An Oyakata is, literally, the ‘father’ or leader of others. In traditional social organizations, the most common form was that of a family. The leader or ‘father’ of the group was endowed with all the powers and strengths of a family’s father and the members of the group were as dependent on the Oyakata as infants would be on their father. Since there were traditionally no limits on a father’s authority over children, this type of relationship is viewed as traditional, authoritarian, and undemocratic, but it still persists in traditional settings such as sumo wrestling.
