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| An opening ceremony. Keith Pomakis. |
Sumo seems like an odd sport at first glance. You have these huge guys pushing and throwing each other around. But despite initial appearances, and once you get beyond society’s biases, you find that these are incredibly strong and sometimes agile athletes. They’re also the last remnants of the warrior samurai and behind them is many centuries of tradition, with the referees dressed in their intricately designed kimonos, similar to those of Shinto priests, with their samurai wooden war-fans; the purification rituals using salt, power water, and power paper; the dramatic foot-stomping to drive away evil spirits; the sword-slashing hand gestures; and the opening ceremony with the yokozuna (grand champion) presented as a god. Sumo dates back to the time of the Romans, long before Japan's feudal era of shoguns and samurai and it carries on traditions gathered over more than a millennia. It's intricately packed with Japanese culture, all of which I find fascinating and captivating. So I want to explore the thrilling sumo world in this series of posts.
I first discovered sumo when I saw the half-hour highlight shows for each night of a fifteen-day tournament decades ago. I immediately loved it for its simplicity and atmosphere. It was so easy to understand. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see it again for many years, although when anyone asked what my favorite sport was, I’d immediately reply, “Sumo.”
Fortunately I was able to see some of the two-hour broadcasts while visiting a Japanese relative in her eighties—the great-grandma of some of our grandkids. These shows were in Japanese, but she explained much of it to me. This time I loved the sport for its complexity, with all its rituals, traditions, and dignity. After watching it I had a lot of questions that I had to look up.
For the next tournament, I figured out a way I could watch both the Japanese two-hour and the half-hour English highlight shows. I learned a lot, but got more from the shows in English, although I sometimes prefer watching it live in Japanese. I quickly set about researching the sport—watching and reading everything I could find on it. And, being an author, I began taking notes.
Without knowing anything about sumo, one would think it’s just two big guys pushing each other around, but it’s actually nothing like that. It’s one of the oldest sports in the world, rich with traditions and meaning, and it showcases many techniques. It’s simple enough that anyone can easily understand the object—to force your opponent to exit the ring or touch the ground with any part of his body other than the soles of his feet—and one can easily watch the matches without being able to speak or read Japanese.
Sumo seems simple, but the sport is actually quite complex and
packed with rituals and historical attire, which make it by far the classiest
of all the grappling sports.
While most Americans would think the participants, or rikishi,
are couch potatoes, they are actually extremely strong athletes that undergo
intensive training to build up their muscles and bulk up their size. Most of
them are well over six feet tall (2 m) and weigh around 350 pounds (160 kg), yet they're flexible and regularly practice doing the splits while leaning forward to touch their chest to the ground. These unassuming warriors could
probably throw around any of the strongest football players. And they’re agile.
Check out the following video of Ura--one of the most popular rikishi--doing a backflip from a standing position.
There is also a video of him doing a series of backflips when he was a bit younger.
The rikishi are incredibly strong and tough. One thing they lack is stamina, but like lions and tigers, they exhibit a tremendous burst of energy and strength, so most bouts are over within seconds. They are very focused and intense.
Click here for the next article in this series:
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.
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