The 15-day sumo tournament held at the Kokugikan Amphitheatre in Tokyo, came to a close on Sunday when a bolsterous crowd of over 15,000 fans saw Grand Champion Futabayama annexing the highest individual score with 14 wins and only one setback. Team honours went to the East camp, headed by Futabayama, outscoring the West West camp by 205 to 156 points. The makuuchi (upper class title) was won Terunobori of the East camp, a newcomer in this class, who won 12 matches with three defeats. Surugaumi took the title be the juryo class with 13 wins against two defeats.
    Futabayama, true to prediction, gave a good account of himself, suffering a lone defeat at the hands of newcomer, Toyoshima, who is credited with 10 victories and 5 setbacks. This is the ninth time that Futabayama has taken the championship, thus establishing a new record. He also holds the record for consecutive wins, having defeated 69 opponents in succession in tournaments some two years ago.
    Other wrestlers who performed well included Grand Champion Haguroyama, with 13 wins, Ozeki Akinoumi, who, with 13 matches to his credit, was downed only by the above two Grand Champions and Terukuni, the popular young wrestler, who turned 12 points for the East team. The giant Grand Champion Minanogawa of the West camp made a mediocre showing by earning a mere 9 points. It is about time that he should retire but likes the sport so much that despite repeated criticism that his performance is unbecoming of a Grand Champion he simply cannot be coaxed to retire. As far as strength is concerned, he tops them all but his slowness and clumsiness are his main weaknesses. He also takes this sport rather nonchalantly and just before the matches, while the other wrestlers are looking over the pairings to plan their tactics, he is seen playing Japanese chess. If he would only put his heart into the sport and make efforts to study the weak points of his opponents, he would really be invincible. However, the admirable thing about him is that win or lose, he is in the ring doing his level best to give the spectators a treat.
    The second major tournament of the year will be held in May, ordinarily termed the summer tournament and the rankings for this next tournament will be based on the results of the matches just concluded.