Howard Waldrop - Man Mountain Gentian

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Man-Mountain Gentian

By Howard Waldrop

Just after the beginning of the present century, it was realized that some of

the wrestlers were throwing their opponents from the ring without touching

them."

-Ichinaga Naya, Zen-Sumo: Sport and Ritual, Kyoto, All-Japan Zen-Sumo

Association Books, 2014.

It was the fourteenth day of the January Tokyo tournament. Seated with the

other wrestlers, Man Mountain Gentian watched as the next match began. Ground

Sloth Ikimoto was taking on Killer Kudzu, They entered the tamped-earth ring

and began their shikiris.

Ground Sloth, a sumotori of the old school, had changed over from traditional

to Zen-sumo four years before. He weighed one hundred eighty kilos in

his mawashi. He entered at the white-tassle salt corner. He clapped his huge

hands, rinsed his mouth, threw salt, rubbed his body with tissue paper, then

began his high leg lifts, stamping his feet, his hands gripping far down his

calves. The ring shook with each stamp. All the muscles rippled on his big

frame. His stomach, a flesh-colored boulder, shook and vibrated.

Killer Kudzu was small and thin, weighing barely over ninety kilos. On his

forehead was the tattoo of his homeland, the People's Republic of China, one

large star and four smaller stars blazing in a constellation. He also went

into his ritual shikiri, but as he clapped he held in one hand a small box,

ten centimeters on a side, showing his intention to bring it into the match.

Sometimes these were objects for meditation, sometimes favors from male or

female lovers, sometimes no one knew what. The only rule was that they could

not be used as weapons.

The wrestlers were separated from the onlookers by four clear walls and a roof

of plastic. Over this hung the traditional canopy and tassles, symbolizing

heaven and the four winds.

Through the plastic walls ran a mesh of fine wiring, connected to a six-volt

battery next to the north-side judge. This small charge was used to contain

the pushes of the wrestlers and to frustrate help from outside.

A large number of 600x slow-motion video cameras were strategically placed

around the auditorium to be used by the judges to replay the action if

necessary.

Killer Kudzu had placed the box on his side of the

line. He returned to his corner and threw. more salt onto the ground, part of

the ritual purification ceremony.

Ground Sloth Ikimoto stamped once more, twice, went to his line, and settled

into position like a football lineman, legs apart, knuckles to the ground. His

nearly bare buttocks looked like giant rocks. Killer Kudzu finished his

shikiri and squatted at his line, where he settled his hand near his votive

box and glared at his opponent.

The referee, in his ceremonial robes, had been standing to one side during the

preliminaries. Now he came to a position halfway between the wrestlers, his

war fan down. He leaned away from the two men, left leg back to one side as if

ready to run. He stared at the midpoint between the two and flipped his fan

downward.

Instantly sweat sprang to their foreheads and shoulders, their bodies rippled

as if pushing against great unmoving weights, their toes curled into the clay

of the ring. The two of them stayed tensely immobile on their respective

marks.

Killer Kudzu's neck muscles strained. With his left hand he reached and

quickly opened the votive box.

Man-Mountain Gentian and the other wrestlers on the east side of the arena

drew in their breath.

Ground Sloth Ikimoto was a vegetarian and always had been. In training for

traditional sumo, he had shunned the chunkonabe, the communal stew of fish,

chicken, meat, eggs, onions, cabbage, carrots, turnips, sugar, and soy sauce.

Traditional sumotori ate as much as they could hold twice a day, and their

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Howard Waldrop - Man Mountain Gentian

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