Gaijinohana

All I know is that after all this 'he must apologize in a way that pleases the organization' crap...I hope he rolls over every japanese wrestler and that together he and Hakuho dominate sumo for the next decade. This whole affair looked like the bigger dog in the park making the smaller one roll over and show his belly. Ridiculous. The whole affair was blown so far out of proportion. Sumo is wrestling...as soon as they try and make it more than that they begin to lose fans. I have not watched for the last two months because seriously...who cares about watching a bunch of half-ass wrestlers go after Hakuho?! They should realize that the Asa-Hahuko rivalry is all this sport has at the moment and not let a moment of it pass by without celebrating it.

Went to the Cherry Blossom festival in San Francisco this weekend and had a 5 minute chat with Musashimaru. He was sitting for pictures and there weren't many people at all around him on saturday (sketchy weather). They were promoting the Las Vegas event and he was doing his bit to get folks interested. I find it almost impossible to believe that they will get anywhere remotely near a reasonable turnout let alone a sellout on any of the three days in Vegas. If there were so few people interested in getting a pic with the Moose in SF Japantown I can't imagine how few people will be interested in showing up in Vegas at Mandalay Bay's ticket prices. They're outrageous!!

(Sign of approval) I can't wait till "Baruto" makes it up to the higher ranks!! The name alone should be reason enough to promote him immediately!! It inspires memories of cartoon bad guy names.

I used to watch and wait for the end of the day matches, but now with such a dominant Yokozuna and such weak Ozeki it has switched my attention to the up-and-comers more. I used to rarely pay attention to juryo and the lower ranks of the maegashira, but now I have learned to appreciate those bouts much more. But those of us in these forums are not indicative of the majority of the population. They want excitement at the top level and they certainly aren't getting that with a bunch of predictable No-Zeki's. Asa is exciting because he can do so many things well. That can't really be said of the Ozekis with the exception of Tochiazuma occasionally. These Ozeki are just good enough to keep their jobs, but rarely good enough to contend and that leads to a bunch of us in these forums almost lying to ourselves saying things like "I really think that this is the tournament that (Insert No-Zeki name here) is going to win it this time. I hear he is taking extra practice and less...." Of course, there is the statistical occasional flash in the pan like Hokutoriki a couple basho ago.

That's an interesting and very sad article. That's a big cost for the association to accept back onto itself and it indicates that sumo's popularity is truly at an all time low. Although maybe it's the teahouses that are unpopular and they just aren't selling the sumo tickets because they themselves have too few customers. Thanks for sharing.

All this talk about how manly sumo is reminds me of those pictures floating around the internet of Musoyama and a couple other rikishi standing around naked chatting. My cousin who likes to give me a hard time about following sumo sent them to me a year or so ago. So I am guessing that with all the sumo-heads in this forum and all the random sumo pictures that show up in this forum that some of you guys must have those. Those pics don't paint the tough-guy manly "vomit blood"(from taka's quote) image that you guys all seem to have of the sport. I like to think that I am comfortable in my masculinity, but I am still not going to hangout (no pun intended) in the locker room chatting naked with my friends. Also, be real! Being a San Franciscan I can tell you that my gaydar is revealing that: A bunch of guys living in close quarters for years on end, bathing with each other, rubbing each other down, doing one another's hair...sounds pretty gay to me!! Couple that with what Celeborn states about the statistics and it's nearly a sure thing. Oh yeah...there are bound to be gays in sumo!! My guess is a lot more than we all imagine. I am sure to hear replies about how the Japanese are more comfortable with nudity and their bodies, etc... I always find it funny when a person feels like they have to reassure everyone else that they are hetero. It reminds me of when people say "I like black people...Some of my best friends are black."

