Feel free to ask any questions about this article, sumo at large, etc. This article is pretty good and does a relatively good job of an overview of recent events. There are some details omitted...
Feel free to ask any questions about this article, sumo at large, etc.
This article is pretty good and does a relatively good job of an overview of recent events. There are some details omitted that make it not as bad as the article makes it out to be and the quotes from people are cherry picked, but overall true.
Care to share some of those details? Because yeah, the article does make the world of Sumo seem downright inhumane and insanely unethical, as does a few previous conversations we have had on the...
There are some details omitted that make it not as bad as the article makes it out to be
Care to share some of those details? Because yeah, the article does make the world of Sumo seem downright inhumane and insanely unethical, as does a few previous conversations we have had on the subject.
As for a solution, is there no way the wrestlers can unionize, or break from the traditional sumo institutions/stables/governing bodies by forming new ones of their own, with their own independent stables/tournaments/etc?
Sure, I'll try to go in order with some missing/wrong details. Technically true, but the rest of the article, to me at least, makes it seem like he was neglected and is why he was unable to get...
Exemplary
Care to share some of those details? Because yeah, the article does make the world of Sumo seem downright inhumane and insanely unethical, as does a few previous conversations we have had on the subject.
Sure, I'll try to go in order with some missing/wrong details.
One wrestler died in May after struggling to get prompt medical attention.
Technically true, but the rest of the article, to me at least, makes it seem like he was neglected and is why he was unable to get treatment when the reality is, like much of the world, the hospitals were packed and prioritizing patients. He wasn't admitted when he had a fever, as it's a minor symptom, but was admitted when he started coughing up blood and he initially tested negative for COVID. After a month of treatment he passed away from multiple organ failure brought on COVID related pneumonia on May 13.
[...]asked his “stablemaster” if he could sit out this month’s tournament in Tokyo on health grounds. The reply: Compete, or leave the sport forever.
True and backlash over the cruelty has many calling for his stablemaster's forced retirement. Actual action is kept pretty close to the chest by the JSA, but people in the know say it is being seriously discussed by the elders.
Wrestlers join a stable for their entire career and cannot transfer to another outfit.
Untrue. Wrestlers are expected to stay at a single stable their entire career, by far most do, and there is no official transfer system in place. However transfer of low ranking from one stable to another does occur for a myriad of reasons. Wrestlers that reach the top professional/paid ranks obviously don't leave their home stable unless it closes completely or a retiring professional wrestler from the same stable creates his own and takes some of the wrestlers from the old stable with him.
Even if another stable wanted to employ Kotokantetsu, it wouldn’t be allowed to under sumo association rules.
This one is double edged. If you read it as "you cannot transfer from one stable to another" then the statement is wrong (and is how I read it). The rules state it has to be agreed upon by the old and new stablemaster and approved by the JSA. The old one, being a prick, isn't going to give his blessing so it's a moot point, but the statement is still wrong. What is a show of extra dickishness from his stablemaster is that low ranked rikishi tend to go "missing" all the time, sometimes for months. Be it homesickness, needing to care for family, mistreatment, or any number of reasons there usually is a very slow pace at which a stablemaster will turn in the retirement papers for a wrestler, but this guy is an asshole.
What is true is that he cannot join another stable now because he has retired. Once you retire you cannot un-retire. However the two sentence paragraph for that statement in the article makes no mention that he can't unretire and instead references transfers.
Like many wrestlers, Kotokantetsu had entered the sport after middle school and never completed his studies.
While true that many wrestlers forgo traditional schooling, go through a "sumo high school" where they are taught an abbreviated high school education with a focus on sumo history and training, this has stopped being the norm. Most wrestlers these days continue through a normal high school education while doing extracurricular sumo and join a stable after high school if they've done things like win regional or national high school championships (doing so allows them to enter the ranks at a higher level). However, most that go through the traditional high school route go on to college first as sumo is no different than any other professional sport in that your chances of reaching professional status (read: paid) is low and having something to fall back on is key.
Competing in sumo’s lower divisions, he was given board, lodging and pocket money but, he said, no assistance with medical bills. He had to ask his divorced mother for money to help pay for his heart surgery.
