Shifting Views of Sumo Wrestling: From Edo to the Meiji Era

Before the Meiji Restoration, sumo wrestling existed as a popular form of performance among all classes of people. However, following Commodore Perry’s expeditions and the Meiji Restoration, Western observers’ criticisms coupled with Japan’s embracement of all things Western catalyzed change upon the institution of sumo wrestling. In order to understand such changes, my project will cover how the cultural identity of sumo wrestling changed during the Meiji era in contrast to the Edo period. In particular, this project will explore how public perception of sumo wrestling transformed upon Western interaction during this period. Despite criticisms and changes of public perceptions, I will also examine how sumo wrestling survived during the Meiji era and evolved into a national sport. These questions will be addressed by prints, photographs, and other visual depictions of sumo wrestling and firsthand accounts of opinions of sumo wrestling by Westerners and Japanese during the Meiji era. 

During the Edo period, sumo wrestling served as a localized spectacle among a varied audience—from an urban form of plebian entertainment for commoners, court entertainment for officials, and for religious rituals.[1] However, with Perry’s expeditions in 1853 and 1854, and the resulting signing of the Kanagawa Treaty in 1854, Japan began a period of political and cultural change. In the following decade, the Tokugawa shogunate was toppled over and replaced with an imperial restoration by Japan’s southern domains. Despite restoring an aspect of the past, the Meiji era Japan pursued a course of “civilization and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika) based on the importation of Western civilization.[2] Such importation of Western thought led to a change of domestic attitude toward sumo wrestling—it was denounced as “uncivilized” and an anachronistic leftover of feudal Japan.[3]