Sumo

• Japanese: 相撲 (sumou)

Sumô, or sumo wrestling, is considered the "national sport" of Japan, and is often said to be a tradition going back to the most ancient times. Indeed, there is a line of development that can be traced, linking sumô to stemming originally from ancient festival rituals; however, like nearly all things in culture, it evolved and changed dramatically over time, and much of what is considered "traditional" about sumô today actually became fixed or standard only in the Meiji period.

Sumô was originally performed as part of shrine festivals, as part of Imperial court ceremonies such as osechie, or as part of military parades in which lords or officials "showed off" their best strongmen in front of the Emperor. As late as the 1500s, there was no wrestling ring; wrestlers performed sumô in an open, unmarked, area.

It was in the Edo period that sumô became more of an entertainment form. By the 1750s, sumô was often being performed in a ring, under a roof, with a referee, and spectators who paid to see the match. Ostensibly, most such performances/matches were kanjin-zumô, being performed in order to help raise money for Buddhist temples. This framing context was necessary for the matches to be permitted under Tokugawa shogunate policies. However, in their actual practice, these matches shared much with the realm of entertainment: spectators bought food and drink at the event, and took breaks from watching the show to patronize teahouses nearby; further, certain wrestlers attracted considerable popularity, and were featured in ukiyo-e woodblock prints, becoming popular stars much like kabuki actors or famous courtesans.

Many sumô wrestlers served individual domains or lords, in a role akin to goyô shônin; some were granted the right to bear a surname, and to wear swords. They often traveled across the archipelago, or simply within a given region, to engage in symbolic battle against other domains, on behalf of their lord.