[sumo] And the snowball starts rollin'..

[Charles Beauchamp]

--- Moti <kintamayama at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> Beau wrote:
> <<I have always held that if the only reason
> something
> exists is tradition it can probably be done away
> with.
>  I suspect very much that some attitudes within the
> Sumo community are going to need changing as this is
> 2007 and not 1824.>>
> I sincerely hope you are not holding your breath..
> Nothing significant will change. Breaking beer
> bottles on young rikishi is not a rarity, I have
> just learned. Perhaps they will become even more
> private now, these keiko sessions.
> 
> And I disagree that the tradition of jungyo is
> mythical. It's financial. 
> Asa could have caused the Kyokai financial losses.
> The fact that he didn't in the end means that he's
> not such a card after all.. 
> He caused his employers a lot of redness in the
> face.That is inexcusable, especially in Japan.
> Forget the other aspects.
> This is part of his job description, as I keep
> repeating. This is what it boils down to.
> It's like saying "I don't do windows".
> You get fired, or not hired.
> 

For the most part you just said what I said.  Jungyo
as it stands today is not traditional at all.  He was
hammered not for dishonoring the great amazing
tradition of sumo.  He was hammered for not lining his
employer's pockets which causes those of us that
remain actually rational and reasonable to wonder at
the sensibility of said employers.  And given the
insane treatment of Rikishi yes sumo is in trouble
because sensible people are simply not going to be
willing to be subjected to beer bottle smacks to the
face.  You won't have a sport if you don't have
participants.  There is nothing sacred about Sumo that
guarantees it will succeed.  Like all things it has
highs and lows.  Right now the news seems pretty dark
on a rather regular basis.  Hopefully the kyokai gets
it's own house in order.

As for the notion of Japan having some special
sensibility regarding giving employers redface...
doesn't apply in the case of Asashoryu.  The employer
redfacedness is of their own devising.  They decided
to take offense and thus found it.  The punishment was
silly.  Like all things regarding the senior Yokozuna
it is always one sided.  Could be worse..at least no
one died.


       
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