Sumo on Ian's birthday

Since coming to Tokyo we've watched sumo. I must admit at the beginning I wasn't interested. There is a lot of ceremony before each bout and the bouts are generally less than a minute. It was a difficult sport to get into for me. But, with six televised tournaments a year, it grew on me. Addison likes it too. Here's a picture of her watching the tournament last May.

Since we've all become fans of the sport, we decided we would go to the January tournament. Some of the other Honda OAP's in Utsunomiya had the same idea. 23 in all, including 9 children, we met at the arena in Ryogoku in the afternoon of the 26th.

The outside walls of the arena are painted in a traditional style with sumo wrestlers.



The arena from our seats - the bright area is the ring.
Each tournament runs 15 days. We went on day 14. Wrestling begins at 9:30 a.m. each day of the tournament. The upper-ranked wrestlers, the Makuuchi, don't wrestle until later afternoon, starting a littler after 4 p.m. That's also the only portion that is televised. Prior to the first bout the Makuuchi enter the ring. They wear kesho-mawashi, ornate, embroidered silk 'aprons'. During the ceremony the wrestlers are introduced to the crowd one by one in ascending rank order and form a circle around the ring facing outwards. Once the highest ranked wrestler is introduced they turn inward and perform a brief ritual. Then the wrestlers return to their changing rooms and change into mawashi, sumo belts.
















Next the yokozuna, the highest ranked wrestler(s) known as the grand champion(s), has his own ring-entering ceremony. [Side note: The number of yokozuna can vary. Currently there are two - Asashoryu and Hakuho. A wrestler achieves the title of yokozuna by winning the tournament two consecutive times. A committee makes the promotions for the wrestlers' rank.] This first video clip is Asashoryu performing his ceremony. Asashoryu became a yokozuna in March 2003. [Another side note: Yokozuna can never be demoted. If they can no longer perform at their peak, they are expected to retire.]


Now, from the reverse angle, is Hakuho, who became yokozuna in May 2007.


This is Hakuho's bout. Prior to the wrestling, men enter the ring carrying banners. Each banner represents a sponsor and each banner represents a $500 cash bonus to the winner. I counted 21 banners prior to this match. Also prior to wrestling, the men throw salt to purify the ring. Sumo has strong ties to the Shinto faith and much of the ritual, like the salt, that happens during the tournament is a reflection of this.


Asashoryu had the final bout of the day. The two yokozuna switch back and forth each day for the last match of the day. I counted 30 banners prior to Asashoryu's bout. Part of me wanted to see one of the yokozuna lose. When a yokozuna loses, the people on the lower levels who are sitting in the tatami areas throw their cushions at the yokozuna. Who wouldn't want to see that?!?


(I sure hope I got all the "technical" information on the sport correct!)

After the tournament our entire group, all 23 of us, went to dinner. We had reservations at Friday's. Where else would a bunch of Americans with a grease craving want to go? We were a pretty living group to say the least. The kids ranged in age from 10 years to 10 months. We ensured Ian received his free birthday dessert and we all sang to him. The camera battery died during the tournament so all I have is a scan of the Polaroid the waitress took. I put a box around the dessert so you could notice how big it was. Ian didn't get one bite. 8 kids were like sharks at a feeding frenzy. It was a little crazy and I did feel a little bad. There was a lot of hot fudge in that sundae and I'm sure some of those active kiddies were still bouncing when they got back to Utsunomiya a few hours later.

When we got home, I was able to give Ian his gift. We hung it in our tatami room and look forward to showing it in our new house in Ohio.