October 2003

Shoryu Sets Pace:  Kaio Flat on Face

Junior Division Yusho Winners

  
Shoryu Sets Pace:  Kaio Flat on Face
Yokozuna Seizes Fourth Yusho
by “Yukikaze” for SUMO SHIMPO

Two months ago in Nagoya yokozuna-East ASASHORYU was well and thoroughly humiliated, giving up four kinboshi before withdrawing.  He also had some highly-publicized run-ins with fellow Mongolian rikishi KYOKUSHUZAN.  The hoots and hollers in response to this behavior echoed (in the unspoken nihon’no style, or course) loud and long from Kitami (in northern Hokkaido) to Kagoshima (in southern Kyushu).

But when the bell rang under the Kokogikan roof for the start of the 2003 Aki Basho, SHORYU blasted out of the blocks like a plume of superheated steam no one could stop.  He knocked out eleven straight wins before being felled by sekiwake-East WAKANOSATO and ozeki #2-West TOCHIAZUMA on consecutive days.  This gave ozeki #1-East CHIYOTAIKAI a chance to pull into a tie on day 14.  But a win by shitatenage assured the Mongolian his fourth championship in the six-basho span of a sumo year:  his final score was 13-2 with no kinboshi surrendered this time out.  Yokozuna-West MUSASHIMARU was still sidelined by his wrist injury.

At one point, the two men who’d battled for the 2003 Nagoya title were tied with the streaking SHORYU.  But ozeki #1-East KAIO fell to maegashira #1-East TAKAMISAKARI, while CHIYOTAIKAI lost to maegashira #3-West HOKUTORIKI and komusubi-West TOSANOUMI on successive days.  TAIKAI continued to roll after those setbacks, and was breathing down SHORYU’s neck until his day 13 loss to KAIO forced him into a ‘must-win’ which he lost to finish at 11-4.  Seven losses in the final eight days decisively ended KAIO’s chances of back-to-back yusho.  The resulting 7-8 not only reset his progress toward yokozuna promotion back to the starting line, but placed his Kokugikan parking place in jeopardy.  TOCHIAZUMA was under kadoban thanks to his injury-plagued performance in Nagoya.  But with two months of rest and strong keiko under his mawashi, he won 4 of his first five torikumi and erased the demotion possibility with his 8th win on day 11 and victory over SHORYU on day 13.  Tamanoi Oyakata’s son finishes with a strong 10-5.  The weak performance in the ozeki contingent was turned in by #2-East MUSOYAMA.  He lost his first three matches and withdrew on day 6 after another loss, so he now holds the kadoban ‘buck’.

As he has been doing this entire year, SATO fought hard and well.  Standing 1-2 after day 3, Naruto Beya’s top deshi won ten of his final 12 to become the only sumotori in the lower sanyaku to post kachi with an 11‑4 and stay in contention for a future ozeki slot (which might open soon – see related article).   His day 12 win over ASASHORYU earned him the Shukun-Sho (Outstanding Performance Prize).  Sekiwake-West MIYABIYAMA showed little of the speed and power that had made him a member of Musashigawa Beya’s “College of Sumo Knowledge”:  even the relatively-untalented maegashira #3-East KOTORYU took a chunk out of him.  He went make on day 11 and finished at 4-11.  As a member of Takasago Beya, TOKI did not have to wrestle his yokozuna stablemate.  He could therefore concentrate on trying to bat .500 in the ‘killer rank’, and did so through day 11; but three straight losses left him with a 7-8 outing.  This was not unfamiliar territory to TOSANOUMI.  He struggled to keep his head above the surging current – and went under despite two wins to finish:  his 7-8 tickets him for a return to the hiramaku and a chance to add to his trove of kinboshi.

#5-East IWAKIYAMA and #6-East KOTOMITSUKI both finished 11-4 to share top honors among the maegashira.  IWAKIYAMA also came away with the Gino-Sho (Technique Prize).  #2-East KYOKUTENHO went 10-5 for a share of the Kanto-Sho (Fighting Spirit Prize).  #9-West AMINISHIKI also posted a 10-5.  TAKAMISAKARI, who posted a 9-6, picked up the other piece of the Kanto-Sho.  #7-West TAMANOSHIMA also went 9-6.

