Bad shikona

[shoutenzan 0]

I've been wondering this recently. His shitanonamae is Hakutora, which seems to me to be a much cooler shikona than Aran. Aran, I assume, comes from both his "real" given name and that he comes from Russia. In a conversation with a friend a couple months ago, we surmised that his Oyakata got confused when he made his shikona. It was supposed to be Hakutora Aran.

I wonder if we could start a movement to get him to change his shikona to Hakutora. Maybe after promotion to sanyaku.

[Asashosakari 20,310]

No, AFAIK it was simply a case of everybody in the stable calling him "Aran" (as a Japanization of his given name) right upon his arrival, so they figured out some kanji that would spell this out and still be suitably impressive. It's not the most creative shikona idea ever, but even among foreign rikishi there's much worse.

(The notion that an oyakata is simply too dense to know what shikona he's giving a new rikishi is probably...somewhat presumptious.)

Edit: Also, turning a guy's given name into his "main" shikona happens with Japanese rikishi from time to time as well.

Edited May 23, 2010 by Asashosakari

[shoutenzan 0]

No, AFAIK it was simply a case of everybody in the stable calling him "Aran" (as a Japanization of his given name) right upon his arrival, so they figured out some kanji that would spell this out and still be suitably impressive. It's not the most creative shikona idea ever, but even among foreign rikishi there's much worse.

(The notion that an oyakata is simply too dense to know what shikona he's giving a new rikishi is probably...somewhat presumptious.)

Edit: Also, turning a guy's given name into his "main" shikona happens with Japanese rikishi from time to time as well.

I agree that it was presumptuous. I thought maybe there was some family name / given name confusion going on.

Of the current upper division rikishi, I think Aran (Alan) has the worst shikona. Second would have to be Gagamaru (Lady Gagamaru). Maybe he's a fan of hers? Or vice versus.