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Wild men, bad boys, and model citizens: the integration of foreigners in sumo wrestling

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Wild men, bad boys, and model citizens: the integration of foreigners in sumo wrestling

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WILD MEN, BAD BOYS AND MODEL CITIZENS: THE INTEGRATION

FOREIGNERS IN SUMO WRESTLING

by

Mitsuo Maeda

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In the Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(EAST ASIAN AREA STUDIES)

December 2007

Copyright 2007 Mitsuo Maeda

ii
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this project to my parents. They have provided me with
support and encouragement throughout my life and have been a constant source of
inspiration. I would also like to thank my wife, Shizue for her love, support and
encouragement.

iii
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all of my advisors, Professor Gordon Berger whose knowledge
on sumo is extraordinary, and Professors Anne Mc Knight and Eugene Cooper for
their continued support. I would like to thank Cal Martin for all of his time and the
material that he provided me. His enthusiasm and helpfulness were invaluable. Cal
is a man of great conviction and has an unbreakable spirit. Finally I would like to
thank my wife Shizue Maeda for her help with many navigating through the
Japanese material.

iv
Table of Contents

Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of Tables v

List of Figures vi

Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Second Hawaiian Wave 11
Chapter 2: From the Mongolian Steppe to Sumo World 17
Chapter 3: A Case Study: Cal Martin: Sumo’s First Foreign Bad Boy 22
Conclusion 36
Glossary 39
Bibliography 40
Appendix A 43
Appendix B 61

v
List of Tables
Table 1: Foreign wrestlers in sumo 1
Table 2: A partial list of makunouchi prizes 37

vi
List of Figures
Figure 1: Martin doing shiko, a standard sumo exercise 33

Figure 2: Martin with Kahaulua 33

Figure 3: Martin exercising in the heya 34

Figure 4: Martin’s pre-bout warm-up 34

Figure 5: Martin at Hanakago-beya 35

Figure 6: Martin getting his hair done 35

vii
Abstract
Sumo, billed as the national sport of Japan by the Japan Sumo Association and the
embodiment of Japanese culture, aims to market tradition within a modern and
flexible institution. Preserving the image of the sport as an antiquated anachronism
in the modern world is equally important as the image of sumo wrestlers as the
quintessential Japanese. The increase of foreign wrestlers has challenged this notion
and forms a complicated, symbiotic relationship based on international perception,
the need for foreign labor, and domestic consumption of tradition. The purpose of
this study is to examine the pliability of sumo which allows the integration of foreign
wrestlers and its continual reinvention for its survival.

1
Introduction
The paradox of sumo is that the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) is able to portray
itself as an archaic and time-honored organization in order to able to sell, market,
and legitimize tradition with a modern, flexible, institution that has successfully
straddled the line between "tradition" and commercialism. Japanese post-war
capitalism and the plethora of changes in society have left many people feeling
nostalgic for the past- a past that was less complicated and affirms Japanese virtues.
Sumo aims to fill that void and its constant reinvention of itself has allowed it to
incorporate foreign wrestlers (rikishi) while maintaining its status as the guardian of
warrior culture. But the relationship between maintaining the always vague notion
of tradition and the use of foreigners is a tenuous balance and the sumo authorities
must tread carefully. For the many foreigners now in sumo, there have been frequent
voluntary bans on the admittance of foreigners in stables, (heya) most notably
between 1992 and 1998.
Wrestlers by country of
birth
1

703
total
Japan 644
Mongolia 35
China 6
Russia 5
Georgia 3
Brazil 3
Korea 1
Hungary 1
Bulgaria 1
Kazakhstan 1
Estonia 1
Czech Rep. 1
Tonga 1
Table 1

1
Ikeda, Tetsuo Ozumo rikishi meiroku Kyodoinsatsu shushiki kaisha (Tokyo:2006), 28-29

2
The sumo organization often portrays itself as a static, inflexible and highly
conservative organization. The adoption of Shinto rituals into sumo reaffirms many
of these values. During the Meiji Restoration, Shinto justified the emperor system
by teaching the divinity of the emperor. Sumo, with its invented Shinto traditions,
served as a visual representation of Shinto, which bolstered the religion. During the
Great Promulgation Campaign of the Meiji Era, (1870-1884) which sought to
promote Shinto over Buddhism, sumo aimed to expand the floundering religion.
Helen Hardacre looked at newspapers at the time and found that letters to the editor
were wholly negative. In one letter a person wrote that Shinto is, “not believable;
the sermons boring…the priests are ridiculous jackasses unfit to serve the nation.”
2

Emperor Meiji’s viewings greatly increased sumo’s popularity. Hirohito, too was
also a big sumo fan, having watched it live fifty one times. Few organizations are as
conservative as the Japanese imperial house.

Sumo, according to Bolitho, is “defiantly traditional” in that it puts forth great effort
to preserve archaic customs. The hair style (oicho) that sumo wrestlers wear went
out of style in 1876. The wrestlers’ lack of clothes also dates back to the Meiji Era.
3

Indeed many first time sumo watchers are surprised by its antiquity. In order to
effectively sell sumo to the public, the JSA must portray itself as a conservative
institution that guards traditional culture.

2
Helen Hardacre “Creating State Shinto: The Great Promulgation Campaign and the new religions,”
Journal of Japanese Studies Vol. 12, No. 1 (1986):
3
Harold Bolitho “Frolicking dragons: mythic terror and the sumo tradition” in A.S.S.H Studies in
Sports History, vol. 2 (1987): 2-22.

3
The JSA has held strongly that women must not be allowed in the ring. (dohyo) The
very public opposition has come from powerful female politicians such as Osaka
governor Ota Fusue who has insisted that she be allowed to hand out the Emperor’s
Cup to the winner of the tournament. (basho) The JSA has steadfastly denied her
the opportunity, citing the unwritten rules of Shinto purification. This bad press is
actually good press for the JSA because it upholds the popular belief that it is a staid
organization, fending off modernization and preserving “traditional culture” in the
face the onslaught of westernization.

There has been several works on the manipulation of tradition. Perhaps the most
influential is Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger’s Invention of Tradition. The
common argument in all of the works is that many of the so-called traditions are not
antiquated but recently invented, consequently many people do not question the
original source of the tradition. Sumo is rife with many of these invented traditions.
In Stephen Vlastos’s Mirror of Modernity many scholars apply Hobsbawm and
Ranger’s concepts specifically to Japan. Long time sumo commentator Lee A.
Thompson dispels the notion that the yokozuna rank is timeless and as old as the
sport itself. Rather it is a new and invented tradition that was not even recognized by
the JSA until 1909.
4
Many of sumo’s traditions were created for the further
legitimization and survival of the activity. Japanese scholar Kazami Akira has
documented sumo’s crass early history which was anything but traditional or

4
Lee A. Thompson, The Invention of the Yokozuna in Mirror of Modernity, ed. Stephen Vlastos
(Berkley: University of California Press, 1998), 174-18.

4
dignified.
5
Harold Bolitho’s work on the professionalization of sumo during the
Tokugawa era explains how sumo deftly linked itself with the samurai and later the
emperor and state Shinto during the Meiji Restoration by using newly created
traditions. Other works such as R. Kenji Tierney’s anthropological studies also
discuss the role of tradition in sumo, mostly for the purpose of its own survival or at
least as part of its transformation into a modern sport.
6
More important to this work
is Ann Fischer’s anthropological study of the JSA as a “flexible institution” because
it allowed wrestlers to have some level of individuality within the rituals and that the
organization itself was receptive to changes in society at large.
7

This study aims to focus specifically on the integration of foreigners into sumo’s
flexible institution, examining their uses and how larger forces shape the relationship
between the sumo organization and foreigners. The relationship is not one where
foreign wrestlers are admitted strictly to fill a labor need. They have multifarious
uses. They form an important component to the overall spectacle, sometimes a
subtly racialized and ethnicized role and are often used as international symbols of
progress. Finally in an ever-increasingly globalized world, foreign wrestlers fuel
sumo’s popularity abroad.

5
Akira Kazami, Sumo Kokugi to Nara (Tokyo: Taishukan Shoten, 2002),
The most colorful example of this is early sumo wrestlers would loosen their belts. When the
opponent went to pull it, it would loosen further.
6
See Rodric Kenji Tierney “Wrestling with Tradition” (PhD. diss., University of California Berkeley,
2002)
7
Ann Fischer, “Flexibility in an Expressive Institution: Sumo”, Southwest Journal of Anthropology,
Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1966): 31.

5
The connection between domestic and foreign viewing of sumo is inextricably linked
and forms a symbiotic relationship. There are numerous historical examples of such
linkage and the various sumo organizations have had many past experiences with
foreigners. The participation of foreign sumo wrestlers is a natural progression of
historical events.

During the decline of the Tokugawa bakufu in 1854, Commodore Matthew C. Perry
was sent with the infamous black ships to pry trade concessions from the weakened
shogunate. Faced with a hyper-masculine western culture, the bakufu presented the
foreign visitors with a sumo demonstration. It is believed that Perry and his men
were the first foreigners to see sumo and evidently it was quite a spectacle. Perry
noted in his journal, “I was requested to feel the hardness of his immense arms, his
double bull neck. When he observed I manifested much surprise, he exhibited his
gratification by a self satisfied grunt.”
8
Sumo was clearly secondary to showing
Japanese masculinity and strength. The wrestlers carried 135 pound rice bales with
their teeth. Perry, was not impressed with the exhibition as he held the notion that
athletes must be lean and athletic. He described the exercise as “foolish” and “a
farce”.
9
Even though the foreign audience failed to see sumo’s importance, it
nonetheless made several more future attempts to impress foreigners.

8
Matthew Calbraith Perry Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas
and Japan, Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, Under the Command of Commodore M. C.
Perry, United States Navy, By Order of the Government of the United States. (New York: D. Appleton
& Company, 1857), 90.
9
Ibid.

6
During the westernization of the early Meiji Restoration, sumo was thought of as
primitive and barbaric and many felt it should be completely eliminated. Popularity
was at an all-time low. There were powerful opponents of sumo, including the
media.
10
A letter to the editor to the Asa no Shinbun dated May 26
th
, 1876, captures
much of the popular sentiment:
Japan is getting better for following the educational, military, and industrial
systems of the west. Sumo is one of the bad habits which has not been
banned yet. Industrialized countries think it is vulgar and base. Sumo is
what undeveloped countries do. If we ban sumo, people will respect our
intelligence and civilization (bunmeika) will develop more. I want the
government to enact laws that ban sumo like the sword was.
11

Without feudal support, rikishi were forced to find other ways to make a living, such
as volunteering as firefighters, even though there were fire vehicles available to carry
the water and their labor was largely unnecessary.
12
Furthermore, sumo was crippled
by corruption and mismanagement. The sumo organization split into two competing
factions- an Osaka and Kyoto group due to an unequal salary structure and
accusations of favoritism. This led to three different ranking sheets called banzuke
and a complete fragmented structure.

In 1861, another sumo exhibit was held this time for the British emissaries. The
envoy described the scene as “somewhat beneath the dignity of the art of
wrestling.”
13
There were also domestic critics who failed to see the logic of
displaying sumo to the foreign invaders in hopes of impressing them. In a
woodblock print entitled “Drawn in Fun at Shige” Hiroshige II mocks the Tokugawa

10
Kazami, 3.
11
Ibid, 9 Translated by author
12
Ibid, 3.
13
Iyemasu Tokugawa, Japanese Wrestling (London: The Japan Society, 1912), 155.

7
response to the new threat. The print shows a foreign sailor grappling with a sumo
wrestler. Hiroshige used the word ‘fun’ to deflect the obvious criticism.
14

The Meiji Restoration, with its thirst for westernization, ironically was the cause of
both sumo’s near extinction and its ultimate revival. One of the central components
to this process of acquiring western culture was the emphasis on image and how
foreigners perceived Japan. Aspects of Japan that were readily accepted to the
Japanese but misunderstood by foreigners were ripe for elimination. For example
though public nudity was widely accepted in Meiji Japan, it was seen as primitive to
non-Japanese and banned. Sumo nearly shared the same fate as public nudity and
the sword but by 1880 Japan’s insatiable appetite for western things dwindled. An
opposite movement occurred, one that aimed to preserve the traditional arts.
Consequently sumo was rescued from near oblivion by a series of viewings by
emperor himself. (tenranzumo)

The three competing sumo organizations of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto were, like the
country itself fragmented, disunited and without a well established authority. Each
organization had its own regulations and they were not unified until 1923. Kyoto
and Osaka even promoted their own grand champions, (yokozuna) This disarray
contributed to the unpopularity of sumo. The multiple viewings by the emperor
single-handedly revived sumo. He hosted seven sumo events, the first in 1870. The
first one was ominous, the main event being a dogfight (inuimono) with sumo as a

14
Lawerence Bickford, Sumo and the Woodblock Print Masters (Tokyo: Kodansha International,
1994), 145.

8
sideshow. However the events after 1884, especially the second and the biggest
event at Hama no Rikyu, a detached palace, were well publicized via newspapers and
woodblock prints and effectively restored sumo to its pre-Restoration status.

