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横綱(よこづな) Grand Champion

Yokozuna is the highest rank for sumo wrestlers. The rope that yokozuna wrestlers wear over their elaorately embroidered aprons is also called yokozuna and is a modification of a sacred Shinto rope. Only those wrestlers who win two consecutive tournaments or achieve similar results as ozeki ( the second highest rank ) can become yokozuna. Professional sumo has a history of more than two hundred years, but, with only 69 wrestlers having been promoted to yokozuna (by June 2007), it is an exceedingly narrow gate to that rank.

横綱は力士の最高位です。横綱の力士が化粧まわしの上に絞める縄も『横綱』といいますが、これはしめ縄が変化したものです。大関で二場所連続優勝か、それに準ずる成績をあげた者だけが横綱になれます。大相撲は200年以上の歴史を持ちますが、横綱に昇進したのはたった６９人（２００７年６月）と非常に狭き門です。