Editing Sumo (section)

===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]].