Sumo. Sport rooted in deep feudal times in in Japan. The first information about sumo fights comes from the turn of the fifth and sixth centuries from feudal lords’ mansions. Not once were the battles fought in order to resolve a dispute between them. Two huge men wearing only material belts could fight the whole day finishing only when one of them died.
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumo#/media/File:Kunisada_Sumo_Triptychon_c1860s.jpg
In this rather wild form, it stayed until the fifteenth century when we could observe the first version of the sport-tuned battle. The first written rules were created. It win a fight you need to push an opponent outside the battlefield or by making him collapse. Fights took place inside Shinto temples, that is why today during sumo tournaments, there is a “roof” above dohio.
http://magazine.fourseasons.com/concierge/tokyo/sumo-sights
Some of you probably saw a Japanese wrestler throwing white dust just before the fight! What is this? No, it's not rice. This is salt! It can make bad ghosts go away! There is also a practical side of this. The battlefield is a circle with a diameter of 4,55m made of clay, texture resembling more concrete than a nice sand. When one of the wrestlers falls and is wounded ,wiping the skin with the salt makes it clean. In Japan wrestlers train in houses called stables (jp. "heya") where they can study, live and train in the evening. The objective for the wrestlers is obvious. To get to the national division. This sport is currently divided into 2 different ones : Japanese traditional tournaments - called Basho, which is not divided into age categories or weight categories , and sport sumo. The difference is just like between the Polish basketball league and NBA. Big. n Japan tournaments are held six times a year in four cities : Tokyo , Nagoya , Fukuoka , and Osaka in huge sport halls built just for sumo with the capacity for about 13 thousand people.
Now take a look at this fight in the ranks of Ozeki and Yokozuna(The Great Master)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Hv9u50pAc
At First. The fight judged by a judge who is called " gyoi ". Sumo fights can be judged only by one family chosen 200 years ago! The risk of corruption was so high that one of the feudal lords gave to one family this privilege and this continues to this day !
From the beginning, in addition to throwing salt in 1:40 minutes you'll see boys with big signs. It’s nothing else than advertising ! At 2:30 you can see McDonald Ads!
At 2:30 there is a chirkozu ritual in which players show that they do not have any weapons and the fight will be "fair". Then after three attempts, when the players again crouch in the shikiri postion and will put their both wrists on the ground at the same time, the judge will shout the command " Hakkeyoi " and the battle begins !
Comments
I also imagine it must be really boring to watch such a tournament in real life - you can always fast forward a video, but watching EVERY pair of contestants do the chirkozu ritual THRICE would be a real torture for me :D
Every man to his taste, I guess.
Nowadays sumo fighting have become shorter and more dynamic, and an arsenal of techniques used by competitors widened considerably. It includes at present more than 100 ways to beat your opponent, instead of 75 officially recognized technician existing before the opening of the discipline for players not Japanese at origin. Number of techniques has been increased by the fact that at the present time the players main sport was wrestling.
I can talk that I don’t like sport like this.
But I liked your article! :) Interesting topic.
the required body mass or that's just their natural shape : )
Probably specifi diet is indespensible but is it really worth it?
For sure it affects health and clasifies you in a specific group of peple, obese people,
but as u said it's cultural thing and probably it's hard for us to understand it.
I'm sure about one thing, as a sport it's to invasive.
And I'm not sure is it better or worse.. maybe just different.
As for the video: It don't look very impressive, but so do the 'paintball/ASG' videos, and I know it's hell of a fun. So I guess its true for the sumo too.
I'm not even sure that sumo is developed somewhere beyond Japan, so probably the fan of this sport from Europe should be really into Japanese culture and traditions to track all major events in this sport.
Congratulations once again Tomek and keep up the great work, we'll definitely keep cheering for both you and your brother in the future!
Although I have to say - those commercials were really bizarre.