Yokodzuma is the name of the champion wrestler of Japan. He is almost seven feet tall and weighs close to 400 pounds, and is only 30 years old. He is a giant athlete if there ever was one. Wrestling is the popular athletic sport in the land of the chrysanthemum. The "Jap" wrestlers, while not all as big as their champion are wonderfully endowed with strength and are perfect specimens of manhood. In fact, catch-as-catch-can wrestling all over Japan is the same as collar and elbow was in northern Vermont years ago.
    In the championship tournament only the have a chance to carry off the honors, as they are so overwhelming with strength it would be folly for the little fellows to tackle them. These athletes are the only things in Japan, everything else being small in comparison. They are very large, the most famous ones being perfect mountains of flesh. But they are usually so lithe and active that when in action there is no suggestion of weight or clumsiness.
    The pride of the Japanese wrestlers is that they are born to their profession. They say their gigantic bodies are a gift from heaven. The position of wrestlers in Japan has always been high, skilled strength being looked upon with great respect.
    At the championship tournaments only the best wrestlers In the empire gather. Sometimes they number 200, and there is as much enthusiasm during the progress of a match as there is in this country at a Yale-Princeton football game.
    The wrestlers divided into the east and west, and each match contains a representative from each side. The competitions are generally in a special building called a sumogoya. It is constructed of upright legs of bamboo logs, supportIng a framework of bamboo, the post crossing poles being tied with straw ropes. The sides and roof are covered with a coarse straw matting.