Allegedly skipping a tour at a reptile exhibition… All defeats and Teruyoshi “named Hima Tomishi as a fierce training partner.” Surprising reason.

He became the fifth rider in 31 years to lose all 15 of his matches since Itai in the July 1991 tournament.

Terukyoshi (27), 16th in the east maegashira division, achieved the ignominious record in the November tournament. He had not had a good day since the first day of the tournament due to injuries to both knees. In the Chishu-raku tournament, he was defeated by Itunoshiro, who had already lost the tournament, by a simple uke-nage (upper arm throw).

Teruyuki is a cheerful character by nature. He is good-natured and talks a lot. He is a small fighter at 169 cm in height, but he looks at it positively, saying, ‘I don’t think it’s a negative because I’m small. I have never thought that being small is a disadvantage. If you are small, your partner will not like you. If you were 190 cm tall, it would be difficult to move and you would not be able to wrestle.

Recently, however, he was not in good spirits before the tournament. He has lost weight, and I have the impression that his mawashi is too loose. At one point he considered taking a leave of absence, but he did not go to the hospital. His body lacked vigor, and he was getting hit and beaten by his opponents in all of his bouts. As one might expect, all the losses must have been hard on him. Usually when I send him a line, he sends me a long message, but after the tournament, he only replied with a word or two.

Problematic image posted on Twitter

There are other reasons for Terukyoshi’s lack of energy. A report in the December 15 issue of Shukan Bunshun raised suspicions that he skipped a tour in Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, on October 28, before the November tournament. He was reportedly warned by the Sumo Association of Japan.

The tour was cancelled because of ‘swollen tonsils,'” the report said. However, it is known that on October 29, the day after the tour, he participated in a reptile exhibition and sale at Tokyo Big Sight (Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo). A friend of Teruyuki’s opened a stall, and an image of the two of them together was posted on Twitter (now deleted).

Moreover, they were wearing T-shirts, breaking the rules of the Sumo Association, which encourages wearing kimonos when going out. Teruyuki is known to be a big reptile lover. He even keeps snakes and lizards at home. I think he wanted to participate in the exhibition at Big Sight even if he had to take a day off from his tour of duty.

Perhaps in an effort to correct Terukyoshi’s lazy habits, Hima Fuji, then yokozuna of the Isegahama stable, asked Terukyoshi to be his training partner in the stable before the championship match in the September 2005 tournament.

The intense practice session between Himafuji and Teruyoshi was shown on television. In an interview with NHK, the winning Hima wrestler said of the reason for his nomination. I wanted to put Terukiyo on TV. Teruyoshi’s (then 13th Higashi juryo) bout on the same day was finished just before the TV broadcast began. It was a very considerate thing for a yokozuna to do,” said a sports newspaper reporter.

In August of this year, Teruyoshi married a friend of the daughter of his stablemaster, Isegahama Oyakata. If he can get the attention of a yokozuna, he should be fine. After overcoming the humiliation of losing all of his tournaments and being suspected of cheating, Terukyoshi will be back in action in the January tournament with his cheerful personality.