Young men training as professional sumo wrestlers in Japan face long days of brutal matches against fighters who are older, larger and stronger. As in any contact sport, injury and ice packs are part of the game.
But after wrestler Takishi Saiti died during training last year, the sport's governing body and its many fans are taking a closer look at sumo's violent rituals. For the first time in centuries, says law professor Mark West, the sumo world is seriously considering change.
West, who teaches at the University of Michigan and directs the school's center for Japanese studies, says Saiti's death was originally reported to be a result of natural causes. His parents were told that their son's heart had stopped beating, but West says they grew suspicious when they learned that the boy's sumo coach, or stable master, was rushing officials to get the body cremated.
The parents' fears were confirmed: After an investigation, police said evidence suggested that the wrestler had been hit several times with a beer bottle. Bruises on the athlete's body also indicated that he had been hit with a baseball bat. The master of the training stable and three wrestlers were indicted on criminal charges.
The story has rocked Japan, where for centuries sumo has enjoyed special status. West says the wrestlers, especially those at the top levels, are treated like gods. They wear traditional Japanese dress in public and aren't permitted to drive.
That these heroes would engage in behavior that many would consider abusive is not a total surprise, West says. In Japan, he says, "everybody knows" stable masters and other wrestlers get rough to motivate each other.
"It's the same training methods they've used for hundreds of years," West says. The Japanese term for this kind of roughness — beatings with wood, stuffing someone's mouth with salt — translates as "show a little love."
West argues that the sport's hold on the culture has kept the wrestlers above reproach. He sees signs that this reverence might be weakening. Earlier this year, the sport's top wrestler, a Mongolian, damaged ligaments in an opponent's knee during a particularly aggressive match. In a departure from the typical Japanese response, some commentators called the Mongolian's moves excessive. One of the most public and damning statements came from the same stable master implicated in Saiti's death.
West says only a systematic effort could effect change in the sport. In a study completed since Saiti's death, the Japan Sumo Association reports that more than 90 percent of the country's 53 stables use the kind of techniques that killed the young wrestler.
Japan has already taken a bold first step, West says. When the stable master was dismissed, it was a distinction he shared with no other sitting stable master in Japanese history.
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