Rattlebones

FWIW I saw it here: Japan Times and here : CiberSumo

Thank you very much. So essentially it means loss, meaning it was either a poor translation or poorly written. At least it makes sense... now... Edit -- well I don't get to see matches and hear commentary much. Used to watch basho that people uploaded but they quit doing it so I'm stuck reading the reports now and watching highlites on youtube

Need some help here from my erstwhile Japanese forum-mates. In a number of article about day 4 the writers said something like this quote I think they are referring to Kuroboshi the animator in some way but I don't necessarily understand the reference. All I can think of are some Japanese anime where someone is standing on 1 foot waving their arms, tottering... Is that the reference? Thanks in advance.

ad hominem attacks aside ... Just who would be Asa's superior whom he was trying to be respectful to while getting drunk? Even so, Asa was not a common Japanese citizen, he was a Yokozuna and had been berated on many occasions for his behavior. One would speculate that he isn't normally an unintelligent person (not really knowing him I couldn't say for certain). Assuming this then one could assume that he was smart enough to know that if he got intoxicated he might act inappropriately and thus if he were interested in protecting himself as Yokozuna he would would not get drunk in public. Assuming these things what could one conclude that he didn't respect the traditions of Yokozuna-ship or didn't care enough to... in either case this self indulgence seems to have been the camel that broke the straw's back and he no longer holds the position he once did. Yep, I guess I call publicly getting drunk in this case stupid.

Drunk and stupid are synonymous, aren't they? At least anyone I've seen drunk (at that's a lot of people) have been stupid at the same time... even if not stupid when not drunk. Given his bulk I'd assume it takes a lot of booze to get "drunk"... so I would argue one must be stupid to drink that much in public as a public figure in Japan.

A thought just occurred... Assashoryu == Mike Tyson? Both had meteoric rises in their professional, violent sports, only to submarine their careers with their inability to handle the money, fame, and other associated negatives of those rises...? Just a thought. As an aside, in the USA there are legal precedents which amount to, violence provoked by certain utterances can be justified. The language is catagorized as "fighting words"... or words which a common person would be provoked to violence at... and that language is not protected under the first amendment to the US constitution. I know we're talking about Japan and their laws... just pointing out that even in the US, certain utterances are not fully protected by law.

Personally I could care less what one athelete does to celebrate or not celebrate. However, if the governing body of his sport says you can't do it he should be sanctioned. I find the "American" football comments funny simply because, up until professional football, celebrations can be penalized. Having played for 11 years I never found the celebrations interesting. If I scored or made an outstanding tackle I was almost embarrassed by the applause. I couldn't have done it alone, why should I be singled out for recognition. Even in individual sports like Sumo, a great Rikishi can't be great without good practice partners and trainers. One's accomplishments never belong to the individual alone... or to be more accurate, one's accomplishments are rarely one's alone. They are often the result of input from many sources. To add another ingredient to the pot, what if Rikishi started pointing to Heaven to thank a god for their win...

It looks like a very entertaining movie 2012 Movie... albeit inaccurate from my perspective. The Mayan Calendar happens to coincide with a few interesting astronomical events on that date. Do I think those astronomical events mean the end of the world? As much as I think being a Capricorn influenced my early Judo career (read not at all). Having said that, and being a scientist, I refuse to rule out something interesting happening. I just think it's far more likely that we'll get blasted by the radiation from a dying nearby star.

Was watching a recap, did I hear right that Chiyotaikai is goin to withdraw for day 11?

I would recommend VLC Media Player. It's a free download and plays most anything I come across extremely reliably.

Not sure where you guys are on this... If, for whatever reason, you are still looking for someone to take over the daily maintenance of this site, *I* for one would need some specifics. For example, how much traffic is there on a monthly basis? How large is the database? Which software is it running on (sorry I could probably find that out but I'm being lazy)? Some specifics about the requirements would go a long way to either me making an offer to keep it running or me finding a colleague who could host the site easily. If this is still an issue can we get some specifics that would inform out decisions? From another angle, I assist in maintaining a number of fan sites for a variety of kids games and other things. For the high volume, large sites (like top 500 on the net) we take donations... perhaps that is something we could do here to help in the annual costs.

It would only create a revolving door if everyone was of equal skill and no one could reach the criteria. So then it's better to have a subjective ruleless ranking system in a sport versus some reasonable (not that my example was reasonable) system for promotions and demotions.

The problem, as I see it, is none of the above. The problem is that the Kyokai make the rules and can ignore them as they see fit. If promotion and demotion were clear cut then it wouldn't matter how many people were at Ozeki or Yokozuna... they would be there because they have reached, and maintained the requirements for the rank. For example (and this is off the top of my head)... To reach Yokozuna you need 3 basho with an average of 13-2 across the 3 basho, or 2 basho wins across 3 consecutive basho. To remain Yokozuna you can't drop below an average record of 12-3 across 3 consecutive basho. To reach Ozeki you need to have 3 basho with 11-4 record. To stay Ozeki you have to maintain an average 9-6 record across 3 consecutive basho. You may end up with extra Yokozuna or Ozeki for a couple of tournaments but there is no way that once you had "extra" they could maintain their rank indefinitely.

So, the issue is that while it is not an illegal move it's considered bad form... I can accept that on the whole. However I'd rather see it formalized that the initial move must be forward until contact is made. Otherwise, in my twisted Judoka way of thinking, the rikishi are simply utilizing well accepted principles of Japanese martial arts.

I find the Henka comments funny. The point of the sport, ignoring all the esoterica surrounding it, is to either knock someone down or take them out of the ring. Where should it become someone who does that's fault that his opponent couldn't control his balance? Now, if it were a rule that you have to charge forward and make contact before moving to the side to unbalance your opponent, I'd have to reconsider my stance on this... however, as a Rikshi you need to be aware of the fact that your opponent might not just stand there and let you drive into them ... particularly one who is on the verge of demotion and looking for wins to maintain his position in this profession. I find the henka comments akin to finding fault with American Football teams who have "trick" plays and don't simply drive the ball up the middle on every play...