on this day: 1911

["Rowan Klein" <rowanchan@hotmail.com>]

The Japan Times, Saturday 10th June 1911

http://www.juryo.com/newspaper/19110610a.jpg
Passed champion TACHIYAMA making a ceremonial entry of the ring at Kokugi 
kan.

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Wrestlers of Eastern Camp - From right:- Passed Champion HITACHIYAMA, 
Champion KOMAGATAKE, Associate Champion NISHINOUMI, Second Champion AIOI, 
Third Champion TAKAMIYAMA.

http://www.juryo.com/newspaper/19110610bjpg
Wrestlers of Western Camp - From right:- Passed Champion TACHIYAMA, Passed 
Grand Champion UMEGATANI, Champion KUNIMIYAMA, Second Champion ISENOHAMA, 
Third Champion CHITOSEGAWA.

GREAT WRESTLING CONTEST

SEMI-ANNUAL MATCHES OFFER TEN DAYS OF SPORT

"SUMO" PRAISED BY COUNT ITAGAKI & THE PRESENT CHAMPION, HITACHIYAMA.

    The wrestling contest at Ryogoku commences today at the usual place, the 
Kokugikan. The present matches will go on for ten days, or until the 19th. 
The tournament is of course open from the morning, but as usual the matches 
of the champion wrestlers take place in the afternoon.
    Among the matches on the first day's program the following are the more 
interesting:-

Eastern-camp Western-camp
Chifunegawa Jindate
Ryogoku Kurosegawa
Kohitachi Tsuruwatari
Yamaizumi Tamateyama
Ayanami Tamatsubaki
Namino-oto Isenohama
Aioi Onaruto
Nishinoumi Otori
Asashiwo Tachiyama

  It is rather disappointing to the lovers of wrestling to learn that the 
champion wrestlers Hitachiyama, Umegatani, Kunimiyama, Takamiyama, Shiunryu, 
Ominato and a few others will not take part in the present.

Count Itagaki on Wrestling
    Interviewed by a representative of the Japan Times as to the future of 
wrestling, Count Itagaki, the retired statesman and renowned patron of this 
national sport, said that the act should be encouraged as an important means 
of entertaining distinguished foreign visitors. The art of wrestling Sumo, 
as it consists in hard physical exercises is cosmopolitan in character and 
is quite as easily intelligible to foreigners as to Japanese. Dramatic 
plays, being acted in the vernacular language, are far less adopted for 
appealing to the intelligence of foreign gentlemen, therefore, wrestling 
must be considered far more commendable as a means of entertainment that 
plays.

THE ART MUST BE PRESERVED
    Both on that ground, and also from consideration of furnishing innocent 
means of unbending to the people, the Count declared that the ancient manly 
sport dating from hoary antiquities must be preserved. For this the most 
important question is the treatment of retired wrestlers, for life in the 
ring is short, ten or at best fifteen years, a champion steadily declining 
in strength after forty. To leave him to his own shift in getting a 
livelihood after his retirement would be cruel. True, these is some 
arrangement even at present by which a champion wrestler retires from the 
ring with the grant of 1,000 yen given by the Wrestler's Association, but 
the benefit does not extend to less distinguished wrestlers.
    Some provision should be made for them also, and the Count hints that 
perhaps a small aid from the State may solve this standing problem. Even if 
such aid is hopeless, the proceeds from the semi-annual performances at the 
central ring in Tokyo, that is the Amphitheatre, may meet this purpose, if a 
percentage is set apart on this special account, assuming that the 
attendance at the Amphitheatre is satisfactory, as has been the case lately.

THE KOKUGIKAN AMPHITHEATRE
    It is a beautiful point in our history of our wrestling art, that, from 
olden times, the ring at Ryogoku, Tokyo, now called the Kokugi-kan, has been 
the headquarters of the art. The rules at Ryogoku were adopted all over the 
provinces, and the ambition of many a village youngster was to attach 
himself ot one or another champion at Ryogoku and to win his way upward. The 
Amphitheatre as the fountain of the art must therefore be preserved with all 
its time-honored privileges.
    In the January performance, continued the veteran patron, much complaint 
was heard of some of the principal contests having looked as if there were a 
"made-up game"; but the Count said that such a thing is almost impossible. 
Once the contestants enter the ring and take up their position they are 
invariably carried away by the spirit of competition, and they find it 
practically impossible to come to a compromise.
    The Count regrets to find not infrequently, that the ruling of an umpire 
is objected to by the contestants and even by the spectators. He reminds 
them that for the ruling an umpire has four referees, each taking a stand 
and closely watching the sport at each pillar erected outside the ring. If 
such experts are liable to err in judgment then others must be ten times 
more so.

