Baruto in Makuuchi Version 2

[Senpai 0]

So Baruto vs. the Ozekis is now 1:1 as far as henkas are concerned.

I don't know that any ozeki would have used henka against Bart not this nor last basho.

[Jakusotsu 5,815]

I don't know that any ozeki would have used henka against Bart not this nor last basho.

Check this out.

[Guest Karatoshi]

So Baruto vs. the Ozekis is now 1:1 as far as henkas are concerned.

I don't know that any ozeki would have used henka against Bart not this nor last basho.

Hakuho did it last basho against Baruto.

What is wrong with henka? It's allowed so dont flame it nonstop!

[aderechelsea 124]

just for the record i don't think what Hakuho did is a henka.

But never mind me and let's go back to Baruto.......

[sashimaru 10]

"Henka Law - Whenever a topic goes too long sooner or later henka will occure and after that initial topic will be pushed away and there will be duscussion about how bad is henka."

...

I miss the yaucho-talk! (Bye, bye...)

[lenc 0]

So Baruto vs. the Ozekis is now 1:1 as far as henkas are concerned.

I don't know that any ozeki would have used henka against Bart not this nor last basho.

Hakuho did it last basho against Baruto.

What is wrong with henka? It's allowed so dont flame it nonstop!

Punching someone in the balls is also "allowed", but it's just something you don't do to another man.

[aderechelsea 124]

Punching someone in the balls is also "allowed"

not in Sumo .... (Bye, bye...)

[sekihiryu 51]

Henka is Henka, its part of the whole shebang that is Sumo, that doesnt mean we have to always like it.

Henka has its place, Kokkais henka against Hokutoriki was pretty good, it couldn't have happened to nicer bloke.

Todays henka was chickens**t sumo from Baruto against an inform taikai, I was really looking forward to great battle today but Bart pussied out and the guilty look on his face after he sat back down summed it up perfectly.

My mother is who is visiting and watching and knows little about sumo commented "that was a bit cowardly wasnt it?", Yes mother it was...

oops I am supposed to be an vacation arent I........ (Bye, bye...)

[Ossetian Yokozuna 1]

Have not TAIKAI sad to BART "What is your problem?"?

Was any famos LOOK at TAIKAI from BART?

[Shimpu 0]

Henka is Henka, its part of the whole shebang that is Sumo, that doesnt mean we have to always like it.

Henka has its place, Kokkais henka against Hokutoriki was pretty good, it couldn't have happened to nicer bloke.

Todays henka was chickens**t sumo from Baruto against an inform taikai, I was really looking forward to great battle today but Bart pussied out and the guilty look on his face after he sat back down summed it up perfectly.

My mother is who is visiting and watching and knows little about sumo commented "that was a bit cowardly wasnt it?", Yes mother it was...

oops I am supposed to be an vacation arent I........ (Bye, bye...)

My thoughts... but my mother do not care about sumo... (Bye, bye...) Yes, I was waiting for this bout too. I'm a bit disappointed with this henka. Baruto should at least try to fight... Maybe he know as good as I that this is the only way to beat Taikai on the wave. I wonder if statement about "real sumo" after bout against Hakurozan is still current :-P

[Sakana 46]

For me, it's not a henka, because I think Baruto thougth the tachi-ai was not good and that Chiyotaikai did a matta so he acted like that... and was the first one surprised to won. I can be wrong.

[SalParadise 0]

Chiyotaikai shouldn't have fallen for that. I don't think that Baruto expected him to lose off that, as you can see him grabbing for the back of Chiyotaikai's mawashi and Chiyotaikai charged under his arm. The look on Baruto's face was rather priceless.

I'm sure he was going for the henka there, but I think it was more to give him a better chance at grabbing the mawashi/prevent being plowed out of the ring from the start rather than to, well, have it end up like it did. A win's a win though, and chiyotaikai just sucked that one up.

At any rate, the interview afterwards was golden.

Q: So, you pulled a henka, eh?

A: Yeah. I know it's bad. But I thought I was going to lose. It's been a long basho, and I'm tired and my back hurts.

Q: What do you think of the Ozekis?

