The ancient roots of sumo

In the beginning — a wrestling match between gods

The oldest account of sumo in Japanese mythology appears in the Kojiki — the Record of Ancient Matters, compiled in 712 CE and the oldest surviving chronicle of Japanese history. The contest it describes does not take place in human historical time at all. It belongs to the age of the gods (神代, kamiyo) — the mythological era the Kojiki places before human history began, for which no date can be given.

According to this account, the fate of the Japanese islands was decided not by war or negotiation, but by a wrestling contest between two deities. The god Takemikazuchi, sent by the heavenly deities to claim the land of Izumo, challenged the earthly deity Takeminakata to single combat. When Takemikazuchi seized Takeminakata's arm, it crumbled like a reed. When Takeminakata attempted to seize Takemikazuchi in return, he could not move him at all. Takeminakata fled and surrendered, and the heavenly deities claimed the Japanese islands.

This story is not simply a colourful creation myth. It established sumo as a sacred activity connected directly to the gods — a form of divination in which physical contest could reveal divine will. That spiritual weight never entirely left the sport. The rituals still performed before every bout today — the salt, the stomping, the purification — are direct descendants of this Shinto inheritance.

Nomi no Sukune — the father of sumo

The first sumo contest set in human historical time appears in the Nihon Shoki — the Chronicles of Japan, compiled in 720 CE. Where the Kojiki's wrestling match takes place among gods in a timeless mythological age, this account names a specific year — traditionally dated to 23 BCE — a specific emperor, and two named human wrestlers. Emperor Suinin summoned a renowned strongman named Nomi no Sukune from the province of Izumo to face a challenger named Taima no Kehaya, who had boasted that no man in the land was his equal in strength.

The contest was brutal by any standard. Nomi no Sukune kicked Taima no Kehaya in the ribs, breaking them. He then stamped on his opponent's lower back and killed him. What is described in the chronicle bears little resemblance to the disciplined, rule-bound sport of today — there were no ring boundaries, no prohibited techniques, and no survival of the loser. It was closer to a fight than a match.

Yet Nomi no Sukune is venerated in sumo tradition as the sport's founding father. His shrine stands in Sumida, Tokyo, and he is formally enshrined at the Tomioka Hachimangu — the shrine most closely associated with the sport's history. Every year, professional rikishi make a ceremonial visit. The lineage from myth to modern practice is treated as unbroken.

Sumo at the imperial court

By the Nara period (710–794 CE), sumo had moved from legend into recorded institutional practice. Emperor Shōmu is credited with establishing sumai no sechie — the Imperial Sumo Ceremony — in 734 CE, an annual event at which wrestlers from across the provinces competed before the emperor and court. This was not entertainment in any casual sense. The ceremonies were tied to prayers for a good harvest, and the outcomes were read as omens of the coming year.

The sumo of this era differed from what we would recognize today in almost every respect except its fundamental premise — two men trying to force each other from a position of standing. There was no standardized ring. There were no weight divisions. The matches could be extremely violent. But the structure of regional selection, central competition, and imperial observation established patterns that would persist for centuries.

The gradual accumulation of rules

The Heian period (794–1185 CE) saw the first tentative codification of sumo. Prohibited techniques began to be recorded — striking the face with an open hand, pulling hair, and biting were among the earliest banned moves. The contests became somewhat less lethal. Regional sumo traditions developed distinctive styles. The sport began to look, very distantly, like something a modern fan might recognize.

The collapse of the imperial court's central authority in the late Heian period did not destroy sumo — it dispersed it. Warriors adopted it as training. Temples and shrines held sumo gatherings to raise funds. The sport survived the political fragmentation of the medieval era by becoming embedded in communities rather than dependent on imperial patronage.

Edo Japan and the birth of professional sumo

The foundation of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, and the long peace of the Edo period that followed, created the conditions in which professional sumo could finally emerge. With political stability came economic growth, urban expansion, and a merchant class with money to spend on entertainment. The city of Edo — today's Tokyo — became the centre of a new popular culture, and sumo was one of its defining spectacles.

The first organized professional sumo tournaments — called kanjin-zumo, or charity sumo — were held in Edo temples and shrines, ostensibly to raise funds for construction and repair. In practice they were entertainment events with substantial prize money, regular scheduling, and a growing class of professional wrestlers who trained specifically for competition.

The dohyo takes shape

It was in the Edo period that the physical form of the contest stabilised into something recognisable. The circular ring — the dohyo — became standardized, marked by bales of rice straw (tawara) sunk into the clay. The boundary rules were formalised: a wrestler who stepped outside the ring or touched the ground with anything other than the soles of their feet lost the bout. The elaborate pre-bout rituals — the salt throwing, the leg stamping, the ritual facing-off — became established practice during this era.

The ranking system also took root in Edo. The banzuke — the hierarchical ranking sheet published before each tournament — was first issued in a recognisable form in the 1750s. The yokozuna rank, sumo's highest honour, was formalised and elevated during the late Edo period, transforming what had been a ceremonial rope licence into the sport's supreme title.

The great beya emerge

The Edo period also saw the establishment of the beya system — the training beya that remain the organizational backbone of professional sumo today. Master wrestlers who had retired from competition took on pupils, trained them, housed them, and managed their careers. Rivalries between beya became as important as rivalries between individual wrestlers. The institutional culture of professional sumo — hierarchical, insular, intensely traditional — was formed in this era and has changed less than almost any other major sport.

The Japan Sumo Association and the modern sport

The formal establishment of the Japan Sumo Association (Nihon Sumō Kyōkai) in 1925 marks the conventional boundary between historical and modern sumo. The JSA standardized the rules, professionalized the administration, and began the process of expanding tournaments from the traditional ten-day format to fifteen days — the format used today. The sport that had evolved organically over two millennia was now an institution with governance structures, broadcast rights, and a commercial identity.

But the Shinto rituals remained. The salt remained. The dohyo remained, built and consecrated before each tournament according to centuries-old practice. The roots planted in the mythology of the Kojiki — sumo as sacred contest, as the resolution of cosmic disputes through physical excellence — are still visible in the ceremony of every bout fought today.

That continuity is not accidental. It is the deliberate choice of a sport that has understood, from its earliest days, that its deepest appeal is not merely athletic. Sumo is Japan's longest-running performance of its own identity.