Sore winners or an ancient custom?

26 May 2003, 19:56

On Saturday, we hiked into the Kokugikan Arena to watch the second to last day of the “Emperor’s Cup” Sumo Tournament.

It was a high drama day, as 3 of the wrestlers were vying for the top spot, including Asashoryu (affectionately known in certain circles as “Arse, I’ll show you”), the recently appointed Yokozuna, the highest rank of sumo wrestlers. The other Yokozuna, Musashimaru, was injured, so it was down to Asashoryu and two Ozeki (the second highest ranking), Maio and Chiyotaikai for top place.

In an ironic twist, the two Yokozuna are both foreigners – Asashoryu is Mongolian and Musashimaru is Hawaiian. The Japanese have been supportive of both its Yokozuna (both of them speak fluent Japanese), however, in the last week, an incident involving Asashoryu and one of the Japanese wrestlers, courted some disfavour toward the Mongolian. After Asashoryu lost a bout to the other wrestler, he was bumped by his opponent, to which Asashoryu shot him a glare (oh, nooooooooooooo!). He was consequently reprimanded by the Sumo Association. Can you imagine the AFL reprimanding one of its players every time they shot a glare at someone?

Asashoryu was fighting Kaio in the last match of the day. Our man, Asashoryu put up a valiant fight but was ultimately catapulted out of the ring by Kaio. When he went down, hysteria erupted in the Japanese audience, and suddenly, what seemed like hundreds of cushions were thrown at the dohyo (the sacred ring). Matt, Albert and I watched the display in disbelief, particularly when, during the final ceremonial dance, one of the cushions hit the referee on the head.

Being foreigners ourselves (and infinitely paranoid foreigners at that) our first instinct was that it was anti-foreigner backlash. “Cheer the Japanese who managed to outwit the foreigner!” but even so, if that were the case, we were surprised that the audience would be so obvious about it. We then started to ask ourselves what would happen in Australia if an Australian team beat say, a New Zealand team in the rugby, and we decided that Australians would be far, far, worse, and the anti-New Zealand display would undoubtedly involve beer cans, nudity and several sheep.

But this is Japan. Japanese people just don’t do this kind of thing.

Yesterday, I learnt that this throwing of cushions is actually an ancient sumo tradition which happens when a Yokozuna (yes, regardless of nationality) is beaten by a non-Yokozuna. OK, fair enough, but the Sumo Association takes great pains to tell the audience that the ring is sacred and that hell hath no fury like a dohyo defiled.

The final round was yesterday, and we watched it from the comfort of our humble apaato (the seats are much comfier). Asashoryu turned the tables on his opponent in an almost anti-climactic bout, ousting Chiyoutaikai out of the ring with brute force and a sizeable girth. But when Asashoryu was named winner of the May Sumo Tournament, the audience surrounding the ring (who can pay up to 50,000 yen (about A$650)) a ticket, seemed to barely put two hands together for the man.

Perhaps we are simply paranoid foreigners who perceived an innocent custom as an anti-foreigner jibe. Perhaps, there was a tiny bit of resentment that a non-Japanese won a major tournament. Or maybe the audience surrounding the ring had simply imbibed too much sake, wanted to throw something, and figured the referee’s head was as good a target as any…

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