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Sumo spectacular

Memories of Tokyo’s Basho wrestling champs

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Watching the year’s most prestigious Basho (sumo tournament) in Tokyo’s 11,000-seat Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium, I learnt the revered Japanese sport is now dominated by massive ‘‘men mountains’’ from Mongolia.

Most Japanese teens don’t have the intense self-discipline needed to be immersed in the sport, and joining the Mongolians enjoying yokozuna (grand champion) status are international contenders from Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, and Georgia.

Before the Basho, I notice novice rikishi (wrestlers) emerging from the nearby subway station. Other more famous wrestlers arrive by taxi, extricating themselves from green Toyotas that visibly rise a few centimetres when they get out.

Colourful kimono-like robes cascade over their mawashi, the sport’s signature 10-metre-long loincloth belt, and intense game faces reinforce their singular commitment to a schedule of one bout a day across the tournament’s 15 days.

Fridge magnets and tiny plastic wrestlers are options for souvenir hunters, and roadside eateries dish up bowls of chankonabe, the protein-rich stew that transforms sumo wannabes into true heavyweights.

Seating around the compact doyho (sumo ring) is reserved for sponsors, but even from my elevated seating, the action was easy to observe.

Local fans, fuelled on Asahi beer, rolled out banners supporting up-andcoming Japanese wrestler Endo, but the day’s real star was Mongolian giant Hakuho. Packing his massive 1.92-metre frame with 155kg of strength, speed and guile, Hakuho had only lost once across the previous 12 days.

Following support bouts from 8am, the sport’s elite Makuuchi division wrestlers made a choreographed entry at 4pm, rewarding fans who had been there all day, and also Tokyo businessmen coming along for the day’s last two hours. With their arrival, consumption of beer and potent shochu (Japanese vodka) cocktails surged exponentially across the arena.

As a purification ceremony, wrestlers cast salt into the ring before each bout, and when sport finally overtakes theatre and tradition, the action is brutal and compelling.

Wrestlers showcase different techniques, with (relatively) smaller athletes relying on speed and agility, while larger leviathans count on their

sheer bulk. Winning wrestlers crash out of the ring microseconds after their defeated opponents, and some bouts soon become closely matched stalemates.

Eventually the gyoji (referee) restarts these bouts, reposing the wrestlers like giant action figures to recreate the clinch right before the action was paused.

Five black-robed judges patrol the ring’s perimeter, ready to harness video replays if they think the referee has made the wrong call.

The referee also carries a ceremonial sword, and in earlier centuries would have committed seppuku (ritual suicide) with a much sharper version following a wrong decision.

Going up against Japanese-born Kotoshogiku, Hakuho fought in the day’s last bout. Despite the 20kg weight advantage enjoyed by the 175kg Kotoshogiku, it was another easy win for the giant Mongolian, and he forced his opponent out of the doyho after five seconds.

On days 14 and 15 of the Basho he would win just as easily, pushing his tournament record to 14-1, and continuing to assert his dominance as sumo’s mostawarded yokozuna, before he retired a month ago at the age of 36.

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2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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