Sumo: The Boy Who No Longer Exists

IThere is no room in the heart of a sumo wrestler for the pain of his bombed-out homeland. At least that’s officially how it is, and Danylo Yavhusishyn from Vinnytsia, Ukraine, is following the rules. It may not always be easy for him. But only his closest friends and relatives know that, because he has undergone the transformation. The boy he once was is no longer there. War refugee Danylo Yavhusishyn immersed himself in the world of Japanese national sport and came into the spotlight as Arata Aonishiki from the Ajigawa sumo school in Tokyo. He won the November basho in Fukuoka under his ring name and is one of the favorites for the next tournament in Tokyo in January – at just 21 years old. The Nihon Sumo Kyokai, Japan’s sumo association, promoted him to ozeki, the second highest rank in the sumo hierarchy, after just 14 months as a professional.

The man who once was Danylo Yavhusishyn now represents the future of the proud, ancient culture of Japanese wrestling. And sumo nobility obliges. Homesickness cannot be Aonishiki’s theme.

Sumo is more than a sport in Japan. It is the combination of earthly entertainment and religious rite. As early as 2,000 years ago, sumo was part of the customs with which the Japanese asked the Shinto gods for a good harvest. Today there are still tournaments in shrines. A Shinto altar hangs in every training hall. And since the Japanese discovered sumo as a spectacle around 300 years ago, little has changed: the best wrestlers wear nothing but their silk mawashi. Specialist hairdressers shape their hair using traditional pomade and waxed washi paper. The fight takes place on a hand-made clay hill in a circle surrounded by small bales of rice straw.

If you want to be successful as a sumo professional, you don’t just put on a different jersey. He has to adapt his body and mind to the old format, weigh as many kilos as possible and subordinate his own personality to the rules and rites of the association. It’s a tough school, and Arata Aonishiki aka Danylo Yavhusishyn is showing that even a European can get through it.

Foreigners have long been among the top performers in the Japanese sumo world. The fighter with the most wins in major tournaments is Sho Hakuho, a native of Mongolia. One of the two current yokozuna, the highest-ranking grandmaster, also comes from Mongolia: his name is Tomokatsu Hoshoryu. Giants from Hawaii also shaped the sport. And Europe also had a basho winner before Aonishiki: the Bulgarian Kalojan Machlyanow won as Katsunori Kotooshu in Tokyo in 2008.

Aonishiki’s story is still special. On the one hand, this is due to his stature. He is 1.82 meters tall and weighs 140 kilograms. Compared to other colleagues, it is rather small and light. And he fights differently than she does. From a deep squat, on fast legs and with a technique repertoire that expands influences from Olympic wrestling. Something special can always happen with Aonishiki in the ring. At the PR tournament in London in October, he sent rival Kazuki Ura flying with a rare arm spin. Everyone was amazed, including Ura.

But the attention is also great because Aonishiki is coming back from the war.

Sumo is definitely a global movement. The International Sumo Federation (ISF) and its member organizations organize tournaments for women and men in various weight classes. This ISF sumo has little to do with the Japanese original, in which only the heaviest men fight. But it’s not bad as a starter. And Ukraine is a good amateur sumo nation. When Aonishiki was still Danylo Yavhusishyn, he contributed to success; in 2019 he became European Junior Champion in Tallinn and third in the World Championships in Osaka.

His parents sent him to judo when he was six. “But, to be honest, it wasn’t much fun,” Aonishiki said at a press conference in October. After all, he saw a group of sumo fighters in the judo hall one day after training: “The way it was quickly decided who would win piqued my interest.” That’s how it started. And when Russian President Vladimir Putin began his war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, sumo suddenly became an opportunity for Danylo Yavhusishyn. First he fled to Düsseldorf, where his parents now live. He then asked the Japanese Arata Yamanaka for help.

When he arrived, he was 18 and couldn’t speak Japanese

At the time, Yamanaka was captain of the sumo team at Kansai University in Osaka. He and Danylo Yavhusishyn met at the Junior World Championships in Osaka. They stayed in touch. And when his friend’s need was great, Yamanaka did something that Japanese people don’t often do: he let him into his life. He got Danylo a training place at Kansai University and lived with him in his family’s apartment.

Homesickness must have been an issue for Danylo Yavhusishyn back then. He was 18, he didn’t know Japanese. The newspaper Asahi reported in February 2023 that Danylo sometimes talked to Arata about missing his family. And in a documentary by broadcaster NHK, Danylo can be seen watching a video from Vinnytsia. It shows a street after an attack. Thick columns of smoke rise. Danylo wears her hair short. He is still relatively slim. And the images move him. “I went there every day,” he says in English. “That’s very terrible, I don’t understand.”

His talent must have been obvious – and his youthful enthusiasm for sumo contagious. At least that’s what the Oyakata Ajigawa reported. Oyakata is the Japanese name for sumo coach, Ajigawa is the name under which former fighter Ryuji Aminishiki runs his own school. When Danylo Yavhusishyn applied to him, Ajigawa initially wanted to reject him. Each sumo team is normally only allowed to have one foreigner in its ranks. Ajigawa probably found it too risky to give this place to a newcomer. But: “His eyes were honest,” the Oyakata grumbles in an interview with the Japanese broadcaster NHK, “that’s why it just slipped out: Welcome to my home.”

And now Danylo Yavhusishyn is Arata Aonishiki. It was indeed a transformation. Aonishiki speaks perfect Japanese. His long hair is folded into a classic sumo hairstyle. He knows the sumo etiquette with all the duties and rituals, because anyone who is accepted into a stable first has to go to a sumo school for six months for a kind of cultural intensive course. Aonishiki wears kimono. He speaks in a sonorous voice. Danylo had these boyish features in which there was sometimes joy, sometimes mischief, sometimes stress. Aonishiki is so calm, as if he doesn’t feel anything.

Sumo wrestlers are not allowed to cheer or be angry. They are the stomping representatives of Japanese austerity. Aonishiki says: “It is very important to have a clear goal in mind.” He hasn’t been to Ukraine since he fled. All he says about the war is: “My country is in a very difficult situation, but I am a sumo wrestler now and I want to talk about sumo.” After all, his ring name is a statement. The “Ao” in Aonishiki means blue in Japanese. This is supposed to be reminiscent of the blue in the Ukrainian flag. And he chose that of his friend and mentor Arata Yamanaka as his first name. This is also a homage.

Aonishiki has plans. He wants to gain ten kilos. He wants to keep winning. He wants to become a yokozuna. And Danylo? For him, the ultra-conservative Japanese sport of sumo was his way out of the turmoil of violence. But the rescue came at a price. Danylo is now the boy from another life.