Sumo veteran Kaio said yesterday that harsh treatment of wrestlers in training is an integral part of Japan’s ancient sport and is partially responsible for his own success.
The sport has been rocked by several recent scandals including one in which a trainer was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the fatal beating of a young wrestler.
Junichi Yamamoto, who went by the name Tokitsukaze when he was master of a sumo stable where wrestlers train and live — ordered three wrestlers, in the name of practice, to beat 17-year-old Tokitaizan, hitting him with beer bottles, a baseball bat and hosing him with cold water.
PHOTO: AP
Tokitaizan collapsed after practice and died. An autopsy showed bruises and injuries that prosecutors said showed his ordeal was not training.
The incident stunned Japan, tarnishing sumo’s image.
Kaio called the sentencing “reasonable” but said that hazing, in acceptable quantities, is a part of the sport.
“Practice is always tough,” Kaio said yesterday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “I was slapped around as well, partly because the stable master wanted to make me stronger and because of training like that I became stronger.”
Kaio has been in sumo’s elite division since 1993. He was promoted to the second highest rank of ozeki in 2000.
Sumo hasn’t had a Japanese grand champion since Takanohana retired in January 2003. Since then, the sport has been dominated by Mongolian grand champions Hakuho and Asashoryu, leading many to feel Japan is losing a grip of its own national sport.
Kaio is one of a handful of wrestlers at the rank of ozeki, but at 36 his chances for promotion to the top have come and gone.
“I had my opportunities to be promoted but was unable to withstand the pressure,” Kaio said. “There were various circumstances that prevented me from doing the necessary training and I accept the responsibility for that.”
Harumafuji, another Mongolian, won last month’s Summer Grand Sumo Tournament and is seen by many as the most likely candidate to be the next grand champion.
Kaio said Mongolians are hungrier and train harder and that’s why they are dominating sumo.
“When they are small they are doing Mongolian sumo and other sports,” Kaio said. “They are practicing harder than Japanese or anyone else and that’s why they are stronger than anyone else.”
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