Although still in existence today, the Yoshida family saw its authority over the sumo world diminish significantly during the Meiji restoration, and was only figurative by the early 1950s,[1] until it ceased to be a nominating body when the Yokozuna Deliberation Council was created.

[2] At the beginning of the reign of shogun Tokugawa Ienari, the Edo-sumo organization elders undertook to make sumo charity events more respectable.

In 1789, in response to edicts requiring official documents for the practice of certain activities and offices, Yoshida Oikaze (also known as Yoshida Zenzaemon),[3] who had become a very influential man in Edo-sumo under the patronage of the Hosokawa clan of the Kumamoto Domain, submitted to the official of Edo shrines a number of documents authenticating both his own authority over the sumo world and the supposed historicity of some of the sumo traditions.

Shiga no Seirin is generally acknowledged as the first man who established the original forty-eight sumo techniques and as the founder of the gyōji profession.

During the Edo period, under the reign of Shogun Tsuneyoshi, the warlord attended a sumo match led by the then-current Yoshida Oikaze on a visit to the province of Higo in Kyushu.

After Tsunayoshi's death, however, the Gojō family of Kyoto also obtained permission to grant licences through a ruling by Judge Shikimori Gōdaiyu.

It soon became customary for licences to be issued jointly by the two families if a wrestler who did not belong to the Edo-sumo association attained a status that allowed him to be promoted to yokozuna.

The work of the House of Yoshida Tsukasa culminated in the match between Tanikaze and Onogawa on June 11, 1791, in the Fukiage gardens in Edo citadel.

Encouraged by the Hosokawa clan, who wished to gain influence through their vassal Oikaze, the shogun agreed to hold a tournament in his presence for the first time, in the imperial palace.

Since the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the establishment of the Meiji Restoration, the Gojō family of Kyoto began to thrive, taking advantage of the decline of the powerful Yoshida patrons, the Hosokawa clan.

With its leader in prison, the House of Yoshida was unable to oppose the appointment that same year of Yokozuna Sakaigawa, nominated by the Gojō family, and had to approve this choice.

Before this system was integrated, it was the Yoshida family who gave de facto approval for promotions, fulfilling the same purpose as the deliberation council.

Among the documents provided by the 19th Yoshida Oikaze to attest to his clan's superiority over sumo rituals, is the origin of the emblematic port of the rope; called yokozuna (横綱), lit.

According to Yoshida documents it was common practice long before the 18th century for one or two of the strongest wrestlers of their era to take part in the consecration ceremonies preceding the construction of castles or large residences.

A list of referees endorsed as disciples of the Yoshida family around 1770 includes Kimura and Shikimori in Edo, "Iwai Sauma" in Kyoto, "Shakushi Ichigaku" in Osaka, "Hattori Shikiemon" in Higo and "Suminoe Shikikuro" in Nagasaki.

While preparing the tournament for Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, the 19th Yoshida Oikaze also drew up plans specifying the presence of a Shinto roof over the dohyō and how to build it.