Regarding the Oct. 6 article "Sumo stable boss axed for death": The unanimous decision by the Japan Sumo Association executive committee to sack stable master Tokitsukaze (following the death of a teenage wrestler) has somewhat assuaged the heavy damage to the reputation of this traditional Japanese sport.

Though not a great fan, I have always viewed sumo as one of the more human sports in the world, compared to, say, Western boxing or Thai kick-boxing or even Western wrestling. I have thought of sumo as gentle and relatively safe whenever I watched chubby, beer-belly athletes powerfully, though gently, pushing, pulling and shoving each other on the arena. Some athletes like former yokozuna Wakanohana, now a stable master, brought gentleness in fighting to a fine art by kindly pulling the defeated athletes up from their fallen position. I loved this style because it showed the Olympic spirit of sportsmanship.

Though I have heard and read about how sumo athletes are trained at stables in an arduous and highly disciplined process with a strict junior-senior relationship, I never imagined that an athlete could be bullied to the extent of being beaten by the stable master with a beer bottle and kicked, punched and stamped on by senior fellow athletes. Such punishment made me think of a gangster den in a cruel moment of revenge.

Some 10 years ago I wrote an article about bullying at Japanese schools, depicting how even many children suffered from cruel bullying by fellow children in the same way that adults suffered at work. This gentle-looking sport, considered almost holy by Japanese people because of its tradition and Imperial connections, could suffer a final blow if it is proven that it is encouraging and tolerating cruel bullying.

Fortunately, the unanimous decision by the JSA executive committee to sack Tokitsukaze has shown that human conscience can prevail over cruelty and inhumanity.

hideo kaito