[sumo] Reuters story about woman attempting to enter ring during basho

[Linda Dizi]

Sorry if this is a dup, but this is a story from
Reuters about a woman who tried to step onto the dohyo
during the basho on Wednesday!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20882835/

Woman goes for sumo ring, heavyweights panic
Individual tried to reach Tokyo arena from which woman
are banned

Updated: 2:16 a.m. PT Sept 20, 2007
TOKYO - A woman invaded a sumo ring -- a sacred arena
from which females are banned -- in Tokyo during a
major tournament, domestic media said on Thursday,
then was pulled down by a referee and one of the
sport's huge wrestlers.

The middle-aged woman dashed from the side of the
Kokugikan sumo stadium on Wednesday and shoved away a
female security guard before rolling onto the ring
just as a bout was set to begin, the Yomiuri newspaper
said.

The Japan Sumo Association insisted that though the
woman did enter the raised platform around the batting
ring, she did not set foot on the ring, or dohyo,
itself.

"It's bad for the heart," said Takamisakari, a popular
wrestler who helped catch the woman, told the Sports
Nippon daily. "What was the person trying to do while
we were wrestling seriously?"

It was not clear why she had attempted to reach the
ring during one of the sport's heavily televised six
big tournaments, but she was carrying a bundle of
flyers saying "help, bad spirits", Nikkan Sports daily
reported.

Severe faux pas
Such an intrusion would be a severe faux pas for the
ancient sport, which is so serious about keeping
females out that a female governor of Osaka had to
delegate prize-giving duties to a male subordinate at
a 2001 tournament.

Japan's giant wrestlers battle it out in a ring with a
diameter of 4.6 metros (15 feet) set in the center of
a sand stage raised around 50 centimeters (19 inches)
from the ground.

Tradition forbids women from entering the ring on the
grounds that it is sacred and their presence,
considered unclean, would pollute it.

"It's just the way it's been from the past," an
official from the sumo association said.

Women were also banned in the past from climbing
mountains or entering mines in Japan.




       
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