Random Musings -- Day 9

Hakurozan
There are two men in sumo who are easier to fool with a henka, henkable, if you will, than a drunk at 2:00 am outside an Osaka ramen shop, and that's Dejima and Tosanoumi. Yet on consecutive days, they have been henka'd and still won their bouts. Oddly enough, Dejima won his vs Roho, and Tosanoumi won his vs. Roho's brother, Hakurozan.

Is it just me or do you too find it impossible, when you see this kind of sumo, not to recall Mike's dead-on, kick-ass analysis of why Roho, Kokkai and Hakurozan essentially suck in relation to their potential? If you missed it, go to his blog and read it (I hope it's still there).

Tamakasuga
Loses to Kokkai even though Kokkai put his hand down first, enough to see on slow-mo replay at least 10 centimeters of air between Tama's foot and the clay while Kokkai's hand is already down. The replay is what the MIB watch to determine who won. But they gave the win to Kokkai. Why? Even if they believe, as they claimed, that the two touched down simultaneously, Kokkai acted the pussy by putting his hand down and not taking the effin blow on his mug like a real rikishi (Asa, where are you?!!). He should be penalized for that, not given the win because he was the nominal aggressor. They give that chickenshit call to Chokediekai all the time. Sumo should be more objective than it is right now.

Flags and Banners
So the shin-Komusubi and the Shin-Ozeki, arguably the two hottest tickets in sumo today, meet in the penultimate bout and they get 5 banners, but Kaio meets Takekaze in the musubi ichiban and they get 13 banners?!! Do you think being non-Japanese has anything to do with that?

NHK English Announcers
One of the reasons why Sumotalk is a good site (or that the Internet at all is a good thing, for that matter) is that being independent (well, our Bluehost Overlords might diverge with me on that point) we can "calls it like we sees it". Much of our email from last basho was in praise of how straight up we were about the "funny bidness" on Day 15 with Asa, Hakuho, Kaio and Tochiazuma. But the establishment folks must toe the line, play it safe in their commentary, try to not piss anyone off (I like split infinitives when using "not"), and in doing so turn their commentary about the outcome of bouts to mostly pap. 

Don't misunderstand, I like the trivia, the flashbacks, the insider info, the tidbits, but the TV announcers are sorely lacking when it comes to analyzing anything remotely controversial. This desire to respect the "wa" and avoid controversy is common in foreigners living here long term who want to get along (not me, though, if you couldn't already guess) or who want to keep their cushy little gig on tv or at one of Japan's pathetic English "newspapers", but for the NHK announcers it affects the way they view everything in every bout.

Example. Today, Mark and Hiro were covering the Kakizoe/Tosanoumi bout. Kakizoe won and Mark said it was because Tosanoumi over committed himself and that Kakizoe easily stepped to the side. Those two comments are, respectively, misleading and wrong. What he might have said is that Tosanoumi HAD TO commit himself wholeheartedly because, though small, Kakizoe is a goddamned animal, and eats up foes that don't bring it full on. And there was nothing remotely "easy" about that sidestep. It was superbly timed skill. (And please, Chiyotaikai fans, don't use that last comment as some sort of, Ah ha!, why is it ok when Kakizoe does it but not our man? If you don't know why it isn't the same, it ain't gonna help you much for me to explain it.) But unless you are experienced with sumo and can sift through the crap you are hearing, you are SOL.

That's why many of you log onto Sumotalk. People who read Sumotalk are usually going to get fiber, not fluff. Meat, not Maypo, controversy, not confections. Because we don't have take any stinking crap from any stinking bosses.

Gotta run now. Mike and Kenji have just called for lights out. They gave us all an extra eight and a half minutes of laptop time tonight! And this on top of the tapioca crepes for dessert!