Sumo champs perform New Year ritual after scandal-hit 2017

Sumo's three grand champions clapped their hands and stamped their feet in a traditional New Year offering to the Shinto gods Tuesday, as the sport tries to close the book on a scandal-hit 2017. Wearing just their traditional white knotted belts -- or "kesho-mawashi" -- with colourful aprons, the "Yokozuna" champions performed the traditional ritual in front of an appreciative crowd of hundreds of fans.

Hakuho, Kisenosato and Kakuryu performed the rite flanked by a traditional sword-bearer and another attendant whose job is to walk ahead of the champions and part the crowds. The ritual took place at Tokyo's Meiji Shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, the great-grandfather of reigning Emperor Akihito -- making explicit the links between the sport and the Shinto tradition in which it is steeped. The "ring-entering" ceremony, known as dohyo-iri, is also performed at the start of each day in sumo's top-division tournament.

Japan's ancient sport is keen to start afresh after an annus horribilis in 2017, culminating in the resignation of one of its top champions in disgrace. Harumafuji, 33, was fined 500,000 yen ($4,400) for a brutal assault on a rival wrestler while out drinking in an incident that has rocked the sport to its core. Yokozuna are expected to be beyond moral reproach, but the writing was on the wall for Harumafuji after he confessed to hitting fellow wrestler Takanoiwa for texting his girlfriend while he was scolding him over his poor attitude.

Mongolian Harumafuji, who reached sumo's hallowed rank five years ago, admitted punching his fellow countryman Takanoiwa and bashing him with a karaoke remote control. The scandal mirrors that of another Mongolian star, Asashoryu, who stepped down in 2010 after being accused of breaking a man's nose in a drunken brawl outside a Tokyo nightclub.

Another embarrassment hit the sport early into the new year when reports emerged that the top-ranked referee had sexually harassed a teenage trainee. According to public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, Shikimori Inosuke, 58, drunkenly molested his male junior by kissing him and touching his chest at a hotel in Okinawa, where sumo wrestlers were on a winter tour. After the unwelcome distractions outside the ring, the man-mountains will get back to the business of pushing, shoving and throwing each other around at the first tournament, or "basho", of the year in Tokyo on January 14.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here

Download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go

Trending Video