Know Your Sumo, Too Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Sumo is a form of wrestling and is generally considered to be the national sport of Japan. Broadly, the aim is for one wrestler to win by either forcing the other out of the ring, or by throwing or tripping the other so that he touches the ground with any part of his body other than the soles of the feet.

The world of professional sumo is highly regulated and quite formal: wrestlers must conform to expected standards of traditional Japanese dress, and usually take a ring name, or shikona, whose meaning embodies virtues or characteristics that are considered auspicious. If you see "yama" in a ring name, that signifies "mountain"; "fuji" typifies Mount Fuji, the sacred mountain; "waka" signifies "young" or "youth"; "umi" embodies the strength and permanence of the sea. Shikona may also refer to the town, province or country that a wrestler hails from, and there is now a trend towards wrestlers using their real names as their ring name.

Wrestlers use the services of tokoyama, traditional Japanese hair stylists employed by the Japan Sumo Association, to cut and prepare their hair in the iconic topknot style. Tokoyama are ranked according to their ability and experience, and take a professional name that always starts with "toko" (which means "floor" or "bed").

At a sumo tournament, wrestlers will be called into the ring by yobidashi, or ring ushers, who announce them in a formal, musically-toned voice when it is their turn to fight. The yobidashi have many other tasks in the world of sumo, including building, preparing and maintaining the ring, and parading the advertising banners around the ring, to name but a few. Like the wrestlers, yobidashi have a hierarchical career structure and are attached to particular sumo stables where their out-of-ring duties will include running errands, keeping track of wrestlers' training progress, and making travel and accommodation arrangements.

When the sumo bout begins in earnest, the wrestlers move from a crouching position, facing each other, to the tachi-ai or charge. This initial contact can be explosive (hard tachi-ai), with rapid pushing, thrusting, grabbing and face-slapping, or may be slower (soft tachi-ai) to enable a wrestler to reach forward to grab their opponent's mawashi (belt).

A sumo bout can be over in seconds, but may last several minutes as the wrestlers vie for dominance; eventually one wrestler will execute a winning technique (kimarite), overcoming his opponent to be declared the winner. There are over 80 recognised winning techniques, including force-outs, push-outs, leg trips, and throws. A wrestler can also win with a non-technique when his opponent makes an error, for example by stumbling and touching the ground with a hand or knee, or when his opponent withdraws before a scheduled bout (usually through injury).

Wrestlers hope to fight well and fairly, avoiding moves that count as fouls (kinjite, or "forbidden hand"), such as grabbing the opponent's hair or striking with a closed fist, and lower-ranked wrestlers who are pitted against a yokozuna (top rank wrestler) will do their best to earn a kinboshi, or gold star win. Kinboshi earn a lower-ranked wrestler a monetary bonus that may be added to their earnings in each subsequent tournament.

Wrestlers will hope to avoid ending a tournament with a losing record, or make-koshi, which could result in demotion to a lower rank. High rank players have 15 bouts over 15 days, while lower ranked players have 7 bouts, so a make-koshi would be 7 wins to 8 losses, or 3 wins to 4 losses, or worse.

At the end of each tournament, three special prizes (sansho) may be awarded:
- the Technique Prize goes to the wrestler or wrestlers who display the most skilful techniques;
- the Outstanding Performance prize goes to the wrestler who defeats the yokozuna or the tournament winner;
- the Fighting Spirit prize goes to the wrestler who has competed tenaciously and to the best of his ability.

Each special prize may be awarded to more than one wrestler, and they are sometimes not given out at all, but the one prize that all wrestlers will wish one day to hold in their hands is the Emperor's Cup, or Tenno-hai, awarded at the end of each 15 day Grand Sumo tournament to the wrestler who achieves the most wins.

The incorrect answers are all items you might find in the kitchen: oven (obun), mixer (mikisa), toaster (tosuta), frying pan (furaipan), and electric kettle (denki ketoru).