Sumo: Tradition, Religion, and Sport
By Nikolas Broy
In Capcom’s 1991 arcade hit Street Fighter II, a sumo wrestler takes center stage as one of two representatives of Japanese martial arts. The figure of E. Honda, a slightly fictionalized version of traditional Japanese sumo 相撲, incorporates elements of Japanese bathing culture and kabuki theater face paint known as kumadori 隈取. Despite the controversial inauthentic portrayal which caused a stir after the game’s release, Honda embodies many of a sumo wrestler’s typical elements, such as his specific, heavyweight physique, the characteristic topknot, and, of course, the fighting moves. However, sumo wrestling is not just a sport. It is a cultural icon that is deeply intertwined with - and representative of - Japanese culture.
Referred to as rikishi 力士, or “strongman,” sumo wrestlers are more than just their weight, needing to be not only formidable, but also flexible and fast. As agile as many other martial artists, they train to do straddle splits (matawari 股割), leaning forward and touching the ground with their chests. The rules of the bouts—to avoid touching the ground with anything other than one’s feet and leaving the dohyo 土俵 (the fighting ground)—benefit the rikishi’s specific mix of maintaining high weight, keeping a low stance, and using one’s speed, strength, and flexibility to overpower one’s opponent in an instant.
And yet, by displaying traditional dress, manners, and Shinto 神道 practices, rikishi are much more than sports stars. They epitomize elements of Japan’s premodern culture that are absent in the lives of most other modern citizens, serving as public embodiments of what many Japanese consider the innermost essence of Japanese culture. Through sumo’s connection to mythical origin stories, borrowings of Shinto beliefs and rituals, and usage in Japanese nation-building and identity, it is obvious that sumo is far more than just a sport – it’s a cultural symbol, a storied tradition, and a spiritual practice that has continuously captivated audiences for countless centuries.
ORIGINS OF SUMO
The history of sumo goes back hundreds of years, but it did not look exactly the way it does today. Until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, sumo served as a catch-all term for various forms of wrestling in diverse social settings and for entirely different purposes. Its origins are far from clear, yet wrestling has played a pivotal role in Japanese society for most of its documented history.
One of the earliest extant pieces of writing in Japan, the Kojiki 古事記 (Record of Old Things), composed in 712 CE, claims that two gods, Takemikazuchi 建御雷神 and Takeminakata 建御名方神, competed for rulership over the Japanese islands through sumo. Having prevailed over his opponent, Takemikazuchi’s victory allowed the supreme sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami 天照大神 to establish a line of progeny from which Japanese emperors claim to be descendants. Even though the account is clearly mythological, it is significant to note how sumo is portrayed as a means to decide the fate of the Japanese islands. Some researchers have claimed sumo’s Chinese origins, which is not unlikely because the second half of the first millennium CE was the heyday of importing everything Chinese, from language, political institutions, architecture, dress, and religion to many other aspects of Chinese culture. However, although older Chinese documents refer to wrestling by using the same kanji characters, pronounced xiangpu 相撲 in modern Mandarin, there is not substantial evidence to decide whether Chinese xiangpu really influenced Japanese forms of wrestling or if the kanji were adopted just because they refer to similar combat practices.
Early Japanese documents show that, in the Heian period, wrestling was an integral part of ceremonial meetings and rituals practiced at the imperial court in Heiankyo 平安京 (present-day Kyoto). Known as sechie zumo 節会相撲, it was performed at specific dates of the year to foretell the will of the gods. These performances were not open to the general public but served ceremonial and divinatory functions in addition to entertaining the nobility. By contrast, villagers seem to have performed wrestling bouts to ensure fertility and prosperity, especially at the beginning of the annual harvest season. In the sixteenth century, a new form called kanjin zumo 勧進相撲 (literally “encouraging [donations] sumo”) emerged in the context of shrine and temple communities that held sumo tournaments as fund-raising activities to collect money to reconstruct temple buildings. Drawing on this model but seeking individual profit, street corner sumo bouts (tsuji sumo 辻相撲) emerged in the seventeenth century, attracting many spectators. Because these non-regulated fights repeatedly resulted in outright brawls and were thus considered harmful to social order, they were eventually banned by the Tokugawa government. However, as time progressed, the practice of sumo gradually became codified into the sport we see today.
