This month’s look at sumo culture is going to be all about sumo stables.

I found a well-written blog post about a visit to a sumo stable that is worth the read for the insights it provides. It’s several years old now, but definitely worth the read: http://www.mywestworld.com/places/international/sumo-stable/

But really, there isn’t much to know about sumo stables. In order to do sumo, you must belong to a stable. Most of them are run by former wrestlers. Once you join, you can’t switch to a different one.

There are about 50 active stables right now. A couple of them date back to the 1800′s and many more took their current form in the early 1900′s. Sometimes a stable will go through a kind of restructuring and close for a brief period only to reopen again. Examples of when this might happen are when the current owner or head coaches change over, or if the stable is being censured by the sumo association for misconduct.

Life in a stable is very regimented. Sumo follows a strict hierarchy. The lower ranked wrestlers do all the chores and wait on the higher ranked wrestlers and coaches. Unless a wrestler is married or very high ranked, all the wrestlers stay and live at the stable. Your rank influences other things like what type of yukata (robe) and sandals you are permitted to wear when you are out in public.

One of the things I found most interesting about training at the sumo stables was that they intentionally skip breakfast. They simply start practice in the morning, then have a huge lunch, followed by a nap. It’s supposed to be quite effective at helping them bulk up and get their sumo weight up.

Leave your sumo stable questions in the comments and I’ll try to research the answer for you! Got more questions on sumo culture? Leave me a comment and I’ll add it to my list to research.

Edit: This post is staying stickied to the top of the page to remind people to VOTE FOR THE NEXT FEATURED WRESTLER! If you’re looking for new posts then scroll down a bit more.

This month by popular demand (of 2 whole votes) the featured sumo wrestler is Amuru. Sadly, since he’s a fairly new wrestler, and not Japanese, there hasn’t been much published about him yet.

Some facts:
Rank: Juryo 3
Debuted: May 2002
Date of birth: August 25, 1983
Place of birth: Russia
(more…)

I figured I’d start with the following group of questions from Kim since they are all related and will give some basic information on sumo tournaments:

How often are the sumo tournaments? How long do they last, usually? Do they have sumo tournaments outside of Japan? What does/do the winner/winners of the tournament win?

These questions are a great opportunity to get into some of the basics of sumo. First of all, the sumo that we usually watch is professional sumo. Just like in hockey or football, there are amateur and pro level associations and they each run things a little differently. The only country that has pro sumo is Japan. Their National Sumo Association has 6 tournaments (basho) per year, in alternating months of the year. So they always fall in January, March, May, July, September, and November. The tournaments last for 15 days and always start on a Sunday (though if you watch live coverage and live in Canada, it starts on Saturday for us).

Outside Japan the Sumo Association will hold exhibition tournaments. But there are also amateur sumo associations in other countries that will hold tournaments as well. In fact, sometimes foreign amateur wrestlers get scouted by pro sumo stables in Japan.

As for winnings and compensation (just on the pro level) that gets a bit complicated. First of all, it depends on which division you fight in. The top two divisions receive a monthly salary while the lower “trainee” divisions only receive a small allowance. The amount of monthly salary varies depending on the wrestlers rank, but goes up to about $30,000 for the Yokozuna, which is the top rank.

In addition to the basic salary there are bonuses available for each tournament depending on how well they wrestle. The level of bonus goes up as their winning record does. If a wrestler finishes top in their division or has a perfect tournament record there is also a special bonus. (I couldn’t find any approximate figures for this.)

Finally, there are also sponsorships. Companies will often sponsor certain matches during the tournament offering up cash or other gifts. The average sponsorship is approximately $600, of which about half goes to taxes. A given match can have multiple sponsors or a company can buy multiple sponsorships. The most common matches that get sponsored are division championship matches, though sometimes a company will sponsor every match that a particular wrestler fights. Even when a particular wrestler is sponsored, the money/gifts are awarded to whomever wins that match.

The winner of the top division also receives other sponsored gifts such as trophies, plates, statues, etc.

Got more questions about some aspect of sumo? Ask in the comments and I’ll do what I can to research the answer for you!

You probably weren’t expecting to see another sumo post until March, right? Well I decided that in the months between sumo tournaments I would research some other aspect of sumo culture. So if you’ve got questions about sumo, ask them in the comments and help me build my list of topics!

The questions can be about anything sumo…the culture, the traditions, the history, etc. And feel free to ask multiple questions or give several topic ideas too!

Image via Wikipedia

Each month that has a sumo tournament, I’ll be writing an article that features a different sumo wrestler. To start off this series, I picked Hakuho, who happens to be my favourite. Help me pick the next wrestler I feature by leaving a comment below!

Some facts:
Rank: Yokozuna
Debuted: March 2001
Date of birth: March 11, 1985
Place of birth: Ulan Bator, Mongolia
Most consecutive wins: 63

Even though his father was a famous Mongolian wrestler, he wasn’t pressured into wrestling because his father wanted him to try other sports, like basketball. However, even from a very early age, he wanted to be a sumo wrestler. Another famous Mongolian sumo wrestler invited him to Japan in 2000 and had to intercede so that a stable would accept him because he was so light (140 lbs).

Source Japan Probe

Some if his career highlights include being one of the few non-Japanese to reach the rank of Yokozuna and winning a kinboshi award for defeating one of the previous Yokozuna while still being in the lowest Makuuchi division.

He has wrestled as the sole Yokozuna since March 2010 when Asashoryu retired from sumo. He was also involved in a scandal involving gambling over card games in 2010.

He is married and has three children.

His records:

• second longest consecutive winning streak
• most wins in a calendar year

This is a scan of a folder they were giving away at the 2008 Tokyo Tournament we attended in 2008. It features Asashoryu & Hakuho.

Here are a couple of videos showing Hakuho wrestling. The first is when he won his kinboshi in 2004 for defeating the Yokozuna Asashoryu.

This one is longer and has some commentary from Jason in Japan. It is his 63rd consecutive victory, which ties him with Tanikaze for second most consecutive victories. This also shows the television feed since he’s watching in Japan. Kisenosato would defeat him the next day ending his winning streak.

Who should be the next feature wrestler?