Sil & Kumar in Japan: Sumo

Last weekend - while Kumar was cooking parathas, watching cricket on TV and taking an afternoon nap on the couch at his best friend (Dickie)'s home in Australia, I went to Osaka with a few friends to see a sumo tournament. I thought it would be a good photo opportunity, a novelty to be experienced once in a lifetime, and not much more. After all, it was meant to be just a bunch of fat guys in diapers wrestling over and over... I am not into sports and have a short span of attention, so I expected to be done with the whole sumo thing in an hour - or in a couple hundred pictures to be more accurate. Well, against all expectations it turned out to be so much fun that I can't wait to go back!

Certainly it wasn't the obese men in diapers that I was attracted to. But the sumo etiquette, the ambiance (I've never seen Japanese people acting so relaxed and extroverted), and even the wrestling were fun. So five hours and 500 pictures later, I had enjoyed every minute of it.

For those who are interested in the rules of sumo, you can learn all about it here:
http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/ticket/honbasho_ichi_nichi/index.html

But in short, two groups of sumos line up on the East and West sides of the stage (or ring, or court... whatever it's called). Each group gets on the stage and does a ritual salute, then gets off the stage. And then the fights begin.

There's the getting ready (including raising one leg sideways and stomping on the ground), the getting in position, the false starts, the throwing of salt on the floor to scare off the opponent, the going back to the corner to sigh and slap their own ass (not sure why, but they do), the towel-rubbing on their body... A whole set of disgusting things, but you still can't keep your eyes (and telephoto lenses) off them. Finally the fight begins, and it lasts anything between 1 and 15 seconds. In rare cases it goes longer, I would say maybe 30 seconds at the most. When either one of them falls or steps off the border of the circular area it's over.

They have three groups of fighters: the beginners, then the intermediates, then the advanced. The arena is open from mid-morning until 6:00pm when the last advanced fight takes place. The audience grows and grows (and drinks and drinks) as time goes by and the serious guys get on. Not just the crowd gets excited. The teasing and stomping on the stage, the amount of salt thrown and the pre-show before the actual fight also grow as the stars begin to appear. It's really entertaining! The only problem is that with so much teasing it's hard to predict when they'll really go at it, and I ended up missing a few fights because I had decided to change lenses, talk to someone sitting next to me or have a sip of water just when the action started. In any case, it was serious fun! And here are a few pictures to prove it.

A big boy in diapers