favour in SA
Nawaal Deane
‘Ichi, ni, san, shi [Japanese countdown],” wham, grunt, slap. These are the sounds of two sweating opponents slamming into each other. One pushes his forehead into the other’s chest while gripping him in a bear hug to force him out of the makeshift ring. The opponent is thrown in a somersault, lands on his back and loses the fight.
Thus begins the training session of a delegation of Japanese sumo wrestlers here to help the South African team with their technique.
The Girl Guides hall in Kempton Park is laid with mats and covered by a sheet of green canvas to construct a sumo arena.
In walk four Japanese youths with legs like oxen, wearing black mawashis (a G- string-type belt) and weighing an average of 140kg – not just fat but solid muscle. The impression they give is one of humility and a quiet dignity – until they step into the ring.
On the opposite end are our impressive South African team consisting of Warren Saito – better known as Ox – Anton Lotto (who both have national colours in wrestlers), Beaugus Bonianga and Charles Mahlangu, the South African lightweight sumo wrestling champion.
Surprisingly two of the South Africans wear the mawashi – they refer to them jokingly as nappies – and look quite confident in them. Two others, nursing injuries, have switched to cycling shorts.
The fighting begins with a spiritual ritual where the wrestlers enter the dorhoy (circle) and half-squat. Closing their eyes, they clap their hands to draw the attention of the gods and rub their hands together to cleanse themselves. They lift their hands in the air and rotate them to show they are fighting openly.
Each fight takes an average of two minutes.
Mahlangu enters the ring with the 21- year-old Japanese fighter Yukoh Mitsunaga, who far outweighs him, and they bow to each other.
Squatting eye to eye, they wait for the referee to give the signal to begin combat. Sweating bodies slam together and Mahlangu tries to push, but Mitsunaga is like a rock and he picks up the South African champion and puts him over the circle.
Lotto has no better luck and is tossed gracefully out of the ring by 19-year-old Daiki Narita.
There is one South African win: Ox manages to use his stomach to bump his 20-year-old Japanese opponent, Sanshiro Shimhara, out of the ring.
It is evident that the South African team have stronger torsos than the Japanese, but they are not as flexible in their legs.
The Japanese teacher, Tokiyoshi Ishiura, teases Mahlangu for looking as if he was dancing in the dorhoy, but then concedes that the South African team is getting stronger.
“People have the wrong perception of sumo wrestling.
“They think it is a gentle sport for fat men and South African guys will not wear the traditional mawashi,” says Rusty Schutte, founder of the South African Sumo Federation.
“You don’t have to be fat to do sumo wrestling,” says Tyron Sharnock, a slight youngster who holds the junior under-75kg South African sumo championship.
“It is an aggressive sport where the opponents can get seriously hurt.”
“Sumo wrestling is part of Japanese culture where you can lose your life,” says Mitsunaga.
He points to his disfigured ear. “This happened because in Japan we fight on clay floors.”
South African sumo wrestling is growing because of the spiritual appeal of the sport, where winners and losers are always respected, Lotto says.
Mitsunaga agrees. Sumo wrestling is not just a sport but a culture, he says, where dignity, honour and skill are emphasised.
“Sumo starts with respect,” he says, “and ends with respect.”
The Japanese delegation has spent the week training at sumo clubs in Alexandra, near Johannesburg, and Kempton Park