on this day: 1988

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

Mainichi Daily News, Friday 1st April 1988

A Sporting Look By David Shapiro

A Sleeping Giant Wakes

   As all the fans know, sumo is a vertical society in which 700 plus 
wrestlers fight in six different divisions and move up or down based on 
their performance in each of the six tournaments held every year. The first 
and foremost goal of every young wrestler is to make it to the division 
second from the top, the Juryo division. Once a wrestler makes Juryo, he is 
considered a sekitori, that is a full-fledged wrestler who receives all the 
honors and privileges of that status.
   Before you can reach Juryo, you have to clear a ?wall? known as the 
Makushita division. This is no ordinary wall mind you. It's about 12 meters 
high and just as thick. It's made up of a combination of young up-and-coming 
wrestlers dying to use you as a stepping stone to the top and seasoned 
veterans who will use every trick in the book to trip you up allowing them 
to hang on just a little longer.
   Its the make or break division and although it doesn't get as much press 
as the top two, the competition is always hot and heavy. The recently 
completed Osaka Grand Sumo Tournament was hotter and heavier than most.  You 
see, an 18-year-old Hawaiian who, when he entered professional sumo a year 
ago was referred to as the second coming of Konishiki, took the division 
title with a perfect 7-0 record. (Everyone below Juryo fights for only seven 
of the 15 days of each tournament.) His name is Taylor Wiley and he fights 
out of the former ?Jesse? Takamiyama?s Azumazeki stable under the ring name 
Takamikuni.
   Taylor is big. At 181 cm and 197 kilos he is very much in the Konishiki 
class size wise. And when you meet him, until he hits you with that 
easygoing Hawaiian smile, he's just as scary. Taylor's got the same hard 
edge Konishiki?s got.  The kind of edge you need to make it big in 
professional sumo.
   His debut was almost a carbon copy of Sally?s. He quickly raced through 
the bottom two divisions taking, as Jesse and Sally had, both division 
titles in the process. It was when he hit the third division, Sandanme, that 
he temporarily ran out of steam.  Don't get me wrong. He wasn't losing big. 
He just wasn't beating  up on everyone any more. A combination of a shoulder 
injury and what some people saw as a difficulty to adapt to sumo's unique 
lifestyle slowed him down.  He was no longer the latest ?unbeatable monster? 
from Hawaii.
   Taylor still managed to clear that division in three tournaments setting 
him up for his Makushita division debut last month.
He raced through his first five opponents, putting them away with an awesome 
pushing/thrusting attack, but the press didn't really take much notice. That 
was until the 11th day of the tourney when he came up against former college 
superstar Keita Kushima.  The press Kushima sweeping the division to set 
himself up for promotion in May. Takamikuni had other ideas.  As one 
commentator put it, ?He had Kushima beat before the match even started.? At 
188 cm and 175 kilos Kushima is not small. Taylor had him so intimidated he 
seemed to shrink into himself. The match lasted all of 0.7 seconds.  He 
locked up the title on the 13th day beating the only other 6-0 wrestler in 
the pack with equal authority.
   Taylor became the first foreigner in sumo history to take the Makushita 
division title.  For May, he will be promoted to somewhere in the top 15 
ranks of the division. Another perfect 7-0 and he's in Juryo.  He says he's 
in no hurry.  He doesn't have to be. If he can keep the pace he set last 
month, it'll come all by itself.






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