Sumo

Dronak

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Drat, 60 minute time limit on editing posts. I got an e-mail from the sumo mailing list today that mentioned Chiyotaikai withdrew because of a triceps injury that he suffered in his win the day before. Just thought I'd mention it.
 

Dronak

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For any of you who are following along, Asashoryu just clinched his first tournament win on day 13. He's now three wins ahead of everyone else and there are only two days left, so he's guaranteed to get the victory.

As for the following January basho, Musashimaru is supposed to be out because he's going to need time for his hand to heal (I think he's having surgery) and who knows about Takanohana. So both yokozuna could be out. I think Chiyotaikai was granted a public injury status meaning he can miss the next basho without penalty, so he's probably going to sit out next time, too. Not sure about the rest. But it would appear that Asashoryu will have a pretty good chance at placing very highly again next time, possibly getting a second yusho. Two in a row is often an unofficial requirement for promotion to yokozuna, so we'd have to wait and see what happens at that point.
 

Dronak

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In case anyone's interested, a couple major events happened at this month's sumo basho. On the bad side, yokozuna Takanohana retired about halfway through. Apparently he's just not able to compete like he used to anymore and when that happens to a yokozuna, he's expected to retire. On the good side, Asashoryu won the tournament with a 14-1 record. That was his second yusho overall and his second in a row. I believe that he ended up at 14-1 last basho as well. His performance was high enough quality that he was recommended and accepted for promotion to yokozuna. So we have a new yokozuna. He's yokozuna number 68 as I recall and the third foreign born rikishi to attain the rank (Akebono and Musashimaru being the other two). Hopefully he'll keep performing well and will have a long career ahead of him.
 
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arnisador

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It's a good sign I think--how do the Japanese feel about foreigners in the art?
 
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RyuShiKan

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Originally posted by arnisador
It's a good sign I think--how do the Japanese feel about foreigners in the art?


There is an increasing number of foreign Sumo wrestlers these days, many coming from Korea and Mongolia and even some from Czech, and Greece.
In fact the prizes award this basho for Jr. ranks were all taken by foreign wrestlers.
Sumo is still somewhat popular as a spectator sport in Japan but the amount of you people joining Sumo seems to be dropping.

It’s difficult to say how Japanese view foreigners in Sumo since it is sometimes hard to figure out what they feel about so many things.

However, when Akebono, the first foreign Yokozuna, retired there was not as much fanfare, but when Takanohana retired it was a big deal, in fact it’s still in the news almost daily.
Akebono might not have gotten the amount of attention when he retired for a few reasons.
One being his “koenkai” support group quit in mass a few years ago…….a first ever in Sumo, and nothing to be proud of.
The other reason being, he was engaged to a “honey” named Aihara Yu, but dumped her because he had “knocked up” some ugly cow of a woman that is half Japanese and had a "shotgun wedding".
This was also one of many reasons why his koenkai quit.
The good news is my firend that knows Akaebono and his wife says the wife rules with an iron fist and keeps “Akedumbo” in line.

(The koenkai is a wrestlers support group not unlike a fan club but much more since they basically give financial support too. No support group= no salary)
 

Dronak

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Asashoryu is from Mongolia. As for how the Japanese feel about having foreigners in sumo, I couldn't say for sure. There is a limit on how many non-Japanese can be in each stable and I think it's two. I don't think they totally object to having non-Japanese in sumo, but they might not really like the fact that there is now no Japanese rikishi in the highest rank. *shrug* I think a message got posted to the sumo mailing list that was basically a person on the street interview kind of thing. I didn't read the whole thing (it was a tad long for me), but from what I read it sounded like people were generally OK with having foreigners in sumo. But then again, you never can tell if that sort of thing gives you a fair sample of the population or if the publisher only printed interviews from one side. So who knows for sure?
 
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Infight

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From the information i gathered, Sumo never pretended to be an Martial Art, it was just an entertainment for the Japanese Emperor, and to show the strongest guy ( what they really are, isnt?), but i think it did not influenced any martial art in technique, just in philosophy.
But, being serious, its gonna be a hard time if i have to fight some Sumotori, they are large man! How can i choke that neck?lol, can you give an armlock on that arm?haha, man should be fun!
 
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RyuShiKan

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Originally posted by Infight
From the information i gathered, Sumo never pretended to be an Martial Art, it was just an entertainment for the Japanese Emperor, and to show the strongest guy ( what they really are, isnt?), but i think it did not influenced any martial art in technique, just in philosophy.
But, being serious, its gonna be a hard time if i have to fight some Sumotori, they are large man! How can i choke that neck?lol, can you give an armlock on that arm?haha, man should be fun!


Long ago they were the first line of defense in most armies………so they were actually soldiers.
 

Dronak

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Originally posted by Infight
but i think it [sumo] did not influenced any martial art in technique, just in philosophy.

Well, here's an excerpt from Mina Hall's book _The Big Book of Sumo_:

Early sumo was a combination of wrestling, boxing, and judo. Matches were quite violent and had few rules. During the Kamakura period (1185-1334), a military dictatorship or shogunate was established and bloody wars were fought throughout Japan. It was at this time that sumo was implemented as part of the military's training program. Many of the wrestling techniques practiced were used to force an enemy down to the ground where he could easly be apprehended. Jujitsu developed from this.

As I understand, she's done her research so I wouldn't dismiss this out of hand. Jujitsu may have very well developed out of sumo's felling techniques. There may be other things like this in the book, but this was the first one I found on a quick skim. So it would appear that one could make a case for sumo influencing other martial arts in technique and not just philosophy. I'm not really going to discuss it because I don't know much about it. I'm just pointing out a publication with something that counters your quote above.
 

theletch1

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I'm 6'2" and weigh in at a whopping 150lbs! I don't think sumo would be something I'd ever actually try:rofl: I'm hooked as a fan only but hooked none the less.
 

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