Today is my last full day in Japan, I'm travelling back tomorrow night so my last post for this trip will be done Sunday from home. Before I came to Japan I checked out the event that were scheduled.
The Tokyo Sumo tournament was one that caught my attention so I got myself a ticket to it for today.
There are six Grand Sumo tournaments (or honbasho) each year: three at The Sumo Hall (or Ryōgoku Kokugikan) in Ryōgoku, Tokyo (January, May, and September), and one each in Osaka (March), Nagoya (July) and Fukuoka (November). Each tournament begins on a Sunday and runs for 15 days, ending also on a Sunday.
So after a good night sleep I woke up and headed strati to Ryogoku station.
I first Walk around the Tokyo Edo museum which is an impressive structure
From there I (easily thanks to the map) found my way to the Sumo Hall.
Unlike most other wrestling or fighting sports there are no weight categories only sumo divisions based on skill.
As I sat down wrestlers from lower divisions were wrestling.
So , as I noticed that the wrestlers were from different weight and sizes I was trying to predict who would have the advantage as some of the fights did not seem to be fair at all.
How would a fighter weighing 100 + kilos could fight fairly one that was weighing 150 + ?
Sumos matches are not very long from a few seconds to a minute tops.
So I could see a lot of matches.
Some would push their opponent out of the ring with strength alone.
Some would fall out with them .
Then the higher division wrestlers came in as the hall was getting more crowded.
And I kept wondering as I noticed it was not necessarily the bigger nor the stronger that would win.
look at this video.
The other thing was there was a huge difference in skills (especially agility) between the wrestlers of the lower division and these.
The Tokyo Sumo tournament was one that caught my attention so I got myself a ticket to it for today.
There are six Grand Sumo tournaments (or honbasho) each year: three at The Sumo Hall (or Ryōgoku Kokugikan) in Ryōgoku, Tokyo (January, May, and September), and one each in Osaka (March), Nagoya (July) and Fukuoka (November). Each tournament begins on a Sunday and runs for 15 days, ending also on a Sunday.
So after a good night sleep I woke up and headed strati to Ryogoku station.
I first Walk around the Tokyo Edo museum which is an impressive structure
From there I (easily thanks to the map) found my way to the Sumo Hall.
I retrieved my prepaid ticket and entered.
The hall was almost empty of spectators as I sat down, it was still morning and the tournament lasts 15 days.
The rules of Sumo are fairly simple, the winner of a sumo bout is either:
- The first wrestler to force his opponent to step out of the circle ring.
- The first wrestler to force his opponent to touch the ground with any part of his body other than the bottom of his feet.
Unlike most other wrestling or fighting sports there are no weight categories only sumo divisions based on skill.
As I sat down wrestlers from lower divisions were wrestling.
So , as I noticed that the wrestlers were from different weight and sizes I was trying to predict who would have the advantage as some of the fights did not seem to be fair at all.
How would a fighter weighing 100 + kilos could fight fairly one that was weighing 150 + ?
Sumos matches are not very long from a few seconds to a minute tops.
So I could see a lot of matches.
Some would push their opponent out of the ring with strength alone.
Some would fall out with them .
Then the higher division wrestlers came in as the hall was getting more crowded.
And I kept wondering as I noticed it was not necessarily the bigger nor the stronger that would win.
look at this video.
The other thing was there was a huge difference in skills (especially agility) between the wrestlers of the lower division and these.
Then it stroke me, the one that wins does not win because he is the fastest, nor the strongest of the two. Being stronger than the opponent is important of course, being faster too, so is having a good balance and being heavy. The one that always won was the one that was the smartest of the two.
Who do you think won this ?
The other thing is that sumo is really exiting to watch , all fights are different, there are lots of fight, the fights are violent , the wrestlers slap each other (often in the face) so hard that they disorient their opponent long enough to make him fall.
I was planing to stay only an hour or two but I ended up spending all the day there and see all the matches. I really enjoyed it. If you ever come to Japan during a sumo tournament go see it.
4:15 PM |
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1 comments
Comments (1)
really cool fight videos and judges (not cool as judge dredd) in the second video were cool