For a long time Toutenkō didn’t need a cloud home. Her dohjo, where she would sneak out of to look at the moon or to go to poetry gatherings, was enough. But then she saw her dragon form reflected in the koi pond one evening and suddenly she wanted a place where she could fully expand and dance on air currents.
In the cloistered world of sumo, where tradition is carved into every stomp and salt toss, a figure rises—broad-shouldered, silent, and unshakably graceful. They call her Toutenkō (東天紅), “Crimson of the Eastern Sky,” for she arrives at dawn and leaves before dusk, her face always half-shadowed beneath the ceremonial topknot. Her name is whispered in bathhouses and sake dens. “Toutenkō,” they say, “wrestles like a ghost of the old capital.” Some claim she’s the reincarnation of a forgotten empress. Others say she’s a fox spirit in disguise.
She’s of course my alter ego, born while reading The Tale of Genji and looking at Hayao Miyazaki’s animations for neurofeedback at the same time, mirroring how I’ve been uniting all my aspects into a whole. This is my attempt to collect and share these with you. So glad you’re here. Hope you’ll feel at home.
This place will keep shape-shifting all the time as I’m learning WordPress and probably many more new things, but the ultimate goal is to have photography, writing, thoughts and interests, focus points of curiosity and delight, past, present and future all gathered here. Let’s see where this path leads.