Now I won't say I know the personal life of Kotokantetsu or his mother's situation, but it's a well known unspoken factor that a lot of the lower ranked wrestlers, ones that'll never go anywhere close to the paid ranks, are sent to stables as kind of a free foster home/boarding school if they show any promise in sumo at all if the parents cannot care for them/divorced home/etc. Wrestlers live at the stable, are fed, clothed, on and on. Stablemasters take on the role of father figure, to many that don't have one at all, and like all father figures there are great ones and, unfortunately, bad ones. Most father figures don't have a couple of dozen boys to raise though.
Japan has universal healthcare and his heart surgery would have cost him a maximum of $1,000 out of pocket. While this isn't a tiny amount of money for someone that doesn't have an income, it isn't huge either. I can see arguments for both sides of why the stable should pay for it and why his mother should pay for it.
“Wrestlers in the four lower divisions basically have no rights,” said Ross Mihara, an American-born sumo commentator for state broadcaster NHK. “The oyakata (stablemasters) and the sumo association treat them like slave labor. Because like all the traditions in sumo, that’s the way it has always been.”
There is very much a hierarchy system in the sumo stables, the lower ranked wrestlers wait on the higher ranked wrestlers by cooking for them (and the rest of the stable), cleaning the stable, doing laundry, grocery shopping, running errands, etc. On the one hand stables are a family unit, I'm sure we've all had to cook dinner, do the dishes, get something for our parents, etc. and were cared for, fed, sheltered, educated, et al for it. Most family units cannot afford a staff to do all the menial tasks for them and so they are metered out as chores for members of the family. Stables are reliant on the winnings of high ranked wrestlers, money provided by support groups, and "investment" by the stablemaster. It's a business that, with few exceptions, takes care of all the needs of the wrestlers in the stable and so having them take care of the stable and those that actually make money isn't a hard ask. On the other hand, as this stable has turned out to be, there are people in power that mistreat those in their care. Some call it "tough love" approach others call it cruelty, but a both a gentle touch and a firm hand have produced heroes in the sport. As with most things the upbringing of the "father" is passed down to the son. I don't agree with it, but it's the truth of the matter. As said later in the article “It’s designed to force people to succeed or to quit.”
Banned from social media, they are effectively silenced from speaking out about their situation.
This is stable dependent and is nuanced enough that a single sentence does not explain it all. Some stables have a "no internet" rule for the first 1-3 years in a stable, explained away that the wrestlers need to show dedication to sumo, concentrate on practice, etc. Most stables have no such rule and social media is encouraged as it gives access to supporters and supporters help pay the bills. There are even fan groups for wrestlers far down the rankings. That said Japan's entire culture is counter to the "complain about your situation on social media" and the JSA does have a ban about taking internal sumo issues on social media. Being that there are two sides of every story (we've all seen pitchforks being grabbed when only one side of the story is heard) and Japan/sumo has a thing about upholding honor and saving face, there are proper channels to go through. If you have a problem with your stablemaster you take it up with them, if they don't resolve it you take it up with the stablemasters of the group you belong, if unresolved you go to the JSA.
Japan Sumo Association spokesman Shibatayama said the sport’s governing body has taken appropriate safety measures to protect wrestlers from the virus.
Also untrue, but not the article/author's fault this time. The JSA is full of shit and rumors are that it's been in the red all year long, add to it the Japanese government's continual blame of the virus spread on foreigners and it's been a year of finger pointing and closed eyes. The January tournament should have been cancelled, fan numbers reduced back to 2,500 max, further restrictions on what wrestlers are allowed to do outside of the stable, etc.
As for a solution, is there no way the wrestlers can unionize, or break from the traditional sumo institutions/stables/governing bodies by forming new ones of their own, with their own independent stables/tournaments/etc?
Unions I can't speak to as I don't know the inner workings of Japanese unionization. A quick google says, like most places, they're in decline in Japan and have been for a long time. Hell, the Japanese Pro Baseball Players Union didn't get recognition until 40 years after being founded...
