Just want to say I have no idea what you guys are saying ever but I enjoy this thread.
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BREAKING: The Kaiju just got promoted to yokozuna. I was never in doubt.
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Sad news for sumo fans, the WOAT is retiring:
https://twitter.com/TheSumoSoul/status/1430664350725926915?s=20
Noooooooooooooooooooo!
Iâve heard people suggest that Hattorizakura might be autistic or something like that. All I know is that dude did his own thing and gives zero fucks what anyone thinks.
I just realized we might see both the WOAT and the GOAT retire at about the same time in a sport that is about 500 years old. Crazy.
How is it that someone so bad got to compete so many times? I thought there was some sort of promotion/relegation hierarchy, but one win per hundred losses doesnât seem to compute.
Also, whatâs a mage cut?
Heâs at the lowest possible rank, no one can stop him if he wants to keep wrestling.
Also, whatâs a mage cut?
Thatâs the topknot which only sumo bois and samurai are allowed to have. So he has to get it ceremonially cut off when he leaves sumo.
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I must be missing something. This makes it sound like anyone can just put on some sumo garb and sign up to be in the next basho.
Provided you pass the basic fitness requirements and are accepted into a stable, that is basically true.
Sumo stables include kids fresh out of junior high school as young as 15 and skinny as a bean pole. Every active wrestler, except for a few elite college stars, start at the very bottom and work their way up through six divisions. Get a winning record in a basho, you move up. Losing record, you move down.
Enho, for example, the diminutive Hakuho protégé, achieved 7-0 yushos in his first three tournies and shot up the ranks like a rocket, reaching the top division after only 12 basho.
http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi.aspx?r=12412
If youâre someone like our friend Shonan who never had a winning record and barely ever had a win, you just remain a bottom dweller forever.
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So stables donât kick out people for being chronic losers?
I think sometimes these stables are like YMCAs for wayward young people, or at least thatâs what it seemed like with this guy. Just live a sumo life for a while if you donât have anything else going on.
They perform menial tasks like cleaning and cooking and attending to the higher-ranked rikishi. For which theyâre allowed to (required to actually) live at the stable and receive a tiny stipend. Cheap labor for the heya. Cheap lodgings and a place to belong for the hapless rikishi.
Win-win, even for the losers.
Iâve heard stories about some of the various personal care duties that fall under this job description. Is it as bad as Iâve heard?
The âwipe-the senior-rikishiâs-assâ story? In the age of washlets, I doubt this happens much anymore, but Japan is a hierarchical society in general and a sumo stable is that on steroids, so Iâm sure itâs a brutal lifestyle regardless.
Yes, exactly.
Iâm gonna take that as it stlll happens sometimes. Iâd think thatâs enough to quit a stable for most.
If the desire to literally not get shit on doesnât motivate you to double your morning keiko (training) and begin your rise through the ranks so you can be the one doing the shitting, then yeah, most would be better off finding another line of work.
Ichinojo has tested positive for COVID, and he has been training with other top rikishi.
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Ugh, heaviest guy in the sumo business is not who Iâd like to see coming down with COVID. Plus everyone in his heya has been exposed.
Not just his own heya. He had been participating in the recent inter-heya joint training sessions along with the other top rikishi.
I think most have had at least one shot and all have tested negative so far, but an outbreak at this juncture among the top rikishi would put the basho in jeopardy.
Miyagino-beya is out of the Aki basho with more covid issues.
That means no Hakuho, no Enho, No Ishiura, and most disappointing, no Hokuseiho, who was set to make his Juryo debut.
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