Umigame

I'm holding my breath that there will be zero foreigners implicated in this latest scandal. Asashoryu must be having some good belly laughs about this. "Gambling with the yakuza right in the heya... Where's your Japanese HINKAKU now?" etc.

Yeah! This made my day. (Shaking head...) But actually this is due to soccer suddenly losing a good deal of popularity, rather than sumo increasing in popularity. This is clear when you see the survey data on page 4 of the PDF: 18th annual sports popularity survey (in Japanese) Sumo's absolute numbers actually went down a bit compared to the past two years -- but soccer's numbers went down more.

I presume you mean June 2. If it was May 2 it's hardly surprising there was no mention of surgery (I am not worthy...) Oops, thanks for pointing that out. I've edited my post.

There has been no reporting of this alleged surgery in Japanese or in English. And a post just appeared on Kotooshu's blog with no mention of any surgery: Kotooshu Blog Post, June 2 2010 The text says "I'm doing keiko everyday." And there are two photos of him being filmed for a tv show, standing in a kitchen making Bulgarian food and looking quite healthy. It seems to me there are only two possible explanations: either the news of his surgery was a lie, or the blog post is a conspiracy.

My favorite part is near the end when he throws salt on the crowd, hehe. (Sign of approval...) For some reason I always wanted to see some rikishi do that by accident during the honbasho.

Yes, this made the news back in January: Yakuza boss removed from tamariseki on Day 9

Looks like he was busy with other things... Police question ex-yokozuna Asashoryu over alleged drunken rampage

If you want to eliminate the possibility of unintentional X picks, this can be accomplished by a revision to the interface of the entry page. I hope we can consider it as a separate issue from "should X picks be used as the yusho tie breaker?"

I suspect he didn't tell you that with the expectation that you'd broadcast it on the English-language internets... I suspect he did. Since it's not confidential, which oyakata was it who said this? Or do you also suspect he wished to remain anonymous?

What's Upside-Down Toto?

FYI the article was published on the web over here: Asahi Ranking

This popularity ranking was published in the Asahi Shinbun newspaper yesterday: 1st Takamiyama (2284 votes) 2nd Kotooshu (1246) 3rd Baruto (1231) 4th Konishiki (1172) 5th Musashimaru (1145) 6th Hakuho (1032) 7th Harumafuji (389) 8th Asashoryu (353) 9th Akebono (329) 10th Kyokushuzan (201) Interesting to see how strongly Takamiyama appeals to the Japanese public. And Asashoryu's lack of popularity is not surprising, but interesting to see it put into numbers: he was chosen by less than 1 out of 10. (survey methodology: The survey participants answered an online questionnaire at the website of Asahi Shinbun's free "Aspara Club" service. A total of 4,043 people responded. From a list of 29 rikishi, they were asked to choose up to 3.)

This is funny. I really like Gori's self-deprecating sense of humor. :-(

Yes, actually the next 5 rikishi are listed in a caption, and they include both Kokkai and Tochinoshin. Number of votes were not mentioned though. 11th Kyokutenho 12th Hakuba 13th Kokkai 14th Asasekiryu 15th Tochinoshin

(Exclamation...) By the way, did Baruto and Takanoyama speak any English? I'm assuming their Japanese is better than their English. Just curious.

(Sign of approval...) (Laughing...) (Eek...) (Laughing...) (Whatever above, it is funny...) I have to ask, exactly who were you complaining to about him? :) Keep the one-liners coming! You must love Japanese "dajare" jokes.

I had never heard of this before, but I found a few videos of it below. Fascinating stuff! http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...%8A%9B&aq=f (For searching in Japanese, note that this ritual uses the kanji "角力" for sumo, instead of the usual "相撲".)

Here are some more photos from the Ise Jingu honozumo two weeks ago. What a beautiful place. Both the ceremonies and the jungyo gave us a chance to get very close to the rikishi.

Weather was fine and it was a good day of sumo and ceremony! I intend to post more photos later, but first here's one from my phone:

Thanks again. The photos are super-helpful. Now I'm thinking I'll have to go to Ise twice: once for the ceremonies and once for the ringside seats. (Whatever above, it is funny...)

Thanks for the advice!

Thanks for this. Can you tell me how you embedded the Youtube movie? After much searching I still can't figure it out.

Here's the second installment. Akatsu has added impressions of Kitazakura, Homasho and Musashimaru. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egVIDihlsBA

Here's a comedian called "Akatsu" who does a routine that he calls "a blend of sumo and exercise: Sumo-sercise"... (Sign of approval...) Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4aSsqkzU4E

I got Volume 1 today. Wasn't planning to buy these but there was a stack of them on display at Shinjuku Kinokuniya and they're just too cheap to resist! Volume 1 covers 1974-1975. The magazine is 35 pages color with features on Takanohana and Kitanoumi, information on each of the DVD bouts, and lots of other various data. The DVD shows a few bouts from each basho and also includes some bits and pieces of other footage like promotion & retirement announcements, yusho parades, etc. There is NO audio commentary at all on the DVDs. The only commentary is some minimal subtitles in Japanese. The overall impression is close to raw archival footage. I haven't watched much old sumo footage before, so it was great to see bouts of Wajima, Kitanofuji, Takanohana, Kitanoumi, Kaiketsu, and one bout with a very young Chiyonofuji. Just as fascinating (to me at least) are the shots of the 70s audiences and the emperor. The DVD is not very long -- 30 minutes -- but overall the package seems like a steal at 980 yen. There is no English on the DVD nor in the magazine, so I suspect if you can't read Japanese these will not be enjoyable unless you can already recognize most of these rikishi pretty well.