Re: Path to Olympic Sports just got harder

[Masumi Abe <abe@accesscom.com>]

If Mawashi is the same type of gear male rikishi wear, then Shin Sumo
Rikishi don't wear mawashi. It's "SHIN" Sumo, not at all traditional.

Their official uniform is leotard-like sportsware with covering entire
torso and upper half of upper legs and arms with mawashi-like holding
gear around waist but not covering over the crotch area. They use
wrestling-mat-like padded playing area with circular heavy border to
devide the inner playing area and outer area. I don't think they use any
type of "earth dirt" usually used for traditional men's sumo. So, I
really have a hard time called any of the playing area "dohyo".

Meaning of Dohyo
Do: earth dirt
Hyo or Tawara: straw bags (bags made from straws)

Dohyo:
1. straw bags filled with dirt, sand, and pebbles
2. the area surrounded by the circular straw bags
3. the raised stage

In sumo community, #1 is usually called just "tawara", but in regular
Japanese language, tawara means straw bags.
At the moment, these distinctly different items are all called Dohyo and
it seems no one is confused by them.

-Toshiyori Masumiriki

Mr-Irv-S-Horowitz@worldnet.att.net wrote:

> Will the Shin Sumo Rikishi only wear Mawashi ? :)


--
<abe@accesscom.com> Masumi Abe <abe@sentius.com>
San Francisco Bay Area / Silicon Valley / Palo Alto
URL: http://www.accesscom.com/~abe/ --- it's up and running
JUSTIN URL: http://www.dosanko.co.jp/spoton/abe/index.html