National Sport in Japan

Sumo, japanese traditional style of wrestling, is considered japanese national sport. Sumo originated in ancient Japan. Even today, there's a lot of colorful pageantry and ceremony at the sumo matches. There's one professional organization. It holds six fifteen-day tournaments each year - three in Tokyo and on each in Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. They're televised nationally.

Sumo is practiced at colleges and universities as a sport. And children like to play at it. But outside of this, there isn't much amateur sumo. For most people, sumo is a spectator sport.

Two huge wrestlers in traditional-style loincloths grapple in a circular ring 15 feet in diameter. The bout can end in seconds, when any part of a wrestler's body except the soles of his feet touches the ground, or when he's pushed out of the ring.

Traditional Japan

Is there anything left of traditional Japan?

There certainly is. They have so many places where the past is preserved - cities like Kyoto, for example. In towns like Kanazawa and Kurashiki, you can see what feudal Japan was like. And almost everywhere there are homes, temples, and shrines that are built according to traditional Japanese styles of architecture.

What about in everyday life?

Traditional Japan is all around them - for example, in their art forms, their entertainment, their way of dressing, and their food. Japan has industrialized very rapidly. But they haven't lost their traditional Japanese culture.

What are the traditional art forms or entertainment?

The art forms would include such things as brush painting, flower arrangement, ceramics, wood-block prints, and tea ceremony. Entertainment includes theatrical performances such as Kabuki, Noh, and Bunraku. And Sumo is both entertainment and sport.