Sumo (Tut Books)

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SUMO. Japan's spectacularnational sport, continues to maintain ia popularity despite the inroads made in recent years by baseball. Millions continue to be enthralled by the flfteen-day championship matches now held six times a year in Japan's major cities' The tournament halls are filled to capacity every day ald nationwide televisingnow enablesanyone to see Sumo. adding further stimulus to the popularity of the sport. Mr. Sargeant,sportseditor for the EnglishJanguage .lsohi Evening -llews, realised that there were many foreigners who would enjoy Sumo more if they knew more of the essential facts about it. Utilizing his knowledge and fust-hand information on the sport' he produced this book to meet this need. Written in the humorous, easy-to-read fashion with which the many readersof his sports column will be pleas' antly familiar, Mr. Sargeant has also given us a picture of the excitement of the sport, as well as ls6hnical aspects that are apt to escapethe uninitiated eye. The professional Sumo wrestler is very much in the public eye, his activities, both in and out of the ring, being followed with eager interest by millions of fans via press,radio, and television. Here we are taken into the wrestler's life behind the scenesat a tournament, at the gruelling training sessionsin the various gymnasiums, and, in delightfully informal accounts, in moments of recreation and relaxation at home. Not neglectedare the rich pageantry and histori.:.

(continuedon insideback cover) Couer designbY M. Kuwata

The title and author's name are presented on the rcver in Japan€se characters.

SUMO

t\

SUN,[O the sport dnd the traditiort

w l. A. SARGEANT

CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY Tolcyo,JaPan Fnttlanil, Vermont

Reprercntatiues For ContfuettalExrope: Boxrnroors, fNc., Zaricb For tbe British Ishr PnrNrrcr-Her-r, INrnnNATroNAL,INc., London For Australasia: Boor ril7rsr(Ausrner-re)Prr. Lro. 104-108SassexStreet,S-1dne1 2000

Table of Contents P*lified fu tbe CharletE. Tuttle Companl,lrc. of Ratland, Vermont dt Tok1o,lapan ntith editorial ofrcesat Sildo l-chone, 2-6, Bunkyo-ka,Toklo @ 1959 b1 tbe Cltarlet E. Tutth Companl, Inc. arder the BerneConaention All rightr reserued and tlte UniuersalCop.ltrightConention

1

In Days Gone By

2

Born Sumoists

3

The Road to Stardom

4 5

Grand Tournaments

6 7

" PsychologicalWarfare " The Techniquesof Sumo

I

Grand Champions

9

Pageantry

Sumo Ranking

Library of Congress CatalogCard No. 59-599t

10

The Referee

11

InternationalStandardBook No. 0-8048-1084-2

L2

The Honorable ]udges So Clean and Gentlcmanly

13

Sumo Nomenclatue

14

" Off Duty "

15

Thc Charm of Sumo

First printing, 1959 Eigltnentb printing, 1985

Printed in Japan

7 t2 t6 23 26 32 36 47 56 65 69 72 76 84 88

CHAPTER 1 ILLASTRATIONS

t 2 3-4

Tokitsukazc, prcsident of the fapan Sumo Association Preliminary to a bout Sumo in action

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Chiyo-no-yamaperforming the dohyo-iri

6

Tochinishiki performing the dohyo-iri

7-lo 11 L2 L3-t4 15-16 17-20 2L

Sumo in action Sumo throws A former grand champion in action Former grand champions performng dohyo-iri Grand Champion Waka-no-hanaand friends Sumo in action Bow-twirling ceremony

L7 18 t9 20 37 38-40 42-43 )/ 58-60 77 78-79 80

ffiffi

In Days Gone BY

Thc West has its "sport of kings'" fapan, in Sumq has her "sport of emperors." Tokyo's famous mecca of Sumq the Kuramae Kokugi Hall, has a conspicuousroyal box. When Emperor Hirohito takes his seat therc, gazing in loving admiration on the colorful spectaclethat unfolds bcfore him, hc is but following age-old tradition' With a difierence, however. Nowadays the empcror goes to Sumo; in the old days Sumo went to him. Even in ancient times the imperial court, thc story goes,resounded with the stamping of the feet of {16 $rrmo giants, and down the years the empcrors as well as the great warriorlords who rulcd ]apan during the Middlc Ages havc been ardent devoteesof this manly sport. The first recorded and perhapsmost famous bout of xll time was one that astonishedand delighted the eyesof thc Emperor Suiiin a few yearsbefore the opening of thc Christian era. Nomi-nesukune with his seven-foot-ten-inchframe, was a formidable opponcnq but his rival, Taema-ne.kehaya,altet a Homeric struggle that seemed interminable and thrilled the hearts of the empcror and his court,

