[sumo] Asa troubles-getting serious

[Clay Holden]

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On 7/26/07 11:45 PM, "Moti" <sumo1 at dichne.com> wrote:

> All very true. Also irrelevant. The jungyos are considered a lifeline
> for the NSK. They serve a purpose-first and foremost - bringing sumo to
> the "suburbs". The very far ones. Providing a rare ineraction between
> fans who can only dream of seeing a rikishi and the rikishi themselves.
> Good in teraction = Sumo popularity rises. Promoters who have been
> backing off backing jungyos lately have returned. This was supposed to
> be "The Summer of Jungyos"- 17 days are planned. Tickets have been sold
> promising the presence of the yokozuna.
> Injuries happen.Still, Asa, as the Yokozuna is expected to go out there
> with everyone, do the dohyo-iri, and shake the fan's hands. At least.
> Now, if this is asking too much of an injured and weary yokozuna is
> another question. When the average fan sees him playing soccer in
> Mongolia on TV and knows he bought a ticket and won't be seeing Asa
> because he is supposedly injured, all the intricate differences between
> which muscles he uses for soccer as opposed to Sumo don't mean squat.
> Fron the fans/NSK point of view, he should either be receiving serious
> treatment, or going out there.

As I mentioned a couple weeks back, I will be seeing the date in Matsumoto
City on the 18th with my family. This is probably the only chance I will
ever have to see sumo live with my mother-in-law, who is a lifelong fan,
and paralyzed in a wheelchair following a stroke several months ago. She
has not been to a live sumo match in over 30 years. It would not be
possible now to go to any of the bashos, even if our schedules allowed it.

So I can personally relate to the fact that people in outlying suburbs only
opportunity to see the rikishi live is at these jungyo performances. And I
imagine for many of them, the fact that Asashoryu will not be there (for
reasons that appear on the surface to be a bit dubious) is disappointing.

For me though (and my mother-in-law as well), Asashoryu's appearance or
non-appearance is really not going to have any impact on our enjoyment of
the day. There are so many other rikishi I love to watch, the absence of
one, however great, is just not going to make much difference.

Best regards,

Clay


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