What involves 400lb men in thongs throwing salt and grappling each other to the ground??? SUMO! Our timing coincided perfectly with the annual Osaka Grand Sumo tournament allowing us to view these professional giants at their best. Japan hosts six 15-day Grand Sumo tournaments around the country to decide the rank of 800 wrestlers.
Although the tournament started at 9am, we didn’t arrive until later in the evening when the juryo and makuuchi divisions took the ring. There are six different divisions; however, these two host the top 70 wrestlers. Each wrestler fights one bout a day over the entire length of the tournament and whoever has the best record wins. In sumo it’s either win or lose, there are no draws, style points, or anything in between. A match is won by pushing the opponent out of the ring or forcing them to touch the ground with anything besides their feet.
Sumo is a highly ritualized martial art spanning many centuries. Before the top two divisions take the ring, the wrestlers perform a ring entering ceremony where each wrestler is announced in order of their rank. Unlike the lower division matches where wrestler start their bouts almost immediately, the higher ranking wrestlers spend almost 10minutes mentally preparing themselves for the match. They are given a ladleful of chikara-mizu ("power water"), salt to purify the ring, and then stare down their opponent until they both touch the mat with their fist, starting the match.
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