Sumo glossary stuff

[Kaikitsune Makoto 209]

Started to update the sumo glossary correcting mistakes and spelling errors and adding some stuff. Aite addition was taken from a very thorough aite-explanation email by the Aomorian lady Amanogawa! It is quite interesting that aite is such a multi-layered word and definitely usable in various situations. Don't know whether word "aite" is used in everyday Japanese speech though?

aite, opponent in a torikumi; aite in Japanese doesn't refer solely to opponent/enemy as it is used in context of sharing something; for example hanashi-aite (the one you converse with), kekkon-aite (the one you are married to)

Akeni is a very distinctive sumo life item especially if the last sentence is still true:

akeni, strong red-black-green decorated bamboo box (size 30-35 * 45-50 * 80-85 cm) consisting of two interlocking parts which are strengthened with angle irons, boarded with handmade washi and lacquered with urushi; weighs about 10 kg when empty and about 30 kg when fully loaded by the tsukebito; used by the sekitori and gyoji of at least juryo-kaku rank whose shikona is painted in large letters onto the sides to hold their most important equipment (mawashi, kesho-mawashi, change clothes, towels, snacks, drink bottles, books etc.) during the jungyo; shin-juryo's first akeni is donated to him by those members of his dokisei who still are active in ozumo; nowadays akeni are produced by a single artisan in Kyoto

What about atari?

atari, rikishi's ability to uphold his will of winning and initiative during a torikumi; also the impact at the tachi-ai; hard atari is very impressive sight in ozumo.

I added the "impact at the tachi-ai" which must be atari but is the originial explanation correct too? Does atari refer to the ability to uphold his will of winning and initiative?

azukari, relatively usual historical practice to announce torikumi unresolved in a situation where it was impossible to know with any certainty which rikishi had won the torikumi; nowadays a torinaoshi will be arranged in such a situation, several times if needed

About azukari there is one great story that was covered on some Japanese sumosite and Josh Reyer (Hananotaka) had dug up and posted on ML couple of years ago. Very interesting event...

azukari: Azukari is what they would use back

before the torinaoshi came in vogue. If a clear

winner couldn't be decided by mono-ii, then it

would become an azukari. There were a number of

cases where even though a clear winner could be

seen, mono-ii's would lead to an azukari. In

such a situation, it would go down as an azukari

in the hoshitori, but when it came time to

decide the banzuke, the match might be seen as a

full star or a half-star, as the case might be.

The author goes on to describe a very

interesting "azukari" match. It was between

Yokozuna Azumafuji and Ozeki Yoshibayama.

Coming up on Day 12, with only 1 loss, Azumafuji

was struck with acute pneumonia. It was

recommended that he go kyujo, but Azumafuji

wanted to continue anyway, saying "Shinde mo

detai" - "I want to enter, even if I die." It

was required that he sign a release before he

could continue in the basho.

So Day 12 saw a match between Azumafuji and

Yoshibayama. When the match began, Azumafuji

pushed Yoshibayama to the edge of the dohyo, and

Yoshibayama countered with maki-otoshi. The

gyoji raised his gunbai for Azumafuji, but there

was a mono-ii. The decision was a tori-naoshi.

In the tori-naoshi, both rikishi got hidari-

yotsu grips; that is, right hand has a shitate-

grip, and the left hand has the uwate-grip.

Both rikishi tried to push their opponent out,

but neither would move, and a mizu-iri was

called. After the mizu-iri, Yoshibayama got

Azumafuji standing on the rice bales, straining

for all he could to stay in, and

then...utchari! Again, there was a mono-ii, and

again a tori-naoshi was decided. But Azumafuji

could only lean down against the chikara-mizu

bucket. The judges knew that they could ask no

more of Azumafuji, so both rikishi were asked

their opinions on continuing the match, or the

possibility of a draw. Yoshibayama said, "A

draw would be fine." But Azumafuji said, "It

would not be fair to Yoshiba-zeki. I will

concede, so please give him the win." In the

end it was decided that both rikishi had fought

to the end of their strength, and match was

called as an azukari hikiwake. Afterward,

Azumafuji recovered, and went on to win the

yusho with a 13 win, 1 loss, 1 azukari record.

If anyone has any suggestions for additions to the glossary

at A-section, do tell! (Licking lips...)

