Sumo champion bows out in shame over ‘beer bottle attack’ on junior wrestler
CHERISHED for its dignity and deep ties to Japanese culture, sumo’s reputation was dealt a blow yesterday when one of the sport’s grand champions quit over a brawl with a junior fighter.
Harumafuji, one of four reigning grand champions – or yokozuna – left a cloud of shame hanging over Japan’s oldest sport as he bowed out in disgrace after the fight in a restaurant-bar, in which it is claimed he struck another wrestler with a beer bottle.
“As yokozuna, I feel responsible for injuring Takanoiwa and so will retire from today,” Harumafuji told a news conference yesterday in Fukuoka, southern Japan.
“I apologise from my heart to the people, sumo fans, the Japan Sumo Association, to supporters of my stable [gym] and my oyakata [coach] and his wife for causing such trouble.”
Harumafuji, 33, gave no further details of the incident, which is under investigation by police. Media reports suggested he attacked Takanoiwa, 27, leaving him with a fractured skull and concussion.
“I think it is my duty as a senior wrestler to correct and teach junior wrestlers when they are lacking in manners and civility,” Harumafuji said.
“But I went too far,” he said, claiming that the commotion was not alcoholfuelled.
Harumafuji’s retirement marks the end of the latest scandal to rock sumo. The sport has been struggling to shake off a reputation for bullying and violence while also dealing with matchfixing allegations and claims of links to the Japanese mafia.
Questions have now been raised over whether the sport has failed to adequately reform 10 years after a teenage trainee died after being beaten by fellow wrestlers for threatening to run away from his training base.
“Sumo, recognising its responsibility as the sport with the longest history in Japan, must stamp out violence so that the expectations of the people, including youth, are not again betrayed,” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, the education minister whose ministry oversees sports, in a parliamentary committee meeting yesterday.
Sumo wrestlers’ schedules are heavily regimented and tied to strict and often ancient traditions on food and dress code.
Fighters normally live in communal sumo training stables and the sport, which involves wrestlers trying to push each other to the ground and out of a ring, still includes many rituals, such as the use of salt purification.
In Japan, the only country where sumo is a professional sport, there are six tournaments each year, in which each a wrestler fights 15 bouts, with the ultimate goal of every contestant to become a yokozuna.
Harumafuji’s retirement leaves three active yokozuna, including fellow Mongolians Hakuho and Kakuryu, with the former winning the most recent grand tournament in Fukuoka.
The head of an advisory body to the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) had said this week the affair warranted “extremely harsh punishment” but did not issue a final decision while the JSA and the police were still investigating.
“There is almost no doubting that an act of violence was carried out,” Masato Kitamura told a news conference after a council meeting on Monday.
Reflecting on his 17-year career, Harumafuji said: “I really love sumo. The way of sumo is not simply to be strong, but through sumo … I wanted to inspire the people and give them courage and hope.”