We went to a Sumo tournament this past weekend and had a blast. This was one of only three held per year in Tokyo. Unfortunately, we had to leave early because Avery wasn't feeling well. We got home to find she had a fever of 103. She is better now, but we sure had a long night last night. We're keeping her out of school tomorrow and keeping a close eye on her. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before someone thinks us gaijin have brought the swine flu over with us...
Anyway, back to sumo...
I found out that Sumo is way more than fat guys with wedgies shoving each other around. There is actually a lot of ties to their religion that I did not realize. I read the booklet that we got with our tickets and I'll try to summarize some of it below so you know a little about sumo as well. I'll post pictures and links to YouTube for videos that we took while there.
The first ceremony of the day is the dohyo-iri, or ring ceremony performed by the rikishi before their bouts begin. ( The rikishi are the wrestlers) The lowest-ranked rikishi enters first and walks a complete circle around the ring followed by the other rikishi in ascending order according the rank. Once the last rikishi in the group has been introduced, the rikishi, who are facing the spectators, turn inward and face each other around the ring. After clapping their hands once, they raise their right hand, lift their kesho-mawashi (decorative aprons created for the ring ceremony), and finally raise both hands in unison. This tradition goes back to the samurai days and represents the rikishi showing each other that none is armed.
Once the actual bouts begin, the two rikishi spend several minutes before their match lifting their legs high in the air and stomping them down, a practice said to scare away any demons. They also throw several handfuls of salt into the ring, which is said to purify the ring. The outstretched hands with palms facing upwards are symbolic to show they are unarmed.
Sumo takes place in a ring approximately 15 feet in diameter that is raised about 2 1/2 feet off the ground on a huge block of clay called a dohyo. A light sprinkling of sand is applied inside of the ring. The edge of the ring is made of tightly wound straw bands called tawara and rises up about 3 inches out of the dohyo. A new dohyo is created for each tournament.
Five judges, or shinpan dressed in black kimono, sit below the dohyo and around the ring. These judges are former rikishi themselves. A referee, or gyoji, dressed in an elaborate kimono stands at the edge of the ring and officiates the bout. At the end of the bout, the gyoji points to the winner. In a particularly close bout, any of the five judges can dispute the call made by the referee. A rikishi loses a match when any part of his body other than the bottoms of his feet touches the dohyo or when he is pushed or thrown outside of the ring.
A quick search online will likely answer any questions you may have.
Here are some photos from the afternoon.
Not much personality to this post - my apologies. I initially thought I would have plenty of one liners about men in diapers and such, but it's much different than I thought once I started looking into it. I thought it would be better to share the history and background of the sport instead.Have a great week!
Curtis
5 comments:
WOW! That was just down right interesting, thanks for the lesson in Sumo. I have seen that on TV a few times but would never have guessed there was so much meaning behind the sport. Very interest-ing. I'm guessing they consider that a sporting event, like our wrestling or boxing here. The most apparent thing that I learned from this post is - I now know why I never liked thongs.....LOL!
Hope Avery is feeling better, probably just a little buggy virus.
Keep up the fun ~ XOXOXOXO mwah!
P.S. - I have been meaning to ask -a month or so ago I saw on the news about a huge "spider" made from metal that was on tour & at the time I saw it, they were in Yokohama...pretty neat...did y'all see that?
Funny you should mention the spider. We saw it one day a few weeks ago when it was still behind a "curtain" and hadn't been exposed to the public yet. It looked rather freaky. We are going down to that area this weekend so maybe we will get a "real" look at it. - Deana
Cool post, we enjoyed the videos. Alaina was watching this opening ceremony and said "They look big and strong, Curtis is not in there". Read into that what you will...haha.
How neat! Sure does give you a new perspective about the Sumo Wrestlers! I so wish we could come back again and see more of Japan. Our time over there was so much fun and I know that all three of you worked hard to make it enjoyable for us. Keep up the wonderful job you are doing on this blog. Hope my baby is okay and feeling much better by now. Nana and Papa and Nanee and Poppa (is that correct?) will be on the road tomorrow (Wednesday) with the Miata club going to Dallas. Love you all! Mom
Thanks for the history lesson - very cool. Wish you posted more video - I really enjoyed watching it. Hope Avery is feeling better. She is such a trooper! Love you all.
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