Re: Where are the fans?

"sumofan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I started watching sumo in 1965 while stationed in Japan with the Air
Force,
> and have been following it ever since (we have the TV JAPAN option with
DISH
> TV). The thing that has struck me lately is the sparseness of the crowds,
> particularly during the weekdays. I NEVER recall half-empty arenas in the
> past, even on weekdays.
>
> Forgive me if I am touching upon something that has already been
discussed,
> possibly many times ... I'm new to this group.
>
> Sumofan
>
>

Here's a question:  What is the average age of Japanese sumo audiences?  Is
that age creeping up and up?

This is why I ask.

I lived in Japan July 1990 - July 1993 where I was one of 11 Army guys at
Yokota Air Base, an hour out of Tokyo (or four hours, depending on traffic).

During those three years, I watched every sumo tourney on TV and attended
several tourneys in Tokyo.  My assignment was to work with the Japan
Self-Defense Forces and my counterparts were Japanese.  They saw to it that
my wife and I spent most of our time with them, doing things that real
Japanese do, eating at restaurants where real Japanese eat, going to
traditional Japanese plays, taking in bonsai exhibits, and the like.  I even
visited the Yasukuni Shrine where I went inside the Yushukan.

One of my recollections was an event that occurred shortly after I arrived
in Japan in July 1990.  I was watching Japanese TV (we could also receive
CNN International, BBC TV, and StarTV, all in English).  I don't speak
Japanese but it was clear what was going on -- the reporters were visiting a
beach in southern Honshu where young Japanese were lolling around on the
beach, in the sun.  Most of the young women were wearing bikinis and
sunning.  The reporters had with them a complete kimono ensemble -- I don't
know the Japanese terms but the reporters had the kimono underclothes,
belts, sashes, and kimono.   They would hand the kimono to the young
Japanese women and ask them to put it on.  I watched the show for its
entirety and in the course of 30 minutes, they could not find a single young
Japanese woman who knew how to don the kimono.

I got my weekly haircut from an older Japanese lady barber at the air base.
She had been a child during WW II and told me stories of how GIs gave food
and blankets to her mother -- her father died in the war -- that kept them
from freezing and starving.  In Japan, January 15 is "Coming of Age Day."
Young men and women who have turned 21 in the preceding year go to the local
city hall and are given their adult ID cards.  Young men dress in black
suits and young women in red kimonos.

I mentioned to the barber lady that I had seen this TV program in which
young women did not know how to don the kimono.  That was all she needed -- 
she then proceeded to elaborate in her broken English the sad state of
tradition among young Japanese.  She then told me that to be licensed as a
hairdresser in Japan, a prospective hairdresser must be tested in being able
to put on a kimono -- because women who don't know the proper way to put on
the kimono go to their hairdresser who dresses them.   She said that on
January 15, young women stream to their hairdressers to be dressed -- 
because neither they nor their mothers knew how to dress in a kimono.

January 15 was a couple of months after we had this conversation. I made a
point of going downtown early in the morning -- young Japanese women were
walking, driving, going in taxis to beauty shops -- accompanied by their
mothers, carrying bundles containing their kimonos.  Young women, in red
kimonos, were coming out of the beauty shops.  Amazing.

So, after all this tale, my question is -- What is the average age of
Japanese sumo audiences?  Is it possible that we are seeing the growth of a
young Japanese population that has little connection with its own
traditions?  After all, sumo's origins are shrouded in the mists of Japanese
history, culture, and myth -- just like the kimono, and young Japanese women
don't even know how to put on a kimono.

I live in central Appalachia, a region steeped in very old and important
history and tradition.  My wife's high school students do not know, do not
want to know, and do not understand such Appalachian traditions as:  old
Christmas; Jack tales; and Elizabethan ballads.  They prefer the latest rock
band to the Carter Family. For example -- this will mean nothing to most on
this newsgroup, but -- I live 30 minutes away from the Carter Fold, the
homeplace of the Carter Family.  The Fold has an old, barn-like theater with
a dirt dance floor and every Saturday night the Fold features old-time music
bands -- no electric instruments, all old-time music and dancing.  The
crowds are all gray-haired, very few young folks.

Not that sumo will ever disappear from Japan.  Appalachian traditions will
not disappear -- but they are quickly becoming the province of a small
number of purists and people with gray hair.  Is sumo headed in the same
direction?


-- 

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Joe S.