Your Pie, My Mouth: Summer Grand Sumo Tournament - Tokyo

I know that it's May and not July. But it's still Tokyo and it's still Sumo, and the photo was the coolest that I could find, so I used it.

I've watched a bit of Sumo on TV but never have I seen it live. There are 3 or 4 Bashos (Sumo Events) in Tokyo every year and this is obviously the summer edition. Other Japanese cities host events as well, but being as this is the capital city and it's the summer event, seems to me that it will be pretty darn epic.

There is a dedicated arena for Sumo. I've taken the subway and a Japan Rail to get here. As soon as I step off the platform I know it's Sumo time, everything is screaming sumo.

This is the final day of a 10 day, or so, Basho. Matches start at 8am and end around 6pm, and from what I'll discover, there are about a million of said matches that take place during the day, about 5-10 minutes apart.

Most of the lower ranked wrestlers will walk to and into the event, like this chap early in the day.

The higher ranked fellas will have lower ranked ones carry their stuff for them.

The streets and entry way into the arena are blanketed with fans and onlookers, eager to catch a glimpse of their favorite wrester.

Mind you, this is before noon. These are not high ranked dudes nor is it within a few hours of anyone important arriving. This is a big deal here, apparently.

And also apparently, the Sumo Kimono can be in any color... just so long as you match your bag with it :-O

Here's the Tokyo Sumo Arena from the outside.

The official name is the Kokugikan Arena.

This is the view from the top of the stairs as the wrestlers enter the property.

My first thought was "An American?!?!?!?!"

But, alas, this guy is Georgian (the Russian Georgian, not the Atlantan variety).

This dude is Japanese though. The one on the left...

A closer look at the Top Knot.

And even closer.

It's fricken zip-tied!!!! And super greasy, and a little stinky (I got kinda close to get this shot).

Making my way to the arena entrance, there are beautiful Sumo murals around the entire facade.

Just inside the entrance are more.

I'm very much digging the ancient Sumo look. Looks a lot like North Park Hipsters....

I am here way too early..... but there are matches well underway.

The scraggly looking dudes fight in the morning.

Some bigger ones as well.

Good dancers though....

The pre-match rituals are quite intense, involved, and labor intensive. It combines a lot of walking back and forth, throwing salt by the handfuls, posturing, getting ready fight, then walking away, turning ones back to the opponent, etc.. I found it very interesting. At the end of the day I had probably sat here and watched for a straight 5 hours.

The point is to make your opponent touch the ground with anything except his feet before you do, anywhere, any way. Should there be any question as to who won, the judges, who sit at opposite sides, gather in the ring and debate who and what and how. A couple times they actually made the wresters do a do-over.

The combatants have to wait at the corners for the decision.

The lower arena is tatami style mats. In the cheap seats there are actual seats :-/

People were yelling their brains out during the pre-fight stuff and the match as well. No idea what they were yelling, but they were letting it rip!

There were about 6 levels of wrestler's grouped by rankings and they enter the area all at the same time.

Lots more ceremony before we can begin.

All shapes and sizes....

And there is sake.

And when you've had too much you can just take a nap. No problem, snore your asses off.

More ceremonies of which I have absolutely no idea about. Looks important though.

Also lots of sweeping. Constantly.

There is a YouTube video of an entire match at the end of this post. It shows all of the posturing, sweeping, etc... Worth the 5 minutes of your life, guaranteed.