Sumo Sport & Tradition. J. A. Sargeant

      

      SUMO

      SUMO

      the

       sport

       and the

       tradition

      by J. A. SARGEANT

      CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY

       Rutland, Vermont Tokyo, Japan

      European Representatives

      For the Continent:

       BOXERBOOKS, INC., Zurich

      For the British Isles:

      PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London

      Published by the

       Charles E. Tuttle Company

       of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo. Japan

       with editorial offices at

       Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032

      © 1959 by the Charles E. Tuttle Company

       All rights reserved under the Berne Convention

       and the Universal Copyright Convention

      Library of Congress

       Catalog Card No. 59-5993

       ISBN: 978-1-4629-0422-8 (ebook)

      First printing, 1959

       Sixth printing, 1964

      Printed in Japan

      Table of Contents

1	In Days Gone By	7
2	Born Sumoists	12
3	The Road to Stardom	16
4	Grand Tournaments	23
5	Sumo Ranking	26
6	"Psychological Warfare"	32
7	The Techniques of Sumo	36
8	Grand Champions	47
9	Pageantry	56
10	The Referee	65
11	The Honorable Judges	69
12	So Clean and Gentlemanly	72
13	Sumo Nomenclature	76
14	"Off Duty"	84
15	The Charm of Sumo	88
	ILLUSTRATIONS
1	Tokitsukaze, president of the Japan Sumo Association	17
2	Preliminary to a bout	18
3-4	Sumo in action	19
5	Chiyo-no-yama performing the dohyo-iri	20
6	Tochinishiki performing the dohyo-iri	37
7-10	Sumo in action	38-40
11	Sumo throws	42-43
12	A former grand champion in action	57
13-14	Former grand champions performing dohyo-iri	58-60
15-16	Grand Champion Waka-no-hana and friends	77
17-20	Sumo in action	78-79
21	Bow-twirling ceremony	80

      CHAPTER 1

      In Days Gone By

      The West has its "sport of kings." Japan, in Sumo, has her "sport of emperors."

      Tokyo's famous mecca of Sumo, the Kuramae Kokugi Hall, has a conspicuous royal box. When Emperor Hirohito takes his seat there, gazing in loving admiration on the colorful spectacle that unfolds before him, he is but following age-old tradition. With a difference, however. Nowadays the emperor goes to Sumo; in the old days Sumo went to him.

      Even in ancient times the imperial court, the story goes, resounded with the stamping of the feet of the Sumo giants, and down the years the emperors as well as the great warrior-lords who ruled Japan during the Middle Ages have been ardent devotees of this manly sport. The first recorded and perhaps most famous bout of all