Sumo Wrestling and Shinto
A Look at the Sport's Origin and Current Place in Japanese Culture
Jul 12, 2009
For all its brute suggestion, sumo wrestling is a sport steeped in religious ritual. The earliest sumo bouts, dating back to the seventh century A.D., were sponsored by the Japanese imperial court to ensure a good harvest for the coming year. One ancient legend has the emperor Seiwa winning the Japanese throne after a sumo wrestling match in A.D. 858.
The role of Japanese history reflected in sumo cannot be overstated. Each match is surrounded by a dazzling array of pageantry worthy of its beginnings as a rite of Japan's national religion, Shinto. A massive reproduction of the roof of a traditional Shinto shrine hangs above each clay ring wherein sumo matches take place, which is why wrestlers sprinkle a handful of purifying salt before them each time they step into the ring.
Sumo's Profile in Japanese Society
Alongside baseball, sumo wrestling easily ranks as Japan's most popular spectator sport and its competitors are among the most revered in Japanese society. Upon reaching the exalted rank of a grand champion, a sumo wrestler automatically becomes an apprentice to the Shinto faith, adding even more ritual obligation to his already highly visible social role. The religious overtones which permeate sumo also act to reinforce its somewhat insular status as a Japanese-only sport.
Only a handful of foreigners have ever been allowed to compete and even fewer have managed to elevate themselves to sumo's upper echelons - often due to little more than the historically xenophobic mind-set within the Japan Sumo Association's governing board. Indeed, "Japan Sumo Association" is almost a redundancy.
Sumo Wrestlers Esteemed as Top Athletes
The universal admiration received by sumo wrestlers from their countrymen is an interesting contrast in notions of physical appeal between societies. Obviously, no western sport encourages its athletes to gorge themselves on food and then sleep to promote maximum weight gain (in body fat!).
Yet these men (there has never been a female sumo wrestler) are seen as being at the top of their form at an average of 350 pounds! The largest wrestler in the history of sumo - a Hawaiian-born westerner, no less - weighed in at an astonishing 600-625 pounds!
Top wrestlers can earn the yen equivalent of over $100,000 annually (not including divisional championship bonuses and sponsorships). Tegatas, large cards bearing their autographed handprints, can be sold in the neighborhood of $8000. More often than not the object of parody in the west, the sport of sumo is to the Japanese more than simply a sport. It is a matter of honor, status, tradition and national pride.
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