The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-09-08
Land in Which Matsada Sora-
|kichi Defeated the Native
Champions With Ease.
|mendous Strength Of Athletes
and Something About Their
Peculiar Contests
= Matches are Observation-Disclosures
Given to Lucky Winners-Many
Curious Features.

/
or a canopy. reminding one strikingly
10 fountain canopies in the courts OF
temples, supported by four plain posts,
tied shihon bashira (the four posts),
with an overhanging roof. but no walls,
les Frank G. Carpenter. The posts are
xed with parti-colored cloths, and I'M
lately below the roof hang four blue
i. a white silk festoon curtain, orna-
|ted with a round crest and other de-
8 in gold, and from it's elevation en-
Id ten manku (heaven curtain).
tened to the pots are little pots of salt
cleaning the palate, and at the foot of
n stand bowls of water called chikara-
increase the stren2th). The wres-
5 take salt and spit it out, and then
, mouthful of water to wash their
It'll out, splitting il afterwards on little
dkerohiefs of paper, with which they
ar their arms to make them slippery.
is the correct explanation of the habit,
|iven by my friend Arkato, the. great
stler himself.
he whole arena is called dohvo. The
oire, whose name was Kimura Hide
~ OA VASo OONooAOAAS WOAO q AAsAAANA1OA.~
! costume projecting about foot out
I of each shoulder and ornamented on
ar, breast and cuffs with crest, and
led a peculiar black-lacquered fan
ed the gombal uohiwa LITERALLY the
-arrange-around FAM. It was shaped
| a blunt double-edged hatchet and Or
rented with a scarlet silk tassel sus-
ded by a cord a yard long. Holding
horizontally. he gave out something IN
'lud voice, and two wrestlers assembled
| platform, stark naked. as have said,
apt for the dark-blue cross-strap around
liz waists and between their legs, and
Ia their hair combed in a peculiar fash
\ very much like the snood once worn by
se girls in England, on the top of their
DIS. The ring had just been swept and
heroes figured about in the sand with
If bare feet.
fter slapping their thighs and cooking
| first one and then the other of their
.hty legs, this is called shiko fumu
lip and stamp,) and is recognized form
not, as first thought, salutation to the
IN they carefully wiped themselves and
orouching down like cats,
ching each other for the spring.
ct us pause to look at them. These
stlers are gigantic tall fellows, some of
/ 20 six and half feet high, vast OF
ulder and arm and thigh and calf,
antains of muscle, and some of them
b mountains of fat-pure, adipose fat.
ether shaved or natural they have 70
L on their bodies except under Their
is, and far from having faces OF tie
tai prize fighter type, they most of them
I'e good humored, and some of them
Ito diRnifed faces. They are not very
the ordinary Japanese, but could not
,over that they came from any partic-
I: locality.
He wrestle was terminated by one of the
mpion wrestlers, an enormously fat and
/ IVY man, being hurled clear out of the
BY q simmer but wirier antagonist.
;he edge of the stage he was caught by
attendants placed there for the purpose,
must now have an adequate concep-
.of a thunderbolt. A third was
minated by one of the wrestlers, man
!, weighed at least 200 pounds, being
ght around the waist and thrown foot
iwo up in the air. Sometimes the men
Foped at arms length and the bout would
I'm be very long one. In ono instance
re were two mon thus Rripped, one with
head under the others breast bone. 1t
hard for his opponent to keep his feet,
on the other hand the strain on his
! the strain on his wind, with his chin
shed into his chest. He had the better
ition if he could only last, and he did
8 and win, though both fell and his only
antage consisted in his falling less on
back than his adversary. In another
lance both fell on their backs, but one
the top of the other.
he spectators were immensely excited,
when favorite won his admirers hats
. showered on him like bouquets at the
ra. These were carefully picked up and
- No. -
m, for man filings his hat to show that
intends to make present. This custom
allied hama (flower), because when the
kado, in the old days, went to wrest-
match he threw flower to any wrest-
/ with whom he was pleased, and re-
med it with handsome present when it
! brought to him afterward.