不戦勝

Kimarite (Sumo winning technique).

Fu-sen-sho means, more or less accurately, non-battle-win, and as such it is perhaps pushing the envelope a bit to call it a winning technique. But when you view the records of who beat whom how, fusensho will appear next to a wrestler's name on those occasions where his opponent has failed to show up for the bout. This will in most cases be due to an injury during the previous day's fight. Next to the loser's name will be printed fusenhai (sometimes also spelled 'fusenpai') 不戦敗, meaning (wait for it): non-battle-defeat.

The sumotori (wrestler) who has indeed shown up as required will climb onto the dohyo when called, crouch down and acknowledge his victory. It's done without a lot of fuss, and neither wrestler nor audience is particularly pleased to be thus cheated out of an exciting bout.


Of 1729 bouts in the Makuuchi division, 25 (1.44%) were won by fusensho.1


Back to the kimarite menu


1: Statistics from the March, May, July, September, and November Basho, 2005, and the January Basho, 2006.


My sources are, besides being glued to the TV whenever sumo is on, http://sumo.goo.ne.jp/eng and http://www.sumoforum.net/glossary.html.