Though sumo and song may not seem obvious bedfellows, Japan's national sport has musical connections both varied and historical. Jinku, a form of folk singing, is a common sight on provincial tours and at retirement ceremonies. Six wrestlers wearing kesho mawashi (highly decorated apron-like belts) take ...
Sumo 101: Controversial decisions
Friday's controversial overturning of an apparent Tochinoshin win has people up in arms. Irate fans flooded social media with photos, videos and gifs that they felt proved the burly Georgian was hard done by. There is even a change.org petition to have the ruling reversed. That ...
Sumo might be Japan's national sport, but for most of the last two decades it has been dominated by Mongolians. From November 2002, when Ulaanbaatar native Asashoryu won his first Emperor's Cup, to January 2016, when Kotoshogiku broke a 10-year title drought for Japan-born rikishi, ...
Sumo 101: Yobidashi (ring announcers)
The busiest men in sumo are the yobidashi (ring announcers). Named after their most conspicuous duty, yobidashi do far more than just call rikishi up to fight. In fact, pretty much every behind-the- scenes task in Japan's national sport is taken care of by sumo's unsung ...
The first thing that comes to mind when people think of sumo is the size of the participants. While the height of most wrestlers doesn't generally exceed that of athletes in many other sports, the weight, especially at the top level, is far greater. Offensive linemen ...
Sumo has no weight classes. The David vs. Goliath clashes that arise as a result of that lack of regulation are a big part of the sport's appeal for many fans. When a diminutive rikishi like Enho takes down towering opponents that outweigh him by 70 ...
Sumo tournaments are rarely canceled. The last time one didn't go ahead was 2011, when the Japan Sumo Association called off the March Basho in the wake of a match-fixing scandal. Had they proceeded with that tournament, it was unlikely to have been televised. NHK and ...
One of the first words every new sumo fan learns is tachiai. Combining the characters for "stand" and "meet," it is the term for the initial charge that gets all sumo bouts underway. To call the tachiai the key moment is to vastly understate its importance. Sumo, ...
One of the unique aspects of sumo's attire is a lack of associated wearable merchandise. While manufacturers are able to sell an endless array of baseball or football jerseys, caps, and jackets, there isn't much of a market for branded mawashi or "Air-Hakuho" seta (traditional ...
Fantasy football is a multi-billion dollar business with millions of participants. The sumo version? Not so much, though the world champion does get a trophy. The present holder of that title is a British native whose shikona (ring name) is Pandaazuma. Currently about 200 players from around ...
One of the most surprising aspects of sumo for first-time watchers is the sheer violence of the sport. Notions of cuddly pandas gently belly bouncing each other out of the ring get blown away when the first thunderclap of a harite (roundhouse head slap) echoes ...
There are two rikishi from the United States of America in sumo currently. They are Musashikuni (Fiamalu Penitani) and Wakaichiro (Ichiro Young). Both are in Musashigawa stable, where the stablemaster, not coincidentally, also hails from the United States. Former yokozuna Musashimaru (now known as Musashigawa) won 12 ...
