Sunday, July 10, 2016

Summer Sumo Tournament

I am a faithful watcher of the major Japanese sumo tournaments. These are held every other month in Japan and are not shown on any of the TV channels available in the USA no matter what your source of television broadcasts. Today the first coverage I'm seeing is at Teninshin's Youtube channel, but there's only Japanese commentary.

Right now, the only sources I know of that provide English-language coverage:

1) Jason, who is an American teaching in Japan. He posts videos on his Youtube channel of select matches and includes his own commentary. I enjoy his take on things. Here's video of a couple of today's bouts:





Here's Hakuho's 1st day bout:



Hakuho is the best sumo wrestler who has ever lived.

2) Kintamayama has been posting the daily digest video but may not continue that now that NHK is planning to provide English-language coverage on Youtube. He does have a video for Day 1:



I love his commentary and the humor he includes.

3) NHK World's "On Demand" Youtube channel has begun offering a daily digest of the upper division matches which includes English-language commentary. Theirs was still not posted as of 8:00 PM CDT. Here's their video explaining the rankings in sumo:



2 comments:

  1. I have never seen sumo wrestling--ever--so I had to watch these. I was surprised at how quickly they are over with. These matches are much less violent than boxing or American "wrestling" (which is more like performance art). :)

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    1. Most bouts are over with quickly, but sometimes there are longer bouts and even times they have to be stopped for a moment before continuing. Epic. Yes, this bears no resemblance to the type of wrestling often seen on tv. In sumo, they can slap with an open hand but no closed fist blows are allowed.

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