Sumo: Inside Japan's Ancient Wrestling Tradition

Sumo is Japan's national sport, a form of full contact wrestling steeped in ceremony and centuries of tradition. Japan remains the only country where it is practiced at a professional level, and watching two enormous athletes collide in an instant of explosive power, after minutes of ritual and mental preparation, is one of the most distinctive sights in the country.

The sport traces its roots to prehistoric agricultural rituals meant to entertain the gods and pray for a good harvest, and the oldest recorded match between mortals is dated all the way back to 23 BC in Japan's earliest chronicles. Professional organization took shape during the Edo period, when many of the traditions still followed today, including training stables and tournament structure, first came together.

Every match takes place on a dohyo, a raised ring of hardened clay with a circle about four and a half meters across marked out by rice straw bales. The ring carries deep Shinto meaning, and wrestlers toss handfuls of salt before each bout as a symbolic act of purification, while the entire ceremony around the match, from the stylized stomping to the referee's elaborate robes, reflects centuries of ritual.

A wrestler wins by forcing his opponent out of the ring or down to the ground with any part of the body other than the soles of the feet, and the sport recognizes more than eighty official winning techniques. Wrestlers climb through six divisions over the course of a career, and the very top rank, yokozuna, is reserved for a select few grand champions who are expected to win tournament titles consistently once they reach that level.

Professional wrestlers live communally in training stables, where nearly every detail of daily life, from meals to the way they dress, follows strict tradition. Junior wrestlers rise around five in the morning for hours of practice and handle chores for their seniors, and the whole stable gathers for hearty midday meals of chankonabe, a protein rich hot pot that helps wrestlers build the size needed to compete at the highest level.

Six grand tournaments are held each year, each one running for fifteen intense days. Three take place in Tokyo during January, May, and September, while Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka each host one of their own, and the top ranked wrestlers always compete in the evening when the arenas are at their fullest. Catching a tournament live is an unforgettable way to experience one of Japan's oldest and proudest traditions.