Why Sumo Should Stay Traditional in the Amateur Ranks

 I love a good football game, or a good basketball game. I love the athleticism, the heart and passion of a game well played. What I don't like is end zone celebrations, show boating, trash talking and the over the top spectacle that is American sports. 

 I remember my dad telling me once that when he scored a touchdown, he was taught to simply hand the ball to the referee and walk back to his sideline. No celebrations, no emotional outburst. Just plain ol' sportsmanship. Don't rub your success into another persons face. That seems to have fallen out of fashion. 

Sumo offers something different to the sports enthusiast. A window into a different time and place where honor and respect are some of the highest ideals. Where it is shameful to celebrate a win or sulk openly at defeat. As sumo becomes more popular on the international amateur level, questions of how far we take things come up. How traditional do we keep the sport as it leaves the shores of Japan. 

 My answer : As traditional as possible 

 But why? I think the reasons are pretty obvious but I will try to elaborate on them. 

 The American sports world is full of  ripped athletes, driving cool cars and playing videos games of themselves, wearing all the bling and the latest trendy fashion designs and signing huge contracts and getting paid more money than I'll ever make in my lifetime before they even set foot on a professional field. In contrast to this, the sumo wrestler begins his sumo career essentially as a man servant, waiting on the upper rankers hand and foot, getting up early to prepare for the day, cooking all the food, drawing the baths for the upper rankers and not getting a rest until the late hours of the evening. The only way out is to win or quit. The Sumo wrestler in Japan is expected to endure all of this with a sense of gratitude, with a spirit of humble obedience to his seniors until one day he can earn his place amongst them and demand that same respect. 

A young Takamiyama enduring the pains of practice early in his career

 Would an American athlete endure this kind of life? I think you'd be hard pressed to find one that would. 

 Now, I'm not saying that amateur sumo needs to adopt every single aspect of sumo as it is practiced in Japan. (Although, I wouldn't mind in many ways.) But I think what Sumo has to offer even on the amateur level is deeper than anything currently available on the American sports market. Even other forms of martial arts appear to me at least to have undergone sporterization. That is, stripping the art of any spiritual or traditional aspects and making it purely sport. I could be wrong, but it's just what I see. 

 When I see a Sumo Wrestler, I see a person that I would want my children to look up to, probably more than any other athlete I've encountered. Of course there are exceptions in every sport, but in sumo, it's not just one guy here and one guy there. Nearly every sumo wrestler exemplifies all the qualities I would want my children to have, and I think that makes the sport unique. 

 So what am I trying to say? 

 Simply this. Let's not be quick to water sumo down. Let's not be motivated by dollar signs or spectacle. Let's allow character and virtue be the order of the day. 

 Hakkeyoi!