A victory late today over Banjaku, he of the great protruding belly, and Dewaminato will have won the championship of the 13-day Spring Sumo tournament in its last day. For he won his 12th straight victory Monday afternoon by defeating the short but stout Tomoegata. But Banjaku is one of the strongest of the wrestlers in competition today, and Dewaminato is in for a tough bout. At that, his cleverness may be his salvation.
    Grand Champion Minanogawa kept right on the heels of Dewaminato for the championship honors by winning impressively over Nayoroiwa, strong stable-mate of Futabayama. He has lost but once this afternoon he was to take on Futabayama, who apparently has regained his form.

    The annual 13-day Spring tournament of the Japan Professional Sumo Association ends late this afternoon at the bowl at Ryogoku. And in many ways, notwithstanding the now 18-month old China Incident, it has been one of the most successful seasons in many years.
    The large crowds - sell-outs having turned away many would be spectators on each day - that witnessed the matches should be as good an indication as any that this country is yet far from the economic collapse that foreign critics, mimically disposed toward Japan, have been wont to predict now for some time. Mere presence one day at a tournament would have convinced any visitor, especially one with observing eyes, that there is yet plenty of latitude to the nation's livelihood, that there are many sources yet untapped to push the Government's program to cope with the emergency situation.
    Considerable apprehension was felt about the success of the tournament before it go under way. First of course, there was the China Incident. Undeniably, the various economic control measures had had adverse effects on people of many walks of life. The as concerning the wrestlers themselves, the sport had suffered the severest blow in many years with the unexpected death of Grand Champion Tamanishiki in December from the complications of appendicitis and pneumonia at Osaka. Here was a grand champion, who was still only 35 years old and had several years of wrestling left in him. As a matter of fact, he might have gone on for at least five years more with records worthy of a grand champion because he was most conscientious in his training and took good care of himself. Above all things, Tamanishiki had the dignity of a grand champion, was exceedingly popular with the fans, especially with the children, and commanded great prestige. His "dohyoiri," or rite of formal entrance into the ring, was said to excel even a color print in beauty. Then it was announced that Musashiyama, another grand champion  would not compete because of an arm injury. It was feared by many that the absence of these two grand champions would mean a lessening of interest in the tournament.
    But the result has been otherwise. Grand Champion Futabayama, who had won five championships in a row and had established an all-time record of 66 consecutive records to be invincible for three years, proved as great a drawing card as in former tournaments. There was talk that he was out to stretch his record to 100 victories, and such possibility was considered excellent because he is only 27 years old, and all that was necessary was a clean sweep in the January tournament., then in the May tourney, and victories during the first eight days of the 13-day season a year hence. Besides, the late Grand Champion Tamanishiki had been the only one given a fair chance of beating him. Yet, this sport of sumo, which is in many  respects the fastest in the world once about is started, is one requiring not only strength but skill, and it is not always that the reputedly more experienced or stronger man wins. Upsets are frequent. And in such light, interest among Sumo followers was at fever pitch as to who would be the first wrestler to stop Futabayama's winning streak.
    There has been talk Futabayama too might not compete because he was very much of a sick man last Summer, having contracted dysentery after an exhibition tour in Manchuria to console the soldiers. But enter the tournament he did, pronouncing himself physically fit. He won impressively the first day, the second day and the third day, and many were those who believed he was on the way to another undefeated season. The unbelievable happened on the fourth day of the tournament when Akinoumi, a comparatively new man, threw Futabayama and stopped his winning string of victories at 69. The Kokugikan bowl, which seats 20,000, was thrown into bedlam. Akinoumi became a national hero overnight.
    The one considered invincible had been beaten. And that is what makes Sumo or any other sport interesting and worthwhile. As it was, Futabayama was beaten the next two successive days, but like a true sportsman that he is, he had no excuses to make. He was big in defeat as much as he was humble in his unprecedented strong of victories. It was only at the insistence of his patrons that he consented to take a physical examination but with notification beforehand that only a broken arm or leg would prevent him from going through the tournament. If he beats Grand Champion Minanogawa in the concluding bout of the tournament late today, he would have finished the tourney with nine victories and four defeats, which is considered good. The presence of such a grand champion in Futabayama is one of the sport's biggest assets.
    Those three successive defeats of Futabayama shifted the focus of the Sumo world to other factors in the tournament, outstanding of which was who would win the championship now that Futabayama was out of it. Dewaminato, once high up in the rankings but who had fallen near to the bottom of the first ranking wrestlers because of impotent records in the two seasons of 1938, drew the greatest publicity by winning 12 straight victories up to Monday night. A victory today and he will have won  the highest honors. Here is another interesting angle of the sport - that depending on his determination and efforts, there is always a chance for a comeback.
    It is encouraging that this indigenous sport of Japan in enjoying as much popularity. No other has more in common with the Japanese spirit of fair play. There in the ring, it is entirely up to two contestants. No outsider can help either contestant. Victory depends entirely on one's brains, strength, perseverance and agility. There is no room for foul tactics. All the indications are, by looking at the faces of the spectators, that the people of this country have realized the indisputable merits of this the true national sport of Japan.

    The Winter - or "Spring," as they still call it after the traditional fashion - season of wrestling comes to a close this afternoon. Futabayama, the title holder, despite his bad luck this Winter, has proved himself the most popular of all wrestlers. Whatever his record this season, there can be hardly a question but that he will be in better shape in May. That he is the most resourceful and the best all-round wrestler that has ever been seen for some generations - at least in the memory of the octogenarian - cannot be doubted. Tachiyama who held the title for some years some twenty years ago was perhaps a man of more formidable physic and of stronger sinew; but he was by far a less accomplished artist.
    Now is transpires that Kikugoro, the present and sixth representative of the Onoe family, is a great admirer of Futabayama. As the latter is matchless in the ring the former is incontestably the best that the kabuki stage has produced in generations, even not barring his illustrious father. These two men in their own ways represent the pinnacles of Japanese tradition that goes back for many centuries. And they are tomorrow or the day after to meet to become friends. Hence, they furnish one of the most interesting topics of the hour.