Blog#6: Sumo

    Hello, I'm Junsei Goseki. Today I want to introduce one of the Japanese cultures, Sumo.

Sumo is a popular international sport in Japan and it has history and tradition that is really being preserved as same style since it started.

    When you do Sumo, two people stand face to face in about 2meters distance, then you have to get your hand on the ground, taking forwarded-posture.

When a referee that called “Gyo-ji” in Sumo says ‘Miatte-Miatte, hakkeyo-I nokotta!’, you start fighting your competitor. You win if you take down your counterpart on the ground. You lose if you touch the ground by your hand, knee or part of your body. The only thing that you are allowed on the ground is your foot.

You can’t kick or punch your person though you can push or throw him out.

You have a limit in your field called “Dohyo”. It is written by Kanji like this: 土俵.

Sumo-field has “土” that means soil or mud and the Sumo wrestler have to fight there.

“俵” means bundles of straw. If you are beyond this “Dohyo” that limit your field, you lose.

So it means you’ll win when you push out your person out of “Dohyo”.

Sumo-wrestler have to wear “Mawashi”. It’s hard to explain what it is,,, it’s simply pant for the professional Sumo-wrestler. They rap cloth around their waist and hip.

So you can hold their “Mawashi” to throw him out.

    However, it’s not so easy to throw the body whose weight is over 150kg.

You need technique and also need to use your brain how to beat your person.

If you go push too much, they use your power and you get disadvantage.

Sumo is not a sport just like pushing people out, it’s a really intelligent sport.

    When you want to watch Sumo, you can go to the Ryogoku Kokugi-kan in Ryo-goku station.

    

    And this is my favorite film. It’s really funny and the story is about college students so good to watch. "Shiko-Hunjatta".

You also can know more about Sumo. There is an exchanged student in the film from British and we can know how foreign people think about Sumo. 

     I don't know about history of Sumo, so you can know about history here.

Sumo Wiki