Sumo Wrestling
Sport is a very important part of Japanese culture. Almost all popular sports are played in Japan and most of these sports are imported and become popular in the country. There are many professional sports in the country such as tennis, golf, skating, rugby, soccer and baseball. But Sumo Wrestling and Martial Arts are the traditional sport of Japan, of which Sumo is the one considered the National sport of Japan.
Sumo is often called "kokugi" in the Japanese media and by the population in general, and kokugi is a phrase that most dictionaries translate as "national sport." Also, sumo is held in a stadium known as Kokugikan - with “kan” meaning hall or stadium. 카지노 Sumo wrestling is a full-contact sport played in a circular ring known as “dohyo. Sumo is like ‘Judo’ and it is recognized as one of the ten officially recognized as Japanese Martial Arts, founded in 1987.
Sumo is said to have its roots in a Shinto dance ritual in which the most powerful men show their strength in front of the kami (gods or spirits) as a sign of respect and gratitude to bring a good harvest. Later, it was used as a way to compare strength and identify those warriors who were most skilled in hand-to-hand combat.
Each day of the tournament (basho), a ring entry ceremony, in which the body and spirit of each wrestler undergo purification. Yokozuna wears a mawashi with five white zigzag folded pieces of paper on the front, similar to those seen at the entrances of Shinto shrines. In front of all the mawashi are the sagari, which are pendants of twisted rope placed on the belt, and they represent the sacred ropes in front of the altars. The numbers of the strings are odd, between seventeen and twenty -one, which are lucky numbers in the Shinto tradition. And of course, the salt thrown in before each fight is an agent for cleansing and one of the most visible rituals of sumo.
The Origin and the Wrestler of Sumo
The origins of sumo wrestling go back nearly two thousand years, and are affiliated with the Shinto religion. There are Legends that say that there is a clash between two great we (god), one is “God of Thunder” and the other is “God of Wind”. In the test of strength, the god of thunder was victorious, and claimed Japan as his power. The Japanese are said to worship the god of thunder, who was brought to his new land.
Sumo wrestlers are called rikishi, literally "mighty men." Although we may think that a rikishi needs to be fatty or large, it is a fairly modern trend. Sumo has no weight classes, so it is considered beneficial to be bigger than your opponent in a wrestling tournament.