Essay

The Morning Blue Dragon retires

By Steve Ford

The Morning Blue Dragon has retired. Say it ain't so. Sumo without Asashoryu? It's like baseball without Babe Ruth, or champagne without the bubbles.

Asashoryu was one bronco who wouldn't be broken, and he finally paid a heavy price for refusing to be straitjacketed by the expectations of sumo's elders.

Before I go any further, it is only fair to disclose that my wife and daughter are Mongolians and Asa has god-like status in our house. I've learned not to dwell on his misdeeds, real or imagined, but to praise him.

After 20 years of watching sumo, I've never seen another wrestler as prodigiously talented or as compelling as the first Mongolian yokozuna. Loved by sumo fans of all countries, reviled by the Japanese sumo establishment, there was none better in the ring than Asashoryu.

Whether one is among his fans or not, everyone agrees: Asashoryu always brought excitement to the dohyo. He virtually carried the sport on his shoulders in the post-Takanohana era.

He brought excitement to every tournament when he entered the house. The thrill built as Asashoryu gave his opponent a fierce stare-down and then returned to his corner and ... boom! He would thump his mawashi belt powerfully with his left hand — a trademark move that always left no doubt about his intentions.

From the face off, he charged like an enraged bull and fought with a combination of speed, brute force and barely controlled violence. He had a knack for snatching a victory from impossible looking situations.

There was no other rikishi with a more complete bag of fighting skills. According to one sumo reference site, he used 46 different winning techniques. Against his compatriot Harumafuji in 2010, he won with an inner thigh throw, a move not seen in the ring since 1975.

He also used another seldom seen technique called a lifting body slam. This move requires such power that it is rarely used against larger opponents, yet Asashoryu twice used it to slam a wrestler much larger than himself.

Part of me understands that sumo expects its grand champions to show impeccable behavior in and out of the ring, but from an American perspective, thumbing one's nose at authority is not seen as such a bad thing. And we take particular delight in people who are wild at heart like Asashoryu.

Some say he was sumo's "bad boy," but I see him more as a tragic hero in the classic sense — a man of greatness who had a fatal flaw that he could not overcome. Still, through the ups and downs of his career, he stayed true to his Mongolian roots and will always remain a hero to the Mongolian people. Only time will tell how much sumo has lost with his premature retirement.

Shukan ST: February 26, 2010

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