EDITORIAL: Sumo basho canceled

In the town of Naniwa, now Osaka, March has been the month of sprightly drum sounds announcing the opening of the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament. But not this year. It has been canceled.

The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) has decided it would be difficult to hold the tournament because of the time needed to get to the bottom of a match-fixing scandal.

The sumo world has cherished the grand tournament above all. It continued it even during the war years, and steadfastly preserved the dohyo, or the ring. This is the first time a grand tournament was canceled due to a scandal.

In this unprecedented blot on the history of professional sumo, the JSA's special investigative committee spent three days questioning 14 wrestlers and elders believed to have been complicit in the match-rigging. However, it proved difficult to shed light upon the dark netherworld of cheating.

JSA officials had planned a course of action whereby they would "announce disciplinary measures for the wrestlers involved and hold the tournament." Their prime aim was to go ahead with the spring tournament.

But they totally underestimated the seriousness of the situation. In his news conference Sunday, JSA Chairman Hanaregoma deeply apologized and said, "Until we can completely burst into the open the corruption in the sport, we don't think we can show sumo in the dohyo."

The committee demanded the 14 individuals hand over their mobile phones and records of past communication and bank account.

It will question every single wrestler in and above the juryo division. Unless the committee releases convincing findings, the May tournament may also be affected.

Many people say there has always been bout-fixing in sumo. But we must not belittle everything about the sport.

Professional sumo began as a ritual for the gods. Its long history and its aspects of stylized traditional arts added to the attraction.

It is true that we did tend to accept the "je ne sais quoi" of the sumo world as part of the package, for example, the habit of "ninjo-zumo" or "sympathy bout," a term for a match in which a wrestler loosens his grip against an opponent who is on the verge of a losing record.

There are even rakugo comic stories and Kabuki pieces that portray this "ninjo-zumo."

However, apart from this historical background, sumo is also a sport. Amateur sumo has developed as a pure and simple sporting game. Professional sumo has become the pinnacle of the sport, which the best student and adult amateur wrestlers aspire to.

Professional sumo is unique because it is both traditional art and sport. But as long as it is the pinnacle of competitive sumo, match-rigging cannot be permitted.

We cannot shrug this away, saying, "Well, that's how it is." There are also many foreign wrestlers, from Europe and other areas. We must not forget that sumo is also popular abroad as a very quintessentially Japanese game.

Sumo elder Takenawa, who admitted his involvement in the match-fixing, is known as a master singer of "sumo jinku," the traditional sumo song sung during extra entertainment at a sumo match. It is a bitter revelation that despite his role in this fine aspect of sumo tradition, he tarnished the dohyo at the same time.

The continuation of professional sumo itself is at risk. How can wrestlers purge themselves of the iniquitous aspects of tradition and regain their proud place as the epitome of their sport?

This is question for everyone involved in the sumo world.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 7