. Tolyik (Mihahanov = Orora) helped me a lot in the start, with language more than anything else. And when we returned to Tokyo, I transferred to Taiho-beya.

Question: When you traveled to Japan, did you already know that you will have to part and work in different schools?

Roho: No, we didn't know about that. We thought, we would be in the same school. Of course, we didn't know there were limitations on number of strangers. We came to Japan February 4th, and the limitation - one foreigner per school - was introduced literaly the day before.

Hakurozan: Of course, it was a shock for us. But it turned out we'll be neighbours. So everything is normal.

Roho: The two schools are very close one to the other in Tokyo, literally in sight. True, when we're traveling to other cities, school camps are situated far from each other, so we cannot meet often.

Question: And why did you decide to fight with professionals?

Hakurozan: Because I like sumo very much. We have all bouts, all basho since 1997 on tape.

Question: Do you climb the banzuke (ranks) faster than you expected?

Hakurozan: We do not think about that. We know, that there are still many rivals... We didn't guess ahead, We simply came to Japan with one goal.

Question: Which one?

Roho: To become yokozuna, of course.

Question: How much time will it take to achieve that?

Hakurozan: As God wills.

Roho: Yes, as God wills. We will do all that we can.

Question: Your fighting names - shikona were chosen by Taiho and Hatachiyama oyakata? What part in that did you have?

Hakurozan: No, we had no part in that.

Roho: There's a man, Pol Maki (once a comedian, now a monk, he has a big authority with Sumo Association). He gave Batraz his shikona, Hakurozan. And Hatachiyama-oyakata gave him the first name Yuta, using a character from his own name. And my shikona was devised together by Pol Maki and Taiho-oyakata. Pol Maki gave the character "Ro" (Russian), and oyakata - his own character "Ho" (Phoenix).

Question: Do you like your shikona?

Roho: Very much.

Question: How does professional sumo differ from what you saw on TV?

Hakurozan: It took some time to get used to the dohyo. In Europe, in amateur sumo, it's soft, in Japan - hard. When I first went to train in Hatachiyama-beya, at the beginning I already hurt my soles. Since I only just arrived, oyakata told me: "Go and wrestle a bit, we'll watch how you do." I went, and after only 4 bouts my soles were torn. After that I spent a forthnight lying down, I didn't get up, healing my legs. After that, I adjusted.

Question: What is the daily routine in Taiho and Hatachiyama-beya?

Hakurozan: We, in Hatachiyama-beya, start training around 6 a.m. It lasts until 11, 11:30. We get up early. Some at 5:20, some at 5:30. There's no waking call. Everyone gets up by himself. But you have to be at training at 6:00. In training you wrestle by divisions. The sixth (jonokuchi) starts, then the fifth (jonidan), fourth (sandanme) etc. After jonokuchi and jonidan rikishi have finished with taining, they go to prepare lunch. During that time, the higher-ranked lads wrestle. At 11 the training is over. Then washing-up and breakfast (or lunch). After lunch until 16 - napping. After 16 one group goes to prepare the meal, others clean up. At 18 hours we have dinner. After 18 hrs - work around the heya. Starting with 19 hours - free time. You can do what you like, you can go to walk. But you have to eb back by 22. At that time heya is locked up automatically. If someone comes back after 22:00, he has to ring. That activates the automatic cameras. Thus oyakata can know who was late. Next morning, oyakata then asks him why he was late. If the excuse is valid, he should be more careful in the future. If not, he has to do 500 push-ups or 500 shiko (basic sumo excercise). But there are no phisical punishment. Not in my heya, in any case. We go to sleep at 22 hours.

Roho: It's practically the same with us. Only there are no cameras, and the doors do not lock up automatically. In my case the exception is also that I do not train in the heya. I wake up, like everybody. Until 8 I'm at home, in my school. And after that I go out to degeiko (out-training) in the neighbouring Futagoyama-beya or Oguruma-beya. I ocasionaly go to Kitanoumi-beya.

Question: What do you do, if you cannot sleep during the day?

Roho: You do what you think you should. If I, for example, don't sleep during the day, I don't recover my strength. Sleep helps me recover after exhausting training.

Hakurozan: It happens, that some don't want to sleep during the day. Then he can go and train. But oyakata doesn't aprove of that.

