Sumo on ESPN!!!

["D-NICE, LOVER OF SLOTHS" <DTAYLOR@POMONA.EDU>]

Last night, sometime between 8 and 11 pm Eastern time, I was channel
surfing and by fortune I happened across a show on ESPN (I'm 90% sure
it was ESPN) called "Unbelievable Sports".  What grabbed my attention
was the unmistakable sight of rikishi in the background, in mawashi, 
warming up.  These weren't the same rikishi we're used to seeing and
talking about from Juryo or Makunouchi, but many Hawaiians as well as
Japanese, mostly amateurs (I think).  It was a ten minute segment on
Sumo, the event being the Sumo Goodwill Games in Hawaii, or something
like that. Sorry I am a little fuzzy on the details, but I was feeling
a little fuzzy last night too...

Anyway, they showed some matches, talked some about technique and what
it is like to be a rikishi (of course, they didn't actually use many
of the Japanese terms, and even when they did I think they were poorly
pronounced. Even Akebono was only mentioned as "Chad Rowen".)  They
interviewed two main rikishi, one a Japanese guy who has one the tourney
7 or 8 times, and the other a Hawaiian guy who has often challenged him
for the title but without quite as much success... (hey, just like 
Makunouchi?!?!?!)  The Hawaiian guy weighed in the 450-480 lbs. range
I think, and made a very interesting comment. He said that Sumo has been
very good for him and his self-esteem, because when he is out there as a
rikishi, people say out of awe for his size and respect for his strength,
"Wow! Look at that sumo wrestler!"  But, if he were to be at the same
event, wearing a t-shirt, out in the crowd, people would instead probably
say "Hey, look at that fat guy!"  I thought this was a great comment.

On that note, there were a few times when the commentator made a remark
that made me cringe a bit, you know, something to the effect of "On first
glance, it's just big fat naked guys smashing into each other". But, since
this was a show whose intended audience was not people already loyal sumo
fans, I didn't mind the initial misrepresentation so much, since that
honestly is most people's first reaction to sumo.  But, they did a good
job of going on to humanize it, to show there is a lot more to it than
that, to humanize the rikishi, to demonstrate some basic technique, and
to explain how tough and rigorous these guys and their training really is.

Needless to say, it made my night. If you have ESPN, you might want to
check to see if it is listed in the near future, and if so, let the rest
of us know! I wouldn't mind seeing the segment again myself!!!

Still searching for chanko-nabe in Washington D.C.,
Dhuggy