[sumo] Re: Aki Basho Day 11

["Ken " <nippon444@excite.com>]

 Sumo like other sports needs better PR and marketing skills in this era of cable TV and all the other alternatives. This is something I find lacking with sumo. When I was in Japan in the late 90s never did I see a big promo especially on TV before a basho.  Also the restrictive lifestyles of the rikishis out them at a disadvantage to personalities like Ichiro, Matsui (MLB) or Nakata.Finally I believe Japanese are becoming internationalize in their taste.--- On Mon 08/04, Greg Lund < jac@powerup.com.au > wrote:From: Greg Lund [mailto: jac@powerup.com.au]To: sumo@statgen.ncsu.eduDate: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 15:39:26 +1000Subject: [sumo] Re: Aki Basho Day 11If it is anything like my most recent visits Jim, you should be able to have your pick of the house. I haven't actually attended since Osaka in March, but I was amazed to see there, in the latter half of the basho, a crowd I estimated at around 65% full.Jim Bitgood wrote:>Subject: [sumo] Aki Basho Day 11>For anyone in T
 okyo who might be able to tell me.>I expect to be in Tokyo on September 17, which should be Day 11 if I'm>reading my calendar correctly. What are the chances that I can walk up to>the Kokugikan about noon or 1pm and get a cheap seat (or any priced ticket>for that matter)?> Jim>"Chitose-Taikai"This might also be a good time to make a couple of very brief observations, even if not precisely to the point, in response to Earle Jones' question the other day:>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?It is a good question and I haven't seen a response from anyone since it was asked.I can't answer it directly because I am not in Japan at present, but what has struck me during recent visits is the extent to which sumo as a topic has simply vanishe
 d from the conversation of lots of the people I used to discuss it with. When I raise it with Japanese friends who were always pretty well attuned to sumo in general they shrug and say they are just not following it anymore.And younger people (in a sweeping generalisation) appear to have just about wiped it from their list of interests in any form. The day after arriving in Japan recently, during Nagoya basho, I asked the sports-conscious teenage son of one of my friends who was leading the basho and he had no idea. His dad didn't either !!I discovered that Sumo Digest - as its name implies, a review of the day's torikumi in abbreviated form, with a guest commentator - which has been running nightly during all basho ever since I can remember (maybe on Fuji TV?) is to be dropped very soon. It used to be on around 10.30, then moved back to 11 p.m., and now seems to be wherever they can slot it in, sometimes after midnight. I'm not sure, but I think the last program will be tel
 evised within the next month or two, possibly in conjunction with September Tokyo basho. Sumo Digest was always a great way to catch up if a day's appointments had prevented switching on and watching live. It will be very sorely missed by me, but obviously the local audience is no longer there to support it.I don't think the reasons all relate to to the presence - even domination - by foreign rikishi. People are just less interested in their traditions, have other things to watch and do, are not well served by the kyokai, which really needs to look at the daily schedule at basho to see whether 4-6 p.m. is still the best time to be staging makuuchi bouts. Whether for people to attend or to watch on TV, it would be hard to find a worse time of day, particularly on week days. And if they don't see it live, it is out of sight and out of mind from there on.So I have to wonder whether whether most Japanese are really thinking or saying very much at all about Asashoryu - or anythin
 g else to do with sumo for that matter.And, to come full circle back to Jim's question about seats, young people all tell me when I ask them that they just can't sit anywhere Japanese style anymore for the two hours that are necessary just to watch makuuchi. So all the masuseki - which are all too small to hold four younger, longer-legged Japanese in any case - are becoming very unpopular. Where once to be offered a chance to watch from a masuseki was something to be jumped at as a once in a lifetime treat, now it is easy to decline.CheersGreg Lund-- Japan Access CorporationGPO Box 8, Brisbane, QLD 4001AustraliaTel: (61 + 7) 3831 4245Fax (61 + 7) 3314 8225[EndPost by Greg Lund ]

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