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Yokozuna (横綱) is the highest rank in sumo wrestling. The name comes from the most visible symbol of their rank, the wide (yoko) rope (tsuna) worn around the waist. The rope bears a marked similarity to the Shinto shimekazari rope often attached to torii temple gates and sacred trees, and like them serves to purify and mark off its content. The rope, which may weigh up to 20 kilograms, is not used during the matches themselves, but is worn during the yokozuna's dohyo-iri ring entrance ceremony.
Elevation to yokozuna rank is decided by the Japan Sumo Association, who decide that a ozeki-rank wrestler has enough power, skill and dignity/grace (品格 hinkaku) to qualify. Winning two consecutive champsionships as ozeki is a rule of thumb for qualification, but there are no absolute criteria, and neither is there a set quota: there have been periods with no wrestlers at yokozuna rank, and there have been periods with up to four simultaneously. The rank, once awarded, is permanent, although yokozuna are expected to retire if they are no longer able to compete at the peak of the sport.
The flexible qualification criteria, especially the requirement of hinkaku, has been the source of much controversy over the years, especially with the recent entry of very successful Hawaiian wrestlers into the ring. Ozeki Konishiki (小錦), in particular, was felt by many to be unfairly kept from yokozuna status due to his foreignness, and many Sumo Association members even openly said that gaijin can never achieve the hinkaku needed to be a yokozuna. However, this debate was finally laid to rest on January 27, 1993, when ozeki Akebono (曙) was formally promoted to yokozuna after only 8 months at ozeki rank.
It should be said that the current criteria did not apply in earlier times. Prior to the Meiji Era the title was conferred on Ozeki (currently the second highest rank) who performed sumo in front of the Shogun. This privilege was more often determined by a wrestler's patron having sufficient influence rather than purely on the ability and diginity of the wrestler. Thus there are a number of early wrestlers who were Yokozuna in everything but name. Furthermore the right to award a wrestler a yokozuna licence was a hereditary privilige of one family. In these early days Yokozuna was also not regarded as a separate rank in the listings, but as an Ozeki with special dispensation to perform his own ring entering ceremony.
The birth of the rank of yokozuna is unclear, and there are two competing legends. According to one, a 9th-century wrestler named Hajikami tied a shimenawa around his waist as a handicap and dared any to touch it, creating sumo as we know it in the process. According to the other, legendary wrestler Akashi Shiganosuke tied the shimenawa around his waist in 1630Events February 22 Native American Quadequine introduces Popcorn to English colonists June 6 Swedish warships depart from Stockholm to Germany June 26 Swedish troops begin to land in Pomerania to aid Protestants July 6 Swedish troops under Gustavus Adolph as a sign of respect when visiting the Emperor, and was posthumously awarded the title for the first time. There is little supporting evidence for either theory -- in fact, it is not even certain that Akashi was a historical figure -- but it is known that by 1789Events January 7 First nationwide United States election January 21 The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth is printed in Boston, Massachusetts January 23 Georgetown College becomes the first Catholic coll, yokozuna starting from Tanikaze Kajinosuke were depicted in ukiyo-eUkiyo-e (a Japanese term meaning "pictures of the floating world") is a style of painting, but is more commonly associated with a type of woodcut printmaking that became popular in Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries. The art form arose in the metropolit prints as wearing the shimenawa.