On this Day: 1946

["Rowan" <rowan@juryo.com>]

Nippon Times Magazine, Saturday 9th November 1946

It's A Sumo World
By A Staff Writer

    As Sumo's Grand Champions waddle pounds of fat across the dirt arena of the Kokugikan in Ryogoku in the annual autumn sumo tournament, fans wonder the answer to the question in their minds as to the future of this, once Japan's national sport. 
    The question: Is sumo still kingpin among Japan's sports in spite of the inroads made by Western games - baseball and rugby for instance - and the ravages of the lost war? 
    In its heyday, sumo had more color and a more riotously enthusiastic fan following than any other sport in the world bar none - and that includes baseball, cricket, American football and what have you. In its golden era, tickets for a sumo meet were as hard to get as penguins in New Guinea and since reserved seats were limited, fans used to camp outside the entrance from the previous evening to be sure of seats at the next day's meeting. 
    It isn't the bizarre costumes of the wrestlers or their freak sizes and figures only that attract the cash customers. The color and lure of sumo is something more than that. There is, first, the centuries old tradition behind it and its development as a sport of the common people. Earliest mention of sumo in the chronicles of Japan is in 73 B.C. when Nomi-no-Sukune and Taema-no-Kehaya, two stalwart aborigines, wrestled before Emperor Suinin. It was always popular with the people as a game, but about 100 years ago, it was inaugurated as a regular event at the Eko-in Temple in Ryogoku, later to be transferred to the Kokugikan which was erected on the adjoining piece of land. The Buddhist rites that developed in the growth of sumo at the Eko-in are still preserved to this day in the costumes of the judges and the wrestlers, the Shinten (temple-like roof structure over the ring), and the throwing of salt over the ring and other purification rites. 
    A secondary factor is the fascination and attraction of a world apart from that of the common man. The strange hairdo that distinguishes the sumo man in a crowd emphatically as his giant size and ponderous paunch is just as much a symbol of a different society as the costume and coiffure of the geisha. His is a feudal world regulated by Spartan discipline, marked by a rigid period of apprenticeship in which the novitiate is complete servant and slave to his superiors, and a feudal code of mores. 
    This, perhaps, is the attraction of the sumo for the geishas for every tournament sees a mass turnout of these gay butterflies in their perfumed best. And their wild screams when Futabayama, glamour boy of the dirt arena, butts his grunting opponent out of the circle would make make any crowd of bobbysoxers going into hysterics over a Sinarta look pallid by comparison. By reputation Japanese men and women are reserved and polite, but such inhibitions apparently have no place in a sumo meet. 
    But the Kokugikan is not what it was and the changes that have occurred in the traditional sumo arena are symbolic of the changed conditions that face the game itself. On March 10 last year Mariana based B-29's made their first mass raid on Tokyo. Their bombs leveled the Eko-in to the ground and only the steel frame of the Kokugikan amphitheater standing stark and lonely against the background of the smoldering ruins of Ryogoku. Came the end of the war and the army of occupation. The American army authorities reconstructed the Kokugikan on the site of the old structure, and renamed it Memorial Hall, a monument dedicated to the American athletes who died in the hostilities. 
    The Americans erected a modern indoor amphitheater where they once stood a dirty, grimy, smelly and unsanitary structure. The building is clean and bright. There are floodlights where the pictures of onetime sumo greats used to hang in the gloomy darknesses of the rafters. Grandstands and seats have been installed in the place of the boxes where fans used to squat on straw mats in stockinged feet. GI boxing bouts are held where once only sumo events were seen. There is none to deny that the modern Memorial Hall is a definite improvement. A visit to the Kokugikan had the fascinating flavor of a trip to the circus. Striding through the corridor among the freak sized sumo gladiators, or peering into the grimy cubicles where they rested while waiting for their bouts to come up, it was easy to imagine the ghostly presence of the grand Champions of the past in the dark nooks of the building. 
    Much as the impact of the bombs against the Kokugikan, the impact of more vigorous forms of outdoor sports imported from the West threatens the popularity of sumo today. City youngsters have found baseball, tennis, rugby and track meets more to their taste and this interest has been increased by the Olympic games and other international events. And such traditional events as the annual Waseda-Keio baseball game are rivals to conjure with. The rural districts have never strayed from the fold, however, and such areas as Kochi, Aomori and Hokkaido yearly produce a large number of sumo aspirants and the major part of the fans. 
    Another factor is the defeat of Japan. During the war years, the military eschewed purely Western sports and encouraged such purely Japanese sports as kendo and judo and sumo. Japan's surrender has thrown the emphasis back again upon Western sports where the Japanese youngsters would prefer to have it. 
    In other ways, circumstances seem to be conspiring against the officials of the Japan Sumo Association who are fighting hard to keep the game at the top of the heap. Men worried about what they are going to eat have little time to spare for sumo or any other pastime. Then there is also the lack of transportation facilities and the overcrowded trains. The situation has not been helped by the coal strike which has forced the Railway Ministry to reduce the number of passenger coaches, operating on the main lines. All this means less of the faithful coming in from the farming areas to swell the coffers. 
