[SUMO lite] Yobidashi names

[achimp@t-online.de (Achim Pawelczyk)]

It is still very quiet, again the chance to raise the questions, nobody
thinks about. From my former posts some might have guessed that I 
especially like the yobidashi.  Partly for their names work, calling out, 
but even more for everything they do around the dohyo and elsewhere.

I just love those drum sounds and my absolute favourite is the Ki, the two
pieces of wood clapped together at the dohyo-iri and while calling the
rikishi to the dohyo, with its climax, when the top-gyoji, Kimura Shonosuke
announces the pending end of the day:

"kono sumo ichiban ni te, honjitsu no"-KI-"uchidome"-KI-KI

And their names are friendly. Just traditional japanese first names,
nothing grave like the gyoji or oyakata,  or powerful like the rikishi
shikona, just first names. And it seems they do not change with rank.
While many yobidashi just use their real first names, some have names that
may not be traditional enough or too common or already taken.

Who gives them their names ?

One exception is as always the Sadogatake-beya. I was surprised, how few
heya have a yobidashi attached. They do.
The gyoji and oyakata names of that heya cannot be put into the "koto-"
scheme like the rikishi (Kotonishiki, Kotonowaka, Kotoryu, Kotoinazuma, to
name just the makunouchi).

The tokoyama, who do the hair make for the rikishi, chonmage and oicho, all
have their names start with toko-. The rest is usually a part of the
persons real name or the heya name. No chance to make it koto.
Tokokoto also does not sound very nice, koto has to be in front to sound
good, so the tokoyama there is called tokosado.

But the yobidashi are not spared, they have a koto in front.
In fact one of 1997 most visible but unnoticed NHK sumo screen persons is
among them: Kotoyoshi, the east yobidashi in many upper halves of
Makunouchi, towel style: wrap around.

While the yobidashi for the bout is nowadays announced with the gyoji name,
the east and west yobidashi at the chikara-mizu and salt reservoir are not.

They change with the judges, the shimpan oyakata. And they are visible half
the time of sumo.
Wouldn't it be nice to announce them too at the time the judges are
introduced ?


Akinomaki

-- Achim Pawelczyk
-- achimp@t-online.de
-- http://home.t-online.de/home/achimp/
-- a chimp at home