Mineko Nomachi and NHK's Ken Yoshida on the Joy of Watching Sumo Over Time
In the third and final part of a talk tied to writer and illustrator Mineko Nomachi's book 'Ozumo Chukei Chukei' (Baseball Magazine Sha), a collection of eight years of her column in the monthly 'Sumo' that has already gone to a second printing, NHK announcer Ken Yoshida says what makes calling sumo special is the time between shikiri, and that over a long career he gets to watch wrestlers he covered become sekitori and yokozuna, retire, open stables and raise new yokozuna. Because everyone in sumo is always in one place, he said, 'with the passage of time you can be together even more closely.' He named JSA chairman Hakkaku as the stablemaster he has gone drinking with most, and praised his commentary for calling good good and bad bad, even about his own deshi. Nomachi said the book runs from Kisenosato's first basho as yokozuna to the basho where Onosato clinched promotion, a period of huge change including Hakuho's retirement. Yoshida said probably every NHK sumo announcer reads her column.
Source: Yahoo! Japan Sports (BBM Sports)