To do sumo outside the JSA you'd have to drop down to the amateur unsanctioned tournaments (which are where women can compete and is a whole other can of worms) or there'd need to be a new governing body formed. That takes time, money, and honestly more outrage than the sudden retirement of a single mistreated wrestler. To compete in professional sumo in the JSA you have to be part of a stable, a stable can only be run by someone with a "share", there are 105 shares, they are purchased (or inherited) from JSA members that are retiring (required at age 65), and you have to have been a sumo wrestler with a certain amount of success over your career to be eligible to have a share. Not to add on to the pile of crap we can, rightfully, blame on older generations, but most of the problems in sumo are the result of old men that will retire relatively soon as younger generations take their place, these issues with asshole stablemasters included.
The conversations we've had and the articles that get published, like most things, show mostly the bad side because the much larger good side isn't really newsworthy. Like all things the bad actors stand out, but the good people are the vast majority of the sumo population. When a positive news story is available I don't typically post it here as there isn't really a way for a casual observer to understand it. While I do enjoy discussing sumo, I don't always have time (or energy) to go into an in depth conversation about the history behind every paragraph to translate it for a uninformed audience. It's the controversies that stand out, but are by no means the norm is what I'm trying to say.
It sounds like how most professional sports work. If you try your best to be a professional athlete in the US, and then break a bone... your professional life could be over. It's not until you...
It sounds like how most professional sports work. If you try your best to be a professional athlete in the US, and then break a bone... your professional life could be over. It's not until you enter the big leagues that you have any safety net.
At least in the US, there is an idea that athletes have to get a normal education, but it's usually just a facade as far as I know. Teachers would get in trouble if they flunked star athletes, so the athletes are technically enrolled but don't necessarily attend their classes.
With a specialty sport like sumo, it's especially rough, I imagine. There's not going to be a lot of amateur sumo wrestlers, so there's not going to be a big sports market you can fit into.
All this though is, well, a problem of capitalism and something that could happen in lots of industries. There's small mending that could be done, like not allowing companies to ban social media access, but it's not substantially addressing the problem that most people are a few cases of bad luck away from poverty.
Correct, same as in Japanese sumo. Most won't ever make it to paid ranks and the differences between sumo and other professional sports is that in sumo you're effectively in a military-like...
It sounds like how most professional sports work. If you try your best to be a professional athlete in the US, and then break a bone... your professional life could be over. It's not until you enter the big leagues that you have any safety net.
Correct, same as in Japanese sumo. Most won't ever make it to paid ranks and the differences between sumo and other professional sports is that in sumo you're effectively in a military-like environment. You're clothed, fed, sheltered, trained, given some money, and expected to follow the hierarchy of command. Don't want to do so and you can leave to fend for yourself.
At least in the US, there is an idea that athletes have to get a normal education, but it's usually just a facade as far as I know. Teachers would get in trouble if they flunked star athletes, so the athletes are technically enrolled but don't necessarily attend their classes.
Mostly the same in sumo. You can join a stable once you're out of middle school and if you do you'll go to a "sumo high school" that focuses on sumo training, but does teach you the basics of a high school education. More and more wrestlers go to normal high schools with a sumo program or extracurricular sumo and join either after high school or go on to college and compete in sumo there as well as getting a degree. Whether or not there's a "no pass, no play" rule (and the motivation for teachers to not flunk athletes) I cannot say.
With a specialty sport like sumo, it's especially rough, I imagine. There's not going to be a lot of amateur sumo wrestlers, so there's not going to be a big sports market you can fit into.
There is amateur sumo, there's just no money in it and it's just a jumping off point for people that didn't go through normal sumo channels to get recruited.
Feel free to ask any questions about this article, sumo at large, etc.
This article is pretty good and does a relatively good job of an overview of recent events. There are some details omitted that make it not as bad as the article makes it out to be and the quotes from people are cherry picked, but overall true.
Care to share some of those details? Because yeah, the article does make the world of Sumo seem downright inhumane and insanely unethical, as does a few previous conversations we have had on the subject.
As for a solution, is there no way the wrestlers can unionize, or break from the traditional sumo institutions/stables/governing bodies by forming new ones of their own, with their own independent stables/tournaments/etc?
Sure, I'll try to go in order with some missing/wrong details.
