Sumo in late March and throughout April each year is about pressing the flesh -- literally.
From almost the minute the Haru Basho ended in Osaka, the majority of sekitori set off on a multi-stop trip back up the Tokaido to Tokyo. This year, as in most, they paused in Mie Prefecture (Ise Shrine), Kanagawa Prefecture (Odawara, Fujisawa and Yokosuka) and Tokyo (Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda-ku) to meet fans, hold babies, pose for photos, hold more babies and partake in a little half-hearted sumo along the way, nothing too strenuous. Various top rankers were heard to gripe about an injury here, a knock there, but it was mostly fun and games for the fans who turned out to see them along the way -- and a great many did.
Coming on the back of rough couple of months involving a Japanese tabloid's unsubstantiated claim of bout fixing, spectator numbers were likely a pleasant morale booster for the national sport. The Yasukuni Shrine event on April 13, in particular, which was bathed in sunshine and pretty much packed to capacity, offered many sekitori a real chance to relax and hang loose.