The History of Sumo - The Meiji Era

[Guest Jake]

Hi,

I'm doing a little research about the changes that were broght into sumo by the Emperor Meiji, but I wasn't able to locate any information on this matter myself.

I'd appreciate it if anyone could refere me to any sources of information were I could learn about sumo before and after the Meiji Restoration: changes in rules, changes in the lifstyle of the rikishi, changes in the status of the rikishi, changes in the status of sumo itself, etc...

Thansk.

[Jonosuke 28]

Actually I don't know any single book that can offer you the information in English. Old Sumo World magazines used to have some information as well as I recall a brief history on Mina Hall's excellent sumo book.

But I can briefly get you going and whet your appetite.

As you can imagine with the arrival of the new Meiji Era and all the confusion surrounding the demise of old feudal system wrecked a havoc in Ozumo.

In the Edo era rikishis were under the care of regional lords. Basically they were employed as samurai and whenever there was a tournament, they competed for their lord. They did not have to make a living competing as rikishi as a full time employment. With the new age, they had to give up their sword and were even threantened to cut their mage. They were only able to keep the mage as there were enough politicians who loved sumo.

But the people's perception on sumo was downright ugly as sumo was dismissed simply as a relic from the old era. The popularity of sumo fell drastically as the general public considered it as nothing more than a barbaric naked dance.

Rikishi worked hard to reverse the trend by helping to build what is now known as the Yasukuni Shrine as well as becoming firefighters.

But the rikishi had to be on their own to earn a living. Sumo Kyokai did not change and they operated exactly the same way as before. There was no formal salary structure for rikishi to get paid even if they competed for a full basho. There were often troubles between rikishi and a few oyakatas who controlled the operation and pocketted all profits.

In the second year of Meji, the 12th yokozuna Jinmaku returned to Osaka to develop Osaka sumo. He started to organizing Osaka sumo getting active support from local businessmen (current sumo term "Tanimachi" meaning

supporters of rikishi comes from an area in Osaka called Tanimachi where these supporters were initially located).

With the shift of sumo acttivities to Osaka and Kyoto encouraged the House of Gojyo, Kyoto based rival and nemesis of the House of Yoshida Tsukasa to seize the power from the Yoshida by granting yokozuna license to no less than four rikishi to Osaka and Kyoto sumo. With their wild issuing of yokozuna license, the authority of yokozuna plummetted and it also contributed to more demise of publicly held sumo tournaments.

What likely saved Ozumo to a complete collapse was the Meiji Emperor's attendance of a sumo exhibition in 1884 which saw the birth of new yokzouna Umegatani Totaro (who specifically requestd the license from the House of Yoshida Tsukasa). Umegatani faced (later ozeki) Odate Uzaemon which ended in a draw after a mizu-iri (Odate grabbed Umegatani's mawashi so hard that he could not get his hands to come off). The Emperor was so pleased with their efforts and soon people started to flocking back to the basho.

[Guest Jake]

Firstly, I thank you for the reply.

But what are you saying is that the actual rules of sumo hasn't change at all?

Also, what about an official ranking? What was the payoff of a rikishi for winning more bouts that losing (other than the prestige)? An what about heyas - did they exist prior to Meiji?

[Jonosuke 28]

I am not sure what you mean by the official rules of sumo but if you have gone back 150 years and witness Tanikaze and Onogawa bout, you will recognize it as a sumo bout. The shikiri and dohyo itself were different. Up to a certain time there were two dohyo rings and dohyo size and shikiri lines weren't identical to what we have now.

As for their pay scale, there were no consistent salary structures as mostly the current system was put in place after 1950 or so.

Prior to the Meiji Era you can think of sumo as what we have now for professional wrestling. One time there were all kinds of promoters started up sumo tournaments all over Japan. These events tended to attract unemployed samurais and drifters and the authorities decided to enforce them with strict control. And this was a start of more official sumo tournaments centering around Tokyo (Edo), Kyoto and Osaka with an official permission from the local authority. The banzuke's "Gomen Koumuru" writing is a relic of those times as they needed to post the "Gomen" plate at their venue to show they had a license to have the public exhibition.

