An Intro to Sumo Wrestling
A closer look at the history, cast, and stage of the ancient sport.
January brings not only the first month of the year, but also the first sumo tournament of the year. The national sport of Japan, sumo wrestling — or, simply, sumo — is an ancient tradition tied the Japanese native religion, Shinto.
With the January Grand Sumo Tournament underway in Tokyo [as I type], the timing is all too perfect for an intro to sumo wrestling. No doubt you know what sumo is, but do you really? The history of the sport, as well as the lives of the titans who compete in it, is truly incredible.
So grab some coffee, sit back, and let me introduce you to sumo!
History of Sumo
The origin of sumo wrestling goes back nearly two thousand years, and is entwined with the Shinto religion. Legends speak of a clash between two great kami spirits — one a god of thunder, and the other a god of wind. In a test of strength, the thunder god emerged victorious, and claimed Japan as his domain. The Japanese people are said to be the worshippers the thunder god, brought to his new land.
Or so the stories go. What we know for sure is that sumo has been documented since at least 712 AD:
“The earliest written records of sumo date back to the 712 A.D. In the eighth century, sumo was introduced into the ceremonies of the imperial court. Annual sumo festivals featured music and dancing, with the matches themselves combining no-holds-barred elements of wrestling and boxing. Eventually, the court formulated rules and techniques so that the sport came to resemble the form of sumo we know today.”
— PBS, Independent Lens
Not long after 712 AD came the regime of the shogun, the system of military dictatorship that ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1867.
Under the rule of the shogun, sumo was valued as a way to train soldiers. In fact, as the samurai altered and added different techniques to sumo, it evolved into jujutsu — which itself evolved into today’s Brazillian jiu-jitsu.
The Sumo Wrestler
Sumo wrestlers are called rikishi, literally “powerful men.”
While we may think a rikishi is required to be fat or bulky, this is a relatively modern trend. Sumo has no weight classes, so it’s considered advantageous to be bigger than your foe in a grappling contest.
But this only became common as food became more abundant in Japan, around the 20th century. Throughout history, most sumo wrestlers were not as corpulent as those of today, and featured muscular builds more reminiscent of a “traditional” athletic physique.
Popular woodblock prints by artists such as Kunisada portrayed rikishi as larger-than-life figures, and were often dramatized in their gigantic proportions.
The Life of a Rikishi
A sumo wrestler’s life is stern and ascetic. From the moment they apprentice, rikishi live in their club’s training facilities, called a sumo stable. These stables are usually self-sustained, with the top competitors donating tournament earnings to keep their stable afloat. This creates a natural hierarchy, with the breadwinners served by the rookies in exchange for guidance and training.
They also take on a new name, another tradition dating to the Edo period. Called a shikona, these ring names are usually bestowed by mentoring rikishi, and often have mythic inspirations.
A few examples:
- Tokushōryū (“virtuous dragon of excellence”)
- Asanoyama (“mountain of the morning”)
- Hakuhō (“white phoenix”) are a few examples.
Compared to a typical American professional athlete, a sumo lives in a totally different world. The Japan Sumo Association, or JSA, is the sport’s de facto regulatory body. And those regulations are strict, with JSA edict forbidding many things:
- Rikishi are mandated to wear traditional Japanese clothing (
wafuku). Lower-ranked rikishi wear modestyukata— lighter, cotton robes similar tokimono; while seasoned wrestlers are allowed to wear nicer kimono. - Sumo wrestlers are also forbidden from driving cars. As Japan has some of the best public transportation in the world, this isn’t as big a problem as you’d think. A kimono-clad rikishi riding a bike or taking the train is still funny, though.
- Even a rikishi’s hair is governed by the JSA! Sumo wrestlers must grow their hair into a top-knot called a chonmage, similar to the iconic hair style of classical samurai.
Symbolism in Sumo
As you can tell, symbolism runs deep in sumo. With the sport’s religious roots, the concepts of divinity and purification are central to its traditions.
Scaring away the demons
The sight of a sumo wrestler lifting one leg high in the air and stamping it down is an iconic one. But this is no mundane warm-up stretch.
What we know as the “sumo stomp” is a ritual called shiko, derived from yet another old Shinto procedure. By nimbly raising one leg high in the air and bringing it down with a thunderous stomp, the rikishi scares off demons, tricksters, and spirits of misfortune. Evil spirit or human onlooker, this is an impressive display of power and agility.
Purification
The concept of banishing demons is a recurring one in Shinto, and so it is in sumo.
