A , or, more colloquially, , is a sumo wrestler. Although used to define all wrestlers participating in sumo wrestling matches, the term is more commonly used to refer to professional wrestlers, employed by the Japan Sumo Association, who participate in professional sumo tournaments (called ) in Japan, the only country where sumo is practiced professionally.
Professional follow traditions dating back to the Edo period, and therefore follow a number of codes and customs in their daily lives that distinguish them from other martial artists. Their life as professionals revolves around the observance of traditional rules that apply both to their life in the community and to the way they dress, the latter rules evolving according to the rank a wrestler has reached during his career.
Coming from many nationalities, are the only employees of the Japan Sumo Association who can run the organization once they have chosen to retire. However, only a tiny fraction of wrestlers are given this opportunity, leaving the vast majority of the sport's retirees in a precarious situation.
The number of active peaked at 943 in May 1994, at the height of the "WakaTaka boom", but had declined to 599 by January 2024. The decline in the number of recruits applying to become professionals is a major topic in sumo, as it regularly breaks records for the lowest number of recruits.
Terminology
In popular use, the term refers to professional sumo wrestlers only and is an alternative term to or the more colloquial . It has been noted by authors such as Dorothea Buckingham and Mark Schilling that these terms should be preferred to 'sumo wrestler', because since sumo has little in common with Greco-Roman wrestling but more with judo or aikido, it was pointed out that it was a mistake to use the term 'wrestler' to define the competitors in sumo matches.
The two kanji characters that make up the word are that of 'strength' or 'power' () and 'warrior' or 'samurai' (); consequently, and more idiomatically, the term can literally be defined as 'strongman' or 'powerful warrior'.
is often defined as the more appropriate collective name for the wrestlers as a group or as individuals. The term itself comes from an abbreviation of the word , used in the early Edo period to define sumo wrestlers. There is no implication of hierarchy between and , the two terms being interchangeable. However, some wrestlers prefer to be referred to as .
A more prestigious term referring to wrestlers who have risen to the two highest divisions ( and ) also exists. The word refers to senior who have significantly more status, privilege and salary than their lower-division counterparts and excludes the lower-rankers. Wrestlers who qualify as are also given the suffix at the end of their name. That term, found also in the sumo terms , and , comes from , a road barrier which was used to control the movement of people from place to place within Japan. In feudal Japan, many wrestlers were recruited from the big, strong guards who manned the . Later "" came to mean an unbeaten performance.
History
Origins of the wrestlers
thumb|right|150px| of a sumo wrestler
Mention of wrestlers can be found in traditions predating the emergence of sumo in Japan, in traditions on the mainland of the Asian continent. In Korea, in the tombs of the T'ung-kou valley, murals depict wrestlers in loincloths seemingly performing wrestling duels for the pleasure of court nobles. Traces of wrestling activities have been demonstrated by the exhumation of pottery depicting wrestlers in Korean wrestling attire dating from the Kofun period. As sumo became embedded in Japanese myths and legends, stories of powerful wrestlers began to appear in the (one of the first historical record of Japan), and with them the first accounts of matches held during the Yamato kingship period. At the same time the function of sumo wrestler began to appear under the term . The latter were conscripts from the provinces sent to the Heian court as tribute organized by local governors who, in order to supply the court's festivities with participants, ordered the communities to send to the capital any man gifted in wrestling, horse-racing or archery. Although at the time wrestlers enjoyed a certain degree of recognition, with some being recruited into the palace guard; sending wrestlers was compulsory throughout the territory, and any delay was punishable by imprisonment. In 821, codes resembling the beginnings of etiquette were introduced at the court to organize the tournaments held during banquets. With the Minamoto clan's rise to power, sumo and its wrestlers began to shift their practice from a court entertainment to a real military training. During the Sengoku period, Oda Nobunaga made sumo a popular sport, aided by the emergence of large cities (like Edo, Osaka, Sendai and Nagoya), which soon began to compete with Kyoto's cultural monopoly, as it had been Japan's only metropolis. These new cultural centres saw the emergence of wrestling groups, from both the commoners and the warrior classes, who took part in festivities at shrines.
