RE: Shikona translation

["Joshua A. Reyer" <jreyer@grn.mmtr.or.jp>]

> This dicussion topic had been several times in the SML by now.
> But the results haven't been REALLY satisfying. It was just some
> kind of basic course touching only the most important expressions
> like taka, waka, hana, yama, umi, nami, ...

That's because most don't translate into anything.  Wakanohana - young
flower, Takanohana - tall flower.  But the "hana" part really just comes
from the surname Hanada, and the grammatical soundness of that translation
is barely valid.  Especially with the trend of mimicking an oyakata's name,
shikona are getting further and further from translatable forms.  Takanowaka
makes no sense at all.  It's a combination of two adjectives.  You can twist
it into "prosperous youth" but it's not quite grammatical.  He just took the
taka from Takanosato (his oyakata) and the waka from Wakanohana (same
ichimon) there it was.

> Are there any pages available which translate ALL Makuuchi/Juryo
> rikishis' shikona? (Perhaps also Makushita.)

I once sent a poster basic translations of all the makuuchi shikona.  It
took me forever.  (I don't have the message archived anymore.)  I can't
imagine going all the way down to makushita.  The shikona down there make
even less sense.  A lot of them are regular surnames and a lot of them are
just surnames with another character like "Koto" attached to them.  For
example, Kotomitsuki wrestled in makushita under his surname Tamiya with the
prefix "Koto" attached to it.  Most rikishi from Sadogatake beya do this,
since their oyakata used to be Kotozakura (Japanese Harp Cherry Blossom-
again, no sense at all.)

> This would be a great help for Japanese-little-ables (and -non-ables)
> like I am.

I speak Japanese, and the shikona don't do much for me. (Tochiazuma -
horse-chestnut east???)  They are mainly picked for the sound, so if you
hear the sound you're doing just as good as anybody else.  I think a more
interesting thing to know would be *why* a rikishi chose that particular
shikona.  Sure, Akebono means "dawn", but that's nothing compared to the
story of how he got that name.  He was originally going to be called
something else, Taikai, meaning "Great Ocean."  An influential supporter of
Azumazeki-beya, a man named Hagiwara, saw Chad jumping up and hanging from
an iron bar.  "This kid's got something," he thought.  "He looks like a huge
sun rising out of the sea, and he'll become just as big."  So he talked it
over with the oyakata, and they decided on the shikona Taikai.  "akebono"
was thought of as Plan B, which they went to after one of Tomozuna beya's
rikishi began wrestling under the name Taikai (but written with different
characters.)

Unfortunately, much like shikona "translations", the histories of shikona
are even harder to find.

If you want to study the meanings of the shikona, Japanese ability is not
required.  Find a copy of Nelson's Japanese-English Character Dictionary.
It's even out in a paperback version (wish I'd had that in college...).  In
the back the kanji are sorted by an alphabetical listing of their readings,
written in romanization.  You can look up the kanji, and the meanings will
be as clear to you as any native Japanese speaker.  All that remains to
remember is that "no" works as a possessive.

Josh Reyer