THE symptoms of cerebral palsy mean that when Shintaro Yano wrestles, he cannot move fast or easily get a hold on his opponent, but that matters little in Doglegs, a 20-strong band of severely handicapped wrestlers in Tokyo. A brawl between Mr Yano and another handicapped man inspired Yukinori Kitajima, an able-bodied disability worker, to start the league in 1991.

The aim, both men say, is to entertain people, as well as to “destroy” the passive image of disabled people in Japan. Although the way they are treated has improved in recent years, disabled children are still shunted into separate schools. Families often keep such adults at home.

Some complain that Doglegs is not only dangerous (wrestling is considered too extreme even for the Paralympic Games), but evokes a cruel Japanese tradition of “sideshows” of the deformed. But other campaigners for disabled rights approve. Doglegs’ shock value may do more to change attitudes than the usual lobbying, says Koji Onoue of the Tokyo branch of Disabled Peoples’ International, an NGO.

The group is still little-known in Japan, but a recent documentary in Japanese by a film-maker from New Zealand, Heath Cozens, is starting to draw larger audiences of the able-bodied. The disabled wrestlers take on not only each other but able-bodied contenders with their legs or arms pinned. Mr Yano has demanded to fight Mr Kitajima on many occasions, and had his face beaten bloody.

Doglegs sometimes aims to amuse, as when Koji “L’Amant” (The Lover) Ohga, who can barely move, appears in the ring wearing a skirt. He wrestles “because it is fun”, he says. As his wife carried him away after his latest fight, the match’s commentator said Mr Ohga and his family should go to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics wearing Doglegs T-shirts.