[sumo] old news #7

[rowan klein]

a pretty old one.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Saturday 28th November 1891

Wrestling Match Between the Typhoon and the Stone Giant

Wrestling in the leading sport in Japan. In the big cities the wrestling ground is square and surrounded by two roped galleries. Women occupy the upper tier. The ring is about twenty feet in diameter and raised about two feet from the ground floor. It is strewn with sand and surrounded by a double embankment of bags of straw. It is covered by a roof decorated with lanterns and flags and supported by four slanting red pillars.

A contest between Typhoon and the Stone Giant in Yokohama was witnessed recently by a correspondent of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The wrestlers were accompanied by friends and several coolies carrying lacquer boxes containing the costumes for the ring and toilet articles. They are famous wrestlers and were dressed like noblemen. While undressing they talked together in a friendly manner, smoked cigars and drank imported beer. The ring costume considered of large silk handkerchiefs with frilled edges tied around the loins. They were immense fellows - solid, broad and muscular, but not tall. The Typhoon was about 4 feet and 7 inches in height and the Stone Giant was a little more than 5 feet. Both had straight, thick, jet black hair, dressed in the old fashioned style, and the barber had great difficulty in fixing the hair firmly at the nape of the neck. When noblemen, who patronize them, entered the dressing room they jumped up, making the joints crack and stretching
 their limbs.

At the sound of a drum on the tower at the entrance to the grounds the wrestlers put on velvet aprons and several belts, tokens of former victories. With pendent arms, proceeded by the four judges and followed by a file of wrestlers and several attendants, they entered the inclosure and marched around. The spectators had reached a high pitch of excitement. They shouted loudly, clapped their hands and rapped on the balustrades with their fans. After the parade, all seated themselves around the ring, the opponents facing each other. Each of the judges stepped to one of the poles and squatted down. The attendants placed a bucked of water and a vessel containing salt on the top of the embankment. The wrestlers took off their aprons and belts, jumped into the ring and struck many athletic attitudes that caused applause and enlivened the betting. 

Refreshing themselves with a drink of water and pinch of salt, they squatted on the sand, faced each other as a kind of salutation, and then arose with their arms extended and their fingers bent to catch hold of each other. Then they began to stamp the ground and repeatedly rushed at each other to get a firm grip. Stone Giant's only endeavor during the whole fight seemed to be to press down his opponent by his weight and so push him out of the ring. But the dark olive body of the Typhoon always managed to struggle away from from the lump of flesh that threatened to crush him, and he tried to improve his grip at even opportunity. At last he seized his opponent by the leg and made him hop backward. The spectators roared with laughter. They had got near the embankment. Stone Giant once more threw himself on the dwarf, as he called him, angrily, and almost succeeded in bouncing him over the line. The two judges nearest them stood at the line, for as soon as one stepped over it
 the match was over.

Typhoon became enraged, but all his twisting, wriggling, pushing and other tricks were of no avail against 230 pounds. So they fought for twenty, thirty, forty minutes. Typhoon was getting tired. Several timed he was pressed to the ground and it became more and more difficult to hold each other, as they perspired freely. During all this time their movements had looked somewhat theatrical; it seemed as if they had learned to pose for and exaggerate every situation of the combat. But now they were in dead earnest, and they wished to come to a close. For an instant Stone Giant lost his foothold, and Typhoon, getting all his strength together, lifted him up from the earth and hurled him over the embankment. It was a marvelous acrobatic feat. 

The judges rose and the manager pronounced Typhoon to be the victor. The spectators got up from their seats, shouted and threw presents into the ring. He bowed  and bowed again, putting both hands on his knees. Many scraps of paper came flying down from the tiers, in which the presents of sums of money were announced and the addresses where he could send for them. Attendants picked them up and Typhoon marched off with his suite. - Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 

       
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