Kanji Name of Foreign Sumo Wrestler

Sumo is popular in Japan and some of other countries as the Japan's national sports.

Currently there are six tournaments a year, each of which lasts 15 days and most of sumo wrestlers, called rikishi in Japanese, fight one match a day and 15 matches in total through each tournament period.

There used to be just a few foreign sumo wrestlers, however, the number of the foreign sumoists increased dramatically in last a few decades, and there are currently many foreign sumoists mainly from Mongolia and European countries.

Many of high rankings are dominated by these foreign wrestlers.  Top ranking is called yokozuna, and there are currently two yokozuna wrestlers, both of which are Mongolian.  Second highest is called ozeki, and there are four now, two of which are from Bulgaria and Mongolia.

Each rikishi has a fighting name called shikona.  The way to determine shikona varies, but in any case shikona is expressed in Japanese Kanji.

For example, the following wrestler is from Estonia, and his shikona is 把瑠都, which is pronounced "ba ru to" and is derived from the Baltic Sea (Japanese pronunciation is "ba ru to."), where his country Estonia is located nearby.

Baruto (把瑠都) (right)

As other example, the below rikishi is from Russia, and his shikona is 阿覧, which is pronounced Alan and comes from his original first name.

Alan (阿覧) (right)

There are no strict rules for kanji translations of names, however, each kanji letter usually has several meanings and certain image in its looking.  Furthermore, many Japanese have some brief that the person's fortune is largely dependent upon the selected kanji letters.  Accordingly, kanji letters should be very carefully chosen, and I believe the kanji names of the above two wrestlers were also done so.  I will discuss about how kanji letters are determined for a good fortune next time.

Free Kanji Translation (English to Japanese)

Free Kanji Translation (Russian to Japanese)