Shikona Megathread: Translations and Trivia

[ryafuji 815]

On 18/08/2021 at 01:05, Asojima said:

 Somehow, Asashoryu missed out on becoming the fifth consecutive Asashio Taro. 

Well it's a Takasago beya tradition but Asashoryu started out in Wakamatsu, and didn't become a member of Takasago until he was already established in makuuchi - it may have felt too late by then.

[Asojima 2,874]

6 hours ago, ryafuji said:

Well it's a Takasago beya tradition but Asashoryu started out in Wakamatsu, and didn't become a member of Takasago until he was already established in makuuchi - it may have felt too late by then.

Ozeki Asashio Taro held the Wakamatsu kabu from 1990 - 2002 when he acquired the Takasago kabu from his old home.  He merged Wakamatsu Heya  into Takasago.  Asashoryu moved to Takasago as part of that merge, so good old Asashio had a lot of opportunity to make the switch.    Moto Asanowaka obtained the Wakamatsu kabu in 2002.  Wakamatsu was also loaded with Asa...  shikona.  

Edited August 20, 2021 by Asojima

[Seiyashi 4,108]

1 hour ago, Asojima said:

Ozeki Asashio Taro held the Wakamatsu kabu from 1990 - 2002 when he acquired the Takasago kabu from his old home.  He merged Wakamatsu Heya  into Takasago.  Asashoryu moved to Takasago as part of that merge, so good old Asashio had a lot of opportunity to make the switch.    Moto Asanowaka obtained the Wakamatsu kabu in 2002.  Wakamatsu was also loaded with Asa...  shikona.  

He might not have wanted to break the duality/symmetry of Asashoryu's shikona with Asasekiryu's.

[Asojima 2,874]

30 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

He might not have wanted to break the duality/symmetry of Asashoryu's shikona with Asasekiryu's.

The only other candidate that I see for the pass down is Asanoyama.   

[Tsuchinoninjin 1,276]

Amuuru's 阿夢露 shikona pronunciation was chosen as he grew up near the Amur River in Russia.

The last kanji character 露 is most likely chosen as it is the kanji name for Russia, where he hails from.

The 阿夢 part is a bit more mysterious, as this Amu is a cute sounding name for a girl. Consulting some Japanese baby name books this name portrays an image of Cultivating Hope and that girls with this name should be expected to be socially outgoing. Did some okamisan end up having a boy and had some leftover name ammo to use up?

So my loose translation is cultivating the hope of russia.

 

 

 

[Yubinhaad 11,761]

2 hours ago, Tsuchinoninjin said:

Amuuru's 阿夢露 shikona pronunciation was chosen as he grew up near the Amur River in Russia.

The last kanji character 露 is most likely chosen as it is the kanji name for Russia, where he hails from.

The 阿夢 part is a bit more mysterious, as this Amu is a cute sounding name for a girl. Consulting some Japanese baby name books this name portrays an image of Cultivating Hope and that girls with this name should be expected to be socially outgoing. Did some okamisan end up having a boy and had some leftover name ammo to use up?

So my loose translation is cultivating the hope of russia.

The first kanji is from Onomatsu-beya, the second means dream, the third you already know. The meaning is simply "from Russia to Onomatsu with a dream".

[Asojima 2,874]

37 minutes ago, Yubinhaad said:

The first kanji is from Onomatsu-beya, the second means dream, the third you already know. The meaning is simply "from Russia to Onomatsu with a dream".

Well done.  It's nice to have the expert join our little party.   Amuru was a great mixture of phonetics for the Amur River and Russia, but it also included the Heya reference and the kanji for Dream.  One of the most imaginative shikona that we will find.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Asojima

[Asojima 2,874]

Matsu/Sho (松) (Pine Tree) appears in a lot of shikona.  It is usually part of the rikishi's real name.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Asojima

[Asojima 2,874]

The peaceful artists - Many shikona start with Aki ( 安芸) which means something like peaceful art.  Almost all of these rikishi are from Hiroshima prefecture which was formed by combining Bingo and Aki (安芸) Provinces.  There is still an Aki District within the prefecture.  More hometown pride.

