Seems like many of the comments are just low forehead locker room humor (and yes, some of it’s even funny). However, Sumo is both a sport and a martial art. It’s a very old martial art, dating back nearly 1400 years (where it was done to the death). The entertainment sport we recognise today evolved from this martial art, around 400 years ago. Sumo wrestlers (called rikishi) train extremely hard to compete in han bashos (recognised tournaments). Only the top two divisions are paid a regular salary, so competition is fierce and a rikishi can lose his standing/pay from one basho to another (basho are held 6 times a year). So, king of the hill one day, bottom of the pile the next. Rikishi weight varies, but the average is 400 lbs. A great deal of this weight is fat. The rikishi gains weight, primarily by eating a fish/chicken stew, rice and beer. They do not each “garbage” or whatever they want. They simply eat two large meals a day with a high calorie content to give them greater mass and make them harder to move. Unfortunately, this also gives rikishi a greater chance of developing diseases such as diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver (from the beer they drink). However, their bulk is not just fat. If you actually watch a rikishi, you will see developed muscle in the leaner areas. This developed muscle is all over a rikishi and if you stripped away the fat, you’d be left with a very muscular guy. There are two primary ways to win a bout. Push the opponent out of the ring or get him to touch the ground (with something other than the soles of his feet). Pushing a 400 lb guy is not an easy job and of the allowable manuevers (82 currently) for forcing an opponent down, several involve lifting the opponent over your head and throwing him. If this doesn’t convince you that rikishi are very strong, I don’t know what will. All in all, Sumo is a very interesting sport. Most matches last a few seconds. Some a few minutes. There is a great deal of ceremony and ritual attatched and rikishi must observe these rituals both in and out of the ring, throughout their daily lives. Sumo has slowly caught on worldwide, with rikishi from countries other than Japan competing in traditional Japanese basho as well as national and annual international competitions. In addition, sumo as a sport is learning to modernize some aspects of itself, by admitting women and easing its requirments on rikishi weight. Thus helping to promote healthier atheletes why keeping the spirit of the sport. I hope this quick overview has convinced some of you that Sumo is both a martial art and a sport. I also hope that it has interested some of you enough to take a closer look and even try to watch some sumo. There are quite a few places on the net that you can see scenes from past sumo matches.

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