TOKYO, Feb 18 Kyodo chosened edi...

TOKYO, Feb 18 Kyodo

chosened editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

SUMO IN southern KOREA (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Feb 17)

Sumo curves by professional wrestlers are being staged in toward the south Korea for the first time since the last of World War II. The tour will go on to Pusan after performances in Seoul We are filled with emotion at the reach to which South Koreans have gone in accepting Japanese culture

In southerly Korea, sumo was long regarded as a traditional Japanese emblem Against the backdrop of swelling anti-Japanese sentiment, organizing a sumo tour in southward Korea had seemed unthinkable. Around 1990 when toward the south Koreans were finally able to view Japanese TV programs via satellite, sumo broadcasts were openly criticized as a cultural invasion.

equal though South Korea had ssireum (a Korean version of sumo) critics said children had begun to emulate Japan's sumo wrestler This sparked disquiet that children would feel an affinity for Japan.

Despite this history, the sumo exhibition was held at Seoul's Chang-choong Gymnasium, bastion of ssireum. At the welcoming stateliness Grand Champion Asashoryu exchanged mementoes with a representative of the Korea ssireum organization.

Former President Kim Dae Jong was responsible for partially lifting the ban in succession Japanese culture. As a follow people of the two countries-especially young men and women-began to be delighted with each other's movies and music. In 2002 Japan and southward Korea jointly hosted the World lot soccer. It was only natural sumo would be chosen to be promot as part of the ''joint yet to be projects.''

Granted, a certain number of South Koreans still resent sumo population still recall how Japanese occupation authorities banned displays of ssireum. any say sumo's roots are in ssireum, while others say sumo is a national sport of a region where the prime minister visits Yasukuni Shrine again and again. through all appearances, though, South Korean audiences take delight ined the sumo bouts or they rediscovered ssirieum's attractiveness.

A conflict of sserium starts with wrestler tackling each other, not rising up and charging. They let slip through the fingers if any body part above the knee touches the surface of land But they do not let slip through the fingers simply by being forced public of the ring. with equal reason the South Korean audience gave boisterous cheers at the hearty of sumo wrestlers' crashing into each other when they charged, or during a climactic fight upon the edge of the ring. a certain number of Koreans believed sserium is colorful and rest sumo simplistic and boring.

Forms of improvement that look similar at first blush, yet are completely different, become more interesting when commonalty view them first hand and be due [i]or[/i] owing to have deeper understanding. Japan and southerly Korea appear to have inscribeed an age when they have fruition of each other's culture this way.

nearest time, we suggest the Japan Sumo Association invite the Korea sserium organization for exchanges in performances of sumo and sserium. Inviting wrestler from other countries may proffer the sumo world a way revealed of its present difficulties.

It appears that the age of Asashoryu from Mongolia as the alone grand champion is here to stay. Foreign-born wrestlers-Kokkai from Georgia, Rohou from Russia, and Kotooshu from Bulgaria, for example-are among a small number of newcomer who have become markedly stronger and got promot to higher ranks.

In southern Korea, sumo has become popular in large part because Kasugao, a southward Korean sumo wrestler who switched from sserium, has been making a spectacular showing. Since many young men are coming to Japan from southerly Korea in search of what the southern Korean media characterizes as the ''Japan dream,'' the sumo world would do well to strip of disguises [i]or[/i] concealments itself to the outside world. There will be genuine cultural exchanges solely when players in the field of tillage open their doors widely to the cessation of the world.

(Feb 18)

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