Японская борьба сумо: история, традиции и современность

Japanese martial art

is a form of competitive full contact wrestling where a rikishi (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (dohyō) or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by throwing, shoving or pushing him down). Sumo originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally and where it is considered the national sport. It is considered a gendai budō, which refers to modern Japanese martial arts, but the sport has a history spanning many centuries. Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, from Shinto. Life as a wrestler is highly regimented, with rules regulated by the Japan Sumo Association. Most sumo wrestlers are required to live in communal sumo training stables, known in Japanese as heya, where all aspects of their daily lives—from meals to their manner of dress—are dictated by strict kyara tradition. The lifestyle has a negative effect on their health, with sumo wrestlers having a much lower life expectancy than the average Japanese man. From 2008 to 2016, a number of high profile controversies and scandals rocked the sumo world, with an associated effect on its reputation and ticket sales. These have also affected the sport's ability to attract recruits. Despite this setback, sumo's popularity and general attendance has rebounded due to having multiple yokozuna (or grand champions) for the first time in a number of years and other high profile wrestlers grabbing the public's attention.

The spoken word sumō goes back to the verb sumau/sumafu, meaning 'compete' or 'fight'. The written word goes back to the expression (相撲の節), which was a wrestling competition at the imperial court during the Heian period. The characters from sumai, or sumō today, mean 'to strike each other'. There is also an alternate spelling of , which can be found in the Nihon Shoki. Here, the first character means 'corner', but serves as a phonetic element as one reading of it is sumi, while the second character means 'force'. Sumō is also a general term for wrestling in Japanese. For example, 'arm sumō'; 腕相撲; udezumō means 'arm wrestling', and 'finger sumō'; 指相撲; yubizumō means 'finger wrestling'. The professional sumo observed by the Japan Sumo Association is called (大相撲), or 'grand sumo'.

Prehistoric wall paintings indicate that sumo originated from an agricultural ritual dance performed in prayer for a good harvest. The first mention of sumo can be found in a Kojiki manuscript dating back to 712, which describes how possession of the Japanese islands was decided in a wrestling match between the kami known as Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata. Takemikazuchi was a god of thunder, swordsmanship, and conquest, created from the blood that was shed when Izanagi slew the fire demon Kagu tsuchi. Takeminakata was a god of water, wind, agriculture and hunting, and a distant descendant of the storm god Susanoo. When Takemikazuchi sought to conquer the land of Izumo, Takeminakata challenged him in hand to hand combat. In their melee, Takemikazuchi grappled Takeminakata's arm and crushed it "like a reed", defeating Takeminakata and claiming Izumo. The Nihon Shoki, published in 720, dates the first sumo match between mortals to the year 23 BC, when a man named Nomi no Sukune fought against Taima no Kuehaya at the request of Emperor Suinin and eventually killed him, making him the mythological ancestor of sumo. According to the Nihon Shoki, Nomi broke a rib of Taima with one kick, and killed him with a kick to the back as well. The first historically attested sumo fights were held in 642 at the court of Empress Kōgyoku to entertain a Korean legation. In the centuries that followed, the popularity of sumo within the court increased its ceremonial and religious significance. Regular events at the Emperor's court, the sumai no sechie, and the establishment of the first set of rules for sumo fall into the cultural heyday of the Heian period.

With the collapse of the Emperor's central authority, sumo lost its importance in the court; during the Kamakura period, sumo was repurposed from a ceremonial struggle to a form of military combat training among samurai.

