Debu-sen: Gay Sumo Fetishism in Advertising

Okay, this is one of those extremely rare times when my experience in advertising, Japan and gay life come together in a very strange way. Recently an ad agency in Singapore ran this on-site ad, a kind of a poster that as you move past it, like a lenticular, the visual changes. And what you see at first is a couple of Sumo wrestlers in a tatami room illustrated in a way that makes it clear they are about to have sex with each other. A rather stereotypically offensive way I might add. In this first panel, the wrestler in the foreground has his hands on the control for the blinds. And in the next two panels, what you see is the blind closing so you don't get to see what is about to happen.

Now as it happens, having lived in Japan as an out gay man who was curious about everything in the local gay scene it should be no surprise that I came across a bar in Shinjuku that had among its clientele Sumo wrestlers and their admirers. Suum quidque. Chacon a son gout. Or as the Japanese say, Juu nin, to iro. (For those who are interested in seeing a Sumo sex scene, there is a marvelously hysterical moment in Takashi Miike's film The Happiness of the Katakuris when a young woman discovers the dangers of being under an Ozeki, a truly anarchically funny film).

Now, I have to admit, for me the idea of watching two Sumo wrestlers go to on a futon instead of in a dohyo is rather less than appealing — sort of on the order of imagining your parents,well, enough said. However, there are those for whom this must be pure heaven. But that's not the point of the ad. The headline is "Keep It Private," and I have to agree, I don't want to watch anyone quite frankly, despite living in a Manhattan building surrounded with a view of dozens of windows that remain open to view providing the possibility of entertainment that YouTube could never even dream of streaming.

Just as you might not want to watch the Yokozuna make it with the Komusubi, no one want to watch you either. So get a blind thank you very much.

And for those of you who want to know the name and location of the bar in Tokyo where you might meet a Sumo wrestler, unless you speak Japanese, it will remain one of life's great mysteries. Thanks once again to Ads of the World for its very odd selection.

Comments

[DEBU]

I like DEBU gay

.

[Kobuta]

I like debu gay and I like sumo wrestler! I want to know the name and address of the gay bar!