Technically true, but the rest of the article, to me at least, makes it seem like he was neglected and is why he was unable to get treatment when the reality is, like much of the world, the hospitals were packed and prioritizing patients. He wasn't admitted when he had a fever, as it's a minor symptom, but was admitted when he started coughing up blood and he initially tested negative for COVID. After a month of treatment he passed away from multiple organ failure brought on COVID related pneumonia on May 13.
True and backlash over the cruelty has many calling for his stablemaster's forced retirement. Actual action is kept pretty close to the chest by the JSA, but people in the know say it is being seriously discussed by the elders.
Untrue. Wrestlers are expected to stay at a single stable their entire career, by far most do, and there is no official transfer system in place. However transfer of low ranking from one stable to another does occur for a myriad of reasons. Wrestlers that reach the top professional/paid ranks obviously don't leave their home stable unless it closes completely or a retiring professional wrestler from the same stable creates his own and takes some of the wrestlers from the old stable with him.
This one is double edged. If you read it as "you cannot transfer from one stable to another" then the statement is wrong (and is how I read it). The rules state it has to be agreed upon by the old and new stablemaster and approved by the JSA. The old one, being a prick, isn't going to give his blessing so it's a moot point, but the statement is still wrong. What is a show of extra dickishness from his stablemaster is that low ranked rikishi tend to go "missing" all the time, sometimes for months. Be it homesickness, needing to care for family, mistreatment, or any number of reasons there usually is a very slow pace at which a stablemaster will turn in the retirement papers for a wrestler, but this guy is an asshole.
What is true is that he cannot join another stable now because he has retired. Once you retire you cannot un-retire. However the two sentence paragraph for that statement in the article makes no mention that he can't unretire and instead references transfers.
While true that many wrestlers forgo traditional schooling, go through a "sumo high school" where they are taught an abbreviated high school education with a focus on sumo history and training, this has stopped being the norm. Most wrestlers these days continue through a normal high school education while doing extracurricular sumo and join a stable after high school if they've done things like win regional or national high school championships (doing so allows them to enter the ranks at a higher level). However, most that go through the traditional high school route go on to college first as sumo is no different than any other professional sport in that your chances of reaching professional status (read: paid) is low and having something to fall back on is key.
Now I won't say I know the personal life of Kotokantetsu or his mother's situation, but it's a well known unspoken factor that a lot of the lower ranked wrestlers, ones that'll never go anywhere close to the paid ranks, are sent to stables as kind of a free foster home/boarding school if they show any promise in sumo at all if the parents cannot care for them/divorced home/etc. Wrestlers live at the stable, are fed, clothed, on and on. Stablemasters take on the role of father figure, to many that don't have one at all, and like all father figures there are great ones and, unfortunately, bad ones. Most father figures don't have a couple of dozen boys to raise though.
Japan has universal healthcare and his heart surgery would have cost him a maximum of $1,000 out of pocket. While this isn't a tiny amount of money for someone that doesn't have an income, it isn't huge either. I can see arguments for both sides of why the stable should pay for it and why his mother should pay for it.
There is very much a hierarchy system in the sumo stables, the lower ranked wrestlers wait on the higher ranked wrestlers by cooking for them (and the rest of the stable), cleaning the stable, doing laundry, grocery shopping, running errands, etc. On the one hand stables are a family unit, I'm sure we've all had to cook dinner, do the dishes, get something for our parents, etc. and were cared for, fed, sheltered, educated, et al for it. Most family units cannot afford a staff to do all the menial tasks for them and so they are metered out as chores for members of the family. Stables are reliant on the winnings of high ranked wrestlers, money provided by support groups, and "investment" by the stablemaster. It's a business that, with few exceptions, takes care of all the needs of the wrestlers in the stable and so having them take care of the stable and those that actually make money isn't a hard ask. On the other hand, as this stable has turned out to be, there are people in power that mistreat those in their care. Some call it "tough love" approach others call it cruelty, but a both a gentle touch and a firm hand have produced heroes in the sport. As with most things the upbringing of the "father" is passed down to the son. I don't agree with it, but it's the truth of the matter. As said later in the article “It’s designed to force people to succeed or to quit.”