Usually during their pre-match introductions, sumo wrestlers throw salt into the ring. This tradition is called shiomaki (“salt scattering”), and comes from the old belief that salt appeases evil spirits and keeps them away. By tossing a cloud of salt into the ring — sometimes half a kilogram! — the mighty rikishi continue their due diligence in keeping the festivities safe from wicked spirits.
Attire
Often sneered at by westerners as “giant diapers,” the sumo wrestler’s outfit is called mawashi.
Mawashi means “to go around;” and refers to the fact that these loincloths are actually one giant strip of fabric wrapped many times around the lower torso. Mawashi worn by tournament competitors are bolts of silk, nearly thirty feet in length and ten pounds in weight. While practicing at the stable, less expensive, cotton mawashi are preferred.
Most glorious of all, however, is the outfit worn during the opening ceremonies.
During the Entrance of the Yokozuna, the major rikishi in the tournament don extravagant garments called keshō-mawashi.
Vivid, finely-embroidered aprons adorn the titans, each with a unique motif. One may display a mythical beast, another a force of nature, another a noble profession. And reserved only for the yokozuna is the tsuna, a great rope hand-braided by the sumo of his home stable, said to evoke the sacred ropes of a Shinto shrine.
The Sumo Tournament
There are six sumo tournaments held every year. Each event spans two weeks, with the locations to include Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka, Japan.
Every day of the tournament, the rikishi compete against a different opponent in round-robin fashion.
The record keeping of the tournament is elaborate in itself. Called the banzuke, the official tournament ranking list is displayed on a massive, hand-crafted wooden slab. And written in classical Japanese calligraphy are the tallied results and overall standings. The banzuke truly stands alone in sports as a practical work of art.
The Referees
Officiating the matches are the referees, or gyoji. The referees are just as noticeable as the competitors themselves — gyoji wear extravagant outfits paying homage to the imperial courts of old Japan, as well as Shinto priests’ ceremonial robes.
The clerical similarities are no coincidence, as the gyoji perform rituals in the priests’ stead. This can get quite dramatic, with ornately-decorated referees invoking old Shinto prayers and legends, complete with a difficult-to-understand dialect of old Japanese.
The Ring
The battlefield itself is known as the dohyō, a ring atop a tall, clay mound. The mound itself is hand-formed, crafted by a skilled crew using the same tools and techniques as previous generations. The ring is bordered by bales of straw, leftovers from the rice harvest — this display honors the staple crop, while praying for another bountiful season. Lastly, bordering the bales themselves is a path of fine sand, to allow judges to see which rikishi stepped out first in split-decisions.
High above the dohyō is a roof, modeled after that of a Shinto shrine. In days of old, four pillars around the dohyō supported this roof; but as sumo became a bigger spectator sport in the 20th century, the pillars blocked the view for some in the audience. So today, the roof hangs high above the ring from the ceiling, instead of standing atop pillars. This is also why we don’t usually see the roof on broadcasts!
The Match
Compared to the pageantry, the sumo wrestling match itself is incredibly brief. Contests are over within seconds, rarely lasting a minute. And you only get one try — there’s no best two-out-of-three here.
Part of sumo’s appeal is its simplicity: A rikishi loses if any part of his body, other than the soles of his feet, touches the ground.
Alternatively, a rikishi loses if he is forced outside of the dohyō.
Closed fists and kicks are prohibited; but open-hand strikes are allowed. Grapples, throws, and use of leverage are the primary weapons in sumo; but rikishi adapt or specialize to their personalities and match-ups (such as against a bigger adversary). After all, the list of official winning techniques in sumo is near encyclopedic in length.
By the way, are you wondering what sumō actually means? Literally: “striking each other.”
The Future of Sumo in Japan
With an aging, shrinking population, Japan is seeing a decline in sumo popularity. The sport has seen much interest overseas, however, and is now even a potential Olympic sport.
Ironically, the conservative, xenophobic mindset of the Japan Sumo Organization is rejecting and even repelling this interest, panicking at the idea of foreigners perverting their ancient sport. Dohyō not made from clay, the addition of weight classes, and optional extra clothing are repugnant ideas to the sumo officials.
And in the face of many foreigners coming to Japan to become rikishi, the Sumo Organization placed a hard limit of foreign-born sumo wrestlers, demanding language fluency and strict adherence to conservative Japanese customs. As is the recurring factor in most of Japan’s social issues, the fear of immigration paralyzes the old guard. But with more foreign-born rikishi seeing success — led by Hakuhō, a Mongolian who holds historic accolades beyond even native-born rikishi — perhaps steady improvement is on the way.
One thing is certain: Sumo isn’t getting pushed around any time soon.
