Kotooshu on CNN

[Sashohitowa 6]

Today CNN is going to broadcast a documentary about Kotooshu. The material is part of Japan dedicated episodes, presented in the "Talk Asia" show. Kotooshu has been chosen to participatre in the episodes, together with other 4 famous persons.

Here is the link to the page of the Talk Asia show, you can find also the local times of the broadcast.

[maxim 0]

I missed it!

[kotooshu_bulgaria 0]

If you missed the materia and still want to see it (like me in fact), you still have two chances. Dec. 12 19:00 and Dec. 14 19:30.

Enjoy!

[Doyobi 0]

I'd like to see it, if it's in the evening then I might catch it. 19:00 and 19:30 is GMT, Central European or Bulgarian time?

Those who remember it on 12th, could you please bump this thread so that the people with awfull short & medium time memory like me don't miss it?

Thanks, blagodarja!

[kotooshu_bulgaria 0]

The time is Japanese time since this is CNN Asia and therefore I don't think it is broadcasted in Europe. However, I might be wrong...

[Naganoyama 5,880]

Thanks for letting us know. I saw it - it was moderately enjoyable to watch although it didn't really have anything new on it.

Kotooshu seemed to be smiling all the time as he answered the questions (and to be a bit shy in general).

As well as the usual what do you eat, how do you train type questions, they showed him doing a yoghurt ad where he seemed a bit gawky.

They also made much of him 'beating the grand champion' without really putting it into context. You could have got the impression that he was about to surpass Asashoryu any minute (or perhaps that he was in the process of doing so already).

Thanks again Sashohikufuhen

[Sashohitowa 6]

Yesterday one of Bulgarian newspapers (don't know why so late) has published the interview broadcasted on CNN. For the Bulgarian fans in the forum, here is the link:.

For the non-Bulgarian speakers, here is a clumsy attempt for translation. The article definitely is for non-sumo-familiar people, and I tried to preserve it when translating (just couldn't stand and replaced "ring" with "dohyo", "coach" with "oyakata" and "team" with "heya"...).. I know it's nothing interesting, but, who knows, someone may find it intriguing...

What can make one Bulgarian teenager want become а sumo celebrity?

- I was accepted in the National Sport Academy in Bulgaria, subject wrestling. We trained in one and same hall with the Bulgarian sumo fighters. I started practicing sumo as a joke. And just look what has come out of this!

Why did you chose sumo? What do you like in it?

- In sumo you can eat as much as you want. In wrestling you have all the time to control your weight. I was in the heaviest category, but never managed to keep it in the necessary limits.

What did you parents say when they understood you are undertaking sumo?

- My father is a wrestling coach. For him wrestling is the greatest sport. When I said I'll train sumo, he asked "What a sport is that!?" Then they told me: "You are already 18. You can chose your future alone. Just don't blame us later for your personal choice."

You had a tough parents...

- When needed, they were tough. But they have always respected the decisions I take for myself.

How did they receive you in Japan?

- It was very, very tough. I didn't know neither language, nor traditions. Didn't talk with anybody. Gradually I learned a little Japanese and that's how I started going behind the traditions. In the beginning, everybody was telling me: You have to do this just that way. And when I asked why, they couldn't explain. They said: because everybody is doing like that. It was hard to understand.

How did treat you your heya-mates?

- They helped me a lot. Taught me the language, showed me how to train.

You are easily distinguished on the dohyo. How did the Japanese sumo fans received you?

- The Japanese fans are really very devoted. When they like someone, they are showing it all the time. Supporting him with all their hearts.

You already have achieved the second highest rank - ozeki. Did you plan to reach that far?

- Not at all. I always set myself reasonable goals. That way with every step, little by little, I am moving towards my next goal, after which I am setting a higher, but again a realistic one, so that I am able to achieve it even faster that the previous one. And like this every time.

One of the sidereal moments in your career was the win over the grand champion, Asashoryu. How did you feel?

- On that day, in that basho in Fukuoka, I proved I deserve to become ozeki. It was a special moment. Previous day the oyakata retired and the new one took place. And the next day I defeated Asashoryu. This win was a big event not only for me, but for all my heya.

What is your next goal?

To win a tournament. Last year I missed the win twice, this year I have a trauma, which will heal a long time. But I am recovering fast, I am preparing myself. I hope next year I become a tournament winner.

You have grown up in Bulgaria. Describe your childhood.

