Former Japanese sumo stablemaster accused of abusing assistant

Tokyo: A former Japanese sumo stablemaster has admitted to abusing an assistant, including beating him with a bat, stuffing a towel in his mouth and forcing him to eat a full wasabi container, reports said yesterday.

Kazuyuki Yamamura, who once headed the stable of record-breaking Mongolian sumo wrestler Hakuho, told a Tokyo court Monday that he had repeatedly hit his former assistant with a metal bat, the Nikkan Sports newspaper and other reports said.

Yamamura allegedly stuffed the mouth of his 31-year-old aide with a towel and slammed his fingers, elbows, knees and ankles with a bat or a hammer, the reports said.