Sumo

Sumo is an ancient sport. This Japanese wrestling competition began as a religious observance, part of Japan's Shinto tradition, but by the ninth century CE it had also begun to develop the rules and techniques of a martial art. Although it looks simple to the observer, with the only requirement for victory being to force one's opponent to step outside the ring or to touch the ground with a body part other than the soles of the feet, modern professional sumo is a complex mixture of athleticism, ritual, and adherence to a strict code of conduct covering all aspects of the life of a rikishi ("strong man"). The sport is practiced professionally only in Japan and only by men, and it remains closely connected to Japanese culture and traditions. Wrestlers from other parts of the world who have joined the professional system in Japan have accepted its codes of conduct and, in some cases, risen to its highest ranks. The growth of amateur sumo during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has made the sport more widely accessible. Unlike professional sumo, amateur sumo is open to both sexes. Competitions can take place in any country, and wrestlers participate as a form of recreation or a hobby. The ultimate goal of amateur sumo organizers and governing bodies is for the sport to be accepted into the Olympic Games.

Origins and History

The tradition of sumo is over fifteen hundred years old. It began in Japan as a religious observance, performed at festivals to gain the blessing of the gods. Early sumo lacked standardized rules, using moves that today's audiences would associate with judo, wrestling, and boxing. At the end of the eighth century sumo's techniques and rules began to be standardized, but it remained an aggressive art form and was sometimes included in military training.

During the peaceful Tokugawa period (1603–1867), the leaders of the Shogunate reinforced the link between sumo and religion. They encouraged samurai to practice sumo as a way of maintaining their skills and discipline. They also outlawed informal "street sumo," ruling that sumo had to be performed for the benefit of the gods. In practice, matches were held as fundraisers to build or repair religious sites. In this period the first sumo elders emerged. These intermediaries, who are still part of professional sumo, staged events and organized training for up-and-coming wrestlers. During the eighteenth century, the Sumo Association of Edo (later Tokyo) became the major governing body, using its influence to organize and standardize the sport. It settled on the circular ring that is used today, established rules for matches and the purification rituals that are performed before professional bouts, and organized heya (sumo stables) for training. Under its influence, sumo began to become a form of mass entertainment.

After the Meiji Restoration (1868) removed the Tokugawa from power, sumo fell out of style because it was considered old fashioned. But at the turn of the twentieth century, as Japan proved itself the equal of a European power with its victory in the Russo–Japanese War (1904–05), sumo was again embraced as Japan's national sport. In 1909 the first national stadium opened, and women, who had been barred from official, religiously-linked sumo because they were considered ritually impure, were allowed to attend major tournaments. The first amateur tournament was held in 1915, and by the 1930s sumo training was required in boys' physical education classes. In the 1920s the Osaka and Tokyo sumo associations merged into the All-Japan Grand Sumo Association, the predecessor of today's Japan Sumo Association, and established a schedule of national tournaments for the sport.

Sumo began to globalize during the twentieth century. As thousands of Japanese people emigrated to countries like the United States and Brazil they took sumo with them. While World War II ended this tradition in the United States, Brazil has maintained its sumo culture. In 1980 the first international amateur sumo tournament was organized in Japan, and in 1983 Japan and Brazil began to develop an international governing body. The International Sumo Foundation, founded in 1992, works to make sumo an Olympic sport. Amateur sumo diverged from professional sumo by encouraging women to compete, a requirement for Olympic participation. Professional sumo also became more international as wrestlers from other countries traveled to Japan to join the professional system.

Rules and Regulations

The regulation playing field for sumo, the dohyo, is a circular ring constructed atop a square platform made of pounded clay. The ring, which has a diameter of 4.55 meters (almost fifteen feet), is marked by a shallow trench in which sixty-six custom-made bundles of rice straw (tawara) are placed to make the circle. Inside the ring two starting lines (shikiri-sen) are painted facing east–west. Outside the ring, fine sand records any illegal movement by a wrestler.

Because of its link to Shinto ritual, sumo playing fields have several additional features. Supplies of salt are used to purify the ring before matches. The field is topped with a roof shaped like the roof of a Shinto shrine, which in the case of an indoor dohyo is suspended from the ceiling of the venue. Colored tassels hanging from its corners represent the spirits of the four directions. In addition, professional wrestlers participating in tournaments perform ceremonies before and after each day's competition: a ring-entering ceremony (dohyo-iri) before the middle-ranking wrestlers compete, to alert the gods, drive out evil spirits, and confirm that the wrestlers carry no weapons, and the bow-twirling ceremony (yumitori-shiki) at the end of the day's matches, as a gesture of appreciation by the day's winners.

When competing, sumo wrestlers wear the mawashi, a belt that is wrapped around the waist and between the legs. Professionals wear nothing else while wrestling, while amateurs often wear close-fitting athletic clothes beneath their mawashi. In addition to being the uniform, the mawashi plays a role in competition; wrestlers can move their opponents out of the ring by lifting them by the mawashi, and losing one's mawashi is an automatic defeat, although this has not happened during a tournament since the 1960s.

