There was indeed a first in history at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka (Japan), but not necessarily as anticipated. The winner of the competition, Sunday 23 November, Aonishiki Arata, whose birth name is Danylo Yavhusishyn, became the first Ukrainian to win one of the six professional tournaments of this traditional Japanese sport. Falling in the final Hoshoryu, one of the best wrestlers in the country (himself born in Mongolia), the 21-year-old sumo wrestler who left his country in 2022 after the start of the Russian invasion was awarded the Prime Minister’s Cup. But this first one was not followed by another, this time with a symbolic dimension. The silver trophy was presented by Takahiro Inoue, one of the advisors to the new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, and not by the Prime Minister. Because in this ancient discipline, which is characterized by Shinto religious rituals, dohyo, namely earthen mounds where fights take place, are still prohibited for women.
His appointment as head of government in October made Sanae Takaichi a pioneer in Japan. The first woman to serve as Prime Minister of the archipelago, the leader of the conservative and nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (PLD), unwittingly revived an old debate: the prohibition on women setting foot in the sacred ring of sumo. And based on capillarity, the relationship between religion, tradition, and the position of women in Japan is changing.
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