[sumo] Subject: Tachi-ai rules?

[Barbara]

The Kyokai doesn't seem to respect their own rules, in general.  Except 
the rule that many rules can be overruled by the gyoji or the judges.

But just by observation, it seems to me that when both men rise 
simultaneously, the gyoji has achieved his goal of a successful tachiai, 
even if one or both are sloppy with their arm movement.  It seems like 
different rikishi have different styles in this respect.  If a rikishi 
is well known to just sort of wave his fingers at the ground every time, 
and his opponent takes that as the cue, and the tachiai seems to work 
properly and get started ok, then the gyoji has no real reason to call a 
Matta.  After all, the match consists of 2-5 minutes of opportunities 
for the two men to start by agreement.  For some reason rikishis in the 
top divisions almost never use that opportunity, and instead opt for 
running the clock down until the gyoji commands a start.  There've been 
some exceptions.  For instance, Takatoriki would once in a while try to 
bait an opponent to starting by mutual agreement before "Jikan-desu". 
When it did happen, you could see that the spectators almost weren't 
expecting it.  Certainly the NHK cameras were not.  (Perhaps the more 
important question is whether the rikishi have been told not to use 
mutually-timed tachiais in matches which will be televised, so that the 
producers can smoothly mix in their comments, crowd shots, etc without 
fear of missing the action.  Any opinions?) Anyway, my point is, that 
when theoretically the ideal way of starting is by mutual consent 
anyway, there seems to be little reason to be strict about the touchdown 
if both rikishi sincerely want to start the match after a sloppy 
touchdown.  On the other hand, if a rikishi begins using unpredictable 
movements, change-of-pace, and other strategies to try to take advantage 
of the gyoji's leniency to his opponent's disadvantage, then I would 
guess it would be the obligation of the gyoji to perceive that the match 
is not being truly evenly started, and to call a Matta. The worst 
possible case is when a Matta is not called, but one rikishi does not 
quite begin, and therefore he expects a Matta to be called but it is 
not, and he loses as a result.  I've seen that happen several times. 
Dejima has done that.  But he's a bit indecisive by nature - probably a 
reason his good technical ability isn't applied decisively enough to 
benefit him as much as you'd hope.  Still, his reaction can be used as a 
counter argument: if a rikishi always uses sloppy hand-waves, he may be 
hoping that he is slowing the reaction time of his opponent down a tiny 
bit, especially if the opponent is an indecisive type.

Barbara Murasakihana



Joe Klemmer wrote:
> Has the Kyokai decided that enforcing the "both hand on the dohyo" is
> too difficult to enforce? Or have they decided that it's just not worth
> the effort? That's sort to both sides of the same question though isn't
> it?