Olenishiki

I'm just fine with having shansho razzberrys, but they need to be on-the-money to be funny. Calling Kotooshu's performance "spiritless" is way way off. I too admire the courage of Tamanoshima, Kaio, and Ama (especially Ama--I am enormous fan of this guy and we should razz those who dislike him because occasionally he'll get carried away in the fighting spirit that he utterly needs as a little man in a big man's sport and give somebody an extra push). But all three of those guys had injuries--shoulder, back, side--whose main drawback has to do with flat-out pain. Osh's injury was to his knee and then later, as well, to his ankle. That's not just a matter of pain. That's also a matter of balance and push and movement. And still he didn't go kyujo. That, in fact, is the essence of spirit. Even Asashoryu said he had "balls." As with the regular sansho, there's nothing wrong with a truly outstanding inverted performance being awarded more than one award. It's hard to imagine a more spiritless performance than Hokutoriki's. Or inept, for that matter. I think he should win the triple crown (yes, sharing one of them with Roho).

But did you see the look Asa gave Osh at the end of the bout? Asa of the post-win stuff-you glance actually looked at Osh with what seemed to be respect and sympathy. I think he admired Osh standing up to him in spite of injuries.

With Chiyo fighting to stay an Ozeki and facing a post-Dejima schedule that is a serious challenge, I think it pissed him off that Dejima tried a henka. [EDIT: I was posting simultaneously with Bishonohana. He was quicker at the tachiai.]

Here's another moment from today: Asa coming straight off the dohyo and stroking his little daughter's cheek. Which leads me to acknowledge right now an act of extraordinary bravery that will go unrecorded at the moment it occurs. About 18 years from now a young man will be the bravest man on earth by asking Asashoryu's daughter out on a date. (And thanks, Burainoan, for the reminder about Takatoriki. When the intense tough guys weep, they do it with the same intensity.)

] Asashoryu himself !! Hatsu 2003, after beating Kotomitsuki and basically ensuring his Yokozuna promotion. Interesting to see a fearless and seemingly unsinkable strength of nature like him break down into tears. Makes him that much more human, though - whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to everyone to decide, I guess. When the humanity breaks through, I find it downright endearing. I've always liked Asa for that very emotionalism. By the same token, I was never much of a fan of the rigorously unexpressive Takanohana. But the courage of his victory over Musashimaru was extraordinary--on a leg that had been damaged so badly one day earlier (or was it even two days?) that it would eventually end his career. And when he showed his feeling in that contortion of his face when Musashimaru went down, I was utterly won over to him. I rooted ardently for him thereafter. I really admire the zen of sumo, the profound placidity of the wrestlers. But they are still human, and when it shows, it's special.

Asa's tears when he took his Kensho envelopes is one of my favorite sumo moments. Along with that extraordinary grimace of victory by Takanohana when he beat Musashimaru on one leg--a victory that is one of the greatest moments in the history of all sport, it seems to me. I also, in a minor key, loved Kotooshu's wink at the end of his post-bout interview after he beat Asa for the first time. But I have a question for all of you veteran sumo fans: have you ever before seen a rikishi weep so openly on the dohyo over a victory?

Fine. Asashoryu did an henka against Chiyotaikai in 2003 and he did a semi-henka against Kyokushuzan last time they met. Let's deny his right for yusho until the end of time. Asa has been forgiven for his sins and intends to sin no more. (Though come to think of it, even Chiyo asked forgiveness for his sin--see today's quotes. I'm making the sign of the cross over him even now.) (Nodding yes...)

[ Yes, I'm sure that is the exact reason why Chiyotaikai doesn't deserve the yusho, because no other yusho winner in history ever had to resort to henka to win his yusho. (Nodding yes...) The tenth or twentieth wrong don't make it right. Surely sumo, more than almost any other sport, legitimizes the raising of the questions of good form and dignity of competition to assess the quality of a victory, especially of the yusho as a whole and especially by an ozeki.

Don't get me wrong. I love Ama pushing a big guy around and he should do that sometimes. My point is the same as Blue Wolf's, that he needs more guileful unpredictability, and since the Iwakiyama match, he's just gone straight ahead. That said, it was a treat to see him manhandle Kyokutenho in that way today. (All this quite incidental today, of course, in the wake of Kotooshu's quintessential straight-ahead sumo.)

