Sasanishiki

Wow, and I didn't even see Mark's mouth move!! (Showing respect...)

The cut-off time for the Tokyo Marathon is to finish within 7 hours. Maybe he should watch this movie

Shall we celebrate amasumo then? There is a lot of hard work that goes in for little reward

Certainly one of the greats. On his day he is still very dangerous, but unfortunately those days are further and further apart these days. I'm just sorry that prior to his latest injury (the one before Kyushu last year) he seemed to be in good form. He'd been getting KK before the end of the tournament, had a couple of 9-6s (not that great for an ozeki, I realise) and been looking good in keiko. He then gets injured just prior to the basho and has been limping along (literally) since.

My oyakata and my father in Japan/supporter's association leader Mr Kohei Komaki were invited, and I am so happy that we could have this kind of great party.

I hope that the Sadogatake rikishi donated blood as well. That would provide a nice boost to the campaign if 30+ rikishi and toshiyori turned up. Imagine if they also mobilised their koenkai and local supporters to do the same. Matsudo would be awash in blood (so to speak)

She's off to Tottori Johoku HS by the way.

I think this means there were a lot of people there. Could be, that certainly would make more sense though I've never seen it used like that. Thanks! I think the thing is that in reading Ama's blog we need to think like a foeigner who has learnt Japanese is a functional sense. he is not a native speaker, and I doubt he has learnt the language formally like most foreigners do. Certainly reading the stuff he has written so far it is to the point and not always entirely correct. I think Nishi's sense of what he is trying to say is correct.

For me too, eh! This conveys that the bean throwing he did was to bring luck to everyone (as the previous sentence said) but that he also hopes it will work to bring him luck as well.

I agree with the unlikelihood of being recruited sight unseen. However, and admittedly it was a different time, I've just read an account taken from an interview with Cal Martin (Araiwa) who was active in the late 60s. He was in Japan, boasted that he as a high school football player could beat a rikishi and was taken to a heya to have a crack. He only wanted to have a go but was pursued and persuaded by the oyakata. Even if we allow for hyperbole and inaccuracy in oral history, it is a definite possibility for your book. Melvin could go along to have a go or he could go with the intention to watch and be mistaken for a new recruit (actually perhaps a more interesting twist with different storyline connotations) and be recruited.

I think the "is sumo a sport or not" argument can become a little too problematic, mainly through translation. We began talking about whether sumo was the national sport of Japan because it is most commonly and frequently referred to as kokugi. The whole issue is that kokugi is best/most naturally rendered in English as "national sport" when in fact a truer translation is "national technique" or "national skill" (as has been already mentioned). So, in debating about whether sumo is the only martial art (let's use that for want of a better term) that uses kokugi it is easy to get caught up in determining if sumo is actually a sport or not because we are focused on the English terminology. I've never seen anything in Japanese that has named sumo in the category of "sports" supootsu (except for it appearing in the sports news or the sports section of the paper). This category is almost exclusively reserved for introduced sports from the West. Budo is used for martial arts, in which I've seen sumo included as well as excluded depending on the situation and context. I've also seen sumo listed under the kakutogi category in things like book shops. It seems to fit all and no categories at the same time. Perhaps this is because it is best, and most often, described as kokugi. Whether it is the kokugi on the other hand (through sheer weight of use I'm prepared to argue that it is)... I guess the same issue comes through in English. What is a sport as opposed to a game, a pursuit or a pastime? Is chess a sport or is ball room dancing? What then about bridge, poker, scrabble. I'm not wanting to start a debate on the merits of these as sports, games or whatever, just to show that the "is sumo a sport?" issue gets tied up in semantics in both languages.

One of the newspaper reports said it was a former tokoyama but gave no names or heya affiliations.

Nice move by the former rijicho to remove himself from the Pandora's box that was opened under his watch. I'm all for drug testing as long as it is done properly and impartially. The Kyokai is digging a hole for itself by having the oyakata so closely tied to the testing.

, I can't make head nor tail of it. I'm also afraid that I'm not getting what you're trying to say. Can you flesh out the example please?

A case in point is the following quote that I ran across yesterday when re-reading some stuff:

Or, with the Wakakirin scandal there is now a new whipping boy among the oyakatas?

I was interested when Jonosuke made his post about this, and now I'm thinking about it even more. I wonder who actually turned up for this. I suspect his lawyer was there but I wonder who else (especially the Japanese among these 20) might associate themselves with him? Had it not said Russian and Japanese I might have speculated that Nishi was there.

Hmmm, what an interesting coincidence...

(Sign of disapproval...) (Applauding...) Good grief. Better out of the sport to be honest.

But the point is not whether or not it actually is the national sport. Instead, it is the discourse that surrounds sumo and its position as kokugi. Other sports could be (and were) referred to as kokugi until 1909 when the Kokugikan was built as the home for sumo. Through this the implication became that sumo was the (only) kokugi. Whether or not it officially (mandated by law) became the national sport is largely irrelevant compared to the perception. Also, here Tierney is translating Kokugi as "national sport" probably the best English analogy and least clumsy rendering of the term. It is also used in the sense that football is the national sport of England (not sure if this is mandated in law, probably not) and rugby is the national sport of New Zealand (again not mandated). Perception is the key here rather than an official status. FWIW, Tierney is one of the scholars who steers about as far away as you can get from dealing in fictions regarding sumo. He is one of the handful of scholars who actually deconstruct the sport and see it for what it reflects about society at different points in its history. Ironically, several Japanese scholars are unable to divorce themselves from popular fictions when they deal with sumo in scholarship.

Still in Fukuoka. The new design is only being used down there, for cost reasons, I was told by a fellow hack. All the zabutons at the Kokugikan were of the old, single, easily-throwable type. Does this not seem a little strange? The Kokugikan gets used for three basho a year, while Fukuoka only has one. Furthermore, Kyushu basho has small numbers and so, unless the crowd is rowdier, that doesn't seem to be a good use of a resource. Perhaps they should worry about getting more bums on the zabuton in Fukuoka rather than the risk that someone might throw them?

I've just flicked through most of the introduction and it is an interesting read. However, I have found one point to correct. If, as I suspect, Melvin is about to join a heya, he would need to be 23 years old or younger as the Nihon Sumo Kyokai has an age cut-off. Currently Melvin is 24.

Sorry for the typo of Tierney's name I provided above. Here are the sumo works he has published: R. Kenji Tierney. 2007.

Search for work by Roderic Kenji Teirney or combinations of the first two names and the surname. He spent some time in a heya and wrote his PhD on the nationalisation of sumo as Japan's sport (amongst other angles). In particular he has written a book chapter on patrons in sumo that is quite interesting.

In this matter of celebrating his victory by waving to everyone, I think it is clearly a case of Asa not adhering to sumo-do as a yokozuna. I think the evidence for this is the past reprimands issued to Japanese athletes like tochiazauma when they celebrated a yusho with an overt display of emotion. Tochiazuma would not have been held to the same high standards as Asashoryu because he was not a yokozuna, so given that Tochi was criticised we can only believe that Asa should be criticised (and judged more harshly) because of the rank he holds.