Gyōji
referee in professional sumo wrestling
A gyōji (行司; Japanese pronunciation: [ɡʲoːʑi], lit. 'administering things') is a referee employed by the Japan Sumo Association, responsible for a variety of activities which concern the organisation of the sport in general and the refereeing of matches, as well as the preservation of professional sumo culture, deeply rooted in Shinto traditions. Subject to the same strict hierarchy and traditional appearance as the other professions gravitating around professional sumo, the gyōji are one of the most visible professions at tournaments (honbasho), being the third person in the dohyō (wrestling ring) and sometimes defined as "an essential part of the sumo spectacle".
Inherited from a tradition of refereeing dating back to the Heian period, gyōji did not take on their current role until the Tenshō era in the late 16th century. Since the end of the 18th century, gyōji have been entrusted with religious functions, which they perform during the consecration of combat areas, before tournaments or in the stables to which they belong. The gyōji's responsibilities also include drafting the banzuke, the document defining the promotion or demotion of wrestlers, and supervise match selections made by the toshiyori (elders) on each tournament day.
History
The role of referee in sumo began long before the gyōji was entrusted with it. During the Heian period, the role of match referee was not yet defined, and besides the wrestlers, there were a number of officials responsible for supervising matches. These roles were given to imperial guards bearing the title of tachiawase (立合), a rank bearing the same kanji as the spelling of tachi-ai. These officials, dressed as archers and carrying bows and quivers, were accompanied by substitutes, the kazusashi (数刺し), who were dressed in the same way and were responsible for keeping the scorebook. An official, Shiga-no-Seirin (sometimes spelled Shigano Seirin or called Shiga Seirin), was appointed by Emperor Shōmu and founded one of the first hereditary lines of referees, and is also credited with establishing the original forty-eight sumo techniques.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gyōji” is referee in professional sumo wrestling. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gyōji, referee and professional, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gyōji” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.