C U LT U R E
A
t just gone 7am, in
the Musashigawabeya sumo stable
in Tokyo, a dozen
young men have
begun their asageiko,
the first practice session of the day.
There are three more hours to go and
already they look bravely, sweatily
battle-worn. They haven’t eaten yet.
In black mawashi loincloths, hair
lengths scraped up with white string,
their knees are taped like gymnasts,
their big toes wrapped in bandages, the
skin on their sizeable thighs a sore pink
where the flesh has been grabbed in the
throes of a fight. The rikishi wrestlers
clap and stomp sideways from foot to
foot, crouched in a squat, while a bout
is fought inside the dohyo, or sumo
ring, marked by a circle of rope.
When the loser falls or is knocked
down, the victor is mobbed by his
classmates, all shouting “shimasu”
– an abbreviation of “please do me
this favour” – pleading to be the
next, since the winner’s prize is
to choose his opponent. He keeps
fighting until he himself is floored.
The American-born sumo master,
Musashimaru Koyo, watches the action,
delivering a commentary that is never
less than tough, sometimes colourfully
frank. Dressed in a blue tracksuit that
doesn’t disguise his enormous bulk,
this former grand champion looks ▶
It takes dedication to train as a sumo wrestler
– and a lot of calories. Natalie Whittle observes
a practice session at a Tokyo stable, and sits
down for a large lunch
ft. com/hiddencities october 31/november 1 2015
BRIAN SAFFER
In the sumo ring
Trainees at the
Musashigawa-beya
sumo stable in Tokyo
have two intensive
practice sessions a
day, as well as helping
to cook (next page)
ft. com/hiddencities october 31/november 1 2015
xx
C U LT U R E
14
With a twice-daily workout of this
intensity, they should be muscled
and slim, but in the traditional
sumo profile, most of them boast
hefty bodies with rolls of fat. Only a
Hawaiian boy, recruited as a scholar,
manages to pitch his lean body
successfully against such weight.
Quantity of food rather than
frequency is the answer to keeping
sizes up, but eating has to wait: after
the asageiko is finished, the boys will
shower and change, and then help
to cook. To be a trainee in a school
like this one involves deep dedication
The writer was a guest of Palace Hotel
Tokyo, palacehoteltokyo.com; rates
from £455 per night. The hotel’s
concierge team can organise unique
tours across Tokyo in association with
their partner TOKI, toki.tokyo/
American CEO of Japanese
gaming company Nexon
Which area of Japan do you
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Kyoto is the best place to see
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to see what’s cool in
videogames, manga, anime
and consumer electronics. What’s the last thing you
discovered about Japan on
a business trip…
I never cease to be
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put: the trains run on time. Favourite Japanese ritual...
A lot of visitors to Japan
overlook the importance of
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student it took me a few
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expression...
I like the compliment
O-tsukaresama-desu, which
means: you are honourably
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hard work and success in
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The best food in Japan is ...
One of my favourites is
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eaten on your feet. FT.COM/MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 10/11 2016
KO SASAKI
The rikishi stop the
one-to-one bouts
and segue into an
astonishing warmdown routine
Owen Mahoney
TOKI; GETTY IMAGES
◀ on with half-amused scrutiny as his
charges pant with effort. “Focus on
the little details. Every time you screw
up, you’re forgetting something,” he
says to one boy. “There’s a meaning
to every movement you do, so focus…
stay square, elbows in, don’t change
technique against a ‘little guy’.”
That’s not all: “Keep your feet flat.”
In the corner of the small, woodlined room, the boys rinse sand and
sweat off elbows and faces. Reflecting
the 2,000-year-old Shinto origins of
wrestling, there is a little collection
of spirit offerings on a shelf; the ring
is sprinkled with salt as a purifying
ritual. And as if the deities were
watching, on and on the bouts go: a
brief touching of knuckles before the
wrestling starts is a scant chance to
catch breath. It’s a rare bout that has
suspense or length – these young rikishi
are building up their strength and skill.
Come the afternoon, they will
practise again; there are only two
meals a day. What’s the secret, you
start to wonder, to their weight gain?
not just to the art of sumo but to a
closed community of students whose
freedoms are fairly limited and whose
housekeeping tasks are varied. They
live on site and don’t see much of
their families. Alcohol is banned,
and a guard dog barks at anyone
coming back late after free periods.
The rewards, if you make it, are
great: “It’s like being Michael Jordan,”
one spectator at the stable says. “At the
top rank the sumo wrestlers are close
to living gods.” Its stars are rewarded
with beautiful women, riches and the
occasional controversy: in martial-arts
schools in Japan there are intermittent
problems reported with bullying. Yet
even though sumo is Japan’s national
sport, it’s unlikely to feature in the
Tokyo 2020 Olympics. “There isn’t
enough competition,” Musashimaru
says – only a handful of nations
beyond Japan practise it to a high
level, including Mongolia and Hawaii.
As the workout draws into its
closing phase, the smell of frying
vegetables wafts into the ring from a
little kitchen at the side. The rikishi
stop the one-to-one bouts and segue
into an astonishing warm-down
routine featuring individual skits
across the ring and a conga line around
it, chanting “ichi, ni, san” (one, two,
three) in unison. Facing outwards, they
shuffle crablike around the circle, jog
on their toes, bend into squats and into
the splits. Even from the tatami mats
where spectators sit, it’s hard not to
feel tired – or hungry – on their behalf.
When the workout is over, the
young sumos turn cooks, making
okonomiyaki pancakes and stir-fried
meats, and filling thermoses with
green tea. Finally, at a long table with
floor cushions, we sit to eat. The staple
source of padding in the sumo diet is
rice, one trainee explains, sitting next
to me. Not a little bowl like that, he
says, pointing to my helping, but a
giant mound of it like this, he adds,
gesturing with his hands. And then
there is the sumos’ favourite hotpot,
chanko nabe – a steaming stew of
meat and veg that is ladled from a
huge pan. You can find this dish at
restaurants across Japan but there is
something special about eating it with
people who have so dutifully earned
the right to second helpings, and who
need third and fourth helpings too,
even when the hunger stops. 6