Re: Still more about the life expectancy of the retired rikishi

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

At 19:45 +0300 9/10/00, Juhani Sirkia wrote:
>
>I don't know if I can provide you a qualified answer but I'll try :-). I
>remember reading somewhere that the average age of men reaching the
>ranks of ozeki and yokozuna after the World War II has been mere 56
>years which is likely to be two full decades shorter than the average
>age of the Japanese man (nowadays, at least). I don't know anything
>about rikishi whose careers weren't as successful.
 
There are several problems with statistics of this kind. The statistical 
sample is too wide, when you consider that the average life-span of ALL 
Japanese men did not pass 50 until after WWII - the 1950 census, I believe. 
To make a meaningful comparison between the average age at death of rikishi 
and the general male population, you really have to take it decade by 
decade. (And be warned that one idiot, I forget who, included in his 
'statistics'  the rikishi and oyakata who were burnt to a crisp in the 
fire-bombing at the end of the war - since Ryogoku was one of the worst-hit 
places, a lot of sumo people lost their lives in the space of a few days!)

Prewar, too, the sumo diet used to be seasoned with sugar rather than salt, 
which led to a high incidence of diabetes. There is also the complication 
of very heavy drinking that even today is prevalent and actually encouraged 
by the social life of the successful rikishi.  And there is the 'fame' 
factor that I seem to be the only one to point out: when a retired rikishi 
dies in his 50s, it's news, and everybody says "Isn't it terrible how young 
they die!" When a former rikishi dies in his 80s or 90s, it isn't news; 
unless it was a former great, he may get a couple of lines in the sports 
papers.

I don't have time for more, except to say that Konishiki's gone strangely 
quiet on the subject of  weight loss; when you're that big I'm afraid it's 
'easy come, easy go.'
~Doreen in sumoland~

~ Bought a new cleaner
          two weeks ago; tomorrow
                I shall unpack it ~