8

Sumo:

Sport and Tradition

fnally dealt him such a hefty and well-placed kick that he felled him e1 the spot. This was quite in keeping with what went on in those blood-thirsty days but, needlessto say, in this more refined Atomic age, violence of that sort is completely taboo. With its imperial beginnings, Sumo certainly started out on the right side of tle tracks, but, curiously enough, the very first grand tournament, or basho,was held in a temple compound, and temple and shrine grounds continued to be one of the favorite sitesfor bouts through the cenruries. These religious and imperial ties probably account to a large extent for Sumo's being adorned with so much pageantryeventoday. ProfessionalSumo is said to have originated in the sixteenth century under the overlordshipof the famous Oda Nobunaga; but its colorful history of men of valor, real and legendary, dates back further. We are told that about elevenhundred years ago there was a muscle-mannamed Hajikami living in Omi, the present Shiga Prefecture, who was so strong that the ordinary run-of-themill wrestler could not handle him. He alwayswon hands down and took all the fun out of the sport, so one resourcefulrefereeat a contestin Osaka'sSumiyoshiShrine obtaineda coil of thick rope, or shimenaata,and tied it around Hajikami's middle. To even things up, it was announcedthat any man who could succeedin touching the rope would be declared the winner. This, of course, added some spice to the proceedings,but even at that Hajikami remainedundefeated. It is thanks to him that great white hawsers still adorn the midrifrs of the grand champions,or yoftozuna, even today (seePlates5, 6, 12 & 13). Ironically enough,however,Hajikami was not proclaimed first grand champion. That honor was rcserved for another Sumo grcat, Akashi Shiga-no-suke,a figure

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In Days Gone By

9

shrouded in mystery of whom there is actually no precise record availablc. It seemsthat in the early part of the seventeenthcentury a great tournament was held at the imperial court in Kyoto. Akashi, the son of a samurai, defcated Nio Nidaya, of Nagasaki, to win the tourncy and becomc the first official yoftozt4na in the history of Sumo. He rcputedly stood ovcr eight feet tall and weighed over four hundred pounds, but tle figures arc not oficial, and he has no doubt grown in stature with every passing generation. Not long after copping the title, he came up to Edo, as Tokyo was then called, and appearedat the Sasa-dera, a temple in Yotsuya,on the occasionof the first grand tournamentever held in the presentcapital of fapan. We are on much firmer ground when we come to Tanikaze Kajino-suke,the fourth grand champion and possiblythe greatestof them all. Thc son of a poor farmer of the Tohoku region in the north, he was born in 1749 and hailed from the neighborhood of Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture. During a period of eight years in the ring he piled up the amazing record of 183 wins, 12 losses,and 25 tiesn in a total of 220 bouts. That gives him an average of 938. His achievementof going through sixty-six bouts without a defeat has beenbettercdonly by Futabayama'ssixry-nine. In contrastto some of his legendary predecessors, Tanikaze was a merc six feet two inches in height, and his 3,14pounds put him in about rhe same classas the modern pot-bellied Kagamisato He finally succumkd, not to an opponent in the ring but to an attack of influenza and died n 17% at the age of fony-six. A fapanesesaying has it that "There neverwas the equal of Tanikaze,beforeor since." His name means "wind of the valley." The next star in the ranks of the great was Raiden Tame-emon,

IO

Sport and Tradition

who wrestled at the end of the a 370-poundsix-foot-three-incher of the nineteenth century. His beginning the and eighteenth tournaments,seven less than twenty-five greatestfeat was to win no of them in succession.Raiden holds the dubious distinction of yearslhe was remaining in the champion,or ozefti,slot for seventeen never elevatedto the rank of grand champion becausehe roughed it up too much. The only man who could get away with that sort of stufi was the before-mentionedNomi-no-sukune. Coming to comparativelymodern times,the two great wrestlersof the Meiji era were without a doubt Totaro Ume-ga-taniII (18781927)andHitachiyamaTaniemon (187+1922).Ume-ga-tanichalked up a wonderful winning averageof -920,but in fifteen tilts with his arch-rival Hitachiyama,his amazing techniqueseemedto be of no avail, and he managedto come out on top but thrice. Hitachiyama walked away wittr seven matches,and the rest were ties. Bouts betweenthese two are said to have been really terrific, the greatestin modern Sumo. Ume-ga-tani,with his five feet six inches, tipped the scalesat 335 pounds. Hitachiyama towered two inches abovehim, but was inferior in weight, being a measly320 pounds' Hitachiyama, the nineteenth yoftozuna, was an all-time great' After attaining maftu-uchi (inside-the-curtain)rank he lost only eight times in eighteen tournaments,spread over nine years' He was truly a srupendouspersonageof the period. He might indeed be callpd the prototype of the modern Sumo man, being the first fapanesewrestler ever to go abroad. In 1907he visited the United States where he was presented to "Teddy" Roosevelt; he was accompaniedby the present Dewa-no-umi,until recently head of the fapan Sumo Association. Visitors to the Sumo Museum at the Kuramae Kokugi Hall may seethe top hat and walking stick that