SUMO AND SHINTO
In contemporary Japan, sumo is most closely associated with Shinto, “the way of the kami,” which is usually credited as Japan’s indigenous religion. While it is true that belief in and veneration of kami 神 (gods) originated in Japan, over the centuries, its practitioners adopted a wide range of ideas and practices from Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and popular beliefs. Kami can refer to all kinds of deities, ranging from deified persons to the gods of trees, mountains, and streams. One of Shinto’s crucial concerns is the pursuit of purity, as pollution is regarded as the source of physical, psychological, spiritual, and moral decay. The same holds true for sumo. Before each bout, the referee, dressed in ceremonial court attire of the Heian period (794–1185), which also resembles the robes of Shinto priests, purifies the fighting ground by burning salt, kelp (konbu 昆布), dried squid, and chestnuts in the center of this space and by pouring sake onto the straw boundary of the dohyo. When a wrestler performs the “ring-entering ceremony” (dohyo-iri 土俵入り), he will clap his hands, just as one attracts a kami’s attention before delivering one’s prayer at a Shinto shrine (jinja 神社). He will also sprinkle salt every now and then to purify the dohyo. Finally, extraordinarily mighty, skilled, and dignified wrestlers are promoted to the highest rank of yokozuna 横綱, which means “horizontal rope.” The name refers to the custom of granting the grand champion the honor of wearing a white rope around his waist, which resembles the shimenawa 注連縄 used in Shinto practice to mark off an object, such as a tree, as a living deity.
Yet, sumo’s close association with Shinto is a relatively recent product, enforced by ambitious advocates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who sought to promote sumo as the epitome of traditional Japanese culture and values. After centuries of war, havoc, and disunity, the Tokugawa rulers of the early seventeenth century sought to instill a sense of community that had not existed before, as Japan was separated into various domains reigned by powerful and aspiring daimyo 大名. During this period of relative peace and prosperity, many Japanese martial arts experienced processes of rationalization and regulation, which eventually helped create the martial arts we know today.
By contrast, pre-Edo-period sumo’s religious associations were much more diverse. For instance, the term rikishi, which is commonly used to address sumo wrestlers, seems to have been inspired by the two Buddhist Nio 仁王 guardian deities. Also referred to as kongo rikishi 金剛力士 (literally “diamond-thunderbolt strongmen”), the two figures protect the faith and can be found at the entrance of many Japanese Buddhist monasteries. As specific manifestations of the bodhisattva Vajrapani (“holder of the diamond-thunderbolt”), their impressive physique, muscular tone, and naked upper bodies closely resemble how sumo wrestlers were depicted in the premodern age.
Before sumo was gradually steered towards being viewed as a sport, it figured prominently in countless popular tales about monsters, beasts, and other uncanny beings. Some of these stories warn readers of the possible dangers of encountering hybrid human-animal creatures who like to challenge humans to a match, such as the mischievous water goblin kappa 河童 that is sometimes depicted in ape shape. Similarly, the famous tengu 天狗 were also sometimes described as wrestlers, which is why, in certain areas, plain spaces on the mountains were called “sumo sites of the tengu” (tengu no sumoba 天狗の相撲場). Through these associations, sumo overlapped with the supernatural, the stuff of legends instead of public spectacle.
SUMO AND THE MODERN NATION-STATE
By the eighteenth century, sumo had become an emblem of national identity, enriched with new meanings that linked it to nativist discourses about Japaneseness, tradition, and belonging. With the exception of only a ten-year hiatus during the early Meiji period (1868–1912), when Western-inspired reformers considered scantily clad rikishi uncivilized, sumo’s success story continued beyond the 1880s with even greater might. When, in 1909, a permanent venue was finally established with the “National Sports Hall” (kokugikan 国技館) in Tokyo’s Ryogoku District 両国, sumo had already been elevated to the rank of “national sport” (kokugi). Having been established on the precinct of a Pure Land Buddhist temple, Eko-in 回向院, a significant venue for sumo tournaments since the late eighteenth century, it highlights sumo’s long-standing relationship with Buddhism.
