The magazine that I help edit, Kateigaho International Edition, gave me my first writing assignment in Japan: 800 words about the experience of watching sumo for the first time.
I spent several hours a week ago at
Kokonoe-beya, a
famous sumo "stable". It was fascinating, slightly bizarre and very eye-opening. I've watched it on TV and assumed it was an odd sport. But the sumo guy I interviewed described it instead as a battle in which, he said, you want to "rip your opponent's head off."
We (me, my translator, a Japanese writer and 2 photographers) watched six young guys train for about an hour on the ground floor of the modern building where they also eat, sleep and live. This is what it looked like outside.
And inside the ground floor training/viewing room.
They train 7 days a week. Wearing only loin cloths and sometimes a bit of tape on toes or fingers, they face off dozens of times - losing repeatedly to stronger, bigger men. They are like football players, except that they don't have helmets or any physical protection; there's a good chance they'll wind up face down in the dirt or even with a broken neck.
Most contests last only seconds and have
few rules. The two men face each other inside a rice-straw circle, called a
dohyo. They touch their hands down on opposing white lines in the center before charging upward at each other. You lose if any part of your body, other than your feet, touches the ground or if you are forced out of the circle.
After each man was exhausted in the ring (among other training exercises), they did a bunch of sumo stomps, in which they lift and extend each leg at about 120 degrees. They are heavyset and sometimes even quite fat - but also shockingly strong and flexible.
At the end of their training, they did some stretches.
Finally, the wrestlers swept the clay floor with twig brooms and wiped down the walls, window sills and every surface in the room. They turned out the lights, leaving natural light for this lovely photo.
We went outside where the wrestlers were hanging out, barefoot, in the street.
I interviewed an articulate 23-yr-old guy, Chiyoshuhou, who's been at it for 5 yrs; he's
still an amateur and he is paid a $250 monthly allowance in return for total 24-7 commitment. He described each sumo clash as "a minor car accident." It's terrifying, he said, so the stable master tells them, "You have to force yourself forward."
The wrestlers did their own laundry and dried it on the roof. Here are their loin cloths, which turn out to be about 20 feet long.
Later, I was invited to try their lunch. They eat twice a day and consume enormous quantities of sumo's special "Chanko" stew (made that day with pork, noodles, tofu, vegetables and miso broth), rice, grilled fish, fish eggs, squid, tea, more rice and more rice. Not a protein shake in sight!
Here's what I ate: rice, the stew (which was particularly delicious) and chewy sauteed squid with a brown sauce.
After lunch, in order of seniority, the wrestlers' long hair was combed into fresh topknots by the stable's hairdresser (top photo). The hairdresser combs grease into the hair with a very unusual comb and ties it with a string held in his teeth (middle photo) and folds it over. His implements are in the third photo.
After the hair ritual was finished, the men did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen and dining room, and went upstairs for a long nap in their tatami-matted room. Long naps, I was told, help them get fat.
It was a superfun day of reporting.
