Sumo (2)

In sumo, apart from fighting there are lots of symbolic gestures that come from ancestral times. This is in what they spend most of the time, and not fighting at all. The funny thing is that each gesture is done going back from the initial position in the center of the “ring” to the respective corner… Some of these things are done “by default”, but some other times, they go back to the corner by their own initiative, in what japanese explain as “mind game”.

In each corner, the sumo wrestlers have a box with salt and some transparent liquid (maybe water, maybe sake,… O_o).

One of these gestures is taking grab some salt with the hand…

…and throw it to the ring.

They also drink the liquid… whatever it is…

And of course, they show how athletic and flexible they are.

Quite interesting spectacle, but quite slow for my taste…

People love it, though. Although, the situation of sumo in Japan, is quite similar to the Bull Fighting in Spain. Yes, it is a popular event, but not many people like it. Specially, not many young people, which is what happens here.

They also have sponsors which suddenly show their names on the ring… and people scream excited because of that! (I don’t get yet where the excitement for this comes from).

But, of course, there are some people who cannot be full-time focused in the sume and also keep track of what is happening in other fields… Like this one, following the horse races in his mobile phone, while the sumo guys do the show pre-combat.

Sumo (1)

As you all know, sumo is a traditional japanese sport. It basically consists in two extremely “big” guys wrestling. It was really impressive to see so many people watching this (a full big arena) with a lot of media coverage around the sumo players, which are very high located in the hierarchical japanese society.

The tournament lasts for two weeks, and everyday everybody competes once. It is a kind of league, with different categories. We arrived at 14.00 and left at 18.00, and we saw around 4 divisions… and they had been competing since early in the morning!

Each combat is quite short. Since they actually start fighting (hugging one to each other), until the combat ends normally takes less than 1 minute. Typically, less than 30 seconds.



More about sumo in future posts.

Super Yosakoi

I am back. Current status: I have beaten the virus (or that’s what I think), my friends are travelling around Japan (like them), and the news report that prime Minister of Japan has resigned. He has just resisted one month me being in the country… Will it be because of me?

Anyway, let’s focus in more interesting things. A couple of weeks ago, although it was raining, I went to see a festival I had been recommended, the Super Yosakoi. And I enjoyed it a lot. (A lot = more than 5 hours)

It consisted in groups of people with songs combining both traditional and modern Japanese music, one or two singers, beautiful colourful dresses, and a very nice choreography.

It was impressive to see so many non-professional people, from different ages (there were groups covering a range of more than 50 years), dancing at the same time.

Now, I give you the opportunity to see a some videos of these performances.

You can find other videos in Youtube: Video 1 – Video 2 – Video 3

It’s a good flavour of the japanese culture: group identity and karaoke. 🙂