Hakuho Utterance + Football (split from Hatsu 2015 comments)

[Mongolith]

No wonder he does not want to speak with the press as the keep asking him the same damn question about the utterance. This seems like a pretty mild controversy so I don't get the big ruckus. He was hung over when he made the stupid utterance and now this is overshadowing his record breaking achievement.

Edited February 9, 2015 by Mongolith

[orandashoho]

If he can keep his head in the future he can still be an exemplary Yokozuna and look upon this current controversy as a good wake-up call.

[BuBa]

Whats is the word in english eh... Witch hunt, yes.

[Fukurou]

Hakuhou is still angry with the world at large and is not speaking to the press. At today's one day tournament, he sat in the shitakubeya with his back to the media, surrounded by a shield of tsukebitos.

Perhaps the next thing to watch for would be the NSK being critical of Hakuho for not cooperating with the media, making the NSK look bad in the press. The question is, would they be critical of him in private or in public (as the NFL was when Seattle's Marshawn Lynch was uncooperative during contractually required press interviews this past season)

So it's Hakuho's fault that some stocks go down?

Gimme a break!

If this so called journalist from Sanspo keeps researching, he will probably find hard evidence that all foreign Yokozuna starting with Akebono are the reason for the two lost decades and the bad economy in Japan. *shaking head in disbelief*

It's not an outlandish idea at all (although I suspect in the Hakuho case it is). Still, on February 10 Jon Stewart announced he was leaving "The Daily Show," and on February 11 the stock for Viacom, the network's corporate owner, dropped 1.5% (a loss in value of about 350 million USD).

[Gurowake]

I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea that Hakuho's personal behavior has influence on his endorsee's stock prices. Stock values, within wide ranges, are based mainly on perception of the market. The market feels that Viacom will lose a significant factor in the production of its income with Jon Stewart's retirement from the show, while the market also feels that commercial viewers will think less highly of a product that is being endorsed by someone who shows less than noble behavior. The first perception is almost certainly accurate, and while the second is a matter of debate, that doesn't stop it from being a perception of the traders.

[Hakuhonofan]

Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has shown his support to Hakuho during Sensho's retirement party. When Hakuho greeted him, he said, "Yokozuna, everyone who comes here is your ally. Standing at the top of sumo world is struggling. Most Japanese weren't raised to understand (the hardship)."

Hakuho said it's lonely to have (one more of) his comrade retired.

[Benevolance]

I'll buy that Jon Stewart's departure could impact viacom, particularly given the co-departure of Colbert, since Stewart is a commodity of Comedy Central and is a product they are selling.

Hakuho, however, is simply a walking sign board to hang an advertisement; if anyone is impacted, it would be Hakuho himself receiving fewer endorsements if companies feel his star power is tainted or has waned. And although Japan could be the one place in the world kooky enough that a single bad advertisement could weaken corporate profits over an entire earnings period, I'll still bet a dollar that Hak gets his usual flag parades next basho.

[Akinomaki]

Hakuho - no apology for his remarks made after last basho at this the next such press conference

"I just said what I thought."

Kitanoumi wants to have the curtain fall on the subject.

Hakuho can't keep his mouth shut though about the things he dislikes:

Now he demands from Kotoyuki (and Chiyootori, who did it once with him) to stop bellowing before the bout "You're not a dog, stop it."

The fans love it though and applaud for the "ho", and the sumo kyokai even thinks about marketing some sumo goods for the act:

Kotoyuki and his oyakata thus are bewildered by the order, coming not from a relevant direction like a shimpan or a heya related person, but from a rikishi not of the heya. Kotoyuki doesn't want to talk about it further to avoid more comments, Sadogatake-oyakata wants to talk to Hakuho about it.

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/1438841.html

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/1438971.html

[kuroimori]

Hakuho - no apology for his remarks made after last basho at this the next such press conference

"I just said what I thought."

Kitanoumi wants to have the curtain fall on the subject.

Hakuho can't keep his mouth shut though about the things he dislikes:

Now he demands from Kotoyuki (and Chiyootori, who did it once with him) to stop bellowing before the bout "You're not a dog, stop it."

The fans love it though and applaud for the "ho", and the sumo kyokai even thinks about marketing some sumo goods for the act:

Kotoyuki and his oyakata thus are bewildered by the order, coming not from a relevant direction like a shimpan or a heya related person, but from a rikishi not of the heya. Kotoyuki doesn't want to talk about it further to avoid more comments, Sadogatake-oyakata wants to talk to Hakuho about it.

