Page:Sketches of Tokyo Life (1895).djvu/61

Rh, with heavy losses on both sides; and some years later, the grounds of Ekoin, a temple built to consecrate the remains of many thousands who perished in a great fire in 1657, were chosen as the arena for the matches, which are now held there for ten days each in January and May every year.

Under the Tokugawa dynasty, wrestlers enjoyed special privileges because their art was still considered of military importance and their services were liable at any moment to be requisitioned by the state. They ranked next to the samurai. They were exempted from all tolls on public highways, could order post-horses at the same reduced rates as the samurai, or freely enter theatres and other booths, which could not be opened without their consent. Their wide popularity was, however, mainly due to the patronage of the daimyo and other great feudatories. Every wrestler of the first grade was backed by a daimyo with the willing support of his retainers, and his honour was jealously watched by the whole clan. Very often it happened that wrestlers lost through a defeat the favour of their lord and his clan.

When the Restoration came, the wrestler’s special privileges disappeared. His position being now no higher than that of any other professional, he is compelled, like the rest, to take out a license for pursuing his calling. When a reaction set in soon after the Restoration against the militarism of the past seven centuries, the public interest in wrestling rapidly cooled down, though many wrestlers now found as munificent patrons among merchants as among noblemen. Their patronage, however, has no longer that seriousness and lavishness which had characterised it under the old regime. The wrestler’s popularity with the general public continued to wane and was at a very low ebb when it was suddenly revived in 1881, in which year wrestling matches were held in the mansion of the ex-daimyo of Satsuma upon the occasion of His Imperial Majesty’s visit there.