Re: Sumo entry questions

[Masumi Abe <abe@accesscom.com>]

He needs to be invited to a heya, and Shishou needs to accept him as a 
member of his heya before taking any entrance exam.

Ikemori/Ryuudou/Ryuukou was a Brazilian who became a collegiate yokozuna in 
Japan before started at the bottom of Makushita. He was later promoted to 
Juryo.

-Toshiyori Masumiriki


At 1:44 AM +0000 10/2/02, Joe Petrow wrote:
>We hear a lot about the difficulties of foreigners trying to enter the
>Nihon Sumo Kyokai (sometimes first hand!)  But what is the current
>situation like for Japanese?  Given the case of Japanese junior high
>school graduate who meets the minimum age, height, and weight
>requirements, can pass a physical exam, and is determined to do whatever
>it takes to join the sumo world, is it a virtual guarantee that he will be
>able to get in?  If so, has there been a recent time when this was not the
>case?
>
>Also, has a foreigner ever entered sumo from a Japanese high school or
>university and been given preferential Makushita banzuke ranking like
>Miyabiyama and others?
>
>   - The Other Joe