Sumo Wrestling, The Ancient Japanese Sport

5 Pages 1189 Words

With the abundance of sports channels it's more than likely you've clicked across a Sumo match and wondered at this strange sport. As you watch, you see two men wrestling in a small circle with many people cheering around them. But there's more to Sumo wrestling than just two men wrestling in the ring - in fact, it is an ancient and treasured sport in Japan’s history. And it is becoming more and more popular outside of its homeland as the world grows today.
Now Sumo wrestling is the traditional national sport of Japan. Baseball and soccer are close seconds, but Sumo wrestling reigns supreme as the favorite. The earliest written mention of Sumo is found in the Kojiki Records of Ancient Matters, a book from the year 712. This book relates a legend about how possession of the Japanese islands was determined by a Sumo match 2,500 years ago between the gods Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata. These two gods wrestled on the shores of the Japanese coast until one finally lost. Thus control of the island was ceded to the Japanese people led by Takemikazuchi, who is said to have established the imperial family from which the present emperor traces his ancestry. Thus Sumo wrestling from the start is different from most other sporting matches, for each match is a historical recreation.
Just as Plato describes in Allegory of the Cave, Sumo is not what you thought. Plato tells us about how we are in a world and we believe everything in that world, but when we actually venture off away from our so very familiar life that things are not what we thought they were. “And suppose, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities” (P. 469). It is so important that we know our r...