Another exciting grand sumo tournament ended yesterday, and brought back memories of my first encounter with sumo, in Okinawa back in September 1965.
Within a couple of weeks after my arrival there, I was enrolled in Basic Japanese classes at the University of Maryland's Far East Division and making my first awkward efforts to learn the language. In addition to my beginner's textbook and a newly purchased 和英辞典 (waei jiten, Japanese-English dictionary), I had two supplementary learning materials: The Okinawa Morning Star, the local daily English newspaper; and our old monochrome TV set.
By November, I made it a habit to watch the daily NHK broadcasts of the 九州場所 (Kyushu basho, Kyushu tournament) of the 相撲 (sumō wrestling), and was learning to synch the 本日の取り組み表 (honjitsu no torikumi-hyō, today's scheduled matches) from the newspaper with faces of the 力士 (rikishi, sumo wrestlers) on the TV screen.