Unknown Asashoryu

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Edited September 29, 2009 by Otokonoyama

[Kaji 1]

This documentary looks great... (Clapping wildly...)

Thanks (Being ninja...)

But... 私は日本語を理解しない (I do not understand japanese...) (Weeping...) (Weeping...) (Weeping...)

Edited September 29, 2009 by Kaji

[Kintamayama 44,646]

It not only looks great, but it is a great insight into this person. The way he moves from high to low, from happy to sad, from child to adult (Manic depressive, anyone?), the stuff he says ("In ten years, I want to be in a totally different place" etc.) Really great. This was broadcast a few days before Aki, I think and was filmed for two years. Nice footage of the childrens' tournament he held both in Mongolia and Tokyo.

Highly recommended, and hopefully not ignored.

[Kaji 1]

For hose who know the language that subtitles this video and don

[yorikiried by fate 2,001]

Awesome footage! I enjoyed it even without understanding a word. So thanks for the post.

What was that abandoned interview about?

[Arslan 0]

Really great! Thank you very much! (Sign of approval...). Can see more of Asa's personality.

[Treblemaker 254]

Was able to watch only the first 3 before they mysteriously stopped at about 04:35 GMT.

Excellent documentary of one of the (if not THE) most charismatic Yokozuna of our era.

And the scenes of the keiko remind us of one thing (and with apologies to the YDC and all the purists out there): Keiko, and its results of head-to-head bouts, is HIGHLY overrated. Practice is practice, but it ain't over until the Fat Gyoji sings!

[Barang 0]

Excelent links. Really good Nihongo practise.

[Asameshimae 220]

Watching this, I just noticed my man is left-handed! Can't believe I didn't know this factoid.

Gotta admit I like the guy. I was actually pretty tired of him during his basho streak, but now that he is the scrappy, maligned (yes, in many ways deservedly) underdog (well, sort of), I like him all over again. He's got enough personality and talent for 10 rikishi.

Edited October 2, 2009 by Asanomeshi

[ryafuji 811]

Watching this, I just noticed my man is left-handed! Can't believe I didn't know this factoid.

I believe one of the many things Asa has been criticised for was accepting the kensho money with his left hand.

[Murakami 0]

Good perspectives from Japanese mindsets. It seems Dorji has some of the "worst" Mongol traits; independent, individualistic, emotional, schmaltzy, extroverted, spontaneous and aggressive. The divorce coupled with the suspension probably may have been heavy on him. He has come through, tough. He has problems as a human being, but as he grows older and wiser, I am sure, he can redeem himself.

[Asameshimae 220]

Just finished it. Good stuff. The guy says a lot of things that wouldn't make the kyokai or people who want a yokozuna to toe the line happy. I wonder if recent criticism has anything to with some of his own quotes:

(what did he learn from the whole injury/soccer in Mongolia thing?)

He learned that Japan is a country where people get riled up to easily about other people's business and an apology is expected.

(what do you want to do after sumo?)

Go some place the exact opposite of here. (I don't think he met it as a slight on Japan, but it seems pretty clear he doesn't want to be taking tickets outside the Kokugikan..)

(reflecting back on things (controveries) are there anything things you'd like to do differently in the future?)

Don't hold your breath.

[Asameshimae 220]

What was that abandoned interview about?

He said that her, the reporter, following him and filming and interviewing him was supposed to be about his life and thoughts, and not about his sumo performance or how he expects to do in the next basho, etc.

[yorikiried by fate 2,001]

What was that abandoned interview about?

He said that her, the reporter, following him and filming and interviewing him was supposed to be about his life and thoughts, and not about his sumo performance or how he expects to do in the next basho, etc.

Ah, thanks! See, I didn't even realize that the interviewer was the one from the whole documentary. I assumed that it was just an example for his difficult relationship with the media. A man with his own principles, it seems.

[Treblemaker 254]

What was that abandoned interview about?

He said that her, the reporter, following him and filming and interviewing him was supposed to be about his life and thoughts, and not about his sumo performance or how he expects to do in the next basho, etc.

Ah, thanks! See, I didn't even realize that the interviewer was the one from the whole documentary. I assumed that it was just an example for his difficult relationship with the media. A man with his own principles, it seems.

Well, he's not the first one with the balls to cut short an interview. Doesn't quite rank up there with the hissy-fit that the legendary conductor Stokowski pulled on national television in Philadelphia many years ago, but good enough.

When he was still slightly mobile, Stephen Hawkings would suddenly wheel himself out of an interview if he felt that the conversation was heading off in a direction he didn't want to go. And I don't think it's the first time Asashoryu has been involved in an interview that was turned down an unwanted avenue.

I'd be very happy to be famous enough to even have one interview, much less be able to chose to walk out of one.... (Whatever above, it is funny...)

[Orion 431]

I'd be very happy to be famous enough to even have one interview, much less be able to chose to walk out of one.... (Whatever above, it is funny...)

Not in the yokozuna league, but I've been interviewed plenty of times -- and it can be very difficult when (1) you're facing an interviewer who has an axe to grind and has wrongly identified you as a patsy; (2) the interviewer doesn't know a blind thing about sumo but knows his/her audience and what it expects: (3) you are on the front row of a Tokyo basho (in somebody else's seat, natch) and one of NHK's most respected non-sumo announcers stuffs a very large mike into your teeth and starts asking questions in Japanese that you are not prepared for and are by no means sure that what you are saying is good Japanese; (4) are at home by appointment and the BBC is on the blower with precious little advance warning and a total misunderstanding of the latest news; (5) are in a Japanese studio doing an interview, also for the BBC, with an interviewer who has read up the latest blown-up scandal and is trying to get you to fill in the (non-existent) juicy bits... etc. etc.

On the other side of the mike, I recall interviewing Akebono when he was a sekiwake just back from the London Koen -- and I was bending over backwards NOT to provoke him into tactless comments, since the interview was for a Japanese magazine intended for high-level Japanese students of English. And many years later, when I got to interview Asashoryu, I started with pictures of my own experience of Mongolia from three stints with Habitat for Humanity, and the work ethic of Mongolian children, deliberately looking for a new angle -- which, despite editorial additions and subtractions, I believe I got.

There are other rewards. In the case of (3) above, my five-minute slot in the Saturday-night nearly prime-time NHK after-the-news slot (which took up pretty well all of my free time for a week, in three venues, and was paid nothing) was very well received. A week later a fan club I belonged to entertained Terao, Masurao and Kotogaume -- all of whom identified me as the person who had been featured in Mr. Matsumoto's show the previous Saturday.

Sorry for the digression -- this seems to have migrated to a different thread "The Art of the Interview" -- which is a separate part of my occasional work.

Orion the overcommitted

[Jonosuke 28]

Orion the overcommitted

You know wherever you are in the world, you always appear to have the last word, I wonder what the secret is.... ;-)

I like to have some of that myself sometime.

[Treblemaker 254]

I'd be very happy to be famous enough to even have one interview, much less be able to chose to walk out of one.... ;-)

.....

Sorry for the digression -- this seems to have migrated to a different thread "The Art of the Interview" -- which is a separate part of my occasional work.

Orion the overcommitted

Well, I've said this before, but either in hearing you on the broadcasts (where you could recite the alphabet and still be fascinating to listen to) or reading you in the Forum, it's always insightful, educating, fun and well received.

Digress away.