Retired rikishis felt they needed to form an organized group with other like minded rikishi so they could operate regularly scheduled tournaments and the toshiyori names they took still remain with us to this day. Initially there was no establishment as what we know today as a heya but the need arose after the Meiji Era when sumo became more commercial minded enterprise.

The House of Yoshida Tsukasa has been authorized to act as an official purveyor and overseer of sumo and they licensed yokozuna and gyoji as well as other professional workers for sumo events held throughout Japan but they mostly focused their efforts in the Tokyo Sumo. Their influence became stronger with the success of Tokyo Sumo, the predecessor of the current Kyokai. The relationship with the House of Yoshida Tsukasa started from the time of Lord Nobunaga Oda to yokozuna Chiiyonoyama.

[Sasanishiki 57]

As Jonosuke has suggested, the Meiji Emperor didn't change any of the rules or anything about sumo as such. He did begin a revival of interest in sumo by merely turning up himself. This then encouraged others to give sumo a second look.

If you are interested in some of the changes that have taken place in sumo, including the use of trappings that suggest a much more ancient history than professional sumo actually has, then look at the following chapter:

Thompson, Lee A. "The Invention of the Yokozuna and the Championship System, or, Futahaguro's Revenge." In Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, edited by Stephen Vlastos, 174-87. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

THis book is unlikely to be in a public library but would be in a university library with a half-decent section on Japan.

Also of interest would be Kenji Tierney's PhD Dissertation from Berkeley. He looks at the changes in the appreciation of sumo in the Meiji period based on attitudes towards the body, and particularly the athletic body. It would be harder to get hold of, but if you are at university then you may be able to access it online from the Digital Dissertations database (depends if your college has a subscription or not). The citation is:

Tierney, Roderic Kenji. "Wrestling with Tradition: Sumo, National Identity and Trans/National Popular Culture." PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2002.

I am making assumptions that this research is for a college paper and therefore you may be able to access some of this material. If it is not for a college paper but for some other level of schooling then you may have bitten off more than you can chew because getting the materials to help you will be difficult. If it is for personal interest then Jonosuke has given you a good spring board and these books will further your knowledge.

[Kintamayama 41,271]

Also of interest would be Kenji Tierney's PhD Dissertation from Berkeley. He looks at the changes in the appreciation of sumo in the Meiji period based on attitudes towards the body, and particularly the athletic body. It would be harder to get hold of, but if you are at university then you may be able to access it online from the Digital Dissertations database (depends if your college has a subscription or not). The citation is:

Tierney, Roderic Kenji. "Wrestling with Tradition: Sumo, National Identity and Trans/National Popular Culture." PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2002.

I am making assumptions that this research is for a college paper and therefore you may be able to access some of this material. If it is not for a college paper but for some other level of schooling then you may have bitten off more than you can chew because getting the materials to help you will be difficult. If it is for personal interest then Jonosuke has given you a good spring board and these books will further your knowledge.

Really nice guy, a member of the SML (at least used to be). Was present at the 1998 CDFCSF (Chanko Dinner for Celebrated Sumo Fans) at Terao's brother's place. I think he helped out at the KKan during Tokyo Bashos.

[Guest Jake]

What I mean when I ask if the rules has changed, I mean the tornaments. Nowadays, if a rikishi wins at least 8 out of the 15 bouts in a single tournaments, chances are he gets promoted in ranks, which means more prestige for himself and for his heya, a bigger salary, endorsements, etc...

What interests me is whether this is the way things used to be before. How was a rikishi promoted, based on his hoshitori and what did he earn from a win.

I found this this website, describing the scores in all the official tournaments that took place in Japan since 1757, but I don't really understand the older hoshitori - there are many kinds of draws, and some of the tournaments have an even numbers of days (like 10).

I need this for a seminarion paper I'm working on. I'm trying to determin the statistical likelihood of a rikishi to raise in ranks based on his performance in the current tournament, as well as his former tournaments. I know such works have been done, using data on current day sumo, I'm just trying to apply these models to the old days and see if they work for the Edo period. If not, then I need to understand what happened to sumo in Meiji's time that changed this.

