大相撲 — 番付と力士の生活

Grand sumo is Japan's national sport, run by the Japan Sumo Association around six honbasho main tournaments held each year. Each tournament runs for 15 days, with rikishi fighting one bout per day, and their next ranking is determined by whether they finish with a winning or losing record.

The current annual schedule is completely fixed. January is the Hatsu-basho at Ryogoku Kokugikan (Tokyo); March is the Osaka spring tournament at EDION Arena Osaka; May is the summer tournament again at Ryogoku; July is the Nagoya tournament at Dolphins Arena; September is the autumn tournament at Ryogoku; and November is the Kyushu tournament at Fukuoka Kokusai Center.

The banzuke has a strict pyramid structure. The highest rank is yokozuna, followed by ozeki, sekiwake, and komusubi (collectively the "san'yaku"). Below them are maegashira from rank 1 down to about rank 17. This is the makuuchi top division. Below that come juryo, makushita, sandanme, jonidan, and jonokuchi.

A rikishi's morning starts early, with morning practice beginning around 5 AM. They train intensely on an empty stomach, then after practice eat large amounts of chanko nabe as a late breakfast/lunch combination. It is traditional to take a nap after eating, and this is an important habit for gaining weight. Afternoons are for individual practice and chores, and they finish dinner and go to bed early.

Every rikishi must belong to a sumo stable, where they live communally. The Sumo Association currently has about 40 stables, and stablemasters (toshiyori) instruct their disciples as masters. To become a stablemaster, one must inherit a hereditary "elder stock," and only 105 such stocks exist. Stables are tied to regional and lineage groups, divided into ichimon factions like Dewanoumi, Nishonoseki, and Tokitsukaze.

Grand sumo is not merely a sport but has long had the character of a Shinto ritual. A roof is installed over the ring, and tassels representing the four guardian deities hang from the four directions. Rikishi scatter salt before bouts to purify the ring, and the shiko stomp is said to drive away evil spirits from the earth. The white rope worn by yokozuna is modeled after the sacred shimenawa rope, and yokozuna have been regarded as the existence closest to the gods.

From the late 1990s, the success of foreign rikishi became prominent, with Akebono and Musashimaru from Hawaii being successively promoted to yokozuna. Entering the 2000s came the era of Mongolian wrestlers, with Asashoryu, Hakuho, Harumafuji, and Kakuryu — successive yokozuna almost entirely from Mongolia. Hakuho in particular achieved an all-time record of 45 makuuchi championships and is considered by some the greatest in sumo history.

A series of scandals shook the Association's credibility: the 2007 disciple hazing death at Tokitsukaze stable, the 2010 baseball gambling scandal, the 2011 match-fixing scandal, and the 2017 assault incident by Harumafuji. The match-fixing scandal in particular forced the first cancellation of a honbasho since the war, and many rikishi were driven into retirement.

The slumping popularity gradually recovered from the second half of the 2010s. When Kisenosato was promoted to yokozuna in 2017 — the first Japanese yokozuna in 19 years — the Kokugikan sold out day after day. Currently, with the rise of young rikishi like Onosato and Hoshoryu, combined with the growing female fanbase ("sumo joshi") and overseas tour popularity, sumo is searching for its next era.