BagOfCrisps 24 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 How shocking. I thought it was so clean and scandal free. ( ) Quote: The faces staring out from the prints covering the wall of a tiny museum in Tokyo are uniformly podgy. They are the yokozuna, men who, over the centuries, have reached the apex of the ancient sport of sumo wrestling. Possessed of devastating strength and skill, they are also feted for modesty in victory and dignity in defeat. The coach parties of pensioners at the sumo museum in Tokyo's Ryogoku district linger before the yokozuna (grand champions), laughing as they recognise faces from the past and, perhaps, hoping for happier times for Japan's de facto national sport. However, the storm clouds are gathering above sumo, a 2,000-year-old sport celebrated in Japanese mythology, watched by warlords and emperors, and steeped in Shinto ritual and pretensions of moral rectitude. The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) is today poised to suspend more than two dozen wrestlers – about a third of the top division – and coaches implicated in an illegal gambling ring that has shaken the once unimpeachable sport to its core. The talk is of tens of thousands of dollars in illicit bets, extortion, shady middlemen… and speculation about sumo's very future. The JSA is expected to expel Kotomitsuki, an ozeki (champion) who has admitted placing large sums on baseball matches, a violation of Japan's strict gambling laws. Otake, a former wrestler-turned-sumo stable master, also faces expulsion. According to Japanese media, as many as 65 of 700 wrestlers have admitted betting illegally on baseball, cards, golf and mahjong. In a crisis meeting last week the association stopped short of cancelling this month's 15-day tournament in Nagoya – one of only six Grand Sumo contests held each year – but NHK, the national broadcaster, may refuse to screen the bouts if it decides the governing body has failed take tough enough action. How's it's popularity of late? On a decline? Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Eating excessively has never been out of fashion. Eating excessively for your sport is just holy. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 fat bastards. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Never understood why gambling is illegal in Japan. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 gambling aint illegal in Japan. You can gamble on horses. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Only at certain JRA places, but that's the only gambling that's legal right? To actually win money. Link to post Share on other sites
stemik 14 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Boat racing Bike racing Bicycle racing Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Pachinko - not gambling for money are you? Those silly little metal balls that you exchange for a prize which then you can either 'sell' back to the pachinko parlour or keep. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Boat racing? Never seen or heard of that. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 yeah Boat Racing, you can gamble on the J-League as well, its called TOTO. and of course the Lotto Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Well I be damned! Shows what happens when you abscond from gambling. So why is gambling on baseball and sumo illegal? Also how about casinos? Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Im still waiting for everybody here to admit that Sumo is fixed...thatll be the day. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Freakonomics. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 It has been known long before that... Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 But only really did that book put it into the wider world. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted July 5, 2010 Author Share Posted July 5, 2010 Really must read that book. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted July 5, 2010 Author Share Posted July 5, 2010 As for sumo, I blame all the foreign sumo dudes. They must be to blame. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Freakonomics doesnt say sumo is fixed, it just says that in some situations the wrestlers will let each other win as a favour to retain rank. That would not happen very often, maybe one match per basho at most, so it is a different thing to saying the sport is fixed. However, no doubt it IS fixed, but for reasons other than those outlined in freako. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted July 5, 2010 Share Posted July 5, 2010 Originally Posted By: RobBright But only really did that book put it into the wider world. I guess for people outside of Japan, but this debate Ive been having since Ive been living here and learned about it. No biggie, the media makes spectacles outta things it wants to or is able to, and doesnt when it can avoid it or is paid to shut up. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Sumo. It's a funny game isn't it. Kobayashi shoulda been a sumo wrestler, but he just likes to eat and not get fat. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 OR Typhoon and the other fat wrestler. Big show too.... Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 The Typhoon, 5 foot nothing, 70 kilos, can eat 54 hotdogs in 10 minutes. Eating machine. Thst is some kinda super hero. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Originally Posted By: RobBright OR Typhoon and the other fat wrestler. Big show too.... do you mean from the Yank wrestling? Typhoon and Eartquake, the Natural Disasters? kobayashi gets called the Tsunami, Thurs, not Typhoon Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 oops. My fagotty bad. Link to post Share on other sites
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