On Sunday, Ayako and I went with our friends, Christine and Sam, to the city of Nagoya to watch the first day of the Nagoya sumo tournament. Below is a picture of Ayako from where we sat. There aren't seats to watch sumo but a small area with four cushions for people. After 3 hours of sitting on the cushion, my legs and back were a little sore.
There had been matches throughout the day going from the lowest divisions to the highest. We got to the sumo hall about 2:30, so we got to see the end of the 2nd highest division matches. The Nagoya tournament will go for 15 days. We came for day 1, so there were a few special ceremonies before the top division matches started. First, the top 9 wrestlers for this tournament came out and bowed to the audience:
Here's them after they turned around and were leaving the ring:
This is actually the first tournament ever where there are more foreign wrestlers than Japanese wrestlers in the top division. Of those top 9, only three are from Japan, and 4 are from Mongolia, which has had a large presence as of late. Next, each of the wrestlers from the top division (about 40 split into 2 groups) is introduced and they come into the ring wearing their decorative belts. This is done each day:
After they have formed a circle, they do a small little celebration (not perfectly timed) that Ayako and I find funny:
Here's a closer look at some wrestlers in their formal wear:
Actually, the top two wrestlers are special and don't join everyone in the ring to be introduced. They have the special title, Grand Champion (east and west champion respectfully). They are introduced separately and come and perform a special routine wearing extra special attire:
First, Asashoryu (from Mongolia) performed and the next picture has him leaving the ring. He has been the lone Grand Champion for about the past 3 years. (he's the one in the centre)
Next, Hakuho (also from Mongolia) performed his routine. This is the first tournament that Hakuho has performed this since he was just recently promoted to Grand Champion.
There are two types of special knot that can be seen from the back. You can see that Hakuho has a different belt than Asashoryu's belt. It's interesting that Hakuho chose this style since many people think this style brings bad luck.
Next, the judges who sit around the ring were introduced:
The judge on the far left, Chiyonofuji, was once a grand champion, and was very popular when he was a wrestler, and still popular these days.
After this, Hakuho (who won the last tournament) came into the ring to return the cup, which will be awarded to the winner of this tournment after 15 days of matches.
Next, I'll introduce some of the supporting staff. The are a few younger men who sweep the sand in the ring between matches to make it even. One area that is important to sweep is just around the outside of the circle. This way, it's easier for the referee to see if a wrestler has stepped outside the ring (thus losing) or not.
There is also an assistant at two corners who help give water and towels during the ceremony part of the match (explained in more detail later):
Here is an assistant giving a towel:
Next, before each match, a man sings the names of the two wrestlers which are printed on a fan. There is a special way that they must sing which makes each name last about 10 seconds.
As the matches go on, higher level singers in more formal dress are singing the names:
Next, we have the referee. They are quite formally dressed and perform some of the ceremony before the match. They then encourage the wrestlers while fighting and have to decide the winner.
As the matches go on, the referees also change and so higher level referees in even more formal attire referee the later matches.
Even if a match is very close to call, the referee must still make a decision. The 4 judges, that were introduced before, each sit near one side of the ring. If one of them disagrees with a call, he can call a conference among the other judges, as seen below. They can reverse the decision, or stay with the first call, or even call for a rematch. This rarely happens, and we only saw it once on Sunday. Their decision was to stay with the original call.
Here is a picture of the referee for the top wrestlers. He is the only referee to keep a knife in his belt. Supposedly in olden times, if the referee made a bad call, he could pull out the knife and commit suicide for making the mistake. Whether this was ever actually done, who knows.
Finally, we get to see the wrestlers. But first, there are many ceremonies they must perform before they fight. Sumo wrestling comes from the Shinto religion and many of its rituals can be seen during the matches.
First, the two wrestlers for a match will face each other and perform a small ceremony to please the Shinto gods and to show that they will fight fairly.
While the next picture looks like the beginning of a match, it is still part of the ritual (notice the referee facing to the side). This will perform this ritual 2 or more times before a match. The closer to the top matches you get, the more times the rituals that are performed.
They also do a similar performance facing their own corners:
Next, another wrestler will give the fighting wrestler some holy water. The drink this to clean out their mouths which is usually done before somebody enters a Shinto shrine, and so here, the ring is though of as a holy Shinto place.
Next, they are given some paper to cover their mouth as the spit the water back out since their are not suppose to swallow the holy water. (The wrestler below didn't cover his mouth very well though)
There is also a bucket of salt in the wrestlers' corners. When they walk back out into the ring, they throw salt into the ring to purify it.
During these ceremonies, there are sometimes men carrying flags around the ring as seen below. These are sponsors for the match. For each flag, the sponsor will donate about $150 to the winner of the match. The closer you get to the top wrestlers, the more flags you see before the match, and so the more money the winning wrestler can get.
The final time the wrestlers perform the pre-bout rituals, the assistant gives the wrestler a cloth to wipe his hand and faces. (a good clue for knowing that the bout will actually start soon)
Some of the wrestlers get quite animated just before their matches. One wrestler, Takamisakari, is a fan favourite for pounding his chest and pumping his arms to get ready for the match.
The wrestlers throw salt into the ring one more time and get ready to fight:
Often these pre-bout rituals is a good time for the wrestlers to stare down their opponents. The bout is about to begin when the referee is facing the wrestlers. Once the wrestlers touch both hands to the floor, the bout begins.
Finally the match begins:
There are many different types of holdsand throws used to win a match. A match is over if a wrestler goes outside of the ring or if a part of their body, other than their feet, touch the ground.
It's sometimes quite amazing seeing these huge men being picked up or tossed over by another wrestler.
Sometimes wrestlers are just pushed outside the ring, while other times, they are thrown out:
After a winner is decided, they accept the sponsors' money from the referee. If two very popular wrestlers are matched together, it can be a big stack of envelopes with $150 in each one. The most I've seen is about 45 envelopes for one match.
I said before that there are now two Grand Champions in sumo now. The newest one is Hakuho. He is very calm and is often seen sitting before his match with his folding and his eyes closed. He's quite good at staring down his opponents:
But Hakuho is not as good at staring down somebody as Asashoryu. He's been a Grand champion for about 3 years now. He's won about 20 tournaments in the past 3 years or so. He reminds me of a bulldog.
But while Asashoryu has been a champion for awhile, he seems to be losing he touch as of late. Hakuho won his match today, but Asashoryu lost his match (Grand Champions never face each other unless there is a tie for victories at the end of a tournament). If anybody ever beats a Grand Champion, all the spectators go wild and throw their cushions down to the ring, as seen below. This was great fun. Even though there was an announcement to not throw the cushions, it was quite amazing that the Japanese audience stuck with tradition and actually broke this rule.
After the last match, there was one last ritual of a wrestler doing a "bow dance" with a bow (bow & arrow):
While we were leaving, we saw some of the top wrestlers being rushed into expensive cars before they drove off. The top wrestlers are treated like movie stars, while the lower wrestlers can be seen on the subway going back home like all the spectators.
Since I've been recently been getting into sumo, it was great to see it live. I hope this explanation wasn't too boring or too confusing. I also hope that I got my facts right. Any of you that can see a mistake in my write up, please email me and I'll change it.
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.
