Sumo – from refugees to Yokozuna

The man with the unusually light hair, traditionally tied together in the shape of a gingle head lance, is not afraid of great dreams: “I want to become a top sumorer,” he says slyly. That is his greatest wish. And here in Japan he feels on the right track. “I want to develop my very own style as a wrestler and one day I want to be a Yokozuna. I fight for that! “

Yokozuna is the highest rank in Japanese ring fighting Sumo in the millennium. And the man who expresses this big dream has recently been known as Aonishiki. Now you could say that there is nothing special that an ambitious wrestler smoldering in my thoughts to become the very best at some point. But in the case of Aonishiki, who gave up this statement in a TV interview at the end of last year, no one will recently shake his head in Japan. Some connoisseurs even cheer.

When Aonishiki gave his debut at one of the six big tournaments in Sumo at the end of March, he almost had the overall victory with eleven victories and four defeats. “The young Aonishiki made an impressive debut in the Elite Makuuchi Division,” wrote the Kyodo news agency. “Aonishiki, who turned 21 during the tournament, came to the success of Takerufuji, who was the first wrestler for 110 years in his debut in the highest league in March 2024.” So unbelievable.

Nd.Diewoche – Our weekly newsletter

With our weekly newsletter . We’re Doing Look at the most important topics of the week and read them Highlights our Saturday edition on Friday. Get the free subscription here.

The material for a sports legend

Aonishiki could not win his first tournament. But his wish to be appointed Yokozuna one day no longer looks like dreaming. The story behind the name, which was still unknown until recently, is the fabric from which legends are knitted in the sports world. His bourgeois name is Donylo Jawhusyschyn. He left his Ukrainian homeland in early 2022 after the Russian attack.

At first the young man moved to Germany. But the massive type – 1.82 meters tall, 136 kilos – actually wanted to go to Japan. As a boy, Donylo Jawhusyschyn had practiced the techniques of Judo and Sumo, and got to know a Japanese at an international youth tournament. When he contacted his childhood friend in East Asia in the middle of the attack in Russia, he suggested that Jawhusyschyn should come to Japan.

The Ukrainian was immediately enthusiastic about the idea, opened up from Germany to East Asia and introduced himself at Sumostfalls in Tokyo. The rest is now known throughout Japan. The sumostal that took him up christened Jawhusyschyn on Aonishiki. The characters are references to the Ukrainian flag, calm and his stable in which he now lives and trains. The character of the calm seems particularly important. Because the wrestler dominates a highly valued property for perfection in Japan: reluctance.

A sumo talent as a figurehead

“Of course, everything went very quickly to this point,” said Jawhusyschyn recently in an interview that he now has to give some of which, paired with autograph requests. “But I see it more that it just starts. I am not yet where I would like to be. I still lack so many things. ”He had to get even stronger. “But mentally I’ve gotten much stronger. And that’s important. “

What also causes enthusiasm in Japan: Aonishiki already speaks Japanese fluently. This does not succeed so quickly – although this most traditional of all Japanese sports has been strongly internationalized for two decades. Many of the best wrestlers now come from Mongolia. There was also an Egyptian, as did some Europeans. With Serhij Sokolowskyj – Ring name Shishi – there has also been a Ukrainian in the ring since 2020.

Especially on Sokolowskyj and Jawhusyschyn, you are not only proud in their Eastern European homeland, but also in the receiving country – even by the state. At the beginning of the year, the Japanese government published an article in English on its website entitled “Ukrainian Sumoringer in action: the strength of two families in Ukraine and Japan”. The message: Japan is a society that absorbs and integrates strangers. The East Asian country, which has practically no refugees over decades, wants to change its image. In response to Russia’s attack, thousands of people from Ukraine were accepted in an unbureaucratic way. So also Aonishiki.

Japan’s image campaign and reality

Koichi Nakano, political professor at the Sophia University in Tokyo, does not find that Aonishiki can already be a symbol of a general opening of Japan: »Internationalization in the sumo has been a trend for a long time. Because there are no longer enough Japanese who want to become Sumoringer. «In the middle of falling birth rates as well as increasing popularity of baseball and football, there has been a lack of sumo young people for years. “Therefore, you are more open to talents from abroad today.” And the background of Aonishiki? Nakano waves: »This is because he is from Ukraine. If he came from Syria, Gaza or Southeast Asia, he would have not received a chance here as a refugee. Overall, Japan is still closed to refugees. ”The unbureaucratic admission of people from Ukraine is more likely to be understood as a kind of security policy cooperation with Western countries.

For the Sumowelt, Aonishiki is of course a stroke of luck that only resulted from the war in Ukraine, explains Nakano. “But sport will have to internationalize for its development.” If one day, if one day the tournament victory is actually appointed Yokozuna, he could play a major role in opening sport – and thus the country. He would no longer be the first foreign Yokozuna. But the first from Europe.