A touch of Japanese sumo for oil wrestling

Oil wrestling may make its way from a local phenomenon to the next big thing in combat sports, just as sumo wrestling did, according to the Edirne mayor.

With less than two months to go to the 648th edition of Turkey’s oldest sporting event, the Kırkpınar tournament, which is held in the northwestern city of Edirne, Mayor Mustafa Büyük says that oil wrestling is too big to remain just a local tradition.

A form of wrestling with two combatants trying to win with their bodies covered in oil, oil wrestling is a unique sport, but that does not stop Büyük from taking another sport as a model. The mayor thinks that oil wrestling should use Japan’s traditional sumo wrestling as an example for promoting the sport worldwide.

"We can’t fully use Kırkpınar," said Büyük. "We came together with the cultural attachŽ of Japan to create a new project. We aim to bring wrestling styles of different worlds, sumo and Kırkpınar, together." He also believes that an exhibition match between a sumo wrestler and an oil wrestler will draw attention, too.

A different style

"Sumo is a different style, a culture that we are not yet fully introduced to," said Büyük. "But we can use it to make an interesting and tourism-attracting event. We will invite sumo wrestlers to Kırkpınar and arrange exhibition clashes with Turkish oil wrestlers."

That would make Kırkpınar "a summit of wrestling," the mayor said. "Pehlivans [oil wrestlers] would have an international reputation in such a case. We should improve Kırkpınar. We have to do something."

Sumo is broadcasted live in many countries of the world via European sports television channel Eurosport, and oil wrestling may be as popular as that, Büyük said. "One of our targets in bringing sumo and oil wrestling is for promotional reasons," he said. "That way it can be shown live on televisions worldwide, say on Eurosport," said Büyük.

As for the first step, the mayor said that a documentary on Kırkpınar is being prepared in order to introduce the sport in the first place.

Kırkpınar competitions are not the strictest organizations as there are several combats on the grass at the same time. There is not a timetable and spectators are not well informed on who is fighting at that moment. That is a point that should be improved, too, Büyük said.

"You have to maintain people’s attention while there are wrestlers on the grass, but we cannot ensure that the event is spectacular," he said. "Nobody knows who they are watching, who won or who lost. It turns into a mess. It should look more elite. It should all be better organized."

One day Kırkpınar may be turned into a center of attraction for sports fans, but the mayor admits that Edirne is not yet ready to host such an international event.

Not particularly a tourist spot, there are not many top-quality hotels in Edirne, and Büyük said that this should be changed. "We welcome some prestigious visitors during Kırkpınar, but they have to stay in public guesthouses," Büyük said. "We should have better facilities, where we could entertain them."

"It is difficult to make a change in those points overnight," the mayor said. "Entrepreneurs tend to make investments in a city after seeing that there is a potential. We want to show that potential."

Legend of Kırkpınar

Centuries ago in 1360, 40 Turkish soldiers under the command of Prince Süleyman, the son of Orhan Gazi, became tired after capturing several forts in Edirne. They chose to rest at a spring but after a while two of them began wrestling. It continued through the night and in the morning, the wrestlers were found dead. Later, the matches took place there in subsequent years in memory of the two soldiers.

That is how the tradition began. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this legend made Kırkpınar the world's oldest continuously sanctioned sporting competition.