This study focuses on sumo in the middle ages of its history, namely samurai sumo, and re-examines sumo in this period from the perspective of samurai as entertainers during that time.

Today Japanese people consider samurais as noble and loyal warriors. This image has been conceptualized and established in the minds of the people through the nationalistic education of Japan since the Meiji period. However, the primordial question that arises from the freedom of thought and learning, which allows one to greatly diverge from the retrospective image of samurai warriors thus far, has led to the common belief that samurais were also once entertainers.

Based on this theory, sumo in the middle ages can then be regarded as samurai sumo, which can be considered as entertainment. This can be attributed to the fact that since the mid-Heian period, sumo has been refined into a form of entertainment as a spectator sport, the primary purpose of which was to inspire and entertain the emperor and aristocrats of that time. During the late Heian period, in the provincial governing system that organized Japan into a single state, sumo was divided among specific houses and passed on through generations as a family business.

Kyosumo, also known as Kyoto Sumo, is an organization to which professional sumo wrestlers belonged. These sumo wrestlers, whose ancestors performed at the ancient Japanese imperial court, would perform at festivals in major temples and shrines in and around Kyoto during the end of the Heian period. This form of “sumo for entertainment” that had been refined into a spectator sport also existed during the middle ages of Japan around the Shogunate. Originally, the samurai leaders also viewed sumo as a spectator sport that was performed by special sumo wrestlers for the entertainment and pleasure of the audience.

In this sense, when we consider sumo in the middle ages from the perspective of samurai as entertainers, closely analysing samurai sumo, we can conclude that sumo was also a form of entertainment.