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Thread: Sumo

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kansuke View Post
    You should keep up on it. Some very interesting developments in the pro ranks lately.
    Hmmmm, I may just do that.
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  2. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by sanjuro_ronin View Post
    ...Sumo...is a devastating MA, even in its very restricted sport form.
    Especially when they fall into/on to the audience!

  3. #33
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    Well, that's it. Asashoryu, one of the greatest Yokozuna in modern times has been forced into early retirement for his recent assault against an acquaintance at a bar in a drunken rage.

    He more than had it coming, but it's too bad as he was a great rikishi.

  4. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by Kansuke View Post
    Well, that's it. Asashoryu, one of the greatest Yokozuna in modern times has been forced into early retirement for his recent assault against an acquaintance at a bar in a drunken rage.

    He more than had it coming, but it's too bad as he was a great rikishi.
    from an article on it:

    "Despite his ignominious exit, Asashoryu will go down as one of the greatest wrestlers in sumo's 2,000-year history. He has won 25 Emperor's Cups, second only to Taiho with 32, and Chiyonofuji with 31."

    ummm, wouldn't that make him third to Taiho?

    anyway, full article here

  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kansuke View Post
    Well, that's it. Asashoryu, one of the greatest Yokozuna in modern times has been forced into early retirement for his recent assault against an acquaintance at a bar in a drunken rage.

    He more than had it coming, but it's too bad as he was a great rikishi.
    A Sumotori in a drunken rage?
    That's crazy talk !!
    LOL !
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  6. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by taai gihk yahn View Post
    from an article on it:

    "Despite his ignominious exit, Asashoryu will go down as one of the greatest wrestlers in sumo's 2,000-year history. He has won 25 Emperor's Cups, second only to Taiho with 32, and Chiyonofuji with 31."

    ummm, wouldn't that make him third to Taiho?

    anyway, full article here

    I'm a JOURNALIST not a MATHEMATICIAN!!!!

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott R. Brown View Post
    I'm a JOURNALIST not a MATHEMATICIAN!!!!
    you mean you are not in new england politics??

  8. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by uki View Post
    you mean you are not in new england politics??
    Oh Yeah!! I am POLITICIAN, not a JOURNALIST OR A MATHEMATICIAN!!!!!

  9. #39
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    And now the folks back in Mongolia have started in that it was all a big conspiracy to get him out of the sport before he broke the all-time tournament victory record.

    There's always something...

  10. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kansuke View Post
    There's always something...
    yet there is still you to.

  11. #41
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    Sumo scandal

    This first one has vid.
    Sumo 'stables' searched in Japan probe
    By the CNN Wire Staff
    July 7, 2010 10:05 a.m. EDT
    Sumo 'stables' searched in Japan probe

    Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Wednesday searched sumo training facilities, or stables, as they continue to gather evidence on a widespread gambling scandal that has tarnished Japan's national sport.

    Police searched the Onomatsu stable in Chiba prefecture -- the training base of 34-year-old wrestler Ozeki Kotomitsuki who admitted to illegally gambling on professional baseball games -- and the Tokitsukaze stable in Tokyo.

    The scandal has rocked sumo wrestling in Japan, where national identity is closely linked to the sport and where top wrestlers can become national heroes.

    On Sunday, the Japan Sumo Association dismissed Kotomitsuki and his stable master -- or coach -- Otake.

    In addition, Japan's national broadcaster NHK decided that it will not broadcast live the next tournament, scheduled for Sunday. It is the first time in 57 years that NHK will not carry the competition live.

    The sumo association has sought to repair the damage. The association's chairman said on the association website that the situation is "unprecedented and critical." He also promised to try to "regain the fan's confidence ... as soon as possible."
    Japan police raid sumo stables over gambling scandal

    (AFP) – 12 hours ago

    TOKYO — Japanese police raided two sumo stables Wednesday, seeking evidence in their probe of a gambling scandal linked to yakuza crime groups which has rocked the nation's ancient sport.

    Police officers in dark suits walked into the Onomatsu and Tokitsukaze stables in Tokyo, where wrestlers have been involved in illegal gambling on baseball games and other sports, footage by public broadcaster NHK showed.

    The police were expected to raid some 30 locations linked to the sumo world, including other stables, where wrestlers live and train.

    The Japan Sumo Association has admitted that scores of wrestlers had gambled illegally and banned more than 10 from the next tournament starting Sunday in the central city of Nagoya.

