Kendoguy9
24th January 2015, 13:03
Hello all,
I thought I'd share with everyone that we have started a formal sumo class in Baltimore. Our dojo the Ryuzukan has started a new club for sumo and we will be registering with the US Sumo Federation. The USSF and its members have been very supportive of our efforts! This is a very good time for us to start a sumo club. This year is the year of the ram, an appropriate animal for sumo since they are known to charge into one another, just like rikishi do (I was also born in the year of the ram so it is a lucky year for me personally). Our dojo was also given a formal name, the Ryuzukan, meaning Dragon Head Hall. It is a powerful name and we need to really train hard to live up to it; sumo is all about hard training. Finally we started our first club meeting and prcatice yesterday Jan. 23rd. It wasn't planned this way but it happened to be a very auspicious day in sumo; Yokozuna Hakuho beat the all time tournament win record with his 33rd Emperor's Cup win on the same day.
My personal interests in sumo started while I was a judo player in high school. We had a 1/2 Japanese-American, 1/2 Korean-American college student training in our club who was a judo player, sumo player and kendo player. He spent most of his summers growing up in Japan or Korean with family where he studied the three budo. He showed me a few throws and some of the training methods of sumo (and kendo/kumdo) and I thought it was pretty cool and casually added them to my judo training. When I got connected to Daito-ryu back in '99 my interests developed further since the Takeda's and many Daito-ryu big shots (Hisa, Ueshiba, Sagawa, etc.) were rikishi at some point. Kondo sensei, our Daito-ryu teacher, was even kind enough to get us tickects to the Sept. 2001 basho. The size and power of these men was awe-inspiring! We got to meet a few rikishi outside of the Kokugikan and it was like shaking hands with a redwood tree! We've done sumo informally off and on in the Daito-ryu club for a while now but it seemed like a good time to up our game. Hopefully we will be able to develop our skills enough to compete at the nationals either this year or next. I will keep everyone posted on devlopments in our club as they happen.
Gambatte!
Chris
I thought I'd share with everyone that we have started a formal sumo class in Baltimore. Our dojo the Ryuzukan has started a new club for sumo and we will be registering with the US Sumo Federation. The USSF and its members have been very supportive of our efforts! This is a very good time for us to start a sumo club. This year is the year of the ram, an appropriate animal for sumo since they are known to charge into one another, just like rikishi do (I was also born in the year of the ram so it is a lucky year for me personally). Our dojo was also given a formal name, the Ryuzukan, meaning Dragon Head Hall. It is a powerful name and we need to really train hard to live up to it; sumo is all about hard training. Finally we started our first club meeting and prcatice yesterday Jan. 23rd. It wasn't planned this way but it happened to be a very auspicious day in sumo; Yokozuna Hakuho beat the all time tournament win record with his 33rd Emperor's Cup win on the same day.
My personal interests in sumo started while I was a judo player in high school. We had a 1/2 Japanese-American, 1/2 Korean-American college student training in our club who was a judo player, sumo player and kendo player. He spent most of his summers growing up in Japan or Korean with family where he studied the three budo. He showed me a few throws and some of the training methods of sumo (and kendo/kumdo) and I thought it was pretty cool and casually added them to my judo training. When I got connected to Daito-ryu back in '99 my interests developed further since the Takeda's and many Daito-ryu big shots (Hisa, Ueshiba, Sagawa, etc.) were rikishi at some point. Kondo sensei, our Daito-ryu teacher, was even kind enough to get us tickects to the Sept. 2001 basho. The size and power of these men was awe-inspiring! We got to meet a few rikishi outside of the Kokugikan and it was like shaking hands with a redwood tree! We've done sumo informally off and on in the Daito-ryu club for a while now but it seemed like a good time to up our game. Hopefully we will be able to develop our skills enough to compete at the nationals either this year or next. I will keep everyone posted on devlopments in our club as they happen.
Gambatte!
Chris