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Sumo (相撲), or sumo
wrestling, is today a competition contact sport wherein two
wrestlers or rikishi face off in a circular area. The sport is of
Japanese origin and is surrounded with many rituals. The Japanese
consider sumo a
gendai budo--a modern Japanese
martial art.
Winning criteria are fairly straightforward:
1. The first wrestler, rikishi, to touch the ground with any
other part of his body than his feet will lose.
2. The first wrestler to touch outside the circle will lose.
3. A wrestler who uses an illegal technique or
kinjite loses.
4. The
mawashi becoming completely undone will also result in a loss.
Matches usually last only seconds, as one wrestler is quickly ousted
from the circle or thrown to the clay. Each match is preceded by an
elaborate ceremonial
ritual. The sportsmen themselves are renowned for their great girth,
as body mass is a factor in sumo.
Sumo matches take place in a ring called a dohyo. The dohyo is
made of clay with sand spread over the top. It is between 34 and 60 cm
high. The circle in which the match takes place is 4.55 meters in diameter
and bounded by rice-straw bales called tawara which are buried in
the clay. At the center are two white lines, the shikiri-sen,
where the rikishi position themselves for the start of the bout.
Sumo wrestlers are ranked in a system dating back hundreds of years.
The highest rank attainable is that of
Yokozuna, grand champion, a title held at the moment by only one man,
Asashoryu. Other recent yokozuna include
Akebono,
Musashimaru and the great
Takanohana, who retired in January 2003. Once a wrestler has attained
the title of Yokozuna, he can never again be subject to demotion and is
expected to retire on his own initiative if he cannot perform to Yokozuna
standards. The other ranks in the top makuuchi division are (in
order from highest to lowest):
Ozeki,
Sekiwake,
Komusubi,
Maegashira. The lower divisions are
Juryo, Makushita, Sandanme, Jonidan, and Jonokuchi. Wrestlers move up
and down these lower rankings depending on their performance.
The sport is mainly practiced in
Japan, where it originated, but wrestlers of other nationalities
participate; indeed the yokozuna Musashimaru, although now a Japanese
citizen, was born in
Samoa, and yokozuna Asashoryu is
Mongolian. Akebono, born in Hawaii, was the first foreign-born
yokozuna.
The sumo tradition is very ancient, and even today the sport includes
many ritual elements from when sumo was used in the
Shinto
religion.
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