Yobidashi story- very long but worth it..
Moti Dichne
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]
