The hoshitori game

[Totoro <riley@mail.hi-tech.ac.jp>]

Well, since a couple of folks asked, I suppose there are more
who would like to know more, so I'll post this to all.

The hoshitori (meaning "reach for the stars," literally) is a
game of guessing which rikishi will perform the best in the
coming tournament. It used to be very popular in Aomori-ken,
where I live, until the prefectural police chief decided it
was too much like gambling (and pachinko ISN'T???). For a
lowly 2,000 or 2,500 yen you had a chance to win a minicar
or huge TV amongst other prizes. The best I ever got was a
bag of tea. :-(  There were also prizes for last place, as
that was also difficult to attain (there were a lot of people
playing this around the area, mind you!).

Our game has evolved into something a bit more elaborate than
the original hoshitori, especially with the ranking of the
players these days. That's right, if you hadn't seen yet, the
hoshitori players get regular sumo rankings from Yokozuna to
Juryo, though nobody has made Yokozuna yet. The downside has
been a lack of available prizes, though the winners have an
invitation for dinner and drinks at my house. However, I don't
think we need a preoccupation over prizes. The main concept is
to create a little more interest in sumo and to make bashos
more exciting for the players.

So, how do you play? Well, when the Sumo Association puts out
the banzuke for the coming basho, compare it with the results
from prior bashos to see if you can find trends in the rikishi.
Watch this mailing list to see if any injury reports come out,
or to see any news of how individual rikishi are performing
close to the start of the basho. Pretty soon after the banzuke
comes out, I'll post more info about how to enter. Basically,
it involves picking 13 wrestlers at point levels of 13 to 1,
respectively, as well as a substitute in case of injury. There
is also a tie-breaker (scissors-paper-rock or chokin-pa-gu).

You need a shikona, or sumo name, as results are published by
shikona. It must be 13 characters or less in length. You also
have to stay on the list in order to get results, as I don't
post anywhere else about it.

Unless something drastic happens, there will be a web site for
entry as well as direct email.

-Totoro-