Japan ends long wait for champion
Print Edition
JAPAN celebrated as sumo wrestler Kisenosato became the first Japanese born and bred grand champion in nearly two decades, ending foreign-born wrestlers’ domination of the ancient sport’s top rank.
Sumo, which features giant wrestlers clad only in loincloths, has seen such an influx of foreign grapplers over the last 50 years that prior to this week all three grand champions, known as yokozuna, were Mongolian. Hawaiian-born Americans have also held the rank.
Until January 2016 a homegrown rikishi, as the wrestlers are known, hadn’t even won a tournament championship for a decade. But all this changed when 30-year-old Kisenosato was promoted to yokozuna, becoming the first native Japanese to attain the sport’s most exalted rank since 1998.
“I will do everything in my power and try not to bring shame to the name yokozuna,” said Kisenosato, wearing a formal kimono and bowing deeply during a ceremony where he accepted the promotion from ozeki, sumo’s second-highest rank.
“I want to become even more focused,” he said after the ceremony. “I have grown as a person and want to be a yokozuna that is respected.”
Standing 1.87 meter tall, and weighing 175kg, Kisenosato had a long history of crumbling under pressure in key bouts. But on Sunday, he wept after securing the ultimate rank with his first-ever tournament win in a bruising bout with long-dominant Mongolian-born yokozuna Hakuho.
“For a really long time we’ve only had foreign yokozuna, so now that finally, finally, we have one who’s Japanese — well, as a Japanese it makes me really happy,” said Rumiko Takahashi, 41, who lives in China and was back on a visit.
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