Children in Japan start wrestling from an early age in hopes of becoming professional wrestlers. Photo courtesy of sumoeastandwest.com

King of the Hill, Japan Style

By Bobby Okinaka

Through Western eyes, sumo wrestling is funny looking. It's a game of overweight men wearing nothing but a loincloth trying to push each other out of a ring. For the Japanese however, sumo is a national sport that embodies centuries of tradition and the spirit of Japanese culture.

When Ferne Pearlstein became interested in making a documentary film about Japan eleven years ago, she saw sumo as the perfect story to tell. "Sumo encapsulates the feeling of being a foreigner in Japan. You have to become Japanese to succeed," said the New York-based filmmaker at a recent screening of "Sumo East and West" in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo.

With co-producer Robert Edwards, Pearlstein first had to find the sumo story before she could tell it. Gaining access to the cloistered world of Japanese professional sumo would not be easy, especially for a foreigner. Instead of going straight to Japan, the pair showed up with a camera to the 1999 North American Sumo Championship where they saw contestants from across the country battle for the right to compete in the World Championship.

Akebono prepares for battle in the ring. Photo courtesy of sumoeastandwest.com

International sumo differs from professional sumo in that there are weight classes and competitors do not undergo the rigors of training in a Japanese sumo stable. The size of the ring is the same as well as the objective to force your opponent out by either pushing or lifting. Close fisted punching is not allowed.

International sumo started a decade ago as a way to draw more people to the sport. Today many countries from Europe, the Americas and Asia have sumo clubs and the athletes compete in tournaments around the world. In another bold step from tradition, international sumo includes female competitors. Japanese custom does not allow a woman to even step onto the sumo ring, let alone participate.

At the North American Sumo Championship, the filmmakers met Wayne Vierra, a Hawaiian who had once trained as a professional but had to retire for medical reasons. Vierra won the event and also became one of the stories for the documentary as the producers decided to examine the impact of foreigners, mostly from Hawaii, who were challenging the sacred traditions of Japanese sumo.

With the concept in place and Vierra's connections, Pearlstein and Edwards were granted access to the unknown world of sumo. They went behind the scenes to capture the life of a sumo wrestler, from the arduous demands of an apprentice to the daily rigors of training. They interviewed sumo stable masters who were past champions to gain insight as to why sumo is more than a sport to the Japanese. As Vierra says in the film, "Strength is not enough, sumo is about spirit, skill and body. You must be a great human being as well as a wrestler to win."

Wayne Vierra is interviewed after winning the North American Sumo Championship. Photo courtesy of sumoeastandwest.com

They traced the history of sumo in the modern era and how it spread to Hawaii and California with Japanese immigration. Hawaiian born Jesse Kuhaulua became the first foreigner to break into the sumo ranks in 1964 under the wrestling name Takamiyama. He paved the way for Konishiki and Akebono, the first foreign-born grand champion or yokozuna. The more successful the Hawaiians became, the more it challenged the cultural identity of sumo as a Japanese tradition.

Rising to the top of professional sumo was not easy for the Hawaiians. Arriving in Japan, they did not speak any Japanese and had to learn the language quickly in order to survive in and out of the ring. While the Hawaiians possessed great size and physical ability, they lacked technique and in the beginning were easily defeated by much smaller opponents. In addition, they had to deal with an anti-foreigner sentiment held by some Japanese, especially with something so sacred as sumo.

The producers succeeded in capturing the world of sumo and telling the story of how something so culturally Japanese was broken open to accept outsiders. The documentary they completed is beautifully shot with images of traditional and modern Japan and shows the sport of sumo from a variety of perspectives forcing the viewer to see beyond just fat men in loinclothes.

In the Los Angeles screening, Yokozuna Akebono, whose real name is Chad Rowan, flew out from Tokyo to watch the film with the audience and answer some questions afterwards with Pearlstein and Roberts. While a warrior in the ring, the good-humored giant kept his fans smiling with his answers. When a young boy asked "What is your favorite food?" He replied with a heavy Hawaiian accent, "Basically I eat anything that doesn't eat me first."

Did you know?
	The International Sumo Federation hopes to one day make amateur sumo an Olympic sport. The only collegiate sumo club in the United States is at UCLA and the coach is from Bulgaria. In professional sumo, there are six grand tournaments a year, each lasting 15 days. In the modern era, there have only been 67 yokozuna or grand champions.

Akebono, who is now retired, revealed that his stable master Takamiyama was very hard on the boys from Hawaii because he wanted them to be tough enough to succeed in Japan. He added, "My biggest fear was not winning or losing, I felt I didn't want to do anything to embarrass my stable master or my family." The grand champion's friends and family have nothing to be embarrassed about as Akebono has carried himself with strength and honor throughout his great career.

The film "Sumo East and West" is still screening in film festivals and is currently looking for distribution. You can find more information at: sumoeastandwest.com. For information about professional sumo, please visit: www.sumo.or.jp/index_e.html. For information about international sumo, please visit: www.amateursumo.com.

September 12, 2003