A: They're different. Even before the match they're different. Yes, different.

Q: I know you're still learning Japanese, but in your interviews you're so direct -- it's easy to tell what you're thinking.

A: Mmm, okay.

Quality interview from the jolly giant.

[SalParadise 0]

For me, it's not a henka, because I think Baruto thougth the tachi-ai was not good and that Chiyotaikai did a matta so he acted like that... and was the first one surprised to won. I can be wrong.

Uh, he admitted that it was a henka in the interview afterwards...

[mokele 3]

After watching sumo for many years and thinking about it, my feeling is that the only way to handle the problem of henka is to change the rules of the tachi-ai for sumo. I doubt very much that this will happen, given the conservative nature of the Kyokai. Instead of the wrestlers themselves determining when a bout starts, the gyoji could make a dramatic gesture after which the bout is officially started. It could be similar to drag-racing, where a series of lights go off after which the cars cross their respective lines and the race is on. This business about henka violating unwritten rules of courage and sportsmanship in sumo is too vague for my taste. Heck, I remember former yokozuna Wakanohana III (brother of Takanohana) using henka sometimes in important bouts. Even his brother criticized him for it, but it made sense. Wakanohana was a small yokozuna and needed to sometimes use guile rather than power to win bouts. Mainoumi used to jump aside quite a bit, and so did Kyokudozan. Small, fast rikishi will always use henka to gain an advantage in sumo, more than bigger, less mobile ones. As fans we should just accept it as part of sumo.

Edited July 19, 2006 by mokele

[Jejima 1,314]

After watching sumo for many years and thinking about it, my feeling is that the only way to handle the problem of henka is to change the rules of the tachi-ai for sumo. I doubt very much that this will happen, given the conservative nature of the Kyokai. Instead of the wrestlers themselves determining when a bout starts, the gyoji could make a dramatic gesture after which the bout is officially started. It could be similar to drag-racing, where a series of lights go off after which the cars cross their respective lines and the race is on.

This is basically how Amateur Sumo starts. I think they still have henkas though.

[Yuriyama Ren 1]

At any rate, the interview afterwards was golden.

Q: So, you pulled a henka, eh?

A: Yeah. I know it's bad. But I thought I was going to lose. It's been a long basho, and I'm tired and my back hurts.

Q: What do you think of the Ozekis?

A: They're different. Even before the match they're different. Yes, different.

Q: I know you're still learning Japanese, but in your interviews you're so direct -- it's easy to tell what you're thinking.

A: Mmm, okay.

Quality interview from the jolly giant.

Quality interview indeed (Bye, bye...) Thanks for bringing this to us (Sign of approval)

[SalParadise 0]

Don't take it as an official translation or anything. First of all, I only saw it once. Second of all, Baruto is one of the hardest rikishi for me to understand (he sort of mumbles, and his Japanese ain't exactly pristine to boot). Third of all, I go a lot more by feeling than by what a literal translation would be.

Uh, yeah. So yay disclaimers!

I give Kotooshuu the official worst penmanship though. Have you seen his signature? I almost wish that the handprint thingie I have from him was just the hand, or that he wrote in Cyrillic or somesuch, rather than that monstrousity. It doesn't help that he doesn't have easy kanji, mind you, but yikes.

[Doitsuyama 1,173]

I give Kotooshuu the official worst penmanship though. Have you seen his signature? I almost wish that the handprint thingie I have from him was just the hand, or that he wrote in Cyrillic or somesuch, rather than that monstrousity. It doesn't help that he doesn't have easy kanji, mind you, but yikes.

Kotooshu's kanji really aren't that difficult. 琴欧州

I think Baruto has a more difficult job. 把瑠都

[SalParadise 0]

The difficulty of the kanji to read and to recognize has very little bearing on how easy or difficult it is to sign or to write in calligraphy. 一 is a very difficult kanji to write in context, for instance, because of the balance issues involved in a simple kanji. Then there's the difficulty with stroke order and signing, which makes the 琴 in kotooshuu so hard to write -- the two 王 on the top above 今 makes it very, well, ugly. And it makes the balance of the whole very difficult. It's a lopsided kanji, especially when writing vertically.

