[sumo] For Toronto fans

[michael.dineen@utoronto.ca]

The recent Star article was heavily edited, probably to make room for the
picture on the cover. If anyone's interested, here's the original version
of the story and sidebar:


Computer consultant Geoff Senson gave his wife an unusual Christmas present
last year: the handprint of Japanese sumo wrestler Takamisakari, nicknamed
Robocop.
"She was thrilled," he says, without a glimmer of irony.
The couple persuade friends who are able to get TV Japan on cable to tape
the 15-day sumo tournaments for them so they can watch every match and keep
their own win-loss records.
"We're planning a sumo-based trip to Japan within the next two years," says
Senson. "The passion we feel for sumo is pretty intense."
The Sensons are not alone in their fervent enthusiasm for sumo.
The Leafs, the Raptors and the Blue Jays indisputably have their followings
in the Toronto area. But so does Asashoryu, the 308-pound, 23-year-old,
Mongolian-born sumo grand champion, who started with a touch of a bad boy
image very rare in his sport. 
There are lots of impassioned sumo fans in the GTA. Toronto even has a club,
the Ronin Judo/Sumo School, where men and women can learn sumo wrestling and
compete in amateur matches. Elmer Gale, who owns and runs the school, is the
amateur silver medallist in North American sumo.
Sumo wrestling dates back more than 1,500 years in Japan. It is a sport like
no other, steeped in ceremony and ancient ritual, pitting wrestlers who
often weigh over 300 pounds against each other. Sumo tournaments, called
bashos, are held six times a year and frequently attract television
audiences of more than 30 million.
Sumo's popularity in Japan wavered a little in recent years, but is picking
up again since the strong, smart and attractive young grand champion
Asashoryu has won the last two tournaments without losing a single match At
the same time, sumo's appeal has been growing with international audiences,
including Canadians. It has become especially hot in Scandinavia, Germany,
England and France, but North American interest is not far behind. French
President Jacques Chirac is a keen sumo fan.
"We used to be typical North American sports fans," says Senson. "We had
season's tickets for the Argos and we went to the Blue Jays games. But I got
more and more disenchanted with professional sports, the bad behaviour, the
huge amounts of money handed out to players, the high ticket prices, and the
strikes.
"Sports stars are today's lords, and we serfs toil to pay huge sums to see
them. Alex Rodriguez is getting $120 million to play baseball. I'm really
disillusioned with it all."
Sumo is a pure meritocracy, he says, and doesn't have outrageous salaries.
The wrestlers bow to each other at the beginning and end of every bout, and
if they misbehave, they are kicked out of the sport permanently. The
Japanese term for sumo wrestlers, rikishi, translates loosely as "gentlemen
fighters." 
Senson and his wife stay connected with worldwide sumo aficionados through
the Internet and also keep in regular touch with a number of other sumo fans
in the Toronto area.
"The Toronto group met and had a sushi dinner together," he says. "Joe
Kuroda is the leading light of that group."
Kuroda, a Richmond Hill computer programmer, was born in Japan and came to
live in Canada at age 15. He's a respected sumo authority among
international sumo fans through the Internet. 
"I did a little sumo recreationally as a kid, and I got interested in it
again about 15 years ago," he says. "My wife's mother still lives in Japan
and we time our visits to coincide with sumo tournaments. She sends me sumo
magazines, too."
Kuroda watches every match, and memorizes amazing amounts of detail about
individual wrestlers and about the whole sumo association, which is called
Nihon Sumo Kyokai. He says he thinks the tradition and ceremony that
permeate sumo make it more interesting to people, as well as the high
ethical codes wrestlers must adhere to.
"A lot of people like the characters of the individual wrestlers," he says.
"Sumo is not tarnished. It is the same sport it used to be. They maintain
the customs and traditions."
Some of the customs have led the sumo association into deep waters over the
past few years and officials will probably eventually bend to public
pressure, he suggests. Women have always been forbidden on the dohyo, the
sumo ring, and the governor of Osaka, a woman, wants to hand the trophies
out for Osaka tournaments as the male governors of the other tournament
cities do.
"She has complained about having to send a male assistant to do that for
four years now," says Kuroda. "She has recently been re-elected. Sumo
officials are still studying the matter. Sometimes you have to move with the
times." 
 If women are not welcome in the ring, however, they can be found in great
numbers in the audiences.
Marisa Zubans, a Toronto stay-at-home mom, was introduced to sumo through
her women's group when she lived in Tokyo for three years while her husband
completed a work assignment there. She toured one of the sumo heya, in
English called stables - where the wrestlers live and train - with the
women's group, and attended Tokyo tournaments with groups of friends, Zubans
says.
"When we figured out how to turn on the English translation on our
television, and got English commentary for the sumo, we got more
interested," she says. "My husband enjoyed it, but he had a lot of other
things on his mind. I was the one who became a real fan."
She collected some sumo memorabilia, including photographs of herself with a
couple of high-ranking wrestlers, and has a special table in her Toronto
home where she keeps these items.
Paul Boyland, 20, a Pickering resident in Asian studies at York University,
spent a year in Japan on a high school student exchange program and saw a
sumo exhibition match live during that time. He had previously considered
sumo wrestlers fat, he says, but he saw that they are actually incredibly
strong.
"Once I saw it up close I could see that it was really cool," he says. "I