The Japan Sumo Association’s ability to market tradition in the form of sumo began
in full with a conscious effort to associate the activity with Shinto rites. Sumo
authorities aimed to receive official recognition by taking advantage of the
government’s promulgation of Shinto as a state religion in 1884. By infusing
religiosity into sumo, authorities believed it would permanently legitimize the sport.
At that time, the Yoshida house of Kumamoto assumed near complete control of the
organization and were given the authority to license referees (gyoji) and created
rituals that clearly evoked Shintoism such as the insertion of objects into the dohyo
as a blessing. Yoshida eventually took complete control of the gyoji duties by giving
the Tokugawa bakufu his family tree that indicated the family had refereed during
Shomu’s reign in the 5
th
century. It was accepted despite well the well-known fact
that referees during Shomu were relatives of the emperor.
15
Bolitho, who has
studied Edo sumo, speculates that bribery was involved.
16
Yoshida was able to
combine two rival houses and assume an iron grip on the sumo world until 1952.
Yoshida fully understood the power of marketing tradition would have; his personal
motto was “kojitsu densho” or preserving old traditions for future generations.”
17

Whether Yoshida knew the importance of keeping a certain amount of flexibility

15
Masao Ikeda, Suma hi no sechie (Kyoto: Jinbunshoin 2004), 99.
16
Harold Bolitho, “Sumo and Popular Culture: The Tokugawa Period” in G.W. Mc Cormack and Y.
Sugimoto The Japanese Trajectory: Modernization and Beyond (Melbourne: Cambridge University
Press, 1988), 26.
17
Ichiro Nitta, Sumo no Rikishi (Tokyo: Yamakawashupansha, 1994), 236-263.

9
incorporate new traditions cannot be fully ascertained, but future sumo authorities
did.

Throughout its history the sumo elders have understood the power of symbols,
particularly when it strengthens the perception of timelessness. This understanding
has helped sumo authorities readily adopt foreign wrestlers. Much of the tightly
guarded traditions of sumo are relatively new and constructed by sumo elders. One
example was vociferous debate as to whether a foreigner possessed the proper
amount of dignity (hinkaku) to become a yokozuna. The most vocal criticisms
occurred during Konishiki’s dominance in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, before
Akebono became the first foreign yokozuna. Author and Sumo Association member
Noboru Kojima put it bluntly, “we don’t need a foreign yokozuna. What makes
sumo different is its own peculiar characteristics of civility, which is the basis of
Japanese morals and values.”
18
The crux of Kojima’s argument is that sumo’s
tradition would not allow for a foreign yokozuna. It is Kojima’s understanding of
sumo’s less than civil history that made his argument fundamentally flawed.
19
Quite
the contrary, sumo’s traditions and history made it sufficiently malleable to absorb
foreign wrestlers and even yokozunas.

18
Velisarios Kattoulas, and George Wehrfritz “Besieged by scandal and foreigners, the old sport is
struggling to survive in the new Japan; Selling Sumo,” Newsweek, June 19,1994, 84. The comments
led to Konishiki’s alleged charges of racism within the JSA.
19
Sumo’s history resembles more of a vaudeville act, than anything Kojima envisioned. During the
Edo period sumo was fought on the street (tsujin-zumo) as well as with midgets fighting women, See
P.L Cuyler, Sumo From Rite to Sport (New York: Weatherhill, 1987), 58, 90-91.

10
The strengthening of the concept of hinkaku was not due exclusively to fears of a
foreign yokozuna. In 1986, Japanese yokozuna Futahaguro’s bizarre behavior made
it necessary to tighten yokozuna requirements. He was promoted in 1986 despite
having never won a tournament because there was only one yokozuna at the time.
JSA authorities believed that he could increase fan support so they promoted him. In
1987 he was forced to resign after challenging his oyakata, hitting his oyakata’s wife
and kicking the head of an eighty-eight year- old woman in the head. This public
relations disaster led the JSA directors to cut their own pay by twenty percent.

Another poor display of hinkaku came from Wajima, a yokozuna from 1971 to 1981.
Unlike Futahaguro, Wajima was a successful yokozuna, winning 14 tournaments in
his career. A college yokozuna, Wajima was heavily recruited and finally landed at
Hanakago beya. After retiring in 1981, he took control of the stable and it eventually
declined under his leadership. In 1982 his wife attempted suicide and he was
subsequently demoted as a judge. (shimpan) It was later discovered that Wajima had
accumulated heavy gambling debts and used his stock in the JSA as collateral. This
was strictly forbidden. He was pressured into retirement and turned to the spectacle
of pro wrestling to pay off his debts.

11
Chapter 1: The Second Hawaiian Wave
Jesse Kuhaulua’s arrival in Japan in February 1964, four years before the
rambunctious Cal Martin, was the first of many Hawaiian wrestlers. Known as
Takamiyama, Kuhaulua found success due in large part because he was able to
assimilate into the sumo world. His attitude was that he wanted to become “more
Japanese than the Japanese.” Unlike Martin, Kahaulua was expected to follow the
rules and conform to sumo life. He was not looked at as the wild foreigner, but the
assimilated one. Sumo had become “stern and unsmiling.”
20
Takamiyama’s
humorous commercials and ads helped humanize sumo and gave opportunities to
other rikishi. The JSA had previously objected to commercialization of rikishi. It
also signified the beginnings of more foreign participation and the globalization of
sumo as a product.
21

The first Hawaiian to follow Takamiyama was massively built Atisanoe “Sally”
Salevaa, known as Konishiki. Sally found rapid success in sumo, climbing to the
makunouchi division in record time.
22
Against a backdrop of Japan Inc. and
increasingly tense U.S-Japan relations, Konishiki’s participation was important for
both countries. However unlike Martin, Hawaiian wrestlers had no room for mistake
because the expectations had changed. Indeed the definition of tradition itself
changed.

20
Lora Sharnoff, Grand Sumo (New York: Weatherhill, 1993), 159.
21
Twenty years after Takmiyama, sumo held exhibitions throughout the world in places such as China,
Latin America and Europe. See Clyde Newton’s Dynamic Sumo (Tokyo: Kodansha International,
1994), 71.
22
Konishiki’s rise to ozeki took 30 tournaments, a record beaten by Akebono’s 26.

12
Konishiki, like Martin was brash and outspoken. But he was smart too. Martin’s
excesses openly tested the patience of the sumo world but for Konishiki insignificant
mistakes got him in trouble. Konishiki’s first gaffes were cultural-linguistic and
were due because he did not follow the unwritten rules of interaction with reporters.
In an interview he said that “sumo is fighting.” In Japanese, the word for fighting
has a connotation to a street brawl. Konishiki’s was merely trying to convey that
sumo is competitive, like a fight. He was subsequently reprimanded for the remarks.

After losing a match that decided one yusho, Konishiki cried in bitter disappointment.
Until this time there had been many instances of wrestlers crying after winning but
never losing. Again he was criticized for violating the aesthetic beauty of stoicism,
one built on the supposed tradition of abstaining from showing emotion.
23
It also
demonstrates a key characteristic of the JSA that helps the organization assimilate
foreign wrestlers, it does not adopt foreign cultural characteristics. Konishiki’s
errors could readily be excused by his being a foreigner, but he did not receive such
liberties. Konishiki’s uniqueness as a non-Japanese in Japan’s national sport is
suppressed, not highlighted.

Even when a foreigner acts more Japanese than a Japanese, or has ample amounts of
hinkaku he often is in a losing situation. In 1974, Asahiyama oyakata went to Tonga
and, with the permission of the Tongan king, recruited six youths to join sumo.
Asahiyama oyakata unexpectedly died in 1975 which left the heya to his widow.

23
Makiko Uchidate, “The Beauty of Falling Blossom: Lessons from Konishiki Yasokichi” Japan
Echo (April 1998): 41.

13
It was decided that Wakatafuse would run the stable. He agreed rent the name
Asahiyama and pay the rent. However another wrestler offered to buy the land from
the widow. When she asked Wakatafuse if she could back out of the deal, he refused.
The Tongans were caught in the middle of this dispute. Wakatafuse became
Asahiyama and began preparing for the next basho, the Tongans refused to join him.
Displaying samurai ethic reminiscent of the famous novel The 47 Ronin, the Tongans
refused to go with the new oyakata. They believed that the widow was their real
master. Because the Tongans were separated from Asahiyama beya, they were not
able to go back or change heya. The JSA attempted to persuade the Tongans to
return to Asahiyama beya, but they refused and retired shortly afterwards.
24
Even
though the JSA technically owns all of the stock within the organization, was
unwilling to change to accommodate the well-intentioned Tongans. In this case,
hinkaku was not a positive attribute and it led to the Tongans forced retirement from
the sport.

The Hawaiians provided a clear differentiation to the Japanese wrestlers and while at
the same time, demonstrated a more inclusive Japan in a time with strong world
skepticism and mistrust especially during the bubble economy. Japan and the
national sport could claim that society was becoming more inclusive to foreigners by
highlighting Hawaiian success in the midst of some very public xenophobic
comments by Japanese officials.
25
Coupled with criticisms of closed markets and

24
Ryo Hatano, “Asahiyama beya splits,” Sumo World, November, 1976. 7-8
25
Two particular incidents show the temper of the times- In 1986 Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone’s commented that low literacy rates in the U.S. is attributed to too many blacks and Latinos

14
unfair trade, American inclusion into the national sport aimed to stymie criticism of
Japan’s overall lack of internationalization. Sumo wrestlers have often been used to
prop up Japan’s national image crisis. Two years after the Treaty of Portsmouth
ended the Russo-Japanese conflict, Hitachiyama was dispatched to America to meet
with Roosevelt as part of a successful goodwill tour.
26

Hawaiian participation also fed the Taka-Waka Jidai, the sumo boom in the early
1990’s with brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana by providing worthy rivals. At
one point Akebono, Musashimaru, Takanohana and Wakanohana were all yokozuna
at the same time. Akebono particularly had strong rivalries with Takanohana and
Wakanohana and was seen as the villain by many fans. His sumo was never fully

The ascension of Chad Rowan (Akebono) to the rank of yokozuna in March of 1993
provides a clear example of how tradition is shaped for the immediate interests of the
JSA. It was widely thought that foreigner could not understand the nuances of
hinkaku, roughly translated as dignity. Certainly that was the major criticism of
Konishiki’s flirtations with the rank. Akebono was less outspoken than Konishiki,
which helped him avoid many of the mistakes that plagued Konishiki. Akebono,
sumo’s first foreign yokozuna, was closer to the Takamiyama mold. Similar to

in the public school system. Two years later Michio Watanabe then leader of the LDP explained that
blacks nonchalantly declare for bankruptcy as if it were not at all serious.
26
Hitachiyama, in a show of Japanese manliness challenged the Rough Rider to a bout. Roosevelt
politely refused saying, “you are too much for me.” See The Washington Post,”President Declined,”
February 9, 1907.

15
Takamiyama’s comments, Akebono said, “...people look at me and say I am more
Japanese than American. You are forced to change. It is natural.”
27

During the Nagano Olympics in 1998, Akebono participated in the opening
ceremony, representing Japan. He did the ring purification ceremony, dohyo-iri,
which begins each tournament. Makoto Kobayashi, director general of the Nagano
Olympic Organizing Committee said afterward, “I believe the foreigners who
watched the traditional rituals were able to understand them.”
28
The irony is that
Akebono, despite the rank, was a foreigner. The dohyo- iri, is not ancient, it dates
back only to 1789 and is an invented tradition. Thus tradition is constantly shaped
by the interests of preserving tradition.

On the surface, Hawaiian participation in sumo appears to be the ideal model of
assimilation. However there are severe limits to full integration and access to power.
Only Kuhaulua has become an oyakata and has been able to run his own heya as a
naturalized Japanese citizen. Kuhaulua was able to do this despite many roadblocks
and appears to be an exception. In 1976, the JSA inexplicably made citizenship a
requirement to become an oyakata. Since Japan does not recognize dual citizenship,
Kuhaulua had to give up his U.S. citizenship and become a Japanese national. This

27
Shinano Mainichi Shinbun, “The Nagano Olympics opening as largest Winter Games ever”
http://www.shinmai.co.jp/oly-eng/199802/0001.htm.
28
Sumo World, “Akebono Speaks Out,” (July 1993). 7-8

16
also required him to change his given name to Daigoro Watanabe. Kuhaulua’s
decision to give up his American citizenship was a difficult one.

Konishiki also became a Japanese citizen in 1994 in order to become an oyakata but
in 1997, he abruptly quit the JSA. He said that the reason was to spend more time
doing charity work, but the real reason was money. In 1995 the JSA had lifted a ban
on commercial activities for JSA members, but increased its demands for profit
sharing. Konishiki was unwilling to give up much of the money earned on his
various other enterprises, which include a production company and a restaurant. The
JSA then forbade him to use the name Konishiki in his role as an entertainer. After
much wrangling, it was decided that he could use the name in English but not in the
kanji script.
29

Rowan’s exit from sumo was equally surprising since he was a former yokozuna.
Rowan was unable to secure financing to acquire the necessary stock to become an
oyakata. Finances were at the root of the problem. To the surprise of many, Rowan
became a K-1 fighter, which is a violent no-holds barred mixed martial art sport.
He earned a reported several million dollars for three fights, money that he did not
have to share with the JSA.

