Kotooshu attends his brother's wedding

[Sashohitowa 6]

Kotooshu had traveled to Bulgaria, where he was a special guest of the wedding of his elder brother Nelko Mahlyanov in Veliko Turnovo.

After the ceremony, he has been surrounded by journalists, but he has been extremely laconic, and refused to talk about his private life and if he intends soon to follow his brother's steps for the marriage. At the question if he has preferences if his future partner will be from Bulgarian or Japanese origin, he answered "And does it matter?". After that he explained, that his ozeki status gives him the privilege to have family life.

Kotooshu also disappointed the reporters, by refusing to reveal what present he has brought for his brother. "Probably it is something very special and has symbolical value" - Kaloyan's mother commented.

For the wedding ceremony, Kotooshu has chosen elegant sky-blue kimono and sandals.

Before taking the trip back to Japan, the ozeki agreed to give an interview for a Bulgarian daily sports newspaper. Here it is - together with my apologies for my inability to translate properly the medical terms:

Q: What is the difference between the Bulgarian and the Japanese people?

K: Well our personal ego is developed very much. We are used that we can do everything by ourselves, so that we vaunt ourselves. With the Japanese it is just the opposite. Three Japanese unite and achieve what one of them cannot do alone. This is the reason for their prosperity as a country and as a nation.

Q: You are extremely popular in Japan. How does this interest affect your personal life?

K: The journalists are everywhere the same, they look for the news. It is normal to have interest. I accept it. It is normal when in Bulgaria are writing fictions. But this is a part of the price we have to pay for the popularity. I do not mind the curiosity of the journalists, but yet there are limits of an ethical behavior, which should not be overridden.

Q: Still, will you reveal who is the woman next to you?

K: Did you expect that I will comment my private life? I thought we talk mainly about sport. My private life concerns only me.

What do you miss most in Japan.

K: Bulgaria. I miss everything from Bulgaria. The air, the friends, my mother's dishes.

Did you manage these days to catch-up? The tables at your place are heaped with tasty meals.

K: I tried some traditional Bulgarian specialties, but all within the limits, as I follow a strict dietary regimen.

Q: What have your parents taught you? Something that helped you in Japan?

K: Patience and steadiness. my father has raised me without affectations, but has always been just. Since kid I was taught of labor and constancy.

Q: What is your estimation of your performance in the last basho in Nagoya?

K: I am not satisfied. Maybe you know that over an year now I am fighting with a serious knee injury. The trauma makes me instable. But I am not saying this to excuse myself. I will be happy of myself when I win the Emperor's cup.

Q: Can you tell us more about this trauma? Can it take you out of the dohyo for a longer time?

K: There is such possibility. I have a cricked front cross-ligaments (?). The orthopedists suggest operation. It means I'll have to rest and recover more than 6 months. For now I prefer to clench my teeth, and to fight with it.

Q: You have attended the ceremony of granting your heya-mate Kotomitsuki the ozeki rank. can you say that he is one of your closest friends among the professional sumotori?

K: There is no room for sentiments in the ozumo, because with these wrestlers tomorrow you are an opponent. Sometimes there is mutual sympathy, but never anything more in emotional aspect.

Q: Like gladiators?

K: Might be said that way.

Q: Can there ever be another Bulgarian to make breakthrough in the ozumo?

K: I would be the first person to give him a hand, if there is such boy.The road to the big sumo is long and hard. Goes through a lot of difficulties and privations. There is no place for comparison with the amateur sport.

Q: Is it over with Asashoryu's hegemony?

K: Well there is a second yokozuna already. I have never had any complexes of Asashoryu despite all his achievements.

Q: Do you have an inconvenient opponent?

K: In the ozumo there are no easy opponents. Everything is decided in matter of seconds. This requires full concentration. No opponent should be underestimated or overestimated.

Q: Was there a reaction in Japan about the setting free of the Bulgarian nurses?

K: Of course. The Japanese were following very carefully the whole trial and were convinced in the innocence of the medics. I received a lot of congratulations for the releasing of my compatriots.

Q: You have made a large donation to the Bulgarian Red Cross for children in unjust society status.

K: I don't see anything unnatural in that. It is not normal these children not to have modern wheelchairs, to make their everyday life a little easier. We owe to the people in unjust social status. They have their right of normal life. We should not isolate them in any way. Just the opposite - we should help them to face the challenges of life.

by materials of 7 dni sport: http://www.7sport.net/7sport/forum/d4759_8.htm ; http://www.7sport.net/7sport/forum/d4759_9.htm . Photo

[ilovesumo 12]

Thank you very much for you work, giving that to us! :-)

I like the answers of Kotooshu. He plays safe-the intelligent way to do. orz

Edit cause of typo...or I made one trying to correct... :-)

Edited July 30, 2007 by ilovesumo

[maxim 0]

Excellent interview. His brother seems like a tall guy too.

