Bright colored mawashi, Ura among them...

[Kaminariyuki 499]

For those who disapprove of Ura's sakura mawashi, I have just read that the bright-colored mawashi were actually introduced within days of my own birth. I was right pleased to hear it. Previous to the Kyushu basho of 1957, all mawashi had been the standard grey cotton or black and the sekitori had dark blue or purple silk. Then, lowly M-14 Tamanoumi wore a gold mawashi and took the yusho. With television coming in the brighter colors were permitted if technically not allowed (source - Lora Sharnoff's "Grand Sumo").

Edited July 18, 2021 by Kaminariyuki

[Katooshu 3,221]

I prefer the bright ones myself. What always gets me is when someone who spent years wearing the toriteki black in the lower divisions chooses a black mawashi as a sekitori - I mean treat yourself to something fancy!

Last year there was a tropical fruit phase where Endo was wearing bright banana yellow and Kaisei bright orange. They had never looked more delicious together.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Katooshu

[Kaminariyuki 499]

Kaisei - brighter orange than his normal mawashi? I did not notice, amazingly.

[Bombur 50]

I personally love Chiyomaru's bright green one (It's rather uncommon and makes him look like a big Granny Smith apple  ) and Hoshoryu's new deep red one. I think it suits his skin tone really well as well as his physique. Ura is up there too, of course!
I don't remember Endo's. Do you happen to have a picture? Never saw a mawashi of that color (which happens to be my favourite).

Edited July 18, 2021 by Bombur

[RabidJohn 1,784]

I don't like rikishi wearing black if they're not a 'boss'. It's fine for an ozeki or yokozuna, or even a joi rikishi on the ascendancy, but someone like Kagayaki looks like a hopeless wannabe in black.

Same for purple. It's a boss colour, too. Kasugano-san ought to tell Tochinoshin to get out of it now.

I don't mind hiramaku wearing any bright colour that catches their eye. It adds to the spectacle. But I like to see the top rankers in black, purple or some other dark colour (e.g. Hakuho's dark brown). So Akebono was fine in his homage-to-Takamiyama orange mawashi, but I preferred him in black after he got the rope.

Totally meaningless and subjective, but there you go.

[Jakusotsu 5,969]

3 minutes ago, RabidJohn said:

I don't like rikishi wearing black if they're not a 'boss'. It's fine for an ozeki or yokozuna, or even a joi rikishi on the ascendancy, but someone like Kagayaki looks like a hopeless wannabe in black. 

That's even more true for gold.

[Stupidface 34]

I loved Endo's yellow mawashi, Kyokutaisei's frosted white is very nice too. Love Ura's and Chiyomaru's as well - effectively anything very bright is a thumbs up in my book!

[Stupidface 34]

14 hours ago, Bombur said:

I personally love Chiyomaru's bright green one (It's rather uncommon and makes him look like a big Granny Smith apple  ) and Hoshoryu's new deep red one. I think it suits his skin tone really well as well as his physique. Ura is up there too, of course!
I don't remember Endo's. Do you happen to have a picture? Never saw a mawashi of that color (which happens to be my favourite).

From September 2019, my first basho which is why I remembered his mawashi.

[Swami 245]

Chiyonofuji's black mawashi was always a favourite, blue is also good, depending on the shade, navy or royal blue especially.  

Wajima's gold and Mitoizumi's yellow mawashi also stand out, as of course does Takamiyama's orange.

 

Swami

[Koorifuu 994]

I'll add Kotoeko's shade of lavender to this fine list.

[Jemuzu 34]

1 hour ago, Stupidface said:

I loved Endo's yellow mawashi, Kyokutaisei's frosted white is very nice too. Love Ura's and Chiyomaru's as well - effectively anything very bright is a thumbs up in my book!

Agree Kyokutaisei’s is very cool. Although he ditched it at the end of the basho 

[Stupidface 34]

31 minutes ago, Jemuzu said:

Agree Kyokutaisei’s is very cool. Although he ditched it at the end of the basho 

I'm not sure why he did but I think it's my favourite at the moment.

[Koorifuu 994]

7 minutes ago, Stupidface said:

I'm not sure why he did but I think it's my favourite at the moment.

Superstition. He'd racked up a few kuroboshi on the trot at the time.

EDIT: The comment above is about Natsu this year - if you mean he changed his mawashi at Nagoya, then I'm afraid I didn't notice.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Koorifuu

[Churaumi 743]

I'm just glad they don't sell ad space on them.

[Stupidface 34]

28 minutes ago, Koorifuu said:

Superstition. He'd racked up a few kuroboshi on the trot at the time.

