Forum members with "first-hand" ozumo experience

[d_golem]

Just wanted to know who are the forum members here who has/had "first-hand" experiences in ozumo i.e. like :

- Was/is a rikishi/sumotori

- involved in the Sumo kyokai

- maintains direct correspondence with current/former rikishi/sumotori

- lives in Japan

- attended a basho

- sumo journalist

- etc.

Curious because of the sometimes very in-depth and intimate knowledge of sumo some of the members here have shown, which certainly does not come from only frequenting sumo forum and watching sumo on the internet, like me :-P

Cheers

[WAKATAKE]

I have attended hon-basho and jungyo years before when I first lived in Japan. I also got to attend an outdoors keiko session which was free and they were not restrictive about who could attend. The keiko session was very informative because I really got to find out what they do in an everyday perspective and how they train.

[kawika]

YES - maintains direct correspondence with current/former rikishi/sumotori

24 years - LIVED in Japan

Many from 1991 to 2014 - attended a basho

YES, Sumo World - sumo journalist

Did asageiko at Azumazeki beya - etc.

[Kuroyama]

There are a number of others who haven't responded yet. I don't want to name them for fear of forgetting someone important.

Also, Egyptian sekitori Osunaarashi and the up and coming Canadian Homarenishiki made their first attempts at contacting the professional sumo world through this forum. Whether that provided the links they needed to hook up with their heya, or whether that ultimately came about through some other channel, I don't know.

[Kasutera]

I have regular in-person interactions with two former wrestlers - one former makushita and one former makuuchi, if that means anything.

[omgitssumo]

Egyptian sekitori Osunaarashi

i would like to see that post. could you post a link?

[Katooshu]

Egyptian sekitori Osunaarashi

i would like to see that post. could you post a link?

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=19091#entry178894

[Seijakuzan]

Just wanted to know who are the forum members here who has/had "first-hand" experiences in ozumo i.e. like :

- Was/is a rikishi/sumotori

- involved in the Sumo kyokai

- maintains direct correspondence with current/former rikishi/sumotori

- lives in Japan

- attended a basho

- sumo journalist

- etc.

Curious because of the sometimes very in-depth and intimate knowledge of sumo some of the members here have shown, which certainly does not come from only frequenting sumo forum and watching sumo on the internet, like me :-P

Cheers

Any of those sound like a dream come true, but alas, just attending the Nov 2010 basho during my first and only trip to Japan. Way back when Tochiozan was still a Sekiwake. Oh, wait...

[d_golem]

YES - maintains direct correspondence with current/former rikishi/sumotori

24 years - LIVED in Japan

Many from 1991 to 2014 - attended a basho

YES, Sumo World - sumo journalist

Did asageiko at Azumazeki beya - etc.

Are you not living in Japan anymore?

Any links to the Sumo World articles? Would love to read some up.

There are a number of others who haven't responded yet. I don't want to name them for fear of forgetting someone important.

Yes anyone else who has first hand experiences please stand up :D . Especially a couple of members here who seem to be veeery closely intertwined with the sumo world :-P

Egyptian sekitori Osunaarashi

i would like to see that post. could you post a link?

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=19091#entry178894

Wow how cool is that?? To think that Boody (or Budi, to be more correctly written) has actually posted in this forum all those years ago, awesome! Anyone knows if he's still frequenting this forum now? If not, can somebody drag him back here??

Just wanted to know who are the forum members here who has/had "first-hand" experiences in ozumo i.e. like :

- Was/is a rikishi/sumotori

- involved in the Sumo kyokai

- maintains direct correspondence with current/former rikishi/sumotori

- lives in Japan

- attended a basho

- sumo journalist

- etc.

Curious because of the sometimes very in-depth and intimate knowledge of sumo some of the members here have shown, which certainly does not come from only frequenting sumo forum and watching sumo on the internet, like me :-P

Cheers

Any of those sound like a dream come true, but alas, just attending the Nov 2010 basho during my first and only trip to Japan. Way back when Tochiozan was still a Sekiwake. Oh, wait...

Hahaha very good :D

[Akinomaki]

I don't have significant first hand experience of sumo, just quite a bit of Japan - but even the living in Japan was long ago.
All my knowledge is from the media and books, the same I can get now by using the net, and anybody can as well - IF able to understand Japanese. It's not necessary to have studied it, I haven't: a few weeks crash course, then living in Japan and also vital: using in full the Japanese support tools capability of the PC.

knowledge of sumo some of the members here have shown, which certainly does not come from only frequenting sumo forum and watching sumo on the internet, like me

It is definitely possible to gain a very complete knowledge and understanding of sumo by just looking at the English information available on the net by now - especially on the forum of course - and the video coverage.

The only thing on your list for me would be having watched a basho live - I only have watched a few days and it added nothing to my understanding of sumo, it's just the fun to watch it live.

So you just need to think that those with any first hand experience like that particular first hand experience in itself

and you can get enough for yourself by reading what they tell about it here.
Otherwise you can expand your knowledge of the parts of sumo you like most by looking for that on the net, and if you don't find it you can ask about it: that's what makes this such a great forum.