Edo period and sumo structuring
During the period of peace established under the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan experienced an unprecedented period of vagrancy for many samurai who had lost their social standing with their previous masters, who had been deposed or killed so that the shogunate could assert itself. These masterless samurai, called , could not engage in any activity under their social category under threat of punishment, and with the period of peace, it had become almost impossible to be recruited by local lords who no longer needed to build up a sizeable military retinue. During the same period, sumo was gradually establishing itself as a popular sport, and two extremes coexisted side by side. On one side, certain powerful clans (such as the Kishū Tokugawa, Maeda, Ikeda, Matsudaira, Sakai and Hosokawa) formed suites of wrestlers organized into royal households called , and elevated them to the status of vassals. On the other, a number of had no choice but to put their martial art skills to good use in street sumo tournaments, called , for the entertainment of passers-by. Similarly, a number of street entertainment wrestling groups formed and began touring, sometimes with the support of shrines that occasionally recruited them as part of religious festivities and to help priests raising money for the construction of buildings.
thumb|600px|center|Illustration of Powerful Professional Sumo Wrestlers in Japan by (1867).
Eventually, this mix of professional wrestlers and disgraced , along with the commoners who took part in the contests of strength of the street tournaments, came into conflict over money. Tense brawls, even deaths, sometimes occurred. Public order became so disturbed by 1648 that Edo authorities issued an edict banning street sumo and matches organized to raise funds during festivities. The edicts did not stop there, however, and also had an impact on wrestlers for some thirty years, with the publication of an order banning the use of , or ring name, a tradition observed since the Muromachi period. At the same time, instructions sent out to local lords advised drastic savings on suite costs, and the maintenance and recruitment of vassalized wrestlers ceased altogether. Over the next two decades or so, the wrestlers, now without any income, decided to petition the authorities to lift the bans, forming coalitions of interests to protect themselves from any violent repression of their movement.
In 1684, a named , leader of one of these coalitions, obtained permission to hold a tournament after proposing a new etiquette associated with matches organization. In fact, the systematization of sumo in Edo (with the introduction of the first and the strict use of the forty-eight first ) went hand in hand with the authorization of sumo tournaments. As sumo inevitably became systematized, new wrestler ranking systems were put in place with the development of the use of and the introduction of the ranks of , and .
thumb|right|200px| [[Asashio Tarō I with his bearing the "sparrows and bamboo" () crest of the Date clan, as he wrestled under the Uwajima Domain.]]
Around 1717, local lords, who had ceased to maintain suites of wrestlers, revived the practice. The term also appeared at the same time, along with the more specific term , which referred to wrestlers attached to the patronage of local lords. With the emergence of etiquette, notable differences began to emerge to differentiate retainers of local lords from wrestlers who were not under the protection of a patron. were allowed to carry two swords, while wrestlers without patrons carried only one, or even a dagger. Wrestlers who took part in tournaments without the patronage of lords did not yet have samurai status or a salary and their finances depended largely on donations they could receive from the organizers of charity tournaments or admirers. Their participation was motivated in particular by the fact that they could be scouted by the lords' households, if their results or popularity were worthwhile, and by the fact that they were fed and housed for the duration of the tournament. In those days the promotion system was decided by the tournament organizers who then distributed the profits to the elders who then redistributed funds to their wrestlers, with the wrestlers under the protection of the lords receiving bonuses and having financial security and the others being kept in poverty.
The lords' wrestlers were given samurai status and a salary. They were allowed to participate as special guests in official tournaments organized with the approval of shrine authorities. During these tournaments, they represented the power of the domain in whose name they wrestled, and wore the lords' symbols on large aprons called . As representatives of their domains, wrestlers attended tournament matches at the foot of the ring, and made a point of contesting decisions unfavorable to their lords, as part of rivalries between clans. To avoid confrontations, it became customary to declare draws or postpone the decision on the outcome of a match.
Since professional sumo was intrinsically linked to the domains of the local lords, the sport also reflected their health and the political situation in Japan. During the Tenpō era, the feudal system was shaken by famine and rebellions, and the wrestlers who took part in the tournaments gradually withdrew to perform their duties at the households of the who maintained them. With this lack of the most popular figures, the public gradually deserted the tournaments, leading to a recession within the sumo associations. During the period, the feudal system collapsed, leading to a period of uncertainty about the future of the sport and therefore of wrestlers. Nevertheless, sumo had succeeded in establishing itself as a popular sport, recognized as the national sport, leading to the survival of the wrestlers' status.
