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Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Mar 1, 2023

Makuuchi's international brotherhood grows with Kazakhstan's arrival

Kinbozan’s promotion to the rank of maegashira has resulted in sumo’s top tier gaining its first-ever wrestler from the central Asian nation.
SUMO
Nov 11, 2006

Komusubi Kisenosato

Kisenosato entered professional sumo in 2002 while still in his mid-teens. A native of Ibaraki Prefecture to the northeast of Tokyo and only age 20, he is perhaps the most promising young Japanese rikishi in sumo today.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Dec 12, 2007

Asashoryu Akinori — the people's champion?

The 2007 sumo season has drawn to a close, and no sumo fan in his or her right right mind would want to see a repeat of it.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Apr 6, 2022

Return of Hakuho Cup a positive development for aspiring wrestlers

For more than a decade, the tournament for elementary school students has offered overseas teams a chance to compete against some of Japan's top programs and interact with the sport's stars.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Feb 12, 2020

Legendary Ryogoku Kokugikan has adapted to modern needs

One of sport's most overused cliches is the labeling of a ballpark or stadium as the mecca of football, baseball or basketball.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 6, 2010

Grappling with the gangsters

Some years ago, a Japanese friend suggested we have dinner together at a chanko-nabe restaurant because neither of us had ever been to one. Chanko-nabe is the fortifying stew that sumo wrestlers grow fat on, and they all learn how to make it. Many rikishi (sumo wrestler) who don't become stable masters...
SUMO
Jun 14, 2006

Hakuho ready to climb another level in Nagoya

Despite having sumo's highest rank in sight, ozeki Hakuho is not necessarily getting himself all psyched up.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 19, 2005

Takanohana vs. Wakanohana: The final faceoff

The battle between former sumo grand champion siblings Wakanohana and Takanohana over the legacy of their father, sumo elder Futagoyama, started well before his death from mouth cancer on May 30 at the age of 55. The press, however, didn't dive into the melee until after Futogayama's body was placed...
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jun 22, 2022

Wrestlers ramp up public appearances as pandemic subsides

The loosening of media restrictions has given wrestlers more exposure to both current and potential fans, whether it's through interviews at stables or guest spots on prime-time TV.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Aug 26, 2020

Hakuho may be on path to becoming great stablemaster if latest recruit pans out

With Hokuseiho, the yokozuna may have stumbled upon someone worthy of taking up his mantle.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jun 3, 2020

Wrestlers with amateur backgrounds may begin to make mark in near future

Wajima is the only former collegian to reach sumo's highest rank
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2010

Sumos and the yakuza

OSAKA — Perhaps no other sport is pursued as religiously as sumo wrestling. Before a match, referees — who double as Shinto priests — purify the seaweed, salt and sake. Wrestlers wash their faces, mouths and armpits before entering the dohyo (ring), on whose sacred sand neither shoes nor women...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 19, 2006

Akebono: Yokozuna to K-1

GAIJIN YOKOZUNA: A Biography of Chad Rowan, by Mark Panek. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006, 301 pp., $24.95 (paper). Biographers of living celebrities must make a fundamental choice: write from the inside or the outside. At one extreme are the insiders -- friends, relations or paid hacks --...
Japan Times
SUMO
Oct 17, 2002

Ozeki Asashoryu a quick study

One of the most gut-wrenching experiences Asashoryu has had to bear in his 22-year life didn't happen anywhere close to the sumo ring. It had nothing to do with adjusting to the hierarchical life of a sumo beya either.
EDITORIALS / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Feb 10, 2011

National sport on its knees

The Japan Sumo Association, rocked by a match-rigging scandal, has decided to cancel Spring Grand Sumo Tournament, which would have started March 13 in Osaka. This is the first time that a grand sumo tournament known as hon-basho has been canceled since the summer of 1946, when the summer tournament...
JAPAN / Media
Jun 6, 2010

The timing behind yakuza crackdown

The media has been filled with revelations of ties between professional sumo and organized crime. Since late May, the tabloids and gossipy "wide shows" on TV have made a huge flap over Sehei Kimura and one other stable master for allowing senior gang members to obtain box-seat tickets to the Nagoya Grand...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Oct 18, 2007

Who killed Takashi Saito?

That any life should be lost during sport is tragic, and sumo is no exception.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 11, 2000

Akebono, in his own words

Akebono is one of the biggest sports stars in Japan, both literally and figuratively. The 30-year-old followed in the footsteps of his oyakata (stablemaster) Azumazeki (ex-sekiwake Takamiyama) and former ozeki Konishiki in making the transition from the backwaters of Hawaii to the rarified heights of...
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Dec 5, 2018

Change in stable can revive wrestlers' careers

Takakeisho, winner of this year's Kyushu tournament, was pictured alongside his stablemaster on Nov. 26 holding up a large red sea bream and drinking sake from an outsized trophy at a celebratory event.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Oct 10, 2018

Departed yokozuna Wajima brought charisma to ring

Last week's column featured links between sumo and American football, including a mention of how yokozuna Wakanohana took up the latter sport after retiring from the raised ring.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jul 21, 2017

Hakuho's place in pantheon of greats continues to grow

On Dec. 24, 2000, a skinny, dejected young Mongolian kid, near the end of his two-month stay in Japan, had seemingly failed in a bid to join sumo. Weighing just 60 kg and barely 180 cm tall Davaajargal Monkhbatyn had been unsuccessful in finding a stablemaster willing to take him in.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
May 4, 2011

Scandals offer a silver lining

Over 20 rikishi have thus far been expelled. Some have gone quietly picking up very nice severance packages on the way out the door. Others have promised legal battles ahead that will, in all likelihood, be timed to avoid a clash with a particular basho. Wherever the yaocho allegations, dismissals and...
SUMO
Jan 14, 2000

Wrestling with a national tradition

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that sumo is not really a sport. No one calls it spootsu anyway -- sumo is and always has been the kokugi (national skill).
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jun 15, 2022

Philosophical living legend Konishiki reflects on launch of career

The Hawaiian-born former ozeki, a driving force in gaining sumo recognition overseas, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his entry into the sport.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Oct 14, 2020

Once-fearsome ozeki rank no longer sport's 'great barrier'

Wrestlers in sumo's second-highest rank have struggled to emulate the success of their peers in previous generations.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jun 19, 2019

Retirement ceremonies often full of emotion

It's no secret that difficulty in procuring tickets is one of the main hurdles preventing overseas visitors from being able to watch sumo in person.

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