[sumo] Fwd: [Sumo news] - Ex-Toyonoshima speaks of his hardships

[Jeff A]

Moti


Best regards,
Gaijingai

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these:
It might have been.
- John Greenleaf Whittier

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Moti Dichne <niramiai at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 2, 2026 at 3:33 AM
Subject: [Sumo news] - Ex-Toyonoshima speaks of his hardships
To: Sumo Newsletter2 <sumo-newsletter2 at googlegroups.com>


ex-Toyonoshima and former Makuuchi rikishi Tenkaihou, Minami Takayuki (41),
have collaborated on a YouTube channel called "Toyonoshima's Sumo-chan" and
"Minami's Gotchan Channel," where they talked about their memories from
their active careers. Toyonoshima recalled the time he joined the heya
after graduating from high school, saying, "The keiko was tough, but since
I had been doing it (since elementary school), I could somehow manage it.
But in my every day life, I had to be considerate of others, like being in
charge of the chanko and cleaning. That was really tough. I lost a little
over 20 kilograms in less than a year after joining the heya. I got down to
under 100 kilograms." When Minami asked, "Have you ever felt like giving
up?", Toyonoshima confessed to "unpleasant treatment" he received from an
older stablemate. He prefaced his story by saying, "We're good friends now.
At the time, I really hated it," before revealing the episode.

Toyonoshima recalled, "The next day we had keiko, but I had to sit in seiza
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiza> until 6 a.m. I guess I angered my
senior a little. He suddenly said, 'Sleeping before me? You're not worthy
of that (you're not of the right status),' so he wouldn't let me sleep. He
told me to raise my hands (while lying down) because he knew I was going to
sleep, and made me do it until after 3 a.m.." He continued, "Then he said,
'I'm going to sleep, so you go to the next room and sit in seiza.' When
you're told that, all you can do is say 'yes.' I went to the next room and
kept an eye on him because I didn't know when he would come in and check on
me. Of course, it was impossible, so I broke my seiza posture. But if I
heard any noise, I would go back and sit in seiza again. Around 6 a.m., he
suddenly opened the door and said, 'Oh, sorry, sorry. I forgot to say "it's
okay now."' It was already 6 a.m. It was time for keiko. I wanted to go
down to the keiko-ba." He then explained why he didn't run away, saying, "I
was like, 'What's wrong with this guy? What kind of world is this!?' At
that time, I really thought about running away from the heya, but my
hometown (in Kochi Prefecture) is in the countryside and I couldn't go
back. I thought that I would bring shame upon my parents if I ran away, so
I shouldn't run away. Precisely because it's the countryside, when I left,
everyone was really encouraging me, saying, 'Do your best.' It would be
embarrassing to run away. I worked as hard as I could, even if it meant my
life depended on it," he said, explaining why he never left.

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