Grand Sumo photos - January 21, 1999

I made my way to the sumo at about 3.15 on the date above, armed with a Nikon CP900 digital camera. Some of the results are here. I took about 60 shots, deleted about 10 on the spot (one of the nice things about a digital camera) and picked out seven for here from the remainder. They have been cropped and scaled, but are otherwise unretouched. I was sitting in the "B" seats towards the top of the 2nd floor (gallery), by the way.

The reasons that these are so blurred are:

  • on account of the camera being somewhat point and shoot, I was unable to turn off the flash and still keep a decent shutter speed
  • I was at full zoom (3 x) with a teleconverter (1.8 times)
  • I had also turned on on the digital zoom (2 x) which means that we're talking over 10 x zoom in total and I had no tripod with me (idiot!)

    • What I wrote originally in 1999 was "Miyabiyama in action is awesome, by the way--watch for this man and let's pray that he doesn't get injured before he makes oseki at the least (is it too early to be talking about oseki on the man's 4th professional basho?)". In fact, as I write, he is currently ozeki, but fighting hard at that level.

    Let me know what you think by sending mail to hugh@j-views.com.

    My original comments on the photos written in 1999 are in this black, by the way.

    My up-to-date retrospective commentary is in this color here.

     

    Don't we all miss these two (Asanowaka and Mainoumi) down in juryo? I do, anyway.

    Asanowaka's back with us in makuuchi, but he's toned down the act a bit. He's no longer in gaudy mawashis, doesn't play his games with the salt, and has given up the frog-like pushups. It hasn't added a lot to his sumo, though.

    By way of contrast, here are two of my favourite large men - Mitoizumi and Ganyu

    Both gone, now, alas!

    Sorry about the blur, but I'm going to miss this when Mitoizumi eventually retires

    And I do. A sad time when this smiling gentle giant called it a day.

    This man is looking good - his technique is probably the finest around at the moment, and he's not boring in the least.

    But now no longer with us - he looks much happier not being associated with sumo any more (and he looks good in a suit).

    Too much perfection usually, but Musoyama had fun with him today - no perfection there.

    Still there, and still great, even after some appalling problems and injuries. Musoyama is now finally ozeki, and hanging in there.

    The sideburns in action (about all you can make out in this picture) -- I like Toki and enjoy his style of sumo. I think we have the makings of another Mitoizumi-type character.

    A most upsetting and unfortunate traffic accident (and rikishi aren't meant to drive!) kept Toki confined to barracks, and this is meant he's down to the juryo division. Still a character, and capable of making komosubi at some stage in his career, I think (though his technique's a little one-sided).

    The old (Takatoriki in mid-air) meets the new (Dejima, with at least one foot on the ground). Whoops!

    Dejima still confuses me. Sometimes the new ozeki looks great, and sometimes he seems to forget what he's meant to be doing. I can't believe that Takatoriki's still with us, although he won the tournament last Osaka.

    2001/04/04