Kotooshu, is a bit of an unorthodox Sumo wrestler because of his speed and height in a sport domainated by weight, strength, balance and stamina. At 6?8 and 314 lbs, Kotooshu is a haus who does not resemble the normal Sumo because of his obvious lack of Sumo-style body fat. Sure, Kotooshu is a huge guy, but when he pairs up against an average sized Kotooshu wrestler of 6 feet and 400 lbs, the match kind of reminds of that scene from Game of Death where Bruce Lee fights Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Back to reality, Kotooshu is taking the Japanese Sumo world by storm and almost won the championship last weekend in the Fall Sumo Tournament where he would have become the first European born Sumo Champion. Kotooshu lost in a final death tie-breaker to Mongolian wrestler Asashoryu. 


--------------- SUMO BRIEFLY --------------------

The supremacy of the Japanese people on the islands of Japan was supposedly established when the god, Take-mikazuchi, won a sumo bout with the leader of a rival tribe. Apart from legend, however, sumo is an ancient sport dating back some 1500 years.

I ts origins were religious. The first sumo matches were a form of ritual dedicated to the gods with prayers for a bountiful harvest and were performed together with sacred dancing and dramas within the precincts of the shrines.

Later in the hands of the samurai, jujitsu was developed as an offshoot of sumo.

There are six Grand Tournaments a year, three are held in Tokyo, one in Osaka, Nagoya and Kyushu. A tournament lasts for fifteen days, each rikishi fighting once every day with a different opponent. The winner of the tournament, in other words the rikishi with the best record of wins over losses, is awarded the Emperor's Cup on the final day after the last match

There are at present about 800 rikisi in professional sumo from the lowly trainee to the yokozuna at the top.