EDIT: The comment above is about Natsu this year - if you mean he changed his mawashi at Nagoya, then I'm afraid I didn't notice.

I think it had occurred to me at the time but I was thinking about this last basho in particular, was it perhaps superstition then as he only changed it in the last few days I believe?

[Bombur 50]

5 hours ago, Stupidface said:

From September 2019, my first basho which is why I remembered his mawashi.

Thanks. I'd definitely wear that color if I was a rikishi  !

Now, if Kyokutaisei ditched the white for superstition reason, I think we can be pretty sure he'll get it right back next basho x) .

Edited July 19, 2021 by Bombur

[Seiyashi 4,086]

Endo's mawashi was such a trademark, when he ditched it for his current purple everyone had a shock. I damn near couldn't recognise him when he stepped up on the dohyo.

As for switching mawashis, back when Enho first got his green mawashi, the second basho when he had a bad losing streak with it, he came back in the red one and won a bout or two.

Onosho did the same thing when he used the non-red mawashi for a bit.

Of course the most famous mawashi switch was back when Harumafuji, newly promoted to ozeki and with a new shikona and silver mawashi, lost his first four matches. He came back on day 5 with the black mawashi and secured a bare minimum KK by the end of the basho.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Stupidface 34]

10 minutes ago, Bombur said:

Thanks. I'd definitely wear that color if I was a rikishi  !

Now, if Kyokutaisei ditched the white for superstition reason, I think we can be pretty sure he'll get it right back next basho x) .

Same here!

 

I hope so too, awesome name by the way, he was one of my favourites from the book :)

[Stupidface 34]

1 minute ago, Seiyashi said:

Endo's mawashi was such a trademark, when he ditched it for his current purple everyone had a shock. I damn near couldn't recognise him when he stepped up on the dohyo.

As for switching mawashis, back when Enho first got his green mawashi, the second basho when he had a bad losing streak with it, he came back in the red one and won a bout or two.

Onosho did the same thing when he used the non-red mawashi for a bit.

Of course the most famous mawashi switch was back when Harumafuji, newly promoted to ozeki and with a new shikona and silver mawashi, lost his first four matches. He came back on day 5 with the black mawashi and secured a bare minimum KK by the end of the basho.

They certainly put a lot of thought into it, I would have a different colour every basho but I'm a typical female, I like clothes! 

[Seiyashi 4,086]

8 minutes ago, Stupidface said:

They certainly put a lot of thought into it, I would have a different colour every basho but I'm a typical female, I like clothes! 

If you've seen the tweet I put up in the kesho-mawashi thread, Terunofuji did wear a different keshomawashi every day for this basho. I don't think any rikishi has 15 shimekomi though, since it would be a right pain to have to break them all in!

[Stupidface 34]

44 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

If you've seen the tweet I put up in the kesho-mawashi thread, Terunofuji did wear a different keshomawashi every day for this basho. I don't think any rikishi has 15 shimekomi though, since it would be a right pain to have to break them all in!

I did yes, his purple fringe one was very nice from what I can remember. Tochi's mawashi is a lovely colour too

[Kaminariyuki 499]

1 hour ago, Stupidface said:

They certainly put a lot of thought into it, I would have a different colour every basho but I'm a typical female, I like clothes! 

LOL, they cost about a million yen each (about $10,000). Hand-woven silk isn't cheap. There was a nice Sumopedia short on Ura's mawashi and I just saw it's on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9heiBHsO9k

And, it's on the NHK site, as well:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/sumopedia/

[Mightyduck 67]

I like it when rikishi with a colour in their shikona wear that colour mawashi.

I think midorifuji's bad Basho might have been in part due to his red mawashi, there's an old saying red and green must never be seen.

Is there a rule that mawashi must be monochrome?

I've noticed some have a gold section or gold bars ( have noticed on Takaysu an Enho in particular) is there a reason for that? 

[Kaminariyuki 499]

4 minutes ago, Mightyduck said:

I like it when rikishi with a colour in their shikona wear that colour mawashi.

I think midorifuji's bad Basho might have been in part due to his red mawashi, there's an old saying red and green must never be seen.

Is there a rule that mawashi must be monochrome?

I've noticed some have a gold section or gold bars ( have noticed on Takaysu an Enho in particular) is there a reason for that? 

Akua's color is sort of cute that way, too, since it's a homophone of his name in English.

[Seiyashi 4,086]

5 minutes ago, Mightyduck said:

I've noticed some have a gold section or gold bars ( have noticed on Takaysu an Enho in particular) is there a reason for that? 

That's the artisan's mark.