Thundering sumo

[Royall.Tyler@anu.edu.au]

>Can anyone recommend a good book (in English) that would explain the
>religious connotations of sumo?  And also where I might find it...
>I just moved to Japan but will be visiting the U.S. in January (so I
>can check  bookstores in either country...)

Don't know any books, but I've read references to sumo contests in early
Japanese documents.  They were done at shrines to entertain the gods, as a
form of divination, and as a device to get the rain dragons to do their
thing.  The answer to the question posed in the divination would depend on
which side (east or west) won.  As for the rain, the spectacle of these
mighty, thunderhead-like men locked in combat was supposed to make the rain
dragons to do some romping and tussling themselves, hence rain.

Royall
Australian National University