29
Velisarios Kattoulas and Wehrfritz, George “Selling Sumo” Newsweek June 21, 1999 p. 84

17
Chapter 3: From the Mongolian Steppe to the Sumo World
“The Japanese are no good”. - Asashoryu
30

The arrival of Mongolians into sumo demonstrates the uneasy relationship between
sumo and foreign wrestlers. Sumo’s mythology is that it started in Japan as a native
practice. However archeological evidence points to sumo-like wrestling occurring in
China and Mongolia and perhaps transmitted via Korea.
31
Thus Mongolians are a
seemingly natural fit for Japanese sumo both in appearance and wrestling skill.
Mongolian wrestling, called nadam is clearly related to sumo with many of the same
throwing techniques, although there are some very important differences, such as an
absence of pushing and thrusting techniques. Another distinction is after a match is
complete, the winner and the loser participate in a very different ceremony. The
winner acts like a bird, flapping his arms like wings and pretends to be flying over
the loser of the bout.
32
This may explain the outward emotions of current yokozuna
Asashoryu.

The Hawaiian wrestlers were criticized by many for being too bulky and having an
unfair advantage. Mongolian wrestlers are generally smaller. The average weight
of the 12 Mongolian sumo wrestlers in the juryo and makunouchi divisions in the
Nagoya 2007 tournament was 315 pounds, 40 pounds less than the average.
33

30
Bruce Wallace,“He’s put tradition on its ear; sumo wrestler Asashoryu isn’t so big; he’s not even
Japanese but in a ancient sport with a modern crisis, he is lord of the dohyo” Los Angeles Times,
February 18, 2005, Front section.
31
Cuyler, 17-18
32
Motoi Kanazashi, Sumo Daijiten (Tokyo: Gendaishokan, 2007), 446.
33
Goo Sumo “Who’s Who?” Japan Sumo Association
http://sumo.goo.ne.jp/eng/ozumo_meikan/shusshinchi/mongolia.html (accessed August 13, 2007)

18
Although Mongolians fit the preferable physical template, they must mask distinct
cultural differences with Japan.

Nadaam is the national sport and is similar to sumo. However, unlike recent times in
Japanese sumo, the emphasis is on technique rather than power and weight.
Japanese wrestlers, have gradually become heavier and more injury prone. The
average weight of rikishi is a staggering 360 pounds. The Hawaiian wrestlers also
contributed to this upsurge with their emphasis on brute strength. Mongolian
wrestlers emphasize technique due to their relatively small stature and that naadam
does not have any pushing techniques which are often favored by heavier rikishi.

The emergence of Mongolian wrestlers began in 1992 when a group joined various
sumo heya. One member of that group Kyokushuzan, made his makunouchi debut in
the autumn tournament in 1996 after winning the juryo yusho two times.
34
Oshima
beya was harshly criticized after for recruiting Mongolians who did not speak
Japanese at the time. Kyokushuzan’s initial success sparked controversy, albeit
different from Konishiki’s years earlier. His success back in Mongolia was dramatic
as his salary was 340 times that of an average Mongolian at the time.
35
Unlike both
Martin, and to some extent, the Hawaiian wrestlers, sumo for him was a ticket out of
extreme poverty.

34
Six Mongolians entered Oshima-beya in February of 1992. Three of them returned home because
of homesickness. See Sumo World, (March 1997), 3.
35
Ibid, 4.

19
Nicknamed the “technique supermarket” Kyokushuzan used a variety of rare sumo
techniques that were influenced by Mongolian wrestling. There are eighty-two
winning techniques in sumo, from pushing out the opponent to throwing him down.
Many of the techniques are rarely employed. Kyokushuzan deployed several rare
techniques such as watashi-komi, which he used in September of 1996.
36

Kyokushuzan’s flashy techniques were exciting for fans, but they irritated some
sumo officials. Kyokushuzan posed a different challenge for the JSA because
although he was fighting within the rules, there were many unwritten rules he broke,
such as not employing these rare techniques.

The case of embattled yokozuna Asashoryu exemplifies the changing parameters and
vagarities of tradition and the uneven application of rules. Asashoryu, the third
foreign yokozuna has been aptly nicknamed sumo’s bad boy. Asashoryu is a current
yokozuna and well acclimated into Japanese life, having even gone to high school in
Japan. Since the retirement of yokozuna Musashimaru in 2003, Asashoryu has
carried the sport. His superb technique and fighting spirit excited fans and his off the
dohyo antics kept sumo in the newspapers. But recent actions by the JSA indicate
that Asashoryu’s antics and deliberately breaking the unwritten rules may have
exasperated the JSA sufficiently for them to punish the yokozuna.

36
David Shapiro, Sumo World, (Nov. 1996), 13.

20
When Asashoryu became yokozuna in 2003, the Yokozuna Promotion Council
expressed concerns about his behavior and “rough language.”
37
His violations seem
minor compared to Martin’s earlier transgressions, but serious in the eyes of JSA
officials. During one bout he illegally pulled Kyokushuzan’s topknot. He then
gestured to dispute a judge’s call that went against him, a violation of another
unwritten rule of deportment. Asashoryu also gathered signatures to persuade the
JSA to hold an exhibition in Mongolia, which further angered the JSA. Many of
these transgressions played a factor in Asashoryu’s recent troubles.

After the Nagoya tournament in 2007, Asashoryu filed an injury report because of
back and elbow problems, to excuse himself from the annual exhibition throughout
the Japanese countryside. He then went home to Mongolia, where he was
videotaped playing soccer in a charity event for children. The JSA had found its
moment and suspended him for two tournaments and reduced his pay 30%, an
unprecedented action against a reigning yokozuna. The jungyo tour’s attendance
rates were not affected by Asashoryu’s no-show, indeed calls by fans complaining
that the punishment was not severe enough increased.
38
Some Ministry of Education
members criticized the JSA’s punishment as too harsh but there was certainly
precedent for it. In 1947, yokozuna Maedayama withdrew from the Osaka-basho
due to injury. He was later photographed in Tokyo shaking hands with the manager
of the San Francisco Seals, a touring team from the United States. He was heavily
criticized, and subsequently retired in 1949 to take responsibility for his actions. He

37
Futoshi Mukai, and Kuniyuki Kamimura “Asashoryu case reveals JSA’s inability to control
yokozuna” Yomiuri Shinbun, August 3, 2007, Sports section.
38
James Hardy, “Asashoryu drinking at last saloon” Daily Yomiuri, August 3, 2007,Sports section.

21
later took over running Takasago beya, Asashoryu’s current stable.
39
The JSA’s use
of this swift, top-down administered justice keeps the wrestlers on- guard, and
ultimately in-line.

The fourth foreign yokozuna, Mongolian Hakuho appears to be the polar opposite to
Asashoryu. Hakuho has expressed an interest to be a well liked yokozuna, and he
appears to be more similar to Musashimaru and Akebono than to Asashoryu.
Hakuho's impeccable behavior has served to only highlight Asashoryu's faults, or
lack of hinkaku.

39
Adams, Andy and Ryo Hatano, Sumo History and Yokozuna Profiles (Tokyo: Bat Publications,
1979), 86.

22
Chapter 3: A Case Study: Cal Martin- Sumo’s First Foreign Bad Boy
Cal Martin went to Japan in 1968, two days after his high school graduation. His
father, a radar technician, was stationed in Japan and bought Martin a ticket for a
graduation present. Martin Sr. was a sumo fan and when he picked his son up from
the airport, he rushed home to see the rest of the tournament on television. Having
never even seen a sumo match before, he brashly commented that they were not so
big and that he could drive them from the dohyo. Martin Jr. was a confident young
man who wanted to play college football as a center. He was big, around 200
pounds. Martin’s step-mother, a Japanese woman laughed at his hubris and quickly
worked her connections so that he could visit a heya to make good on his
proclamation. This was the first part of Cal’s short, but fascinating entry into the
sumo world.

After a conversation with Hanakago oyakata at the heya which included a careful
looking over of Martin, Martin’s step-mother requested if someone could teach him a
lesson without hurting him. He was matched against an experienced 325- pound
wrestler and after beating him, was asked to join the stable.
40
Martin’s step-mother
explained that he only wanted to try sumo and that he had no plans to join the stable.
Hanakago was relentless with his recruitment of Martin and eventually he agreed.

What started out as an attempt to teach a young man that hubris can be destructive,
ended in Martin joining the Hanakago beya and wrestling under the name Araiwa.

40
For a recount of Martin’s first encounter see Diane Hiloski,“Local Man Finds Success Fighting
Giant Japanese Sumo Wrestlers” Update, May 4, 1977.

23
The original Araiwa was a key oyakata during the Meiji Era. He was one of
Hanakago’s favorite wrestlers because of his supposedly big heart and fighting spirit.
Martin evoked both of those qualities in Hanakago’s eyes and the translation of
Araiwa given to Martin was “Rock of Gibraltar”.

Hawaiian born Jesse Kuhaulua, known as Takamiyama, had entered sumo in March
of 1964, garnered much of the attention. Both he and Martin’s experience in the
sumo world demonstrate the flexible institution despite being very different. If
Kuhaulua’s aim was to be “like a Japanese” Martin’s was the polar opposite.
41
The
two could not have been any more different. Martin was the hell-raising American.
Kuhaulua even kept him at an arm’s length and avoided the ‘black sheep’ of the
sumo community, lest he be associated with that image. Martin explains that
Kuhaulua did everything “by the book.” That was not Martin’s style at all.
Kuhaulua’s main goal was to rapidly assimilate, Martin’s was to be himself and have
a good time. After all he did not seek the sumo world as an escape from poverty; he
stumbled upon it.

Martin’s experience shows demonstrates the flexible institution in two ways. First
the assimilation process required a lot of patience from Hanakago oyakata. He
wanted to slowly acclimate Martin to the sumo lifestyle. Takie Sugiyama Libra’s
study on Japanese behavior might offer some explanation. Libra’s work on the
parent-child relationship confirms what is already widely known- Japanese young

41
Jesse Kahaulua, and John Wheeler, Takamiyama: The world of sumo (Tokyo: Kodansha
International Ltd. 1973), 172.

24
children often lack a semblance of discipline. Discipline gradually increases as one
gets older.
42
Hanakago may have taken this approach, as a Caucasian sumo wrestler
was far from a typical sight. This familiar model would have provided him with a
framework to deal with Martin- a combination of patience and leniency. Fischer
notes that the sumo structure is very much like a family.
43

Secondly, the incorporation of Martin into the heya required extreme cultural
tolerance by Hanakago. Many Japanese are confused by the labyrinth of socio-
cultural rules that govern relations. It is not clear how much Martin understood of
this complex system or the often subtle linguistic nuances of the language. This
approach was appropriate given the scarcity of foreign wrestlers. With the current
influx of foreign wrestlers, the JSA has instituted mandatory language classes before
being allowed to join a heya.

Martin’s experience contradicts the notion that all foreign wrestlers had to adapt
quickly to the inflexible sumo world. Martin explains:
Well that is the whole thing. My boss did not ..nobody led me to believe all told me
how I didn’t know anything so the first couple of weeks I got preferential treatment,
put it that way. I got up with the late guys and everything else. It wasn’t till
Nishimori got me aside and said look you gotta... they are all going to hate you
unless you start doing things the right way and he said I know you don’t understand,
you don’t know what is going on so he sat me down and explained it all. When
practice is over the boss takes the first bath. And he had been having me get in with
him all of the time.

42
Takie Sugiyama Lebra, Japanese Patterns of Behavior (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1976), 144-150.
43
Fischer, 36.

25
Martin’s case clarifies much of why foreign wrestlers were allowed entry into the
sumo world. Sumo has been competing with baseball for the attention of sports fans
in Japan since its arrival in Japan in 1872. From this time, sumo has had both
explosive growth and dismal unpopularity. In the early 1970’s, baseball was on the
upswing, with home run king Sadaharu Oh attracting much interest and between
1965 and 1973 the Tokyo Giants reeled off nine straight championships. This was
the time, not coincidentally, that both Takamiyama and Martin were doing sumo.

The allure of foreign wrestlers is their exotic differences from home-grown rikishi.
But absorption into sumo has been a double -edged sword for the sumo authorities.
Foreign wrestlers’ accentuate Japanese wrestlers’ “Japaneseness” and spread the
sport internationally, but foreigners consistent success often weakens domestic
interest. Martin explains:
But it was really funny starting out. My boss was..oh gosh his stable was ranked..I
think there were about 50 stables back then, his was probably 40
th
low on the totem
pole and when I quit, he was the number one stable and the president of the Sumo
Association. He really made out good with me. There is no doubt. Just the publicity
more than anything because I was constantly in trouble over there. Constantly.
What he would come up with all the time was that sumo needed a shot in the arm.
Baseball was taking over. It really was. And he says, the best thing that you can do
for this sport is just be yourself. I bet you are going to get into all kinds of shit. I did.

If Hanakago’s hoped to emulate Takasago’s success with Jesse rested in his ability to
tolerate the American’s attitudes, his patience needed to be abundant. While Martin
was friendly and extroverted personality, he found trouble. Trouble in fact was
linked to publicity, which was a positive for the stable. In one instance, Martin got
into a bar fight with some gangsters. Fearing reprisals from the gang, he hid out for
a week at a girlfriend’s house and was set to escape via a Swedish freighter because

26
the oyakata had his passport. In the end he was persuaded by the oyakata to come
back and talk with the gang’s boss. After a while things were smoothed over and all
was forgotten and Martin was allowed to stay in the heya.

