[sumo] Asashoryu-Hakuho fun

[Charles Finberg]

Just back and able to watch the videotape.  I thought that Hakuho's
shouldering of Asa was isolated, reactive and excusable, but that
Asashoryu's conduct was none of those things.

Wasn't it just a few months ago that Asashoryu was disciplined?  This is not
the first time, or even the second or third, that we've seen Asa give
someone an extra shove, after the bout was over.  So, there was the shove
after Hakuho was clearly down, then the face slap, followed by grinning.  If
(to give him the benefit of the doubt) the grinning arose from
embarrassment, then Asa certainly got over it quickly, bestowing high fives
to fans as he strode back up the hanamichi.

This is conduct more befitting a playground bully, only this guy didn't
finish this basho atop the heap.

I would expect more than a reprimand.  I don't have the historical
background to compare this event to anything past but, imagining myself in
charge of this sport, I'd be contemplating some serious behavior mod for the
fellow.

On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 5:34 AM, Doreen Simmons <JZ8D-SMMN at asahi-net.or.jp>
wrote:

> The niramiai, the fiery staring-down, the 'meeting of glares', is one of
> the most
> famous and best-loved examples of sumo interaction.
>
> The point is, however, that it only happens _before_ a bout. In this case
> the
> two yokozuna behaved in an inappropriate manner by glaring at each other
> _after_ their bout
> was over. This was the level of pro wrestling, K1 and below,  the depths
> poor Akebono has had to sink to.
> It has no place in sumo -- especially by the top men at the very end of a
> great basho.
>
> Doreen
>
>
> Doreen Simmons
> jz8d-smmn at asahi-net.or.jp
>
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