Sadanoumi, 39, Grinds Toward Hometown Kyushu: 'I've Got to Do It the Hard Way'
Kumamoto native Sadanoumi, 39, a 60-basho makuuchi veteran now west juryo 11, is preparing for the Kyushu basho (opens the 8th at Fukuoka Kokusai Center) the only way he knows: hard, messy keiko. "I'm no elite and I was never a prospect — I've got to do it the hard way," he told Sankei. All six basho this year have been in juryo, and four straight make-koshi have left him with little cushion above makushita. "I'd be lying if I said I don't think about the banzuke. But I can't let that make my sumo passive."
At Sakaigawa-beya in Onojo, Fukuoka he has been joining moshi-ai with hungry makushita rikishi chasing sekitori status, sometimes getting thrown, sometimes getting barked at by Sakaigawa Oyakata (former komusubi Ryogoku) to show more fire after a loss. Stiffness with age — he jokes about keeping the lower body from "turning into tin" — leaves "no time to overthink." His oyakata says he is so hard on himself that the stablemaster has to tell him to ease off.
The Fukuoka crowd hits different. "When I take good sumo, the applause makes me shiver — that's why I can keep going. You want to feel that again, so you can't just quit." He joined Sakaigawa-beya at 15 right out of junior high 23 years ago, and notes he has spent more years in the heya than at home. This is also Sakaigawa Oyakata's last Kyushu as stablemaster before the mandatory retirement age next July.