Oshi-dashi'd message

[Basten <cbasten@statgen.ncsu.edu>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 09:24:50 -0800
From: "Quinn, Thomas" <Thomas.Quinn@asm.ca.gov>
Subject: Public Soken...

WARNING:  Really bad romanji spelling just ahead...

Soken in the back room of the Kokogikan can be very informative.  You can
see who is in shape and who is not.  That is the easy part.

For the seasoned veterans of these affairs, it is much more interesting to
see who is there from the Yokozuna promotional council.

There are the usual suspects - mostly ancient old farts, who still think
they would have won WWII if the citizens had shown a little more gambaru,
and the odd-lot of assorted culture-vultures that seem to infest most of
Japan's traditional affairs.  I clearly remember "Old Smokey," who puffed
away non-stop only a few feet from the keikoba...

Then there is the seating of the Oyakata on the left.  Observing who sits
where, who talks to who, who bows the lowest as they pass in front will give
you a rough idea of who is on the sh*t list and who has moved up the ranks
inside the ranks.  It's very much like the old Kremlin wall pictures from
the '50s - who was in and out in the Russian communist party.

Unfortunately, public Soken is a 101% fraud.  It's circus sumo, the same as
jungyo has become.  This is the tragedy of Hesei jidai zumo - and again, my
romanji has gone into the toilet, so please don't bag on me about my
spelling... -L-

What was once an honorable affair, real practice at a local shrine for the
people who would probably never get to hon basho has become a pandering
half-assed affair to make yet more money for the assorted hangers-on in the
Kokogikan's maze of front offices.

Sumo will never return to prominence in Japan until this sort of pandering
stops.  The Japanese instinctively know what is real and what is false --it
is one their most endearing traits.  When I talk to my friends back in
Tokyo, to a person they say they have stopped watching sumo because it is
the same as pro wrestling.

Public Soken is a joke, perpetuated in large part by NHK, and with the
Kyokai a willing co-conspirator...