Yokozuna and Ōzeki

Yokozuna (横綱^?) is the highest rank in sumo. The name literally means "horizontal rope" and comes from the most visible symbol of their rank, the rope (綱 tsuna^?) worn around the waist. The rope is similar to the shimenawa used to mark off sacred areas in Shinto, and like shimenawa serves to purify and mark off its content. The rope, which may weigh up to 20 kilograms, is not used during the matches themselves, but is worn during the yokozuna's dohyo-iri ring entrance ceremony.

The ōzeki (大関), or champion rank, is immediately below yokozuna in the ranking system. Until the yokozuna rank was introduced, ōzeki was the highest rank attainable.

In modern sumo, the qualifications that an ōzeki must satisfy to be promoted are that he has enough power, skill and dignity/grace (品格 hinkaku) to qualify. There are no absolute criteria, nor is there a set quota: there have been periods with no wrestlers at yokozuna rank, and there have been periods with as many as four simultaneously.

After a tournament, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council, a body of lay people (that is, not former sumo wrestlers) who are appointed by the Japan Sumo Association to provide an independent quality control on Yokozuna promotion, meet and discuss the performance of the top-ranked wrestlers.