The purpose of a sumo bout is to force one's opponent to leave the ring, or to force part of their body other than the soles of the feet to touch the ground. Wrestlers are required to fight with open hands, and rule violations resulting in an automatic loss include punching an opponent, touching an opponent's hair or eyes, grabbing their groin, or kicking them in the stomach or chest. A wrestler can also incur an automatic loss without engaging his or her opponent at all, by leaving the ring after officially entering it, by stepping outside the ring during what would otherwise be a victory, and by losing balance and falling inside the ring. Within those limits, however, there are many ways to win.

Strategy and Tactics

Before each bout, the wrestlers perform purification rituals, then engage in a staring contest called niramiai, focusing their energy and attempting to intimidate their opponents as they prepare for the initial clash (tachiai) when they leap from their starting marks to begin the fight. Amateur sumo divides wrestlers by weight class but professional sumo does not, so professional matches may feature two very different wrestlers. However, being larger does not guarantee a victory. Most sumo matches are very brief, and even long ones last just minutes. The rapid pace of sumo makes the sport dependent on a combination of agility, strength and speed.

Sumo utilizes a large number of kimarite (winning techniques), which expands as new techniques introduced by wrestlers are added to the official list. Since 2001, eighty-two techniques have been recognized by the Japan Sumo Association, although not all of them are commonly used. The major categories of kimarite include belt-lifting moves, such as lifting an opponent to remove them from the ring, or grabbing their mawashi to flip them; pushing moves, which rely on momentum to eject an opponent from the ring; thrusting and slapping to drive an opponent from the ring; and tripping and flipping moves which force the opponent to touch the ground inside the ring.

Professional Leagues and Series

Sumo's professional league is overseen by the Japan Sumo Association. Every year the Association holds six major tournaments (hon-basho), which take place every two months beginning in January and rotate among Japan's major cities. The rank of each wrestler is determined by his performance in these tournaments. In addition to the six official tournaments, rikishi present special events, exhibitions, and fundraising tournaments for charity, all of which are referred to as hanazumo ("flower sumo").

Sumo is an individual sport, but professional athletes are affiliated with one of forty-four recognized heya, or sumo stables, which in turn are organized into six ichimon, groups of mutually supporting heya. Rikishi do not compete against other members of their heya. Wrestlers join a heya between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two (only college athletes, who can join until age twenty-five, are exempt from this requirement), provided that they meet height and weight requirements. Once enrolled, they remain in the same heya throughout their careers.

Professional sumo uses a complex system of rankings that determines each wrestler's overall status in the sport, compensation, and status within his heya, where lower-ranking wrestlers must act as servants to higher-ranking ones who also receive better accommodations and more privileges. At the bottom of the hierarchy, "presumo" wrestlers (maezumo) and the lower four of the six divisions are considered to be apprentices, receiving only minimal stipends. The upper two divisions are considered to be professionals (sekitori), and receive salaries and bonuses. The vast majority of wrestlers at any time are maezumo or members of the apprentice divisions.

Rikishi advance through their performance in the official tournaments. Wrestlers in the top two divisions fight fifteen bouts, and the others seven. Because there are no ties in sumo, each wrestler either advances his position with a winning record, or drops back with a losing record. Beginning with the fifth-highest sandanme division, the total number of available positions in each division is capped. There are 200 sandanme wrestlers, 120 in the makushita division, and only 28 in the jῡryō division, which is the lower of the two sekitori groups. The highest division, makuuchi, contains 42 rikishi, including the highest-ranking champions. At the pinnacle of the sumo hierarchy are the yokuzana, exceptional champions who have been appointed to this honor by the sport's council of elders. Each wrestler works to rise as high as possible within this steep professional hierarchy through participation in the official tournaments and adherence to sumo's codes of conduct.

Popularity

While professional sumo remains an important part of Japan's cultural heritage, it declined in popularity during the early twenty-first century. Its status as Japan's national sport was challenged by baseball, it suffered a series of corruption scandals, and the number of Japanese youths willing to enter the heya and dedicate themselves completely to sumo declined. The dominance of rikishi from other countries who had joined the heya and risen through the ranks, particularly Mongolians and wrestlers from Eastern Europe and Oceania, led to a backlash from Japanese fans who feared that their presence was undermining the heritage of sumo.

Japanese men and women participate in amateur sumo, and Japan is the home of the International Sumo Federation. Under its aegis there are six continental sumo federations and national federations in those countries where amateur sumo has gained a foothold. As the recognized governing body for amateur sumo, the International Sumo Federation participates in the International World Games Federation, which holds quadrennial international competitions for non-Olympic sports, while working for sumo to be included in the Olympics.

In the United States, sumo is a small but growing amateur sport. Los Angeles-based USA Sumo holds an annual US Sumo Open, one of the largest sumo tournaments outside Japan, and American athletes participate in international tournaments. Along with Japan, Brazil, and fourteen other countries, the United States competed in sumo during the 2013 World Games, although it won no medals.

Bibliography

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