Tochinofuji

Kataginu, part of the traditional formal outfit for samurai. http://japanworld.info/blog/kamishimo/

I have to say, while just a visitor to makuuchi Terutsuyoshi's sumo looked excellent today. Great turn with the hand on the back of Daishomaru's neck to a clean yorikiri. Looking forward to following the rest of his matches this basho! Hopefully he gets the kachikoshi he needs to make it to the big show in March.

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I certainly agree with your points here, especially with regard to things getting heated during practice. It happens in any contact sport or martial art, and as you say can be dealt with quite readily. To my mind, it was more the idea of "ordinary disciplining" being the problematic area rather than "clashes among wrestlers during practice." I appreciate my mind is a bit overly legalistic and parsing things a bit finely, but it seems to add an interesting element of discretion within a heya as to what constitutes "ordinary disciplining" versus bullying/violence, which is part of what has gotten us here in the first place. Just struck me as potentially an interesting wrinkle, which may just be me misunderstanding what Shibatayama-oyakata meant.

-"But the association sought to draw a distinction between excessive force and ordinary disciplining, as well as clashes among wrestlers during practice. “Humans are creatures of emotion. Sometimes skirmishes are going to break out. It doesn’t mean someone should automatically be reported for hitting,” JSA director Shibatayama said."- Does anyone else read this as close to "keep on doing as you're doing, just don't do it in public such that we must be seen to do something"? Not that that would be a surprising thing, just funny to see as one of the main quotes in the article (though something may well have been lost in the translation).

Ultimately, who cares if amateur gets as much "respect" as professional? Do you love the idea of doing sumo? If so, do it. If not, don't. If you're doing it for some sort of external validation of worth, which is what it sounds like in some of your posts, you won't last at it long enough to get that validation even if it's there to be had. Further, sumo is a niche activity that doesn't garner as much respect as it should anyways. So don't worry about it, and if you love it, do it.

And if not religious, certainly political.

I, for one, would love to hear you expand on this. Martial arts are a big reason I became interested in sumo, though I see it more as a martial sport (akin to western wrestling or boxing, neither of which were generally considered martial arts before the rise of MMA) rather than martial art. The main distinction to me would be one of intent, which for martial sports would be to get good at a sport which may have direct martial/self defence applications, without those applications being a focus (or even an active consideration).

One additional advantage, aside from protecting against head and mouth trauma, is that properly designed and fitted mouth guards allow an individual to set one's jaw and bite down hard, which can allow an athlete to generate more force/move more weight. Some companies even claim this biting down can increase endurance (see: Under Armour). While likely not producing much of an advantage, it could be just enough to be worth wearing one regardless of its protective properties, particularly in a short duration contest like sumo where any discomfort or difficulty in breathing caused by the mouth guard isn't likely to be a significant issue.

I'd love to hear more about the roles of a yokozuna's tachimochi and tsuyuharai, such as the history of the roles and whether they entail anything beyond appearing for dohyo-iri, as well as anything further on the tachi themselves (which smiths have produced the swords for the current crop of yokozuna, whether each yokozuna simply gets one or whether they have several made over the years, etc.). Might be a bit esoteric for Sumo 101, especially the sword portion, but hey, one rarely gets what they want if they don't ask.

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At your service!

I recommend getting your hands on the National Art of Sumo series. They can be found around for download, but also on YouTube. Fantastic highlights from a specific range of years for each volume. A personal favourite of mine:

That may be, but the 1th of anything is decidedly not a thing, anniversary or otherwise.

I'm a huge fan of Tochinoshin, but having watched them both, and shaken hands with them both in person (albeit a decade ago), I'd say Baruto was stronger hands down. As for who would win a match, I think that comes down to more than just strength, and think that Tochinoshin now would give Baruto a good run (and make for some fantastic matches). Though Baruto appears to be well ahead historically at 12 to 1, so that may just be my bias talking.