“SUMO” as a religious sport
Sumo is a sport, similar to wrestling, which was originated in Japan. The origin of the Sumo wrestling was about 1650 years ago, when the Japanese emperor of that day wanted to decide who was the strongest soldier of those days in Japan. There were two men that are self confident enough that they both claimed that they were the strongest of all Japanese. The names of those men were “Tagimano-kuehaya” and “Nomino-Sukune”. Back then, sumo wasn’t recognized as a sport, but it was a battle that consists of death. The rules have been regulated since then, and now sumo is widely known as a sport of fairness, aggressiveness, and at the same time, it is a sport that reflects fundamental elements of “Shinto rituals”.
There are many points that show Shinto characteristics in sumo. First, in Shinto society, there are tons of discriminations against women, which lead to prohibition on women sumo wrestlers. As Kaneda mentions in The International Journal of the History of Sports, she points out the core point of Shinto within sumo like this, “The unclean act of women taking part in sumo within the precincts of a holy Shinto shrine, rain would fall”.[1] In 2007, there was a happening when a woman stepped into the Dohyo (the ring where sumo wrestlers fight in). That woman was highly penalized because the council of Japanese Sumo Association still maintains the rule of men superiority, even though general Japanese society is in a movement of gender equality.
Secondly, the sumo wrestlers are indispensable to celebrate some ritual practices before they go to the sumo match. What they have to do before the match is called “Shikiri”. Acts that are involved in this ritual practices are sprinkling water and salt on the Dohyo, wiping their own body with a paper, and practice shiko; ritual stamping of the ground with right and left feet alternately. The reason for sprinkling water and salt on the wrestling field is to purify evil that are thought to be living inside one’s body, before entering sacred space. Stamping the ground of Dohyo has similar meaning. Generally in Shinto, it is considered that there are souls in every single created object in the world, including ground, people, or shrines. In addition, all those soul might turn to an evil spirit anytime immediately, so in order to avoid that situation to happen in Dohyo, sumo wrestlers stamp on the Dohyo to defeat the evil spirit. These are some scenes that are directly reflecting concepts of Shinto in sumo, which can be understood as “Religion in Popular Culture”.
As every sumo wrestling match is shown on the NHK, Japanese government managed TV channel, it is evident that sumo is still one of the most popular sports in Japan. Although young Japanese are not interested in sumo as it was a century ago, people who are advanced age are still frantic about sumo matches’ results. As Bain-Selbo mentioned, “The euphoria and the way it brings people together in a common ecstatic state”,[2] elderly people in Japan are so enthusiastic about sumo, which lead them to emotion experiences that are not like everyday experience. More or less, every Japanese who live in Japan have some bond to Shinto because Japanese learn importance of Shinto in elementary school, thus Sumo, which is tightly connected to Shinto is shared value for Japanese that creates community based on Shinto rituals.
References
(1). Eiko Kaneda (1999) Trends in traditional women’s sumo inJapan, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 16:3, 113–119, DOI:10.1080/09523369908714087
(2). Bain-Selbo, Eric. “Ecstasy, Joy and Sorrow: The Religious Experience of Southern College Football.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 20 (2008), 13 pp.