In Days Gone By

11

Hitachiyama sported when he went to the States. Naturally, he took with him an apron, such as all Sumo wrestlerswear at the dohyo-iri, their daily ceremonialentry into the arena. But none has ever been gracedwith one like Hitachiyama's. It was studded with diamonds and was worth millions. In throwing a few bouquets, one might consider Tanikaze, Hitachiyama, and Futabayama(Plate 1), of whom more anon' to be Sumo'sgreat trio; but men like Terukuni, who in 1944at the age of twenty-four becamethe youngestgrand champion on record, should not be forgotten. The oppositesort of record was set up by the twelfth yoftozuna, |immaku, in the mid nineteenth century' He was actually thirty-nine yearsof age when he attained the rank of grand champion,and he carried on long after that. Thesedays, with six big tourneysa year,that kind of stayingpower is out of thc question. It's like baseball. With all those night games there'Il be no more like Ty Cobb or Eddie Collins, who carried on for ovet twenty seasons.

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CHAPTER 2

Born Sumoists

L3

sequently,the boystake up the cheapestsport they can find. Sumo, of course,fills the bill perfectly. All that is required is a simple ring and a loin+loth, and the latter, it is unnecessaryto add, need not be studdedwith diamonds. |ust somethingto sparethe sensitivities

Born Sumoists It is a hotly debatablequestion whether or not baseballhas supplanted Sumo as the national sport of fapan. Undoubtedlyin suchgreat centersof populationas Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya,one seesmore youthswith bat, ball, and glove than one seespracticingthe land'sancientand traditional sport. In many parts of the country, nonetheless(particularly true in the case of the farming villagesof the north and the fishing villages), the reverse is to be found. The rustic Sumo ring often takes the place of the urban baseballdiamond. There are quite a number of reasonsfor Sumo'spopularity with the country boys, one being, of course,that the rural areashave enjoyed much less frequent contact with Western influences. In many districts feudalism is still rife, apparentif one but scratches the surface,and the great Japaneseprofessionalbaseballsquadsin their provincial tours never touch theseremote areas, Another reasonis economic. The farmers in the north eke out a bare living, the land is poor, crop failures are not uncommon. They have little money to spend on their sons' pastimes. Con-

of the country maidens. Incidentally, it is no mere coincidencethat so many of fapan's grand championshail from Hokkaido or the northeasterndistricts, areasthroughout the long winter under a blanket of deep snow, trudging through which strengthensthe hips-a vital part of every wrestler'sanatomy. The samething may be said of youthsfrom the mountains. It is natural that they should be able to developstronger hips than the lads who walk only on the flat, non-hip-developing plains. In rowing, too, the hips come into much play. Thus, the sonsof fishermenoften turn out to be good wrestlers. The greatest sumoistof modern times, Futabayama-now retired and, under the name of Tokitsukaze, head of the fapan Sumo Association-is a fisherman'sson from the Kyushu prefectureof Oita, in southwest |apan. Of the threereigning grand championsonly one,Tochinishiki (see Plates6, Z & 10), was born and brought up in a city. He is the son of a Tokyo umbrella-maker. The remaining two are from the snowy north, Chiyo-no-yama(Plate 5) from the northern island of Hokkaido and Waka-no-hana(Plates8, 15 & 16) from Aomori, at the extremenorthern tip of Honshu, fapan'smain island. A similar proportion may be found among the lower-ranking grapplers. The life of the city slicker is evidently not conduciveto the production of a great wrestler. The ]apaneserace as a whole, however, may be said to be well adaptedto the sport of Sumo. The reasonis that the fapancse,if

14

Sumo:

