Sumo Wrestles with Gender Roles

choi

The report is loched behind paywall.


Peter Landers and Miho Inada, Sumo Wrestles with Gender Roles. Wall Street Journal, Apr 6, 2018.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pse ... ans-life-1522921604

full text:

"TOKYO—The Japan Sumo Association apologized after an official ordered women to leave a sumo-wrestling ring where they were giving first aid to a man with a brain hemorrhage.

"The incident, in which Japan's national sport sought to enforce its ban on women in the wrestling ring, called attention to the unequal status of women in some of Japan’s traditional cultural fields such as sumo and Kabuki, discrimination that reflects broader inequality.

"Japan ranked 114th in the World Economic Forum's global gender gap index last year. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said making it easier for women to work and be active in society is a 'matter of greatest urgency.'

"The centuries-old sport of sumo has held at least since the early 20th century that women must not enter the rog, a policy some historians associates with rituals in Japan's native Shinto religion that view women as unclean.

"The ban was put to test in the city of Maizuru [京都府]舞鶴市 on the Sea of Japan coast Wednesday [Apr 4], where an exhibition tournament was taking place.

"Maizuru mayor Ryozo TATAMI 多々見 良三, 67, was giving a speech in the ring when he suddenly collapsed from what doctors later diagnosed as bleeding in the brain.

"Videos of the scene showed that a woman in the audience rushed up to the ring and started performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Mr Tatami as he laid on his back. Several other women entered the ring to help.

"At that point, a sumo association official announced over the public address system: 'Women, please come down from the ring. Men, please go up.'

"The videos then showed that the women then left the ring. By the time Mr Tatami was carried off in a stretcher, only men remained.

"A spokeswoman for the mayor said he was in a stable condition at a hospital.

"Sumo association head Nobuyoshi Hakkaku 日本相撲協会の 八角 信芳 理事長 apologized, saying the official who made the announcement was flustered. 'This was an inappropriate response in a situation where human life was at stake,' Mr Hakkaku said.

Note:
(a) dohyō 土俵 【どひょう】 (n): "{sumo} (wrestling) ring"
(b)
(i) kumo-maku-ka-shukktsu くも膜下出血; 蜘蛛膜下出血 【くもまくかしゅっけつ】 (n): "subarachnoid hemorrhage"
(ii) human brain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain
("The cerebrum, brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord are covered by three membranes called meninges 髄膜 [simplified Chinese 脑膜; singular form: meninx, which is Ancient Greek noun for membrane]. The membranes are the tough dura mater 硬膜; the middle arachnoid mater 蜘蛛膜 and the more delicate inner pia mater 軟膜 [all four terms here are kanji]. Between the arachnoid mater and the pia mater is the subarachnoid space, which contains the cerebrospinal fluid")

(c)
(i) 八角 信芳 (1963- ; male; born in 北海道 生まれ; birth name 本名：保志 信芳; became a sumo professional in 1979 and adopted the professional name 北勝海 信芳; 現役時代の体格は身長181cm、体重150kg; 第61代横綱（在位 [reign] ：1987年7月-1992年3月 [when he retired 引退]）; accepted the offer in September 1992 to head 八角部屋 and hence switched professional surname to 八角; 第13代日本相撲協会理事長 (since December 2015))  ja.wikipedia.org
(A) Yokozuna 横綱 is the highest honor in sumo.
(B) The "hachi" and "kaku" are both Chinese pronunciations of kanji 八 and 角 (as in 三角形), respectively.
(C) A singer in America works for a label under contract. Likewise, a sumo wrestler works for a stable. See the second definition in (d).
(ii)
(A) 八角部屋 was estaglished 創設 in 1879 by 鬼面山 谷五郎 (本名 田中 新一). The current head is eighth generation 8代: 八角 信芳.
(B) This is the official website of 八角部屋 Hakkaku Beya (h in the 部屋 is softened to be b).
https://hakkakubeya.com

In the bottom of the page, take notice of its logo: a sumo wrestler inside an octagon.

(d) Japanese-English dictionary:
* rijichō 理事長 【りじちょう】 (n): "board chairman"  (A director in the board of directors is 理事 riji.)
* heya 部屋 【へや】 (n): "(1) room * * * (3) (abbr[reviation for 相撲部屋]) {sumo} (See 相撲部屋) stable"