By Jessamyn R. Abel, Professor of Asian Studies and History, Penn State

A visitor to Japan who wanders into a sumo tournament might be forgiven for thinking they had intruded upon a religious ceremony.

Tournaments begin with a line of burly men wearing little more than elaborately decorated aprons walking in a line onto a raised earthen stage. Their names are called as they circle around a ring made of partially buried bales of rice straw. Turning toward the center, they clap, lift their aprons, raise their arms upward, and then exit without a word.

Then two of those men face each other, crouching, clapping their hands together and stomping on the ground. They pause repeatedly to rinse their mouths with water and toss salt into the ring.

Overseeing their movements is a man outfitted i

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