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SOS - Shinjinrui on Sumo |
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Chris Gould
Wrapping up his look at increasing the popularity of sumo, Chris Gould caps a series the NSK would do well to refer to.
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Sumo Souvenirs |
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Mark Buckton
Souvenirs are a part of every sport and sumo is no different - or is
it? A look at collectibles and the downright trashy, the bona fide
versus the unproven.
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Rikishi of Old |
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Joe Kuroda
Joe Kuroda's latest look at times past focuses on former makunouchi man Dewagatake.
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Eric Evaluates |
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Eric Blair
Eric takes a no-nonsense look at the claims of fixed bouts in the Japanese media.
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Rikishi Diary |
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Mark Kent
Mark Kent - English pro-wrestler and amateur heavyweight sumotori -
takes us through the first month or so of his training and preparation
for the various European events lined up in in 2007.
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Heya Peek |
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Chris Gould
SFM's Chris Gould was in Japan for the Hatsu Basho and popped along to
the new Shikoroyama Beya to give SFM an online exclusive peek into
sumo's newest heya.
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SFM Interview |
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Mark Buckton
Mark interviews Mark - Buckton on Kent that is as Mark Kent, the UK's
only active heavyweight amateur answers a few questions on his own
recent entry into the sport.
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Photo Bonanzas |
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Sumo Forum stepped in to take the weight off the shoulders of SFM as
far as Hatsu went so we could sit back, relax, enjoy the sumo and take
a few more select pics you won't see anywhere else.
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Hatsu Basho Summary |
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Lon Howard
Lon wraps the Hatsu Basho and chucks in a few bits on the rush of henka
that threatens to sully the good name of at least one foreign ozeki.
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Sumo Menko |
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Ryan Laughton
Sumo cards of old brought to life by expert collector Ryan Laughton. None of your BBM here.
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Haru Ones To Watch |
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Carolyn Todd
Carolyn ponders and puts fingers to keys on the ones to watch come March and the Haru Basho.
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Kimarite Focus |
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Mikko Mattila
Mikko's latest look at sumo's kimarite offers unequalled analysis and in depth explanations.
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Amateur Angles |
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Howard Gilbert
Howard looks at the 'sumo factory' of lore - Nichidai.
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Kokugi Konnections |
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Todd Lambert
Click on Todd's bimonthly focus on three of the best the WWW has to offer.
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Fan Debate |
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Facilitator - Carolyn Todd
Moti Dichne comes back for more and takes on Bradley Sutton on the subject of 'Modernize the heya - yea or nay?'
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SFM Cartoons |
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Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
In this issue's cartoon bonanza, sit back and sample Benny's artistic offerings.
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Sumo Odds & Ends |
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SFM's interactive elements - as always includes Henka Sightings, Elevator Rikishi and Eternal Banzuke!
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Let's Hear From You |
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What was it that made you a sumo fan? Ryan Laughton - sumo fan and menko expert reveals all.
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Readers' Letters |
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See what our readers had to say since we last hit your screens.
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Sumo Quiz |
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The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself a genuine banzuke.
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must therefore consider whether seeking to eradicate empty seats is more embarrassing than putting up with them.
Accessible Association?
Even if ticket prices were made more appealing, some under-30s would
still complain that sumo is not accessible enough. ‘The basho are
nowhere near where I live,’ is the popular refrain.Traditionally,
professional sumo sought to rectify such perceptions via the jungyo
schedule, which dispatched top sumotori to towns far and wide between
basho, and ensured that exhibition tournaments were held in communities
which could never hope to stage a real basho. In sumo’s heyday, the
jungyo system sold out remote venues several days over and undoubtedly
boosted support in hard-to-reach areas. But in recent years, demand for
jungyo has seemingly dried up. The most sorry example is the demise of
the Sapporo jungyo tour, which used to play to packed audiences on four
consecutive days, but now struggles to sell every ticket for a one-day
event. Although several oyakata have, at various times, been asked to
review the system, and the Sumo World annual round-up suggested that
more jungyo events had taken place in 2006 than in preceding years,
questions remain over whether jungyo is the best method of taking sumo
to the masses.
Put plainly, jungyo should continue to be employed wherever it proves
popular. When it comes to convincing people that you are worth
investing time and money in, there is no better weapon than the
personal touch. However, the NSK’s real strengths in the field of
accessibility lie closer to home, and desperately need to be marketed.
Its first strength – the offer of close-up action for anybody who
arrives early – has already been detailed. Its second strength is the
accessibility of the wrestlers themselves. Broadly
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speaking, professional sumo does not
subscribe to the bunker mentality evident in, say, UK Premiership
football or international cricket, which results in training sessions
for the stars taking place far away from the eyes of the fans,
sometimes even behind steel gates. In sumo, so long as the stable is
not mired in financial trouble, factionalised by internal disputes, or
smarting from past unpleasant experiences with visitors/foreigners, it
will allow youngsters the utmost proximity to their favourite rikishi.
If a shinjinrui telephones the stable the day before, or asks nicely
enough in person, they will be able to sit within touching distance of
their sumo heroes for a good couple of hours during asageiko, and will
very possibly have the chance to talk to them and ask for a photo. (At
amateur sumo tournaments, it is even easier to accost and photograph
the stars). Even if a stable classifies asageiko as off-limits to
spectators, lower-division wrestlers and famous ex-sumotori (especially
among the oyakata) can easily be found wandering around the corridors
of the Kokugikan, often to join the queues at the various snack-bars.
It is most fruitful to approach these individuals via someone who knows
them, but even if this is not possible, some former sumotori will
happily engage in conversation if you stun them with an interesting
fact about their wrestling career!
A lucky encounter! - Chris Gould
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As
SFM’s editor-in-chief has highlighted elsewhere, professional sumo is
also becoming more welcoming towards non-Japanese fans. At least two of
the Kokugikan’s ushers are reasonably fluent in English, while
English-language guide books and torikumi schedules for the top two
divisions are available free of charge. The Japan Sumo Association’s
website has, of course, been fully translated into English, while
stables such as Musashigawa-beya have piloted English-language sumo
chat-rooms.
As previously stated, some Japanese may argue that the above
information is only useful to those who live close enough to physically
attend keiko or basho. However, I find the argument that sumo
attendances are poor because basho are held in too few cities extremely
difficult to support. For a start, some of the non-sumo fans who have
propounded this argument to me actually live in one of the four cities
which stage basho! The issue is surely not whether sumo is
geographically accessible to everybody, but whether sumo is
geographically accessible to enough people to fill every seat during a
tournament. It must be the case that the latter holds true, given that
the combined population of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka totals some
14 million (rising to 18.5 million if Greater Tokyo is included). If
even five per cent of this number were encouraged to grace several days
of a tournament with their presence, the supply of seats would struggle
to meet the demand for tickets!
The one area where sumo’s accessibility rating tumbles lies, of course,
in the field of women’s rights. No-one denies that female spectators
are treated very well but the reality remains that, due to professional
sumo’s deference to Shinto custom, women are forbidden from mounting
the dohyo. The
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