re:another trivia question

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

On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Gerrie Titcomb wrote:


 "Modern sumo is unlike sumo from hundreds of years ago, where they fought til
 death."  This is not an exact quote, but pretty close.  Is this so?  The
 books that I have do not refer to this.  I thought the raising of the arms
 was to signify "no weapons up my sleeve"!  so I guess my assumtion was that
 meant it was not a battle-to-the-end type of thing.

According to Lorna Sharnoff, this was quite some time ago. She mentions
the first documented sumo bout between humans (yes, sumo originally was
the domain of the gods!) occurring in 23 B.C. At this time the sport
was indeed violent and often resulted in death. I don't know how long
this style remained, but in 642 the Empress Kogyoku began the tradition
of tenzan-zumo, or sumo performed for in the imperial presence. This
was later expanded into using sumo as part of an annual festival to
pray for national prosperity, sechie-zumo. Nothing indicates that this
was a deadly sport anymore, AFAIK.

HTH,


-Totoro-