WEIGHT WATCHERS
You don’t have to be fat, or Japanese, to be one of the 800 professional fighters in Japan. But you can’t be skinny either: rookies need to weigh at least 75 kilos, be 23 years old or less and measure at least 1.73 meters. Candidates outside these specifications must pass physical tests before becoming professionals.
ORDER ON THE EARTH
There are six major tournaments (honbasho) per year (each with 15 days of fights) broadcast live on TV throughout the country. The fights are refereed by the gyoji, who have five assistants (shimpan) and two others who keep an eye on the TV replay. Gyoji are ranked and #1 always gets the most important fight of the day
SACRED GROUND
The ring (dohyo) is made of beaten earth and covered with a layer of sand. To delimit the circular area, where the combat takes place, 20 tubes made with bundles of rice straw (tawara) are used. Fighters always enter from the east or west side and the gyoji (head judge) always enters from the south
A sumo match lasts a maximum of three minutes, but the ceremony that precedes the match takes much longer. Despite this, professional sumo (Oozumo) is Japan’s national sport. Even the emperor attends the tournaments.
1. They greet each other, do the shiko (movement with the legs) and drink the “water of power”
2. They throw a handful of salt on the ground to purify it.
3. Facing each other, they do the chirichozu (arm movement)
4. They go back to the corner, sprinkle more salt and do the shiko again
5. Assume the fighting position (shikiri), but return to the corner
6. Do shikiri and sprinkle salt two more times. Finally, they fight.
The fighters (rikishi) dispute the championships by division, as in soccer. From the 2nd division, rikishi enter the elite and become sekitori, adopting a characteristic hairstyle (see below), called o-icho
In the elite, the fighting clothes (mawashi) are made of silk and can be colored and, in the opening of competitions, the fighters wear special clothes over the “cuecão”. It takes colors and designs that represent the origin, personality or sponsor. In the photo on the side, the Brazilian Fernando Kuroda