Appeasing the Gods: Shinto, sumo and ‘true’ Japanese spirit

Abstract

On the penultimate day of the 2001 spring bashyo (tournament) yokozuna Takanohana steps up onto the dohyou (the raised clay area in which bouts are contested), performs a perfunctory bow and moves to his corner with his back to his opponent to perform shiko. From a wide deep stance the rikishi raises his extended leg up to meet his outstretched hand, then thumps his foot down on the dohyou. With hands placed on his knees he sinks his hips below knee level before repeating the leg raising on the other side. He then moves closer to his corner where he squats down to take a mouthful of water and spits it out whilst holding a sheet of paper above his mouth. After wiping his mouth, he crumples the paper, discards it and grabs a handful of salt as the referee introduces the two rikishi. They rise and turn toward each other, toss the salt in the ring and move forward to the centre of the dohyou. There they repeat shiko before, again, returning to their corners as attendants carrying the banners of the bout’s sponsors circle inside the dohyou. Both rikishi return to the centre to squat on their heels and make eye contact with each other. Following a brief pause and maintaining eye contact, they bend forward, fists loosely clenched and lightly touching the ground, in preparation for engagement (tachiai). At the last moment Takanohana withdraws, sits back on his heels with hands on his hips to fix his opponent, Musoyama, with a disdainful look. Musoyama then does the same. The crowd responds as both rikishi stand and exchange a further, momentary glare before returning to their respective corners. They take another handful of salt, throw it in the ring, slap their mawashi (belt) heavily and return to the centre of the dohyou. This procedure is repeated four times and each time the crowd responds with growing enthusiasm as tension and anticipation mount. Finally the two huge men clash violently at the tachiai and struggle to gain an advantageous grip on the opponent’s mawashi. Takanohana seems to establish a better grip on his opponent’s mawashi but Musoyama drives him backwards and quickly tosses him to the floor with the technique known as yorikiri. The huge crowd erupts in wild applause and showers the dohyou with the cushions they have been sitting on as a sign of appreciation.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 8 citations exist upstream.