Tokyo — Japan has a brand new sumo grand champion — or yokozuna — and the large information is he’s Japanese. Onosato, the brand new grand champion, weighs 421 kilos and he’s the primary Japanese competitor to achieve the highest rank since 2017. By comparability, the typical weight of an NFL lineman is simply over 300 kilos.
The game has not too long ago been dominated by Mongolians. Previous to Onosato, six of the earlier seven yokozunas have been from Mongolia.
“I’ll devote myself to training so that I will not disgrace the title of yokozuna,” Onosato mentioned Wednesday, wearing a proper kimono and bowing as he sat on the ground. “I will aim to become a one-and-only yokozuna.”
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Onosato, whose actual title is Daiki Nakamura, is just 24 and was promoted Wednesday to sumo’s prime rank by the Japan Sumo Affiliation. Onosato was promoted by profitable final week’s Summer season Grand Sumo Match, which got here after he gained one other prestigious event in March.
Onosato is from Ishikawa prefecture, which was hit on Jan. 1, 2024, by a devastating earthquake and tsunami that killed about 600 folks within the prefecture and induced widespread harm. A lot of the destruction was centered on an space referred to as the Noto Peninsula.
“I will work hard as a yokozuna to encourage and cheer up the Ishikawa prefecture and the Noto region,” he mentioned.
He then added: “I determined that yokozuna should be my goal once I entered the world of sumo,” he mentioned. “It’s not easy to achieve and I’m really delighted.”
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Sumo is thought to be Japan’s nationwide sport, or most sacred sport, and most of the ritual components are linked to Shinto, Japan’s indigenous faith.
Sumo’s origins date again greater than 1,000 years, and Japan is the one nation the place it’s contested on an expert stage, although rivals come from all over the world.
Final yr the sumo world misplaced one in all its up to date greats, Hawaii-born Akebono, who died on the age of 54. The American was the primary foreign-born wrestler to achieve the extent of yokozuna.
The game is extremely regimented with many wrestlers residing in communal coaching amenities the place meals and gown are managed by historical traditions.
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Onosato’s promotion will arrange an instantaneous rivalry with Mongolia-born Hoshoryu, who’s the opposite wrestler in Japan to carry the yokozuna title.
The Japanese information company Kyodo mentioned the 2 sumo stars are on account of meet in a event in July within the central metropolis of Nagoya.
