There are many beautiful traditional sports in Japan such as Karate,Judo,Kyudo...and so on.
But sumo wrestling is Japanese very important national sport.
There are some reasons.
Famous sumo stadium Rougoku-Kokugi-Kan.
That floating roof(Tsuri-yane) looks like Japanese shrine's roof.
Grand shrine of ISE / Ise-Jingu
Important parts are Chigi.
Gods of nature visit these sticks of roof.
This is Japanese Shinto's important concept Yorishiro phenomenon.
Two sumo wrestlers fight on the round soil arena,Dohyo.
And most important role of sumo is earthquake prevention.
When wrestlers stamp the soil-ring strongly,bad magnetism of earthquake disappear.
This is the unique magnetism-offset phenomenon.
(Heavy rain and lightning/thunder also remove bad magnetism)
The stamping action is called SHIKO.
He is stamping the soil land.
Japanese people really love this moment.
So,sumo is ceremony for Japan rather than sports.
Big movement of waist and hip is very important to calm the land.
Hula dancing of Hawaii is also prevention of earthquake.
These movements are derived from our ancestors wisdom
because Japan and Hawaii have been suffering many earthquakes.
Actually,official annual sumo tournament wasn't held just before big earthquake at Tohoku,Japan in 2011.
Because there were some inner problems of the sumo association.
We should have done sumo tournament to calm the land at that time.
Wrestler's hair style Mage is also important place to gods.
I think it means masculinity.
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Referee's black hat is also important thing.
Projection things are important for Yorishiro.
Mountains are also Yorishiro for gods of nature.
Please refer to this article to know more → Secret of women's hair style in Japan
And sometimes Emperor and Empress watch sumo as their work.
Their main work is keeping Japan in peace.
So,watching sumo is important work to them.
There are special seats for them in stadium.
photo by photolibrary and wikipedia