[sumo] Hakuho Changing Mawashi (and apprenticeship)

[Doreen Simmons]

On 2008/01/02, at 9:59, Jeanne Hedge wrote:

> At 07:22 PM 1/1/08, Doreen Simmons wrote:
>
>> On 2008/01/02, at 6:42, Jeanne Hedge wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Does changing mawashi fall under the same "luck" category as 
>>> changing shikona?
>>
>> Yes, it does. (Katrina has already answered about the 'harness' part.)
That should have been ''hardness' of course.

>
> Thanks for the info, Doreen.  Hakuho must desperately need this newer 
> mawashi broken in rather badly to change now with his nemesis coming 
> back, considering what luck he had wearing the other one.

I think it's more of a 'new era' thing. He needs to go up a step, 
assuming that Shoryu will be back on form.

>
> I'm assuming rikishi, particularly the upper rankers, have several 
> mawashi to choose from on any particular tournament day?
>
In principle, no. Since a silk shimekomi cannot be washed, it is 
normally worn until it  needs replacing. (Though the rapid changes in 
some men's mawashi suggest that old ones may be kept and used for a 
change.) And a change of colour in mid-basho is unusual except when 
required for engi-naoshi (change of luck).

I once got the chance to ask Akebono directly why he changed in 
mid-basho from his first shimekomi (forget the colour, I think it was 
mid-green)) to one in his master's favourite orange. (At the time of 
the interview he was a sekiwake, and had just returned from the London 
koen.)

  Akebono explained that when he became Azumazeki's first  sekitori, 
none of the tsukebito (lower ranks assigned as attendants) knew 
anything about tsukebito duties -- and so nobody knew how to handle a 
silk mawashi. Azumazeki-beya was a new heya so it didn't have anybody 
with 'old' experience, except the oyakata himself (who had been in the 
top division for ever, and had forgotten how to train tsukebito). The 
regular training mawashi, made of cotton canvas, is hung on a fence 
every morning after keiko to dry in the sun. If it gets really yukky it 
can be laid flat on the pavement and scrubbed with a yard-brush (though 
it's not recommended too often). But  a silk shimekomi must be aired 
indoors, out of direct sunlight. Akebono's tsukebito didn't  try to 
wash his shimekomi (fortunately -- that would have wrecked it 
immediately), but they did regularly hang it out in the sunshine, and 
it shrank and also got soft and slippery -- the exact opposite of a new 
one. He found it very uncomfortable to wear, and when his second one 
came from the weaver's, he changed into it immediately, even though 
people might wonder at the change of colour at a time when he didn't 
need a change of luck.

In an old heya there is a smooth system in place in which the older men 
train the younger ones. I once eavesdropped on such a session, a couple 
of decades ago. On the flat roof of Dewanoumi-beya three makushita were 
giving two jonidan a lesson in dressing a sekitori in his 
kesho-mawashi. One makushita modeled as the sekitori, while the other 
two, using an old kesho-mawashi,  demonstrated taking it out of the 
box, opening it out, folding it just so,  and then putting it onto the 
'model'. Then it was carefully removed, folded just right, and put back 
in the box.  Then the exercise was repeated, this time with the older 
ones reminding the new tsukebito what to do and helping them where 
necessary. Finally, the new tsukebito did the whole thing themselves. 
If they hadn't got it right, no doubt the exercise would have been 
repeated until they did.

This "apprenticeship" system is one of the bases of sumo. It is the 
basis of the whole of sumo training, but it extends into the whole sumo 
establishment. The youngest yobidashi are taught something by men a 
year or two ahead of them, and when they can get it right without 
supervision, they go on to the next stage. After they have gone up a 
few stages, they can start teaching the rudiments to the new entrants. 
Ditto gyoji. Ditto oyakata. When a sekitori retires and becomes an 
oyakata, the apprenticeship starts all over again. A new oyakata is 
assigned to help an older one who is an expert at a particular job, and 
learns the ropes by doing the job with a man who has been doing it for 
years. Nobody is just pitchforked into a new duty (apart from men who 
set up their own heya, and do not have existing expertise too help 
them. That is why many in this situation try to take with them an 
experienced oyakata who will help). Likewise the sewanin and the 
wakaimonogashira, who are usually recruited from good men who did not 
qualify to become oyakata. It is this  "apprenticeship" system that 
makes nonsense of many of the well-meant suggestions about the Kyokai 
hiring "professionals" for such work as transportation. Nobody, for 
example,  knows more about packing and transporting sumo gear than the 
sewanin who do it for every out-of-Tokyo basho and all the tours. And 
yes, they do hire professionals where needed. The actual transportation 
is contracted out, but the knowledge of what has to go and how it is to 
be transported is part of the expertise of these relatively low-status 
men.

Now, back to struggles with linking fancy new printer to largely 
unknown computer...



Doreen Simmons
  jz8d-smmn at asahi-net.or.jp