RE: Question: Within rules to grab back vertical part of mawashi?

[Juhani Sirkiä <jsirkia@utu.fi>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nashinokawa [mailto:nashinokawa@parbrook.free-online.co.uk]
> Sent: Saturday, December 04, 1999 1:01 AM
> To: sumo mailing list; jsirkia@utu.fi
> Subject: Re: Question: Within rules to grab back vertical part of
> mawashi?
>
> I doubt a tied yusho would be declared.

Indeed that would sound strange.

> That leaves a default win for the fit rikishi

Which would be against the usual practice in cases of itami-wake, I believe?

> A yusho to the higher ranked rikishi
> (In the days before deciders were permitted, the yusho was won by
> default by
> the higher ranked rikishi if they shared the same score.)

Since there is a kettei-sen system specifically available to solve the yusho
winner, that would sound kind of awkward, too.

Which brings me to a quite fundamental question: am I correct in assuming
that there are no written rules in ozumo, in other words everything works
under traditional rules transferred from generation to another by spoken
word? The small Western lawyer inside me shudders :-).

> One must remember that in Japan in general obligation and gentlemans
> agreements have sufficient moral weight to ensure that the quasi contract
> would look okay and be accepted. The consequences of going back
> would be to
> be outcast by the society you were endeavouring to stay in IMHO.

Indeed this sense of duty that seems so characteristic to Japanese, made me
a Nipponophile in the first place long before I had any idea about sumo.
However, I'm old enough to realize that people are more or less the same the
world over and that my view of Japan consists too heavily of incluences from
Kurosawa movies and the like...

But the question remains still, two men's words against each other. Which
one to believe if there is no additional proof to be had?

Well, I'm off-topic enough already. Sorry.

Jussi aka Kitaseiya Waiting For The Storm (A real one looming over the
shores of Finland)

-------------
Juhani Sirkiä, jsirkia@utu.fi
http://users.utu.fi/jsirkia/ozumo/
Ozumo, Sport of Gods
Mattopaini on irvokasta.