The contest
Force your opponent out of the ring, or make any part of his body except the soles of his feet touch the clay. That is the whole game. No rounds, no points, no clock - most bouts are over in under ten seconds.
F1 / Start here
New to sumo? Start here.
Sumo is Japan's national sport and a living Shinto ritual: two wrestlers, a clay ring, and a contest usually settled in seconds. This atlas goes deep on the data - but if you are new, these four ideas make everything else legible. Read them, then follow the links out.
The ranks
Every wrestler sits on one ranked ladder, the banzuke. The top division is Makuuchi; its summit is the yokozuna, the grand champion. Winning records move you up, losing records drop you down - the ladder is redrawn every tournament.
The calendar
Six grand tournaments (honbasho) a year, one every two months, each fifteen days long. A wrestler fights once a day. Eight wins is kachi-koshi, a winning record - the number that decides who rises and who falls.
The spectacle
The salt, the stomping, the stare-down, the embroidered silk aprons - almost everything around a bout is centuries-old Shinto ritual. The referee carries a war-fan and points it to the winner.