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 brought about the end of the feudal system, and with it the wealthy daimyō as sponsors. Due to a new fixation on Western culture, sumo had come to be seen as an embarrassing and backward relic, and internal disputes split the central association. The popularity of sumo was restored when Emperor Meiji organized a tournament in 1884; his example would make sumo a national symbol and contribute to nationalist sentiment following military successes against Korea and China. The Japan Sumo Association reunited on 28 December 1925 and increased the number of annual tournaments from two to four, and then to six in 1958. The length of tournaments was extended from ten to fifteen days in 1949. The Japan Sumo Association currently distinguishes 82 kimarite (winning techniques), some of which come from judo. Illegal moves are called kinjite, which include strangulation, hair pulling, bending fingers, gripping the crotch area, kicking, poking eyes, punching and simultaneously striking both the opponent's ears. The most common basic forms are grabbing the opponent by the mawashi (belt) and then forcing him out, a style called 四つ相撲; yotsu zumō, or pushing the opponent out of the ring without a firm grip, a style called 押し相撲; oshi zumō. The dohyō, which is constructed and maintained by the yobidashi, consists of a raised pedestal on which a circle in diameter is delimited by a series of rice straw bales. In the middle of the circle there are two starting lines (shikiri sen), behind which the wrestlers line up for the tachi ai, the synchronized charge that initiates the match. The direction of the match is incumbent on the gyōji, a referee who is supported by five shimpan (judges). In some situations, a review of the gyōjis decision may be needed. The shimpan may convene a conference in the middle of the ring, called a mono ii. This is done if the judges decide that the decision over who won the bout needs to be reviewed; for example, if both wrestlers appear to touch the ground or step out of the ring at the same time. In these cases, sometimes video is reviewed to see what happened. Once a decision is made, the chief judge will announce the decision to the spectators and the wrestlers alike. They may order a bout to be restarted, or leave the decision as given by the gyōji. Occasionally the shimpan will overrule the gyōji and give the bout to the other wrestler. On rare occasions the referee or judges may award the win to the wrestler who touched the ground first. This happens if both wrestlers touch the ground at nearly the same time and it is decided that the wrestler who touched the ground second had no chance of winning, his opponent's superior sumo having put him in an irrecoverable position. The losing wrestler is referred to as being shini tai ("dead body") in this case. The maximum length of a match varies depending on the division. In the top division, the limit is four minutes, although matches usually only last a few seconds. If the match has not yet ended after the allotted time has elapsed, a mizu iri (water break) is taken, after which the wrestlers continue the fight from their previous positions. If a winner is still not found after another four minutes, the fight restarts from the tachi ai after another mizu iri. If this still does not result in a decision, the outcome is considered a hikiwake (draw). This is an extremely rare result, with the last such draw being called in September 1974. A special attraction of sumo is the variety of observed ceremonies and rituals, some of which have been cultivated in connection with the sport and unchanged for centuries. These include the ring entering ceremonies (dohyō iri) at the beginning of each tournament day, in which the wrestlers appear in the ring in elaborate kesho mawashi, but also such details as the tossing of salt into the ring by the wrestlers, which serves as a symbolic cleansing of the ring, The average weight of top division wrestlers has continued to increase, from in 1969 to over by 1991, and was a record as of January 2019.

Professional sumo is organized by the Japan Sumo Association. To turn professional, wrestlers must have completed at least nine years of compulsory education and meet minimum height and weight requirements. In response to this, the JSA stated that they would no longer accept aspiring wrestlers who surgically enhanced their height, citing health concerns. In 2019, The Japan Times reported that the height requirement was , and the weight requirement was , although they also claimed that a "blind eye" is turned for those "just shy" of the minimums. In 2023 the Sumo Association loosened the height and weight requirements, announcing that prospective recruits not meeting the minimums could still enter sumo by passing a physical fitness exam. All sumo wrestlers take wrestling names called shikona (四股名), which may or may not be related to their real names. Often, wrestlers have little choice in their names, which are given to them by their stablemasters, or by a supporter or family member who encouraged them into the sport. This is particularly true of foreign born wrestlers. A wrestler may change his wrestling name during his career, with some changing theirs several times. In addition to the professional tournaments, exhibition competitions are held at regular intervals every year in Japan, and roughly once every two years, the top ranked wrestlers visit a foreign country for such exhibitions. None of these displays are taken into account in determining a wrestler's future rank. Rank is determined only by performance in grand sumo tournaments. The topmost makuuchi division receives the most attention from fans and has the most complex hierarchy. The majority of wrestlers are Makuuchi#Maegashira (maegashira) and are ranked from the highest level 1 down to about 16 or 17. In each rank are two wrestlers, the higher rank is designated as "east" and the lower as "west", so the list goes #1 east, #1 west, #2 east, #2 west, etc. Above the maegashira are the three champion or titleholder ranks, called the san'yaku, which are only numbered if the number of wrestlers in each rank exceeds two. These are, in ascending order, Makuuchi#Komusubi (komusubi), Makuuchi#Sekiwake (sekiwake), and Makuuchi#Ōzeki (ōzeki). At the pinnacle of the ranking system is the rank of Makuuchi#Yokozuna (yokozuna). and a Japanese had not been named yokozuna from 1998 until the promotion of Kisenosato Yutaka in 2017. This and other issues eventually led the Sumo Association to limit the number of foreigners allowed to one in each stable.

