...fascinating....He still remembers a women's sumo tournament he watched under a tent on a vacant lot in Ehime Prefecture around 1941, when he was a student in elementary school.
The trained women wrestlers fought in tournaments and "gonin nuki" matches, in which a wrestler beat five rivals in succession.
They also entertained audiences by staging popular shows called "hajikara" in which a wrestler would try to lift a bale of rice with her teeth or in events where steamed rice was pounded onto her abdomen into dough used for rice cakes.
In the early 20th century, pictures of women sumo wrestlers sold like hot cakes, and at one time women's sumo was more popular than the male version.
But out of consideration for men's sumo, there was no yokozuna (grand champion) in women's sumo.
Women's sumo is believed to have been created by Heishiro Ishiyama, an entertainment promoter in Tendo, Yamagata Prefecture, in 1880.
-Dana