RE: Sumo, gaijin and the Olymp

[Robert James Weiner <rweiner@uclink2.berkeley.edu>]

On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, Anthony M. Helm wrote:

> >
> >Again, it seems like you're using a straw man argument.  Who do you know
> >who's advocating sumo's being internationalized?  Is it the people who
> >want to wrestle with shorts under their mawashi?  Is it the people who
> >put on foam rubber rikishi suits and belly-buck in bars?  Or is it people
> >within Japanese sumo itself?  I really don't know for sure myself, but my
> >guess is the last one -- I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows the
> >facts.  Let's not get into a frenzy about barbarians at the gate of sumo
> >for no reason.
> >
> Rob, you are the one who seems to be getting into a frenzy.  Rumors of an
> internationalization of sumo have been around for quite a while.  I think
> that many people commenting are simply expressing there opinions on why
> such a thing never comes to pass.  I mean, can you really imagine sumo as
> it is now being adopted on the level of an international sport?  Were it to
> happen it would surely undergo a change that would separate it from its
> roots.  That's what we would lament.  Attempts to start some form of sumo
> outside of the world and rules of the present incarnation have been
> laughable  (ex.--the shorts under the mawashi).

Well, I guess my feelings are that even if adapted/"bastardized"/
different sumo were to evolve, it wouldn't necessarily be something to 
lament (Of course, the *probability* of this happening is a different 
question.  Given that most of the world probably still thinks the mawashi 
itself is more laughable than wearing shorts under it, I don't think the 
probability of sumo breaking out onto the world scene is too high, 
personally).

No one would be forcing rikishi or the Kyokai as we know them to 
participate in Olympic sumo, international amateur sumo, World Sumo, or 
whatever the new forum would be; and if Taka's remarks and the 
information provided by Masumi in a previous post are any indication, the 
rikishi and Kyokai aren't particularly interested in participating 
themselves (although I could imagine pressure being put on them to 
participate for PR purposes, to not allow inferior athletes to represent 
Japan, etc.).  If they want to be purists (and for the record, I would 
have no qualms with them being so), no one's stopping them.  Hell, if I 
remember right, the Japanese judo federation was thinking about (and 
perhaps did?) abstain from an international judo competition in Europe 
last year because they were planning to have one athlete in each match 
wear light blue uniforms (for easier judging).

I suppose the worst by-product would be fans' disgust/resentment at 
neo-sumo wrestlers' 
claiming/suggesting they're real sumo athletes when they really 
aren't, and at unsuspecting third parties' being under the impression 
that this sumo offshoot was the real thing.  But provided real sumo's 
popularity is genuine enough to keep an unduly large portion of its fans 
from defecting (thus maintaining enough of a market to keep real sumo 
going), these fans can still enjoy the real thing, even if Arena 
Astroturf Sumo with cheerleaders has taken off elsewhere.  Soccer has 
survived indoor soccer, the NFL has survived Arena football, cricket has 
survived baseball, etc.


 
> >Look, if you're going to use pro wrestling as a standard, even thumb
> >wrestling would look good in comparison.
> >
> Nevertheless, "pro wrestling" did develop out of the basic rules and goals
> of the sport of wrestling--pin your opponent to the mat or some other
> immovable position.  If such a sport developed out of sumo it would follow
> no more rules than "push the guy out of the ring or make him touch the
> ground."

Would that be so terrible?


> And how many people today think of anything other than "pro
> wrestling" when the word "wrestling" is mentioned?

What about Greco-Roman, freestyle, Iowa high school tournaments?  Pro 
wrestling is certainly more popular, yes, but I guess that's supply and 
demand.



 - Rob