Sumo!

After Fuji-san, we stayed in Tokyo over the weekend. I was lucky enough to get to watch a sumo tournament! There are only 6 sumo tournaments in a year, each running for 15 days.

Since I didn’t book tickets in advance, I had to go early to get a ticket. Only 400 tickets for non-reserved seats are sold at the door every morning. The subway station is lined with little restaurants that claim to serve typical sumo wrestlers’ meals. I saw 2 sumo wrestlers dressed in yukatas and followed them to the stadium. YAY! Managed to get a ticket! Only 2,100-yen (S$31). Advance tickets cost between 3,600-yen (S$54) to 11,000 plus yen (S$175) for seats on tatami mats just in front of the rink.

Sumo wrestler entering the sumo stadium. They usually enter and leave the stadium wearing yukatas. They strip down to their mawashi (the loincloth) only for the match.

Each match starts off with a gyoji (referee) entering the ring with a fan and announcing the names of the competitors in a sing-song, high-pitched voice. The other guy you see standing in the dohyo (ring) is the referee of that particular match. There are several referees taking turns since the matches take place consecutively throughout the day.

After the announcement, the wrestlers enter the ring and perform some symbolic actions to cleanse their minds and bodies. The wrestlers in the pic below are rookies (unranked). They are not allowed to wear coloured loincloths or throw salt into the ring, unlike higher-ranking wrestlers. Even the referees judging these matches are lower-ranking. They have to go barefoot.

Over the ring is a roof resembling a Shinto shrine with 4 giant tassels hanging from each corner, symbolising the 4 seasons. Every tournament day begins with matches between rookies (hardly anyone, except stupid tourists...like me, turn up to watch them). The Japanese start coming in with their bento boxes and beer cans around 2pm because the matches between the higher-ranked wrestlers start after 2pm and the crowds go wild when the yokozunas (the highest-ranking wrestlers) start coming out later in the afternoon, but of course the Jap spectators are quite drunk by then.

There are pictures of yokozunas displayed around the stadium. There have only been 68 wrestlers who have been awarded the title of yokozuna since the rank was created 300 years ago.

A cafeteria next to the stadium served changko, a staple in most sumo wrestlers' diet, for spectators to try. Changko is a soup consisting of udon, chicken, meat balls, beansprouts, potatos, tofu, etc. It was quite tasty actually. And I thought it was quite healthy too, if you do not eat the chicken skin :)

Before the afternoon matches of the upper division wrestlers, a ceremony called dohyo-iri (entering the ring) is performed. The upper division wrestlers will don colourful ceremonial aprons called kesho-mawashi and perform a short ritual. They enter in a single file and form a ring around the referee facing the spectators like this:

Then they turn inwards to face the referee. The referee says something, all of them raise their hands and they exit in a single file.

Check out how crowded the stadium is now compared to the morning

Since I attended the first day of the tournament, there was a special ceremony for a new yokozuna. He entered the ring accompanied by a senior referee and two senior wrestlers, one bearing a sword. First, his picture that was hung on the stadium wall was unveiled. Then, he performed some symbolic actons. He clapped his hands to draw the attention of the gods, turns his palms upwards to show that he is not concealing any weapons and then lifts one leg up sideways and stamps it on the ground and repeats for the other leg.

For the top wrestlers, companies actually place advertisements which are manually carried around the ring before the match. Haha...I thought that was quite funny!