Rankings– tax –

The sumo rankings are not a league table. They are a single sheet, redrawn after every tournament, that fixes where all 589 professional wrestlers stand — who is salaried, who fights whom, and who fights at all. The Japan Sumo Associatio...

Yokozuna is the highest rank in professional sumo, and the word is a rank rather than a prize. Nobody wins it on a single afternoon. A wrestler is promoted into it by the Japan Sumo Association, he keeps it until he retires, and more tha...