Sumo Wrestling Has Some Aspects Of Japanese Shinto Rituals?

In my previous post about babies' Sumo on the September 24th, I mentioned that Sumo Wrestling was originally started as a Japanese Shinto ritual for gods. The history of Sumo is really long and apparently some ancient earthenware having drawing of Sumo have found as excavations from the Kofun period (3rd-7th century) and it is said that the basic rules which we can see today were formed in the 8th century.

Since it was started as a ritual, wrestlers' manner and courtesy have been really important in Sumo, thus when a wrestler's attitude lost respects to gods and the opponent he will be accused of very severely. This kind of dignity is also required for all Sumo wrestlers to get higher ranks. In a sense Sumo wrestlers are not just athletes. 

Let's see outward appearances of Sumo which keep aspects of Japanese Shinto. As you can see in the upper left hand side photo above, the Sumo ring has a roof structure that looks alike Japanese Shinto shrines. Moreover, Yokozuna (the highest rank) wrestlers wear Shinto's sacred rope when they show their ring-entering performance(the thick white rope with papers hanging down in the lower right end photo), and they clap their hands with a big gesture just like worshiping at Shinto shrines. Also all wrestlers scatter salt before they have a match because salt is an item for purification in Japanese Shinto.

In addition, each Sumo wrestler stomp their legs up and down straddling the legs after they entered the ring for their match, in fact it is not only for a warming up because in ancient time it was believed that these big stomping can push over evil spirits. It has been one of the important functions for ritual Sumo. 

So, clearly it still keeps elements of offering performances for gods. When you have an opportunity to check Sumo competitions, you would be able to recognize these ritual actions and items there!