Unlike many of his foreign successors, Martin was not bullied. Both Konishiki and
Akebono’s trials with fellow stable-mates is well-documented. Martin was largely
left alone. On one occasion, three wrestlers, one of them the oyakata’s son, came
back at three in the morning after heavy drinking. They began to wake up everyone
else. Martin figured that it was only an hour earlier than usual, so he did not resist.
Shortly afterward, the three drunkards started to hit the younger wrestlers with
bamboo poles. Martin then took a broom and began fighting off the three. He had
inflicted a lot of damage to one and was concerned that the wrestler would suffer
permanently. Martin feared what he had done and fled to his girlfriend’s house for a
week. He called the oyakata for his passport and the oyakata told him to come back
and that he would have done the same thing himself because the three deserved what
they got.

In another example of Martin’s free rein, he had met the Emperor’s niece at a party.
According to Martin, after some conversation, the two decided to go out together.
Riding in Martin’s pick up truck, the two were followed by her security personnel.
The niece explained that the men were always with her and there was nothing that
they could do about it. Martin figured out that they would not be allowed to follow
them into the army base. He went in and then went out, leaving the security

27
personnel at the front gate. The two were free to do as they please, absence of any
interference. The two were gone for three days and it was the first time the niece
was unaccounted for. Hanakago told Martin that he might be pushing his luck with
this incident.

Martin was also not initially pushed hard to acquire Japanese. He was allowed a
translator in the beginning. He did not take classes or tutoring. His language
learning was solely his responsibility. His step-mother would often accompany him
to help out. He even took her to the dressing room during a tournament. The idea
was for Martin to be as comfortable as possible. This contrasts with Takamiyama,
who had started learning Japanese on his first day at Takasago beya and was actively
encouraged to learn as quickly as possible.
44

The important ceremonial aspects of sumo, the pillars of the sport, were never
explained to Martin. He was simply told to concentrate on sumo and not to worry
about the relatively minor details. It was only after he returned to the United States
did he buy a book on sumo because he was tired of people asking him questions on
the sport and he not knowing the answer. For example he did not know what many
of the time-honored traditions meant- from the salt throwing to the power-water.
(chikara mizu)

44
Andrew Adams and Mark Schilling, Jesse! Sumo Superstar (Tokyo: The Japan Times Ltd. May,
1988), 14.

28
Martin was also not mindful of tradition, particularly the unwritten rules. In sumo
the presentation is as important as the sumo itself. Interviews with the press and its
accompanied internalized and predictable script is essential. Martin had no
knowledge of such formalities. One time before a match, Martin was confronted by
an English speaking reporter, who according to Martin was arrogant. When the
reporter insinuated that Martin took stimulants to get ready to wrestle, Martin told
him the only thing that gets him psyched up for a fight is to “go down there and sit
and think about Pearl Harbor.” Hanakago’s advice to Martin after the incident was
“to concentrate on winning, but you may want to tone it down just a bit.”

Another unwritten rule in sumo is that having girlfriends was discouraged because it
makes wrestlers weak. Martin had several girlfriends and was encouraged to have a
good time. Stablemate Nishimori had a girlfriend and had told Martin about it.
45
According to Martin he was the only one who knew, and if the oyakata found out,
there would have been some problems. Nishimori acted as an informal mentor to
Martin advising and teaching him, although the relationship was far from the
complex vertical system of relationships called sempai-kohai , an arrangement found
not only in the sumo world, but in other Japanese organizations.

Martin fully embraced the bad boy image, while navigating the thin line between
acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Martin is a high energy personality, someone
not accustomed to sitting around. Despite the constant training and obligations, there

45
Kaiketsu is best known for regaining his ozeki rank in 1977 after losing it. He was promoted rather
prematurely because there was only one other ozeki at the time.

29
were periods of down time, especially during the tournaments. Although it is
advised that sumo wrestlers get plenty of sleep during the tournaments, Martin could
not follow this advice. He went out on those nights and usually found trouble. Both
Martin and Kuhaulua were drafted for the Vietnam War but neither ended up there.
He had reported to the draft on a military base in Japan. As he was waiting for his
draft number he got into an altercation with the sergeant. Clearly irritating the
military officials, Martin’s number was thirty, one that would certainly guarantee a
person being drafted. Martin never even had to report and his case was inexplicably
dropped. When he inquired about what happened to the oyakata, he was told not to
worry about it and not to bring it up again.

Recently there has been much criticism of foreign wrestlers’ demonstrative behavior
in the dohyo, from topknot pulling to talking to an opponent after a bout. Martin, too,
had some on-dohyo episodes. Before one bout, Martin was in the dressing room
when his opponent for the day proclaimed that he would never lose to an American.
Martin, not out of character, told him and the other wrestlers to wait and find out. In
the dohyo, Martin pulled the opponent back from stepping out so that he could
deliver a few more blows before eventually winning.

Martin had other uses as well, he was incredibly tough. He had ample amounts of
fighting spirit, and it was thought that he could instill that spirit onto other wrestlers.
He fought using a ferocious pushing and thrusting attack (oshi-dashi) and went all
out, even during practice. It got to a point that only Kaiketsu and the oyakaka

30
himself would practice with Martin because of his intensity. Martin recalled that
during a joint practice session with two other stables, he broke a wrestler’s jaw.
When the other wrestlers complained, Hanakago oyakata would tell Martin to
continue to fight all out. The contrasts between the Japanese wrestlers and Martin
were clear and Hanakago remarked,” He has prewar fighting spirit. He is willing to
do far more than ordinary Japanese young men of today.”
46
Martin confirms this
opinion of Japanese wrestlers, “they were soft. None of them liked to get hit in the
face”. Martin was anything but soft. He planned to pursue college football before
starting his sumo career.

Another reason why Martin’s antics were tolerated was that sumo was predictable
and boring. The great yokozuna Taiho dominated and there was little doubt that he
would win most of the tournaments. In fact Taiho won 32 tournaments, a record that
still stands. Martin was not expected to break Taiho’s domination, but he would
provide an interesting diversion of the monotony of the end result. Martin took on
Taiho a few times in practice sessions and exclaimed, “I couldn’t budge him… he
was the biggest man I had ever seen until I met Jesse. I had a lot of respect for him.”
He did add color to the lower ranks.

During the first tournament after he returned to Japan, Martin was involved in an
unprecedented nine man playoff in the makushita division. At that time Martin half-
heartedly suggested that the nine men get in the dohyo and fight it out. According to
Martin, it was naturally rejected, so Martin volunteered to go first, which meant

46
Doug Kenrick, The Book of Sumo (New York: Weatherhill Books 1969), 136.

31
having to fight an extra match. In the end, Martin won the tie-breaker and the
tournament.

In the end Martin decided to leave Japan and the sumo world. His step-mother
became involved with a wrestler in the stable which resulted in divorce from
Martin’s father. Martin decided he had enough.

Before Martin left, Hanakago told him that the sky was the limit for him and that he
could reach the top. Martin, with typical confidence confirmed the assessment.
When sumo held an exhibition in Los Angeles in 1976, after Martin returned to
California, he was asked to help out. Apparently Hanakago did not tire of Martin, as
he asked him to return to the sumo world. Martin politely declined.

The sumo world’s relationship with Martin was one of love-hate. Martin’s sumo
career benefited from Hanakago’s protection, but the governing sumo body had little
patience for him. At one time the JSA circulated a petition to expel Martin from
sumo. In the end Hanakago was able to thwart that effort because he was a powerful
member of the organization and he was desperate to keep Martin in the heya. It also
points to a looser, decentralized organization where the individual oyakata has near
total control of his heya.

Martin’s short experience in the sumo world contradicts the notion that the sumo
world was rigid and demanded that foreigners conform. The inclusion of foreigners

32
necessitates that the sumo structure be decentralized and pliable. Hanakago’s
relative freedom to use Martin as he wished despite some objections within the sumo
hierarchy demonstrates such flexibility.
47

47
Source material in this chapter comes from an interview with Cal Martin on August 4, 2007 and a
follow up interview via e-mail on August 28, 2007. See the appendices for the unedited interview.

33

Figure 1: Martin practicing shiko, or foot stomping

Figure 2: Martin with Jesse Kuhaulua

34

Figure 3: Martin exercising at Hanakago-beya

Figure 4: Martin’s pre-bout warm up

35

Figure 5: Martin at Hanakago-beya

Figure 6: Martin getting his hair done

36
Conclusion
Sumo’s relationship with globalization, recruitment, tradition and rates of domestic
consumption rates form a complex web of interdependence. Sumo’s future depends
on the balance of these forces. In March 2007, for the first time ever, there were no
Japanese youths successfully recruited. The reasons for the less than stellar results is
fairly straightforward. Most Japanese do not want to endure the rigorous lifestyle
and more importantly, the high failure rate leaves very little opportunity afterwards.
The demanding lifestyle was clearly shown in June 2007. A young wrestler named
Tokiaizan died suddenly at Tokitsukaze beya while training. It was later revealed
that he had run away from the stable several times and that cigarette burns were on
his body as well as bruises, abrasions and cartilage fractures near the ribs.
48

Many young people find Japanese sumo too traditional and appreciated only by older
people. Thus tradition is both a positive and negative force for sumo. In one respect
it hampers recruitment because it is seen as archaic, an anachronism in modern Japan.
But tradition also is a positive factor for satisfying the now sizable international
audience. Sumo has a long history in Hawaii and is emerging as a popular sport in
Brazil, Russia, and Eastern Europe due in large part to the expanding foreign
participation and jungyo tours. The movement to make sumo an Olympic event
signifies its growing overseas popularity.

48
Mainichi Daily News, “Sumo wrestler who collapsed died of shock caused by multiple injuries”,
June 29, 2007, Sports section.

37
The globalization of sumo has attracted others to join. A new contingent from
Russia and Eastern Europe have made inroads into the sport. Roho, a promising
rikishi from Russia has been termed the new bad boy for some of his antics. After
losing to Chiyotaikai in the 2006 Nagoya Tournament, Roho smashed a window in
the dressing room and attacked photographers. He was subsequently suspended for
three days and his oyakata was penalized with a 10% pay cut for three months. This
was the first time a wrestler has been suspended for this sort of behavior.

Sumo is by no means reluctant to embrace internationalization. Sumo has been
strongly influenced by foreign perception, from Perry’s visit to the expanding
overseas tours. Increased internationalization is seen by the various prizes given to
the winner of each tournament.
A Partial List of Prizes for the Makunouchi
Championship
49

Sino-Japan Friendship Cup
Year's supply of
Corona
Swiss wrist watch
Republic of Mexico Friendship Plaque
The Czech Friendship Plaque
United Arab Emirates Friendship Plaque
Hungary Friendship Plaque
Replica of a traditional Arabian coffee pot
Year's supply of Pilsner beer
Bon Merci Award
Table 2
The presentation of many of these awards explains a lot about the changing
perceptions of foreigners by the Japanese. The presentation of the Pan-American

49
The information was taken from Seiguro Kitade, Sumo: Fully Illustrated (Tokyo: PHP Institute Inc.,
200), 100-101.

38
Cup by Davey Jones in the 1960-1970’s appealed to many sumo fans. He wore the
traditional haori pants and spoke haltingly poor Japanese. Many fans liked seeing
the apparent vulnerability of a foreigner in Japan. Martin may have also had this
appeal to many Japanese. Asashoryu and the recent foreign sumo wrestlers do not
get this leeway as expectations are much higher for them.

The increase of foreigners in sumo has accentuated the differences between
foreigners and the Japanese. These differences are often exaggerated with vague
notions of “hinkaku” or “tradition”. The JSA’s challenge is to effectively market the
warrior tradition while further incorporating foreign wrestlers. This has a two-
pronged effect. First it highlights “Japanese-ness” and the fragile notion of sumo as
the national sport (kokugi) while also demonstrating Japan’s increased
internationalism, however superficial.

Sumo’s is increasingly incorporating more foreigners and more will come in the
future. The sumo structure will have to adapt further to the ever-changing landscape.
Increased internationalization will challenge the JSA as well as the individual heya.
The flexible model within a seemingly traditional one may provide useful for similar
Japanese organizations in assimilating foreign labor.

39
Glossary
Banzuke Ranking sheet
Basho Tournament
Chikara mizu power water, given to wrestlers by
other wrestlers

Gyoji Referee
Dohyo Ring
Dohyo-iri Ceremony performed by each yokozuna
Heya/beya Stable
Hinkaku Dignity
Juryo The second highest division
Kokugi National sport
Makunouchi The top division in sumo
Makushita Third highest division in sumo,
Matawari sumo exercise, splits with the forehead on the
ground

Oshi-dashi Pushing and thrusting techniques
Oyakata stablemaster
Ozeki the second highest rank in sumo
Rikishi sumo wrestlers
Shinpan judge
Tenranzumo viewing of sumo by the emperor
Yokozuna the highest rank in sumo
Yusho the championship

40
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Kazami Akira. Sumo Kokugi to Nara. Tokyo: Taishukan Shoten, 2002.

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Kenrick, Doug. The Book of Sumo. New York: Weatherhill Books, 1969.

Kitade, Seigoro. Grand Sumo Fully Illustrated. Yohan Publications: Tokyo, 1998.

