In the decades to come, Oct. 7, 2025, will go down as a landmark day in the history of Japan’s national sport.

In celebrating its centennial, the Japan Sumo Association put together a program of events far beyond anything previously seen in the organization’s 100 years of existence.

A multitude of historical ceremonies and arcane aspects of the sport, each one rarely performed or accessible to the general public, were all on display over the space of a few hours at Tokyo’s Kokugikan.