All you need to know about sumo

The popular annual Osaka Sumo Tournament, March 2015.

Updated from the original May 11, 2015 post.

Last March, I had the good fortune to attend one of the six annual major sumo tournaments in Osaka (the “ honbasho "). Obviously, like any good westerner, my prior knowledge of sumo consisted only of knowing that you have to be (very) fat to participate. Accompanied by my friend Louis, passionate and naturalized Japanese, however, I learned, and loved !, very quickly.

First surprise, the fights are very fast. One round. And a great fight will rarely last for a minute, otherwise it hovers around ten to fifteen seconds on average. Which explains the euphoria of the stadium in this video:

There is no weight class in sumo. However, it is not always the biggest winner ... which seems to delight the public every time! Whether it's technique, center of gravity, strength - rather than fat! - the important thing is to get your opponent out of the circle or to make him touch the ground first.

Each full tournament lasts 15 days, about 10 hours a day. Each of the wrestlers going into the circle only once a day or two days. The day is however constructed in such a way that the intensity and the quality of the wrestlers and the fights increases from morning to evening.

But even among young rookies, the strength of athletes hitting themselves at initial shock is truly impressive. Having spent part of the day in the third row, I could literally feel the ground vibrate and felt like I saw bulls bumping into each other!

The force used to move your opponent is so great that it's not uncommon for wrestlers to need to lean on each other in the middle of a fight before they can continue.

Like almost everything in Japan, sumo is very traditional. From the colors of the clothing of the wrestlers and the referee (see the video), through all the preparatory ritual for the fight, it is a delight for the eyes to admire the respect that wrestlers have towards their sport, the referees, the public, and vis-à-vis other athletes.

The wrestlers greet each other by bowing before and after the fight, and greet the circle after it. Before the fight, the wrestlers also take salt in hand and throw it inside the circle to "purify" it. For the best fighters, this takes on even greater significance and becomes a ritual that sometimes lasts five times as long as the fight itself - each of the wrestlers going back and forth from the center of the circle to the salt, presumably to remove the focus of his opponent. With each return trip, the tension and excitement of the crowd escalates!

Sometimes certain accidents happen. The judges are seated all around the fight platform and I have seen wrestlers thrown or fallen on a few occasions on the judges, who have to move quickly in order to avoid being crushed under several hundred pounds. !

Even among wrestlers, it is very common to see bandages on the fingers, knees and all joints. Perhaps precisely because it is a traditional combat sport, where honor is paramount, injuries do not please anyone, wrestlers or the public. However, they cannot be avoided. There is no doctor on site and if a fighter is injured they still have to greet their opponent, the circle, and try to get out of the arena as best they can. On my day at the Osaka tournament, the whole stadium was in pain for a wrestler who appeared to have broken his leg falling from the platform, and was attempting to exit following the ritual.

A bit like when you go to the sugar shack wearing a red checkered shirt, the Japanese are fond of dressing traditionally in typically cultural places. Thus, we will find dozens of kimonos during visits to temples or in the oldest districts, as well as during a sumo match. Women especially take extreme care of their appearance on any public date. It ranges from clothing, hair and makeup, to how to stand up straight.

As I attended the last day of the tournament, it was also the prize giving to the winner. In the singular because it is really a case of winner takes it all. To add to the folklore, even ambassadors from foreign countries hand out typical prizes to the tournament winner as well as his sumo school.

To give you a few examples, the winner left with dozens of cases of Corona from the Mexican Ambassador, several wheels of cheese from the Swiss Ambassador, and with gasoline for a year from a Middle Eastern country. !

In short, if you ever have the chance to witness this noble and typically Japanese sport, I cannot recommend enough this experience which will fill your eyes, ears and head with questions and emotions!

Note: More information on the sumo on Wikipedia.