Edited August 2, 2004 by Kaikitsune Makoto

[Kaikitsune Makoto 209]

Having been updating and correcting the glossary up to F now it is time for some more questions and general flagrant advertising of the glossary.

banzuke, an official calligraphy which determines the ranking of the rikishi, nowadays written by makuuchi-kaku Shikimori Toshihiro, published every two months usually on Monday thirteen days prior to the beginning of honbasho, see ita-banzuke, ebanzuke, Nen-Matsu-Nen-Shi

Is this info still up-to-date? Toshihiro still works on banzuke?

buraku, pariah class of Japanese society of about one to three million people, developed of practisioners of despised occupations like butchers and washers of corpses during Tokugawa Shogunate and their successors; still seems to be a sort of taboo amongst regular Japanese

Any of our Japanese-based gaijin ever brought this buraku-topic up all of a sudden with an older Japanese person? Is this still a big taboo? I suppose buraku-people don't advertise their origin even nowadays.

butsukari-geiko, a form a practise where the attacking rikishi charges towards the defending rikishi who tries to stop the attacker on his tracks before he is able to push him over the tawara; the losing rikishi leaves the dohyo and takes his place at the far end of the queue and the winner becomes the defending rikishi or in case winner was the defending rikishi the first rikishi of the queue replaces the lost attacking rikishi and charges towards the defender, see mune wo dasu, mune wo kariru, mune wo kasu

Serves as a real efficient form of keiko in principle and in practise too. With skillful and strong defender, the attacker can go all out without stopping. Best butsugari-partners must be the ones who master the adjusting of resistance power, especially against lower ranked rikishi. You don't need to adjust anything when Dejima attacks you in butsugari.

dohyo no oni

This has no entry but it was someone's nickname right? Devil of the dohyo. Anyone recall whose was it? Kitanofuji?

[Mark Buckton 1]

buraku, pariah class of Japanese society of about one to three million people, developed of practisioners of despised occupations like butchers and washers of corpses during Tokugawa Shogunate and their successors; still seems to be a sort of taboo amongst regular Japanese

Any of our Japanese-based gaijin ever brought this buraku-topic up all of a sudden with an older Japanese person? Is this still a big taboo? I suppose buraku-people don't advertise their origin even nowadays.

Yep but far too long to document.

Briefly

Constitutes an estimated 900k people now in 4000 odd locations nationwide.

Depends on your relationship with folk what the answer will be. Know a person well and they will tell you their experiences (different desks at city office for Japanese / foreigners and burakumin was one thing I heard about the old days) and memories.

Some people feign ignorance, claim it is only in India these things happen and say if it is here it is best to ignore (that way it will go away) whilst others openly discriminate against schools etc in certain areas. Young mothers I mean here.

All of these things I have myself heard and seen. (Applauding...) and a certain degree of tabooness is there beneath the surface but answers depend on who you speak to.

Try this

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...n20040605f1.htm

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...n20020306c1.htm

[Asashosakari 19,451]

dohyo no oni

http://www.juryo.com/newspaper/19561231.htm

http://www.banzuke.com/99-5/msg00424.html

[Kaikitsune Makoto 209]

Interesting buraku-info. Thanks. I guess one emphasis of the nature of the discrimination came when Buddhism gained more ground and meat became more frowned upon and people who worked as butchers or leather removers (skinners?) got even worse reputation.

Danke sch

[Kaikitsune Makoto 209]

Today's featured terms come from H, I and J.

hassou-tobi, rare jump upwards at the tachiai by a rikishi attempting to surprise his forward leaning charging aite, when the move works perfectly it can be a crowd-pleaser and a spectacular way of winning; the originator of the term into sumo was moto-yokozuna Wakanohana I, originates from the story of Yoshitsune from Genji-Heishi war (1185) where according to legend Yoshitsune jumped from one enemy boat to another juking enemies around, it was said he could jump over eight boats, nowadays Hayateumi has started to use this jump as part of his sumo repertoire

hitorizumo, part of rice planting ceremony practised at least from the 14th century onwards where a rikishi named Ichirikizan (name apparently varies according to the locality) has three torikumi under gyoji's supervision against the imagined rice plant spirit (ine no seirei) which he ultimately loses in order to appease the spirits and secure the crops, also an idiom in Japan with "hitori-zumo o toru" meaning literally "to do sumo on your own", idiom refers to a situation where one is struggling by oneself trying to make things better but seemlingly with no clear positive end in sight

Amanogawa gave a good example of the usage of this idiom :-D

A girl who's in love with one boy. This girl and the boy are going out

for awhile. But seemingly he does not care for her as much as she does.

