In Sumo’s Birthplace, a Drought of Champions

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/sports/in-sumos-birthplace-a-drought-of-champions.html

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TOKYO — On the first day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament last Sunday, fans here were hopeful that 2013 might bring change: an end to the protracted losing streak by Japanese wrestlers. But the only reminders anyone needed of that unlikelihood were the giant portraits of the winners of the last 32 Japanese tournaments that were hanging at Ryogoku Kokugikan arena.

Not one of the winners was Japanese. Four Mongolians, an Estonian and a Bulgarian account for those victories, dating to 2007.

The last time a Japanese wrestler won was in January 2006. But some say it is only a matter of time before a Japanese wrestler is promoted to the rank of grand champion once again.

The first foreign-born wrestler to break through to the top was Chad Rowan, who at 18 left his native Hawaii in 1988 to enter the world of professional sumo, which orginated in Japan. At the time, he was not thought to have great promise. It was his more athletic younger brother whom recruiters had their eye on.

But in January 1993, Rowan became the first non-Japanese sumo wrestler to reach the sport’s highest rank, yokozuna, or grand champion.

In 1999, another Hawaiian claimed that title, followed in 2003 and 2007 by two Mongolians, who are also among the top-five career championship winners.

In 2012, another Mongolian became yokozuna, the 70th in history. (There can be multiple yokozuna at a time, or none.)

During Rowan’s heyday, two Japanese brothers from a prominent sumo family each became yokozuna, which helped fuel a sumo boom. But it has been 10 years since the last Japanese grand champion retired and seven years since a Japanese wrestler won one of the six annual grand championships.

At the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament, foreign-born wrestlers made up a third of the 42 rikishi who occupy the top division, yet they make up only 7 percent of the 613 total wrestlers in the sport. Although the news media and fans make much of what some characterize as the disgrace of foreign dominance — the two current yokozuna are Mongolian — those involved in sumo do not typically acknowledge any rivalry.

“When I was wrestling I wasn’t thinking, I’m an American, I’m going to go out there, plant my flag in the middle of the ring and take on the Japanese,” said Rowan, who is known in sumo as Akebono.

He said he always considered himself a sumo wrestler first, the product of the Japan Sumo Association, the governing body of the professional sport.

Nevertheless, the title drought puts pressure on Japanese wrestlers.

Standing 6 feet 8 inches, Rowan, now 43, attributes his success in part to being able to overpower his smaller Japanese opponents. (He once weighed more than 500 pounds.)

“We were just brute strength,” he said, speaking of himself and a few other top-ranked Hawaiians in the 1990s. “We won fast, or we lost fast. We weren’t too technical.”

But now, he said, foreign wrestlers, who mostly hail from Mongolia and Eastern Europe, are using more advanced techniques to get an edge. They come from countries with long traditions of other forms of wrestling, said Mark Buckton, a sumo columnist for The Japan Times. And some of their techniques, like leg sweeps and lateral movement, throw Japanese opponents off.

“For Japanese, sumo is just about going forward,” Buckton said. “That’s the honorable way to win. But they are stuck in the old way, and the Mongolians and Eastern Europeans have really developed the sport more.”

Another reason the Japanese have lost their grip on sumo has to do with shifts in society, some say.

At one time, sumo offered a way for disadvantaged teenage boys, especially those from big rural families, to escape poverty and make something of themselves. But with Japan’s declining birthrate and greater affluence, the annual number of sumo applicants has been steadily falling. Last year, it hit a record low of 56; at its peak in 1992, there were more than 200.

“There’s a lot more competition from cooler sports,” like baseball and soccer, said John Gunning, a sumo writer and commentator. “Sumo is seen as old-fashioned.”

Non-Japanese wrestlers, however, still see it as a ticket to a brighter future.

“Most of the guys who come to Japan to take up sumo come from poor families,” said Hiroshi Morita, a sumo announcer for NHK.

“So they have a big, hungry spirit to succeed and support the family back home.”

One attempt to level the playing field, initiated by the Japan Sumo Association, which declined to comment for this article, came more than a decade ago.

It allowed only one foreign wrestler in each stable, resulting in much more careful vetting of non-Japanese recruits. In Rowan’s day, many foreigners were in his stable; they were hauled in by the bunch and sometimes stuck together.

It remains to be seen what effect their reduced numbers will have on the sport in the long run.

“The peak has passed for foreign wrestlers,” Gunning said, noting that some promising Japanese wrestlers were moving through the ranks.

Morita, though, is not as sanguine about the prospects for Japanese reclaiming the top tier in the foreseeable future.

“I think Mongolian dominance will continue for a very long time,” he said. (Of the 43 foreign-born wrestlers now, 27 are Mongolian.)

At the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament, some Japanese fans, who have been awaiting the next homegrown star, were bracing themselves for what could be the 41st consecutive loss. (The tournament ends Sunday.)

Spectators ran the gamut from the merely curious to die-hard fans like Sayori Gloster, 35, who had come with her husband and sister. A sumo fan since childhood, she lamented the current state of affairs.

“It’s so unfortunate that Japanese wrestlers haven’t been winning,” she said. “Considering that sumo is the national sport, it’s a bit embarrassing.”

Hiroko Ito, who said she never missed a grand championship, said she admired foreign-born wrestlers for their drive.

“Wrestlers who come from abroad really work hard,” she said, sitting in her kimono as two rikishi geared up for a bout in the ring behind her.

“They’re determined to move up. But Japanese wrestlers seem satisfied with just getting by. I think it would be nice if they pushed themselves harder.”