Sumo (相撲) is Japan's national sport and its oldest. Its roots lie in Shinto ritual, not in athletics. Two wrestlers face each other in a round clay ring. The rules are almost comically simple. You win if you push your opponent out of the ring, or if any part of his body other than the soles of his feet touches the ground.
More ritual than fight
A bout usually lasts a few seconds, but everything around it takes much longer. Wrestlers throw salt into the ring to purify it. They stamp their feet to drive out evil spirits. They crouch and rise several times before the referee lets them start. Workers build the ring, or dohyō, fresh from packed clay for each tournament, and priests bless it beforehand. Above it hangs a roof shaped like a shrine. Women still may not step into the ring. The sport defends this rule as a matter of ritual purity. Critics call it plain exclusion.
A life, not a job
Wrestlers live in training stables called heya, usually from their teens. Strict rules govern almost everything: what they eat, when they sleep, what they wear in public and even how they do their hair. Young wrestlers cook, clean and serve the senior ones. Rank decides everything. After each of the six tournaments of the year, officials set the ranks again, so a wrestler can rise or fall fast. The top rank is yokozuna, or grand champion. It is the only rank that a wrestler never loses because of defeats. When a yokozuna stops winning, tradition demands that he retire instead.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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土俵 (dohyō): the raised clay ring. Workers rebuild it for every tournament. People treat it as sacred ground, not as sports equipment.
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横綱 (yokozuna): the highest rank. It takes its name from the thick woven rope that the champion wears around his waist. The same kind of rope marks sacred objects at a shrine.