Yukinohana

Or be a rank-and-file Maegashira resident like Kyokutenho, since the latter one doesn't have an eternity left (... or does he? ;) )

That's a quite impressive painting. Much better then my stick figure pencil drawing at any rate....

I like his open and honest opinion about sumo back then and sumo now

I have been lurking this forums for a while ( since around the time Yokozuna Harumafuji sealed his promotion with that nailbiting bout against Yokozuna Hakuho ). Figured that i'd have to create an account and introduce myself in a proper fashion. My name is Ferdinand, named after the founder of a certain German car manufacturer, hailing from the small nation of the Netherlands, aged 25. I've been watching sumo on and off since they were airing reruns on Eurosport, watching in awe of the feats done by Takanohana, Akebono, Musashimaru ( he was still an Ozeki when i started watching ) and others I was pretty sad when they stopped it...i was always in awe as a young boy on how these living mountains could move like the wind and still have such strength...back then i did not understand, so at that point , it was just another form off...entertainment i guess. Let's go about 10 years forward. Minding my own business on the internet when, as if fate decreed it, i stumbled upon a sportslink saying ''old veteran claims first title''. Being the curious person i am, i clicked on it and i immediately saw the name Kyokutenho..and it all came back to me. You can guess what the remainder of the day was spend on! But now i was older, and more curious. I wanted to know WHY these great men of times gone by did what they do, and how. I spend countless evenings searching for every scrap of information i could find, from the basics of keiko till the prebout rituals, all while watching Araibira's/Kintamayama's Youtube channels in the meantime...and my love for Sumo was re-ignited with a burning passion. I do not claim to be an expert of sumo, my knowledge is far from the level of a lot of you people here, but i try what i can and i am happy to explain sumo-do to everyone in my surroundings in the best way i can possibly do if they ask me why. Sadly, i didn't visit Japan yet because my health doesn't allow it yet..but if the oppurtunity arises, i will gladly take it. However it's very expensive and i know little to nothing about the Japanese language and customs and i do not want to make a fool out of myself. That's the short end of it. For me, Ozumo is not a sport...it is witnessing Japanese culture and tradition from another era...with training methods that seem obsolete for a lot of people, but still trainign methods that should never be drasticly altered...maybe i see things wrong and i understand if people here disagree with me..but for me, it's not a sport i compare with football, Tennis, softball or anything else.