Taken from: www.daylife.com/ photo/0eRA0JZ0As2Ex
Hakuho (left) defeating fellow yokozuna Asashoryu at the January 2008 Basho
I have momentary addictions.
Well other than sweets that is. But then again, who isn’t addicted to dessert though I have been having an obsession of extreme sweet-toothness, Quite unfortunate considering, I was supposed to go back on a diet but my latest desire to bake constantly has forced me into this predicament. I am both enjoying it and hoping that my determination will set in say some time before the new semester starts…I hope.
But my latest addiction worth an entire blog entry is sumo wrestling.
It began as a lazy Sunday. Me lying on the couch, channel flipping, you get the picture. Its quite a discovery, a joyous delight to find something rather interesting to watch on TV other than the same-old, same-old. So when you come across strong, big men trying to push, carry and slap each other out of a 4.5m ring, I swear you can get hooked.
So then the internet becomes my new best friend as wikipedia provided me with almost every single piece of information available on each wrestler and the different terminology associated with sumo-wrestling.
I admit it can get rather boring when you don’t quite understand why that several seconds happen without one rikishi (what a wrestler is called) putting up a fight against the other. Or why they go through this face off against each other only to go back to their corner, wipe their face and throw more salt into the ring. But as the basho (the tournament) is coming to a close, the fights are getting more exciting. Its quite hard to fathom how these men move with such speed and agility. Even the very very heavy 250kg rikishi has moves! Then when you start wondering about the regimented lives they lead, you question how and why they deal with it in the first place. Most would know a wrestler’s career can be pretty shortlived and to make matters more complicated, fighting your way up to the highest level isn’t easy either.
But, the interesting thing is watching Caucasian men involved in the sport and carrying out rituals that can simply be classified under the umbrella of “Japanese” culture. (Though Japanese can be relative in many ways.) Is it an interest in the sport or is there a deeper desire? Or perhaps there is some inner need to belong to this community or even becoming part of it? After all, these “foreigners” are required to pick up the language, adopt Japanese sumo names, live in the communal stables and some even take up Japanese citizenship in order to succeed their master’s stables in the future. The interesting fact is that the last 3 yokozunas are all foreigners. 2 out of 4 current ozekis (the group of champions just beneath the yokozuna) are Eastern Europeans. What does it mean to be “foreign” while practicing something so strongly Japanese especially since the sport is recognised ONLY in Japan.
Perhaps a research paper is in sight.
But till I find the energy to actually do some real readings (and not just wikipedia information), it’ll just remain an addiction, a rather happy addiction.
The Kyushu Basho, the last of the year, ends this Sunday with a possibility of a showdown between Hakuho (one of the current yokozunas) and Ama, (a sekiwake looking for promotion to ozeki). Ama, has already beaten Hakuho in the basho but both share the same record for the moment. Incidentally, both men are Mongolian.
Maybe its just hard to find tall Japanese men in the first place and hence the need to welcome “foreign talent”.
