Sumo is a martial art in which two wrestlers, wearing only mawashi (loincloths), battle it out in a dohyou (a ring). The sport’s ceremonial side has a unique beauty; with their hair in a samurai style, wrestlers scatter salt to purify the dohyou before a bout. There are six basho (tournaments) each year, and at each tournament the wrestler with the best scores becomes the winner. Sumo started out as a form of popular entertainment in the 17th century, and has now come to be known as Japan’s national sport. However, for more than ten years Mongolian wrestlers have occupied high ranking positions. At present, there are three yokozuna (grand champions) and all of them are from Mongolia. One of them, HAKUHO, won his 32nd victory at the November basho last year, matching the record for the greatest number of career championships. People are interested to find out how many more tournament victories he can gain from now on. Hakuho’s last great challenge would be to exceed the 69 straight wins made by the legendary great yokozuna FUTABAYAMA. A few years ago he got close to this record, by winning 63 times in a row. ICHINOJO, a talented wrestler reputed to be the “next yokozuna,” is also from Mongolia. Some people cynically refer to this state of affairs as “the Mongolian invasion.” This refers to the time when the army of Genghis KHAN’s grandson Kublai KHAN – which dominated most of the Eurasian continent in the 13th century – twice tried to invade Japan. However, beaten back by the Japanese army and hit by a sudden typhoon, the Mongolian army was wiped out and Japan avoided the invasion. Now, the sumo world is almost completely dominated by Mongolian wrestlers. The last time a Japanese wrestler won a tournament was in January 2006. It used to be that there were a few outstanding Hawaiian wrestlers, but now there are more than ten high ranking foreign wrestlers, and these include Mongolian, European and Egyptian wrestlers.