Now only if Chiyotaikai can get yusho.. but that is asking a bit too much. I happen to have generally good feelings about Chiyotaikai, but I can hardly hope for his winning the yusho, as interesting as that would be dramatically, after that creepy henka against Kaio.

I'm not so sure that single-minded straight-ahead sumo has always been "his style." He's gotten as far as he has by often shifting off-center at the tachi-ai, as I recall. By the way, I can't see why that should lose him and his sumo any respect. I think most people "respected" Mainoumi.

There is a growing number of Ama fans, and we rightly admire him for his willingness to go straight ahead against foes who are much larger than he is. But I'm afraid his win over Iwakiyama simply reinforced that approach as his norm. I say "afraid" because surely the bouts with Asa and Kaio show the inevitable outcome of his taking that to be his brand of sumo. Shouldn't Ama fans hope for the return of guile as his guiding principle? Doesn't his success in sumo require him to follow more in the footsteps of Mainoumi?

If anyone is going to stop Asa's zensho, my money's on Kaio. Big if: the Kaio of the last few days shows up.

As always one of the great things about this sport is the cultural context surrounding it. Does anybody know the story of that row of geishas in frequent attendance at this basho?

B-) Thank you, Asojima, for reading my mind. Of course I meant Hazu/Takekaze. So that's what a busted henka looks like. It looked to me on about half a dozen TIVO reruns that he decided simply to fall down.

I'm not one to see thrown matches and I firmly believe they're rare and limited to matches unimportant to the outcome of the basho. But if you're looking for a suspicious match on day 10, I'd nominate the way Hakurozan went down to Kasugao. Look at that one again.

The distinction you draw makes sense to me. It would be too weird for Hakuho to have done another real henka after all the flak he got for day one. The double henka is pretty funny, in its way. In the parlor game of sames and opposites, I'd offer that the opposite of simultaneous orgasm is simultaneous henka.

No one has mentioned this, so maybe I'm not seeing it straight. But I had the basho on TIVO and kept playing back the Hakuho-Mickey bout and I could swear while Mickey was doing a henka to his right, so was Hakuho. Did anyone else notice this? I feel pretty certain Hakuho was not going straight forward.

Here's the url for a Reuters story on the subject. Yahoo has it listed in its "oddly enough" news category. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051021/od_nm/...adison_squar_dc

The magazine is great! I don't read French, but the English translations are splendid. And thanks particularly for the Rikishi talk section.

We're all on the slippery slope of semantics, made slicker by the stigma that's come to be attached to certain words. Just objectively, a question to those who have a definitive answer: how is the "henka" defined? The "inashi"? It those moves are defined by where the first step goes--straight forward or to the side--then the tapes will tell. By the way, Asa's "pride" often leads him to assert his right to do things others criticize. (Left-hand kensho, for instance.) Till this tournament, which comes in the midst of an epidemic of side-stepping, he hardly if ever stepped away from straight-forward at the tachi-ai. So now he does it more than once. And only against previous users of the same tactic. In addition to a rule-unto-myself pride, Asa also has a sense of humor. I love the guy.

Henkas are getting out of hand. No doubt about it. But because of his size and technical brilliance, Ama should get a permanent henka privilege. Especially because for him it's not just a move out of the way but a move to secure a hold. Most of us went "how delightful" when Mainoumi did his henkas. Ama should get the same consideration. And for goodness sake! Asashoryu did his third henka of the basho to win it all! Is the yokozuna giving his official approval to the move?

You're assuming that matta are generally caused by the non-starting rikishi? I don't think that's true at all. There are plenty of very twitchy guys (Takamisakari, Hokutoriki, often anyone who desperately needs a win and isn't good at henka) who simply aren't able to synchronize properly, no matter if the other guy intentionally delays or not. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Right. I guess I was just indulging in wishful thinking. So there's nothing they can do to control the twitchy mattas. But the non-starters are proliferating and I think it's part of the zeitgeist that's producing the henkas.

Over the past few years there seems to have been a notable increase in mattas. Is it a coincidence that in the same time frame there's been an increase in henkas? Both trends seem to me to represent the same shift in attitude--from straight-forward clash to wily strategizing. Since the rikishi causing the matta is usually the slower one, playing a mind game with the opponent who is ready to go, could it be that a quiet crackdown is underway? If they randomly don't call mattas, that should be a corrective. The rikishi who would delay and minipulate will have to reconsider that tactic.