The roof above the dohyo: what the four hanging tassels mean
The roof hanging over the dohyo is built in the style of a Shinto shrine and marks the ring as sacred ground. Until 1952 it rested on four thick corner pillars, removed after complaints that they blocked the view - just as sumo was preparing for television broadcast. The roof was rehung from the ceiling instead, and four colored tassels (fusa) now hang where the pillars stood: green, red, white, and black, representing the four cardinal directions and the four seasons.
What you are seeing
- Look above the ring, not at ground level: the roof is suspended from the arena ceiling by cables, with nothing touching the clay below it.
- Four square tassels hang from the roof's corners, one in each color - green, red, white, and black.
- No pillars, poles, or supports stand anywhere around the dohyo; that open sightline is the entire point of the 1952 change.
What to watch next
- Match each tassel to a direction as you look around the hall: green marks east and spring, red marks south and summer, white marks west and autumn, and black marks north and winter.
- During a ring-entering ceremony, notice how the roof frames the wrestlers without a single pillar breaking the sightline from any seat in the house.
- If you ever see an old print or photo of sumo from before the 1950s, the same roof stands on four thick corner pillars - the tassels are what is left of them.
A common first-timer mistake
Assuming the suspended roof is just decoration, or that a pillar-free ring was always the layout. For most of sumo's history the roof stood on four visible pillars; the clean view every seat gets today is a mid-20th-century change.
Words you may hear
- Tsuriyane
- the suspended roof hung over the dohyo in the style of a Shinto shrine
- Fusa
- the four colored tassels marking the roof's corners, in place of the old pillars
- Shihon-bashira
- the four corner pillars that held up the roof until 1952
Sources and review
Created and photographed in Ryogoku by a Tokyo-based spectator. Facts reviewed against Japan Sumo Association materials on 25 August 2026.