This is stable dependent and is nuanced enough that a single sentence does not explain it all. Some stables have a "no internet" rule for the first 1-3 years in a stable, explained away that the wrestlers need to show dedication to sumo, concentrate on practice, etc. Most stables have no such rule and social media is encouraged as it gives access to supporters and supporters help pay the bills. There are even fan groups for wrestlers far down the rankings. That said Japan's entire culture is counter to the "complain about your situation on social media" and the JSA does have a ban about taking internal sumo issues on social media. Being that there are two sides of every story (we've all seen pitchforks being grabbed when only one side of the story is heard) and Japan/sumo has a thing about upholding honor and saving face, there are proper channels to go through. If you have a problem with your stablemaster you take it up with them, if they don't resolve it you take it up with the stablemasters of the group you belong, if unresolved you go to the JSA.
Also untrue, but not the article/author's fault this time. The JSA is full of shit and rumors are that it's been in the red all year long, add to it the Japanese government's continual blame of the virus spread on foreigners and it's been a year of finger pointing and closed eyes. The January tournament should have been cancelled, fan numbers reduced back to 2,500 max, further restrictions on what wrestlers are allowed to do outside of the stable, etc.
Unions I can't speak to as I don't know the inner workings of Japanese unionization. A quick google says, like most places, they're in decline in Japan and have been for a long time. Hell, the Japanese Pro Baseball Players Union didn't get recognition until 40 years after being founded...
To do sumo outside the JSA you'd have to drop down to the amateur unsanctioned tournaments (which are where women can compete and is a whole other can of worms) or there'd need to be a new governing body formed. That takes time, money, and honestly more outrage than the sudden retirement of a single mistreated wrestler. To compete in professional sumo in the JSA you have to be part of a stable, a stable can only be run by someone with a "share", there are 105 shares, they are purchased (or inherited) from JSA members that are retiring (required at age 65), and you have to have been a sumo wrestler with a certain amount of success over your career to be eligible to have a share. Not to add on to the pile of crap we can, rightfully, blame on older generations, but most of the problems in sumo are the result of old men that will retire relatively soon as younger generations take their place, these issues with asshole stablemasters included.
The conversations we've had and the articles that get published, like most things, show mostly the bad side because the much larger good side isn't really newsworthy. Like all things the bad actors stand out, but the good people are the vast majority of the sumo population. When a positive news story is available I don't typically post it here as there isn't really a way for a casual observer to understand it. While I do enjoy discussing sumo, I don't always have time (or energy) to go into an in depth conversation about the history behind every paragraph to translate it for a uninformed audience. It's the controversies that stand out, but are by no means the norm is what I'm trying to say.
It sounds like how most professional sports work. If you try your best to be a professional athlete in the US, and then break a bone... your professional life could be over. It's not until you enter the big leagues that you have any safety net.
At least in the US, there is an idea that athletes have to get a normal education, but it's usually just a facade as far as I know. Teachers would get in trouble if they flunked star athletes, so the athletes are technically enrolled but don't necessarily attend their classes.
With a specialty sport like sumo, it's especially rough, I imagine. There's not going to be a lot of amateur sumo wrestlers, so there's not going to be a big sports market you can fit into.
All this though is, well, a problem of capitalism and something that could happen in lots of industries. There's small mending that could be done, like not allowing companies to ban social media access, but it's not substantially addressing the problem that most people are a few cases of bad luck away from poverty.
Correct, same as in Japanese sumo. Most won't ever make it to paid ranks and the differences between sumo and other professional sports is that in sumo you're effectively in a military-like environment. You're clothed, fed, sheltered, trained, given some money, and expected to follow the hierarchy of command. Don't want to do so and you can leave to fend for yourself.
Mostly the same in sumo. You can join a stable once you're out of middle school and if you do you'll go to a "sumo high school" that focuses on sumo training, but does teach you the basics of a high school education. More and more wrestlers go to normal high schools with a sumo program or extracurricular sumo and join either after high school or go on to college and compete in sumo there as well as getting a degree. Whether or not there's a "no pass, no play" rule (and the motivation for teachers to not flunk athletes) I cannot say.
There is amateur sumo, there's just no money in it and it's just a jumping off point for people that didn't go through normal sumo channels to get recruited.