Czech sumo wrestler Takanoyama Shuntarō in the ring
It’s not every day you read a story about sumo wrestling, let alone a tale featuring a hot sumo wrestler. So, when that opportunity comes along, you have to take it. Firstly, of the only thing you know about sumo is E. Honda from Streetfighter 2, it’s time for a quick history lesson in the ancient art of sumo.
Dating back hundreds of years, the art of sumo is the official sport of Japan and very rarely played outside of the country. It’s the only country in the world where it is practised professionally. It’s steeped in tradition and many of the rituals still exist in their original form after centuries.
Push comes to shove
Sumo is a full contact sport where the competitive wrestlers must force their opponent out of the circle or the loser touches the ground with any other part of their body than the soles of their feet. Most wrestlers live apart from the rest of society with their food, clothes and daytime movements dictated to them by tradition.
Sometimes it's all in the angle of the shot Copyright Alain Devreux.
We are all into a bit of a wrestling fantasy, most likely of the Turkish or American kind but we recently came across this chap, Pavel Bojar who is stacked, hot and has an intriguing story.
Born and raised in the Czech Republic, he became interested in sumo after practising judo in his home city of Prague. After travelling to Japan, he got bronze in the Junior World Sumo Championships in 2000 and was accepted into the Naruto training stable where he would live and was given the name Takanoyama Shuntarō meaning ‘noble mountain’ due to being 6 foot 1.
Japanese adventure
Shuntarō was the first Czech Sumo wrestler ever to practise the sport professionally in Japan but despite his skill there was one problem that would always plague him, his inability to put on weight. As you would expect, the weight of a sumo wrestler is vital to his strength keeping a low centre of gravity and brute strength to overcome their opponent.
A young Pavel looking sumo-perb Pic copyright - Frantisek Staud
By 2014 Shuntarō had defied so many odds rising up the ranks to ‘makuuchi’ which is basically like sumo Premier League. Unfortunately, due to sheer genetics he was only able to put on hard bulging muscles and not the girth he needed, he suffered a bad loss and retired.
Moving back to the Czech Republic after having been in Japan for nearly 15 years, he set up home with his Japanese wife and daughter and endeavoured to utilise his fluent Japanese in business.