Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament
This picture is from page twelve of the Japan Times print newspaper on Saturday, September 14th.
No. 3 maegashira Daieisho forces Kakuryu out of the raised ring on Friday, giving the Yokozuna his second consecutive loss in the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament at Ruogoku Kokugikan.
Do sumo wrestlers sometimes get pushed all the way into the laps of people sitting at ringside? Oh, yeah, they do, baby! Sometimes the sumo referees (“gyoji”) get in the way as well and kind of get squished.
When the Japanese audience (who are sitting on cushions) are excited and happy with a bout they throw their cushions into the air and on the ring - like Canadian fans throwing things onto the ice hockey rink. At first, I thought they did that to show anger, but a Japanese teacher taught me differently. Wresters enter the profession about age 15. They have a special diet and lifestyle to build up their weight. When they retire (in their 30s) they usually quickly lose a lot of weight - but remember they are big guys to begin with, dwarfing rugby or American football players - and sometimes become almost unrecognizable. The life expectancy for the top ranked wrestlers - the Yokozuna and the Ozeki - is measurably shorter than for regular folks. They develop diabetes, heart disease and other problems that kill them in their 60s (often younger).