Sumo for Mixed Martial Arts. Andrew Zerling
matches, normally scheduled every two months, is the sole source of his livelihood and opportunity for promotion. The result is extremely stressful training and living conditions for the rikishi. This high-stress ranking structure could be seen as similar to the one in MMA competition. In MMA, if a fighter wins a championship belt, he will usually have to defend that belt or be demoted and therefore paid less, although MMA fighters tend to have fewer matches per year than a professional rikishi.
The strict hierarchy of sumo reflects traditional Japanese values. With higher rank come higher privileges. In sumo, it does not matter what your social status is; rank is achieved only through winning official tournament sumo matches. Grand Champion Akebono states, “If you want to understand sumo, you should watch the practice instead of the tournaments. In practice you can see what a difference ranking makes. It is what sumo life is based on.”9
Also, most other martial arts competitions, especially the unarmed variety like karate, judo, and MMA, have weight divisions, unlike professional sumo. So it is not uncommon for a smaller rikishi to face a rikishi two times his size. This forces the smaller rikishi to be very technical in his fighting style to compensate. The soon-to-be-discussed rikishi Mainoumi is a prime example of this. Small but successful, he was well known for his very technical fighting style.
Unranked sumo wrestlers in training. On May 2, 1998, young unranked sumo wrestlers at the Tomozuma Stable in Tokyo end their daily workout routine with a ritualized dance that emphasizes teamwork.
(US Navy photo courtesy of M. Clayton Farrington, Wikimedia Commons.)
There are many major distinctions between professional sumo and amateur sumo. Professional sumo is practiced only in Japan, while amateur sumo is mostly found in Japanese schools and to a lesser extent other parts of the world. Professional sumo has no weight divisions while amateur sumo does have weight divisions. Professional sumo is a way of life as compared to the part-time training in amateur sumo. The strength and skill in professional sumo is amazingly higher than in amateur sumo. Top amateurs would have trouble surviving against professional sumo’s higher-division rikishi.
Professional sumo matches are always performed on a dohyo while amateur sumo matches many times take place on a simple matted surface. Also, females are allowed to compete in amateur sumo, but in professional sumo, not only are females not allowed to complete, but according to Japanese religious beliefs, females are also not even allowed to touch the dohyo as this will bring bad luck to the matches. And finally, much of the traditional sumo ceremony is gone from amateur sumo.
The dream of every young wrestler is to become yokozuna, or grand champion. But most of those dreams will burst.… It’s a very harsh world.
—Wakamatsu Oyakata, sumo coach and elder10
Print of sumo wrestler, ca. 1848. Notice that this rikishi carries two swords just as the samurai did. Sumo is closely linked to samurai tradition as can be seen with the use of the samurai topknot hairstyle in sumo tradition.
(Library of Congress, LC-DIG-jpd-00715.)
The winning moves in sumo are called kimarite. At this time, the Japan Sumo Association recognizes eighty-two types of kimarite, but only about a dozen are used regularly. In actuality more than half of sumo bouts end in victory after a push (oshi), grip (yori), or slap or thrust (tsuki). These eighty-two distinct winning moves include different combinations of gripping, pushing, thrusting, throwing, leg tripping, twist downs, backward body drops, and specialized moves. As stated earlier, kimarite are usually referred to as sumo’s winning moves or finishing moves. In fact, at the end of a sumo match, an official will actually announce which kimarite was used to win the match.
Sumo’s techniques were developed more than a thousand years ago. From the early Edo period (AD 1603–1867) there are lists that describe throws that still mirror many of the kimarite used today. The history of the kimarite goes back to the medieval Japanese era when there were the traditional forty-eight kimarite or shijuuhatte (forty-eight hands). However, in 1960 the Japan Sumo Association recognized a total of seventy kimarite. In the last three decades sumo has been internationalized in that a large percentage of rikishi in the top professional divisions are non-Japanese. The influx of foreign rikishi has influenced the techniques of sumo. Among the top influences are the following:
The holds of folkstyle and Greco-Roman wrestlingThe charge of American footballThe techniques of Korean wrestling (ssireum)Since the late 1990s, Mongolian grappling (the greatest influence)
Moves such as leg picks and rear throws out of the ring could not be explained by traditional kimarite. In response, the sumo elders studied the ancient records searching for new techniques to add to the kimarite list. In 2001, twelve new kimarite were added to make a total of eighty-two kimarite. Some of the new kimarite include rear lift out (okuritsuridashi) and underarm-forward body drop (tsutaezori), which is performed by ducking under the opponent’s armpit. Stablemaster Oyama, a walking encyclopedia of sumo, said, “Kimarite is part of sumo culture. We think of them as our treasure.”11
Sumo techniques.
(Photo © Sahua, Dreamstime.)
In this chapter, we saw that there are solid arguments for thinking sumo is the root of jujitsu. We also considered some well-known martial artists who include sumo in their martial arts training. Then we introduced the history and practice of sumo, and finally we looked at the evolution of sumo’s winning moves (kimarite). The chapter “Sumo Wrestling Case Studies” will uncover the techniques and tactics of sumo in depth; “Sumo and MMA” will expose the technical connections sumo has within MMA; and the final chapter will illustrate sumo’s winning moves from an MMA perspective in detailed photos.
Two sumo wrestlers are performing shiko, which is executed ritually to drive away bad spirits from the dohyo before each bout. Shiko, foot stomping, is a signature sumo exercise where each leg is lifted as straight and as high as possible to the side while maintaining good posture, and then brought down to stomp on the ground with tremendous force. In training at the sumostable, shiko may be repeated hundreds of times in a row. This is amazing conditioning, especially because the rikishi are greatly known for their monstrous power and explosiveness, not their flexibility.
(Photo courtesy of Yves Picq, Wikimedia Commons.)
Two sumo wrestlers making the initial charge (tachi-ai) at each other at the beginning of a match. The initial collision of two rikishi can generate an incredible one ton or more of force.
(Photo courtesy of Gusjer, Flikr.)
CHAPTER 2 Sumo Wrestling Case Studies Introduction
In this chapter, we will study a specially selected group of professional rikishi for their wrestling style. As you will see, some wrestlers’ body types and fighting styles can vary dramatically, and their bouts can be quite interesting when they get together