著者

一階 千絵

出版者

Japan Society of Sport Anthropology

雑誌

スポーツ人類學研究 (ISSN:13454358)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2002, no.4, pp.17-40, 2003

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Women's Sumo wrestling was performed as a show from the middle of the 17th century (the middle of the Edo period) to 1950's in Japan. These women's Sumo show have been regarded as an obscene show.<BR>The purpose of this study is considering the cultural characters of the women's Sumo show of the Edo period by examining literature of those days.<BR>The factors that materialize women's Sumo wrestling as show are as follows. 1. Sumo wrestling has appeals as show. These are the outstanding physical strength and techniques which wrestlers have.<BR>2. Female wrestlers might be extraordinary beings by wearing the symbol of the gender of the opposite sex (Sumo wrestling) on her body.<BR>3. That female wrestlers expose her naked body and wrestle with a blind man attracted a spectator's sexual interest. The obscenity appears also in "Shiko-Na".<BR>4. Since there was a sense of values that likes an active woman in Edo, it is thought that female wrestler's Sumo wrestling might exist as a show.<BR>So, the women's Sumo show of the Edo period was not a mere obscene or "erotic and grotesque" show.