Baruto uses very difficult kanji, but the balance on them, and the stroke order (save for possibly the second character) makes it far easier to write. If you've got a paper and a pencil, and know some kanji/stroke orders, try writing them both out to see which one comes out with better balance naturally.

I'm attaching Kotooshuu's signature so you can see what I'm talking aobut...

[Tetsuzukiyama 0]

Sweeeet. Thanks god for that Baruto video page. I can just hear Kotooshu now : " I can't believe he would Henka an Ozeki!" What a great move! And WHYYYY did it work? Because Taikai was scared by the big man and off his game. Don't give me that 'henka is cheating' stuff. If you didn't have the henka in Sumo rikishi wouldn't be athletes, they'd be bulldozers.

[Naganoyama 5,854]

...

I'm attaching Kotooshuu's signature so you can see what I'm talking aobut...

That is a particularly ugly example. This looks a bit better I think.

[pisipepu 0]

If you didn't have the henka in Sumo rikishi wouldn't be athletes, they'd be bulldozers.

very well said indeed (Bye, bye...)

[Hananotaka 8]

You know, I'm not virulently anti-henka. I think it's a necessary tool for the smaller rikishi, and in those hands can turn what might have been an anti-climatic win by a big guy into fun and entertaining sumo. Also, I think those who fall victim to henka have absolutely no room to criticize or complain about those who employ it. When a match is over in 1 second because some rikishi blindly rushes forward and gets slapped down, I blame the loser for the negative entertainment value of that match.

However, there is a certain aesthetic in sumo. Hikaba osu, osaba osu! When pulled push, when pushed push! No sumo is more entertaining and inspiring than when two rikishi match strength for strength, irresistable force vs. immovable object. Makkou shoubu, as the Japanese say. And so, when a big guy pulls a henka, it's different than when a small guy does it. A little guy doing a henka is doing it for survival, he's doing it to even the odds of what is an unfair fight. But a big guy doing a henka is overkill. It's pathetic. Here you have a smaller rikishi bravely gearing up to use all of his strength to do his best against a larger foe, and the larger foe takes advantage of that with a henka. Is it legal? Of course! Is it cowardly? Yeah, that too!

Still, with all that, had Baruto simply done a henka against a powerful and genki Ozeki after a week and a half of hard fought sumo, I probably wouldn't have thought anything. Maybe, "Aw, that's a shame, but he's young and tired." But after the big stink he raised about Hakurozan's "henka" (which was no henka), Baruto has no leg to stand on. Not only does he look cowardly, but hypocritical as well. Henka is not good sumo in the first space and as the biggest rikishi in Makuuchi, he really shouldn't be doing it on general principle. But more than that, he set the standard himself after losing to Hakurozan. The glaring, the bitching to the press about it. And then he henka's against Chiyotaikai? Sad, sad.

Oh, and that was no henka by Hakuho last basho, either.

Edit: No doubt Baruto's bad back is a result of too much tsuri-dashi.

Edited July 19, 2006 by Hananotaka

[SalParadise 0]

Actually, I think it has something to do with the bad spills he took back-to-back (pardon the pun) against Kotooshuu and Hakuho. Both times he whacked his back pretty good on the way down. I'm sure that the tsuri-dashi doesn't help, but I think it's more than just that.

[Notsukutsu 0]

Edit: No doubt Baruto's bad back is a result of too much tsuri-dashi.

It's from Kotooshu landing on top of him yesterday. He surely has the tsuri-dashi technique perfected enough as for not to hurt himself in that manner. :)

It sucks, but I guess a henka every once in a while it's necessary evil. I'm not sure if any rikishi has completely sworn off them, because completely rooting it out from one's arsenal would mean a handicap against an opponent who hasn't.

Today Baruto showed that he is capable of henka and regardless of implications in press has not bound himself in that manner. And for what it's worth, he could just as well pull the same move tomorrow with no qualms. Something for his next opponents to consider.

It's sad and personally I would've liked it better if he had lost honorably as with Hakuho. It's as if he had traded certain virginity to success. :)

Edited July 19, 2006 by Notsukutsu