Does Daisuke Matsuzaka, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Kazuo Matsui, Hideki Nimo ring a bell?

They are just some of the popular Japanese baseball players who made it to Major League Baseball in the United States, proof that Japanese sports stars are going global.

But most likely, the first thing that comes to mind when we talk of sports and Japan is Sumo.

Sumo shows an important side of traditional Japanese sport, a religious occasion as well as a sporting event. Many sumo rituals are closely associated with Shinto belief. It is believed that some of ancient sumo matches were a purely religious event with a predetermined outcome as an offering to kami. Some matches are done as divination. For example, if a fisherman and farmer held a match and the fisherman won, a good catch was predicted for the year.

The Kamakura period was a starting point for many martial arts. Kyudo became popular as kyujutsu, literally bow skill, as a pastime for samurai. Yabusame also started as a sport in this period, but is now considered a sacred ceremony. Hunting also became a popular sport and dogs were used to aid a hunt. Hunting was also called Inuoimono, literally dog chasing

In the Edo period, sports became a popular way to spend time. The only problem was that they were often accompanied by gambling. A notice to punish playing and betting on sumo without an authorization was repeatedly posted to little effect. Kyudo was encouraged by shogun and daimyo as a pastime and contests as well as record making attempts were held. In April 26, 1686, a samurai named Wasa Daihachiro made an unsurpassed record of shooting 13,053 arrows and hitting the mark 8,133 times over a 24 hour period.

This is even more remarkable when one considers the shooting range for this attempt, a 120 meter long corridor with a ceiling of only 2.2 meters. In the Olympic games, archers shoot over a distance of only 70 meters.

Today, as more and more Japanese are introduced to western sports like Baseball, American Football, Football, Cricket, Motor Racing, etc. betting is becoming more popular.

Nikakeru.com introduces you to these popular sports in Japan and how you can place a bet on them.

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