Sumo - Traditional Japanese Wrestling
Sumo: Introduction | The Basics | The Basho | The Hanada Dynasty
Introduction
Sumo is one of the most popular professional sports in Japan and the image of two of these huge wrestlers grappling is one of the most famous images of Japan abroad. The colorful traditional costumes worn by the rikishi (wrestlers) and gyoji (referees), the distinctive oichomage (gingko leaf knot) hairstyle and the various rituals give the sport the exotic air that appeals to many foreigners. As TV spread the word worldwide, many foreign hopefuls tried to break into the ranks of sumo but few succeeded until recent years. One problem is the language as there are many Japanese terms used even in English-language TV coverage.
Yokozuna Futabayama
Ozeki Konishiki
Chanko-nabe
For the rikishi, sumo is more than a sport, it is a way of life, unbelievably tough for newcomers but with its rewards for those who reach the top, especially the uppermost rank of yokozuna (grand champion). The most dominant yokozuna to take to the dohyo (ring) in the 20th century were Futabayama (1912~68), who won a record 69 consecutive bouts in 1936~9, Taiho (1940~ ), who won a record 32 basho (tournaments) before retiring in 1971, Chiyonofuji (1955~ ), whose almost unbeatable sumo in the 1980's earned him the nickname 'The Wolf,' and Takanohana (1972~ ).
After retiring, most top rikishi become oyakata (stablemasters) and train future stars. Chiyonofuji, for example, became Kokonoe oyakata, a shimpan (ringside judge) and a director of the Japan Sumo Association.
The sport has been rocked a couple of times by claims of yaocho, or match fixing. Claims that some of the top rikishi routinely took some ¥3-400,000 in cash to throw a match were quickly and adamantly denied by the Sumo Association, but the sport's image had been tarnished. This may have been one of the reasons why the sumo elders started to relax the rules a bit in the late 80s and beyond. The result was a relative flood of non-Japanese rikishi, mostly from Asia but also from the US and even eastern Europe.
And some did perhaps better than the sumo elders expected. Hawaiian behemoth Konishiki, at 280kg the heaviest rikishi in sumo history who became a TV personality and popular TV commercial pitchman, became the first foreigner to reach the second-highest rank of ozeki. Another Hawaiian giant, Akebono, was Takanohana's greatest rival in his heyday and was the first foreigner to make the rank of yokozuna. He was soon followed by Samoan-born Musashimaru.
More recently Asashoryu, one
of dozens of his countrymen to enter the sport in recent years, became the first Mongolian to reach the top rank, and became the most
dominant rikishi of his day. In 2005 for example, he won all six basho, losing a measly three out of 90 bouts in the whole year. His
outgoing and aggressive style didn't go down well with some sumo purists, who see dignity (not to mention Japanese racial purity) as a
primary requirement for a yokozuna.
And so many were baying for his retirement when he caused a major scandal in 2007. Video footage showed up of him playing a charity soccer game back in Mongolia when he was supposedly resting due to injury and unable to take part in regional sumo tournaments. This led to his becoming the first ever yokozuna to be suspended, and the two-basho punishment left him in a state of severe depression. The media was split between those calling for his retirement and those who felt he was being unduly punished, but he bounced back the following year and in March 2008 pulled level with Takanohana's career total of 22 basho. Though he had been accused by some of bringing the ancient and venerable sport into disrepute, he certainly succeeded in putting it back into the spotlight. That spotlight would soon fall on another of his countrymen...
The other scandal from 2007 damaged the sport in a much more serious way. Aichi Prefecture-based Tokitsukaze oyakata, whose heya was established by the great Futabayama, came under intense media and eventually police investigation after the June hazing death of a 17-year-old trainee who had tried to quit the sport. Saito Takashi's death was first said to be due to heart failure, but investigation and an autopsy ordered by his father revealed that he had been severely beaten. Tokitsukaze himself had hit the junior with a beer bottle and instructed others to beat him with a metal baseball bat. In February 2008, the now former oyakata and three of his rikishi were arrested for manslaughter. The Sumo Association came under severe criticism for seeming to try and sweep the case under the carpet and treat it as an internal matter.
Then in the summer of 2008 it was the Russian imports who
were the cause of a major scandal. Rikishi Wakanoho was arrested for marijuana possession and when the sumo association cut him loose, he became
the first active rikishi to be kicked out of the sport (that's right, he was dealt with more harshly than the guys arrested for manslaughter!)
and his oyakata Magaki resigned from the sumo council. Wakanoho made repeated appeals to be reinstated but was told strictly that anyone who
retires, is kicked out, or who runs away is not allowed back into the organization. Shortly after that scandal broke, two other Russian brothers,
Roho and Hakurozan, failed drug tests (which they disputed) but avoided arrest and like Wakanoho ended up suing the Sumo Association seeking to
revoke their dismissals. Former yokozuna Kitanoumi resigned as head of the sumo association and calls grew stronger for a serious investigation
into the sport.
In 2014, Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho (left) reached a milestone few thought possible when he equalled the record of the legendary Taiho in winning his 32nd basho. He won 5 of the 6 basho that year, proving that he was still very much at the top of his game. Taiho's 40-year-old record was soon broken and Hakuho's career total went on to an incredible 45 tournaments before he finally retired in the autumn of 2021. With the other yokozunas in the mid2010s - Harumafuji and Kakuryu - also both Mongolian, that country's domination of the sport remained total until the New Year tournament of 2016. That was when Fukuoka native Kotoshogiku, an Ozeki since 2011, ended the long drought and became the first Japanese-born rikishi in a decade to win a tournament.
Currently there is only one yokozuna, and unsurprisingly Terunofuji is another Mongolian. With 4 tournaments under his belt, he was promoted to the top rank in the summer of 2021, winning his debut as Grand Champion.
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