She would do anything to please him, thinking a lot of wonderful

plans and trying to going out of her way to make him happy. She

would do everything to make time being with him. She would

arrange her life to make things work out for them together. But then

suddenly one question comes across to her mind...

"Nandaka hitori-zumo o totte iru mitai"

( Seems like I'm doing hitori-zumo... )

hiza, knee, often injured bodypart in sumo

This is the bodypart connecting the thigh and lower leg. Very essential body part. Without mobile knees it would be very difficult to have a smooth gait. Knee has strong ligaments and interesting structure. Take care of your knees. If you don't know what a knee is, take your palm downwards sliding the frontal part of your thigh until you reach a bony structure. You have reached the head of thigh bone and around that area you can find a KNEE.

ichimon-betsu so-atari, rule abolished in 1966 (?) that prevented torikumi, kettei-sen and tomoe-sen excluded, between rikishi who belonged to separate heya belonging to the same ichimon, see heya-betsu so-atari, kojin-betsu so-atari

Year is uncertain it seems but this is a bad rule. Very bad rule. It is very good that this very bad rule was abolished. Bad rules should always be abolished because good rules are better than bad rules.

ipponzeoi, kimarite, classic seio-nage where rikishi wraps his arm around foe's arm and lifts him up while pivoting and throws him over his shoulder, very rare in sumo due to heavy weights, necessity to avoid touching down with one's knee before foe hits the clay and the lack of cloth to grab

Most ipponzeoi are rather uninspiring in sumo. More like desperate attempts and not very illustrative. Lately Takekaze did a very good ipponzeio in makuuchi though.

jiriki, "on his own", rikishi who is pursuing yusho and is one shiroboshi behind his do-beya can't achieve yusho by jiriki since he can't fight against his do-beya because of heya-betsu so-atari rule and hence must wait for some other heya's rikishi to cause kuroboshi to his do-beya so that winning records would become even and a chance to kettei-sen would become possible, see kojin-betsu so-atari

Asashoryu wasn't jiriki when Hokutoriki was one win ahead before senshuraku and wasn't scheduled against Shoryu.

[Shomishuu 0]

In the glossary there are a couple definitions/descriptions of kabai-te that both say that the winning rikishi tried to soften his aite's fall to avoid injury to his aite. I alluded to these in the SML's protracted discussion on the Asashoryu-Kotonowaka bout last basho to form a basis for my argument in favor of Asa but one of the more eminent pro-Koto group members maintained that kabai-te had nothing to do with trying to soften the losing rikishi's fall. Is there an "official" definition of kabai-te somewhere, and if so does it include the element of softening the losing rikishi's fall?? (Laughing...)

[Kaikitsune Makoto 209]

This ongoing project of correcting some mistakes and at the same time introducing some terms that are in the glossary to forum members who may or may not have interest in this. We have many Japanese members too since the last time this thread was on so in that light it is recommended that this thread is revived. There are still heya-names which has out of date info but little by little updated. Today went through the K-terms starting with Ka and here are some of those:

kachi-doku, toriteki's shiroboshi in his (luckily gotten) eight honwari torikumi which affects positively on his ranking in the next banzuke, compare with make-doku

This happened again in Hatsu basho so relevant term! Don't remember whether it was kachi-doku or make-doku though.

kachi-koshi, majority of wins in honbasho, at least eight shiroboshi in fifteen torikumi or four shiroboshi in seven torikumi; guarantees that there won't be kakusage (demotion) but almost always there will be kakuage (promotion), compare with make-koshi

The magic KK.

kadoban, ozeki who has committed make-koshi in the previous honbasho and who will drop to the last sekiwake position if he is to repeat the make-koshi in the coming or on-going honbasho; such rikishi can regain his ozeki rank if he in the immediately next honbasho at the sekiwake rank can manage at least ten shiroboshi; see the kosho seido rule which was commonly observed in kadoban cases before its abolishment in 2004

Kamimusubi no kami, one of three gods to whom a rikishi shows his appreciation after winning a torikumi, see Takamimusubi no kami, Amenominakanushi no kami, tegatana o kiru

kanban, physically somehow exceptional rikishi who were taken into tournaments (and promoted to the rank of ozeki) to lure audience during the Edo-jidai; usually they were of little athletic ability with few exceptions like Dategaseki who developed into yokozuna Tanikaze; kanban literally means a signboard

kata-yaocho, form of yaocho gratuitous to the winning rikishi since someone else has bought the torikumi to him without his consent