Sumo sumo sumo

I had the pleasure of attending a sumo wrestling tournament. The tickets were "sold out" but there were many empty seats. The morning was practice sessions for amateur wrestlers. The afternoon was for official tournament fights.

["According to Japanese legend the very origin of the Japanese race depended on the outcome of a sumo match." Sumo dates back 1500 years as a sport. In the Nara Period, the grand sumo tournament was a ceremonial banquet to celebrate peace on Earth and bountiful harvests. The early wrestling techniques combined elements of both boxing and wrestling, with few/no holds barred.]
-Sumo pamphlet

The sumo ring is called the dohyo, the name derived from the straw rice bags that demarcate the different ring areas. The raised ring is made of clay and covered with sand. A match is won by pushing your opponent out of the ring, or if your any part of your opponent touches the ground first (including a fingertip or the topknot of hair). There are no weight divisions.

The tournament lasts 15 days, with each contender fighting one match/day. The winner is determined by the rikishi that has the best records of wins vs losses. The winner is awarded the Emperor's Cup. The cup is given by the governor of the region the tournament takes place in. Women are not permitted to enter the ring so in the case of a female governor, another must conduct the ritual.

The top wrestler is awarded the position of yokozuna. To earn this rank, someone must win two consecutive tournaments, while already in the position of ozeki (the position directly-below yokozuna). Once you become a yokozuna, you cannot loose your position but when you stop excelling, you are expected to retire, for the good of the sport. Currently, there is only one yokozuna, placing a lot of weight on his shoulders.

The tournament begins with a ring-entering ceremony. The wrestlers enter the ring in inverse-order of their rankings. They wear decorative kesho-mawashi (ceremonial aprons), made of silk. The yokozuna does not participate in this ceremony.

After the others leave the ring, the yokozuna enters, wearing a massive braided rope (weighing ~30lbs). During the doho-iri ceremony, he clap his hands together to attract the attention of the gods, then extend his arms to the sides and turn palms upward to show he is concealing no weapons. Then he lifts his leg high in the air and stamps it down, to drive out evil from the dohyo. 

Yokozuna Hakuho

Between fights, a man sings (I do not know what). The fights are officiated by the tategyoji: a man in extravagant robes. You can identify their ranking (as an official) by the color of their tassel and if they were wearing socks and sandals (a sign for the highest ranking). He announces the names of the contestants between rounds; each wrestler chooses a poetic name. Many have references to mountains, rivers, or the sea. If there was a uncertainty in the results, five other judges (in black) would discuss the fight, independent of the head-official. 

Before fighting, the wrestlers perform several ceremonies. They rinse their mouth with water to cleans mind and body; they wipe their bodies with a paper towel; and they raid their arms to the sides and stamp their feet. They also throw salt into the ring: to purify it and ward off injuries. Only sumo wrestlers of a certain rank are permitted to throw salt.  Wrestlers squat with their knuckles on the ground, glaring at each other and then return to their corners to grab more salt to throw (repeat process over and over to intimidate for the full 4 minutes allowed). The yokozuna was the only man who meditated in his corner. The rest of them slapped their butt, thighs, chest, face in what I believe both prepares them for physical contact, as well as hopes to intimidate their opponent and pump up the crowd. You could tell who was going to win the match based on how crazy he was. The guys who slapped their own face tended to go out with animalistic intensity, and did leave victorious.

Sumo wrestlers are naked, except for a silk loincloth called the mawashi. Many tactics revolve around maneuvering the opponent by their mawashi. 

One of my favorites because it shows how the little guy can win against a giant sumo wrestler. 

I paid a lot more attention to the boutes than the folks with whom I was watching sumo wrestling. I kept track of which match it was and looked at their statistics to see how even the competition was/ who was the favorite. Sometimes it was a case of someone who is 6-0 and another who is 1-5. People would shout the name of the favorite. Everybody has to begin somewhere and I wanted the underdog to feel good also so sometimes I would shout the name of the other contender. He never won. 


I had so much fun at the sumo tournament. It shocks me how few natives have attended the tournament live. I'm hoping to have more of these Japan-specific experiences.