Editing Sumo (section)

==Amateur sumo==
[[File:Bulgarian-sumists.jpg|thumb|right|Bulgarian amateurs – on the right is the national coach Hristo Hristov. (2011)]]
===Japan===
Sumo is also practised as an [[amateur sports|amateur sport]] in Japan, with participants in college, high school, grade school or company workers on [[works team]]s. Open amateur tournaments are also held. The sport at this level is stripped of most of the ceremony. Most new entries into professional sumo are junior high school graduates with little to no previous experience,<ref name="uni2019">{{cite news|author=Gunning, John|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/03/18/sumo/college-graduates-mixed-success-sumos-school-hard-knocks/|title=Sumo 101: College graduates in sumo|newspaper=[[The Japan Times]]|date=March 18, 2019|access-date=December 25, 2020|archive-date=February 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225144819/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/03/18/sumo/college-graduates-mixed-success-sumos-school-hard-knocks/|url-status=live}}</ref> but the number of wrestlers with a collegiate background in the sport has been increasing over the past few decades.<ref name="uni2020">{{cite news|author=Gunning, John|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2020/11/11/sumo/universities-foreign-wrestlers-sumo/|title=Universities offer foreign wrestlers new path to pro sumo|newspaper=[[The Japan Times]]|date=November 11, 2020|access-date=December 25, 2020|archive-date=November 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125225219/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2020/11/11/sumo/universities-foreign-wrestlers-sumo/|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times International Edition|The International Herald Tribune]]'' reported on this trend in November 1999, when more than a third of the wrestlers in the top two divisions were university graduates.<ref>{{cite news|author=Kattoulas, Velisarios|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/09/sports/IHT-college-sumo-wrestlers-overshadow-old-guard.html|title=College Sumo Wrestlers Overshadow Old Guard|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 9, 1999|access-date=December 25, 2020|archive-date=May 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512191014/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/09/sports/IHT-college-sumo-wrestlers-overshadow-old-guard.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Nippon Sport Science University]] and [[Nihon University]] are the colleges that have produced the most professional sumo wrestlers.<ref name="uni2019"/> The latter produced [[Hiroshi Wajima]], who in 1973 became the first, and remains the only, wrestler with a collegiate background to attain the rank of ''yokozuna''.<ref name="uni2020"/>

The most successful amateur wrestlers (usually college champions) are allowed to enter professional sumo at ''[[Professional sumo divisions#Makushita|makushita]]'' (third division) or ''[[Professional sumo divisions#Sandanme|sandanme]]'' (fourth division) rather than from the very bottom of the ladder. These ranks are called ''[[Glossary of sumo terms#M|makushita tsukedashi]]'' and ''[[Glossary of sumo terms#S|sandanme tsukedashi]]'', and are currently equivalent to ''makushita'' 10, ''makushita'' 15, or ''sandanme'' 100 depending on the level of amateur success achieved. All amateur athletes entering the professional ranks must be under 23 to satisfy the entry, except those who qualify for ''makushita tsukedashi'' or ''sandanme tsukedashi'', who may be up to 25.

===Outside of Japan===
Amateur sumo clubs are gaining in popularity in the United States, with competitions regularly being held in major cities across the country. The US Sumo Open, for example, was held in the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2007 with an audience of 3,000.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/My-First-Date-Sumo-ebook/dp/B0061BMG0O My First Date With Sumo (2007) Gould, Chris]  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928012736/http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Date-Sumo-ebook/dp/B0061BMG0O |date=September 28, 2012 }}</ref> The sport has long been popular on the West Coast and in Hawaii, where it has played a part in the festivals of the Japanese ethnic communities. Now, however, the sport has grown beyond the sphere of [[Japanese diaspora]] and athletes come from a variety of ethnic, cultural, and sporting backgrounds.