Roho: If you want to train - in the free time, after 19 hours.

Question: What's the training like?

Hakurozan: In my school training starts at 6 a.m. At first it's warm-up, 5 minutes. Then shiko. In a hard day, I do 500 shiko, 2 times a day. In less hard days, it's 300. After shiko - 100 push-ups without a break and 300 sit-ups (500 on a hard day). Then streching. Then jonokuchi rikishi go up on the dohyo. While they fight, others beat teppo (pushing and striking against a pole) or do shiko, sit-ups, streching, pull rubber-bands. You can't just stand around. Jonokuchi rikishi fight one hour, jonidan one hour, sandanme one hour, makushita one hour. No pause. I fight with my makushita opponent one hour, without pause. After fights, everyone does butsukari 20 times. After that it's 100 shiko, 100 sit-ups, 50 push-ups, streching.

Roho: In Taiho-beya from 6 to 8 I work-out together with everyone else, and watch how our juniors start fighting. In our heya, unlike Hatachiyama-beya, there's no rule how many push-ups, shiko, etc. you have to do. We do it by time. How much time you have to spend doing that sort of excercise. Oyakata comes later, around 7:30 or 8. When he comes, everyone must be sweaty. He sees: if you're sweaty, it means you trained normally. He never fails to check for water under the legs. If there's no water, then you do another work-out, under his surveillance. It happened to me. But not becasue I was lazy. Simply because I didn't know how to do shiko properly. I knew what was proper shiko, but I couldn't do it. He showed me.

Question: How goes degeiko?

Roho: When I come to other schools, they just finish their work-outs. Then while junior divisions fight, I keep up my form - so that the sweat doesn't dry. I wait, until makushita start to fight. And I stop, when sandanme rikishi are finished, to celar place for makushita. Because they think they're still green. (I'm not sure I translated these last two sentences correctly...). I fight with makushita one hour, then I stay with juryo around 40 minutes. All in all, I spend about 2 hours every day sparring.

Hakurozan: In my heya degeiko is forbidden. Oyakata explains it, that I'm still young and green. Strong fighters could injure me easily. So until I'm ready - I don't go out. I fight with my heya. But I have only one mate from makushita, so we usualy wrestle together. I also fought with student yokozuna Asamiyoshi. He participated in January basho ranked makushita 2, but he injured himself severily, a big knee injury. And he was 2-1, he was on the brink of Juryo.

Question: Soslan, you wrestled also with rikishi from the strongest division, makuuchi?

Roho: Yes. With Takanonami, Akinoshima, Tamanoshima, Tamarikido. But more often I wrestle with juryo and makushita. I meet often with Kitazakura, who is currently in juryo. I fought student yokozuna Takekaze from Oguruma-beya, who in march earned the promotion to makuuchi.

Question: Who won?

Roho: I occasionaly defeat my juryo opponents. But makuuchi opponents are very hard to defeat. I don't manage it. I won 30-40% of matches with Takekaze. I won against Akinoshima: we fought 3 times, I won 3 times. In truth, I noticed that stronger rikishi do not fight with all their might in training. Because they don't want to get injured. Lower divisions train a lot, to rise to the top. And top divisions also train a lot, but they think above all, not to drop down. That's why they don't show all in training. If they feel that their opponent has a grip which they can evade, but only by complicated moves, they simply stop struggling. In the competition, of course, they fight with all their strength.

Question: Did you win against Takanonami?

Roho: Not even once.

Question: And did you meet Takanohana on the dohyo?

Roho: No. In all the time I was visiting Futagoyama-beya, he only fought trice. Basicaly I saw him doing shiko, teppo, keeping up his form.

Question: How do wrestlers from top divisions defeat you?

Roho: With everything. They are physically stronger.

Hakurozan: And technically. They have a lot of experience.

Roho: Middle age of those who I fought is 27-28 years. They train since they were 15. They have a lot of experience, and perfect technique.

Question: What is the perculiarity of the preparations for championships in sumo?

Roho: What surprised me the most? In olympic sports - and free-style wrestling, judo - amd in amateur sumo too, before the tournament the strain lessens. In professional sumo it's exactly the opposite. In two weeks before the championship, in fact immediately after the banzuke is published, the strain shraply increases.

Question: Are there trainings during the championship?

