Japanese names of characters from “Hinomaru Sumo”

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo official website ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc・Hinomaru sumo production committee

What is the story?

Hinomaru Sumo is a manga written and illustrated by Kawada. It is a story about Hinomaru, a young and passionate boy who wants to be a professional sumo wrestler. He is muscular, powerful and is naturally talented in sumo but the only thing he wasn’t gifted with was his height. He had a successful sumo life but it all ends in middle school as his body size starts to give him a disadvantage. Hinomaru then joins the Odachi highschool Sumo club to find his path to the professional world of sumo.

What is the Japanese title of Hinomaru Sumo?

The English title ‘Hinomaru Sumo’ is exactly the same as the Japanese title ‘火ノ丸相撲 ’(read, Hinomaru Zumō.) Hinomaru is the main character’s name and Sumo is Japanese wrestling.

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo official website ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc・Hinomaru sumo production committee

What are the meanings behind the characters’ names?

In Japanese culture, names have significant meanings that are supposed to represent you as a person. Names can be expressed in hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Sumo wrestlers have special stage names called ‘Shikona’(四股名). Let’s find out the meanings of some names from ‘Hinomaru Sumo’ along with their ‘Shikona’.

Hinomaru Ushio (潮 火ノ丸, Ushio Hinomaru)

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo official website ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc・Hinomaru sumo production committee

‘Ushio’(潮) means tide, ‘Hi’(火) is fire, ‘No’(ノ) is ‘of’ and ‘Maru’(丸) is circle. Hinomaru is a tiny but powerful sumo wrestler. He was known as the ‘Onimaru’ (鬼丸) and the champion sumo wrestler in elementary school. He tackles his opponents like a fireball!

Kunitsuna Onimaru (鬼丸 国綱, Onimaru Kunitsuna)

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo Comic 28 Ep 250 ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc

When Hinomaru finally made it into the professional sumo world, he took the sumo name ‘Onimaru Kunitsuna’.

‘Oni’(鬼) is demon, ‘Maru’(丸) is circle, ‘Kuni’(国) is country and ‘Tsuna’(綱) is rope.

Shinya Ozeki (小関 信也, Ozeki Shinya)

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo official website ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc・Hinomaru sumo production committee

Shinya is a gentle and kind boy who loves sumo. He was the only member of the Odachi highschool sumo club until Hinomaru joined as a new member. ‘O’(小) is small, ‘Seki’(関) means connection, ‘Shin’(信) is believe sand ‘Ya’(也) is a common kanji that you put at the end of boys’ names.

Shinya Tachitaro  (太刀太郎 信也, Tachitarō Shinya)

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo Comic 27 Ep 241 ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc

This is Shinya’s Shikona. ‘Tachi’(太刀) is a type of Japanese sword and ‘Tarou’(太郎) is a typical name for boys.

Kirihito Tsuji (辻 桐仁, Tsuji Kirihito)

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo official website ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc・Hinomaru sumo production committee

‘Kirihito’(桐仁) is Hinomaru’s childhood friend. Although he is highly talented his health condition does not allow him to move too much so instead of being a member he decides to be an advisor of the Odachi highschool sumo club. ‘Tsuji’ (辻) means cross, ‘Kiri’(桐) is a kind of tree often used for furniture and ‘Hito’(仁) means care.

Yasutsuna Onikiri (鬼切 安綱, Onikiri Yasutsuna)

Image by: Weekly jump magazine Hinomaru Sumo Ep 137 ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc

Kirihito successfully finds his way to fight as a professional sumo wrestler by giving himself a time limit of 20 seconds to defeat his opponents. Kirihito took the Shikona ‘Yasutsuna Onikiri’ (鬼切 安綱). ‘Oni’(鬼) means demon, ‘Kiri’(切) means cut, ‘Yasu’(安) means rest, and ‘Tsuna’(綱) is rope.

Interesting lines and phrases – Learning Japanese!

Here are some useful phrases from Hinomaru Sumo which will help you along with your Japanese studies!

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo comic 5 Ep 36 ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc

EN/ ‘You’re on!’
JP/ 「 上等だJyoutou da」

You say ‘Jyoutou’ when you want to accept a challenge. Jyoutou also means great!

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo Comic 1 chapter 3 ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc

EN/ ‘Doesn’t that look so fun?!!’
JP/「めっちゃmeccha面白そうじゃないですか?!!omoshirosou jyanai desuka?!!」

EN/ ‘Let’s do it! Come on let’s do it!!’
JP/「やろう！yarou! やりましょう！！yarimashou!! 」

‘Meccha’ is a slang that means very. ‘Yarou’ is let’s do it and’ Yarimashou’ is a polite way to say let’s do it!

Image by: Hinomaru Sumo comic 1 Ep 1 ©Kawada／Shueisha Inc

EN/ ‘Don’t you feel ashamed of yourself doing this?!! Mr. Sun is looking down on us!!’
JP/「あんなマネしてanna maneshite 恥ずかしくないんか！hazukashiku nainka! お天道様はOtento-Sama wa 見とるぞ！Mitoruzo!」

Hinomaru is so committed to sumo that makes him act a little old fashioned. ‘Otento-Sama’ is another way to say “sun” which was mostly used in the olden days. ‘Otento-Sama’ is sometimes looked at as god so if somebody says “Otento-Sama wa Mitoruzo” they mean that if you do something bad and even if nobody sees it god is always watching.