Yokozuna

Yokozuna is the highest rank that a wrestler can achieve in sumo wrestling. The name literally means "horizontal rope" and comes from the most visible symbol of their rank, the rope (tsuna) worn around the waist. The rope, which can weigh up to 40 pounds, is a Shinto symbol and is worn during the ring entrance (“dohyo-iri”) ceremony of the yokozuna, not during the bouts themselves.

The origins of the yokozuna rank are clouded in the mists of ancient Japanese history. However, the tsuna was being worn at least by the seventeenth-century. In the beginning of the modern sumo era, the yokozuna was simply an ozeki who performed before the Shogun. The abilities of the wrestler’s patron to secure this honor was often more important than sumo skill. By the 1890s, the title yokozuna was being shown separately on lists (“banzuke”) of rikishi and, since 1950, promotion to the highest rank has been controlled by the Yokozuna Deliberation Council (YDC), a part of the Sumo Association.

There are no specific rules for making the rank of yokozuma. But the general standard is two consecutive tournament championships as ozeki or one win and two runner-up spots in consecutive tournaments with at least 36 wins. The YDC is also charged with making sure that yokozuna candidates meet the Japanese conception of hinkaku, or dignity. It is possible, therefore, for an ozeki to achieve the tournament wins but still be denied promotion. This was the case for some foreign-born wrestlers in the 1980s and 1990s.

There have been only 69 Yokozuna since 1789. There are periods of sumo history when there are no active yokozuna, and, on one occasion, there were four active concurrently. Today, since the enforced retirement of Asashoryu in February 2010, the Mongolian Hakuho is the sole active yokozuna. He is the fourth non-Japanese to hold the rank after Akebono (Hawaii, USA), Mushashimaru (Samoa), and Asashoryu (Mongolia). http://sumo.goo.ne.jp/eng/index.html http://www.sumotalk.com/history.htm