Sumo.....

[Mitsuo Maeda]

Excuse me for the brevity of my initial post.  It occurred to me that  
I should introduce myself a bit.  I am a graduate student at the  
University of Southern California.  I am working on a project that  
examines how sumo is shown both in Japanese popular culture and the  
presentation of foreign wrestlers.   I am comparing foreign wrestlers  
and the sumo system to the Hollywood star system and its total  
control over talent. During this time,  Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese- 
American actor was presented as a "model minority" who successfully  
assimilated into American culture.  I want to compare him to sumo  
wrestlers.   I am also looking at Richard Dyer's work on the  
construction of the Hollywood star and would like to find general  
materials in film that present sumo as a vehicle for assimilation or  
even sumo in general.