Hitachiyama on "Sumo"
    The following is a translation of the champion's article, which is taken 
from the Musashino.
    With due regard to all knightly crafts of Japan which in the days of the 
Samurai, the military class maintained and fostered by the feudal clans, 
constituted the necessary accomplishments of the warriors, Sumo, or the 
Japanese system of wrestling, maybe said as having occupied the position of 
an art acquirement  of which was considered as much important, nay 
indispensable, as the attainments in fencing and Jiu-jitsu. Many a victory 
was won in the battle-fields by discreet application of this art of Sumo, 
whereby the enemy was grappled and thrown down. The practice was popularly 
indulged by the Samurai during the time of the feudal system, although no 
one in these days followed is as the sole vocation.
    It was not, however, till the period of Tokugawa's feudal reign that the 
community began to take cognizance of men endowed with extraordinary 
physical prowess and that these men gradually came to be known as Rikishi, 
literally "Men of Strength", and adopted wrestling as their profession. The 
Daimyo, or the chieftains of different clans, eagerly sought for the service 
of the Rikishi, whom they granted liberal allowances and whose art they 
cherished. The practice of Sumo has thus been fostered and rapidly attained 
prosperity and success.
    The wrestling afterward came to be exhibited before the public; but the 
Rikishi were still privileged to receive the treatment accorded to the 
military class and were permitted to wear the two swords, the mark of 
knighthood. This made the fact indisputable that the practice was regarded 
as one of the knightly arts, time-honored, and cherished.
    The Japanese system of wrestling, therefore, has a long standing 
history, and today it has acquired such a degree of attainment as to become 
a unique art of Japan, a feat of strength probably unrivaled by any one of 
the world's athletism.
    Today at the time feudal system has been abolished, the art of Sumo is 
still allowed to retain its old-time prestige, and a distinction is placed 
on its public exhibition from ordinary shows or amusements.
    The community regards it with not a little importance as reflecting the 
sentiment of Bushido, "The Ways of Knighthood". It has been recognized as an 
excellent system of physical training by educationalists in both public and 
private services. Sumo, indeed, has a very promising future.
    Every foreigner visiting Japan is given opportunity, at least once, to 
witness the exhibition of this national sport, and he or she who did so 
never fails to praise it. It has been customary to celebrate the success of 
the army and navy during wars, by an exhibition of the wrestling contest. 
Visitors from all over the world, who once saw the feat of strength by the 
Japanese Rikishi have carried back with them a pleasant memory of the sport 
they witnessed.
    I was born on January 19th, 7th year of Meiji, or 1874 in Christian Era, 
the eldest son of Takanari, of the House of Ichige, enjoying the distinction 
of the Samurai class, a retainer and instructor in the knightly arts by 
right of inheritance to the to the Clan of Mito one of the nearest relatives 
to the Tokugawa Shogun, who held the scepter of the feudal government. My 
career as wrestler began in 1891, or at the age of 17, from which time I 
studied and practised up to the present time. In 1903 I was honored with the 
title of Yokozuna, in addition to the championship of wrestling in Japan.
    As to the title of Yokozuna an explanation may not be out of place here. 
A festival was held on May 2th, according to the old calendar, 363 A.D., in 
honor of the God of the Sumiyoshi Shrine at Naniwa, now the city Osaka, when 
the occasion was celebrated by an exhibition of Sumo.
    A wrestler by the name of Hajikami, of the province of Omi, won the best 
of the day with his superior strength and craft; and finding no one who 
dared to challenge him for for the supremacy, he caused the rope of Shrime, 
or the sacred cord, to be taken down from the Torii, the arch dedicated to 
the shrine, and placed it around his waist, declaring the victory in favor 
of one who may touch this rope.
    Yokozuna which literally means "rope at side," originated in this 
historic fact. Subsequently in a wrestling match held in 1630 to commemorate 
the festival of a God at Shitaya-Shiwo-machi, Yedo, now Tokyo, a wrestler 
named Shiganosuke Akashi proved himself the foremost victor and was allowed 
to show a mark of distinction by wearing a Yokozuna, henceforth, has been 
inherited till the present time in which I have honor to be entitled to the 
19th in succession.

THE NATIONAL SPORT (Page 4)

    Today, the summer wrestling season opens at the amphitheatre, Kokugi 
Kan. For ten days the capital will have the delight of seeing the national 
sport exhibited at its best by the greatest champions that the country 
possesses. We call sumo the national sport, for none other is so peculiar 
and native to this country. But it is more. It is a venerable sport. For 
though it has its origin in an immemorial antiquity, it has come down to us 
little changed in form and procedure since the 48 'hands' or rules of attack 
and defense were authorized and adopted nearly thirteen centuries ago in the 
reign of Emperor Shomu. What is still more, it is a sport that brings but 
physical manhood in its highest grandeur, ever fresh and ennobling to the 
eyes.
    Strangers are not infrequently inclined to find in our wrestling a 
performance not sufficiently lively, and this the more so the greater the 
renown of the combatants. This may be perfectly natural to those who feel no 
thrill of excitement till they see a nose smashed, eye blackened, lips 
bleeding, or the whole man knocked down senseless. But the very beauty of 
our sumo is the entire absence of brutality and bull doggedness, while it, 
none the less, brings into full play the majesty of man's strength with 
delicate application of arts. If liveliness is the only object, one will 
have any amount of it by looking at forth, fifth ot tenth rate young 
wrestlers go in bouts, - those scampering, tearing and tumbling Jacks. But 
one does not expect to see that kind of exhibitions in those stately, 
massive giants who, when they close, look like a pair of elephants in mortal 
combat. Every muscle of their iron bodies stands out a veritable compression 
of power. As you look on you clench your fists till your nails bite into 
your hand. Mountains do not move, but they are majestic. So are these 
champions. But when mountains erupt they hurl forth lightnings and thunders. 
So do these human mountains. And it is worth seeing them struggle for 
victory. Immovable as rocks by the very counterpoise of force, but swift and 
adroit when in motion, there is always an air of dignity about them that 
spurns mean tricks and savage bloodthirstiness. As an exhibition of human 
strength in a combat of man against man, nothing is so manly and 
sportsmanlike as the wrestling of such men. One one well regard them as a 
pride of the nation.
    While we are on the subject, attention may be drawn to an interview our 
representative had with Count Itagaki, one of the most enthusiastic patrons 
of the ring. We entirely agree with the Count in thinking that every 
encouragement should be extended to the wrestling fraternity so that their 
noble national sport may be preserved to the delight of out remotest 
posterity. His remarks as to the cultivation of the spirit of self-respect 
among the professional seems also timely.





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