Re: Incentive to win

[abe@kaleida.com (Masumi Abe)]

At  1:27 AM 8/19/94 -0400, TanakaY@aol.com wrote:
>In the US, the difference between majors and minors is so drastic,
>that players are shinimonogurui (dog-eat-dog) to make the majors.  In Japan,
>2-gun (minors) get decent treatment, and 1-gun (majors) aren't treated like
>the US majors.  So, going down to the farm is no big deal.  

In mu personal opinion, Sanyaku rikishi is equivalent of star players in US
Major League Baseball system.
Makuuchi rikishi is equivalent of starters. Juryo rikish is equivalent of
backups.
These sekitori rikishi belongs to majors. Toriteki are in minors.

The jyuryo 1-maime (the top ranked one or two rikishi in juryo) rikishi are
called "bimbou-gami". Bimbou means poor, and gami is from kami or god.
Together, bimbou-gami means a god (like power) makes or keeps people poor.
Actually people think that these rikishi must have been liked by
bimbou-gami, since they came so close to be a makuuchi rikishi but they
failed.

There is a Japanese saying "the difference between Juryo and Makushita (or
sekitori and toriteki) are like heaven and hell". The actual diference
between these two are like the relationship between noblemen and their
servant, although less so now than before.

It is a big deal to lose ozeki status. It is a huge deal for rikishi to
lose sekitori status. You should talk with Oguruma Oyakata (former Ozeki
Kotokaze) of Oguruma-beya. He went from sekiwake down to jonokuchi and come
back to ozeki before losing that status. I bet he does not agree with your
opinion of:
>In Japan,
>2-gun (minors) get decent treatment, and 1-gun (majors) aren't treated like
>the US majors.  So, going down to the farm is no big deal.   

-Masumi
sxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxs
Masumi Abe                               阿部　加史（あべ　ますみ）
Kaleida Labs, Inc.                              Tel: (415) 966-0824
1945 Charleston Road                            Fax: (415) 966-0774
Mountain View, CA 94043                  Internet:  abe@kaleida.com
USA                                                AppleLink: ABE.M
 ScriptX: The New Standard Environment for Interactive Multimedia.