[d_golem]

Nishinoshima, thank you for giving us a brief glimpse about your amazing relationship with sumo. Your reply is exactly the kind of reply I was hoping to get when I started this thread. Being a newcomer to the forum and sumo in general it's very insightful to have a little background on the way the more senior members here are involved in actual real-life sumo world.

Now that you have shared a bit, my interest is piqued even more :-D and I hope you don't mind if I ask a few more (possibly dumb and misguided) questions.

- If you are/were not a rikishi, how do you get involved in participating in keiko and train with professionals? Is there an amateur sumo club of some sorts?

- Ryogoku meaning you frequent the Kokugikan a lot but not exactly living in Japan? But that can't be since you have so much first-hand interaction with people from every role in sumo.

I don't speak Japanese and I sure don't read kanji, so Google translate helped with the "関係者" you wrote, but it came up with "party", "authorized people", and "person concerned" as the resulting translations. A concerned sumo official who likes to party? :-P

[orandashoho]

"involved person", I would say. More than interested, less than actually being employed, is my guess. Impressive in any case.

As for me... no involvement whatsoever, I'm just a "fan" and if it had not been for this Forum I would still be very ignorant about many things concerning sumo.

Thanks to the excellent information on this Forum and the wisdom freely imparted by knowledgeable people posting here, I have become an even bigger fan.

Hats off to you, Nishinoshima!

[PhorCillic]

Helped put Osunaarashi in sumo. Put Homarenishiki in sumo. Have another foreigner in the pipeline. (Possibly) kept Terunofuji in sumo. :-P Pushed Konishiki into a pool at my wedding (after he sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in three languages). Trained and taught several young Japanese rikishi when they kids.

Fought in the Kokugikan (last time putting on a mawashi was in the sumo school). Been to weddings, funerals, movies, baseball and football games with rikishi. Played pool with Terunofuji. Soaked in onsen with Osunaarashi. Taken up too much space in the Hanshin oendan section with Nishikigi. Gotten chewed out privately and publicly by oyakata for stuff I didn't do (and stuff I did). Helped out and been helped out by rikishi, yobidashi and others.

In short it's been a wild a fun ride and it's only getting better. This forum helped really deepen and develop my love for sumo and set me on the path from fan to whatever I am now (関係者 maybe).

Rikishi no but I trained with plenty. Kaiho, Oikari and Dewataira are coaches at our club. I've done keiko with Osunarashi, Maeta, Wakanoshima, Ishide and Daishodai as well as many other lower rankers. Messed around in MMA gym with Terunofuji.

*crosses fingers* Hope he is from Poland, hope he is from Poland... :)

Also. Nishinoshima-sama, because of all the achievements you should become a Sumoforum Yokozuna or something. At least you became that in my mind. (I knew only about Brodi) *.*

Edited October 30, 2015 by PhorCillic

[Hakuhonofan]

- maintains direct correspondence with current/former rikishi/sumotori

I don't think I need to tell anybody who that is.

[kawika]

i moved back to the US last year. most of my articles are posted here - http://sumo-news.blogspot.jp/

a couple sumo world mags have made it to amazon

http://amzn.com/B00EFQUSJS

http://amzn.com/B017AVKWM2

[sekitori]

The differences in how individual stables operate are huge. On the surface they might seem the same but they are family-like and range from Von Trapp and Brady to Adams and Manson.

That's a wonderful analogy and is an example of the expertise John Gunning brings to the live English language sumo broadcasts on NHK. Of all the guest commentators on the NHK English sumo broadcasts, the two I enjoy the most are David Shapiro and John. They have made watching the bouts even more interesting for me, Shapiro for his knowledge of sumo and John for both his knowledge of sumo and providing us with his personal information about rikishis, oyakatas, and everyone else connected with sumo. Unless you know these people quite well, you won't have that info. John does and I'm very glad that that he shares it with us. My only complaint is that these two experts are not present nearly as often as I would like them to be. Maybe I should start a "Please put Nishinoshima on the sumo broadcasts more often" petition and send it to NHK, specifically TV Japan. I can think of two names which will be at the top of that petition--mine and John's. :-)

Edited October 31, 2015 by sekitori

[d_golem]

I maybe missing on the golden, shiny, huge bull elephant in the room here.......so Nishinoshima is David Shapiro? or Orion, according to this thread : http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=33733

[sekitori]

>The audience is so diverse You've got to cater to hardcore fans with deep knowledge as well as people tuning in for the first time.

I'm a fairly hardcore fan without that much deep knowledge. I believe I represent many of the people listening to your commentary. All I can tell you is that it works for me and I would suspect that it also works well for others like me.

Your anecdotes keep things interesting and they remind me of the approach taken by the greatest sports announcer of them all, Vin Scully. An extreme example was a Dodger game several years ago where they trailed by something like eight to nothing after only a couple of innings. Scully knew that most people would turn off their radios at that point and to keep his audience interested, he started telling baseball stories between pitches. He continued doing that for the remainder of the game which became even more of a rout. They were some of the best stories I ever heard and the fact that a magnificent story teller like Scully was describing them only added to their interest. I continued to listen for the entire game. It turned out to be one of the best sports broadcasts I ever heard. Considering that the final score was something like 18 to 2, the result was a monumental tribute to the amazing broadcasting skills of Mr. Scully.

