Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/91

Rh Curiously enough, wrestling is next heard of under the patronage of a lady, the Empress Kōgyoku. She assembled the strong men among her subjects and made them wrestle for the entertainment of Korean envoys. Apparently the art had then become a pastime robbed of its brutal features; an inference which is finally confirmed by the records of the Emperor Shomu (724–728). This is the same sovereign who erected the celebrated Dai-Butsu of Nara and showed extraordinary zeal for the promotion of Buddhism. It is easy to conceive that the kind of wrestling approved by him was not likely to be a murderous combat. He included it among the regular sports of the harvest-thanksgiving in the month of August, and thenceforth the "wrestler's fête" (sumo-no-sechiye) is classed in the same category with the "Boys' Celebration," or the "Lantern Festival." Shomu's idea was to promote muscle-developing exercises. He invited strong men from all parts of the Empire, and the Court nobles matched the rivals, compiling lists of the pairs just as is done to-day. Thus from a deadly struggle the practice was transformed into a harmless trial of strength and skill. Its fortunes thenceforward reflected the course of politics. During the sway of the effeminate Fujiwara, it dropped almost completely out of vogue, to be revived by the warlike Emperor Gotoba (1186–1198), and again discarded after his death, when for three and a half centuries the Imperial city