Asashouryuu in Mongolia after intai

[VictorDiVarca]

He did not exclude Japanese press.

He didn't exclude them, no. And no-one has said that. But he refused to answer any of their questions.

He refused to answer Japanese questions. They still had a chance to try Mongolian.

[Archaebacterium]

"Japanese reporters were told their questions will not be answered. "We're in Mongolia, so there's no point in asking and answering in Japanese," was the reason given."

I like that. When in Mongolia.....

Asashoryu talks in his mother language in his motherland.

If Japanese were interested in and came to Mongolia, it would be nice to talk in Mongolian.

Those, who actually belong to small nations and do not speak their language, they cannot stay on top whatever they do as I have seen in the case of previous Ossetians. Most of them can only say "Hi" in Ossetian. They have lost their own culture and substituted it with Russian. Of course in the long run they will fail, as we saw last year.

Look at the eyes of Hakuho in press conference after Asashoryu intai.

May be he sensed that he itself was fired, may be he sensed that under some circumstances he may be the next.

He not only loose his supporter and competitor, he loose a ground under him too.

He was shocked, not the happiest human on earth as some thought.

After several days he did chess-like smart statement, where he declared that

he will retire in age of 30 and he do not intent to win more than three times per year - it is less than Taiho and it means he wished to say "I shall not be ever better than best Japanese yokozuna".

The next interesting statement is saying from Kyokai "we will delete any of your records if you do not leave sumo".

This statement confirmed my bystander's feeling that there will be no Japanese yokozuna during next 10 years, may be next 20 years.

The nation, who produced such kind of 12 members of Kyokai, cannot produce a sekitori who will be a yokozuna.

This is not going to happen whatever Japanese wish.

It surprises me but Japanese are a lot smaller than I previously thought.

This is a view with one eye from a long distance and sorry, I do not write very often... my main point was "no Japanese yokozuna" when I have seen that circus.

[ryafuji]

He did not exclude Japanese press.

He didn't exclude them, no. And no-one has said that. But he refused to answer any of their questions.

He refused to answer Japanese questions. They still had a chance to try Mongolian.

Japanese reporters should not be expected to know Mongolian. Asashoryu knows Japanese; if Japanese reporters were admitted he should have answered in their language.

Edited March 14, 2010 by ryafuji

[kame]

I can't believe not a single Japanese journalist had even the basest of knowledge about the Mongolian language to even ask one simple question. I'm sure some of them have been over to Mongolia on several occasions (and/or had to interview Mongolian rikishi) and the rule of thumb for polite interviewing dictates some knowledge of the interviewee's native tongue goes a long way. Yes, Asashoryu was a jerk to them, but he proved a point and the journalists didn't do their job.

Edited March 14, 2010 by kame

[wanderer]

He did not exclude Japanese press.

He didn't exclude them, no. And no-one has said that. But he refused to answer any of their questions.

He refused to answer Japanese questions. They still had a chance to try Mongolian.

Japanese reporters should not be expected to know Mongolian. Asashoryu knows Japanese; if Japanese reporters were admitted he should have answered in their language.

Could you elaborate where these rules come from? As far as I know, Mongolian law does not require any one to answer to reporter's questions.

Japanese must learn Mongolian if they want to do business in Mongolia, and adhere to local customs and traditions. If someone does not want to talk to you, that means he does not want to talk to you. Mongolians understand this from their childhood. Japanese have difficulty understanding this simple custom of ours.

[Kuroyama]

He did not exclude Japanese press.

He didn't exclude them, no. And no-one has said that. But he refused to answer any of their questions.

He refused to answer Japanese questions. They still had a chance to try Mongolian.

Japanese reporters should not be expected to know Mongolian. Asashoryu knows Japanese; if Japanese reporters were admitted he should have answered in their language.

It was a press conference, not a private interview. Questions and answers are given publicly, should be available to all present. There is no reason to expect Mongolian reporters in Mongolia to speak Japanese, but a Japanese reporter in Mongolia really ought to speak some Mongolian. By allowing questions in Japanese, Asa would have been excluding the Mongolian reporters from the exchange. That would not have been fair.

