Sumo - a belt grabbing, face slapping, belly whacking day out!

The snow has melted in Tokyo and the sun is out again. Our latest visitors departed early this morning after two packed weeks of sightseeing - plenty of notes taken that just need moulding into a coherent post which will be up shortly... In the meantime, I've started doing a bit of writing for a travel website (japantourist.jp) and thought I'd post the article I did for them about the sumo match that Simon and I saw a fortnight ago. Enjoy!

"Leg pounding, face slapping, belly whacking, salt throwing, belt grabbing, bow twirling, crowd screeching, heart pumping…A day at the sumo is a truly wonderful assault on the senses.

Every year there are six honbasho (official sumo tournaments) in Japan. Three of these are held in Tokyo, and one each in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. It was with great excitement that I recently went along to the first honbasho of 2012 – at Ryogoku Kokugikan in downtown Tokyo.

From early morning to mid-afternoon the lower ranked rikishi (wrestlers) battle it out. The stadium is pretty empty at this time, although it starts filling up around lunchtime. If you’re up for making a whole day of it it’s worth going along for the experience and also because you can occasionally see some young hopefuls on their way up through the ranks.

From around 2.20pm the jūryō, the second highest division, take the stage. These guys are good, and some of them are on their way to being excellent. The division is fixed at 28 rikishi and each one has to fight in 15 bouts in a honbasho. That’s 15 days in a row slamming into your opponent, and trying everything in your repertoire to get them out of the ring or to touch the ground with anything but the soles of their feet before they do the same to you. Ouch.

While you’re at the stadium make sure you wander around to have a good look at everything. Pop into the small but very interesting sumo museum on site (free admission) to see the beautiful antique keshō-mawashi (ornate, ceremonial aprons worn by the top divisions of rikishi). Also check out the Emperor’s Cup in the foyer of the stadium. This is awarded, along with many other prizes, to the winning rikishi on the last day of the honbasho.

The Emperor's Cup

But whatever else you do with your day, make sure that you’re in your seat by 3.45pm because this is the bit that you’ve paid your money for. The makuuchi division contains the top 42 rikishi in the world and these are the hardest fighting, most experienced players who have the most to lose. The building tension in the stadium was palpable as spectators chanted for their favourite players. Like the jūryō, these guys also fight in 15 bouts over the course of the honbasho.

The makuuchi division begins with dohyō-iri (ring entering ceremony) where all the players enter the ring in turn and carry out a ritual to attract the attention of the gods. The highest ranking player then performs his own ritual of clapping, showing his palms to the gods so they can see he is unarmed, and stamping to drive out the evil spirits from the ground. Once the stage is set in this way, the fighting can begin.

The makuuchi perform their dohyo-iri

The top ranked rikishi of all performs his own ceremony

 In the makuuchi division, heights range from around 165cm to over 2 meters, while weights range from around 95kgs to nearly 200kgs. And, with a few limitations, anyone can be up against anyone. For me, the most interesting bouts were the ones where the rikishi were mismatched in terms of height and weight, and therefore the smaller guy had to employ more tactics (slapping, ducking, running, armlocking) rather than just relying on his mass to bulldoze his opponent out of the ring. There are 70 official winning moves at the rikishi’s disposal and each player has his own distinctive style. Some bouts lasted a couple of seconds, others nearly a minute. It’s not necessarily the length of the fights for which you go to see sumo, it’s more about experiencing something uniquely Japanese in its ritual, pomp and circumstance. Having said that, do look out for the non-Japanese rikishi – in the makuuchi division there are currently four players from Mongolia, two from Bulgaria and one each from Brazil, Czech Republic, Estonia and Russia. Legend has it that one of these guys had to dye his blonde hair black and get extensions so that he was able to have the traditional and obligatory chomage (topknot) hairstyle…

Get ready...and...

...FIIIIIGHT!
(apologies for the poor quality photos, we were sitting a way away
and they were moving pretty fast!)

The final act of the sumo day is yumitorishiki (bow twirling ceremony). After all the members of the makuuchi division have battled it out, a third division rikishi enters the ring and twirls a long bow around his head, celebrating the achievements of all the winning rikishi that day. Keep your fingers crossed that he doesn’t drop the bow – if this happens he must pick it up with his foot as to touch your hand to the floor in sumo is to lose and it would be very bad luck to do this in the final ceremony of the day.

And so the sun set on my day at the sumo. As with many things in this country, nothing at the honbasho is done without a reason, whether it’s to honour the gods, to bring fortune or to drive away evil. I would highly recommend it as an insight into some of the intricacies of Japanese ritual and tradition. It’s also seriously good fun!"

またね!