Hakurozan: Yes. In those days I do 100-150 shiko, 100-150 teppo and 10-20 training bouts. Such light training.

Roho: But some rikishi do not fight (in training) on the day of their bout. They excercise, pump themselves up, but do not wrestle.

Question: What are your duties in school? Cleaning, kitchen duty?

Roho: In Batraz's heya, wrestlers are divided into groups. They work by schedule. In my heya there's only 5 of us. So we do everything all the time. True, I do not prepare meals, I simply watch.

Question: As senior by rang?

Roho: No, because I haven't learned to prepare Japanese food. I still can't do it. Batraz also just watches. And we clean up all together. The work itself, since I'm already makushita, I also can only watch. But I think I have to help. Also, this is the thinking: if you came to the heya later, you're junior. This doesn't depend on the age or division you're in. But of course, makuuchi and juryo wrestlers, even if they are preceived as juniors, don't havwe to work anymore. Of course there are exceptions. Kitanoumi told that, when he was an ozeki, he washed up dishes every day.

Question: What priviledges do rikishi earn by coming from jonokuchi to jonidan, from jonidan to sandanme, etc?

Roho: I, since I'm in makushita, can use computer and mobile phone.

Hakurozan: Wrestlers of lover divisions do not have the right to patterned yukata, obi can be only in one tone.

Roho: Jonokuchi and jonidan wear only wooden sandals. In Sandanme you can already wear zori (sandals) made from leather or straw. But the belt is still in one colour. If you climb higher, you earn the right to wear the belt with shikona embroidered on it.

Question: And the clothes are bought by oyakata?

Roho: yes, basically all I own is a gift from oyakata. Yukata is a gift from Takanonami. I'm about the same size as he is. It's a custom among rikishi: if a younger rikishi accomplishes certain results, the more famous rikishi of a fitting stature gives him some piece of clothes.

Hakurozan: Kokkai, the georgian rikishi, who won makushita basho in january, got a robe(?) as a gift from his oyakata.

Question: Do you agree well with Kokkai? The strain in Russian-Georgian relationship doesn't show?

Hakurozan: We are in good relationship, we meet, go for in a cofee-bar for a cup of coffee and some cake. He comes to visit us, we go to him.

Roho: He's a good partner, he also came from free-style. His russian, to say the truth, wasn't very good. In two years he forgot a lot of Russian.

Hakurozan: We talk to him half in Russian, half in Japanese. We understand each other.

Question: How do you spend your free time? Do you go out?

Roho: I go out on Sundays.

Hakurozan: I do not go out. In free time I visit friends.

Roho: When we're in Tokyo, I meet with my brother every day.

Hakurozan: And during the basho you can't go out.

Roho: Usually I meet with Batraz and Tolya. We meet Nikolay and Levan (Amuru and Kokkai, I presume) less often, their schools are in another part of Tokyo. We always gather together after the basho.

Question: You get free days after the basho ends?

Roho: Yes, usually abou a week. A week of rest. Nobody cleans the heya, meals aren' prepared, beds aren't made all week. But we still keep up with the practice. If you break the rigime, it's hard to come back into it. That's why I regularly go to training. I keep up my form.

Question: Do you drink alcohol, beer?

Roho: No. Japanese too, who want to reach the top, do not drink. Kaio, who likes to drink, quit recently.

Question: What are your interests in Japan, generally? Karaoke? Pachinko?

Roho: Tolya is delighted with pachinko.

Hakurozan: And I never once played, I don't know how.

Roho: Chiyotaikai loves pachinko, he rarely leaves the place. He's very passionate. He plays cards, too. But he also trains a lot. We go to circus. Our Bolyshoy circus often comes to Japan.

Question: And how did you celebrate your victories, when you won championships in jonokuchi and jonidan.

Roho: I didn't. If only I'd win the makuuchi...

Question: I hear that Nikolay Ivanov (Amuru) makes very good borsch.

Roho: I had no idea that Kolya cooks so well. He just said. "Let me prepare something!" I said: "I could make for example scrambled eggs" He said: "I'll take care of everything." So four of us gathered in Taiho-beya, with Tolya Mihahanov. Kolya made everything: first course, second course, desert. I don't know how he found red beet in Japan. It was tasty. All went well.

