End of Tournament Update

Roberta's favourite rikishi, Tochiazuma, won the tournament.  We had gone along to the arena for the second to last day and saw Tochiazuma win his bout which left him still in the running for winning the tournament.  The final, we watched on TV and it was hugely exciting, with Tochiazuma defeating the leader of the tournament, Chiyotaikai.  This left the tournament in a draw, so a playoff had to be fought, which Tochiazuma won in a well thought out strategic bout!

Here is a little movie from one of the bouts during the second week.  This was a bit of an upset as it was Kotomitsuki's first loss.    Click here to watch.

Start of the Tournament

This is an amazing sport - lots of skill and tension.  The actual fighting is often over very quickly but there is a lot to see in the build up, with the combatants doing a bit of a psych out as part of the ritual.  We went on the first day of the tournament and saw some good fights and one major upset at the end of the day!

    Eric and Roberta at the beginning of the day.  Eric's checking out the form!  We arrived about 12:30.  Matches had been going on since 9:30 that morning but were all the lower grades.  A lot of the matches we saw at first were between some pretty thin sumos!  The big league fighting didn't start till around 4:00pm.

    The dohyo (ring).  Sumo originated in Shinto harvest rites, hence the shrine roof over the top of the dohyo.

        Rikishi (wrestlers) warming up.  This follows a very set routine, incorporating a number of symbolic movements.

    A pretty spectacular move in a lower grade bout.

    The Emperor and Empress arrive.

    Dohyo-iri (entering the ring) ceremony.  This is held every day of the tournament before the maku-uchi (top ranked) matches.  The aprons the rikishi wear are made of silk - very colourful and beautifully embroidered.  They are very expensive and usually cost around 400,000 to 500,000 yen.

    The yokozuna are the top ranked rikishi and have their own part in the dohyo-iri ceremony.  This yokozuna is Musashimaru, the only yokozuna in the tournament.  He is the one wearing the hemp rope with the bits of paper in the front.  The rope is a religious symbol in Japan and is often found in Shinto shrines.  The one Musashimaru is wearing probably weighs around 35 pounds!  Musashimaru's vital statistics - he is 191cm tall and weighs in at 225 kilos!

These photos are of one of the more spectacular maku-uchi matches.  The first photo shows the rikishi getting ready to throw salt in the dohyo (to purify the ring) and the sponsors banners being displayed.  In the second photo the two rikishi are trying to push each other out of the ring.  To win you must either force your opponent out of the ring or cause him to fall.  In the next photo, you can see that one of the rikishi has definately got the upper hand, leading to a spectacular throw out of the ring.

** Click to enlarge the photo above.

    This shows the major upset of the day - yokozuna Musashimaru being forced out of the ring by Wakanosato, a komusubi.  Komusubi is 3  rankings below yokozuna.  Musashimaru later withdrew from the tournament due to an injury he had suffered last year that was causing him trouble.

  The day's tournament finishes with this bow dance.  It was introduced to sumo in the Edo period, when a victorious rikishi was presented with a bow.  He would then perform the bow dance to express his satisfaction with the tournament.