Description
The World of Sumo explained by Takamiyama Daigoro? (born 16 June 1944 as Jesse James Wailani Kuhaulua), a former sumo wrestler, the first foreign born rikishi to win the top division championship (in 1972). His highest rank was sekiwake. His active career spanned twenty years from 1964 to 1984, and he set a number of longevity records, including most tournaments ranked in the top makuuchi division, and most consecutive top division appearances. He is also the first foreign born wrestler ever to take charge of a training stable, founding Azumazeki stable in 1986. He retired as a coach in 2009.
Library's review
Sumo wrestling, like judo is a supremely Japanese sport. Its origins are shrouded in legends intermingled with Japan's history, and, even today, the ceremony and ritual which surround the sumo bout are as intergral to the competition as the wrestlers themselves.
What is sumo? What is its
With the knowlege and insight that can come only through the experience of the athlete, Takamiyama and his friend John Wheeler explain why both Japanese and foreigners fall under the spell of this absorbing sport. They tell it from the inside. They take you through the gruelling training-sixteen hours a day, year in, year out, revealing a regime that would terrify any professional sportsman in the West. A sumo wrestler not only has to train-to build muscles into his mountainous frame-he must also achieve a mental discipline, a fighting spirit couched in the greatest dignity. The stratified nature of the stables to which all wrestlers belong is as strict as any feudal society and as demanding. A new wrestler has to fight his way up a ladder of skill and competition which determines not just his ability at sumo, but, much more, his status as a man. What are these standards? And why did Takamiyama vounteer to subject himself to them in a country witha culture aand language so different from his own? Takamiyama, vividly illustrated by Turner Givens, tells in words and photos what sumo is and what compels a man to enter its ranks-and tirumph.
John Wheeler, who collaborated with takamiyama to produce this book, is a well-kjnown sumo enthusiast. Born in New York Cityii, he graduated from Williams College, Williamstown, Masschusetts, before ging on to do post-graduate studies in Japanese at Harvard. He taught at an Indian university for a while on a Fulbright scholarship, before furhtering his Japanese researches in the field. Drawn to sumo, he wrote a series of articles-'Oh, Sumo'-for the Japanese sports paper, Nikkan Sports.
D. Turner Givens, the photographer, has traveled and photograhed extensiveliyi throughout his life. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, his adolescence was spent in varioius towns and cities in Europe and the U.S. After graduating in journalism from the University of Nebraska he became a photographer in the army. He started free-lancing, at first in America, and later, in the Orient. He is now based in Hong Kong and has made Asia his home.
Contents
Acknkowledgments
Preface
Prologue
Chapter I Kokugi
Chapter II Happy Valley to Takasago-beya
Chapter III Chanko-nabe, Matawari and Bamboo sticks
Chaper IV Sumodo
Chapter V Maezumo through Maku-shita
Chapter VI New Sekitori
Chapter VII Okome
Chapter VIII Sankaku
Epilogue
Index
What is sumo? What is its
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fascination? Why should the sharp brief clashes between two massive near-naked men create such wild enthusiasm in its millions of followers? An how did Takamiyama, born Jesse Kuhaulua on Maui Island, Hawaii, not only enter the sacred ranks of Japan's sumo wrestlers but achieve a triumph previously accorded only to a Japanese. In July, 1972, this massive young American athlete won the Emperor's Cup, the highest prize a sumo wrestler can win.With the knowlege and insight that can come only through the experience of the athlete, Takamiyama and his friend John Wheeler explain why both Japanese and foreigners fall under the spell of this absorbing sport. They tell it from the inside. They take you through the gruelling training-sixteen hours a day, year in, year out, revealing a regime that would terrify any professional sportsman in the West. A sumo wrestler not only has to train-to build muscles into his mountainous frame-he must also achieve a mental discipline, a fighting spirit couched in the greatest dignity. The stratified nature of the stables to which all wrestlers belong is as strict as any feudal society and as demanding. A new wrestler has to fight his way up a ladder of skill and competition which determines not just his ability at sumo, but, much more, his status as a man. What are these standards? And why did Takamiyama vounteer to subject himself to them in a country witha culture aand language so different from his own? Takamiyama, vividly illustrated by Turner Givens, tells in words and photos what sumo is and what compels a man to enter its ranks-and tirumph.
John Wheeler, who collaborated with takamiyama to produce this book, is a well-kjnown sumo enthusiast. Born in New York Cityii, he graduated from Williams College, Williamstown, Masschusetts, before ging on to do post-graduate studies in Japanese at Harvard. He taught at an Indian university for a while on a Fulbright scholarship, before furhtering his Japanese researches in the field. Drawn to sumo, he wrote a series of articles-'Oh, Sumo'-for the Japanese sports paper, Nikkan Sports.
D. Turner Givens, the photographer, has traveled and photograhed extensiveliyi throughout his life. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, his adolescence was spent in varioius towns and cities in Europe and the U.S. After graduating in journalism from the University of Nebraska he became a photographer in the army. He started free-lancing, at first in America, and later, in the Orient. He is now based in Hong Kong and has made Asia his home.
Contents
Acknkowledgments
Preface
Prologue
Chapter I Kokugi
Chapter II Happy Valley to Takasago-beya
Chapter III Chanko-nabe, Matawari and Bamboo sticks
Chaper IV Sumodo
Chapter V Maezumo through Maku-shita
Chapter VI New Sekitori
Chapter VII Okome
Chapter VIII Sankaku
Epilogue
Index
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Publication
Kodansha International