Mondo Knows Facts
A sumo ring is 4.55 metres across
The dohyo is made of clay and is rebuilt for every tournament
A sumo bout takes place in the dohyo, a circle 4.55 metres in diameter marked by rice-straw bales on a raised platform of clay. The platform is built from scratch before each tournament. A wrestler loses by stepping outside the circle or touching the ground with anything but the soles of his feet.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: sumo, japan, tradition
A sumo ring is 4.55 metres across: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The dohyo is made of clay and is rebuilt for every tournament. The figure is taken from Japan Sumo Association, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a sports fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.