Don’t miss it The complete storyThe AI-assisted article is based on his reports at the Associated Press Reeno Hashimoto and Koji Ueda.
While Japan’s professional sumo wrestling maintains its 1,500-year-old tradition of excluding women from the Holy Ring, the growing sport of more than 600 female amateur wrestlers challenged the gender barrier and promoted the inclusion of the sport in the Olympics.
Some key facts:
• Although the sport is 1,500 years old in Japan, the traditional sumo wrestling ring (DOHYō) of professional sumo wrestling is prohibited from women.
• More than 600 female amateur wrestlers (Rikishi) are currently practicing Sumo in Japan, which represents a small but growing sport.
• Airi Hisano is considered the strongest woman in Japan, Rikishi, weighs 115 kg and is 1.72 meters high (about 250 lbs, 5 feet 7), while working for one day at Tachihi Holdings.
•Rio Hasegawa has become the first woman to join Keio University Sumo since its founding in 1919 and is the middleweight world champion of 2024.
• Female wrestlers compete in spandex shirts and bodysuits under Mawashi, unlike naked male wrestlers.
•Tottori Jōhoku High School hosts a week-long training camp that attracts girls from all over Japan to the largest women’s sumo club in the United States.
• Government data show that over 20% of Japanese women in their 20s and 30s are underweight, in stark contrast to Rikishi, a woman seeking maintenance or weight gain.
•Women often face teasing and bullying their body size compared to wrestlers, and some drive the sport or try to lose weight sharply.
Read more: Japanese women strive to find location in the Japanese sumo world
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