There are some five hundred wrestlers in the Tokyo Wrestlers’ Guild, which comprises all the professionals of the city. In the wrestlers’ list they are divided into two sets, east and west. In each set there are some score of wrestlers of the first grade, and there are corresponding grades in both sets down to the lowest. When wrestlers of the first grade retire through age or disease from the active list, so to speak, they become, unless they leave the guild altogether and take up other callings, elders of the guild. The elders are partners in the getting up of the Ekoin matches; they also take in pupils, for no one can become a professional wrestler except under the aegis of an elder. For the young wrestler this is convenient, because he is always under the protection of his elder and naturally profits if, when he goes touring in the provinces, he is in the company of a wrestler of a higher grade from the same elder. When a wrestler is without a peer, he becomes what may be called the invincible champion. There have been less than a score of such champions since the first of them took that title two and a half centuries ago; but at present there are two invincible champions at the same time. [Illustration: A WRESTLING-MATCH.] Wrestling takes place in an arena of sand bounded by a ring, some twenty feet in diameter, formed of empty rice-bags and covered by a four-pillared wooden roof. It is surrounded by tiers of seats for the spectators. At the foot of each of these pillars sits an elder watching the match and acting as referee in case of dispute. At two opposite pillars are a bucket of water, a basket of salt, and a bundle of paper-slips, the salt to purify the body for the contest which may end fatally and the slips for wiping the hands. The wrestler appears in the arena without clothing. He has over his loin-cloth a wide, wadded cotton-belt adorned with twine tassels when he wrestles; but if he is a first-grade wrestler, he makes a formal appearance in the arena with others of the same grade before they commence their bouts, when he wears in addition an apron of heavy material richly embroidered with his professional name or some other distinguishing mark stitched in gold. [Illustration: THE CHAMPION’S APPEARANCE IN THE RING.]