Hakurozan: He tried to make "plov" too, but he didn't manage. He wanted to treat all the rikishi in his Onomatsu-beya, but noone could eat it.

Question: Do you often treat Japanese with Russian cuisine?

Roho: Occasionaly.

Hakurozan: They like our pancakes(?) very much. With cream, with jam.

Question: Did you meet Tolya Mihahanov and Nikolay Ivanov only in Japan?

Roho: We knew Tolya already in Russia, before he left for Japan. And we came here together with Kolya, started in maezumo together.

Question: I hear, that senior comrades in school often shout at, and sometimes beat Tolya.

Roho: Well, it's men's group. There are also jokes, not alwas good ones.

Question: You weren't insluted?

Roho: Well, when I only just came, there were teases. There were no phyisical harm. But that's "tradition", they treid to bring me down morally. They didn't succeed.

Hakurozan: Already after the first training everything cooled down. Everybody understood everything.

Question: What was psychologically the hardest in the first days?

Roho: Not knowing the language. That was the main barrier. Now it isn't that much.

Question: Did you have special Japanese-language classes?

Roho: No.

Hakurozan: We learn by ourselves. There's Russian-Japanese dictionary, and people to talk to.

Roho: In maezumo they taught Japanese language and history of sumo.

Hakurozan: When we didn't know Japanese at all, our Japanese comrades rikishi learned russian so they could explain us some thinngs, they bought dictionaries, went with us into stores. They were in general very warm towards us. They are very friendly and kind people. Even our rivals have compassion with us.

Question: And your relationships with oyakata.

Hakurozan: If during the training I make mistakes or do something wromg, Hatachiyama-oyakata goes out on the dohyo and corrects and shows. Only last year he would wear mawashi during every training, come out on the dohy, even fought with the lads.

Roho: Taiho has health problems lately. He explains with words what I must do, but doesn't show it himself.

Question: Does Taiho feel some special relationship towards you, because his father was Ukranian?

Roho: No, he has no favourites, he treats us all the same. But he knows several Russian words. He usualy said "Spasibo" (Thank you) to me.

Question: Odake-oyakata (ex-sekiwake Takatoriki) already works with you?

Roho: Yes, he works already.

Question: Recently in an interview Naruto-oyakata said that he doesn't raise sportsmen, but sumotori. Do you feel such opinion from your trainers and teachers?

Roho: It's characteristic for all schools.

Hakurozan: Every oyakata teaches the foreigner, young sumotori, all japanese traditions, sumo traditions. In all, oyakata is like a father to us.

Roho: All professional sumotori must follow tradition.

Question: Did you have trouble with that?

Roho: Yes. Because we went into town wearing sport clothes. We shouldn't have done that, but we didn't know. You must wear special clothes, yukata, when you go to town.

Question: And when you went to Russia?

Roho: Oyakata allowed us not to wear yukata. They said: "It might be cold there."

Question: Batraz, you ended basho three times with 6 wins and one loss. Where did that one loss come from? Nervousness?

Hakurozan: There was no nervousness.

Roho: I saw those bouts. The opponents were simply technicaly stronger. Not physically, technically. There are several wrestlers in the lover ranks who had experience of fighting in juryo nad makushita. They are already in decline, not very powerful. But they are technical, experienced.

Question: Soslan, in the last basho, of 5 victories you won 3 by hikiotoshi or hatakikomi. Judging from kimarite, you won not yb force, but with technique, you defended more.

Roho: Yes, I work on it for some time. To lead the fight not towards myself, but from myself. Hatakikomi isn't a preffered technique. Observes don't like such bouts very much, and you can get scolded by the association. They explain it by saying that it is a sign of bad wrestling. You have a duty to prove your dominance by force. And if you move away from your opponent, that would be like admiting that your opponent is stronger.

Question: And how do you explain the two losses in January? Strong opponents?

Roho: Strong opponents. But I don't think they are stronger than me. I was injured before the tournament. I injured the ligaments in my left fist. And left hand is my strong one. For about a month I couldn't make a fist, so I fought with my right. And they really put a lot of pressure on me, and my body rebelled. I started losing in training against opponents I beat with ease before. Of course, after all that I started the tournament slowly. But then I recovered.

Question: Names of the rikishi that get promoted from makushita to juryo are known practically imediately after the basho ends. Do you have any idea which will be your position in March?