Women are not allowed to compete in professional sumo. They are also not allowed to enter the wrestling ring (dohyō), a tradition stemming from Shinto and Buddhist beliefs that women are "impure" because of menstrual blood. A form of female sumo (女相撲) existed in some parts of Japan before professional sumo was established. The 2018 film The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine depicts female sumo wrestlers at the time of civil unrest following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.

Since 1958, six Grand Sumo tournaments or honbasho have been held each year: three at the Kokugikan in Tokyo (January, May, and September), and one each in Osaka (March), Nagoya (July), and Fukuoka (November). Until the end of 1984 Kokugikan was settled in Kuramae, Tokyo and moved in 1985 to the newly build at Ryōgoku. Each tournament begins on a Sunday and runs for 15 days, ending also on a Sunday. The tournaments are organized in a manner akin to a McMahon system tournament; each wrestler in the top two divisions (sekitori) has one match per day, while the lower ranked wrestlers compete in seven bouts, about one every two days. Each day is structured so that the highest ranked contestants compete at the end of the day. Thus, wrestling starts in the morning with the jonokuchi wrestlers and ends at around six o'clock in the evening with bouts involving the yokozuna. The wrestler who wins the most matches over the 15 days wins the tournament championship (yūshō) for his division. If two wrestlers are tied for the top, they wrestle each other and the winner takes the title. Three way ties for a championship are rare, at least in the top division. In these cases, the three wrestle each other in pairs with the first to win two in a row take the tournament. More complex systems for championship playoffs involving four or more wrestlers also exist, but these are usually only seen in determining the winner of one of the lower divisions. The matchups for each day of the tournament are determined by the sumo elders who are members of the judging division of the Japan Sumo Association. They meet every morning at 11 am and announce the following day's matchups around 12 pm. An exception are the final day 15 matchups, which are announced much later on day 14. Breaking the rules can result in fines and/or suspension for both the offending wrestler and his stablemaster. On entering sumo, they are expected to grow their hair long to form a topknot, or chonmage, similar to the samurai hairstyles of the Edo period. Furthermore, they are expected to wear the chonmage and traditional Japanese dress when in public, allowing them to be identified immediately as wrestlers. The type and quality of the dress depends on the wrestler's rank. Rikishi in jonidan and below are allowed to wear only a thin cotton robe called a yukata, even in winter. Furthermore, when outside, they must wear a form of wooden sandal called geta. Wrestlers in the makushita and sandanme divisions can wear a form of traditional short overcoat over their yukata and are allowed to wear straw sandals, called zōri. The higher ranked sekitori can wear silk robes of their own choice, and the quality of the garb is significantly improved. They also are expected to wear a more elaborate form of topknot called an ōichō (big ginkgo leaf) on formal occasions. Similar distinctions are made in stable life. The junior wrestlers must get up earliest, around 5 am, for training, whereas the sekitori may start around 7 am. When the sekitori are training, the junior wrestlers may have chores to do, such as assisting in cooking lunch, cleaning, and preparing baths, holding a sekitoris towel, or wiping the sweat from him. The ranking hierarchy is preserved for the order of precedence in bathing after training, and in eating lunch. Wrestlers are not normally allowed to eat breakfast and are expected to have a siesta like nap after a large lunch. Many develop type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure, and they are prone to heart attacks due to the enormous amount of body mass and fat that they accumulate. The excessive intake of alcohol can lead to liver problems and the stress on their joints due to their excess weight can cause arthritis. In the 21st century the standards of weight gain became less strict to try and increase the health of the wrestlers.