Greetings from a novice

[Eskbibs 35]

Hello,

I'm a fairly young person (compared to some of you all) who has only been watching sumo since Aki 2018, almost totally by accident. I immediately got hooked and in my search for information between bashos, I found my way here, where I have been lurking for a few months. Thanks to all of you people for posting and providing news and commentary - it blows my mind to see how much information is on here, without which I couldn't have become properly addicted! 

I don't plan on posting very much, but I wanted to have the ability to if there was need (like the Ichinojo yusho which I hope for every tournament but to no avail). Until then, this'll be about it. Thanks again!

 

[Swami 244]

Hearty salutations from the Swami!

 

Swami

[sumojoann 1,099]

Welcome!!

It's hard not to become addicted to sumo wrestling, isn't it?  I love Sum Forum.  All are welcome, especially those who  are willing to learn, have an open mind and are not know-it-alls.  I started watching sumo in March 2013 and became hooked shortly after.  But the more I know, the more I realize just how little I do know!  There are so many endlessly fascinating aspects to it.

Tell us a little more about yourself.  Where are you located?  How did you first get interested in sumo?  It sounds like Ichinojo is your favorite Rikishi.  What do you like the most about him?  What interests you most about sumo?  What does your Shikona mean?

I guess these are enough questions for now!!

Again, welcome!!

 

 

[Eskbibs 35]

That is a lot of questions, but since I never get to talk about sumo in my real life, I'll gladly answer at length here!

I currently live in the United States east coast, although I come from Turkey, which is something of a wrestling country (I am an oil wrestling fan besides sumo). My road to sumo was rather strange - I happened to see some people discussing a basho on another website once, and I didn't understand any of the esoteric terminology at the time; a few years later, after slowly becoming curious about the subject, I searched sumo in Youtube and found Kintamayama's channel during Aki 2018...the rest is history.

As for Ichinojo, I have a few reasons as to why I like him. One of the first things I did when I found sumoforum was search for informational videos, and I was rewarded with a whole thread of them. One of the posts in this thread featured a documentary about Ichinojo from his early days, back when there were great things expected of him. He seemed (as I'm sure all rikishi do in documentaries about themselves) to be very humble and just generally nice, despite his big success. However, this impression really hit me when I watched an early match of his - I think versus Kisenosato - which featured numerous false starts; each time, to my pleasant surprise, Ichinojo gave a very deep bow, which struck me considering how most rikishi just give a little nod. Add to all this the fact that he was (at the time) so spry and strong at 180 kg and I instantly became a fan. Plus, he was originally a nomad! How cool is that.

This kind of brings me to what interests me and saddens me about sumo - the fact that there are so many people who come up the ranks with great hopes and expectations upon them and end up being mid-maegashira, or worse yet, they get injured and their career takes a dive. I know that among the current Makuuchi rikishi, there are several besides my big man who fall into this category of "next ozeki/yokozuna turned disappointment," and while I'm sure this is just the nature of the game, I can't help but see it as a tragedy. Why must this happen? And even more than that, what do the rikishi themselves feel? Behind the stoic manly face presented to the public, what is their human heart like? Are they sad, or disappointed, or just resigned? Does Ichinojo wonder about what might have been if he could have maintained his form and weight and curse whatever events led to him ballooning in size?  Does he still have hope that he might achieve the goals that once seemed inevitable? What does that lovely family of his shown in the documentary think nowadays? This sort of thing, the search for inherent humanity, is not what initially attracted me to sumo - but it is why I remained, even though I have no way of knowing any of this short of becoming a wrestler myself. And so I am stuck here, wondering,  as I watch from a detached distance the flesh-and-blood men who are mandated to be like stone in all things. They come close, I think, but surely something of the host must survive, right? This is why this website is so valuable - through it, I might be able to get close to the answers for these questions. Or maybe not, but who knows? I have some hope.

As for my shikona, if you can call it that, it's an acronym of personal meaning for myself. I don't know any Japanese, so I couldn't pick a real one.

That ended up being a long, rambling response. If anyone read this whole thing, thanks! As I said, it's rare that I get to talk about sumo, so I took this chance and flew away with it.

[sumojoann 1,099]

2 hours ago, Eskbibs said:

That is a lot of questions, but since I never get to talk about sumo in my real life, I'll gladly answer at length here!

