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SOS - Shinjinrui on Sumo
Chris Gould
Chris sinks his teeth deeper into how sumo can go about pulling in the younger fans in part two of a three-part series.
Azumazeki up close and personal
Steven Pascal-Joiner / William Titus
A wiz with a pen and a wiz with a lens get together with SFM to share their time with Azumazeki Oyakata - Takamiyama as was - with the wider sumo following world.
Rikishi of Old
Joe Kuroda
Joe Kuroda takes a detailed look at the life and times of a former yokozuna forgotten by many - Maedayama.
Eric Evaluates
Eric Blair
Eric calls the musubi-no-ichiban kimarite call on nakabi in Kyushu as perhaps only he could.
Heya Peek
Jeff Kennel
First time heya visitor Jeff Kennel wrote about, photographed and even made a video of his time spent at Arashio Beya prior to the Kyushu Basho. All to be found within.
SFM Interview
Mark Buckton
Mark interviews Russian up and comer Wakanoho of Magaki Beya.
Photo Bonanzas
See behind the scenes at the Kyushu Basho, morning training in Arashio Beya through the eyes of an artist and exactly what the Azumazeki lads had to eat halfway though the July Nagoya Basho. All originals, all seen here and nowhere else, and all for you.
Kyushu Basho Summary
Lon Howard
Lon wraps the Kyushu Basho in Fukuoka and throws in some henka sighting results for good measure.
Lower Division Rikishi
Mikko Mattila
The lower divisions, their members and results get the once over thanks to Mikko's eyeing of life down below the salaried ranks.
Hatsu Ones To Watch
Carolyn Todd
Carolyn ponders and puts fingers to keys on the ones to watch come January and the Hatsu Basho.
Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila
Mikko's latest clarification of a handful of sumo's kimarite offers unequalled analysis and in depth explanations.
Amateur Angles
Howard Gilbert
Howard looks at makushita tsukedashi and what it means in real terms.
Kokugi Konnections
Todd Lambert
Click on Todd's bimonthly focus on three of the best sumo sites online.
Fan Debate
Facilitators - Lon Howard / Carolyn Todd
Two SFMers talk over the yokozuna benefiting from weak opposition - or not as the case may be.
SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
In this issue's cartoon bonanza, sit back and sample Stephen's artistic offerings.
Sumo Odds ’n’ Ends
SFM's interactive elements including Henka Sightings, Elevator Rikishi and Eternal Banzuke!
Lets Hear From You
What was it that made you a sumo fan? Starting with issue #10, the SFM staff will reveal a little of their own routes into sumo fandom - starting with Benny Loh.
Readers' Letters
See what our readers had to say since we last hit your screens.
Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.
 
Breakfast with Beer: A bowl of chanko-nabe,
washed down with beer at 10 a.m.


couldn’t take Japan out of the sport. I wondered aloud if the popularity of the sport was suffering in light of the many strong foreign rikishi with few truly promising Japanese rikishi in the upper ranks. He said that he didn’t think sumo’s popularity was in danger; people always worry about how sumo isn’t popular any more and there are those who, like him, feel the sport is doing fine.

Our time with the oyakata was at its end. We assured him that we would attend the morning keiko the following day, shook hands several times, and began the lengthy process of gathering up our things, saying thank you, bowing, and stepping outside. The earlier promise of rain had come to fruition by that point, a hard un-rainy season-like rain was falling. I was not looking forward to the 15-minute walk back to the station when a woman (who had been helping to get dinner ready in the kitchen during the latter half of our conversation) came out and drove us all to the station in a van.

The swirl of activity that surrounded the oyakata during our visit - the rikishi clattering around and cooking (which at times drowned out the oyakata’s already hard-to-hear voice), the woman who drove us to the station popping in and out of the kitchen with an obvious set of errands to run, a small child and a man (perhaps the family of the woman) coming in at one point, and the group of foreigners taking up the oyakata’s time with questions and comments - made Azumazeki seem like a rock in the midst of a river. He exuded calmness, strength, and confidence. Yet he was not an intimidating man to talk with. He invited us into his heya on little

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leave, it is hard to change their mind,” he said, he still tries. As he told me about being an oyakata, he glanced around at the bustle of activity in the kitchen and I was reminded of a tough-love, proud father watching his sons.

I asked the oyakata why he didn’t have any Hawaiians in his heya any more. He replied that he would be interested in recruiting rikishi from his home islands but that he’d lost the help of his cousin, now in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. He doesn’t have any scouts in Hawaii now and said that the scout role was one that he’d hoped Akebono would take on. Azumazeki feels that it is the duty of any rikishi to help recruit and build the strength of the heya. He likened this kind of scouting to a payback from the rikishi for all the oyakata does for them. There it was. I’d hesitated to bring up “The Akebono Issue” but he’d done it for me.

He went on to say that Akebono
never thought that recruiting or scouting was his job, saying instead that it was the oyakata’s role. He changed his posture and facial expressions to strike something of an aloof air and said that Akebono thought that such work was not for the yokozuna to undertake. He let the topic die there. I didn’t push him any further on the issue.

Coach signaled that our time was up and the oyakata needed to get back to his other duties. As Azumazeki signed autographs for us, personalizing them on request, I asked him what he thought about the influence of foreigners on sumo today. He laughed and said it was still weird to see Caucasians on the dohyo. He went on to say that the appearance of the sport is changing but sumo is still sumo. I quoted Akebono from a 2001 Japan Times interview when he said that taking the sport out of Japan would make it just another sport - sumo is a lifestyle as well as a sport. The oyakata agreed and said that you