Japanese giants

For the past ten days Fukuoka Kokusai Center has been hosting the Kyushu Grand Sumo Basho, the last important sumo tournament of the year. While sumo is still considered to be Japan's national sport, visitor's numbers have been in decline over the last decade and it is struggling to compete with more modern sports such as baseball and golf. That said, the hall was already quite full when we arrived around 2pm, wide-eyed with excitement & ready for an afternoon of ancient formalised ritual, highly developed sumo techniques and of course the unmistakeable attire of the wrestlers! This photo is a general view of the dohyo, the sumo ring made of sand and clay. Over the ring is a roof resembling a Shinto shrine with 4 giant tassels on each corner, signifying the seasons of the year. This setup points to the religious roots of the sport, when sumo matches were a form of ritual dedicated to the Shinto gods and were performed close to shrines. Today, almost 2000 years later, many ancient traditions have survived, which makes it quite unique among modern sports.

ENTRANCE CEREMONY

Immediately before the matches are scheduled, the colourful dohyo-iri or "entering the ring" ceremony takes place. Dressed in beautifully decorated ceremonial aprons, each competing wrestler is introduced and goes through a short ritual. Interesting to note that these silk aprons cost between 400, 000 & 500, 000 yen, roughly 3500 euro or $ NZ6000!

BEHIND THE SCENES

Sumo wrestlers who perform well can earn a lot of money and reach a popstar or even godlike status in Japan. This guy was definitely popular with the media!

All over the world sumo wrestlers are known and recognised because of their unusual outfit: the mawashi, a belt that the rikishi -sumo wrestler- wears during the competition. The mawashi is a fundamental part of the wrestlers' equipment because it is where they grip their opponent and try to throw them down. And yes, I admit to being highly fasinated by this item of clothing; I guess that explains this rather close shot...

This young guy proves that there are some cute sumo wrestlers as well (my humble personal opinion).

SUMO BOUTS

Sumo bouts are typically very short, usually less than a minute, and often only a few seconds. They are, however, preceded by an elaborate ceremonial ritual that can take up to 4 min! In this the wrestlers go through a series of symbolic movements to purify themselves -rinse mouth with water- and the ring -throw salt on the dohyo- and then engage in some kind of staring competition to staunch each other out. Pretty impressive... During the bout many different techniques are used, but it is very much against the rules to grab the part of the mawashi covering the vital organs!

Professional sumo is practiced exclusively in Japan where it originated, but these days more & more wrestlers of other nationalities participate. The current yokozuna Asashoryu is Mongolian and is presently the dominant force in the sport. The title of yokozuna or sumo master is the highest possible rank and can be attained by basically winning anything there is to win! The yokozuna also gets the honour of having his own entrance ceremony, in which he symbolically drives evil from the ring (see photo).

Sumo games have succesfully managed to keep the modern world at bay, and this even applies to advertising. No glittering, noisy tv screens or showy ads along the stands, but instead a quiet parade of walking banners on the dohyo. Rather surreal I must say.

This is unfortunately as close as I got to a photo with a sumo wrestler... Asking a 200kg guy to pose while he's psyching himself up to kick ass was more than I had the nerve for!