- You want me to describe myself? I was an ordinary child. All the time playing with my friends. Whatever we did, we were always together.

What is the life in a heya?

- The fighters are divided into two groups - higher and a lower one. The lower group cleans, prepares food and serves the others.

How did you get used to it? I am sure that the culture and the traditions in Bulgaria are completely different

- In Bulgaria I was with the national wrestling team. We had everything - doctors, masseurs, rehabs, sport medicine. They were taking care also for the amateur sumo team. When I came to Japan, where this sport is professional, I thought that the cares for the sportsmen will be even bigger. But the reality appeared different. Here, if you don't want to be a servant, you have to train very hard, to become stronger fighter and for minimum time to move into the higher group. I had to change myself. When you are in Rome, do as the Romans. When you are in Japan, you have to adjust to the environment.

They say that the lower group of fighters even cleans toilets!

- Fighters in the lower category don't get salary, don't have free time, because all the time have to serve the fighters from the higher group. That is the way in Japan they motivate the sumo fighters to train harder, if they want to start receiving salary. The differences with Bulgaria are colossal. Here, if you don't become good fighter, you remain a servant. Everything depends on the individual, because everybody begin from one and the same level - the lowest one.

How did you prove yourself?

- With a lot of work. I have devoted myself to that sport. Every two months there is a tournament. You have to show how you have prepared yourself for it. The participation is not enough. You have to win in the bouts.

How you prepare yourself for an important bout?

- Every bout is important! I isolate myself from everybody and everything. I concentrate totally into the fight.

Sounds trivial, but our viewers want to know what do the sumo fighters eat to gain weight.

- All of us eat together from one big bowl with steamed. But we have also other types of food. We eat two times a day - after training we have lunch and at the end of the day we dine. And every meal is very big.

But beside the big bodyweight, the sumo fighters are very fast and agile. In one article I have read that you run 100 meters for 11.5 seconds

- Yes, it was like that when I first came here and entered the sumo world.

What do you train to be so quick and flexible?

- Complex of special exercises, designed for increasing the resilience. The more a sumo fighter is resilient, the less traumas he gets.

You are the most elegant of the sumo fighters. You look thin and slender among the others. You are also famous for using various moves. Do you consider your style unique?

- It is hard to talk about specific style in sumo. There are more than 60 techniques, but the Japanese fighters prefer to use only one or two of them. For example, pushing.

Do the style of sumo evolve?

- I don't think so. Sumo is sumo. It doesn't change, there is no clearly defined style either. Only the people that come in and go out of its world are different. Maybe after 10 years the young fighter will apply different moves.

They call you "The David Beckham of sumo". How did the fame change you?

- I haven't change at all. I am the same I used to be when I first came to Japan. Just now I don't have one free day.

Is it true, that you cannot go to the shop without being recognized?

- I cannot. After me anywhere are moving crowds. I cannot do anything, even personal matter, without being revealed.

How you succeed to get some privacy?

- There are no such things for me. I don't know what do they mean. But after each tournament I get 5 free days. Then I try to go somewhere, away from everybody.

Why, you think, sumo won such a big audience outside Japan? And why inside Japan its popularity is decreasing?

- Part of the Japanese want to open the sumo for the world, to make it Olympic sport. Others want it to remain purely Japanese. To be always and only the national sport of their country, for pleasure of Japanese traditionalists.

"The Opening" and other events like that exhibition you did in Las Vegas, how do they affect the tradition and the ceremonies in sumo?

- They don't. They can make it only more popular sport. If the Japanese want to make it Olympic sport, they should open it for all kind of foreigners, like years ago they did with judo. If they want it to remain the national sport of Japan, they shouldn't change anything. They should leave the things as they are now.

The sumo fans in Japan say that until a Japanese becomes a grand champion, the sumo will remain in stagnation. What, according to you, is its future?

- It's hard to tell. If I give an opinion, I would have to take one of the two sides, which I just described. And it does not depend on me.

What would you be now, if you haven't undertaken sumo?

- I would had graduated the National Sports Academy and now I would have become a wrestling trainer or teacher in Bulgaria.

[Fay 1,677]

Thank you Sashohikufuhen for the translation! I am not such a big fan of Kotooshu, but with the last things I've heard and seen of him I may slowly start to change my mind. (Censored...) And since I have him in nearly every game I should start to cross my fingers for him.

[James H 0]

Yeah - Thanks a lot for this. It is really good to hear what the foreign wrestlers say in their own languages and to their domestic audiences.