Sumō for the “Kami”: Three Japanese Festivals Preserving the Sport’s Ritual Roots

When the autumn ōzumō season approaches at the Takahama Hachiman Shrine in Nagasaki, priests offer up sake, washed rice, salt, and meat of the flying fish at the ritual ring in an invitation to the kami. (© Haga Library)

A hulking sumō wrestler is tossed about by an unseen opponent. (© Haga Library)

At the rice planting Otauesai ritual, 16 saotome, or rice planting maidens, wear red and white paper noshi charms on their heads as they plant rice seedlings. (© Haga Library)

At the Nukihosai, nukiho otome maidens wearing the same costume harvest and offer up the first heads of rice to the kami. (© Haga Library)

Wrestlers dance in a circle to sumōjinku songs filled with hometown pride. (© Haga Library)

Children in sumō mawashi belts walking in line playing taiko drums attached to green bamboo poles. In northern Kyūshū, they call the autumn festival kunchi. (© Haga Library)

Families cheer on the children’s matches. (© Haga Library)

Toddlers under one year take the ring covered in gift envelopes filled with money. (© Haga Library)

The top three ranks of east and west sides face off in warizumō. (© Haga Library)

Wrestlers for the ritual matches enter the ring wearing decorated mawashi belts offered by sponsors and perform sumōjinku songs. (© Haga Library)

The ring is in a bowl-shaped hollow, with the surrounding slopes creating natural stadium-style ground seating. (© Haga Library)

The okuyumi is an intense head-on battle. (© Haga Library)

The two new ōzeki are lifted on their comrades’ shoulders and carried through the streets of the town. (© Haga Library)