List of sumo trophies

Grand Sumo is considered the national sport of Japan. Therefore, the winner of the top division championship receives a lot of trophies as tokens of recognition from the highest public figures of Japan but also from foreign States as diplomatic gifts. Companies also offer trophies as a show of goodwill in support of the national sport and as part of partnerships. The reward ceremony is however on the decline. In recent years, several controversies have led some companies to withdraw their support by withdrawing a trophy that had previously been awarded. Notably, the 2010 baseball betting scandal brought an end to the collaboration of a number of companies. However, the recent scandals are not entirely responsible for the decline of the award ceremony. The ceremony itself is held after NHK's live broadcast of sumo matches and therefore does not attract much attention. Even though prefectural governors and chairpersons of organisations appears, only about 30% of the audience remains for the awards ceremony. The arena is often deserted and applause are sparse.
However, the awards ceremony retains a strong symbolic value. In sumo, a promising wrestler who is the center of the stable is called a yome-bitsu, meaning "breadwinner", because if he wins one of the tournaments, he receives enough extra prizes to keep the stable fed for a year or more.
Trophies are usually exhibited in the entrance hall of the tournament venues.

Sumo award ceremony

Makuuchi's prizes are presented to the wrestler who achieved a championship win on the last day of one of the six main tournaments. Trophies are presented with handwritten victory certificates and supplementary cash prizes. With the increased number of prizes, the reward ceremony takes around 40 minutes to complete. Trophies may vary slightly by location, such as from the host municipality. In addition, since women are not allowed on the dohyō, only men can give the rewards.
The Emperor's Cup and the Japan Sumo Association championship flag are returned by the winning wrestler himself at the return ceremony held after the ring-entering ceremonies on the first day of the next tournament. In addition, as a general rule, the master of the stable in which the winning wrestler belongs will act on his behalf if the wrestler cannot return it due to being kyūjō or retiring before the next tournament is held.
If a wrestler is injured during the tournament but still manages to win, there is an example in which an oyakata or wakaimonogashira accompanies the winner because there are worries whether the wrestler can receive the trophy alone. This was the case for Chiyonofuji in the March 1989 tournament.
In July 2010, following the baseball gambling scandal, the Sumo Association refused to award any prizes with the exception of the winner's flag and special prizes, in the form of taking responsibility for the turmoil and in 2011, the March tournament was cancelled and reclassified as a "Technical Examination Tournament", and no awards ceremony was organized.

Order of the reward ceremony

The presentation of the Grand Sumo trophies follows a meticulous protocol. After the last match on the last day of a tournament, the winning wrestler returns from the shitaku-beya in mawashi, a commentator then announced to the audience that the awards ceremony would begin with the Japanese national anthem. The national anthem is often played by military bands or by the municipalities hosting the tournament.
At the end of the anthem, the commentator finally announces the wrestler's full shikona name and proclaims him the winner of the tournament. As a first step, three prizes are then awarded to the winner. The first trophy awarded is the Emperor's Cup by the JSA chairman. This particular trophy is presented on the theme of Act 3 of George Frideric Handel's Judas Maccabaeus. Then, the JSA championship flag is awarded by the chairman of the JSA judging department and the Prime Minister's Cup is also awarded. The champion is then interviewed at ringside by an NHK commentator. After the interview, the main part of the awards ceremony takes place in the following order: diplomatic, municipal and corporate trophies and, for special tournaments such as the first or last of the year, special trophies such as the trophy rewarding the wrestler with the most wins in the year or the best makuuchi newcomer.
After the main trophies have been awarded, the chairman of the JSA judging department awards the sanshō prizes to the wrestlers who stood out during the tournament that has just ended.
After the awards ceremony is over, it is customary for the tournament to end definitively with a god-sending ceremony. In this brief Shinto ceremony, a sanbon jime is performed to announce the tournament definitively closes. A low-ranking gyōji holding a gohei is then thrown into the air by low-ranking and maezumō wrestlers.

Diplomatic trophies

Some states directly sponsors trophies in professional sumo. Usually those trophies serves to mark a diplomatic anniversary and are awarded once or a few time before disappearing. However some states have a long tradition to award trophies.

Once a year trophies

With the last tournament of the year, the Japan Sumo Association have a tradition of awarding special prizes for the wrestlers who have the most victories in the year. Trophies are also awarded by sports magazines as part of a sponsorship and to show the value of sumo as a sporting competition in its own right.

Photo	Name	Description	Awarded by	Awarded since	Note	Status
	Nishinippon Shimbun Award	A large silver trophy with a height of approximately, a maximum diameter of approximately and a weight of more than. Originally, the names of the wrestlers who won the trophy were on plaques attached to the foot of the trophy but this is no longer the case.	Nishinippon Shimbun		Awarded to the wrestler who has won the most wins of the year.
	Hochi Wrestler of the Year Award	Small silver trophy with an eagle on top.	Hochi Shimbun		Awarded by a committee based on the quality of sumo, the number of wins among others. Decided at the end of the year but awarded on January of the following year. Although it is sometimes confused with the "Nishinippon Shimbun Award", the two are completely different rewards as the Nishinippon award does not take into account the content of the sumo wrestling and winners will be determined solely by the number of wins.
	Best Makuuchi Newcomer Award	A plaque with an eagle resembling a special prize plaque.	Chunichi Sports & Tokyo Chunichi Sports		A trophy awarded among the makuuchi newcomers, given to the wrestler who showed the best performance throughout the year. Newly-arrived rikishi from the previous year who have been in the makuuchi for less than two tournaments are also eligible for the award. If there is no suitable candidate, the trophy is not awarded.
	Raiden Award	A wooden plaque with a black handprint.	Yomiuri Shimbun		Established to commemorate the publication of the magazine "Grand Sumo" and the serialization of the novel "Raiden" by . Awarded at the end of the year to the wrestler under sekiwake with the most wins in makuuchi. Named after Raiden Tameemon, it's the only trophy to bear the name of a wrestler. It ceased to be awarded in 1965.