Tschumi
Member
.Sumo Wrestling.
...am i rite?
interesting vid about a 22 year old rikishi at the time of this posting
...am i rite?
interesting vid about a 22 year old rikishi at the time of this posting
Tschumi and the crew gonna be chit chatting over the bi-monthly sumo tournaments that go down across Japan, and any news stories that any of us may catch in the meantime.
New to sumo? It's awesome.
It's more than fat men pushing each other, it's fat men doing judo and a few other things besides. Reading weight distribution, generating and counteracting momentum, executing over 100 different finishing moves, using idiosynctatic styles that sometimes involve shoving, sometimes involve gripping, sometimes involve nuclear explosions (see: Takakeisho shoving), always involves power and finesse in equal parts. Well, just about equal.
What's the cast at the moment?
Well, circa 2021-cum-2022 the sole Yokozuna (top rank, grand champ) in the sport is a 31 (?) year old Mongolian named Terunofuji for whom Tschumi has very little time. Close on his heals in the second tank of Ozeki is the Second Coming that is Takakeisho - he's a small round man but he's still managed to be dynamic and explosive at the tender age of 25. Also at the Ozeki rank is Shodai, a late'ish arriver at the top few ranks who is nevertheless looking like he has some staying power.
At the Sekiwake rank beneath these two is Mitakeumi, a rikishi who is nailed to Sekiwake but seems to have lapses in 3 or 4 bouts every basho. Tschumi likes Mitakeumi, but he thinks Mitakeumi won't get to Yokozuna until he's 36, at which point he'll be injured for a year and retire (yes, that is more or less what happened with Kisenosato, a former Yokozuna who took his whole life to get to the top rank then instantly became an invalid)
Other rikishi get to Sekiwake, but they don't often stay there. I'm not sure if Meisei is going to, I can't remember if he got 8 wins in the recent basho, but yeah rest assured the rest of the top division is littered with fun young rikishi like Abi, Ura, Meisei, Wakatakage, Daieisho, Onosho, who could at any time get their shit together and join Takakeisho in the hunt for the basho. Abi is looking pretty likely, so long as he keeps fit.
---
What's been happening recently?
Terunofuji just own his second basho in a row, his second at the top rank, with an undefeated record. This despite coming within inches of losing to both Abi and Takakeisho, and a few other less illustrious rivals too.
Tschumi doesn't think Terunofuji is the hottest shit to ever wear the twisted rope, and he thinks he's an ordinary person too, but it's taking rikishi a while to get how to unsettle the big man. Terunofuji's sumo can be generously described as 'safe', he does everything in his power to grip his mits around his opponents, keep both feet on the ground then labouriously pitch them over. He's huge, heavy, strong, the key to beating him is the age old David vs Goliath 'nimble is nice' method, but yes it's yet to be perfected. Abi got closest in the last basho, Takakeisho also basically won his bout only to lose it when he ran out of puff.
Tschumi will be revelling in the first losses Terunofuji suffers at his new rank.
--- Okay, that's enough Tschumi geekdom.
Recommended Viewing:
1 - Natto Sumo.
This is a very useful channel that puts up edited and texturally commented videos of each day's action in a pretty timely, consistent manner. Go here to get your holistic daily summary.
2 - Chris Sumo
This is a knowlegable guy named Peter (just kidding, I guess it's Chris) who puts up informative, newsy videos about sumo. He doesn't always seem to directly cover sumo tournaments, but he's good use nonetheless for knowing more about the wider goings on.
3 - Sumo Stew
Some nice girl named 'Ter' with a strange inability to pronounce the 'O' sound correctly (sometimes it's right, some times it's more like 'awh') and an annoying decision to appeal to ASMR fanatics, puts up fantastic videos on interesting sumo developments, history, and such quite regularly. You'll learn a lot from her videos.
4 - Jason's All Sumo Channel
Unfourtunately this channel is going to 'retire' soon (EDIT: he's backtracked on this and will stay for another year), as the man who does it - his name's Phil (jk Jason) - is going back to the US in the new year some time. This is still a fantastic place to find archived footage of all the bashos stretching back a decade or so, all narrated by a friendly and informative dude. If you wanna know what Sumo was like when Hakuho was still doing it, or Harumafuji, this is the place to find those archived basho.
That's it for this OP for now, I might spruce it up/add in interesting stuff later.
I'd just like to make it clear that nobody need feel pressure to keep this thread bumped, let's just use it to chit chat when the basho come around/cool things happen.
Finally, just to get it rolling, I'm going to tag key participants from this thread from a few months ago just so we can get up and running.
NecrosaroIII
Bitmap Frogs
strange headache
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