Sumo

About Sumo
Sumo is a competitive contact sport where two wrestlers attempt to force one another out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than their feet. It originated in Japan and is still popular there now. The Japanese consider sumo a modern Japanese martial art, even though the sport has a history spanning many centuries. The sumo tradition is very ancient, and even today the sport includes a lot of ritual elements, like salt for purification, since sumo was used in the Shinto religion. Professional sumo wrestlers are required to live in communal sumo training stables known in Japanese as heya where their daily lives are dictated by strict tradition including meals and how they dress.

The winner of a sumo bout is either, the first person to force his opponent to touch the ground with any part of his body or the first person to force his opponent to step out of the ring. Occasionally the referee awards the win to the wrestler who touched the ground first. It happens when both of the wrestlers touch the ground at once and it's decided that the wrestler who touched the ground second had no chance of winning. The losing wrestler is referred to as being shini-tai or dead body in this case.