WRESTLERS' TALES SHAKE UP SUMO WORLD.

Byline: Sheryl WuDunn The New York Times

When sumo wrestlers hurl their blubbery bodies at each other like fighting buffaloes, it is the quicker, the stronger, and heftier who is supposed to heave his rival out of the tiny ring.

But these days, there are growing murmurs that some matches may be decided not by the caliber of the wrestlers but by the thickness of the wads of cash that wind their way from one pocket to another.

The sources of those murmurings have found their way into a magazine and a book by an embittered wrestler, Onaruto Oyakata, with the support of his wrestling comrade, Seiichiro Hashimoto. From their homes near this serene town in central Japan, the two giants shook up the world of sumo and the nation that reveres it.

Then, adding to the turmoil, they both died suddenly, just hours apart, on April 14 of essentially the same illness in the same hospital.

``They have had a very strong, negative effect on sumo,'' Mitsuru Miyake, the chief editor of Ozumo, a magazine about sumo, said about the two deaths. ``If you look at the possibility of it, it seems very strange for these two people to die on the same day at the same hospital. But no one had seen them poisoned, so you can't prove the skepticism.''

Dr. Shigenobu Iwata, who cared for both men, said that the deaths were purely coincidental, of lung failure, and that an autopsy was conducted on Konoshin Suga, who is often referred to by his abbreviated ring name, Onaruto, but not on Hashimoto's body.

The police are satisfied there was no foul play and are not conducting an investigation. Nonetheless, the deaths have intensified the intrigue these days surrounding the sumo world, a traditional sport where two elephantine men, their long hair greased back in dainty buns, purify themselves in a Shinto ritual and then grunt and stamp and shove each other in a small dirt ring.

Sumo is the national sport in Japan, and the entire nation tunes to the television set during the periodic 15-day matches. Sumo is regarded as more than a sport like baseball or boxing; it is seen as the epitome of Japanese honor and the national ethos.

It has spiritual ties to Shinto, the traditional Japanese religion, and Japanese emperors over the centuries have had a special affinity for it, at times even refereeing matches. Indeed, in the year 858, a dispute over imperial succession was decided by a sumo match. If there is any cranny of life that is expected to be absolutely honorable and squeaky clean, it is sumo.

But then came Onaruto, a 53-year-old former wrestler who had run a training stable for young wrestlers. He wrote a scathing indictment on sumo morals: games were sometimes rigged, wrestlers indulged in drugs and sex orgies, they often dined with gangsters, and evaded taxes.

He gave several examples, citing names and specific instances, of what he said were cases of wrestlers throwing games for a fee to help fellow wrestlers from losing their rank and getting a pay cut. Moreover, Onaruto explained how he himself was advised on the common practice of how to evade taxes when he sold off his shares in the facility he ran.

Onaruto and Hashimoto soon became the focus of an uproar among sumo wrestlers and their fans, with Onaruto even receiving threatening phone calls. They agreed to speak to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo about their accusations, but a few days later, before the appearance, they died.

``It's really sad,'' said Bunbuku Katsura, a 43-year-old sumo fan who has offered financial support to one of Onaruto's wrestlers in the past. ``I want the Sumo Association to settle the matter soon. I want the fight to be taken on only in the ring. Sumo fans don't feel good about it.''

Other fans are a bit more philosophical.

``Sumo is entertainment, an event and not purely a sport,'' said Minobu Shiozawa, a commentator on publishing and a fan of sumo.

``Like Kabuki, Sumo has some theatrical rituals like the special entrance to the ring, stamping on the ring and wearing a mage,'' he said, referring to the bun hairstyle.

``So if you only look at the winner or loser of a game, it is no fun at all,'' he added. ``The fun lies in the culture of it.''

The Shukan Post, the tabloid weekly that published the articles by Onaruto before they were collected into a book, is being sued for libel by the Sumo Association. It says it stands by the stories.

The Sumo Association denies any systematic wrongdoing in the sport, but it does not seem to rule out the possibility of occasional misconduct.