Meiji Restoration and social movements
With the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system, wrestlers lost the patronage of the lords, who could no longer maintain households of their own. With the loss of income security and social status came a period of semi-censorship of sumo, with the adoption of Western ideology leading to the perception of sumo as unworthy of the new era, as the matches were seen as barbaric and the semi-nudity of the wrestlers shocking. With the disappearance of government protection, some wrestlers organized themselves into fire brigades. At the same time, political circles were organized to preserve some of Japan's indigenous traditions, saving the privilege of wrestlers to wear samurai (topknot) in 1871. With the absence of patronage on the part of the lords, a social crisis was also revealed among wrestlers, who now openly criticized the distribution of winnings from charity tournaments. When Emperor Meiji ordered a match to be held in front of him in 1884, wrestlers Umegatani I and Ōdate made such an impact on him that his attitude towards the sport was changed, and with it the attitude of imperialist groups calling for the abolition of sumo, restoring a semblance of popularity to the sport.
Although sumo itself continued, the Meiji period was also marked by the first social movements in the history of professional sumo. In the 1870s, the first wrestlers' revolt was organized by Takasago Uragorō (then still called Takamiyama) asking for better treatment (without initial success) and breaking away from the Tokyo-based association before merging again. After that initial movement, a number of reforms were introduced to adapt the competitions to Japan's new political and financial context, notably by distributing better salaries to wrestlers and basing the latter on results. Social movements in sumo did not cease, however, and in 1911 a strike by low-ranking wrestlers called for a new wage reform, securing a bonus (made up of payment in cash and a deposit in a pension fund) distributed to all wrestlers who were not or (professional sumo's top two ranks). In 1923, another strike known as the Mikawajima Incident demanded better pensions for wrestlers and was led by Ōnishiki, without success. Finally, in 1932 (Taishō era), the last major wrestlers' strike broke out with the Shunjuen Incident, calling for fundamental reform of the newly created Japan Sumo Association and leading to a mass resignation of wrestlers the likes of which professional sumo had never seen before. Eventually, the situation calmed down and sumo enjoyed a new boom in popularity, notably driven by Futabayama.
thumb|left|180px| [[Futabayama Sadaji|Futabayama signing a Good Luck Flag during the war.]]
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, sumo emerged as a sport of pride, driven by strong nationalist sentiment and taking hold where Western sports (such as baseball) were denounced. As ambassadors of national sentiment, sumo wrestlers were sent on tour to occupied Manchuria and China to perform in front of soldiers. With the turning point of the war in 1943, competitions were disrupted. The Tokyo bombings killed many wrestlers, and those who survived were either drafted into the army or navy, or incorporated into provincial work units. Popular figures in the sport were also forced to leave competitions, such as Tochinishiki who left the association to be drafted into the navy at Arai, Shizuoka during the 1944–1945 period; or Yoshibayama, then newly promoted in the division, who had been drafted during the 1943–1946 period and was shot in the left thigh.
In the 1960s, sumo wrestlers once again served as emblems of Japan, with the first international tours of professional sumo since the '30s. In the summer of 1965, Taihō, Kashiwado and Sadanoyama were part of a group of eight wrestlers who went to the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Russian government to perform goodwill matches. Since the wrestlers fought in (fighting loincloth), the press echoed the diplomatic rapprochement, dubbing the delegation the 'naked ambassadors.'
Lifestyle
The life of a is first and foremost oriented towards strict rules of absolute obedience and respect for superiors and seniors. Revolving around a strict hierarchy that may seem "outdated" or "feudal", the sumo wrestler's life is in reality based above all else on his own personal skills, since only his results–and the guarantee of more victories than defeats at official tournaments (called )–are the guarantees of his success. With success comes progression in the sumo hierarchy, which is not as much about rank as it is about status, the rank determining dress, earnings and treatment from peers.
A professional sumo wrestler leads a highly regimented life. The Sumo Association prescribes the behavior of its wrestlers in some detail. For example, the association prohibits wrestlers from driving cars, although this is partly out of necessity as many wrestlers are too big to fit behind a steering wheel.
Recruits
Recruiting young wrestlers is an essential aspect of perpetuating the sport's wrestling pool. Since the 1970s, sumo has developed an intensive scouting system. The largest stables have established scouting networks throughout the country, partly supported with the help of their nationwide patron organizations, with retired wrestlers and patron-club members acting as part-time scouts for the stables. It is also not rare for acquaintances of the master, or one of the stable wrestlers, to also bring potential apprentices to the stable. When on provincial tours, masters always lookout for potential talent. Despite all the efforts made by masters to attract new talent, it is often the case that young wrestlers are motivated to join the stable solely by the reputation and achievements of the current master.
