dohyō

Not only has the national sport of Japan been so male-centric that women have been officially forbidden from setting foot on the dohyō, or sumo ring, but a sordid history of lewd ‘sumo’ matches involving topless women and other similar forms of entertainment has led to a tremendous stigma being attached to women’s involvement in the sport.

2011, Robin Kietlinski, “Afterword: What about women’s baseball and women’s sumo?”, in Japanese Women and Sport: Beyond Baseball and Sumo (Globalizing Sport Studies), London; New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, page 140

Each wrestler upon entering the dohyō, after ritual salutation, moves from his side to the center to face his opponent, taking and throwing a handful of salt, also an agent of purification.

2011, Stuart D[onald] B[lair] Picken, “Martial arts”, in Historical Dictionary of Shinto (Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements; 104), 2nd edition, Lanham, Md.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., →ISBN, pages 184–185

Sumo matches also take place in a dohyō ring made of rice straw bales built on top of a platform made of mixed clay and sand.

2021, Mark Everard, “A Simple Bowl of Rice”, in The Ecology of Everyday Things, Boca Raton, Fla.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 30