Kimarite: The Winning Techniques of Sumo, Explained

Sumo can look, to a newcomer, like two large men colliding until one falls over. Watch closely and the chaos resolves into grammar. Every bout ends in a named outcome, and that name is the kimarite. It is not a flourish for broadcasters; it is the formal record of how the contest was decided. Learning to read kimarite is the fastest way to turn a confusing scramble into a sport you can follow.

The rules underneath are simple. A wrestler loses if any part of his body other than the soles of his feet touches the clay, or if he touches the ground outside the straw ring, the dohyo. Everything a kimarite describes is a path to one of those two endings. If you are new to the sport, the broader framework is laid out in our guide to the basic rules of sumo; this article zooms in on the finishing moves.

The 82 kimarite, by official category

The Japan Sumo Association sorts its 82 techniques into six named families, in a fixed order. Below that sit the five non-technique outcomes, which are recorded like kimarite but describe a wrestler beating himself rather than being beaten.

Family	Japanese	How many	What it covers
Kihonwaza	基本技	7	The basics: pushing and forcing an opponent out. Decides most bouts.
Nagete	投げ手	13	Throws, using a grip on the belt or an arm.
Kakete	掛け手	18	Leg techniques: hooking, tripping and sweeping.
Sorite	反り手	6	Backward body drops, ducking under the opponent and arching. Almost never seen.
Hinerite	捻り手	19	Twists, breaking the opponent’s balance by turning the body.
Tokushuwaza	特殊技	19	Special techniques that fit none of the above, including the slap-down and the lift-out.
Total techniques	—	82	—
Hiwaza (non-techniques)	非技	5	Outcomes with no winning move: isamiashi, koshikudake, tsukite, tsukihiza, fumidashi.

Those six official families are the record-keeper’s categories. For watching, a coarser split works better: pushing and thrusting, grappling and throwing, leg and tripping techniques, and the non-technique decisions. Get those four straight and the rest is detail.

Pushing and thrusting

This is the most common way bouts end, and the easiest to spot. Oshidashi, the push-out, is exactly what it sounds like: a wrestler keeps his hands or body on the opponent and drives him back over the straw bales. Tsukidashi, the thrust-out, uses sharp open-palm strikes to the chest and throat, battering the opponent backward rather than shoving him. The distinction matters to the judges: oshidashi is continuous pressure, tsukidashi a volley of percussive thrusts. When a smaller, faster wrestler beats a heavier one, it is often by thrusting and keeping distance so the bigger man never gets a grip.

Grappling and throwing

Once both men have hold of the mawashi, the heavy cotton belt, the bout becomes a wrestling match and the throws come into play. The two you will hear named most often are uwatenage and shitatenage, the overarm and underarm throws. Uwatenage uses a grip reaching over the opponent’s arm to the back of his belt, then turns him to the clay; shitatenage works from underneath, the arm threaded inside, a throw of leverage and timing rather than raw strength. The family also includes kotenage, the arm-lock throw, where a wrestler clamps the opponent’s arm and swings him down without gripping the belt at all.

Leg and tripping techniques

Trips and leg sweeps are rarer, harder, and a particular delight when they come off. Sotogake hooks a leg around the outside of the opponent’s leg to topple him; uchigake hooks from the inside. Kekaeshi is a quick kick to the inside of the ankle that sweeps a foot away as the opponent’s weight shifts onto it. These techniques demand timing most heavyweights cannot risk, because committing a leg to a trip also surrenders your own balance. When a leg technique decides a bout, the crowd knows it has seen something special.

Non-technique decisions

Not every loss is delivered by a winning move. A large share of results fall under outcomes where the loser essentially defeats himself. Isamiashi is the most common: a wrestler steps backward out of the ring under his own momentum, his heel crossing the bales before his opponent’s does. Tsukihiza and tsukite cover a knee or hand touching down in a stumble. The opponent takes the win, but no throw or push is named, because none was the decisive cause. These outcomes are why ringside judges watch the feet and the clay as intently as the wrestlers.

The kimarite you will actually hear

Of the 82, a small group does most of the work. These are the names that recur day after day, with the ones described above collected in one place.

Kimarite	Japanese	Family	What it looks like
yorikiri	寄り切り	Kihonwaza	Frontal force-out. A belt grip, chest to chest, walking the opponent out over the bales.
oshidashi	押し出し	Kihonwaza	Push-out. Continuous pressure with hands or body until he crosses the straw.
tsukidashi	突き出し	Kihonwaza	Thrust-out. A volley of open-palm strikes to chest and throat, battering him backward.
uwatenage	上手投げ	Nagete	Overarm throw, gripping over the opponent’s arm to the back of his belt.
shitatenage	下手投げ	Nagete	Underarm throw, arm threaded inside. Leverage and timing rather than strength.
kotenage	小手投げ	Nagete	Arm-lock throw. Clamps the opponent’s arm and swings him down without a belt grip.
sotogake	外掛け	Kakete	Hooks a leg around the outside of the opponent’s leg to topple him.
uchigake	内掛け	Kakete	The same hook, applied from the inside.
kekaeshi	蹴返し	Kakete	A quick kick to the inside of the ankle as his weight shifts onto it.
tsukiotoshi	突き落とし	Hinerite	Thrust-down. A twisting push to the side that drops him on the spot.
hatakikomi	叩き込み	Tokushuwaza	Slap-down. Sidestep an over-committed charge and slap the shoulder so his own momentum finishes him.
tsuridashi	吊り出し	Tokushuwaza	Lift-out. Hoisting the opponent clean off the clay by the belt and carrying him out.
isamiashi	勇み足	Non-technique	Stepping backward out of the ring under your own momentum.
tsukihiza	つきひざ	Non-technique	A knee touching down in a stumble.
tsukite	つき手	Non-technique	A hand touching down in a stumble.