Lebra, Takie Sugiyama. Japanese Patterns of Behavior. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1976

Mainichi Daily News, “Sumo wrestler who collapsed died of shock caused by
multiple injuries,” June 29, 2007.

Matsubara Hiroshi. “Foreigners face a long slog to Japanese citizenship” The Japan
Times Online, April 20, 2001.

Martin, Cal Interviewed by author, August 4,
,
2007.

Mukai, Futoshi and Kuniyuki, Kamimura “Asashoryu case reveals JSA’s inability to
control yokozuna” Yomiuri Shinbun August 3, 2007.

Newton, Clyde. Dynamic Sumo. Kodansha International Press,

Newton, Clyde. “Miyabiyama Promotion to Ozeki”, Sumo World, July 2000.

Nitta Ichiro. Sumo no Rikishi. Tokyo: Yamakawashupansha1994.

Osborn, Andrew. “The Legacy of a Mongolian Warlord: The Cult of Genghis Khan”,
The Independent, May 11, 2005.

Panek, Mark. Gaijin Yokozuna A Biography of Chad Rowan. University of Hawaii
Press: Honolulu, 2006.

Perry, Matthew Calbraith. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to t
The China Seas and Japan, Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854,
Under the Command of Commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy, By
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Company, 1857.

Shapiro, David. Sumo World, Nov. 1996.

Sharnoff, Lora. Grand Sumo. New York: Weatherhill, 1993.

Simmons, Doreen. “Kyoshujo: School of Shin-Deshi” Sumo World, September, 1989.

Sumo World, July 1993.

Tokugawa Iyemasu. Japanese Wrestling. London: The Japan Society, 1912.

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Uchidate, Makiko. “The Beauty of Falling Blossom: Lessons from Konishiki
Yasokichi” Japan Echo, April 1998.

Velisarios, Kattoulas and Wehrfritz, George. “Selling Sumo” Newsweek, June 21,
1999.

Wallace, Bruce. “He’s put tradition on its ear; sumo wrestler Asashoryu isn’t so big;
he’s not even Japanese but in a ancient sport with a modern crisis, he is lord
of the dohyo” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2005.

Washington Post, “President Declined” February 9, 1907.

43
Appendix A
Cal Martin Interview
Unedited transcript

The interview took place at Cal Martin’s house in Victorville, California on August 4
th
2007.

When did you go to Japan?

Two days after my graduation. June 1968.

Why exactly did you go?

That was my dad’s graduation present. He was over there. He has been there for most of his life.

Military?

Yeah. Military He was in the marines for 24 years and was with Westinghouse for 25 years. He was
some kind of radar expert. As soon as he got out of the service, then he got on with Westinghouse.
We moved around for Tennessee to Las Vegas, back out to California and then he went to Japan my
senior year of high school. I said they don’t play football over there so I am not going. So I went back
to live with my mom and that is how I graduated out in California.

How did you make contact with the sumo world?

When I got over there, he picked me up from the airport and the day he picked me up and that day we
had to hurry home so he could watch sumo. There was a sumo tournament, right in the middle of one
and I had no clue as to what he was even talking about. Never heard of the sport. Nothing. And after
watching it for a day on TV I made the mistake of saying well hell those guys aren’t that big and
watching them on TV they did not look that big and I said shit a good ol’ American boy could just
kick their butts. And my step-mother just laughed and says no way and I said well I am going to be
here for month, month and a half, I says you figure out a way for me to go down there and do it and I
will show you. And she got after it. One of her good friends is a big high falleutin lawyer type guy
and they all had connections and they got a hold of my. Hanakago and he says you know we got this
American who thinks he is a real hot shot and he would like to come out and try this. He said hell
bring him down and we’ll whip his butt. And so that is how we got started. We were supposed to be
down there one afternoon around two o’clock in the afternoon. We didn’t get down there until almost
six, getting lost and everything else and the practice was actually over and all that but. anyway we sat
down with the big boss and he was feeling all over. I was a pretty good size- 200 pounds then and for
high school football that was pretty good, pretty solid so..We sat down and he ..believe it or not I
didn’t drink much back then. So we had a few beers and that was it. I said since we are here lets...my
stepmother is having to do all of this interpreting, you know. And she says well I want you to get
somebody that will kick his ass, but don’t kill him.

Were you a good kid, well behaved?

Oh yeah. Average. I know that I got in trouble. (laughs) I’ve never been a saint.

How long were you there total?

4 years total. From the first time I went, because I went the first time and I did one tournament and
then I said well you know I did it and I don’t like it and I can go home and play football. And then
when I came back that is when all of the newspaper articles and everybody is calling the American
chicken and all of that I said that’s it and so I got mad and went back and then I stayed for three years.

44
What did your family and friends think about you in sumo?

My mom hated it she didn’t want anything to do with it. She was a big football fan and always
envisioned me being a pro football player. So she didn’t like it at all. The rest of my friends just
thought I was crazy.

Did you call them when you were in Japan?

Not a lot. It was really expensive. I did towards the end I did a lot when I could afford it. You start
out at their salary, at the bottom division, you don’t make anything. Once you get up there in the
makushita division you maker pretty good money.

So you had some experience with Japan before you got there? You’d been there before?

No. Never been there. That was my first trip.

So when you decided you could do this you just started living there?

Yes. When I came back I mean my step-mom said if you come back this time you can’t there is no
leaving I am not going to let them talk about Americans that way so..

What were the first couple of weeks like?

Living with 58 of them. Not one speaking English. That was a lot of fun. I mean a lot of sign
language.

Were they courteous to you?

Well Nishimori actually...Kaiketsu he was the one who helped me out. My boss he just kept me
under his wing like a little kid, you know. I didn’t know any of the rules. Those guys in the bottom
division, they are like slaves. They do all of the KP, they do everything else. They get up and
practice and we stated at about 4:30 in the morning and you got all of your practice then the guys in
the top division they’d sleep in till 10 or whatever and then they’d come out and start practicing by
then the young ones were supposed to be done and then they can start on KP while everyone else
while these guys are practicing.

Did you do that?

Well that is the whole thing. My boss did not ..nobody led me to believe all told me how I didn’t
know anything so the first couple of weeks I got preferential treatment, put it that way. I got up with
the late guys and everything else. It wasn’t till Nishimori got me aside and said look you got to...
they are all going to hate you unless you start doing things the right way and he said I know you don’t
understand, you don’t know what is going on so he sat me down and explained it all. When practice
is over the boss takes the first bath. And he had been having me get in with him all of the time. That is
what made all of the other wrestlers say that is just aint the way that it is done. He is in the lowest
division there is and you know… So after Nishimori straightened me all out and I told my boss you
are not helping me. I told him I want nothing to do with you. So after that I started getting along with
them. But Nishimori was probably my only buddy. He was really my only good friend.

What were your initial thoughts of the heya?

Why I ended up liking it so much was in football, I was not a good team player. I was a center. I did
my job every time and the guy next to me would let someone through and you know I’d just turn
around and beat the shit out of my own guy. Instead of patting him on the back and saying you’ll get
him next time, I wasn’t one of those guys.

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It’s a good attitude for sumo though, isn’t it?

Perfect, because you have no one to blame but yourself. You screw up in that sport; there is nobody
to blame but you. But it was really funny starting out. My boss was..oh gosh his stable was ranked..I
think there were about 50 stables back then, his was probably 40
th
low on the totem pole and when I
quit, he was the number one stable and the president of the Sumo Association. He really made out
good with me. There is no doubt. Just the publicity more than anything. Because I was constantly in
trouble over there. Constantly. What he would come up with all the time was that sumo needed a
shot in the arm. Baseball was taking over. I t really was. And he says, the best thing that you can do
for this sport is just be yourself. I bet you are going to get into all kinds of shit. I did.

So sumo was at a low point at that time?

It was. It was down. Taiho was big. It was almost boring. Every tournament they knew Taiho was
going to win all the time. He had a long streak going. That was one guy I really admired.
Did you ever meet him?

I not only got to meet him, I got to fight him. Not in competition, but practice and what not.

How did that go?

I couldn’t even move him. I couldn’t even budge the man.

He was a bit bigger than you were.

Yeah. He was 300 or so. 320 maybe. Half Russian. My girlfriend was half-Russian and Japanese.
Taiho just amazed me. He was something else. Awesome. He was the biggest man I ever saw, until
I met Jesse. He was the biggest. I looked like a little hair under his armpit. That one picture you see,
he’s got his arm …I think he was 6-6, 6-5, at least.

Did you ever wrestle him?

Yes. I got to have fun doing that. I don’t know, we were ..I don’t know what the final score was, he
was a tough one to beat.

What was your relationship with him like?

Believe it or not, I was there for a year and never met him. Of course we ran in different circles and I
was in the lowest division. You don’t have anything to do with scum, and you are just a scumbag.
There whole process is to make you want to …you got to move up in rank, to move up in anything.
Society. You are paid, getting out of KP duty, you are a slave. If I were a Japanese kid, some of them
are only 12-year’s old, they get a lot of them from orphanages, and what not. They don’t even know
if they are going to get big enough. They got to put up with all of that shit until they are big enough.
At least get up there and get in the lowest division. There are a lot of them

You and Jessie did not have much contact then?

Not a whole lot. We did one charity thing together but he was strictly Japanese rules. He did
everything by their book. And I probably did nothing by the book. I mean I never did. So he really
did not want to be associated with me. I was the black sheep

Were the two of you the only foreigners at the time?

At that time. Well unless you count Koreans. They had..Koreans were considered low class. The
ones that I found out that were Korean they never listed themselves as Korean.

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From Korea or From Japan?

From Korea. They were from Korea but they would pass themselves off as Japanese. There were
two of them in there.

Couldn’t you tell when they talked?

No they were raised in Japan. Some might even born there. Their parents were Korean.

They were treated poorly despite their ranking?

They never let it be known. Them and the two of us. Jesse of course being Hawaiian. But I was the
only honky. So I was the gaijin.

I haven’t watched sumo in 8 years.

How come?

I am too busy doing other stuff…. I have been racing ever since I got out of sumo. The best thing I
liked watching over there is Sumo Digest. They cut out all of the ceremony and bam-bam. They cut
it out and go to each fight. It’s quick. I think my longest fight was a minute and ten seconds. That
was my longest. Mine were usually over with between 5-10 seconds. I was the tachi-ai kid. My boss
taught me to go out there. There is no grabbing the best, taking a break, he said that is not sumo
wrestling. You get out there and don’t quit until it is over. 150%. And that is the way he brought me
up and that is the way I did it. It was bad though because in practice, they would sometimes get two
or three stables together, for a big practice session. Well I ended up breaking up jaws. I fought every
fight that same way. They were trying to tell me that it was practice and you don’t have to kill each
other.

That is surprising.

But I never ,my boss would just say, you tell him. He’s sorry but that is the way (Martin) is. My boss
liked them to think I was crazy. They actually started a petition to try to get me out. The Sumo
Association.

Why?

Because of all the unwritten rules that I broke. I mean there are two rules in the sport- you can’t touch
the hair and you can’t hit with a closed fist.

You mean the unwritten rules on or off the dohyo?

Outside the ring. I would get up there like Johnny Carson, you know and I would be telling them all
of the shit that was going on in practice. Outsiders were not even allowed to come and watch practice.
You got to really be someone to get in there. I am telling them all of this crap that was going on and
not supposed to do that. I was constantly getting caught in nightclubs, dancing, raising hell with a
bunch of girls all the time, having a good old time. I didn’t hide anything. I didn’t care.

So the petition failed?

Yeah. But it was a win-loss deal. If I lost, yeah I’d go home. Sorry it hasn’t happened. I don’t know.
Their routine during the tournament, you really only get up and exercise in the morning during the 15
day tournament. It is not really hard work, but you are supposed t o lay low, go to bed about 8
o’clock. And I just couldn’t do that. I don’t know if it was nerves, or whatever. I would sit there and
toss and turn all night. And I told my boss that ain’t gonna happen. He said what do you want to do?
And I said I am going out. I mean I would get caught by the media and everyone else, at 3 o’clock in

47
the morning, dancing, raising hell having a good time, and then t he next day, I’d have to fight
somebody. And I said I don’t fight anyone until 4 or 5 the next day, so I have plenty of time. If I
have a hangover, it just makes me want to get it over with quicker (laughs) My boss said, you know
what? You do it your way, but the first time you have a losing record, then we are going to go back
and do it my way. Never happened though. I never had to do it his way.

Besides the language, what was a difficult adjustment for you?

The size of things. When you are a big guy, when I ended up leaving I was like 410 lbs. something
like that. The guys that go to the theatre you brought your own bench. Transportation and everything
was for little people over there. Size wise, it was a pain in the ass. The unwritten rules, were not a
problem. I mean because my boss just flat out told me, don’t worry about it. I mean I had as big a fan
club as the yokozunas did. It was amazing, you know. It gave something so people could talk about
sumo. Sumo started coming up in rank. It brought it back. My boss said, you probably half-assed
saved the sport. That is the way it was. He was glad the way I was. But he’d let me know if I was
really doing something wrong.

So you like him? It sounds like you had a good relationship with him?

