Sumo Tournament: Sept. 5. 2011

Each year, there are two sumo tournaments held in Japan, one in Spring and one in Fall. The good thing about living in Tokyo, is that its the hub of activity, so we were only 40 minutes away from the national Sumo arena.

We were lucky that the fall tournament wasn't cancelled, because earlier this year there was a match fixing scandal that rocked the sumo world, and the Spring tournament was cancelled. The sumo federation weakly defended its actions on the grounds that sumo has its originals in a religious ritual. These rituals were not a competition, so a winner was decided in advance. However, this has not been the case in sumo for hundreds of years now; these days its a very common sport, and tickets are expensive. If it actually were a ritual, it would have to be performed at a temple and no include a sale of tickets.

You can still see the ritualistic elements in each match. The tournament lasted all day but we were just there for the last couple of hours to see the finalists. The opening consisted of all the competitors walking out in ceremonial garb and parading around the ring.

Each bout begins with a long series of stomping...
... and squatting.

Players also throw salt to purify the ring. The whole stomp/squat/throw salt process can last up to 5 minutes per match.

The actually fight usually lasts less than 5 seconds, the goal of which is to throw the opponent out of the ring, or make him fall. I was very surprised at the variety of techniques players can use to knock each other over; it's not just wrestling. Some of my favorite moves today were the "Duck Out Of the Way While the Other Guy Lunges At Me So He Throws Himself Out Of the Ring" and the "Quickly Run Behind My Opponent And Push Him Out Of the Ring".

Here is one match filmed. It's about 2 minutes long, but the actual fight is only a few seconds long. Blink toward the end and you'll miss it.

All in all, it was a lot of fun, more fun than I expected anyway.

Outside the arena, colorful flags with the competitors names are flown. I was also surprised to learn that many sumo wrestlers are foreigners, especially from Mongolia. One of the most famous sumo wrestlers (we saw him today) is Bulgarian, and he's known as the David Beckham of sumo.
Sumo stadium by night.