If March 13, 2011, had been a normal Sunday in Japan, at around 4:30 p.m. this writer would have popped open a beer, grabbed a packet of shelled peanuts, switched on his TV and watched the first day of the Osaka Grand Sumo Tournament on NHK.

But the day was hardly a normal one. Not only NHK but all of Japan's commercial and satellite channels were broadcasting uninterrupted news bulletins about the earthquake devastation in Tohoku.

At least the Tohoku Kanto Daishinsai — as history will record its name — cannot be blamed for sumo's absence from the airwaves that day, since the sport had already suffered its own catastrophe one month earlier.