Sounds like the kind of thing set up by the Japanese press -- who we all know love Asa to pieces -- to have something else negative to say about him. They have to take all the chances they can at this point, since they'll be running out of them in a few months.

[Jonosuke]

Mongolians understand this from their childhood. Japanese have difficulty understanding this simple custom of ours.

If this analogy is true, by replacing "Mongolian" with "Japanese" and "Japanese" with "Mongolian", this Asashoryu saga had not ended in the way it did or was not surrounded with so much controversy.

[wanderer]

Mongolians understand this from their childhood. Japanese have difficulty understanding this simple custom of ours.

If this analogy is true, by replacing "Mongolian" with "Japanese" and "Japanese" with "Mongolian", this Asashoryu saga had not ended in the way it did or was not surrounded with so much controversy.

I agree, though you have taken the above from its core context. Japanese aren't the only ones who have traditions. Everybody have difficulties in everybody's culture. So, Japanese should not expect foreigners become their model citizens. It is naive to say the least.

The media seem to ignore one of Asa's remarks. About the new Kyokai rule on foreign born rikishi, he said:

"Foreigners constitute the top rikishi of today. After Tochiazuma's retirement, I practically had no Japanese opponent. Limiting their number is not good to Ozumo. It is like they ask for water, but dump the water once their bucket is full. They could not have allowed foreigners if they have to limit their numbers."

I agree with you and Asashoryu. All this saga should not have happened if foreigners were not allowed in Sumo to start with. Vise versa, Japanese must accept the fact that these foreigners were born and raised in different countries, and they are here not to teach Japanese way of life to Japanese. They are foreigners.

I've recently read an article about cultural differences of west and the east. The article said that western mentality is to break down things into parts, list them, classify them, analyze them separately and start solving each part. This mentality is best illustrated by the fact that a 26 step instruction on how to make peanut butter sandwich have appeared in several publications.

Eastern mentality is to see things as a whole and understand the goal before going into details. This mentality is best illustrated by Mao Tse Dun's word: "You will survive as long as you can float. Swimming is not important. Keep floating." In some cases this approach results in lack of details, and consistency.

Both mentality are equally wise under different situations, and equally deficient. Japanese are considered as the most western like mentality in Asia.

What is actually happening with Asashoryu is not even a saga or a drama as many of you may think. If you look at it with western (or Japanese) mentality though, he may be in big trouble. Lets's break things down and see where we get:

Asashoryu is Yokozuna. What is Yokozuna? Yokozuna is the highest rank in Sumo. Yokozuna are like Gods in Japan, they are almost worshipped. They are expected to be perfect. Yokozuna are not mere mortals, therefore they must not have emotions......... Then what happened? Asashoryu has emotions. Asashoryu has flaws, he is not perfect (I am not talking about his sumo). He breached many rules. Oh my ... Sky is falling, Japanese culture is in danger! 2000 years of culture is threatened. He should not be not perfect! He ripped off millions of Japanese souls. Asashoryu is the Satan.

So, you can see where things go. If you look at it with the Asian Mentality you can see why Kyokai is loosing its face:

A brazen kid from Ulaanbaatar street comes to a 2000 year old culture. He's got some skills, damn good skills. But has no clue about the 2000 year old culture. He doesn't like no more rules. Kicked some ass on dohyo, got in trouble few times off dohyo. Then what is up dog? He is a foreigner, and he did not come to Japan to be their model citizen. No big deal, let the kid go home and just leave him alone. Sumo and Kyokai will be there for another 2000 years, so just forget about the brazen kid.

So, if you think, and analyze every single fact about Asa, then you will probably go psychologically traumatized by his brutal breaches of social norms of Japan, or of Mankind. If you sit back a little bit, and remember your youthful blunders one more time, you will probably want this childish behavior of Kyokai end soon.

It really depends on one's culture. Isn't it?