#natsu basho

[artschoolglasses]

Onosato Yusho!

New Komusubi, Onosato, wins his first championship after defeating Abi on day 15 of the Natsu Basho

[thethirdbear]

[artschoolglasses]

TERUNOFUJI YUSHO!

Despite having been out for months recovering from surgery, Yokozuna Terunofuji has secured the championship on day 14 of the Natsu Basho.

[artschoolglasses]

First fight back, and the win for Terunofuji! But please, sir, take care of your knees. There isn’t much left to them. 🥲

(On a complete side note, sumo is honestly the best sport for ADHD folks. Matches are usually very quick—enough to fit in a single gif—and plenty to obsessively learn about if you’re the hyper-fixation type.) ... (Hi, it’s me, I'm the hyper-fixation type.)

[janea-in-japan]

Natsu basho senshūraku (aka summer sumo, the final day)

I’m sorry about the late and sparse updates, I’ve been kind of sick lately (more posts coming soon about that!), so I’ve been prioritizing homework and studying over the blog. ごめんなさい！🙇

Have you seen sumo before? If not, you should! It’s a lot of fun. Last time I posted some photos of watching the last day of summer sumo (or natsu basho in Japanese) at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, or the Ryogoku National Stadium here in Tokyo. It was the final day of competition, but that’s kind of misleading since the winner of this year’s tournament had already been decided the night before.

Once again, Hakuho took the champion title, and won all 15 of his matches this year. It was amazing to see him compete, even if it was just for show.

The rules of sumo are really simple. The bouts themselves are really rather short (often less that three minutes), but the ceremonial activities before and between each bout is rather drawn out. Much of it comes from Shinto ritual (the purifying salt, the chanting and singing, the referee’s outfit) and therefore can seem very foreign to the casual observer.

For each match, both players have to agree on the starting time by tapping the ground at the same time with their fists. If one of the players or both players are not fully centered and ready to compete, you’ll see them stand up and repeat parts of the ritual, including washing their hands and throwing salt again, stretching, etc. Once they’re finally ready, the bout begins. To win, one player has to force another out of the ring or force another player to touch the ground with any part of his body except his feet. Illegal moves include pulling your opponent’s hair, biting, jabbing at their eyes or solar plexus, hitting them with your fists, manipulating their fingers, kicking above the waist, and boxing their ears. It quite literally is a shoving match, but you’ll often see wrestlers aim open palms at their opponents face and neck, trying to back them up to the edge of the ring before pushing them out.

Getting to see sumo in the national stadium on such a major day for the sport was a lot of fun, and definitely something I’d recommend. Cheap seats near the top of the stadium like where we sat go for about ¥3200 (purchased WELL in advance), while more expensive floor tickets go for ¥15000 and up. If you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of the Japanese Prime Minister watching the matches, like we did!

[gaijintranslation]

Jour 3 : Sumo et karaoke