Sumo

What is sumo?

Sumo is Japan's national sport and a living Shinto ritual: two wrestlers in a 4.55-metre clay ring, the bout won by forcing the opponent out or making any part of him but the soles of his feet touch the ground. Most bouts last seconds. There are no weight classes — and the ceremony surrounding them, from salt-throwing to the referee's lacquered fan, is inseparable from the sport.^[1] [2]

How is professional sumo organized?

Wrestlers live and train in stables (heya) under a stablemaster, and every one of them appears on the banzuke — a ranking list, published in calligraphy before each tournament, that governs pay, privileges and even what a wrestler may wear. Six 15-day grand tournaments (honbasho) a year decide promotion and demotion; the top division is makuuchi, and its summit is yokozuna, a rank that can never be demoted — only retired from.^[2] [3]

Who competes?

Professional sumo is Japanese by structure but international in talent: Mongolian wrestlers have dominated the modern era, with champions also from Hawaii, Samoa, Georgia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Egypt and Ukraine — though stables may recruit only one foreign-born wrestler each. Amateur sumo, governed by the International Sumo Federation, is a worldwide sport with men's and women's world championships.^[2] [4]

How is sumo awarded?

• Tournament championships (yūshō) — the Emperor's Cup, six times a year.^[2]
• Banzuke rank — the published hierarchy that is a wrestler's entire professional standing.^[3]
• Promotion to yokozuna or ōzeki — decided by the association on sustained results.^[2]
• Special prizes — technique, fighting spirit and outstanding performance each basho.^[2]

Who has won the most in sumo?

The Japan Sumo Association publishes no all-time records — its English site carries current wrestlers' profiles only — so these counts come from the Sumo Reference database, recomputed across all 534 top-division championships from June 1909 to the July 2026 tournament, and they match the association's own profile figures for the current wrestlers whose pages were checked. Only makuuchi championships count; lower-division yūshō are excluded. Totals from different eras are not comparable: there was one tournament a year before 1927 and six only from 1958. The yokozuna table counts tournaments ranked as yokozuna, including any a wrestler sat out injured, not tournaments won.

Most top-division championships — yūshō — all time (June 1909 – July 2026)

Most career wins — all divisions (through July 2026)

Most tournaments ranked as yokozuna (1909 – July 2026)

Makuuchi yūshō by the wrestler's country of origin (June 1909 – July 2026, all 534)

Makuuchi yūshō by decade — the Mongolian era

Medal lists rank on total medals, then gold, then silver; title lists rank on titles. Equal totals share a rank, and every table states the period and the last event it includes. Verified September 2026.^{[5] [6] [7]}