Kuroyama

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Everything posted by Kuroyama

  1. Kuroyama

    Kotomitsuki hospitalized-gall bladder

    Having been through gallstones myself, it can be extremely painful and unpredictable. Even one over-greasy meal could put him out of commission. That's probably what brought on my own first attack. In my case it was unfortunately not diagnosed at the time, so when my second attack hit some months later it was an emergency situation.
  2. Kuroyama

    Kyushu is all about the makushita !

    (In a state of confusion...) like what? They don't sag properly. No bounce to them.
  3. English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impetigo
  4. Then to drag it back on topic: forced retirement + a set of informal customs limiting the set of people to whom a kabu might be sold = once in a while you're going to get some boob who thinks this kind of thing is a good way to implement discipline, and there's not much you can do about it.
  5. Why do they even have a mandatory retirement age? To conform to corporate norms? To judge from how physically uninvolved most oyakata are in their deshi's training, it should make almost no difference unless they come down with Alzheimer's or something. I suppose you want to allow recently retired rikishi the opportunity to acquire toshiyori-kabu, and perhaps the only way to ensure that is to force oyakata to give them up at some point, but that's an artifact of the system as it's constituted. There's no compelling reason for things to be that way that I can see. How hard could it be to come up with something that allowed oyakata to stay on as long as they're fit to while still allowing some form of participation by those who might be waiting in the wings? Part of this is that I think mandatory retirement ages are pretty useless in general, but I really don't get it coming from a culture that's reputed to value age and experience.
  6. Kuroyama

    Asa in hot water-thread 2

    Exactly what kind of physician is this Dr. Honda anyway? Giving a nod to a patient's insistence on using alternative therapies is one thing -- it happens in the US all the time, mainly out of doctor's fears of driving patients away from legitimate therapy if they push too hard against the useless stuff -- but this seems like going to an absurd length. So is he an MD (or the equivalent in the Japanese system) or is he some other kind of "doctor"?
  7. That sounds kind of eerie, like they were already in the habit of covering up whatever was going on there even back then. Weird.
  8. Kuroyama

    Takanowaka intai

    That's nice to know. It's easy to worry about these guys that way, considering what a physical punishment many of them take and how they often continue with the sport until they literally can't go on any more. It could easily leave a man in no condition to earn much of a living unless he has training in something else, or with high medical expenses the rest of his life.
  9. Kuroyama

    Could Baruto refuse promotion?

    Roho - biggest risk is straining a thigh after tachi-ai trying to check forward momentum following the henka Kokkai - Make-koshi at M12. Does shaving deprive him of his strength? He frankly doesn't look like much of a threat to someone like Baruto at this point, even if he was injured. Wakanoho - Well, OK. (Whatever above, it is funny...)
  10. Kuroyama

    Is Kotooshu too tall?

    I suspect he's making an effort to adjust his style and is in a transitional phase right now. That kind of thing can mess anyone up. As Maxim pointed out, we've seen nothing like the usual number of henkas from him recently, and I had the impression a couple of times that we went wrong right from the tachi-ai. If you've suddenly decided not to henka, the tachi-ai is naturally where you're going to be making changes. On the other hand, it was really painful to watch him rush those throws because you just know what'll happen as soon as he starts one. It looks like once he decides to use one he goes for it no matter how his opponent is moving and at times when the momentum you need to make it work just isn't there.
  11. Kuroyama

    Takanowaka intai

    I think it would be unusual for the average (so to speak) sekitori to be able to live on his savings. Their salaries are nothing like what we're used to for Western professional sports figures. It's a bit difficult to figure out exactly what the average is, between kensho, kinboshi and other mochikyukin, endorsement deals if they're popular enough, etc., but annual base salaries range from about $110,000 USD for Juryo sekitori to about $300,000 USD for yokozuna. (These are the most recent numbers I can find anyway. If anyone knows better, please say so.) In US terms these are salaries you'd expect more for experienced technical professionals through middle management, but unlike a regular job a sekitori's career is relatively brief. He could sock nearly all of it away if he wants to continue living like a lower-ranking rikishi, but do any of them do that? Very strong sekitori might accumulate very substantial mochikyukin accounts amounting to some multiple of their base salaries, but most are not Chiyonofuji. Considering the cost of living in Japan, I'd guess they would almost always need a job at one point or another.
  12. Kuroyama

    Kasachikara Watch Aki 07

    A much kinder reading than "Mighty Lampshade", anyway.
  13. Kuroyama

    Day 9 Pics - Aki 2007

    "Hey, you! In the fourth row with the chewing gum! I hope you brought enough for everyone!" Aminishiki poses for a manga panel, modelling both the standard smiley face and the sweatdrop.
  14. Kuroyama