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JUNIOR DIVISION YUSHO WINNERS  

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The 600-Win Club (updated after Aki 2003)

(Info from the NSK and Stefan Gelow web sites)

* Non-Japanese

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Should Sato Be an Ozeki?
Opinion by “Yukikaze” for SUMO SHIMPO

One of the sumo stories of 2003 that has scooted under the radar has been the performance of current sekiwake-East WAKANOSATO over the span of this entire year.

Amid all the talk about ASASHORYU’s antics and MUSASHIMARU’s ongoing wrist troubles, the Naruto heyagashira has been batting 2 for 3 at the top of the banzuke by winning 50 out of 75 total torikumi.  He’s been doing this with no assistance from anyone else in his heya (the next rikishi in Naruto’s lineup, TAKANOWAKA, was in Juryo this past basho). 

“Usual Suspects” Lead North Americans
Sabo, Marte Repeat in Lights, Middles; Marte Wins Dunlop Cup in Opens
by “Yukikaze” for SUMO SHIMPO

For 2003, the North American Sumo Championships made their long-awaited return to the West Coast.

Only this time, it was the west coast of Canada.  To be precise:  it was in the historic fishing community of Steveston, located at the extreme southwestern corner of the municipality of Richmond - which in turn is on a large island located due south of the peninsula upon which sits Vancouver, British Columbia.

Since we never pass up a chance to visit that part of the world, my soulmate the ‘Sumo Phreek’ and I flew into Vancouver Airport early Tuesday.  From there we grabbed a Pacific Coach Lines bus and transited (via BC Ferries) to Victoria, where we spent three days pillaging local used bookstores and making our obligatory pilgrimage to the beautiful Butchart Gardens.  We left Vancouver Island on Friday morning after a sleepless night aboard a floating B&B, returned to YVR and contracted with a limo service to take us to the Steveston Hotel.  After getting settled into our Jacuzzi-equipped room, we took a short hike to the Steveston Community Centre.  I was directed around back to a huge warehouse-like structure of corrugated steel construction, inside of which were three hard-surface tennis courts.  This was where the 2003 North American Sumo Championships would be contested the next day.

After breakfast on Saturday, I walked to the SCC.  While waiting for things to open up, Kurt Rightmyer arrived along with his mother and a couple of his sisters.  As part of his run for the governorship of California, he’d been making personal appearances both in California and a couple of neighboring states:  that was why he’d driven up in his new minivan.  His appearance also drew the attention of the local Canadian media.  I asked if he’d bring home the extra mawashis I’d brought up for the contest, and he acceded to this (I really didn’t think he’d say no because he’s that kind of a nice guy).  Once inside the cavernous building, it was apparent that the Steveston Judo Club (which had organized the event) had been very busy that morning.  The tennis courts had been covered with carpet, the dohyo was assembled and in place, the portable bleachers and head table had been arranged around the dohyo, and the local taiko group’s drums were poised and ready.  The SCC had set up a concession stand well away from the action.

I have no doubt that the fallout from the cancellation of the 2003 World Championships in Moscow had an impact on who came up.  But at worst, that impact was minor.  The field may not have been as strong as it was last year in Toronto, but it still packed a punch:

Women:  Katherine Hurley (New Jersey), Aja Tsuji-Carr (Canada).

Lightweights:  Trent Sabo (California), Aleks Meuse (Canada), Roger Knecht (Canada), Aleem Mohamapally (Canada), Curtis Pentland (Canada), John Gonzalez (New Jersey).

Middleweights:  Rene Marte (New Jersey), Kurt Rightmyer (California), Patrick Greer (New Jersey), Leonard Thomas (New Jersey), Harry Dudrow (California), Jeff Riddle (Mexico), Kena Heffernan (Hawaii).

