Grand Sumo Event involves London for the second time exterior Japan within the sport’s 1,500-year historical past

London — The world {of professional} sumo wrestling stepped exterior of Japan for less than the second time in its centuries-long historical past on Wednesday evening, as fighters clashed on a specifically constructed ring in the midst of London’s Royal Albert Corridor.

The long-lasting venue within the British capital is internet hosting the Grand Sumo Event — the roughly 1,500-year-old sport’s most necessary competitors — for the second time, drawing greater than 44 skilled wrestlers, or rikishi, to compete in 100 bouts over 5 days. The one different time the event was held exterior Japan was in 1991, when it additionally got here to the Royal Albert Corridor.

There are distinctive challenges in bringing sumo to London, because the up to date nationwide sport of Japan is rooted in two millennia of custom, interwoven with the Shinto faith, and thus handled with the utmost respect and safety to make sure adherence to its rituals and norms. 

“One of many issues that we have labored actually exhausting at is to make it possible for now we have an excellent understanding of the cultural and spiritual significance that sumo has,” Matthew Todd, the Royal Albert Corridor’s programming director, informed CBS Information. 

He mentioned consideration to element was “actually vital to the genuine presentation that we’re in a position to make right here.”

That meant delivery 11 tons of clay from Japan to assemble the ring, or dohyo, within the middle of the live performance venue, the place the wrestlers compete. Delivery containers have been at sea for 3 months making the voyage. An enormous crew of ring attendants (yobidashi), additionally needed to make the journey from Japan — alongside 11 interpreters to assist them talk with British employees.

The roof for the dohyo, now suspended from the Albert Corridor ceiling, was inbuilt Britain, however its design is taken straight from conventional Japanese Shinto shrines, which, based on Todd, “helps to indicate that this can be a sacred space,” wherein routines and holy ceremonies are carried out as a part of the event. 

It is a important step, he mentioned, to make sure the Shinto gods are paid their due respects earlier than the fights.

Sumo is deeply intertwined with Japanese tradition and faith in ways in which many Western sports activities followers might discover troublesome to grasp. Based on legend, it originated as a ritual to ask the gods for a bountiful harvest, nevertheless it reworked over nearly 2,000 years into the game it’s at this time, drawing opponents nonetheless primarily from Japan, but additionally from world wide.

Lots of the most up-to-date champions have been from Mongolia, and this 12 months’s event options two rikishi from Ukraine. Whereas People have competed efficiently in previous tournaments, there are not any U.S. rikishi competing on this 12 months’s occasion in London.

The nuance of the wrestling competitors itself may also be troublesome to totally grasp, with 82 profitable methods known as kimarite, quite a few ranks and divisions and a number of different guidelines. So to assist translate all this for a largely Western viewers, in-ear English language commentary is supplied on the Royal Albert Corridor, alongside video replay screens to explain and clarify the bouts, which might generally finish in simply seconds when a competitor is pressured out of the ring.

The wrestlers themselves dwell an extremely regimented life. They’re forbidden from driving automobiles and, considerably counterintuitively, consuming breakfast, and are usually required to take a protracted nap after their hefty lunch, to assist them pack on the kilos. 

The common weight of a rikishi is about 330 kilos, however some tip the scales at 550.

They’ve been given some go away throughout their go to to the British capital to take pleasure in themselves, nonetheless — with organizers possible seeing the worth in a point of publicity. 

Through the lead-up to the event, social media platforms have been filled with photographs and movies of the historically kimono-clad wrestlers sightseeing round London.

The Albert Corridor can even be graced this week by the presence of two yokozuna, the best rating of all sumo wrestlers. The phrase yokozuna is mostly translated as grand champion, nevertheless it interprets actually to “horizontal rope,” in a reference to the particular rope worn round their waists to show their rank.

As soon as a rikishi is promoted to the rank of yokozuna, they maintain it till retirement. In almost 400 years {of professional} sumo, solely 75 males have attained the vaunted grand champion standing. The respect usually requires not solely a number of consecutive championship wins, however approval by a devoted council that judges rikishi on their wrestling expertise, but additionally a variety of different private attributes.

The event is because of finish on Sunday, when the wrestler with essentially the most victories within the ring will likely be topped this 12 months’s champion.

The sector is taken into account broad open this 12 months, however many, particularly again at residence in Japan, will likely be hoping for 25-year-old Yokozuna Onosato, the nation’s first grand champion in nearly a decade, to emerge victorious.