[Asojima 2,874]

On 09/08/2021 at 16:00, Seiyashi said:

Asojima's Kanji/Shikona Notes

Bump.  Updates in red.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Asojima

[Seiyashi 4,108]

On 28/08/2021 at 06:40, Asojima said:

Bump.  Updates in red.

To add on to the location info, the Wikipedia page for Provinces of Japan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Japan) might be helpful to anyone trying to track down a particular rikishi's name origin. There isn't a good tabular resource that I can easily find in English which directly correlates each old province (as expressed in shikona) with their modern equivalents (as noted as shusshin data by the NSK), but the infobox at the bottom of the page does show small maps highlighting the region if you mouse over them, and the page itself provides a useful overview on a whole-of-Japan basis of what is roughly where.

Do note that each province generally has two names - a proper name and the abbreviation, which consists of a representative kanji and the suffix -shu (meaning state/province) or a clarifier term (e.g. Echigo v Echizen to distinguish two states that would otherwise use the same Echi- kanji). Shikona may use either: so Akinoshima uses the full name of Aki province, whereas Bushuyama uses the short form of Musashi province (i.e. Tokyo, which is odd as he was originally from Aomori).

This leaves us with specific geographical references (like Mitakeumi and the origin of Sadogatake's Koto-prefix) which are harder to track down, being references to specific mountains or other geographical features, but those would be much more oblique anyway.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Seiyashi
Thanks @Kamitsuumi

[Kamitsuumi 402]

On 28/08/2021 at 03:01, Seiyashi said:

Do note that each province generally has two names - a proper name and the abbreviation, which consists of a representative kanji and the suffix -shu (meaning state/province) or a clarifier term (e.g. Echigo v Echizen to distinguish two states that would otherwise use the same Echi- kanji)

This isn't correct. "Echigo" and "Echizen" would fall under your "proper name" category, and both provinces indeed share the Esshū "abbreviation".

[Seiyashi 4,108]

11 hours ago, Kamitsuumi said:

This isn't correct. "Echigo" and "Echizen" would fall under your "proper name" category, and both provinces indeed share the Esshū "abbreviation".

Yeah, I just checked it and it's really weird, because it means the abbreviation has no disambiguating power. To my mind I thought the -go/chu/zen suffix was the result of the abbreviation. Struck out for now until I have the time to do a fuller investigation.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Kamitsuumi 402]

In general, these 前 (-zen) 中 (-chū) 後 (-go) suffixes and 上 (originally kami-; ka/kō-) 下 (shimo-) prefixes differentiate the provinces that one large province was divided into. Provinces with these affixes use the same abbreviated form, i.e. the stem + 州 (-shū) , with the exception of Kōzuke.

For example, Kazusa Province 上総国 (Kazusa no kuni) and Shimōsa Province 下総国 (Shimōsa no kuni) both split from Fusa Province 総国 (Fusa no kuni). Their shared abbreviation is 総州 (Sōshū).

[Asojima 2,874]

Help!! Nishiki (錦) aka Kin is a conundrum.  All sources translate it as brocade with a few side shots at colorful or beautiful.  It appears in 658 shikona.  Why??  It crosses many heya, but none account for more than 10% of the use.  It appeared sporadically in the 17-1800's and has become rather common since 1900.  Around that time, it was used by 2 Onishiki Yokozuna, 1 Konishiki yokozuna and a Konishiki komusubi.  The follow-on use may be tied honorifically to one or more of these. The question is where did the brocade come from.  Meat axe, I could understand, but ??brocade??. I have done a lot of shusshin checks, but to no avail.  Any ideas out there?

