Sumo rules come down to one short contest with one goal: force your opponent out of the ring, or make any part of his body other than the soles of his feet touch the ground. Whoever does that first wins. There are no rounds and no points, and a bout is often over in seconds. Sumo’s rulebook also lists exactly eight prohibited acts, the kinjite, and using any one of them means an instant foul loss. This guide explains how you win, the ranks and tournaments, the deciding techniques, and the moves that are banned.
Key takeaways:
- You win by forcing your opponent out of the dohyo ring, or by making any part of his body other than the soles of his feet touch the ground.
- Professional sumo has six ranked divisions, from jonokuchi at the bottom up to the top makuuchi; wrestlers in juryo and above are the salaried sekitori.
- Six fifteen-day grand tournaments, the honbasho, are held each year. A winning record (kachikoshi) moves a wrestler up the rankings; a losing record (makekoshi) moves him down.
- There are exactly eight prohibited acts, the kinjite, and committing any one of them means a foul loss.
The basic objective: out of the ring or down on the ground
A sumo bout has two ways to win, and both are easy to spot. The first is to push, throw, or force your opponent out of the ring so that he steps or falls beyond its boundary. The second is to make him touch the ground inside the ring with any part of his body other than the soles of his feet. A hand, a knee, an elbow, the back, even the top of the head touching down ends the match at once.
Because either of those settles the contest, sumo bouts are short. Many last only a few seconds. There are no rounds and no points. One wrestler wins, the other loses, and the result is decided the instant a body part hits the ground or crosses the line. A referee, the gyoji, declares the winner, with ringside judges on hand to review close calls.
The tachi-ai: how a bout starts
Two short starting lines, the shikiri-sen, are drawn in the center of the ring. The two wrestlers crouch behind these lines, set their fists down, and launch into the initial charge, the tachi-ai. From that first collision the bout runs without a break until one man is forced out or put down.
The starting lines have not always been there. They were introduced in 1928, the same year radio broadcasting and a fixed time limit for the pre-bout staredown came in, so the modern start has under a century of history behind it. The gap between the two lines is now 70 centimeters, widened from an original 60. Before the lines existed, the charge sometimes had the two wrestlers’ heads meet like fighting bulls, and four-grappling bouts, where both men lock onto the belt, were said to be more common than they are today.
The dohyo: the clay ring
The ring is called the dohyo. It is a raised platform built from packed clay and topped with a layer of sand. The fighting area is marked by a ring of partly buried rice-straw bales, and that circle of bales is the boundary the wrestlers are trying to force each other beyond.
The dohyo is treated as a sacred space, which is why so much of the ritual you see before a bout — the salt thrown to purify the ring, the stamping, the careful preparation — takes place on and around it.
The ranks: from jonokuchi up to makuuchi
Professional sumo is organized as a ladder of six divisions. Every wrestler starts at or near the bottom and climbs by winning. From the lowest division upward, the order is jonokuchi, jonidan, sandanme, makushita, juryo, and finally makuuchi, the top division that gets most of the television coverage and crowd attention.
A wrestler’s rank is not fixed. The official ranking sheet, the banzuke, is redrawn before each tournament. Win consistently and you move up; lose and you slide down. Where a wrestler stands on that ladder shapes everything from how often he fights to what he is paid.
That pay distinction is important. Wrestlers in the top two divisions — juryo and makuuchi — are known as sekitori. They are the salaried wrestlers, the ones who have reached the professional ranks proper. Those in the four divisions below earn a small allowance rather than a full salary, so reaching juryo and becoming a sekitori is one of the great milestones of a sumo career.
Within the top makuuchi division there are named senior ranks. At the very top stands the yokozuna, the grand champion, with ozeki the second-highest rank below him. Beneath those come the junior champion ranks, sekiwake and komusubi, and then the rank-and-file maegashira who fill out the rest of the top division.
The tournaments: six honbasho a year
Sumo’s official grand tournaments are called honbasho. Six are held each year, and each one runs for fifteen days. These are the tournaments where rankings are earned and lost, and where the championships that define careers are decided.
During a honbasho, the top-division wrestlers fight once a day, taking on a different opponent each day across the fifteen-day stretch. The wrestler with the best win-loss record in the top division at the end of the tournament takes the championship, the yusho. If two or more finish level, the title is settled by a playoff.
Kachikoshi and makekoshi: the record that decides your future
You do not have to win a championship to have a good tournament. What matters most for most wrestlers is whether they finish with a majority of wins. A winning record — more wins than losses across the tournament — is called kachikoshi. A losing record, more losses than wins, is called makekoshi.