    Rikishi Talk Day 9 Aki Basho 2007

    An old warhorse like Chiyotaikai knows exactly what the situation is even when he loses. This obviously has a lot to do with how he manages to stay on top even as he gets older. Nothing unexpected there, but I think it's pretty rare to see it illustrated so well with juxtaposed quotes like this.
  15. Kuroyama

    Kotooshu

    That was disappointing. It looked as though it had it and then his hand went down, for no reason I could see. He gave that one away.
  16. Kuroyama

    Kisenosato

    It's not easy to see nuances of expression on the streamer, but my impression was that Hakuho was perfectly impassive -- until after that big matta anyway -- that that Kisenosato was well and thoroughly intimidated almost from the start. It made me wonder if his refusal to actually get the bout going might have been genuine reluctance rather than tactics. I don't say that by way of excusing him, because that's not acceptable either. But as I said, it's hard to read faces with such a blocky picture. It was to watch sumo that finally pushed me over the edge and get broadband, but a clearer picture would be great. The trouble with the available options is that 1) I'm cheap; and 2) the English-language commentary gets on my nerves.
  17. Kuroyama

    Kisenosato

    I could be wrong, but it seemed to me that Hakuho has that shikiri stare working perfectly, and he had Kisenosato so ready to piss himself before the bout started that he couldn't get himself to move.
  18. Kuroyama

    Rikishi Talk Day 3 Aki Basho 2007

    fixed But "schooled" was correct. (or is this a suggestion?)
  19. Kuroyama

    The 97% of Ozumo

    It's the French. They can make dental floss sound sexy.
  20. Kuroyama

    Traditional Sumo Song

    They all have that chorus. Since the songs are usually composed for the occasion, if there's one in particular you have in mind you'll have to find out when it was performed.
  21. Kuroyama

    Sumo's origin as funerary game

    In cultures with some kind of "corn god" death and rebirth cycle -- yes. I don't know enough about Shinto to know if it's the case here.
  22. I have read in exactly one place of dubious reliability that under the name "suwu", sumo was first performed in Japan by the Chinese delegation to the funeral of Ingyō Tennō in the 400s. Might this be what Matsunami-san was referring to? Odd as it might seem to modern sensibilities, this would have been done as a mark of respect. For instance, in the Hellenic world it was customary for funeral games to be held during the observances for prominent, respected people as part of the religious ceremonies or to honor the athletic/military prowess of the deceased. This would have been something along the same lines, perhaps. But yeah, why no dohyo-iri from Hakuho at Kotozakura's funeral? It would seem the thing to have done.
  23. Kuroyama

    Takanoyama

    It wasn't until I looked Takanoyama up just now, having been put in mind of him by a mention in another thread, that I learned he's been in sumo for 6 years. I'd been assuming he hadn't been around all that long. To my relatively inexperienced eye his sumo seems at least as competent as more successful rikishi, as one might expect of a talented Western-style wrestler attracted to sumo. And he's still built like a Western-style wrestler, (who typically try to keep their weight down, not up) which means that regardless of technique he's so lightweight that he gets thrown all over the dohyo. How can someone live on a diet of chankonabe for 6 years and still be so small?
  24. Kuroyama

    Featured rikishi - Chiyotenzan

    But not, it seems, entirely undeserved. As the late, great Jimmy Durante put it, "Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down." You'd think sumotori would be conscious of this to some degree, since unless they make yokozuna they can always find themselves heading down.
  25. Kuroyama

    Greetings

    Hello Sumoforum! My name is Chris, and I'm rather a beginner to sumo but I'm enjoying it tremendously. I'd been attracted to the sport for a long time, but in the US information is not easy to come by, and after my initial interest I became too distracted by college and my own martial art (European-style fencing) to have much attention to spare for it. That was a very long time ago. Even after the Internet showed up I never even considered online sources for some reason until I happened upon some videos of recent sumo bouts on YouTube. That led me to look around, and the first place I found was... a certain other website. But I got into contact with Nishinoshima -- a name I recognized, since he'd posted many of the YouTube videos, and I've since been a customer of his -- and he gave me some links to a number of other places including this one. I've been lurking here ever since, and I have to thank all the local experts for their most informative posts. I've learned more here just from listening in than I ever could have somewhere else. At the moment I'm involved in a Wikipedia project to try to bring a semblance of order and credibility to the sumo-related articles there. As I'm very much not an expert and am still acquiring reference material (not reading Japanese is a hindrance) my contributions are mostly on the technical and editorial side. It's still a badly underpopulated project, in great need of people who know what they're talking about. So now that I'm posting I can actually ask a question when I want to know something instead of waiting for someone else to. Sweet!