Heavyweights:  Casey Burns (Idaho), Carl Pappalardo (New York), Elmer Gale (Canada), James Hernandez (Mexico), Shawn Hickey (Canada), Richard Hopp (California), Lamont Campo (Mexico), Alexander Grenke (Canada), Kelly Gneiting (Idaho), Sandy Kent (Canada), Jerry Sharp (New Jersey).

Openweights:  Randy Stirm (Japan), Sharp, Kent, Grenke, Sabo, Dudrow, Heffernan, Hickey, Pappalardo, Burns, Gneiting, Marte, Greer, Rightmyer, Gonzalez, Gale, Thomas.

Masters:  James Perry (North Carolina), Jim Lowerre (California), Dudrow, Riddle, Stirm.

The women’s event was a two-woman exhibition between Hurley and Tsuji-Carr.  Hurley was decidedly the larger of the two, so form prevailed in a best-two-of-three matchup.

In the double-elimination format lightweight competition, 2002 champion Sabo was the logical favorite.  Jason Maron, last year’s silver medalist, did not make the trip and fourth-place finisher Peter Panatayopoulos was also a no-show.  But 2002 bronze medalist Gonzalez was there.  He gave Sabo a real fight for the title; but in the end the former California high school wrestling champ prevailed for his second consecutive gold medal.  Pentland filled out the podium.

The middleweight class had been lightened by the absence of both 2002 silver medalist Jack Keener and fourth finisher Troy Collins, who was getting married.  Stepping into the breach was Greer, who can best be described as ‘a muscular leprechaun with the fighting spirit of a banshee’.  But two-time (2001, 2002) champion Marte, a member of the Plainfield, NJ police force, was not yet ready to give up the crown.  And in a spirited series of well-fought torikumi, he succeeded in keeping it.  The double-elimination format yielded an all-Joyzey podium:  Thomas claimed the silver, Greer finished with the bronze.

Former North American and World openweight champion Manny Yarbrough (New Jersey) was present, but did not take part in the competition.  Instead he loaned his huge (more than 50 feet in length) mawashi to the 500-plus pound Burns, who was making his NASC heavyweight debut.  There was some controversy, as Pappalardo lost to Gale on a bad start (see related article).  In the end it came down to Gale and Burns for all the marbles.  Burns won – and celebrated his victory by turning a cartwheel (a sight not to be missed!)  This sent Gale into a consolation bracket rematch with Pappalardo, with the silver medal on the line.  The start was clean this time, but the result was the same:  Gale picked up the silver while Pappalardo took the bronze.

The open division is always fun to watch, because the little guys can use their speed and technical knowledge against their larger but slower sumo brethren.  Middleweight Marte’s superb skills and extremely aggressive attitude enabled him to dispose of heavyweights Gneiting and Pappalardo.  This enabled him to fight Greer and Heffernan, who were more his size;  he prevailed in two sharp matches to win the Open title and the accompanying Dunlop Cup.  After losing his opening match, Sharp won four bouts in the consolation bracket to meet Heffernan for the silver medal.  To this writer’s surprise, the bigger man won:  Sharp took the silver, Heffernan the bronze.

Not contested since the 2001 NASC in Long Beach, CA, the masters’ division had an unexpected entrant:  former North American heavyweight champ James Perry of North Carolina, who turned 40 this year.  This division was fought as a round-robin, with everybody meeting each other at least once.  Perry used his 400-plus pound body with its mammoth powerlifting strength to do ‘steamroller sumo’ on all his opponents and stroll away with the gold.  Stirm suffered a spectacular scalp wound in his match with Riddle and had to withdraw.  Riddle ended with the silver; Dudrow, who had won the masters’ title in 2001 and had been carrying it since then, settled for a bronze from this strong field.

