Re: A heavy subject

[steveb@telco.com (Stephen Baker)]

> From: Riley@hachi.hi-tech.ac.jp
> 
> One thing about the talk of dominance in sumo is that I think this is
> a time when sumo has gone through some changes, and we may not see the

I'm curious. What do you see as the changes that sumo has gone through?
Has there been some rule changes recently or have the rikishi's training
regiments been altered in some fashion or what?? I'm removed from the day 
to day goings on of sumo so I haven't a clue what your refering to.

 From my own perspective, I have just started to become involved with sumo
again (last year) after an almost 20 year hiatus. From what little footage
I see of sumo, via Japan Today coverage (when available), it appears to me 
that nothing has changed in terms of the size and skill of the rikishi
or the techniques being employed during the bouts. 

> kind of "one-man" sumo of the likes of Chiyonofuji for some time.  It
> looks like these are the days of more parity among the rikishi, so we

IMHO there was more parity 20 yrs ago then there is today, at least at 
the san-yaku level. I'm refering to just after the days of the great 
yokozuna Taiho and before the ascendency of another soon to be great yokozuna
Kitanoumi. Coincidentally, at the time there was another(and I believe 
the first??) BIG Hawaiian (Takamiyama) terrorizing sumo's top division.

> can see Maegashira 13 winning the yusho (and yes, Kotofuji not only
> went against san-yaku, but he beat them handily) as well as Yokozuna.
> This makes it a little more exciting, if a little less "exacting" by
> prior standards, IMO.
> 

BTY I downloaded those gifs from MajorDomo (I don't have ftp) and they 
look pretty good! Thanks to all who helped to provide them.

Anticipating May 8th already...

Steve Baker