Before a match, referees (who double as Shinto priests) purify the seaweed, salt, and sake. Wrestlers wash their faces, mouths, and armpits before entering the dohyo (ring), on whose sacred sand neither shoes nor women may tread.

The elders of the Japan Sumo Association (JSA), the retired wrestlers who govern the sport, see themselves less as administrators than as guardians of a holy tradition.

Sumo evolved over many centuries as a peripatetic form of public entertainment in which the wrestlers, trainers, and promoters depended on local gangs to secure facilities and an audience, including selling the tickets.