Examining Culture Clashes with Sumo East and West

Documentary Gives Peek at Tensions in a Traditional Sport Now Dominated by “Gaijin”

By LYNDA LIN, Assistant Editor

There’s no crying in sumo. In fact, the ancient Japanese sport pooh-poohs all expression of emotion, but when Wayne Vierra, a former professional sumo wrestler from Hawaii, fought his way back from illness to win his first amateur match in Nevada, he flexed his muscles like the Incredible Hulk.

Normally, this behavior would be unacceptable even in the amateur arena, where 2,000-year-old traditions are optional, but Vierra is not your everyday sumo wrestler. His is a story that has built-in human drama of triumph and agony. First, there’s his comparatively smallish stature, then there’s his undeniable charisma that sneaks up on you through interview testimonies and then there’s his heartbreaking story of rising in the ranks of professional sumo wrestling only to be sidelined by a ruptured pancreas.

Then you realize why the documentary, “Sumo East and West,” is such an easy watch and why Vierra struck a pose after his comeback match.

“I got emotional,” said Manny Yarborough about the scene in a telephone interview before leaving for the Atlanta Film Festival to promote the film.

The veteran amateur sumo wrestler is also featured in the documentary and if his name does not jog recognition, then here are some visual cues:

• Yarborough is 6’8”
• He is the 1999 Guinness World Record holder for heaviest living athlete.
• He is also the self-proclaimed “sexiest man over 700 pounds.”

The documentary, brilliantly directed by Ferne Pearlstein, shows the faces and personalities that changed the notoriously closed sport of sumo and effectively examines cultural conflicts when a traditional sport is dominated by “gaijin” or foreigners.

Since the 1970s, the success of American sumo wrestlers from Hawai’i has been bittersweet for sumo purists. On the one hand, the unprecedented popularity of Akebono (Chad Rowan) as yokozuna or grand champion breathed new life into the ancient sport, but on the other it signified the end of some exclusive traditions.

With interviews with some of the most prominent foreign wrestlers including Akebono and Konishiki (Salevaa Atisanoe), the film promises to throw open the doors of sumo to reveal little-known facts, but intelligently skirts sensational issues like harsh sumo training techniques and overabundant sumo diets.

It also boasts some impressive historic footage of sumo wrestling in the past, including some of Thomas Edison participating in a makeshift match.

The documentary then shifts its focus to the burgeoning amateur world of sumo in the United States, where matches take place in the casino of a seedy Los Angeles racetrack and the integrity of the sport is threatened by commercialism and corporate sponsorship.

Pearlstein decided to follow-up her award-winning work on the documentary, “Imelda,” about the controversial wife of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos with “Sumo East and West” because of its majesty beauty and because it would be the ideal prism to study cultural misunderstandings.

“Before becoming a filmmaker, my background was a still photographer for the Japanese newspapers, The Tokyo/Chunichi Shimbun and The Chugoku Shimbun, and I was often asked to photograph Japanese life through the eyes of a foreigner,” said Pearlstein.

“And now, as a director as well as a cinematographer, the idea that I could introduce sumo to a Western audience with the same beauty and reverence I felt and not as ‘the grotesque spectacle’ it is often referred to in the West, was a real motivator for me,” she added.

Engrossing, entertaining and at points heartbreaking, the film shines a light on racism and xenophobia in the evolving sport. Yes. It most definitely exists outside of basketball. Are you listening, Larry Bird?