Big fun with some big men

A small bit of downtime during beamtime is a great time to write about huge people don’t you think. The experiments are going well after a horrendous 4 days of very little sleep or food. So now, as there isn’t much to be done, I’ll tell you a bit about the previous weekend.

It was something I’d been meaning to do since I arrived in Japan, go see a sumo tournament. This was actually a little trickier than I imagined, as there are only 6 held a year and only 1 of those is based in Kansai. Although it was a close call I did manage to get to the second to last day of matches of the tournament held in Osaka last weekend.

Sumo is possibly the oldest form of martial art in Japan dating back to around the 6^th century. Some even say that the fate of Japan rested on the outcome of a Sumo match, I think it involved the settling of some border dispute or something. Everything about Sumo is heavily steeped in ritual, from the layout of the ring, or dohyou, to the opening and closing ceremonies. It is all quite an amazing spectacle.

The tournament was held at Osaka prefectural gymnasium, which was a nightmare to find by car due to lack of road signs. The outside was decked out with nobori flags emblazon with the names of the highest-ranking rikishi. Inside was the usual stadium style seating of a sporting even along with small square ‘boxes’. We’d opted for one of these to get the authentic ‘Japanese’ feel though it may have been an error considering our group contained three very non-Japanese sized guys.

We were a little far away to get amazing views but could still see everything pretty well. The whole set up was pretty incredible. The dohyou (土俵) is built the day before the start of the tournament. It is a square ring of clay and sand. Within the square a circular perimeter is outlined with rice-straw bales called tawara (俵).Above the ring is an ornate roof based on those found at Shinto shrines with coloured tassels representing the four spirits of direction.

We arrived in the early afternoon to watch the makuuchi (highest division) sumo bouts since we figured these would likely be the most interesting. I can’t help but marvel at the fact these guys train year round for just 90, 15 second bouts, and not even that in some cases.

The wrestler themselves are just incredible to behold. They are absolute Goliaths. All above six foot and over 100kg. The exception to this was a Bulgarian wrestler weighing in at just 96kg. He was stacked, not an ounce of fat on him. Needless to say he lost against his opponent who was twice his weight but it is amazing that he has progressed to such a high rank with a tiny frame.

 

All the wrestlers names are Japanese, although I’d say nearly a third of the participants were from overseas. In fact every sumo has their own sumo name (or shikona), which they can select themselves or more commonly are given by their coaches, family or fans. This made it difficult to figure out who was fighting whom though. The easiest way to tell was their noses and chest hair as from our position we couldn’t quite pick out each individuals features.

 

Prior to the bouts all of the makuuchi walked up to the dohyou for the opening ceremony (dohyou iri) dressed in their colourful silk ceremonial garb (called kesho mawashi). When you see them lined up next to each other and the officials you really get an impression of just how massive these guys are. The 42 makuuchi are separated into east and west stables before the tournament arbitrarily. Combatants are not allowed to meet the day before their bouts.

The bouts themselves are also very ritualised. First salt is scattered around the ring to purify the ring. Then the sumo will clap their hands and stomp their feet (shiko) to drive out evil spirits. They will then face each other and extend their arms wide to show they have no weapons. Finally they will crouch down at the shikiri-sen and stare into each other’s eyes. This process can be repeated up to five times before they actually clash.

The bout begins when both wrestlers place their fists to the floor. They must spring forward simultaneously to meet (called the tachi-ai). The actual clashes were over in seconds. These guys can move incredibly fast, slap each others hands aside as they struggle to grasp each other to push or throw their opponent out of the ring.

 

I never ceased to be impressed at the speed of their movement and decision making. Some bouts were won before the clash had even taken place, one sumo stepped forward to meet, only to hold back a split second before so that his opponent came in low and could be knocked to the ground.

A match is over once one sumo is lifted from the ground, touches the floor with anything other than his feet, or any part of his body crosses over the circular perimeter. Short though they were some matches were fantastic. There is nothing quite like watching a 150kg guy dance around the edge of the ring or seeing someone lift and throw someone twice his side. In the latter case the winning sumo also took to the air through sheer momentum.

Upon winning a bout the wrestlers are handed a small envelope containing money. These come from the various sponsors of the bouts. They parade small banners around each ring prior to the match which, while a little annoying, was quite quaintly Japanese and added to the whole experience.

I’m glad I finally went, it made for a great day out and in the end being in our little box was a lot of fun. It gave a bit more flexibility for moving in and out than seating would have and also felt a bit ‘cozier’. I may go again given the chance though I’m not sure. I’ll definitely try and catch it on the telly though.

ja mata ne.