Sumo Strike

To make them tough, Japanese wrestlers are trained from the cradle, fed on underdone beefsteak when normal children are still milk-bibbing. They grow to enormous size, sometimes are seven feet tall, weigh 400 Ib. Like Samson's, their hair is uncut. Their early training consists mostly of walking around looking for a movable mass of stone or wood; when such a mass is sighted the would-be wrestler gathers himself together, gets a running start, and hurls himself at it with a mighty grunt. After several years of displacing boulders the candidate is considered tough enough to begin learning the 48 tricks & dodges of Japanese wrestling, or Sumo.* In a 12-ft. ring a Japanese wrestler grunts through a brief career of trying to squash his opponent into submission. If he becomes a yokozuna (champion) he may tie a piece of straw rope around his waist and consort with the highest personages, but even for the yokozuna pay is small, consisting mostly of patrons' contributions and roast pigs and bottles of sake sent by admirers. Soon the wrestler has his hair cut, retires to a lethargic O-shaped old age.

But even to a wrestler thought comes occasionally. Last week 32 of them including Champion Miyagiyama struck, demanding better pay. shorter hours, cheaper seats, a mutual aid society, retirement pensions.

* Not to be confused with jujitsu, which requires more agility, less flesh.

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