Page:Sketches of Tokyo Life (1895).djvu/63

Rh wrestlers have to be fed by the elders until the last day of the matches. If there are then many intervening rainy days, during which wrestlers are kept idle, the bukata often find their balance on the wrong side, for Japanese wrestlers with their huge paunches are great eaters, as, their chief strength lying in their firm stand, they never train on short commons. But both the bukata and non-bukata rely for subsistence upon their provincial tours and the share in their disciples’ wages. In the provincial tours, the companies must invariably be led by elders as their responsible managers. Elders retain a claim to a portion of their disciples’ wages, to whatever grade the latter may have risen. There are, however, no fixed rates. Some elders take all their disciples’ wages at Ekoin, while leaving them in full possession of their earnings elsewhere; and others claim three-tenths of all their receipts. Wrestlers of low rank give up all their wages, in return for which they are fed and clothed by their elders. On the whole, the elder’s profession is not a lucrative one, and most wrestlers, on retiring, take to other trades.

At first, the number of elders was limited to thirty-six, each of whom was set with his disciples to guard one of the thirty-six castle-gates of Yedo; but they gradually increased until they exceeded double that number, the present strength being about eighty. Elders are now appointed in rotation managers of the guild and referees of the Ekoin matches. These managers’