Sumo Wrestling Crashes to Earth with a Thud!

[Guest fountainhall]

The sight of grossly obese young men in loin cloths and funny hair-dos is not likely to attract the interest of even Tawan Bar regulars, the more so when all they do is spend a few seconds charging like bulls at each other until one hits the deck – oops, the dohyo, a square of clay that has been specially built and blessed by priests prior to every tournament. This, after all, is not part of the gay world. It’s Japan’s national sport, sumo wrestling. For tens of millions of Japanese and countless more recent fans around the world, sumo, with its religious undertones, is indeed more like a mixture of religion and entertainment, its stars as popular and as widely written-about as the hottest teenage pop idol. Every tournament is televised by the national broadcaster NHK, attracts oodles of sponsorship cash, and winners can make millions.

 

I could not abide sumo. Until I worked in Tokyo, that is. Attending one of the 3 annual tournaments (basho) held in the city each year was a must for some clients, and I also had to attend. Gradually I got caught up in the ritual and the spectacle and started appreciating some of the finer points of the sport.

 

Even at that time, though, there were occasional rumours that all was not right with the sport. A bit of bribery here, match-fixing there, bullying of younger apprentices, and so on. But the body controlling the sport was always there to assure the public that any minor transgression would be dealt with severely.

 

Now the world of sumo has come crashing down. Following an illegal betting scandal last year which finally saw NHK drop its coverage, match fixing allegations are once again so rife that the Japan Sumo Association has taken the unprecedented step of cancelling next month’s Grand Tournament – the first time such a cancellation has happened since 1946. The police have been called in and 13 wrestlers are under investigation.

 

Sumo will rise again, no doubt. If anyone happens to be in Japan during one of the basho – there are 6 each year – I thoroughly recommend getting a ticket and spending an afternoon in the company of the very partisan and frenzied crowds. You may not understand much of what it is about, but if you pay close attention to all that goes on between the actual bouts, you will have an entertaining and quite unique memory to take away with you.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12375649

[Bob]

I've kept this photo on my laptop for years (have no idea where I got it, somewhere off the net). I'd caption it "Hope Springs Eternal" or something like that.....

 

 

Those summo guys are really huge.

[Guest fountainhall]

I've seen that photo before - and love it! When I lived in Japan, one of the most popular wrestlers was a Hawaiian Japanese with the professional name Konishiki. There was a similar picture of him taken with some tiny kids on a tour to London, but I cannot find them on the internet.

 

Konishiki was, I think I am right in saying, the heaviest-ever sumo wrestler. He once weighed in at 284 kgs. The first part of this vdo, however, shows him being landed by a much smaller wrestler, Wakanohana, one of two brothers who went on to become huge sumo stars and dominated the sport in the 1990s. His brother Takanohana actually looked quite cute!

 

Konishiki, nicknamed

[Guest anonone]

...attracts oodles of sponsorship cash, and winners can make millions.

 

Even at that time, though, there were occasional rumours that all was not right with the sport. A bit of bribery here, match-fixing there, bullying of younger apprentices, and so on.

 

 

Funny timing. While flying back home from Thailand last month, I caught some of a documentary on the plane which explained some of the allegations and methods employed by the Sumo industry (for lack of a better term). It was very interesting, even to someone like myself who had no grasp of the intricacies of this sport.

 

Like most things, anytime there is so much money and prestige in play there is a greater propensity to allow greed to corrupt.

 

With its history and cultural importance, I truly hope it rebounds quickly....