Edited October 31, 2015 by sekitori

[Kintamayama]

I maybe missing on the golden, shiny, huge bull elephant in the room here.......so Nishinoshima is David Shapiro? or Orion, according to this thread : http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=33733

Neither.

[Orion]

I maybe missing on the golden, shiny, huge bull elephant in the room here.......so Nishinoshima is David Shapiro? or Orion, according to this thread : http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=33733

Neither.

And who should know better than Kintamayama? There's a man I've known for years, and have found him well-informed, always happy to share his knowledge, and always ready to learn something new. I would say the same of John Gunning, the man from the Emerald Isle, which is to the west of my own country. I find some of these comparisons rather uncomfortable, since we are not always comparing like with like. Dave Shapiro did club sumo a generation ahead of Nishi, and his understanding of the physical basics was unparalleled until Nishi came on the scene; his Japanese, though 100% functional, is, however, a little off-center; I was recently interviewed by a filming team who kept saying "rikEEshi"and I had to stop them. and correct the mispronunciation.

I don't have the time for much detail (last night I was playing odd percussion and singing ghostly songs at a well-known bar) and tomorrow have a raft of engagements, none of which has to do with sumo, but I can perhaps put in my own take which is that my personal interest in sumo (which started back in the 1960s) is connected with the deep roots. My personal interest in professional sumo is largely based on the contribution of the people in the background, (and way back, I wrote articles on all of them, when I was finally induced to write for the Sumo World, and some of them have been my friends for forty-plus years. Obviously all these people -- the gyoji, yobidashi, tokoyama, wakaimonogashira, sewanin -- are indispensable to professional sumo but don't exist in amateur sumo. So, though I am aware of amateur sumo, especially when it intersects with the professional variety, I may be forgiven for not being totally involved.

For the record, I first saw sumo even on TV on a visit in 1968, and real sumo in January 1974, back in the Kuramae Kokugikan. The yokozunas at that time were Wajima, Kotozakura and Kitanofuji (and how well this last one has worn! When we meet by chance I still get a lovely smile of recognition from our meetings many years later when I was taking foreign journalists to the Kokugikan for interviews). But many years later I have happy memories of meeting Sadogatake, former Kotozakura, when I was escorting two Canadian journalists to watch what proved to be Kototenta's last appearance.

Sorry i have a very busy schedule tomorrow (Sunday) and probably will not be able to monitor further posts for a while.

‹Orion

[Orion]

Dave Shapiro did club sumo a generation ahead of Nishi

Did he?

When I asked him that night in Asakusabashi what sumo club or tournaments he had been in , he seemed to indicate that his sumo experience was limited to casual stuff in his judo club after training.

This is quite possible. I was only repeating what he used to say or imply. I never challenged him, since I never claimed to know anything of amateur sumo. In the days when more and more men were entering sumo from college clubs, obviously I took an interest in which unis had good sumo departments -- though at first it was all Nichidai, which had its training camp near the Asagaya stables so the first ones went to them as a matter of course. I believe it was my very old friend Dewanohana who was the first to break the link and enter Dewanoumi. I was told his cousin had been in that heya and that was why he branched out. And of course that led the way to others including Mainoumi. When I first watched sumo the _only_ college man was Yutakayama, and the old Japanese geezers were sneering that a college boy was soft and couldn't keep up with the pros. The same kind, a generation later, is sneering that they're all foreigners and it's not real sumo any more.

Orion

[Kintamayama]

I entered sumo in 1970 hiding the fact that I was a foreigner, using the shikona Debeso. After one basho and anxiety attacks every time I had to mount the dohyo, I decided to become a gyoji and admitted my foreign-ness. I was then lovingly called the "Gyoji from Zanzibar", gyoza for short. I got boiled, fried, and steamed and after two weeks and 14 wrong decisions, I was sold to slavery. A year later I was bought by my former Oyakata who taught me how to make chocolate chanko (the now world famous chokochanko) and the rest is history. Today I am in charge of growing the clay used for making the dohyo. I also am a member of the WDC , (We Don't Care) the special committee that decides who gets to nail down the zabutons in Kyushu and who actually cares. I am also an honorary member of "Missing Finger Real Estate" that rents out most of the heyas' buildings.

Here come the nice people with my meds.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Kintamayama

[d_golem]

Man I wish could meet some of the members here in person and pick their brains for an evening over dinner or something. I think it would be absolutely relentless questioning from my part :-D

[Orion]

When I first watched sumo the _only_ college man was Yutakayama

You mean in '68? There were a couple of former university guys in makushita as well at the time. Tachihikari and Tochibayama. Juryo was as high as either went.

So the Japanese geezers would have been right about them. I do assure you, Yutakayama was the first college man to be successful and to lead the way for others.