During my stay in Japan I definitely wanted to see Sumo wrestling live. However, I didn’t really look into it until after my workaway stay in Suzaka. There are six grand tournaments a year, each 15 days long. Three take place in Tokyo, the others are carried out in Osaka, Fukuoka and Nagoya.
Coming to Nagoya without knowing about the tournament, I couldn’t believe my luck, when I saw on Couchsurfing that Rebecca from Wellington, New Zealand was looking for someone to join her the same week for the competition in town. The perfect fit with my travel plans.
So Friday morning we left for the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. The tournament lasts always the whole day, with each Sumo only fighting once every day. The wrestler, who wins the most fights, is the champion of the tournament. However other titles are awarded for the best fighting spirit or technical skills.
Beside the fighters also the referees and the announcers play a major role in the ceremonial protocol. Before each match the two opponents are presented by a dedicated person with singing out their special Sumo name twice. The referees are also divided into several ranks and can be differentiated by the colors of their cloth.
In the morning the lower classes have the appearance, whereas only towards the end of the day the two highest Sumo classes step into the ring. With the increase of the rank, the fighters are allowed more preparation time, so the rather short fights are opened by up to four minutes of throwing salt, staring fiercely at each other and some minor interaction with the audience. The fight itself sometimes last only a few seconds, but can also wage back and forth if two equal opponents come together. My favorite fighting technique is the pushing and pulling in contrast to the rather unsportsmanlike face slapping.
Staying till the last fight, in total about seven hours, Rebecca and I were awarded by a showdown between the ruling champion and one of his strongest challengers. I very much enjoyed the great atmosphere with lots of Japanese traditions, once again good food and fun company 😉