This is no time for thinking about existential issues, son. What we have here is a situation that can only be overcome by a person that has trained all their lives to become large and, if they have it in them, also in charge.
I think you all know of one of the major sports in Japan, mostly naked men grabbing each other and trying to get the other on the ground. Is it unexpected that this love could only be contained in large areas surrounded by tourists and other large, naked man lovers? Sadly, one of the great almost-nudes has decided to rejoin the land of the clothed. We welcome you back Asashoryu.
So what happened?
It’s a me, Italian stereotype.
Sumo wrestling is very Japanese. Along with other very Japanese things (kendo, judo, tea ceremony, etc.) sumo has rules and etiquette that should be followed. Some of these rules seem to be inconsequential (winning celebration rituals, how to accept prize money) and yet if you break them you will still be penalized. In the world of Sumo, when a wrestler becomes a grand champion (yokozuna) there is another set of responsibilities that they should follow. This can cause problems with your naked career if you sometimes feel punchy and other people are in your vicinity.
Asashoryu, one of the best sumo wrestlers, has had a great career filled with a flurry of incidents. Besides breaking some of the rules mentioned above, there was a big lawsuit alleging that he paid other wrestlers so that he could get a perfect victory and an incident where he faked injury. While it’s unknown if he actually paid off people (I say he didn’t), he definitely overstated his injuries since he was seen playing soccer.
A picture from sumo’s short-lived, but hilarious, breakdance competition.
There are people saying that people have been unusually harsh towards Asashoryu because he is from Mongolia. Like every country, there are old cranky people that hate others because they’re different (and sumo fans are older on average), but this doesn’t factor in to anything said by the Sumo Association or any new programs. The reason why they’ve been so harsh are easy to understand given correct context; sumo is waning in popularity, there have been other scandals with sumo recently, and the rules for sumo and yokozuna are many and the punishments are strict. These issues cause more and harsher punishments to try and keep order in fat man world; the situation is further exacerbated by the fact that Asashoryu has broken lots of little rules and some big ones. Given all this, I would say that even though some of the punishments have been more severe than they should have been, it’s easy to understand the reasoning behind them.
It’s sad that he’s had to leave the ring and start wearing normal clothes again, but if he wanted to stop having episodes that lead to embarrassment of himself he needed to quit. Now he can do all the things that he did before without repercussions. Well, maybe except for the breaking the nose thing (this is the one that made him quit).
I too doubt whether he did actually pay anyone; however if he did, he’s certainly not the only corrupt sumo wrestler out there (see Freakonomics). And just because the Sumo Association hasn’t said anything about being harsh on him because he’s Mongolian (did you actually expect them to?), I think his ethnicity definitely has an effect on his popularity, which in turn makes the media go after him because he is an easy target. When I was at Nova, I had quite a few students tell me that one of the reasons they didn’t like him was because they believed that sumo is more “interesting” when the yokozuna are Japanese. And I read a poll somewhere (conveniently I forget where) that said that the number one reason why former sumo fans stopped watching sumo is because the current yokozuna are foreigners (this was when both Hakuho and Asashoryu were yokozuna). And the soccer thing… the physical demand of a charity soccer game is no where near comparable to a sumo bout. Just because he needed a rest from sumo for a few weeks, doesn’t mean that he’s suddenly not allowed to move. So in conclusion, I think his non-Japanese-ness (or perhaps more accurately, his non-Japanese citizenship… because I think his refusal to take Japanese citizenship REALLY made people mad) plays into the whole mess more than you think. Let just hope that he doesn’t start doing K1 and/or プロレス like Akebono did. And PS. Sumo wrestlers aren’t actually fat. They have a lower body fat percentage than the average Japanese person (Source = some kind of book… somewhere…). Crazy, desu ne?!
Now that I think about it…. maybe it wasn’t that sumo wrestlers have a lower body fat percentage than the average Japanese person. I think that the fun fact was actually that sumo wrestlers have a lower percentage of body fat than the average Japanese salaryman. That makes a lot more sense. Maybe…
Well I can’t dispute details that your students said, but I can mention my own students who have, just today, said that they liked him as a sumo wrestler but disliked him outside of the ring.
A lot of this is just speculation because we don’t know the full reasons why the disciplinary actions were the way they were. However, we do know that Asashoryu did have a penchant for running off and being rowdy. That doesn’t make him a bad sumo wrestler or a bad person, but in a sport like sumo, especially if you’re a yokozuna, you have to be careful about what you do outside of the ring.
I also find it hard to believe that the association would only be giving Asashoryu a hard time if it was because he’s mongolian; the only yokozuna right now is Hakuho, a mongolian. He has a clean record and doesn’t seem to get into any trouble. I would think they would try to shove him into the same types of situations if it really was because of nationality/race/etc.
Also, I know that sumo wrestlers aren’t fat. But you knew that I knew that; and I know that you knew that I knew.
Perhaps as foreigners we just are more able to tolerate bad behavior from sports people. Compared to dog fighting and threatening teammates with guns, I guess Asashoryu’s behavior does seem sort of softcore and perhaps foreigners in general just wonder “what is really the big deal??” As for Hakuho, I believe he has actually taken Japanese citizenship (almost all foreign sumo wrestlers do) and, you’re right, he is pretty squeaky clean. I’m not trying to be super-argumentative… I was just a huge fan of Asashoryu and at Nova I always tried to convince my students that he was awesome (I like Hakuho a lot too… he looks like a Buddha). I figure he needs a least one defender out there!