What the Most Common Techniques Look Like

Watch a single day of a tournament and a handful of kimarite account for most of what you see. Yorikiri, the frontal force-out, is the workhorse of sumo: a wrestler secures a belt grip, lifts the opponent slightly to break his footing, and walks him out over the bales chest to chest. It is undramatic, ruthlessly effective, and decides an enormous number of bouts, with oshidashi and tsukidashi handling most of the rest.

Then there are the techniques that make highlight reels. Hatakikomi, the slap-down, punishes an over-committed charge: the defender sidesteps and slaps the opponent’s shoulder or back so his own momentum sends him down. Tsuridashi, the lift-out, is pure power, a wrestler hoisting his opponent clean off the ground by the belt and carrying him out. The throws, uwatenage and shitatenage and their relatives, supply the moments when a bout that looked lost is reversed in a single turn of the hips.

Part of the pleasure of following sumo at the top of the banzuke ranking is watching how elite wrestlers favor different styles. A grand champion, or yokozuna, is expected to win with command and composure rather than scrambling tricks, and the kimarite that recur in a champion’s record reveal a great deal about how he fights.

Who Decides the Winner: The Gyoji and the Shimpan

A sumo bout can be over in a heartbeat, and someone has to rule on it instantly. That someone is the gyoji, the referee in the elaborate robes who stands on the dohyo throughout. The moment the bout ends, he must point his war fan, the gunbai, toward the winner and announce the kimarite that decided it. He is never allowed to call a draw; one side must be declared.

The gyoji is not the final authority, though. Around the ring sit the shimpan, ringside judges and former wrestlers who watch from floor level. If they believe the gyoji has erred, or the finish was too close to call with confidence, they raise their hands and step onto the dohyo for a conference called a mono-ii, literally a discussion. Talking it through, sometimes consulting video review, they reach one of three outcomes: uphold the gyoji’s decision, reverse it and award the bout to the other wrestler, or, if the two seem to have hit the clay or stepped out at the same instant, order the bout fought again. That rematch is the torinaoshi.

A mono-ii is one of the quietly dramatic rituals of sumo. The arena hushes, the wrestlers wait, and the judges deliberate in the center of the ring before announcing the verdict to the crowd. Knowing what is happening turns a confusing pause into a piece of theatre. To make the most of these moments, our guide on how to watch sumo walks through what to look for during a broadcast.

Why Kimarite Matter to How You Watch

Kimarite are more than trivia. They are the language the sport uses to describe itself, encoding a whole hierarchy of difficulty and style. A wrestler known for clean force-outs fights a different sport from a technician who lives off throws, and the record of how each man wins is, in effect, his signature. You do not need to memorize the full list to enjoy this. Start with the handful that decide most bouts, learn the two throws everyone names, and notice when something rarer flashes by. Once the announcer’s call lands on a technique you recognize, you are no longer watching two men collide. You are watching a contest you can read.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many kimarite are there?

Eighty-two, on the official list maintained by the Japan Sumo Association, sorted into six families: 7 basics, 13 throws, 18 leg techniques, 6 backward body drops, 19 twists and 19 special techniques. Five further outcomes are recorded but are not techniques at all. Only a fraction of the 82 appear with any regularity, and many can go a whole tournament without being seen.

What is the most common kimarite?

Yorikiri, the frontal force-out, is generally regarded as the most frequent way bouts are decided, with oshidashi, the push-out, close behind. Both reward the fundamentals of sumo: a strong initial charge, good position, and the leverage to drive an opponent backward over the straw bales.

Can a sumo bout end in a draw?

The gyoji must always point his fan to one side, so a bout is never recorded as a draw. If the finish is genuinely too close to separate, the ringside judges can order a rematch, the torinaoshi, and the wrestlers fight again rather than sharing the result.

What is a mono-ii?

A mono-ii is the conference the ringside judges hold when they want to review the gyoji’s decision. They step onto the dohyo, discuss the finish, sometimes consult video, and then either uphold the call, reverse it, or order the bout to be fought again. The verdict is announced to the crowd before the next bout begins.

What is the rarest kimarite?

The six backward body drops in the sorite family are the rarest group as a whole. They require ducking underneath a much heavier opponent and arching backward to bring him down, which is close to impossible against modern top-division weights, and years can pass without one being recorded in makuuchi.

Where to go next

The technique is announced at the end of a bout that begins with the tachiai, the synchronized charge, after the staring-down ritual of the shikiri. The man who names it is the referee, whose role and limits are set out in our guide to the gyoji and shimpan — and what he shouts while the bout is still running is explained in hakkeyoi and nokotta. Most of the throws start from a grip on the mawashi. For every other word you will hear, see the sumo glossary.

Sources

The 82 techniques, the five non-technique outcomes and the six official families with their counts are from the Japan Sumo Association’s official kimarite list (sumo.or.jp/Kimarite/), which numbers the entries 1 to 87 in a fixed order. The figure of 82 winning techniques also appears in the association’s official English introduction, Sumo (sumo.or.jp). Retrieved August 3, 2026.