started following it, and as soon as I came home I started looking stuff up
on the Internet. Usually someone puts the matches on their website, and I
know someone who gets the Japanese television station where they show the
matches live.
"When there's a basho, I have to know the results as soon as possible if I
can't see it live. As soon as the matches are finished I'm on the forums
discussing them.
"My friends just think I'm weird. I don't really mind. Sumo is just as
exciting as overtime in hockey."
Toronto-based musician Steve Raiman travels regularly to Japan, where his
music is popular. He first discovered the appeal of sumo matches because
they are shown on large screens in public baths in Tokyo.
"It's very exciting," says Raiman. "There's a fascinating psychological
element as well as all that strength. Sometimes one of the little guys can
topple one of the big guys in an upset victory.'
He appreciates the complete lack of trash talk in sumo, and the way the
wrestlers treat each other and the sport with respect, adds Raiman. He built
a trip to Japan around the sumo tournament in Osaka that ended last Sunday,
and managed to get a ticket to the second last day of the basho. Good seats
for the final day had been sold out for weeks.
Once someone watches enough sumo to get to know some of the wrestlers and
develop a sense of what's going on, it's easy to get hooked, Raiman
suggests. "We really love our sumo," he says.
Gale, owner of the Ronin Ryu Dojo on Dupont St. at Lansdowne Ave., has been
teaching sumo to local men, women and children for 20 years, he says. He
holds his sumo classes in Dufferin Grove Park when the weather is pleasant.
Gale has trained in judo for 30 years himself, and says sumo was always a
part of his own training.
He says his 8-year-old daughter PaxLayla is also enthusiastic about
practising sumo and is showing signs of promise. He introduced her to sumo
before she could walk, by using a hand puppet, Gale says. 
The emphasis in sumo, unlike North American sports, is less on who's number
one, he says.
"The beauty of sumo is the spirit of the fight," Gale says. "Once a person
gets away from the media concept of sumo, everyone loves it. It's like the
child's game King of the Hill. The best way to learn is just to get in there
and do it."
John Racine, who grew up in East York and has lived in Japan for the past
eight years, tries to put sumo in Canadian terms. "Can you imagine a hockey
game on ice that is consecrated by a priest and purified before each
period?" he asks. "Can you imagine the referees wearing silk robes designed
in the 1200's, and each carrying a dagger to symbolically take his own life
if he blows a call?
"Now imagine Gretzky in a topknot. It was those exotic, traditional elements
of sumo that drew me in." 
For more information on Elmer Gale's sumo lessons, e-mail to
ronin.sensei@simpatico.ca
Here are a few websites with more information about sumo: 
For movies of recent sumo matches: www.banzuke.com/sumomovies.html or
www.dohyo.com/sumomovies.html
For basic information and useful English-language links:
www.japan-guide.com/e/e2080.html
For a mailing list of international sumo fans:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dgoddard2
For commentary on the last tournament, try www.sumotalk.com 
SIDEBAR:
Two mountainous men face each other in an elevated clay ring called a dohyo.
They each throw some salt to purify the ring, and stomp their feet in
ritualistic ways. The two are naked except for silk loincloths called
mawashi, and their long hair is pulled into topknots
They squat facing each other behind white lines on the floor, each meeting
the other's eyes in a powerful.stare that some say helps determine the
outcome of their coming battle. Each will aim to force his opponent out of
the ring, or thrown him off balance so any body part other than the feet
touches the floor. 
After they repeat these actions while tension builds, the referee points a
fan, indicating that it is time to begin. The two men lunge at each other
and move around in the ring, locked together, each looking for a place where
they can get the upper hand. 
The bout is lightning fast, usually over in 20 seconds, and the end is often
dramatic. Sometimes it only takes five seconds - a 30-second match is a long
one. There are 70 techniques they can use to win, and wrestlers specialize
in different ones. 
Above the dohyo, a wooden roof-like structure is suspended, resembling the
top of a Shinto shrine. A Shinto priest blesses the ring and it is
considered holy ground. Many of the ceremonial aspects of sumo grew out of
ritual from the Shinto religion, although today for many enthusiasts they
add interest and colour rather than religious overtones. .
There are about 800 professional sumo wrestlers in Japan, from trainees to
champions, but only one of them who is still wrestling has reached the
highest ranking. He is Asashoryu, 24, who was promoted to this elevated
level, called yokozuna, last spring. When a man becomes a yokozuna, he
cannot be demoted. If he loses too many bouts, he is expected to retire.
Four wrestlers have currently achieved the second ranking, called ozeki.
Only the higher ranking wrestlers are paid. Those in the lower ranks are
given food, housing and training, but no salaries.
The wrestlers may start at age 15, and a few continue into their early 40's.
Not all of them have the stereotypical large bodies as the highest ranking
men in sumo do - in the lower ranks, some of the wrestlers are lean-bodied. 
They live and train in 50 sumo clubs which in English are called stables.
The ground floor of a stable is used for working out and training; the more
junior wrestlers live on the second floor; and the higher ranking wrestlers
on the third floor. The rules are very strict in the stables, especially for
the younger wrestlers.
Six tournaments, called bashos, are held each year, three in Tokyo and one
each in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka.
 
 
 



[EndPost by michael.dineen@utoronto.ca]