Sumo wrestling has acquired a poor image in its home country. Scandal after scandal have rocked the sport in Japan – from match-fixing to doping-allegations, and wrestlers picking bar-fights. Rooted in centuries of ritual and tradition, Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport. As it enters the realm of dishonour in a country obsessed with honour, interest in the 2000-year-old sport is fading.
On an even deeper level, it is seen as a sport for men. The professional tier of sumo wrestling – the Makuuchi – is a ‘men’s-only’ club. Women’s are forbidden from even touching the ring or Dohyo. When women play the sport, they do so in the ‘amateur’ leagues. The National Sumo Association welcomes the rise of women’s Sumo, but the doors remain shut to its professional division.
With this in mind, take a gander thousands of kilometres to the West, to India’s commercial capital of Mumbai. Living with her parents in a 100-feet-sized apartment in the city’s financial district, Hetal Dave ekes out a lonely struggle as India’s only female sumo wrestler.
Sumo Wrestling is not recognized as a national sport in the country. So when Hetal travels to represent India, she does so on her own dime – and on what donations she can manage to collect beforehand. For want of funds, she missed more tournaments than she had taken part in. But, in 2009, she ranked number five in the world at the World Games in Taiwan – the Olympics for sports that have not yet been accepted into the Olympics.
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