June 2026– date –

The chonmage is the traditional topknot that sumo wrestlers wear in their hair — a style handed down from Japan's samurai era, when the topknot was ordinary men's dress. Sumo is one of the last places it survives in daily life. The hair ...

The dohyo-iri is sumo's ring-entering ceremony — a ritual procession the wrestlers perform before the day's top bouts begin. The top-division wrestlers file into the ring together in ornate ceremonial aprons, form a circle, and perform a...

In sumo, the dohyo is the ring where every bout is fought — a raised platform of packed clay, topped with a thin layer of sand, with the fighting circle marked out by partly buried rice-straw bales. It is far more than a stage. A new doh...

In sumo, the maegashira are the rank-and-file of the top division, makuuchi — every wrestler in the division who does not hold one of the titled ranks of yokozuna, ozeki, sekiwake or komusubi. They are listed by number, from Maegashira 1...

In sumo, sekiwake and komusubi are the two junior titled ranks of the top division, sitting directly below ozeki and above the rank-and-file maegashira. Of the two, sekiwake is the higher: the order from the top runs yokozuna, ozeki, sek...