    Betting in Japan is permitted only on horse racing and certain motor sports.

    The association has fired wrestler Kotomitsuki, 34, a high-ranking "ozeki" second only to "yokozuna" grand champions, along with his stablemaster Otake, 42, for taking part in illegal gambling on baseball.

    The scandal has shocked the Japanese public, which expects sumo wrestlers and their masters to act as role models.

    Japan's state broadcaster NHK, furious over the scandals, said Tuesday it will not air an upcoming sumo tournament, the first time it has scrapped the broadcast since they began in 1953.

    Police last month arrested a former wrestler-turned-gangster, Mitsutomo Furuichi, 38, on extortion charges after he had allegedly blackmailed Kotomitsuki, threatening to expose his gambling.
    Gene Ching
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  12. #42
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    olympic sumo?

    women's sumo?
    In Sumo's Push for the Olympics, a Turn Away From Tradition
    By DANIEL KRIEGER
    Published: October 18, 2010

    OSAKA, JAPAN — For years, promoters of sumo have been pushing for the sport’s inclusion in the Olympic Games. To get there, the International Sumo Federation has thrown its weight behind a form of the game that would offend purists and surprise most everyone else: women’s sumo.

    The sumo wrestler Miki Satoyama, right, threw her opponent during the heavyweight class of the Japan women’s sumo championships in Sakai city, in southern Osaka on Oct. 3.

    Sumo officials have long tried to get their sport, for years identified with giant men with topknots shoving each other in a ring, into the Summer Games. But when the International Olympic Committee declared in 1994 that single-sex sports could no longer qualify as candidates for the Games, that was enough to turn tradition on its head. Since then, sumo has been coming into its own internationally as an equal opportunity sport.

    Such a radical change to Japan’s ancient national sport did not come easy, and the initial push came from outside the country. Among those who lobbied the I.F.S., as the sumo federation is commonly known, was Stephen Gadd, the general secretary of the European Sumo Union and president of the Netherlands Sumo Federation.

    Men’s sumo first started gaining a following internationally in the mid-1980s as part of a campaign by Japan to spread its culture internationally. More than a decade later, women’s sumo started gaining followers as the I.F.S., which oversees 87 member nations, started pushing for a women’s version of the sport.

    “We held the very first women’s sumo tournament with the European Championships in 1996,” he said. “After that, it really took off in Europe.”

    While European women, especially those familiar with combat sports, felt no qualms about giving sumo a go, Japanese women had more to contend with than just the Europeans, who outsized them. Their biggest hurdle came from a stigma that can be traced back to the 18th century, when, as entertainment for men, topless women sumo-wrestled blind men. Though this lewd variety eventually faded away in the mid-20th century after being banned repeatedly, a ceremonial form has continued in regional festivals so far out on the fringe of society that it remains virtually unknown.

    So when the Women’s Sumo Federation was set up in Japan in 1996, Japanese women were hardly clamoring to get involved, given the common belief that women just do not do sumo. After all, they had always been kept out of legitimate competition because of the sport’s cardinal rule: Women cannot touch or enter the sacred wrestling ring, the “dohyo,” lest they contaminate it with their “impurity.”

    “In the professional sumo world,” said Gadd, “women in sumo is as unthinkable as a rabbi sponsoring a pork farm.”

    But along with the rise of amateur sumo abroad, women’s sumo in Japan has been making strides. “A growing number of women are involved, certainly in the hundreds,” said Katrina Watts, president of the Australian Sumo Federation and a stadium announcer for sumo events, including the World Championships. “I’d say it’s a good sport for women because it’s a body contact sport without being violent.”

    Nowadays, girls can even go to high school or college on a sumo scholarship. And there are women-only tournaments, like the All-Japan Women’s Sumo Championships, which took place this month in Osaka.

    Forty of the top sumotori in the country gathered for the 15th edition at the Ohama Park Sumo-jo. Shinsaku Takeuchi, the event’s organizer and head of the Women’s Sumo Federation, said that in recent years women had been getting better and tougher. “Women’s sumo is becoming even more vicious than the men’s,” he said.

    Takeuchi explained that what set amateur sumo apart from professional was the inclusion of gender and weight classes and the removal of the religious ceremonies, which are still very much a part of men’s professional sumo. Amateur sumo has also been spared the recent scandals that have tainted professional sumo in Japan, including a baseball betting scandal that laid bare the professional sport’s link with organized crime.

