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Jul 08 2004 5 Comments

Sumo shimmy

It’s sumo time once again, with the current tournament being held in Nagoya. And to celebrate 15 days of televised action, here is a picture I took in Tokyo a few years ago.

sumo_line_up.jpg

Before the wrestlers do their stuff, they enter the arena and show themselves off on the dohyo. Yet perhaps the most surprising aspect of this ritual is when all the wrestlers very daintily lift up their kesho-mawashi (the ceremonial aprons they are wearing in the picture).

To see these big and imposing men performing such a feminine looking act is fascinating to say the least. And whilst it’s a word not often associated with sumo, perhaps the best way to describe it is cute.

Which is very dissimilar to the decidedly un-cute, but supremely talented yokozuna, Asashoryu.

ashoryu.jpg

Categorized: Culture, General, Sports

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. テッド says

    7/10/2004 at 6:54 am

    Poor basterds sitting to the right of him.

    Reply
  2. BeeBee says

    7/10/2004 at 8:40 pm

    Great site, I’ll be back.

    Reply
  3. kelvingreen says

    7/11/2004 at 4:35 am

    I remember when Channel Four used to show Sumo, during their bizarre “let’s show a whole bunch of world sports” phase of which only the Italian footie has survived. They also gave us Gaelic football and the wonderful kabbaddi.
    I miss British tv…:)

    Reply
  4. Lee says

    7/11/2004 at 11:56 am

    Yeah, at the time I didn’t bother watching the sumo, although I did enjoy the kabbaddi. It really should be given another chance. For varying reasons, pretty much everybody I know has never forgotten it. Surely a sign that it has great TV potential. And with satellite and cable everywhere, there has got to be a bit of space somewhere for a spot of kabbaddi.

    I have cable here, but pretty much all the channels are from the U.S. So yeah, I miss British TV too. The problem is that I’m so out of touch that when I go back home for a holiday, I don’t know what people are talking about most of the time. And they soon get fed up of my “who’s he/she?” or “what’s that?” questions.

    Ah well, looks like I’ll have to stick to the sumo…

    Reply
  5. kelvingreen says

    7/11/2004 at 3:54 pm

    A friend of mine and I toyed with starting a kabaddi society at uni (to get the cash from the union), but we quoshed it when we realised that people might actually join (and we’d have to actually do it), because as you say, everyone remembers kabaddi! 🙂

    Reply

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