Yes, the man on the left is not Japanese (but how's that for "Japanese" sentence construction?! tee hee). He's Bulgarian, and I've no idea what his real name is. His sumo name is Kotoohshu; an interesting aside is that kanji character for the "oh" in the middle of his name means "Europe". He's just been promoted to sekiwake, and he's won all eight of his matches this tournament. Should he win his ninth in a row tomorrow, that will be a record for a sekiwake. We know where we'll be around 5:30 pm. tomorrow...NO, we're not diehard enough to trek back to the Kokugikan. But we'll certainly watch the match on TV!
posted by jcm