Sumo do

On my birthday we went to see the Sumo wrestling for the first time. There is a season in Tokyo, Kyushu and Nagoya and somehow we always have seemed to miss it in the past.

What a wonderful way the spend the day it is.

The matches start at 8.30 in the morning and go on until six. The most important bouts coming last.

The whole thing is  fascinating, mysterious and hugely entertaining.  People wander in and out, come for the day, the morning or just the most important bits.


The whole area of Tokyo around the Sumo stadium is devoted to the sport and entertaining the players and spectators. When you arrrive at the station there are massive posters of the most famous wrestlers and their hand prints, weight and height. They're big boys, 175 kilos is not unsual.

The wrestling itself is very ancient and was once a religious ceremony. this explains the enormous amount of ritual involved. The ring, a raised platform of clay,  is itself sacred and cannot be approached, let alone touched by ordinary people. Just when you think you are starting to understand things, out comes someone in spectacular robes and does something inpenetrable in its mystery.

 There are famous Sumo "schools' or "houses' and a wrestler joins at an early age pretty well for life. During the season everyone gets to wrestle everyone else several times and the winner is of course the one who wins the most bouts.

You win by pushing the other guy out or by making any part of his body, apart from the soles of his feet, touch the ground. I used to think it was just a bunch of big blokes pushing each other around. But not at all... they are amazingly strong and very, very sneeky. We saw one chap pick up a larger fellow and basically turn him upsidedown. That's 150 kilos you have to rotate at about arm's length.


The players are ranked into various complex grades, the very top of the top has only been awarded a few dozen times in history. This person thus anointed cannot be downgraded but is expected to retire gracefully as the wheels start falling off.

We were lucky enough to see Endo, bloke on the left, wrestling. He is the rising star and only 22 years old. We saw him demolish someone who had been a Sumo wrestler since Endo was two years old.  You could feel the tension building as he appeared and the crowd went wild when he won.

In the traditonal seats on the ground floor you actually sit in a very small matted area. about 1.5 square meters for a party of four.

There a dozens of special bento luncheon restaurants at the place that deliver: bento boxes, beer, sake, etc to your seat.

 The four old girls in front of us brought their own picnic that consisted of a small amount of rice cakes and several very large bottle of scotch which they attacked with gusto. They had even brought their own ice, soda and shwizel sticks.

They were having a ball.... as were we.