[Sasanishiki 57]

What I mean when I ask if the rules has changed, I mean the tornaments. Nowadays, if a rikishi wins at least 8 out of the 15 bouts in a single tournaments, chances are he gets promoted in ranks, which means more prestige for himself and for his heya, a bigger salary, endorsements, etc...

Well, I'm not sure about how rankings were done as the tournament system used to be different and there were draws allowed (two kinds). Read Thompson's chapter to get an idea of these sorts of changes.

[Asashosakari 16,974]

What I mean when I ask if the rules has changed, I mean the tornaments. Nowadays, if a rikishi wins at least 8 out of the 15 bouts in a single tournaments, chances are he gets promoted in ranks, which means more prestige for himself and for his heya, a bigger salary, endorsements, etc...

What interests me is whether this is the way things used to be before. How was a rikishi promoted, based on his hoshitori and what did he earn from a win.

I found this this website, describing the scores in all the official tournaments that took place in Japan since 1757, but I don't really understand the older hoshitori - there are many kinds of draws, and some of the tournaments have an even numbers of days (like 10).

I've only looked into this very briefly, but as far as I can tell the 19th century banzuke-making is pretty much incomparable to the modern days. Keep in mind (as Jonosuke already alluded to with his comparison to pro-wrestling) that sumo was more of an entertainment event back then, and not so much an athletic competition. As you've seen at Gans' hoshitori site, there are plenty of draws (sometimes to "protect" the more prestigious rikishi, I understand), lots of absences across the tournament, and in general there was much less "structure" to everything, for lack of a better word; not to mention that it was primarily a team (East side vs. West side) competition.

I doubt that kachi-koshi and make-koshi mattered to the same extent they do now. In fact, from looking at a handful of banzukes and records from early Meiji, it seems that there was only some minor shuffling among the ranks to (very roughly) reflect the recent results, and new rikishi were entering Makuuchi often only because somebody retired and freed up a spot. I'm not sure when things started to look more like today's system, but ~1870 definitely wasn't that point in time yet.

Randomly picked example, 1877.01:

East Rikishi	Record	New Rank	Rank	West Rikishi	Record	New Rank
Sakaigawa Namiemon	4-0-5	Oe	Oozeki	Raiden Shin'emon	5-2-1-1d	Ow
Urakaze Rin'emon	4-1-4d	Se	Sekiwake	Asahidake Tsurunosuke	4-2-1-2d	Sw
Oomatoi Chiyokichi	2-4-2-1a	M1e	Komusubi	Shachinoumi Umekichi	4-2-1-2d	M1w
Wakashima Kyuuzaburoo	7-1-1a	Ke	M1	Umegatani Tootaroo	8-0-1	Kw
Koyanagi Tsunekichi	1-1-6-1a	M2e	M2	Musashigata Inosuke	3-2-1-2d-1a	M2w
Shikainami Seidayuu	0-0-9	M4e	M3	Tegarayama Katsuji	5-2-2d	M3w
Katsunoura Yoichiemon	3-3-2d-1a	M3e	M4	Aratora Keinosuke	0-0-9	M4w
Onogasaki Senkichi	3-5-1d	M5e	M5	Sanoyama Kookichi	0-0-9	M6w
Kiyomigata Mataichi	2-3-2d-2a	M6e	M6	Kimenzan Tanigoroo	3-3-3a	M5w
Nageishi Kikujiroo	4-5	M7e	M7	Katsuyama Yoshizoo	0-6-2-1d	M7w

(d = draw, a = azukari, other trailing numbers without a letter = absences)

So there was some obvious minor adjusting to account for the excellent performances by the two M1 rikishi, but other than that, not a whole lot changed.

