They
were professional wrestlers and formed part of the retinue of the
princes, who kept them for their private amusement and for public
entertainment. They were enormously tall, and tremendously heavy. Their
scant costume, which was merely a colored cloth about the loins, adorned
with fringes and emblazoned with the armorial bearings of the prince to
whom each belonged, revealed their gigantic proportions in all the
bloated fulness of fat and extent of muscle.
Two or three of these huge monsters were the most famous wrestlers in
Japan and ranked as the champion Tom Cribbs and Sayers of the country.
Koyanagi, the reputed bully of the capital, was one of them, and paraded
himself with the conscious pride of superior size and strength. He was
especially brought to the Commodore that he might examine his massive
form. The commissioners insisted that the monstrous fellow should be
minutely inspected, that the hardness of his well-rounded muscle should
be felt, and that the fatness of his cushioned frame should be tested by
the touch.
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