A Brief History of Sumo Wrestling

In Japan, religion and ritual meld with everyday events in such a way as to formulate enactments of a prized yet hazy historical precedent. Such is certainly the case with the national sport of sumo, the history of which stretches back two thousand years and its mythological origins, doubtlessly thousands more. In accordance with a reverence for the traditional in Japanese culture, the sumo ring and the rituals concomitant with a sumo match all continue today to reflect the humble Shinto roots of the sport: the roof of the ring is built in much the same way a Shinto shrine would be, and the wrestlers wear ropes on their belts reminiscent of those hung at a shrine in kind.

Unsurprisingly, sumo has in the modern age experienced has in its copious rules and rituals what may be best called ossification. On the other hand, recent decades have ushered in a divisive influx of foreign sumo wrestlers, prominent and no, who have forever altered the character of the sport in however debatably subtle or superficial a way. With Sumo seemingly on the cusp of either a resurgence of insular policymaking, or a push for its increased exportation, the various issues at stake are now being weighed by the parties involved. But where one of these factions is in a sense Japan's sonorous cultural leviathan itself, a resolution may be even more elusive than anyone anticipates.

Foreigners have been visible in the sumo ring since before World War II, but as most of those wrestlers were ethnically Japanese, American-or Brazilian-born recruits or Japanese nationals of Chinese heritage, they made little impact as foreigners per se. It was only in the 1970's, after the Hawaiian Takamiyama became the first foreigner to win a professional sumo cup, that a threat to the establishment was perceived. After a 21-year career Takamiyama retired to head his own sumo stable, which he populated liberally with Hawaiians. One of his own recruits, Akebono, achieved the most prestigious rank in sumo of yokozuna in 1993; he was the first foreigner to do so.