The official North American team competition followed.  Team USA (Marte, Heffernan, Sharp) defeated Team Canada (Hickey, Grenke, Gale), 3-0.  This was followed by the open team competition, in which the college team from Japan (Chiharu Suzuki, Takamori Oyama, Kunihiro Tanioka) would compete.  The results were as follows:

Team Puerto Rico (Gonzalez, Greer, Thomas) d. Team Mexico (Campo, Riddle, Hernandez), 3-0
Team Japan (Suzuki, Oyama, Tanioka) d. Team USA (Marte, Heffernan, Sharp), 3-0
Team Puerto Rico (Gonzalez, Greer, Thomas) d. Team Canada (Hickey, Grenke, Gale), 3-0
Team Japan (Suzuki, Oyama, Tanioka) d. Team Puerto Rico (Gonzalez, Greer, Thomas), 3-0
Team USA (Marte, Heffernan, Sharp) d. Team Mexico (Campo, Riddle, Hernandez), 3-0
Team USA (Marte, Heffernan, Sharp) d. Team Puerto Rico (Gonzalez, Greer, Thomas), 3-0

The podium was occupied by Team Japan (gold), Team USA (silver) and Team Puerto Rico (bronze).

The staff of SUMO SHIMPO hereby thanks Dunlop Tires of Canada for their exceptional sponsorship support, and thanks the Steveston Judo Club for a well-planned, well-organized tournament in a suitable venue.  Since Dunlop has the right of first refusal for next year’s event, the chances are good that the North Americans will be returning to the ‘Great White North’ next summer (eh?)

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NASC Marred By Weak Officiating
by "Tonkatsu" for SUMO SHIMPO

On the Friday evening before the North American Sumo Championships we had a brief meeting with Joe Serianni (the president of the Canadian Sumo Federation) and Mr. Yonezuka (the USSF president), to discuss the next day’s format.

At last year’s event in Toronto, all of the officiating was done by the Japanese coach and his wrestlers.  Since Ernie Hunt and I had brought our regulation sumo referees’ uniforms (white pants, white shirt and black bow tie) I suggested that we needed to have North American referees and that the Japanese coach should be the chief judge, not the referee.  This suggestion was ignored and the tournament started with the Japanese coach refereeing and Mr. Hunt serving as one of the judges.

Everything went fine until the heavyweight division competition.  In a first-round match between Carl Pappalardo (USA) and Elmer Gale (Canada) Elmer charged before the Japanese college wrestler, who was refereeing at the time, said “hakkeyoi”.  This caught Carl off guard.  The referee should have stopped the match but he didn't.  Carl eventually lost, killing his chances of finishing any better than second and leading to controversy that lasted the whole weekend.  Carl eventually lost the silver medal match in a rematch with Elmer.

I have several problems with the Japanese college wrestlers refereeing.  First of all, just because someone is a college wrestler in Japan doesn't automatically mean he is qualified to referee.  Second, we need to have referees properly attired per International Sumo Federation Rules.  I have been critical of the US Sumo Open for allowing referees to be dressed in shorts and T-shirts.  But how can we criticize them when the NASC allows referees to be dressed in mawashi and T-shirt?

Most important, I realized that the tachi-ai rules for international sumo are different from the ones they use in Japan.  This first became apparent to me the previous week when Randy Stirm, who trains at Azumazeki Beya, came to a practice at the “Dohyo of Dreams”.  In ISF rules, the wrestlers are supposed to put both fists on the ground before the referee says "hakkeyoi."  Randy was putting one fist down and then waiting to just touch the ground with the other, the way they do in Japan.  A Japanese college wrestler with no international experience wouldn't know this.

The bottom line here, is that the referee in any sport has to be in control of the match or game he is officiating.  In seven North American Championships, we have only had properly-attired referees three times:  in 1999 (Inglewood) when an experienced Japanese referee was present; in 2001 (Long Beach) when Mr. Hunt officiated the entire tournament; and at the end of this year’s event when Mr. Hunt was finally allowed to referee the masters’ competition.  After he did that, the Japanese coach had him stay in and do the team competitions.

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A Sad Note
by "Tonkatsu" for SUMO SHIMPO

Like many of our Southern California readers, this writer’s interest in sumo started with a TV show called "Sumo Digest," which he discovered one night while channel surfing ten years ago.  "Sumo Digest" was a half-hour recap of the previous days action at the basho in Japan.  It came on at 11:30PM on the local international channel.

