In the United States basketball, football and baseball dominate the sports arena. Each hold a special spot embedded in the history of this country. In Japan, sumo wrestling holds a special spot imbedded in their history. Since the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I decided to look at the country's rich history and most popular sports. Unlike basketball, which was discovered in 1891, sumo wrestling goes back to 23 B.C..
Japanese found the origin of the sport in old paintings and legends. In one legend, it was said a god, Take-Mikazuchi, fought and won against his rival, Take-Minakata. This fight was all done sumo wrestling style. From that point on, sumo wrestling became tied very closely to religion in Japan. Some might find it to be a source of their everyday entertainment, but way back in history, sumo was performed to the Gods to ensure good harvests for the next year, and to entertain them. Today, some Sumo wrestling is Japan's national sport and is one of the oldest types of martial arts. The Record of Ancient Matters is the first book that mentions the sport and that it is of a royalty in the country. So if you go over to Japan for business and the company invites you to a match, consider it a huge honor and do not decline. Just get over the notion of huge guys basically dressed in a Speedo type thing.
However, not every guy is completely overweight. A magnificent thing about this sport is the matches do not take long to compete at all. The opponents stand in an elevated ring they refer to as a dohyo. This ring is made up entirely of clay and then a layer of sand is put on top of that. The sand basically acts as a buffer and eases the fall. To win a fight, the opponent must make the other wrestler touch the ground with anything that is not the soles of his feet, or the other guy just chooses to leave the ring. It is extremely rare for a fight to last over a minute. So expect to see a man fall down and lose within seconds of the match beginning.
In sports in the United States, the champion is given a title of state winner, gold medal Olympian, and so on. In Japan, the highest honor a sumo wrestler can achieve is yokozuna, which means grand champion. Now in the United States, if you were a state or division champion, you have to fight for the title all over again the following year. Once you are named a grand champion in sumo wrestling, the title can never be taken away from you. The Japan Sumo Association will expect a grand champion to retire once their records become worse, and many retirees join the association.
To become grand champion, a lot of time and effort is taken into the wrestler's training. The lifespan of a wrestler is between the ages of 20-35. It is tradition for all the wrestlers to live and train together all in one complex which is called a stable. In the stable, the men are expected to live, eat and breathe the sport while following the strict orders of their coach, called a stable master. Unlike in America where wrestlers have to stay within a certain weight range, there is no weight range in sumo wresting. So a 250-pound guy can wrestler a 350-pound guy any given day. Their diets consist of a lot of meat, fish and vegetables.
Overtime, sumo wrestling's popularity has grown outside of Japan. In the 1880's Sorakichi Matsuda, a sumo wrestler, left his country and went to the United States. He became the first pro wrestler for Japan and was soon followed by Shokichi Hamada. Not long after these two stepped onto American soil were they bringing back American wrestlers to Japan for matches.
If you ever end up in Japan there are wrestling tournaments held all year, six lasting 15 days each. These tournaments are help in January, May, September, March, July and November. Three of these are held in Tokyo, while the other three are in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. These tournaments are enriched with tradition, honor and athleticism. You just have to dig deeper and see past the outfits.
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