In the year 1623 one Akashi Shiganosuke obtained leave from the Government to hold public wrestling-matches in the streets of Yedo.  In the year 1644 was held the first wrestling-match for the purpose of raising a collection for building a temple.  This was done by the priests of Kofukuji, in Yamashiro.  In the year 1660 the same expedient was resorted to in Yedo, and the custom of getting up wrestling-matches for the benefit of temple funds holds good to this day.

The following graphic description of a Japanese wrestling-match is translated from the “Yedo Hanjoki":—­

“From daybreak till eight in the morning a drum is beaten to announce that there will be wrestling.  The spectators rise early for the sight.  The adversaries having been settled, the wrestlers enter the ring from the east and from the west.  Tall stalwart men are they, with sinews and bones of iron.  Like the Gods Nio,[50] they stand with their arms akimbo, and, facing one another, they crouch in their strength.  The umpire watches until the two men draw their breath at the same time, and with his fan gives the signal.  They jump up and close with one another, like tigers springing on their prey, or dragons playing with a ball.  Each is bent on throwing the other by twisting or by lifting him.  It is no mere trial of brute strength; it is a tussle of skill against skill.  Each of the forty-eight throws is tried in turn.  From left to right, and from right to left, the umpire hovers about, watching for the victory to declare itself.  Some of the spectators back the east, others back the west.  The patrons of the ring are so excited that they feel the strength tingling within them; they clench their fists, and watch their men, without so much as blinking their eyes.  At last one man, east or west, gains the advantage, and the umpire lifts his fan in token of victory.  The plaudits of the bystanders shake the neighbourhood, and they throw their clothes or valuables into the ring, to be redeemed afterwards in money; nay, in his excitement, a man will even tear off his neighbour’s jacket and throw it in.”

[Footnote 50:  The Japanese Gog and Magog.]

[Illustration:  A WRESTLING MATCH.]

Before beginning their tussle, the wrestlers work up their strength by stamping their feet and slapping their huge thighs.  This custom is derived from the following tale of the heroic or mythological age:—­

After the seven ages of the heavenly gods came the reign of Tensho Daijin, the Sun Goddess, and first Empress of Japan.  Her younger brother, Sosanoeo no Mikoto, was a mighty and a brave hero, but turbulent, and delighted in hunting the deer and the boar.  After killing these beasts, he would throw their dead bodies into the sacred hall of his sister, and otherwise defile her dwelling.  When he had done this several times, his sister was angry, and hid in the cave called the Rock Gate of Heaven; and when her face was not seen, there was no difference between the night and