In Japan, women’s sumo struggles with tradition and a male-dominated system for survival

Women sumo wrestlers in Japan KYOTO: It’s a rainy Sunday morning, but that didn’t stop more than 100 women and girls from making their way to the Kyoto City Budo Centre, Japan’s oldest martial arts hall. The original building, built in 1899, is mostly inaccessible to visitors. But the recently built adjacent hall is busy.The women are dressed in wrestling singlets over which they wear the traditional mawashi, a thick belt associated with sumo. In the middle of the hall is a ring that looks like a dohyo, a raised platform on which sumo is competed. It looks like one. But it isn’t.Women are traditionally prohibited from entering sumo dohyo, a practice rooted in religious beliefs that have long associated menstruation with impurity. Yet in this hall, women are doing exactly what tradition has told them they can’t: sumo wrestling.More than 600 women in more than 70 clubs practice the traditional form of wrestling in Japan, despite the opposition they face. When asked about women’s sumo at the Asian Games venue, a senior Japan Wrestling Association official laughed before dismissing it: “It’s not a sport for women.”But it wasn’t always like that. Historical research suggests that women participated in sumo as early as the fifth century. The sport also had periods of popularity between 1603 and 1868 and in the early 20th century before women’s sumo was banned in 1926 for moral and traditional reasons.It returned in organized form in 1997. Nevertheless, amateur women’s sumo continues to fight for survival. The Japanese sumo association does not recognize it, leaving private clubs, schools and universities to keep it alive.At universities and several clubs, women train alongside their male counterparts. Even the arrival of Japan’s first female prime minister did not change the equation. Sanae Takaichi, who became prime minister last year, said: “I respect tradition. I will not step on dohyo.”However, there are women like Airi Hisano, considered the strongest sumo wrestler in the country, who are trying to change things. The 27-year-old Tokyo native started out in karate and judo before finding her calling in sumo at Nihon University.She was lucky to find support at home. “My family wants me to do my best,” she said.It wasn’t easy. “Of course people made fun of me because acceptance was not easy in the strict gender spaces. But that didn’t bother me. Besides, it wasn’t an Olympic sport,” said Airi, who works in the administration section of Tachihi Holdings.Airi, a heavyweight competitor, balances training with her day job, where she also works as a security guard. She holds a third degree black belt in judo and a first degree black belt in karate. “We still have a long way to go,” she said.Not far from where Airi was preparing for her match, Katsumasa Kawase was warming up the three girls from Team Shiga. “I’m a sumo wrestler myself, and I didn’t want my daughters to be denied the opportunity if they wanted to try,” Kawase said as he helped his daughters Momoke and Yuzuki warm up.The physical demands are no different from those faced by their male counterparts. A typical diet includes chicken or pork, vegetables, rice and candied sweet potatoes. But muscles are not the biggest obstacle. Awareness is.Morita, who handles public relations for the Yoko Sumo Club, an all-female team based in Tokyo, said the club was founded in 2024 and has remained all-female. “The main problem is that many people still don’t know about women’s sumo,” she said.What keeps wrestlers going? “He continues to believe that the sport will eventually be included in the Olympics,” Morita said.There are still not enough female coaches. One of them is Mao Ueda of the Hirakata Sumo Club. A former judoka and jiu-jitsu practitioner, she began training after seeing an opportunity to combine her martial arts experience with the nuances of sumo.“It’s a long way,” she said. According to her, the biggest challenge comes after university. “Without recognition, money and a future, most girls drop out after university. We need a structure to change that,” Ueda said.However, Momoka, 9, knows little about any of this. After two years of sports, all she knows is that she wants to become an Olympian.