Guide– category –

Ryogoku is the Tokyo district where sumo lives. On the old-Tokyo east side near the Sumida River, it is the neighbourhood built around the national sumo arena, the stables where wrestlers train, and the hot-pot that feeds them. If you ar...

Watching sumo live in Japan is easier to plan than many first-time visitors expect, once you know the calendar, the seat types, and where to buy. This is a practical planning guide for anyone hoping to sit in the hall for a grand tournam...

Your seat type determines which spectator rules apply. Ringside tamari seats have stricter limits than floor boxes or chair seats, including restrictions on food, phones and photography. Everywhere, use your assigned seat, keep aisles cl...

Chanko is the food of a sumo stable; chanko-nabe is its hot-pot form. The distinction matters: wrestlers do not eat one fixed recipe, and a restaurant’s chanko menu is not a record of every wrestler’s daily diet. This guide looks at the ...

Before a sumo bout, wrestlers move through a sequence of Shinto-rooted rituals that turn the dohyo into sacred ground. They throw salt (shio) to purify the ring, rinse their mouths with chikara-mizu ("power water") and wipe with chikara-...

A sumo bout is officiated by the gyoji on the ring and the shimpan around it. The gyoji is the robed referee who stands on the dohyo, calls the wrestlers into action, follows the clash up close, and points his gunbai (war-fan) toward the...

A kimarite is the officially named technique that wins a sumo bout, and there are 82 of them. The Japan Sumo Association recognizes 82 winning techniques, sorted into six official families, plus five recorded outcomes that are not techni...

The mawashi is the thick, heavy belt a sumo wrestler wears in the ring, and it is far more than clothing. Wound tightly around the waist and between the legs, it is the only thing a wrestler wears in competition, and it doubles as the si...

To watch a grand sumo tournament in Japan, choose the tournament first, then a seat and an official ticket channel. Tokyo hosts the January, May and September tournaments; Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka host March, July and November. Each las...

Sumo rules come down to one short contest with one goal: force your opponent out of the ring, or make any part of his body other than the soles of his feet touch the ground. Whoever does that first wins. There are no rounds and no points...