Page:Sketches of Tokyo Life (1895).djvu/69

Rh short curtain hanging from the roof on all sides. At two diagonally opposite pillars are pails of water for the wrestlers to drink from before or during a bout. Beside either pail are a basket of salt and a bundle of paper-slips, the former to purify the body for the contest which may possibly end in death and the latter to wipe the face. On the arena are two concentric circles formed each originally of sixteen empty rice-sacks; but a sack has been taken from each side to make a level passage into the ring, so that twelve sacks each are really laid. The inner circle is the ring proper. On the roof is perched a little shrine dedicated to Nomi-no-Sukune, the guardian deity of wrestlers, before which offerings of rice and water are made before the matches every morning. The water is afterwards sprinkled to purify the ring. To one of the pillars are fastened a bow, a hair-twine, and a fan, to be given on the final day to the three highest wrestlers who are victorious on that day. Wrestlers come upon the ring from two opposite sides, supposed to be East and West, according to the side to which they belong. During the bouts many wrestlers sit on either side of the arena awaiting their turn or watching the matches. The umpire stands on the north side of the ring and faces the south. At the foot of each of the four pillars sits the elder who is the referee for the run.

When the booth opens, the candidates for the profession go through their practical examination; after which the regular wrestlers tussle, commencing with the lowest. Those below the first grade, being too numerous, wrestle on alternate mornings, but the sekitori, or the first-grade wrestlers, are matched every afternoon. During the first nine days, a first-grade wrestler is butted against those in a position higher or lower than himself on the other side; and on the tenth meets the opponent of the same position. Wrestlers, it may be added, have their noms-de-guerre, like most other professionals; and such names are, like the