Sport and Tradition

I may be permitted to use such an ungraceful term, are rather "low in the water." By this I mean, of course, that they have been endowed by Mother Nature with long bodies and short legs. In Sumo the point of balance or fulcrum must be as low as possible. It makesa man so much more difrcult to topple. Generations of squattingon the tatami (straw mats usedto cover the floor) instead of sitting on chairs have perhaps more than anything else developed the fapanesetype of body. In this connection it is of interest to note that an improved diet through the increasedintake of meat, bread, and dairy products, together with a greater use of chairs, is producing a taller and more massivebreed. of this has been a gradual raising of the standard A consequence required of Sumo novices. At the end of the Meiii era (around 1910) the requirementwas a minimum weight of a little over 132 pounds. There was no limitation on height. By the beginning of the Showaperiod (1926) the standardhad risen to about 160pounds and a lad had to be at least five feet five inches in height before he could be accepted. Since May, 1957,the standard of height has been five feet seven inches and of weight 166 pounds. There can be little doubt that with the gradual improvement in fapanesephysique thesestandardswill go on rising. The clephantine Odachi, who retired early in 1958, ranks with the Sumo giants of all time. He steppedinto the'ring at closeto 390 pounds and tipped the beam at six feet four inches, a vcritable colossus. And that's not all. He slimmed down from well over 400 pounds, thc heaviest ever, maybe. Anyway, it's an enthralling question, with such monsters as Dewa-ga-take in thc field. This la4 who got as far as scftiuaftc (junior champion) in the 1920's,towered to a height of six feet 6ve inchcs and fuctuated

Born

Sumoists

15

in weight between360 and 430 pounds. He was so strong that certain of the regular sixty-eightholds were barred to him after he had, accidentallyof course,causedthe death of an opponentin the ring. The fapan Sumo Associationno doubt heaveda sigh of relief when this behemothretired iust before World War IL As for height, the modern "Eiffel Tower" is the prognathous demoted champion, Ouchiyama, who can lay claim to six feet sevenand one-half inches. But way back in the 1820'sthere was a wrestler boasting the picruresquename of Ozora (big sky) who really was a sky-scraper,if figur:s don't lie. He was a staggering sevenfeet three inches and would have been worth his weight in gold to any basketballteam. The first grand champion, Akashi, who flourishedin the seventeenthcentury, is said to have reached sevenfeet five inches. But this, like most facts about this gentleman. should perhapsbe taken with a big grain of salt.

CHAPTER 3

The Road to Stardom Taro, a farmer's son, is a hefty lad; at fourteen he already tips the scalesat 165 pounds. There's no matching him for miles around; he can throw all his comradeswith ease.A grand champion in the making, as everyoneagrees. One day, in the course of a provincial tour, a group of noted wrestlersfrom Tokyo reachesthe neighboring town. The word is passedaround that a boy called Taro is somerhing out of the ordinary. Inquiries are made and, beforehe knows where he is, he is whisked up to the capital and installedas an apprenticein one of the great Sumo gyms. Here he will live in, with his food and pocket money provided by the master of the gym, a retired Sumo great. He will be given no salary,of course,for a number of years; 6rst he must prove himself. Taro's gym is locatedin the Ryogoku areaof Tokyo, where are to be found by far the greaternumber of theseinstirutions;for it was in this quarter that the great tournamentswere formerly held, at the arenanow known as the Kokusai (International) Stadium. There are aboutfifteen of thesegyms scatteredthroughout Ryogoku. They

l Tue P nrsrorrr : Tokrtsukazc i cx-grancl champi on Futabayarna), presi dent of thc Japan S umo A ssoci ati on, i s s how n i n Japaneseatti re standi ng at the entrance of the gy m or trai ni ng quarters of w hi ch he i s the master .

h .5 4

e % .a .

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3. U rrcrr,rnr : In thi s tacti c the man underneath, i n thi s casc K oto-ga-hama, w eari ng knee s upporter, di gs i n w i th hi s heel s on the edg e of the ri ng and r.vi th a qui ck tw rst of the body i o the l eft sends hi s opponent S hi mi zugaw a spi nni ng out of the arcna before he hi msel f fal l s.

2. S nrr < r n r - N a o s H: r T h e two r vr e stle r s h e r e a r e e n g a g e d i n s hilliri-n a o s h i , r v h i c h p r ece clcsa b o u t. T h e y cr o u ch , r .vi th f is t s f irr n l y p l a n t e d i n t h e sa n cl,stu d yin g e a ch o th e r in te n tl y. T he re f e r e e , i n t l t e r e a r with fa n u p r a ise d , r e g u la te s the proc eecl in g s .