    Originally performed as a Shinto ritual to entertain the gods so they would bestow a good harvest, the game dates back well over a thousand years. It is a trial of strength in which 48 techniques may be employed to throw an opponent off balance so he steps out of the ring or falls to the ground. A match begins with a head-on collision, followed by a wild fit of shoving, lifting, throwing, tripping, slapping, yanking or any combination thereof. It is often over in less than 10 seconds but can last a minute or more.

    An 18-year-old high school senior from Tottori, Yuka Ueta, was the strongest wrestler of the tournament. At 125 kilograms, or 275 pounds, she plowed her way through five matches in the open weight class, dispatching each opponent within moments to earn her first gold medal in the senior group.

    In August, competing among the world’s top sumo wrestlers, she won a bronze medal at the Sportaccord Combat Games in Beijing, her best showing yet at an international tournament. But at the World Championships this past weekend in Warsaw, she did not fare as well, placing fifth in the open weight class. Ueta got into sumo at age 10 when she was encouraged to give it a try. “Normal-sized people can do any sports they like,” she said, “but someone who is heavy doesn’t have many options. Sumo is perfect for this kind of woman. And if she has a complex about her body, that will change with sumo.”

    Another powerhouse, Sayumi Sasaki, from Aomori, took her fourth All-Japan gold medal in the 65-kilogram-and-over class. But at 21, she has decided to hang up her loincloth following the Warsaw games, where she was knocked out in the first round by the Russian winner of the heavyweight gold, Anna Zhigalova.

    Though Japanese women make up the greatest number of participants, Europeans tend to dominate, which was the case in Warsaw. East Europeans won gold medals in three out of four divisions, and the only Japanese medalist of the tournament was the lightweight Yukina Iwamoto, who took a silver medal, losing to Alina Boykova of Ukraine.

    “Foreign players like the Russians and Ukrainians have more passion for sumo than we do and train harder,” said Sasaki. “It’s too difficult to beat them.” Even Yuka Ueta said she was no match for them.

    As for the battle to make it into the Olympics, Stephen Gadd says the best chance is if Japan hosts the 2020 games. “Getting into the Olympics will give sumo the push it needs to become a major international sport,” he said. And now that the gender barrier is broken, one less obstacle stands in its way.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  13. #43
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    Meant to post this yesterday

    It was front page news in yesterday's S.F. Chronicle. I love it when martial arts of any sort make the front page. It's just a shame that it's for a scandal.
    Sumo questions wrestlers in bout-fixing scandal
    By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press
    Monday, February 7, 2011

    (02-07) 19:48 PST TOKYO, Japan (AP) --

    Japan's sumo association began questioning dozens of top wrestlers Tuesday in a widening investigation into allegations of bout-fixing that have deeply tarnished the image of the nation's ancient national sport.

    The Japan Sumo Association said it was quizzing all wrestlers in the sport's two top divisions to find if they were involved in fixing the outcome of matches. It expected to put together an initial report on their findings by the end of the week.

    Sports Minister Yoshiaki Takaki said he was deeply concerned by the scandal, in which more than a dozen wrestlers or coaches have been implicated.

    Amid a public outcry, the sumo association has decided to cancel its next major tournament — the first time that has happened in 65 years — and forego a number of exhibition or charity events until the matter is resolved.

    "Sumo is in a crisis," Takaki said after meeting association officials Tuesday. "We hope for a quick investigation into the nature of this incident."

    The latest scandal surfaced last week, when police informed sumo officials they had found suspicious text messages on the mobile phones of several wrestlers. The phones had been confiscated in an investigation into another scandal that came to light last year involving wrestlers betting on baseball games, allegedly with gangsters acting as go-betweens.

    The scandal has become a national embarrassment for Japan because sumo is generally seen as a symbol of Japanese culture, and not merely a sport. Unlike other sports, the sumo association has special status that affords it tax benefits, and its wrestlers appear in public clad in traditional robes and wear their hair in top-knots.

    There were indications that not all wrestlers were being cooperative with the investigation.

    Kyodo news service and Japan's public broadcaster NHK said that some wrestlers had broken or replaced their old phones, possibly to avoid having them checked for incriminating text messages.

    One wrestler said his wife stepped on his and broke it, Kyodo reported.

    Allegations of match-fixing have long shadowed sumo, but the association has staunchly denied them and none had ever been proven.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  14. #44
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    Where there is money there is corruption, that's a given.
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  15. #45
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    Good thing Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine isn't corrupt...

    ...oh wait.

    shoot.

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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