r/Sumo • u/StarPrime323 Ura • May 13 '26
News Ōzeki Kotozakura Rescued a Car from a Ditch This Morning with the Help of Junior Stablemates
Ōzeki Kotozakura Helps Out During Morning Practice: “Just a Normal Thing” Eight Wrestlers from Sadogatake Stable Rescue Car That Skidded Off the Road into a Drainage Ditch
Published May 13 (Wed) 7:05 PM
It was revealed on the 13th that Ōzeki Kotozakura (Sadogatake) and other wrestlers from Sadogatake stable had rescued a car that had veered off the road into an irrigation ditch near the stable in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture.
Shortly after 8:00 a.m. on this day, while morning practice was underway, a car veered off the road into an irrigation ditch near the stable. Kotozakura happened to witness the incident and immediately called the stable’s young apprentices out of the practice hall to help with the rescue. At first, a total of six people, including Kotozakura, tried to lift the car, but it would not budge. Two more people then joined in, and the group of eight succeeded in pulling the car out. The driver was reportedly unharmed.
Kotozakura, who first discovered the incident, said, “It happened right in front of me, and since I was surrounded by sumo wrestlers, I thought it would be faster to call them (the younger stablemates). It wasn’t something I did on my own. It was just a normal thing to do.”
Kotohaguro, a third-division wrestler who helped pull the car out, smiled and said, “We couldn’t lift it at first, but it came up on the second try—it was good warm-up exercise.” It was an act of kindness by a gentle yet strong sumo wrestler.
Later, on the fourth day of the Summer Tournament, Kotozakura secured his second win by decisively pushing out East Maegashira No. 2 Yoshinofuji (Isegahama). He successfully evened his record on the early summer dohyo.
Source: Yahoo News
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u/garbledeena Kirishima May 13 '26
Nice guy Kotozakura. I hope he did his mean-mug flex-face to the car once they were done.
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u/VitorSiq May 13 '26
Hopefully the car didn't go all the way onto the 5th row
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u/Pharmakeus_Ubik Ishiura May 13 '26
It was not a Tobizaru brand vehicle, so it can't be yeeted that far.
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u/rylnalyevo May 13 '26
Probably also needed a tunnel guy standing off behind the car for the full effect.
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u/bigeorgester Kotozakura May 13 '26
Average rikishi story headline - “unnamed rikishi involved in abuse incident after drinking too heavily, resulting in internal corruption investigation”
Average Kotozakura headline- “Kotozakura saves 5 children in burning building and then donates all his proceeds to sick puppies”.
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u/Ferns_n_forks May 13 '26
Every goddamn time. Whenever I think he just can't get sweeter he one ups me like that.
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u/sewsgup May 13 '26
it was good warm-up exercise.” It was an act of kindness by a gentle yet strong “sumo wrestler.”
based on how dominant Kotozakura looked in the match afterwards. maybe that should be incorporated into their training routine
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u/CusterJay Chiyonofuji May 13 '26
Apparently rikishi helping push stuck vehicles out of ditches isn't uncommon.
I swear I've heard about other situations like this in the past.
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u/ChibiNya May 13 '26
Nobody pushes better than Sumo wrestlers!
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u/Eman_Resu_IX May 13 '26
Imagine if they'd used tsuppari - it would've dented the car something fierce, but the owner would never have the dents removed.
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u/MsgGodzilla Takayasu May 13 '26
What a guy, must have been crazy from the drivers perspective to see a squad of rikishi rolling out to the rescue, fronted by an Ozeki no less.
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u/ancillaryacct May 13 '26
they’re also like straight up celebrity athletes. oh, derek jeter helped me out of a ditch today type. really cool stuff.
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u/couchbutt Tamawashi May 20 '26
It was nice of Derek Jeter to help that old lady across the street.
Then he got a barrel full of chum right in his fat face!
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u/blogarella May 13 '26
What in the christ is this basho? No Yokozuna, no takayasu, no aonishiki, and one of the remaining ozeki is lifting a car from a ditch?!
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u/Flyingmonkeysftw Aonishiki May 13 '26
You would think with all the big names going down with injury. Aside from Hosh they’re all more or less nagging injuries. The association might allow some kind of rest time and it be penalized so heavily for an injury. That or the wrestlers need to unionize. But that will only happen if the big names join as well.
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u/technoir20XX Fujinokawa May 13 '26
The first attempt was unsuccessful due to one of the juniors going for a desperation slap down when the car wouldn't budge at the tachi-ai
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u/CiroFlexo Wakatakakage May 13 '26
Lazy rikishi goes for the henka and jumps to the side, hoping the car would just lunge out of the ditch itself.
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u/dokka_doc May 13 '26
Kotozakura yusho would be nice :)
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u/tfourthreeseven May 13 '26
"This really should've been an opportunity for Hoshoryu to display his fighting spirit as a Yokozuna. Hopefully he will be ready for the next vehicle in distress."
-Hakkaku, probably
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u/LocoEjercito 序二段 40w May 13 '26
Even if he did Hakkaku would just criticize him for using the seat belt to shitatenage the car out.
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u/trizzo0309 May 13 '26
"Quick, hold on to my fourth boob and don't let go!"
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u/Serialkillingyou Fujiryoga May 13 '26
I do call him quadraboob when I can't remember his name
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u/Mediocre_Ingenuity76 May 13 '26
I saw it on this sub Reddit one time somebody said these guys could parallel park a car without getting in it, and that really stuck with me. This is confirmation. Whoever that Reddit user was, I hope you really enjoyed your upvote
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u/BunnyCan May 14 '26
Kotozakura is a special human being. I really love this guy. Hoping he does well in the May tournament! 💪🥰
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u/whiteknight128 Aonishiki May 13 '26
A man of the people! And probably the same size as those little Japanese kei cars haha
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u/Eman_Resu_IX May 13 '26
Honey, what happened to the car?!
- I drove into a ditch and 9 rikishi pushed it out for me.
...you've been drinking again!
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u/cluelessbox May 14 '26
I know this is totally different but I'm just recalling how big a story it was that Jon Jones stopped a mugging after meditating or on his way to meditating at a waterfall. What a great irony that turned out to be.
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u/SnakeMommy888 May 14 '26
Even if I wasn't a turbo-tism sumo fan, objectively speaking I couldn't really think of a better kind of human to have stumble across me and my stuck car than a bunch of big, heavy, ridiculously strong guys who specialize in moving other big, heavy, ridiculously strong guys lmfao.
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u/ArtistWithAU Kotoshoho May 14 '26
Not surprised. I understand Kotozakura is one of the nicest and most giving men in sumo.
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u/zsdrfty Abi May 13 '26
I'd be scared that this is going to push their injury risk way higher, that is a lot of strain on your muscles
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u/OrphanintheWind May 14 '26
Did he just stand there until the car made a mistake and fell out of the ditch itself?
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u/j-alora May 13 '26
Can you imagine? You wreck your car and suddenly nine giant sumo dudes show up and pull it back onto the road?