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CHAPTER 3

The Road to Stardom

Taro, a farmer's son, is a hefty lad; at fourteen he already tips the scales at 165 pounds. There's no matching him for miles around; he can throw all his comrades with ease. A grand champion in the making, as everyone agrees.

One day, in the course of a provincial tour, a group of noted wrestlers from Tokyo reaches the neighboring town. The word is passed around that a boy called Taro is something out of the ordinary. Inquiries are made and, before he knows where he is, he is whisked up to the capital and installed as an apprentice in one of the great Sumo gyms. Here he will live in, with his food and pocket money provided by the master of the gym, a retired Sumo great. He will be given no salary, of course, for a number of years; first he must prove himself.

Taro's gym is located in the Ryogoku area of Tokyo, where are to be found by far the greater number of these institutions; for it was in this quarter that the great tournaments were formerly held, at the arena now known as the 'Kokusai (International) Stadium. There are about fifteen of these gyms scattered throughout Ryogoku. They are nothing much to look at-just plain frame houses containing little more than the training ring itself and a large communal eatery. They house, all told, a total of approximately one thousand wrestlers. Taro's is one of the larger gyms so he finds himself a member of a squad of some seventy or eighty wrestlers, most of them apprentices like himself, but including the whole hierarchy of Sumo-dom right up to the champions and grand champions themselves.

1. THE PRESIDENT: Tokitsukaze (ex-grand champion Futabayama), president of the Japan Sumo Association, is shown in Japanese attire standing at the entrance of the gym or training quarters of which he is the master.

2 . SHIKIRI-NAOSHI: The two wrestlers here are engaged in shikiri-naoshi, which precedes a bout. They crouch, with fists firmly planted in the sand, studying each other intently. The referee, in the rear with fan upraised, regulates the proceedings.

3. UTTCHARI: In this tactic the man underneath, in this case Koto-ga-hama, wearing knee supporter, digs in with his heels on the edge of the ring and with a quick twist of the body to the left sends his opponent Shimizugawa spinning out of the arena before he himself falls.

4. THE MIGHTY FALLEN!: Lying like a pole-axed steer is the burly Tokitsuyama, the victim of Tama-no-umi's hiki-otoshi, which may be translated "pulling him down." The referee may be glimpsed in the rear, behind Tama-no-umi.

5. GRAND CHAMPION CHIYO-NO-YAMA: Chiyo-no-yama (center, with arms outstretched) is shown at the dohyo-iri with his tachimochi (left) holding the sword and tsuyuharai or attendant (right). Referee is at extreme left.

The young hopeful has a hard life in front of him as he starts out on the road to fame. In the first place he is, in spite of recent attempts at democratization, in what may frankly be described as a feudalistic set-up. His status is not unlike that of a fag at an English public school, for he has to fetch and carry for his elders, in return for which they see to it that he gets to know the ropes.

Among his other multifarious duties will be scrubbing the backs of his superiors in the bath, combing and fixing up their hair-do when training is over, and doing all the cooking and the cleaning up of the establishment. And what do the women do, you may ask? The answer is simple; there are no women, apart from the master's wife. Sumo-dom is strictly stag.

Taro and his fellow-neophytes rise at the crack of dawn and, it might be thought, start off the day by downing a hearty breakfast. Nothing of the sort! There is no breakfast. The youngsters tumble out of the sack around five or six-before the streets are aired-clean up the ring, and get going with their warming-up exercises. Their elders, as befits their rank, lie abed a little later, but they too are usually on the scene by eight at the latest. The seniors put the youngsters through their paces, tip them off as to their faults, and so on and so forth. The master of the gym is mostly in attendance to keep a watchful eye on the proceedings, but in his absence this duty is delegated to the top-ranking wrestlers.

The entire forenoon is devoted to various forms of training and practice bouts-and all the while not a bite of food. Spartans they are indeed, but then they have to be. This is no life for a weakling, and if a lad can't stand the pace, he simply drops out. It's rough all right but Taro will not be bullied, for this regime, feudalistic though it may sometimes seem, is not militaristic. The life is tough, but not brutal; if a boy can't or won't learn, he won't get on. That is punishment enough.

Morning training done, the lads have to wait on their seniors at the mid-day meal, after which they can immerse themselves in the welcome tub and rub their manifold bruises, and then, at long last, help themselves from the common pot of stew. The meal over, Taro and his mates have the rest of the day to themselves and it can well be imagined that they make it a day of rest; indeed, with their energy used up and no money to burn, there's nothing else for it. If the lads wanted to kick over the traces they wouldn't have the wherewithal; for them wine and women just don't exist.

When Taro approaches the dizzy heights of stardom, possibly ten years later, and can afford to take unto himself a wife, he is allowed to reside in his own home, of course, for too many wives would clutter up the gym. During a big tournament, however, even the married wrestlers often prefer to move back into the gym for greater convenience. Perhaps, too, for greater ease of mind.

Incidentally, the Taros of the future will lead somewhat different lives from those of their predecessors for, in line with the gradual defeudalization of the sport, a Sumo training school has recently been established, to be attended by scrubs from the various gyms.