Sumo wrestling season opens in Japan
The ceremony took place at Meiji-jingu, Tokyo's largest Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meidei and his wife Empress Shoken. Despite the cold weather, fans of the wrestling came to the ceremony. This is not surprising: sumo is more than a sport for the Japanese, it is part of the national culture.
Historically, sumo is not a sport at all. As an applied martial art, it developed rapidly in the late 14th - early 15th centuries. Initially, sumo was understood as a means of educating the spirit and strengthening the body of samurai. Watching sumo - a ritual performed at the court of the shogun, the military ruler of Japan, is described in the chronicles of that time in separate chapters. They trace subtle symbolism, without which it is impossible to imagine sumo today.
Later, sumo mutated from a samurai training system into a full-fledged cultural layer, because developing its "elite" part, it penetrated into the people. Ritual fights on days of celebrations dedicated to giving thanks to the gods for the harvest began to be held around the same time, at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries. By the middle of the 19th century, sumo became not just an applied fight, but a part of the national culture of the Japanese of all classes. Despite the upheavals of the 20th century, powerful economic and technological progress, sumo remained an unshakable value for the Japanese, who are inclined to preserve traditions.
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