Since 1973, all new aspirants must have completed at least compulsory education. In the Japanese education system, it means graduating from the six years of primary school and the three years of junior high school. As of January 2024, recruits are no longer subject to physical standards. However, these had always been subject to revision, with the introduction of a minimum of and in 2012,
In professional sumo, the majority of new aspirants sign up in March, the end of the school year in Japan. If a new recruit experiences a record rise and already reaches the status of before completing his course at the Sumo School, it is accepted that he may not take part in lessons, although all the wrestlers who have found themselves in this situation have decided not to make use of this right (such as Endō and Ichinojō). In 2023, Hakuōhō became the first wrestler in sumo's recorded history to earn his promotion to before attending any of the school's classes, nonetheless also deciding to participate in the lessons.
Ranks
Professional sumo classifies its wrestlers into six divisions, in addition to status, under which newcomers without status must first develop. In the highest division, the , there are five ranks. A parallel status to the traditional hierarchy also exists with the status of . This allows wrestlers who have competed and succeeded on the national amateur scene to begin their career at a more advantageous rank in the and divisions.
Statistics shows that only one wrestler in fifty makes it to the division, just one in a hundred becomes a wrestler, and only one in four hundred makes the rank. Hence, most wrestlers retire from professional sumo without ever having reached the salaried levels.
thumb|left|Low-ranking wrestlers carrying a 's belongings ([[Ryōgoku Kokugikan entrance in 2009)]]
The lowest ranked wrestlers are expected to obey and act as assistants to their coaches and to the wrestlers ranked as , meaning every wrestler ranked in or above. In the lower divisions, however, the question of seniority and rank brings some nuances to the way wrestlers are treated. In , the wrestlers no longer have to perform the most thankless tasks and have a few extra freedoms within the stable. In the division above, in , the wrestlers have even more rights and are considered experienced enough to teach the basics to young wrestlers. When they retire, wrestlers who have reached and spent enough time in are eligible for a job offered by the Sumo Association and a retirement gratuity.
In the stable, the senior wrestlers (even lower-ranked ones) have authority over their juniors and win the title of , allowing them to exercise authority, notably during training, over their ; meaning every wrestler with less seniority than them. However, exercise their authority in a brutal manner, and many of the violent scandals in professional sumo are their fault.
When a wrestler reaches the ranks, he becomes a and his daily life changes completely, with his daily needs taken care of for him. The difference in treatment between wrestlers classified as and those who are not is such that an expression says that the two statuses are 'like heaven and hell.' A -ranked wrestler has many privileges. He is assigned a minimum of one (assistant) who will act as his personal servant, helping him dress and prepare, carrying his belongings, helping him bathe, acting as a secretary or running specific errands on behalf of his superior. The higher a climbs in the hierarchy, the more assistants he is entitled to. Around the ring, are entitled to a number of small perks, such as personalized towels during pre-bout preparations. While waiting for their match, wrestlers ranked in the division are entitled to their own personalized waiting (cushion). These, often donated by sponsors, are made of silk with about 20 cm of padding and bear the wrestler's name. Backstage, the wrestlers are distributed in the preparation rooms according to their rank, the higher ranked a wrestler is, the further away from the door he is. At the top of the hierarchy, a is installed at the end of the room. To transport their personal belongings, use an , a bamboo and luggage box dating back to the Edo period. Each wrestler has an bearing his name. At the top of the hierarchy, a is allowed to use three, as he has more regalia.
Clothing and physical appearance
are bound by strict traditional dress codes. As they advance in their careers, wrestlers earn the right to wear certain clothing and accessories, meaning a wrestler's appearance generally indicates his rank. Wrestlers' dress codes have changed over the years. Before the Heian period, the wrestlers came to the ring with distinctive flower crowns to distinguish wrestlers from the eastern team (alcea flowers) and those on the western team (calabash flowers). This practice later gave its name to the , the two corridors through which wrestlers enter the ring. Wrestlers also wore loose-fitting front loincloths similar to but called .
