RE: Further info on tegatana and hand gestures after winning about

[Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>]

At 17:16 +0900 26/12/99, Joshua A. Reyer wrote:
> > Just got off the phone with ex-sekitori Yamato, he confirms that the hand
> > gesture that a sekitori makes when receiving the white envelope of money,
> > after a win, when it is offered, is the Chinese/Japanese character for
> > 'heart' or in Japanese, 'kokoro'.  He noted that you might think it is 3
> > strokes instead of 4 strokes because some sekitori use the 4 stroke to
> > simply take the money envelope.
>
> Did my previous post on this get oshi-dashi'd or something?  The kokoro
> theory still doesn't work because the tegatana gesture does not follow the
> stroke order for kokoro.  Furthermore, Tokitukaze Rijicho (former Yokozuna
> Futabayama) regulated the gesture to three cuts (left, right, middle) in
> 1966.  I've seen rikishi fluff the third middle cut into a grab for the
> money, but there's simply no fourth stroke.  The tegatana gesture represents
> three gods, Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-kami, Takamimusubi-no-kami, and
> Kamimusubi-no-kami.

As I observed before, the 'kokoro' explanation is folklore. It is quite true
that a lot of rikishi believe this and tell their juniors that they are
making the 'heart' sign, but it is not, as Josh says, the official
explanation.
Doreen in sumoland

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