Sumo with Babies (Sumo 6)

You’re probably wondering, “What do babies have to do with sumo?”

Well, it’s the Nakizumō Festival (Sumo of Tears), otherwise known as the Sumo Crying Baby Festival!

For the past 400 years or so during Golden Week, Japanese parents have been taking their babies to compete in a sumo crying bout. Variations of this festival are held at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples throughout Japan, usually on April 29 (Showa Day) or May 5th (Children’s Day).

It’s a competition between 6- to 18-month-old infants and it’s held in a small dohyō with two apprentice rikishi, a gyōji (referee), and occasionally a yobidashi (ring announcer).

Parents bring their infants to the shrines and temples to be blessed in the hope that they’ll have long, healthy lives. They then might enter them in the sumo contest.

Two tykes compete at a time, and there can be more than a hundred contestants, sometimes chosen by lottery, since this is a very popular event. First they dress the babies up for the competition, perhaps with a headdress and something similar to a sumo apron. Then the tots are handed over to the apprentice rikishi, who carry the combatants into the small dohyō. The yobidashi (ring announcer) sings out each of the competitors’ names. If there’s no yobidashi present, then the gyōji announces the contestants’ names. The two apprentice rikishi proceed to the center of the ring and then touch the babies's feet on the ground for the tachiai (the initial position at the start of the bout). Then they're presented to the gyōji tries to make the babies cry.

The combatants enter the dohyō. Maria del Carmen Calatrava Moreno (cropped).

It’s all in great fun, of course. The apprentice rikishi are all goodhearted guys and, despite their size, they’re not frightening. That is, except for Hoshoryu right before a tachiai.

Hoshoryu’s game face as he intimidates his opponent.

The apprentice rikishi don’t want to make babies cry—they just hold and gently bounce them, which is soothing to the contestants. That job is up to the gyōji, whose decisions no doubt sometimes even make the rikishi want to cry.

Before I go on, I want to mention that the idea behind this is that a crying baby will grow faster, and the louder it cries, the stronger, more blessed, healthy, and successful it will be. Also, the cries are said to protect them by scaring away evil spirits. The apprentice rikishi are there as excellent examples of growth and strength. It’s all related to the proverb, “Naku ko wa sodatsu” (Crying babies grow faster).

This is not—as the sensational press hints at—harmful, unethical, or a mild form of torture, all of which are suggested to make the Japanese seem strange. But it’s not unusual when you understand what is going on.

This is actually a Shinto ceremony, albeit a rather fun one. It’s also a celebration. Sumo began as part of the Shinto harvest festivities and it, too, is a Shinto ceremony, but in this case the trappings of sumo are used in this blessing ceremony for babies.

So, back to the sumo match. Getting the kids to cry is considered a positive thing and it doesn’t really hurt them—most babies do a lot of it on their own anyway, often at the drop of a hat. Usually parents try to stop them, but not in this case.

The first to cry or the one who cries the loudest and longest is the victor. Being handed over to a gigantic stranger doesn’t seem to bother most of them, perhaps because the apprentice rikishi resemble them more than other adults do.

As I said, the hard part falls to the ref. Normally during sumo bouts, he calls out “Nokotta! Nokotta! Nokotta!” repeatedly, telling the rikishi they’re “still in” and should continue. In baby sumo he calls “Naki! Naki! Naki!” (Cry! Cry! Cry!) as encouragement to do just that. But this doesn’t always work since the gyōji aren’t very threatening either, and the youngsters seem to like their colorful traditional outfits and wooden gunbai (samurai war fans) they use to signal decisions, among other things. This forces them to use something else to elicit sobbing.

As a last resort, the ref or his assistants don a tengu mask, usually with a red face and a long nose, but often in other colors. The tengu are mischievous and occasionally dangerous spirits—ones that flee at the sound of babies’ crying—but they sometimes take on a protective role. They are usually depicted of as human-bird chimeras.

Resorting to the mask. Brinacor.

By this point someone’s usually bawling and the winning baby or both babies are then held aloft by the apprentice rikishi as the family and some of the crowd yell out, “banzai raku” (enjoy a long life). Raising the baby overhead high in the air is thought to strengthen the blessing.

We have a winner. Brinacor (cropped).

Everyone has a great time—except for the infants for a short moment—but they receive their well-wishings.

And just in case you got the impression that Hoshoryu, one of the fiercest sumo rikishi, would easily frighten any baby, think again. This is what the masterful Mongolian ōzeki (the second highest rank) looks like outside the dohyō when he's studious and happy.

 He actually seems like a very nice guy.

 

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I hope to post more in this series soon.

 

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If you'd like further information, I recommend the following:

NHK, Japan's public broadcasting TV channel, streams the half-hour highlights shows here https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/latest/ before they do on other sumo pages of their site. There are up to four one-hour shows that were recorded live usually on Day 1, Day 8, Day 14, and Day15 of each basho (tournament) that are found here https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/sumolive/. They also have information about the rikishi and the excellent short Sumopedia videos. This is your required first stop.

If you'd rather watch the full day live in Japanese, you'll find it showing on various YouTube channels, but you'll have to wait until it starts at around 8:30 a.m. Japan time to search for them. And remember, they're a day earlier if you're not on the early side of the International Date Line. The matches run to about 6 p.m., with the top division starting around 4 p.m.

The Japan Sumo Association's official site https://www.sumo.or.jp/En/ also contains some excellent information.

Since I’m interested in analysis and statistics, I also highly recommend Michael’s Ozeki Analytics blog at https://ozekianalytics.substack.com/. You can skip signing up to check it out. It can be a bit technical for some people.

For first-rate information on the individual rikishi, their abilities, and the techniques they use, you have to check out Tim Bissell’s Sumo Stomp! at https://sumostomp.substack.com/. Again you can hit “No thanks” for signing up in order to read his posts, but then go back and sign up.

Then enjoy! Sumo really is the ultimate sport.