Body Building Craze Hits Judo Land - Rikidozan Deserts Sumo And Defeats Carnera

Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette 

Tuesday 11th October 1955

 A body - building craze is sweeping Japan. Although the Japanese grow up with judo - every child knows the elementary throws - this is the first time that they have taken up dumb-bells and chest-expanders. 

 The new fashion is attributed to television, a sumo wrestler named Rikidozan, and women. 

 The Japanese have always loved sumo, a variant of wrestling, which, to a Westerner, looks like a don't-you-dare-to-push-me bout between two long haired, pot bellied, man mountains. 

 The best of them in recent years - a man who fought under the name of Rikidozan - was a 265 pound giant who has become a living symbol of glory to the Japanese. He has now deserted sumo to become a professional wrestler and has defeated Primo Carnera. 

 To do it, Rikidozan had to transfer his weight from his stomach to his chest. Fans throughout the Japanese islands eagerly followed his struggle to lose weight. When he tackled Carnera and had a few other Westerners in a series of fights this summer, the Japanese television stations gave throw-by-throw accounts.

 As the Japanese saw their idol getting slimmer and triumphing over more opponents, many of them decided to follow his example. The result is that clubs like Waseda University's body-building club are springing up all over the country. 

 More and more "body beautiful" contents are being held. 

TV SHOW 

 Members of the Japan weightlifting Association recently took part in a Nihon television network "Body Beautiful and Body - building Program," which attracted widespread public interest. 

 Women of Japan are reported to have had much to do with the body-building craze. They are reported to admire good muscles. 

 While the Japanese are invading the muscle domain of the West, Westerners are doing their utmost to dethrone the Japanese at judo. 

THEIR SUPERIORITY 

 Rikidozan and his fans, television and the body-building craze may yet, however, give Japan the muscles needed to defend their judo superiority. 

 According to the Kodokan Institute, some 400,000 Japanese practice judo - and 210,000 have managed to get a rank.

 A spokesman of the institute gave the number of judoists in England as 15,000, only 42 of whom have succeeded in getting a rank. 

Link to article (you will need a subscription to view)