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/1438841.html

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/1438971.html

Ideas of new special Sumo merchandise:

The surefire way to wake up every morning - no matter how early it is!

Introducing the brand new

Kotoyuki Alarm Clock

;-)

[kuroimori]

Hakuho - no apology for his remarks made after last basho at this the next such press conference

"I just said what I thought."

Kitanoumi wants to have the curtain fall on the subject.

Hakuho can't keep his mouth shut though about the things he dislikes:

Now he demands from Kotoyuki (and Chiyootori, who did it once with him) to stop bellowing before the bout "You're not a dog, stop it."

The fans love it though and applaud for the "ho", and the sumo kyokai even thinks about marketing some sumo goods for the act:

Kotoyuki and his oyakata thus are bewildered by the order, coming not from a relevant direction like a shimpan or a heya related person, but from a rikishi not of the heya. Kotoyuki doesn't want to talk about it further to avoid more comments, Sadogatake-oyakata wants to talk to Hakuho about it.http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/1438841.htmlhttp://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/1438971.html

Ideas of new special Sumo merchandise:

The surefire way to wake up every morning - no matter how early it is!

Introducing the brand new

Kotoyuki Alarm Clock

;-)

The signature wake-up phrase will be:

"HU! needs to get out of bed right now?!"

[Benevolance]

Man, if Kotoyuki was ever feeling sassy when he faces Hak, I'd give him serious, serious props if he pops up and says, "Woof". I bet that would flap even the unflappable Hak. The only downside is that I doubt Kotoyuki would be let down gently on the ensuing throw...

[Pandaazuma]

Benevolance...brilliant. If he does that, I will personally send a collar to his heya.

[Akinomaki]

The next thing: at degeiko to Minato-beya where he trained with esp. Terunofuji and Ichinojo, Hakuho was nerved by the press photo flashes and had the press thrown out by a tsukebito, only selected TV was allowed to remain.

Minato-oyakata apologized "Though our side has no problems with it ..."

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2015/02/27/kiji/K20150227009883550.html

[Itachiyama]

this reminds me of Takanohana and his relationship towards press at the end of his career ...!

[Benevolance]

Takanohana was a model yokozuna.

[Kishinoyama]

Takanohana was a model yokozuna.

(Whatever above, it is funny...) Some people seem to think so. (Blinking...)

[Mongolith]

Minato okayata has had to do quite a bit of apologizing lately. All these episodes seem pretty mild to me but the again I am not Japanese so maybe I am not a great gauge. Couple extra shoves, questioning the refs while visibly hung over & accusing fans of being biased for locals (Bit more serious than other sports cause they are elders & the bias is obvious with guys like Goido being propped up to Ozeki), and kicking out some press. Maybe Hak should lay low for a bit as all these events have been pretty recent.

[Masumasumasu]

Takanohana was a model yokozuna.

(Whatever above, it is funny...) Some people seem to think so. (Blinking...)

Compared to Hakuho Takanohana did model sumo. No late shoves, no kachi-age to the head, no hatakikomi.

He did his damnedest to get a morozashi/yorikiri every time and his shiko/dohyo-iri was impeccable.

[Treblemaker]

Soccer is a team sport, the culture and the big money surrounding it doesn't compare to sumo, soccer professonals are not exactly known for their dignity, they aren't expected to be humble and would be called sissies if they were.

You're right. Comparing Sumo to Futbol is like comparing Beethoven to Justin Bieber. One is brilliant, sophisticated and dignified. The other is crude, simple-minded and asinine.

By some accounts, Beethoven (who was brilliant) was anything but sophisticated, dignified, and could certainly be crude, simple-minded AND asinine. He refused to play by the rules, and was successful doing so, because he could walk the walk.

Hakuho walks the walk. There's not too much left for him to accomplish. He's also human, and considering what he's done for sumo, and the successes he's had, he owes sumo nothing. The Kyokai, on the other hand, owe him a great deal of gratitude for being probably the best rikishi EVER, and representing the sport/cultural activity/insertyourwordhere to such a high level. He could flip them the bird and quit cold turkey tomorrow.

People who criticise an honest, off-the-cuff comment such as this, need to have a nice cup of tea and relax. And perhaps un-tighten their sphincters a little....

