Sumo champ charged head-on to greatness

　僕は英辞郎を使って英語を読みまくり、インターネットラジオのNHKのラジオジャパン英語ニュースで時事英語を聞きまくってます。（＾＾；また、VOAでヴォイスレコーダーにDLしたMP3音声とテキストも楽しんでます。
参考「こんな感じで英辞郎を使ってます」

Sumo champ charged head-on to greatness

06/02/2005

Theatergoers of the Edo Era (1603-1867) used hanjo, small-sized tatami or rush mats, to sit on. The phrase ``hanjo o utsu'' referred to the audience throwing the mats to express dissatisfaction with the actors.

2005年06月01日（水曜日）付
【天声人語】

　半畳とは、元は江戸時代の劇場で見物人が敷く小さな畳やゴザだった。「半畳を打つ」は、半畳を投げて役者への不満や反感を表すことだ。

But it was by no means out of dissatisfaction that zabuton floor cushions were thrown when Takanohana won a grand sumo tournament title for the first time in the spring of 1975. Takanohana clinched the title by defeating Kitanoumi, now president of the Japan Sumo Association.

``Fans were throwing so many cushions that the ceiling of the sumo arena was almost invisible,'' Kitanoumi recalls. ``It struck me that for many fans of Takanohana, it was a moment of victory they had been waiting to see for a long time.''

　しかし、その時に舞った座布団は不満からではなかった。「場内のお客さんが、天井が見えないぐらいに座布団を投げあげていた。多くの貴ノ花ファンにとって待ちに待った優勝だったのだなと思った」。貴ノ花が初優勝を決めた一戦で、敵役となって敗れた北の湖（日本相撲協会理事長）が回想する。７５年春場所だった。

Takanohana's autobiography, titled ``Atatte Kudakero'' (Charge whatever the consequences), came out just after he took the title. In the book, published by Kodansha, he wrote, ``From my childhood, I hated to be called Wakanohana's young brother.'' Nevertheless, when he finished junior high school, the 15-year-old asked Wakanohana, already retired as a yokozuna grand champion, to admit him into his sumo stable.

Wakanohana turned him down at first, then changed his mind when their mother intervened.

　この直後に出た『貴ノ花自伝　あたって砕けろ』（講談社）には、こうある。「物心ついたころから『若乃花の弟』といわれるのがいやでした」。しかし１５歳の春、親方になっていた元横綱若乃花に弟子入りを願い出る。兄は断ったが母が助け舟を出した。

The big brother sternly told the teen: ``I will sever my brotherly ties with you as of today. From tomorrow on, I will be your stable master. I will treat you as just another new trainee.''

Takanohana worked with single-minded devotion and was rewarded with an unimpeded rise in rank.

　兄は厳しく言い渡す。「きょう限りで、お前と兄弟の縁を切る。あすからは親方と、ただの新弟子でしかない」。弟はひたむきな精進で一直線に番付を上っていった。

But once, he incurred the wrath of his stable master when he got drunk after winning a tournament title in the ``juryo'' second-level division of sumo.

Wakanohana's autobiography is titled ``Dohyo ni Ikite: Wakanohana Ichidai'' (A man of the sumo ring-My life as Wakanohana), and published by the Publishing Bureau of The Tokyo Shimbun.

The book tells what happened after Takanohana skipped a morning workout due to the hangover. ``The conceited little fellow'' were the first words the master uttered when his brother finally showed up.

``I hit my brother repeatedly with a green bamboo stick. The stick splintered, and the floor was spattered with blood.''

　しかし十両優勝後のある朝、二日酔いで稽古（けいこ）をさぼる。「『この野郎、いい気になって……』。私は持っていた青竹でメッタ打ちにした。青竹はバラバラになり、あたりに血が飛び散った」（『土俵に生きて　若乃花一代』東京新聞出版局）。

Wakanohana was called dohyo no oni (a demon of the ring). Sumo thrived on his rivalry with Tochinishiki, another great yokozuna. His younger brother was one of the most important wrestlers after the era of yokozuna Kashiwado and Taiho.

Takanohana was a small and slender wrestler. Yet, he grappled with his opponents head-on. He should also be credited with grooming his two sons-Wakanohana and Takanohana-into yokozuna. Sad to say, the legendary ozeki (champion, one below the highest rank of yokozuna) who took on the name of Futagoyama as stable master, died at the age of 55 on Monday. He will long be remembered as a man who made great contributions to the postwar sumo world.

　「土俵の鬼」と言われた兄は「栃若」時代を築く。弟は「柏鵬」時代以降、小さな体で真っ向勝負を貫いた。そして子を「若貴」の両横綱に育てあげた。戦後の角界に長く大きな貢献をした「伝説の大関」貴ノ花・二子山親方が、惜しくも５５歳の若さで逝った。

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 1(IHT/Asahi: June 2,2005)