Today's wrestlers are expected to wear the and traditional Japanese dress at all times when in public. It is common for wrestlers to receive their clothes as gifts.
The -ranked wrestlers and above have the right to wear formal costumes. It includes the right to wear pants and crested kimono and jacket (respectively called and ) fastened by a , a braided cord.
In , wrestlers can wear "". is a technique for removing the dye colour that can be adapted to any shape and considered to be of a higher-rank than simply sewing or embroidering the symbols a posteriori. The technique later gave its name to the clothing because the name of the wrestlers always appear in a different colour than that of the textile.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |Ranks
!Clothing
! belt
!Footwear
!Accessories
!Mawashi
|-
| rowspan="4" |-ranked wrestlers
|
| rowspan="2" |
| rowspan="3" |Crêpe-made or polyester belts
| rowspan="2" | sandals and bare feet
| rowspan="3" |None
| rowspan="4" |In training: cotton-made and black
During tournaments: coloured (of the wrestler's choice) are inserted into the training
|-
|
|-
|
|Kimono and simple surcoat (only for official occasions)
| rowspan="2" |Enamelled sandals and black tabi socks
|-
|Makushita
|Hand-made cloak and muffler
| rowspan="3" |Silk-made and patterned belts ()
| rowspan="3" |Oil-paper umbrella and scarf
|-
| rowspan="2" |-ranked wrestlers
|
|Crested (called ) and pants
| rowspan="2" | and white socks
| rowspan="2" |In training: cotton-made and white
During tournaments: colourful silk known as with seaweed-stiffened
|-
|
|-style with the wrestler's name and personalised designs
|}
The Japan Sumo Association is also able to regulate the physical appearance of its wrestlers. are expected to grow their hair long, in order to be worn in a style of , a topknot similar to the samurai hairstyles of the Edo period. Young wrestlers wear a simplified version, while wrestlers ranked in the two highest divisions ( and ) wear a more elaborate version called because it resembles the leaf of the ginkgo tree.
The association's statutes stipulate that wrestlers "must keep their bodies clean". For this reason, the Sumo Association has banned the wearing of beards since 2019, judging that it made wrestlers' appearance too dirty. It was common at the time for wrestlers to allow themselves to grow a designer stubble during tournaments out of superstition, fearing that shaving during a winning streak would attract bad luck and put an end to it. Similarly, wrestlers are expected to cut their fingernails short and tattoos are prohibited. For example, they are exempt from paying taxes on cash gifts received from individual supporters, although the gifts they receive from corporate supporters are taxed. According to former Gagamaru and Tochinoshin, Hakuhō (sumo's most successful wrestler) earned around ¥100 million a year (about US$646,840 and €607,200 as of April 2024) during his active years, all bonuses included. In addition, there is no pension fund as such in professional sumo. Wrestlers depend almost exclusively on the earnings generated by their success in the ring.
Wrestlers who are not earn allowance at tournaments as follows:
- : ¥3 million (about US$26,500 and €19,000)
- : ¥2.5 million (about US$22,000 and €16,000)
- and : ¥1.8 million (about US$16,000 and €11,500)
- : ¥1.4 million (US$12,500 and €9,000)
- : ¥1.1 million (about US$9,500 and €7,000)
In addition to the basic salary, -ranked wrestlers also receive additional bonus income, called , six times a year (once every tournament, or ) based on the cumulative performance in their career to date. Prior to the establishment of the salary, wrestlers were exclusively paid according to this system. Wrestlers in the lower divisions earned three yen for each victory and fifty yen for each score, with the amount increasing as they moved up the hierarchy. Various bonuses added at the time of promotions, championships and were also added. Today, the continues to be registered and paid, but as a complement to the salary, and the amounts have been recalculated.
receive an additional allowance every two tournaments, associated with the making of a new belt worn in their ring entering ceremony. Wrestlers who place in the category also receive bonuses. Also, prize money is given to the winner of each divisional championship, which increases from ¥100,000 for a victory up to ¥10 million for winning the top division. Immediately after the match, the winner receives an envelope from the referee with half of his share of the sponsorship, while the other half is put in a fund for his retirement. The organization meets six times a year at the venue of the upcoming tournament, the day after the is published.
