This tournament is called a honbasho. It is an official professional sumo tournament. There are six held each year. Only honbasho results matter in determining promotion and relegation of sumo wrestlers. The New Years tournament is the opening ceremony of the year.
January 22nd was the final day of the grand sumo tournament. The Ryōgoku Kokugikan or sumo hall of Tokyo was sold out. We experienced the tension and emotions of the enthousiastic fans for their favourite sumo wrestlers.
This ritual is performed by all the sekitori* sumo wrestlers, wearing an elegantly designed keshou-mawashi of brocade, each day during the sumo tournament.
* A sekitori is a sumo wrestler who is ranked in one of the top two professional divisions: makuuchi and juryo.
First the wrestlers have to perform the pre-bout rituals. Such as chirichouzu, the act of vowing to fight fairly with all their might. Then they go to their respective corners to grab a handful of salt which they toss toward the center of the ring to purify it. They proceed to do the shiko (stomping) to show their fighting spirit, followed by the repetition of shikiri (rituals before a bout), to build up concentration, and then more slat tossing.
The winner of the previous bout will offer water to the wrestler who is having the next fight. This ritual is called chikaramizu, getting strength from the water.
Baruto Kaito (把瑠都 凱斗) born as Kaido Höövelson on November 5th, 1984 is a professional sumo wrestler from Estonia.
Kaido’s family owned a cattle farm in Estonia. He was used to hard physical labour as a child. His father died when Kaido was sixteen years old. From then on he worked as a nightclub bouncer to earn a living.
He played basketball as a teenager and also won a national judo championship in Estonia. He was introduced to amateur sumo through his judo coach Riho Rannikmaa. Kazuo Kurazono, an official from the Kagoshima Prefecture sumo Association, encouraged Kaido to join the professional Sumo sport.
Due to the restrictions on foreigners entering sumo, the only stable with a place available was Mihogaseki. He was given the shikona or fighting name of Baruto, a reference to the Japanese name of the Baltic sea.
Baruto made his professional debut in May 2004.
Baruto is popular among other wrestlers due to his friendly character and is known for always smiling, win or lose.
His stablemaster Onoe Oyakata commented, "All wrestlers have their unique personalities. Baruto is friendly and gentle and he shouldn't change that. He has to win to get promoted but outside the ring I don't want him to forget to smile." Baruto is also known for taking great care not to injure his opponents.
In the interview with NHK, Baruto moved the public by expressing his happiness in a humble way for his ability to be a talented sumo. Baruto also showed his gratefulness in a tender way to his wife, mother, coach and all the people who are involved in his life. Baruto is sure that he chose the right direction in his life.
Sumo is a wrestling sport that originated in the ancient times in Japan. Sumo became a professional sport during the Edo period. (1603-1868)
Sumo is worldwide known as a Japanese sport. The Japanese Sumo organization has a muliticultural way of thinking. The Sumo association is a wonderful way of expressing world peace. Even though it is a wrestling, fighting sports, the competitors have no barrier of nationality in mind. That is a pure way of thinking.
Japan is a peaceful minded country and can therefore give such wonderful opportunities.
After the enjoyable and interesting tournament we went for a delicious Chinese dinner to make an international end of the day in Japan.