Word: sumo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Sumo, which involves two wrestlers trying to force another either out of a circular ring or else to touch the ground with some body part other than the soles of their feet, is a uniquely Japanese tradition, steeped in shinto ritual and courtly decorum. The rikishi are required to live communally in "training stables," where all aspects of their lives, from nutrition to attire, are strictly regulated. Marijuana may not exactly be a performance-enhancing aid to the martial artist, but its recreational use certainly shatters the image of a cadre of professional fighters viewed as bearers of a centuries...
...Suspicions of fixed bouts arise occasionally, but lately the commitment and character of ranking sumo wrestlers has come under question. Mongolian yokozuna (grand champion) Asashoryu begged off from participating in a tour of Japan, citing an injury, but he was then filmed playing soccer at home in Mongolia, earning him a two-tournament ban. Last February, then-stable master Junichi Yamamoto was arrested on suspicion of ordering three wrestlers to beat a 17-year-old during a training session - the youth later died of his injuries. Yamamoto and the wrestlers were arrested and charged, and are awaiting trial...
...Japan. At a news conference, Wakanoho cried, repeatedly apologized and asked for a reinstatement. But a sport whose rituals and conventions are so intimately tied with a traditional sense of Japanese identity is not so easily able to forgive the Russian's transgressions. He was told by the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) that reinstating him was impossible. On September 11, Wakanoho filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against JSA, demanding his dismissal be reversed...
...Later, the brothers admitted that they had smoked marijuana in Los Angeles during a June sumo tour there. They later denied the admission; Roho said stable masters forced him to lie. Not everyone believed it in the first place. Michihiro Fujiwara, pharmacology professor of Kyushu University told TIME, "Generally, marijuana stays in the body for 72 hours to at the most one week." Still, police were unable to find any evidence of marijuana use when they searched the sumo stables of both wrestlers. With no marijuana found in their possession, it will be difficult to bring any criminal charges against...
...dwindling: Whereas each tournament used to attract over 100 new applicants up until about a decade ago to join the ranks of the rikishi, in the most recent event there were only three. "Because of a low birth rate there are fewer children to grow up to become sumo wrestlers," says sports journalist Seijun Ninomiya. "So, out of necessity, we began to turn to overseas athletes." Today, more than one fourth of the professional wrestlers in the top two divisions are foreigners who have no grounding in the traditional values associated with sumo. "They bring over athletes...