Amateur sumo is particularly strong in Europe. Many athletes come to the sport from a background in [[judo]], [[freestyle wrestling]], or other [[grappling]] sports such as [[Sambo (martial art)|sambo]]. Some Eastern European athletes have been successful enough to be scouted into professional sumo in Japan, much like their Japanese amateur counterparts. The most notable of these to date is the Bulgarian [[Kotoōshū Katsunori|Kotoōshū]], who is the highest-ranking foreign wrestler who was formerly an amateur sumo athlete.

Brazil is another center of amateur sumo, introduced by Japanese immigrants who arrived during the first half of the twentieth century. The first Brazilian sumo tournament was held in 1914.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/world/americas/brazils-japanese-preserve-sumo-and-share-it-with-others.html?_r=0|title=Brazil's Japanese Preserve Sumo and Share It With Others|last=Benson|first=Todd|date=January 27, 2005|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 21, 2016|archive-date=December 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201134158/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/world/americas/brazils-japanese-preserve-sumo-and-share-it-with-others.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref>  Sumo took root in immigrant centers in southern Brazil, especially São Paulo, which is now home to the only purpose-built sumo training facility outside Japan.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/brazil-female-sumo-wrestlers-1.3703178|title='Sumo feminino': How Brazil's female sumo wrestlers are knocking down gender barriers|last=Kwok|first=Matt|date=August 2, 2016|work=CBC News|access-date=November 21, 2016|archive-date=November 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122154506/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/brazil-female-sumo-wrestlers-1.3703178|url-status=live}}</ref>  Beginning in the 1990s, Brazilian sumo organizations made an effort to interest Brazilians without Japanese ancestry in the sport, and by the mid-2000s an estimated 70% of participants came from outside the Japanese-Brazilian community.<ref name=":0" />  Brazil is also a center for women's sumo.<ref name=":1" />  A small number of Brazilian wrestlers have made the transition to professional sumo in Japan, including [[Ryūkō Gō]] and [[Kaisei Ichirō]].

===International competition===
The [[International Sumo Federation]] (IFS) was established in 1992 to encourage the sport's development worldwide, including holding international championships like the [[Sumo World Championships]] and [[European Sumo Championships]]. A key aim of the federation is to have sumo recognized as an [[Olympic sports|Olympic sport]]. Accordingly, amateur tournaments are divided into weight classes (men: lightweight up to {{Convert|85|kg|abbr=on}}, middleweight up to {{Convert|115|kg|abbr=on}}, heavyweight over {{Convert|115|kg|abbr=on}}, and openweight (unrestricted entry), and include competitions for female wrestlers (lightweight up to {{Convert|65|kg|abbr=on}}, middleweight up to {{Convert|80|kg|abbr=on}}, heavyweight over {{Convert|80|kg|abbr=on}}, and openweight). Sumo was a feature of the [[World Games]], an Olympics-recognized event for non-Olympic sports, from 2001 until 2022; it was removed from future World Games programs due to poor sportsmanship and organization.<ref name="egypt_sumo_poor_sportsmanship_world_games_2022">{{Cite news |last=Berkeley |first=Geoff |date=10 July 2022 |title=Egyptian sumo team banned from World Games over "poor sportsmanship" |work=[[Inside The Games|InsideTheGames.biz]] |url=https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1125572/egyptian-sumo-team-banned-world-games |access-date=12 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://tachiai.org/2023/07/16/hanamichi-sumo-dropped-from-world-games/|title=Hanamichi: Sumo Dropped from World Games|date=July 16, 2023|website=tachiai.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2023/10/18/sumo/sumo-olympic-dream-fresh-approach/|title=Sumo's Olympic dream requires fresh approach|first=John|last=Gunning|newspaper=The Japan Times|date=Oct 18, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2022/07/13/sumo/world-games-osunaarashi-egypt-ukraine/|title=World Games chaos highlights amateur sumo's structural flaws|first=John|last=Gunning|newspaper=The Japan Times|date=Jul 13, 2022}}</ref> It has additionally been a feature of the [[World Combat Games]] since their inception in 2010.