Sumo!

I went to the 37^th Grand Sumo Tournament yesterday.  The format of this tournament is based on “fair draw”, not ranking, making it different from official tournaments. The tournament was at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, an impressive indoor sports arena primarily used for sumo.

We arrived just after lunch, in time to see the semifinals and finals of the Juryo Division tournament.  Juryo Division is the second highest division in professional sumo.  One of the wrestlers we saw in the semifinals was Takanoyama, a Czech who, at 6’1” and 220 pounds, looks tiny compared to the other wrestlers, who range between 300 and 400 pounds.  (Wikipedia is a fount of information!)  He lost that particular match, but I am amazed at how well he did/does considering the size difference.  Apparently, his technique is excellent.

After the Juryo Division tournament, there was a kid’s sumo demonstration, where a couple sumo wrestlers let a bunch of children gang up on them.  It was really cute.  That was followed by a hilarious comic sumo routine.  Style is along the lines of the 3 Stooges.  I found a portion of the same routine from last year on Youtube, but I think it loses a little something out of context.

Makuuchi East

Then it was time for the Makuuchi Division tournament.  Makuuchi division is the top division in professional sumo.  The tournament began with a ceremonial entrance by the wrestlers.

Makuuchi West

This was followed by a ceremonial entrance by the two active Yokozuna, which is the highest rank in sumo.  The two current Yokozuna are Hakuho and Harumafuji, both from Mongolia.

In addition to the tournament cup, there were also awards for the wrestler who upset the most champions, the one who showed the most fighting spirit, and the one who had the best technique.  They gave everybody a paper with the brackets, so you could keep track of who won the matches and watch the progression to the final match.  The entire tournament takes about 2 1/2 hours. 

There were a few very quick matches where one wrestler just pushed the other out of the ring.  But there were a number of matches where the guys actually had to work for it and a few that were really surprising.  There was one match where a wrestler had the other guy up against the edge of the ring, and everybody thought it was just about over.  And then the one who looked to be losing got a hold of his opponent, picked him up, turned around, and dropped the guy outside the ring.  A couple guys got flipped over to lose the match, and another guy got picked up and walked about 10 feet to the edge of the ring. 

One thing that was particularly interesting to me was to see that there was an Estonian, a Bulgarian and a Georgian in this top division, and all three made a good showing.  The Estonian, Baruto, made it to the quarterfinals.  The Bulgarian, Kotooshu, was a semifinalist.  He’s 6’8”, and he uses his height to help throw his opponents off balance. 

Kotooshu (on the right)

Tochinoshin (on the right)

The Georgian, Tochinoshin, is 6’3” and 350 pounds and was also a semifinalist.  He actually beat one of the Yokozuna (Harumafuji) in the quarterfinals and won one of the awards.  (I couldn’t understand which one though.)

At the end of the day, the tournament was won by the 6’1”, 300-pound Mongolian named Kakuryu.  

Final match (Kakuryu is on the left.)

And here's me practicing my sumo stance.  I suspect I wouldn't blend in much.