More Sumo

Back in Japan this September and back at the Sumo. We went twice this time and each time is more fun as you get to know the different wrestlers names and styles and actually start to take an interest in their progress, or lack thereof.

The whole history and culture of Sumo is fascinating, so for those who want to know more  here some information about it. My apologies to the real officianados if I get any of this wrong.

The history goes back thousands of years and Sumo itself has origins in sacred Shinto rituals. Originally it was connected with festivals relating to the harvest. It became more
formalised about 300 years ago and the rituals established then are still the ones used today.

The wrestlers belong to seperate "houses" we would use the word "stables". Many join straight from school or university and it is a more than slightly monastic existence for the young recruits. They wash, clean and look after their superiors as they learn the trade.

There are dozens of different house and old ones are closing and new ones starting quite frequently.

When they are wrestling in a match the wrestlers are split up into East and West teams,
everybody in a particular division wrestles everyone else, a West always against an East. The only exception is that brothers are not allowed to wrestle each other.

The are 6 divisions the top one being the "Makuuchi". During the year there are three rounds in Tokyo, then one each in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. Each round of matches lasts 15 consecutive days. At the end of each round of matches the  wrestlers are promoted or demoted depending on therir score of bouts won versus bouts lost.

The top rank is "Yokozuna" ther are only three at the moment and they are all Mongolians. A Yokozuna is like a living emodiment of all that is Sumo, they are usually pretty impossible to beat, and indeed cannot be demoted.. They are meant to gracefully retire when they lose their mojo.

Here is a list of the current top division wrestlers and their ranking during the last round of the year.

So here is listed their rank, their ring name and their house.

The names themselves are rather marvellous. the current top ranked Sumo is Hakuho. his name means "White Phoenix".

Here he is:

and here he is smiling because he has  just won this year's championship. It makes hom the 2nd greatest wrestler of all time. With 31 straight championship wins.

The young rising star, only just out of Uni and already in the top didivion is called "Endo". it means 'Far Whisteria".

Apart from the Mongolians the other non-Japanese in the top division are from; Georgia, China, Rumania, Egypt and Brazil. The Egytian is called "Osunaarashi" which means "Great Sandstorm".



It is wrong to think that this is just a lot of overwieght blokes pushing each other around. They are incredibly strong and incredibly skillful as well as being not a little sneaky. It takes some doing to pick up a 180 kg 1.8 meter apponent and chuck him out of the ring.

Each bout last usually no longer than a few miniutes, but there is much sizing up and ceremony before each bout.

Salt is thrown around the ring to purify it and the wrestlers practice the opening stances etc.

Going to the Sumo is truly wonderful thing to do. The area where the arena is. Ryogoku, is a completely Sumo area of Tokyo.  The train station's walls has portraits and details of the great wrestlers and the many restaurants around are owned by ex-wrestlers and their families.

Its a truly festive atmosphere with banners flying with the wrestlers names and happy crowds seething into the arena.

The matches start at about 8.00 in the morning with the babies and run to about 6.00 in the evening with top bouts coming last. There are two types of seat: the box seats on the ground floor which are very expensive and very cramped. About 1.5 Meters square where four people are meant to sit, on the floor. We always go for the balcony seats which are proper seats and you can see perfectly well. A ticket in the front of the balcomy costs about $90.

The whole thing is a lot of fun. You can get dirnks and bento boxes delivered to your seat or wonder out and grab all sorts of wonderful goodies yourself.

This is one of the bento delivery shops, there are about 40 to choose from.





We tend to go at about 2.00 after a good lunch near by and then watch the fianl, top two, divisions.

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 Here is the match up for the top division one of the days we went. Next to their names are the number of bouts won or lost so far in this round

After the match we usually have dinner with friends in one of the neighbouring restaurants. Our current favourite is a fish and sushi restaurant owned by a fishing company. So the fish is astonishingly fresh. It is also icredibly cheap as there are few middle men involved.

For an impossible amount of excellent food and an imoderate amount of good beer and sake you can expect to pay about $40 a head. An equivelent meal in Australia, if you could get it, would cost about 3-4 times as much.