6 votes

Five facts you didn’t know about sumo

2 comments

  1. [2]
    lou
    (edited )
    Link
    I really like this channel by a Japanese man who really loves his country and traditional Japanese culture. The way he talks is measured, calm, and often compassionate. A truly excellent channel....

    I really like this channel by a Japanese man who really loves his country and traditional Japanese culture. The way he talks is measured, calm, and often compassionate. A truly excellent channel.

    I believe a ping to our sumo ambassador, @AugustusFerdinandl, is in order.

    Title edited to better reflect the actual content.

    1 vote
    1. AugustusFerdinand
      Link Parent
      Extra letter in my name prevented the namedrop notification, but I'm here now! Better late than never, right? Pretty good basic intro, but I think it's missing some finer details that wouldn't be...

      Extra letter in my name prevented the namedrop notification, but I'm here now! Better late than never, right?

      Pretty good basic intro, but I think it's missing some finer details that wouldn't be too much to mention to new people and give interesting insight.

      However, the ending (and by his own statement, most important fact) is disingenuous in my opinion.
      The hazing death is a black mark on sumo, but anti-hazing measures have been in place since and while I won't say that it's completely gone the older generation of oyakata that subscribed to this "tough love" hazing treatment/training have largely left sumo. The advent of social media and rikishi speaking up has also led to the hazing downfall as public embarrassment of an elder for abusing his charges is nearly as bad as being expelled from sumo.
      The baseball thing is more a cultural thing against illegal gambling and less about sumo. Some sumo wrestlers gambled on baseball (illegal) and paid off/were blackmailed by gangsters to keep it quiet. People found out, rikishi punished, wrestlers and gangsters arrested, people feel "betrayed", but it's largely a matter of some people belonging to a highly visible group (sumo) being involved in something that looks bad. If there's 1,000 people caught in a gambling ring and a few of them turn out to be sumo wrestlers the headline doesn't read "Gambling ring caught" it reads "Sumo wrestlers caught gambling."
      While the match fixing scandal is relevant and one of those things I just have to deal with people bringing up because it's so recent and will fade with time. Everyone involved is out of sumo and cannot have any involvement whatsoever. They're blacklisted and if someone currently involved in sumo even thinks about associating with them they risk getting blacklisted too. If there is match fixing now, they've gotten damn good at hiding it in an age where it's extremely easy to expose it.

      4 votes