Levko Ivanchuk

View Original

Sumo

Japan has its many surprises. Whereas it is the food that astonishes you, or the way they package things, or the way they do regular, human stuff - I am sure that at any point a person visiting or even living in Japan, but not born here, would have a moment that just opened their mouth and only sounds of amazement came out. 

Sumo is quintessentially Japanese. It is a sport of tradition and respect - those two things are definitive. Competitiveness is present, but it must give way to the aforementioned rules - respect the tradition and respect your opponent. In virtually any competitive sport you will see a celebrating sportsman at the end of the performed activity. Celebration is natural, but it does not happen in sumo. Fighters just show no emotion - either they are not allowed to, or they are not willing to, but it does make sense, after all. Before, during and especially after the fight, the face of a sumo fighter is concentrated, emotionless and serious. This is what impressed me the most - the amount of self-control that was in the hall. 

This sport is also unique because of its ties to religion. The ring - dohyō (土俵) - is considered to be a sacred place and is made only from sand. It is truly amazing how they manage to support a lot of heavy-body movement of, what looks like, a cracked and fragile sand structure. See the picture below. 

Before each fight, sumo wrestlers perform a specific ritual. It is undoubtedly very interesting, but what I found the most interesting is the 'sand-throwing'. Essentially, it is a tradition that takes its roots in religion and is meant to fear away the ghosts from the sacred ring. Fascinating. 

Overall, a day spent watching some very heavy men fight turned out to be a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Despite the high price, this is a thing to do in Japan - more than anything else. You can not get anything more Japanese than Sumo.