The early twentieth century also marks the beginning of sumo’s gradual globalization, when, in 1907 and 1911, respectively, the grand champion Hitachiyama Taniemon 常陸山谷右衞門 (1874-1922) toured the United States and Europe. In 1907, he even met President Theodore Roosevelt and performed at the White House. Despite this century of global recognition and the evolution of amateur training groups and tournaments around the world, the professional sumo world continued to be very much Japanese, as the official Japanese Sumo Association (JSA) required, and still requires, participants to cherish Japanese tradition, carry a Japanese name, and conform to a Japanese lifestyle. The JSA is a highly conservative organization that has repeatedly been criticized for its handling of gender issues. Because it still bans women from entering the dohyo, the JSA’s attempts to elevate sumo to the rank of Olympic sport have not been met with the desired results. Yet, despite its claims, women’s sumo (onna sumo 女相撲) has been widely documented in historical sources since the eighth century. In the Edo period, female sumo was a popular form of public entertainment and was practiced until the 1950s in the context of rain-securing rituals.
In contemporary times, a rikishi’s rigid daily regimen consists of intense training, household duties, and socializing with sponsors. Contrary to what one might think, the meals customarily consumed by sumo wrestlers twice a day, a savory, slow-cooked, protein-rich 'chanko' ちゃんこ stew with vegetables and noodles served over rice, is nutritious and quite healthy. Most rikishi enter apprenticeship as adolescents, during which time, they live in one of the approximately fifty training houses across the country. There, the boys and young men live, train, and eat together under the guidance of a retired sumo wrestler and his wife, who often serve as surrogate parents, especially for the younger ones. Through this intense lifestyle with little opportunity for a private life, they evolve into highly skilled sportsmen ready to use their weight, speed, and flexibility to outmaneuver opponents during very short bouts (often lasting less than fifteen seconds) within the less than 5-meters in diameter 'dohyo.'
Even in the modern age, ties to sumo’s historic origins continue. The chonmage, for instance, recalls an age when this haircut was compulsory for most samurai during Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868). Along with many other modernist reforms of the early Meiji period, this haircut was banned in 1871. Today, sumo wrestlers and kabuki performers remain the only groups maintaining this hairstyle as part of their identities. Saturated with many cultural and religious symbols, practices, and connotations, sumo thus continues to represent a link to Japan’s past, which distinguishes it from other popular sports, such as baseball and soccer.
Yet, it remains to be seen what the future holds for sumo. Recent social and cultural changes within Japan, the growing awareness of gender issues related to the sport, such as the ban on women entering the dohyo, and the rising popularity of sumo worldwide—for two decades already, Mongolian wrestlers have dominated the sport—have obfuscated what this tradition represents. As well, young Japanese seem less interested in the tradition than their peers a few decades in the past. However, in times of socioeconomic crises and globalizing cultures’ increasing impact on regional and national identities, it is likely that sumo will continue to embody cardinal values, symbols, beliefs, and practices associated with Japanese tradition, culture, and religion. Like E. Honda, the Street Fighter character, whose figure and stage fuse Japanese wrestling, public bathing houses (sento 銭湯), kabuki face paint, and many visual elements into a coherent experience, sumo is expected to maintain its unmistakable Japanese identity.
About the Author: Trained in Religious Studies and Chinese Studies, Nikolas Broy’s work engages with religion in East Asia, especially Buddhism, non-official religious groups and “sects,” religion and food, material aspects of religion, and globalization. During his research in Japan, he explored various aspects of Japanese religious culture, including “martial monks” in medieval Japan to contemporary Sino-Japanese new religious movements.
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