Chanko nabe

[jac@powerup.com.au (Greg Lund)]

I'm just back from a trip to Japan and catching up on my  delayed Daily
Sumo Digests.  I saw Abe san's comments about chanko and they were spot-on.
It really can be a combination of anything at all.

I was lucky to attend day 13 of Osaka basho and view the activities from
the Sports Nippon newspaper's box in the front row - just behind the suna
kaburi seats.  That was the day Akebono so decisively beat Wakanohana, and
it was wonderful to see not only the determination he showed before the
match but also his subdued (Yokozuna-rashii) but  obvious delight at the
win.  That fight was worth the whole day.

I also got a great buzz out of running into Tosanoumi (who also had a good
win that day against Musashimaru - who continues to disappoint, or perhaps
I should say, live up to my very poor expectations of him) in the corridor.
It was really nice of him to remember me from the Australian tour and
come over for a chat.  Katrina Watts turned up at about  the same time, and
it was a great reunion all round.

I was even luckier to be invited to one of the heya afterwards for a chanko
dinner, which gets me back to the point.  It was not one of the larger,
richer heya, and the chanko was devoid of expensive beef and the top
quality ingredients one thinks of typically, but it was nonetheless
delicious and nutritious.  And just being in the atmosphere, sitting along
the floor with the boys and also enjoying the rare feeling for me in Japan
of being almost the same size as everyone else present, was also great.

When I asked the kami san about the contents, her answer was the very frank
one that the heya depends for its existence to a very large extent on the
generosity of its koenkai members and other wealthy supporters.  If one of
them comes across a supply of, for instance, ham, and passes on a quantity
of it to the heya, then the chanko will have a ham flavour till it runs
out. Or it could be cabbage, or sweet potato, or whatever else might "turn
up out of the blue" as she put it.

The kami san's job is a very tough one, and she is indeed the backbone of
the establishment. It is largely  through her skill in wheedling such
contributions out of the supporters and otherwise scrounging what she can
for the least cost, that the heya continues to exist.  As well as being the
accountant, mother to the boys, and goodness knows what else.  They are, by
and large, wonderful, talented women whose role in the male-dominated sumo
world  is not nearly  well enough recognised.

Greg Lund