I can now say that I have experienced a Sumo match – well several actually. It was a whole day filled with fun, excitement and lots of ‘oooohhhh’s, aaaaaahhhhhh’s and oooowwwwwww’s’. I had a terrific day. We arrived in Osaka at around 8:30am and were in the stadium until 6:00pm.
The beginning matches were amateur league. The professionals didn’t start until later in the day but we figured that we may as well watch as many matches as we could considering this may be the only time we ever get to go to Sumo. Everything from the judges, to the players’ outfits, to the actual ring, to the size of the Sumos was amazing to see.
And YES they are as big as what they seem on tv. The professionals especially were amazing to watch. Some of them seemed to be really psyched up. The crowd were rowdy at times but in general were fairly quiet. I saw many bouts (wrestles) throughout the day and I think I now have the ritual / ceremony of sumo all figured out! Once the Sumos enter the Dohyo (the ring) they have to go through a series of symbolic movements. The first one is to rinse their mouth out with water. This is to cleanse their mind. They then raise their arms and stamp their feet. Next comes the scattering of the salt to purify the ring. It is also supposed to prevent them from injury. The two Sumos then squat and face each other in the middle of the ring with their fists on the ground while staring each other out. This process is repeated several times.
Once both players feel ready the bout (wrestle) begins. Each bout usually only lasts a few minutes if that but those few minutes are usually action-packed with lots of thrills and excitement. The player who touches any part of his body out of the ring or the player that gets pushed to the ground inside the ring loses. 
We saw a lot of fairly even bouts during the day and it was exciting to see who was going to win. Sometimes the smaller of the two Sumos won – which just goes to show that size does not matter! There are only 6 Grand Tournaments a year, three are held in Tokyo, one in Osaka, Nagoya and Kyushu. Each tournament lasts for fifteen days and every Sumo has to fight at least once a day with a different opponent. The Sumo with the most wins over losses is the winner of the tournament and is awarded the Emperor’s Cup on the final day.
Sumo is a very interesting and unique game and I am glad to have been able to experience it.
Of course we had to find a Sumo to take a picture with!!
1 comment:
WOW!! Sounds like you know a lot about sumo wrestlers, Tina! Where did you get all that informative information from?? I could only imagine how BIG those sumos actually were...oh yeah, I saw it too coz i am in the photo! ha!
PS The blubbering is from Grease when the principal starts crying at the end of the movie! As if I wouldn't know that one...and I wasn't blubbering THAT much!
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