The Red Bulletin September 2019 (UK)

Sumo
Viewed from the bleachers, the three sumo
squatting on the basketball court below look
like oversized tan beach balls. It’s an unusual
juxtaposition. After all, this is California –
the arena of California State University Long
Beach, to be precise. Built in the shape of a
pyramid that mirrors the clement sky, this
4,000-seater is home to the Long Beach State
49ers basketball and athletics teams. The
interior of the Walter Pyramid is festooned
with gold and black banners reading ‘Go Beach’, there’s a stall
selling kettle corn, and, whichever way you turn, vendors are
ready to furnish spectators with hot dogs and oversized sodas.
In short, the place is as American as apple pie. All of which
makes the two Japanese and one Mongolian sumo all the more
conspicuous as they warm up against the polished wood and
black markings of the basketball court.
The three athletes are Byambajav Ulambayar, a 1.84m-tall
Mongolian and former sumo pro; the 1.92m-tall Hiroki Sumi
from Japan; and, standing at 1.7m, the relatively diminutive
Takeshi Amitani, the former five-time Japanese National
University Champion. What brings them to town on this mid-
March afternoon is the 19th annual US Sumo Open – the largest
and longest-running sumo event outside Japan. Collectively, its
participants have amassed 18 World Sumo Champion titles and
travelled from as far afield as Japan, Mongolia, India, Egypt,
Tajikistan, Georgia, Ukraine, Norway and Germany.
If the eclectic make-up surprises you, it shouldn’t. More than
any other sport, sumo is a tradition in transition. In Japan, the
best national wrestlers are regularly bettered by a new influx
of Russians, Mongolians and Ukrainians – nations that have
proudly adopted its national sport and set out to dominate it.
So great is the impact of non-Japanese in sumo that in 2017
Japan celebrated its first yokozuna (the highest rank) in almost
20 years: Kisenosato Yutaka. But when Yutaka retired this
January, at the age of 32, a brace of Mongolian wrestlers were
competing for the top spot. This development is indicative of the
changes happening across sumo. In short, sumo is a heritage
in the midst of being reimagined and remoulded to fit the tastes
of a wider, global audience. And nowhere is this more evident
than at the US Sumo Open.
Worth the weight
Two days before the 19th US Sumo Open is due to begin, The
Red Bulletin arrives in Long Beach. Inside the Walter Pyramid,
sheltered from the bright sunlight, we find some of the event’s
most famous competitors weighing in. Ulambayar, the 35-yearold
former pro, tips the scales at 161kg. “I’m so skinny,” he jokes.
As Ulambayar dons a purple floral gown and paces around
with regal grace, 29-year-old Sumi clutches his plentiful stomach
in his hands and climbs onto the scale. At 220kg, he will be one
of the heaviest sumo to compete in the competition. At 100kg,
26-year-old Amitani easily makes middleweight class.
As Ulambayar attempts to score a basketball with a balled-up
towel, Amitani and Sumi form a little-and-large double act, with
the former translating our questions for his towering counterpart.
Perpetually beaming, Sumi – who, in 2018, fought in a one-off
WWE Greatest Royal Rumble – resembles a Japanese version
of Dustin from the Netflix series Stranger Things. Amitani,
meanwhile, is handsome and muscular with swept-back hair and
a cauliflower left ear, one eye partially closed from injury.
“I train very hard,” Sumi says through Amitani. “I benchpress
90kg, shoulder-press 60kg, and leg-press 140kg.” He acts
out the movements as he speaks, fleshy limbs bunching up.
He points to his right knee, where an angry, jagged red line
58 THE RED BULLETIN