SUMO BEHIND THE FOLD
The past two weeks have been leading to this moment. The atmosphere is electric; bento boxes are placed to one side, cameras flash, thousands of men, women and children sit on the edge of their seats. In the middle of this great hall, two giants stare one another down, masses of muscle and fat. After drinking ‘strength water’ and throwing salt over the ring to purify it, they stomp their feet to ward off evil spirits. “Hakkeyoi,” yells the referee, waving a general’s battle fan, dressed in a Kamakura-style kimono, as screams erupt all around. It’s over in an instant as the two slap, trip and grab at one another’s belts, desperately trying to unbalance the other or throw them out of the ring.
Sumo is a sport where ancient rituals almost trump the act itself. Though its lineage goes back 1,500 years, from back-alley brawls to imperial harvest rituals, modern sumo is the culmination of many strands of Japanese wrestling.
Wrestling is one of the most ancient of sports – with loincloth-clad grapplers depicted in Mesopotamian sculptures as early as 5,000 BCE. Japanese mythology traces its own wrestling back to a legendary bout, won by a thunder god. However, the earliest known historical form of Japanese wrestling was ‘grass’, or village, wrestling, which may have been included in