I admired that man more than anything. He was a great trainer. That guy taught me more stuff.
Because he knew I never did judo or anything. Judo is the best thing that you can know in that sport.
Nishimori, Kaiketsu was a college champion of judo. It was really funny he was just ready to break
into the juryo division and when I started it out of course I had to start out at the bottom. Within a
year I caught up with him and I said you are going to be left behind. Boy he woke right up- bullshit.
He would practice with me when no body else would. It got to the point where nobody wanted to
practice with me.

Why?

Hurting them. I would hurt people. Nishimori would get out there every day- c’mon. He loved it. He
was a tough bugger. He was a little older than me, 2 years I think. He dropped out of college but he
could actually read and write English good. Really good. Speaking it he wasn’t all that great, but if
you wrote it out he understood everything. I got into a lot of confrontations with wrestlers that were
higher rank than me. You are not even supposed to talk back to them and we got into a lot of fights.
He started to tell me you can’t do t hat.

I remember one time, three guys including my boss’ son, he was a wrestler too. They came in one
night 3’o’clock in the morning. All drunker than hell. They started waking up all of the younger ones
and everything. Hell it was only an hour before we got up anyway. We all got up. But then they
started beating up on the little ones really bad. Bamboo poles, just beating them up. That was it. I
just hauled off. I took all three of them on. At the end of the day you have this;;;you sweep up the pile
of dirt hard clay underneath. They have this stick t hat goes underneath with white tentacles hanging
off it. It’s like the sumo gods that was a handy weapon right there. I broke that over a couple of their
heads. I just got into all kinds of stuff.

Akebono describes in his biography that when he first got there, there was a guy that was
constantly bullying him by making him wake up in the middle of the night and make his bed.

Yeah. That’s what I did with these three. Well good for him.

So you were never bullied?

Yeah, like I said they’d come in three in the morning drunk and try to pull that crap, and the other
ones they would not dare talk back to them. But not me. I didn’t care. One of them, I thought I really
screwed him up. He was bleeding real bad. I knocked him out and everything. So I just took off.

48
Did you get in trouble for that?

Well I took off for about a week, until I ran out of money.

You left?

I left. I was hiding. I thought I killed him to be honest with you. My boss called up my dad, asking
where is he? My dad is going I didn’t know anything happened. So I hid out at my girlfriend’s house
for about a week. Finally I had to call my boss up and say, I need money to get out of here. He said
get your ass back here. You didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have done. All the kids told him what
happened. My boss found out what happened they all got kicked out. All but one.

So you were never bothered after that?

No. No one messed with me on anything. That was pretty early going. I just told them I ain’t taking
this shit off of them. I don’t care if they are higher rank than me or not. If we are talking fighting
here, fine. If they can beat me, beat me. I’m not going to take this crap.

So my boss was the only one who hit me and he did not do it often. He tried to teach me. He would
put straw under my arm to teach me to keep my arms in. Every time that straw would drop, he’d hit
me. But with him, I didn’t care. He taught me more about it than anybody. He was probably sixty
then, I would guess, still real active.

So you learned a lot by him and by observation.

Actually just doing it. They’d have a round robin. They’d get in a circle and two guys would start out.
As long as the guy kept winning, another guy would come in. Sooner or later you were going to lose
b=because you had fresh guys always wanting to fight you. So I would always want to be the first
one in. Then they had to do it because the boss was watching. Normally I’d try to get someone to
spare with me and they’d say no, no. Nishimori was the only one who would spare with me.

It sounds like the wrestlers were soft.

Yes. They believed in some kind of gods and they don’t really want to get hit in the face. If you look
at all of my films, I went straight for the face. My boss would say you cut off the head and the body
will die. They didn’t believe in that. You watch most of them they don’t do that.

Surprising.

Yes. I was more boxing than anything else. When they got my belt, I had to depend on everything
my boss taught me about breaking the hold. It was strictly for defense. I never, in any of my times
went for the belt. And my boss said don’t you ever, that is the sissy’s way out. He was a character
believe me. He was a real character.

Did you have any homesickness at all?

Yes. I did.

Why did you finally leave?

My dad and step-mom were getting a divorce. I found out that my step-mom was having an affair
with one of the wrestlers. It was my boss’s son. So I finally said we are done.

So you left?

Yes. Then I came back to California and opened up a restaurant in Orange.

49
Japanese?

No. I was never found of Japanese food. It was fine. I love it. Sushi and all that. My daughters are,
they all love it. I can take it or leave it.

Were you able to put on a lot of weight in Japan?

Yes. That is when I took up racing to lose the weight.

Were you eating strictly Japanese food when you were there?

Yes 99% of the time. That chanko-nabe they got is plenty fattening. Lots of beer.

How was your Japanese ability by the time you left?

Yes I could converse with them great. In fact it was kind of fun. My dad, like I said has been there
off and on for thirty years when I got there, and married to two Japanese and within two months I was
speaking Japanese better than he ever had. Just because at work he had to speak English. I didn’t
have a choice. But I wouldn’t let them know. I knew a lot more than I would tell them because I
didn’t like to listen to their conversations, especially about me. They thought I couldn’t understand.
Actually sumo has its own language. Those guys can sit there and talk in front of the media, and they
don’t have a clue what they are talking about. They have their own little language. So you had to
learn that one and plus regular Japanese.

Did you take classes?

Nope. Never took classes on anything. I finally bought a book on sumo because I would get asked all
of these questions, you know. What is up with the white stuff you throw in there? Why do you life
your leg? What’s all this? And this and that. And I said I just got a book and find out.

So it sounds like they just told you to go in there and forget about the little things.

Nothing. I had no clue. I am sitting going through their ceremony, but I just memorized it. I had no
clue what it meant, until I bought a book. When I found out it was real religious to them, then I really
clowned around a lot. I’d come out there with hand full of salt that would cover four rows out and
throw it. Then the next night I would just get a little pinch and throw it out there. Just totally
screwing with them. When you come out and you sit dead across from the guy and there are two
fights and you have to have a stare down with him. I was turning around talking to girls, I mean the
judges and the referees sitting beside you were constantly saying you can’t do that, yeah I can. I
would wink at the guy over there, I screwed with them all. But when you look at my old films, when
the guy flips his fan, it’s time, I got real serious. Not until then. I’d just screw with them.

Back in the dressing room, they’d say who are you fighting today, and I’d say “how the hell do I
know, I can’t read Japanese. I don’t have a clue.” The guy would go over there and look and say, “oh
you’re fighting so and so”. I said, “yeah I bet he’s got black hair and slanted eyes.” What is the big
deal. He’d say, “oh you don’t want to fight him your way, he’ll just kill you.” And I said, well it has
worked for me so far, I don’t think I am going to change.” He’d say, no you gotta change your
tactic.” Then I’d get out there and that was he guy I was fighting! That would turn out to be who I
was fighting. Shit like that pissed me off. I was just there cracking up.

The first time I went out on my own, I got pretty drunk and I couldn’t find my way back to the stable,
and I had no clue. Here comes another sumo wrestler walking down the street. Of course I couldn’t
talk to him. He knew who I was. He gets me a cab, takes me all the way back to the stable drops me
off. I come to find out he was four divisions above me or something like that. Then there came a
time when we had to fight each other. Jesus Christ, he just about killed me. I was going to take it
easy on him and right at the start, he just about nailed me. But I ended up beating him. I said “God

50
what did you do that for?” And he said We’ll be friends out there on the street, but not in the ring.”
That is how I finally figured that out. There are no favors in that sport. None at all.
I got in trouble with the mafia. That was another time. I tried to jump onto a Swedish freighter,
because my boss had my passport. I figured the Godfather was coming to kill me. He came down to
our stable. He turned out to be one of our biggest sponsors. I got in a fight with about four of his
guys in an alley in town. I hurt them pretty bad. I was just sitting there telling him I would pay for
everything. That was another time I was gone for about a week. My boss said “get your ass back here.
Yeah he’s coming and you gotta talk to him.” And I am thinking oh shit. He turned out to be a pretty
cool guy. He said those punks had it coming, don’t worry about it.

I never realized how much betting went on in sumo. They bet on a lot. You can bet on each fight, you
can bet on if you are going to get your kachi-koshi, or you can bet on several ways. He’d always say,
odds are you moved up another division, you are not going to make it this time, you know. I said,
yeah. And he said yeah, what do you think?” I said, well I am going to make it, I ain’t worried.
He’d say, OK, I’ll be betting. I don’t know how much he bet, but he bet a lot of money, I know that.

This is all from the Yakuza?

Yeah, the yakuza. He’d call up and say, would you go out with me tonight, I have people I have to
take out. He just liked to be seen with you. I would never say no. At the end of the might, go out and
have dinner with him, whatever with all of his friends, and at the end of the night he would always
slip you an envelope with 2 to 3 thousand bucks in it. Always. Just to be out with his colleagues, but
never one did he ever say, lets throw a fight, never did.

You never experienced that?

That is the one thing that I really loved about the sport. You can’t afford to. The last day of a
tournament, you have won seven and lost seven, somebody is going to go down. You go down, you
go down in rank, pay, humility.

Doesn’t a lot of alleged bout fixing take place when someone is 7 and 7, and someone else is 10
and 4, something like that?

Well they tried to line you up with someone that is 7-7. That is the way the ladder works. If you are
14 and no losses, you generally don’t fight with someone that is 14-0. That is the way their ladder is
set. That is how you do it.

But there were strong ties to the yakuza?

Yeah, .in fact he ended up being a pretty good buddy with my boss. I don’t know how much he
poured into the stable, but pretty soon you would notice all of these tattoo guys watching practice and
everything. You could buy your way into anything with my boss. Show me the money, and he’d let
them in. I have no idea how much money he paid. But as far as coats for all of the wrestlers, food,
stuff like that, he’d come up with tons, the mafia guy. He was really a nice guy. I mean I was going
to jump a freighter, my boss wouldn’t give me my passport. I knew they were going to kill me. I
tried and got caught, I didn’t make it very far. That was a lot of fun.

Then I got in trouble with the emperor, Hirohito gave me a special fighting spirit award. We had a
big party and this and that. I got to meet his niece. Boy she was a fox, a real knock out. We got to
bullshitting. Anyway that party, was winding down. So I said, let’s go dancing and raise Cain have
some fun. We took off in my little truck and soon as we took off, three cars following us. She said
you can forget about trying to get away from them, they are secret service. They will be following us
all night. Just forget they are there. I said bullshit, We can’t have this. There is no getting away
from them. I have had racecar drivers try to get away, it aint gonna happen. So I got to thinking
about it and the airbase was real close and so I got a sticker to get on the base and we went right in

51
there, and of course they got stopped. We went out the back gate. We were gone for about three days.
That was a lot of fun. That was one time where my boss said you might really be pushing it here.
They had no idea where the emperor’s niece was. That was the first time she had gotten away from
them. She was pretty wild. She was in no rush to go back. So we had a lot of fun. For about three
days.

So at the end of a tournament, you got two weeks off, and you really could do anything you wanted. I
could never get a working visa. It was every six months I had to leave the country for 48 hours.
Something like that, to get another visa and then come back in. When you have those two weeks, the
first time, I was in party mode. No practice-yes. It was just great. Partied for two weeks. Went back
to practice and just about died. That was it. During those two weeks off you got to
practice, I don’t care if you are off, at least lift weights, running, you gotta stay in shape. I mean I
came back that first time thought I was going to die. It just about killed me. But compared to football,
their exercises, their whole routine, to me makes football look like a kid’s sport.

Did you do matawari?

Yes. In fact when you go home and go through those books you’ll see one where my boss has about a
400-pound guy on each of my legs ripping them apart. And he is the one behind me.

That sounds excruciating.

That hurt. And I never got it mastered.

So you’d need help to do that?

Yeah. Everyone volunteered for that, to put me in pain. They liked that.

People don’t realize you need a lot of flexibility to do sumo.

Exactly. The object is really to raise the..some of those guys the skinnier ones, I mean they could
raise that leg to so it is just one leg and their body is sticking straight out. It is all for balance. To
learn to balance yourself on one foot. Those guys with their feet, what they could do with their feet,
amazed me. You could push a guy all the way across that ring until he hit that little edge, which only
sticks up an inch and a half, and then he’d have a death grip with his toes and you could not get him
over that. Those things amazed me. The way they could do it. The boss taught me how. Don’t do it
as a rule. He said he wanted me to fight and not quit. I had one fight, you never have a tie in that
sport, no such thing as a tie, and I got out there and I thought I had beat the guy but as he going out of
the ring, I lost my footing, and I went down and put my hand down, and the referee said I won, and
the judges got up there and talked about it, and said, too close to call. Fight again. You have already
put 150 %. So we got up there again, this time, referee said he won, judges get up, and had their little
talk, too close to call. Fight again. This is the third time, I mean you are dragging your ass. And I
did finally beat him. Three in a row is ....I did a lot of twos and do over but n ever three and I was
worn out to start with and it was who was going to reach down the deepest and come up wit the win.
Things like that were a lot of fun.

The nine-man playoff was the most fun. We had nine of us tied, the same score. This was in the
makushita division, there is an article in there you can read. They never had nine guys tie. They said
oh, man what do we do? I said just put all nine of us in the ring and the last man standing wins, I
don’t give a damn. This is on live TV. Why not? So you’re crazy, don’t you think you’ll have eight
of them trying to get you out? I said that would be nice, no problem. They’d be trying so hard to get
me out, I’ll be the last man standing. Don’t worry about it. Anyway they weren’t going to do it. I
knew they wouldn’t. But it was nice to let them know that is the way I wanted it. So then they
decided we got an odd man so whoever starts off is going to have to fight one more fight than
everybody else. Right away I said let it be I. I’ll start it off. And so they said OK, That you can do.