Edited February 28, 2015 by Treblemaker

[Masumasumasu]

Soccer is a team sport, the culture and the big money surrounding it doesn't compare to sumo, soccer professonals are not exactly known for their dignity, they aren't expected to be humble and would be called sissies if they were.

You're right. Comparing Sumo to Futbol is like comparing Beethoven to Justin Bieber. One is brilliant, sophisticated and dignified. The other is crude, simple-minded and asinine.

By some accounts, Beethoven (who was brilliant) was anything but sophisticated, dignified, and could certainly be crude, simple-minded AND asinine. He refused to play by the rules, and was successful doing so, because he could walk the walk.

Hakuho walks the walk. There's not too much left for him to accomplish. He's also human, and considering what he's done for sumo, and the successes he's had, he owes sumo nothing. The Kyokai, on the other hand, owe him a great deal of gratitude for being probably the best rikishi EVER, and representing the sport/cultural activity/insertyourwordhere to such a high level. He could flip them the bird and quit cold turkey tomorrow.

People who criticise an honest, off-the-cuff comment such as this, need to have a nice cup of tea and relax. And perhaps un-tighten their sphincters a little....

I agree. And by the same token, anyone who criticizes me should loosen their sphincter as well.

[Mongolith]

When Hakuho was going on a massive run with zensho yushos he was doing forward sumo. Just seems to have gotten lazy since his competition has not stepped up and he can win any way he wants. I don't think the sumo fans/Kyokai were all that happy with Hak passing Taiho. Just begrudging respect that it was the pretty well behaved Hak rather than say Asa.

[Andreas21]

When Hakuho was going on a massive run with zensho yushos he was doing forward sumo. Just seems to have gotten lazy since his competition has not stepped up and he can win any way he wants.

I rather see it the other way round. In the time of his big winning streak, the two years before, and the year after, he had a fighting style which I would describe as cautious, emphasis on defense, Yotsu-Zumo where establishing a solid migi-yotsu is the aim of tachi-ai instead of a quick win, improving grip and position gradually in migi-yotsu, often waiting for the opponent for the first move, and then using the momentum for a throw or quick Yorikiri. That lead to a huge winning percentage but on the other hand to long bouts, sometimes exhaustive. I recall several bouts during the big winning streak where he very narrowly escaped at the Tawara.

Some years ago his style changed, getting more aggressive, taking the offensive most of the time, moving far back before the Tachi-ai to have space for acceleration and huge impulse, often wild, sometimes chaotic, more unpredictable. I reckon the main reason for changing his style was that his competition stepped up indeed, and he could not have continued this huge winning percentage with defensive Sumo. He had been figured out by some, eventually he could not throw Kisenosato as he used to. Baruto became very dangerous to him as he matched him in power, Harumafuji and Kakuryo became very complete, strong and clever Rikishi. Defensive Sumo would possibly have taken a larger toll on his body on the long run, that was widely discussed. It was communicated that his Oyataka seriously recommended this style change.

Indeed, the chaotic element led to bad losses once in while. But as it turned out, he seemed damn right to change as nobody managed to come on top of him. We can only speculate what would have happened when he had continued this cautious Sumo from 5 years ago. My take is that he would have been in big trouble now.

Also also seriously doubt that he has ever been lazy. In any sport, the number one is almost always the athlete which also puts in most work in training and thoughts. That it looks easy doesn't mean that it is easy. In case of Hakuho, the talk shows, travels to Mongolia, commercials for rice are pretty much visible, it is less visible what he does in Keiko which is actually most of his time.

[Mongolith]

Hmm maybe you are right. Last 2 days v. his fellow yoks he went with defensive/forward sumo and he won pretty handily but the bouts were a bit longer. Maybe the chaotic/offensive style is a way to shorten bouts and avoid injury. Like Masu said Taka did linear sumo and his career was littered with injuries (Can't comment much on his style as I started watching after he retired). I think his defensive style would work perfectly fine even now but I was not thinking of injuries/strain on his body. (Better to win at a slightly lower clip and avoid injury than Zensho a bit more often and miss bashos).

[ALAKTORN]

I just felt like mentioning that Hakuhō has said the competition level has decreased in recent years. I think it was in some video interview posted here.

[Andreas21]

I just felt like mentioning that Hakuhō has said the competition level has decreased in recent years. I think it was in some video interview posted here.

Didn't know that. Really? So he admits being generous to his friends? Or does he mean that he's getting weaker? Or, he takes it lightly? Bizarre thing to say in an interview.