Kotoshu, the first European Sumo Champion

By Freddy Benstein | Saturday, May 24, 2008

“Bulgarian ozeki Kotooshu is kadoban once more, meaning that he finished with a losing record last time and anything shy of an 8-7 record this time will see him demoted to sekiwake. Given his lackluster performances over the past few months, there's little doubt that he'll be moving downward.” – Mark Buckton, the Japan Times, May 8, 2008.

Sports writers are even less accurate than the weatherman, it seems.  Today Bulgarian Sumo wrestler, Kotoshu, blew Mr. Buckton’s predictions out of the water, with a win, which guaranteed him the Emperor’s Cup for the Summer Tournament at the Kokugikan in Ryokoku in Tokyo.  Although it seems that non-Japanese sumo wrestlers (Mongolian, Hawaiian to name a couple) have been winning Emperor’s Cups for quite some time now, it will be the first time that a sumo wrestler of European descent has taken the top prize. 

I can’t claim to be much of a sumo expert, but when Asashoryu began to get a lot of press coverage last year, (see my previous article on the Asashoryu problem here) I began to take up a bit more of an interest.  Now sumo, definitely has it’s ugly side, like the Takashi Saito incident last year, or maybe the fact that it is the job of the junior sumo wrestlers to wipe away the clinging things that hang on after “dropping the kids off at the pool” for the wrestlers who are too large to maneuver.  Then again, at least in the American sports arena, there are plenty of ugly aspects to be ashamed of as well, like the baseball steroids scandals, Michael Vick’s dog fighting case, OJ Simpson, and more.  I could fill a whole page.  In spite of the faults of the athletes, I enjoy watching the games, and in spite of these unpleasant aspects of sumo, I found the matches to be more and more interesting and little by little, tried to learn what I could about sumo wrestling. 

It would seem that it has deep roots in the Shinto religion, in fact the whole tournament is like an elaborate ceremony in honor of the Shinto spirits.  Those who win the tournaments, or are awarded the Yokozuna (?) status are even considered to be gods.  Hence the strong criticism against wrestlers like Asashoryu, who have shown on various occasions that they can be a bit of a sore loser.  Akiko Wada (who needs a new hairstyle) was critical of Asashoryu for this very reason, saying that his behavior was unbecoming for a god.  Hmm, maybe they aren’t really gods, but that’s beside the point. 

Given the strong Shinto roots and the association of Sumo as something very Japanese, I am just curious how the Japanese will react to having Kotoshu, a Bulgarian, as a sumo champion.  As I mentioned, it seems like having a Japanese sumo wrestler win a tournament is actually a rarity these days, but the winners have been other Asian wrestlers, who at least on the surface, looked Japanese (which is often all the Japanese seem to care about) Judging from the reaction at the tournament though, the majority of the spectators were very pleased that Kotoshu had achieved this status, and seemed to be supportive.

Maybe it is sort of like the NHL (National Hockey League).  Everyone knows that Canada has had a much stronger hockey culture than the US.  When I was young, you could almost guarantee that a Canadian hockey team would make a run to be in the Stanely Cup, if not win it.  But like Japanese sumo wrestling Champions, Canadian Stanely Cup winners are a rarity these days. 

In my opinion, the Japanese should be happy that their sport is growing in international recognition and popularity.  I hope the people will embrace Kotoshu as the Summer Tournament’s champion.  Perhaps some day, we will even see Sumo as an Olympic event. 

Freddy Benstein's Profile

I am a language teacher working at a private Junior High/High School and College in Western Japan. Since I earned my undergraduate degree in 1997, I have spent nearly half of my time living, working and studying in foreign countries, in Asia and Europe. Since 1995 I have visited Japan nearly every year and spent two years living here from 1998 - 2000. I am now working again in Japan for an unspecified length of time.

Interests: Japanese, taiko, music, photography, German Romanticism, 19th century history/literature

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