Travel in Japan: A day at the Sumo Tournament

That’s why a visit to Kokugikan at Ryogoku station for one of the three annual sumo tourneys held in Japan’s capital city is such a great experience.

From centrally located Ryogoku station on the Chuo line it is only a five-minute walk to the Kokugikan. All you have to do is follow the signs or, like every event in Tokyo, follow the crowds.

Once you get inside, find your seat and have stocked up on beer and snacks you can begin to get absorbed into the bouts.

Each one begins with the two usually obese rikishi (wrestlers) climbing into the ring as the umpire calls their names in a long drawn out chant that you might expect to hear at a religious ceremony. Then again, given sumo’s roots as a harvest ceremony it is not surprising it still retains a feeling of ritualism.

As the chant fades the two fighters face each other and a psychological battle ensues. They posture, lifting their huge legs up to right angles and slamming them hard into the ground as the crowd roars in response and anticipation, which continues as the rikishi return to their corners for a wipe-down and to collect handfuls of salt to toss across the ring to purify the ground.

As the final posturing draws to an end the rikishi bend forward, until with both fists on the floor they are ready to spring forward at the umpires command. Then all hell breaks loose as the wrestlers charge and the crowd erupts.

Heads collide and slaps and pushes are traded in a frenzied opening where the fighters struggle to get a grip on their opponent that would allow them to throw them to the ground or better still send them tumbling of the raised ring and into the laps of the folk in the front row.

The power is awesome and the spectacle often as brief as a few seconds. However it is this intensity that makes sumo a special experience, an experience you should not miss out on if you ever visit Japan.