Edited September 6, 2021 by Asojima

[Yamanashi 3,904]

50 minutes ago, Asojima said:

Help!! Nishiki (錦) aka Kin is a conundrum.  All sources translate it as brocade with a few side shots at colorful or beautiful.  It appears in 658 shikona.  Why??  It crosses many heya, but none account for more than 10% of the use.  It appeared sporadically in the 17-1800's and has become rather common since 1900.  Around that time, it was used by 2 Onishiki Yokozuna, 1 Konishiki yokozuna and a Konishiki komusubi.  The follow-on use may be tied honorably to one or more of these. The question is where did the brocade come from.  Meat axe, I could understand, but ??brocade??. I have done a lot of shusshin checks, but to no avail.  Any ideas out there?

Nishiki (錦) is also the name of a japonica variety of rice grown in California.  If I don't have access to an Asian market, it's the brand I buy for Japanese dishes or sushi.

In Japan, there is a Hatsunishiki variety that has been hybridized to produce Sasanishiki, which is apparently a go-to variety for sushi in many specialty restaurants in Japan.

[Akinomaki 40,780]

9 hours ago, Asojima said:

Help!! Nishiki (錦) aka Kin is a conundrum.  All sources translate it as brocade with a few side shots at colorful or beautiful.  It appears in 658 shikona. 

Nishiki 錦 is something like golden 金 cloth 布, thus brocade, the same right part appears in cotton, 綿 men. One of my favourite set of chi gong exercises are the eight grades of brocade, also called the eight noble exercises, hachidan kin八段錦

[Asojima 2,874]

More location information:

Shikona sometimes contain partial or full names for the following features.  In many cases, these will be the strange content  buried in the shikona that makes your head hurt.  If a shikona ends in umi (海) (sea or ocean), there is a good chance that the first part is a location.

Provinces

Prefectures

Mountains

Lakes

Islands

Bays

and the Heyas

Edited September 7, 2021 by Asojima

[Kamitsuumi 402]

On 05/09/2021 at 19:59, Asojima said:

Help!! Nishiki (錦) aka Kin is a conundrum.  All sources translate it as brocade with a few side shots at colorful or beautiful.  It appears in 658 shikona.  Why??  It crosses many heya, but none account for more than 10% of the use.  It appeared sporadically in the 17-1800's and has become rather common since 1900.  Around that time, it was used by 2 Onishiki Yokozuna, 1 Konishiki yokozuna and a Konishiki komusubi.  The follow-on use may be tied honorifically to one or more of these. The question is where did the brocade come from.  Meat axe, I could understand, but ??brocade??. I have done a lot of shusshin checks, but to no avail.  Any ideas out there?

(故郷に)錦を飾る (to wear brocade (back at one's hometown)) is an idiom meaning "to be successful".

[Asojima 2,874]

55 minutes ago, Kamitsuumi said:

(故郷に)錦を飾る (to wear brocade (back at one's hometown)) is an idiom meaning "to be successful".

That's what I was looking for.  It seemed that there was a idiom that we non-speakers are not aware of.  

Edited September 7, 2021 by Asojima

[Yamanashi 3,904]

Can the cognoscenti among us settle a question that I (non-Japanese speaker) find puzzling?  Why do so many rikishi switch around their (shikona) "first" names?  Why does a guy think that changing from Masayuki to Masahiro is going to be the key to breaking through to the next level?

[Seiyashi 4,108]

9 hours ago, Yamanashi said:

Can the cognoscenti among us settle a question that I (non-Japanese speaker) find puzzling?  Why do so many rikishi switch around their (shikona) "first" names?  Why does a guy think that changing from Masayuki to Masahiro is going to be the key to breaking through to the next level?

There's a few components to it, not all of which may be at play in a particular rikishi's decision to change their given names (and your example is just one of the cases in which a rikishi can switch the first name). Of course rationally the name change has no effect, but then sportspersons - not just rikishi - are creatures of habit and superstition, and this is more down to psychology than anything else.

