is a form of

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

played by women. Professional sumo traditionally forbids women from competition and ceremonies. Women are not allowed to enter or touch the sumo wrestling ring (''

dohyō A ''dohyō'' (, ) is the space in which a sumo wrestling bout occurs. A typical ''dohyō'' is a circle made of partially buried rice- straw bales 4.55 meters in diameter. In official professional tournaments (''honbasho''), it is mounted on a squ ...

''). Despite this, women sumo wrestlers have existed through history and exist in the present day on an amateur level.

History

The first recorded instance of women performing sumo, according to the '' Nihon Shoki'', is when

Emperor Yuryaku An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

(418–479) summoned two courtesans and ordered them to wear loincloths and to sumo wrestle. Women's sumo would not become common until the 18th century in the middle of Edo (1603–1868), when a form of ''onna sumo'' was performed in some areas of Japan. Various types of women's sumo existed, including touring professionals. These continued to exist after the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

,''Seeing Stars: Sports Celebrity, Identity, and Body Culture in Modern Japan'' (2010, Dennis J. Frost; ), p. 48. until women's sumo was cracked down upon by the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

and

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

, as they deemed the organizers of it to be corrupting public morals with these spectacles. Women's sumo continued to exist despite a government ban in 1926. The practice would only die after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, with the last group dissolving in 1963.

Modern times

Female sumo is not considered to be authentic by most Japanese and is now prohibited from taking place in professional settings, but exists on an amateur level. The

International Sumo Federation The International Sumo Federation (IFS) is the largest international governing body of sport Sumo with over 87 member countries. It was formed in 1992 and is the only Sumo organization recognised by the International Olympic Committee and World An ...

and its events (such as the

Sumo World Championships The Sumo World Championships is an amateur sumo competition organized by the International Sumo Federation. The men's competition started in 1992 and the women's competition started in 2001, with both competitions having been held together. The com ...

and

European Sumo Championships The European Sumo Championships are two rival sumo competitions organized by the European Sumo Union (ESU) and the European Sumo Federation. A split occurred in 2012, where two rival championships were held, the ESU event taking place in Hungary ...

) allow female competitors.

Women's Sumo is a form of sumo played by women. Professional sumo traditionally forbids women from competition and ceremonies. Women are not allowed to enter or touch the sumo wrestling ring (''dohyō''). Despite this, women sumo wrestlers have existed throu ...

is an event at the

World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...

and was also featured at the 2013 World Combat Games. The first national championship for amateur women's sumo was held in 1997. The rules are identical to professional sumo, with the exception that the wrestlers wear leotards under a

mawashi In sumo, a is the loincloth that (sumo wrestlers) wear during training or in competition. Upper ranked professional wrestlers wear a as part of the ring entry ceremony or . For top ranked professional , it is made of silk and comes in a var ...

, and the matches last three minutes instead of five minutes like the ones in professional sumo.

Notable female sumo wrestlers

* Hiyori Kon * Miki Satoyama * Sharran Alexander * Julia Dorny * Hetal Dave *

Edyta Witkowska Edyta Witkowska-Popecka (born 24 July 1979 in Przysucha) is a retired Polish wrestler and sumo wrestler. Career Witkowska won a bronze medal in the Sumo heavyweight event at the 2005 World Games in Duisburg and a silver medal in the Sumo-open we ...

Seika Izawa is a Japanese mixed martial artist, currently competing in the atomweight division of Rizin Fighting Federation. She is the current Jewels Strawweight and Rizin Super Atomweight champion. As of January 3, 2022, Izawa is ranked as the best ato ...

Epp Mäe Epp Mäe (born 2 April 1992) is an Estonian freestyle wrestler. She won the silver medal in the women's 76 kg event at the 2021 World Wrestling Championships held in Oslo, Norway. She won a bronze medal at the 2015, 2019 and 2022 World Wrestl ...

* Anna Zhigalova * Vera Koval *

Svitlana Iaromka Svitlana Mykolayivna Iaromka ( ua, Світлана Миколаївна Ярьомка, born 9 April 1989) is a Ukrainian judoka. She is the 2016 European silver medalist in the +78 kg division. Iaromka repeated her success next year. ...

* Sandra Köppen * Maryna Pryshchepa * Yonamine Chiru * Françoise Harteveld

In popular media

* a 2018 Japanese film about women's sumo wrestling in the 1920s. * ''On'nazumou'' (女相撲), a TV drama written by and broadcast in 1991 by

TBS Television TBS may stand for: Entertainment * Taipei Broadcasting Station, a radio station in Taipei, Taiwan * Tokyo Broadcasting System, a stock holding company in Tokyo, Japan ** TBS Television (Japan), a television station ** TBS Radio, a radio stati ...

. It won the 1992 Broadcasting Culture Fund Award Main Award and the 1992 Television ATP Award Excellence Award. Nana Kinomi, who plays the role of Hanamidori Master, won the 18th Broadcasting Culture Fund Award Performance Award. * Women's Sumo featured as subject of the Season 4 Episode 3 of , a documentary drama-style historical cultural program broadcast on NHK General TV. * Women's Sumo is the subject of the manga ''Rikijo'' (りきじょ), written and illustrated by Utamaro and published in Gekkan Action between 2013 and 2015. * In video games, Hinako Shijou from

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

's ''The King of Fighters'' series is a female sumo wrestler and one of the limited examples in the medium. She debuted in ''

The King of Fighters 2000 ''(KOF 2000, or KOF '00)'' is a fighting video game that was produced by SNK for the Neo Geo arcade and home consoles in 2000. It is the seventh installment in ''The King of Fighters'' series for the Neo Geo and the final game in the series SNK ...

'' as part of the "Woman Fighters Team". * In the film '' Sumo Do, Sumo Don't'', a woman character pretends to be a male sumo wrestler.

References

Bibliography