>> Salaries and payment of a Sumo

Sumo matches take place in a dohyō (土俵): a ring, 4.55 metres (14.9 ft) in diameter and 16.26 square metres (175.0 sq ft) in area, of rice-straw bales on top of a platform made of clay mixed with sand. A new dohyō is built for each tournament by the bout callers (or yobidashi). At the center are two white lines, the shikiri-sen, behind which the wrestlers position themselves at the start of the bout. A roof resembling that of a Shinto shrine may be suspended over the dohyō.

As of 2006, the monthly salary figures for makuuchi (in Japanese Yen) were:

• yokozuna: 2,820,000, about US$30,500
• ōzeki: 2,347,000, about US$25,000
• san'yaku: 1,693,000, about US$18,000
• maegashira: 1,309,000 or about US$14,000
• jūryō: 1,036,000, about US$11,000

Wrestlers lower than the second division, who are considered trainees, receive only a fairly small allowance instead of a salary.

In addition to the basic salary, sekitori wrestlers also receive additional bonus income, called mochikyukin, six times a year (once every tournament, or basho) based on the cumulative performance in their career to date. This bonus increases every time that the wrestler scores a kachikoshi (with larger kachikoshi giving larger raises). Special increases in this bonus are also awarded for winning the top division championship (with an extra large increase for a "perfect" championship victory with no losses), and also for scoring a gold star or kinboshi (an upset of a yokozuna by a maegashira).

san'yaku wrestlers also receive a relatively small additional tournament allowance, depending on their rank, and yokozuna receive an additional allowance every second tournament, associated with the making of a new tsuna belt worn in their ring entering ceremony.

There is also prize money for the winner of each divisional championship, which increases from 100,000 yen for a jonokuchi victory up to 10,000,000 yen for winning the top division. In addition to prizes for a championship, wrestlers in the top division giving an exceptional performance in the eyes of a judging panel can also receive one or more of three special prizes (the sanshō), which are worth 2,000,000 yen each.

Individual top division matches can also be sponsored by companies. In such cases the winner of the bout typically receives around 30,000 yen net per sponsor (out of the sponsors contribution of 60,000 yen—much of the remainder goes in paying the wrestler's tax on the prize). These bout prizes are called kenshōkin. For bouts involving yokozuna and ōzeki the number of sponsors of the matchup can be quite large, whereas for lower ranked matchups there may be no bout sponsors at all unless one of the wrestlers is particularly popular, or unless a company has a policy of sponsoring all his matchups. No bout prize money is awarded for a bout decided by a fusenshō or forfeit victory.
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