4 . T n s M r cHr y r .q r r r N ! : L yin g like a pol e-axed s t e er is th e b u r ly T o kitsu ya m a , th e vi cti m of T a ma - n o - u m i' s h ifti- o to sh i, wh ich m ay be rransl a r e d " p u llin g h im d o wn ." T h e r e feree may b: g l i mp scd in th c r e a r , b ch in d T a m a ,n o-umr.

.lii

The

Road

to Stardom

are nothing much to look at-just

zL plain frame houses containing

little more than the training ring itself and a large communal eatery. They house, a1l told, a total of approximately one thousand wrestlers. Taro's is one of the larger gyms so he finds himself a member of a squad of some seventy or eighty wrestlers, most of them apprentices iike himself, but including the whole hierarchy of Sumo-dom right up to the champions and grand champions themselves. The young hopeful has a hard life in front of him as he starts out on the road to fame. In the 6rst place he is, in spite of recent attempts at democratization, in what may frankly be described as a feudalistic set-up. His status is not unlike that of a fag at an English public school, for he has to fetch and carry for his elders. in return for which they see to it that he gets to know the ropes, Among his other multifarious duties wiil be scrubbing the backs of his superiorsin the bath, combing and fixing up their hair-do when training is over, and doing all the cooking and the cleaning up of the establishmerrt. And what do the women do, you may ask I The answer is simple; there are no women, apart from the master's wife: Ch iyo - n o - r ' a m a ( cctt5. G n, l x n C H r r r p t o r C u tyo - No - y,q tt,c. t er, rv it h a r m s o u t s t r c t c l - r e d )is sh o r ' vn a t th e d o /t1 ' o - ir i r vith his t ac h i m o c l t i ( l e f l h o l d in g th e swo r d a n d tsu yu lttr ti or at t endan i ( r i g h t ) . R e f e r e e is a t e xtr cm e lcft.

Sumo-dom is strictly stag. Taro and his fellow-neophytes rise at the crack of dawn and, it might be thought, start off the day by downing a hearty breakfast. Nothing of the sort! There is no breakfast. The youngsterstumble out of the sack around five or six-before the streets are aired-clean up the ring, and get going with their warming-up exercises. Their elders, as be6ts their rank, lie abed a little later, but they too are usually on the scene by eight at the latest. The seniors put thc roungsters through their paces, tip them ofi as to their faults, and so on and so forth.

The master of the gym is mostly in attendance

ZZ

Sumo:

Sport and Tradition

to keep a watchful eye on the proceedings,but in his absencethis duty is delegatedto the top-ranking wrestlers. The entire forenoon is devotedto various forms of training and practicebouts-and all the while not a bite of food. Spartansthey are indeed,but then they have to be. This is no life for a weakling, and if a lad can't stand the pace,he simply drops out. It's rough all right but Taro will not be bullied, for this regime,feudalistic though it may sometimesseem,is not militaristic. The life is tough, but not brutal; if a boy can'tor won't learn,he won't get on. That is punishmentenough. Morning training done,the lads have to wait on their seniorsat in the the mid-daymeal, after which they can immersethemselves welcometub and rub their manifold bruises,and then, at long last, from the common pot of stew. The meal over, help themselves and it can Taro and his mateshavethe restof the day to themselves with their of rest; indeed, they make it a day that well be imagined else for it. energyusedup and no money to burn, there'snothing If the lads wanted to kick over the tracesthey wouldn't have the wherewithal;for them wine and women iust don't exist. Wlren Taro approachestbe dizzy heightsof stardom,possiblyten yearslater,and can affbrd to take unto himselfa wife, he is allowed to reside in his own home, of course,for too many wives would clutter up the gym. During a big tournament,however,even the married wrestlersoften prefer to move back into the gym for greater convenience. Perhaps,too, for greater easeof mind. Incidentally,the Taros of the future will lead somewhatdifferent for, in line with the gradual Iives from those of their predecessors defeudalizationof the sport, a Sumo training school has recently been established,to be attendedby scrubsfrom the variousgyms.

CHAPTER 4

Grand Tournaments The basho or grand tournamentsare the World Seriesof Sumo' Currently there are stagedsix grand tournamentsa year-the New Year tournament,held in Tokyo, the spring tournament in Osaka, tie summer and autumn tournamentsin Tokyo, the fuly tournament in Nagoya, and the November tournament down in Kyushu at the city of Fukuoka. The two last-namedare recent additions' These ioustingshave a long history-and few would ever guess where the first one on record was held. It was in the precinctsof a temple on the outskirtsof the ancientcity of Kyoto, a former capital of )apan. That was way back in the Kanseiera (1789-1800).Only one tournament was held a year, and it could hardly be called official. An

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