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Kintamayama

Kokkai interview -part two

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Again, thanks to Amanogawa aided by Takatamale for this excellent translation.

Outside the camp, Oitekaze-Oyakata was striding like a bear toward

us, but it did not change the relaxed atmosphere within. This 37-year

old Oyakata has broad shoulders and looks rather like a walking cube. He

explains why he's still as stout as he was active - he never dares to

decline when his Koenkai-supporters ask him "Wouldn't you like to eat this and

that?"

-Is Kokkai a "keiko enthusiast" ? I asked, tentatively, as I lack good sumo knowledge of the finer points of keiko.

"Well, he's not too particular ( futsuu )" replied Oyakata.

Here again- this word "futsuu".

-But isn't he doing keiko secretly? When nobody is watching him?

"I guess not"

-Is that it? Do you think it's all right?

"It wouldn't make much difference if I 'ordered' them to do keiko. Some

just work hard, some don't. They should be responsible to act like

professionals."

I heard that the Oitekaze-beya policy, basically, is "Let the rikishi

alone"

A rikishi told me that Oyakata would get furious when he's angry,

but that only happens about once a year. Oyakata says,

"What's important is communication. You can see it when a deshi's

having problems and possibly is trying to escape from the heya - that's when

I'd speak to him. I just want to seize those crucial moments."

This Oyakata cracks jokes with his young deshi -- "Don't ever cheat

me, I know you're just pretending like you're working hard" "You can win

for sure if you stop eating". He says, "Sometimes I say things that don't

make much sense, but sometimes that's what they'd want." And during these 10

years since he founded the heya, there hasn't been any one who escaped.

"Oyakata is a very good man" "He's funny" "It's comfortable being

here", say all young rikishi. So this is a nice heya where you can even joke

around.

But as for Kokkai, to whom Japanese was "Greek" at first, the only

words he knew were "this ( kore )" and "here ( koko )". Kokkai had gotten

too accustomed to wrestling, so he wasn't able to practice the head-on

tachiai crash. Instead, he'd rather dodge his opponent's tachiai force.

Oyakata explained that sumo's "crash ( butsukaru )" was to "bounce ( hajiku )"

your opponent. He demonstrated how to "bounce your opponent" using his

shoulder by sitting still and not using any other part of his body. It

felt like, literally, a huge rubber ball bouncing hard on me and I was,

literally, almost blown off.

When Oyakata first wanted to teach Kokkai this "bouncing" skill, he

however had no way to communicate at all. He took out a Russian

dictionary and pointed to the words he needed, saying "This ( kore )". While turning

pages, pointing from one word after another, he would say, "This( kore )

--er, no no, this", struggling to explain. He also wanted to build a fire in

his deshi's belly so he showed Kokkai the banzuke and pointed to the very bottom

and said, "You're here ( koko ) now". Then he pointed to the top slot and

said, "Not here ( koko )" then putting back his forefinger to the bottom and

said, "but here ( koko )".

So "kore ( this )" and "koko ( here )". In short, "bounce, and go up

the ranking".

These two words essentially spotlighted what quality his sumo would take.

Kokkai has another "sumo master". One of his fellow countryman

residing in Japan. (One from the "small community" of only 4,950,000 of the

Republic of Georgia. Most of its citizens live in its capital Tbilisi and they

are, as it's usually said, all acquaintances with each other.) This man's name is

Zaza Gogwa [sp?????], a top violist of The Osaka Symphonia Orchestra. He's

in fact Kokkai's distant cousin and has been in Japan for 8 years. He's

always taken care of his fellow Georgian Kokkai since he joined the Sumo-kai. "I've

loved sumo for quite a long time now" says Zaza. He never misses the

NHK Ozumo broadcast and diligently follows NHK's English

commentary. He would call Kokkai to give good tips, along

with other "advice".

--Could you give me some examples of your "advice" to Kokkai?

"Hai. You clash with your opponent. He falls down. Then you go

help him stand up. You give your hand. Help him and say

'Ganbatte'. This is the most important thing."

So he was emphasizing what happens after a bout, not during a bout.

Zaza-san is impressed with how a winner would give his helping

hand to a loser and appreciate his fight. How sumo is not merely

a win-or-lose sport, but the beauty of presenting your attitudes and

manners. What Zaza-san sees in sumo is a winner who would help a loser

stand up, rather than how well he performs in hoshitori, which

maybe is a foreigner's special way of seeing this sport.

But when it comes to practical fighting, Zaza-san would

encourage Kokkai like this:

"Do not let Mongolians defeat you"

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Excellent work! :-O I especially like the final advice of Zaza-san. :-P

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Thanks to all involved for the work in translating the interview!!

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part two was even better .... thanks guys.

But Greek are easy why does he compare them to Japanese ? ...... :-O

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part two was even better .... thanks guys.

But Greek are easy why does he compare them to Japanese ? ......  :-P

:-O

What do you say in Greece instead of "It's all Greek to me"?

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we say "san kinezika mou akougonde" which means "this sounds Chinese to me" .........

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In Croatian, we say the same - it's "chinese". But if you don't know some area of knowledge, for example I don't know much about football, I woud say that football is "Greek villages" for me - I know as little about it as I know of Greek villages... (Clapping wildly...)

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In German, we say "it sounds Spanish" and the villages are "Bohemian villages" - strange place, this world...

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Kokkai is a good asset. Interview interesting. Georgia calmer a bit now.

Swedes make fun of Finns' Swedish. They call it "Muumi-Swedish". I find it most disturbing. Norweigians make fun of Finns' Swedish too. Danes don't make fun of anyone as they don't exist anywhere except at times of football like now.

In Finland we say "it is total Hebrew to me" when we don't understand something. Kintamayama is total Hebrew.

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"Muumi-Swedish"

muumi_e.gif

Any relation? B-)

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