    But the biggest blow to sumo is the permanent retirement of Futabayama, the golden boy of the game. His name is to sumo what the magic era of Jack Dempsey and Tex Rickard are to boxing. Futaba and Tamanishiki are the all-time greats of recent decades, the Grand Champions of Grand Champions. And not one of the three grand champions of today - not Terukuni, Haguroyama or Akinoumi - have the same golden aura about them that draws cash customers to the box offices. 
    Futaba was something more than just an ordinary wrestler. Sumo men are not noted for good looks or intelligence. A glance at the usual specimen would lead one, rather, to the supposition that some of them at least are selected as much for their ability to frighten their opponents stiff before coming to close quarters with them as much as their wrestling ability. But Futaba is a notable exception. He has the type of handsome good looks that tug at feminine heart strings. He is intelligent and has dignity and poise. Futaba's fan mail from women was the envy of film stars. Even his romance with and marriage to Shibata Sumiko, a willowy geisha beauty, in 1941 has not diminished his attraction for feminine fans. Futaba, 34 this year, did not compete in last year's tournament and just recently announced his intention of retiring permanently from the ring. He will make his farewell appearance on the two days following the close of the tournament, tentatively on the 19th and 20t!
h. 
    The three Grand Champions in the game today may have much of the thunder stolen from them by up and coming youngsters if they are not on their toes. Haguro topped them all last year with 10 straight victories in as many bouts, defeating both the baby faced Terukuni and his team mate, Akinoumi. Terukuni's only defeat was at the hands of Haguro. But Akinoumi has a disastrous season. Weakened by illness he won only four of his ten bouts. 
    About 120 former sumo aspirants are back from the army eager to get back their rankings, and a number of youngsters have come up during the war years. The means difficulty in ranking these men, and so it is a safe prediction that there will be a member of major upsets. The tipsters tab Azumafuji, 25 year old Ozeki (Champion, second in rank to Grand Champion) and Chiyonoyama, 20 year old youngster, as the best Grand Champion material. Azumafuji lost only one of his ten bouts last year and that was to to unbeaten Haguroyama. Chiyonoyama only became a wrestler in 1941 and set some of a record when he became a Rikishi in four years. He won all ten of his bouts last year and has gained 50 pounds since then, scaling a fighting 272 pounds today. On the other hand, Terukuni who once weighed 334 pounds has lost almost 70 pounds. 
    The object of sumo is to shove, yank or throw an opponent by his arms, legs, or breechcloth to the ground or out of the ring. But the action itself is usually over in a few seconds. Much of the time the two wrestlers seem to be squatting glaring at each other. Every once in a while one of the men will find that his oversize diapers don't fit just right or that the spiritual setting isn't just right and he'll straighten up again to take up a handful of salt and throw it around to purify the atmosphere, and his opponent will do the same. If one finger or a knee touches the ground or one toe goes out of the ring, the other man wins. No gentleman warrior will pull his opponent's hair or kick him in the groins. There is more to sumo than meets the eye, however. Experts say that there are 48 holds, and a defense against every one.
In any case, no mere layman can push or shove a good sumo man off balance. It would take a bulldozer to do the trick, no less. 
    The rankings of the wrestler are decided immediately after each tournament by the officials of the Japan Sumo Association, and these are a closely guarded secret until just before the tourney. The matching for each day are not announced until the day before. 
    Though Haguro heads the West Camp this year, Terukuni and Akinoumi are backed up by a stronger array of top line talent and so victory for the east is more or less a foregone conclusion. Interest centers therefore on the performances of the young stars. 
    Sumo is slow to Western eyes because the emphasis is basically different from Western sports. Sumo, so experts say, comes from the stomach. Rather overwhelmingly so, one is tempted to reply. In any case, that is where the strength is centered. If a man is strong in the stomach, he can't be shoved off balance and he himself won't move until the favorable moment for attack comes. Sometimes, wrestlers have faced each other for more than ten minutes before any action comes. To speed this up, the association in recent years has ruled that the time period until the men come out of their crouch be limited to three, five or seven minutes, depending on the ranks of the men engaged. 
    Their pendulous stomachs undoubtedly help the wrestler. In spite of what dietitians say to the contrary, sumo men will insist that it is constant stomach building exercise as well as the huge quantities of rice and sake that they consume that builds up these paunches. 
    In a land of small people, the sumo wrestlers are notably big men. And the biggest of the 300 men in this year's tourney is Fudoiwa - Immovable Rock - who towers over his opponents at slightly more than 6 feet eight inches. But he is comparatively light, a mere 264 pounds. Minanogawa, largest of recent sumo wrestlers - now a politician - weighed 344 pounds. 
    The average sumo warrior lasts about 10 years in the listed rankings. He usually starts his apprenticeship at 16 or 17 years of age and in the feudal system that operates in sumo society he is slave in body and soul to the top ranking men. He cooks for them, washes for them, waits on them, dresses them and lives only for the day that he can join the magic circle. If he makes the listed rankings he will continue to wrestle for as long as he can. The usual man retires at about 30. The top men such as Dewaminato, for instance, will then usually start their own group, picking up disciples for whose welfare they accept full responsibility. Many sumo men have opened up small eating houses usually near the gay districts and every year at tournament time relive their own brief days of glory. Minanogawa became a student at Waseda University and after graduation, became an official in the New Workers' Mass Party. 

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