Back to the original topic of what's wrong with sumo these days... I think a big part of it has to do with the lack of intriguing stories in sumo lately. Back during the time of Akebono and Takanohana, etc you had more 'stories' within sumo to follow. There was the interest in seeing two different styles and rikishi types matched up...there was the group of rikishi all from this stable vs. the ones of the another big stable, there was the whole first foreigner thing going on, etc. I don't know if the quality of the sumo was altogether better, but there was more to draw you into the sport. Nowadays we only have one yokozuna so there isn't the potential match up of two top guys to talk about, there is really only one semi-powerful stable, etc. Nowadays, it's almost like we know what to expect from bout to bout. We know Asa is going to beat Kaio, Chiyo, Muso almost every time he meets them. We know that Chiyo is going to slap every time and lose to anyone that can endure it initially, we know that Muso is going to start a bout great and fumble at the end most of the time, we know that Kaio will seem to be dominate but have nothing to show for it, etc. Knowing the Ozeki's are going to choke has really hurt sumo lately. It's the redundancy that is making Sumo less attractive. That's why everyone was so excited when it looked like Hok. might make something of himself the last tournament and that's why every new guy that seems to be even remotely like a 'natural' is instantly anointed as the next possible ozeki/yokozuna. Then again...it also may be getting boring because we talk about sumo too much in this forum....

My old roommate from college has lived in Japan for 10 years and considers himself fluent(his wife says he speaks japanese better than more japanese). That being said even he has a very difficult time with Kanji. I have been studying Mandarin for 3 years and work on it 2 hours a night and I still have a difficult time reading. Granted...it's all characters. I would imagine that it will take a minimum of 4-5 hours a day of solid reading and speaking to get to level that could be considered fluent in a year.

I watch on DISH network's TVJAPAN channel. They have it live and they reshow it the next morning. Also they have secondary audio in english.

I don't think that the biggest issue is whether or not Chiyo and Kaio are good rikishi, but whether or not they have the consistency that a Yokozuna is expected to display. Asa seems to get better every basho. Even between the last tournament and this one he seems to have grown. He seemed more at ease and more in control in his wins this time although in some it seemed a bit of luck was on his side like when Chiyo had the upper hand initially. I think that it's the Ozeki pair's lack of consistency that would seem to not warrant them making Yokozuna even if they had a losing 14-1 record next basho. And all this talk about what a 13-2 non-yusho means compared to a 12-3 yusho is moot. These two have had their chances and have shared the same competitive/non-competitive environment as everyone else. They just don't get it done on a regular basis and haven't seemed to have grown much skill-wise. I don't think that it's a coincidence that Chiyo is not a Yokozuna and that a common complaint about him is that he is one-dimensional in his style. For instance, Asa used to rely a lot of leg trips and a bit of trickery, while now he seems to combine more power and speed in with technique.

Chiyo and Kaio had the same environment of 'weakness' to excel in like Asa did meaning that they were competing at the time when Taka was out and the Moose was either out or weakened too. The difference is that Asa took the opportunity and became Yokozuna. Those two didn't. They make good Ozeki in the sense that they aren't quite good enough to make it to the very top, but they are good enough to keep most people below them from winning too. I am not a Takasago fan in particular, but I am very impressed with Asa's dominance lately. His sumo has been great at times, but he has also been pushed to the edge a couple times and still won. He has been awesome to watch. Like this whole past tournament. What a blast to tune into every night.

Quoted from MDN Sumo page: This is so pathetic. I can't believe that they are so desperate to get one of these two choke artists (Kaio/Chiyo) promoted to Yokozuna.

He has looked uninjured, but he seems a bit awkward and not a vicous as I am used to seeing him. That being said, at least he doesn't look like he is doing "Sleeep-sumo" like Takanonami. That guy just needs to go. He used to have a bit of cleverness to his sumo similar to Shuzan, but there just seems to be no fighting spirit at all anymore. In regard to rikishi that seemed injured during the last basho Tamanoshima looks ok this tournament.

Anyone see anything about Toki or Tamanoshima since the last basho? Toki was obviously pretty bad off and Tamanoshima wasn't much better. I am curious if anyone has heard anything about their recent condition going into Haru?

Thanks for putting the Torikumi up Doitsuyama. Some great matches the first and second days. I love seeing Asa/Shimo and Chiyo/Kakizoe on the first day. Then Chiyo/Dejima on day 2. Going to be some great sumo to see right off the bat.