Aonishiki TV interview
Moti Dichne
On the 6th, Aonishiki appeared on Fuji TV's "Poka Poka".together with his Oyakata Ajigawa. Said Oyakata revealed that "at first I thought about turning him down." Only one foreign rikishi is allowed per heya, and the newly established Ajigawa heya was no exception, but since there was only one Japanese deshi at the time, he thought "having one Japanese and one foreigner would be unbalanced." Former sekiwake Kyokutenhou, Ooshima Oyakata, who also appeared on the show, testified, "I offered him a deshi from Mongolia, but he turned me down for that reason." However, after actually meeting Aonishiki and talking, he apparently "decided to invite him to the heya," and the studio erupted in laughter at his immediate change of heart. "At the time, he couldn't speak Japanese, but I could tell he was trying his best to convey his feelings," he said, adding, "When I looked closely, his eyes were beautiful." He was dazzled by his eyes and decided to invite Aonishiki to the sumo world. "At that time, he weighed less than 100 kg, and I just hoped he would take sumo seriously, but I didn't have any great expectations from him," he recalled.
Aonishiki talked about how he feels when he receives a powerful harite slap. "It pisses me off.. I want to retaliate," he said, but then gave a good-student response: "That was a long time ago. When I slap, my armpits get exposed, so now I think I just want to retaliate by winning .." In response, his Oyakata Ajigawa looked back on his active days and said, "I'm also the type of person who thinks I'll retaliate by winning, but sometimes I just wanted to hit back. When that happened, it disrupted my sumo and my personal life," drawing laughter from the studio.
Aonishiki revealed that he had mastered his karaoke skills, thanks to advice from Ajigawa Oyakata. During the program, Kawashima Eigo's "Jidai Okure" was played, and was introduced as a song Aonishiki sings at karaoke. The unexpected song choice had some exclamations of "huh," but Aonishiki explained: "My Oyakata told me, 'It would be great if you could memorize at least one song,' so I chose one that he liked." Aonishiki also showed ad-lib qualities during the program, and when a photo of the ceremony announcing his promotion to Ozeki was shown, MC Kanda Aika asked a somewhat off-topic question, "Are they all suddenly gathered together without any prior notice?", to which he replied, though confused, "I guess so.."