Tsuyuharai

In professional sumo, the tsuyuharai (Japanese: 露払い, literally "dew sweeper") is one of the two attendants that accompany a yokozuna when he performs his dohyō-iri or ring entrance ceremony.

As the yokozuna performs the ceremony, he will squat on his left hand side.

The tsuyuharai must be a makuuchi ranked sumo wrestler (or rikishi) and is, if possible, from the same training stable (or heya) as the yokozuna.

A wrestler who is scheduled to fight the yokozuna on a particular day of a honbasho (or tournament) will not act as his tsuyuharai.

An ōzeki can act as a tsuyuharai during a wrestler's very first dohyō-iri, held at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.