[sumo] Kimenryu -- Asashoryu's tsukebito ... and more irrelevent questions

[Larry Piper]

Hi All,

      Just before the last basho I asked the identity of the nice 
young man who was Asashoryu's tsukebito.  Barbara Ann and others 
confirmed it was Kimenryu.  It turns out, that he might be a nice 
young man from my perspective, from a sumo perspective, he is not 
so young at all.  Being a gray beard of 37 doesn't put him in 
Ichinoya's league, but he's no spring chicken. According to 
Barbara Ann, he is, however, nice whether or not you consider him 
young.

      So, no doubt knowing that he now has a middle-aged nerd in 
a far away country rooting for him, he was gambarized enough to 
have a really fine 5-2 record at Kyushu and is now back in 
Makushita (48 I believe) where he seems to belong.

      We are now about half way through Barbara's excellent 
day-by-day videos (about the cost of a month of TV Japan, so a 
bargain for me) and I've noticed that Kimenryu has changed his 
glasses, and not for the better.  On the other hand, perhaps the 
new glasses, while not improving his handsomeness, gave him the 
needed extra clarity that allowed him to reverse his previous 
couple of MK basho.  Whatever, let's all root for him.

      Now I have another question.  Who is the yobidashi who 
tends the Nishi (west side?) salt/power water stand during the 
second half of odd day bashos.  He has a crew cut and also looks 
to be a nice young man, albeit a bit impassive.

      Yet one more question.  On day 6 there was a row of what 
looked like geisha nuns sitting about six rows up from the dohyo. 
  You could see them behind the gyoji before the matches (does he 
face north so that they would be in the south stands?  My sense 
of direction isn't always organized properly).  Whatever, they 
were all in black kimono with white trim and looked a bit 
reminiscent of the old-fashioned nuns of my youth (except of 
course they had geisha make up and hair styles).  There were 
about a dozen of them and they all left after Kaio won his bout 
(praise be).  Who were they?

Thanks a bunch,
      larry p