Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/96

Rh bow commemorates the fact that Oda Nobunaga conferred that weapon upon Miai Ganyemon, who worsted all opponents on the occasion (1570 A. D.) of a great wrestling-match organised by Nobunaga's order at Joraku-ji in Omi. After the champion an attendant enters bearing a sword, in token of the fact that Tokugawa Iyeyasu honoured the strongest wrestler of his era by a gift of a sword, the highest distinction that can be conferred even on a soldier. The champion wears a magnificently embroidered silk apron, above which the yoko-zuna (silk belt) is knotted. Having solemnly thrown his limbs into certain ordered postures, he takes the bow and describes some picturesque but meaningless curves with it. The old-fashioned title of Hote-yaku is no longer employed. The premier champion is called Yoko-zuna; the two champions of the East and West are known as O-zeki; the assistant champions are termed Seki-waki, and the second assistant champions have the curious and unexplained name of Komusubi (little knot). The O-zeki, like the Yoko-zuna, are privileged to enter the ring and posture before the audience, but in their case it is a divided glory, for they make their entrée together.

The Japanese wrestler is generally a man of fine stature and grand muscular development. His proportions differ so greatly from those of the generality of his countrymen, that by some observers he has been supposed to belong to a