Time Machine: Sumo's refusal to reform contributing to its decline

This story originally ran in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2018.

TOKYO — I used to like sumo, a lot. I first came to Japan during the Taiho-Kashiwado era. I actually shook the latter’s hand in a post-tourney visit to the Kashiwado stable after that yokozuna won a tournament with a 15-0 record. I said “Omedtou Gozaimasu” in Japanese. He replied “san kyu.” which I later realized was not a secret number but a Japanese version of the American expression “Thank you.”

I followed sumo avidly during the Chiyonofuji era, where the handsome, muscular, cool yokozuna “Wolf” regularly outmaneuvered much larger opponents, including the 520-pound Konishiki. I even appeared on TV on the Larry King Show, when that program visited Tokyo, with four gaijin rikishi — the aforementioned Konishiki, Musashimaru, Akebono and stable master Azumazeki, who weighed a collective 1,500 pounds. It was perhaps the heaviest TV interview in history,

I especially liked the Takanohana-Wakanohana era, where sumo really got interesting. Takanohana was sumo royalty, son of the great Wakanohana. Sumo got great TV ratings in those days, starting with the time Takanohana, at age 18, and with movie star good looks, became the youngest-ever wrestler to defeat a yokozuna when he ousted Chiyonofuji, who then retired two days later.