I didn't know his injury was so serious that it needed an operation and 6 months recovery. I really hope the doctors can do something that doesn't require him to lose his ozeki rank or even drop from Makuuchi. But if it's necessary, and if it will help him reach peak performance again, he should do it.

[Sashohitowa 6]

Excellent interview. His brother seems like a tall guy too.

I didn't know his injury was so serious that it needed an operation and 6 months recovery. I really hope the doctors can do something that doesn't require him to lose his ozeki rank or even drop from Makuuchi. But if it's necessary, and if it will help him reach peak performance again, he should do it.

Yeah, this is also what I was thinking. If he only "clench his teeth" and does nothing, he will just make it worse and will have to go kyujo anyway in some moment of time.

Unless his injury can recover by itself with time if protected carefully.... Or unless he hopes he can make it to Yokozuna until then.?!...

[Kaikitsune Makoto 206]

K: There is such possibility. I have a cricked front cross-ligaments (?). The orthopedists suggest operation. It means I'll have to rest and recover more than 6 months. For now I prefer to clench my teeth, and to fight with it.

Well that is ACL injury. Same that many rikishi seem to carry. Same as his shisho by the way. Kotonowaka also had busted ACL. Won't get much better without surgery but rikishi often seem to choose to try without surgery. Once again a list of ACL-surgery rikishi....

Takamisakari, Wakanosato, Hakiai, Wakakirin, Asahimaru, Kakizoe, Tamarikido and Kaikitsune Makoto

Edited July 31, 2007 by Kaikitsune Makoto

[yamaneko 2]

I guess this explains the drastic change in his success from a year+ ago and now. Hopefully he gets over it eventually.

[Kaioshoryu 62]

K: There is such possibility. I have a cricked front cross-ligaments (?). The orthopedists suggest operation. It means I'll have to rest and recover more than 6 months. For now I prefer to clench my teeth, and to fight with it.

Well that is ACL injury. Same that many rikishi seem to carry. Same as his shisho by the way. Kotonowaka also had busted ACL. Won't get much better without surgery but rikishi often seem to choose to try without surgery. Once again a list of ACL-surgery rikishi....

Takamisakari, Wakanosato, Hakiai, Wakakirin, Asahimaru, Kakizoe, Tamarikido and Kaikitsune Makoto

Isn't there a chance that the knee will just collapse if you don't operate on the injury? Football and handballplayers, at least here in Norway, always have surgery when they have this kind of injury. Doesn't the knee become very unstable if you have an unoperated ACL injury?

[Sashohitowa 6]

Maybe it is the reluctance to lose ranks that comes with such a decision... But I think it is more about "the way how it is done" there... When you have an injury - overcome it by more keiko!

I am in no meaning familiar with the sumo-do way of thinking (nor in the Japanese way as general), but my impression is that it is some kind of... respected... when sumotori neglect injuries and fight on.. "Sumo is a war, and in war there is no place for time-outs. Better to die in battle than to be carried home by the doctors"-kind of thinking.

At least my impression...

[Kaikitsune Makoto 206]

Knee can become unstable with bad ACL tear but in the past when no operations even available, the treatment of choice was to strengthen the quadriceps as much as possible as those offer the sturdiest support to the knee joint. In sumo this is not a problem as the supportive power of quadriceps exceeds that of any other sport. The problem is that also the weights are quite massive.

It also seems to be that even ACL surgery isn't a guarantee to succeed better than without the surgery. Wakakirin is a good example of this as he was even very young when he underwent the operation and has never really gotten back his power although in Nagoya he was evidently quite strong again. Kotooshu probably has quite good condition of the knee in general so that he can do keiko a lot and he doesn't limp around like many other ACL-deficient rikishi after a twist in a loss or so.

It is also not just the 6 months until return on the dohyo for real but the proprioceptics of the knee get messed up in the operation and in the recuperation period and it takes time to get the feel back and get psychologicall ready to rely on the knee fully again.

Baruto's knee must be a totally unstable one as he had done so much rehab and yet it gave away in his first bout back in makuuchi when he was on the defensive. That is quite odd actually considering the support his quadriceps must offer to the knee. It is rather desperate to try to get such knee to stable enough shape to ever really challenge strong makuuchi rikishi who hit hard and against whom he needs to defend with all his might.

[Kotonosato 1]

Q: Was there a reaction in Japan about the setting free of the Bulgarian nurses?

K: Of course. The Japanese were following very carefully the whole trial and were convinced in the innocence of the medics.

That it was news in Japan is news to me. I never saw it in the media here. I suppose those if I were Bulgarian I might have been more tuned into it and caught it.

Good point, Nishi. I had heard about the nurses story on-and-off for quite a while, but now that I think of it, it was probably all from foreign newscasts.

Perhaps Kotooshu was just being diplomatic (much to his credit). :-O

[sekihiryu 51]

perhaps he should have gone to the wedding without permission and then he could have gotten a holiday until the end of the year and finally had sufficient time for surgery to fix his knee..oh wait only yokozuna are immune to demotion - dang!

Edited August 2, 2007 by sekihiryu