The huge amphitheater at Ryogoku, Honjo Ward, boasting of a 30 years' history of Japanese sumo wrestling, will be replaced with a new sumo amphitheater to be built on a site of 31,600 square yards at Kuramae, Asakusa, when negotiations regarding construction, expenses, designs, time of beginning and completing the building and other matters materialize, says the Hochi.
    In view of the ever-increasing popularity of sumo, the national sport, the Dai Nippon Sumo Association has been devising and realizing adequate reforms. The inside of the amphitheater has been variously reconstructed, the performance period extended and other changes have been undertaken by the Association in the past.
    However, as the current national situation makes the need of healthy recreation and sport more keenly felt, the removal of the present amphitheater to a new place at Kuramae, Asakusa, was considered the best means to accommodate the annually increasing number of sumo lovers.
    Sumo wrestlers did not have any fixed amphitheater in the past. The first permanent one was established during the latter half of the Tokugawa period at the Eko Temple at Honjo. Construction of the amphitheater at Ryogoku was started in May, 1906 and was completed in December 1908. The first performance was held in June. the following year. The amphitheater was constructed on a site of 7,765 square yards, accommodating 16,000 persons. About 510 tons of steel were used in constructing the building.
    The amphitheater was demolished by fire in 1917, and construction of a new one was started in October, the following year. The new amphitheater which was completed in November 1919, had the interior burnt at the time of the great earthquake of 1923. Repair was immediately begun and completed in May 1924. The present amphitheater is that which was repaired.
    Exhibitions of chrysanthemum dolls, circuses, stage shows and other performances will be held at the amphitheater at Ryogoku after the new one at Asakusa is opened, officials of the Dai Nippon Sumo Association expect.