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Everything posted by Sokkenaiyama
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How do you compute GOAT-ness? I've heard this discussion a million times, and there's never a conclusion. Aside from performance against his contemporaries, there isn't much data to go on.
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On second thought, though, I think the Yokozunae plural does make a lot of sense in Japanese, if you consider the following kanji, 横綱彙, and consider that the Latin pronunciation rhymes with ない and not with ね. It's scary sometimes what people can come up with at 1:30 AM in the morning, when the Sandman just won't enter.
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I said I wasn't a fan. I didn't say I wanted to make myself universally understood. Also, you can read Japanese better than 99.9% of the non-Japanese on this forum.
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I used to be a fan of Kotooshu, but now I'm past the fandom phase of my enjoyment of sumo. I would, however, like to see a trans-temporal Super-Sekitori banzuke made up of the 70-something Yokozuna達 (sorry, Mr. D, not a fan of the Latin plural), with the pecking order established by a massive fully-meshed round-robin tournament with the rikishi at their respective primes. So, in no particular (or fathomable, for that matter) order, Hakuho, Asashoryu, Takanohana, Akebono, Musashimaru, Chiyonofuji, Kitanoumi, Wajima, Futabayama, etc. Or, even better, add all the Ozeki to the mix and you also get a Meta-Makushita division as a bonus. Maybe the more numerically inclined members of the forum could pull out their miraculous ELO rating calculators and attempt a quick-and-dirty "ORDER BY"?
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I'm as much a kimarite freak as the next sumo otaku, but I don't really know what those are. It's easy to make an educated guess, though. Ushirohikimawashi would be anything that wins you the bout by pulling on the opponent's mawashi when he got behind you. Dashinage was probably refined into uwate- and shitatedashinage; there's also the chance, and it would make a lot of sense, that the unfinished throws we sometimes see today, which don't outright fell the other guy to the ground, but take him off balance just enough to be taken out, were called dashinage in the past. No idea about yagara, but haraidashi could be sweeping an opponent's leg(s) just enough to make him step out. In any case, kimarite naming, either creating classes or applying those classifications to real instances of winning techniques, is far from an exact science, it's more of an art form. Many, many times, the bout is won through a succession of strategies, tactics and a sequence of attempted moves, so much that the single kimarite at the end is irrelevant or even detracts from the overall impression. Other times, the finishing kimarite is an overlap of two or more finishing moves, either because they involve very similar stances/actions, like oshidashi and tsukidashi, or that thing Harumafuji did which could be seen as kotenage, tottari or hikkake, but which was nearly impossible to classify because of the low stance and the aggressive flow of the bout, or because one is a natural consequence from the other one not being properly executed or finished, e.g. a dashinage degenerating into okuridashi/taoshi, sukuinage into tsukiotoshi, etc. Philosophy aside, though, I would also like to see some books of old with "formal" descriptions for the obsolete techniques. I would also be interested in seeing some "official" explanations for their obsolescence (I'm not really holding my breath, but hey, maybe, just maybe...)
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I never left, you know. Doesn't the rank say "Stalker"?
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You're mistaking this place for a democracy, mister.
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Are you saying Takanohana beat the crap out of Takanoiwa just so he could point the finger at Harumafuji or the Mongolians or sumo's violent ways? If so, do you have any base for it?
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On the dumbness (or lack thereof) of Akua's shikona
Sokkenaiyama replied to Atenzan's topic in Polls
First off, ateji is using characters purely for their phonetic value - if we were to use an example similar to yours above, it would be like using the character for heart (心) in place of 'shin' in an English sentence. You can get plenty of examples on the web. Now, regarding the watery matter at hand, I guess we can agree to disagree, but I'll just say it's pretty difficult to find a good phonetic AND semantic match at the same time. Sure it's not perfect, but it's still pretty damn good. It could be refined in a number of ways, like, for example, 悪海 or, even better, 握海, but these have negative connotations, and, naturally, you'd never see them in shikona. Although Japanese is a fairly regular language, naming is the one place you shouldn't get finicky about. -
On the dumbness (or lack thereof) of Akua's shikona
Sokkenaiyama replied to Atenzan's topic in Polls
Haha, I think a couple of those actually spell 'Murica. -
The level of granularity is something else.
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On the dumbness (or lack thereof) of Akua's shikona
Sokkenaiyama replied to Atenzan's topic in Polls
I, for one, can't understand why you guys would think the kanji choice is anything but genius - it's pretty rare to find such a good match between meaning and reading. The shikona itself isn't stupid, either - it could mean fluidity in movement, like water, or the guy ripples when you hit him. Maybe the cheesy 90's band is still on your mind. And, for what it's worth, I would tend to try typing tenkuukai to bring up the kanji - doesn't work, but oh well. -
On the dumbness (or lack thereof) of Akua's shikona
Sokkenaiyama replied to Atenzan's topic in Polls
I actually think the whole Akua thing is cool - then again, I'm a fan of kanji. Good read. -
Hakuho misconduct (split from Basho Talk Kyushu 2017)
Sokkenaiyama replied to Atenzan's topic in Honbasho Talk
You misspelled Rafael Nadal, I think. -
Hakuho misconduct (split from Basho Talk Kyushu 2017)
Sokkenaiyama replied to Atenzan's topic in Honbasho Talk
No way in hell anyone would ever consider that bout a false start, they were in perfect sync. Hakuho's reaction indicates he deliberately tried to cause one, but it backfired massively and he lost and made himself look bad with the post-bout reaction. The only reason why Hakuho would think that start was a matta is that the idea was already in his head before the actual start, because there is no shred of a matta in the actual bout. [Donning tinfoil hat] Maybe he wanted a way to keep the yusho race interesting and was not in the mood to perform yaocho, so he chose to default in a non-conventional and controversial way (with the small side-effect of drawing a little attention from the Harumafuji/Takanohana mess). -
Promotion/Demotion and Yusho discussion Aki 2017
Sokkenaiyama replied to Asashosakari's topic in Honbasho Talk
I think in the case of some regions in America, the confusion is exacerbated by the pronunciation. This needs confirmation, but I think affect and effect are both pronounced [əfɛkt] by some natives there. As a non-native speaker, the form of English I started with is British RP, which differentiates the two very clearly (effect is pronounced [ɪfɛkt]). -
Promotion/Demotion and Yusho discussion Aki 2017
Sokkenaiyama replied to Asashosakari's topic in Honbasho Talk
And your native language is supposed to be English, too. /flame (from a lighter, not a flamethrower, but still a flame) -
Simon, you old bugger! Happy birthday!
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And there I was, thinking the US Open draw was depleted...
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Mister, I dunno what you've been smoking, but I want some.
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I don't see anything "mid" about 192 cm and 153 kg.
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I think even more remarkable is this guy. Not only was he world class in both his sports, but the sports themselves were quite different (much more so than tennis and ping-pong)
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Anyone else enthusiastic about the Australian Open final tomorrow? I never thought I'd see any of those two oldies making a dent again, much less both of them at the same time. I guess 30 is indeed the new 20.
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If I had a penny for all the times I felt like there was something everyone else knew...
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And, to my surprise, someone picks me again, this time much higher. I will do my best not to disappoint.