SUMO
Did you know that some Nisei youth wore swimming trunks under their mawashi to conform to a more modest American audience?

Dates of interest:
1885: The first official Japanese immigrants in America land in Hawai'i and celebrate their day of arrival by holding a sumo match.
1896: Hawai'i Grand Sumo tournament held in Honolulu. 250 people attend, a record number for a tournament on U.S. soil.
1907: Sumo booms among Japanese Americans after a professional sumo wrestling team meets with President Theodore Roosevelt.


Photo: Gift of Fumi Shibata (97.99)

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JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM