[sumo] [spoiler] Asashoryu vs Hakuho

[JZ8D-SMMN at asahi-net.or.jp]

The names have already been sorted out; the remaining confusion comes from a mistranslation
 in one of the news reports. The shinai is a bamboo stick of about 1-inch (2.5 cm) diameter and 
a bit over a meter (yard) long, and has always been used by stablemasters and coaches to whack 
 body parts such as buttocks and calves. 

In the martial art of Kendo a heftier version is used for practice in place of a sword, and for this reason 
it is translated "Bamboo sword." Somebody with a Japanese-English dictionary and no direcdt knowledge of sumo 
(or kendo, probably)confused them and came up with a misleading translation.

FWIW.

Doreen

>JJ asked: I followed your entire message until the bamboo spear oyakata.  Is it a 
translation of someones name? Pardon my ignorance.
>JJ> Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 11:11:44 -0400> From: smk1 at columbia.edu> > Will =
>the Yokozuna or the bamboo spear Oyakata receive a stricter> warning?> > Su=
>kubidubidu>

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