The competitors may have mixed motives, but the sport’s organisers have Olympic hopes, writes Jonathan Watts
WOMEN’S sumo may have been established in Japan last year with the aim of making it an Olympic event, but even the competitors are finding it difficult to take the sport entirely seriously.
“I suppose it is still a bit of a joke,” says Kayoko Kobori, one of the wrestlers in the first women’s sumo tournament, held in Osaka in January. “When I told my friends and family I was going to give it a try, most of them laughed. Nobody expects women to do sumo.”
It is difficult to equate Kobori with the behemoths of the 1 300-year-old men’s event. A member of the Takushoku University Judo Club – one of the strongest in Japan – her weight is less than a fifth of that of the biggest male wrestler – the 252kg Konishiki.
With four other club members, Kobori began learning the techniques and rituals of sumo two months before the Osaka tournament. According to their coach, they were enthusiastic volunteers.
“When I told them of the plans for a tournament, a few of them said they were interested, so we bought some kit and got in one of the guys from the men’s sumo club to show them the basic rules and moves.”
The five women, however, put a different slant on their reasons for getting involved. “We were a bit interested out of curiosity, and a chance to be involved in what could turn out to be a historical event, but the main motivation was the chance of a free visit to Osaka, and the coach’s promise to reward us with a trip to Guam if any of us won a trophy.”
The circumstances reflect the top-down way in which women’s sumo has been introduced. New Sumo, as it is known, came into being last April, more for political reasons than to satisfy a genuine demand.
“We had been considering women’s sumo for some time, but the main reason for starting it up was because we want to make sumo an Olympic sport,” said Tamaki Nishida of the International Sumo Federation (ISF), the amateur sport’s governing body.
“When our secretary general approached the International Olympic Committee last year, he was advised that we would have a better chance of acceptance if the sport was available to men and women.”
Japan has raised the international profile of sumo in recent years and the ISF now boasts 71 member countries. Some, including Switzerland and Germany, have already expressed an interest in women’s sumo. Nishida suggested that they may even have a better chance of popularising it than Japan.
“European nations may have an advantage, in that people there don’t have the same preconceptions about sumo. Here, it is very much seen as a male sport.”
Women’s sumo did exist from the 19th century to the second world war, but the wrestlers were naked and the event was not so much sport as a form of male entertainment. In New Sumo, on the other hand, the wrestlers wear a leotard, in addition to the traditional mawashi (loincloth-belt), and follow similar rules to the men. But they fight on mats rather than clay, and head-charging, face-slapping and blows to the breast are forbidden.
Despite their mixed reasons for getting involved, the Takushoku Judo Club members have quickly taken to the event. They won three of the four individual trophies on offer to the 34 competitors in the January tournament, and plan to enter again next year.
“Who knows, it could become a big thing. If it becomes an Olympic event in 10 years time and I am not married by then, perhaps I would consider trying to represent Japan,” said one of their number, Nami Ogawa. “But they have to get these mawashi sorted out first. They are really uncomfortable for a woman.”