The Japan Times: June 10, 1911

The Japan Times, Saturday 10th June 1911 (Page 1)
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Passed champion TACHIYAMA making a ceremonial entry of the ring at Kokugi kan.
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Wrestlers of Eastern Camp - From right:- Passed Champion HITACHIYAMA, Champion KOMAGATAKE, Associate Champion NISHINOUMI, Second Champion AIOI, Third Champion TAKAMIYAMA.
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Wrestlers of Western Camp - From right:- Passed Champion TACHIYAMA, Passed Grand Champion UMEGATANI, Champion KUNIMIYAMA, Second Champion ISENOHAMA, Third Champion CHITOSEGAWA.

GREAT WRESTLING CONTEST (Page 1)

SEMI-ANNUAL MATCHES OFFER TEN DAYS OF SPORT

"SUMO" PRAISED BY COUNT ITAGAKI & THE PRESENT CHAMPION, HITACHIYAMA.

The wrestling contest at Ryogoku commences today at the usual place, the Kokugikan. The present matches will go on for ten days, or until the 19th. The tournament is of course open from the morning, but as usual the matches of the champion wrestlers take place in the afternoon.
Among the matches on the first day's program the following are the more interesting:-

Eastern-camp	Western-camp
Chifunegawa	Jindate
Ryogoku	Kurosegawa
Kohitachi	Tsuruwatari
Yamaizumi	Tamateyama
Ayanami	Tamatsubaki
Namino-oto	Isenohama
Aioi	Onaruto
Nishinoumi	Otori
Asashiwo	Tachiyama

It is rather disappointing to the lovers of wrestling to learn that the champion wrestlers Hitachiyama, Umegatani, Kunimiyama, Takamiyama, Shiunryu, Ominato and a few others will not take part in the present.

Count Itagaki on Wrestling

Interviewed by a representative of the Japan Times as to the future of wrestling, Count Itagaki, the retired statesman and renowned patron of this national sport, said that the act should be encouraged as an important means of entertaining distinguished foreign visitors. The art of wrestling Sumo, as it consists in hard physical exercises is cosmopolitan in character and is quite as easily intelligible to foreigners as to Japanese. Dramatic plays, being acted in the vernacular language, are far less adopted for appealing to the intelligence of foreign gentlemen, therefore, wrestling must be considered far more commendable as a means of entertainment that plays.

THE ART MUST BE PRESERVED

Both on that ground, and also from consideration of furnishing innocent means of unbending to the people, the Count declared that the ancient manly sport dating from hoary antiquities must be preserved. For this the most important question is the treatment of retired wrestlers, for life in the ring is short, ten or at best fifteen years, a champion steadily declining in strength after forty. To leave him to his own shift in getting a livelihood after his retirement would be cruel. True, these is some arrangement even at present by which a champion wrestler retires from the ring with the grant of 1,000 yen given by the Wrestler's Association, but the benefit does not extend to less distinguished wrestlers.
Some provision should be made for them also, and the Count hints that perhaps a small aid from the State may solve this standing problem. Even if such aid is hopeless, the proceeds from the semi-annual performances at the central ring in Tokyo, that is the Amphitheatre, may meet this purpose, if a percentage is set apart on this special account, assuming that the attendance at the Amphitheatre is satisfactory, as has been the case lately.

THE KOKUGIKAN AMPHITHEATRE

    It is a beautiful point in our history of our wrestling art, that, from olden times, the ring at Ryogoku, Tokyo, now called the Kokugi-kan, has been the headquarters of the art. The rules at Ryogoku were adopted all over the provinces, and the ambition of many a village youngster was to attach himself ot one or another champion at Ryogoku and to win his way upward. The Amphitheatre as the fountain of the art must therefore be preserved with all its time-honored privileges.
    In the January performance, continued the veteran patron, much complaint was heard of some of the principal contests having looked as if there were a "made-up game"; but the Count said that such a thing is almost impossible. Once the contestants enter the ring and take up their position they are invariably carried away by the spirit of competition, and they find it practically impossible to come to a compromise.
    The Count regrets to find not infrequently, that the ruling of an umpire is objected to by the contestants and even by the spectators. He reminds them that for the ruling an umpire has four referees, each taking a stand and closely watching the sport at each pillar erected outside the ring. If such experts are liable to err in judgment then others must be ten times more so.

Hitachiyama on "Sumo"

