Sumo up close and personal

I couldn’t leave Japan without seeing a sumo tournament in person. Luckily, I have friends who felt the same way so, after disposing of the last of the junk from the apartment and saying a final good-bye to the little silver dirtball on wheels, I headed to Tokyo. We got to the arena around 2, only to realize that we were still pretty early and had plenty of time to take in the sights (the tournament actually runs 9am – 6pm, but the matches are scheduled in reverse order of rank, so no one but relatives show up until the late afternoon).

For starters, let me just say that sumo is very much more impressive in person than on tv (just like figure skating or ice hockey). Tv gets you all the close ups and replays that you’ll never get in person. But the tv doesn’t even come close to adequately conveying the size or speed or energy of these events. Sumo wrestlers are LARGE people. And they crash together HARD. And the normally very reserved Japanese populace apparently feels that this is one of the places where decorum is not required (or desired). No streakers like in a European soccer match, but would you have guessed that the Japanese were capable of tossing seat cushions like we throw graduation hats? (We were later told that’s a “boo”, not a cheer – which just makes it all that much more impressive.)








The arena itself is an octagon around the center “shrine.” The first rows of seats immediately around the pit are for the batters up, judges, and high paying patrons. The first tier is all “box seats”. And the second tier is more of those red velvet movie theater seats designed for little Asian people. We’d decided to splurge and get the box seats, without really knowing what we were in for. For the record, a “box seat” is a space about 6 feet by 6 feet, ringed with a metal railing about a foot off the ground, and furnished with 4 pillows. Yes, they really do expect 4 adults to fold themselves into this space for 9 hours. Apparently Japanese origami skills extend beyond paper. Luckily the people in the box in front of us didn’t show up until really late so we could stretch our legs forward. We got up a lot too – how else would we have seen the myriad of trinkets for sale in the booths?








We also had a couple of “sumo for dummies” type books. A few tidbits we found particularly striking:

* The reason I could never figure out the “go” signal from the ref is that there isn’t one. The two wrestlers stare at each other until they both decide to go. That’s in part why there are so many false starts (and is a large part of the strategy to winning).

* The arena management does, in fact, take out extra insurance on the people sitting in the first couple of rows.

* The loin cloth (at least at the higher levels) is made of silk and it’s considered bad to wash it. So it’s merely “aired out” until it’s replaced (typically once a year).

The coup de grace, though, came during the second to last match. Advertisers can put prize money on certain matches, which gets them a small banner parade before the match. I don’t know who paid what, but yes, Hello Kitty made it to the sumo tournament.