page_title: Professional sumo divisions
section_title: Jonidan
hierarchical_section_title: Professional sumo divisions / Jonidan
caption_attribution_description: English: Taken by myself at a recent tournament
context_page_description: Professional sumo is divided into six ranked divisions. Wrestlers are promoted and demoted within and between these divisions based on the merit of their win/loss records in official tournaments. Wrestlers are also ranked within each division. The higher a wrestler's rank within a division is, the stronger the general level of opponents he will have to face becomes. According to tradition, each rank is further subdivided into East and West, with East being slightly more prestigious, and ranked slightly higher than its West counterpart. The divisions, ranked in order of hierarchy from highest to lowest, are as follows:
context_section_description: Jonidan (序二段) is the fifth highest division. Unlike the divisions above it, there is no fixed number of wrestlers in the division although it is usually the largest division in any given tournament, with commonly around 200–250 wrestlers ranked within it. As a result of the numbers, and the fact that, as with the other lower divisions, the wrestlers fight only seven times during a tournament, a play-off tournament on the last day is normally required to determine the division champion.
  Wrestlers in this division are forbidden from wearing overcoats over their thin cotton yukata, even in winter, and must wear geta on their feet. They often also pick up many of the more mundane chores within the training stable in which they live.
caption: Jonidan bout
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