Mrs. Doreen Simmons
Mrs. Simmons has been watching sumo extensively and making notes on it since coming to Japan in 1973. Her bimonthly sumo column has appeared in the Kobe-based Kansai Time Out since 1983 and she was a regular contributor to Sumo World, the only English-language magazine dedicated to sumo, from 1987 to about a year ago, when she left to support an attempt to produce a new specialist magazine. She is probably best known, however, for her live sumo commentaries in English on NHK's worldwide satellite service, which began in 1992. For several years her spare time has been filled with writing the definitive book on sumo -- but she is burdened with the awareness of how vast the subject is.

Her academic background, in Classics and Theology, was itself the result of a fascination with systems of belief and the way in which traditions are handed down and new traditions are created. These interests give her view of sumo a somewhat unusual perspective. Her knowledge of sumo background is not only the product of personal interest, but reflects thousands of hours of observation and millions of yen spent on tickets, trains, hotels, and sumo parties.