I woke up this morning preparing to blog about yokozuna Asashoryu's latest scandal only to be greeted by the news that he has just announced his retirement from sumo. Even as a longtime fan and a staunch defender of Asashoryu, I'm not sad to see him go considering the circumstances. Not long after winning his twenty-fifth basho (3rd all time) this year, reports surfaced that he had gotten into an altercation while out drinking. That the incident occurred at approximately 4:00 AM during the basho was bad enough, it soon became apparent that he had not punched his manager (as originally reported) but broke the nose of a person working at the nightclub he was leaving. For a grand champion of sumo to be engaged in such behaviour in the midst of a tournament showed a cavalier attitude about his role and the basho itself that would challenge the patience of any sumo fan. At a time in his career when he should have been thinking of making a run at the all time record for most basho won, he was still behaving like a low ranked wrestler with ten years less life experience.
Perhaps it is fitting that his retirement comes within weeks of the end of Makiko Uchidate's ten year term as a member of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council. By turns she was Asashoryu's harshest, most vocal, and at times, pettiest critic. Perhaps the most ironic thing about Uchidate's attempt to style herself as the upholder of all that was pure and true about being a yokozuna was not that she could never have been a rikishi herself, but that she allowed herself to become the public face of the campaign against Asashoryu as a member of a council filled with men who still don't see fit to allow women to stand on the dohyo (sumo ring), even to present a trophy to a tournament champion. It is a shame that our last memory of Asa will be of an incident that will vindicate all the criticism that Uchidate has levelled at him over the years.
If there is one small positive to come out of this event, it is that Asa had the good sense to retire before he could be suspended a second time. At his age, it would have been much harder to come back in top fighting form. More importantly, it demonstrates that he understands the gravity of his mistake and accepts responsibility for it. My only hope at this point is that he avoids embarrassing himself, a la Akebono, by accepting a huge payday to fight in K-1 (a modified kickboxing competition). If he can stay out of trouble in retirement, his outstanding record as a sumo wrestler will be allowed to speak for itself.
Perhaps it is fitting that his retirement comes within weeks of the end of Makiko Uchidate's ten year term as a member of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council. By turns she was Asashoryu's harshest, most vocal, and at times, pettiest critic. Perhaps the most ironic thing about Uchidate's attempt to style herself as the upholder of all that was pure and true about being a yokozuna was not that she could never have been a rikishi herself, but that she allowed herself to become the public face of the campaign against Asashoryu as a member of a council filled with men who still don't see fit to allow women to stand on the dohyo (sumo ring), even to present a trophy to a tournament champion. It is a shame that our last memory of Asa will be of an incident that will vindicate all the criticism that Uchidate has levelled at him over the years.
If there is one small positive to come out of this event, it is that Asa had the good sense to retire before he could be suspended a second time. At his age, it would have been much harder to come back in top fighting form. More importantly, it demonstrates that he understands the gravity of his mistake and accepts responsibility for it. My only hope at this point is that he avoids embarrassing himself, a la Akebono, by accepting a huge payday to fight in K-1 (a modified kickboxing competition). If he can stay out of trouble in retirement, his outstanding record as a sumo wrestler will be allowed to speak for itself.
I'm over in Japan right now and they are showing this all over the news. They are showing clips of some of his great moves in the ring but also some of his antics such as fist pumping in the ring. Stuff that doesn't fit with Japanese sumo. But he had some awesome moves.
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