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I won the whole damn thing. That was fun, as far as I know they have never had another nine man
deal.

That is unheard of.

Well it is not in the lower divisions. There are so many there a grand total when I was there when I
first got on the banzuke I was number 1600 something. There were more wrestlers there than you
chase a stick at. But there only 32 at the top and all that but ..yeah they were something else.

I think the interesting thing about sumo is that structure. If you are older you are held to a
higher status but winning is everything.

There is no age or class even.

Well don’t you have to respect your elders?

Yes. You respect your elders but if you are higher rank and he is older, you don’t have to do a damn
thing he says. It is all about rank. It is all about to make you get pissed off and move up. Everything
is motivated for that. The way they can roust you around and beat you up and everything else. They
will make you do their laundry. If you are lower than them, you just have to put up with it. By the
time I could speak Japanese, good enough to understand really what was going on, and everything, I
was high enough ranked that I didn’t have to do any of that crap. I’d go down there early and watch a
lot of the ones in the division below something that are coming up and I’d watch them fight in the
arena. You don’t see those guys. They go straight to the dressing room and that is it. Half of them
are superstitious up the butt. They got all kinds of superstitions, those guys do. But I’d go up there
and sit in the stands with people, I didn’t care. That was another thing, you weren’t supposed to do.
Another unwritten rule. They caught me up there one day. There was one reporter that spoke letter
perfect English. Too good of English. You know what I mean? It would drive you nuts listening to
him because everything was prim and proper. I hated the guy. I just absolutely hated him. There
were a couple of reporter I really liked, but of course they didn’t speak English very well at all. He
caught me up in the stands. He had a guy with his god dang mini-cam, I saw him coming and I said,
that is it. I am heading down. He stopped me naturally and said, are you going down there to get
psyched up? What do you do to get psyched up? I don’t do any of that. I am just going to loosen up.

Was he implying something?

Yeah, something has got to get you pissed off, and I said I don’t do any of that stuff.

Drugs?

Yeah. That is another thing a lot of them did. They would do that. But I said nope I am just going
down to loosen up. I didn’t even want to talk to this guy. I wanted to get out of there, but he would
not leave me alone. Finally he got me so mad I just well I guess if you really want to know, I go
down there and sit and think about Pearl Harbor. That was on live TV. That one wasn’t real good.
But it went over great with the Americans. The Japanese didn’t think that was too cool. Of course
my boss said you did it again. I said, yeah I know. But he didn’t care. He really didn’t care. He said
you just concentrate on winning. He would say nobody practiced harder than me. Practice was over
for the day, his other son who owned a car that was pretty hard to come by over there, I would push
that car for over two miles when practice was all done. I did that on my own. Every day. Trying to
get my legs big enough. When I quit I had 36 inch calves, Robert Newhouse of the Dallas Cowboys
they had a big thing on him in Sports Illustrated about him having 33 inch calves. I was bigger than
him then. But no body heard of me. My calves were huge back then. It was a bummer. But I
enjoyed it. I got all kinds of fighting spirit awards. I won those all the time. Nobody does it harder
than I do it. They sure the hell didn’t want me in it. Except my boss. He was the only one really.
Wakanohana was one that he trained also and Wakanohana of course when he retired, he had opened
his own stable, and he had two sons that were in it. I broke one of their noses in practice and

53
Wakanohana just thought that was the most chicken-shit thing in the world. My boss just laughed at
him. He said, you know what you go tell him that. He’ll probably kick your ass. Well I am the
owner of this. You know what, he doesn’t care. My boss would tell them, he doesn’t care who you
want to take him on. Get your belt on and get out there with him. Wakanohana was really good in
his day, he was something else, but I never saw him fight or anything, he was already retired. He had
a small stable because he was just getting started. He used to practice with our stable. His son,
Takanohana, was a swimmer in college. He was on the thin side, but he was really good. He was one
of the thinner ones. The guy was good.

So you were constantly breaking a lot of these unwritten rules. Why do you think they kept you
around?

Good for the sport. It is like Tony Stewart in NASCAR, you have to have a bad boy.

Did they emphasize that?

Oh yeah. The tabloids sure in the hell did. I was constantly in those tabloids. Getting shot coming
out of a hotel 5 or 6 in the morning.

It sounds like they were not merely tolerating you but really wanted you to be there.

Yes, it kept sumo in the conversation. We went to a I was going with a singer over there and they had
a bar called Somebody's. It implied that you had to be somebody to get in. It didn’t even open until
10o’clock at night. You got a membership and everybody was movie stars, racecar drivers, you were
somebody. You bought your own bottle, it was a membership thing, but nobody hassled you in there.
Because everybody was somebody. So you didn’t have to put up with all the shit. They would
constantly ask me how does it feel always being the bad boy? I don’t mind at all. They just loved it,
they could have cared less. It was good for the sport. It got the younger generation interested in it
again. The older people were always into it.

Were they interested in it because of you?

I think so. That got them back and interested. The young people were going to baseball. Baseball
was a big deal. My boss would sit me down and say attendance is down so on, we got to bring it up
and you are just the ticket we need. It is true, I think, the first tournament I was in out of Tokyo
Stadium holds 30,000 I don’t think there were 1,000 Americans there, the last tournament there were
15 or 20 they had busses coming from every base. They’d make a field day trip out of it. They
helped get the Americans involved. Jesse was always good for it but he always did things by the book.
He was a good boy.

They didn’t emphasize him being an American like you?

No. He was a good boy. That was fine. my boss also had a daughter, and of course he wanted me to
marry her and when I quit, I would inherit the stable. That was his plan. Not mine.

How come?

She was a lot of fun. Cute and all that but she was almost like a sister. She was still in high school,
probably two years younger than me. So her and her buddies, girlfriends, when practice was over,
could you help me with English, so we’d sit around and bullshit, listen to the Beatles and all that stuff.
She was just great. She was infatuated with me. American. His idea was that is the way it is going to
go, you know. I said no you don’t understand the day I leave here, it’s sayonara.

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You didn’t have any interest in doing that?

No interest in coming back. Nothing. I still have a lot more things to do in my life. I figured I could
move up and be out of there in a year. Almost 4.
I had a lot of things I wanted to do. I wanted to come back and play college football, in fact I did.
When I moved back to Texas I went to LCC and plaited, for a year there. Everything was trying to
lose weight back then. I had to get the weight off.

It looks like you did.

Well about 200 pounds. 200 total.

How did you do that?

Watching myself. A lot of working out. I started racing motorcycles in the desert

right away when I got back. The same motorcycle club that I belonged to back then my nephew is.

Women are just taboo in that sport. Don’t get women involved at all. My stepmother just had a ball
with that one. She was the only one who could talk. She was my interpreter. I would bring her back
to the dressing room all the time. She’d bring two or three of her friends. My boss loved her. He
thought she was the greatest thing around. Women were not supposed to be involved at all. I took
her with me everywhere. It was great.

What are your general thoughts of how sumo is run?

Too many damn rules. They ought to let the public in more on what goes on. It’s a secretive world,
I’ll tell you that. People don’t know a third of what goes on. If they did there would probably be laws
against it.

Do you think it is well run?

Yeah, for what they do. TO get you motivated and get you going, they do a good job. But I will tell
you it is not for everybody. It is like growing old, it is not for sissies.

What qualities do you think you need to be in sumo?

Being short. I was the shortest one in there. You think of Japan you think of tiny an petite, and that is
how I thought the guys were, but you didn’t realize that half of them came from Hokkaido where their
dads are half-Russian, and all that. God they are huge. Actually I could get lower because of my
height, I am built low to the ground.

What about personality?

You gotta really want it. You have to have more heart than balls.

Were you were famous in Japan?

I have a brother who still lives in Tokyo. They were constantly wanting me to come back for charity
shows, the last time they come over here, Nishimori, Kaiketsu, he got a hold of me, he opened up his
open stable. Me and a couple of other guys went out and got drunk, and had a ball. He said come
back, and do stuff. He said you are still talked about. There is no doubt about it.

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Did you have a desire to go back?

No. I didn’t leave anything. No desire at all. My wife wants to go, I told her she should go back.
It would be fun to go back and see Wajima, came in about the same time I did. He is the one that
ended up marrying the boss’s daughter and taking over their stable. She ended up being a woman
newscaster- Sachiki Nakajima was her real name.

Did you know Wajima?

Yes. The guy was an absolute sissy. I couldn’t believe that guy. He was a college Yokozuana and
that guy was a whiner. My back hurts. He would go out and do it. He was a good wrestler there was
no doubt about that, but he was just a whiner.

You were in the same stable?

Same stable. He joined our stable because of me. Every stable wanted him because he was a
yokozuna in college. He chose ours. There is a guy who was a college graduate- dumber than a mud
hen. Could not speak a word of English, I couldn’t hardly understand his Japanese. He was a character.
It would be like Bubba out there in Arkansas or something. I felt sorry for the daughter when she had
to marry him.

He was successful though.

Yes he was, and then he went into pro wrestling.

Yes he did. He fell out of favor with them though.

He did (take over the stable) . He took over the stable, for a while and then it was dissolved.
The daughter was real popular in Japan. She was a pioneer.

I would go back to see her, and the sons, now that time has passed. The one son and I did not part as
friends. He ended up over here. That was another story, I had to hunt him down here.

That was the main reason I left. My boss said you have proved everything you needed to, I don’t
blame you. Your right, leave on top and have fun. I told him I am not sticking around for any
haircutting ceremony or anything else. I can get a barbershop as soon as I get home. That is the one
thing I hated was the hair. What a pin in the butt that was, it is in the middle of your back just to get
the ponytail. I never got a haircut while I was in Japan. It took three years to the way I finally had it.

It is like axel grease, you are in the shower for half hour getting that crap out. The next day they put
more in it. In practice you end up ion the sand, your hair gets full of it. My hair was thin enough. I
didn’t have to shave it. Most people have to shave it in the middle because their hair is so thick. It
was really only long on the outer edge. It all looked funnier than hell with their hair down, big bald
spot on top. They got pissed because I didn’t have to shave mine.

I used to have a truck there, which no sumo wrestler had except me. I’d take off and go up to the
mountains. I’d go there just to get away. I let my hair down, put on Levi’s and go check in a hotel or
something. I spoke real good Japanese by then and I’d say I am a student down at the college and I
am just coming up here to write a paper or whatever, just bullshit with them. The hair would be down
and they would think damn hippies, American hippies. When I got ready to leave I would tell them
who I was and they would look and say holy shit you have been up here for a week and we didn’t
know it? I could leave with 5 dollars in my pocket, go to the first bar that I wanted to buy a beer, say
I have to go. The owner would say stick around the place is starting to get packed. He’d slip you 100
bucks and ask can you stay for an hour? OK. Of course they are up and down the street telling people
who is in there. We’d sit there and arm wrestler for drinks and raise Cain. I’d get ready go, and
they’d say stay. I’d make three hundred dollars in a couple of hours, just going to a bar. It was fun.

56
It was good business for them. Everybody buys you drinks, once they know who you are. You don’t
have to spend a dime over there if you are a sumo wrestler. You got it made. Especially if you are a
honky sumo wrestler. You really got it made. It just amazed me with the things I got away with.

Do you think there is a connection between foreigners and the revitalization of the sport?

Who is over there? Hawaiians.

Not so many. There are a lot of Eastern Europeans there now.

Really so there are honkys over there.

I have seen putting it in the Olympics with weight classes. I think that would ruin the sport. The
thing that was good about the sport, is that a little guy can win.
Weight classes take it away. It wouldn’t be sumo.

Does sumo only work in Japan?

I think it could work in other counties, if they abide by the same rules. You could have it in Germany
or the US, but no weight classes. Win loss records. Rules are simple. Win you go up, lose you go
down.

Could you successfully export it? What about the cultural traditions in sumo?

It is similar to the religious ceremony. Do you really need it? It is part of their tradition, but over
here as long as you got the same rules. To me that was a bunch of bunk anyway. It didn’t mean
anything to me. I didn’t belittle it or anything, and I did it because you have to, but I think it was a
waste of time.

Many people once thought that baseball could not be exported.

And soccer. I think it could. The actual fight would not take a thing about it anyway. That was the
only thing I didn’t like the long hair. I went there for Korea with my dad and at the base they thought
I was a fat hippie. I had to explain that this long hair is my uniform. I had to explain what I was
doing because they wanted me off the base. They couldn’t have long hair so why should I? I don’t
blame them. There was nothing.

Did they let you stay?

Yeah keys to the place. And then they all started watching it. It opened a lot of doors.

What is a way sumo can become more popular?

They used to go around and do exhibitions. We had to go to Hawaii, here, I don’t here so much
anymore. Maybe it is cost.
I think they are coming to LA next year.

Really. Well the last time they were here is when I met Nishimori. At the Coliseum. He was still
wrestling then. It was a long time also. I had only been back about 5 years. He was up to ozeki then.

You met the group here?