We didn't have a VCR in those days, and we spent many a night sitting up bleary-eyed trying to stay awake till the end.  On more than one occasion, we nodded off during the commercial break only to wake up in time for the last match or perhaps even the signoff or the Armenian programming that followed.

Around the time we started publication in 1999, "Sumo Digest" changed channels and the new one wasn't listed in the TV Guide.  Needless to say, we were flooded with e-mails from sumo junkies wanting to know where it went.  The next year it moved again.  Then several years ago it stopped altogether.  Of course, it continued to be broadcast in Japan.  However, the last we heard, it had been shortened twenty minutes.  Now we have been told by Mr. Matsuzaki that, effective at the end of the Aki Basho, it will end for good.

California Recall Brings Media To DOD
by "Tonkatsu" for SUMO SHIMPO

As we assume most of the World knows by now, California is having an election to recall Governor Gray Davis.  There
are going to be two questions on the ballot:  1.  Shall Governor Gray Davis be recalled?  2.  If the answer is yes, who
will replace him?  This is where the fun begins.  Anyone who could get sixty-nine signatures and was willing to shell out
$3500 could get their name on the ballot.

Of the 250-plus people who declared for the job, 135 actually made it onto the ballot.  Along with Hustler publisher 
Larry Flynt, pint-sized actor Gary Coleman, and porn star Mary Carey (real name:  Mary Cook) is the SCSK's own 
Kurt ‘Tachikaze’ Rightmyer.  Kurt, who is running as an Independent, has gotten a lot of attention in the local media, 
both print and electronic.  His campaign has also drawn the attention of the Japanese media.  On one recent Saturday, 
we had crew from Channel 6 Tokyo.  Several weeks later, we had a local documentary crew and a crew from NHK 
at the same practice.  Mr. Matsuzaki picked up the NHK piece on the 10 o'clock evening news from Japan.

Kurt seems to be very serious and to be enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame.   We wish him well on election day even 
though this writer regrettably feels the need to vote for someone else.

Here is the text of Kurt's Candidate Statement as it appears in the California voters’ pamphlet:

Kurt E. "Tachikaze" Rightmyer, Independent.

HERE’S HOW I WILL DEAL WITH THE ASSEMBLY AND THE SENATE…  Middleweight competitor and California gubernatorial candidate Kurt “Tachikaze” Rightmyer (left) forces heavyweight Jim “Yukikaze” Lowerre over the tawara at SHUUBUN 2003, held September 20 on the “Dohyo of Dreams”.  (Photo:  “Tajomaru” for SUMO SHIMPO)

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Fun With Oji Ernie


by "Tonkatsu" for SUMO SHIMPO

Sumo referee Ernie Hunt and I roomed together at the NASC.  Both being old guys, we fit well together.

 

When I came down to the hotel bar after the tournament, I found Ernie sitting with a group of the local judo people from 
the host Steveston Judo Club.  They were planning to go to a nearby Japanese restaurant.  Ernie and I decided to go 
there too.  Since it was about eight blocks away, we decided to walk.

When we got to the restaurant which was called "Daimasu" we found the judo group at a large table.  There not being 
room for us, we decided to sit at the sushi bar.  This is where the fun began.

 

We had the bar, which was manned by two chefs from Tokyo, all to ourselves.  Now dear readers, what you need to 
understand about Ernie Hunt is that even though he was stationed in Japan, learned his sumo there and has been married 
to a Japanese for over forty years, his biggest weakness as a sumo referee is that he is shaky on the Japanese sumo terms.  
Well, he may be shaky on the sumo terms - but boy, does he know all the sushi bar terms!  The next thing I knew we 
were eating sushi, edamame and other Japanese foods, and washing it all down with plenty of biiru!  Ernie kept plying the 
sushi chefs with beer and they never turned down a drink.  I don't know how many beers we bought total, but at the end 
there were seven bottles just on my tab!

 

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FLASH NEWS REPORTS!

California Sumo Competition Calendar for 2003-2004