What is Japanese Sumo
Sumo in Japan is a sport that is ritual at the same time. It is very curious because it is one of those rituals that are very old within Shintoism that is lost a bit between myth and legend, it is believed that all these rituals were done from the beginning of the Japanese tradition as a type of offering to the gods to show who was the strongest.
Normally this was done only by powerful people, that is, the feudal lords, the most powerful priests, but little by little it was opened to more people. Already in Edo, for example, there were professional Sumo wrestlers who were totally from an amateur field, let’s say so, who started growing little by little and dedicated themselves to this professionally.
And good to talk a little more directly about Sumo, Sumo is fought in a ‘dojo’ (fighting arena) that is circular, this ‘dojo’ is normally made of clay covered with sand and is a sacred place, for the same reason it has to be purified with a ritual and salt has to be thrown into it to drive away evil spirits.
Building the “Dojo” or Sumo combat arena.
Altar in which an offering is presented to the gods so that there are safe combats.
It has very basic rules that are in practice in order to win a fight between two of the fighters, one of them must fall to the ground, that is, touch any part of their body other than the sole of their foot on the ground or get out of the ‘ dojo’. To do this, they have very specific rules about what is allowed and what is not, for example: you cannot pull your opponent’s hair, you cannot give him direct blows such as punches or kicks, although it is possible when pushing yourself to slap or slap even if you do not It must be with the intention of hitting to hurt, you cannot hit low blows or grab low areas obviously, you cannot choke your opponent or make holds to try to choke him, although it is possible that while pushing you will hit the neck of your opponent and this is not punishable, you should not hurt your opponent’s eyes either.
