Yokozuna Hakuho has done it again, and an impressive showing for ozeki-to-be Ama. What an amazing tournament! Who needs Asashoryu? Hakuho is so graceful and powerful; watching him wrestle is awe-inspiring.Too bad my man Goeido got injured early on in his battle to retain the komusubi rank, which is arguably the toughest position in the banzuke. He'll be back among the maegashira in the next banzuke. Fan favorite/comic relief "Robocop" Takamisakari took an early lead, actually broke the edge of the dohyo with Kakuryu's foot on the tenth day, and finished the tournament with a 10-5 record (Kakuryu bowed out of the rest of the basho due to the injury sustained by getting his leg caught between the Cop and the hard clay). The E-i-C's favorite, gentle giant Baruto, defended his new sekiwake rank with vigor and gentlemanly conduct.
After 15 days of exciting matches, I'm suffering from a bit of post-basho let-down. New Years basho can't come soon enough!
(*Apologies to Belkar Bitterleaf.)
Glossary, for all you football-watching heathens:
banzuke : list of sumo wrestlers and their ranks, issued before every basho. Ranks assigned according to wrestlers' recent performance and an arcane formula of objective and subjective criteria.
basho : sumo tournament. Six tournaments per year, held once every two months. Each basho lasts 15 days, with each wrestler normally fighting in one match per day.
dohyo : the raised platform, made of packed and dried clay, on which the bouts occur.
komusubi : fourth-highest rank of sumo wrestler.
maegashira : lower ranks of the "makuuchi" top division of sumo wrestler, sometimes called the "rank-and-file." There are 32 maegashira in each banzuke.
ozeki : second-highest rank of sumo wrestler, sometimes translated as "champion."
sekiwake : third-highest rank of sumo wrestler.
yokozuna : highest rank of sumo wrestler, translated as "grand champion." Unlike the other ranks, a yokozuna cannot be demoted, but a yokozuna who starts to perform poorly is expected to retire rather than bring disgrace upon the rank.
4 comments:
I don't believe we've seen the last of Asa yet.
I am looking forward to 3 Mongolian Yokozuna battling it out. When that happens, they will have to have one of the bashos in Mongolia. ;^)
Sumo is one of the two main things I miss since moving from rural Japan after living there for 9 years. The other thing is the Ofuro. And I plan on remolding our bathroom someday.
I see you are in San Francisco. Do you get sumo on cable or satellite?
I can't get it here.
forgot to have replies send to my email.
Well, they did just have the first jungyo in Ulan Baator in a long time, this year, apparently due to the campaigning of both yokozuna. A basho, though? Yeah, maybe shortly after Japan has a prime minister of Korean ancestry...
When we finally buy a house of our own (or rather, some time after we buy a house of our own, when our bank accounts have somewhat recovered), the bathroom is going to be the first room to be renovated. The E-i-C insists on a hinoki ofuro (though we may have to settle for stainless steel). I'm over 6 feet tall, so I cannot get anywhere close to submerging myself in western-style bathtubs; ofuro is heavenly. Also, I am totally looking forward to an electronic toilet seat. They're actually not hard to find in the Bay Area; it's mostly laziness that I haven't installed one in our current apartment. Alternatively, Larry Ellison's house was recently up for sale.
I get TV Japan on Comcast digital cable. It costs a pretty penny (about $27/mo just for TV Japan) but we watch it more than any other channel we get. I don't know whether it's the limitations of cable, our set-top box, or our (very old) television, but I can't get the English-language audio commentary for the sumo. So often after watching the digest, I'll go read the daily update on www.sumotalk.com. Those guys are a little nuts, but I've learned a lot about sumo from reading their site. I used to watch video at info-sumo.net, but I haven't been able to get the forums to work right since last Spring, and since the site is in French, I don't know if it's just me or if they totally changed their forums and stopped posting videos. Maybe you'll have better luck.
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