送り出し

Sumo wrestling organized its winning techniques into named categories called kimarite, and the Nihon Sumo Kyokai today recognizes 82 of them. Okuridashi belongs to the class of oshi-zumo, pushing techniques, as distinct from yotsu-zumo, the grappling style. The name breaks into okuri, a stem meaning sending or accompanying, and dashi, the stem of the verb to put out. The whole compound means sending out from behind, which is a precise description of what happens in the ring.

The technique requires a wrestler to maneuver to his opponent's rear and then drive him out of the circular ring. Unlike a frontal push, which the defender can counter by lowering his center of gravity, the rear push strips away every standard defense at once. Hakuho, who won 45 tournaments, executed okuridashi more than 30 times across his career, often after a rapid spin of his opponent. The moment of contact is brief: both palms land on the back, and the forward momentum does the rest.

Formal sumo took shape in the Edo period, roughly 1603 to 1868, when the Tokugawa shogunate patronized tournaments in Osaka and Edo. Referee families preserved bout records that became the foundation for modern kimarite classification. The Meiji government consolidated sumo administration in 1925 under the Japan Sumo Association, which published the canonical list of techniques still in use. Okuridashi was among the first techniques documented in those historical records.

The word crossed into English through NHK broadcasts and foreign reporters covering the Grand Sumo Tournament in the 1980s. English-language sumo commentary borrowed Japanese technique names intact rather than inventing translations, so viewers of international feeds heard the announcer call out okuridashi at the moment of decision. The policy gave non-Japanese audiences a foothold in the technical vocabulary of a sport where the terminology carries centuries of precision.