ABSTRACT
Wrestling, or sumo as it is named in Japanese, is undoubtedly an important atheltic event in this country. It is the national game of Japan so far as the masses are concerned, though for the student class and the younger generation generally the imported game of baseball may have a greater claim to that epithet. Contesting of muscular strength by single combat exists in all communities, in their various stages of civilization, but one might perhaps say that the game has attained its technic and artistic development in the highest degree in Japan. In sumo the repelling brutality which characterizes boxing and which appeals forcibly to the brute in man, is happily absent, and though the high organization and close co-operation, which mark the American national game, are entirely absent from our wrestling, it has, on the other hand, beauty and thrill, which are comparable to those of a short story, compactly and skilfully constructed.
