Well I’m a little behind on my blog posts, ok a lot behind. That said this post is going to be real short with a few pictures.
The Sumo Grad Tournament is two weeks long and occurs every three months. The tournaments are held in different cities and the May tournament was held in Tokyo. We went on Saturday, May 15 which was in the middle of the tournament. They have matches pretty much all day long but the Makuuchi, “The Major League,” didn’t start until about 3:30pm. We arrived at the Sumo Hall around 1:00pm after having McDonalds for lunch. I know, I know, “You are in Japan and having McDonalds?” It just tastes so good here in Japan.
The Sumo Hall in Tokyo. Click here for a larger view.
The wresters have four minutes to start wrestling and every time the use all of the four minutes. They use this time for some ritual displays and getting pumped up for the match. Also the wrestlers decide between themselves when to start. Nobody says “go” they just start when they are both ready. It is very interesting.
They do their stomping.
Then they put water in their mouth and spit it out.
Next they take some salt and throw it into the ring.
They then line up like they are going to start but then they walk away and do it all over again.
During this next set of rituals the wrestlers’ endorsements are displayed with banners that are walked around the ring. The better wrestlers have more banners and the crowd always cheers when the banners are displayed.
After all of this the match usually starts and maybe last for 30 seconds. So there is a lot of build up for a very short period of action. I’m not a golfer and so I’m sure some will disagree with me. But watching Sumo is like watching a golfer walk around inspecting his upcoming put for four minutes then all of a sudden getting hit by a football player and then its over.
I really did enjoy and hopefully we can go again. Below is a video that Seth took of one of the matches.
The Sumo Grad Tournament is two weeks long and occurs every three months. The tournaments are held in different cities and the May tournament was held in Tokyo. We went on Saturday, May 15 which was in the middle of the tournament. They have matches pretty much all day long but the Makuuchi, “The Major League,” didn’t start until about 3:30pm. We arrived at the Sumo Hall around 1:00pm after having McDonalds for lunch. I know, I know, “You are in Japan and having McDonalds?” It just tastes so good here in Japan.
The Sumo Hall in Tokyo. Click here for a larger view.
The wresters have four minutes to start wrestling and every time the use all of the four minutes. They use this time for some ritual displays and getting pumped up for the match. Also the wrestlers decide between themselves when to start. Nobody says “go” they just start when they are both ready. It is very interesting.
They do their stomping.
Then they put water in their mouth and spit it out.
Next they take some salt and throw it into the ring.
They then line up like they are going to start but then they walk away and do it all over again.
During this next set of rituals the wrestlers’ endorsements are displayed with banners that are walked around the ring. The better wrestlers have more banners and the crowd always cheers when the banners are displayed.
After all of this the match usually starts and maybe last for 30 seconds. So there is a lot of build up for a very short period of action. I’m not a golfer and so I’m sure some will disagree with me. But watching Sumo is like watching a golfer walk around inspecting his upcoming put for four minutes then all of a sudden getting hit by a football player and then its over.
I really did enjoy and hopefully we can go again. Below is a video that Seth took of one of the matches.
1:02 AM |
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So glad you got to go to a sumo match. I really wanted to go when I was in Japan but it was not the right time. After reading Chelsae's blog all I can say is WOW!