Sumo - Nagoya basho 2010

Once again this year, there was a trip to Nagoya with teachers (and some students this time) to watch sumo wrestling. Ayako decided not to come this year, but here is a photo of us from last year in front of some of the many trophies given to the winner of the tournament:
This year, however, there was a baseball betting scandal before the tournament resulting in one highly-ranked wrestler being forced to retire and many other wrestlers forced to sit-out this tournament. They also decided not to present the many trophies this tournament, and so you can see the quite small trophies that will be presented at the end of this tournament:
The top division matches start at 4:00 each day and so I've usually arrived then. Matches from the lowest division (there are 6 divisions in total) start from 9:00 in the morning, so I decided to arrive at 2:00 in the afternoon to watch the last three divisions. We had tickets for the back seats (which are much cheaper), but if you arrive early enough, you can sneak down to watch near the ring since many of the seats are still empty. Here was my view from the fourth row:
It was interesting to get a close-up view of the dohyo (wrestling ring) which is made out of mud for the tournament:
It was also interesting looking up to watch the matches (rather than looking down from the cheap seats or watching on TV). Here is someone introducing the next wrestlers:
Before each match, they sweep the sides so that footprints can be easily seen if a wrestler slightly steps outside the ring:
The next two photos are of wrestlers doing the ritual preparations before the match:

The next photos are the beginning of the match to the end (of various matches). These usually last from 5 seconds to 1 minute on average:



There is one referee in the centre of the ring and four on the outside of the ring. If a match is too close to call, all of the referees will gather inside the ring to determine who the winner was or if there should be a rematch if both wrestlers stepped outside the ring at the same time. Here is a photo from when the referees met and decided there should be a rematch:
After watching from beside the ring, I went to the entrance where the wrestlers come in. Here they are wearing ceremonial dress for the ring-entering ceremony that starts before the top two divisions:
Here is the largest wrestler these days, Yamamotoyama, weighing in at 265 kg:
He actually injured himself slightly when he fell awkwardly. He lay at the side of the ring like a beached whale and they needed to carry him off in a sumo-sized wheelchair.
After that, I went up to watch the rest of the bouts with the teachers.
If you want to see more photos from previous trips to watch sumo, click here and here.