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).