Yes. Jack Youngblood and Merlin Olsen from the Rams came down. I said why don’t you two go up
there and fight each other and then I’ll get someone to fight you. A real one so you could see what it
was like. Well Jack Youngblood beat Merlin Olson. Jack was a whole lot quicker. Then I went back

57
to go get a wrestler and they said none of us no none of us are going up there and embarrassing
ourselves. We know you came out of high school football. These guys are pro football. They were
absolutely scared to death. So one of these guys, 17 year-old beat the shit out of Jack Youngblood.
Youngblood said don’t bring them here to play football. I said, don’t worry put cleats on them and it
is a different story.

I became good friends with both of them.

Did the Sumo Association ask you to get involved when they were here?

Yes, I went down there and helped them out. Language wise and getting set up. I was going to go up
there and fight a couple of them just for the hell of it. But we ran out of time and I didn’t end up
doing it. I practiced with them for a couple of days. Of course Nishimori and I went out and got
hammered. I had to show him LA is like. I was living in Orange I had my restaurant.

You didn’t want to go back with them?

No not all.

He tried to talk me into it. He said you know I never would have broken into the top division without
you. He was determined. We were like brothers. He was going with a girl who owned a bar. Of
course you are not supposed to let the boss know that. Except me I was the only one who could get
away with having girlfriends. Otherwise it makes you weak, stay away from girls. She was a
character, they ended up marrying. You can get out and get your own apartment. Nishimori had to
keep it quiet, I was the only one who knew he had a girlfriend. or anything else. Of course he

Nishimori had to keep that hidden. He’d give me all of the They had a bounty on my head. Who
could break me, get me out of commission, anything, they’d be a rich man. And then I did screw up
my foot. I ended up getting gang green poisoning. We were down in Fukuoka. I kept fighting. I kept
telling them something is wrong with my leg. I couldn’t get the Japanese out. This was in the first
year I was there. I am trying to get through. Finally I woke up one morning and the red streaks were
running up to my crotch. I said I am not fighting today I am catching a plane and going back to
Tokyo to the base. I went back there and they put me in the hospital that day and said I don’t think
we are going to be able to save your foot. I say I guess you will. I guess I was still a minor, because
they said we’ll have to get a hold of your parents. In case we have to cut that off we have to have
their OK. I said well you find them because I sure in hell wasn’t. My dad just left for the Philippines,
I think. I knew he was going to be gone for at least a month and my mom was out here in California.
They ended up sticking me in a hospital and 8 shots a day for 33 days finally cured itself. I didn’t get
out of the hospital until probably a week before the tournament was going to start. I was on crutches.
I told my boss I can do it. I moved up a whole division. That was one of the times the mafia guy says
it is 60-1 odds you are not going to make kachi-koshi this time. I said put a lot out. 10 grand I only
lost one fight. I had no clue how much he won on that one. He bet heavily. I don’t think 50,000 a
fight. He always bet kachi-koshi. He took my word for it. Certain fights would come up and the odds
that I was going to win were astronomical. He’d say what do you think about it. I’d say well they are
bad-mouthing me and you know what that does to me. I am going to beat him. He’d lay money on
those.

So he was betting on the lower divisions?

Yes, he bet from the time I came up. Kind of like Vegas. You can bet on anything.

Was he betting just on you?

I have no idea on what he bet on. I know he bet heavily on me. He never once mentioned throwing a
fight, lose it, don’t get your kachi-koshi or something like that. Never. Never asked, never did.

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Those allegations have always dogged sumo.

Yeah. They do. But I never saw it.

Interesting.

I never saw any wrestlers do that. Like I said it is not worth it to them to throw it.
Losing face is worst part. The way they stagger the ladder come the last day, somebody has to go
down, I just don’t think it is worth it. There were guys back there, 5 minutes before they go out, they
are shooting up adrenaline. That or superman potion. My boss said you should try this and I said I
don’t think so. I have no idea what it is and I don’t need it. He never pushed it and I never did.
Don’t worry about it. He said if you want it is there, I said I don’t.

The hospitals have something left to be desired. Like I said it was just an infection it never should
have gotten that far. That was the only scary time over there. I didn’t see too many one-footed sumo
wrestlers out there.

That was 1970?

Something like that, the first year. They have like an HMO for wrestlers. You had this card and you
go to a doctor. They didn’t give the best of care. The doctors would say you are a sumo wrestler, you
are tough get out there. You’re right I am, but you are fighting in the dirt, I should have stopped a
week into it but you just can’t do that in a tournament. It is dirt. It is really nice when you get a cut on
your foot, the slat makes it really feel nice, salt in a wound. It hurts, you got to just suck it up.

The thing I really like about the sport is the starting process. Not having a bell that rings, you have to
go and getting to make up your own mind when you are going to attack, it is fun. A lot of it was head
games at the tachi ai. There was one guy I was fighting and my boss said, he is every bit as good at
that game as you are, it is going to be a hard fight for you. He is giving me all this shit and the guy at
the time probably outweighed me by 150 pounds. The more I thought about it I thought two can play
that game, we threw our salt and as he is just getting down I hit him. I hit that son of a bitch so hard I
should have broke his jaw. Of course he put his hand up, it was way too early, I did it on purpose.
This guy is pissed. There is nothing worse than getting smacked on national TV by an American he
just got so mad. We went back to our corner threw the salt and he is going to leave early and nail my
ass. He did, I stepped aside, he never laid a hand on me. He started it so it was a clean fight. We got
back to the dressing room and he said that was the most chicken shit thing. I said what did I do? You
came at me, we fought. You lost. He hated me after that. My boss would just sit there and say I
never thought you were smart enough to figure that out. I said there are a lot of things you don’t
know about me yet. You just watch. My boss used to catch hell, especially in the lower divisions you
don’t go and watch. My boss would always find a reason to be hanging around the ring when it was
my turn to fight. We had the 9-man playoff and he was definitely down there for that one. We got
back that night having the big party and my dad and step mom were there. My dad always thought he
could speak Japanese better than I could. Six months time I could out speak him and everything. He
is talking to my boss and he meant to ask him did you go to the arena or did you watch it on TV? My
boss stops and gets out his calendar and says yes I can have dinner with you at your house next week.
My dad said what do you mean by that? And I said, you invited him to dinner. My dad finally gave
up on Japanese. We went and got him a big refrigerator, so it was a big deal over there. My dad had
all of the military privileges over there so buying big freezers and stuff for the stable, they just didn’t
have them in Japan. All of those little ones. Hennessey, my boss loved brandy, I could go on the base
for 10 bucks and it was 90 bucks in Japan. For the same bottle. Me and my boss got along good. We
always did. He used to love it, the phone would ring. My boss had his jaw broken so many times, the
Japanese don’t understand half of the things he said, he slurs. But I grew up with him, so I could
understand him perfect. The phone would ring and I didn’t know anything in Japanese yet, and I
would say “hai, hai, hai”. He would ask, what did they say? And I would say, how the hell do I
know? And he would crack up and say why did you answer r it for? I used to do that all of the time.
Screwing around. It was fun.

59

I got to race some motorcycles there, he didn’t like that. I owned a street bike, Honda 750, he hated
me driving it. He didn’t like me driving at all.

Were you the only one that was driving or were there other wrestlers too?

No, not a one.

They were not allowed to drive right?

Yeah, and most of them didn’t know how to drive.

So they made an exception for you?

Yeah I went and got a driver’s license. Hell I’m not going to be without a car. Where my dad lived
and where the stable was probably 45-minute train ride or a two hour drive, but I’d rather drive. My
boss didn’t mind, One time on the train
when I was really first getting started I didn’t know any Japanese, I knew where to get off and all that,
this lady started talking to me. She talked me into going home with her and I had no idea where we
were at. I thought she had a kid at home who wanted an autograph or something. It didn’t turn out to
be that. I had a card that my boss had all written out for me with his phone number. I said call him up
and tell him where I am at least. So she did, and I guess he is giving her the...what is he doing there?
She said well he is going to stay with me tonight. I will make sure he gets back tomorrow. Click.
That was it. He said you know what you can start driving yourself. He said do you ever say no? I
said no. We had lots of good times. He was quite the guy.

Did you go back?

Maybe 10 years after I quit. The boss said after I quit, I don’t blame you. If you wanted you’d be the
top dog here, I said I know. He said, you have already proved enough. Don’t worry about it. He said,
if I were you I’d probably be gone too. But he said you know damn well you’ll go all the way. I said I
know.

You had other interests in life.

Yeah I did. But I enjoyed d it. But I couldn’t stay in something for too long it gets on your nerves. I
didn’t stay in it long enough.

Did you smoke?

Yeah I smoked. I started smoking when I was 12, and throughout football. I’d be smoking in the
dressing room. It was probably the last thing I put out before I went out.

Things would have turned out very different if you got drafted.

Yes it would have. I have no earthly idea how I got out of it, Hirohito.

Jesse had to go through all kinds of channels.

See I never knew about him. He was probably 25 when I was there. I would think his draft days
were earlier. How they got me out I have no idea.

Were you expecting to get drafted?

Yes. Especially after screwing up at the first draft.

60
Before that?

No because I was going to go ahead and go to college. I had a scholarship to go play football. I
didn’t figure I would get drafted. When I screwed up at the draft hall, I kind of figured I would,
especially when I saw my number 30 out of thousands. That was the worst system.

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Appendix B: Interview #2 via e-mail August 28, 2007
What happened after your step mother asked if someone could "kick his ass, but not kill him”
Who did you fight? What did the oyakata think?

The oyakata chose a guy named Saki-Nae. He was the same age as me, six foot four inches and 350
lbs. He was already in the third division having absolutely no instructions on the rules, I started off
with a big fist to the face. Of course he raised hell and I got my first lesson on the rules. Second go
around, he kicked my ass, only to piss me off and we went a third, I kicked his ass. All in all we
fought seven times with me winning four of them. This is where my oyakata saw the determination I
had. The irony is that it was Saki-Nae was also in the nine man playoff we had and it boiled down to
he and I. My step-mother tried to explain it was just a thing I wanted to do while I was there but he
was relentless in recruiting me. Sumo was is a slump and the oyakata thought I would be just the
ticket to stir up interest again with the younger crowd.

How did you do in your first basho?

In my first basho I only lost one fight. There I got my first lesson in using my force against me. I lost
by charging too fast and my opponent simply side-stepped me and I couldn’t stop in time. I never did
lose twice the same way. Once they came up with a new way to defeat me, I learned it well and it
wouldn’t happen again.

Were you marketed as a wild foreigner? In what way?

I was the “henna-gaijin”. I am pretty sure that meant crazy foreigner. The oyakata let me know it, he
said run with it. I didn’t need any help in that department. I didn’t hide anything that I did, nor was I
ashamed of anything I did. I was a huge playboy with the women, but I was single. I smoked in
public and in the dressing room just before a fight. I was caught many times out dancing and
drinking. I would always get lost in the new towns and have the police bring me home. The oyakata
didn’t always agree with the things I did, but we came to an agreement. I could go party during a
tournament, only until I had a losing tournament, then I had to do it his way. Well I never had that
losing tournament.

Were you encouraged to find trouble?

No it just came naturally.

How did you get the sumo name- Araiwa, did you have a different one in the beginning?

That was my name right from the start. The oyakata was evidently a great fan of his. I guess he had
more heart than any other wrestler he had known. He said I reminded me of him. From what I
gathered it meant “Rock of Gibraltar”.

How did Hanakago keep the JSA from kicking you out?

All of the rules that I broke were unwritten. They did have a bounty on my head. I was told the guy
who could put me out of commission would get one hell of a bonus. After a year and seeing how
attendance had increased and how my fan club was bigger than a yokozuna’s, I think they all just
looked the other way.

Did you ever show emotion on the dohyo or afterwards?

No. I sure did once I would get back in the dressing room. Several times the fight went on back
there. There was one time one guy boasted that he would never lose to an American and they asked

62
my opinion. I said we would find out in the ring. I beat him pretty bad and as he was going out of the
ring to lose, I pulled him back in so I could hit on him some more. I did get talked to about that, but
that just gave more for the paparazzi to talk about.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Sumo, billed as the national sport of Japan by the Japan Sumo Association and the embodiment of Japanese culture, aims to market tradition within a modern and flexible institution. Preserving the image of the sport as an antiquated anachronism in the modern world is equally important as the image of sumo wrestlers as the quintessential Japanese. The increase of foreign wrestlers has challenged this notion and forms a complicated, symbiotic relationship based on international perception, the need for foreign labor, and domestic consumption of tradition. The purpose of this study is to examine the pliability of sumo which allows the integration of foreign wrestlers and its continual reinvention for its survival.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Maeda, Mitsuo (author)

Core Title Wild men, bad boys, and model citizens: the integration of foreigners in sumo wrestling

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program East Asian Area Studies

Publication Date 11/05/2007

Defense Date 11/01/2007

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Japan,OAI-PMH Harvest,sumo,tradition,Wrestling,Yokozuna

Place Name Japan (countries)

Language English

Advisor Berger, Gordon (committee chair), Cooper, Eugene (committee member), McKnight, Anne (committee member)

Creator Email mitso2000@ca.rr.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m907

Unique identifier UC1456323

Identifier etd-Maeda-20071105 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-585515 (legacy record id),usctheses-m907 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Maeda-20071105.pdf

Dmrecord 585515

Document Type Thesis

Rights Maeda, Mitsuo

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu