Calacus Monthly Hit & Miss – The Grand Sumo Tournament in London
Every month we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the last few weeks.
THE GRAND SUMO TOURNAMENT, LONDON
If you look at the back pages of the sports sections or the headlines on the leading sports news websites, mainstream sports understandably lead the way.
Football, rugby, cricket, tennis, golf and motorsport are the main focuses in the UK, for instance, and niche sports barely get a mention.
All that changed in mid-October when the Grand Sumo Tournament took place at the Royal Albert Hall, only the second time it’s been staged outside Japan in 1500 years, with London also hosting the event in 1991.
The competition was staged as part of that year’s Japan Festival in London, with wheelbarrows used to transport specialist soil from a site in Heathrow, while the stage had to be reinforced to ensure it could take the impact of the wrestlers.
That event was won by Hakkaku Rijicho, now the Japan Sumo Association Chairman, who said he wanted to "convey to the people of London the appeal of Sumo – an ancient traditional Japanese culture.
“We always had an ambition to come back here. It is a unique, special place for me personally. I like the culture, I like the history, and I like that everyone here drives on the left.
“From ancient times, surrounded by mythological beliefs, sumo was a sacred ceremony and practiced across the country to pray for an abundant harvest and peaceful times.
“It is said that the sumo ritual shiko (stomps) originates as a rite to ward off the earth’s evil spirits and bring calmness to the land. For this special presentation, every single rikishi shall step their shiko and compete in their bouts, while praying for peace and prosperity of your country, and for your wellbeing and happiness.”
Sumo has, Hakkaku admitted, been through “good times and bad times” in the past few years, when there have been several scandals.
Õnosato Daiki’s emergence as a first Japanese grand champion in six years has played a large part in a recent boom in popularity.
While most have heard of Sumo, few know much about Japan’s national sport, but the unprecedented coverage for the five-day competition was a masterclass in sports marketing and event management and will undoubtedly help the sport’s growth in interest.
With 40 wrestlers coming to London, the pre-event promotion focused on not just on the sport but also its traditions and the eye-catching frames of the athletes, visiting London landmarks.
The wrestlers took in trips to Abbey Road, Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament as well as rides on lime bikes and the city’s iconic black cabs – not to mention pulling pints and sampling fast street food.
Tatsunami stable, a club that many of the wrestlers belong to, has been posting updates of their historic trip on Instagram, writing: “It looks like everyone is enjoying the lush nature and beautiful scenery of London.
“It feels a bit strange to think of sumo wrestlers with their topknots walking around the streets of London, but we hope that the first Grand Sumo London performance in 34 years will be a huge success, and that it helps people overseas discover the appeal of sumo.”
Few sports require their athletes to be as large as a sumo wrestler, with the Royal Albert Hall revealing that it had to make significant adjustments to cater for the wrestlers, including bringing in new chairs capable of bearing 200kg in weight, as well as installing reinforced toilets.
The venue reportedly catered to extraordinary demands during the wrestlers' stay, ordering more than 1,500lbs of rice, 1,000 packets of instant miso soup, 750 packs of noodles, 1,050 rice balls, and 400 bottles of soy sauce.
But the event went beyond some lovely photo opportunities.
The spiritual and cultural elements of the sport were also on full view.
Alongside a drummer in a traditional Japanese taiko-ro (similar to an Oriental pergola), the Royal Alvert Hall was transformed along with a six-tonne temple roof suspended above the dohyo, the ring.
The pre-event rituals include the wrestlers doing leg stomps to ward away evil spirits and the throwing of salt to bless the ring, all part of their monastic lives in ‘heya’ stables, where they observe strict and highly restricted lifestyles.
As The Independent described it: “Three men in traditional Japanese gowns and headwear conduct this ritual. They wave leafed branches, deliver hymnic recitations, and pour small amounts of liquid onto the clay ring, among other small acts – some punctuated by bows, but every one of them deliberate, performed slowly so as to elicit maximum emphasis.
“Throughout, items, as is traditional in Japan, are presented and received with two hands as a sign of full focus and care. Later in the blessing, a drum is carried around the ring, polyrhythms booming from its skin and twitching out of its wood.”
The sight of the sumos walking out to the ring each evening was almost as impactful as the thunderous ceremonial claps which call the attention of the gods and show no weapons are being held.
The organisers had a printed booklet available for the sell-out crowds to explain the rules and ways of winning ahead of a face-off that signals the imminent beginning of a new bout.
Between bouts, the winner offers a ladle of water – ‘the water of power’ – to the next combatant from the same side of the ring as them.
“Sumo began as a ritual, long before it became a sport,” says co-host Hiro Morita, known as the English voice of sumo. “Every moment has deep ties to Shinto meaning and rituals,” he says, adding that sumo was originally a way to pray for a rich harvest.
British Sumo Federation Chairman, Steve Pateman, told BBC Radio 5 Live that the Royal Albert Hall was "probably the greatest venue for sumo outside of Japan.
"It has been the greatest sporting spectacular of the decade without a doubt… the real winners here this weekend were the British people and the rikishi. They mixed with the public, the people loved them and the rikishi loved the people. What a fabulous five days."
Hõshõryū Tomokatsu defeated fellow grand champion Onosato in the deciding bout to finish the event with a perfect 5–0 record and was rewarded with an oversized soy sauce bottle and large Hello Kitty teddy bear.
The competition has been hailed as a success by organisers, with ticket sales reportedly exceeding expectations and thousands of fans attending daily sessions.
Major broadcasters including the BBC, DAZN and Pluto TV covered the event to ensure it got maximum exposure, with more than 400 pieces of coverage and an estimated global audience of more than 200m.
Sumo will be in Paris next year and it will be fascinating to see how audiences and participations grow after what was undoubtedly a resoundingly successful