    The following is a translation of the champion's article, which is taken from the Musashino.
    With due regard to all knightly crafts of Japan which in the days of the Samurai, the military class maintained and fostered by the feudal clans, constituted the necessary accomplishments of the warriors, Sumo, or the Japanese system of wrestling, maybe said as having occupied the position of an art acquirement of which was considered as much important, nay indispensable, as the attainments in fencing and Jiu-jitsu. Many a victory was won in the battle-fields by discreet application of this art of Sumo, whereby the enemy was grappled and thrown down. The practice was popularly indulged by the Samurai during the time of the feudal system, although no one in these days followed is as the sole vocation.
    It was not, however, till the period of Tokugawa's feudal reign that the community began to take cognizance of men endowed with extraordinary physical prowess and that these men gradually came to be known as Rikishi, literally "Men of Strength", and adopted wrestling as their profession. The Daimyo, or the chieftains of different clans, eagerly sought for the service of the Rikishi, whom they granted liberal allowances and whose art they cherished. The practice of Sumo has thus been fostered and rapidly attained prosperity and success.
    The wrestling afterward came to be exhibited before the public; but the Rikishi were still privileged to receive the treatment accorded to the military class and were permitted to wear the two swords, the mark of knighthood. This made the fact indisputable that the practice was regarded as one of the knightly arts, time-honored, and cherished.
    The Japanese system of wrestling, therefore, has a long standing history, and today it has acquired such a degree of attainment as to become a unique art of Japan, a feat of strength probably unrivaled by any one of the world's athletism.
    Today at the time feudal system has been abolished, the art of Sumo is still allowed to retain its old-time prestige, and a distinction is placed on its public exhibition from ordinary shows or amusements.
    The community regards it with not a little importance as reflecting the sentiment of Bushido, "The Ways of Knighthood". It has been recognized as an excellent system of physical training by educationalists in both public and private services. Sumo, indeed, has a very promising future.
    Every foreigner visiting Japan is given opportunity, at least once, to witness the exhibition of this national sport, and he or she who did so never fails to praise it. It has been customary to celebrate the success of the army and navy during wars, by an exhibition of the wrestling contest. Visitors from all over the world, who once saw the feat of strength by the Japanese Rikishi have carried back with them a pleasant memory of the sport they witnessed.
    I was born on January 19th, 7th year of Meiji, or 1874 in Christian Era, the eldest son of Takanari, of the House of Ichige, enjoying the distinction of the Samurai class, a retainer and instructor in the knightly arts by right of inheritance to the to the Clan of Mito one of the nearest relatives to the Tokugawa Shogun, who held the scepter of the feudal government. My career as wrestler began in 1891, or at the age of 17, from which time I studied and practised up to the present time. In 1903 I was honored with the title of Yokozuna, in addition to the championship of wrestling in Japan.
    As to the title of Yokozuna an explanation may not be out of place here. A festival was held on May 2th, according to the old calendar, 363 A.D., in honor of the God of the Sumiyoshi Shrine at Naniwa, now the city Osaka, when the occasion was celebrated by an exhibition of Sumo.
    A wrestler by the name of Hajikami, of the province of Omi, won the best of the day with his superior strength and craft; and finding no one who dared to challenge him for for the supremacy, he caused the rope of Shrime, or the sacred cord, to be taken down from the Torii, the arch dedicated to the shrine, and placed it around his waist, declaring the victory in favor of one who may touch this rope.
    Yokozuna which literally means "rope at side," originated in this historic fact. Subsequently in a wrestling match held in 1630 to commemorate the festival of a God at Shitaya-Shiwo-machi, Yedo, now Tokyo, a wrestler named Shiganosuke Akashi proved himself the foremost victor and was allowed to show a mark of distinction by wearing a Yokozuna, henceforth, has been inherited till the present time in which I have honor to be entitled to the 19th in succession.

THE NATIONAL SPORT (Page 4)

    Today, the summer wrestling season opens at the amphitheatre, Kokugi Kan. For ten days the capital will have the delight of seeing the national sport exhibited at its best by the greatest champions that the country possesses. We call sumo the national sport, for none other is so peculiar and native to this country. But it is more. It is a venerable sport. For though it has its origin in an immemorial antiquity, it has come down to us little changed in form and procedure since the 48 'hands' or rules of attack and defense were authorized and adopted nearly thirteen centuries ago in the reign of Emperor Shomu. What is still more, it is a sport that brings but physical manhood in its highest grandeur, ever fresh and ennobling to the eyes.
    Strangers are not infrequently inclined to find in our wrestling a performance not sufficiently lively, and this the more so the greater the renown of the combatants. This may be perfectly natural to those who feel no thrill of excitement till they see a nose smashed, eye blackened, lips bleeding, or the whole man knocked down senseless. But the very beauty of our sumo is the entire absence of brutality and bull doggedness, while it, none the less, brings into full play the majesty of man's strength with delicate application of arts. If liveliness is the only object, one will have any amount of it by looking at forth, fifth ot tenth rate young wrestlers go in bouts, - those scampering, tearing and tumbling Jacks. But one does not expect to see that kind of exhibitions in those stately, massive giants who, when they close, look like a pair of elephants in mortal combat. Every muscle of their iron bodies stands out a veritable compression of power. As you look on you clench your fists till your nails bite into your hand. Mountains do not move, but they are majestic. So are these champions. But when mountains erupt they hurl forth lightnings and thunders. So do these human mountains. And it is worth seeing them struggle for victory. Immovable as rocks by the very counterpoise of force, but swift and adroit when in motion, there is always an air of dignity about them that spurns mean tricks and savage bloodthirstiness. As an exhibition of human strength in a combat of man against man, nothing is so manly and sportsmanlike as the wrestling of such men. One one well regard them as a pride of the nation.
    While we are on the subject, attention may be drawn to an interview our representative had with Count Itagaki, one of the most enthusiastic patrons of the ring. We entirely agree with the Count in thinking that every encouragement should be extended to the wrestling fraternity so that their noble national sport may be preserved to the delight of out remotest posterity. His remarks as to the cultivation of the spirit of self-respect among the professional seems also timely.