Wrestling with tradition: Sumo, national identity and trans/national popular culture (Japan)

Based on three years of ethnographic (1995--96; 1997--99) and archival work, this dissertation takes a historical/ethnographic approach to the socio-cultural roles and meanings of sumo wrestling. Particular attention is paid to its transformations in the context of historical global flows.; The history section focuses on questions of historical continuity, the meanings of "tradition" and the role of agency. In the Early Modern (Edo) period, sumo was transformed from a form of hand-to-hand combat into a popular, professional form of performance for an audience. In the modern period (1868--1945), Western observers' critiques, based in colonialism and social evolutionism, further transformed sumo into a symbol of "backward" Japan. Subsequently sumo's cultural identity was re-constructed using global discourses surrounding the body, exercise, and sport. Sumo's image within Japan profited from both the international acceptance of judo and the rising national pride from victories against China and Russia. During these periods of increasing militarism, the leaders of the Japan Sumo Association and their patrons built strong ties to the government and military. Sumo was placed in a larger set of multi-faceted discourses and practices, including sumo as physical culture, sumo for the emperor, sumo in the colonies, etc. Thus, sumo was fully transformed into a national sport qua tradition.; The ethnographic section examines the roles and uses of "tradition" with "modernity" as its counterpoint. The relationships within the central institution, the sumo stable, illuminate both the lives of the wrestlers and structure of the JSA. The extensive patronage system, with its enormously complex, yet fluid social relationships and hierarchies, results in a sociality based on exchange and not the market economy. This frames sumo as not "work" but as a "tradition" with significant implications for the wrestlers. Sumo is represented through multi-leveled discourses in the contemporary media and museums. The extent of both pre-war and contemporary "foreign" participation shows that sumo has never been the hermetically sealed Japanese tradition sui generis but has continuously had ambivalent and shifting relationship with outsiders, as expressed in the current globalization of sumo as a participation sport.