Sumo 相撲

On Sunday March 8 we went to the Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka. The tournaments occur six times a year, three times in Tokyo, once in Fukuoka, once in Nagoya, and once in Osaka (for a helpful beginer's guide to sumo click here). As we approached the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium we saw the crowds outside awaiting the arrival of their favorite rikishi (wrestler). From up close the size of the rikishi was amazing, according to the program most of them were over 6 foot and near 300 pounds.

















Inside the gymnasium, we took our seats and watched the Juryo Division matches (lower division) for about an hour.
















At about 3:30 the Ring Entering Ceremony began. The rikishi all wore beautifully embroidered aprons and entered the ring, walking around the circle as their names were announced. It was interesting to see how many rikishi are from Mongolia and Eastern Europe.
















More ring entering ceremony...




















...and some more ring entering ceremony.















Then the Makuuchi Division matches began. The rikishi in the photo below was particularly huge, this was taken just after he won his match.















Joe watching the tournament.















Of course there was limited edition Hello Kitty, and of course I bought one. Here she's dressed as the Yokozuna is during the Ring Entering Ceremony, complete with the super-heavy hemp rope belt and paper ornaments.















More tournament action...















... and some more. We were seated in the upper-level seats (read: cheaper seats), but the closer boxes had Japanese-style floor seating and tea service.















Later in the day the matches became more exciting, as the higher ranked rikishi were the last to wrestle.















Me watching the tournament.















Some of the ritual that happened before each match. While the rikishi would wrestle for only about a minute, they would stare each other down and have a little psycholgical battle for about four mintues prior to their match.















The higher ranked rikishi had sponsors, and the sponsor banners were paraded around the ring before the match. This rikishi had Hello Kitty as a sponsor! The Kitty banner is the first one. Another rikishi had McDonalds as his sole sponsor, they paraded about five banners.
















More of the pre-match ritual.
















The score board. The rikishi are listed as either East or West (top or bottom on the board), and the winner of the match has a red light next to their name. This photo was taken during the last match, so both names have the red light.

After the tournament, me and a foamcore cut out of one of the more popular rikishi.

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The tournament flags outside of the gymnasium at the end of the tournament. There were drums played from atop the gymnasium to announce the end of the days matches. All in all, I found sumo to be much more interesting than I thought it would be. It was Joe's idea to go to the tournament, so I give credit to him for peaking my interest in the sport. The ritual of the tournament was facinating, and I enjoyed the rhythm of the day.

As we walked back to the subway we came across a Mexican restaurant near Namba Station, in the Hips Building. I forgot the name, but it was fantastic!