I currently live in the United States east coast, although I come from Turkey, which is something of a wrestling country (I am an oil wrestling fan besides sumo). My road to sumo was rather strange - I happened to see some people discussing a basho on another website once, and I didn't understand any of the esoteric terminology at the time; a few years later, after slowly becoming curious about the subject, I searched sumo in Youtube and found Kintamayama's channel during Aki 2018...the rest is history.

As for Ichinojo, I have a few reasons as to why I like him. One of the first things I did when I found sumoforum was search for informational videos, and I was rewarded with a whole thread of them. One of the posts in this thread featured a documentary about Ichinojo from his early days, back when there were great things expected of him. He seemed (as I'm sure all rikishi do in documentaries about themselves) to be very humble and just generally nice, despite his big success. However, this impression really hit me when I watched an early match of his - I think versus Kisenosato - which featured numerous false starts; each time, to my pleasant surprise, Ichinojo gave a very deep bow, which struck me considering how most rikishi just give a little nod. Add to all this the fact that he was (at the time) so spry and strong at 180 kg and I instantly became a fan. Plus, he was originally a nomad! How cool is that.

This kind of brings me to what interests me and saddens me about sumo - the fact that there are so many people who come up the ranks with great hopes and expectations upon them and end up being mid-maegashira, or worse yet, they get injured and their career takes a dive. I know that among the current Makuuchi rikishi, there are several besides my big man who fall into this category of "next ozeki/yokozuna turned disappointment," and while I'm sure this is just the nature of the game, I can't help but see it as a tragedy. Why must this happen? And even more than that, what do the rikishi themselves feel? Behind the stoic manly face presented to the public, what is their human heart like? Are they sad, or disappointed, or just resigned? Does Ichinojo wonder about what might have been if he could have maintained his form and weight and curse whatever events led to him ballooning in size?  Does he still have hope that he might achieve the goals that once seemed inevitable? What does that lovely family of his shown in the documentary think nowadays? This sort of thing, the search for inherent humanity, is not what initially attracted me to sumo - but it is why I remained, even though I have no way of knowing any of this short of becoming a wrestler myself. And so I am stuck here, wondering,  as I watch from a detached distance the flesh-and-blood men who are mandated to be like stone in all things. They come close, I think, but surely something of the host must survive, right? This is why this website is so valuable - through it, I might be able to get close to the answers for these questions. Or maybe not, but who knows? I have some hope.

As for my shikona, if you can call it that, it's an acronym of personal meaning for myself. I don't know any Japanese, so I couldn't pick a real one.

That ended up being a long, rambling response. If anyone read this whole thing, thanks! As I said, it's rare that I get to talk about sumo, so I took this chance and flew away with it.

Thank you so much for allowing us to know more about you.  You expressed yourself very well.  I think it was very interesting that you focused on trying to get past the stone faces and see into the hearts of the Rikishi.  I comfort myself knowing that many of the Rikishi in Makuuchi and Juryo have a girlfriend or a wife and even children.  They have a life outside of sumo.  I really feel for the anonymous Rikishi who toil in the lower ranks year in and year out, with no financial means to leave the heya and no life outside of sumo. 

I did not feel that you rambled at all.  Your post was very interesting.

[Akinomaki 34,825]

5 hours ago, Eskbibs said:

As for my shikona, if you can call it that, it's an acronym of personal meaning for myself. I don't know any Japanese, so I couldn't pick a real one.

That ended up being a long, rambling response. If anyone read this whole thing, thanks! As I said, it's rare that I get to talk about sumo, so I took this chance and flew away with it.

That was by far the richest introduction of a sumo fan I read while being on the forum, thanks for it - and I especially welcome a fellow Ichinojo enthusiast.

You know plenty of Japanese, just by knowing sumo terms and shikona. You could have e.g. added -nojo or another part  to your present shikona - it has still room to grow longer. Some day you could ask super administrator Exil to change it, but only if you think your present one no longer satisfying and found the one shikona that you really wanted to have.

This of course in the hope that you'll keep posting and try to aim at least for forum ozeki.

[Benihana 1,718]

17 hours ago, Eskbibs said:

I searched sumo in Youtube and found Kintamayama's channel during Aki 2018...the rest is history.

Yes, yes...he's a bit like that dealer who gives you your first crystal for free and *BAM* you're hooked. Welcome in the world of sumo addicts