• Showing gratitude to a sponsor (Terunofuji's last name change to Haruo is this, as that's the name of one of his major sponsors, Yamada Haruo. I'm privately convinced his new legal name of Seizan incorporates the yama/san/zan character from Yamada-san as an indirect way of paying homage while retaining the "form" of Isegahama's name.
• Meaning - since kanji are essentially pictograms with their sound value more loosely correlated to their appearance, one can change the pronunciation of a given kanji to connote a particular meaning. This is a mechanic that isn't available in English - I can't arbitrarily say that you shall now pronounce the word Ball like Sphere, but the kanji for large/big as in ozeki can in some cases be read as "hiro", connoting wide rather than large. If that meaning has psychological effect, then, yeah.
• Allusions to hometowns - Ishiura's change to Shikanosuke to acknowledge a Sengoku warlord of his area, or Asashoryu's Akinori being an alternate reading of his high school (although he started with it)
• Luck - this is more psychological than anything else, like, I dunno, thinking that a billy goat can put a curse on a baseball stadium or that a Himalayan salt lamp does anything for the air in your house. This has aspects of numerology as well since the number of strokes in the kanji (not necessarily number of lines, as some kanji components can comprise more than 1 line) is also a consideration in whether or not the name "matches" with you as each person sort of has their own lucky number. There's a lot of fancy-schmancy fortune telling you'll need a, to quote David Mitchell, qualified charlatan to tell you about, but that's the gist of it, basically.

[Asojima 2,874]

There are many reasons for shikona tinkering.  Another reason may be that a  rikishi who has been struggling may make a commitment to change his attitude and/or techniques.  A tweak in his shikona may symbolize the arrival of the  reborn rikishi.

[Yamanashi 3,904]

54 minutes ago, Asojima said:

There are many reasons for shikona tinkering.  Another reason may be that a  rikishi who has been struggling may make a commitment to change his attitude and/or techniques.  A tweak in his shikona may symbolize the arrival of the  reborn rikishi.

It seems that most rikishi keep their first name throughout their career, but I've run across some guys who are very "fidgety" with their given names.  I suspect it is as you and @Seiyashi say: luck or superstition.

One example I remember is Yamamoto Chikara (real name).  He entered Jonokuchi as Tamao Chikara, then after eight years of mucking around between Ms and Sd he decided to become Tamao Yuki.  Another year of mucking and he decided to be Tamao Koki.  Six more years of churning away led him to an epiphany: he needed to go back to Tamao Chikara.  Three basho later he went kyujo for the first time in 92 basho; he retired a year later (2014).  I wonder if he looks back now and second-guesses himself about the choice and timing of his names.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

1 hour ago, Yamanashi said:

It seems that most rikishi keep their first name throughout their career, but I've run across some guys who are very "fidgety" with their given names.  I suspect it is as you and @Seiyashi say: luck or superstition.

One example I remember is Yamamoto Chikara (real name).  He entered Jonokuchi as Tamao Chikara, then after eight years of mucking around between Ms and Sd he decided to become Tamao Yuki.  Another year of mucking and he decided to be Tamao Koki.  Six more years of churning away led him to an epiphany: he needed to go back to Tamao Chikara.  Three basho later he went kyujo for the first time in 92 basho; he retired a year later (2014).  I wonder if he looks back now and second-guesses himself about the choice and timing of his names.

FWIW this shikona tinkering seems to be more common amongst the lower divisions. It seems relatively rarer for a sekitori to meddle very much with any part of the shikona, unless they are taking on one as a mark of reaching ozeki/yokozuna. At least for the surname portion, there's the consideration of all the merch tied to that "brand" (yukata fabric, tegata, supporter club spinoff stuff, etcetc).

Makes sense in context though - if you're a sekitori, you're the top 10% of rikishi so something is obviously going well for you. Why fix what ain't broken, right?

Edited September 8, 2021 by Seiyashi