Punishments
The Japan Sumo Association's statutes set out disciplinary measures for its wrestlers. These have been subject to change over time, mainly in the 2010s, after match-fixing and gambling scandals. Until 2014, punishments consisted of five levels, to which was added a so-called "extraordinary" level. The wrestlers were subject to (from lightest to heaviest punishment): reprimand, salary reduction, suspension, demotion and dismissal. An extraordinary sanction (the expulsion) was then eventually added to the dismissal that allowed the association to dismiss a wrestler without retirement pay. The expulsion was the most severe sanction in the disciplinary statutes. This required a three-quarters vote in favor from the board of directors, composed at the time of the directors, as well as and . Following the 2011 match-fixing scandal, 23 wrestlers were however expelled from the association. Although marking a historic milestone, the disciplinary decision also embroiled the association in a legal battle with Sōkokurai, the latter setting a precedent in the association's history by attacking and winning in court against the association in order to be reinstated.
In January 2014, the association shifted to a and the disciplinary statutes were amended, removing the sanction of expulsion and adding a recommendation to retire before the ultimate sanction of dismissal. In 2018, the sumo association also clarified its disciplinary rules, establishing a system for increasing penalties according to the rank of the concerned wrestler. On the subject of violence, a involved will therefore be subject to a sanction at least equal to a recommendation to retire due to their "social responsibility", a will not have sanctions lower than a suspension when wrestlers or lower normally risk a suspension at the most, The cutting of the topknot takes place in a dedicated ceremony called , even if the actually retire several months before the ceremony takes place. For the top-ranked wrestlers, however, the ceremony takes the form of charity tournaments, with non-stake matches, presentations of traditional sumo-related arts and performances by prestigious guests.
The ceremony can take place anywhere (and is often held in hotels), but a wrestler must have served at least thirty tournaments as a to perform his ceremony at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan.
Post-retirement career
thumb|upright|Former [[Takanohana Kōji|Takanohana (left) and Kitanoumi as , or elders (2013).]]
Sumo wrestlers who retire can take on responsibilities within the Japan Sumo Association. Wrestlers who become managers are called , more commonly known as and translated into English as 'elder' or 'master.' Becoming an elder ensures that the retired wrestler will become one of the 105 coaches of the association, responsible for training the wrestlers and for running the association.
Qualifications for becoming a master are determined by regulations: , , and only need one tournament at this rank to be considered for elder status. The luckiest manage to maintain their public profile by becoming TV personalities, sports commentators or actors. Most of them find themselves in activities unrelated to sumo and with no professional experience, having become wrestlers before their twenties and having had no other activities. Because they have no experience, most former wrestlers who find work also usually earn less than others in the same occupation. Sumo wrestlers who have fought in mixed martial arts include Akebono Tarō, Alan Karaev, Baruto Kaito, Henry Armstrong Miller, Kōji Kitao, Ōsunaarashi Kintarō, Tadao Yasuda, Takanofuji Sanzō, Teila Tuli and Wakashoyo Shunichi.
Numbers
Professional sumo has always had more wrestlers during periods of great rivalry between champions, with the record number of new apprentices taking the entrance exam set in 1958, at the height of the , with 250 successful candidates. At the beginning of the 90s, professional sumo divisions numbered around 900 , hitting a record-high of 943 wrestlers in the 1994 May tournament.
In the 2020s, however, professional sumo is struggling to recruit. The number of newcomers to the sport has never been so low since the introduction of the six-tournament-a-year system. In the early 2020s, professional sumo recorded a decline of more than thirty percent in the number of wrestlers, reaching only 665 competitors in 2022. Japan's declining birth rate has also been cited as the reason for the drop in the number of new recruits. To give newcomers the tools they need to integrate, the association requires a year's training at the Sumo School, instead of the 6 months normally required for Japanese recruits, so that foreigners learn Japanese cultural codes and know how to speak, read and write Japanese. The most conservative commentators criticize them for their lack of typical Japanese ; loosely translated as 'dignity' but meaning a balance of self-confidence, self-knowledge and self-control.
thumb|American-born [[Akebono Tarō|Akebono was the first foreign-born to reach sumo's highest rank of Makuuchi|.]]
The first non-Asian to achieve a significant success in sumo was Hawaii-born Takamiyama. He reached the top division in 1968 and in 1972 became the first foreigner to win the top division championship, becoming the first foreign wrestler to be truly popular in Japan. Takamiyama was followed by a fellow Hawaii-born Konishiki, of ethnic Samoan descent, the first foreigner to reach the rank of in 1987; and the Native Hawaiian Akebono, who became the first foreign-born in 1993. Musashimaru, born in American Samoa and raised in Hawaii, became the second foreigner to reach sumo's top rank in 1999. This generation of foreign wrestlers was nicknamed , to draw a parallel with the Americans who had conquered the country during the 19th century.
