Hatsu Basho 2023 Honour Tanka Day Five: AOIYAMA (5-0)

[I have realized that NHK World app on Roku now has daily recaps with all the top division bouts, for free; this is a game changer for my viewing enjoyment]

big Bulgarian 
Aoiyama ain't pretty, 
but he gets it done 

mostly makuuchi for 
well over a decade now 

not all men have a 
potential yokozuna 
run innate to them 

many toil in rank-and-file 
existence, plugging along 

Aoiyama's body 
shape ain't one that screams "athlete" - 
almost comical 

he's mastered what he's got to 
best of his ability 

on day five, he and 
hapless Ōhō have a push 
and slap around fest 

it ain't beautiful sumo, 
and it drags on a bit long 

but that's rank-and-file 
bread-and-butter... surviving 
those ugly moments 

finally, Ōhō stumbles 
and Aoiyama slaps him down 

somehow, after five 
days of this New Year's basho, 
Aoiyama's perfect 

perfect is relative though... 
unbeaten wabi-sabi 

Nagoya Basho 2017 Honour Tanka Day 7: AOIYAMA (7-0)

("blue mountain" surges forward)

perfect first seven 

bouts Nagoya basho for 

big Aoiyama 

disciple of Kotooshu, 

blue mountain Bulgarian 

never won yusho - 

Kotooshu only won 

one over ten years 

Kotooshu also’s only 

European-born elder 

path of outsider 

is always most difficult; 

it’s worse in sumo 

and yet Japanese themselves 

have lost certain interest 

prosperity meant 

poor country boys with big dreams 

occur less often 

Aoiyama earned fighting 

spirit award first basho 

but that was six years 

in rear view mirror; never 

been close since that point 

he’s been consistent middle 

of the pack maegashira 

at times, he’s flirted 

with bigger success - double 

digit wins three times 

but a perfect first seven? 

this is an aberration 

another win means 

kachikoshi with bouts to 

spare for “blue mountain” 

day seven provided as 

opponent Ichinojo 

this aberration 

is energies synchronized 

in perfect moments 

synchronized energies means 

unusual confidence 

Aoiyama moved 

only forwards this quick bout, 

momentum focused 

blue mountain’s blue mawashi 

gave no chance to be controlled 

Ichinojo could 

do little but slow the force 

moving him backwards 

this force was more than one man - 

energies control all life 

Aoiyama - pale 

by sumo’s traditions, “white” 

in America 

but the big Bulgarian’s 

got his best basho ever 

is this beginning 

of an even bigger run? 

only time will say 

can Aoiyama challenge 

elder Kotooshu’s legend? 

legends are made one 

basho at a time; bashos 

one bout at a time 

a perfect week still leaves wide 

gaps in a man’s destiny 

Natsu Basho 2017 Honour Tanka Day 12: AOIYAMA (2-10)

oh Aoiyama  

you giant Bulgarian, 

what are you doing? 

European sumo so 

pasty and flabby-breasted 

left knee heavily 

wrapped from birth it sometimes seems… 

what are you doing? 

following Kotooshu’s 

footsteps into too far east 

a perpetual 

maegashira, but also 

once sekiwake 

now nearing thirty one years, 

what are you doing, big man? 

do the blue mountains 

of Bulgaria still call? 

what of Elhovo? 

where the Tundzha river crawls 

between Strandzha and Sakar 

so far from home, here 

in this strange world of sumo, 

grappling for respect 

left knee throbs for home, big man, 

what the fuck are you doing?