[sumo] oshi-dashi'd message

["Christopher J. Basten" <cbasten@statgen.ncsu.edu>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 10:16:56 -0700
To: sumo@statgen.ncsu.edu, Greg Lund <jac@powerup.com.au>
From: Earle Jones <earle.jones@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [sumo] The Asashoryu Saga
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

>There have been some interesting views put by both sides - and the
>middle of the road - on Asa's position.  Obviously I don't agree
>with all of them, but, despite some occasional intemperate language
>(usually induced by the demon rum late at night) I respect them as
>genuinely and sincerely held.

[...]

*
Greetings:  I haven't chimed in on the Asashoryu saga, but I just
wanted to add this:

All of us love sumo -- we wouldn't be here otherwise.  We have our
favorites to cheer on and the villains that we don't like.

Many (most) people on this list are not Japanese -- there are many
Americans and Europeans, all of whom have opinions about Asashoryu
and others.  The fact that this list is in English means that we are
getting a small slice of world opinion.  We have adopted this
uniquely Japanese sport and we follow it faithfully.

The yokozuna is a unique person.  He has earned a spot that has both
great reward and great responsibility.  All other rikishi are free to
move about in the system.  Good performance will earn you a promotion
-- bad performance a demotion.  Not so with the yokozuna.  He is a
yokozuna forever -- that is, until he chooses to retire.

Along with that unique status should come a unique responsibility. To
a large degree, he is the "face" of sumo to the Japanese people, and
indeed, to the world.

I tend to be a traditionalist, giving perhaps undue credit to the
long-standing rituals and practices whether in sumo or in anything
else.

What I have been wondering is this:  Are the postings we read here
typical of Japanese opinion?  What does the average Japanese citizen
and sumo fan think about Asashoryu's behavior?  What do the Japanese
language newsgroups and mailing lists have to say?  Since the
expectations of yokozuna behavior are based on a thousand years of
tradition, who am I, an American, to say what he should be expected
to do?

I lived in Tokyo for eight years, attended a few basho, and developed
the same love for the sport that you did.  But in actuality, I am an
outsider looking in.

Many of the posters here have Japanese names, but their excellent
English tells me that they have spent much time in the
English-speaking world.  I thoroughly respect and enjoy reading the
opinions of people like Joe Kuroda and Lynn Matsuoka, but I really do
not know whether they are Japanese, Japanese-American, or whatever.
I especially respect the opinion of Masumi Abe, whom I know well (we
worked together for about three years).

So -- tell me this, if you know:  What do the Japanese people think
of all this?

earle
*

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            \/_/\_\   earle
               \/_/   jones

[EndPost by "Christopher J. Basten" <cbasten@statgen.ncsu.edu>]