This single distinction drives the whole ranking system. A kachikoshi generally pushes a wrestler up the banzuke for the next tournament, while a makekoshi pulls him down. Over a career, stringing together winning records is how a wrestler rises from the bottom divisions toward the salaried ranks and beyond. It is why you will often see a wrestler at seven wins and seven losses fighting with everything he has on the final day: that last bout is the difference between kachikoshi and makekoshi.
Kimarite: the winning techniques
The move that wins a bout is called a kimarite, the deciding technique. After each match the winning technique is announced and recorded, which is part of what makes sumo so satisfying to follow closely. The Japan Sumo Association sorts its kimarite into seven broad categories, and that scheme even includes a group of non-techniques — outcomes where a wrestler loses without his opponent applying a true move at all.
It helps to separate the kimarite from the kime-te, the move that set the finish up. The kimarite is whatever actually ends the bout. If a wrestler breaks his opponent’s balance with an overarm throw and then drives him out of the ring, the result is recorded as a frontal force-out, yorikiri, even though the overarm throw was the move that created the opening. The catalogue is large, but in practice only a handful of techniques come up again and again. Pushing and thrusting finishes such as oshidashi and tsukidashi are everyday sights, while the rarer throws and twists are the exception rather than the rule. You do not need to memorize the whole list to enjoy sumo — recognizing the few that come up constantly is enough to follow the action.
Prohibited moves: the eight kinjite
For all its force, sumo is not a no-rules brawl. The rulebook lists exactly eight prohibited acts, the kinjite, and committing any one of them means a foul loss, hansoku-make. A wrestler may not punch with a closed fist, though open-hand slaps are allowed. He may not pull the opponent’s hair, jab at the eyes or other sensitive areas, box both ears at once, grab at the throat, or attack below the belt. Grabbing the front of the mawashi in the groin area is also out.
The hair-pull rule is stricter than it once was. The qualifier “deliberately” was struck from the regulation, so any grab of the hair is now a foul regardless of intent. The reasoning is practical: a third party cannot judge what was in a wrestler’s mind, and a hair-grab that changes the outcome cannot be allowed to stand as a win.
One of the open-hand rules also marks a clear line between professional and amateur sumo. In professional ozumo the open-hand slap, harite, is permitted. In amateur sumo it is a banned move, along with hari-zashi and saba-ori. So a technique that is fair game at the top of the professional ranks would cost an amateur the bout.
There is one more way to lose that surprises newcomers: if a wrestler’s mawashi — the heavy belt that is essentially his only garment — comes completely undone during the bout, he is disqualified. These fouls are rare at the top level, but they are part of why sumo, despite its raw power, stays a disciplined contest rather than a free-for-all.
Frequently asked questions
Q. How do you win a sumo match?
There are two ways. You win by forcing your opponent out of the ring, or by making any part of his body other than the soles of his feet touch the ground. Whichever happens first ends the bout, which is usually over in seconds.
Q. How does a sumo bout start?
The two wrestlers crouch behind two short starting lines, the shikiri-sen, set their fists down, and charge into each other in the tachi-ai. Those lines were introduced in 1928, and the gap between them is now 70 centimeters, widened from an original 60.
Q. How many divisions and tournaments are there in sumo?
There are six divisions, from jonokuchi at the bottom up to makuuchi at the top, with wrestlers in juryo and above counting as salaried sekitori. Six grand tournaments, the honbasho, are held each year, and each runs for fifteen days.
Q. What moves are banned in sumo?
Sumo’s rulebook lists exactly eight prohibited acts, the kinjite. They include punching with a closed fist, pulling the hair, jabbing at the eyes, boxing both ears at once, and grabbing at the throat. Committing any one of them means an immediate foul loss. A wrestler also loses if his mawashi belt comes completely undone during the bout.
Q. Is hair-pulling always a foul, even by accident?
Yes. The regulation used to penalize pulling the hair only when it was done deliberately, but the word “deliberately” was removed. Any grab of the hair is now a foul regardless of intent, because a third party cannot judge intent and a hair-grab that affects the result cannot be allowed to stand as a win.
Q. Are open-hand slaps allowed in sumo?
In professional sumo, yes — the open-hand slap, harite, is permitted, though a closed-fist punch is not. Amateur sumo is stricter: there the open-hand slap is itself a banned move, so the rule differs between the professional and amateur codes.
Read next
- Banzuke: how sumo’s ranking sheet works
- Honbasho: sumo’s six grand tournaments
- Kimarite: the winning techniques of sumo
- The history of sumo
- How to watch sumo live
Photos by Michihiro Taguchi, shot ringside.