Between 2003 and 2014, all four wrestlers reaching the rank were Mongolian: Asashōryū, Hakuhō, Harumafuji and Kakuryū. In 2012, the Mongolian Kyokutenhō became the oldest wrestler in modern history to win a top division championship.
Wrestlers from Eastern European countries such as Georgia and Russia have also found success in the upper levels of sumo. In 2005, Kotoōshū from Bulgaria became the first wrestler of European birth to attain the ranking and the first to win a top division championship.
Restrictions on the number of foreigners allowed in professional sumo began in May 1992, shortly after Ōshima stable had recruited six Mongolians at the same time. The Sumo Association's new director Dewanoumi, announced that he was considering limiting the number of overseas recruits per stable and in sumo overall. There was no official ruling at the time, but no stable recruited any foreigners for the next six years. This unofficial ban was then relaxed, but only two new foreigners per stable were allowed, until the total number reached 40. He explained, there would be ten Hawaiian wrestlers in the same stable living in their own "little clique", not learning Japanese, so the rule "protects the culture of stables." Furthermore, since 1976, if a foreigner wishes to remain in the Sumo Association after his retirement, he must give up his nationality and become a Japanese citizen.
In July 2007, there were nineteen foreigners in the top two divisions, which was the all-time record of the time with, for the first time, a majority of overseas wrestlers in the top ranks. In June 2022 twenty-six foreign-born from nine countries were listed on the official .
During sumo's first golden age in the late Edo period, the Japanese collective imagination first developed an image of larger-than-life wrestlers, with a gentle character, an excessive appetite and a superhuman strength. Tales of thirteen-year-old Akashi lifting rocks to help his farmer father, Tanikaze separating two fighting bulls by grabbing them by the horns, or Shiranui lifting seven sacks of rice spread over his head and shoulders to impress Matthew C. Perry became popular myths and are credited to the wrestlers as biographical elements in their own right, like the stories of mythological heroes.
During the 1780s, wrestlers became veritable icons and card games and dolls depicting them became widespread. In order to benefit from the sport's popularity, some physically strong individuals, called , were introduced for the duration of one or two tournaments as wrestlers, serving as an attraction without having any real wrestling ability. Production and distribution of works depicting the sport's most popular figures also became more widespread, with authors like Utagawa Kunisada and Toyokuni, Hasegawa Sadanobu or Hiroshige who gained popularity thanks to their works. (picture books) and (erotic prints) were also mass-produced, with wrestlers as the central figures.
are highly regarded by many women who consider their imposing physiques to be the epitome of masculine perfection, with their fat and athleticism being considered sexy. Starting in the 2020s, fan communities grew significantly stronger with the influx of female viewers and influencers on social media, called , who display their passion for sumo and wrestlers on social networks in hype videos called . These fans are replacing the sumo viewer base that had traditionally consisted of older people. It is also traditional for children to be dressed as wrestlers so that the qualities of the latter influence them. It is also common for spectators to take advantage of the proximity of the wrestlers as they move through the (the two paths to the ring) to touch them, in the belief that this brings good luck. The Sumo Association ensures the health of its wrestlers by imposing an annual medical check-up. Sumo wrestlers have a life expectancy of 65, which is 10 years shorter than that of the average Japanese male, The main health concern for wrestlers, however, remains the common cold or any other type of viral infection, which are easily transmitted in the (wrestlers' training quarters) environment, where the low-ranking wrestlers' dormitories are conducive to disease transmission. This ease of infection was particularly closely monitored in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, giving rise to numerous concerns about the number of wrestlers that could be affected by the virus.
See also
- Glossary of sumo terms
- Professional sumo divisions
References
Notes
Bibliography
External links
- Article about the history of sumo wrestlers on the Japan Sumo Association website
- The Life of a Retired Sumo Wrestler, a 2018 Vice documentary on the life of former Iwatefuji and Takamaru
- , biography of Akebono Tarō via Wayback Machine
- List of youth leaders on the JSA official website
- List of caretakers on the JSA official website