First European Wins a Basho!

[Samurai_Jerk]

A portlier looking Kotooshu just became the first honkey to win a sumo basho. He beat two Yokozuna's in the process too. Good to see him doing well after being plagued by that leg injury for so long.

[Mike Oxlong]

Some interesting snaps of him as a younger, thinner fella at this site:

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2664

[nottu]

[Taro Toporific]

Via Kyodo

[Samurai_Jerk]

Hey Taro,

Thanks for adding the photo. I posted that right after I has watched him win on TV, so there were no news articles up yet. I did try posting a couple of photos, but they kept changing to links, so I gave up.

[Mulboyne]

[Takechanpoo]

[YT]U0Zkr0JZEAs[/YT]
[YT]atA1osGYbhQ[/YT]
By the way, Bulgarian thing I know is only a yogurt.

[kusai Jijii]

Honkey Power!;)

[Greji]

[quote="kusai Jijii"]Honkey Power!]

Good shot Ji, but I've often wondered, whether it should it be Honkey Power, or Honky Power? Does the "e" add some class for Rednecks?

I suppose it would depend it you were a Honky, Honker, or Honkee..

[kusai Jijii]

Good shot Ji, but I've often wondered, whether it should it be Honkey Power, or Honky Power? Does the "e" add some class for Rednecks?

I suppose it would depend it you were a Honky, Honker, or Honkee..

G,
I'm just a fuckin' Engrish sensei, How da fuck should I know?
Ask Jack, IQ man of massive magnitude!

[nottu]

[Mulboyne]

AFP: Rare woman in sumo wrestling made Bulgaria's Kotooshu into superstar

In the male world of professional sumo wrestling where women are not even allowed to touch the ring, it is a lady with a gripping smile who made Bulgarian-born Kaloyan Mahlyanov, known in Japan as Kotooshu, into the sumo superstar he is today..."I was like a clever fox in the late 1990s, luring plump boys from wrestling clubs to try out sumo," Bulgarian Sumo Federation chief Lilyana Kaneva, who previously worked for the national wrestling federation, told AFP. "Kaloyan was a second-year wrestling student who turned up at an amateur competition and I knew immediately that he had talent and potential in sumo and not in wrestling, as he already weighed over 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds)"...After converting to sumo, Mahlyanov quickly became amateur champion in Bulgaria and the professional Sadogatake sumo stable in Tokyo was ready to take him on as a disciple.

"I had trouble convincing his mum and dad to let him go, at the same time undertaking this enormous responsibility as he had to quit university and it was clear to me that there was no going back once he went to Tokyo," Kaneva said. But Mahlyanov made it to Japan, where he joined the stable's draconian training during the day, discussing problems with his mentor in the evenings. "After 20 days, it was time for me to go and he suddenly said: 'I'm leaving with you'," she recalls, noting she was then fully aware that this would amount to sacrilege. Knowing the stable had expelled a South Korean wrestler to make space for Mahlyanov -- each Japanese stable is only allowed one foreigner -- she said she "promised him luxury, posh yachts... the world" but he insisted on returning to his tiny village of Djulyunitsa in central Bulgaria.

"We were sitting there the last evening, finishing dessert and I told master Kotozakura (the famous former head of the Sadogatake stable) to let him go, and that I would commit harakiri if Kaloyan did not return to the stable within a week," Kaneva said. "Well, he was granted leave but returned to Tokyo as promised so I was spared harakiri," she laughs...

...Kotooshu's Bulgarian fairy godmother has meanwhile become the first woman ever to sit on the board of directors of the International Sumo Federation and the European Sumo Union. Kaneva, who studied French philology and writes haikus, a form of Japanese poetry, in her free time, is still luring plump boys into her "sumoland" as she calls it, and has fostered the development of 20 amateur sumo clubs around Bulgaria. In November 2006, she was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, the second most prestigious Japanese decoration, for her contribution to the nation. The only thing she says she regrets now is that she did not discover sumo earlier. "I could have become a sumo wrestler and not just a sumo judge," she says with a wink.

Here's an article about Taro Aso last year visiting Bulgaria's first fully-equipped sumo wrestling hall in the National Sports Academy