Sumo originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally, where it is considered the national sports. It is considered a gendai-budo, which refers to modern Japanese martial arts, but the sport has a history spanning many centuries. Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, from Shinto(神道).

Life as a wrestler is highly regimented, with rules regulated by the Japan Sumo Association. Most sumo wrestlers are required to live in communal sumo training stables, known in Japanese as heya, where all aspects of their daily lives—from meals to their manner of dress—are dictated by strict tradition.The yokozuna ring-entering ceremony was originally performed as a ritual to pray to the gods. In the Unryu style, the left hand is placed near the chest and the right arm is extended during the “seriage” , the lifting of the  hips after the yokozuna’s four-step stance. It is an “offensive and defensive style ”combining both offense and defense, with a single knotted rope loop. It is said to have originated with the 10th yokozuna Unryu Hisakichi.