Yokozuna Hakuho reprimanded for leading cheer after his victory

Heaven forbid there be joy at a Sumo tournament. The Kami can't have that.

I was ready to sympathize with him, that he continues to have to put up with these cheerless troglodytes, but then I got to the end:

Despite his most recent brush with the JSA over sumo procedure and protocol, it was revealed last week that Hakuho has applied for a renunciation of his nationality in order to acquire Japanese citizenship -- a requirement of all foreign wrestlers wishing to become sumo elders.

If he's willing to do this then he's obviously OK being a good little soldier. Ironic that Japan's own prodigal son of the sumo world, Takanohana, had a far more iconoclastic and rebellious nature. Like Ama and Asashoryu, who were unceremoniously drummed out of the sport, I find myself having far greater respect for them than Hakuho.

Yeah. On the other hand they have to get in the face the pillows the spectators farted in the whole day, if they lose the match... Decorum? I think the honourable committee lost the plot and have shown how thick can they be.

So the decline in interest in sumo continues.....

Did anyone bother to tell Hakuho at some point in time that this cheering was not in the sumo tradition?

@Speed There is no decline. Tickets are in such demand that now they have a lottery.

anything to knock the gaijin Yokozuna down, you know becuase Japanese sumo never have any questionable ethics!? I hope he stays for another 5yrs and cleans up all the tournamanets, I can smell another premature promotion of a Japanese Yokozuna anytime now.

Yes indeed, heaven forbid people enjoy anything in life.

upholding such traditions and orders, such decorum and beauty of form.

oh yes, that the female city mayor had to stand outside the ring to make her speech, or better still, PA announcement asking female first aid givers to get lost while they were busy trying to save a life !

After collecting a record-extending 42nd top-division title on the last day of the 15-day tournament, Hakuho led spectators in a traditional "sanbon-jime" hand-clapping cheer, saying he wanted to "rouse the crowd at the conclusion of the last grand tournament of the Heisei era."

The JSA criticized the grand champion for disrupting the flow of ceremonies and preceding the sport's spiritual "kami-okuri" ceremony that concludes the tournament and uses the same sanbon-jime cheer.

Boy, the JSA are really full of themselves, aren't they. Hakuho has done more for sumo than anyone else in decades.

No wonder the JSA are plagued by troubles when they still think like this.

In fact, Hakuho took it upon himself to make something special for the last Heisei basho. Something the JSA didn't even think about.

Sumo "tradition" includes beating people to death for what elders consider disrespect, including going against beating people to death. Sumo "tradition" includes allowing a man to die over letting an impure woman into the ring to save his life. Sumo "tradition" includes promoting Japanese above the wrestlers of other nationalities, and doing anything to keep that up, including a huge litany of excuses when their own don't hold a candle to others. In short, if he wasn't going with tradition, that is probably not that a bad a thing at all.