[sumo] More on young rikishi murder (my words, not theirs)

[Sumocypher at aol.com]

Even the most highly regarded financial news magazine are  carrying this 
story. A very insightful article. 
The Japan Sumo Association  
Heavy hitters
Feb 14th 2008 | TOKYO
>From The Economist print  edition 
Scandal rocks the national sport

HIS meaty hands cupped his face, shielding it from cameras in the back of a  
police car. Masanori Fujii was one of three wrestlers and a former trainer  
arrested on February 7th for killing a 17-year-old sumo trainee in June. The  
body of the young recruit, Takashi Saito, was riddled with cigarette burns,  
bruises from baseball-bat blows and the scar from a beer bottle smashed against  
his forehead. His right ear was torn off. Initially, his trainer, or  “
stablemaster”, denied hitting Mr Saito, who had several times tried to run away  from 
the stable. The police ascribed the death to “natural causes” and the  
powerful Japan Sumo Association (JSA) accepted it.  
Only when the stablemaster, Junichi Yamamoto, pressed the family to cremate  
the body quickly did the father demand an autopsy. It turned out Mr Yamamoto 
had  wielded the bottle and ordered the three wrestlers to inflict more 
punishment.  The death has shocked Japan. Even Yasuo Fukuda, the prime minister, said 
he took  the incident very seriously and that it was important how the JSA 
deals with it.  
 


But reforming sumo, which has a history of more than 2,000 years, is not  
easy. The JSA was founded in 1927 and has been  scandal-prone ever since. In the 
1930s a group of leading wrestlers left the  JSA and created an independent 
sumo league to protest  at unfair financial arrangements. More recently the JSA 
has been accused of tolerating match-rigging and its leaders of tax  evasion.  
The opaque self-governing institution oversees all aspects of sumo:  
organising matches, setting rules, promoting the sport and running its finances.  An 
investigation released in December found that over 90% of stables hit  
wrestlers with sticks. In theory the JSA is supervised  by the education ministry. But 
it is truly a law unto itself.  
It comprises 105 “elders”, highly ranked former wrestlers, who all own a  
share in the JSA, much like partners in a law firm.  Shares are passed down from 
a retiring stablemaster to his prized retired  wrestler, or sold to another 
former champion. Stablemasters (now numbering 53)  must own one. A share costs 
around $2m and has fetched as much as $4m.  
It is hard for former wrestlers to make a living outside the ring. A share in 
 the JSA is usually their only financial asset. Little  wonder the JSA's 
elders resist calls for openness and  accountability. Reform would probably entail 
a loss of money and status—and give  people other than wrestlers a say in how 
the sport should be run.  
Life in the stables is gruelling. Some recruits are virtual prisoners, either 
 because quitting is considered betrayal or for financial reasons: the JSA 
provides stables with a basic sum of $20,000 a year or  more for each wrestler. 
So there is an incentive to drag back runaways, such as  Mr Saito.  
At the Oshima stable in eastern Tokyo one morning this week, 11 wrestlers  
collided, grunted, panted and tumbled their way through morning practice. One  
was occasionally slammed to a wall. Another was repeatedly thrown down, only to 
 return to the ring gasping “gottsuan desu” (“thank you for the  practice”
). But when the training ended, the howls of pain soon changed to  laughter. 
The JSA took months before it expelled Mr Yamamoto,  the stablemaster accused 
of killing the teenager. On February 1st it renewed its  chairman for a 
fourth term, suggesting all is business as usual. That the police  took almost 
eight months before making arrests underscores the degree to which  officialdom 
tends to leave the JSA to itself. Sumo's  origins lie in Shintoism; even today 
wrestlers are treated as deities and the  JSA elders consider themselves high 
priests protecting  sacred traditions. Yet the JSA's self-governance does  
depend on its doing some governing.  
0



**************The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy 
Awards. Go to AOL Music.      
(http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565)