Sumo
Speaking of giants, the real highlight of last weekend was going to see Sumo at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. I love watching Sumo, but neither of us had actually been to see a live bout before. Saturday was day 14 of the Aki Basho, the second-to-last day of the Fall Tournament.The big match of the day was between Mongolian Yokozuna Asashoryu, who has absolutely dominated the sport for the past three years, and Ozeki Chiyotaikai, known for his fierce pushing and thrusting attack. Despite the fact that with his 12-1 record Asashoryu was already guaranteed to win the tournament, the fight turned out to be quite the barn burner, complete with flying zabuton and a judges' conference to determine the winner. (Ultimately, the referee's original decision was upheld.)
We were up in the cheap seats, so we didn't get to see any of the current big names up close, but sitting near the announcer's booth meant I got to snap this picture of former Hawaiian Yokozuna Musashimaru being interviewed. The guy with the mutton chops is another retired wrestler, a former Komusubi named Toki.
posted by S at 1:22 PM
2 Comments:
Musashimaru was awesome, but I always liked Akebono better.
When I was growing up, I would watch all of Takamiyama's matches that I could. (He was the first great Hawaiian sumotori.)
I wish that they would put more sumo on TV here, but I would imagine that it's not going to be the most popular sport in Wisconsin.
Akebono was great. I loved it whenever he would fight Takatoriki - they always seemed to be right on the edge of throwing punches.
Takamiyama was definitely before my time. I didn't really start watching sumo until I first moved to Japan in 1995. I mainly know him as the gravelly-voiced Azumazeki Oyakata. Everyone says he was quite the badass in his day. And he had a pair of sideburns that put Toki to shame.
Have you checked out banzuke.com? They usually do a pretty good job of posting most of the makuuchi bouts for a given tournament.
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