Sumo is one of the most popular sports in Japan and Japan is the only country where it is practiced professionally. It is a sport where a wrestler (rikishi) attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring (dohyo) or to touch the ground with anything other
than the soles of the feet.
All sumo wrestlers take wrestling names called shikona, which may or may not be related to their real names. Often wrestlers have little choice in their name, which is given to them by their trainer (or stablemaster), or
by a supporter or family member who encouraged them into the sport.
This is particularly true of foreign-born wrestlers. A wrestler may change his wrestling name several times during his sumo career.The current trend is for more wrestlers, particularly native Japanese, to keep their
own name rather than change it.
Sumo wrestling is a strict hierarchy based on sporting merit. The wrestlers are ranked according to a system that dates back hundreds of
years, to the Edo period. Wrestlers are promoted or demoted according to their previous performance, and a carefully prepared banzuke listing the full hierarchy is published two weeks prior to each sumo tournament.
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