More than just "fat guys in diapers" trying to bounce each other out of the or on to the ground, sumo boosts a tradition of well-honed techniques and ancient roots in Shintô religious ritual. That benefits like this one might be held on Buddhist temple grounds as well as at Shintô shrines is simply a reflection of the ecclectic and pragmatic nature of the business of popular worship--and sport--in Japan, then and now. Still wildly popular today as the native national sport (baseball being the adopted national pastime in Japan), sumo drew vast crowds at Ryôgoku during the Tokugawa period.