Roho: Yes, you can calculate it, depending from your result. For me they predict I'll take the rank of makushita 30.

Hakurozan: And I should be among top 5 sandanme ranks.

Roho: To be promoted to makushita my brother will need 4 wins out of 7 in March.

[Here I skipped one question and Roho's answer, since I can't undersand them at all...]

Question: Do you eat a lot?

Hakurozan: In the beginning they tried to make us eat a lot.

Roho: They explain it like this: if you train a lot, you also have to eat a lot, to conserv your strength. If you eat only little, you will grow weak. That's why they make young rikishi eat a lot. We don't eat much. If you count all sumotori, we are somewhere in the middle, more towards the low.

Question: How much rice do you eat for lunch.

Hakurozan: One or two helpings. Orora, for example, eats ten at a time.

Question: Your favourite meal?

Roho: Karaage (interviewer's remark: big chunks of meat marinated in soya sauce and fried in butter)

Hakurozan: Sushi, sashimi, karaage. But I don't eat "os'minogov"(??).

Roho: And I'm not too thrilled by squid.

Hakurozan: And also natto. They say, that every sumotori should eat natto, because it's calory-rich and good for building the body.

Question: And what you miss in meals and in life in general?

Hakurozan: There are times I really miss black bread. I'm taking with me in Japan 5kg of porridge. Tolyik loves it very much, he's dreaming that someone brings it to him.

Roho: Everybody always brings him vodka for some reason. Of course, we also miss parents, friends, loved ones.

Question: Please tell us about your family.

Roho: Father - our first coach in all sorts of wrestling. He himself is master of free-style wrestling and judo. He trained us from childhood, instilled love of sport into us.

Hakurozan: Mama is a small women, only 163 cm tall.

Roho: We have a little sister, she's only 10. And a dog pit-bull.

Question: Would you like for your sister to go to a Japanese school, like Asashoryu's sister does?

Roho: We'd like her to be near us. We'd like the whole family to be together.

[Kaikitsune Makoto 206]

Wow!!

Thank you very much Manekineko-zeki!!

The whole article was full of great information!

That was one big education package of ozumo! I dare to claim Roho is already physically as strong as weakened Akinoshima and hence beat him 3 times. It is very promising that Roho beats Takekaze 30-40% of the time.

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

I took the liberty of translating the complete interview from Russian.

Great! Absolutely great! Thank You!!! 8-O  :-D  (Aww...)  (Blush...)

[Yoavoshimaru 0]

That was some of the most interesting reading and information.  Thank you for taking the time to translate!

[Manekineko 200]

I'm glad you liked it! When I started reading the interview, I found so many interesting things, so...

Since this translation was so enthusiastically received here, I've decided to post it on the ML, too. :-D

[Tokimori 0]

Thank you very much, Manekineko! These things make my life better!

:-D

[Manekineko 200]

Nekonishiki-zeki kindly corrected some of my mistakes, so here are his comments:

> And I stop, when sandanme rikishi are finished, to clear place for

> makushita. Because they think they're still green. (I'm not sure I

> translated these last two sentences correctly...).

Because I think I am still green (or "raw").

> [Here I skipped one question and Roho's answer, since I can't understand >

them at all...]

Question: Are there any superstitions existing in sumo?

Roho: I have a friend who is in Sandanme now. Once he was about going out to

play pachinko, he had already dressed up. Then I told him "Gambatte" (good

luck). Then he undressed and went back to sleep. Once when I was fighting in

Jonidan, a wrestler was going out in front of me. He touched the winner of

the previous bout, and smeared the sweat on his mawashi. Well, later he lost

anyway.

...

> Hakurozan: Sushi, sashimi, karaage. But I don't eat "os'minogov"(??).

I don't eat octopus. (Vosem nog = eight legs :))

....

> Roho: No. Japanese too, who want to reach the top, do not drink. Kaio,

> who likes to drink, quit recently.

Roho: No. Japanese too, who want to reach the top, do not drink. Kaio, who

likes to drink, is rather an exception.

[Onnagumo 4]

Kaikitsune-zeki, Manekineko-zeki and Nekonishiki-zeki, thank you all! For a sumo fan like me, who has never been to Japan and doesn't speak Japanese or Russian, such postings are priceless and never too long! :-D