Edited April 12, 2007 by Asashosakari

[Guest Jake]

Randomly picked example, 1877.01:

East Rikishi	Record	New Rank	Rank	West Rikishi	Record	New Rank
Sakaigawa Namiemon	4-0-5	Oe	Oozeki	Raiden Shin'emon	5-2-1-1d	Ow
Urakaze Rin'emon	4-1-4d	Se	Sekiwake	Asahidake Tsurunosuke	4-2-1-2d	Sw
Oomatoi Chiyokichi	2-4-2-1a	M1e	Komusubi	Shachinoumi Umekichi	4-2-1-2d	M1w
Wakashima Kyuuzaburoo	7-1-1a	Ke	M1	Umegatani Tootaroo	8-0-1	Kw
Koyanagi Tsunekichi	1-1-6-1a	M2e	M2	Musashigata Inosuke	3-2-1-2d-1a	M2w
Shikainami Seidayuu	0-0-9	M4e	M3	Tegarayama Katsuji	5-2-2d	M3w
Katsunoura Yoichiemon	3-3-2d-1a	M3e	M4	Aratora Keinosuke	0-0-9	M4w
Onogasaki Senkichi	3-5-1d	M5e	M5	Sanoyama Kookichi	0-0-9	M6w
Kiyomigata Mataichi	2-3-2d-2a	M6e	M6	Kimenzan Tanigoroo	3-3-3a	M5w
Nageishi Kikujiroo	4-5	M7e	M7	Katsuyama Yoshizoo	0-6-2-1d	M7w

(d = draw, a = azukari, other trailing numbers without a letter = absences)

How did you figure out the new rank?

[Randomitsuki 2,547]

How did you figure out the new rank?

Try this site.

[Guest Jake]

Sorry, but I still don't get it - that site only gives me banzuke, as posted before a basho. Did he figure out the new ranks manually, from the next basho's banzuke?

[Doitsuyama 1,156]

Sorry, but I still don't get it - that site only gives me banzuke, as posted before a basho. Did he figure out the new ranks manually, from the next basho's banzuke?

Doh, of course. Say, is your work supposed to be on any level of science? Like university or college? I am just asking, because I used to be an assistant professor at university for some years and can't avoid a queasy feeling in my stomach...

[Asashosakari 16,974]

How did you figure out the new rank?

Try this site.

That's where I got them from, though of course it's possible to get the new ranks also from Gans' site by going to the next set of results. Banzuke.com is easier to read though, and makes things easier still by noting who's new to the division.

Random thing I never realized before...around the time period in question here, the Makuuchi rikishi were usually scheduled across 9 days (with a lot of absences though, as noted), while the Jumaime/Juryo guys were mostly active for 10. Odd.

At any rate, it's my (perhaps half-baked) impression from scanning the results that the various banzuke divisions probably worked somewhat like a set of sequential developmental leagues back in the 19th century (like baseball's minor league system), rather than one continuous ranking list like they do today. So, winning was still important, but you only moved up if you were really good, or if rikishi above you made room by retiring/dying and you were the best (or at least most accomplished, or maybe "most ready" in terms of seniority) guy available at the time.

Considering that rikishi would sometimes even make their Makuuchi debut right in sanyaku (and I'm not even talking about kanban-ozeki), I suspect it's nearly impossible to get a strong correlation between records and banzuke movement, at least on the customary basho-by-basho basis. And of course a proper analysis would probably have to include the Jumaime results (so that the debutants don't come out of "nowhere"), which are only available in Japanese AFAIK.

Edited April 12, 2007 by Asashosakari

[Guest Jake]

Sorry, but I still don't get it - that site only gives me banzuke, as posted before a basho. Did he figure out the new ranks manually, from the next basho's banzuke?

Doh, of course. Say, is your work supposed to be on any level of science? Like university or college? I am just asking, because I used to be an assistant professor at university for some years and can't avoid a queasy feeling in my stomach...

Yes, it's a seminar paper for my BA in Economics.

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Sorry, but I still don't get it - that site only gives me banzuke, as posted before a basho. Did he figure out the new ranks manually, from the next basho's banzuke?

Doh, of course. Say, is your work supposed to be on any level of science? Like university or college? I am just asking, because I used to be an assistant professor at university for some years and can't avoid a queasy feeling in my stomach...

Cool B-) You're in an excellent position to offer a little friendly advice on proper research design methodology, as well as being expert in banzuke and things sumo...perhaps this is Jake's lucky day (In a state of confusion...)